Tattle's Show for Freedom

TSFF - Four

"You 20 contestants will need to split up in 4 teams of 5! You can pick anyone you'd like, as long as you make a team. Make sure to pick a team name, unless you want me to pick one for you!~" The television screen cut to black and Mousey watched as the people began moving around. Mousey glanced down at Rat.
"I guess we can be on a team together?"
"Hm?" It glanced up. "Oh, yeah! That sounds good."
She looked away from their cousin awkwardly and noticed Feathery stood there. "Hey Feathery! Do you want to join mine and Rat's team?"
The other glanced up at her and smiled nervously. "Thanks so much! I was worried I'd be picked last, haha.."
"Don't worry about it!" Mousey grinned, happy that Feathery was happy.

-

Laser sat down beside the television screen, looking around at all of the team building going on. He noticed how so many people seemed to be grouping up because they knew eachother, and he felt somewhat left out. It wasn't fair that nobody he knew was a contestant in this competition! Yeah, so what if they weren't cat toys? That rule was dumb anyway - why had Tattle implemented it in the first place..? Man, I hate this! Laser clenched its fist angrily and stared down, until he eventually heard some footsteps approach it and he glanced up.
"Hey, um, sorry to bother you.. do you want to join mine and Food Bowl's team? You seemed kind of lonely."
Laser's eyes widened with surprise. Huh, someone was actually asking.. "Oh, sure! I don't mind."
"That's great!" Water Bowl smiled, nodding as Food Bowl - who was on top of her being carried - gave Laser a thumbs up. Laser felt himself grinning back at them, feeling better now that someone had actually cared. He got up.
"Do you want to get two other people? Or.. should we wait?" He asked the two.
"I'm alright with going now!" Water Bowl followed alongside him. "Not like Food Bowl has any right to complain, since he just sits on top of me!"
Food Bowl gasped. "That's so rude of you, sis." He scoffed. "I don't have any legs, so that's why I need to rely on you for moving around! Besides, we both do enough for eachother - I have to carry things for you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Water Bowl giggled. Laser listened to the two as they spoke more for a while, until he came across a pair who seemed to not know what to do with themselves. They were clearly affiliated, as they looked similar, and they both stayed close.
"Tin, I don't like this place."
"Neither do I, Bag! But we need to overcome our burning hatred of strangers and push through!"
"Tin there's a stranger right there." Bag muttered.
"Gah!- Stay back!-" Tin yelled and pointed at Laser awkwardly.
From there, Laser tried to defend himself from Bag and Tin's yelling. It would take a while to convince them both to join.

-

Mousey sat down on one of the seats, in between Feathery and Rat. She kept on looking around for people to join the team, but eventually a certain object caught there eye. Of course, they should have expected this - Bird Ball and Bell Ball leaving out their sibling, Paper Ball. The poor object stood there, covering his face and looking around worriedly. As much as she would have liked to make his siblings let Paper Ball onto their team, it knew she couldn't convince them. So, being the nice object Mousey was, they got up and carefully made its way over to him.
"Hey there, Paper Ball? Are you alright?" Mousey asked, trying not to seem harsh as she spoke. The shorter object just nodded awkwardly, not meeting its gaze.
"Well, you can always join my team. I... understand that your siblings aren't too fond of you, for whatever reason, and you don't need to tell me anything about it-" Mousey struggled to say these words, not knowing how to word it correctly as to not stress the other out or make it seem like she was forcing anything. However, they were cut off when Paper Ball squeezed her into a tight hug, looking up at it with understanding. They glanced back down at him.
"..alright then. Lets go back to my team, okay buddy?" Mousey asked, and Paper Ball nodded, following her back over to where Rat and Feathery were.

-

"One, two, three, four..." Tattle sat up on his area, counting the groups of gathered contestants. Most of them had seemed to join up with people they knew, and then go around asking other people. "One, two, three, four, five. Hm! I suppose Food Bowl, Water Bowl, Tin, Bag and Laser have made a team together." Tattle was talking to meowself at this point, but continued anyway. "That'll certainly be interesting. Anyway.. one, two, three, four. I guess they still need to choose them..." Tattle thought to themself for a moment. Then, he clicked on the television camera thing that showed his face, and said into it. "Contestants! You have 5 more minutes to choose your teams, and if you don't finish in that time, I'll sort them out myself! Have fun!~" They turned off the screen and microphone, casually sitting back and counting the minutes.