Chapter Text
“You must pay for what you take away,” was a very firm belief Topaz always had. This personal philosophy was especially prevalent In her field of work - Topaz would collect large fees of taxes, and It doesn't matter how much the people would plead and beg and try to reason with her, she would stand by her philosophy.
You must pay for what you take away.
Regarding her work, she had been dispatched to the planet of festivities - Penacony. Luckily for her though, she had been given the freedom to have a mini vacation to herself during her time here; a paid leave, technically.
She had heard from online articles that the slots that could be played in the infamous dream were quite pleasurable, so her eyes were set on just that.
Upon checking Into her room and making her way into the dream, she was swept away Into a land of wonder with Its bustling streets. Since she was an IPC worker, she had also been given a privilege of bringing her closest companion - her trotter - Numby, into the dream scape.
Topaz shortly made her way to the illuminating slot machines that had garnered a large crowd of civilians, a majority of them intoxicated off SoulGlad - one of the heavily drunk party goers was a man named Dancy (Despite being named Dennis), running the Aideen token shop. Topaz reluctantly approached the heavily spewing man.
“Hello, Dancy was it?” Topaz chirped, trying to keep herself from looking at the pile of rainbow puke formed under him, she could hear the man incoherently mumble about downing 40 bottles of SoulGlad, before he burped to clear his throat.
“Do you want to join the party, my friend?” His words bubbled up, not even being able to muster eye contact with how ill he was.
“Um, no thanks, I’m after some Aideen tokens. I presume you have them..?”
“Hic– Y-yeah! Take 10, from now on, we are ride or die party partners!”
Topaz chuckled in response while snatching up the coins, exchanging her money for them, knowing Numby was always her ride or die partner, but she was willing to entertain this drunken man.
Topaz made her way to the slots, fidgeting with the coins as she rubbed her fingers along the grooves. She knew her pet pal, Numby, wouldn't be overly interested in standing by while drunk morons stumbled around - It was technically Numby’s vacation too, so she let the bugger scurry off, knowing she’d easily be able to find the cheeky little thing whenever with how bonded they were.
She watched Numby scuttle off with Its stubby legs, before turning to the machines.
The critics online were right, as she did get sucked right into the thrill of testing one’s luck. She hadn't realised this until she check her phone to find It was now midnight. Wanting to have a good night's rest after all this fun, she began to look for Numby to call It a day.
However, she couldn't find the trotter, at all.
She was trying to reassure herself and remain composed, like she would do during work hours, but every passing moment without her ride or die partner she could feel herself getting more and more anxious, considering she wasn't fully sober after having a few cheeky glasses of SoulGlad. She was starting to regret this though, as her heartbeat kept on heightening the longer she went without Numby being able to be found.
She rushed over to a workers kiosk nearby, her voice noticeably shaky and watery.
“H-Have youu seen- Hic- my tr-trotter?? Numbbyyy??”, the nice worker kept their composure, “Is that your Trotter over there?”
Topaz turned to where the attendant pointed, and began sprinting towards the black, white and gold blob she could hardly make-out with how blurred her vision became amongst the tears.
She collapsed to her knees and began sobbing out of joy, picking up the trotter and snuggling It - before hearing a thick squelch sound. She looked down at Numby, and realised she was squeezing a limp corpse.
Her body froze up, eyes widening as she wasn't sure whether to begin sobbing harder into the trotter's body or to drop it due to sheer shock. She saw the damage that had been done, Its tusks chipped and shattered, Its head bashed inwards, blood was oozing out the more she was holding the limp body in terror - before dropping It, hearing a loud thud emit from Numbys body.
“W-Which one of you did this.. Hic-WwWHICH ONE OF YOU!!?!?” Topaz’s voice was quaky among the tears, but that didn't mean the onlookers couldn't hear the sheer rage In her voice, as they all pointed towards Dancy.
She didn’t care If this was a false accusation or not, she needed someone to take this unbridled rage out on.
She stormed towards Dancy, fists clenching as she swung at his face - laying a pretty heavy hit, strong enough to snap him out of his hazy vomiting, “Hhheyy what gives!? I'm Dancy!..”
Topaz only became more tormented by his response, “DID YOU DO THIS!??!” she screamed out while pointing to Numbys corpse sitting In a puddle of Its own blood.
“YyyYeah! I'm Dancy, Golden Hour’s most legendary party goer, I party hard y'know!”
The last thing Dennis could feel was an even harder hit across the face, hard enough for him to topple over unconscious.
His vision was blurry as he slowly returned to his senses, but he was understimulated In comparison to the bright and bustling party life of Golden Hour, here It was dead silent, with a dim bulb hung above him emitting a faint amount of light. With the minimal vision he had due to the light source, he could see a woman standing before him In a snazzy outfit. He wanted to compliment It, or ask the woman If he could maybe even try It on - but he was far too hungover to speak, or to even move his left leg, which was something never to have happened before; but he couldn’t pay any mind to It, as he was already slipping out of consciousness.
Dennis had no idea how long It had been between when he was awake before and awake now, but he now had his footing on reality. He began investigating his surroundings, trying to wriggle around to find that he was tied down to a rather stiff wooden chair, before noticing a lack of his foot touching the ground - looking down to see his left leg not attached to his body.
Dennis began screaming loudly, horrified, as he squirmed desperately, watching as the nub for a leg he now had failed around.
“AGHHHAAGHJA!!! WHAT THE FUCK!?? WHAT.. WHAT.. WHAT..” He was still struggling to fathom his new leg, or lack thereof. While wailing loudly, It was enough to capture the attention of the snazzily dressed woman he saw earlier, before realising - this Is the same woman who sucker punched him.
“Y-YOU! FUCKING PSYCHOPATH! WHAT THE FUCK, WHY DID YOU CUT OFF MY LEG!? WHERE THE FUCK IS IT!??”
She responded with an unnervingly calm tone, “I’m collecting material for my new project”
“PROJECT?? YOU IPC BITCH, MY FUCKING LEG ISNT A PROPERTY TO BE TAKEN! FUCKING PSYCHOPATH! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!!???”
“I have a philosophy.”
Topaz paused for a moment.
“You must pay for what you take away.”