Innerworks

5. A Story for another Time

I wanna see if someone got the joke
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"Hey Anxiety, uh what are you doing here?" The Manifestor was both confused and a tad bit apprehensive, "there's literally nothing for me to feel anxious about, I'm not even making a video right now, I was just gonna call a friend then take a nap, so..."

"Geez, a guy can't say 'hi' to his host?"

"Yeah, usually, but when you do it there's always an underlying meaning to it"

"I wonder why?" The personality smirked.

Thomas rolled his eyes, their bantering was getting better.

"So what's up?"

"Nothing much, the kids were making too much noise, they made up a new game, prank tag I think it's called"

"What?"

Anxiety shrugged, "They're kids, they can make up whatever they want, it'll still be fun"

"Oh? And why didn't you join them then?"

The personality gave his smug and smirking host a look, but then shrugged again, "eh, wasn't invited, plus they look like they're all having fun, who am I to ruin that?"

"Mhm, you ruin my fun all the time-"

"Yeah, because I can-"

"But-"

"They're kids, the world can and will ruin their fun soon enough"

"Ah-ah, no, no, we are not going there!"

Anxiety chuckled, before looking down at his phone.

"Well look at that, we actually lasted five minutes in a semi decent conversation, kudos to us"

Thomas rolled his eyes, "Oh you're the worst-"

"Thank you~"

The manifestor glared, the personality looked smugly back. This lasted for a few minutes.

It was weirdest starring contest ever, but it was their unspoken game, you couldn't blink nor change your expression.

Don't ask them how it started, 'cause neither of them know, it just happened and afterwards it became a thing, usually right after Anxiety said something too morbid or Thomas said something too cheery.

Of course Thomas laughed and thus lost, but Anxiety chuckled with him, so technically he didn't lose, but he wouldn't tell the other that.

"You never win at that"

The host shrugged, still smiling.

"Just imagine if one of the kids ever challenged you-"

"-I'd probably lose, but question"

The personality looked curiously at the other, it was rare for Thomas to ask him a question, that was usually Logic's shtick.

"Yeah?"

"How many children are just running around in my head?"

Anxiety almost snorted, sometimes he wondered how his host could be so pure and childlike, even when exposed to quite a bit of the world.

*cough*pfft*cough*

"eh-em, well there's", he listed off his fingers, "the two kids that follow Dad around, the Sister and the brother, still don't know their names by the way, then obviously your own Inner child, we call him Steven by the way-"

"Because of the shirt?"

"Because of the shirt", agreed the personality with a small nod, "I called him that just for fun, but everyone else just rolled with it so it stuck"

"So you just randomly give out nicknames?" Smirked Thomas.

Anxiety smirked back, "the nickname 'Princey' stuck now didn't it?"

"Fair enough, go on with the list then"

"Pushy"

"Hey!"

"Fine, fine, there's Misleading Compliment-"

"Really?"

"Yeah really, he's the oldest of the kids though, 12 or 13 mentally, Pranks is also 12 or 13-"

"Pranks?"

Anxiety smirked.

"His specialty lies in the Disney ones"

"Oh"

"And that's it," he gestured to his fingers, five of 'em"

"Cool-"

"Unless of course you count the personalities, 'cause let's face it, they're as immature as kids sometimes"

"True, my gut instinct wants to say that Morality is the youngest but, he's been around kinda the longest, so Prince?"

Anxiety scratched the back of his head, "actually, Princey's older than me-"

Thomas' eyes widened.

"What? Really? Wait, does that mean you're the youngest?

"Yeah, kinda, Princey's older than me by a few days, then there's Logic and Morality, Logic is younger than Dad, I just don't know how much younger- what?"

"You're the youngest!"

"Yeah and? You're acting like Prince was during your ' I'm on a Disney show video', you're even doing the hand movements"

"Because I just realized something-"

"That your insane?-"

"No, that it goes in order-"

"What?"