Work Text:
- Handshake.
Being in another competition hadn’t been Paintbrush’s first priority, and yet, here they were, in another season with new and interesting people.
It was almost remarkable how different everyone was from people they’ve seen before. One girl seemingly had the entire holy beings and powers on her side to the point where nothing could go wrong for her, one apparently came back from the dead, one was literally a humanoid manifestation of the floor, and that one was on their team.
Still, they were willing to work with practically anyone. Paintbrush always considered themself to be a competent leader, and as leader, they wanted to get along with everyone. After all, a leader that can’t connect was doomed to fail.
So, after the challenge and elimination on their first day, Paintbrush took time to officially meet and introduce themself to the new faces, particularly their teammates. Some people stood out more than others, and some were certainly more likable than others. Candle seemed very cool, ironically enough, and she had been a pleasant presence.
The Floor, or Floory as he insisted they called him, was a bit more of a mix bag. Sure, they didn’t particularly like knowing he could be anywhere, and his nosiness, intentional or not, can be a little terrifying. That said, he genuinely was fun to talk to. He was likable, funny, qualities they never thought they’d describe the literal floor with.
That was almost everyone, they had one member to speak to left, and they finally found him by the beach.
“Hey!” They called out, grabbing the attention of the person in front of them. He was maybe slightly taller than them, they really couldn’t tell, with equally long but silver hair. The man turned around, and before they could get a word in—
“What do you want, tall one.”
Well, ok. Could’ve been nicer about it, but whatever.
“What I want is for us to introduce ourselves, since we’ll be on the same team.” And so you can stop calling me ‘tall one’ went unsaid. Paintbrush was trying to build some sort of rapport after all, letting their anger win now would accomplish the opposite of that. “So, hi, I’m paintbrush. Nice to meet you.”
They offered their hand for a handshake, Silver scoffed and accepted it. Briefly. It was almost like he was disgusted or something, and maybe Paintbrush was offended, just a little. Then, he brushed himself off, giving them a smirk.
“Silver Spoon, but you may call me Silver, dear.”
Paintbrush would’ve thought calling them dear was some sort of passive-aggressive gesture, but they had heard him call practically anyone this, so they just had to trust it was his personality, even if it’s a little annoying. They were on the same team, they’d have to be doing challenges together for a while, so it would be best to look at the bright side and trust that he won’t piss them off too much.
Yeah, this will be fine.
...
.....
- Blue.
Paintbrush had set their canvas by the beach, their paint supplies in a bag right besides them.
They had always liked the beach. There was a lot of inspiration to be had, like the blue sea, the clear skies, the soft sand, the sound of gentle waves— what more could an artist want?
So now they were here, painting the scenery before them, taking in the calming breeze as they starts putting the blue on their canvas. However, it didn’t take long after they got started before someone interrupted them.
“Why hello, working on some nifty painting, I see.”
Paintbrush practically jumped in their skin. They turned around to see Silver Spoon standing behind them, looking slightly amused by how started they were.
The two weren’t exactly friends, and yhey were still kind of mad at Silver Spoon for manipulating the already dicey situation to his advantage and got OJ eliminated, but he did seem to realize he was wrong when Candle told him so, Paintbrush didn’t see the point in continuing the conflict.
“Geez, Silver! A warning would be nice!” They exclaimed, putting their palette down for now. “What are you doing here anyway? It’s like 7 a.m. and we have no challenge today.”
“I was simply on my morning walk, my dear, no need to be so surprised.” Silver said, peering over to look at their painting, still unfinished, as they only just started not too long ago, but he looked intrigued nonetheless. “My, it seems like you are quite well-versed in painting, as expected.”
Paintbrush turned to look at their painting, which was barely anything except a few strokes of blue and white paint. Immediately, they looked back at Silver with a raised eyebrow, crossing their arms.
“This is literally just blue paint on a canvas.”
“Why yes, but it is still good regardless.” Silver ignored their previous assertion, moving to stand by it. “It’s almost as good as what I could do.”
Paintbrush let the both of them sit in silence for a few seconds, watching Silver’s expression change. The slight twitch was a dead give-away, and so it was finally their turn to be smug for a change.
“You’ve never painted before, have you.”
Paintbrush watched Silver stutter and place a hand on his chest in a gesture of clearly mocked offense. “W-what? Pfft, Preposterous! Of course, I have done something as basic as—”
“Do you want to try?”
Silver froze mid sentence when Paintbrush cut in. They smirked, picking their palette and brush back up and thrusted them into Silver’s hand without asking anything more, pushing him to stand in front of their canvas. “I can teach you. I hosted a few art classes back at hotel OJ, so you’re in good hands.”
Silver looked alarmed, looking back and forth between them and the canvas. “On your work? What if I—”
“It’s not like I only have one canvas.” Paintbrush rolled their eyes. “Besides, I trust that you won’t mess up THAT badly. Do you want to try or not?”
…And that was how they spent another hour or two teaching Silver how to paint. It didn’t go terribly, though it became very apparent that he lied about having painted before, since very basic knowledge seemingly went right over his head. Still, they ended up with something pretty passable.
The piece was in different shades of vibrant blue for the sky and sea, splashes of white scattered across the piece to imitate clouds and waves, with even some hint of light yellow for the bright sun. Paintbrush puts their hands on their hips.
“See? Not bad.”
Silver gave them a huff of his own, putting down the equipment. “Only because you were so intently watching my every move.”
“And it worked, so stop complaining.”
Silver grumbled some more. Most people have already woken up at this point, so Paintbrush began packing up their things, getting ready to get out of here before the beach became too crowded. “You can keep the painting, by the way.”
They didn’t miss the way Silver lit up.
“Really?”
“Sure, you painted most of it.”
There wasn't a thank you, but Paintbrush didn’t expect one, and nor did they need one. They knew Silver long enough to know he wasn’t the type to say such a thing anyway. So, they simply swung their bag over their shoulders, turning away.
“If you want another class, you know where to find me.”
Then, they left.
...
.....
- Wax seal.
Silver finally began to be more of a team player, despite Paintbrush being a little annoyed that he declared himself the team’s ‘loyal advisor’ when they were right there.
Still, as much as Paintbrush wanted to lead the group, they had to admit that what Silver did that day was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. He was still a royal pain in the ass, but he had proved to have what it takes to at least keep them all together. They can’t deny that Silver had actually helped them a lot during the challenge, whether that be helping Floory get over his stage fright, or motivating Yin-Yang. No, Silver was plenty capable when time came to it.
His flaws are what concerned them though. As much as they don’t mind Silver much anymore, he was still pretty selfish and stuck up. That self-centered way of thinking wasn’t going to bode well later on in the game.
Currently, Paintbrush was sitting in their room, staring out the window, still replaying the events of the challenge in their mind over and over again like they tended to do after any challenge. They couldn’t help it, they needed to think about what could be changed, even when realistically, it didn’t really matter.
Then, a knock on the door.
Paintbrush glanced up at the clock in their room. Who was here at like, nearly 11 p.m?
With a sign, Paintbrush stood up from their desk and walked over to the door, swinging it open, about to ask why anyone would be here at this hour. Instead, the words died in their throat and were replaced with confusion when they saw no one there. They looked around and saw no one. The only thing left behind was an envelope on the floor.
They picked it up and examined it. The envelope itself was light purple, and on it was a gorgeous golden wax seal with a rose pattern on it.
Whatever this was, it must’ve been pretty important. But then why would someone wordlessly leave it on the floor? They had a lot of questions, but decided to just get back in their room and open the damn thing up. The content of the letter itself seemed pretty short.
‘My dearest, Paintbrush,
As your newly appointed royal advisor, I would like to officially invite you to the Thinker’s first royal meeting at the pic nix table tomorrow at noon, where we shall trade some quaint banter and perhaps even future plans.
I shall look forward to seeing you there, my dear.
Yours truly, Silver Spoon’
Paintbrush blinked at the letter. Did Silver really write individual letters for each of the thinkers? Seriously? With the fancy wax seal and everything? It was so silly and over dramatic.
They couldn't help the smile on their face, which despite no one being there to see, they still instinctively covered up with their hand, head turning to the side. They didn’t even know why, but reading the needlessly grand invitation, it made them feel…something.
Maybe they were wrong to judge him so quickly.
Sure, Silver had his faults, but they trusted that he was trying his best too, even if it was also for his own sake. Maybe, just maybe, they should give him a chance.
Paintbrush put the letter back into its envelope, placing the letter down on their desk, silently admiring the wax seal.
‘My dearest’, huh.
Well, they supposed they’d have to see.
...
.....
- Sunflowers.
Paintbrush and Silver actually started to get along for once.
Even though it started with them being at odds in yesterday’s challenge, they eventually found common grounds and— They can’t believe they’re saying this, but they actually felt like they were properly friends now.
There were no challenges they had to do today, so the remaining contestants were just hanging out for the weekend. Candle and Floory had come up with the idea to do something together as a group, and the two managed to convince all of them to take some time and make some cute flower crowns together.
Floory had gathered an assortment of flowers for them to use as they please, an almost scary amount, and Paintbrush didn’t even want to start questioning how he transported them all, but at least it was still very appreciated.
Paintbrush looked around to see what was going on. Floory had risen up to about his shoulders, letting Yin-Yang place a crown of various pink flowers that matched the one already growing on his head perfectly. Test tube was helping Bot with her own flower crown made of yellow and orange flowers, besides Nickel who was clearly dragged here by Balloon. Balloon himself was very carefully picking flowers without thorns with the help of Candle.
They looked back down at their own flower crown they just finished. It was predominantly made of unfamiliar white and yellow flowers that Floory told them was called freesia and some green accents from the leaves. Paintbrush was proud of it, but there was something…missing.
“Greetings, Painty.”
“Hey Silver.”
Paintbrush didn’t even have to look up from their creation to know it was Silver Spoon, but they did anyway. Silver was standing above them, hands behind his back, a smirk they had grown accustomed to still on his face.
“I see you’re working on your flower crown.”
“Duh, that’s what we’re here to do.” Paintbrush rebutted jokingly as Silver sat down next to them. “It’s not done yet though, I want to add something else, something that will make this really pop, y’know?”
Paintbrush watched Silver glance down at their flower crown. He took a second to clear his throat, still hiding whatever was behind his back, much to Paintbrush’s curiousity.
“Well, I suppose this might come in handy.”
With that, Silver presented them with a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers, big and small, must’ve been about a dozen of them, decorated with tiny purple flowers they didn’t know the name of scattered around, all wrapped in light brown paper and dark purple bow.
“For you, darling.”
Paintbrush accepted the bouquet, bewildered. They stared down at what they just recieved, purposefully ignoring the stares and excited murmurs from some of the other contestants. They felt their cheeks burning slightly red, and it seemed like Silver noticed it too.
“What’s wrong, Painty?” It wasn’t a question, both of them knew it. Paintbrush grumbled, averting their eyes to the side, hiding the lower part of their blushing face behind the bouquet that caused it in the first place.
“…We were supposed to be making flower crowns, you idiot.” Paintbrush mumbled, still refusing to meet his eyes. Silver laughed, that cocky, annoying, stupid laugh. It made Paintbrush feel even more flustered. “Nonsense!” He said. “We were given flowers, I could make anything I choose. Besides, you clearly appreciate it, my dear. You could use some of these to complete your flower crown.”
Paintbrush didn’t know what to say, they finally showed their face again. It was probably still dusted pink from the way Silver somehow looked even more smug than before.
“Fine.” They relented, picking some of the smaller sunflowers and weaved them into their flower crown, Silver striking conversations as they did so. In no time, the flower crown was finished, and not to toot their own horn, but it actually turned out really good.
“See? Sunflowers were just what you needed.”
“I guess…Wait, what are you—”
Silver had grabbed the flower crown from them. They were about to yell at him to give their work of art back, but then Silver shushed them.
“Do you trust me?”
Paintbrush had to take a second, skeptical, but in the end, they didn’t want to lie.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, close your eyes.”
They did as they were told, and they felt their hair being touched as the flower crown was placed on their head. Usually, Paintbrush would freak, but they trusted Silver enough to let him do whatever he was doing. It took a second of adjusting, but finally Silver told them to open their eyes.
Silver had given them a compact mirror for them to look into, and you know what? They looked nice.
“It suits you.”
Just like that, the same warm feeling returned. A feeling that they didn’t want to know what it was, but had suspicions of.
Uh oh.
“…Rude.” They murmured, causing Silver to chuckle.
They hid their face in their hands, trying desperately to hide their reddened cheeks once again, though it was quickly pried away by Silver Spoon himself. “I’m being genuine, darling, it looks good on you. No need to be embarrassed.”
“S-Shut up.” Despite their words, Paintbrush couldn’t fight the small smile on their face. Even in public where everyone could see what was going on, they were too happy to try and hide how they really felt.
Damn it.
...
.....
- Lock and Key.
Finally, they had finished it.
Paintbrush was being a little dramatic here, this little project didn’t actually take long at all, it was at most a few days or so. They just had to piece a lot of individual parts together to make something coherent, but they were still pretty happy about it nonetheless.
Immediately, they shot out of their seats, not forgetting to grab their hard work and shove them into their pants pocket, and rushed out the door. So fast, in fact, that they almost ran into Cabby on her wheelchair. They yelled their apologies back, but quickly made their way out of the calm down cabana.
They looked everywhere, until they finally found him standing by the beach, in the similar spot that he found them painting from what felt like ages ago.
“Silver Spoon!”
They yelled, grabbing the attention of the aforementioned man instantly. Silver looked up, eyes widened in surprise when he saw them approaching. He regained his composure quickly, tilting his head to the side.
“My, my, Painty. What a pleasure to see you here.” He said, raising a brow when Paintbrush stopped to take a breath. “What’s the rush?”
“I’ve been trying to find you all over the island! I had to ask so many people if they saw you at all.” Paintbrush grumbled, rubbing the back of their neck nervously. Silver looked a little nervous too, if not a little confused by the entire situation.
“So…” Silver dragged his word. “Why were you looking for me?”
“I, uh.” Suddenly, nerves got to them, and Paintbrush stared at the sand as if it was the most interesting in the world. “Do you remember the flower bouquet you gave me that one time?”
Silver looked even more confused. “Of course I do, dear, my memory is not that poor.” Then, he looked slightly alarmed. “Why? Was there something wrong?”
Now Paintbrush was the one panicking. They straightened their back, waving their hand frantically. “No, no, no! Nothing’s wrong! Everything was perfect, actually. It’s just—”
Paintbrush felt their cheeks warming up once again, mind finally caught up to what they said. However, it seems like this time Silver was affected too, seeing as his face was also slightly tinted with red. Paintbrush didn’t want to dwell on it for too long though, for their own sanity.
They dug through their pocket and grabbed one of the things they made from earlier, pushing it into Silver’s hand.
It was a charm cluster necklace, with a resin charm with tiny dried purple flowers inside, and several small purple beads. However, the centerpiece was a key hanging from it, shining silver in the sunlight.
While Silver was looking at it intently, Paintbrush pulled out another one, an orange version of what Silver had. Theirs had the dried sunflower petals inside the resin charm instead of the dried purple ones, and instead of a key was a lock in its place. They quickly wore it.
Silver saw what they were holding too, and his face grew even redder.
“I just thought…hey, maybe I should give something back.” Paintbrush explained themself, though they could barely push out the words. “So…uh, I made one of these. For you.”
They conveniently left out the fact that it’s matching, even if it was plenty obvious.
Silver took a moment longer to stare at the necklack, before he put it on. Paintbrush watched the whole thing, getting increasingly flustered by the whole situation. God, why did they do this? What has gotten into them?
“I love it.”
Silver said it so softly, Paintbrush could melt on the spot.
They regained their composure quickly though, well, what remained of it at least. They crossed their arms and turned away, because if they continued to look at Silver’s soft smile, they might actually die.
“Well, then you better take good care of it! I’ve been working on these for days.” Paintbrush huffed, to which gained a small laugh from Silver.
“I promise, my dear, I’ll take good care of it.”
Paintbrush smiled right back.
“I trust you.”
...
.....
.......
1. Glass.
Paintbrush’s face paled.
Yin-Yang looked shocked, Cabby looked furious, Floory looked dejected.
None of them knew what was going on at first, they were all confused when Floory received a fourth vote when he wasn’t supposed to, but after a few seconds, it hit Paintbrush in the face, an insult to injury that was The Floor getting eliminated.
They turned to yell at Silver, only to see no remorse in his expression, only irritating smugness that Paintbrush had foolishly grown to love over the course of the competition, a slap to the face as another consequence of them putting their heart on their sleeve.
In retrospect, it was inevitable. Inanimate Insanity had always been competitive, they knew this better than anyone. They competed in all three seasons, they were arguably one of the most competitive players of any season, they had the experiences to know betrayals were inevitable. And yet.
And yet, Paintbrush chose to trust so whole-heartedly. They burned with feelings and devotion, and they walked right into the roaring flame blindly, thinking maybe this time it won’t scorch their skin and hurt them like every other time. Maybe things will be different.
Time and time again, they trusted others until the other shoe dropped.
They had tuned out the rest of the night. Candle’s declaration, going to the pic-nix table with Cabby and Yin-Yang, Floory finding them when Mephone couldn’t figure out how to eliminate him. All of it was a blur, and they felt so tired. Their thoughts and memories, all of it came back to them as what they were too blind to see.
The brief handshake they shared when they first met, the vibrant blue on their canvas by the ocean, the golden wax seal on his letter to them, the beautiful sunflowers he had given them, the matching lock and key necklaces they had lovingly put together as a sign of their growing friendship.
In the end, all those sweet memories were poison.
It’s just that in order for them to see it for what it truly was this entire time, they had to endure the bitterness that came after.
Paintbrush wasn't fragile by any means. They had been through a lot, and their lowest of lows and highest of highs had been broadcasted to the world all the same. They knew they were a force to be reckoned with, they were strong.
So why was this so difficult to accept?
Why do they feel like they could break with the gentlest touch?
Why do they feel like glass?
Paintbrush sat by the pic-nix table for another while longer than everyone else, letting the cool breeze of the night numb them until they felt nothing. They wanted to feel nothing, they feared that any more feelings would finally break them beyond repair. They wanted to buy time they couldn’t afford, to avoid the inevitable.
Eventually, after half an hour that felt like eternity, they stumbled back to the calm down cabana. Paintbrush opened the door to see Silver looking back at them, still smiling at them with the brightness that they used to think were comparable to sunshine and roses.
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t fair how Silver was so nonchalant, yet Paintbrush stood here, feeling like the entire world was slowly crumbling down and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
It wasn’t fair how Silver’s convictions were as tough as steel, and theirs had been shattered like glass in an instant, unable to be fully put back together no matter how hard they tried.
With just a single action, Silver had broken them. He had broken their trust.
They thought they were on the right track.
They wanted better.
They deserved better.
It was only when they had those realizations did their rose colored spectacles finally shattered too.