Chapter Text
It was desolate in the late hours of gardenview, the toons that usually prowled the underground building nowhere to be seen, not in their respective bedrooms, the usually bustling kitchen or the loud and expressive lobby, just pure silence on what used to be.
Gourdy's footsteps softly thudded on the floor, blinking every once awhile, considering he is made after a halloween pumpkin, he didn't exactly need to blink every few seconds unlike most toons who needed to moisturize their eyes all the time.
He swished his face from one side to the other, the lights were giving out, due to long wear and not being fixed with new ones once a year. the carpet was worn and there were much more marked footsteps because the toons didn't know how to clean it- well, Tisha did but...
She isn't here anymore....exactly..
It's been awhile ever since Arthur's machine revival started malfunctioning, and Dandy and Dyle didn't know how to fix it and..
well, the rest of the toons slowly but surely turned twisted.
They had to go down there, because there was no food on the surface. and they would rather try to live and end up twisting then starve to death and watch the others see their rotting corpse of what once was.
Sooner or later, the holiday toons machine revival stopped working too, leaving everyone twisted but gourdy.
You see, all mains and lethals have a different revival machine, thus, they were the only ones left.
he had to go on so many runs, every close call with their old friends caused gourdy great pain.
and then the mains machine stopped functioning, then the Christmas main revival machine then the Spring main revival machine slowly but surely stopped.
Gourdy's revival machine have yet to stop working.
Another thing Gourdy noted was that the Lethals revival machine stopped working before his.
...He didn't wanna think about how alone he was with no one looking after him.
Gourdy clutched his memory locket one more time. there was no rations to keep him up here, all he has is some measly bandages that wouldn't even help him reach the designated floor 25 to go up.
And his luck wasn't so good anymore, he still has a deep gash on his stomach from Twisted coals teeth sinking deep within, he wasted most of the medical supply back then simply because he was easy to spot, being orange with a mix of green after all.
...if he wasn't so easy to spot, would Bobette still be here? he could vividly remember Bobette's head getting crushed and being remade so grotesquely it made him barf his own ichor on his clothes, to see her body twitch, trying to run before giving out on him, and letting the ichor reshape her into a twisted.
Gourdy kept on walking, slow and steady, he knew he wouldn't make it out, so he left all bedrooms of the respective toons clean and un-dirtied. He would have to apologize to Poppy for leaving fake pop cans as a token of what she liked. and apologize to Cosmo for eating his decorated cookies and cupcakes that were on standby.
Gourdy spent much more time in Ribecca's room then all the others, it still smelled like her, he cleaned off the dust that had garnered through her room, he left her guitar's in pristine condition, even willingly going to wash her clothes, despite him always making a fuss when he had to wash clothes.
Gourdy sighed as he recounted all the memories. he stopped infront of the lonely elevator, light's flickering over his tiny body as he held his Memory Locket close to him, he didn't speak or talk, there was no one that could answer him anyway.
he stook steps inside the lonely elevator, and he went down.
down, down down he goes.
Gourdy was low, low on health, low on stamina and low on everything I suppose, he skedaddled across the floor, it was a slippery floor after all, more like an iced out floor, he didn't realize it was Christmas time already. Hey, maybe that's why he was so sluggish?
his hands tightly gripped a measly chocolate bar, as he zoomed through the floor, trying to hide behind the crates and shelves, a blackout + iced out floor combo is really something he doesn't want! especially with coal hot on his leafy tail! he grabbed the railing and tried to use it as a jumping tactic he saw rudie use when he was still in control of his body.
which only resulted him getting only a few steps away from coal, it's almost as if her sighting improved with how long it's been, Gourdy fumbled with his words cursing that improving feat with silly words.
"Stupid fumble bucket!"
and that resulting him getting the temporary attention of twisted poppy. he almost fell countless times, which atleast in a good feat managed to get twisted poppy attention off of him, but surprisingly not coal's. he kept on running, the machines were done except for one he learned to prime, back when he still had others help him do it.
..atleast he could say their advices and learning worked out for him as he turned one more turn on the machine and opened the elevator, sooner or later he's gonna go back to the surface- he actually managed to survive this far with how sluggish he is! with all the improving feats that the twisted had!
he ran towards his freedom, as it opened up with obvious struggle, so close, so white with the light on, he wondered how he even found most machines on this floor with how dark it was. he was so close-
and then an chomp.
"hu-..haah..h-hAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Gourdy loudly screamed out his agony, possibly even louder decibels then a human could scream, which froze twisted coal that was chomping her teeth into gourdy's skin, before immediately letting go of gourdy, a terrified whimper was sounded out in her.
Gourdy's cries were real and disgustingly loud as blood- I mean ichor coated his skin, his sobs were undoubtedly full of pain and fear, and attracted the other twisteds, the twisteds weren't there for hunger, they were there for the sobs of a child. after all their toon-selves were made to help children.
Gourdy couldn't stop tearing up, snot somehow appearing like a cartoon effect, and all the twisteds could do was just watch. their minds muddle but still recognize the pain of the child and the need to make it stop and let the child be happy.
Gourdy, even more terrified of the twisteds walking cautiously at him like a movement to soothe sobbed louder and ran towards the elevator, before falling down once more.
He crawled to the elevator, sobbing, a twisteds hands were close to gourdy trying to soothe the poor pumpkin but all gourdy could do is just crawl faster and eventually got in. and the elevators doors closed. and started going up.
he thought of the supplies he got, might last him over a month, that he didn't need to go down there for over a month, he doesnt need or want to go down there for over a month-
the mantra kept going through Gourdy's head, however this pumpkin took too much damage to use a measly bandaid or medkit to heal.
his mantra slowly slowed down and he couldn't keep his sleepily and drowsy eyes awake. as his fragile and bleeding body turned cold, and the blood dried.
atleast he didn't have to deal with the paralyzing fear of the elevator not going up half-way. I guess he really did die down there.