Bassie's World - Chapter Twenty-Two

Instructions

[ Vee, 12:15 PM ] "So, Vee," Sprout crossed his arms and glared down at me. "Tell me. Did you recently mess with anybody's memories using those fancy skills of yours?" "I- uh..." I stared at the fluorescent lights above me, not even daring to meet his guilt-inducing ogle. I detested how effortless it was for him to make me spit out answers. Cosmo, who was standing right next to his friend, looked at me equally as desperately. "Please, just tell us, Vee." Not helping, Cosmo. "Fine! I'll tell you." Without even realizing, I was kinda mimicking Sprout's stance. My arms were crossed, and my head was lowered so I could give him a halfway death stare. He was looking down so that he could actually see me, though. As I examined both of their appearances, I couldn't help but ignore the fact that it's my fault they look like this. It's my fault that Cosmo lost his leg, and it's my fault that Sprout has that ugly ponytail. I guess that last thing isn't really all because of me, since Bassie designed their appearances and changed their bodies to her liking. It'd make me feel a lot better to apologize, but then I'd have to clarify everything about how the "renovation" started, ended, and what happened in the middle. That period lasted 6 months and 12 days. It was possibly the loneliest I had ever been. When I glimpsed back over at the berry, I was brought back to reality. His eyebrows were curled up, and he was thumping his foot against the floor antsily. "Well, go on then." "Yeah, okay, whatever." I let my hands drop to my sides then clenched my fists. "Promise me you won't tell Bassie." "Huh. Funny how you promised to me you wouldn't tell Bassie about Shelly's incident, and here we are, with you about to admit to changing our memories of that time." Sprout bickered, squinting his usually wide-open eyes bitterly. "Bassie already knew. She was the one who hurt Shelly, you idiot. She's a literal eyewitness!" I couldn't behold how arrogant Sprout became when faced with difficulties. "Sorry about him, Vee, but could you please tell us now?" Cosmo pitched in. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." After explaining the whole memory and memory-erasing thing, I wasn't expecting a plethora of questions. I thought they would be able to put it together themselves, but no. "How did Bassie force you to do that?" "So, Dandy used to be the main character?" "Is Bassie evil?" "Does that mean Bassie was a Holiday Main?" "Or are you evil?" "Then, Cocoa was a Holiday Toon too, right?" "Be quiet!" I hollered over their inquiries. They both cut off whatever they had planned to ask me, and just stared at me, dumbfounded. "I'll answer the questions you just asked me: She has her ways. Yes. Kind of. Yes. No. Yes." I was probably telling them too much. Honestly, I was just hoping that there'd be some sort of war waged against Bassie, and I wouldn't have to worry about being her subject. All the Toons would learn the truth and get rid of Bassie. Maybe we'd all find some way to escape and then leave Bassie behind. I'll have to think about it. Sprout scratched his head. "Well, uh, I forgot what order I asked you that stuff, anyways..." "Now, you two simply can't let Bassie figure this out. Do you understand-" "Hey guys!" I heard a feminine, high-pitched voice from the other side of the room. It was Cocoa. She had just leisurely walked in like it was nothing, and Shelly was with her. The first thing I noticed when I saw Shelly was that her wound was fully healed. She obviously couldn't open her eye anymore, but the scar looked kind of sick. "Oh, wow, uh. Shelly." Sprout blabbed out. She lifted her hand up as it clutched the injured side of her face. "Does it look... ugly? S-sorry." "Hey, don't worry about it. It looks fine to me." I winked. After I did that, though, I decided it probably made her feel more uncomfortable. "Gosh. You just missed the explanation!" Cosmo said. "Explanation of what?" Cocoa sniffed around, pointing her noise left and right. She saw that we were looking at her, weirded out. "Sorry. Just sniffing." "Explanation of how Bassie's World came to be, since, y'know, it used to be Dandy's World." "Dandy's what now?" Shelly's eye grew as wide as a saucer. "Bassie basically forced Vee to change Dandy's World into Bassie's World by editing the code, which she just did again to change our memories of what happened to Shelly." Sprout disclosed. "Oh. Wow." Shelly and Cocoa both said in unison. "Wait, what about Dyle? The train guy who keeps giving us less and less food?" Cocoa added. "Well, it's up to Bassie what the rations are composed of." I conceded. "Dyle just gets the supplies on the train, and after, to us." Then, it clicked. Earlier, I'd been thinking about a way to leave. Now it was clear. Dyle's train! The train can hold enough weight for every Toon but one, according to Dyle himself. That one Toon? Bassie! Everybody can leave, except for her. +