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I’m not like them.
I’m not a monster.
I don’t want to be a monster.
Why am I like this?
I just didn’t want to be alone.
And now I’ve hurt someone.
Rodger holds the hand of the Twisted that, in an act of desperation to keep him here, had lunged at him, causing him to trip and cause his own glass to crack. The Twisted hadn’t been violent up to that point, so the act had caught him off guard. ..And it seemed that the act had caught the twisted off guard as well, as they had started crying even more and backing away, sobbing something along the lines of apologies and being a horrible toon.
It reminded him of Glisten in his moments of being open with Rodger.
Rodger missed those moments with Glisten. From before he had disappeared.
So in some crazy act of insanity, he
comforted
the Twisted. And now here he was, being stared at by the other toons in the elevator, holding the hands of a Twisted he had deliberately brought on.
Everyone else was reasonably shocked and freaked out by these actions. For one, Twisteds usually weren’t able to come on the elevator. For some reason, it was like a blind spot to them, and they never walked inside of them. Second of all, these things were known to kill toons, and this one was brought with them??? Was Rodger insane?!
No one really knew what to say or do other than be as far away from the creature as possible. Even Dandy was staring in disbelief. He had actually brought some useful items this time (band, bottle of pop, jumper cables), and no one had bought from him. He wasn’t even mad either, he was just shocked at what he was seeing.
“I’ll…. Come back with these later.. Maybe get rid of the Twisted.”
And with that, Dandy rather awkwardly leaves, leaving earlier than he normally would. He didn’t want to be there when that thing snapped.
The Twisted had been staring at them curiously, not acting at all hostile. It took a step forward, and the other Toons took a step back. They were his friends, why were they so afraid of him? Weren’t they all once friends…?
“Rodger…..”
Vee seemed to be the first one to speak up from the group, even somehow having the confidence to take a step forward, despite Brightney’s attempts to stop her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Why the HELL would you bring a Twisted onto the elevator?!”
And without giving it a second thought, Rodger calmly responds with just a two-word answer.
“Research purposes.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I’m
… Happy that
he
brought me along.
The others
don’t
like me very much
though
….
It’s
strange,
didn’t
we all used to be friends…?
It
didn’t
even seem like that long ago…
I might be wrong, I don’t remember things very clearly anymore.
They probably did hate me.
But that
doesn’t
matter anymore.
At least they never leave me.
Not for long, anyway.
They always come back.
They have to.
This Twisted was… Stranger than they all initially had thought. Despite all their attempts, they
couldn’t
manage to get the creature to leave - nor could they convince Rodger to let the thing have the chance to
leave
.
Something
Rodger had failed to tell them
was
that this Twisted could actually talk!
In fact, it could
talk
quite well. At one
point
it had tried to start a conversation with Boxten, asking him an oddly personal question, wondering if he still had nightmares or if
he’d
gone to Astro about them. ..Boxten had just awkwardly stepped away from the Twisted, both unsure of how to respond and a bit freaked out over the fact that the creature knew something so personal.
Something that
he’d
really only told Glisten and Poppy about.
Poppy wasn’t on this trip so it’s not like she could’ve said anything, and Glisten was…. Well, they weren’t sure. But he wasn’t here. So how did this thing know…?
Everyone seemed to be put a bit on edge by the Twisted. It
didn’t
help that the thing insisted on being called Glisten. Sure, it
didn’t
know that their friend was missing, but it
just
felt like rubbing salt in the wound. It
didn’t
help that this Twisted was a clone of Glisten
either
. …
Or,
whatever the Twisted were, anyway.
The thing seemed oddly content with everything. When
they
had to leave the elevator, the Twisted would either sit in the corner and stay on the
elevator,
or follow one of the Toons (usually Rodger) around the floor. It almost seemed like it was trying to help at times, encouraging a Toon or pointing out something they could improve on and make things easier to do. It had even offered Rodger once for them to do the machine. ..He did not accept the offer.
Dandy, while also somewhat on edge, didn’t let the thing’s presence bother him after the first couple of times he showed up. If anything he was just getting annoyed that no one was buying from him again. Eventually, some of the Toons did buy some stuff from him once he showed up with a medkit. The Twisted even came up to him. Somehow the thing had collected tapes without anyone really noticing. …Dandy kind of just uncomfortably pushed the item towards the creature.
That trip out into the floor, the Twisted had stayed behind in the elevator
, and when
they came back, the thing had actually patched itself up pretty well, almost like it had done it before.
No longer did it
completely
look
like a Twisted, with half its face and torso wrapped in bandages, but everyone knew what this
thing actually
was.
Floor after floor they went down with this thing, and the Toons actually got used to the creature. At no point did the Twisted act hostile towards them; in fact, it did the opposite as it tried acting friendly towards the others. The other Toons had started to talk with the Twisted, coming to discover that the thing was actually a lot like Glisten. It knew things he knew, talked about things Glisten had done. It started to make them wonder… Then Rodger brought up the potential idea that Twisteds potentially could share the memories of the Toons they’re based on. For some reason, the idea seemed to disappoint the Twisted.
It
didn’t
talk for a few floors after that.
The time came for them to head back up to the main floor with the other toons since
they’d
gotten everything Dandy had requested
of the
m.
But,
there was a bit of a problem with that.
They still had the Twisted.
Somehow, despite the many floors they had gone through, the creature was still with them. The Toons at some point had all figured that they would just lose it along the way on a floor somewhere or something. …But it was still with them.
“
So… What do we do about… ..Him
.”
Referring to that thing as
‘
him
’
made Vee want to gag. But she
didn’t
. Mostly because she
couldn’t
physically gag.
The Toons were talking amongst themselves in a circle, discussing what to do with the Twisted. Meanwhile, the thing was standing next to Dandy’s shop, fiddling with one of the pillows. Dandy was waiting impatiently for them to stop talking about it as he moved the thing's hand away from the pillow. He was waiting for what wanted to do with it so they could head back up.
“
We could leave him on a floor…
That’d
be the most sensible thing to do
.”
They all knew that was the main thing they were all thinking of doing, but Sprout was the first to voice it. While it made sense, it seemed… Cruel.
They all knew
that
it was a Twisted, but they all had been hanging out with the thing, and
-
unlike the other Twisteds
- it seemed sentient
.
They
couldn’t
just leave it with those other things, could they?
“
Doesn’t
that seem a bit.. Inhumane? After all, he seems sentient
…”
“
We’re
talking about a Twisted, Brightney
.”
“Yes, but it still doesn’t seem right. He has clearly shown that he doesn’t like being alone, and just leaving him on a floor would be breaking the trust he’s formed with us…”
“
We are still talking about a
Twisted,
Brightney
.”
“
He could stay with
m
e
”
All of the Toons go silent as Rodger offers the idea. They all stare at him like
he’d
gone insane or something (Then again, he DID bright the Twisted on the elevator in the first place).
“
...Is everyone aware that
we’re
talking about a Twisted right now? I feel like
I’m
being ignored here
.”
“
Are… Are you sure, Rodger…? After all, he could kill you
…”
“
Yes
Boxten,
I’m
certain. After all, I was the one who brought him on in the first place, and I did want to look into the Twisteds more. This would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me…
!”
“
...Yeah, because
you’re
not going to
have a lifetime after this. This is a death wish, Rodger
.”
“...I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, you should keep to yourself Rodger. It’s safer that way.”
“
And as
I’ve
told you before
Sprout
, the answer is more rewarding
!”
“
You’re
going to die
.”
“
Then die I shall, at least
I’ll
die on my terms
!”
Vee sighs, and the group disperses. No one was
really happy
with what they had come to
, but when
Rodger was stubborn on an idea, he was not easily persuaded otherwise.
It’s
Rodger who tells Dandy what they have settled on.
“
We’re
taking him with us
!”
Dandy seemed
to get
confused by this, as he was initially expecting them all to throw the Twisted out on a random floor and continue on towards the main floor.
Boxten, very uncertain of what he is about to do, takes a deep breath and walks over to the Twisted. Glisten had always told him to be more confident in himself and his ideas, so
that’s
what he tries to do here! Still,
the idea of
being so close to a Twisted is… ..Scary.
The Twisted looks over at Boxten, almost
seeming
happy to have his company.
Half terrified, Boxten braces himself and starts talking with the creature. He… He just had to make sure is all. He had to know. Even if it was from one of those things, maybe hearing it from this
thing’s
mouth would bring
some
comfort and reassurance.
“
You’re
… Not going to kill Rodger.. ..Are you
?”
The Twisted seems confused by the question, not expecting to be asked such a silly and weird question like that.
“
Why would I kill a friend
?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It feels like so long since I was last here….
But it wasn’t that long.
Not really
I’m just being dramatic.
I’ve always been dramatic.
They never liked that.
I need to stop.
Act less dramatic.
That’s what I needed.
That’s what they needed.
What they needed to keep me around.
I don’t want to be alone.
Not again.
If I have to change so they won’t leave me, so be it.
Change
I
will.
He couldn’t believe he was actually doing this. Vee was right
, this
was a death wish. Why had he suggested he take the Twisted with him? Sure, this was fascinating! …But at the same time, it was dangerous,
very
dangerous. His only real safeguard against this thing was its hands that were tied together, which it had clearly shown it could break with ease if it wanted to do so.
Like when it pushed him to the ground, breaking part of his glass.
…Well, never mind that
now,
what has been done has been done, and now he was bringing this thing back to his room.
Where else was he going to take it? Glisten’s room? He’d feel horrible doing that, considering he was currently missing.
..Plus, maybe he could somewhat experience that feeling
he felt
whenever he was comforting Glisten. Even if it was with a mangled-up version of him.
They ride the elevator up to the floor Rodger stays
on,
before walking out. The Twisted looks around in wonder, but not in a ‘what a cool new place’ wonder, more of a ‘it’s just as I remember’ wonder. But Rodger was also not good at reading the Twisted, and it wasn’t like he was about to start questioning
the thing
.
As long as it wasn’t
actively
trying to kill anyone,
then
he supposed it was fine….
Luckily
most of the Toons were either somewhere else right now or had their door closed. ..But there was one toon he knew he would have to deal with. ..
At least she was innocent enough
to not
realize it was a
Twisted
through the wrappings on its body.
…He would likely still have to explain some things
though
, like the tied-up hands…
Unsurprisingly, he opens his door and is immediately met with a hug from Toodles. At some point, it was decided that Rodger and Toodles would have a connected room because of their bond. However
, it’s more like two rooms with a door connecting the two because Rodger didn’t want Toodles staying up from his work and
had
asked if they could be
a bit
more separated.
Still close for if Toodles got scared of the dark
and
so he could be there for her, but disconnected enough that she wouldn’t be awake all night by his research.
“Rodger!!!”
“...
Hey
kiddo…! Were you good while I was gone?”
“I was the bestest toon ever while you were gone!”
Toodles always brought a (metaphorical) smile to Rodger. He loved Toodles a lot
, he
just wished he wasn’t always so busy….
Luckily
Dandy somewhat had a heart and didn’t put her on the longer runs. She was a child, she didn’t need to be down there that long. Plus, Dandy actually liked Toodles to an extent. He liked children.
“Welcome back
Rodger
, I see you have…..”
..Teagan’s voice trails off as she sees Glisten. She’d been watching Toodles when Rodger had to go out on runs without her. Usually, it was Glisten who did that, but…. Nevermind.
Glisten looked… Strange to Teagan. He was pretty beaten up
, his
paint was fading, bandages covered quite a bit of his body - concealing half his face and most of his torso
, his
eyes were bloodshot, his makeup was ruined, and what was left of his ribbons were tied around his hands. Probably so he didn’t lose what little of them there was
left
. To say the least, he looked rough. This was the first time she’d seen him in weeks, and he looked worse for wear…
“...Glisten. Uhm….”
There’s silence for a moment as both Toodles and Teagan stare at who they believe to be Glisten. After all, if it wasn’t Glisten, then why would Rodger bring him here? They weren't there when Glisten didn't have the wrappings, after all.
Only Rodger knew……
“What’s wrong with your face?”
Rodge was about to tell Toodles to not ask something like that of someone, but the Twisted responded calmly, like it had dealt with this before. But also, if Twisteds and Toons shared the Toon’s memories….
“Well
, you see
, I was part of a GREAT accident.!
I was running, almost about to make it when I tripped and got attacked..! But I was able to get away alive…! And
luckily
your father found me just in time, isn’t that right
Rodger
?”
It even acted like Glisten, making up a playful
little
story about ‘what happened
’.
It was… Uncanny. It took Rodger a few moments to realize that the thing was talking to him, waiting for an answer.
“Oh-1 Uh, right, yeah”
….
Well,
it wasn’t the playful response the Twisted hoped for, but it would do.
“
Unfortunately
I did not leave unscathed,
and it hurt me pretty
badly.
But don’t worry, it’s nothing that couldn’t heal with time!”
This response seemed
to be
good enough for Toodles, now back to her happy demeanor, going over to Teagan and tugging on her dress.
As much as this situation intrigued her
and
she still had a lot of questions, questions could wait.
Childlike wonder could not.
“We’re gonna be late for the tea party….! Mr. Doggy isn’t
going to
be happy if we show up late again, c’mon…..!”
Toodles ‘guides’ Teagan over to the door to Toodle’s side of the room for the tea party. Teagan looks in Rodger’s general direction, concerned, before disappearing from view.
Great
,
now
two more people know about The Twisted he was
currently
standing next to
, alone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I know he won’t let me go back to my room.He still thinks I’m not me.Maybe he’s right.Maybe I am just another monster.A creature.A Twisted.But…I feel different.Maybe I am different.Maybe I’m not just another monster.After all, none of the other clones have what I have.My little vanity mirror.I brought it with me, I think.I don’t know why.It took up room that could’ve been used for something that would’ve been more useful that could’ve possibly saved me, but something told me that I would need it…I guess I was wrong.At least I still had a part of me.A part of me before I became a monster.Teagan had left a while ago now, which didn’t surprise Rodger. After all, as much as she enjoyed Toodles’ and Rodger’s companies, she had things to do and attend to. Plus, it was getting late. After all, that supply run had gone on for quite a while, on top of it being scheduled for later in the day. In fact, it was late enough that Toodles was already getting ready for bed.This…. Led to a few problems though.A question that Rodger had been thinking about for a while now was where the Twisted was going to go. Should he just…. Let it roam? He couldn’t let it stay in Glisten’s bedroom. After all, that just seemed like some cruel joke. Putting a Twisted version of a Toon in a missing Toon’s bedroom was wrong on so many levels. Plus, it would likely ruin stuff in Glisten’s bedroom, and he knew how much Glisten hated his stuff being messed with. …And he would likely be offended by the idea in the first place.So… No.No Glisten’s bedroom.That…. Left Rodger’s bedroom.He wasn’t about to sleep with the Twisted on his bed - he wasn’t THAT desperate for research. Sure he would let Toodles sleep on his bed sometimes if she was extra scared that night, but that was different. He didn’t want the thing to sleep on the floor, the creature showed a level of sentience pretty on par with the Toons. Asking (or telling) it to sleep on the floor would be like telling the real Glisten to sleep on the floor.God, he needed to stop comparing it to Glisten.Maybe it could… Sleep on a chair or something….?Maybe he could ask for a beanbag from the Scrap siblings for the Twisted to sleep on…? He wouldn’t want their stuff to get ruined though….
“Do you have any tape around here? …Or maybe some more wrappings. These ones are likely soaked with ichor ”
Rodger’s thoughts are interrupted by the Twisted’s question. It was currently over at his desk where he worked on all of his cases. Normally he didn’t like people being so close to his stuff, but the thing didn’t seem too focused on his work. …Plus it was kind of hard to mess with things when your hands were tied together. That brought him some comfort, for some reason.Though, he was curious, why exactly did the Twisted need tape? The bandages he can understand, but what in the world was it going to do with tape?“Uh… ..Yeah. I do. I have both, actually. …Why exactly do you need the tape?”A fairly reasonable question, and it made sense to the Twisted why Rodger would question such a thing. After all, he was a detective, and it was an odd request. However, the answer the Twisted had might not be up to Rodger’s expectations. It was a straightforward one, and yet it answered nothing to someone who didn’t have all the pieces - both literally and metaphorically.
“To fix myself, of course ”
That…. Didn’t answer anything. If anything it made Rodger question it even more. If this creature was based on Glisten, then it’s understandable that it would want to try and fix its body. After all, Glisten prided himself on being perfect in his mannerisms, emotions, and appearances. Of course the thing would also be like that and try to be ‘perfect’. But how was tape going to help with that?“..And.. How is tape supposed to fix you?”A simple question with a simple and obvious answer. Yet the thing knew that it wouldn’t please him. The answer wouldn’t make sense. It only made sense to the Twisted. The Twisted knew more here, after all.
“By putting myself back together. It’s not going to stay on its own after all.”
Right. Of course. Because that made any fucking sense to Rodger. He could only think it meant it literally, but it’s not like the thing had the glass shards still, or the chunks of its body. So it couldn’t possibly be literal, could it?“...Right.”Rodger just gets out the tape and bandages and gives them to the Twisted, with the creature able to find a way to hold both of them with its arms tied together. What was it going to do, tape his non-existent mouth so he couldn’t breathe and die from a lack of air that he didn’t need to survive? Tape his flat eye shut that wasn’t affected by outside objects so he could still open his eye anyway? Right. The worst it could do was make a mess of his glass in his sleep.
“Thank you”
Then it walked over to a corner of the room and just sat down, staring at the objects in its hands.
“I can stay here. I don’t need to sleep.”
…Comforting. At the very least that solved the problem of where the creature was going to sleep. It wasn’t apparently. It was just going to sit there silently all night. …Was this what the Twisteds always did? Could they sleep and just choose not to? Things he would have to ask later. For now, he just needed to tuck Toodles into bed, go to sleep himself, and hopefully wake up alive.There was a nudge.He half thought he hadn’t felt it, and soon just completely drifted off again, once again relaxing.Then there was another nudge.“...’ts ok Toodles, papa’s here…. There’s no monster, you can go back to bed….”He mutters, not opening his eyes, soon rolling over and once again returning to a restful state.Then he’s nudged again.Wanting to just go back to sleep, he sighs and sits up, rubbing his eye, muttering to who he believes to be his daughter.“..Ok ok, I’m up… What’s got you frrr OH JESUS- ”The once tired Rodger is now completely alert, staring face-to-face with the Twisted that had been previously sitting in the corner of his room. To say the least, it took a moment for his non-existent heart to slow down and register that he was not, in fact, in the process of a gruesome death. He was simply staring at the freshly bandaged Twisted currently existing in his room. A fate only slightly better than said gruesome death.“....Glisten, what-”
“I ran out of tape.”
“Huh-?”
“I ran out of tape.”
Rodger stares at the Twisted, a long silence between the two as sleep begins to creep back into his senses. He would be confused, but he was too tired to really care.“...I can get more tomorrow. Just… Uh… Go back to.. …Whatever you do at night sitting in the corner of rooms…..”It nods, satisfied with this answer, before walking over to the corner it was previously in, leaning its head against its knees, looking like its attempting to sleep or something. Strange. How did it even go through all of that? That was a new role of tape. Strange..He looks over at Toodles’ door, seeing no movement or disturbances. Good. She hadn’t woken up from that. He would’ve hated it if his freak out had woken her up…He sighs and lays back down, ready to sleep again.On the bright side, he wasn’t dead.Not yet, anyway.Hopefully, it stayed that way.For the other Toon’s sake.For Toodles’ sake.…For Glisten’s sake.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was a normal day , all of the toons were hanging out with each other, and everyone was as happy as one could be during these times. …Sure, some of the Toons had gone missing recently, but they all showed back up! ..Eventually….! ….Acting strange and not how they used to……..
But no one else seemed to notice it, so he pretended to not notice it as well. After all, if Rodger hadn’t said anything, then it was on him. He just… Needed to change.
Ignore it.
It was oddly lonely for Glisten. He was surrounded by his friends, and yet he felt completely isolated. The only ones who seemed normal anymore were Rodger, Toodles, Razzle, Dazzle, and Boxten. Everyone else seemed so… Strange. He couldn’t trust them. He tried to subtly beg the other toons to stay with him, but they always left in the end .
Was he not good enough?
Yeah, surely that’s what was happening.
He just needed to get better.
He needed to be perfect.
He needed practice.
Waiting until everyone was asleep was often exhausting for him. When had he last slept again….? He couldn’t remember. He was fairly certain that if it weren’t for the sweets he loved oh so much and the abundance of pop, he would fall asleep where he stood. Caffeine and sugar were his uncomfortably close and toxic best friend that he just couldn’t break off a friendship with because ‘Think of all the good things they gave you!’. He was sick. He had problems. What was wrong with him. No one else actively tried to destroy their perfectly made just-the-way-they-are bodies. At least their self-destructive tendencies were part of their character. What excuse did he have? In the cartoon, he wasn’t addicted to things forcing him awake.
….In the cartoon, he also wasn’t confirmed to be Gay, and was just described as ‘Flamboyant ’. In fact, the writers outright denied it. ....It didn’t stop kids from calling him slurs though.
Man, the 1980’s to 1990’s were a strange time compared to now…
Well, that’s beside the point.
The point is, he’s broken what his character is supposed to be like in more ways than he would like to admit. He was never really made with deep insecurities in mind.
God what was wrong with him.
Maybe he was just a faulty toon.
This is why he needed to improve. He wasn’t made accurate to character, so he needed to change to fit that perfect mold. To be the most perfect version of himself that existed.
Wow.
Way to talk about an existential crisis.
He was face to face with the lobby elevator now. Some nights he would practice teleporting , other nights he would practice lines for when they opened again ( Apparently the mains were still in contact with the Handlers, and they were close to getting the papers to open the place again and make a reboot of the show..! It’s going to take a while, but it should be back up and running within the next few months - earlier if they’re lucky. It’ll be nice to have a big audience again - and to hopefully get a change to himself that’s more accurate to who he is.), and then some nights he would go into the depths of the place - maybe to like floor 10 - and practice his extraction. He was trying to get sneakier, but it was difficult when he was so reflective and shiny…
Today was an extracting night. Maybe if he could just perfect one part of him, other parts would fall into place.
It was just a normal run.
A normal run.
In.
And out.
He would be fine. After all, it was only floor 10. Maybe floor 15 or 20 if he was feeling up to it tonight or wasn’t satisfied with his progress.
Plus, think of the ichor…!
…Holding his Vanity Mirror tightly, he steps onto the elevator, getting ready to practice extracting. For some reason, something deep down told him this was a bad idea.
That’s just paranoia speaking though , he was wearing his lucky pink bow (Ok, maybe it wasn’t lucky, but he’s had a lot of close calls over time in this bow that he’s somehow managed to get out of and evade) and had the mirror that gave him enough confidence to run full speed during the most stressful moment of it all.
Nothing could go wrong.
Everything would be fine.
He would be fine.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, bracing himself for whatever is to come and whatever creatures he is going to run into tonight.
Opening his eyes again, he sees that the elevator has opened up to floor one.
Well, it was all or nothing now.
Ready for whatever these floors have to through at him, he steps out of the elevator .
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It’s strange watching another toon sleep.
I don’t like it, I think.
Watching someone sleep is… Strange.
They look dead.
We don’t need to breathe.
We don’t really need to eat either….
I asked Delilah
about
why we do things we don’t need and why it hurts to not do them.
I should've known better.
Why would she know?
She’s not a toon.
…Even if she did make us.
She just told me it was because of something mental….. I was only a few days old
, I
don’t remember what it was anymore.
I was naive then. Stupid.
I still am now….
I wish I wasn’t.
Maybe…
If I wasn’t…
I wouldn’t be this.
….
Maybe I should walk.
The strange ichor makes it hard to sleep.
A walk would be nice anyway.
And maybe I would be less creepy to the other toons if they didn’t see me at all.
Maybe they would be relieved if I was gone…
…But I don’t want to be alone…
…
I won’t go far. Just a walk.
Just a walk…..
Rodger groggily wakes up, not very aware of the world around him at the moment. It takes a solid minute for it to register with him that he had woken up to his alarm. It wasn’t loud
, he
didn’t want to wake up his daughter with it after all. But it was always enough to get him out of his slumber.
He shuts it off, checking the time. 6:01. He didn’t have to be up until later, but he forgot to fix the time the alarm went off
it
seems
. Oh well…. He rubs his eye in an attempt to wake up, but he notices something.. Strange. Where his glass was previously broken, there was now.. Tape over the crack? How strange….
Surely
a bandage would’ve been a better option… ..At least he didn’t have to worry about losing shards of glass now.
Tape…..
Right, wasn’t Rodger supposed to get more tape for uh… For Glisten today or something.? Wait
no
, that was the Twisted, not Glsiten….
Twisted..
Twisted.
Where was the Twisted?
Not for the first time in the last 12
hours
the presence (or lack thereof in this case) immediately wakes him up as he quickly gets up and tries checking where it could be in the room. Through the window into Toodle’s room, there’s no sign of the thing
in there
.
Fuck.
He rushes out of his room and
starts searching around
the floor to find the creature.
How could he have been so stupid to let that thing
just
stay on its
own
unconstrained and unsupervised
in
the middle of the night?!
Not now, scolding later.
Right
now
he had a broken mirror to find.
He’d forgotten a lot
of
Gardenview
was
.
He barely remembered any of this place… He used to know all of it like the back of his hand
, maybe
he was confused from the damage to his head… ..He didn’t want to know what teleportation would do to his head right now…
He probably would
just
straight up pass out.
Being in this form was… Funny in a strange way.
There were times
when he would black out and not remember anything. ..That’s what happened with Rodger.
One moment
they
were calmly walking together
, the
next thing he remembered was an alarm blaring through the air telling the toons to get to the elevator and Rodger on the ground in front of him with his glass cracked. He didn’t know what
happened
, but he had a horrible suspicion that he caused it. He was apologizing profusely, but also… Confused. He hadn’t heard that alarm or seen the red lights in so long
, he
always just.. Blacked out during those times. But this time was different. And instead of leaving him behind, they brought him with them. He was grateful, but… Why?
Something similar kind of happened here. He blacked out on his walk, but he didn’t feel that same sense of dread that he
normally
felt once he came to. He was just… Confused. He didn’t know where he was. He looked to be in a kitchen, but.. It was clean. It wasn’t like the lower floors again. He wasn’t
really
sure how he got here, but
somehow
he knew this was still on the upper levels. It felt… Safe. Even if he didn’t know why.
He wandered around a bit, trying to figure out how he got here, or why he was here at all, when he heard the other elevator ding from somewhere on the floor. He wasn’t aware that both elevators could work at the same time, he thought only one was on at all times from what the lower floors had shown him..Curiously, he goes over to investigate. He peaks around the wall, just to see.. Cosmo…? Yeah, Cosmo. It felt comforting to see Cosmo so clean and healthy-looking. This was the first time Glisten had seen him since he was brought back up. He looked so much better than his Twisted counterpart... A lot more friendly too.
Glisten continues to follow Cosmo
around, managing to not get
spotted by the shorter toon.
He used to be so bad at being stealthy… This body improved a lot of his body's abilities, even if he hated it. But at least in this case, it allowed him to not be spotted by Cosmo.
..Until he misstepped.
..He would’ve never misstepped if he was still perfect.
Cosmo had woken up early today to get the kitchen set up for the both of them later. Usually, this was something Sprout did, but Cosmo wanted to surprise him with it already being done…! After all, Sprout already did so much, and he’d been acting a bit strange since the run yesterday. Maybe doing this for him would cheer him up a bit!
Cosmo enters the elevator and pushes the button to the floor that he knew to be the kitchen. The kitchen was a comfort place for Cosmo, and it had always saddened him on runs to see it in such disarray. He wanted to stay and clean it up, but there was no way he was staying there with those things…
Entering the floor, he had this strange creeping feeling in the back of his mind. That feeling you get when you’re being watched. But that was silly. Unless someone else had woken up early
for some reason
, he should be alone.
He
just
sums the feeling up to being tired and alone
and gets
to getting everything together, quietly humming to himself as he works.
He couldn’t wait to see the look on Sprout's face when-
His train of thought gets interrupted by the sound of metal hitting the floor, along with what sounded to be glass shattering. His mind immediately went to Rodger, but… He was made of a wooden-like material, not something that acted like metal (
really
all the toons were made of the same thing - ichor. But their bodies acted like they were made of the materials
so
they seemed
more real
to the kids.)
Naturally concerned for whoever just fell (and a bit worried for his
own
safety), he
goes to investigate
the sound. ..
At least he knew he wasn’t alone now.
Laying there on the ground was one of the last people he
was expecting
to see, especially since he hadn’t seen the toon in weeks. There Glisten was, carefully getting back up and picking up the shards of glass that had broken off his face and sticking the things back into it.
Ouch.
“Uh… Glisten….? Are you.. Ok?”
There’s confusion and concern in Cosmo’s voice as he speaks. After all, his friend was currently covered in bandages
and
part of his face
just
broke. Why wouldn’t he be worried? …And on top of that, he hadn’t seen Glisten in a while. So
from
him to
just
suddenly be here all broken and wounded after suddenly disappearing? He’d say his worries were pretty valid.
“C… Uh… C.. Cos…. Cosmo! ..Yeah, I uh-”
“C’mon, let’s get you properly cleaned up.”
Glisten didn’t have time to protest before the shorter toon started to drag him away. He might be strong, but he was mighty… ..Or Glisten was just weak and light. ..It's probably a mix of both, actually…
Cosmo had noticed the strange behavior
, it
almost seemed like Glisten had forgotten his name for a moment…
God
he hoped that he didn’t have a concussion or something, Sprout was always better at dealing with head injuries than he was, and he didn’t want to wake Sprout up.
Glisten was in the elevator again now, no longer alone. He thinks he prefers exploring with someone else, it makes everything seem more… Normal. Grounded. It was nice.
He watches as the pastry gets together some medical supplies that look to be for disinfecting wounds,
along with
new bandages and quite a bit of stuff for cleaning off the ichor. Cosmo unwraps the dirty bandages on Glisten, taking note of the half-hazardly taped together half of his face. He… Still had two eyes. It’s just.. One was one piece, and the other was barely hanging on by tape and a dream. It still followed Cosmo, interestingly enough. It was like the broken glass didn’t do anything to it… He thought better of removing the shards as it looked like the glass was
in the process of
trying to heal itself again, but he did carefully remove the tape.
Then came the cleaning.
It… Stung.
It stung badly.
Glisten wasn’t sure how he could’ve forgotten that the ichor came from wounds, but he was glad when it was cleaned up. It allowed for less of a mess to be made, and Glisten had always hated messes. To be completely honest, this entire time
he
thought his upper and lower body were floating, turns out he was still connected at the spinal cord. …That looks like it would
really
be unpleasant
, he
was a bit shocked he hadn’t felt it before.
Now that his wounds had been cleaned and he was bandaged by someone who
actually
understood how to do this, he felt ok. Normal. Clean. Like Glisten. He was Glisten. Not once did Cosmo ask about him not being himself, so
clearly
that had to mean something. If someone who understood their bodies more than anyone else thought he was a normal Toon, then maybe there was a chance that it was still himself. Maybe…
Cosmo had asked what had happened, and he basically explained that he got attacked by a Twisted and got away. He wanted to explain more to the toon about the details of what had happened
, but he
was interrupted by a
certain
detective toon who looked frazzled, only calming down once he saw that Glisten was with him.
“...
Oh
thank god you didn’t hurt a toon….”
Cosmo gives Rodger a confused look, but Rodger
just
shakes his head and walks over to Glisten, gently letting the Twisted rise with him.
“...Thanks for looking after him
Cos
, for
a
moment
I thought that Glisten was wandering around unsupervised, which had me quite worried….”
..Wasn’t Glisten a full-grown Toon…? Well, it wasn’t Cosom’s place to wonder about… Maybe Rodger was supposed to be looking after the mirror after what had happened to him (no offense but he was doing a pretty lousy job with how those wounds looked)
“Uh…. Yeah…! See you two around…!”
…Then the two leave, leaving Cosmo alone (as he probably should’ve been in the first place).
Strange, strange experience….
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It’s much easier to navigate with a guide.
I still don’t remember the layout of anything too well, but I’m sure it’ll come back to me….
Hopefully.
The detective is leading me to the elevator, but I know where we’ll end up.
He’s just bringing me back to his room again… I might have Toodles there, I might have Rodger there, maybe I’ll even have Teagan there… But I know I’ll be alone there.
I don’t want to be alone.
Not there.
Not in a place I don’t remember well.
I’d much rather take the stairs…
I don’t know why.
But I feel more in control with the stairs.
That way, I can go where
I
want.
That way, I can choose the room I want to go to.
That way… I could go to my room.
No.. To… To his room.
I’m not him.
He’s someone else.
I just… Need to return it.
It was his, not mine.
I’ve come to discover something
I
think…
The toons are right.
I’m not Glisten.
I’m just another clone who somehow got his vanity mirror.
It wasn’t mine.
I needed to give it back.
The Twisted was becoming more independent, which was interesting to Rodger. He had been leading the two of them to the elevator, and yesterday
the
thing would’ve just listened and followed along. But oddly enough, instead, it pulled in a different direction. While Rodger wasn’t the biggest fan of the detour, he caved and just followed the creature. Clearly, it had an interest in exploring the place
, the
least he could do was make sure it wasn’t alone.
He
still doesn’t understand the thing well
, he
doesn’t know how it ticks or what made it attack him the other day. He thought it was the threat of being alone, but then it
had wandered off alone
today… It didn’t make sense. Maybe it was the threat of someone else leaving it, but it was perfectly fine with walking away
on its own
?
He wasn’t too sure of where they were going. He was going to ask the Twisted, but he
had a feeling
he wouldn’t get a straight answer.
The creature looked different now that Cosmo had fixed it up. He didn’t have the heart to tell the Swiss roll that he had just been alone with and taken care of a Twisted. If that meant Cosmo thought
he
was losing his mind, then so be it. He wasn’t going to traumatize any more toons with that information.
Or…
At least.
He was going to
try
not to.
You can never really guarantee something will or won’t happen.
It’s
an
unfortunate
thing
the detective has had to learn throughout his time
existing
.
The thing (He probably should call it Glisten… He knew it wasn’t Glisten, but he didn’t want to slip up around another toon who wasn’t in the elevator and accidentally call it a Twisted or a creature) looked a lot like a
normal
toon now. …A toon that got into a rough fight and then proceeded to have half their body shoved into a paper shredder, but a
normal
toon nonetheless. The Glisten’s abdomen was wrapped a bit differently now, but still to the point he couldn’t see where it had basically been ripped in half. He would look into it sometime… He had always wondered how Twisteds like that
were still able to
walk and have both halves. What was the rule there? Was there a rule at all?
Why
was it that Twisted Finn didn’t
have legs
but
Twisted Vee and Glisten did?
It was strange to think about…
The Glisten’s face was still wrapped up like before, though it was a much cleaner job than what it did. Alongside that, the smeared makeup had been wiped off, leaving the face of the thing to look much cleaner than before. The real Glisten would probably still look at it in disgust
though
, that he had no doubt about.
The thing’s hands were also wrapped now as well. Before when it had tried wrapping its ‘wounds’, it skipped over trying to do its hands (partially because they were tied up, partially because it would be difficult to wrap its hands when it was hands that were needed to do that). They were wrapped in a way that made them still functional, but that didn’t help all too much when the Glisten still insisted on having its hands tied together - even though the ‘claws’ the thing had were basically useless with how its hands had been dealt with.
The Twisted stops at a floor and pushes the
door
open. He wasn’t too surprised that they didn’t end up on his floor, but he wasn’t expecting
the two of
them to go to the floor that Glisten slept on… More fuel to the idea that maybe Twisteds shared memories with toons
and
it had recalled this floor for some reason. Maybe seeing more toons Glisten saw as friends triggered it.
Boxten had been in the kitchen and immediately noticed the
Twisted,
looking away. Right, he was one of the toons on the elevator that day… Boxten had been one of the closer people with Glisten, he felt.. Bad.
Brightney lived on this floor as well. Glisten and Brightney weren’t close friends per se, but it was something to keep in mind. He was sure seeing a Twisted version of your room neighbor didn’t
exactly
invoke positive feelings….
The Twisted looks at Boxten for a moment, almost seeming a bit.. Sad, before walking past and into the hallway. The two of them walk through the hallway, Rodger honestly expecting the thing to go to the end of the hallway and into the little room with the TV. But it didn’t. It had stopped in front of Glisten’s
door
… ..He had a feeling he knew where this was going…
As Rodger had expected, the Twisted had started to approach the
Door
. But Rodger stopped the thing, holding its shoulder. He didn’t want it going in there. It wasn’t Glisten. It didn’t belong in there. It wasn’t invited in there. Only Rodger had gone
in
there since Glisten disappeared when he was looking for him. He thought it was strange
at the time that
the mirror was gone, but it didn’t concern him. Not until it was discovered that
no one
could find him. People stayed out of his room after that.. Not even Tisha went in there to clean.
The Glisten attempts to pull away from Rodger
,
but
it
doesn’t try very hard, keeping it in Rodger’s grip.
“I need to return something to him.”
..Return something…? Now that got Rodger curious… And.. Him? Was the Twisted aware that it wasn’t the real Glisten? If so, then that’s… Fascinating…. Maybe he should ask about it later. Or would that be a sensitive topic for the creature?
Maybe
that’s what’ll cause it to snap.. That’d be interesting.
“Return…? Like what?”
The Twisted holds up their hands, sparks forming in a vague shape. The Twisted flinches away from the sparks, the shape dissipating. ..Rodger had a feeling that’s now what the Twisted was trying to do. It was kind of sad to watch, honestly. Moments later, the Twisted tries again a moment later, and a similar thing happens. This goes on a few times. It was
entertaining,
in a strange way. The last time, however, it seemed more concentrated. The shape stayed, and it ended differently.
It took a moment for Rodger to register what just happened because
there had been a bright flash that
had blinded him for a second.
Once he
was able to
see again, there was a familiar mirror in the Glisten’s hands… A vanity mirror.
Glisten’s
vanity mirror…
“Sorry, that’s… Not supposed to happen….”
The Twisted looked
a bit
lightheaded, but it wasn’t
very obvious
from how it
was acting
…
Rodger reaches out towards the mirror, but the creature pulls away, keeping the mirror close to his body. It almost seemed like the thing was protecting it, but that was a silly idea.
Rodger had noticed the lack of
the
small mirror when he went to find Glisen that day, but it hadn’t crossed his mind since then
until now
.
Why did this thing have it…? He was curious about that.. Er… Teleport(?) as well, but he could question that later
along
with the other questions.
“...How did you get that?”
The Twisted is quiet for a few moments, not answering the question. It still wouldn’t let Rodger near the vanity mirror. He didn’t understand why
, it
wasn’t like the mirror would’ve meant anything to the thing.
“I don’t know…
I
just
need to return it.”
Rodger doesn’t stop it this time and lets the thing go to Glisten’s bedroom. He would take it in there, but the Glisten wouldn’t
even
let him
near
it. He watches as the Twisted sets the mirror
down
on Glisten’s vanity desk. The thing was careful to not move or change anything in the room. A part of it felt shameful for another toon seeing his…
Ah, Glisten’s room dirty, but it was not its place to move anything
in the room
.
The Twisted walks back over to Rodger and stands
next to
him, silent for a moment, before eventually speaking up once again…
“We can.. Go back to the room now…”
Rodger nods, still having many questions
as to what exactly just
happened, but he chooses to keep it to himself for now…
After all, there was always time for questions later.
Now
he needed to bring the Glisten back to his room so he could have the situation mostly under control…
This time
they
did take the elevator.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
. . .Why does this feel wrong.Something is wrong.I don’t feel like me, I feel like there are missing pieces to me now.Am I me….?It feels like I don’t know anything about myself.Shouldn’t I feel better now? Things are better, after all.The Toons are comfortable around me.I look better.I have more control now that I don’t have to be alone if I don’t want to be.Why do I feel worse?Shouldn’t sanity and order make things better….?Something about me is wrong, I think…...Would it be safer to tell one of the toons about it…? Maybe Rodger….He likes to pry. Perhaps not.No, there were…. Better options.Surely…….The Twisted was quiet the entire journey back to Rodger’s room. He tried to sprinkle in a few questions here and there about what happened back there, like how it seemingly made an object disappear or if it knew how or why it had that mirror. Still, it remained silent as it stared at its hands. It unnerved Rodger. ..This wasn’t a behavior it had shown so far. It was aloof - he couldn’t tell if he was being ignored or not heard in the first place.They enter the elevator, Rodger pressing what floor he wants to bring the two of them to. Floor 2 of the Toon rooms. The ride to that floor wasn’t very long, since the two of them had only been a floor lower. And yet it still felt like one of the longest moments he had ever spent in one of these. And that included how slow the elevator was when descending to lower floors. He doesn’t think Dandy could make them slower if he tried.As the two walked together, Rodger felt as if he was guiding a phantom down the hallway. He had a bad feeling about this for some reason. He had no reason to think that way, and yet something told him that something was wrong here.“So…. Why did you choose to return the mirror, exactly….?”Like before, there was silence from the Twisted as it stared at its hands. Rodger thought about reaching out to touch the thing’s shoulder, but he thought it better not to. Despite his constant reminders to himself, he found it hard to remember that the thing walking next to him was not a fellow Toon. It is a Twisted. It was very capable of hurting him if it wished to or snapped. He was walking a fine line, except no one knew anything about the line or how thin it was because this was the first time it was tried out.“...Right, right, good talk….”Rodger mumbles to himself as he approaches his bedroom. He wanted to understand more about the Twisted today, but he didn’t know enough about the Twisted to tell whether or not examining and questioning them would make them snap..He enters the room, going over to his desk to note this down. Maybe it was a common thing for Twisteds to do. After all, he had noticed on more than one occasion that empty stare the Twisteds had as they aimlessly wandered around. That thought had him a bit concerned for a moment. It could mean nothing, but…. ..Yes, maybe it was a good idea to not push the thing’s buttons right now.As he’s writing down his observations (both recent and the ones from the day prior), he glances over at the creature to see what it's doing. It was attempting that thing it had done earlier again. Most of it was sparks here and there (Though they didn’t seem to burn things, interestingly enough), but occasionally there would be a small flash, and something small would be there. …Most of them were gumballs and tapes. It was strangely fascinating watching the process. He made sure to write down notes on that as well, psychoanalyzing each reaction of distaste, the flinching, the hunger to do it better the next time when they did it correctly, the frustration with themselves and their lack of ability to… Teleport things? That part still intrigued him. Glisten could teleport himself (and potentially others? He never tried it, so Rodger still didn’t know that one), so perhaps abilities reflected into Twisteds from their Toon counterparts. That made him curious about other Twisteds… He would have to check another time - maybe the next time he was down on a run.Rodger stretches, not realizing how long he had been watching the Twisted. He had lost his train of thought staring at the creature. Why did it have to remind him so much of someone he cared for deeply…? Life was cruel like that sometimes… He couldn’t still help but wonder how Glsiten was doing right now alone on those lower floors. Maybe he should try venturing down there himself one of these days in search of his… Friend. But right now he needed coffee.That was another thing the detective was investigating. How he could consume and Vee couldn’t, or how he could talk with no mouth while Flutter couldn’t. Sure, one could say it just boils down to ‘Cartoon Logic’, but he can’t just leave it at that, can he? How did Delilah even manage to pull that off? How can he and Flutter eat and drink??? Sure, maybe Flutter had a proboscis, but in that case, how could she eat chocolate? It’s not like she just… melted the chocolate. Unless she does… But how?Maybe he’s thinking too much into this….He gets up from his desk and starts walking to the door. He was going to tell the Twisted he would be right back, but it seemed to not be in a very talkative mood, so he figured the thing would be ok with him leaving for a few minutes. It wouldn’t be long.Rodger grabs the handle of his door, turns it, and starts to leave.
“W-wait! Don’t leave me!”
Snap.Alarmed by the sudden reaction, he turns, to see the Twisted.Hostile.Running at him.He went to turn and run, but he wasn’t fast enough.He was never fast enough.Sparks.Flash.
Crunch.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Oh… Oh god.
I killed him.
I….
I actually killed him.
No, no no no no no, that.. That can’t be right…! ..Right….?
No, of course not
, there’s
no way Rodger is dead…!
There’s no way he’s dead….
Right..?
But what if he is dead..?
What if I
truly
did kill him?
No, surely not….
But if I didn’t kill him..
Where is he?
Glisten stares at where Rodger was standing just moments before.. He wasn’t quite sure what just happened…
He’d
been feeling a bit out of
it,
when he looked up and saw Rodger get up to
leave,
and…
Now
he was here standing in front of the ichor-covered doorway alone.
One could
put two and two together
and quickly go to the worst possible outcome.
After all, who wouldn’t? Toons are made of ichor
, there’s
ichor where Rodger
should
be (unless he blacked out for even longer than a few seconds, which would probably be worse)
, who
wouldn’t immediately assume that he had killed Rodger? Especially the ones who knew they were a Twisted…!
He kneels down, hands shaking as he does so. He was… pretty sure he was crying. It was hard to tell when liquid often trained from your eyes without too much reason other than there being ‘too much of it’ in their body. But they were pretty sure it was actual tears… After all, the ichor hadn’t come from their eyes like this since…..
..Well, he wasn’t entirely sure why he had cried(?) that hard the first time… It was a bit hard to remember, actually…. Anything from a few weeks ago was a bit hard to remember… Did ichor affect memory?
Glisten stares at what he believes to be Rodger, the ichor slowly spreading out towards him. There were some glass shards in it, which he found a bit odd.. ….From what he’s seen
every
part of the
toon
is destroyed when they die, but that could’ve easily been his own
Glass
shattering when he attacked him….. Yes, that’s what happened…
..When he attacked him….
What exactly was he supposed to do here…?
Sure
he could just… Clean up the remains of his friend…. Friend? No, surely not….
He could clean up the remains of what he believes to be Rodger, but that felt… Heartless. Maybe he was heartless… He didn’t even really know how to react to this. How DO you respond to something like this-? Was he bad for not knowing how to process the death of not only someone he cared about but someone he resulted in the death of? Maybe he should make an excuse and get that one cleaning girl… ..What was her name again….? Not important, he could wonder that later. But maybe he could say it was his own ichor and that he needed help cleaning….? Surely he could say that, his face was glass and there was glass in the ichor. But that’d be an awful lot of ichor to not only bleed out and be perfectly fine with somehow missing all of the bandages on their body.
Well… most of them.
And even if all that works, who’s to say she won’t get the Strawberry from the elevator up here yesterday or
uh
… Cosmo? Yeah, Cosmo from earlier… They both seemed to know a lot about healing and dealing with those types of things
, they
would definitely notice that it isn’t his ichor. Worse yet - the Strawberry guy (he really should invest in
trying to remember
everyone’s names again….) saw him being brought in by Rodger. Not only does he know that Glisten was a Twisted, but he also knows it was Rodger’s bright idea to let it stay with him.
No, none of that was an option….
Should he tell someone?
He didn’t trust most of the people here….
He trusted Toodles, but he’s gotten the impression that she’s basically a child, and telling a kid you killed their father would be… Traumatizing.
He could open up to one of the Toons
who
the actual Glisten was close
with
, but who did that
really
consist of?
Rodger
who
was dead? The twins
who
really probably wouldn’t take it well? The box that already has nightmares? The robot that doesn’t understand normal Toon emotions and would likely immediately be very alarmed by the news? The
CHILD
? The- Oh wait
that
one was actually a decent idea. Still, they had already bothered that Toon today
, he
wouldn’t want to make their day any worse than he already made it…. There weren’t great options here…. ..And considering there are two in that group who already know that he’s a Twisted
really
did confine those options even more.. On top of which, a lot of them had given him an… Uneasy feeling. Then again, maybe it was because he wasn’t a Toon…. But Rodger didn’t give him that feeling… Strange.
….
…Maybe there was oooone
Toon
he could go to…..
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Glisten steps out of the elevator into the 1st floor. Projector Room, Sure, he could work with that….
He starts wandering around, looking for a machine to complete while keeping an eye out for the Twisteds. He really should consider wearing his sweater down here more often, these lower floors always got way too cold for comfort. When he was on a run with the other Toons it was usually fine. Sure, the floors themselves were still a bit bitter. Still, the body heat from the 8 of them in total (sometimes 9 - but Glisten was half convinced that Dandy didn’t have any warmth to his character - literally or figuratively) made the elevator warm. With solo runs? It was just him. The elevator never got warm.
He
shouldn’t
be complaining.
He
wasn’t
doing this for comfort.
He was doing this to improve.
To be perfect.
Comfort was something you earned, and he
hadn’t
earned it yet.
He
wasn’t
good enough yet.
He had to be more than good enough.
He had to be perfect.
Luckily his thoughts were interrupted by him spotting a machine! A good opportunity to improve his skills! He tries to focus on the ichor flowing in front of him, but solo runs are always nerve-wracking for him. After all, the Twisteds were freely roaming around. By this point, he had discovered that it was Poppy and Boxten. Pretty easy Twisteds to evade - especially when he always seemed to run faster in this bow - but it still freaked him out whenever one of them walked past him. He was shocked he hadn’t been spotted yet. Usually light reflected off of his face or something and a Twisted spotted him because of that. ..Maybe he should invest in a more opaque face.
That would certainly be a bit of help…..
He jumps when he hears the ding of the machine. Already jumpy on the first floor? This was going to be a long night… Hopefully he
won’t
be exhausted tomorrow.
Luckily, Glisten had been on this floor enough times to know its general layout and
where all
the machines
were
.
Within no time, Glisten was off the floor and in the elevator.
On most occasions
Dandy's
shop would show up, but Dandy was asleep by
now
.
No shop showed up. That also meant no cards… Guess it was just him, himself
and
he [ha….].
That's
fine
He
didn't
need help.
He
didn't
need anyone.
He was Glisten.
He was perfect.
Except….
He did need other Toons.
That's
an imperfection.
He needed others to be perfect.
And even then, he
wasn't
perfect enough.
He needed this.
He… He had to be perfect.
Not for the first time did he think this
might've
been a regrettable idea….
But he
hasn't
gotten too hurt in the past
, what
are the chances
it'll
happen this time? Basically none! He knew what he was doing, for the most part.
Floor after floor, machine after machine, Glisten slowly makes his way to 5. Then 10. Then 15…. This was really taking a while… He was feeling really uneasy tonight. There
wasn’t
really much to worry about. He had managed to stay relatively ok so far. Sure,
he’d
not-so-gracefully gotten hit a few times, but
he’s
managed to find things to patch himself up with (the problem was covering them up by morning… He would probably have to wear his sweater tomorrow to avoid suspicion. Maybe secretly take some supplies from Sprout or Cosmo… Or he could ask Cosmo
, he
usually
didn’t
ask too many questions - and he
wasn't
great at calling
people’s
bluff. Either that or he just chose not to. The latter, probably). He just needed to get over himself.
Why was it so hard to do what he wanted to do? It wasn’t like this was unfamiliar territory. He knew these places by heart! Sure, blackouts were unnerving, and Twisteds made things sketchy, but none of it was new. Why was he so.. So freaked out? It made him make mistakes, and he couldn’t afford to make mistakes.
This is why he needed practice.
It was floor 17 now, the things he was carrying
weren’t
…. The best. The last few floors
he’d
been on had been rough, leaving him with some candies. ..
At least the yellow ones tasted good
,
they motivated him
for a bit
to go faster.
The purple ones were ok
, they
had a weird shape
though
…. He always worked faster with those ones…. ..He was getting off track.
He knew that by now, he was probably dealing with 4 Twisteds. Maybe he should go back now...
He’d
been down here for hours, he was tired, he really should get some sleep before the start of the day….
No.
No complaining.
He was down here to practice.
He needed to be perfect, so he would stay down
here
until at least floor 20. He was only 3 away, after all. Then he would leave.
Walking onto the floor, he immediately knows something is VERY wrong with this floor. First of all, it sounded like some rabid animal was here - not good. Very bad, actually. He could outrun Pebble SURE, but… ….Barely.
He’d
have to be extra careful. On top of that, he could hear mechanical footsteps from somewhere on the floor. Cool, so he would be SLOW too! Just lovely! …God. Looking around, he also notices that
it’s
the one cramped warehouse floor. …The one where all the machines like to be in the middle - aka the spot where all the Twisteds just LOVE to be.
He was just…. Complaining.
If
Vee and Pebble were the only bad Twisteds here
, he would be fine
.
He just had to be REALLY
careful,
and hope that the other Twisteds were just common Twisteds or something….
Luckily to his left is immediately a machine he can start working on. Wonderful
, maybe
the machine layout
wasn’t
completely horrible he could get through this floor fast! …Doubtful
, he
had 7 machines at this point, there was no chance that all of them just conveniently
didn’t
show up in the middle.
He would have to deal with at least one sticky situation.
…
Apparently
‘
sticky
’
was more accurate than he
thought,
because as
he’s
about to step in front of the machine, he steps into something
that’s
just that. Feeling
a bit
grossed out, he looks down to see an ichor trap. Finn…. God, those traps slowed him so much… Vee and Finn?
What’s
next
, gonna
have one of the scrap twins
too
? His luck would definitely be horrible if that was the case. He could only hope it was like a Connie or a Rodger….. …
God
please be a Connie or Rodger…..
If
it’s
another active toon, he might
actually
lose his mind from how infuriating this
is going to
be.
Then
a thought occurs to him, drowning out those thoughts.
He could die here.
He.. Had a very real chance of dying on this floor.
The annoyance
now drowned
out by a very understandable unease and paranoia,
he starts
working on the machine.
Quickly and exceptionally carefully. He
couldn’t
afford to mess up here. Not on this floor. Not unless he wanted to be ripped in half, torn to bits, strangled, smashed, destroyed, killed….
..Focus.
That’s
a what-if.
This is reality.
..He just… Needed to focus.
He would get through this.
He would be fine.
He… would be fine.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I
don’t
want to do this.
Why did I do that?
Why am I doing this?
What is wrong with me?
. . .
I already know the answer,
don’t
I?
Everything.
That’s
the answer.
Everything.
Boxten was feeling a bit off after seeing the Twisted from earlier. Sure, it was a bit silly to worry about - after all, Rodger seemed to have it pretty under control - but something about seeing a Twisted walk around so peacefully and close to another Toon freaked him out. …On the bright side, Rodger had the common sense to keep the thing off this floor for where it
‘
slep
t
’.
Or…. At least, Boxten hoped Rodger had the common sense to do that. After all, it had only been one day of the thing being here.
He had made some tea to calm him down - he heard from Teagan at some point that it helped. He
wasn’t
sure how true it was, but maybe if he just focused on it-
“
Boxte
-”
“
AH
-”
There’s
a shattering sound as a teacup narrowly misses
Glisten’s
head, smashing against a wall. ….Well,
wasn’t
that a bit of an overreaction…. Some of it had gotten on Glisten. It was hot, like it was just made or something. It burned him and stained the fresh bandages from this morning (Sorry
Cosmo
…), but he
didn’t
care. He was here for one reason only - and it
wasn’t
to question
Boxten’s
knee-jerk reaction. After all, it
didn’t
really matter. It would heal
anyway
along with the other injuries - if it healed at all.
Might
not even be around the other Toons for very long anyway
after what he did
.
He could understand being sent back down to the depths… ….But
god
he
didn’t
want to be alone again… He had.. Company sometimes, but it
wasn’t
the same. This is more permanent.
It
could’ve
been more permanent if he
didn’t
ruin it……
“I… uh…. ..Glisten? Sorry, that was kind of…. Ah-
Where’s
….
.”
“
I need your help with something
.”
Maybe he had a chance to stay around a bit longer with
Boxten’s
help. The Toon was jumpy - but handy. Convenient. He
didn’t
share secrets with anyone (it was part of the reasons behind his nightmares - the real Glisten had learned that from the box himself), he was easy to… Convince of something. He
didn’t
like doing this
, it
felt manipulative - it probably was, actually. But… God, what else was he supposed to do? Tell everyone that he just killed a Toon? Sure, all of them would find out eventually, but not now… Please, not now… Things were finally looking up for him..! ….Minus killing one of the closest people the real Glisten knew.. But he finally was constantly with Toons..! With Toons that
hadn’t
Twisted…! He wanted to stay with them
for a bit
longer - even if it was only for a few more days… After all, they would get suspicious quickly. ..
Why
couldn’t
it have been a Toon that
didn’t
have a
child that was relatively social
with the other Toons…? God, he messed up so badly….
“
..Well, what is it…
?”
Honestly, Boxten
wasn’t
sure he wanted to know. What could a Twisted possibly need from him? He
wasn’t
all too helpful when it came to the majority of things…. He was clumsy, often stumbled over his own words, he messed up a lot, most things made him really anxious…. And yet he was needed?
Surely
there were better Toons for whatever this thing wanted from him. …Unless Boxten was a last resort of sorts. Which made him wonder even more….
..On top of that, Boxten was just uncomfortable around the creature. It was mildly terrifying to him, knowing it could just attack at any second - even if it
hadn’t
so far.
As far as he knew.
“
I… need your help cleaning something
.”
“
..Well,
I’m
sure Tisha would be h
-”
“
No, no… Not Tisha,
you.
You’ll.. ….Understand better than Tisha..”
“
..Is.. Rodger not an option…?
He’s
been sticking to you pretty closely when he can
…”
“
Rodger’s
….
Rodger’s
busy
.”
“
...O-oh… Uhm.
.”
Boxten felt that something was just… off about all of this. It didn’t seem right. The Twisted seemed insistent on it being him specifically. If it was trying to go for someone on the elevator at the time, then why not someone like Brightney? She liked cleaning as well… ..And she defended the thing. And yet it was insistent on him, Boxten. Weird…. ..But he was compliant. He was weirdly curious as to what the reasoning behind this was. He wanted to know more. …Is this what Rodger felt like when he stumbled across a Twisted that didn’t immediately try to kill him? No wonder he was so eager to bring it along, he couldn’t imagine that feeling of torment. …Especially since he was created to always want to wonder and solve problems.
“.
.Alright, I guess if
I’m
the best option…
.”
The Twisted starts leading the two
of them
to the second floor of their rooms. The way there was… Strange.
Boxten felt like the thing was on edge
- it reminded
him of when Glisten was hiding something.
Boxten never said anything about
it,
he
didn’t
like confrontation, but he knew the signs. Boxten was a rather observant Toon. Most just…
Didn’t
know this because he
didn’t
like pointing things out. Yet he wanted to know what was up….
“
So… What are we, uh.. Cleaning
?”
“
Ichor
.”
“
...What
?”
Ichor…?
Who’s
? Why? Did it come from the Twisted? Or… No, they were getting along reasonably well. Boxten was worrying… Worrying about things that
weren't
a problem, all you need to do is breathe and count… It probably had a very reasonable explanation for the ichor.
“
I.. uh…. ..Had an incident.
D-don’t
be alarmed,
everyone’s
…. ..Ok, mostly…… But there is a bit of a mess from it
.”
Boxten was alarmed by this anyway. Why wouldn’t he be? This was most certainly implying that Glisten had attacked someone - and Boxten had a strong hunch as to who it was. …Now really not wanting to be ichor soup, Boxten just awkwardly nods along, hoping that they didn’t notice anything off with their behavior. ..That. That was a concern. A hazard. Should he tell someone? But… If he did, the thing would surely know it was him that said something and would kill him…! No, no, meaningless worries… ..He was probably overreacting…! Everything was…. Probably fine….! ..Yeah…
They reach
Rodger’s
bedroom, but where Boxten expects to see ichor, maybe Rodger bleeding out or something, he sees… Nothing. It was just…
Rodger’s
room? No ichor, no nothing. It did smell oddly of cleaning supplies already
though
…
For
a Toon
who’s
always tired and a bit sleep-deprived, running on a total of not enough sleep
, the guy was surprisingly tidy
.
Maybe it was because he had a kid to look after and
couldn’t
afford to throw himself away for that - not with Toodles.
“
Uh… Glisten, I
don’t
see any ichor…
.”
“
But… ..It was just
-”
Glisten’s
voice catches in his ichor-filled throat as he hears a voice from the second-floor kitchen. He slowly approaches, looking around the corner. It was Sprout, talking to…. ..What?
That’s
not…. Is it? No…
“
. . . You really should be more careful
Rodger
. It may look like our friend, but
that thing
is still a Twisted. You should have that thing bound in some way, you know…
It’s
always going to act peaceful until it
isn’t
anymore. Be more cautious, detective
.”
..It was Sprout, wrapping
Rodger’s
abdomen in bandages. It reminded him of where he had touched Rodger before… ..Whatever happened had happened. And yet, it
didn’t
feel right.
Rodger says something awkwardly while Glisten is
thinking,
before looking over and giving an
uneasy
happy-ish smile to Glisten.
That’s
when he finally figured it out.
What unnerved him.
He
doesn’t
know what that thing is.
But it’s not Rodger.
That's not Rodger.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sorry about not posting chapter 12 before vacation y'allI MEANT to, I swear, I just....Got tiredFell asleep before I could write itI might end up writing it over vacation, but uh........Dunno how well that's gonna go, considering I never write on phone (BECAUSE IT SUCKS ASS)I'll still be talking in the Discord server if you want to make sure I'm not dead or something (it was linked on a previous chapter but here's a new one -> https://discord.gg/a9PjTTFuWM )Vacation has been fun so far except for when I almost got hit by a truckVegas has a lot of gambling (and a lot of Lawyer billboards oddly enough...)Internet is kinda spotty so I might go silent for quite a while most days if you do join the serverI'll probably delete this when I figure out how & when chapter 12 is ACTUALLY postedJust wanted to give y'all an update so you don't wonder what happened if the fic doesn't get updated in the next weekUhYeSee y'all in a centuryMaybeProbablyIf I don't die firstProbably won'tCan't guarantee anythingSee ya