TommyInnit's unbeatable method of avoiding sudden death

A Final Duet

"You shot me," Fundy pipes up.

Tommy rolls his eyes, "No one cares about you, Fundy."

Fundy wilts, shoulders slumping.

It's awkward for a moment and Tommy kinda feels guilty. But not really.

"Look," He raises his tied hands in surrender, "I came with you to this weird fucking base, now can I just have Clementine and go?" He tries, futilely, of course. Tommy knows he's not leaving so easily. But well, his glock is out of darts, his blade would take too long to pull out and he has a feeling Niki will not hesitate to snap his bones at an escape attempt. Perhaps a bit of gaslighting will do?

"No," Manifold shuts him down, "You're not leaving until we say so."

"What if when you say so is when I say so?" Tommy questions.

The man pauses, "What?"

"Yeah like, what if when you say I can go, is like, also when I say I can go? Then technically I'll be leaving when I say so," He explains.

There's silence for a second or two.

"Just shut the fuck up," Manifold sighs.

"Are you sure you want me to shut up? Because I don't think you do. I think you enjoy my talking, in fact-"

______

Eventually his captors - Tommy doesn't even want to call them that, they're so shitty. But yeah, eventually his captors are driven to insanity with Tommy's gaslighting so they leave him in the weird dark room, locking the door.

Of course the first thing Tommy tries to do is slice the door open with his blade- tied hands be damned. That shit doesn't work though.

The only good thing is that they leave Clementine. Her bottle is in some weird mechanical shit that keeps her attached to the wall. Which fucking sucks.

But she's here. She's with him.

Eventually, when Tommy tires of striking mindlessly at the wall, he crumbles against the floor, tired and forlorn.

" Clementine, " He starts, picking at a piece of lint on the floor.

She swims around to face him, doing a little twirl.

" Clementine, " He says again, and really, Tommy doesn't know what he's supposed to say, what he wants to say.

She stares at him.

" I'm tired," He says instead, tilting his head back to rest against the wall, eyes falling shut.

"Clementine, did I start the fire?" He questions quietly.

She doesn't answer.

"Because," He pauses, "I'm not so sure anymore."

"It doesn't matter though, what's done is done. I can't go back. There's no fixing it. Why can't Manifold just move on? " He grits his teeth. "This is fucking stupid. Like, the worst thought out the villain story ever made. Who made this shitty storyline?"

. . .

"Oh right," Tommy laughs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Right, right. Silly me. Sorry, sorry."

"But it's fine," He hums, smiling, "Because we know how these sort of things go. Don't we? The heroes win, the bad guys fall. Happy ending. I just need to reach the happy end. Right, Clementine?"