User blog:SaenihpNnylf/Things Just Got Real Chapter 7

Giggles, Flaky, Cuddles, and Handy were sitting on the apartment floor, discussing what a job interview must be. Obviously none of them were familiar with the term so they were trying to break it down. "Well, an interview is where you ask a lot of questions right?" Handy supplied. "Maybe that's what it is to find out more about the job?"

"That could be," Giggles agreed, not sure what else it could be.

"Wait a second, are you sure interview was one word? It might be an in ter view, Like… I don't know, you see what it's like in the job," Flaky suggested earning a few weird looks. "What, it's possible."

"I suppose that's possible but I'm not even sure ter is a word in English." No one else was sure, never having heard it so they just assumed it was not. "Maybe we should just ask a native about it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, we already look so weird and unknowledgeable to them we wouldn't want to look even worse." Handy pointed out.

"Well, we don't really have any better ideas." Giggles reminded.

There were quite a few moments of silence as the group tried to think of a better way to get the information they need. "What about a library?" Flaky suddenly suggested. "I mean, assuming they exist in this world."

Giggles face lit up at the idea. "I think I remember seeing what might be one on the way here."

"Well, then we have no time to waist," Cuddles said, getting up to his feet and the others soon followed suit. "I never thought I'd say this but to the library!" Giggles rolled her eyes a bit at the comment but led the way.

Meanwhile in Happy Tree, Shifty was just finishing loading the rest of Flaky's stuff into the van, pleased with the turn out. "Wow, if I knew the coward carried so much stuff, I would have set on those locks a long time ago. Alright let's… right." Shifty sighed. "It's just not the same." He tried to shut the back but it just flew back open. "Really need to get that fixed."

Shifty didn't even bother trying to shut it again knowing it won't work and got in the driver's seat driving away trying to be careful and not lose any of the loot.

As soon as he heard sirens, he threw that caution to the wind and floored it but it was no use, the van still couldn't go fast enough to make a clean get away. When the patrol car pulled in front of the van, Shifty figured he'd be back tomorrow if this killed him and he couldn't afford to lose his loot.

So, Shifty didn't let up on the gas even a little, plowing the cop car out of the way, shielding his face from the broken glass with his arms as he did so.

Despite the pain coursing through his arms and body now, Shifty grabbed back onto the wheel and pressed on with dogged determination, taking the lack of siren now as a good sign that the crash had killed Officer Lumpy.

He did his signature grin as he pulled into the alley that they usually set up their stolen wears and started unloading Flaky's stuff glad to find that he didn't lose too much on the way there.

"Now I just need to wait." Shifty said once everything was unloaded. He was sure he could get lots of money for this junk.

Back in the new world, our group had just arrived at the library, relieved to find that's what it actually was. Well, all except for Cuddles. "Alright, let's just find the information we need and get out of here."

Though they were a bit annoyed by Cuddles' attitude towards the library, no one objected as Giggles went up to who seemed to be the librarian. "Excuse me." Giggles said politely.

"Yes, how may I help you?" the native librarian asked. "Need help finding anything?"

"Yes, I'm looking for any books about…" Giggles got a bit stuck trying to remember the word but did eventually get it. "…Job interviews."

The native librarian thought about it for a second then asked, "You mean like tips for them?" Sure… let's go with that. Giggles nodded. "Alright, let me take a look at that." The native librarian turned her attention to a computer like the one Giggles applied on and started typing something in.

"Those things are so confusing," Giggles commented in Gibberish so that the native librarian couldn't understand. "What is she even doing?" No one knew the answer to her question.

It wasn't for a few seconds before the native librarian stopped typing and spoke up, "Alright, looks like we have something for you. I'll write down the number." She pulled out a piece of paper and wrote something down, handing it to the group.

Giggles took a look at the paper, recognizing the numbers but not understanding their significance. "This will be harder than I thought," she admitted in Gibberish.

"Why are you guys just speaking gibberish?" the native librarian unexpectedly asked.

"You know Gibberish?" Giggles asked a bit hopeful having not expected their native language to exist in this world but it was possible since English obviously existed in it.

The native librarian only looked at her weird though which squashed that theory. Especially after what she said next. "No, gibberish, you know, nonsense."

"Oh, right, nonsense." Giggles tried to act like she knew that as she tried to think of an answer and settled for the partial truth. "It's not nonsense though, it's the native language where we come from so we speak it sometimes."

"Oh! Sorry if I offended you in anyway. I didn't know," the native librarian said sheepishly. The reaction confused the group about why they would be offended by that. They all made the note that gibberish meant nonsense in this world.

"No, you didn't offend us. It's not a very well-known language," Giggles said, not sure what else to say in this situation.

"Well, alright then," the native librarian said about as awkward as the group was. Much to their relief, she asked, "Do you need any help finding the book?"

They were hesitant to accept the help and look unknowledgeable again but they knew they couldn't really do it without her help so she answered, "Yes."

"Alright, follow me then," the native librarian said, coming out from behind the desk and leading them deeper into the library. All of them did follow her, even Cuddles, as they went to find the book.

As they went, Flaky noticed some numbers on the end of the shelves that might explain the numbers they were given to find the book.

"Can I see the number again," the native librarian asked and Giggles complied, handing over the paper she was given. "Alright, I got that." They headed to a shelf that seemed to be their final destination.

The native librarian looked over the shelves before grabbing a book that had the same number printed on the spine and titled, 'Job Interviews for Dummies'. Okay, now was the time to be offended. "Dummies?" Giggles asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

"What?" The native librarian looked at the book and realized what she was complaining about. "Oh! No, it's not supposed to be calling you a dummy; it's just a book series."

"Well… if you're sure…" Giggles said taking the book. "Thank you for helping me find it."

"It was no problem. Is there anything else I can help you find?"

"No this is it." Giggles affirmed.

"Alright, just let me know if that changes," the native librarian told them before returning to the desk.

Giggles reverted back to Gibberish as she turned back to the rest of the group, opening the book she got. "Looks like we got it. That was a good idea, Flaky," she complimented.

"Thank you, so what's the verdict?" Flaky asked speaking in Gibberish as well. "What is a job interview?"

Giggles flipped a few pages for a bit, glad to have something familiar to check before answering. "We weren't even close, looks like it's where they'll ask me a bunch of questions to see if I'm right for the job."

"That's really it?" Cuddles asked, looking over her shoulder at the book. "Well, that's ridiculous."

"Yeah, it is. And according to this I'm supposed to dress up nice for it to set a good impression. So, we're gonna have to buy something better to wear."

"Dress up for it?" Cuddles asked skeptically, still looking over her shoulder. "That's weird but if it will help you get the job, we'll get something."

"Yeah, it is and look at some of the questions they ask. Like this: 'Why do you want to work here?' umm… the paycheck." Giggles did her namesake then added. "I don't think that's the answer they want."

"Yeah, probably not but what can you answer besides that?" Flaky asked, thinking it over. "That you like helping people that need it?"

"Yeah, it looks like something like that. I guess I need to figure that answer out by tomorrow because it looks like they all ask that."

"Are you going to check out that book?" Flaky asked.

"Yeah, I think I should," Giggles agreed, flipping through the book. "And you guys could use it if you ever have one."

"I guess that will be necessary," Cuddles agreed. "So we can go?"

Giggles sighed. "Yes, we can go."

Lifty on the other hand was still talking to Jerome. "So yeah, I got a job over at an auto repair shop. Had to fill out an application and take a test on the knowledge."

"Really? That was all?" Jerome asked surprising Lifty as it was already way more than in Tree Town. "You didn't have to do a job interview?"

"What's that?" Lifty asked, never having heard about it just as the rest hadn't.

"You know, where you go and they ask you questions to see if you're right for the job."

"That was about what the test was," Lifty said, misunderstanding what he was saying.

Jerome however, went for that answer. "Okay, I guess you were a bit lucky."

"I do take it as very lucky. It's a hell of a lot better than things were back in Happy Tree."

"Happy Tree? That's what it's called?" Lifty nodded. "Doesn't sound very happy."

"You have no idea."

"You could tell me."

"You would never believe me if I told you." Despite his inexperience with these faces, Lifty could tell he wasn't taking that for an answer so he decided to tell the truth and let him think he was joking. "Happy Tree is cursed. It's full of very violent and painful deaths."

Jerome looked about as shocked as you'd expect him to be. "That sounds horrifying. How did you survive it?"

"I didn't. I died more times than I could count."

There was silence for a few seconds before Jerome hit Lifty's arm in a playful way. "That's not funny. I thought you were serious there."

"I am serious. That's how things were there." Lifty was confused why he would believe him before but not now. "I told you you'd never believe me."

"It's impossible. If you died, you couldn't be here right now."

"What? Is right now the dead persons time?" Lifty asked struggling to understand the words.

"No dead persons what? No, you'd never be able to be here. Death is it. It's the end of everything," Jerome explained, just as confused by his words as the other way around. "It was a good joke though."

The realization hit Lifty hard. The implication clear as day that death here is permanent. An idea that was just as shocking and weird to him as temporary death was to Jerome. He supposed it made sense. Death here was so rare that the cost must be steeper. He never expected so much so.

"Oh, right, a joke." Lifty caved not wanting to explain deeper into Happy Tree when it doesn't get any easier to believe.

"Still though, death or no death, it doesn't sound very happy. Sounds like some kind of dictatorship."

"It is," Lifty said, actually knowing that word. "Lumpy uses everyone as slaves and because I refused, I lost everything."

"That sounds awful. I'm sorry you had to go through all that," Jerome said sympathetically. "You didn't deserve that. You may have been a thief but you're a nice guy and I'm glad you escaped."

"Thank you for that." Lifty managed a small smile glad to hear that from someone even though it wasn't someone from Tree Town. It was great to hear anyone say.

"It's no problem. I only said the truth. Things are going to get better. You'll get that job and get out of here to your own place.

"You're probably right," Lifty said, his hope for the future rising.

With Giggles gone, Petunia was stuck working the hospital, currently trying to take care of Nutty, who had too much sugar… again. "Well, Nutty," she said not having the energy to deal with the candy freak at the time. "Looks like you have diabetes… again."

Nutty just kept jittering as normal and said something that wasn't clear English or Gibberish and as a consequence, Petunia couldn't understand what he said at all.

It wasn't all that important that she knew what the nonsense meant. She already knew that it wouldn't change how he acts and once tomorrow comes, he won't be diabetic anymore. She also knew she had to somehow give him an insulin shot.

The most obvious problem was he'll never sit still, which makes it almost impossible to get a needle in the right place. Still she had to try or face Lumpy's wrath.

"Nutty can you at least try to be still?" Petunia asked, but it was no use as he just kept jittering without rest. "I don't have the patience for this." Petunia pulled out some restraints and did her best to strap him down to the bed.

Once he was strapped down, Petunia did the injection then untied him from the bed. "Alright, you're good to go, Nutty. I'm not going to bother telling you to watch your sugar because I know you won't."

Petunia sigh as Nutty jittered out of the room. She was already there for nine hours and her shift was nowhere near over and it was a time to time shift so she wouldn't even escape through death.

Not only that but she was really missing Giggles and Handy deeply. It was still hard to believe they were gone forever. Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, Petunia didn't have much time to dwell on those thoughts as her pager buzzed calling her to tend to another patient.

When she got there, she couldn't even recognize who the patient was. There was just a huge pile of body parts that were chopped up by something. Her work was already cut out for her that she had to sew him back together… literally. "Oh, what is even the point of this?"

"What is even the point of this?" Giggles asked, looking through a rack of clothes at a store in the other world. "I hate clothing."

"We all do but first off all, it seems to be mandatory here because I haven't seen anyone without them." Cuddles pointed out what the others had managed to miss. "That and these clothes specifically will apparently help you get a job, which we need."

"I guess that's true. Things are very different here than in Happy Tree," Giggles stated the obvious as she picked a longer black piece of wrap around cloth like the one she came into this world wearing. "How about this?" She asked the rest of the group, switching to English.

"I think it looks good. Though, I'm not quite sure what they'll be looking for. Did the book give any examples by chance?" Flaky asked.

"I'm not sure," Giggles admitted sitting down on a seat near a bunch of rooms. "I'll check." She set the clothing on her lap and opened the book. Flipping through a few pages, she found some example pictures and showed the group what she found.

"Oh neat, it shows for both men and women." Flaky noted looking at the pictures. "And yeah, that looks a bit like what you have." Flaky pointed to the picture she was referring to.

Giggles took a look at the picture and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, looks like it. Apparently it's called a skirt," she noted, seeing the label on the picture. "Now we just need to find something like this." She pointed to the button-up collared shirt on the same picture.

"I think I saw something like that on the way in." Handy offered. "I'll go get it." No one stopped him as he went to get the shirt.

"In the meantime, what are these rooms here." Giggles asked and no one knew the answer.

Meanwhile, Handy found a red version of the shirt and went to grab it before remembering he didn't have any hands and did his scowl trying to think of how to grab it. He managed to hook the shirt on his nub and balance it there as he took it back to the group.

"Oh Handy, this is perfect!" Giggles exclaimed taking the shirt from him and looking at it against the skirt. "They look good together, too. You know, for clothes." Then she noticed something on the tag. "Wait a second, why do they say small?"

"They both say small?" Cuddles asked and Giggles showed him the tags. "Maybe they're different sizes, everyone seems less one size fits all here."

"I think you're right," Giggles said, holding the shirt up and finding that it was much too small against her… bulky body. "I think I'll need a big…"

She got up on her own to look for the shirt and skirt in a big. She was able to find them on the rack but none of them said 'Big', instead, she found some labeled 'Large'. "I guess that's it."

She held them against her body finding that they both seemed to be the right size and took them back to the group, about as anxious to get out of there as Cuddles was with the library. "Alright, I got what I need. Let's get out of here."

No one objected because none of them were really interested in clothes either and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. On the way out, they accidently bumped one of the racks throwing it off balance and all four of them ducked for cover.

It was a good few moments before they realized nothing was crushing them and, one by one, they got to their feet, Flaky being the last of them.

One of the natives came over looking worried at them. "Hey, are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're okay," Giggles answered looking everyone over. "We just got scared by what we're used to happening with stuff like this."

"You guys have PTSD?" the native asked with a word they didn't understand. "I'm sorry to hear that, my father has PTSD and it's real rough on him."

"What's PTSD?" Giggles asked, then regretted asking figuring that it probably made her look stupid again.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

They were still confused what they were referring to until Cuddles made a connection. "Oh, you mean shell shock." He turned to the rest of the group. "Like Flippy." He turned back to the native. "Yeah, I suppose you can call it that."

"Good thing it's not like Flippy." Flaky added, dusting herself off. "Thank you for worrying about us though," she told the native. "What's your name, by the way?"

"My name's Jessica," the native introduced, offering her hand which all but obviously Handy accepted. "Does this happen a lot?" She still had a tone of worry as she spoke.

"It depends on how you define often," Giggles answered. "We just came from a place where we died regularly from little stuff like that."

They weren't expecting her to believe it but her face showed that she was seriously considering it. "So, if you all died regularly, how are you all alive now?"

"We'd always come back the next morning at five o'clock just like new." Handy answered for the group. "It's a bit of a blessing but mostly a curse."

"So I was right! You are from a different world!" The group stared at her shocked and a bit confused so Jessica explained. "Everywhere in this world, death is permanent, so, it's the only explanation."

"Death is permanent here?" Flaky gasped even more terrified than normal. "So, if we die, we never come back?"

"Yeah, that's how it works in this world," Jessica affirmed.

"I knew it. I knew there had to be some kind of catch to coming here," Flaky declared as if she was the only one that had been thinking that from the beginning… which she was not.

"I don't think that's a bad thing," Cuddles cut in, surprising the whole group. "I mean, how many deaths have we seen since we got here? None, right." The group nodded. "We could never say that in Happy Tree. Never. So, here, yes, death is permanent but it's also very rare."

"He's right," Jessica affirmed. "So rare that there's always a special ceremony called a funeral for it."

"Still, being dead forever doesn't sound terrible to you?" Flaky asked Cuddles in disbelief. "It would be the end of everything. Forever."

"I think it sounds less terrible that coming back just to die over and over again. Remember how you were on the second day of the curse?" Cuddles reminded her. "I still remember exactly what you said to me. Do you?"

"That was over a thousand years ago, Cuddles." Flaky reminded, then sighed and stated. "Yes, I remember. I can never forget actually."

"Well, then remember that Happy Tree was like this once and when it wasn't, it was the end of the world for you. You became a nervous wreck over it! So, what changed?"

"Well… I… ah…" Flaky sighed realizing she doesn't have a good answer to that question. He was one-hundred percent correct. "Nothing. Nothing changed."

"Exactly, we've been best friends for a thousand five-hundred and twenty-six years and I know you better than this. It is better this way and you know it."

"Um… you might wanna be quite about numbers like that. No one here would live that long." Jessica cut in, surprising the group.

"They don't?" Flaky asked. Her nerves spiking back up at how short their one remaining life might be. "How long do they survive then?"

"Closer to one-hundred years. If they're lucky that is." Jessica said, unintentionally throwing a wrench into everything. "And if you were anywhere near it, you'd look much different. You all look like you're about in your twenties."

"Okay, maybe this wasn't as good as I thought it would be," Cuddles admitted, looking down.

"Yo, Slippers!" A voice called out and Cuddles knew it was Catherine. After all, who else would call him Slippers? "What are you doing with the freaky conspiracy theorist."

"Why don't you just back off, Catherine!" Jessica said, surprisingly forceful, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can make my own friends and you don't own me!"

"Well, he's my friend so why don't you ask him. So, what is it, Slippers? The lame conspiracy theorist or an awesome skateboarder like you are?"

Cuddles wasn't sure what to answer. He did have fun with Catherine earlier and he does know what a conspiracy theorist is but Jessica is much nicer and actually believes what they went through in Happy Tree.

"Come on, Slippers, YOLO, you don't want to spend your life with some lame conspiracy theorist."

"Please don't talk about me like I'm not right here," Jessica cut in, but Catherine ignored her.

Cuddles still wasn't sure, looking back and forth between Jessica and Catherine. "Well, if I'm only going to live for so long, I might as well enjoy it while I can," He decided, going over to Catherine.

"You made the right choice, Slippers. Always remember YOLO." Catherine said, still confusing Cuddles as to what YOLO's supposed to mean. "Come on, let's go back to the skate park."

"Actually, I think I should stay with Giggles here. She has a job interview she needs to prepare for and I was going to help her."

"Just go, Cuddles," Giggles surprisingly released. "I'll just work with Handy and I'm sure we can get it."

"I can help, too," Jessica volunteered. "I've been on lots of job interviews."

"Well, alright then, if you're all sure…" No one had any objections. "Then I'll go to the skate park with you. I need to get my board and I'll meet you there," Cuddles said then ran off.

Flaky followed him out once again to no one's surprise but Jessica's. Once they were both out, Jessica said, "Those two are going to be eaten alive… figuratively speaking," she added, sure they would take it literally.

"He's that bad?" Giggles asked, getting worried about Cuddles, especially after they already saw her, she was starting to regret saying that he could go.

"First of all, Catherine is a girl. Second, yes, she is. I used to be friends with her a long time ago and she's very brutal, thinks it's fun to put people down, even her friends. Hell, even her boyfriend. There's a reason I stopped being her friend."

"Well, he'll be okay, Flaky will protect him if anything happens," Giggles said, trying to convince herself.

"I hope you're right, for their sakes," Jessica trailed off before changing the subject. "Should we head to your place?"

"Yeah, we should. Let's get to practicing for this interview, follow me," Giggles said, heading out of the clothing store and Handy and Jessica followed her out.

Cuddles had gotten his board and without even realizing that Flaky was following him, he made it to the skate park where Catherine and Jake were waiting. "Glad you could make it, Slippers." Catherine told him.

"I'm glad I could. So, what are we skating today?" Cuddles asked, coming to a stop.

"That," Catherine said, pointing to a very high and dangerous looking ramp that looked just like the one he was skinned alive on on the second day of the curse.

Cuddles immediately recognized the connection and gulped in fear as they headed to the top of the ramp.

Once at the top, Cuddles felt his heart racing in his chest as he looked out at the vast expanse of boxy buildings and really comprehending what he was about to do. He backed up, accidently running into Catherine. "I can't do this."

"Oh, come on, Slippers. Don't be like that. Just remember, YOLO," Catherine told him mockingly.

Cuddles, getting annoyed by that word she obsessively uses, finally asked what he had been thinking the whole time. "You keep saying that! What does it even mean?"

Catherine rolled her eyes but answered, "It stands for you only live once."

The words finally settled into him like a bitter acid along with what Jessica said about death in this world. What a stupid thing for her to go around saying. "Well, that sounds like a perfectly good reason not to do it."

Flaky was shocked as Cuddles turned and climbed down the ramp.