hfjONE: Back, But At What Cost? (College AU)

Prologue: Home

"Thanks for...participating in my show...yeah..."

A flat, monotonous voice filled the vast blue of the sky, with clouds sparsely spread around. Several characters stood on the green, grassy ground below it, anticipating the next few words that would come from the speaker's mouth.

"So does this mean we get to go home now?" one of the objects, a green backpack, asked the voice.

All of the objects in the group were originally from other worlds, some being from the same ones as others. The backpack, also called "Liam", was from a world of humans, and had a life of his own alongside others. He remembered getting teleported to the show some time ago, panicking because of how "going missing" would affect his life. Luckily he wasn't the only one with this problem, but the group soon found out that getting "eliminated" from the "show" meant you were sent back home. As the show went on, the group of objects were "eliminated" one by one, but had recently all been teleported back to watch the final event go down. People won, and although there were a few complications, they made it out safely and the whole "show" thing was done with.

"Yeah...just let me...um...put it in..." came the reply.

The group could hear clacking of keys as the voice "typed" in something they couldn't see. About half of the objects in the group started happily talking amongst themselves, while the rest talked off to the side.

"Oh thank god," a moldy piece of bread huffed. "I thought this nightmare would never end..."

"I'm really gonna miss you all," a short, cyan candle said. "You, Backpack, Soda Bottle..."

"Heh. I guess this is our last goodbye, huh?" said soda bottle chuckled.

"Yeah...well, I mean I guess we could meet up once we're back, but...I dunno about you guys," the backpack, Liam, half-joked.

"Wait, wait. We're going to be returned as we were before, right?" the moldy bread asked, half to the group and half to the voice in the sky. "Like...we're going to be human again?"

"Oh yeah, of course," the voice responded, though they didn't sound all that genuine. "There might be some...side effects...but I think you'll be okay."

"Wh-SIDE EFFECTS?!" the soda bottle loudly exclaimed. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SIDE EFFECTS?!"

"It shouldn't be that bad...I can even wipe your memory so you don't have to worry about it. Anyway, I have the codes up so...I'm gonna start teleporting you guys back now."

The objects abruptly stopped talking as the voice spoke and the soda bottle went on.

"No, NO! I need to know what you meant by side effects, Airy!" the soda bottle shouted. "YOU'D BETTER TELL US WHAT THEY ARE, OR-"

But before they could finish their sentence, they vanished into thin air, without a trace. There was an awkward silence amongst the group before a few of the objects turned to look up at the sky, technically meaning to "look at" the voice.

"Oh. I probably should have let them finish. Oh well," the voice, or "Airy" replied, sounding partially sorry but partially not.

Liam sighed, and let the guy do his thing. None of the other objects spoke up about anything after that, and one by one the others went...

Liam was one of the last few to go, but he was glad to be leaving at all. He'd been here for several months before, and now it was finally time to return...though he doubted his life would be the same after. Without warning, he found himself dropped by the side of the Golden Gate bridge, the sounds of the cars passing by soon filling his ears.

He was home.

Liam looked up and out across the place, left in a bit of a daze. He was human as Airy had promised, but...what did he mean by side effects? He hadn't said anything in case Airy had decided to change his mind, but...now he was curious. However, he supposed it wasn't worth bothering with quite yet. He had a life to pick back up on after he'd been teleported to a show for several months.

Liam searched for any sort of thing that could help him tell the time/date, and landed on a technology store nearby. Ah, it was still mid-summer, he had some time. He needed to apply for a new college soon, his old one wasn't exactly the best. Hopefully the "side effects" wouldn't interfere with it.

But surely, it couldn't be that bad, right?