Chapter Text
Gardenview. The Great Educational Centre and Museum. Building the size of a mammoth, forced to shut its doors on June 29th of 2002. It was hard for the toons to adjust to visitors not constantly walking in and out the lobby or their handlers not greeting them in the morning. It was even more difficult to get used to the sight of ichor-covered monster clones of themselves constantly roaming the lower floors like braindead zombies, it was "like living in a constant apocalyptic setting of an episode" in Boxten's words.
But, they made their current situation work and even made it a daily part of their days! Every morning, toons would go down into the lower floors and extract machines to try and contain the ichor threatening to leak out of the exposed pipes around the place, even bringing back useful items that the overall group would definitely need in the future. The only toon that differed from the routine was Dandy.
Dandicus Dancifer.
No one really knew where he stood in their current situation, and some toons suspect he's the reason they're all in this whole mess in the first place. Dandy was their "shopkeeper" per se. He always appears when toons go for a run, selling them items in exchange for the tapes scattered around the floors. No one knew why he wanted them, but they were glad to give them to him in exchange for stuff like chocolates or bandaids. Truly, Dandy was mysterious. No one even knew how he had so many items in the first place!
This balance in runs helped shape the rest of the toon's new day-to-day in Gardenview, that is, until today.
BOOM! Crackle...POP!
"You're kidding..."
"Seriously?!"
"What...just happened?"
"I HATE BLACKOUTS!!"
Almost everyone was in the lobby preparing for runs and separating tasks when the whole place went dark, Everyone except for Brightney, who radiated the area she was currently in. "I thought blackouts were only supposed to happen on the lower floors?" Sprout said, confused as he stood close to Cosmo who whipped his head around in confusion along with the other toons. "I thought so too...Is the faulty lighting starting to spread to the upper floors now?" Vee responded, concern in her tone as she instinctively went to Brightney for some light. "Is this place finally collapsing?" Boxten whimpered, clinging onto the lamps arm as he tried to stay in her light. "Are...you guys gonna do this every time the power goes out?" Brightney wondered as more toons crowded and clung onto her like koalas on a tree. Toons yelled, screamed, theorized, some even cried, because of the unfamiliar darkness in the lobby.
"GUUYYYSSS!!" An ammonite yelled over the crowding voices, which somehow got everyone to shut up, which left the fossil a little surprised.
"We could always ask Dandy," Shelly proposed, "He always knows what's up with Gardenview whenever something is wrong!" Shelly continued, a little happy toons were finally interested in what she had to say. "Y'know, that's not actually a bad idea. Dandy's always out and about, he probably fried the power box out in the maintenance room!" Sprout replied.
"Unfortunately, I wish that were the case!"
A sudden light spoke as it flashed the group with its luminance. Adjusting their eyes to the light and a bit of screaming later thinking it was a twisted, they realized the one emitting that light was none other than Dandy, Dandicus Dancifer, pointing at them a flashlight as he held several more around his other arm. "I know you all aren't used to my presence not behind the shop so I'm gonna keep this short! Gardenview's power has been shut down!" Dandy announced, receiving gasps from every toon in the room, even Flutter, who managed to let a little "mm!" out.
"Yes, yes, quite the shock, I know! It even shocked me when I was restocking my wares! But, after a little bit of research, It seems a little error from the outside world ended up having us disconnected from the power grid! It is no biggie though, we all simply must work our magic to get the big-wigs to acknowledge our power was shut down! Considering, you know...Now! I have flashlights for all of you to use around the centre," he dropped the group of flashlights he was carrying and waited as the toons picked them up and played with them a bit to continue his sentence. "Use them sparingly!~ After all, they have a battery power of 48 hours, that's approximately 2 days before their batteries need to be replaced! Hmm? Yes, Glisten?"
"Yeah, uh," Glisten signalled to the elevators with his flashlight. "these flashlights are cute and all, but how exactly will we, you know...travel up and down? The elevators were our only source of transportation and with the power out they won't operate." Dandy, hearing that, simply tapped his fingers against each other. "Ah Glisten, that's easy! we'll simply have you toons go through the staff rooms!"
"The...staff rooms?" Tisha echoed. "The staff rooms! Did you know, the staff rooms have stairs leading to almost every floor? They might be a bit slippery, but as long as you toons work together and be careful, I'm sure nothing bad will happen!" Dandy winked before Glisten chimed in again. "Dandy, that sounds like a great solution but- aren't the staff rooms locked? How can we possibly--" The mirror was then interrupted by a set of keys thrown at him.
"The staff room keys! I had them on my toon for a while now...I trust you toons will only use these keys to get up and down the stairs, No peeking? Rodger."
The toons nodded their heads in agreement with a sad "Yeah...okay..." in the back as the magnifying glass' future endeavours were shut down quickly.
"Okkayy! Seeing as that's taken care of, Mains! Shall we discuss how we can turn the power back on?" Dandy signalled the Main Character toons to follow him. Shelly was about to object to why only the Mains, but Astro shut it down fast and gestured to listen.
All the Main Character toons were taken just outside the lobby, to the front of the now rundown train station with a small independent lantern he conveniently found near the train tracks. "Remember when I said we have to persuade the big-wigs to acknowledge our power was turned off?" Dandy reiterated. "Yeah? What's exactly the plan here?" Vee tilted her head in confusion as she crossed her arms. Pebble barked in a similar confusion. "Well! To do that, we might have to go...outside the property per se." Dandy twiddled his thumbs as he revealed the master plan, which had some of the mains feeling skepticism in silence about how exactly they would pull THAT off.
"Dandy...as good of a plan as that sounds...we're...toons." Astro broke the ice.
"Mhm!" Dandy nodded his head.
"And...Gardenview has been shut down for years now..." Astro continued.
"Uh huh!" Dandy kept nodding his head.
Astro sighed. "So...if we're non-human and they find out we've been technically squatting here for the past few years or so..."
"Huuhh....Astro! I see your point, and I, Dandy, have a solution to that little problem!" Dandy interrupted, keeping a smile. "That...being?" Astro asked, looking at Dandy with doubtful eyes. "Well," Dandy started. "I quite seem to notice how our dear friend, Sprout Seedly-"
"Don't call me that."
"Seedly! Has the most resemblance to a human than all of us! Now- after a bit of digging in the Arts and Crafts section for some tan paint--" Seedly interrupted him a second time. "Wait wait wait! ARE YOU GONNA PAINT ME WHITE??" Sprout shouted in disbelief. "...Well, If you want to be! I suggest a darker tone to really match your eyes-" Dandy continued before being interrupted again by a hysterical berry. "NOT WHAT I MEANT! Dandy this can't possibly work I mean I'm a STRAWBERRY! This stupid plan of yours won't work on ANYONE!" Sprout retaliated. Dandy's eye twitched before looking at Astro who was shaking his head in a disapproving manner. The flower took a deep breath before responding to Sprout's argument. "I see your point! But, look at all of us! We're irregularly shaped! I'm a flower, Astro has a weird mask, Vee is a TV, and Shelly is a seashell! (Ammonite--) Whatever! And Pebble is already out of the question here Sprout...so...I'm afraid that leaves only...you! You're the only one capable of pulling off a human disguise because of your pointy chin and your hair-like leaves!"
"DANDY..." Sprout mumbled.
"Oh, so you're onboard?"
"DANDICUS DANCIFER."
"Even with my 'human' attributes that doesn't change the fact I am still a BERRY. A strawBERRY. Surely some humans in the wild aren't stupid enough to look at me and think 'Wow, what a great-looking human!' This plan is NOT going to work." Sprout snapped, lowering himself to Dandy's level. "I'm sorry Dandy, but I can't agree to this, not only will this humiliate me but it's clear all the odds are against us!" Sprout put his foot down, crossing his arms. Dandy only stood there as he looked at Seedly and he looked back. Unwavering stare. Unblinking stare.
"Dandy...no intense amount of staring will have me agree!..." Sprout shouted. "I...I'm telling you! I'm putting my foot down!"
Shelly watched the two go back and forth, fidgeting with the hem of her dress as she began to look at Astro nervously. "You think Sprout would work looking like a human?" She asked. "Ehh, not...exactly but like Dandy said, he's our best chance to get the power back on in Gardenview, right?" Astro shrugged.
"Well, If you ask me, Sprout has a point. Sure, he's the most normal out of all the toons but his shape isn't enough to fool any human into thinking he might be one of them. Though, in foresight, humans do share 60% of their DNA with strawberries, so..." Vee added, joining the two in their conversation.
"Y'know, Connie could always work! She's basically a human?" Shelly brought up. "With her lack of legs and tendency to phase in and out the walls??" Vee scoffed, making Shelly shirk away a bit in shame. "Okay, guys, It's ultimately up to Dandy, okay? He IS the one that has the keys to move in and out of the place..."
"Oh yeah, because..." Vee grimaced.
"Yeah..." Astro looked away into the darkness as silence fell amongst the three and turned back to look as Sprout tried, and eventually failed, to defy Dandy's demands.