Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shrimpo scratched at his arm as the elevator’s flickering white light taunted him. He was the last toon to walk into the elevator for this ichor run. Flutter’s wings flapped loudly as she “talked” with Gigi while scraps listened absentmindedly. Poppy and Boxten were both standing near the wall talking to only themselves as usual. Vee was the only main character with them and she almost looked just as mad as Shrimpo was. And then, there was Brightney.

God he HATED Brightney.

The stupid lamp would never turn her light off no matter what. No matter how many times she had to run for her life from twisteds, no matter how bright it already was in the room, and no matter how much the incandescent bulb made Shrimpo want to bash his own skull in.

His own hatred was interrupted by a knock on the side of the open elevator door.

“Alright everyone!” Dandy cheerfully called, “As you all know, Boxten, Poppy… and Shrimpo-” Shrimpo bared his sharp teeth and stared daggers into the flower. He didn’t seem to notice as he happily carried on. “-Are not the most experienced toons with ichor runs. So make sure you guide them through everything and protect them in case of emergencies! It’s extremely important that y-”

Shrimpo zoned out as he gave the typical ‘about to go down the elevator’ spiel. He knew the real reason why the three common toons were being forced down the elevator. All the other “better” toons had been injured in some way or another; from twisted attacks, to baking related burns, to general accidents caused by their own stupidity. Some other toons were reforming after being killed out on the job. He at least knew that Connie was still newly reformed from the revival machine and not allowed to go on missions until everyone knew she was properly healed. He would have laughed at the others misfortune if he wasn’t stuck doing their jobs.

He scratched at his arm again, it was starting to become a habit whenever he got frustrated, there were a lot of scratch marks on his arms.

“Good luck everyone!” Dandy beamed. He pulled on a lever just outside of the elevator’s entrance and watched it descend, his trademark smile plastered on his face like a knock off kindergarten wall mural of a children’s mascot, always just slightly off. Shrimpo glared back at him, wondering what it would look like if one of his white teeth got punched out.

The elevator ride down was long but definitely not quiet. Toons chattered away as the gears of the elevator groaned and scraped against Shrimpo’s eardrums. He couldn’t make out most of the conversations happening around him standing next to the elevator vent and he was happy for it, even if every clank brought Shrimpo closer to punching the wall.
The dust coating every corner of the elevator was invading each breath that Shrimpo took, a reminder that they were the only caretakers of this place now. The only reason more of the centre didn’t feel like this was because of Tisha’s obsession with cleaning every inch of the inhabited spaces. Shrimpo was deep down a little grateful for it, even if the chemicals burned his eyes and throat everytime he walked into the kitchen at the wrong time.

It allowed him to keep up the illusion that they hadn’t been abandoned for years just a little longer. He didn’t need more reasons to be bitter.

—

They were an hour in now. Almost every toon around him was hurt in some way. He would love to brag but he wasn’t doing much better either. He got a nasty gash in his left arm as a gift from Twisted Scraps. She opened some of the scratches on his arm too, making the wound even more painful. Shrimpo hated her. Then again, who didn’t he hate?

The hatch underneath them opened as Dandy appeared, his signature smile flickering to concern only for a moment before it boomeranged back to normal. Shrimpo could always tell when he was faking it.

“Looks like you all got beat up huh?” Dandy mused, more to himself than the others. Vee was just about to murder Dandy before he piped up again. “I won’t make you work more than you have to. Just, finish this next floor and we’ll be fine and Dandy!” He winked. Most of the toons were too traumatised to recognise his pun. “Anyways, good luck!” Of course the weed didn’t give out any healing items before he left. He was never helpful, just another grating voice shoved here to make Shrimpo’s ears bleed.

Vee’s tail flicked back and forth as she watched the flower descend into the floor. “Why doesn’t that dumb flower ever come on runs with us?” She spat “flower” like it burned her throat. “He’s one of the most powerful toons in Garden View… Besides me of course.”

If it wasn’t for her massively inflated ego, Shrimpo might hate Vee a little less than other toons. She stepped on other toons who got in her way, her green light wasn’t as retina burning as Brightney's, and most importantly, she shared in Shrimpo’s passion for hating Dandy. It was unfortunate that she couldn’t see who the best toon at Garden View was, it wasn’t Dandy or Vee or whoever else, it was Shrimpo! He’s the only one who dares to question how Garden View operates so he must be the smartest one here. Also because Shrimpo always wins!!

The elevator doors opened again. The other toons staggered out of the elevator and into the dining hall. Flutter flew off to distract the twisteds as usual, following a red glow that illuminated the dining hall’s power box.

There was a sudden sparking noise in the distance, then the white lights above them flickered, the toons stopped in their tracks to look up and-

A loud drone echoed off the dining room halls. Shrimpo ignored how his stomach dropped as he turned back towards his teammates.

Shrimpo squinted as Brightney and Vee’s lights threatened to blind all of them permanently. Vee at least had the courtesy to dim her light just a bit as everyone adjusted. The only thing visible past the light of the two was the few dust particles that catched the light before fading into pure black.

“Alright everyone!” Brightney clapped to get their attention like a school teacher. “Since it’s a blackout we’re going to have to split into pairs. But since Flutter will be trying to distract as much as she can, someone is going to have to join a group of three.” Shrimpo scowled. The last thing he wanted to do was pair up with any of these losers. Everyone shuffled around him as he grumbled until he looked up.

Brightney and Vee, Gigi and Scraps, Boxten and Poppy, and… Shrimpo.

Ughhhh, he had to be in a trio now.

Everyone stared at Shrimpo stuck in the centre. His hatred of other toons was mutual with almost every toon at Garden View with very few exceptions, none of which were here right now. Shrimpo tried to ignore the chill that ran down his spine when he thought about Goob’s surprise hugs. Maybe them not being there was for the best.

“Uh, we’ll take Shrimpo.”

Shrimpo’s antennae twitched as he slung himself around like a wet sock to glare at the voice that dared to utter his name.

“Why the hell would you let Shrimpo come with us!?” Poppy hissed.

“Well someone had to take him…” Boxten replied meekly.

Shrimpo groaned. If there were any two toons he hated more than Brightney, it was these idiots. It wasn’t even anything they did that pissed him off! Other toons, more “capable” toons, would always group the three of them together and keep them at base because they thought they sucked! More than the eight year old and literal rock! Boxten and Poppy were the bad toons, not Shrimpo! He was the best at everything all the time. How dare they! How dare the others even compare him to these background characters, when he was in almost every episode. The next time Shrimpo sees Dandy he’s gonna pluck out his petals one by one until he’s crying on the elevator fl-

“Shrimpoooo, hurry up!” Poppy tapped her foot as she stared at him, leaning over to meet him at eye level. Boxten was already walking over to the red light of a machine in the distance.

“I DON’T WANT TO PAIR UP WITH YOU TWO. I HATE YOU!”

“Yea, yea, you hate us and my bow and Boxten’s music, now come here before you get squished by Twisted Vee or something.” Poppy grabbed Shrimpo’s fin and dragged him along the ground like a stubborn dog.

Shrimpo screeched and tried to claw at her arms but Poppy remained undeterred. Shrimpo’s efforts were reduced to a grumble when they finally caught up to Boxten, who was already halfway finished.

There were coincidentally two machines right next to each other in the kitchen, one next to a shelf of food that should have spoiled years ago and the other in a little nook, the fridge inside having photos of long gone handlers. Looking at the photos of the people who raised them, who abandoned them, caused something to bubble in Shrimpo’s throat. He decided to ignore it. Thinking about it too long made emotions other than hatred dig into Shrimpo’s chest.

Shrimpo sprinted over toward the machine next to the fridge without even giving Poppy time to think. “Hey! You took it without even asking.” She pouted, “I’m faster at doing machines anyways, let me have it.” Shrimpo stuck his tongue out at her, leaving Poppy sputtering. Shrimpo smirked, his ego just barely visible under the red light of the machine. He loved making people upset, it made him feel even more superior than he already was.

Ding~

Boxten was already finished with his machine. Shrimpo hadn’t even finished a quarter of his. He could feel both toons eyes stare at the back of his head, judging him. Every little detail of his movements felt like it was being studied and he hated it. He banged his head on the machine in frustration, the ichor inside swirling from the impact. Poppy made a comment, he didn’t even bother trying to understand what she said as he slammed his head on the machine repeatedly. He just wanted them to leave him alone! He turned the handle and tried to let his thoughts erase the other toons' existence.

Shrimpo’s mind couldn’t help but wander back to hate, it was all he was good for after all. He hated the sound of the elevator closing, hissing like an alley cat before nearly chopping off his fins. He hated how no matter how hard he tried he always seemed to extract from these machines wrong. He hated extracting ichor. He hated the toons around him. He hated Dandy. He hated the handlers who left them here. He hated the fact that all he could do was hate. He hated that he couldn’t do anything else. He-

Oh, he didn’t notice the handwheel got jammed.

A loud blaring alarm shot out of the machine, which made Shrimpo cover his ears and gnash his sharp teeth. He was just about to kick the machine when Boxten grabbed the scruff of his tank top and sprinted away from the sound of flapping.

Twisted Flutter entered the room with alarming speed. Her massive compound eyes scanned the room making it impossible to tell where she was looking. The faint red glow of her eyes being the only light in the completely dark room. Her proboscis dragged on the ground like rope, threatening to pierce the closest toon’s skin.

Boxten and Poppy ducked under a hollow part of the counter, Shrimpo in tow. Shrimpo already hated being here. The dust in every corner crawled into his throat. The feeling of being squished against Poppy’s soapy exterior made him want to pop her. But worst of all, Shrimpo could feel Boxten’s hand still grabbing onto his shirt. It made his skin itch. Every little shift of the fabric made his blood boil. The tag on his back felt like a spider seconds away from biting into his flesh.

“CAN YOU LET GO OF ME ALREADY!?”

Shrimpo quickly wriggled his shirt free after Boxten covered his ears. At least some of his discomfort was gone. He grumbled as Poppy covered her mouth to stare at him wide eyed. Good. He got what he wanted. He was glad that the red light was there so he could see the look on her face. He looked away from her and up towards the machine. His eyes widened like a startled kitten.

Twisted Flutter was angled down towards them, her red glowing eyes leered in with her proboscis ready to strike.

They all sprinted away from the counter in a panic, scattering like alley cats. Shrimpo did his best to keep up, sprinting at his full speed. Unfortunately it was not enough. Flutter lunged at him, wrapped him up in her proboscis and used her wings to slice into his arm.

Shrimpo did his best to ignore the bleeding and shoved Flutter away as fast as he could, this stunned her just long enough to make a break for it. The three of them ran out into the main area of the dinning hall, all three of them praying a stray pop can on the ground didn’t seal their fate. They ran into a small room to the side of the broken elevator and prayed that Twisted Flutter would turn around.

Boxten peaked his head around the corner after a few seconds. Nothing but quiet darkness. He gave the other toons a thumbs up, causing both Poppy and Shrimpo to slide against the wall, exhausted.

“Is your arm ok?” Boxten tilted his head, staring at the large gash on Shrimpo’s arm.

“Oh my gosh, yea! Your arm looks like it’s bleeding real bad. Hmmm, we could look around for medkits or ask if anyone has a bandaid or-”

“I’M FINE.”

Shrimpo could feel his blood boil. How dare these lesser toons try to help him, he was fine! A little scratch on his exoskeleton wasn’t going to kill him.

“Are you sure?” Boxten started, “I mean, it- it looks pretty deep.”

“I’M FINE. I’M NOT A BABY LIKE YOU TWO!.”

Shrimpo tried to hide his wince after accidentally touching the wound. It had definitely pierced his exoskeleton. Even with the fast healing of toons, it was going to take a while if he just let it heal on its own. It didn’t help that his body healed slower than the other toons.

“...Alright!” Poppy got up and dusted herself off before putting her hands on her hips. “Twisted Flutter should be gone now! We’re on the other side of the room and pretty tried but our Flutter should be distracting them now, so it’s just a quick hop skip and a jump over to the unfinished machine-”

Ding~

Shrimpo could feel his blood run cold. How many machines were completed now? He hasn’t been keeping track of the chimes in the chaos. He could hear a countdown in the distance coming from the elevator, it was too far away for them to walk.

Poppy and Boxten both sprinted towards the sound of the elevator, Shrimpo following close behind. Shrimpo was breathing hard, the sprint and hit from earlier was taking its toll on him. He forced himself to keep running, he couldn’t slow down or else he wouldn’t make it.

5.

Boxten tripped over a grate shelve toppled over on the ground. Shrimpo kept running, not even bothering to help.

4.

Poppy pulled him up off the ground and dragged him along like a pull toy. Boxten didn’t complain.

3.

They were in the elevator’s room now. They could all see the elevator’s light now.

2.

The other toons were standing there, the backlighting obscuring their faces. If they just got in the elevator they should be able to see them looking relieved.

1.

They all looked horrified.

0.

“Elevator Closing…”

Dandy’s recorded voice echoed through the empty dining room out of a rusty speaker. The elevator’s door crashed into the ground, leaving the starter toons staring at grey metal.

The elevator closed.

They were too late and the elevator closed in front of them.

…

They were going to die out here.

Poppy grabbed at her bow and pulled on it in frustration. Her screams were just barely muffled through her bared teeth. Boxten went to put a hand on her shoulder but she slapped it away. She turned around the glare daggers at the Shrimp behind her.

“UGHH THIS IS SO STUPID!” She groaned, not even trying to stay quiet anymore. “WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY STAMINA BECAUSE WE HAD TO RUN FROM FLUTTER, AND THE ONLY REASON WE HAD TO RUN AWAY FROM FLUTTER WAS BECAUSE YOU MESSED UP THE SKILL CHECK SHRIMPO!” Poppy’s hands flailed wildly as she shouted at him. Shrimpo could feel his antenna stand on edge.

It wasn’t his fault the alarm went off! The only reason he spaced out was because of the other two! Were they that self obsessed to think it couldn’t be their fault or too stupid to even comprehend that they were the problem?!

“NO IT’S YOUR FAULT!” Shrimpo spat, glaring at both of them. IF YOU JUST LEFT ME ALONE TO DO THE MACHINE- YOU’RE SO STUPID! I HATE YOU!”

“Uh- Guys?”

“You know what? Fine, I hate you too. I hate that you bring everyone down with you, I hate that we’re usually forced to stay with you upstairs, I hated that I have to go on runs with you when we do come down. You’re so ANNOYINGGGGGG! ARG!”

“I think somethings up-”

“I WISH I WAS NEVER STUCK HERE WITH ALL OF YOU I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE-”

“Excuse me?”

“WHAT?” Poppy snapped to face Boxten.
“WHAT?” Shrimpo snapped to face Boxten.

“We haven’t exploded yet…”

The two arguing toons paused, gears turning in their head as they looked around. Usually it was impossible to leave a run after the elevators closed in panic time, so the toons, specifically Dandy, built a self destruct system to get out in worse case scenarios. Sure it was painful, really painful, but it beat being stuck down at the lower floors forever.

Well, they were in a worst case scenario, WHY THE HELL WERE THEY NOT AN ICHOR STAIN ON THE KITCHEN TILES YET!

“I’m not sure if there’s any way to get the elevator open from the outside, or even how to operate it. It’s not like Dandy ever told us how.” Boxten’s hands started shaking as he started talking faster. “There’s gotta be another way to get out! Dandy wouldn’t send us down here all the time if he wasn’t 100% sure we’d be safe! There’s- there’s gotta be a button or a lever or maybe even a chance that t-the broken elevator might open up with enough force and we can climb u-up or get through an air duct like in the movies there has to be a way up, we c-can’t be stuck down here right? Right??” Boxten's eyes flickered back and forth at the other toons’ blank looks, his worst fears being confirmed. “Oh my god we’re stuck down here…”

They were stuck here.

Chapter Text

Boxten couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He barely had the nerves to stay down in the faculty for more than an hour. But this?! He didn’t know how long the others would take. A few hours, days, weeks, months, YEARS?

This couldn’t be happening. No, no, no nononno. This was just another one of his nightmares! They got pretty realistic and, terrifying occasionally… So that had to be what was going on here!

Boxten checked his hands. All of his fingers were there. He checked the clock on the wall. It was in the same spot it was last time, it’s cracked glass obscuring the ticking clock hands underneath. He checked his reflection in the machine in front of him. He looked normal, eyes tired with tears pricking at their corners.

The key on the back of Boxten’s head whirred as every terrifying possibly sank into his mind and made him taste blood. He slumped into the corner and pulled his legs into his chest, trying to stop his shaking. The other two toons argued next to him but he couldn’t hear them over the sound of his own heartbeat.

He knew he could barely function on his own. Practically all the toon knew how bad his anxiety got, it was one of the main reasons he wasn’t allowed to go on runs most of the time. He always felt awful about it. Even when he did come along the other toons always complemented his extraction which just made him feel weirder. Like he was a little kid getting praised for sloppy macaroni art, just a way to not hurt his feelings. It just made him feel worse even if he’d rather get his arm bitten off by Twisted Pebble than tell anyone about it.

He could see each scenario clear in his mind. Twisted Flutter draining the last of his ichor from his body, leaving his corpse behind. Twisted Goob pulling him into the darkness, his vision going blurry as he failed to leave the monster’s grasp. His head getting crushed by a falling shelf, letting him die as pathetically as he should. Boxten only just noticed how much he was hyperventilating, his breathing got shakier and shakier with each racing thought. It reminded him of something Cosmo taught him a few months ago, just before Garden View got shutdown. He was the only other toon that got anywhere close to as anxious as he did and he had a little breathing trick that his handler taught him years before then.

—

“Can you copy what I do, Boxten?” Cosmo explained, sitting on the kitchen floor with the crying toon. The entire kitchen was covered in batter that dripped off the kitchen counter and onto the floor. The smell of vanilla and cinnamon filled the kitchen with a warm glow as flour danced around like fog near the spilled mixing bowl, a good few meters away from the slightly busted dough mixer. Cosmo patted Boxten’s shin lightly to get his attention.

Boxten lifted his head off of his knees, tears in his eyes were dripping down onto his blue bandana. He nodded, not confident enough to face Cosmo directly.

“Alright, let's see if I remember this right.” Cosmo mused. “Breath in,” He made the motion clear so Boxten could see despite him facing away.

Boxten looked at him bleary eyed. He did as he was asked, breathing in while avoiding the flower and powdered sugar in the air.

“And out.” Cosmo exhaled. Boxten copied the movement, his tense muscles relaxed. He didn’t notice how hard he was clenching them.

“And just do that over and over until you feel better!” Cosmo smiled. Boxten couldn’t help but return it. Both of their smiles were always just a little bit unsure even when they were being fully sincere. Boxten always appreciated it, even if it was a kinda weird thing to notice. It made him feel less alone.

And it was really easy to feel alone down here.

—

Boxten breathed in and out just like he remembered. He slowly looked up, his eyes adjusted to the darkness still surrounding them, allowing him to make out the vague shape of his fellow arguing toons and the elevator right in front of him. He could feel his muscles relax just a little bit as pushed himself off the ground.

Even if there wasn’t a normal way out of here, he didn’t want to give up. He was actually pretty decent with machines when he wasn’t on the verge of a panic attack and he knew that some of the mechanics were built by the same people. Plus, since the elevator existed when guests were still around, there had to be a way to open it for maintenance or in case of emergency right? Yeah, YEAH! There was still a way out, he just had to find it.

Boxten looked over at his fellow toons, hoping that he could ask them to help him with the mechanics, but-

“If you just learned how to stop yelling for once!”

“I AM SHRIMPO! I YELL AS LOUD AS I WANT!”

“That’s why no one likes you, Because you don’t listen to anyone!”

“I AM LISTENING. ALL I CAN HEAR IS YOUR WHINING!”

That probably wasn’t going to happen.

Boxten sighed and walked over to the elevator, trying to check for some type of switch or lever that would open the door. He didn’t hear the sound of the elevator moving back up or down when it closed weirdly enough. Were the others still stuck in there? He put his head to the side of the elevator and tried to listen.

The elevator gears weren’t wiring, he couldn’t hear any of the other toons, he couldn’t hear the elevator going up and leaving them behind, just, nothing. Nothing but the hum of the fluorescent light inside and its occasional flicker, nothing underneath it to illuminate but cold sheet metal.

It- didn’t move? That didn’t make any sense, how would all the other toons be completely gone if the elevator was just stuck there? Boxten tried to explain it to himself but his mind went blank. He squinted at the large metal door. Maybe the other toons already went up and sent the elevator back down? But that didn’t make any sense either if there was no way to get out after the door closed besides, ya know, dying. Boxten winced at the thought, if the self destruct system wasn’t working, then the last thing he wanted to do was trust the revival machine. He didn’t want to die, not yet.

Boxten pushed those questions out of his mind. At least if the elevator was still here, then he could still open it without facing a bottomless pit.

He checked the outside of the elevator. The slight light coming off of him allowed Boxten to see his reflection. The bags under his eyes were visible, his key spun in its usual anxious way, and his brows were still furrowed. He had definitely seen better days. Then again, he can’t remember a single episode, a single poster, a single photo of him where he didn’t look at least a little worried. At least back then he could actually sleep in peace. His nightmares were usually worse than reality, even though they were dealing with actual monsters on a daily basis.

A tiny speck of darkness caught Boxten’s eye, pulling himself away from his reflection. The elevator’s smooth surface made almost any scratch or dent in it noticeable, with the tiny hole at the elevator's center being no exception. It looked like it was built for adult humans, most likely the janitors or emergency crew in case they had to get the elevator open. It looked like some kind of keyhole. A special one made for one kind of key and one kind of key only.

Boxten tried his best to hide his excitement. He had to focus, he didn’t know what kind of key he was dealing with here. He knew it was small and maybe circle shaped but that didn’t narrow his options down enough. Besides, the only types of keys he’d really seen didn’t look like they would work with this hole, so it had to function and look different. If he could just see the internal mechanism then he could figure out what we was trying to look for

Boxten walked over to one of the boxes just in front of the elevator and pushed it with all his might towards the elevator door, the nails of the box scratching the wooden floor. He climbed on top of the box, opened up his head and pulled out a Scraps-themed laser pointer Poppy gave him years before and peaked inside the tiny hole.

Huh, that’s weird. This was definitely not a normal keyhole. The only real things he could see inside beside the internal wall of the elevator were rubber stoppers just below the hole Boxten was peering into. They were both connected by a metal piece and only one of them was connected to the door’s inside. It was a lever. Looking up revealed that the string attached to the mechanism reached the very top of the elevator, with a tiny hook hanging onto it.

Boxten pulled himself away from the keyhole with a small smile. He knew what he was looking for now! He needed some kind of long key with a hinge that could swing down to push the lever and pull the hook off that string! Now he just needed to find something that fit that description.

He could see the green glow of one of the machines in the kitchen. He wouldn’t get anywhere just by sitting around the one area where he could actually see. Subconsciously his music started playing a bit louder, drowning out the sounds of the other toon. His footsteps echoed off the concrete walls as he tried to avoid the creaky floorboards that he knew all too well, ichor splattered on the wall in his mind with each step.

He stared at all the shelves around him, determined to get himself and the others out of here. Despite his goal his hands were still shaking. It felt like any glance at the cupboards and shelves around him could become the last frame of his life, as his body gets dragged away into the dark never to be seen again. He swallowed, his fear crushed his chest from the inside out as his heart beat faster to compensate.

The only thing that calmed him down, ironically, was the sound of his music box playing. It wasn’t Claire De Lune like Dandy’s. Hearing it while getting crushed by a massive flower beast creature thing doesn’t exactly inspire feelings of comfort. His favourite was " Love Story by Francis Lai”. He’d been mocked for it by Shrimpo before but this song was always perfect for putting him at ease.

He turned to the little nook with the fridge, the same area where they nearly got sliced in half because Shrimpo decided to get mad for no reason as usual. The top shelf had a box of tools, barely illuminated by the green glow of the now finished machine. One tool peaked out of the box, the metal reflected green off of a long piece of metal attached to a wooden handle, kept together by the hinge at its center.

Boxten felt his heart sing as stared at the reflected green light. They weren’t stuck here! They could get out! He just needed to grab the key, open the elevator with it, and get back up. The others would probably think he was a hero for doing this too. He’d finally be useful on his own for once.

Boxten quickly grabbed one of the wooden boxes and pushed it over to the shelf. The box creaked as Boxten quickly scurried on top of it. He stood on his tippy toes as the box wobbled underneath him, desperately trying to keep balance. The key was in his sights now. He just had to stretch his arm that little bit more.

Socks hit the wooden floor between each break in Boxten’s music box. He paused, his hand just an inch away from his ticket out of hell. He checked behind him, squinting to spot any movement. It was what he feared.

Twisted Cosmo.

He was rounding the corner. The light from his red eyes reflected off his sharp jagged teeth as maggots dug into half of his rotting flesh. Boxten could feel himself panic, accidently making the wiring of his music box louder.

His hands moved before his brain. He scrambled to grab the key off the shelf. He stepped up onto the metal shelf, giving him just enough height to snag it. The weight of his body was too much, as the shelf fell backwards onto the box he was just standing on. It slammed into the box, cracking it open and revealing food that couldn’t stand up against its weight. Eggs smashed into the food with rice bags spilling over the crushed box’s edge. With Boxten himself just barely able to climb onto the shelf’s back to not add his own ichor to the pile. Boxten was just glad that the box wasn't his own head.

Twisted Cosmo screeched as he sprinted directly towards the source of the noise. Crap. Boxten scampered off of the mess he just made and quickly dove between the tiny gap between Twisted Cosmo and the wall. He made a break for it, skirting around the corner out of the kitchen. Twisted Cosmo quickly trailed behind, its eye locked onto where it saw Boxten last.

“WHAT THE HELL MADE THAT NOISE?” Shrimpo turned away from his arguing only to just barely dodge Boxten sprinting towards the elevator. He didn't have time to insult Boxten as Twisted Cosmo’s growl killed the words in his throat. Twisted Cosmo ran to Shrimpo, completely ignoring the much closer Poppy to chase the slower toon.

“BOXTEN WHY DID YOU LEAD THIS THING OVER HERE!?” Shrimpo screamed, already a little out of breath from his previous injury. Poppy followed behind the two of them, trying her best to get Twisted Cosmo’s attention but it refused to focus on anything else. Something about Shrimpo seemingly drawing the beast's attention.

“Just trust me for a second! I can get us out of here!” Boxten yelled back. He sprinted over to the box he left just by the elevator and clambered on top of it. He gripped the key hard as he stabbed it into the keyhole.

Shrimpo was struggling to get Twisted Cosmo off of him. He was already heaving while twisted Cosmo threatened to tear his fins off. He ran out to the main dining hall, his footsteps sounding more desperate as they slammed into the ground, trying not to buckle under his own exhaustion.

Boxten gripped the key for dear life as he tried to push the lever. He pushed the key in just a little bit more and heard the hinge drop. He quickly turned the key around, trying to push the lever just hard enough to open the door.

“Shrimpo! Go into the employee only room!” Poppy called out.

“WHY WOULD I RUN INTO A DEAD END?!”

“JUST DO IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE BITTEN IN HALF!”

Shrimpo clearly didn’t want to listen, but he was running out of options. With the last of his energy he dashed into the tiny office, barely illuminated by the green light of a finished machine, slamming the door behind him as hard as he could.

Boxten could hear his music grow more and more discordant as he listened to the commotion just out of sight. The lever wasn’t budging. It must have been years since the safety lock was checked at all, it might have had grime stuck to the inside of it or something like that? Maybe the elevator needed to be turned off before opening? Boxten could barely reason over his own panic.

Twisted Cosmo ran directly into the employee door as it wildly scratched at the wooden door, banging on it almost enough to punch a hole into it. Poppy grabbed a stray bubble from her ponytail and popped it as loud as she could. Twisted Cosmo snarled and tried to jump on her, but she ducked just in time.

Poppy felt her determination build in her chest as she ran away from this monster. She darted between countertops, busted shelves and disconnected rooms to try and keep Twisted Cosmo just far away from Boxten for him to finish, whatever he was doing! She trusted Boxten with her whole heart and she’d be damned if she couldn’t believe him now. As long as she kept Twisted Cosmo away from the elevator.

Shrimpo slumped against the door as he did his best not to throw up. He still felt phantom claws grabbing at his back, just waiting to tear his flesh open. He could hear the other two toons panicking, Boxten was audibly struggling to open the elevator door and Twisted Cosmo’s quick and heavy footsteps indicated that Poppy was getting chased. Shrimpo turned his head towards the other side of the room and stared at its contents.

There was a desk with a computer on it, a janitor closet with black footprints leading into it, some papers with the founders names on them which Shrimpo instinctively snarled at, and most interestingly of all, a board with a bunch of switches attached to it with wires leading into that same closet.

“Ugh, it’s not working!” Boxten pushed on the lever with all his might but no matter how much strength he put into it, he couldn’t get the little lever to move. Did he just lead that Twisted Cosmo into Shrimpo for no reason? Were the others hurt because of him? Did he just doom all three of them because of a HUNCH? DID HE KILL TWO PEOPLE JUST SO HE COULD FEEL USEFUL?!

Shrimpo could hear Boxten yell something about the elevator not opening. So that’s what the nerd was trying to do. If the elevator wasn’t opened then Poppy would be stuck with that thing chasing her until she couldn’t keep up. Shrimpo grumbled before looking over at the board, there was text just underneath each of the switches that he could barely make out unless he squinted.

“Elevator.”

Shrimpo stared at the board. Without a second thought he flicked the switch upwards. Like hell he was getting stuck here forever. He hated it here.

Boxten could hear a click as he pushed the lever on last time. He stared in awe, he didn’t want to blink in case he was just hallucinating. He hopped down from the box and grabbed the bottom of the elevator before pushing it upwards as much as he could. The elevator’s sudden hiss made Boxten stumble backwards before a large grin spread across his face. “It worked. IT WORKED! I DID IT!” He ran into the elevator with tears of happiness in his eyes. “GUYS GET TO THE ELEVATOR!”

The elevator countdown gave Poppy more determination than ever. She sprinted towards the sound of wiring metal and turning gears despite her near exhaustion. Twisted Cosmo trailed behind, its movement becoming more frenzied as it crawled over the boxes that blocked its path. She refused to die forever to a random common twisted.

Boxten watched as Shrimpo ran as best he could into the elevator. Sweat formed on his brow as the timer ticked down, no sign of his best friend. She has to be able to make it.

Poppy turned the corner and sprinted down the hallway. Boxten’s smile from seeing his friend quickly faded when he noticed the rotting twisted behind her, its eyes glowing brighter as it got faster and faster. Cosmo scratched at the back of her head, causing the ponytail on the back of her head to pop.

“POPPY!” Boxten screamed.

Poppy grabbed the suds from the remains of her hair and threw them onto the floor. She skated towards the exit, the slippery floor giving her just enough speed to glide into the elevator just as the timer hit zero.

BANG! BANG!

Twisted Cosmo slammed its entire body weight onto the elevator as much as it could, snarling and scratching on the elevator doors with an animalistic rage. Only when it stopped could the others hear its maggot filled body slink away into the shadows, its steps seemingly slower than before.

Poppy collapsed onto the elevator floor with a loud wheeze. “And the point, goes to, Poppy…” She smiled despite the heavy breaths she took between her words. Her ponytail quickly reformed, albeit smaller than before. Boxten knew that she would need to get some bubble solution when they got back up to the first floor.

Boxten ran over to Poppy and gave her the biggest hug he could. He was so glad she was alright that he didn’t even notice he was shaking.

“Boxten, I’m not dying, I’m ok!” Poppy chirped, hugging him back. “Your hug might be a little bit too tight though.” Boxten instantly pulled back his hug, staring at her like he had just killed her dog. “...You gotta stop worrying about me, you worry WAYYYYY too much.” She giggled.

“You think I worry too much?”

“That’s you worrying, you’re worrying again.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Poppy blinked at Boxten before pulling him into a hug of her own, squeezing him way tighter than Boxten did for her. “That was so cool of you! How did you open the elevator?” Poppy was bouncing with anticipation as she waited for Boxten, her eyes practically sparkling with curiosity.

“Um, I used this key. I think that’s what it is anyways.” Boxten opened the latch on his head and pulled out the strange key.

“...Doesn’t look like a key to me.” Poppy picked up the key, flipping it around in her hands like a butterfly knife.

“It worked like one.”

“Hmm,” She mused before shoving the key back into Boxten’s hands. “That was still so cool though! You got us out of the floor. I knew you were always great with machines but I didn’t know you were THIS GOOD!”

Boxten felt a small bit of blush creep its way onto his face from the flattery. “I just looked at the keyhole and found the key. I didn’t do that much-”

“CAN YOU TWO STOP TALKING!” Shrimpo yelled from the other corner of the elevator, his foot tapping with seething rage. “I’M THE ONE WHO TURNED THE ELEVATOR ON ANYWAYS. YOU SHOULD BE PRAISING ME!”

Poppy blew a raspberry at him, leaving Shrimpo sputtering. She snickered at the angry Shrimp before standing up and dusting herself off, returning most of the grit to the elevator floor. “So, how are we gonna get back up?”

As if on cue, the trapdoor to Dandy’s shop opened. Dandy didn’t show up immediately which wasn’t too uncommon, especially on floors with Twisted Dandy present. So the starter toons simply waited.

And waited, and waited, and waited, and-

“DID DANDY DIE? I HOPE SO, I HATED HIM!”

Boxten didn’t answer Shrimpo’s question as he peered over the drop into the hole where Dandy’s shop always appeared from. It was a large drop down onto the platform with his shop. It was dark but the fluorescent lights overhead gave Boxten just enough light to make out Dandy’s Shop below

Poppy peered over his shoulder and stared down into the hole. “Soo, who wants to go down there… Not it!” She declared, crossing her arms over her chest. Shrimpo instantly parroted her and copied her pose. “Sorry Boxy, you’re doing this one.”

“Why are you copying what the kids used to do?”

“Because it means I don’t have to go down into the scary dark pit!” Poppy retorted.

“...Alright that’s fair.” Boxten sighed, resigned to his fate.

Boxten scooted onto his butt, before dropping down into the mini elevator. He landed with a hard thud as he looked around the tiny space.

Of course Dandy’s usual shop was set up there. The small TV stand repurposed into a desk for Dandy to place his usually useless wears. There was also an amusingly tall stack of pillows just behind the desk where Dandy usually stood, clearly there to give the flower a height boost. There was a door just behind Dandy’s shop, with a bit of a gap between it and the platform, probably leading to the storage space where Dandy got his items from.

Boxten turned around to try and find anything else of note when a large metal panel smacked him in the face so hard that he fell back into the elevator wall.

“You ok in there Boxten?” Poppy yelled. Boxten gave her a quick thumbs up from the floor as he stared at the metal panel. It had a bunch of different buttons on it, only one of them backlit with a white glow, yellowed by the aged rubber of the button. Each of the buttons all had a different number on them, ranging from 3 to 14. With the only button without a number being named simply “lobby”.

Finally, it was all over… Boxten pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

He pressed it again.

Nothing.

Boxten considered curling up into a ball and giving up on everything. They just wasted all that time, all that energy, and part of Poppy’s damn body just for them to not even be able to even leave the floor.

Boxten stared at the yellowed glow of button number 14, a floor below where they just were. The air around him felt thick, the stress seeping out of every bone in his body trying to claw its way into his throat. The dust floating around him felt like bugs sitting on every inch of his body, waiting for the right moment to dig into his skin.

“We have to go down.” Barely a whisper inside his scratched throat.

“We have to what?” Poppy tilted her head, staring down at him like a curious deer.

“I- I can’t click any of the other buttons. We have to go down.” Boxten stared up at Poppy, internally praying that she might give him something, Anything! A way out, another solution. Just something that didn't mean them venturing deeper into the dark facility.

“...Alright. Guess we’re going down then.”

Chapter Text

Poppy let out a loud groan. The three of them have gone through a few floors now and still, not a single clue as to how to get out of here. She leaned against the elevator door and tapped her foot as they slowly traveled down to floor 20. Most ichor runs usually ended here, most people usually being too injured or too dead to keep heading down. Luckily, the three of them managed to find a few bandages and even a medkit on floor 17 so they were all doing pretty well physically. Mentally was another story.

“I HATE THIS! WHEN ARE WE LEAVING?!” Shrimpo demanded, like anyone there knew the answer.

Poppy and Boxten had learned to ignore Shrimpo’s constant nagging by now. Boxten eventually snapping at him only made him shut up for a few minutes at most, and Poppy arguing a few floors didn’t help. Group morale was at an all time low. Shrimpo seemed even more mad than usual, Boxten had stopped talking after yelling on floor 18, and Poppy was starting to get hungry.

It was always hard to tell what time it was down in the lower levels, the clocks were always either broken or constantly spinning whenever Twisted Astro was around. The lack of natural light didn’t help, even on the highest floors it was always just a little but dark, not enough to stay awake but not enough to fall asleep, as the white lights reached even a floor’s darkest corners. The only reasons Poppy could tell it was around lunch time was by checking the clock just before leaving the lobby and the pangs of hunger gnawing at her stomach. Her not eating any breakfast probably didn’t help her. She had forgotten to from the excitement of actually being able to go down the elevator. There was almost never anything to do while everyone else was fighting for their lives.

Poppy had no idea if there was even edible food down here. The occasional chocolate or protein bars were always there plus the assortment of lollies that have never given Poppy the boost she actually needed were everywhere sure, but none of those things were an actual meal. Not to mention they needed water too. She loved pop but she knew damn well that you can not live off it forever, she unfortunately learned that from experience but that was neither here nor there. Whatever! As long as it keeps her going for the next few hours she should be fine right?

The elevator jerked upwards as it came to a sudden halt, interrupting Poppy’s thoughts completely. The door opened with a loud guttural cry as it echoed off the concrete floors and walls, two entrances to the left and right opened up the rest of the area, with the one just in front of them leading to an abandoned parking area, with cars scattered across it.

Poppy stepped out first, trying to avoid blocking her nose from dampness in the air mixing together with years old petrol spills and unfinished wood. The others followed suit more hesitantly.

“I don’t hear any mains. That’s good.” Boxten mumbled, Poppy could hear the relief in Boxten’s voice. They were lucky enough to have not gotten a twisted main yet after being left in the facility. The only main Twisted that they got was a Twisted Sprout and it’s not like they ever encountered it with Flutter on distracting duty. Even then, its cries were just loud enough to echo off of every wall on that 12th floor, making Poppy’s back shiver each time.

Poppy walked over to the three research capsules in front of her and peeled off the film real to check the photo underneath against the white light above. Tisha, Looey and her own Twisted counterpart were all here.

“Don’t worry guys! It’s just common twisteds.” Poppy chirped back to the group. She could see the relief in Boxten’s face already. She was glad, the last thing she wanted was for her friend to be even more anxious than he already was. “We can just split up and do the machines to get through them faster!” Poppy smiled. Finally, an easy floor. They could relax for a bit!

Shrimpo immediately ran off, clearly not wanting to spend any longer than the bare minimum around the starter duo. Poppy was more than ok with that though, Shrimpo was never really the conversational type unless it was for the sake of saying that he hated something. It made sense that he got reprimanded by Delilah so much, even if usually it was after he actually managed to apologise for once, unfortunate timing Poppy supposed.

“Alright let's go Boxy!” Poppy grabbed her best friend’s arm and pulled him towards the nearest machine, skipping with as many steps as she could.

“Woah! What-” Boxten barely had any time to react before Poppy practicality threw him at the machine.

“You got this!!” Poppy cheered, mimicking Shelly’s inspiration ability. She didn’t really have any power like that but she knew that sticking with Boxten was more than enough to help him.

Poppy looked out to the horizon as Boxten carefully filled up the machine behind her. She has always stuck by Boxten’s side during runs and kept watch for him. Before it was mostly just for show, something to help his nerves a bit. But now it actually meant something. It was her job to draw the twisteds attention and get them away from the other two. Her hands were shaking but she pretended like she didn’t notice, keeping her signature smile.

She looked back over to where Shrimpo went. A tiny staff only room that was separated by some shelves leading into a candle lit room. She could see Shrimpo banging his head on the machine out of frustration and couldn’t help but chuckle. However, something in the back of her mind was bothering her. Something about this room felt… off. She couldn’t quite place it, flipping the idea around in her brain, getting no results. She looked over at the broken elevator as something clicked in her mind. She just thought the elevator door was slightly open and that’s why it was crooked but it was getting more and more pronounced with each nervous glance she took.

Was the room... turning?

How was that- What?! Poppy rubbed her eyes to check and sure enough she wasn’t hallucinating. The ends of the room were slowly turning in different directions, all the while the middle stayed the same like a hand towel someone was ringing out. Poppy

Ding~

Poppy looked back over at Boxten

“You see it too right?”

“See what?”

Poppy sputtered in disbelief before grabbing Boxten’s head and turning it towards the elevator, pointing at it dramatically.

“...Oh my god. How is that even happening? Is this place connected to a motor, are there seams in the ground where it’s turning?? I-”

“I DON’T KNOW AND I’M FREAKING OUT OVER IT!” Poppy shook Boxten’s shoulders violently as she tried to come up with some kind of explanation, her mind drawing a complete blank. She stopped, trying to steady her mind, trying to stay positive. “Whatever is happening, I would rather not stick around for long!” She smiled.

“...Right.” Boxten turned, walking over to the next machine in the tiny closet near the elevator. There was another machine just outside of that one so Poppy decided to put her hands on the wheel and extract for once. Boxten gave her a nervous glance but a thumbs up was all she needed to do to reassure him. If they wanted to get off this floor quickly then they needed more people to extract.

Poppy turned the wheel on her machine, humming along to the little tune Boxten sometimes plays to calm himself down. Ichor dribbled down into its container, the viscous liquid splattering up and sticking to the glass walls of the container as if it was trying to escape. It was hard to hear a lot of things over the sound of the pouring ichor, especially when that thing was trying to be quiet.

Poppy could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as the machine was only halfway to completion. Something was reflecting back on the glass that she couldn’t see before, she squinted trying to get a better look. Yellow, purple and green could just barely be seen on the machine’s cracked surface. With the only colour that truly stood out were two red blots that glowed a bright red several feet above her own.

Poppy ducked just before the creature could spot her and ducked behind one of the many wooden boxes scattered around. It was a twisted Looey. Poppy already hated seeing her friend turned grotesque.The twisteds mimicked the living toons but this one was different, more off. Its neck string was so long that his ears scraped the ceiling, eyes always looking down to find its prey. Its tail dragged along to floor deflated, leaving trails of ichor behind that resembled someone carrying away a dead body.

Poppy covered her mouth as she waited for Twisted Looey to lose interest. Common Twisteds never had the best object permanence, so she should lose him soon right? She could hear her own heart pounding in her ears as she listened out for his footsteps, movement, something, anything! Why wasn’t he moving?!

Poppy could hear the sound of rubber squeaking together, no concrete on rubber though. She swallowed her own fear and looked up.

Twisted Looey’s head hovered over her. It held its string just far enough for it to turn town and stare down at her. Its eyes were hungry, ichor dripping down from its teeth onto her skin sending a shiver through her entire body.

Poppy started running again, looking for an actually good place to hide. Twisted Looey trailed behind her, holding its head down so it could track its prey. She could start to feel the ground shifting now. Her foot always landed just a bit too fast or slow which threw off her running completely. She refused to let that ugly gross weird Looey catch her though! Poppy ducked into a tiny staff only area as Looey tracked just behind her. Getting caught here was bad, she would have no way out but that’s never stopped her before. She ducked under a desk and counted down the twisted’s attention span that had been drilled into her head so many times by a certain overprotective strawberry.

Twisted Looey ran into the tiny room, dragging its head along with it. It scanned the room trying to find anything of note. The sounds of squeaking rubber and jingling bells got closer and closer as the red glimmer reflecting off of the metal shelf in front of Poppy grew more and more striking. An ichor stained hand slammed just above Poppy with a loud wooden thunk. Poppy closed her eyes and braced for impact.

Twisted Looey snarled like a dog as its hand got pulled off of the table, its squeaks and bells following the twisted out of the tiny room as it lost interest.

Poppy slumped against the desk’s back wall, letting out the biggest sigh of relief as a grin formed on her face. She lived another chase! Again! That’s 2 points for Poppy and 0 for the twisteds! She quickly got up and dusted herself and checked her surroundings. She couldn’t help but notice the lit candle just behind where she was sitting.

There stood the old founder's photos with a note resting on top of Arthur’s. The yellowing of the paper was only just barely visible under the yellow glow of the candle. Poppy looked at the photo’s solemnly. She still missed them, even if as a background character she rarely got attention from them. The toon handlers and company owners were the closest thing they had to parents after all. She wondered if the others missed them too.

The note was an audio transcript of a couple of the main toon handlers arguing about throwing away the old founder photos. It really sounded just like all of them. Poppy couldn’t help but smile at it a little, even if that smile had traces of melancholy stuck between its teeth. Poppy looked at the clock just above her to check the time.

7:41pm.

It had been that long? Poppy could believe it, the clock must have been broken, it had to be! She checked the alarm clock just behind the metal fencing.

7:41pm.

Poppy could feel her blood run cold. They’ve been stuck here for at least 7 hours now, no wonder she was feeling hungry and exhausted! If the other toons hadn’t come back down yet then where were they? Were they figuring out how to get them out? …Could they get them all out?

Poppy shook her head. She refused to fall into the trap of overthinking, that was Boxten’s job and it was her job to pull him out of it. They’re gonna get out of here soon! It would just take a little more time than they all expected, that’s all! Her fake smile hurt the corners of her mouth but she trudged out of the room as soon as Looey’s footsteps faded behind the hum of the LED lights

This was what Poppy was worried about. The room had shifted significantly by now, boxes now sit on the side of the walls as the gravity bended and warped with it. The only thing that seemed unaffected by the gravity being Poppy herself. Were the lower floors always this weird?

Poppy took a running start and jumped onto the nearest box, nearly falling backwards to the concrete wall- floor? Beneath her. She steadied herself, there were only one or two machines that needed to be completed now.

Ding~

“Poppy are you alright? I think I heard the sound of something slamming into the boxes-” A weird noise croaked its way out of Boxten’s throat as he stumbled on the edge of the artificial cliff.

“The turnings gotten a lot worse but hey! At least it means all those hours of training on the monkey bars was worth it!” Poppy chirped, clambering over to the nearest metal shelf to get to Boxten, holding out her hand to help him up. Boxten hopped over with her, just barely managing to pull himself up with her help.

“Oh jeez, we gotta get outta here quick before we can barely walk… Thanks Poppy.” Boxten sighed, looking over at the half full machine Poppy was just about to finish before she got interrupted by Twisted Looey. Looks like Shrimpo finished at least one machine out here, good, less work for the rest of them. God knows Poppy was starting to feel exhausted. She could really start to feel how much she was starving, claws digging into her organs from the inside with a guttural cry of desperation. She could feel herself slowing down as her mind glazed over details of the past few hours, leaving only a hazy recollection of watercolour memories backed with a chorus of sharp pains and fatigue. Boxten stared at Poppy’s face, like watching a rotting tree on the brink of buckling under its own weight. Concern was etched into his face, Poppy instinctively looked away.

“I’ve been meaning to ask this for an hour now but, are you doing alright?” Boxten asked, nudging Poppy’s shoulder.

“Huh what?”

“You’ve been staring off into space this entire floor, it’s not like you at all.” Boxten shook Poppy’s shoulders lightly. It was gentle, a lot calmer than the borderline shove Poppy usually gave Boxten but it was still enough to make her head hurt.

“Yea yea I’m fine!” Poppy could feel herself getting more and more dizzy the longer she tried to hang onto one of these Boxes. “Just a bit hungry, I may or may not have forgotten to eat today.” Poppy laughed, it was just as empty as her mind, filled with a vague haze. The same haze she feels after trying to outrun twisted Pebble.

“Shoot uhhh,” Boxten glanced around nervously, hoping someone else would have an answer. “We gotta get some food soon, I’m not sure when the others are gonna come get us so we should prepare for the worst.”

“No, they should get back soon, don't worry! I just gotta hold on a little longer.”

“...And what if you can’t?”

Poppy shifted uncomfortably, the space around them filled with a silent tension.

“Please, come on we just gotta get you some kind of meal. Just enough for one thing, ok?” Boxten furrowed his brows, his nervousness on full display as he shuffled his feet. Poppy nodded. She was sure the others would

Poppy thought back to the first floor they got stuck on. She heard the sound of a Box being smashed just before Boxten ran into the elevator room with the key, but there was something clinging to his pants when he first walked in. A white powder trailing behind him as he turned the corner, quickly dissipating after Boxten noticed a floor later and patted himself down.

“Flour?” Poppy thought out loud. She stared at the box in front of her and the broken metal pipe right next to it, both somehow defying gravity and sticking to the original map's floor. Without a second thought, she grabbed the pipe, shoved the most jagged edge under one of the top boards, and pushed down as hard as she could.

CRASH!

Boxten immediately jumped at the noise. The box immediately crumbled, not standing a chance against years of moisture build up and mold growth. In its place was exactly what Poppy hoped for. Food! Actual food! Sure it was just a rice bag and some frozen veggies that are somehow still cold but hey, you take what you can get!

The twisted behind her seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Poppy barely dodged Twisted Tisha’s swing, diving onto one of the other Boxes. Boxten quickly followed suit slightly more clumsily. Tisha was standing on the original floor of the building, gravity seemingly not affecting the twisted at all as she climbed onto the box with them.

“Boxten! Grab more food while I get the last machine!”

“Uh, ok!” Boxten picked up as much of the food as he could before chucking them on the metal fencing just above him and climbing up with them. He sprinted down the hallway, jumping over boxes and holes in the metal. Poppy grabbed the last thing, a single bottle of soy sauce and shoved it under her arm as fast as she could. She stared up at Twisted Tisha

The bottom part of Twisted Tisha’s was torn open and covered in ichor, its teeth and exposed gums just barely visible through the inky substance. Its eyes were blank, the same glazed over look in its eye that you’d find on a months old dead body, sunken and hollow. The only way Poppy could tell it was alive was her violent grip on her broom. The only parts of her mind replaced with the innate urge to kill.

The creature lunged forward, slamming her broom into the box Poppy was on, just barely missing her arms. Poppy leaped off of the now broken box and up onto the metal shelf just above her where the almost finished machine was. She could see Tisha just below her, standing on what was now the wall. From the twisted Tisha’s perspective Poppy was laying down, completely defenseless in the face of this monster.

Poppy swung up from onto the higher parts of the shelf, climbing up the side like a ladder as Twisted Tisha followed closely behind. Just as Twisted Tisha tried to jab her broom into Poppy, she kicked it right back at her, causing the wood to shoot into her face and puncture through the back of its mouth. The monster screeched as Poppy scrambled on top of the machine.

Poppy turned the crank as fast as she could, the machine was almost done anyways so it didn’t matter if she got chased, got hurt, whatever! As long as the others were safe, she would be fine. She had to be optimistic about it, no matter what they were going to get out of here soon so who cares if she gets hurt here?

An alarm blared out of the speaker just above her but she didn’t care. Rubber footsteps could be heard in the distance but she didn’t care. The room was twisting further making it harder to stay upright on the machine but she didn’t care. Because no matter what she had to make it out of here alive.

The machine popped, the timer began, and it dawned on Poppy that she was now surrounded.

Looey snapped his head down and lunged at Poppy’s head. She quickly spun around and grabbed the nearest piece of broken wood and slammed in inbetween his jaws. She ran towards the exit as fast as she could, just barely managing to jump to each box and shelf as the timer threatened to leave her trapped

The floor flattened out as she got closer and closer to the elevator. Poppy couldn’t help but grin as she spotted the others, Shrimpo was in the elevator and Boxten just barely visible behind the concrete wall dividing the elevator area and the parking lot.

Twisted Tisha and Twisted Looey were both hot on Poppy’s tail. Twisted Looey took the wood plank stuck in its mouth and snapped it with its jagged teeth, its smile clenched into a contorted grin. Twisted Tisha still had the broom suck down the back of it’s throat, ichor sputtered out of the wound but Tisha didn’t seem to pay it any mind as it’s glazed over eyes focused on the toons in front of her.

Poppy sharply turned the corner and grabbed Boxten’s hand before throwing him into the elevator. She dived in after him just as Dandy’s crackled voice said zero. The elevator closed with a sharp metal thud just above Twisted Tisha’s head, she managed to move out of the way but the broom stuck in her throat snapped under the weight of the metal door. The sound of snapped wood reverberated through the tiny space as Dandy’s shop slowly opened, the flower never rising from its core.

“OH MY GOSH!!! WE MADE IT!! YEES!” Poppy screamed, picking up Boxten and twirling him around. Boxten was caught off guard at first but he didn’t seem to mind. Poppy always double checked if he was uncomfortable with it afterwards. “Alright, let's see what we got here.”

Poppy stared at the assorted food items they collected. It wasn’t much, all things considered, but it was enough for now. Plus the other toons should be able to grab them in a day or two so it shouldn’t be a problem! Poppy stared at the portable stovetop, pots and bowls. They were gonna be the most important things to keep in good condition, after all they would probably need them for every meal.

“Alright!” Poppy announced, drawing the other toons attention from the kitchenware. “Since we’re going to be sharing these all for a… indeterminate amount of time,” Poppy picked at her skirt, an old nervous tick she could never get rid of. “We’re gonna need a system to share these properly! Boxten, you take the purple bowl. I, naturally, take the pink bowl. And Shrimpo takes the entire rest of the kitchenware and foo- HEY WAIT!”

Shrimpo stared at Poppy like a deer in headlights. What the heck!? Shrimpo knew that that was all they had, what possible explanation could explain him trying to steal all their loot.

“MIND YOUR BUSINESS!” Shrimpo retorted, his signature scowl deeper than before.

“What do you mean? Being able to eat is our business. Of course it is! Why are you taking all the food?”

“I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. I HATE HOW MUCH YOU JUDGE ME!”

“We only judge you because you keep doing stupid stuff like this!” Poppy pinched her brow, trying to control her frustration. “You know what? Fine. You can have it. But we’re gonna be watching you the entire time you do, whatever you're trying to, and if we spot you trying to chuck the peas down the vent or something we’re throwing you out the elevator. Got it?”

Shrimpo stared at Poppy, looked down at all the loot they gathered, then nodded. He picked up as much as he could and ran over to the corner of the elevator where it was as hard as possible to actually see what he was doing.

Boxten looked over at Poppy, his expression unsure. He leaned over to her and whispered. “Are you sure we can trust him?”

Poppy nodded. “Look, he hasn’t been the most friendly but he’s mostly been cooperative. Besides, it’s his food too. If he throws it out to make us mad then he’s just gonna be starving himself.”

Poppy squinted at Shrimpo as she heard the tiny stove top light up. He slowly started adding in the ingredients, the oils and pre-chopped onion being added in first, slowly frying under the pot’s heat. Shrimpo seemed focused, like he had done this thousands of times. Come to think of it, he had never really come to meal times to eat with everyone else. Poppy just figured that he always scavenged the leftovers but maybe…

“BOXTEN PASS ME THE VEGGIES!” Shrimpo demanded.

“...But they’re right next to you-”

“GIMME ‘EM!”

Boxten squeaked before quickly passing over the mixed frozen veggie packet. Shrimpo huffed through his nose before quickly adding the veggies to the pot. Wasn’t long before he added a bit of the washed rice and sauces as well.

It actually smelled… good? Poppy couldn’t believe it but low and behold, Shrimpo might actually be good at something. She looked over at Boxten, who appeared to be thinking the exact same thing as Shrimpo cracked eggs into a separate bowl with one hand.

Shrimpo scowled down at the singular pot they had while holding the freshly whisked egg mixture in his hands. He quickly shifted the rice over just enough to make room for the eggs as they splashed into the pot, mixing them up together over a lower heat just fast enough so that the bottom of the rice didn’t burn.

“IT’S READY!”

Shrimpo grabbed the wooden rice paddle and dumped his food into his own bowl with a loud splat, the rice somehow not flying everywhere. Poppy and Boxten looked at him expectantly before realising the obvious and grabbing their own bowls themselves. Before Poppy could even consider if eating something Shrimpo gave her was a good idea, Boxten took his first bite.

“Wait, this is actually good?” Boxten sputtered in awe. Poppy looked down at her bowl of fried rice. The bowl was still steaming as she held it in her hands, the pleasant smell wafting its way up to her face. The egg looked like pieces of gold that simmered, sat snug in between every speck of rice along with the veggies. It couldn’t be that good if Shrimpo made it, right? Poppy hesitantly grabbed her spoon, dug into the food and took a bite.

“Dude, when could you cook?! There’s no way that you of all people made this.” Poppy put the bowl down and immediately grabbed Shrimpo in pure excitement. “This is amazing, what?!”

“I HATE COMPLIMENTS, I ALREADY KNOW I’M GOOD AT EVERYTHING!” Shrimpo retorted, the blush on his face revealing his bold faced lie. “I’M GONNA DROP MY BOWL ON YOUR HEAD!”

“Hm, more for me then!”

Shrimpo thought about Poppy’s comment before grumbling and choosing to eat his food in silence. His antenna twitched with slight annoyance but other than that he was mostly… quiet. Too focused on eating to pay attention to anything else.

Something occurred to Poppy at that moment. The thought dug into her mind and squirmed around as she thought about it deeper, causing her to wince. She looked over at Boxten, hoping that she wasn’t alone. Boxten looked back at her with a knowing glance, thinking the exact same thing as her.

Maybe Shrimpo wasn’t as shallow as they thought.

Chapter Text

Silence.

The only sounds Vee could process in that moment was the hum of the LED light above them, the echo of doors closure, and the wire of her own mechanics. The cold air was stagnant, like the elevator itself was holding its breath.

The hatch behind them opened. Dandy appeared with a set of three cards on his desk, smiling as wide as ever.

“Hello friends! Care to pick a card to help you with your advent-”

“DANDY OPEN THE DOOR!” Scraps grabbed Dandy’s petals and pulled him over the counter, hissing behind her teeth. Dandy’s smile only faltered for a moment.

“Did something happen while I wasn’t looking?” Dandy looked around, seemingly now only noticing the three missing team members. “Ohhh I see!” He giggled, making Vee’s tail twitch. “Well how about we go back up to the lobby! It looks like you all have had a rough day as well.” Dandy beamed. He looked over the other toons in the elevator. Gigi was in the corner comforting a crying Flutter while Brightney was treating her injuries still.

Vee huffed, she knew Dandy wasn’t always the most expressive toon but something about the lack of sympathy even in his direct words made the wires inside of her neck stand on end. She hated how little he shared, even with his fellow mains he was always so secretive about everything. Toons kept nagging the mains for questions about the ichor operation but they barely knew anything themselves. Vee huffed, trying to stay quiet to not make the situation worse, Scraps was already chewing Dandy out more than enough. Dandy giggled at their worries like they were all kids who just lost their favourite toy, caring but belittling at the same time.

“Don’t worry! They’ll have respawned in the lobby before you know it!”

—

6 hours, 38 minutes and 52 seconds.

That was the amount of time that it had been since Vee left the elevator after that god forsaken run.

Not only did they barely get anywhere or get any ichor, they ended up just losing more teammates then they already had, three to be exact. They were already incredibly low on toons who could actually do their jobs now. She would have to do twice as much work while they were gone. Still, them not being back yet left a bitter taste in her mouth, as if her batteries started leaking and reached the throat like bile. Vee stretched as she exited her charging station. The starters not respawning made her think back to another incident where ███████-

No. She would not think about it. That was someone else's job. She wasn’t supposed to feel anything about it anyways.
Vee stomped into the elevator to try and drown out her own thoughts. She pressed the toon rooms button and shuffled while waiting for the elevator to reach its destination. The main’s rooms and the toon rooms were weirdly far apart from each other and the elevator's age would make it even slower than it already had to be. This was going to take a while. Good thing she had a random sheet of paper at her feet to keep her company. Wait-

Vee stared down at the page with both frustration and curiosity. Wouldn’t Tisha have cleaned this up by now? She’s not one to leave random things laying around, maybe she just hadn’t checked the elevator in a while.

Vee snatched the paper off the ground and started reading through it, more out of boredom than anything else, like reading the entire back of a shampoo bottle while brushing your teeth. She thought it was like that anyways, she didn’t really have teeth to brush. The writing was scratchy and almost incomprehensible, Vee was pretty sure the only reason the writing was semi-even was because it was on lined paper. Try as she might Vee could barely make out a single word, the only thing she could read was the title which simply held the date.

‘13 / 04 / 2003.’

Was this Flutter’s? She was one of the few toons she knew of that kept a diary like this, although she could’ve sworn her handwriting was neater. The recent run must have really shook her up. Then again if she was that upset she would have gotten Gigi to write it for her, not to mention she only wrote in a bound diary how would that just fall out with no tear marks?

Vee scanned the note again, trying to piece it together as best she could until something clicked

‘13 / 04 / 2003.’

I do hope that the date is accurate. It is admittedly hard to keep track of the date in a place like this, especially when most of the clocks do not work anymore. Nevertheless, I can make due.

I have now been saddled with a new case. Poppy, Boxten, and Shrimpo all appear to have gone missing around floor 13 on variant three of the dinning hall. If my investigation is correct then it was a blackout as well, with Flutter and Cosmo being the two twisteds on the floor. I am glad I asked Flutter for this information. With it I should be able to solve this case in no time.

I̶ j̶u̶s̶t̶ h̶o̶p̶e̶ i̶t̶ g̶o̶e̶s̶ b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ t̶h̶a̶n̶ m̶y̶ l̶a̶s̶t̶ o̶n̶e̶. I̶ c̶a̶n̶ b̶a̶r̶e̶l̶y̶ e̶v̶e̶n̶ l̶o̶o̶k̶ a̶t̶ h̶i̶s̶ p̶o̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ a̶n̶y̶m̶o̶r̶e̶. I̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ t̶o̶ t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶, I̶’m̶ s̶c̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ I̶’l̶l̶ f̶o̶r̶g̶e̶t̶ h̶i̶s̶ f̶a̶c̶e̶ t̶o̶o̶.

I will find them soon.

Huh.

Vee tilted her head reading the paper. She was surprised that Rodger had found out about the disappearance so quickly considering for all she’d seen he’d been locked up in his room ever since ███████’s disappearance. It almost made her pity the old fart, almost. She had barely heard any information on the case, he must be slacking or something. That would explain why a note like this would be found randomly out in the open like this. The detective she knew would never leave files unattended. More accurately the detective she saw in the hallways occasionally and was forced to hide from less she got pestered for an interview.

The elevator came to a sudden halt and the door’s latch opened up. Without thinking Vee stuffed the paper inside of her suit pocket before anyone could see her with it. It felt weird having something like that out in the open. Even alluding to ███████ was strange now and she did not want that to be a conversation starter if she could help it.

Vee finally entered the kitchen to look around. It wasn’t like she could eat anyways so she generally avoided communal meal times, partly because it felt weird to sit in front of food she couldn’t eat and partly because last time she tried to be social, Finn fell on top of her and nearly fried her circuits. Still, she had to admit that being able to socialise with the other toons was nice. It was hard to be chatty while fighting for your life so she always came in after everything was cleaned up.

Flutter was sitting at the table, occasionally sipping out of a cup of juice with her proboscis while Cosmo was off doing the dishes in the sink. Made sense that the other toon who also didn’t eat normally would stick around after dinner was already finished. Looks like she came a little too late, she must’ve been charging longer than she thought. She sat down across from Flutter who currently had her chin smooshed into the table like a drunkard just about to ask the bartender for their 12th drink.

“Rough day huh?” Vee tapped her fingers across the table, Flutter hummed in response, not even looking at her.

“She’s been like this for a while now,” Cosmo piped up from the counter. “She’s been trying to help me clean up but she’s been out of it the entire time.” Cosmo scratched at his arm, a nervous habit.

Flutter looked over at Cosmo, her brows furrowed in concern as she stared at the still massive pile of unwashed dishes.

“Flutter, I know you wanna help but you really need to rest. You can’t distract twisteds if you haven’t even had your dinner… Also you keep dropping the plates.”

Flutter looked like she was trying to form an argument but was too busy giggling at her own thoughts, her wings flapping louder.

“I know trying to balance them on your head is funny, but that doesn’t mean you should. It’s a good thing we only have plastic ones.”

Flutter huffed, putting her head back on the table once again. Vee watched this entire thing with a bit of an amused chuckle. Vee grabbed one of the empty unused cups on the table and brought it closer like she was actually going to drink out of it. Vee thought back to the note she found on the ground, it talked about getting information from Flutter so maybe… She shouldn’t be playing with this information. She shouldn’t even be acknowledging its existence, but something in the back of her mind still itched to know the answer. She couldn’t ignore it forever.

“Flutter.”

Flutter tilted her head.

“Do you recognise this?”

Vee grabbed the sheet of paper, flipped and slid it over so Flutter could read it. Flutter’s face immediately lit up in recognition, jolting upright the second she realised what she was reading. Flutter ducked her head under the table and signalled with her wing for Vee to join her. Vee moved down only to find a similar sheet of paper to the one she had already found. Handwriting and all, this one however was a little easier to read.

Vee got out from under the table and looked at the butterfly. Flutter thought for a moment before getting up and acting out a scene. She covered one of her eyes and wrapped her wings around her like a trenchcoat. She mock-chatted with Vee for a bit before quickly walking off, “dropping”, more like lightly placing her diary on the ground as she continued walking away. Flutter put her hand down and her wings back in there usual place, tilting her head to ask a silent question.

“So let me get this straight. Rodger, just ran off after talking to you? Didn’t even have the time to tell him that he dropped his stuff?”

Flutter nodded, going back to her now normal worried expression.

Vee picked the sheet up off the floor and started reading, trying to avoid the obvious coffee drops and stains on the page.

04 / 01 / 2003

I feel as though I am becoming more and more complacent as time moves forward. I have made a lot of progress in terms of researching twisteds, gathering information on ichors use, the things I am asked to do, what’s expected of me. It’s not like I dislike these jobs, I find twisteds rather fascinating and I’d love to look more into their physiology but still. I have not gotten any closer to finding him.

I’ve been getting more and more concerned by the day, especially as I learn more and more about what the twisteds are capable of, particularly the twisteds based on the main characters. They not only have their well documented abilities: Sprout’s roots, Astro’s energy drain, Shelly’s confusion, Vee’s popup advertisements (I still have no clue how she can even perform that). But based on my findings and some interviews, mains twisteds can change the environment on later floors. With Vee having security cameras all over the floor, Sprout’s floor containing a pollen-like substance that blocks your vision. It seems that a lot of toons perished on those floors, I didn’t want to pester Looey too much about it though, he looked uncomfortable.

I can not confirm their existence since I only have anecdotal evidence to go off from a very limited number of sources, not to mention most of the toons who get to the lower floors refuse to talk to me.

Perhaps the others are right. Maybe ███████ did run off before Garden View’s shut down. Maybe he got some information from Deliah. Maybe he knew what was going to happen to some degree and decided to leave before things could turn sour. It is that or he’s stuck somewhere downstairs, Maybe near floor 40 or somewhere deep enough that no one else has ever reached. Both ideas make my stomach churn and I’m not sure why. It’s just hard to believe that he’d run off without telling me at least. I thought we were close, that’s why he came with me with his problems isn’t it?

I am beginning to forget his voice outside of his episodes. I wish I had saved logs of our conversations.

The writing got noticeably shaky as the letter went on. Some of the drops on the page were clear instead of the usual light brown, just barely visible through the warping on the page. Vee winced, putting the paper down before she could think about it too hard.
Flutter looked down at her feet like the paper hurt to look at. Her antennae dropping a little lower than normal.

“...Worried about him huh? Hmm…” Vee flipped the sheet of paper around and placed it on top of the sheet she already had, straightening them out with the table. She was starting to feel just a twinge of guilt even reading these or holding them out in the open. It felt like she was holding up a piece of Rodger’s soul which made her increasingly uncomfortable. Not to mention ███████ being mentioned at all, she hated thinking about it. “...These sheets should not be out here. Rodger needs this for his work anyways. Do you know where the other sheets might be, or where his room is?”

Flutter tilted her head, squinting a bit.

Vee sputtered. “Well, I can’t keep every single piece of information about every background character in my database. That would be a waste of my memory wouldn’t it?” Vee smirked confidently, hiding the fact that she just completely forgot where most of the toons live on accident.

Flutter squinted at her before relenting. Flutter got up and flew over to the fire escape map on the wall and Vee followed. She pointed at a room on the third floor and covered one of her eyes. She hesitated a moment before then pointing at the room right next to hers on the second floor, grabbing as many things as she could from her pockets and off the table with the greed of a collector, her wings loose around the items like sweater flippers.

“So Rodger’s room is on the third toon room floor the 3rd to the left and the papers would be in-” Vee stopped abruptly and let out a long annoyed sigh, realising the exact toon Flutter was talking about.

Flutter huffed at her, the fluff around her neck puffing up as she got defensive.

“Yea I know Gigi’s your friend but she still threatened to rip out my circuitry.”

“...” Flutter sighed, resting her head on one of her pillow-paw-like hands.

“I’m not surprised that you know she would do that. Thank you anyway Flutter, you were almost as helpful as me on that run.” Vee grinned, partly as a show of goodwill but also to hide her frustration. Flutter waved back to her as she left the room, going back to chatting with Cosmo as Vee hopped inside the elevator to get to floor two.

Vee walked over to the entrance of Gigi’s room and knocked on the wall next to it. Vee still did not understand why their rooms didn’t have doors. Ok well technically she did “for safety” but how is it safe to not have a lock on your door when Shrimpo and Gigi live on the same floor as you?! Delilah didn’t make any sense sometimes.

“Oh hey Vee!” Gigi looked up from her rubix cube on the bed, putting it back in her head before tip-toeing over to the door’s entrance to greet her. Vee was pretty sure Gigi never even tried to solve it, preferring to look at it instead. Vee knew that Gigi had the smarts to solve it which made her treating it like any other random object felt even weirder. “What’s up with you? You never come down here unless-”

“I’m looking for something.” Vee finished her sentence without a second thought. Gigi looked guilty for a second out of habit before pausing, she tilted her head at her confused.

“I haven’t taken anything from you directly since you threatened to leak that… ughh what was the term for it- BLACKMAIL YEA THAT’S IT!” Gigi snapped her fingers together, Vee almost expected a light bulb to appear above her head. “Mmmaybe you just dropped it somewhere?”

“Well I’m not actually looking for one of my things. I’m trying to find something of Rodger’s. You wouldn’t happen to have any idea where they are, would you?”

“Why would you do that? Don’t you hate the guy?”

Vee frozen, taken aback by the idea. She quickly sputtered back to normal, flicking her mic up to her hand like it never happened. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Sure he’s a bit pushy with interviews and strange around us mains in general but it’s not like I hate him.”

“You and the other mains keep turning him down for interviews so I just thought you wouldn’t wanna talk to him like, at all. Did something happen to make you bother reading the papers? Oooo, did they have a bunch of secrets on the twisteds that he hasn’t told us yet? I haven’t read them yet, I wanna know!” Gigi bounced on her toes as she waited for a response.

But it never came. Something about that statement dug into Vee’s core, her emotional processor exposed to the eyes of everyone around. Her fans started working overtime, trying to drown out her own thoughts but something in the back of her mind still itched, already knowing the answer she’d been trying to hide from.

A sharp pain she hadn’t felt in months had returned to her chest and throat, making it harder to breathe. She didn’t technically need to breathe, why was she even acknowledging the pain in the first place? She is a robot, a machine, a toon, built for a singular purpose and nothing more. But even a robot with no feelings of its own can tell when something is gone. Code is built with the missing object in mind, an entire part of herself isn’t acknowledged, by herself and the people around her. The only reason she thought about him again was by finding these notes by pure chance.

She needs to return these to Rodger so she never has to look at them ever again.

“Gigi, I know you have the papers. Hand them over or I’ll give everyone the security camera footage of you drinking straight out of the bottle of pop in the fridge before putting it back.”
Gigi paused for a moment before letting out a long drawn out sigh that turned into a groan. She popped her head back open and after a bit of scrounging pulled out exactly what Vee was looking for. A bunch of mostly grey looking paper documents were held halp-hazardly in her sweater’s paws. Looking a little closer, Vee could see an indent where a paperclip kept it in place, likely long lost to the floor. Gigi looked at them biting her lip as she tightened her grip, making the paper crinkle.

“Gigi-”

“OK FINEEEE, I GIVE UP!” Gigi whined, shoving the papers into Vee’s hands, she had to juggle them just to keep them off the floor. “I just found them all over the place in Garden View, I was gonna return them promise I just wanted to hold on a little longer, just to organise them of course! Hehehehehe, hehe- he…” Gigi looked at Vee with the kind of smile that would have lost a poker hand.

Vee sighed and pulled out her own sheets of paper, her teeth clenched together as she spoke. “Usually I would have used this as an opportunity to boast but I’m just as guilty as you here.”

Gigi instinctively peeked at the pages, her eyes skimming them like it was a celebrity magazine, a spectacle to be gawked at. Vee could feel her blood boil every millisecond Gigi’s eyes stayed on Rodger’s notes. Vee’s tail moved without her even thinking. Her microphone slammed into the capsule’s face, causing Gigi to recoil.

“Wha- Hey!” Gigi protested as she regained her footing but Vee was already running towards the elevator as fast as she could.

So much for her cool and cocky persona. Whatever, that self defence maybe! Probably. It felt like it was anyways, even though it wasn’t even technically her stuff being looked at. She shook her head. She just needed to get to the third floor, hand the papers to Rodger, and be done with it. She had a mission to do and she’d be damned if she didn’t do her job.

Vee pressed the elevator button and descended, too wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice going down until the door opened again.

This level was… A lot dingy than the other one. Not in terms of cleanliness, Tisha was on this floor and Vee was fairly certain that Tisha would rather die than leave a main area like this untidy. It was in its atmosphere. This area was undergoing repairs just before Garden View’s shutdown and it was very obvious. There were cracks in the paint, the lights flickered occasionally whenever you weren’t paying attention, one of the vents was just left open after a maintenance woman forgot to close it and took the screws with her by accident (Yatta at least liked that one). Vee wasn’t one for feeling but even she felt this place was a bit depressing to be in, like it was haunted by the ghost of its former self. Fitting that Connie was here too.

Vee avoided the patches of wet floor from Tisha’s cleaning and knocked on the entrance to Rodger’s room. But nobody answered. The only thing she was left with was the vague shuffling of someone at a desk. She knew she wasn’t supposed to look inside a room until the toon answered but she couldn’t take another second with these notes in her hands.

Rodger’s room was a mess. Papers scattered from the corner of the room all the way to the front door. They all had handwriting on them, most of it sloppy but some of it was a lot worse than others, all of the messier writing had the more recent dates. The room was mostly dark, save for Vee’s own green monitor glow and the desk lamp in the corner working overtime to light even the deepest corners of the room, mostly failing. Rodger sat in the corner, his head down and eye glued to the papers that managed to stay on his dark oak desk. Vee winced as she walked in, doing her best not to step on any of the paper while not dropping her own. Rodger only turned around when Vee pretended to clear her throat.

“Vee? What seems to be the matter- OH MY GOODNESS!” Rodger ran over to Vee faster than she’s ever seen the fossil move before instantly grabbing as many of the papers as he could, dropping one of them in the process. “Thank you very much Vee! I don’t know how I even lost these-”

“You dropped them in the kitchen,” Vee responded bluntly. “Gigi found them out there and I basically had to drag her away from them, you’re welcome by the way.” She smirked looking up at Rodger, causing Rodger to pull at his cravat nervously.

“I suppose I have been a little bit unorganised recently,” He cleared his throat. “...Thank you anyways. I would usually ask for an interview but I know you have been… busy so I won’t bother.” Even when he was trying to be polite about it, his obsession with interviews still shined through. Enough that it made Vee want to scratch an itch that wasn’t there. Rodger picked up the few papers that he dropped, leaving the many more still on the ground as he walked over to his desk; he clearly wasn’t used to carrying all of them on his own.

Vee looked down at one of the sheets that he dropped, the slightly see-through nature of the cheap paper beckoning Vee’s curiosity despite her better judgement.

‘29 / 5 / 2002’

It has been five days since ███████ went missing. I originally thought that this was just a handler issue but now I am starting to get concerned. Garden View is getting shut down soon and I am unsure if ███████ knows that. I hope that he doesn’t take it too hard. Or maybe he’s already taken it to heart; his room has been locked for a while.

This has happened with other toons before, I’ve seen it with Shrimpo many times now, but it never lasts this long. Usually the toon is back in only a day or two.
I haven’t collected many clues as to anything wrong occurring besides just the amount of time it’s been since ███████ was seen. It was just the usual. Delilah takes a toon away into a backroom after a few warnings so they could have a quick talk, then they come back less rowdy. Picking ███████ for this is still pretty strange though. I have not seen any behaviour from him that could be considered out of line like with Shrimpo. Maybe he just did it while I wasn’t looking? Odd.

It’s been strange not hearing his voice in my office at all recently. I didn’t even notice how much his complaining helped me not fixate too heavily on my work. There have been times where I don’t even realise how much time has passed because he helped me keep track of it. I’ve been leaving some of the Dandy’s World episodes where he’s featured prominently in the background while I work to remedy this. The voice is… a lot flatter than the actual toon. The TV’s wiring hides some of his smaller inflections, the way he fidgets when he’s nervous, how his voice cracked when he got too upset or laughed genuinely at me being ‘clueless’ or Toodles usual antics.

I just have to get through this and then I can hear him again.

Vee stared at the page, conflicted. He was a lot more willing to say ███████’s name in the later pages wasn’t he? It made her insides twist around in knots, Vee still couldn’t figure out why. He was gone, he’d been missing for a long time. He was either dead or abandoned all of them so why should she care?

Some part of her still clung to it. She couldn’t let go no matter how hard she tried to look away from it. The only difference between her and Rodger was that he fed into that urge, to hope that he was somehow still around. He hasn’t gotten far but maybe if she-

“So, what happened to your last case?”

Rodger froze, his breathing stopped for a moment.

“How many months has it been now? Like seven? Jeez, I know you’re busy but I’m not sure if you really make a good detective if you can’t even keep your notes organised.”

Vee waved the paper she was holding in front of Rodger’s face, Rodger’s eye filled with panic as he reached to say something but Vee cut him off before he could even form a single word. “This writing doesn’t look very professional either, I mean there's so much fluff and barely any information on the actual case! Clearly you need a helping hand.” She smirked, her tail swishing confidently as her mic landed in her hand.

Everything was going according to plan! She was already showing how skilled she was at noticing little details and keeping organised. There’s no way Rodger would turn her down either, she was a main toon, the ones he’s been nagging for months now. Now she just needed to offer her superior help and the entire thing will be solved in no time!
“I can help you out if you want. I’m pretty good at most things so I’m sure it would be pretty easy to find h-”

“I AM FINE ON MY OWN THANK YOU!”

Rodger slammed his hands on the table. Vee flinched, taking a step back at the sudden outburst. This was the first time she’d seen Rodger angry.

Rodger covered his eye with one hand as he slumped back down onto his chair again. “I’m sorry,” His voice was shaky. He couldn’t look her in the eyes, choosing to look down at the drops of coffee he just spilled on his own notes. “I’m not sure what came over me, it will not happen again. I promise.”

Vee’s antenna wilted. She was offering to help Rodger, wasn’t she? Vee looked at Rodger’s word had never seen Rodger look so, tired before. The dark circles under his eyes, the furrowing of his brow, the tenseness in his back. Vee was pretty much forced to study these things, the other toons' behaviour, or else she risked being mean to them by accident. Clearly her own ego passed her safe guards.

Vee sighed and walked over to Rodger, placing a metal hand on his shoulder. Vee had to stop her own wince when Rodger looked up at her, he really looked like shit. Eye bloodshot, smudged glass and a glazed over look in his eye, if she didn’t know any better she would’ve thought that he was looking past her directly into the now dark fluorescent light above them.

Crap, she actually felt guilty now. This wasn’t supposed to happen, what the hell! Vee winced as she glanced away from his face, barely able to look the detective in the eye like he was a wet puppy left out in the rain.

“That, might have come off the wrong way,” she scratched the back of her head reflexively. Rodger huffed like a large upset dog, not angry anymore but still upset. Vee slung her microphone back into her hand and continued. “Look, I cared about him, he was my number one fan after all. So why don’t we form a truce to actually find him?”

“...Why only now?” Rodger’s brow furrowed, his expression defiant almost. “What was the purpose of waiting nine months to do anything?” Vee paused, the end of her tail swishing back and forth low to the ground.

What kind of question was that? Wasn’t he the detective? Shouldn’t he be able to do this on his own? It’s not like he ever asked for help. How was she supposed to know when he just sat in his room all day and barely talked to anyone?

She couldn’t admit to suppressing her own feelings so deep that she barely remembered they existed. She couldn’t admit that it was only finding Rodger’s notes and realising that he was still looking for him was the only thing that sparked her desire to find him at all. She couldn’t admit to the fact that pretending he just ran away and abandoned all of them out of nowhere made it easier. Made it easier to move on to something more important. Grieving was a waste of her time.

Rodger let out a long sigh and looked over at his cork board right next to his desk. It’s just as disorganised as the rest of his room, maybe even moreso. Every inch of the board was covered to the point it was impossible to see the rough texture underneath. Papers, thumbtacks, red string, sticky notes, coffee stains, late night ramblings, regrets, promises to himself that have become impossible to see behind curled corners, all mixed together into a looming force that quite literally hung over his head. Right in the centre was a photo of him, taken from one of the security cameras in the lobby. Delilah was holding his hand as they walked off, he was looking at the camera like he somehow knew his fate.

It had been ten months since anyone had seen Glisten now.

Just looking at that paper left a knot in Vee’s artificial stomach, like her own circuitry was trying to choke itself to death. She shook her head and stared directly into Rodger’s eye.

“I am going to help you now. Whether you like it or not, got it?”

Rodger stared longingly at the board, something sparked inside of his eye that Vee hadn’t seen in a long time. He turned to her, like a cop interviewing a murder suspect. Vee made sure not to flinch.

“Very well then,” Rodger put his hands together just above where his mouth would be, his brow furrowed in concentration. “I will catch you up on all the details I can. And also some of the rules-

“Wait what?” Vee perked up, her antennae standing on edge.

“Dandy actually gave me a very specific list of guidelines to follow in this case. Not going into his room, needing to research the twisteds and keep this mystery as a side project, not going into any of the founder offices, ect. He said that these these rules were for my safety-”

“And that’s a load of bullshit!” Vee yelled, making Rodger’s heart nearly jump out of his chest. “Of course that flowery ‘goody-two-shoes’ wouldn’t let you sneak into his private room, or the handlers offices, or go anywhere actually useful!”

“But they are needed for our safety are they not? He wouldn’t be the leader otherwise. Not to mention whenever I peaked in there while Garden View was still open I would be informed that it wasn’t safe. Why else would that not be allowed?”

Vee blew a raspberry meant for Dandy “Because they’re trying to hide things from you! Isn’t that obvious?” Rodger shrunk into himself a bit, it clearly wasn’t. Vee couldn’t help but feel a little for him. She had been like that for a long time until this whole Ichor operation thing and the lack of information from Dandy made her question everything the flower and the founders said. Before Vee could say anything Rodger interrupted.

“I suppose I am a bit too trusting aren’t I?” Rodger’s eye crinkled into a nervous smile. “I believe Glisten told me that a long time ago now. Maybe I should have listened a little closer…”

Vee didn’t respond.

Rodger stood up, his hands clenched into shaking fists. “I refuse to believe the others, he is not dead or a traitor for running away. I will find all four of them and I will bring them back home no matter what I have to do.”

“Great,” Vee regained her confident smirk as she flicked her tail around, striking a pose with her microphone. “What’s the first thing that we should do that would piss Dandy off?”