A Marshmallow's Guide to Loving a Complete Idiot (Inanimate Insanity)(Marshple)

Lesson #7: Encourage Them to Achieve Their Goals

Marshmallow had equally negative opinions of every season of II. As far as she was concerned, MePhone was a callous jerk who didn't care about any of them beyond the power he contractually had over them. Season one, season two, it didn't matter, it was all awful.

As far as time-of-the-year seasons went, though? Summer was cruel. The heat was so intense that it made it hard to think, something that formed a dark haze around her thoughts that made them difficult to parse.

(Not that she especially wanted to think. In fact, it would've been nice if the shady grass swallowed her whole, already.)

"Marsh?" Marsh jumped badly at the sound of Paintbrush's voice. Something on Marsh's face must've betrayed something, because Paintbrush's next comment was, "Whoa, are you OK?"

"W-when'd you get here?" Marsh muttered.

"Just now. I wanted to check on you, see how the bottlecap search was going."

'Right. The bottlecaps.'

Marsh inhaled. OK, so she'd been sulking for most of the day, so she hadn't actually found any. Paintbrush had a bunch tucked under their arm, and Marsh couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance. Leave it to Paintbrush to always be the perfect player.

Before she could come up with an excuse, "It's OK if you haven't found any. We can look in the cave, get cover before the storm."

Looking around, yeah, there were storm clouds. Go figure.

She exhaled, "Alright."

⁂⁂⁂

When they finally reached the cave, Marsh stopped tuning out Paintbrush's words: "Maybe you should look on the bright side. We're still here, and the biggest thorn in your side is gone. There's stuff to feel good about."

"I don't feel good about anything." There was a bitter edge to Marsh's tone that neither of them was prepared for. "I threw my best friend's life away for MePhone's dumb fake stunt. MePhone! Even if it was real, he never would've done the same for any of us, which I guess is because he has no friends, but- you saw the rocket challenge!" Marsh gestured. "Of course I'm not looking at the bright side or whatever."

"You seriously believe Cobs?"

Marsh stared at Paintbrush. "What are you implying?"

On any other occasion, Marsh would've been impressed by Meeple HQ. She'd spent a fair amount of time in corporate Walmart buildings before the show, and those were pretty fancy, but Meeple was a world of its own. It didn't stock everything, but it did possess the tech that would power the future.

Standing in its sleek showroom made her mind race with the possibilities, but it was bittersweet. By advancing to the future, what was being left behind? Who would suffer for the betterment of tomorrow's lives?

"MePhone never said it was all fake," Knife said.

"Oh, he never told you? BRILLIANT! He must have wanted genuine performances, so he distorted the truth. I'm just going to let that sink in for a moment."

"He was just lying to make himself look better so we'd give him the egg."

"Oh, so it's my fault for taking him at face value?"

"I'm not saying that-"

"Yeah, I killed my best friend over something that could've been real, but could've also been fake. That makes me feel way better about my gullibility issue."

"You didn't kill her. She killed herself. Let's get that straight, OK?" Paintbrush sighed. "Look, it's all in the past. At least you know who's really there for you now, right?"