Chapter Text
Rodger appears at GardenView’s entrance, rebirthed after dying on one of the many dangerous floors, thank goodness the ichor, a black substance that creates life, helps them live again after being attacked by the monsters of the floors.
Rodger immediately walked to Dandy’s shop and started gossiping, wanting to gain as much information about the ‘Ichor Incident’ as possible.
“Of course, he is trying to get information out of Dandicus again…” Dyle thought as he sat in his shop across from Dandy. “Thats all he wants, research.”
As the clock hits 8pm, Dyle and Dandy close shop for the night. They walked together through the halls and into their separate rooms.
Rodger didn’t have anywhere to go, so he would go to the GardenView kitchen; he had a secret cabinet filled with all different types of booze.
At 1am Rodger was WASTED
Dandy walked into the kitchen at 2am for his usual 2am snack, when he spotted Rodger slumped against the wall, swaying slightly, bottle still in hand.
“Again…?” Dandy asked himself as he frowned. He knew Rodger had a drinking problem, he would regularly find him around GardenView, dazed and drunk. He was never able to find where Rodger kept his alcohol, no matter how hard he tried.
Dandy grabbed a muffin, holding it in his mouth as he picked Rodger up, he brought him to the back room of his shop where he had a makeshift bed of a mattress and a random blanket set up for Rodger.
At 6am, Dandy returned to set up shop so he was able to open at about 7am. He found Rodger, still asleep in the back room, empty bottle next to his ‘bed’.
Dandy finishes setting up at 06:45. Rodger tripped out into the main store, he was clearly hung over after last night.
“Hey Rodger, you ok?” Dandy asked as he finished setting up the last items on the shelf.
“Yeah… but my head hurts like hell…” Rodger complained as he held his hand against the top rim of his magnifying glass head in throbbing pain.
“You shouldn’t drink that much, you know…” Dandy commented as he grabbed a pain pill and a glass of water.
“Thanks…” Rodger groaned as he swallowed the pill with the water. “I don’t have a room here… I’m homeless Dandy…” Rodger realised as he came back to his senses slightly. He was a homeless detective with a terrible drinking problem. “Dandy, I’m so screwed…” Rodger knew this long ago.
“People would help you if you asked, you know that right?” Dandy asked, unsure of if Rodger WOULD ever ask for help.
“I,m… No they wouldn’t…” Rodger whimpered “I need to get research…” Rodger snaps quietly as he swallows the rest of the water in the glass before he walks out of Dandy’s shop, arms crossed over his chest. “I don’t need anyone’s help, I can do this on my own!” Rodger argued internally, thinking all these things, but never fully believing his own thoughts.
Rodger gets into one of the three elevators with a team of him, Vee, Finn, Shelly and Tisha. A perfect team for a quick run, all he wanted was research after all. That was all he needed to figure out what was going on in GardenView, the twisteds and the ‘Ichor Incident’, he didn’t exactly know what happened, but it shut down GardenView all those years ago.
The elevator opened to the first floor. Rodger seemed slightly unsure, he was probably still slightly hungover from the night before. Right before the elevator closed, Rodger stepped out.
He immediately saw Vee and Shelly extracting while Finn and Tisha distracted the two twisteds who resided on that floor. Rodger ran around and grabbed as many research capsules as possible.
As Rodger grabbed the last capsule, the metal elevator door opened, letting all the toons in before it shut closed right in front of the twisteds.
“Rodger?” Shelly asked quietly, voice laced with concern. “You’re weirdly quiet, are you ok?” she asked as she put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him and coax an answer out of him.
“I’m a homeless alcoholic detective.” he wanted to say, yet the words got stuck in his throat. “I’m fine, it’s just early I guess…” Rodger murmured, seeming tired, even though a lot more was going on to affect his mood like this.
At floor twenty four, Rodger lost his last heart and disintegrated into ichor, seeping into the ground.
Within three seconds he was back at GardenView's illustrious entrance.
“Good run?” Dandy asked as Rodger walked past his shop.
“Eh” Rodger shrugs "At least I don’t reek of alcohol anymore?” he said, trying to look at the bright side despite his current situation.
“I guess that’s good?” Dandy voiced, trying to be a supportive friend during his struggles. “You should stop drinking… really… Toodles looks up to you.” Dandy blurted out, immediately covering his mouth in shock that he would say such a thing.
“I’ve tried, it never worked, so I just do it out of her sight.” Rodger admitted, defeat written all over his face. “She’s an awesome kid, don’t get me wrong… It’s just hard to quit after so many years…” defeat was scribbled over his face in the mess of all his emotions.
“I’m going to go lie down.” Rodger sighed as he walked into the back room, to see his mattress just how he left it, he sprawled out on it, feeling content for the first time that day.
After lying down and failing to fall asleep, Rodger stared at the bare cement ceiling until he heard a voice, whose voice?
He sat up.
He listened closer.
“Have you seen Rodger? He hasn’t come to annoy me today yet.”
That was Dyle’s voice.
“Bloody hell…” Rodger muttered as he fell back down onto the mattress. “Why is HE here?” Rodger asked himself, he hated Dyle, and he was SURE Dyle hated him too.
“No, I haven’t seen Rodger today yet, maybe he’s on a run?” Dandy suggested, as an excuse, since he knew very well where Rodger was.
“He annoys me EVERY DAY! Doesn’t he annoy you too, Dandicus?”
Dyle complained.
“Uhh… Yeah, sure, he… can be persistent at times…” Dandy had never found Rodger annoying, Rodger was just insanely passionate about his research to the point he would obsess over it and Dandy knew this.
“Always going ON and ON about the damn twisteds! He needs to realise not everything needs to be researched and solved!” Dyle stated, getting louder as he gets more annoyed by the thought of Rodger.
“Yeah… Yeah… Shouldn’t you be at your shop?” Dandy asked, trying to end the conversation due to it becoming awkward.
“Lunch break.” Dyle declared plainly.
“Oh, Ok.” Dandy started pushing a pen around on his desk with his index finger, knowing Rodger would almost definitely be listening to the ENTIRE interaction between him and Dyle.
In the back room, Rodger indeed heard it all. Every. Single. Word. Even though it was muffled through the thick walls and the old wooden door.
At 2pm Rodger gets up and goes to the kitchen to grab lunch, he got a burger and fries, he sat at a random table in the back corner.
As rodger started to eat his food, the kitchen started to fill up for the lunch rush. As the kitchen filled to its capacity, Dyle walked through the doors.
Rodger tried his absolute best to ignore him, but it became increasingly more difficult as Dyle sat at his table.
“Why are you sitting here?” Rodger asked, mouth still slightly filled with burger toppings.
“Only open seat.” Dyle stated, DAMN it annoyed Rodger to no end when he did that, no emotion, just a simple word or phrase that was just stated.
Rodger groaned and took another bite of his burger, following it with a handful of fries. He watched Dyle, who was calmly eating a grilled chicken wrap from the counter's ‘quick meals’ fridge.
That night Dandy found Rodger passed out in the kitchen, this was way worse than the night before when he was just drunk.
Dandy grabbed another muffin, after throwing away the alcohol bottle, he picked Rodger up onto his shoulder and headed towards the hallway.
He walked down the hallway and he found a stunned Dyle.
“I heard noise, is he okay?” Dyle asked, almost sounding… concerned?
“He drank too much… again… I’m going to lay him down on his mattress that he has in the back room of my shop.” Dandy informed Dyle.
“He can keep the mattress in my room. He’ll get sick if he keeps sleeping in that cold back room…” Dyle groaned, not exactly happy with what he was saying, but also confused as to why he felt concerned for Rodger of all people.
Dandy nods and lets Dyle grab the mattress before they head to his room at the end of the long hallway.
Dyle put new sheets on the mattress that was now going to be kept next to his bed. He added a warm blanket and pillows to help keep Rodger comfortable. Dandy lay Rodger down on the newly covered mattress. Rodger groans and gets comfortable, Dandy covers him with the blanket.
“Thanks Dyle… I know you are not TOO fond of him…” Dandy says, voice lined with gratitude.
“No problem.” Dyle said as he smiled at Dandy. “ he reeks… should we change him?” Dyle asked, as the smell of alcohol infected the air.
“Do you have clothes for him?” Dandy asked, clearly keen on the idea.
Dyle nodded and went to his closet, he grabbed a white t-shirt that would be quite big on Rodger, probably big enough to be a dress.
Dandy changed Rodger into the white shirt and laid him down for the last time, so he could get some sleep.
“Goodnight Dyle, make sure he sleeps through the night, he tends to have trouble, from what I’ve seen.” Dandy requests.
“Will do, I’ll make sure he gets sleep, he seems pretty happy to be asleep right now.” Dyle says, a smile appearing on his face as he sees Rodger snuggle into the pillows and blankets.