"We never got a spin-off show," Mbix tells Plorgles while pulling weeds. The sun's low in the sky, it's late and warm winds roll in off the lake. "That was the end of Hero of Mysticity."

"I saw finale on day it aired," Plorgles says, sitting in a hover chair he dragged from his house. "Warlord's death in prison made me cry. Even though I never liked Warlord."

Mbix smiles at this. "I played a pretty good villain, yeah?"

"How you and Ekso kept secret for..." Plorgles shakes his head.

"Oh it was easy. We didn't talk to anyone except people in the show biz. See? I meet you and it comes out after just a couple weeks."

Plorgles sighs. "A few decades ago, I have fallen at your knees and cry. Hero of Mysticity was too big thing in my life...entertainment, community of fans, make me forget loneliness..."

Mbix snorts, pausing to stretch their back. "That's why we didn't talk. No offense to all the show meant for you. But we needed a home away from all that. Didn't need fans crowding our doorstep."

Plorgles straightens up in his seat. "Do you keep props? Warlord of Terror's mask? Or cape? Or any things?"

Mbix shakes their head, digging gloves back into the weeded dirt. "We used to have Rider's sword in our bedroom. It was a big styrofoam shiny thing that couldn't even chop paper. I got rid of it after Ekso's funeral though. Too much to look at."

Plorgles deflates a little and they both fall quiet, with Mbix pulling weeds, Plorgles huddling against the creeping evening chill. "So when did you quit working at your lumber company?" Mbix asks.

"When I got old."

"Haha."

"I mean it. Cutting trees is hard, even on machine. When it was too hard, I quit."

"Yeah, makes sense. I'm just laughing because you said the same thing about gardening."

Plorgles pulls his coat tighter. It's a bright green one, today. Mbix isn't wearing one, because pulling weeds makes them sweat and the chill feels nice.

"You do more shows?" he asks. "Not Hero of Mysticity?"

Mbix shrugs.

"So...yes?"

"I mean, I technically played a background actor in an episode of a show before I landed Warlord of Terror. I'm not telling you what show though, I hated the episode."

Plorgles laughs. "Any things after Warlord?"

Mbix shakes their head. "Ekso kept hoping for a spin-off and didn't want to sign up for anything that might get in the way of that. Even when no news of a spin-off became stale news became not a chance.

"And I auditioned for a few things, but I guess my heart wasn't really in it. I know plenty of actors who get tired of playing the same role for years on end and are eager to move onto new things, but the two of us...even though we were on that show for over a decade--for all the months of filming and the breaks for writing the next season and the read-throughs and dress rehearsals--we never grew tired of it. Those characters became parts of us.

"I'm not saying it was really hard for us to let them go, per se; the show gave them good endings...or maybe it was hard for Ekso, I know she thought Rider had more to give outside the context of the city. But for myself--obviously Warlord of Terror's story ended when he blew himself up in the prison. So I think I laid him to rest. But afterward, I suppose it just felt...wrong to give myself to another character. Or like, I knew every character I played would have some piece of Warlord in them, and I didn't want to taint those characters.

"So to answer your question, neither of us did shows after Hero of Mysticity." They smile a bit. "I think I'm proud of us for Mysticity though. Like, we did that together. And we didn't even have to show up for press tours because the series was that big from the very beginning. It's just, wild it happened to us." Mbix pauses, glancing at their heap of dead weeds. "Sorry, I'm talking about myself so much. Haha, all those press tours I never did, I guess."

Plorgles waves a hand. "Nice, having someone else to talk. This...I like this."

Mbix wipes their nose. "Did you know, I haven't even seen most of the episodes of the show?"

Plorgles' mouth falls open. "What?"

"Yeah. It's too weird seeing all the green screens and stuff taken out."

"What? You must watch."

"No, I don't--"

"Tomorrow. In my house."

Mbix's lip twitches. "Fine."