Work Text:
After Gardenview shut down permanently, everything was going fine for a while. All the toons were happy, even all the Holiday toons were up out of the basement and now staying with all the other toons year round.
Ginger, Cosmo, and Sprout are always in the kitchen together -making food for the other toons- and so they were always busy. Connie and Soulvester were hanging out together more (aka Connie was always pulling pranks on her brother) and Gourdy got to hang out with Toodles a lot more.
Gourdy and Toodles often hung out together in the old lobby, playing hide and seek and drawing and watching the other toons move around. Sometimes Toodles would drag Gourdy along to watch the Circus Trio and whenever they did, Blot would pat Toodles’ head and eventually he started doing it to Gourdy once he noticed the small pumpkin toon seemed sad whenever Toodles got it but he didn’t.
But, everything was going fine. Now, after a year of Gardenview being shut down, toons have started getting restless and some even going insane, also known as their mind becoming too weak to handle it all and the ichor inside corrupts them and they become a “twisted”.
Slowly, toons started becoming it. And while even before the twisteds started roaming the lower floors, toons had to go down and complete machines and gather supplies from them to help them survive, but now with the twisteds roaming the lower floors it is much harder to get them.
The toons learned slowly that once the toons became a twisted, even if they are corrupted they still recognize the things they used to hold close to their heart.
One day some of the toons had been going on a run to do machines and get some more supplies, and Looey came back shaking and tears sparking his eyes as he told them they ran into Twisted Yatta and when she saw him she froze and smiled at him, seeming like he wanted to hug him but didn’t.
The toons didn’t like Toodles and Gourdy going on runs much as they were children and they didn’t want to put them in anger, but the two of them begged for weeks until eventually Looey and Gigi gave in and took them down to do a couple floors.
Blot had become a twisted a few weeks prior, so maybe Looey just wanted to see them again or maybe the two younger toons wanted to see if maybe Blot would recognize them and give them some pats in greeting.
After a few floors, they landed on a floor with Twisted Blot. Gigi, who had run into Twisted Blot before, told the group to watch for his hands that pop up around the floor randomly.
Toodles and Gourdy, who are children and only know of the good Blot who used to pat their head in greeting thought maybe they should go and find their old friend, maybe they will give them head pats like before, the other toons had mentioned that the twisteds still have some of their old self inside of course.
Gourdy was doing a machine when he heard a weird noise behind him and he turned around and saw a big hand made of ink waving at him. The young toon, remembering what Gigi had said about Blots hands, lit up and ran towards the hand. The hand, which normally just lashes out at toons, paused and seemed to go slowly as if recognizing the small pumpkin toon in front of them.
When the hand was a couple feet above the toons head, it moved a bit faster as if Blot was losing control and when it touched the toons head it was hard, and Gourdy let out a crying noise as a cut formed on his head. The toon ran off, ichor falling as the hand of ink held itself up before slowly sinking into the ground and disappearing.
Gourdy found Looey and cried hard, and then toodles joined and soon was crying as well. As the toons all went back to the elevator a hand of ink appeared a few feet away from the entrance and waved goodbye as the elevator door slammed shut and the toons inside went back to the lobby of Gardenview Educational Center, where toons and twisteds live.