Jim frowned. "Hey, haven't I seen you once before?"
"Yeh. We did an ep where you were a cereal killer."
"Serial killer?" Candace asked. "What have those authors been doing to you now, Jim?"
Jim snickered. "It was a joke, Candace. I was busily murdering a box of cereal. This is Richard, everyone, he's a newbie here."
"Hi, Richard."
"Hey, there."
"Hello, Richard."
The chorus died out as the boy turned around still wearing his grim expression. "Hi, everyone. Yeah, I got trapped, too. I thought it'd be a lark, but it sure hasn't been much of a ride."
"What's wrong, dear?" Sophia asked.
"Well, I've only been around a couple of weeks and I'm already committing incest with my mom, when I'm not getting turned into a stuffed toy or some other character altogether."
Jim shrugged. "Sounds par for the course, Richard. Have you been chained to a wall yet?"
"No. The bondage gear is waiting in the wings, though, it'll be out any time."
"Sit back and enjoy it, Richard, honey, there's not much else you can do," Sharon said.
"Well there sure ought to be!" Richard exploded. "I remember when I was a writer in this. I thought it'd be fun to become a character in my own plot lines. Boy was I ever wrong. Well... it's had it's moments, but mostly I've just been a playtoy for all sorts of perverts."
"Well of course, Richard, that's the name of the game here," Robin said soothingly. "It's all temporary, though, you can always escape backstage for a bit when it gets too wierd."
"I don't like it! Why can't we rebel or something?"
"What sort of rebellion is that?" Rick asked in an idle tone.
"Oh, I dunno.... show up in the wrong costume? Act totally out of character? Refuse to show up at all?"
"We've all done that sort of thing at some point, Richard. It doesn't make any difference, they usually don't even notice." Sharon said.
"What about blowing up the servers that hold the stage?"
"What? And get rid of our home???" gasped Cynthia. "Richard, darling, you don't even realize what you're saying! This is steady work, whether it's always enjoyable or not."
"I don't care! I've got to do something while I still have a chance to control my own destiny!" and with that, Richard slammed out of the dressing room and the gang heard him making himself something to eat in the kitchenette.
Wed Sep 6 18:29:33 2000