Toilet blinked in confusion the moment he awoke. The last thing he remembered was hopping glumly along a beach, coming across some strange boat, and then... and then what?

He decided to look around, but his surroundings didn't help at all. It was an extremely minimalistic room, with the only pieces of furniture being a small desk with a lamp and the bed Toilet was lying on. Cautiously, he got up and went to the door.

"Hello?" he called out after opening it. No response. On the other side was a poorly-lit hallway with several doors along both walls, as well as one extra on each end. Carefully, he stepped out and glanced at the sign on the room he had just come from: Cobs' Bedroom.

Of course! Toilet realized as the memories returned. He'd been captured by MePhoneX and brought to Cobs, to find out that it had simply been an accident. Cobs told the device to lead Toilet to his room, where he found that very comfortable bed and immediately fell asleep.

And then...

He suddenly realized why he'd felt so cautious at first (besides, obviously, having woken up in a strange room). He'd been mysteriously sick the past two days; something had caused his poor porcelain body to be constantly wracked with pain during waking hours.

But Toilet shook off those memories and smiled a bright smile (Or tried to, anyway - his toilet lid mouth hindered him in this process.) It was a new day, and whatever illness he'd caught seemed to have completely disappeared. Always look on the bright side!

Humming a random tune, he hopped to the end of the hallway and opened the door there without a second thought. On the other side was the room MePhoneX had brought him to a few nights ago; large and empty, save for a desk near the back wall of glass with Cobs sitting there. "Good morning, mistah Cobs!" he called out cheerfully.

The CEO of Meeple flinched, although he managed to turn it into a movement that simply looked like he was turning to his guest. He had been hoping the truth serum's vicious side effects would keep the annoying object down for a little longer. "Well, well. Look who's back on his..." He studied Toilet's lack of feet. "...base. I assume from your jovial manner that you're feeling fine?"

"Yup! I don't know what happened to me, but I'm all bettah now!"

"Good to hear," Cobs replied through a false smile. "If you don't mind, I need you to do something for me."

"What is it?"

Cobs returned to his laptop for a moment before answering. "The same night you arrived here, the MeCloud suffered some... technical difficulties. I've had MePhoneX and my MePods working day and night to get it fully functional again, of course, but there's still many tasks that need to be done. If you would be so kind, another pair of hands-" He paused, once again noting Toilet's lack of any limbs whatsoever. "-er, another object helping out would be a huge, well, help."

Toilet got a shine in his eyes. The actual Steve Cobs, asking him to help? He almost couldn't believe it. "Of course, sir! Whatevah you say! Should ah start by gettin' you some wires, or-"

"No, no, I have plenty of wires," interrupted Cobs. "Look, if you go through the doorway you came through and to the end of the hallway, on the other side should be some MePods. Tell them I sent you to help and ask them what you should do."

If Toilet had arms, he would have saluted. "I won't let yah down, sir!" he said happily before turning and leaving the room.

The moment the door closed behind him, Cobs sighed deeply and massaged his forehead, where a sudden migraine had appeared. "I swear, that insanitary creature gets more and more aggravating with every word he says."

--------------------

I hate this, Fanny thought to herself for the millionth time. Actually, perhaps millionth isn't quite correct; it would be more accurate to say that the number of times this particular set of words had crossed her mind was more than the number of stars in the observable universe.

However, Fanny had every reason to hate her current situation. For the past two days, she and TV had been trapped inside a colorless, unfurnished room with MePhone4 and without food or water. (Clarification: they didn't need food or water to survive, and, in fact, giving TV water would have only resulted in disaster. But it was the thought towards their well-being that counted, or rather, the lack thereof.) Although she hated doing most things, she hated not having anything to do even more.

And they just had to go and power on MePhone when they had gotten there. Because boy, was he INSUFFERABLE. After waking up and uselessly reminding them where they were - like Fanny needed that information - he would spend most of his time pacing around the room, muttering to himself, occasionally banging on the walls or door, or all of the above... at once.

At least TV didn't say much. He spent most of his time in a corner of the room, with his legs retracted into his base and his screen in sleep mode. After the two of them had woken up MePhone on the first day, and it was clear they weren't going anywhere without outside help, he'd said to Fanny: "We should just be patient. If we wait for long enough, an opportunity to escape will eventually present itself."

Needless to say, Fanny hated waiting. But the only other thing to do was complain, and as she hated complainers even more (see: MePhone4), she chose to wait it out and stew in silence rather than become a hypocrite.

An unexpected movement caught her eye. She looked towards the door, but there was nothing new about it. MePhone glanced at her. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she muttered. "Just though I saw something..."

A few minutes later, she saw it again. Movement outside. Then, someone appeared at the door window.

She stood up. "Someone's at the door."

This caught MePhone and TV's attention. The former stood up and shot towards the entrance, only to flinch in disgust. "Uhg. It's just toilet."

"Well, wouldn't it be better to be in his company than Cobs'?" TV asked, now fully awake.

MePhone considered it. "Not by much, but..." He banged on the door anyway. "Hey! Toilet! Let us out, man!"

"I thought we already established that the door and walls were soundproof," Fanny groaned.

Nevertheless, Toilet paused in front of their door before peering in the window. "No, look! He sees us!" MePhone said frantically before banging on the door. "C'mon! If you let us out, I'll actually treat you with... some respect!" he cried out.

He must be desperate, thought Fanny. But unfortunately for the trio, Toilet slid away from the door and hopped back the way he came. "No!!" MePhone wailed, slumping to the floor. "I need to get out of here..."

TV made a :( face in sympathy. Despite her gripes against the mechanical host, Fanny began to feel a smidge of pity for him as well. Cobs must have severely traumatized him in some way to get such a visceral reaction.

Which, of course, only made her hate their situation even more.

--------------------

Heading through the hallway he was told to go through, Toilet paused in front of one of the side doors. It was unlabeled, like most of the other doors in the hallway, and the window was blacked out. He hopped closer and tried to take a look, but it was completely opaque - there was no way to see what was inside.

Curiosity getting the better of him, hr backtracked slightly and reentered Cobs' office. "Mistah Cobs?" he asked, making the vegetable jump slightly. "I was just wondahing - what's inside those othah rooms in this hallway? Thah one with thah blacked-out windows?"

"Oh, those? You don't need to worry about them. They're just-" For a split second, he faltered, not having thought he'd need to come up with an excuse to cover what was really in those rooms. Fortunately, an answer quickly came to mind. "-prototype Meeple devices," he finished smoothly. "I can't have anyone who comes in here leaking future tech, you see."

"Ah see. I was just curious, thank you!"

Toilet closed the door and thought to himself for a second. He wasn't a very perceptive creature, he knew that. But even he noticed the momentary pause in Cobs' speech and expression, and thought it ever-so-slightly suspicious. At the same time, Toilet remembered that three nights previously, MePhone had seemed distressed at the mention of Cobs. Which meant MePhone didn't seem to like the corn man. And MePhone was always right.

I should just keep an eye on him for now, Toilet decided. After all, he's been kind to me so far.

And so he continued to hop through the connector hallway, unable to hear the objects trapped in the rooms within.