Inanimate Insanity: Cobs Strikes Back

The Apex

OJ was very perspective, so when he kept seeing things moving out of the corner of his eye, he knew he had to get to the bottom of it

"Paper, please tell me I'm NOT going crazy, I... I need this." OJ was eccentric, clearly having too much coffee the night before. "Ever since somebody's scream woke me up, I couldn't go back to sleep, so i started... watching the sky!"

"I've uhh... seen them too, but maybe that isn't our biggest priority, you need to get some sleep, clearly these strange occurrences have messed with you and added to your stress, c-come with me OJ"

"No! W-who will look out for them, I- can't sleep now, when everything's at stake!"

"Listen, I'm sure everything is perfectly fine, it was probably some birds flying by, or maybe Candle and Silver were practicing again, you know they're pretty quick in the sky now." Paper reassured as he guided OJ to his own room. "if it makes you feel better, I'll find a way to find out what you've been seeing, to give you some piece of mind."

"Maybe, just maybe, I've acted a tad bit... paranoid, but my hotel is important to me, even that's an understatement, just... make sure you get to the bottom of whatever's going on, for my sake..."

"You can count on me, don't worry."

"Ar- are you absolutely-"

"Orange Juice, trust me, I can do this, I wanna help around the hotel too, so please let me." Paper placed a small kiss on OJ's face, before lightly closing the door. "now, I've got a mystery to solve, i do have to admit, i may have seen things too, but for his sake, I kept quiet, now who can help me peer into the sky?

"Perhaps Cabby holds the key to your questio-"

"AHHH!" Paper whipped around to the oddly soothing voice from behind him, "o-oh! hi Candle and... Silver... how did you know what..."

"A true master of the mind doesn't reveal their-"

"You were talking aloud honey, I'd highly recommend not doing that, you'd look far less stupid that way." Silver then did his signature 'ouhohoho' annoying laugh, causing even Candle to glance away in embarrassment.

"Well, I guess I'll be leaving now, surely Cabby will be nicer than you." Paper stormed off, trying to recall the layout of the season 3 contestant rooms

"Actions like that are not what make you worthy of your inner flame, you must be ready."

"Like we'll ever be using them again,, this training is neat but what exactly is the point?" Silver prodded, before noticing  Candle's expression, one of pure seriousness.

"The volcano's been showing me a quite disturbing vision, come along, I'll show you...

Meanwhile, inside Paintbrush and Fan's room...

It had been quite a quiet morning for the closest members of the Bright Lights, Lightbulb had slept in against her word to wake the group up early, possibly not wanting to stray away from Paintbrush. Test Tube and Fan gushed over the ship that had sailed, having accidently found them together while Fan went to grab his computer to update the blog, now he had an additional thing to add. Eventually, our protagonist arose, and woke her new partner.

"Painty, rise and shine! We're gonna have yet another amazing day!" Lightbulb excitedly shook Paintbrush about.

"Just 5 more minutes... please"

"Fineeeee, I'll brew you your favorite coffee in the meantime, black right?"

"Thank you" They mumbled, face already mushed back into the pillow. Lightbulb skipped out of the room, prancing to the door after a short greeting to Fan, who seemed rather amused to see her, something that estranged the bulb. She quickly forgot she entered the hall, passing by Paper who was heading towards the stairs, and finally making her way into the buffet area, a multitude of the residents can be found there.