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Glisten has always hated going on runs. Too risky for his liking. And seeing the twisteds makes him… Uneasy. Glisten hates Gardenview, even though all of his friends are here it’s still a shitshow.
The main star, Dandy, isn’t trustworthy in the slightest... He reminds Glisten of a shady shopkeeper of sorts, always smelling of smoke and cheap cologne. How the hell would he even get his hands on cologne here in Gardenview in the first place..?
One morning, Glisten decides to head down to the lower levels of Gardenview with Rodger and Boxten, because what could be the harm in that? But ever since the last trio run ended in almost the whole group never coming back, Dandy’s been forcing them to go with at least a fourth member. And the only other person available… Is Shrimpo.
Boxten’s good at finding machines and both Glisten and Rodger are excellent extractors, so maybe if Shrimpo stays by the elevator, they’ll be fine… The one problem for Glisten himself is his stealth, and the fact that he can never manage to get away from twisteds without using his ability, which always makes him extremely nauseous afterwards.
“Booooxteenn!!” Glisten whines, folding his arms across his chest. “Why is it taking forever to finish these floors? I feel like it's taking longer than it should.”
Boxten only chuckles nervously, looking over at Glisten as he peels the backing off a bandaid. The last floor had been… Tricky, to put it simply: Twisted Scraps and Poppy refused to leave them alone, costing both Rodger and Boxten a heart. Glisten has no clue how he managed to stay undetected, but he’s definitely thankful… Meanwhile, Shrimpo’s still complaining about how much he hates the twisteds (because “SHRIMPO HATES ICHOR.”), and just like always, it pisses Glisten right off.
“Maybe it’s because we were too busy running away to do machines?” Rodger remarks from across the elevator, earning a quick scoff and smile from Glisten. Shifting his gaze over to Shrimpo, who’s busy screeching at Dandy for not selling anything he deems useful, Glisten’s smile turns sour.
“Shrimpo, you do know that yelling at him isnt gonna do anything, correct?” Glisten questions. He has experience with this. Whenever he makes a comment to Dandy, he always manages to bring worse items the next time he comes around…
“I HATE IT WHEN YOU TALK!!” Shrimpo shouts, hands balled up into fists as he glares at the mirror, hatred oozing from every syllable.
“You know, you could stand to be a little nicer..” Rodger rolls his eye, moving across the elevator to Boxten.
“NO! NEVER! I HATE YOU!!”
“Mhmm… Sure, Shrimpo.”
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Everything is… Fine.
There haven't been many noticeably dangerous twisteds, and everybody is still sitting comfortably at full health - well, excluding Glisten, who’s been hit twice by Twisted Pebble trying to save Shrimpo for whatever reason. Glisten stands by his primed machine, ensuring nobody pops it before the team is back at the elevator. Despite the boredom beginning to set in, he’s unwavering in his job… At least, he was until angry stomping alerted him to Shrimpo’s unfortunate appearance.
“Yes, Shrimpo? What do you need?” Glisten feigns disinterest in whatever the shrimp wants to say, but decides to still give him a chance, so he stops leaning on the machine and leans down to his height. A barely disguised chuckle slips out when Shrimpo growls at the action… Oh, how he loves it when he hates him.
“HEY, YOU! GIVE ME THAT MACHINE! I’M BETTER AT EXTRACTING!!”
“Shrimpo… This is a primed machine, there’s no way I’m letting you pop it before all the other machines are done.” Glisten rolls his eyes and leans back on the machine once more, covering the valve of the machine with his bow that’s certainly too big for its own good, matching his even bigger ego.
“SHUT UP! I HATE YOU! LET ME FINISH THIS MACHINE!” Shrimpo snaps, anger etched into the very essence of his face, and when he yelled his mantis shrimp tail straightened out completely, before relaxing after he stopped talking. He was comically shorter than Glisten, meaning that he looked more like a kid yelling at an adult rather than an adult yelling at an adult. Glisten almost laughed as he realized the difference between them.
Shrimpo was…an angry toon in Glisten’s eyes. Always screaming about one thing or another, and Glisten never found his insults to be that insulting if he was being honest. Yet, seeing him get mad over what Glisten said was funny to him. That being said, it did get very annoying easily, and with Shrimpo’s limited skills, he almost never went on runs.
“Like I said Shrimpo, this is primed, meaning we wait until the other machines are completed. Now hurry along, go to the elevator or whatever.” Glisten sighed, shooing him away with his hand, yet Shrimpo was persistent. He kept insisting that he should be allowed to finish the machine, and that Glisten needed to move before he made him, but by some miracle, Rodger yelled out that he was ready for him to pop primed.
“Ah, finally.. Took those two long enough.” Glisten sighed, before chuckling. “Guess I get to do this machine!!”
Glisten smirked, before going to finish the machine himself instead of letting Shrimpo do it. He could practically see the anger seeping out of the shrimp, and it amused him. Glisten started to turn the valve very slowly, until it was completed, yet when he kneeled down to look at Shrimpo again to taunt him, Shrimpo had other plans.
In a fit of rage, Shrimpo grabbed him, trying to pull him off of the machine. The sudden feeling of hands on him sent him into a panic, before he started to pull back, the machine completing as the valve spun and spun and spun. Glisten yelps out in pain as panic mode starts, and Shrimpo lets go of him, just for Glisten to crash into the machine, the loud crash of glass breaking and falling to the ground audible all around them.
Shrimpo looked back at Glisten, who was now slumped over, his head in the broken machine and his bow drenched in ichor. He heard the counter of the elevator start to reach ten, and runs away from Glisten, using the last of his stamina to get into the elevator, before it closed, and a distant crunch was heard.
Rodger and Boxten stared at Shrimpo.
“Shrimpo.. Where is Glisten..?” Rodger questioned, as Boxten stared panicked at the elevator door. Was this all some sick joke?? Where the hell was he??
Shrimpo stayed quiet, about to say something before the loud sound of Dandy’s shop opening, the flower’s smile sickening. Dandy seemed to always know what happens on each floor, and by the very apparent lack of Glisten nagging him because of what he was selling, he knew what had happened, yet all he did was smile.
Shrimpo looked away from the flower and the other two toons in the elevator, clenching his fists and waiting for the elevator doors to open. He needed to get out of this elevator. His hands still had the ichor from Glisten on them, and upon noticing this he wiped it off very quickly onto his shirt, ignoring the eyes staring at him as he did.
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The floors passed like a blur. 20, 28, 31…
It was floor 37 when they heard it. A familiar voice asking if anyone was there. If anybody could hear them.
Almost instantly, Rodger and Boxten had run out of the elevator, seeing if their friend was actually there. Glisten was in a corner, shaking and crying to himself. His appearance was..different. Half of his face had broken, ichor filling in the space that was once there. His eyes weren’t fully red, but still tinted pink as his pupils shrank as soon as he saw people running at him. They were here. Thank god. His stomach was ripped open, stringy ichor barely holding it together. The remains of his bow were in his hands, said hands being shaky and stained with the smallest amount of ichor.
“Hello..? Rodger..? Boxten..?” The mirror basically launched himself into Rogder’s arms, sobbing and holding onto him as if he was his savior. “Is that really you..?? This isn’t a hallucination.. right?” Glisten’s eyes darted between Boxten and Rodger, looking for any kind of confirmation that they were, in fact, here, and they would save him. He wouldn’t be alone anymore. He didn’t think he could handle being alone again.
Rodger and Boxten looked at each other, then at Glisten. He was..alive? Was he twisted or not? His body seemed twisted, yet he was still speaking and able to think. Rodger pulled out a small notepad, writing something down before putting it back in his pocket.
“Glisten dear.. Is that really you..? What happened to you? We thought Shrimpo was with you,, why weren’t you able to get to the elevator in time??” Rodger questioned, looking at Glisten with a look of pure concern while Boxten just kept his distance. Sure, he was worried, but Glisten looked terrifying, and what if he attacked them..? Surely Rodger was out of his mind for going close to Glisten.
“Boxten, look! He’s alive, and sentient at that! If he’s infected with the ichor, yet he’s still able to function, there’s a chance we can help the other twisteds!! Isn’t this wonderful??” Rodger exclaimed, and at this Boxten relaxed slightly, seeing that Glisten wouldn’t attack. He walked over to him, before smiling at him.
“I was so worried Glis… When you didn’t make it to the elevator.. I thought we had lost you..!” Boxten scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously before taking a deep breath. “Did…did Shrimpo cause this..?”
Glisten looked at the two of them, before nodding. “H-he wanted the primed machine,, and I thought to taunt him to do it myself when it was time..! And he got pissed,, pushed me into the machine, it broke,, a-and I fell into it..!” Glisten started to cry again, the ichor tears streaming down his single eye as he sobbed. He hated how vulnerable he was right now. His emotions were all over the place, and all he wanted was to go back to Gardenview, and pray that by some miracle he’ll be okay again.
Wishful thinking was never a bad thing, right?
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Shrimpo stayed in the elevator, too stunned to leave. He was alive.?? And what happens when the others find out what happened with him and Shrimpo?? Would they hate him even more? That would be..fine. He hates them too. After all, he’s Shrimpo, and Shrimpo hates everyone. Including himself.
Though what he didn’t expect was to hear Dandy behind him.
“Oh Shrimpo.. Upset? Well, you did cause this, didn’t you? You twisted him! Look at how much pain you’ve caused. Though, maybe once, you could do something..to help.” Dandy smiled as malice oozed out of his general presence, his eyes with that uncanny red pupil right in the middle. He happily beckoned Shrimpo closer, smiling as he did.
“Dandy.” Shrimpo deadpanned, staring at the flower, before glaring at him. “THIS ISN’T MY FAULT..! I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE BLAME ME!!” Shrimpo huffed, looking away from Dandy, before thinking. Maybe,, maybe he was right. He could help. Surely Shrimpo could help!
“Well, Glisten is in pain, and why not just take him out of it? I need you to kill him. He’ll feel better. He’ll stop suffering. You’ll fix what you made happen.” Shrimpo’s blood ran cold as he watched Dandy pull out a small handgun from behind the counter of his shop and hold it out for the shrimp to take.
Shrimpo doesn’t know why, but he took it. He took it and just nodded at Dandy, before leaving the elevator. He was going to help Glisten.
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Glisten could hear the loud footsteps coming from the elevator. He only knew one person who stomped like that through the floors. Shrimpo.
He saw Shrimpo turn the corner, yet, instead of his usual hateful look, he looked..solemn. As if something was about to happen. Glisten pulled away from Rodger and Boxten, who seemed to have thought the same thing. Shrimpo wasn’t here to say anything rude, was he?
“Shrimpo..? What are you doing..?” Glisten spoke with uncertainty, looking at him with a scared look.
“I’m sorry.”
Shrimpo pulled out the handgun, pointing it at him before anybody could even react, and pulling the trigger.
“I’m sorry Glisten. I really am.”
Shrimpo fixed his mistake. At last, he took responsibility for his actions.
He helped.