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Chapter Text

Dandy had stopped selling candy on this run a while ago. Shrimpo had completely bought out his stock of candies, and Dandy couldn’t go restock yet.

However, he could see that Shrimpo was getting more and more agitated with each floor that passed where Dandy didn’t sell candy. Dandy was a bit confused but also concerned. Why did Shrimpo want that candy so badly?

It wasn’t like the shrimp was using it for the effects–he was eating them immediately in the elevator–so what was the point? Dandy didn’t understand. Did Shrimpo make it a mission to confuse Dandy every day?

Maybe Dandy should ask Shrimpo about it when his shop popped up again. After all, they would have enough time for a small chat anyway.

Ah. There was the sound of the elevator door closing. That was Dandy’s cue.

He slapped a few random items onto the cushions on the counter. Huh. A medkit, a bottle of pop, and a box of chocolates. Maybe now the other toons would buy something. (They better buy something…)

His shop raised, and he opened his mouth to speak, “Spare a flower some-” But before he could finish, he felt a weight pounce on him. He stumbled back, barely able to right himself in time. Maybe Dandy should get something better to stand on than a box.

Dandy felt the weight settle on his shoulders, pressure pulsing on one of his petals. Looking forward, he could see Rodger’s dumbfounded face and Toodles desperately trying to not laugh at the sight in front of her.

Ah. Shrimpo was biting on his petals. Dandy had been watching Shrimpo bite on the other toons’ belongings (He thought Astro was going to have to get a new blanket…luckily the storage rooms had a bunch of spares.), but he never thought Shrimpo would be biting him. Well, at least his bites didn’t hurt that bad! Dandy was expecting much more pain. Or maybe Shrimpo was just holding back?

Toodles couldn’t hold it anymore, and he could hear her cackling laughter flood the elevator. Stars, he felt like facepalming. Rodger, get your demon child.

Dandy sighed tiredly. Well, he might as well take these toons back up. They weren’t going to get any further in their… current state.

The ride back up was a long one. After all, they had gone down pretty far, surprisingly. Dandy expected them to die before they even hit floor 20. Hell, he expected Shrimpo to die before he even reached floor 5. And yet, they managed to surpass his expectations for once.

Toodles had fallen over on the floor sometime on the way up. Dandy couldn’t blame her. He saw just how exhausted they were getting over the course of the run. He himself was exhausted, and he was the shopkeeper! He wasn’t the one running down through the floors extracting all that ichor.

Speaking of ichor, Dandy could feel a dribble running down his face. One of his petals felt like it was stinging pretty badly now. Crap. Did Shrimpo draw blood?

“Alright, Shrimpo, that’s enough of biting me for you,” he grumbled, grabbing Shrimpo by the scruff of his neck. It was the easiest way to handle the shrimp.

Dandy searched through his stock. Good, he still had a few bandages. He grabbed one and opened it with one hand, using his fingers to part the paper before slapping it onto his petal. (Seriously, why was there only one big bandage in a pack of bandages? That was wasteful packaging.)

The elevator door finally opened. Dandy could feel his eyes struggling to not close. He hopped out of his shop, telling Rodger, “Come on, we should head to the kitchen to see Sprout. Y’all need to eat something before you rest. Can’t do much on an empty stomach, now can ya? Also, carry Toodles yourself. I’m not carrying both of them.”

He didn’t wait for Rodger’s response, heading off to the kitchen immediately. Hopefully they could find out what Shrimpo’s problem was while they were at it. He was tired of hearing all the other toons’ complaints.

Chapter Text

As soon as Dandy entered the kitchen, he was met with a papery slap to the face. He turned his head back to glare at his attacker, only to see an angry Yatta and a giggling Connie. Oh, great. What was it now?

“DANDY!!! Why were you selling CANDY from MY CORPSE?!”

Dandy blinked. What? He had never taken candy from Yatta’s corpse. Or well, he didn’t think he did, really. All that candy on the floor when Dandy was scavenging for things to sell looked the same to him.

“And YOU!” Yatta turned to Shrimpo. “Why are you eating MY CANDY?! Don’t you know how LONG it takes to COLLECT THAT MUCH?!”

Ah. Dandy saw what was going on here. Someone from the run must’ve talked about how it went, Connie must’ve eavesdropped, and then she must’ve told some version of it to Yatta.

Speaking of Shrimpo, why wasn’t Shrimpo-

…Oh. The shrimp had fallen asleep at some point while they were walking to the kitchen. No wonder he wasn’t trying to curse Yatta out. Either way, Dandy didn’t have time for this. He had to take these three to Sprout. (And himself, but he didn’t really know if Sprout would want to help him too. The berry had been more apprehensive with him lately, and Dandy didn’t really help with that, considering he had been avoiding Sprout for a while. It was fine if Sprout didn’t help him. Dandy understood. At least he had the bandage.)

“Yatta. The candy I sell doesn’t come from your corpse. Please get out of my way.”

“NO CAN DO!!! How do I know YOU’RE telling the TRUTH?”

“Yatta-”

“Yatta! Do candies that come from you taste different from regular candies? Maybe we can test this out!”

For once, Dandy was grateful for Rodger’s… intense enthusiasm for investigation. Yatta looked thoroughly weirded out, allowing Dandy to easily sidestep her.

As Dandy approached Sprout, he could hear a faint bonk! followed by the clatter of candy on the ground. They were actually testing it? Eh, that wasn’t Dandy’s problem.

“Hey, Sprout,” Dandy awkwardly greeted. “Sorry to bother. I know it’s late, but this run took a lot longer than I thought it would and-”

Clink.

Dandy blinked slowly. Sprout just placed a plate of four cupcakes in front of him. Was Sprout actually..?

“Eh… Ahah. Sprout, I think ya made a lil’ too much… The run only had-”

“I know how many people went on the run, Dandy. Just take the plate. I can see the bandage on your petal.”

“...Oh. Uh- Thanks, Sprout! I’ll go- uh- take these back to the others!”

Dandy took the plate with the hand that wasn’t holding Shrimpo. Of course Sprout would make more. It was in his nature to care for others, even if it was Shrimpo…or Dandy. He didn’t know why he was so surprised that Sprout would make a cupcake for him too.

Well, he should go gather Rodger and Toodles so they could eat too. They were probably starving after that long run. 

…Dandy felt fuzzy inside. Ah, happiness truly was a strange thing.

Chapter Text

Shrimpo woke up in his own bed. Since when was he here? Wasn’t he on a run? Ugh, everything had been so fuzzy lately. It was like there was a hard film encasing his entire body. His skin felt tight around him, and it was harder to move than usual.

His teeth, too, felt the need to chew something. Specifically, himself. But Rodger had told him it was wrong to bite himself when he had last found Shrimpo doing that, so Shrimpo had tried to refrain. ( Not because Rodger had told him! Shrimpo doesn’t listen to anyone! )

However, his skin was making him extremely uncomfortable. It felt as if it was squeezing him inwards. Shrimpo HATED that feeling. Shrimpo wanted out of his skin. He wanted out now.

Shrimpo could faintly remember the last few times this happened. He spent a lot of time holed up in his room. ( Nobody ever noticed when it’d happen. Shrimpo didn’t know if he liked or hated that. Scratch that, he HATED that no one noticed when he was gone. )

Shrimpo knew how to deal with this. The only question was: how long would it take this time?

Ah. He could chew on the air horns he always kept in his room. He had a lot of them, after all. And he could always get more. (He didn’t want to make more holes in his room. It was more effective, but it was getting hard to find space that wouldn’t collapse his room.)

Chomp. Crunch. Crack! BLARE.

Agh! Shrimpo’s ears! (Did he even have any? That wasn’t the point.) Ugh, maybe the air horn was a bad idea. 

It looks like Shrimpo would have to throw himself around his room again. It’d probably be fine. Right? A few more holes wouldn’t be that bad…

CRASH. Crack!

…Jumping off his bed onto the hard floor never hurts any less. But hey! At least Shrimpo heard a crack… somewhere along his carapace. It still wasn’t enough to relieve any of the pressure, though. Annoying.

SLAM. BONK. Crack!

Urgh. Shrimpo was a little dizzy from landing on his head… At least that managed to form a bigger crack. ( And another hole in his room, but that’s nothing new. )

Shrimpo could probably crawl out of his carapace by now. Shrimpo positioned himself near one of the holes in his room, beginning to slowly try and squeeze himself out. He could do it. He was THE BEST! He wouldn’t get stuck! He could do this!

Three.

Two.

One.

POP!

Shrimpo felt himself get flung right into the hole behind him. Eugh. He felt all soft and vulnerable now… There was NO WAY he was going out like this. He needed to harden up before he went to face the other toons again. What if they tried to hurt him while he was all soft? He wasn’t about to trust them with that.

He curled up in the hole, bringing his knees to his chest. Meh. He was tired. A nap surely wouldn’t hurt. As for the carapace outside… Shrimpo will eat that later. Right now? He wanted a nap. A nice, long nap.

Chapter Text

Rodger was concerned about Shrimpo. He’d been concerned for a while, actually. He’d heard the same story over and over from the other toons; Shrimpo had developed a worrying biting habit. (He didn’t exactly get why they were telling him of all people. Did it really look like he was that responsible for the shrimp?)

The point was: Rodger was worried about Shrimpo. He’d been hearing loud noises coming from Shrimpo’s room all night. Well- that was normal, but Rodger just had a bad feeling about this time. Something in the back of his mind was telling him to check on the shrimp.

He crept over to the elevator, going down to Shrimpo’s floor. It didn’t take long for the elevator door to open–it was only one floor, after all. Rodger stepped out, already walking to where he knew Shrimpo’s room was, his legs having memorized the path. What? He liked to check on the shrimp every so often. Can you blame him? Shrimpo was notorious for getting into some kind of trouble often.

He calmly strolled up to the door, knocking thrice. It was only polite to knock first before entering.

“Shrimpo, are you awake?” He asked softly. “I heard a lot of noise coming from your room. Are you alright?”

. . .

No answer? That was weird. Usually, Shrimpo would’ve yelled at Rodger to leave him alone by now. Maybe the shrimp had fallen asleep in the time it took Rodger to come down here? That was probably correct.

But something in Rodger was telling him to check anyway. Call it fatherly instinct or something, but Rodger couldn’t just leave without making sure Shrimpo was okay. ( Okay, so maybe he considered Shrimpo one of his kids. So what? )

“Shrimpo, I’m going to open the door now, okay?”

He gently opened the door…

. . .

Rodger couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing.  A pale, exploded figure laid in front of one of the holes in Shrimpo’s room, small ichor stains splattered nearby.

“...Shrimpo?” Rodger called weakly.

. . .

No answer.

This couldn’t be real, right? Rodger saw Shrimpo a few hours ago. He was just fine, if only grumpier and a bit more tired than usual, but still. Shrimpo was fine.

Rodger pinched himself. It hurt. This was real. He wasn’t dreaming. This wasn’t some kind of sick nightmare. This was real.

He collapsed onto his knees. Sure, there was always the risk of dying on runs, but… this was different. This wasn’t a run. There were no twisteds to blame. There was no clear cause. There was just…

A body.

Chapter Text

Shrimpo hadn’t come out of his room for a while. Dandy knew he had a habit of oversleeping, but the fella had completely missed breakfast! ( Again! ) Luckily for him, Dandy saved some food for him.

Dandy might as well bring it up to Shrimpo’s room. If he had to guess, the shrimp probably hadn’t even woken yet. Eh, at least Dandy could give Shrimpo a personal wake up call! ( And hopefully NOT get punched in the face this time. )

The food was definitely cold by now, but that was Shrimpo’s fault for sleeping in for so long! If he had woken up on time, then he might’ve actually gotten some warm breakfast! Well, that’s too bad. Shrimpo would just have to be grateful he got food at all!

Dandy hummed a little tune as he strolled over to Shrimpo’s room with the plate. Huh. The door was already open? Well, maybe Shrimpo just forgot to close his door last night! ( Ah. Even Dandy couldn’t believe something like that. Dandy clearly remembered shutting the door after tucking Shrimpo in. Unless Shrimpo got up in the middle of the night, there was no reason the door should be open. )

Dandy peeked his head through the door, putting on a cheerful smile.

“Hey, shrimpy! I’ve got some breakfast here for yo…u…” He trailed off as he opened his eyes, taking in the scene. Rodger was on the floor, kneeling in front of what appeared to be some kind of pale body.

…Was that Shrimpo? The plate in Dandy’s hand clattered onto the floor as his arms slackened, shattering upon impact. Eh? Eh? What could Shrimpo be doing on the floor? And why was he so pale? And why did his back look to be all cracked and exploded?

Shrimpo couldn’t be dead. Dandy just saw him yesterday. Just held him in his arms yesterday. This couldn’t be right. Were his eyes deceiving him? What was going on?

Dandy rubbed at his eyes, but when he opened them again, the pale body was still there. He went to go poke it. It was hard and cold. Was this Shrimpo? Could it really be Shrimpo’s body?

But how could Shrimpo be dead? There were no threats around. This was a safe floor. (Dandy had checked. He checked often. There was no way something got past his keen eyes.)

Whatever. Dandy would fix Shrimpo. It was fine. Dandy fixes everything. Everything would be okay. Everything would turn out just fine. There would be nothing wrong, not if Dandy had anything to say about it.

Dandy turned back to look at Rodger, who was still kneeling, still staring at the pale body. He was probably shell-shocked. It didn’t matter. Dandy couldn’t have Rodger remembering something like this.

Dandy dragged the nearby chair over, lifted it up, and swung it over Rodger’s head. Rodger hit the floor with a thump. Now he had two bodies to move. Annoying, but doable.

Dandy gently picked up Shrimpo’s body, careful not to jostle him, resting him on his waist with one arm. He was… really light–lighter than usual… Had Shrimpo been skipping meals again ? Dandy hoped he wasn’t. He had already told the shrimp he needed to take better care of himself. He hoped he wasn’t rotting away when Dandy wasn’t watching. 

…Maybe Dandy needed to keep a closer eye on him. Yeah.

As for Rodger… Well, Dandy couldn’t possibly carry two people at once. ( He could, but he didn’t feel like it right now. ) He grabbed Rodger by the arm, dragging him on the floor. The man was knocked out–he probably wouldn’t feel a thing. And if he did, well… Dandy would just apologize later. Or maybe not. Well, depends if Rodger remembered anything or not. (He’d be getting another “gentle” smack over the head if he did remember anything. For his sake, Dandy hoped he would wake up oblivious.)

Luckily for Dandy, he didn’t run into anyone on the way to Rodger’s room. It’d be… awkward to explain why he was carrying two bodies; one unconscious and one dead.

He dropped Rodger next to his bed. Maybe Rodger would think he just fell off his bed or something. Dandy didn’t care, as long as he didn’t remember what he saw in Shrimpo’s room.

Walking out of the room, Dandy prepared to go straight to the elevator…

…only to run right into Finn.

“Good gREEF, pal! Don’t get into a mess I can’t KELP you out of! Would be a REEL shame to need MORE wet floor signs around here! Ahaha… Tisha would KRILL me…”

Dandy cringed at the onslaught of puns. Golly, how long had Finn been keeping those in? Usually it’d just be one or two, but four whole puns in one go? 

“Good morning, Finn… uh… I was just-”

“Why are ya carryin’ Shrimpo’s molt?”

“..huh?”

“Ya know, shrimp molt like… once a month? They shed their carapace so they can grow bigger! And uh- usually they eat that molt afterwards, so… why are ya carryin’ it around?”

“Oh- uh… I found it in his room, but I didn’t see Shrimpo, so I was uh…”

“Hmm, well, shrimp usually find a place to hide after moltin’, so maybe ya just didn’t see him? Ya should probably put it back where ya found it.”

“Ah, right. Yes, I will. Thank you, Finn.”

Dandy walked right past him into the elevator. Great, now he felt like a fool. How could he have made such a stupid mistake? This… shell… didn’t even have any flesh inside of it.

Wait. Is this why Dandy could never find Shrimpo for some days every month? Gosh, he really was a fool… Well, at least he knew now.

He made his way back and carefully placed the body back down, close to where he found it. Wait. This also meant he knocked out Rodger for no reason too… well, at least he wouldn’t have to remember seeing what he thought was Shrimpo’s dead body! Eh, that guy would probably be fine, right?

“You better recover quick, shrimpy! Ya gave me quite a scare…”

Dandy stood around Shrimpo’s room for a little bit longer, just basking in the fact Shrimpo wasn’t dead.

…Maybe Dandy could stay just a bit longer. Shrimpo probably wouldn’t come out for a while anyway. Just a little bit longer.

Chapter Text

Rodger groaned as he opened his eyes. He was… on the floor of his room? Ugh. His head was pounding… What happened to him?

He was… in Shrimpo’s room. That was the last thing he remembered. He saw… something… in that room.

…What was it that he saw? It was… something shocking. Something… horrifying. It was…

A pale body. Shrimpo’s body. His son’s body.

Rodger shot up, his whole entire body on high alert. He remembered everything. He heard a bunch of banging in Shrimpo’s room. He got worried, so he went to check on him. He opened the door… only to be greeted with the sight of that pale, lifeless body… and then it was all black.

Something must’ve knocked him out. That was clear as day. But… what could’ve done it?  That was the one thing Rodger couldn’t remember.

Rodger needed to get back to Shrimpo’s room. He needed to make sure the body was still there. He needed to make sure what he saw was real. He needed to make sure it wasn’t some messed up dream.

Rodger ran to the elevator, practically punching the button with his haste. ( He hoped he didn’t break it. That would be… very bad for him later. ) He tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator began to descend. Come on. Come on. It was only one floor. It couldn’t possibly take this long.

Rodger rushed out as soon as the elevator doors opened enough to fit him through. He needed to see his boy. He needed to make sure…

Make sure of what? His memories of what happened were too clear to be a dream. If the scene was still there, that meant his son was dead. What was he going to tell Toodles? 

…Toodles. What was he possibly going to tell Toodles? That her big brother was dead? That she would likely never see him again? (If there was an afterlife for toons… well… Shrimpo surely wouldn’t be going up. )

He reached the door and (very NOT gently) slammed the door open.

CRONCH.

…Well there was a very alive Shrimpo… and he was eating the pale body Rodger had seen earlier.

What… in the actual…

THUNK.

Shrimpo stared at the prone form of Rodger, who had fainted on his floor. Damn. All Shrimpo wanted was to eat in peace after such a long nap. Was that so much to ask for?