"Your favorite color! What's your favorite color?"

"I don't really like to play favorites," Tissues answered, with a grouchy look off to the side. "So long as it's not green, I'm good. I see TOO MUCH green. Ugh, I HATE that guy..."

★★★

Tissues didn't always see the colors - usually just when he sneezed so hard that he could feel his brain rattle. But when those big sneezes did happen, he could see more than just green, drawn like strings between everyone around him. They linked different people, transcending doors, windows, even the walls of Hotel OJ and the great distance beyond - intangible, but always real.

He distinctly remembered the first time he'd noticed them. It was sometime the day after he was freed from that wretched closet. Which wasn't even that bad, Tissues had asserted, if you thought that was bad, just try staying in the hospital all the time, guys.

Some were tied around his own wrist, even. The one linking him and Cherries was vibrant green, like the color of grass. So was one linking him and OJ (this was pale green like the inside of a girl-scout cookie).

Things got much more interesting when he realized the colors had meaning that changed depending on who was linked. He could only guess that it had to do with what the connections between them were.

If that were true, green obviously meant disgust. That was the color of most of Tissues' strings. But putting together what all the other colors even were, figuring out what they could possibly mean, was an adventure of its own, undertaken with the same leisure of reading a summer novel.

★★★

His first epiphany came sometime after the next resident showed up.

"Wait, how's this a prank again?" Cheesy asked.

He and Cherries thought Tissues couldn't hear, from their conspiratorial little whisper-circle, but he was only deaf after he ate shellfish, guys.

One of the Cherries snickered while the other said, "Yin-Yang will catch the butterflies, and when we tell him to release them... Wooooosh!" The other cherry gestured for emphasis. "Trophy will have something new to take pictures of!"

Cheesy hummed and nodded. "That's a real winning idea," he answered with a playful grin. "You could say that it soars, like a butterfly! Ah...?"

"Heh heh, nice one!" Cherries and Cheesy high-fived, causing their sky-blue string to swing wildly.

"You realize I can hear everything you're saying, right, guys?" Tissues said, but Cherries didn't even look at him and Cheesy just grinned in his direction.

"Eavesdropping? What's your tissue?" He slapped his knee. "Geddit? Because you're Tissues?"

Tissues suppressed a laugh, trying to look unimpressed. "...That's not even funny, I could do much better, I'm hilarious-"

Then Tissues got up and left to tell Yin-Yang.

Blue represented friendship, camaraderie. That was a common color.

★★★

"Aaaah-CHOO!"

"AHHH- SHUT UP!" Yin-Yang shouted at him, with enough force to knock him onto his back, "Go be sick somewhere else!- That is to say, we're so sorry for the trouble."

Tissues remained laying flat on the floor and sighed, "I'm already in enough trouble, don't even tell me about trouble, guys. I'm a total bad boy."

Then he forgot what he was going to say, because there was something very unusual about Yin-Yang.

He, unlike anyone else, had just one string. Strung between his wrists like handcuffs, it glinted like silver.

"We are not sorry," Yin-Yang shouted, and Yin countered, "Yes we are! Yang, hurting people is wrong."

"Can you guys stop bickering? That'd be amazing," Tissues complained.

"...You realize we're more than one person?" Yin said.

"Obviously," Tissues scoffed. "Why else would you have one between you?"

"...WHAT?"

"How do you feel about each other to get such a boring color?"

"We have our differences- I HATE YIN! AND HE HATES ME! AND YOU ARE STUPID, BLACK AND WHITE IS TWO COLORS!"

'Hm,' Tissues thought to himself. 'Seems reasonable enough.'

★★★

But silver couldn't be hatred.

Because then he'd see it when he looked at his room-mate. But one night, when he sneezed so hard that his blanket went flying off of him, he glanced at his room-mate and didn't see any silver.

Trophy was gold, first of all- but their string was black, maybe with a greenish tint.

(Not that Tissues ever got why Trophy hated him - he was really cool. Trophy wasn't even such a bad roommate, really. He just begged OJ for a room switch at every single hotel grievance meeting.)

"Really wish you'd just go to a doctor or something," Trophy said through gritted teeth, before climbing into his bed and facing away from him.

"I don't trust doctors," Tissues snorted.

If blue was friendship, black was obviously hatred.

★★★

It didn't take long for Tissues to realize that many bonds were too complicated to be represented by just one color.

"OJ, care to join us?" Salt sang from the hot-tub, waving.

"No," OJ retorted, not even sparing her a glance as he walked past. When Tissues finally got the sneeze he knew was coming, he could see it: OJ's end of the string was steely, in contrast to Salt's bright orangey-pink color.

Salt's expression briefly fell, then she just laughed. "I'll save a space for you, honey."

Pepper sighed irately. "Salt, he's clearly busy. Besides, if he spills, it'll, like. Contaminate the water. Gross."

Salt chuckled, putting a hand on Pepper's shoulder. "If only you understood love."

Pepper crossed her arms and looked off to the side sourly. The string suspended between them, half orange and half blue, floated to the top of the water.

It took Tissues some time after to realize that being linked by each other's colors did not mean they were soulmates.

★★★

In fact, some relationships were even more complicated than that.

After a whopper of a sneeze that left his ears ringing and his tooth aching, he noticed a flash of red out the corner of his eye - Apple staring longingly out the window, pillow under her arm. A magnificent string connected her to something beyond the Hotel's walls. It was all different colors - a thread of enduring orange threaded with pink and yellow and blue.

"You really do miss her, huh?"

Apple didn't even spare Soap a glance. "I dunno why she was happy when I left..."

"I know, it's hard." Soap wrapped an arm around Apple. "But you know, when someone's right for you, they always come around eventually."

It was hard to see beneath the bright green string that led to him, but Tissues could see a pink and blue one wrapped around Soap's wrist all the same.

'Love's a funny word,' Tissues thought, scratching his nose.

★★★

"Yin-Yang, do you know what love's about?" he asked out of the blue, more out of the desire to fill the silence than anything else.

"Oh, yes!" a meek voice, Yin, answered, as Yin-Yang's face lit up with glee. "That's when two people like each other so much that they want to build a life together!"

"Not that anyone would ever love YOU, Yin," Yang interjected more loudly, then laughed evilly. "Love is about PASSION! And wanting to KILL people for someone else!"

"Seems like too much worrrrrk..." Tissues whined. "Hard enough to get out of bed and eat, I'm in so much pain all the time..."

"Maybe you should let us get you food next time, Tissues- if you're too PATHETIC to get it yourself," Yang finished with a mean laugh, putting an arm roughly around Tissues.

'Pepper does look like she wants to kill people when she, Salt and OJ are in the same room,' Tissues thought.

"Whatever, that'd be OK I guess," Tissues replied, then accidentally bit his tongue.

★★★

Tissues' next breakthrough took a while. Some colors were more difficult to get a read on than others.

"Hey, guys, what game are we playing today?" Balloon asked as he took a seat between Pickle and Bomb on the couch.

"Hopefully Melee, before Soap comes and beats us all," Pickle answered lightly. "Unless you'd rather play something else?"

Tissues was amazing at video games, but they were way too much effort to play while he had a headache, in Tissues' opinion. Besides, he got last all the time, which meant he was obviously the best at them.

"Nope! That's perfectly fine." Bomb handed Balloon a controller, his smile visibly growing.

"I play video games too, guys, I'm just too tired to play today... My head hurts, I might be dying-" Tissues got interrupted by his own sneeze, which was enough to knock him over.

"Shucks, maybe next time," Pickle said, not sounding too disappointed as he started the match.

Tissues could see the strings again. The strings linking the gamers were all comfortably blue - the product of a lot of effort on Balloon's part, without a doubt. But a lemony yellow one connected Pickle with something beyond the walls of the hotel. It ran past the pretty photograph sitting next to the couch.

"Wow, good game, guys!" Balloon said. He came in last, so obviously it was a good game.

A door opened, and Nickel prowled past the couch.

"Hey, Nickel, want to join us?" Balloon asked.

Nickel gave him a terse look. He had plenty of yellow strings, going every which way, and beyond the walls as well - but the one between him and Balloon was one of the brightest ones. Despite this, it had the faintest blue flecks.

After a long moment, Nickel replied, "Hah! No thanks. You don't need someone else to lose to," then left. Balloon stared after him for a moment, then shrugged.

Yellow was one of the more common ones he didn't understand... but he could only assume that the people with that color were uncertain of something?

★★★

So he had green, black, yellow and blue figured out - those were the most common. But there were much less common colors out there.

Hot chocolate in hand and a scarf wrapped around him, Tissues sat on top of Hotel OJ to watch the sunrise, one morning, because his life wasn't boring and sometimes he went to different rooms or drank different flavors of juice and it gave him adrenaline just to think about, guys.

After a bone-rattling sneeze, he saw the rarest colored string: red.

A luminous thread of it dangled between Paper and OJ as they moved together on the front lawn. OJ twirled Paper, moving in harmony to a beat that only they could hear. Sometimes their mouths moved like they were talking, but he couldn't hear their words.

Tissues wondered if his condi-SHAWN was making him go deaf, or if they really were in their own little universe.

"Speak up," he called, but they didn't seem to hear him. His face wrinkled up. "Hallucinating," he mumbled to himself.

The last time he'd seen red, after all, had been around Apple's wrist the day before she disappeared. Nobody remembered seeing her leave - for all they knew, she could've been kidnapped.

So what if that meant Paper and OJ had to leave, too?! Changes in management were always bad, bad news. What if TROPHY took over and banned him from the hotel, guys?

Mostly out of fear, Tissues dismissed the notion. No, red had to mean you belonged where it led to, right?

★★★

Tissues sneezed until he wheezed. When he opened his eyes, Yin-Yang stood there, a tray of pancakes in hand. "Are you OK?" he said meekly.

Tissues pulled a tissue out of his head and blew his nose. "Sorryyyyy it's my condishawn."

"I would love to BEAT THE SICKNESS OUT OF YOU!" Yang shouted. "But to, UH. Make it so you aren't sick anymore."

There was an awkward pause. Yin-Yang looked uncertain.

"...But look, we brought you blueberry pancakes!" Yin said gleefully, putting the tray on Tissues' lap. In addition, there was a small cup of apple juice and a small dish that had his pills in it. "Blueberries are higher in antioxidants than most foods, so they're nice and healthy for you- AND THEY WILL DESTROY THE GERMS IN YOU! I THINK!"

"Thanks I guess..." Tissues sniffled, then looked at Yin-Yang.

His sneeze had been intense enough to give him a brief view of Yin-Yang's string. It was still uniquely silver.

★★★

When Paintbrush, Fan and Test Tube arrived, Tissues noticed a new color: a deep, warm purple. It was weird, because the same color united all three of them, with that weird mouse they'd brought with them, too.

"I've been working on a show that'll help me grow as a person!" Fan exclaimed on the couch. "And Test Tube will be my gaffer! I'm thinking we'll call it the Contestant Conversations..."

"Wait, if the show's about you growing as a person," Paintbrush asked, petting the mouse, "Wouldn't something with your name in it be better?"

"Mneh- well, maybe, but the emphasis is on the people I'm interviewing," Fan stuttered. "It's a variety show, hardly about me at all..."

"Paintbrush does have a point. You're the face of the show," Test Tube said, and thought for a second. "Hmm... I like the alliteration of Fan's Fantastic... uh, Friends?"

"I got it," Paintbrush cut in. "Fan's Fantastic Features."

Fan gasped. "You are a genius!"

"Now all we need is a jingle!" Test Tube said. "I'm thinking something like duhnuhnuh..."

Tissues' focus got interrupted by a giggle; Mic and Soap stood a little off to the side. "Were they always like family?" Soap asked.

"Never like this," Mic answered. "I would've lost way sooner if they got along while we were still in, don't you think?"

"I dunno! I think you could take 'em," Soap replied, gently elbowing her arm.

Mic's smile grew warmer, "I'm glad I'm here. The game got in the way of just- hanging out."

It was then that Tissues saw that they were standing hand-in-hand. Even though Soap was wearing a cleaning glove, there was no mistaking the vivid blue and pink bond that tied their wrists together.

Tissues blinked. 'So family? That's what the purple means?'

★★★

"You guys don't hate each other," Tissues said one day after Yin-Yang put another tray on his lap.

"...Huh?" Yin-Yang answered. It was hard to tell which of them it was until Yang took over, "What do you MEAN we don't hate each other?"

"Because it's not the right color obviously," Tissues scoffed. "Black means hate, blue means you're friends, purple means family, yellow means mnegh, red and orange and pink are about love I guess- but you're none of those things, and you can't lie to me because I'm a genius, so what's up."

Yin-Yang sat there in silence for a second before Yang cut in, "I think you hit your head this morning- No, Yang, he's our friend! THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE GETS US! HE IS SPEAKING NONSENSE!"

Yin-Yang was silent for a moment before Yin spoke, "I guess you could say it's more complicated than hate. We've been together for thousands of years."

"Why are you telling HIM?! What if he BETRAYS us?!"

"Because he's our friend and he won't hurt us! He deserves to know."

Yin-Yang went silent. Tissues raised an eyebrow. "Uhhh, guys, do you mean that literally? A thousand years is a long time."

"Yes, we've existed since ancient times," Yin went on. "We've never stayed in one place for long, so- we've seen a lot together."

"The wars were EXCITING!" Yang exclaimed with a forced laugh. "The bodies all over the place- priceless!"

"Except for the friends we lost along the way," Yin corrected with a heartbroken sigh. Yang interjected, "but contestant recovery is the greatest invention ever! Now people can fight each other to the death and come back to do it again!"

Tissues shook his head to make sure he wouldn't doze off. "How is this relevant?"

"Because we've seen so much but can't agree on any of it," Yin answered. "Yang is like my destructive little brother-

"THAT'S WRONG! Because YOU are the pathetic little brother!" Yang snapped, "But Yin also makes everything so boring that I would rip him to pieces if I could!"

Tissues sniffed. "That isn't very nice..."

"You say that, but I've kept you out of fights you'd obviously die in more times than I can even count!" Yin exclaimed, his voice cracking. "Why do you act like I'm an annoyance when YOU are the reason I get in trouble all the time?!"

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! I've protected you too, you idiot!" Yang yelled. "If you were in control all the time, we woulda been killed centuries ago!"

"Guys, stop fighting, I'm allergic to conflict, guys, you're killing me, guys," Tissues interjected, coughing. "See, I'm dying, guys."

"Not on my watch!" Yang shouted, punching the air.

"There has to be something you agree on," Tissues crossed his arms. "Come on."

Yin-Yang stared at Tissues for a while. Maybe Tissues was hallucinating, but the color of his face shifted slightly.

"I shouldn't have asked, silver means complicated," Tissues groaned and started eating the breakfast Yin and Yang had agreed to bring him.