Chapter Text
The foyer was oddly quiet today. For some reason, none of the elevators to the lower floors had opened today, and Dandy was away from his shop. Such a thing hadn’t really happened since… well, since Gardenview was open to the public. It was almost eerie, if not for the fact that much eerier things lurked in the floors below, and the Toons who still roamed the halls had to contend with those mutated copies of themselves on a daily basis. A single piece of paper was attached to the shutter over Dandy’s storefront.
Today’s your lucky day! We’re actually over quota on Ichor collection, so there should be enough in supply to not need to do any extraction for the day. I’m taking a well-earned break. You should too! – Dandy
Naturally, this had left many Toons confused, but overall relieved to take some time to themselves. Many of the leisure facilities in the floors not inhabited by the Twisted were brought to life for the first time in years, decades maybe, and an air of calm abnormal to the current state of Gardenview washed over many of its inhabitants.
Yatta was not one of them.
Too much energy, nothing to do to use it, and everyone else more interested in relaxing than strenuous activity. A recipe for discomfort, making the hyperactive pinata jumpy and overwound. She was frantically trying to come up with ideas for what to do today and having no luck.
“Hmm… no, Astro would give me nightmares for a week if I tried that.”
Another idea crossed off of the list. Then another. And another. It felt like it would go on forever.
“Ughhhh, I gotta have SOMETHING I can do! There’s just nowhere I can GO to do it!”
And then, inspiration struck.
“Nowhere IN GARDENVIEW…”
Meanwhile, in Looey’s room…
“Sorry, Blot, but… I have to do this. Yellow, by the way.”
Looey laid a card on the stack.
“?taht dah uoy evah gnol woH ?ruof sulp dliw A”
(A wild plus four? How long have you had that?)
Blot sighed heavily through his non-existent mouth and took his four cards.
“?yawyna ,attaY s'erehW”
(Where’s Yatta, anyway?)
Looey shrugged as a yellow four went on the pile.
“Last I heard, she was trying to work off all that excess energy. She’s probably running around in the vents again. Also, UNO.”
Blot wordlessly put down a red four, only for Looey to smirk as he laid down a second yellow four.
“Good game.”
As Looey reached to put the cards away, the door slammed open, and the cards he was holding scattered as he jumped in fear.
“AH-”
“GUYS! I HAD AN IDEA!”
“!TSRIF KCONK !ATTAY”
(YATTA! KNOCK FIRST!)
Yatta grinned with a devious aura as she shut the door again.
“I had AN AWESOME IDEA!”
“.eno rehtona toN .on ,hO”
(Oh no. Not another one.)
“TRUST ME ON THIS ONE BLOT!”
Blot and Looey shrugged and gestured to Yatta to continue.
“Well, I was thinking, I didn’t really have anywhere to go to do my stuff and let out all this energy I’ve been holding onto ALL DAY! And then, I thought… well, more like I didn’t have anywhere in Gardenview! And, we’re a circus troupe! Circuses travel! We should go outside!”
Looey did a double take. “Outside? The only Toon who can get outside is Dyle, and he absolutely won’t take us out on a day trip!”
“Never said it was a day trip!”
Blot facepalmed. “?edistuo lla su gnitteg no nalp neve uoy od woH”
(How do you even plan on getting us all outside?)
Yatta produced a large piece of paper and unfolded it. It had a drawing of the foyer on it, and multiple lines traced in different colours. She pointed to the yellow line that snaked through what was assumedly ventilation shafts.
“SO! I know that the vents have to go somewhere, and what’s the point of vents if they don’t vent the air out? If I follow them towards the main entrance, I should be able to find one that leads outside! But… it’d be too suspicious if we all were last seen in the same area. So…”
She then pointed to the black line that went straight through the middle of the drawing.
“Blot, you’re mostly liquid, right?”
“…seY”
(Yes…)
“So, you should be able to just pass through stuff that isn’t a flat surface, if you did it right. Right?”
“?trams os teg ylneddus uoy did nehW ?esoppus I”
(I suppose? When did you suddenly get so smart?)
“I have a life outside of acrobatics and eating candy. But yeah, you could just… goop your way through the door gaps.”
Finally, Yatta pointed to the line drawn in green. It went upwards, out of the top of the drawing, and across to meet the others. Looey looked at Yatta in confusion.
“Yatta, I can’t fly. Or climb very well. What are you suggesting I do here exactly?”
“Simple! You inhale a load of extra helium! Then you can float out of the hole in the roof, and start letting out that deep breath to come back down!”
“That sounds crazy… but doable. I don’t want to, but something tells me you aren’t gonna take no for an answer.”
“NO, I AM NOT!”
Looey sighed deeply.
“And say this works, and nobody gets in the way of us doing it. What do we do then?”
“We go EXPLORING! Have you never wondered what the world is like outside of Gardenview?”
“.tniop a tog s'ehS .on ,oN”
(No, no. She’s got a point.)
“Really, Blot? You’re going along with this?”
“.efas s'ehs erus ekam ot reh htiw og dluohs ew oS .rewsna na rof on ekat t'now ehs ,dias uoy ekiL”
(Like you said, she won’t take no for an answer. So we should go with her to make sure she’s safe.)
“Oh, boy… I’m coming with you, but I’m not happy about it! Sooner or later, the others are going to find out we did this. Or worse, they’ll find out before we get back! You’ve seen what Dandy does when you don’t buy from his shop. What will he do to us if we sneak out and go missing?”
“Who cares? We’ll be LONG GONE!”
Blot facepalmed again. “...yadot lausu naht retrams gnieb reh rof hcum oS”
(So much for her being smarter than usual today…)
Yatta then took the opportunity to roll the paper back up and put it away.
“So, when do you guys think we should do it?”
Looey thought for a second, sighed, and crossed his arms.
“As much as I don’t want to enable you like this… tonight. Dandy’s on a break today, nobody’s seen him, and nobody else checks the cameras. If you really are going to do this, and let’s be honest, Yatta, you will, then that’s the safest time.”
“That settles it then! Lights out in the corridors, we meet in the foyer! See you there, boys!”
She hurried off on her way. Blot and Looey looked at one another with resignation.
“I can’t believe she’s roped us into this.”
“.siht otni su depor I ,did enoyna fI”
(If anyone did, I roped us into this.)
“Well, to be honest, you did suggest it because Yatta would do it anyway, with or without us. So no hard feelings there!”
Blot got up from his seat and headed to leave, then turned his head to Looey.
“.tuo taolf ot elba eb t'now uoy ro ,thgil kcaP .neht ydaer teg retteB”
(Better get ready then. Pack light, or you won’t be able to float out.)
“Good idea…”
Without any further word, Blot left his room, and a realisation hit Looey of just how insane what Yatta had dragged the troupe into was going to be. Dangerous beyond compare, risking the wrath of the flower who clearly had ulterior motives and an unstable personality, and the fact he didn’t even have the heart to shut her down over it…
But it was going to happen anyway now, so all he could do was prepare himself.
Later that night, the lights in the corridors shut off for the night, and the circus troupe carefully made their way to the foyer. They stood in front of the welcoming sign near the tree, the shade casted on it making it seem more sinister.
“.redisnocer ot ecnahc tsaL”
(Last chance to reconsider.)
“NEVER!”
“Well, we have to take responsibility for her, Blot. Let’s do this.”
Yatta unfurled a tarpaulin to reveal a helium tank with a hose on it and a large backpack stuffed full.
“I’ll take the supplies Blot packed us, since I won’t need to worry about being weighed down or having to fit it in a tiny hole! I grabbed some tools from the old maintenance closets, too! Blot, you just go through as is and pull your clothes through the gaps with you! And this is for you, Looey!”
Looey took the helium tank and sighed deeply, both in anticipation and to prepare to take a huge breath.
“Here goes nothing.”
Looey flicked the valve open and inhaled like his life depended on it. And soon enough, he began to rise into the air. Yatta shot him a thumbs up.
“Keep hold of the tank! You might need to fill up if you go too low!”
A curt nod from the ascending balloon was all that was needed to convey the understanding of the plan, and he was on track to head right through the glass dome’s broken section.
“.edis rehto eht no uoy eeS”
(See you on the other side.)
Blot got a running start and began what may as well have been the most dangerous version of that game show about fitting into holes in an advancing wall ever made, slipping through the turnstiles and booking it to the door.
Confident that the boys were going to pull off their parts of the plan, Yatta clambered up some crates, unscrewed the vent panel, and slipped in before reattaching it. She pulled a map of the vents she had made over the years and began her trek to the only access point that led to the edges of the complex, with uncharacteristically gentle movement to avoid waking anyone up.
Blot was the first one to reach the rendezvous point, and step outside into the world beyond Gardenview. A clattering from a nearby air vent heralded Yatta opening it up and pulling herself and the supplies out onto the grass below, and the gentle wheeze of gas leaving a balloon followed suit as Looey descended, taking a moment to slide the vent back into place before he floated too low to reach.
“?tahw woN”
(Now what?)
Yatta smiled widely. “Now, we just have to follow the rails!”
She pointed to the tracks that extended out of Gardenview, upon which the trains that were the only way in and out (barring exceptional emergencies) ran day after day packed to the brim with families in the past. But now, only once every couple of weeks did a single train make a return trip, manned solely by Dyle and carrying only freight.
Looey took a look down the tracks, and there were indeed some signs of civilisation in the distance.
“Looks like a long walk. We don’t have the stamina to run the whole way.”
Yatta wasn’t deterred. “That won’t stop us! Come on, boys! Let’s go out there and make some kids smile, just like the good old days!”
And so, they set off. One without a care in the world, and the other two here to make sure that the former wouldn’t get herself into trouble immediately. The road ahead seemed near endless, but the promise of finally seeing the world outside of the walls of Gardenview made it seem much more attainable a goal. A journey that no Toon had ever even considered making was about to unfold.