Archive of Our Own ^beta

Astro was not allowed to be alone. That pissed him off. Just because they had a completely normal amount of soul-crushing resentment for their own existence, that meant he was a danger to himself and others? Bullshit.

Well, maybe not bullshit, but that shouldn’t mean action. Everyone’s dangerous. Everyone’s a risk. That’s life. If the other mains didn’t seem to get that, that should be their problem, not his.

Yet here he was, sitting on his bed pretending to read and not notice Dandy staring at them with a needlessly concerned expression.

“Do you wanna talk?”

“No.” He waited as long as reading a page should take without actually looking at a single word, then flipped to the next with one of his star hands.

“The book’s upside-down.”

“Oh.” They put it down and looked Dandy in the eyes silently, hoping to scare them off.

It didn’t work. “Are you okay?”

“Never have been. Can you leave?”

“I’m not gonna leave, Astro.” Dammit. They were stubborn. “Do you wanna, uh, play a card game?”

“No.”

“Do you wanna-“

“Shut up.”

Dandy paused. They still looked worried. “… Do you wanna sleep?”

“Forever, yeah.”

“Astro!” they cried. “I meant like a nap!

Astro considered it. That was a great idea. “Sure.”

Dandy brightened up at his cooperation. Astro twitched his star hand, and Dandy collapsed.

“Have a nice nap, then. I know what I wanna do.”

The grass was nice. The flowers were nice. Flutter didn’t particularly care for the vegetables, but everyone else said that they were nice, too.

But outside had danger. Birds. Dogs. Rain. Those plants that were, in a book, labeled as harmful to pollinators, but Sprout had still planted them and they had made her sick for a week. Sprout’s late-night gardening sessions. Well, that last one was more of an annoyance than a threat. At least Sprout wasn’t getting even more of those freckles from the stars in the night sky. Toons were not supposed to have freckles. Sprout should have been wearing more sunscreen during the day.

Flutter managed just one night sleeping in the garden. Half a night, really. She woke up long before sunrise, shaken by a nightmare where something ate her when she was vulnerable. There was nobody to protect her. She immediately flew inside and tried her best to fall back asleep on the kitchen floor, but all she could do was lay awake and recall memories of the times she had spent with her brother.

She missed Flyte. She didn’t know where he was, but she missed him, so much.

What would he have told her to do?

What’s the current problem?

She didn’t have anywhere comfortable to rest.

Then find a nice bed to sleep in.

Well, her bed was impossible to get to. The elevator was broken, so the only way to get into the toon rooms was a ladder. She couldn’t climb ladders. She had tried, but the walls surrounding the rungs were too tight to fly up; it had been too tight to breathe, and she got scared. She didn’t bother trying again.

Where else were there beds? Ah, yes, the medical room. But… she didn’t want to bother anybody. She didn’t really need a bed. She was sure that if she asked Sprout or Cozmo, they would know that too.

She imagined what would happen.

“Flutter, those beds are for people who are hurt. You’re not any more hurt than you normally are. You’re not in pain, because you don’t look like you’re in pain. You’re fine. Go away, nobody likes being around you.”

They wouldn’t say that.

No, maybe not, but they would definitely imply it.

People would always mean things they don’t say, or say things they don’t mean. That was a subtle benefit to not being able to talk. Flutter would never intentionally try to confuse someone. But that never seemed to stop people from being confused.

Flyte had understood her. And Gigi.

Gigi was trapped in the library. There weren’t any ladders leading out of it. Dyle said she was doing fine, but Flutter still missed having her company. She was very lonely.

There was nothing she could do about it.

She stayed on the cold floor with her wings curled around her until she passed out.

It was so hard to move. Dandy didn’t know if Astro had meant to fully put them to sleep or not, but he hadn’t. They were stuck, drifting in and out of consciousness, catching glimpses of Astro moving around before it became too tiring to keep their eyes open, hearing rattling, a pill bottle opening, and then they were out again, and when they woke back up - even so, barely - there was nothing.

This was why. This was why! Every time Astro had questioned why Dandy was so, to quote, “on his ass about babysitting him”, every time they had responded with something light and cheerful, this was really why. So that they wouldn’t do this. So that they wouldn’t leave everyone and everything forever. But it happened anyway.

They opened their eyes. Ceiling of the medical room. Fuck. Sprout’s voice, Shezzie’s voice, hushed, frantic. No Astro. You’ll never hear that voice again, Dandy. And it’s your fault. You fucked this up.

They started crying. It was getting hard to breathe. It’s your fault. They still couldn’t move. Their vision blurred. YOUR FAULT.

“Oh shit- Dandy, Dandy, can you hear me? Stay with me, it’s going to be okay.” Sprout turned them over, off of their back. They were able to regain some energy, enough to curl up into a ball. Sprout held their hand and they gripped it tightly, feeling the fold of his glove. “You’re gonna be okay.”

They tried to say something back. Something… reassuring? Anything, really. All that they could manage was a feeble whimper.

They felt Sprout’s hand gently stroking their head as he shushed and comforted them. “You’re okay.”

But your best friend isn’t. It’s your fault.

“Do you want me to get Astro?”

Oh. Maybe not, then.

Had it been a dream? One that Astro gave them? That wouldn’t be surprising, given his state.

“Where is he?” Dandy whispered. They sounded as weak as they felt.

“SoVium is watching him right now. Since, well, they can’t be put to sleep.” He looked away. “Sometimes I wish they could, though,” he added bitterly.

Shezzie snorted from across the room. Dandy had forgotten she was there. Wouldn’t zie have work to do?

“He’s… okay, right?” They needed to find out if any of… that, had really happened. The fear felt so real.

“I mean, he’s had a bit of time to recover.” Sprout looked at Dandy again. “You’ve been out for a few days, by the way. That might be important.”

“He’s recovering from…?”

“Trying to kill himself.“ Sprout tugged at his scarf, pulling it higher over his mouth. “How much of it were you… awake for?”

Dandy considered how they should respond. “I don’t know.” That was simple enough, not too dismissive, they hoped.

Sprout clapped his hands together. “Well. I’m gonna go outside. Then make lunch.”

“Make sure Pebble and Coal don’t dig up the vegetables,” Dandy said.

“They’re both working. Coal is supervising the twins and Pebble is picking up Shezzie’s slack.”

“Hey, I do more than he can make up for,” said Shezzie.

“Yeah, like jumping down an elevator shaft and breaking both of your legs?” replied Sprout.

“Hell yeah. Also, like, fixing the damn elevators, but go ahead and brush past that, why don’t ya.”

“Gladly. I’m going. Bye.”

The door shut. Dandy really didn’t want to close their eyes again. They had changed the subject when it came up, but… a few days? Had anyone else gotten hurt because they weren’t there to make sure everything was okay?

They don’t need you.

Dandy tried to shake off that voice. They needed something to distract them before it got too loud again. Or… fell asleep…

“Uh- Shezzie?”

“Yeah?”

“Am I allowed to leave?”

There was a pause. “I mean, Sprout didn’t really tell you to stay put, did he?”

“N-no.”

“Then I’d guess so.”

“Alright. Thanks.” They got up and very quickly realized how sore they were. Luckily, the only way to fix that was to start moving.

Boxten got an average of three hours of sleep a night, always interrupted by nightmares. So he was very confused when he slept into the afternoon every day for a week rather than getting up at 4am to sneak down to the music room.

He hadn’t thought much of it. Maybe Astro had finally gotten over his stupid grudge. That was good. He could never figure out where Astro was, though, to talk to them. Overall, he didn’t really mind the situation. It was nice to feel well-rested. He was normally allergic to breakfast anyway, so it didn’t matter if he skipped it, and lunch, too. It was a shame to miss on the time hanging out with his friends, especially since he had been needing to cover for Sprout in the kitchen more often recently. But he liked surviving off of applesauce. It seemed like the replacement Bad Life Choice for sleep deprivation. Or maybe the replacement was that his schedule was still very much fucked.

He felt someone watching him, and woke up. Russ was standing over his bed. “Dude, get the fuck up. You’re late.”

“Oh, uh- sorry?” He got up and rubbed his eyes. It was barely past noon. “How did you get into my room…?”

Russ had never seemed to care about being on time. Why start now?

“That doesn’t matter. Something bad’s gonna happen today. I just know it.” She stared into the distance. “Or maybe it already has…” they added insightfully.

“Okay? Are you gonna answer my question?”

“There’s no time!” She grabbed Boxten’s hand and started pulling him along.

“Well if you’re taking me somewhere then there’s definitely time!”

“You didn’t lock your door.”

“Oh. Damn. Wait, can I get dressed first-“

“Fate waits for no mortal!”

Goob hummed to himself as he walked alongside the train tracks, Pebble bounding after him excitedly.

“Arf!”

“That’s right Pebble, yeah! This IS great!”

“Bark?”

“Me too! I’m so happy that Dyle knows that we are SOOOO responsible!”

“…ruff?”

Goob stopped walking and picked up Pebble, holding the rock to match his eye level. “Pebble. I have no idea what you’re saying. I’m just guessing. I’ve been lying to you. I’m a liar. A liar who lies.”

Pebble wiggled and barked again. That was his liar bark. Goob placed him back down with a sigh. “Sorry, buddy. Let’s go fix the track now.”

Shrimpo was surprised to see that they were not the last one to the lunch table.

Russ ran in, late, despite normally being a consistent third, according to Tishwasher. Boxten was being dragged alongside her, looking very sleepy and still in his pajamas, which was especially strange, given that he was always first to wake up, though for the past few days he had been missing until the afternoon. Everyone assumed he was working on something in the music room and kept losing track of time.

Russ slammed her hands down on the table. Looey yelped.

“Shut up, you absolute dowsing stick,” said Poppy. She redirected her energy to Russ. “What’s got you in a rut? Lost your tinfoil hat?”

“Something bad’s gonna happen! I know it! We HAVE to be prepared!”

Some other toons looked over at their table, then returned to their conversations once they realized it was just Russ starting a conspiracy over something that wasn’t actually an issue.

“Is there anything you have to tell us with evidence?” asked Shrimpo.

“Uh- not with physical evidence, maybe, but I swear I’ve got a really strong feeling-“

“Your feelings are valid but they are not real.”

Russ blinked. “Yowch.”

“Can I go now?” asked Boxten, rubbing his eyes.

“But we’re having tacos! You gotta stay!” protested Yatta.

“Tacos on plates,” said Tishwasher.

“Tacos? How?” Boxten didn’t look any more interested, or any less weary and confused.

“Adey brought some tortillas from the city,” Looey explained.

“Gosh, Yatta, I didn’t think you were capable of being excited about anything other than candy,” said Poppy.

“That’s not true! I get excited about other things!”

Poppy gave her a look.

“And sure, maybe I’m gonna fill my taco with candy instead of- bleugh- vegetables, but like, you still shouldn’t assume!”

Shrimpo snorted. “Really says something that she did assume, though.”

“But that’s not the point!” Yatta whined.

“Your point lost credibility as soon as you acted exactly as she thought you would.”

Yatta put her hands over her ears. “Lalalala! I don’t wanna hear your devil’s advocate spiel, Shrimply!”

“Always behaving like a child,” muttered Poppy, shaking her head and wandering away.

Ginger was so fucking hungry.

“Have they fixed the elevator yet?” she asked, knowing what the answer would be.

“I’ll check,” replied Bobette from the other side of the room. She knew what the result would be, too. But it’s not like there was anything else they could do.

Their food had ran out a week ago. They were very much stuck in the low, low levels (just one level, actually) of Gardenview - low enough that only the broken old elevator could reach it. The intact one wouldn’t go down that far, but the weird machine that powered it was kept on their floor. Bobette had come up with a wonderful idea to break it, so that maybe the toons upstairs would remember that they existed and come save them. It hadn’t worked yet. It was still broken, so there was a chance, but it was just getting to have been long enough that they were starting to give up.

“Still nothing,” Bobette sighed, sitting down next to Ginger. “They might have just assumed it’s unfixable, or something, or there’s a new power source and they don’t even use that one anymore-“

“Losing hope isn’t worth it, baby,” Ginger said, nuzzling into her shoulder.

Finn hummed to himself as fey walked down the hall, fiddling with the strap attaching a fishing rod and bag to his back.

“Hi Dandy!”

They jumped, and looked up from their feet, surprised by his presence. “Finn. Hey.”

“What’s got you so crabby, friend?”

“Well, apparently I’ve been asleep for several days.”

“That explains why nobody’s sea-n you for a whale! I’m shore you’ll f-eel better soon!”

Dandy stared at fem with a look of disgust. “Why do you talk like that?”

“I have to. I told a skeleton witch she looked like a carp-y Halloween decoration and then she cursed me.” Finn frowned. “I seal-riously don’t get why she did that. I a-polo-gized and everything.”

“What?”

“I ack-shell-y don’t think I’m sole-pposed to tell people that. If I’m sleeping with the fishes by tomorrow you know why.”

“Are you okay?”

“Not reel-y.” He laughed flatly. “By the bay, Sprout told me I should kelp you out and dis-trout you from the situ-ocean. Like, keep you bu-sea.”

Dandy looked even more bewildered. “Wait, so, was any of that true? Why would he ask you to do that? I can take care of myself. I can take care of other people!” They looked downwards and their voice quieted. “I have to.”

“Shore thing buddy,” said Finn, patting them on the back.

Coal was a good rock. The best rock, even. She was very good at her job, which was to sit here and let that thing pet her and let the other thing talk about things that weren’t happening.

“Can we go back to our room?”

“We’re in our room, Ari.”

“What? No, no, then why is it so…”

They stopped talking again. They kept doing that. Coal was annoyed by this. It was rude to stop talking in the middle of a sentence. “BOOF!”

Ari flinched. She nudged them. Silly thing. She was not a threat. Hurting them would be doing a bad job.

“It’s too loud in here.”

“It’s just Coal, Ari.”

“I- I know. I’m here now. And it’s too loud.”

Kai was quiet. Not-loud was quiet. Coal knew that. She was a very smart rock.

The only sound was the gentle scrape of Kai’s hand on Coal’s back. She didn’t mind it. It was nice, even. It was her job. Her owners used to sometimes say she was more like a cat than a dog when it came to touch. She was neither of those things. She was a rock. The only cat she knew was the paper one. Very annoying. Ditzy. Hissed at her a lot. As for what a ‘dog’ was, she had no clue. The fuzzy one that worked with Pebble sometimes called them both dogs.

“Do you see that?” said Ari.

“No.” said Kai.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“… I don’t believe you.”

“That’s okay. I’m here.”

Kai’s job was to comfort Ari. They were doing it well.

Rodger was damn well tired of doing his job. He had read over this contract too many times, and the words were looking more and more like nonsense, but he didn’t like spending time to convince himself that he had better things to do. Like eat. Or sleep. Or talk to people. Maybe it was that he didn’t like doing those things at all.

He had a job, he was gonna do it.

Maybe he needed a break. Did asking a clarifying question about the context in which this thing was signed count as taking a break? That was talking to people, right? Maybe they would even get him to eat something.

He gagged involuntarily. Why did that have to happen? No, he should just put it off until someone found him passed out, probably having a nightmare where he was trapped with nothing but his own damn thoughts.

“Uh, hi Rodger! I gotta question.”

He turned around. It was Toodles, Goob standing behind them with Pebble in his arms. Kids. Dammit. Well, no wonder they hadn’t knocked.

“What is it that you need, Toodles?”

“We need to find out where the power source of the elevator is, so we can fix it.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be Shezzie’s responsibility?”

“She broke both of her legs,” said Goob, untroubled by the fact.

“Oh. That’s… too bad. I’ll see what I can find.” He dug around through a filing cabinet until he located the folder he was thinking of. “Here you go. Bring it back intact, please.”

“Thank you!” they chirped in unison.

“By the way,” Toodles added, “Sprout says he wants to see you at lunch. It’s still happening so you’ve got time.”

“It’s tacos! They’re tasty!” said Goob.

“Ah, thank you for the offer, but I’ve already eaten.”

Pebble barked at him accusingly.

“That’s his liar bark,” Goob said with suspicion.

The little rock could see right through him.

“… fine. Good luck, you two. Be careful near the elevators.”

“Okay! Bye!” Toodles took Goob’s arm and they bounded off.

Rodger sighed. He couldn’t go back on his word. His word to someone else, at least. Promises to oneself didn’t matter much, in his opinion. Besides, it seemed that Sprout would come find him if he didn’t show up.

He hadn’t been in the eating area for a while. Since the last time he was dragged there, likely. The tables and chairs were in slightly different places. Was there a new unspoken seating arrangement? Was there even a space for him? He should just never come back here again.

“Rodger, hey, have Goob and Toodles found you yet?” Scraps sitting backwards in her chair, looking up at him from her knitting.

“Yes, they have. They’re at the elevator now, I believe.”

“Awesome.” She didn’t do anything with this information, other than… not worry, he supposed.

“Rodger! You showed up! Nice!” Sprout shoved a plate towards him. “Sit down and eat this.”

He sat, then… tried to stall. “Why do I need a plate to eat a taco? Aren’t they supposed to be something you eat with your hands?”

“Tishwasher prefers cleaning plates to tables, and the floor. Shocking, I know. I’m gonna stay here until you have some, by the way, and I have places to be, so if you could just do it that’d be great.”

“Nobody’s making you stay.”

“I am. I’m making me stay. And I’m making you eat something.”

“Sprout, you know it’s… really not that big of a deal, right?” said Scraps.

“Shush.”

Rodger could feel himself getting nauseous. He didn’t want to be here. But… people were watching.

He took a bite.

Poppy was standing next to the table with a bottle in her hand. She often wandered around annoying people. “Woah! Rodger! You can eat? I never would’ve guessed!” There was no real energy behind her voice.

“I can’t, actually. Nope. Sorry,” he muttered, dropping the taco and pushing the plate back towards Sprout, who was already trying to stop him.

He ran to his room and made himself throw up.

Coni was floating around in the ceiling tiles, listening to see if anything interesting was going on.

Cozmo was making dinner, boring, Toodles and Goob were trying to fix the elevator, boring, Dandy was talking to Finn in the hall, boring, Gigi and Teagan were in the library, boring, and Brightney wasn’t there so she was probably out for a walk, boring…

Why did they all have to be so boring? If she was stuck here for all of eternity then she deserved to be entertained.

“Do a flip,” she whispered as Looey walked by.

He looked around, confused. “Did you say something?”

“No, but I can if you want me to!” Yatta started listing off random strings of words. “Slug brunches. Orange tree roots. Spherical cow in a frictionless void.”

Boring. She went to the art room. Blot was there. They waved to her.

“Is there anything interesting going on?”

They shrugged.

“Really? Thought a quiet type like you would know what goes on around here.”

‘I’m talking to the air. I don’t know shit,’ they signed.

“Fair. Everyone probably thinks you’re a weirdo and decides not to share the goss. Looey and Yatta are headed to the big room, by the way. In case you need to find them.”

It seemed they did. Blot gave a thumbs up, and left.

Empty room. Boring.

She went back to exploring.

Sprout in the garden. Boring. R&D in their room with Coal, doing absolutely nothing. Boring. SoVium and Astro, having a conversation… that looked very serious. That might not be boring.

“How about you just leave, pretend you lost me, and we can be done with this,” Astro was saying.

“No.”

“I’m just gonna do more and more things to make you hate me till you want me dead, too.”

“I’m not taking your word for that. You haven’t done shit.”

They stared at each other, expressions blank but probably filled with a lot of signals. Coni was pretty invested. She loved drama.

Astro got up from his bed, matching SoVium’s stance. “Try me. Last chance, Navy.”

“Sprout told me to stay here with you. I’m not about to break a promise to him.”

“Since when do you give a fuck about what he thinks?”

“I don’t care about what he would think. I care about what he would do.”

“You’re stronger than him.”

“I’m stronger than you.”

Another period of silence. Astro took another step towards SoVium. “Are you sure about that?”

This place definitely wasn’t all boring.

Toodles surveyed the blueprints very carefully. “According to this, the power source is at a level past where the elevator can reach.”

“That’s silly,” said Goob.

“It is.” They frowned. “The power thingy has a ton of backup systems to make sure the elevator doesn’t just stop, but that’s exactly what happened. If it broke down normally, it wouldn’t break all at once. It don’t make any sense.”

“Maybe a rat ate it,” suggested Goob.

“The rat would die before chomping every last wire.”

“Not the rat!”

Pebble barked.

“Do you like rats, Pebble?” Goob asked.

He barked again, then started licking Goob’s arm.

“AHH!! No no no stop it,” he wailed, pushing Pebble away.

“Bad rock! Don’t lick him!” Pebble whined as Toodles picked him up.

Goob put on his headphones and stood up. “I need to go wash my arm now. Bye.”

“Alright, bye.” Pebble tried to follow after him. “Nope, you’re staying here with me, little mister. This elevator ain’t gonna fix itself.”

SoVium flinched as Astro grabbed their arm tightly.

“Let me go, Astro.”

“Don’t you hate me? Don’t you want me gone?” He reached up another hand and gently stroked the side of their screen. His other set of hands went around their waist. “I know you do.”

They pushed him backwards. “I don’t. You just need help.”

He rolled his eyes. “I assure you, I’m not going to be the one needing help. If you don’t hate me yet, I promise you will.” He sent a star hand flying at them. It hit their screen with a crunch.

“Fuck!” they shouted.

For the first time since… a long, long while ago, they felt pain.

“How about now, Navy? It’s so easy for you to run away; leave me here to die. There must be some part of you that wants this pain for me.”

The word that made it across most clearly was run. That seemed like a fine idea. It’s not like they could hold Astro down in this state. He obviously didn’t care for his own life, so why wouldn’t there be a reason to kill them, too? Acting on mostly self-preservation, against what their unclouded judgement surely would have been, they listened, and ran.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

They should probably go get help.

One hand clutching their head and the other following the wall, they tried to think about where Sprout said he would be.

They had forgotten that they were capable of even feeling pain. It took up so much of their processing power, they couldn’t even reach out to disable their sense of touch. That would have been very useful. Was the loss of vision a part of that? They couldn’t tell how much of their screen had been cracked, so it was conceivable that their cameras had broken.

There was a voice. Someone was here.“Wh- Navy, aren’t you supposed to be watching Astro?”

“Yeah, I know, Dandy, shut the fuck up. I lost him.” They spoke as if their teeth were gritted. That was a feature of their emotional state. They didn’t have teeth.

“You- what? How did you-” Their voice was wavering. That meant they were… scared? Right?

“Take a fucking guess. Do you know where Sprout is?”

There was another voice, coming from another direction. “Have you checked outside?”

They twitched. How long had Finn been there? “I have not. I just came from Astro’s room.”

“Where is he?” asked Dandy. Still… scared. Yeah. Definitely scared.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here. Dumbass.”

“Right, yeah. You should find him, quickly.”

“That’s what I’m trying to- agh-!”

They grabbed their head again, falling against the wall. It didn’t hurt that much before, did it? They couldn’t think. Were Dandy and Finn talking? This was fucking agony. They needed to shut down.

Arm shaking, they reached up to the side of their head and pressed down hard on a button.

Click.

Adey loved weekends. That was when they got to spend time at Gardenview instead of their stupid house in the stupid city what nobody liked them. Sure, they liked the perfect suburban boy that committed to all his classes and was peculiarly invested in his mechanics internship at some dinky place nobody had ever heard of. They would definitely not be a fan of some weird teenager. The people of Gardenview, on the other hand, loved seeing them, because they would bring things from the city with them. And, like, because they were a nice presence - that was another thing they liked about this place. They valued more than the things Adey gave them.

They were supposed to be working with Dyle or Shezzie right about now. Apparently, Shezzie had broken both of zier legs, and Dyle was too busy to teach Adey anything. The other mechanics of the building were Goob and Toodles, who barely knew how to do things themselves and definitely wouldn’t be able to show someone else how in a way that made sense.

So they were free this weekend. Their parents didn’t know that. As far as anyone was concerned, little Adrian was hard at work learning how elevators functioned.

The elevators didn’t work, actually.

Instead they were planning on going fishing with Finn.

Fey had said that he would come get them when it was time, but fey still wasn’t here. Maybe he had gotten stopped in the hall?

Adey took the reverse of Finn’s path to try and find him.

And there he was, standing next to Dandy with a panicked expression, looking at SoVium who was unconscious on the floor.

“Oh dear, that’s not great,” Adey said.

“Adey, could you go get Sprout, please?” asked Dandy. They looked terrified.

“Yeah, uh… Finn do you wanna come?”

“Shore.”

Finn skipped alongside them. “It’s lake-ly that he’s in the kitchen. Or the medical room. Or outside. He’s typ-pickerel-ly in one of those places.”

“Alright. What happened back there?”

“No clue.”

“Oh.”

They went to the kitchen first. Cozmo was there.

“Hey Coz, where’s Sprout?” asked Adey.

“He’s busy. What do you need?” Cozmo responded, attention focused on chopping up vegetables.

“We’ve got a bait of a fishy situation. SoVium might be dead. Also they don’t know where Astro is.”

“Oh. That’s… not great.”

“That’s what I said!” Adey exclaimed.

“I’ll go get Sprout, then. Where did you say SoVium was?”

“A hallway. I can hake you there,” said Finn.

Cozmo left the vegetables behind and went through the door that led to the garden. “Sprout! Emergency! Come inside!”

“Five more minutes!” whined Sprout.

“I said it’s an emergency!” Cozmo repeated.

Sprout leaned in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. “What happened?”

Dyle was very much prepared for something to go wrong at any moment, but not for many things to go wrong all at once. For starters, the elevator was broken. First, Shezzie had tried to fix it, and tripped down where it should have been and snapped both her legs. Then Toodles had tried to fix it, but reported that the broken bits were on a floor they couldn’t reach. There were limited non-elevator options, mostly narrow staircases and ladders past doors labeled with ‘employees only’ signs, leftover from when Gardenview had been a human-run tourist attraction for children. As for levels inaccessible by those back room passageways, there were the vents. A mostly improbable option. Too high up, too dangerous, too small. But sound carried through just fine. If the incompetent builders had bothered putting a door between the library and a completely empty and unused corner of the office, then nobody would be stuck.

“We’re looking into how to fix the elevator, so.. just, hang tight,” Dyle said to nobody he could see.

“Yeah, that’s something I’m pretty great at,” replied Gigi from the other side of the wall. “I’m chilling. It’s chill.”

“Would it be reasonable to pour tea through the vents?” asked Teagan. She had been complaining of migraines.

“That would make quite the health hazard, unfortunately,” Dyle answered. “And I’m not sure it’s angled correctly for that.”

She groaned.

“I promise we are getting right on it. How are the food supplies looking?”

“I will never be able to look at a granola bar again,” came Teagan’s reply.

“Dude, don’t diss granola bars. They pack nice in my head.”

“You know what’s nice in my head? Tea! Except I don’t have any.” She grumbled to herself again.

“Better get back to work, my guy. There’s only so many hours of reading I can take.”

“Yes, I should be getting back to work. I’ll come by and speak to you two later.” He walked away, allowing his steps to be audible.

There were other issues, too. Other things he had to take care of. The other mains were supposed to be helping, especially in situations like this when so many things had gone wrong, but Dandy and Shezzie were both out of commission, Astro was an entire problem himself, and there was only so much that SoVium and Sprout could do when they were mostly focused on caring for the other three.

So he was left with the responsibility of checking on all the other toons, in addition to his normal work of tending to the broken bits of Gardenview and explaining over email with city officials that no, this was not public property, no, this land is not for sale, et cetera, rotting in his room for hours at a time.

He had gotten Rodger to help with some of the logistics, and Goob and Toodles seemed eager to be able to do more. But he still had quite a bit of ‘watching the toons’ to do. He didn’t like that.

He didn’t have a list. He should have made a list. He passed by the doors of the toons’ rooms and tried to remember who needed help at that moment.

Ah, yes. The twins.

He knocked lightly.

“Uh, you can come in,” came a call.

They were sitting in their bed, with Coal on their lap. Both the dog and Razzle were asleep. Dazzle was awake, though they looked very tired, taking shaky breaths a bit too often.

“What do you want?” they said, seemingly not intending to be harsh, though their words came out as such.

“Just checking in. How are you feeling?”

They pondered the question. “Pissed,” they decided. “At Astro. This is his fault.”

Dyle was surprised by the sudden expression of anger. “How so?”

“It’s so fucking unlucky. If he had taken my meds, then he might have gotten somewhere. And by somewhere I mean a better mental state because I take antidepressants.” Dazzle sighed and put a hand on their forehead. “I can survive without them. But now Ari’s off their fucking meds and freaking the fuck out and I have to make sure we don’t kill anybody. And that we’re still alive! Do you have any idea how fucking tiring it is to have to hold them still AND remember to breathe?” They looked at Dyle, expecting a response, and then inhaled suddenly. “I forgot. Just now. I can’t even go to sleep because then we would suffocate and die.”

“You shouldn’t have to remember to breathe,” Dyle said, concerned.

“I don’t control the fucking, autopilot parts,” they said, waving a hand. “That’s Ari’s job. But they’re too weak to do it.”

“I’m not weak,” Razzle mumbled.

Dazzle immediately began shushing and comforting their sibling. “No, no, you’re not, you’re just hurt right now. You’re gonna be okay.”

They muttered something in response, then went still again. Not breathing.

Dazzle took another deep breath, then kept talking, this time quieter. “It was fine earlier. When they had at least an idea of where we were and what was going on. But they just… keep, slipping-“ They sniffled, and Dyle realized they were crying. “And, they wouldn’t have to be in all this pain if Astro wasn’t such a little fucking bitch.”

“Oh- well, I’m sure Astro’s in plenty of pain too-“

“He will be! Once I can fucking move!” They were yelling now, and Razzle stirred again. Coal barked softly from their lap.

“Now now, please calm down-“

They broke into sobs again. “C-can you leave? Please?”

Dyle nodded solemnly. “If you need anything, let me know.”

He wasn’t quite sure how they would go about doing that while confined to this space, but he mostly meant it as a friendly gesture.

He shut the door behind him and continued down the hall, then nearly crashed into Finn.

“Sorry!” fey yelled.

“Dyle we need help!” shouted Adey.

Astro could feel eyes on him. He looked around subtly, again - still nothing. As a master of stealth himself, he knew all the tricks. Nobody should be able to hide from them. But they couldn’t shake that feeling.

They needed to turn to magic to check.

He closed his eye and listened carefully, breathing still. Thinking. Letting his mind wander, hopefully for the last time.

The various clicks and whirs typical of Navy's room surrounded them. They had chosen this place to do it because he knew their room would be the last place they would go to while in a panic to find him. Plus, it was a nice final fuck you.

Since the pills hadn’t worked last time (he had stupidly used the first ones he could get his hands on, which only stopped him from accessing the dream realm and didn’t even almost kill him), he had decided to go with a noose this time. The rafters were easy to get to, since he could fly. If this didn’t work, then next thing he’d try would be going as high as he could and then letting himself drop, though that might be messy. A benefit to this method was that, once it was over with, their body would be found without a question about what happened.

Suddenly, they caught a twinge of energy behind them. He looked. Nothing.

“Is someone there?” he whispered, still staring into the void of where he had sensed something.

There was no response. The air before him was empty.

He picked up the rope, then the feeling of being watched vanished altogether. It was abrupt and startling, as it had become like white noise. He wondered if people would take his loss that way.

Blot couldn’t find Yatta or Looey. Coni had said that they were in the big room, but they weren’t.

Sure. That was fine. They were just hanging out together. Without them.

It wasn’t a secret to anyone that there was a pair within the trio. There always was. They would always be the second-best friend.

“Hey Blot!” Boxten had wandered in. He looked less groggy than normal.

Blot waved.

“What are you up to? Oh, and, have you seen Astro lately?”

They shook their head.

Coni appeared next to them suddenly. “BLOT!!!”

They probably looked like a fucking idiot as they flinched at seemingly nothing.

“Uh, are you okay-?” Boxten asked.

“DUDE YOU GOTTA GO TO SOVIUM’S ROOM RIGHT NOW!” She seemed very panicked, which was not typical of her. She didn’t have much reason to worry about anything.

‘What?’ Blot signed.

She vanished. Well, it’s not like there was anything better to do. They gestured for Boxten to follow.

“Uh… Where are we going?”

He sure liked asking questions. They would have been able to explain, if anyone bothered learning how to communicate with them. But nobody did, because nobody cared. Not unless Blot was their only option, like how they were for Coni.

SoVium’s room had an elevator entrance, but the only way to get to it now was a small staircase past one of the back doors. It was cracked open slightly.

“Oh, are we… going to get SoVium? They might not be there.”

SoVium’s room was big, a maze of little arcade machines and boxes. On various spots of the walls, there were posters advertising episodes of a game show. Part of the title, presumably where the host’s name would have been, was scratched over with ichor.

Standing in the middle of a platform, leaning over a railing, was Astro, playing with something in their hands. He glanced over at the two intruders.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he said, more exasperated than angry.

Blot noticed that the thing they were holding was a rope.

Boxten noticed too. “Hey, Astro… what’s that for?”

“Can you leave me alone? I’ve been stopped way too many damn times and I’m tired.” They threw the rope down.

He put so much weight into the word that Blot felt it. They assumed Astro had accidentally fed his magic into his speech.

“Then… why don’t you sleep?” Boxten asked. It was more of a genuine question than a suggestion.

Astro took a deep, shaky breath, in and out again. “I’ve tried sleeping. It helps me. Just, floating in nowhere without having to feel.” He sat down and leaned his head against the railing, eyes closed. “But I don’t want to wake up anymore.”

Blot turned to Boxten.

‘Comfort him,’ they signed. They knew he wouldn’t understand what the signs meant, but the unfamiliar gesture followed by pointing in Astro’s direction was probably clear enough.

They didn’t have to wait for him to decode it. “What am I supposed to?” he whispered.

Blot shrugged. ‘You know him best.’

Boxten paused for a moment before he took a hesitant step forward, then another.

The clasp on his head snapped open, and the key on the back began to spin, clicking as it went. A light, tinny melody lifted out and echoed around the crevices of SoVium’s room. The music had a gentle and nostalgic feel.

He sat down next to Astro, who leaned into his shoulder and began to sob. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” they repeated, over and over again, until he finally fell asleep.