Yeah, I know, it's been a while. My brain kind of hit the briar patch and I couldn't figure out how to push through it. It's kind of appropriate to take a sabbatical going into Act Two, don't you think? All right, back to work now.
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The board had moved quickly in the last ninety minutes, calling an emergency session for everyone who could be reached at such a short notice. For a time, high ranking studio officials clamored in and out of the hallway like the hurricane from The Band Concert. And then in almost an instant it was silent, leaving Oswald on one of the metal benches outside the boardroom burying his face in his hands while Mickey summoned every ounce of his will power to keep himself from pacing.
"It'll be all right, pal," Mickey tried assuring him. "We've all had to face the board before."
Oswald couldn't respond, and Mickey gave in to the reality that, at least at this time, there was nothing he could say to make the situation any better.
Minnie appeared in the boardroom doorway, gently pulling the handle shut behind her as she joined Mickey and Oswald. "They need a few minutes to set up the mics."
Mickey nodded, guiding her to the entrance door. "Why don't you head on back to the office. We'll take it from here."
"You know," Minnie whispered, completely forgetting how keen the rabbit's hearing was, "They're gonna try to pin this on him."
Mickey glanced over his shoulder at Oswald, who was still covering his face. "Jiminy won't let that happen."
"He may not have a choice Mickey. Madame Medusa's presiding over this one."
Mickey's confidence was noticeably deflating. "Gosh, that's never good."
"Don't try to fix this today. Just focus on damage control."
"Have we had any luck contactin' anybody on the inside?"
Minnie shook her head. "I got confirmation that the firebird wore itself out. Jasmine and the others made it to the ocean. So if anyone asks, and they will, that's officially the latest update."
"So everyone's okay then?"
It may have been the closest Minnie Mouse had ever gotten to deliberately lying. She really hadn't wanted to burden Mickey with worse news than the bad news he was already going to have to present, but the long pause she took made the word 'yes' impossible. "We can't find Tarzan."
Mickey's mouth fell open. "Oh no."
Minnie attempted a recovery. "We don't know for sure."
"Not knowin' for sure is the same as hope."
The loud swing of the boardroom door interrupted the conversation. Minnie gave Mickey a quick kiss on the cheek for luck. Mickey inhaled slowly, and motioned to Oswald. And the session began.
The first round of questions was a blur to Oswald. The board was made up of nearly a dozen human faces including Madame Medusa, Mulan, and someone who looked like he was from the Don Bluth era; the rest he didn't recognize. Jiminy Cricket had thanked them both for coming in, and with the exception of the phrase 'that rabbit' now and again, it was about the last words that Oswald registered. There were a lot of heated screeches coming from Madame Medusa's voice, followed by an occasional return volley from Mickey. But Oswald's mind was on the disaster that was his creation.
Despite how careful Minnie was to murmur, Oswald had heard everything she said. And one of the volunteers trapped inside was unaccounted for. Probably dead. Most definitely dead. Alice and Meg had heard the banshee's wail.
Oswald went over all of the time he had spent on programming the simulation. Nobody was even supposed to be able to die in his world. But maybe he hadn't been thorough enough. Maybe he was using elements he didn't fully understand. He'd always assumed cartoon characters didn't die, unless they were forgotten for long enough.
His ears perked up when he realized the floor was his. Jiminy had said something to him, and Oswald frantically looked to Mickey for help.
"It's okay," Mickey smiled. "Just answer the questions as they're asked."
"What did he say?" Oswald inadvertently whispered straight into his microphone.
Madame Medusa's voice resonated through the entire boardroom. "He said state your name!"
"Thank you, Madame. I've got this." Jiminy took a second to reassert his control of the session. "For the record, please state your name."
"Oswald," said the rabbit, sounding a few levels meeker than his previous whisper.
"And how long have you been part of the Disney family?"
"Since February 2006-"
Mickey jumped into the testimony. "He's been with us since 1927." The stenographer looked to Jiminy for clarification and the cricket indicated Mickey's answer to be the accepted one.
"And how many other families have you been a part of?" asked Madame Medusa.
"Gosh," said Mickey, "Oswald's always been one of us-"
"Let him answer!" Madame Medusa commanded.
Oswald cleared his throat. "I've been with George Winkler and Universal. Then Walter Lantz."
"And then you were in storage for quite awhile." Oswald couldn't tell if she meant it as a statement or a question, but she continued before he could answer. "And now this simulated world is of your design. Tell the board. Do you have trouble concentrating?"
Mickey raised his hand to object but Jiminy was already ahead of him. "Madame, I think we're going to need an explanation for the question before it goes on record."
"Gladly," Madame Medusa smirked. "I'm proposing that the rodent may have his allegiances torn."
"I'm not a rodent!" Oswald blurted out, sending an audible reaction through the assembly. Jiminy had to regain order while Oswald glumly refused to make eye-contact with Mickey.
"Okay, let me remind the board," Jiminy told the all-human members seated behind him, "that species is irrelevant to job competency."
Madame Medusa was clearly enjoying this moment in the spotlight. "Anyone who works at competing studios may very well have grey loyalties. And the 'rabbit' has already shown a lack of focus just being able to tell the board his name."
Oswald leaned into his microphone. "May I respond?" Jiminy gave him the okay. "I have trouble concentrating because I haven't been sleeping. This project was supposed to be something special. Yes, I've made a terrible mistake by sticking my neck out before I was ready. And whatever's happened- whatever continues to happen- it's because of me. I take full responsibility for it all. But it's because of carelessness, not because of torn allegiances."
His words left him for a few seconds, and Mickey patted him on the shoulder. Oswald lost himself in images of that firebird that he was positive he'd never included in the simulation. And Jiminy was kind enough to let the silence run as long as it needed to.
"Please," Oswald said at last, "fix this before anyone else gets hurt."
Mickey found himself back in the hallway doing his best to comfort Oswald. "It went a lot better than it feels," said the mouse.
The board was taking a recess and neither one of them was needed for the reconvention; in the interest of mental preservation they casually tried making a beeline for the door without having to speak with anyone else.
"I didn't mean anything about not being a rodent," said Oswald.
Mickey shrugged. "Aw shucks, I wasn't bothered."
"It's just, rabbits aren't part of the rodentia order. We're lagomorphs. Like pikas. I guess I just panicked in there and reached for something I knew."
Mickey gave him a warm grin, unaware of Mulan chasing after the pair of them. "Wow! Ya learn somethin' new every day!"
"Hey guys," Mulan called.
"Not now, okay?" Oswald said, glancing back at her but refusing to stop until Mickey did.
"Aw, not to worry, Oz. Mulan's on our side. She's got our backs."
"Well she was awfully quiet in there."
Mulan had caught up to them, giving Oswald an empathetic grimace. "Battle strategy involves knowing how and when not to fight."
"How's it lookin' in there?" Mickey asked.
"They're going to officially pull Oswald off the project."
"Gosh, can you stop them?"
Mulan shook her head. "It's better in the long run to go along with the decision without calling for a vote."
"Better for who?" demanded Oswald.
"For you," she said. "We can't not take an action. Let it feel like enough of a resolution and I can steer towards the issue of nine stranded Disney characters."
"But without Oswald," said Mickey, "how can we hope to get everyone out safely?"
"I don't know, just keep at it."
Oswald huffed. "That figures."
Mulan knelt down to where she was closer to Mickey's level. "Would it be okay if we," she indicated Oswald, "had a moment alone?"
"Sure thing! Take all the time ya need!" Mickey smiled at Oswald and scurried to the door.
"I've got an idea," Mulan told Oswald once Mickey was gone, "but I need you to trust me."
Oswald eyed her up and down, weighing his options. It didn't take long for him to accept that he didn't have any. "Okay."
"What hardware did you use?"
"What hardware?"
"When you created the world," Mulan clarified. "You had to have gone through some sort of processing."
Oswald thought. "I used paper designs. Built some models."
"And then what?"
"And then I looked through the backlog of Disney films."
Mulan realized her line of questioning wasn't getting her anywhere. "Did you outsource it?"
Oswald gave her a blank stare. "I don't know what that is."
"At any point did you use a machine that wasn't owned by the company?"
"No, I didn't think I'd need to. Why?"
Mulan flipped through the mess of pages pertaining to Oswald's project. She showed him one of the digitizing laser that had been used in Tron. "Do you know what this is?"
"Yeah, that's the thing that transports everyone to and from the island."
Mulan continued fumbling through the disorganized files in the binder. "So the island is a computer program."
Oswald shrugged. "I suppose. I don't really-"
She set another image in front of him, this time an oddly shaped metal box with a few coiled appendages protruding from it. "Do you know what this is?"
"No. What is it?"
"It's an adaptor. You've been using old technology in a modern studio. This adaptor allows the laser to communicate with your virtual world. And it's missing."
Oswald just looked at her obliviously. "So...why is it missing?"
"I don't know. But it's why you can't contact anyone on the inside."
"So we need another one?"
"It's thirty year old technology. I don't think we're going to have spares anywhere."
Oswald hopped onto the same bench he'd been on before his testimony and slumped down again. "Great," he grumbled. "Terrific."
Mulan was about to sit down next to him but she was interrupted by the summons from one of the other board members. Recess was over.
"Oswald, listen to me. Stay on property. But make yourself scarce."
"And how am I supposed to do that?"
"Head over to the commissary and wait." Oswald hadn't seen Mulan smile until this moment, and he wasn't sure how to take her knowing wink. "I'll send help. I know a dragon."
Oswald rolled his eyes. What did she think Mushu was going to do? "He's your guardian, not mine," the rabbit chided her.
Mulan glanced over her shoulder without stopping. "I wasn't talking about him..."
Continue to Chapter Fourteen.
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