Kratogenesis

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting (XLV)

A long day had passed, and the disappointment from the latest challenge was still burning in Four's mind. Once home, they decided to watch some TV to clear their mind; they zapped for a bit, before settling for a wrestling channel. A big event was advertised, featuring two important wrestlers fighting each other. Having nothing better to do, Four and X gave the channel a shot. Four was intrigued by the moves and the clobbering between big, muscled men; X, on the other hand, didn't seem to be as interested in the event, but watched some parts of the various matches every once in a while.

"Today was a bust, indeed." Four sighed.

X had no choice but to nod. "Metaphors aren't our strong suit, apparently." They watched some more of the wrestling matches. While analyzing the moves, an idea popped in their mind. "Four!"

The blue host looked at their companion. "Wha?"

"What if our next challenge was a big wrestling tournament?" X was excited. "That could be the perfect way to grab our contestants' attention after the disappointment!"

Four thought about it. "Ay, that's actually a neat idea!" They got up. "I'll be right back!" After a while, they sat back on the sofa, with a blanket and two buckets of popcorn. "Knock yourself out, X." They handed a bucket to X and laid the blanket on their and their companion's legs.

"It'll be a blast, I'm sure of it!" X's excitement was growing by the second, and the popcorn only made them more excited.

Four hugged X. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay? I'm kinda tired now..." They ate all the popcorn in their bucket at once, and then fell asleep.

X rubbed Four's belly and shook their head. Oh, they've chosen such a lovable doofus to go live with. They watched the wrestling channel for some time; they then yawned, turned the TV off and slept on Four's soft belly, letting out a sigh of contentment.

The next morning, Four woke up and prepared a mug of coffee for themselves. They then woke X up with the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen. "Rise and shine, X! Tasty pancakes are on the menu!"

And indeed, the smell of fresh pancakes managed to wake X up, like it had done infallibly. They sat by the table and munched on the pancakes. "The way you make pancakes always makes me crave for more!"

Four giggled. "It's important to get your daily boost of sugar at the start!" They couldn't help but smile at the way X ate them up.

After the meal, Four and X went to the study room, where Four scribbled something on the flip chart. "There's my plan, X!" They drew a 64-slot tournament branch. "All the brackets have been filled randomly! Wanna take a look?"

X took a closer look at what Four had scribbled. They saw a bunch of names. "So far so good..." They kept scrolling through the text, but then backtracked to a name that caught their attention. "Wait a second..." Loser? Was that correct? "Um, Four? Loser's dead."

Four listened to X's feedback. It took a while for them to process the comment. "Oh." How could they have forgotten about such an important detail? They even fried Loser to death! "Rats!" Four couldn't think of an appropriate replacement for the late Loser. "X! Who could replace him?"

X's mind was in panic mode. They sat on the floor. "Uh... Nonexisty?"

Four was unamused by X's choice. No way a bunch of air could make an appropriate fighter! "I'll fix it." They took out a piece of cardboard and summoned Marker.

"Wait, what am I doing here?" Marker was confused as to where he was.

"Hold still, Marker..." Four took off Marker's cap. "This will only tickle for a moment." They used Marker's tip to make a crude drawing, occasionally telling Marker to hold still and stop laughing.