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18 : Banner

"Lightbulb, are you sure you're okay with this? You know what happened last time."

"Of course I am, don't worry! I was the one who came up with this idea in the first place."

"Alright, if you say so..." Fan scratched the back of his head, glancing off to the side. The last month or so had been a rough time of waiting and anticipation for him.

Today was April 8th, just over a month since the last time he and Test Tube had chatted. Today also happened to be a day away from the third anniversary of Inanimate Insanity's season 2 finale, and the anniversary of Test Tube's current experiment. The hotel was buzzing with all sorts of energy for the upcoming anniversary party, some positive and some negative. Fan was one of the few on the negative side.

He couldn't shake the feeling that Test Tube was going to do something again. Something about the way she had phrased her messages, how she had timed them. Of course, he couldn't tell anybody about his worries. He couldn't muster up the courage to tell anybody she was alive, let alone the fact she might be coming to the hotel to do something tomorrow.

So he didn't say anything. Yeah, he'd need some pretty big atonement if he ever wanted to pay off for all of the secret-keeping, but he just couldn't tell anybody. Inertia, or whatever Test Tube kept on describing it as.

Instead, he ended up helping prepare for the party. The very party he was dreading. If he hadn't, it might've blown his cover, so he had to. But that didn't make it any less tedious to go through with it.

He climbed up the ladder in front of him, one end of one of the party banners in his hands. The end became a little crushed as he climbed up, but that was the least of anybody's worries. Nobody would pay attention to the ends of the banners anyway. "Okay, ready."

"Got it!" Lightbulb said. She climbed up her own ladder on the opposite side of the ladder, holding the banner up on her side. Fan held up his side of the banner in turn.

"Do you think this is a good place to put it?" Fan asked, looking down at the floor. It was quite a height with the ladder, but that wasn't what he was paying attention to. He was observing the surroundings, trying to tell if the banner belonged here.

"Seems like it fits!" Lightbulb said, also looking around. "I mean, it's above the TV, so at least people will see it."

"Yeah, fair." Fan said. He took a second to make sure his grip on the banner was steady before speaking again. "Did you grab the hammer."

"Nope. Did you?" Lightbulb responded.

"Nope. Dangit, that means it's still down on the couch." Fan groaned.

"Eh, it's fine. This is the lobby, somebody is bound to walk in eventually. Then we can just ask them to pass the hammer up, no problem!" Lightbulb said.

"I guess we could." Fan said, though he couldn't help but be somewhat hesitant. Plus, his hand was starting to get a bit numb from holding it up for so long.

Fortunately for him, his arm wasn't going to be numb much longer, as somebody walked into the room shortly after Lightbulb finished talking. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't on good terms with the person who happened to walk in.

Trophy casually entered the lobby through the stairs, barely even noticing the scene in front of him. Fan had to hold back a groan. Of course of all people he had to ask for help, it had to be the one he was trying to avoid.

"Hey Troph!" Lightbulb called out, leaning slightly outward from her ladder.

"Oh, hey." Trophy responded. His voice sounded plainer than normal in Fan's opinion, but he shook it off. He and Trophy didn't talk much, so how would Fan of all people know what Trophy usually sounded like?