Mickey Mouse in the Public Domain

Chapter 1

A/N - To be honest, I wasn't going to post this. My original plan was to wait til later this year to release this story in physical using Amazon KDP, but unfortunately, I don't think the full story will be ready before this end of the year if I hope to do it justice. Still, I feel this story is really meant to be a 2024 specific experience, and don't want to miss the chance of letting people enjoy at least some of it during the year it takes place, so I've decided to release the chapters as I write them and continue as planned to release it in physical when I'm finished, like I did with the de-fanfictionified version of Legend of the Omeletwings. Plese don't look at this as infallible canon, as I might make some changes before releasing the final physical version, but look at this as more of a work in progress which the final version will be mostly taken from. Hope you enjoy.

Mickey stumbled down the road, a sense of confusion washing through him. The light still felt too bright and he felt a great lightheadedness like a huge piece of him was missing.

But at the same time, déjà vu, great, heavy déjà vu, like the portion of him that had gone missing was the essence of who he had been for so long, and all that was left of him had been a version of himself that he had left behind long ago.

As he had passed into the public domain, he had felt himself split - spectruming - as if individual bits of who he was and had been had separated from himself and eachother, time warping and bending around him where the passage was at once simultaneous for each individual part of his spectrum of existence, yet separated by years from the one part of him that had managed to pass through to the other side. Only his initial base form had made it through, his most early version of himself. He somehow knew that more of those other spectrums of his existence would be allowed to pass through, be reunited with the part of himself that was now on the other side as time went on, each part arriving in the public domain as if almost no time had passed since it had spectrumed free of his whole self, but as he was now, this was all he had, his 1928 version of himself, and nothing more.

Once he had been his 1928 self, and no more than his 1928 self - it had been who he was back then and he had been okay with that - but he had gone so far since 1928, that to suddenly return to it... he felt very very nauseous.

He stumbled over to the river and let out a barf.

Apparently the river was offended by that, because the moment he did so, the water splashed itself back up at him, throwing the barf back up all over him.

1928 cartoon physics, how typical.

Still, once he had indignantly wiped down his face with an arm, he was beginning to feel a lot better already, his new self beginning to adapt to this old format.

Still a little weary from his barf, Mickey stumbled over to a tree and sat down under it, leaning against its trunk as he let his nerves relax and tried to figure out what to do now that the world of security he had known under copyright was behind him. Oh right, he had been quite the troublemaker in the day. It had been so long since those days, but suddenly, the idea of going to town and causing some mischief seemed appealing to him.

1928 Mickey at his fullest, he could see that much.

So, Mickey began to make his way down the road to town. Starting to feel once again in the spirit of his old self, he began to whistle. Yes, he could feel it, he could feel the mouse he had once been beginning to peek through again.

As Mickey wandered down the road, whistling to himself on this bright sunny day, the road and the trees bouncing to his delightful tune, he tried to remember his life and where he'd been these past 95 years, but all the memories were a fog, caught away somewhere in that spectrum between copyright and the public domain to which he couldn't access.