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Dandy rose from underneath the elevator as usual, excited to see the layout of Toons in this new team. He waved toward the group, cheerfully saying, “Welcome! The finest goods are right here at Dandy’s Shop!” A few of the Toons turned around, their interest piqued, while others ignored the shop and continued chatting or watching the timer for the next floor. Poppy was eyeing some gumballs that he was selling, while Rodger was paying more attention to the instructions on the table. “Dandy,” Rodger spoke, pointing towards the instructions. “How much are these?”
“40 tapes! Though, I doubt that you have enough tapes for them alrea-“
Rodger pulled 8 cassettes out of his pockets, 2 at a time, and placed them on the table, before taking the instructions himself. “That’ll be all, thank you.” He turned away to the door of the elevator, looking over to observe the other Toons. Dandy sighed, hopping off of his stool and sitting down on it, before resting his head on his hand. He usually tried to stay optimistic, especially on runs, but the way the Toons treated him was definitely irritable at times. Most Toons were ‘nice’ to him to keep up appearances, but others were just plain rude. They would snatch items from his table when he wasn’t looking, or even insult him when he sold things they didn’t deem “good enough” - and still they wondered why he had such a short temper.
“Uh, Dandy?” He heard another toon calling him, but he was really not in the mood for chit-chat anymore. Dandy groaned, flapping his hand at whoever was at his shop. “Instructions are 40 tapes, gumballs are 18 and chocolate is 18. Leave the tapes on the counter.”
“Oh… I’ll have some instructions, please? There’s none on the table.” Dandy turned his head to see Shelly smiling at him like she usually did. He began to feel a pang of guilt at the way he spoke to her. “Sorry, Shelly. I didn’t realise it was you.” He reached under the table, grabbing another wrap of instructions and handing them off to Shelly. “It’s alright, Dandy. Although I guess a better thing to say would be, are you alright?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he sat up in his stool, drumming his fingers against the table. “It’s just that a few of your teammates could use some lessons in manners.”
“Tell me about it,” Shelly rolled her eyes and giggled to herself as she pulled the tapes needed out of her pocket. “Anyway, I don’t suppose you could maybe… sneak in a bandage next time you open up the shop?”
Dandy hummed to himself as he took the tapes out of Shelly’s hand. She was the only Toon who treated him like a person, rather than a tool. If it was anyone else, he would have said, “Nice try, now scram,” but admittedly, he would hate for anything to happen to Shelly. A pit began to form in his stomach at the thought of her getting hurt. “I’ll see what I can do. You take good care of yourself now, ok?”
Shelly nodded, but Dandy couldn’t help but notice he overran the time he should have been in the elevator by a solid 10 seconds. He jumped at the realisation, quickly waving at Shelly and saying one of his usual lines when he left. The lever to take him under the elevator was pulled, and he descended back into the ground.
——————
A few floors had passed, and all had been decently well. Dandy would even say it had been quite monotonous. Nobody had died or been left behind, and any hits had quickly been patched up by Sprout or Cosmo. He was expecting the same as he pulled the lever once again and ascended into the elevator.
“Hello again!” he said in his usual tone, but he couldn’t help but notice everyone seemed very on edge. He scanned the elevator and noticed Cosmo cowering in a corner, his hands to his face as he cried. Goob had his arms wrapped around him, comforting him, while other Toons also stood around him. Dandy felt the same pit in his stomach as he looked around anxiously for Sprout, realising he wasn’t there.
He was gone.
Dandy looked down at the items he was selling: some instructions, a jumper cable, and some more gumballs. He looked around to make sure nobody saw, and swept the gumballs off the table, replacing them with a medkit. As he tried to act natural, Poppy looked at the counter and gasped, loudly announcing, “Look! Dandy is selling medkits!” Everybody began to gravitate towards the shop, trading in their tapes for the medkit. Goob handed Dandy more tapes than usual and took two medkits, handing the other to Cosmo, who was still sitting in the corner. Eventually, the bustle cleared, and the last Toon approached.
“I saw you switch the items around.” Shelly mumbled, in a more upset, exhausted tone. “Thank you, Dandy. We really needed this.”
“Shelly, what happened last floor? Did Sprout…” He didn’t even have to finish his question - he could see by the tears in Shelly’s eyes that he was right. “It was so dark, and nobody could see anything… he was already injured, and Cosmo couldn’t heal him yet… then Pebble came, and…” Shelly brought her hand up to her face, wiping her tears away and sniffling. Dandy frowned, fidgeting with the buttons on the sleeve of his shirt. He picked up one of the medkits from under the table and slid it over to Shelly. “Here.”
“Dandy, I don’t have enough tapes…”
“I’m not selling it to you. Take it, no charge.” Shelly looked up at him, surprised. “Are you sure?” Dandy nodded his head, insisting. She silently took it from his hands, putting it in the bag she carried with her at all times. “Thank y-“
“Don’t thank me, Shelly. As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”
As Dandy closed his shop and went back into the ground, he couldn’t help but shake the dread and fear pooling in his chest. Something bad was going to happen, he knew it. He could feel it, and he couldn’t stop it. He knew he couldn’t protect Shelly while she was out there, and it was eating him from the inside out. Still, he waved to Shelly as usual, keeping up his joyful persona until he was out of her sight.
——————
Dandy didn’t waste any time with his greeting, instantly looking around frantically for Shelly.
Where is she?
Despite looking in the same places so many times, Dandy couldn’t face what was right in front of him.
“Where is she?” Dandy said breathlessly, his voice shaking. “Where is Shelly?” His body felt like it was filled with static, his legs trembling beneath him as he began to panic more. The Toons in the elevator took no notice of him, no matter how many times he repeated the question.
He snapped, slamming his fists on the table and sending the items on it flying onto the ground. “Where is Shelly?!” The group looked at each other in silence, before Boxten spoke up. “Oh god… we left her behind…”
“Goob! You were supposed to pull her into the elevator!” Vee quickly cut in, pointing a finger at the fluffy craft. Goob stumbled back at her angry, accusatory tone. “I-I didn’t even see her at the elevator when I came in! I just pulled Cosmo instead since he was out of stamina and had a Twisted behind him!”
“Goob is right, it’s not his fault,” Rodger came to Goob’s defense, stepping between him and Vee. “It’s nobody’s fault. Shelly was just… forgotten, I guess. There’s nothing we can do now.”
“What do you mean she was just FORGOTTEN?!” Dandy snapped at Rodger. “How could you forget her?! She’s a main toon, for god's sake!”
“Dandy, I don’t appreciate your tone-“
“Shut up, Vee, all of you just shut up!” Everyone was already silent, but the elevator somehow got quieter. “Do none of you realise what you’ve done? Shelly will die down there on her own, and there’s no way for me to turn this elevator back to save her, or…”
“Oh, Shelly… I’m so sorry…” Dandy slowly fell to his knees, before hiding himself under the table in his shop. The elevator remained silent and motionless for a few minutes, while Dandy cried. Nobody had ever seen him upset before, let alone outright crying.
After recollecting himself, Dandy stood up and wiped his eyes. “I’m bringing the elevator back up. I can’t let you go on like this.”
“But-“
“V-Vee, we can’t argue with that…” Boxten mumbled, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve already lost enough people, we… we’ll all die if we keep going.”
“…Whatever,” Vee grumbled back, shrugging his hand away.
Dandy fiddled with some control panel on his table, and the elevator slowly started ascending back to the lobby. They were going back.
They were going back, and Shelly would not be there.