Chapter Text
It seemed like there was always something to do now. Shrimpo was starting to think prison might have been better.
Even today Rodger had sent him and Glisten out again to go investigate the nearby circus, for whatever reason. Shrimpo hated his stupid conspiracy theories. And Glisten was upset about it too- he’d been busy with his job and now was complaining the whole walk. Shrimpo was complaining too, about the stupid chilly air and the fact that it was so sunny before but now it’ll probably snow and Glisten was being loud and annoying. That comment sparked an argument.
“I hate your whining! It’s annoying! And you interrupted me while I was talking about more important stuff!”
“I never complain- and certainly am not whining- and you’re always upset over something or other! I think it’s perfectly fair for me to be allowed some frustration. Shrimpo, I’m not-“
“Shut up, it’s always about you! Just because you’re so perfect doesn’t mean you can be so entitled,” Shrimpo cut in angrily.
“I’m not entitled,” Glisten snapped back.
“Yes you are. I hate arguments!”
Well, that ended that.
They got to the circus and Glisten stopped a moment to fix himself up and look normal before sweeping past Shrimpo to enter the tent first. Shrimpo stomped in after him, glaring around.
The inside was surprisingly open, though the tent itself was rather small. Though to be fair, there were only three members of the circus. So Shrimpo wasn’t expecting to have one immediately in his face.
Well, more like Glisten’s face- Yatta had popped up out of nowhere and was immediately bombarding him.
“OH MY GOSH! HI Glisten! HI HI HI I LOVE your music!!” she practically yelled, though Glisten took it in stride.
“Oh, you do? Wonderful! I always love meeting fans,” he said calmly, spreading his arms a bit when he spoke.
“YES! That’s GREAT!” she cheered, more to herself than anything, though she was seemingly incapable of being quiet.
That yelling had attracted the other two- Looey came poking around first, smiling nervously in Glisten’s presence though it went tight upon spotting Shrimpo. Then Blot came, though they just stood there watching the rest.
“Hey! Hey Glisten! Sing me a song PLEASEEE!!” Shrimpo’s thoughts were interrupted by Yatta again, and he found himself tempted to snap at her.
Glisten looked a bit caught off guard. “Er- any song?”
“ANY song! I just want to hear you SING!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!”
“Right… okay, ah-“ he paused, whispering to Shrimpo. “What do I sing?”
“I don’t know, that stupid pop song you like?”
“I am not singing ‘Joyride’ in front of some random fan I just met.”
“I meant the other one!”
“…’Hot To Go’?”
“No- oh my god, Glisten, sing that uh- that party song or whatever!”
He seemed to finally get it, turning back to Yatta. “Right! Sing a song, then…” He hesitated again, starting off slightly awkwardly.
“…I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drum.. oh, what a shame that you came here with someone…”
Glisten was pacing a bit, though trying to make it look purposeful. He clearly wasn’t used to singing off stage. But his voice was growing a bit stronger- especially as he got to the first verse, he’d stopped pacing and started actually preforming.
“Young hearts, out of minds, run until we outta time! Wild childs, lookin’ good, livin’ hard and like we should…”
Shrimpo was taking the opportunity to sneak off while the trio was distracted. Rodger said there was something suspicious going on here, and Shrimpo fully intended to find out what it was even if he doubted its existence. After all, he basically owed Rodger his life.
He found himself at the other side of the tent, where there was another exit, and left throught that. The first thing he was faced with was a warehouse, and that seemed pretty important, so he ignored everything else and walked over to it, poking around until he found the door. But when he went for the handle, a hand closed on the back of his shirt and yanked him away.
”?gniod er’uoy kniht uoy od tahW”
Shrimpo threw a hand back and smacked something slippery. He heard a hiss from behind him just before he was tossed aside, skidding on the ground until he managed to dig in his claws and stop himself. Blot had been the one who’d grabbed him, and was furiously rubbing where Shrimpo had hit them.
“Hey, what’s the big idea!?” he snapped.
“,ereh tuo eb t’ndluohs uoY” they replied evenly, going to stand over Shrimpo and stop him from getting up by sending a blob of ink onto his arm.
“What?? Speak normally, freak-“ he paused, catching himself reluctantly. He didn’t want to, but his boyfriends had insisted that he work on being nicer. “…I meant to say I can’t understand you.”
“,ti htiw laed os ti pleh t’nac I ,wonk I ,seY” Blot said with a small eye roll, sending another blob of ink to trap Shrimpo’s other arm.
Shrimpo tugged against it fruitlessly. “Hey, let me go! You’re just making yourself look more suspicious!”
“,lagelli gnihtyna gniod yllacinhcet ton m’I ,revetahW” they muttered, before adding with a chirp, “.retal skcatbmuht emos htiw revo yeooL dnes ll'I”
That sounded ominous from just the tone, but what was even more ominous was the fact that they turned around and just left after that. He did not want to be alone out here. It was too cold. Especially without Glisten near- now he was both cold and alone, at least the walk had only been cold.
“Hey! Come back here! You can’t just leave me, you jerk!” he shouted angrily. “You can’t- come back! Hey! Hey! Don’t leave me! I hate being left!”
They were already gone back into the tent. He was left snapping uselessly at the ink around his wrists, though he wasn’t flexible enough to reach. Honestly he had no idea why this ink was so solid- it wasn’t stiff, but he could barely move his arms.
He wasn’t… scared. He wasn’t. Just upset that he wouldn’t be freed anytime soon because Glisten was busy, and no movement from his ankle monitor wouldn’t be suspicious for a while, so Rodger wouldn’t come to check…
But someone else could, he realised. He focused for a moment before whistling, loud and clear. “Pebble! Come!”
There was no response, and he was worried maybe the rock wasn’t nearby, until then something came running out of the bushes and hopped up onto his chest, licking his face incessantly.
“Gah- Pebble, Pebble, quit it!” Shrimpo huffed, turning his head away. He tried to move his arms again. “Hey, Pebble, uhhh… fetch!”
Pebble went over to his hand and latched on, tugging but failing. He let out a little growl, starting to work at the ink instead. Thankfully, he was pretty strong, and managed to tear the ink away. Shrimpo reached up to scratch behind Pebble’s ears. “Good boy, Peb.”
Pebble barked happily at him, and Shrimpo went to pull the ink off his other arm. Once he was free, he picked Pebble up, walking around to the front of the circus tent and waiting. Though Glisten didn’t come out for a while, and when he did he looked rather flustered and practically had to pry himself away from Yatta.
Shrimpo swore he saw Blot staring at him from inside the tent.
“Hey, Glisten, let’s get going,” he said quickly, turning and starting to walk. Glisten waved goodbye one last time before following.
“So, what did you find? I better not have done all of that for nothing,” Glisten huffed.
Shrimpo hesitated, his antenna tilting back slightly. “…I didn’t find anything. But we’re coming back.”
“You found nothing?? Then we’re going back right now!” He turned on his heel, starting back towards the tent, but Shrimpo grabbed his arm.
“No!” he yelped, before quickly clearing his throat and letting go of Glisten, adjusting his grip on Pebble to cover it up. “I mean… we’ll go back tomorrow. I want to talk to Rodger. And I hate those guys.”
“…tch, fine. Come on,” Glisten said, starting to walk again. Shrimpo sped up a bit to catch up, wanting to be far away from the tent as fast as possible. And, for the second time that day, he didn’t complain as they walked.
However, they didn’t go back to the office- instead Glisten had lead them to a familiar street. Shrimpo stopped immediately when he recognised Teagan’s house.
“No way! I’m not invited,” he protested loudly, even though Glisten had grabbed his hand and was pulling him along.
“She never said you were banned, it’ll be perfectly fine,” Glisten sighed, glancing back at him with a vaguely disappointed but also rather smug expression. “Besides, it’ll be good for you!”
Shrimpo dug his heels in stubbornly at first, but it quickly became clear that Glisten was not going to give this up, so he eventually relented and allowed himself to be pulled along to Teagan’s house. When they arrived, Glisten opened the door with his usual flourish and stepped inside.
“Teagan, darling, we’re here!” he called out. Teagan soon popped their head out of the dining room, then their whole body.
“Ah, Glisten! And… Shrimpo. Come in!” She waited for them to approach before going back into the dining room, the pair following her.
Shrimpo didn’t quite recognise most that were there. Some were also from Dandy’s World, but the only three he really recognised were Finn, Rodger- wait, they were out risking their necks and he was at a tea party!?
He resisted the urge to yell at Rodger and instead looked for anyone else he recognised, and that was when he spotted Astro.
Astro looked very tired and like he’d rather be anyone else, but he locked eyes with Shrimpo and immediately became very interested in his tea. Shrimpo continued to glare at him, though; at least until Glisten pulled him away to go sit with Rodger.
He did try to pay attention to the conversation around him, but ended up tuning out after a bit. Though he also tried to at least think about something productive, but he ended up just thinking hate hate hate hate hate like usual. Because he did. He hated Astro, he hated tea parties, he hated Blot, he hated this whole situation, he hated Dandy, he hated being here Gardenview was so much easier he wanted to be back there why did this have to happen why why why why-
“Shrimpo, are you even listening?”
He looked up, spotting Teagan standing in front of him. “Huh?”
“I asked if you’d like tea-“
“I hate tea!” he interrupted abruptly, a swell of unreasonable anger quickly rising in his chest.
“Would you… like something else?” she asked carefully.
Shrimpo was quiet, thinking. He did kind of want water- and, seeing as Finn was here, Teagan likely would allow it. He glanced over to Finn, who gave him a thumbs-up, before looking back up at Teagan. “Uh… water.”
They nodded and just went to go get him some water in a teacup instead, leaving him there to pretend like he was actually supposed to be somewhere like this. He felt… out of place. Too volatile to be somewhere so calm and formal. This wasn’t helping him at all, Glisten was just an idiot.
His wrists stung uncomfortably- they were still slightly stained from the ink. Probably not a good thing.
He abruptly got up and walked off, leaving the dining room though not the house. Instead he sat down near the door, unwrapping the hand wraps he always wore and re-wrapping them to try and hide the stains.
“Shrimpo?”
He nearly threw the bundle of cloth right at her. “Ah!- Teagan, don’t sneak up on me! I hate being startled!”
“I’m sorry, Shrimpo, I simply noticed you’d left the others,” she said, walking over and sitting down next to him. Their eyes soon found the stains on his arms. “Is that ink?”
“Yeah, what of it?” he snapped.
“Where did it come from?” Teagan asked knowingly.
“…nunya,” he muttered.
She didn’t even bogher to ask for elaboration, instead reaching out and taking one of his wrists gently. He resisted the urge to pull back, instead narrowing his eyes at them as they examined the stains. “What are you doing?”
“Come with me,” she said simply, standing up and pulling him along. They led him to the bathroom, where they turned on the sink. She went over to the cabinet, looking through it. “I have special cleaner, it’s designed for removing ink since Blot used to leave it everywhere at my parties.”
They came back with the soap, starting to scrub the stains off of Shrimpo’s wrists. He tried his best to stay still- it was difficult, because he wanted to tell her that he could deal with it on his own, but he cooperated. They finished scrubbing, and handed him a small, fancy white towel, which he probably did not deserve but accepted anyway and used to dry his hands off.
“Do you want to return now?” she asked, watching him hold the hand towel.
“No. Tell Glisten I’m going home.”