better luck next time

forest - p1

Walten opened his eyes slowly, as the bleary world appeared around him. He shook his head in an attempt to wake. Usually he does not wake up in the middle of the night - perhaps it has something to do with that bad feeling? Either way, he gets up slowly, yawns, and makes his way over to the cameras. He'll check in on the tubbies, and then go back to sleep. Or, at least, that was the plan, any concept of sleeping snapping out of his head in a flash as he stares at Dipsy's decapitated body. He stills, as unmoving as a statue, as his eyes trail over the other cameras to see blood all over the place and the other 3 teletubbies nowhere to be found. I should've listened, he mourns. Maybe I could've stopped this. Are the others okay?

He gets up to go grab his flashlight and camera, but comes face to face with a armless, brown-furred teletubby with a strange face. He tilts his head in curiosity, his eyes widening and stepping back a little when it screams and rushes at him. He runs as fast as he can, panic clouding his mind. Eventually he loses the teletubby, but it does not remove the panic. I have to check on the others, his mind pushes, I have to do it now. What if there are others like that thing? He walks over to the hatch seperating the lair and the outside world, and takes a breath as he opens it.

The night sky is not as punishing as a morning sky would be to the white teletubbies eyes, with him having stayed inside his lair every day all day as per orders. He still ends up squinting at the pitch black of his surroundings, clicking his flashlight on with a tap as the hatch slowly closes. He does a 360° to check around him before walking in the direction of the dome. Walten's steps were soft against the engineered grass, the happy surroundings adding to an even scarier atmosphere unlike their usual comforting presence. He can't help but feel at unease, grabbing at his arm with his free hand nervously. He keeps at high alert, eyes searching and ears perked for any noises as the dome appears in the distance.

At some point he looks over and stills again, face to face with the body of Po hanging from a tree by a rope. You were too late, a voice mocks, and now she's dead. Maybe there's still hope for Laa-Laa, he begs the world. She's got to be alive. She has to be. The Guardian grudges onward, guilt accompanying the unease. Once he makes it to the dome, he wills himself to ignore Dipsy's body, right next to him as he inspects the broken custard machine. How did Tinky manage that? He'd have to be incredibly strong. It surprised him how easily he broke the thing. Isn't it supposed to be durable? He muses, they sure fucked up on that account. He leaves the dome, finding no reason to continue searching here uselessly.

Unknown to him, the purple furred tubby in question stared at him from afar. Usually he'd attack a tubby, especially one who's alone, but he's never seen this tubby before. It intrigued him. What is he doing here? Why did he seem so... affected by Po's body? It was strange. He did not approach simply so he could find more, but he knew he would have to eventually - and he knew the tubby would run.