"Salt actually wins! Pepper also wins! Which means... they can pick the teams!"

'Huh?' Paintbrush looked at the winners, their gaze punctuated by shocked blinks. They'd seen lots of questionable sights that day, but if two people who couldn't even decide when to jump together clinched victory in the first ever challenge, this was going to be one bizarre season, indeed.

They could only assume that everyone else was surprised like they were; they were more or less silent, save for the occasional "oh, come on!" at least. The atmosphere was thicker, bleaker; it filled Paintbrush with unease.

Then again, this wasn't the chattiest group to begin with, so it was probably Paintbrush's own perception. They hated to lose, after all, just like they hated the unexplainable and the unexplained.

Which made a flash of green light in the corner of their eye even more unignorable to Paintbrush.

Up they stood, still blinking profusely from the flash, to search for its source. A scan of the surrounding hills showed nothing out of the ordinary; none of the other contestants had reacted. Out of the entire crowd, the lightbulb with a vacant look on her face stuck out.

Paintbrush cleared their throat as they approached her. Talking to her ought to illuminate things, so they cleared their throat.

"Um - uh, Lightbulb, right?"

Lightbulb beamed. "Hi, you! What's got your bristles in a tangle?"

"Well, you see, uh -" Paintbrush found themselves stumbling over their surroundings as well as their words as they nearly tripped over a rogue twig. "I couldn't help but notice you were... trying to get my attention just then."

"Really?" she replied cheerfully. "Coulda' swore I was thinking about what's for dinner all day."

Paintbrush paused, glancing around. Nobody else quite looked like Lightbulb around these parts. "...I must have had you confused for someone else, then," they lied. "Don't worry about it."

"Oh! I get it, an easy mistake to make." She chuckled and gave Paintbrush a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Paintbrush could feel a jolt of static where Lightbulb's hand had been. They absentmindedly rubbed the spot with their hand, massaging the sting away, as the gears of their mind worked.

"Paintbrush, are you deaf? I, like, totally just picked you."

Snapping back to reality, Paintbrush turned to face the drawly voice. It belonged to none other than Salt; she briefly glared at them, but quickly went back to sizing up the competition. She was standing on a pink rug that suited her improbably well. OJ stood on it, too, but his presence was downright mouselike compared to hers. Clearly, Paintbrush missed something.

"Guess that's your call to action, girl! Catch you later!" Lightbulb shoved them towards Salt, then flashed some finger guns their way.

Paintbrush forgot to answer as they dabbled in their thoughts again on the way.

They half considered asking OJ if he'd tried to get their attention, but they were certain it couldn't have been OJ. One of the people they saw earlier had been tall and green.

And there was no doubt, it was Lightbulb who stood next to her.

Sure, she said catch you later, but had she already 'caught them' before, somehow?

***

As luck would have it, they did not catch each other later, as they got put onto separate teams.

As hard as Paintbrush tried to push the thought from their head, it lingered there like a stain of burnt oil, all the way through the team-picking to the explanation of the next challenge. They only half-listened to the blue phone-man. These thoughts and questions had Paintbrush on auto-pilot mode, until Salt's jaded commands smacked them back to reality:

"What are you all waiting for, Team Fabulous? Bring us the lemons!"

Paintbrush scoffed at the mention of their team - they weren't even paying attention, and they knew who picked it. They lightly slapped their cheeks to psyche themselves up for the challenge; it was a good start, since everyone else was otherwise 'busy'.

Salt was doing nothing helpful and spewing out pointless orders, while the bomb and the glass of orange juice were elsewhere on the phone taking orders of their own. Grimacing, Paintbrush turned towards the lemon tree that nobody else seemed to -

"Ouch!"

Someone crashed to the ground at Paintbrush's feet. A marshmallow with a short stature lay face down, groaning in pain. Paintbrush did not hesitate to offer a helping hand.

"Hey," Paintbrush whispered, tapping on the marshmallow's head and gingerly rolling them over. "You doing okay, uh... Marshmallow?" They waited with an arm outstretched.

Marshmallow beamed. "You're with us at last! Come on, those lemons aren't gonna pick themselves."

She got to her feet immediately, batting Paintbrush's arm to one side and jogging as fast as her little legs could carry her. She ground to a halt at the base of the tree, then spun almost gracefully on her heel to face Paintbrush.

"Hey! That means help me up!"

"Right- right!" Paintbrush muttered, finally picking up the pace and running towards the tree. Marshmallow greeted them with a smirk on arrival, not wasting any time as she climbed onto their back.

"Seriously, you've been out of it all day! I hope you're not always like this."

Paintbrush fumbled for a second, reciting what they'd been trying to tell themself. "...Got it. Less chatter, more game-face."

"Now that's what I like to hear!" Marshmallow vaulted off Paintbrush's back onto a low branch, beckoning them to climb with her.

Branch by branch, up they clambered towards the golden glow of the lemons and victory. Come on, Paintbrush, that's the way - whoops!

They accidentally plowed past Paper, sending him and his cradled lemons tumbling back to the ground. There was a very loud thud for a loose-leaf. Only time to wince and carry on.

They broke through the foliage at the top of the tree. The sun's light washed over them, and with it so did an optimistic attitude: "Woo!"

Gathering all of the lemons they could see, soon Paintbrush had a veritable citrus surplus in their hands. They nudged Marshmallow to get her attention, but once they looked up, they understood her silence as MePhone 4 spoke up.

"With one Hell of a lot of lemons, Taco wins for Team Chickenleg!"

Taco was still coughing lemons into her container.. Could tacos even naturally do that? Paintbrush thought as their hands relaxed and let go of the lemons in defeat. They rained down on an unfortunate Paper yet again.

"Guess that's that, then," Marshmallow sighed as she looked back at the rest of Team Fabulous. "Who are you voting for?"

Paintbrush's first instinct was to stare down the bratty little salt shaker, who was scolding Pickle and Paper at the base of the tree for whatever reason. Those two hadn't done anything wrong, right?

Their frown curled further downwards once they saw OJ and Bomb, who hadn't done anything at all, snacking on egg-rolls and teriyaki steak. "Oh, no question."

***

Paintbrush had just casted their vote for Bomb that evening when Marshmallow caught up to them again. The two exchanged smiles and began to amble, with no real destination in mind. All there was to do was explore the rolling fields and strange cliffs within the competition's bounds.

"Thanks for bucking up during the challenge, by the way. At least it wasn't a total failure," Marshmallow said after a few moments of chatter.

"It's no problem! This season's sure to be interesting." Paintbrush chuckled. "I tell you what, that business with Taco is the new weirdest thing I've seen all day!"

Marshmallow perked up. "Right! - Wait, new weirdest thing?" She took a second to stop in her tracks, and think about it. As she pieced everything together, her mouth formed a perfect O, gasping in realization. "...so that's why you were so spacey today!"

"Ha, yeah..."

"Do you think you could clue me in on it all?"

They both paused for a moment as Paintbrush's gaze wandered back over to the nearby Lightbulb, who was on her knees idly tearing at the grass. They didn't even remember their question! Was there any way to share their experience without looking like a head-case?

Ultimately, they smiled uneasily.

"Long story short, I think I've been seeing double."

They'd leave it at that for now.