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Chapter Text

“Nico is always looking for a good competition! His short-temper can cause some conflicts to arise but he means well under all of it and cares a bunch for his friends!”

“Verny is a really optimistic toon! He’s really kind and energetic, and is always willing to help out his friends! Verny teaches children to always keep your hopes up even when things feel low! There’s always a star in the dark, after all!”

“Soph is the storyteller of the bunch! He likes to speak a lot and always has a good story to tell his friends and the children! Though, his chaotic and villainous nature can be pretty tough to break.”

February XX, 1999

“See you down at the lobby! Bye bye!” King waved goodbye as the kids left his exhibition/floor, sometimes doing his signature monkey noises to make the children laugh. Once they all left, King’s toon handler, Seo-yeon, patted King’s back (well, the back of his head since the toons were the size of children.) “Good job again, King!” She brought her hands back to herself to clap, smiling warmly. “You handled them really well this time.” King snickered and looked up at her. “I am the king of skill for a reason!” He said with confidence, pointing at himself with his thumb and putting a hand on his hip, smirking. “Is Nico’s cockiness rubbing off you?” Seo-yeon asked, raising an eyebrow as King laughed. “Oh, shut up…” King said through his laughter, making Seo-yeon chuckle as well.

Suddenly, the elevator doors open, and in came 3 familiar faces. A flower with white petals and a green-ish teal disk floret wearing a buttoned up orange suit with orange legs, a bright star with an oversized pink sweater with a lighter pink circle in the middle to represent a stomach, and a cursed dice wearing a purple suit and cape.

“Hi, King!” Soph shouted, running up to his fellow toon as Verny and Nico followed close behind. “Oh, hey guys!” King responded, waving from his seat. “Hello King, hello miss Seo-yeon!” Verny greeted as Seo-yeon nodded in acknowledgment. “Ayy, all the fellas are here!” Nico said, grinning as King chuckled. “So, are we gonna go play Mario Party?” “I mean yeah, we literally agreed on it yesterday. Let’s get going, dude!” Nico grabbed their arms, running back into the elevator. Seo-yeon let out an amused hum at the sight, shaking her head slowly. “Make sure not to break the TV this time! And come to the dining floor on time too! Sprout and Cosmo will be making food for you guys I think.” She exclaimed before the elevator doors closed, leaving her in King’s floor. She then backed away and walked around, finding any missing items the children could’ve possibly dropped to put it in the lost and found up in the lobby, cleaning up the royal-looking place.

“NONONO- YOU PICK… WAAAAAAAAAAAAAARIOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ” King yelled out loud once it came back to Soph’s turn, Verny groaning in annoyance. “Oh my goodness…” “What time is it? It is Wario time! C’MON, GIVE ME A 10!” Soph shouted as he rolled his dice, getting a… 10 !! “WHAT THE F- Oh, no WAY…” Nico exclaimed as Soph’s character, Wario, walked to a chance time space. “YES! I fricking needed this!” Soph triumphantly smirked, finally getting a chance to win this stupid game. “DUDE- Holy shit, Soph, you cannot miss this.” King said frantically as Soph moved his character to the right to aim for himself. “C’MON, I’M GONNA HIT THIS AND IT’S GONNA BE……. WARIO!! ” His character jumped and hit the box, getting… DK . “Oh, NOOO…” “OH, YEAH, BABY!! I AM NOT GETTING STOLEN FROM TONIGHT.” King and Nico overlapped, both a drastic difference in reactions as Verny looked at Soph with a somewhat amused and disappointed expression. “Soph, you had one job…!” Verny facepalmed himself as Soph rolled his eyes. “To the surprise of NOBODY … Y’know what, no, I’m gonna specifically hate on Verny now.” “WHUH- WHY??? Oh my gosh, you are NOT FUN.” Verny retorted as King laughed in the background, sounding like a fucking hyena. Soph then moved his character to the left and jumped immediately and WHAT DO YOU KNOW? He got Yoshi, Verny’s character. “You are such a jerk.” Verny mumbled as King continued to cackle while Soph looked absolutely proud of himself with his stupid fucking smirk.

The door to their room suddenly opened as Vee stepped in. “Hey, what’s taking you guys so long? Playing Mario Party again?” She asked, sounding somewhat unamused. King quickly turned around and raised an eyebrow, before he quickly realized why she’s here. “Oh, shit, it’s time for the Gardenview to close for the night, yeah?” King asked, getting up and putting his royal robe back on. “Yes, King. C’mon, you’re gonna be late.” Vee stepped out of the room, crossing her arms. “Aw, come back quick, dude!” Nico exclaimed as King waved to his friends. Following Vee, he slowly took notice of what she said and sighed, snickering a bit. “Yeah, we- wait, me ? What about you?” “I already met up with them before I was told to come back up here to find you, so yes, you’re about to be late.” “…But- you- we still- nevermind.” King gave up, confused by Vee’s logic but eh, who cared.

They stepped in to the elevator, Vee quickly pressing the button up to the lobby and another one to close the door. As the elevator started to move up, Vee leaned on the wall, looking at the floor as King stood across from her, watching as the numbers lowered. “Sooo, how have your gameshows been doing? I’m guessing Scraps keeps on—“ “Winning from lucky guesses? Yes, King. What else do you expect?” Vee said exasperatedly, annoyed at the memories of Scraps always winning her gameshow prizes. King chuckled, bringing a hand to his mouth. “If you’re so annoyed about it, why can’t you get her off the show? Maybe exchange her for someone else.” King asked before Vee shook her head. “Don’t you know how gameshows work? I can’t exactly do that so suddenly. ‘ The winner will pass on to the next gameshow .’ That’s technically the rules.” “Well… why not break it for a second? You’re the host after all.” King playfully said, not really serious about it. “…For someone who has all the kids saying you’re pretty funny, kind and goody-two-shoes or whatever, you’re actually pretty rebellious.” Vee retorted as King laughed. “I was kidding. Yeah, if you do what I said, you’re probably gonna be depicted as petty, so it’s safer to not to.” King shrugged.

Shuddering slightly, the elevator stopped as they reached the lobby floor, the doors opening. Vee pushed herself off the wall and walked out with King following behind. Dandy looked behind to spot Vee and King, waving with a big smile. “Hey, there you are! Everyone’s been waiting for you, King!” “He was playing games with his friends again.” Vee remarked as King quickly tried to defend himself. “It’s not my fault, alright? Don’t tell me you guys don’t lose track of time whenever you have fun.” “Well, you’re not wrong. Whenever I tell my dinosaur facts, it feels like I’ve only told one!” Shelly added on, joining in the conversation. “That’s because that ‘one’ dinosaur fact is long as heck!” Sprout playfully spoke up, making Shelly snicker and rub the back of her head sheepishly. “It’s alright, Shelly, I like listening to them.” Astro reassured her. “Alright, alright, everybody, the children are gonna be here in the lobby soon!” Dandy quickly interrupted, seeing the elevator number go down to 1.

As the elevator door opened, a small crowd of children came out, some talking, some laughing, some whining about not wanting to leave. Devan and some other toon handlers followed closely behind, supervising them. Dandy and all the mains waved to them all, some kids going up to some of the mains and talking to them and maybe even showing them whatever they did or made. King gave a few of them high fives, playfully bowed back to some of them who bowed to him, snickering. Once the train finally reached Gardenview Park, the children’s parents stepped off and came to pick up their kids, King and the other mains saying goodbye to all of them. Soon enough, all the kids were off, back to their homes with their trusted guardians.

Exhausted, King sighed and stretched a little. “I’m so tired-“ “You barely did anything though??” “Dealing with this many kids can be tiring, even in a short amount of time!” King retorted at the strawberry.

After a while of talking and eating in the dining floor, King soon headed back to his room. The TV was left on with it still on that Mario Party turn they left off, the lights dimmed out. “Did I really take that long…?” King thought to himself, stepping in further. Nico and Verny were sleeping on the floor with pillows and blankets all around them, Nico’s feet on Verny’s side, almost looking like he was kicking him away. King chuckled quietly at the two. While he was distracted, Soph sneaked from behind, grinning widely before he tackled King. “WH- HEY—“ King yelped as he fell onto the floor with Soph. The cursed dice laughed, getting off King seconds later. “Yohoho! Gotcha!” Soph said triumphantly, lying back on the pillows. King sat back up, rolling his eyes. “You’re staying up again?” “Yeah, why not?”

King huffed in amusement, knowing for sure that tomorrow, Soph was gonna complain about having to wake up at god dang noon. “Don’t whine to us next morning then.” King teased, taking off his royal robe and leaving him in his green sweater and blue overalls. “Shut up, I gotta get up at 11AM just to get the show on the road, I’m a busy villain!” Soph flipped him off, causing King to cackle.

“Speaking of the show, you know… I got some pretty epic stories to tell tomorrow! I’m sure ALL the kids and even you guys will love it!” Soph said enthusiastically, covering what he could of himself in the blankets, his back still sticking out of it but it could do for now. “Yeah, we sure will love your monologuing…” King mumbled under his breath sarcastically, staying sat in a fetal position as he looked down at Soph beside him. “Of course! Why don’t I tell you one of them right now?”

As Soph proceeded to go on his usual, endless yapping, King listened, as always. He sometimes made a few playful comments here and there, but after minutes of non-stop rambling from the cursed dice beside him, he started to get sleepy. His heavy eyes slowly started to close as his golden head fell on his knees, finally surrendering to slumber yet again.

Taking notice of how quiet his friend was, Soph took a look at King. “Andddd he’s asleep…” He whispered, more to himself than anything. He sighed, smirking before he rolled on to his back, looking up at the ceiling. Maybe, tomorrow, he’ll listen again, just like he always did.

Chapter Text

June 29th, 2002

It happened. Gardenview closed.

I never knew why. I’ve only heard faintly something bad happened to cause it to shut down. Something dangerous.

Everyone is gone now. This place almost feels abandoned if it weren’t for the toons that were still around. It’s really weird and admittedly unsettling to not hear children coming in for the day, chattering away and laughing, coming up to him to talk to him. It was so noisy. Always.

…Would it be bad if I said I kind of already miss it?

Nevertheless, I was sat in the dining room with my friends, waiting as Cosmo and Sprout made dinner. Thankfully, the power still seems to be on. Arthur and Delilah must’ve left it on for us? That was nice of them.

“Dude, I’m saying! Why would the place suddenly shut down just like this? There must’ve been something! But no one told us anything!” Nico went on, still irritated about being in the dark. I couldn’t blame him. I was really confused too when I got the news, but the other mains seem to know something, especially Dandy… I wasn’t gonna try to bug him too much though. He seemed to love this place and everyone a lot, this must’ve been rough on the poor flower.

“And there might be a reason why they haven’t told us anything. They’re probably looking out for us! The truth might be… y’know, painful! Have you ever thought about that?” Verny responded defensively, knowing full well he shouldn’t be involved in something like this like Nico was trying to be. “I don’t care. It’s better than being all clueless and always wondering what happened!” “I think it’ll just become worse if you or any of us get involved in this, bro. Let’s just wait for this to all calm down and we can ask the others about it. If we do that, I say let’s ask the mains first.” I tried to de-escalate the situation, patting Nico’s back. He didn’t seem to appreciate it though as he scoffed. “You guys really aren’t that confused? That disappointed ? Gardenview’s shut down, and Seo-yeon’s not here anymore too!” Nico added onto the fire, facepalming himself.

Alright, that struck a bit of a nerve. “Nico, we’re ALL confused! I know you feel sad and angry, we all do! Don’t you know how THAT made us feel!? Especially with the fact someone who was like a mother to us is GONE??? ” I snapped and stood up, slamming the table, startling them all. They all looked so concerned and shocked, especially Verny.

Oh, shit, I didn’t mean to lash out like that.

I cleared my throat, sitting back down. “All I’m saying is… I know how you feel, we all feel that too, but it’s not a good idea to just run in head first and expect something good to come out of it. You’ve seen how some of the others acted. I say give it a day or two and maybe we can ask.” I said, slowly calming back down as I look at Nico. His eyes narrowed before he looked at the table, crossing his arms. Yep, he’s mad at me.

As if on cue, Cosmo had come to their table with a plate of pizza, placing it down on the smooth surface. “Hey, is everyone okay here?” The cake roll asked, looking at all of them with concern. Soph finally spoke up, shrugging. “Yeah, we’re doing just great! It’s not like we were just arguing just now, haha! No way!”

Ah, Soph… You fucking bi-

Verny quickly smacked the back of the cursed dice, as if he read my thoughts. Soph’s head switched to the aggravated face. “Hey!-“ “Yeah, we’re fine! Don’t worry about us, Cosmo! We can figure it out ourselves.” Verny reassured Cosmo, forcing a smile.

“Alright, I won’t push further. I understand it’s really hard for everybody right now. I’ll be off to give the others their food now!” Cosmo smiled back, walking away from their table. Oh, thank gosh for Verny sometimes.

“Thanks, Verny.” “You’re welcome!” Verny nodded before he rolled his sleeves up, grabbing a slice of the fresh pizza and taking a bite. The others soon joined, eating away. I could definitely still feel the tension, but I’d rather talk about it later once we’re all ready.

…Especially to Nico.

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Me and Nico walked around the lobby, heading to the middle where the giant tree was. This seemed to be isolated enough. The white and green flower leaned on the tree, crossing his arms.

“Okay, spit it out, King.”

I hesitated, fidgeting with my fingers under the royal robe. I then bring my hand up to the back of my head, scratching it as my eyes look down. “Sorry about earlier. I tried. Really, I tried. But your comment about Seo-yeon kind of hit me hard.”

“…It’s fine.” Nico surprisingly said, making me look back up at him. It turned out to not be fully sincere though, I could still see some remnants of his anger.

I sighed, bringing my hands back under my robe. “I know you want to know about what happened, but it seems like no one except for the mains knows either.” I tried to emphasize before Nico quickly, almost rudely interrupted me.

“Actually, shouldn’t you know too then? You’re also a main character, King.”

…

He made a good point. But why wasn’t he made aware of this? The only thing he was told about 5 days ago was that Gardenview was gonna shut down for some reason.

“…No. I don’t know anything. Well, I did know about the fact the place was gonna close but nothing else.”

“…And you never told us it was gonna?”

“I didn’t want to ruin your guys’ days!”

“But if you told us, we probably could’ve handled this better once it happened!”

“…”

“…Yeah, alright, good talk.”

Nico suddenly pushed himself off the tree, walking back to the elevator. I panicked, watching as Nico left.

“Wait, I wasn’t done-!”

“We can talk about this another day. I wanna rest.”

SLAM!

…

Dang it, he’s always so stubborn! I just wanted to explain and hopefully lower the tension.

He probably resents me more now.

Gosh, he hated having to deal with this… It’s like the only thing he’s good at is games.

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“Oh, fuck it.” I said before I walked off the grassy platform, heading in the elevator as well. I clicked the button to my floor, sighing as I watched the door close and slam, feeling the floor shake as it started going down.

Listening to the elevator’s noises, I looked behind me at the closed chute.

I wonder if that will ever be used again?

…Probably not.

Chapter Text

September 23th, 1995

“Verny, you ever think why we have to take care of these kids and stuff?”

“Well, so they can grow up to be something wonderful, of course. Just like us!”

“…Shouldn’t that be the parents’ job? They’re supposed to be their role models, just like Seo-Yeon is to us.”

“Well, maybe. It doesn’t hurt to look over them though! We can teach them a lot, like how Brightney teaches children to think up solutions to their everyday problems! Or how Poppy shows that we can be unique!”

“Yeah, I get that. I just- don’t know if I’m really fit for that. I’m a villain, what am I supposed to teach them? How to be evil?”

“…Well, you may be the villain, but you’re not a monster. They can still learn from you about some things. Like… to never be afraid to talk!”

“You’re saying I talk a lot, huh?”

“Oh, come on! I mean it in a good way! You are the storyteller, after all! Right?? Plus, you’re not ENTIRELY evil… AND you’re entertaining! Even if… you do get on a bunch of our nerves a lot.”

“…Pft. Yeah, okay, you silly star.”

“Quit your freaking ruffling!”

Chapter Text

July 4th, 2002

Nico was looking around in his room, trying to find his tiny crown he had lost since last night.

“Dang it, where is this thing?” He muttered exasperatedly under his breath, sighing. After a while of searching, he slowly gave up and walked out of his room without his precious crown.

“Where could it have gone? I’m sure I still had it yesterday afternoon..” A thought then suddenly came to mind. There was always one toon that steals, not only his, but everyone’s things. “…Gigi, you-“

With this assumption in his mind now, he rushed to where Gigi’s room was and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.

Silence.

He knocked on the door again, a bit more louder this time and…!!

He still got nothing.

Nico grumbled. He wanted to just barge in so bad, but he’s not that kind of toon… unlike Shrimpo, but that’s besides the point-

He then felt a cold breeze against his back, a shiver going up his spine before he quickly turned around, seeing a familiar, light blue ghost with white attire and long hair. “Heyy, you tryna find Gigi?”

Ah, it was Connie.

“Uh, yeah. I have a feeling she took my freaking crown and put it in her weird capsule head of hers.” He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. “You know where she is?” “Of course I do. I know everything~” Connie drawled out the last sentence, meaning to scare Nico with it, but it seemed like the flower was used to it already. “Yeah, sure do, you disease.” He retorted, making Connie chuckle a little. “Disease? How original.” She mocked sarcastically.

“But anyways, I saw Gigi heading to the elevator, probably going to the other floors to find some more stuff to collect.” Connie answered, shrugging. Nico nodded before brushing past her, immediately heading to the elevators. “Thanks.” “No problem-o, Dee.”

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It’s been a few floors already, and Nico still hasn’t seen that stupid thief! It was kind of getting on his nerves. “Where could’ve she gone to…?! I still need my crown back!”

As if on cue, the elevator then suddenly malfunctioned, causing it to go to the floors lower than he meant to go. “Wait, what the fuck-?” He whispered, quickly going to the button pad and pressing one to open the doors, but they weren’t working. “Hey, work, damn it!” Panicking, he continued to try and press the buttons, not knowing how to get out before the elevator suddenly stopped, the doors finally opening to a… warehouse.

Hesitant, the flower stepped out slowly and looked around the dimly lit floor. He seemed to not be able to go back up as of current with how weird the elevator was being, so he had no other choice.

He reluctantly started walking around the quiet, almost eerie warehouse, dragging his feet along the concrete floor in search of Gigi. As Nico observed the place, he noticed some kind of machines littering the area, a pipe connecting from the machine to the ceiling. Strange… he had never seen these things before. How long had those been there?

He suddenly stepped into some kind of viscous, black fluid on the ground, the texture of it uncomfortable for him as he quickly stepped back, looking at it. “…That’s fucking weird.”

Just then, he heard a crash, turning around to look at the direction it came from. His eyes went over to the small, narrow room near the elevator, staring at the empty and dimly lit room. Hesitating, he reluctantly forced his legs to move, slowly walking inside to check what the fuss was.

As he turned the corner, he saw… no one. Just a computer, water cooler and a random door he couldn’t open. Nico stood there for a little while, wondering what that crash was. After a minute, he turned around to leave before he was lunged at by a black, liquid-slick hand, his widening in alert as he quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack. His back hit the desk, letting out a grunt of pain before he looked up to see Gigi, but she… wasn’t the same.

“…What the ff—!” Nico cursed under his breath before he noticed Gigi was about to attack him again, her eyes red and crazed. Panicking, the daisy hastily got himself up and ran out of the room, trying to lose Gigi. “What the hell is wrong with her?!”

After minutes of running, Gigi soon lost sight of him. Fortunately for Nico, in the room he sat and rested in, his crown was lied down under the chair. It was covered in that same black ink. “Ew…” He carefully grabbed his crown, avoiding the parts where it was covered by the black fluid.

He soon turned to a machine nearby, slowly dragging himself back to it. The machine’s light glowed red, just like all the other ones he had seen.

“…Oh, screw it. It wouldn’t hurt to just try.”

The wheel then spun under his hands as he moved it, not having too many difficulties as that same liquid started pumping from the pipes above and into the machine as it slowly filled up to the brim.

Once it reached the top, the red light turned green with a ding! Startling Nico. “Huh… Did I do something?”

He slowly connected the dots and went ‘screw it!’ And went on to try and find those other 3 machines he saw earlier. “Maybe this’ll get me out of here, whatever these things are.”

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DING!

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DING!

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“ANDDD… DONE!” He quietly exclaimed as the ichor hit the metal ceiling of the machine, the red light turning green.

The elevator door then opened, slamming up. Nico’s eyes lit up with relief as he bolted to those doors that finally opened. He could finally leave!

Though that hope was quickly taken away as he felt a tug on his leg, making him trip. “OOF—!”

“DAMN IT! NO NO NO-“ Nico looked behind to see Gigi’s hand that came out of her capsule head had grabbed him, pulling him closer to her. If it weren’t for Nico being able to hold on to one of the metal bars, he would be doomed right then and there… that didn’t make the pain on his leg any worse though as it almost felt like it was being ripped. “C’MON! GET OFF, YOU FREAKING THIEF!” He yelled, frantically looking around to find something, ANYTHING to help him get Gigi’s hand off his leg. His eyes then slowly moved to a certain item…

A smoke bomb.

Determined to survive and get out, Nico threw himself onto the smoke bomb using his other leg on the metal bar to launch himself, grabbing it and throwing the bomb at Gigi, causing a distraction as Gigi’s hand loosened and fell from Nico’s leg in a moment of shock and confusion.

He took this perfect opportunity to run away and took off into the elevator, throwing himself yet AGAIN into that small moving box, the elevator doors closing as he got in. His back hit the beige walls, paining him even more whilst he slid down onto the dirty floor. “GH—!! OW, MY BACK-“ He hissed under his breath, panting and attempting to catch his breath from the chaotic situation he was put in so suddenly.

“..What the hell happened to Gigi?…” That question filled his mind alongside others. “What was that black liquid?” “When did those machines get here?” “Why is Gigi so aggressive?” “Something’s going on, I knew it!”

Was this why King wasn’t telling him anything? It had to be, right!? He had to have known this was happening! Why would he be keeping the reason why Gardenview shut down a secret?!?!

The elevator then reached the floor where the toons resided. Their rooms. He slowly stepped out once the elevator doors opened, still holding his dirty, stained crown as Connie, who seemed to had been waiting, floats over to Nico.

“Hey, you find Gigi?” Connie asked casually, smirking. Her eyes soon fell onto Nico’s face. His eyes downturned, his mouth curled into a frown and his brows furrowed in contemplation. She opened her mouth before she spotted the stained crown, her eyes squinting in confusion and a hint of concern. “…Nico? What happened? And where’s Gigi?”

“…Uh. It’s a long story.”

Chapter Text

March 19th, 1989

“So… You’re King, yeah?”

“…Uh. Yes.”

“Cool, the name’s Soph! Soph the Cursed Dice.”

“Hm. Arthur said he got Delilah to make you for me. Is that true? It seems like a waste…”

“I mean- I don’t know. Nice to meet you nonetheless.”

“…”

“Why’re you holding out your hand?”

“To shake your hand, obviously. C’mon, you’ve been here longer than me yet don’t know social cues?”

“No, I do. It’s just no one ever gave me a hand shake so suddenly and not some kind of obligatory one, whatever the heck-“

“Hah! Well, both our first time then!”

“G-geez, you’re shaking my hand too hard-!”

“Oh, whoops. My bad.”

“Gosh. You’re gonna be a nuisance…”

“But I’m gonna be your best nuisance! Your friend! You seem like a cool toon anyway, minus the quiet and broody part.”

“…”

“Do you really mean the ‘friend’ part?”

“I mean, why the hell not? C’mon! We’re gonna be so awesome.”

“…Yeah, awesome. We will be awesome.”