Chapter Text
Sounds of knocking can be heard from the door. Shrimpo ignored it, thinking it was Finn or Goob, who (in his opinion,) were always trying to disturb his privacy and his will to be alone. He continued to use the computer, when suddenly...
*BANG BANG BANG*
The sound of the knocks were louder than before, making him jump from his wooden chair. "HEY! OPEN THE DAMN DOOR, DUMBASS!", someone shouted outside, sounding a bit angry that the door wasn't unlocked the first time they knocked. The person was NOT Finn nor Goob, he thought, so he knew he had to open the door.
He took a couple steps to the door and unlocked it. He swung the door inwards to see... Vee? (I mean as the reader you'd probably expect this but for him, absolutely not.) "what?", he said, pretty much confused as to why SHE, of all people, was behind the door, banging like a lunatic.
"Good, thought we were wasting food giving it to a rotten piece of.. seafood dish.", said Vee, probably trying to mock him but couldn't find a good one.
"Wuh-WHAT DO YOU WANT!? AND WHY DO I FEEL THIS SINISTER AURA COMING FROM YOU.", Shrimpo exclaimed, trying to act like his pre-isolation attitude (and failing it badly considering its been a couple of years of him not screaming nor talking to anyone).
"Oh, cut the crap, I know you don't act like your show counterpart anymore. I have cameras everywhere, okay? I see everything you do outside of your room, even the secret unused pool you go for sw-", Vee explained before getting her mouth (on her TV screen) getting covered by his hands. "SHH SHHHHHH, i don't want anyone to know about that place, bitch!", he whispered to her, angrily.
"You know that's useless to me, right?", Vee added. "FINE FINE FINE, ughhh... come in I guess.", Shrimpo pulled back his hands and went to the side of the door to let her in. She entered the room, pulling out a cloth and a spray bottle as he closed the door behind her.
"Eww, this place, is VERY disgusting.", she noted, spraying some water on the cloth before wiping her screen (because you could never know how disgusting a disgusting person could get if they haven't interacted with anyone for more than a year). "This room looks like what a 10-year ongoing investigation room would look like, but if it was a bedroom lived by a stupid shrimp HAHAHAHAHA-", she laughed as she sat on his bed (that she made sure was clean enough to sit), in front of him, proudly.
"Why are you even here other than to mock me and my room?", he questioned the green TV head. "If you had cameras everywhere then you would know I haven't talked to anybody at all for the past 2 years.", he added.
"Actually, it has been 1 year 10 months 23 days 13 hours 25 minutes and.... 6 seconds before you said 'what?' to, guess who? Me.", Vee answered him, making him more confused than he was before.
"Wow, okay, cree- wait, WHY WOULD YOU KNOW THAT?!??", Shrimpo, finally realising what she said, pushed further with questions.
"You know, looking at the same runs everyday gets boring overtime. Sure, toons and floors change for every run with sometimes holiday events or new things happened from time to time, but in the end, all I'm seeing is Toons wasting their times doing something that in the end would just get refreshed back to zero. Like Sisyphus.", Vee explained.
"Who?", Shrimpo asked. Vee slowly facepalmed her screen (to avoid breaking it). "Anyways, I'm the data handler Toon, and when I notice one of the Toons goes missing, of course I'm going to use my cameras to look for them. I thought you were just dead or something, but instead, I saw you trying to do new things.", she continued. "Although you were repeating the same 'swim, eat, room' routine, I couldn't help but noticed that you would try doing something else." Shrimpo suddenly got worried with where this is going.
"So, hearing about that Boxten guy giving you his PC, I decided to look into the Internet provider's history...", she told him, with a smirk. "oh, god fucking damn it-", said Shrimpo, covering his face with embarrassment. "I'm surprised, for someone who is stuck in their room almost 24/7, it's certainly not a lot... Meh, it's okay, your secret is 100% safe with me, you dirty little freak.", she added, teasing his embarrassment.
"FINE FINE FINE, I THINK I'VE HEARD ENOUGH, WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THIS, BITCH?", he exclaimed, trying to make this conversation end as soon as possible after her previous statement.
"Woah, chill. I'm just messing with you. Alright..", Vee stated before continuing. "I'm guessing, sorry, I KNOW you've acknowledged about the Ichor Operation show that we kept secret from you. The show's performance is slowly declining for each new episode and our founders.. well Delilah, would slowly start to cut supplies 'till there isn't any left."
"Well, that's a bitchy move, but then again, the money does come from the show..", he said, while shrugging. "So, what's this have to do with me again?"
"There have been a huge amount of comments related to you, and all of them are about how they MISS the stupid shrimp. No matter if they hate you or not.", Vee explained. "So, I have been planning this for a while now, looking for just the right opportunity. It's of course a game show, but only YOU are the contestant here."
"Continue..", Shrimpo asked, seemingly interested. "It's pretty simple. All you need is to complete a series of challenges... in the form of battling every toon in their specialty. Beat one, move over to the next. Lose once, and you'll get punished."
"H-HEY THAT'S NOT FAIR, YOU SAID IT YOURSELF, THEIR SPECIALTIES. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BEAT THOSE?!?", he exclaimed. "You get a week of training with the best materials.", Vee answered.
"So, would you accept this proposal? You get to learn new things to do, I finally get to do a gameshow after so long. And the both of us could save Gardenview from starving. Think about it. And as an extra, I'll help make sure you can enjoy your isolated life peacefully after the show..", she replied, she got off the edge of his bed.
"Deal?", she asked, extending her hand for a simple handshake while giving her signature smile. Shrimpo hesitated for a second, before finally having an answer.
"I guess I've got nothing else to do..", he told her as he shook her hand.