The Voice

In the beginning, Host had always been on their own, as a TV Darkner with a defective screen, their blank static was regarded as a disability and made it difficult to have them be taken seriously in any form.

Even before losing their voice, Host still struggled to communicate and make themself heard, and this type of isolation and lack of purpose, all made Host particularly vulnerable to a certain Lightner who spoke in hands.

Serving Lightners is a Darkner's purpose, and Host craved that sense of direction, but never had one directly spoken to them. They felt him telepathically speak to them, and clearly, this was no ordinary Lightner either.

This one had been lost in a strange place. His essence shattered through time and space, in a limbo between Light and Dark worlds.

And somehow, through their TV signal, Host was the only one capable of hearing him, and they were the only one capable of helping him.

And all that Host needed to do was open their mind and seek out those lost pieces of him.

With their isolation, solely guided by a need for a purpose, Host became blind to the red flags hidden in their interactions with this mysterious Lightner. The Lightner couldn't exist outside of his void and Host was the only one he could speak to. Host had a presence. Host had a physical body. Host had a voice. They could help this Lightner return home.

But to open their mind, Host had to do more than stare into the void, they had to look beyond it, to leave themself behind, to channel the void, and to become the Lightner's host and guide them back home.

Had their name always been Host? Their memories were becoming fuzzier by the day. The Lightner never called them by their name, only a "host", the "host", like an experiment. Like a lab rat you don't name to avoid attachment. What an honour to be in such a divine position. What an honour to have such a bond with a Lightner.

But Host couldn't do it. No matter what they did, they never could figure out how to "open their mind" like the Lightner wanted. They were defective, and their screen couldn't display images, how could they see what he wanted them to see? How could they find those pieces of him when their mind was stuck in one place? He spoke of other dark worlds beyond the Cable, but Host only saw their own.

As an experiment, the Lightner decided that he was going to aid them in this. He was going to make them see. Host was finally going to be able to unlock their full potential.

But Host underestimated the Lightner's power over them. Like a painful shock going through their whole body and mind, Host saw it all, every dark world, every moment, everything happening everywhere all at once, bombarding their mind, shattering their reality, and as the visions became more and more overwhelming, Host's cries in pain turned into screams.

Visions and pain so overwhelming that cries did little to ease the pain. A cathode's scream is a powerful sight to behold, but Host was far too preoccupied to realize the shockwaves that their voice released. Their voice became garbled and corrupted by the strain, as any recognizable sound corrupted into a mess of crushed static and noise.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, was Mike, a nobody Microphone, all by himself which was uncommon for a Darkner of his type, and unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sensing the shockwave nearby, he tried to flee, but his short legs couldn't get him out of its range in time, and his fragile circuits couldn't handle the overwhelming electric shock, coming from an unknown scream of someone he couldn't see.

He felt it all over his body, the same overwhelming pain, causing him to collapse on the ground until the screaming subsided.

Regaining his senses, after what felt like hours, Mike was met with a chilling realization. He couldn't move. His body failed to respond to him. Further cursing his luck was that there was no other Darkner in sight (Not that they'd bother helping something as lowly as a Microphone of all things), it slowly dawned on him that no one was coming for him. He was completely paralyzed, and if someone were to show up to hurt him, he'd have no way to escape.

Struggling to move in a body that did not respond to him, he tensed up when he heard the sound of someone slowly stumbling their way out of a dark alleyway. The tall figure meekly clinging on to the wall, and Mike quickly recognized the head shape as being one of a TV. Of course a TV did this.

In his anger, struggling to move his body, he yelled out to them. Larger Darkners than him rarely to ever had good intentions, and if this TV was looking to pick on him, then he wasn't going down without a fight.

Host had been in a trance, but hearing the loud microphone's voice crying out insults in their direction, snapped them out of it, his voice louder than the visions in their mind.

And as Host saw the smaller Darkner paralyzed on the floor, they quickly rushed to his aid, sparks of electricity still crawled through his body, and despite his protests over Host picking him in concern, the TV didn't budge, breathing heavily and beginning to weep.

A sound meekly tried to leave their mouth, like a weak pained croak attempting to replicate what was once a voice. Mike could have sworn it was an... apology?

He was shaken by this, quickly realizing that whatever had happened to him was tame compared to what this larger Darkner was going through. Their panic, their sobbing, whatever it was that was capable of leaving a TV Darkner like them in such a state had to be out of this world.

Whatever had broken them, had broken him too, and through their pain and cries, the TV kept attempting to apologize, their voice wheezing in pain, as each glitch caused them to strain themself further.

But Mike was far too shaken by what was out there that could terrify someone this much. What was out there that was so powerful that paralyzing him was nothing but collateral damage.

In their mind, Host heard the Lightner telling them to take the smaller Darkner with them. A paralyzed Microphone couldn't run away. He could be useful.

But Host only barely heard what he was telling them. Instead, focusing on Mike who tried his best to calm them down, the way someone so hurt by what Host did still showed more compassion than they had ever been given by anyone else. The Lightner's words triggered a strange feeling in them. Taking the mic? Him not running away? That wording made them want to protect him. But why? The Lightner was good, wasn't he?

"We can find who did this!" Host saw the small microphone speaking as his limp body still twitched with leftover sparks of electricity "I... I can't move, b-but... I can be your voice..."

Host sniffed, static tears still streaming down the sides of their screen.

And I will be your body, they said wordlessly.

A New Job

With Host's mind having been opened, the next stage began. Their Lightner gave Mike and Host a new job, an unassuming job.

To use Host's channelling abilities to reach out to a Dark World beyond their own, to a strange Darkner, who much like Mike and Host themselves, had been afflicted with a disability that prevented them from fulfilling their purpose.

Spam Addison.

The typical Spamton backstory happens, with Mike and Spamton becoming particularly close, with Mike taking a more parental mentor role, while Host acted more as a silent standby, content to be part of a good cause to help someone who struggled like they did but didn't have anyone to fall back on.

But slowly, cracks started showing up, when through Host's psychic connection to Cyber City, it lead to Spamton and them to encounter each other in their dreams.

Spam thought nothing of these encounters, but slowly Host came to realize that the reason the Lightner had given them this job wasn't for a good cause.

Big Shot Era and Fallout

As Mike managed to successfully mentor Spamton into his more successful Big Shot self, the psychic connection was beginning to weigh on Host's head, their mind becoming less and less focused, their thoughts scattered, and their ability to keep the dark world connection was weakening.

Their Lightner contact hadn't given them as much direction, until he started nudging them to get Spamton to Queen's Mansion as there was something important for him to find there.

As Spamton befriended Swatch, the head butler, their friendship grew strong enough, leading to the Swatchling to reveal the basement to Spamton, in order to share their most important secret. In it, Swatch revealed revealed the unfinished NEO Robot, and within it, the Shadow Crystal they had found within.

Learning of the Shadow Crystal lead to a shift in Mike and Spamton's relationship. Host's state was worsening, but upon the discovery of the crystal, the Lightner became more adamant that Mike made Spamton get it.

However, with Host's worsening state, the two Darkners had started to doubt their contact's intentions.

Mike in particular had started to become a thorn on Gaster's side, always finding a way to sway Host away from their plans, who would much more often end up listening to Mike, rather than sticking to the experiment.

The small Darkner couldn't be taken out of the picture, the host and the parasite had become bound to one another, so Gaster knew that the only way to get Host to comply was through Mike.

With Host's worsening condition, they were both told that if Mike succeeded in getting Spamton to retrieve the Shadow Crystal from the machine, then Host could be cured from their pain.

This lead to Mike all of sudden becoming desperate and begging Spamton to get the crystal. However, bound by silence from their Lightner contact, Mike was never able to explicitly state why he needed the crystal, let alone make any mention of Host's worsening state.

Not wanting to ruin the reputation he had built, nor betray Swatch's trust, Spamton outright denied his mentor's demands, leading to their once friendly conversations to turn into yelling matches, with Mike scolding Spamton for being unable to do just this one favour for him after all he had done for him.

One day, after a particularly bad yelling match, Spamton told off Mike, yelling at him to leave him alone and never call again. Mike was stunned by this, noticing Host's worsening state, and the situation with Spamton worsening every day, he decided to put matters into his own hands before things escalated further.

Mike decided to get rid of the phone. Cutting off their connection to Spamton. But by now, the pair was useless to Gaster, who decided to place his focus on Spamton instead, releasing Host from his grasp, taking their pain and true sight with him.