Chapter Text
To say Sprout was mad was an understatement.
Dandy’s injury from that run was really bad. It was a miracle they managed to tie gauze around themself. They were a plant alongside a toon, so that must’ve helped. What neither healer could explain was how they didn’t die from that. Either way, they got patched up. As Cosmo stitched up the deep wounds and cleaned them, Sprout was writing something on a sheet of a Dandy’s World branded journal themed after Cosmo. “All right, if I remember my medical training… you’ve got around a 3 week to 2 month recovery. Which means you’ve got to rest, and you can’t go on runs.” He explained. Dandy’s jaw was agape. “MONTHS!? Come on! It- it can't be THAT bad!!!” they protested. Cosmo winced, and said, “Well Dandy… The claw scratches are rather deep into your side… that's a delicate area of your body! Yes, you’re able to take a little more damage, but a stomach wound is still a stomach wound! Even if it's technically on your side.” The flower crossed their arms but winced as they moved too roughly. Vee gently placed her hand on their back. “Dan, careful…” She said sternly. Sprout sighed. “Yeah, no runs. What you do on runs could be dangerous to the injury. I mean… twisting will make it worse. Speaking of that, it's a miracle we got your hands back to normal without issue.”
Right, Dandy’s arms. Luckily, their upper arm scars weren’t visible, since they didn’t draw any ichor that day.
They were both an idiot and a coward.
Vee’s gentle pats snapped them back to reality. “This means you’ll be spending a lot of time in your room." Dandy threw up their arms in frustration, wincing at the injury again. “Now WHO is gonna- ow-! Host runs!? Dyle can’t take over for months! He can barely take over for a day!!!” they exclaimed. After a moment of silence, Vee spoke up, “hey, why can’t I?”
That offer made Sprout and Cosmo’s blood run cold.
Dandy however looked a bit surprised. “Really? Cathode, are you sure you can do that???” they asked cautiously. Vee crossed her arms. “I mean, I don't see why not! How hard can it be?” The flower didn’t seem too jazzed at the idea. “I don’t know… I really don’t want to wrap you up in the operation, Vee.” they explained. Cosmo and Sprout let out matching sighs of relief. Vee however, persisted, “If we don’t get enough spare ichor the elevators won't work, besides, Dyle’s just as busy as you are on runs. He only spares a moment to voluntarily twist for his little ‘times up’ challenge. I can help with the tasks on runs, and I'm only as busy as the amount of runs I'm on. You need to rest that injury, blossom.” She was so stubborn, deadset on hosting runs while they recovered. Dandy groaned, and pinched the bridge of their nose. Vee raised an eyebrow. “Well? What's it going to be Dan? Yes or no?”
Later, a run was hosted. The first floor went fine, and everyone made it to the elevator. Cosmo cautiously spoke low as they got in. “Y-you see, Dandy can’t host runs for a while due to a pretty bad injury…” he explained. Tisha inquired, “Is it Dyle running the shop?” The cake shook his head. “No… but when you see her, do NOT freak out.. Dandy does NOT want to involve her in the operation…” Tisha’s eyes widened, “Don’t tell me… Its not h-”
Dandy’s shop opened up and rose above the floor. Sitting there instead of the flower was the charismatic green television.
The toons’ faces shifted to looks of horror, shock, and mild curiosity.
“Hey guys, remember when I kept joking about taking over the show back then? This sort of reminds me of that!” Vee said, with the smugest grin on her face. “WOW! Vee! Guess it-” Looey began then cleared their throat, “Guess it all worked out! Heh… Is Dandy okay?” he was trying to clear up some of the tension by asking. Suddenly a walkie talkie on the counter crackled, Dandy’s voice came through, “Doing much better! Thanks for checking in looey!” The sigh of relief that rang throughout the elevator eased a lot of the tension. Dandy was still there, Vee acted more like a stand-in rather than running the show. “Oh! That's good to hear!” looey replied, smiling.
Vee beamed as she set her hands down on the counter. “Well… what does Dan say… Oh! Right.” she cleared her throat, and in the best impression of Dandy she could muster said, “Spare a TV some tapes, will ya?”
The run was going surprisingly smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it could with some small awkward air when Vee popped up in Dandy’s shop. The sight shocked a lot of toons. Vee, however, could not find the situation funnier.
It boiled to some small talk on the run. Tisha looked over at Cosmo. While she was doing a machine, she asked “Hey, Cosmo, you don’t think that… this is going to be the start of something… right?” Cosmo was quiet for a moment. “I sure hope not.. Dandy openly said they don’t want to drag Vee into the operation.” he replied. Though he seemed unsure of his own words. Suddenly from behind, Connie appeared. “I’m going to be honest, this is freaking me out too, and I used to be a Halloween toon.” Cosmo and Tisha jumped in unison. “Connie! Don’t sneak up on us like that!” the tissue box scolded, Connie simply rolled her eyes. “I ain't stopping my spooks anytime soon, heh! But seriously, wasn’t Vee working in the operation literally one of our worries when we set those two up???” she asked. Cosmo protested, “But when Vee asked, Dandy didn’t seem to want to involve her at all! I can agree it's sketchy, though.” Connie crossed her arms, and Tisha thought for a moment. “You don’t think Vee is going to start working in the operation because of this, right?” She asked. Connie replied, “Look, if Dandy doesn’t want her to work in the operation, they won’t let her learn too much. I don’t know many details of the operation, but I've spied on Dandy for a while. They catch me every time when I’m about to ‘see too much’ and it's eerie every time. So there's obviously stuff they’re keeping from toons, stuff I have reason to believe Dyle knows about.” Cosmo nodded, and added, “Sprout told me about arguments he would have with them, and would tie back to not trusting the other mains with information… Let's just be safe, and keep an eye on Vee.”
A few floors later, the first toon died. It was Looey.
Vee turned to the walkie talkie once the rest of the run left to continue. “Hey Dandy, Looey just died. What do you usually do?” she asked. Dandy took a moment to respond. “Well… well usually I'll revive them! So let me get up and get his cor- OW-!!” The sound of falling followed that sentence. Vee reassured them, “Whoah! Dandy! Don’t exert yourself you idiot! It's too dangerous! How about you just tell me how to revive a toon?” Dandy chuckled nervously. “Come on vee! I-I can’t drag you into the operation like that…” They tried to explain, but Vee wasn’t hearing it. “You shouldn’t be up and walking right now, you’re hurt. Besides, it’ll just be until you can revive toons yourself, which will be only 3 weeks if you rest your injury right. Come on Dan, I volunteered knowing I might have to do this. Besides, Dyle’s busy right now.”
Dandy was caught at a standstill, and reluctantly obliged to teach Vee how to revive toons.
The floor Looey died on was eerily quiet. Vee’s footsteps and cane echoed throughout the floor. It was one of the lower warehouse floors. Dandy was coaching vee from the walkie talkie, “All right, did they tell you who killed looey?” they asked. Vee replied, “No, but they all looked a bit rough. Must've been some sort of main, but I don't hear anyone…” she said, carefully taking out her mic to perform a mic check. Light illuminated on a twisted right in front of her. She jumped and rushed behind a crate.
Twisted Pebble.
That makes sense.
“What? Who is it, Vee?” Dandy asked, the walkie talkie crackled loudly in the empty floor. Twisted Pebble snapped his head over, and snarled loudly. Vee began to move back, whispering into the walkie talkie, “Oh you HAD to ask so loudly???” dandy replied, “I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS PEBBLE!!!” in a whisper yell. Vee cautiously looked out to see Twisted Pebble sniffing where she was originally standing, then walked away. Vee let out a steady sigh of relief. “.... You know the actual Pebble is sitting beside me on my bed right now! Say hi to Vee Pebble!” they tried to lighten the mood, and Vee heard sniffing from the other side of the walkie talkie. She chuckled softly. “Aw, all right… back on track.”
She finally found the body.
Looey’s head was popped and ichor was spilling. Must've been from getting bitten straight in the head. Vee’s eyes were wide and she held the walkie talkie shakily. “Dan… Dan i… I found them… What… Wha-at should I do?” she asked. Dandy asked back, “Hey. your voice is lagging. Is it a rough sight?” Vee replied, “Yeah, I guess I never rea-ally caught a good look at any bodies….” Dandy clicked their tongue. “I’m sorry you have to see that… You’re not gonna like the next step either.” They said. Vee sighed. “All right, what do I do next?”
Dandy continued instructing her as she knelt down next to the corpse. “Most toons have their core riiiight under the ribcage… if his body isnt injured i have a small blade in the backpack i lent you to… you know… cut them open.” Vee was quiet, and dandy heard the sound of latex being cut with a soft pop! The sound of flesh and ichor squelching made Dandy’s skin crawl. They couldn’t imagine how vee was taking it. Which was not well. The liquid in her core felt like it was churning and bubbling. Vee had no mouth to throw up but god how she wanted to. The decaying ichor stained her whole arm as the flesh melted into an ichor puddle around her. It was sickening. “Vee? Are you all right? I know this is a hard sight…” They asked cautiously. Vee pushed aside organs that were melting and grabbed what she assumed was the core, and pulled it out.
With fleshy squelches, Vee was holding a heart-shaped object. It was black with a white crack down the middle.
“... I think I've got it…” She said softly. Dandy inquired, “Is it a black heart with a white crack down the middle?” Vee replied, “Ye-es, it is.” The flower explained, “Well… open the bag I told you to get. There should be a capsule in there.” Vee unzipped the bag and pulled out the capsule. “All right, now what?” she asked. Dandy instructed, “Open the top of the capsule and put the core inside, then you can head back to my shop.”
Vee opened the door to the back of Dandy’s shop with caution. She’s been here before, this is where every toon got revived. It still felt strange to enter here rather than just wake up here. She took out the capsule and set it on the desk. “... Wha-at's next, Dandy?” she asked with caution. She was still so sick. She felt like she had done something wrong. Dandy instructed, “All right, there's a machine in the back corner, don’t touch the five with caution tape around it, just the free one. Fill that one like a regular machine” Vee went over and turned the valve as they continued, “Then you go to the drawers and take out Looey’s reference sheet.” Vee walked over after filling the machine, and set the walkie talkie down. She took out the key provided to her and opened a cabinet. “Whoah! You’ve got everyone’s files?!” She exclaimed and flipped through them. The surprise seemed to calm her down and get rid of the lag in her voice. Dandy chuckled, “Yeah! I mean, a lot of the stuff in here is from Mama’s and Papa’s offices! So I got all the toons’ files.” they explained. Vee laughed alongside them, but suddenly stopped.
“Oh. That's how you knew.”
Her voice sounded empty. Dandy asked, “Knew what? What's wrong Vee?” Vee was standing there with her own file in hand. Across the front in bold red ink was the word “SCRAPPED.” the tv toon was lost in thought for a moment, staring at the text, and clenching the file. She hadn’t seen much of her own file before. It made her curious, yet it filled her with so much frustration and anger to see it. She knew Vee Version 2's plans were going to be here, but she didn’t know she was officially scrapped.
Dandy caught on a little too late. “You’re looking at your own file aren’t you?” they asked. Vee loosened her grip on the file and set it down. “... I got curious… I mean, I should've known, right? I don’t know why it stunned me so much to see it…” she remarked, and pulled out Looey’s file. “I… I got the reference sheet…” Dandy went quiet. “... Vee…? You didn’t look in your file right..?” They asked. Vee looked at her file, she hadn’t, but now was curious. Dandy stopped her. “I know the text upset you, it upset me when I first looked at it too. If you want to have a slightly better day, then you won’t look into it. I promise you Cathode, it's not good.”
Vee stopped, but discreetly tucked the file into her jacket, after taking out her reference sheet that was sticking out of the side and setting it down on the table.
“Okay, next, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty. You should be fine touching raw ichor, right?”
Dandy remained cautious while asking. Vee replied,
“I’m made of metal, the raw ichor shouldn’t make me sick.”
She took off her gloves and made sure her shoulder sleeves were up high.
“Okay! Great! I trust you Vee! Follow my lead!”
Looey opened his eyes, and sat up. They died, right? There was no note from Dandy… wait.
Who revived them!? Dandy was injured!
He got their answer by looking to his left.
Vee was sitting there. This was the most scared they’ve ever seen her look. Her hands and forearms were covered in ichor. Her antennas were pinned back. Her eyes were wide and fear-filled. Looey cautiously asked, “Hey Vee! Did you… uh… did you revive me…?” Vee nodded weakly. Looey looked nervous. The tv however got up, and grabbed her cane. She opened the door and ushered him out. “Go on… I’ve got to head back to the run…” she said, but her voice sounded so strange. Like she lost the light in her voice. Looey looked back at her concern as she continued. He walked into the lobby, where every toon snapped their attention to him.
Vee meanwhile shut the door, and rested her forehead against it.
The walkie talkie crackled, and Dandy’s voice came through, “Vee! Hey Vee! Are you okay??? You’ve been quiet since you revived him!” The comment got Vee’s fans to kick to a high gear, as if she was hyperventilating. Dandy heard her drop to her knees. “Vee! HEY VEE!! Come on cathode! Come back to me now!” they pleaded. Vee cried out, “WHAT DID I JUST DO?! Dandy- DID I JUST CREATE LIFE?! FROM ICHOR?!” She sounded terrified. The flower tried to calm her down, “O-oh okay... Okay this… Okay i can’t explain why or how that worked, but Looey’s alive! Isn’t that good? Huh?” Vee grabbed her antenna and pulled them, trying to calm down. “No… no… no… Thi-is isn’t- I-I… This is against EVERYTHING I KNOW!!! EVERYTHING-”
“VEE!!!”
Vee snapped out of it, and reached for the walkie talkie. “... how about you go back to the run..? Maybe it’ll take your mind off of this…” they offered. Vee’s fans slowed down. “... I’ll do that… I…” she seemed to sigh. “I’ll do that.”
Vee returned to the run. She was silent. She was so quiet. The toons picked up that something clearly had happened. No one dared ask her. The ichor staining her entire arms spoke enough.
No one else died.
Vee gently took a damp rag to clean the ichor off her forearms and hands. She slid her gloves back on and gazed at herself in the mirror.
“What the hell am i doing…?”
She thought to herself, gazing at her droopy antenna, the subtle stain left behind from the ichor, and her fear-stricken expression.
Reviving toons was a horrible process, and she wished she’d let Dandy do themself.
Dandy was reading a book when they heard the door open. Pebble also got up from where he was lying and ran over to greet the tv who walked in. It was late into the evening, and she was in more comfortable attire. Yet, through her strange expression, she smiled and knelt down to pick up Pebble. “Hey Pebble, miss me? I bet it's strange to have me around more often.” She remarked and walked over to Dandy’s bed. Dandy themself smiled when they saw her. “Vee! Hey!!” They asked, “Are you doing better?” Vee’s grin faltered as she set pebble down and lay down beside them. Dandy delicately reached out and pulled her in a softer embrace. “... Gee, I can’t get earlier out of my head Dan… I can’t believe you can do that every day…” Her voice was very slightly trembling. Dandy chuckled. “I didn’t think a TV could get squeamish! But I get that… the first day’s the worst! Just..” they paused, and gently rested their head into her chest. “I'm sorry… vee I really didn’t want to wrap you up in all of this… I’m so sorry…” They apologized again and again, holding her gently. Vee rested her hand on their back and pulled them closer. “... Hey, look, I asked to get into this mess. I guess I just… didn’t expect the stuff that has to go with it…”
Dandy looked up at her with some teary eyes, and gazed at her with a softened face.
“.... I’m so sorry-”
“Stop apologizing. It's all right Dandy…”
Vee gently rested her head on the top of their head. Dandy was sniffling as Vee gently wiped tears from their eyes. The light scent of raw ichor was present on her hands. They gazed at her face, and her exhausted expression. They felt terrible, especially when they recalled how she cried after she revived her first toon.
Dandy hoped they could recover soon, so she didn’t have to go through this for long.