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Free of the Fumes

Summary:

(Post TPOT 19) (collab with anonymous) (i chose the topic be happy 🥀🥀 or don't idk)

Saw has always been known as the character with the 8-shouting gig by majority of the community. Most of the viewers fail to see her true personality, which annoys her.

Fed up with negative comments and untrue opinions from viewers, Saw decides to fix everything once and for all...

Notes:

i'm kinda procrastinating on my other fanfic (the soul and the shadow) so eat this instead? idk :(

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Elimination wasn’t all that bad. The stress of the challenges was gone and all the eliminated contestants were focused on was opening that mysterious door that they believed led to the outside world.

The best part was that before going into their state of depression, Two set up a website where the eliminated contestants could see what the viewers thought of them. (Kind of like a Q&A website, you know?)

The eliminated contestants didn’t really know much, but the viewers kept telling them about the events of TPOT 19, which the contestants believed was linked up to Basketball’s disappearance in some way.

While everyone was receiving relatively kind messages, Saw had a bit of a different story. It seemed like most (if not all) of the viewers thought that Saw was only “the character who said 8”.

Saw didn’t take this very lightly, and decided to fix their perspectives.

Pie walked into Saw’s room.

“Hey, Saw!” Pie said in her enthusiastic voice.

Staring at her phone, Saw was deep in her train of thought. Ever since the day she smelled that funny plant, her urge to scream the number eight had at least been tamed.

Pie finally spoke. “Saw? You okay?”

Saw knew that she had to change the public’s perception of her, but she kept asking herself how. Suddenly, she noticed Pie standing across from her at the opposite side of the room.

“Oh hey Pie.” Saw spoke in a rather depressing tone. She sighed. “I’m just… not feeling the best today. That’s all.”

Pie replied with, “Why don’t we talk about it together?”

But Saw just wanted to be left alone. She didn’t feel like discussing this with Pie. She tucked herself deeper into bed and hid herself under the blanket. She knows about her friends’ reputations.

“Oh…” Pie said. Pie knew that Saw wanted to be alone for the time being, so Pie went back to trying to open that door with the others.

---

At the locked door, Pie noticed a rectangular-prism shaped object in the sky with a full set of limbs, clinging onto the side of the building. They were a greenish-blue colour.

Suddenly, they winked and gave a thumbs up to Cake, who was pulling the door handle, before getting on their phone, which had a red phone case. Pie really wanted to know who that was…

---

Back at Saw’s room, Saw was thinking about her life. She hated the thought of the viewers seeing her as someone who says “8” and nothing more. She was a good leader. She was good at making decisions. She wasn’t just some number-obsessed contestant.

In her sleep, she dreamt of being free from the fumes…

When Saw woke up the next day, she felt like she was hit by a truck. She couldn’t move, being weighted down by her thoughts. She didn’t even want to eat breakfast that morning.

When she finally got up 37 minutes later, she made for herself a bowl of Loser-O’s and a chocolate milk. However, the cereal tasted soggy and the milk was straight up bland. Every time she took a bite out of her cereal, her hand shook.

She tried to exercise, but her motivation was nowhere to be found.

She tried to converse with Needle, but she kept losing focus.

She even tried mindlessly scrolling Instagram Reels, only to find even more about her shattered reputation.

No matter what she tried, she just couldn’t get those negative perceptions out of her head.

If only she could start something new and change those perceptions.

So she did the unthinkable.

Although no one dared to go to the Human World (which is the realm the viewers were from), Saw decided that it was the easiest way to persuade the viewers. She didn’t know how she would pull it off, but she was determined to do it.

…either that or she would rid herself of the fumes.

...

Yeah, that would probably be easier.

So Saw decided to find a way to banish the fumes from her system once and for all.

Filled with a new determination, Saw used her phone and her notebook to do her research. Although she wanted to contact Golf Ball to speed up the research process, Golf Ball was… well, dead.

At this point, Saw didn’t care how long it would take or how much effort it would require; she was desperate to change those nasty, untrue insights from the viewers, whether they liked it or not.

After eating lunch (an extremely salty-tasting salad), Saw closed the door to her room so that no one could hear anything coming from her room.

She searched for tutorials on “How to get rid of fumes” online.

She clicked the first video she found.

“hOw tO gEt RiD—Of fUMeS,” the video said in a wacky voice. “ThIs vIdEO wiLL tEAch **𝓤** hOw tO geT riDD—of yOUr fUmES!!! iF **𝓤** wANT tO gET riD of yOUr fUMEs…”

“Ugh… This video is so boring!” Saw whined.

The next video she watched, even more useless. “Ah yes… Fumes… Many cooks’ greatest Nightmares… A Sign that your Food… is Burning…”

“Useless!”

She tried another.

“🎶Fumes Fumes Fumes… Everyone hates dem fumes…🎶”

The song played in the background. She had written down nothing so far. Clearly the internet wasn’t helping. Saw grew irritated. She was going to have to take things into her own hands.

The next day, Saw decided to try experimenting with flowers.

She thought it would be a good idea to try and smell each and every flower in the elimination area in an attempt to permanently get rid of her fumes, like how smelling the funny plant helped her control her number-screaming urges. She didn’t just want them under control, though; she wanted them completely gone.

At each eliminated contestant’s door, Saw would knock and ask if they had any flowers that she could smell. Now, of course none of the eliminated contestants had any to Saw’s knowledge, so she thought of growing some of her own in her room.

The only real issue, though, was finding seeds to grow (and probably sunlight).

So she devised a plan. A plan to grow flowers, any flowers that would set her free from those annoying fumes, in her room.

This was her plan:

Step 1: Scavenge the elimination space for seeds.

Step 2: Plant them in that little plant pot in her room that sat there collecting dust.

Step 3: Spit on the plant (Gross.)

Step 4: Shine some phone light on the plant. Turn on Discord Light Mode for maximum effect.

Step 5: Pray that the flower would free her from her fumes.

 

The first patch of seeds she found bloomed into a gorgeous pink flower.

She brought her nose up to the flower. (Do saws have noses?)

She inhaled, and exhaled.

Suddenly, a calming sensation swept over her. It was indescribable. She was experiencing a moment of bliss. Sweet smells, happy thoughts.

“Eight… Eight… eight…”

By a stroke of luck, her fumes disappeared. On the first try.

Time to show the world who she really was.

“Hello guys! I’m feeling great today!”

The comments began rolling in.

And they… Weren’t great.

When Saw started reading the comments, her whole world flipped upside down. And not in a good way.

“That’s gr8 news! I can’t w8 for the elimin8ed contestants to get more screentime!” one of the comments said, as if it were to mock her old number-shouting habits.

“wonderful now u dont have a personality XD new fav character gaty, no way to change my mind now” another comment said, like if her entire personality was based on the number “8” (which it really isn’t; stop saying that).

There were a few people, though, who did see her true self. Her leadership. Her desire to work with others. Those people did improve her mood a bit, but ultimately, the negative comments outweighed the positive ones.

Despite her efforts, the world was still against her...





She sighed in defeat, then collapsed into bed and began to cry.

She drowned in her own tears for hours. She wanted to just disappear. Her room had become a full-on ocean.

Pie walked in, her feet splashing on the floor. “Hey Saw!”

Saw sniffled and dug deeper into bed.

Cake entered too. "Look! I made you a fanart!”

Cake’s phone displayed a fanart of Saw playing in a flower field, butterflies flapping their wings. She was portrayed as a friendly, playful girl.

But Saw didn’t look.

So Pie and Cake left.

---

However, the world soon realized Saw’s friendly side. Over time, Saw’s reputation began to heal.

After a few days, Pie was ready to show her the fanart.

So she did.

“Aww… You didn’t have to!” Saw reacted.

But then they checked the comments.

“saw!!! so adorable!!! i luv u saw!!!”

“i change my mind saw is my new fave <3”

Saw read these comments, smiling. And her life turned around.

Notes:

sorry guys i still don't know how to write fanfics... sigh
also this story used to have a bad ending where saw would fall into a deep depression and permanently unalive so i'm glad we went with the happy ending :)
btw that mysterious rectangular prism guy is 9HB from another fanfic i made for some reason if yall wanna see more of them let me know