Chapter Text
Inside. Has he ever been inside of a building after escaping? He wouldn’t want to be stuck in one again after many long agonizing years being trapped in Gardenview.
It seems that fear resurfaced as he woke up within a decaying room, the windows proving he was hardly dreaming as he struggled to get out of restraints-
Restraints? Where did those come from? He attempted to struggle and tear out once more, until the door slammed open.
“He’s awake!” Some strange toon he had never met was peaking out of the hallway, only being a measuring glass. They picked up a makeshift dagger while another toon, a twig, followed suit.
They were obviously children, guessing from their voices and sizes. He was more worried than before, especially with the restraints and the dagger casually being moved about in the toon’s hands.
There was just a bit of silence, until the measuring glass faked a cough. “Uhm. You’re… an accomplice, right?”
“What?” Rodger raised a brow. “What do you mean by that?”
“To the flower.” The twig added in, and the glass nodded.
“Yes, the flower. Were you going to steal anything?”
“...No. And that flower is not my friend.”
“I thought they were buddies…” The twig whispered, but the glass just pulled them aside.
“How so? I know only friends look at each other like that!”
“...Being angry?” These kids clearly weren’t in the best place.
“I- you were mad at him?”
“Because he probably messed up…” Another addition from the twig.
“I mean it. We are not associated in any capacity.” Even when being honest, the two doubted him. “Is he in your grasp?”
They looked at each other, then back at the detective.
“Why do you wanna know that?”
Rodger internally facepalmed. “I don’t know how else I can prove it to you, but he is not my friend, nor do I intend on working with him. Now please, let me go.”
“He could be lying…” The twig whispered, fiddling with his fingers. “That’s what the moon said…”
The moon?
“Astro?” He could still hear them, thankfully. But now more worry seeped through his body- it was like he was being hit with constant reveals and realizations. “He was here?”
“Novalite wouldn’t know someone like you!” The measuring glass crossed their arms defensively. “He’s nice, and kind. He doesn’t yell at their friends- even if they’re a bad guy.”
So Astro was here. But why would he lie about him? Maybe he turned around his thoughts regarding Dandy, but him? Worry seeps through his mind already.
“...I don’t think he’s gonna tell us about Dandy now, Maxwell.” The twig whimpered, hiding behind the glass and close to bolting out the door.
“He’s probably lost in thought.” Maxwell continued to cross his arms, standing on his toes to seem taller than the actual adult in the room. “Let’s ask him later…”
The two left, closing the door. Rodger tried to listen in if it’d be locked by something else or the expected, but only talking and then silence.
Rodger presumes he has to work quickly here. He rubs the rope against the handles of the chair, trying to at least cut it up enough. But the chair seems too round to even do such a thing.
He hisses to himself. Why did Dandy have to get him in such a stressful situation? He doesn’t want to be here, and he has no clue where Toodles is…
…Unless he can ask. How come that didn’t cross his mind earlier? If kids seem to be in control of the place, Toodles might just be one of them.
With a familiar motivation, he tries his best to untie. But it doesn’t work either, so he resorts to moving the chair against something else- but no use, as his feet are also tied against it.
He hisses, his joints hurting at struggling so much. If he can’t get out of here, then what would he do? He’d have to face the fact that Toodles could be on her own, and possibly die, and-
A louder hiss distracts him, as he feels his foot burn. But now the ropes on his feet fell down, untied- or, well, burnt. He’d be confused if it didn’t give him a better chance to escape.
Once finding a way to untie his own hands, he’s out. He considers just jumping through the window, but he’s old and he’d doubt it’d work well.
And, Dandy…
…He just doesn’t want to see that flower cause more trouble, so he kicks the door open and goes off to search for that damned flower.
. . .
Dandy isn’t having a good time.
Falling into a random leaf trap wasn’t good enough, so now he’s tied against the ceiling and dangling. He could, thankfully, still speak, but kids were rough these days!
“Come on, Simon! Hit him harder!” Some smaller pencil toon yelled out, as a slingshot toon launched a rather weak ball of paper directly at Dandy.
“You guys aren’t the best shooters.” Dandy mumbled, resulting in another crumpled piece of paper to his face. He’s surprised he hasn’t gotten any cuts yet. “And shouldn’t you kiddos be in school?”
“What’s school?” One of the toons asked, as the slingshot hit Dandy again.
“Shush! He’s trying to trick us!” Simon, the slingshot, yelled out in response.
“Owie! I’m just curious!” He swung around in his restraints, hurting more from how the rope tied against his limbs. Least he was covering his skin. “What about a proper education? Oooh, and maybe even learn about math!-”
Another smack to the face with paper. “Can you stop doing that? That doesn’t even hurt.”
“Nuh uh! You could turn into a big scary monster at any moment!” Simon launched another ball of paper, trying to aim at Dandy’s eyes.
“Uh huh. And who told you that? The fun police?”
“Why should I tell you?” Simon looked around for anything else to throw, but they used all their paper. “Gah! I should use rocks next time!”
“R-rocks?” Dandy gulps. He just hopes they’re pebbles, or even his dog Pebble! “Can you make sureee they have legs? Just askin’!”
Simon glared at the flower, before the pencil scrambled up with a bucket of rocks. “He just wants his dog, man.”
“I know.” Simon picked one of the pebbles out of the basket, Dandy noticing how they’re of the… sharper variety.
He began to panic.
“H-hey, you’re young, right?” He gulped, seeing Simon take his time to aim at Dandy. “I can teach you all about, uh… science! Science is super fascinating, you know? I’m pretty good at gardening also-”
The door inside slammed open, making anyone inside look at the culprit.
Rodger, holding both Maxwell and the twig toon in his arms, glared directly at Simon. His large shadow loomed over everyone.
“What are you doing?” Rodger was even more surprised at such a strange rebellion going on in unused staff rooms.
Without a thought, Simon shot at Rodger in fear- but it only hit his chest, stumbling onto the floor. It didn’t do a thing, as both the slingshot and pencil looked upon Rodger.
Rodger only sighed, putting the two passed out toons on the floor and walked towards him. “Children shouldn’t be hurting others. You should know that, Dandy.” He gave a glare towards the flower.
“T-they tied me up here themselves!” Dandy whined, swinging even harder to motion for Rodger to get him down. Rodger just rolled his eye.
“I…” Simon took a step back, scared of Rodger’s larger figure. He tried to pick another pebble from the basket, but it was easy enough for Rodger to snatch it himself. “Hey! Those are ours!”
“And I don’t want a fight.” Rodger held it above his hands while Simon jumped up in an attempt to get them. Didn’t work. “Tell me, did you tie Dandy up for the same reason as me?”
“W-why should I tell you?!” Another similar excuse. Rodger figured it was the same regardless.
“Because…” He took a deep breath. He did had to knock Maxwell and the other toon unconscious, but it was out of defense more than anything. “...I’m already having a stressful time outside. Can’t you just let us go?”
Simon stopped, looking to the side and to the pencil. The other toon simply hid, and he groaned.
“Adults are mean.” Simon squeezed his arms, looking down on the floor. “And I don’t want my friends to get hurt...”
Rodger felt sympathy. As he noticed before, they were all clearly just kids. Maybe they came from Gardenview, but they must’ve been created without anyone to tell them what’s what.
But it was still awkward nonetheless. He hardly knew these kids, and they must’ve been struggling on their own.
“...If it helps, you can have this back- but only if you let Dandy free.”
“Our weapons?” Simon asked, referring to the pebbles. He nodded.
“I doubt Dandy would be a big threat to you. He’s just a bad influence.” He handed Simon the rocks. “And I don’t want to see little kids get hurt, either.”
“How come?” Simon looked up, now clinging onto the basket this time.
He took a deep breath. “You… haven’t seen an eight ball toon around here with a white hoodie, have you? I presumed she’d be with you…”
Simon shook his head. “No, I don’t know anyone like that…”
Rodger sighed. “And that’s okay. I wouldn’t want her to be in such a place like this.”
“Is she your daughter or something?-”
“Can you guys just let me go?” Dandy groaned, as Simon yelped from his interruption.
“Sorry!” Simon giggled a bit, before Dandy was finally let loose- still restrained, but not hanging from the ceiling this time.
Rodger rolled his eye. “You could say that about… Toodles.” He picked Dandy up, easily untying the rope off Dandy. He expected him to leap off, but all he did was lean against Rodger and groan.
“Do you… have any more weapons?” The pencil asked out of the blue, peaking out of his hiding spot.
“Weapons? Why do you need weapons?”
“Weird scary things come out at night, sometimes… or when we need to hunt something.” The pencil finally walked out, straightening his scarred pants.
“Yeah! And you could be with them!”
Rodger could presume it's either humans, or… twisteds. He’d have to see for himself then. “I see. I… don’t have much else, but…”
Rodger looked through his pockets, simply offering a pen. “This is a tactical pen. It works as a writing device, and also…”
By turning the pen around and pressing a button, a small knife came out. The kids looked at one another, as Simon simply stole it back.
“...Thanks.” Simon huffed, looking behind his back.
“I doubt it’d be much help in the long run-” Rodger was then taken aback by Simon giving him a hat in return, his hat. It had the same color as his coat.
“Everything needs a trade off, right?” Simon seemed a bit shy now, but that made sense. You can’t always trust everybody. “And this hat… looks like yours. I don’t need it.”
“That’s… thank you, lad.” Rodger took it in return. It was a bit scratched up, but good enough to wear. “Where did you find it?”
“On the ground.”
Rodger internally facepalmed. Of course it was.
“Yeah, and I swore I saw it on the ground as well!” Dandy finally added in, trying to rub off the rope marks on his skin. “You’re a little thief, aren't cha?”
“There’s nothing wrong with such things when you need to survive.” Rodger was right behind Dandy, his hands together to seem professional. “But… well, I can’t really blame you all that much.”
“About what?” Simon just looked confused.
“...I doubt it’s any of your business.” Rodger sighed, placing back his hand and finally leaving. Dandy just looked from side to side, before following.
“Stay safe, by the way.” Rodger waved, as Simon waved back. The pencil joined in return.
. . .
Outside Gardenview was exactly the same, but he could tell it was midnight. He imagined there’d at least be somewhere to hide for the night.
But it wasn’t helping how Dandy was just following along. He didn’t know what else to make of him.
“Were you really trying to influence those kids?” Rodger asked, his hands in his pockets. Dandy just shrugged, skipping a bit.
“I mean, I think they’re quite influenced by something else!” He chuckled, jumping on top of a log and pretending to balance himself. “You know, maybe bullies or something.”
“You don’t have to act like everything is a cartoon, Dandy.” Rodger just passed by, as the flower leaped down to follow. “It could just be the environment… it didn’t look so good.”
“Yeah, Gardenview does not look pretty! I say it needs a makeover-”
“Are you even taking anything I say seriously?” Rodger stopped again, as Dandy bumped into his back. “For all I know, there’s hardly any humanity here, and there’s other toons. And if I take what those kids say at face value, those twisteds followed us!”
He then pointed a finger at Dandy’s chest. “So if you want to follow me around, you have to take everything as it is; dangerous.”
Dandy looked at Rodger, before smiling widely.
“So we’re buddies now?”
Rodger just groaned, hiding his face with his hat before walking off. “Hey, was it something I said? I promise I’ll take this all more seriously!”
“You really weren’t-” And then Rodger tripped, now rolling down a small slope. Dandy just gasped, but followed suit.
When Rodger fell down, he felt asphalt. But Dandy just jumped up, cheering to himself. “Hey, that was pretty fun! We should do that again…”
But even Dandy paused, upon seeing empty cars in a foraged street.
. . .
“You sure this will work?” Vee looked over the plans, knowing how drastic they are. “It’s making a train slam into a bunch of rocks. How is that gonna work?”
“Me and Rodger looked at the exit, and it seemed hollow on the other side!” Brightney explained in return, showing off small notes. “It’s our best chance to see if there’s any escape!”
Vee’s screen flicked, turning into dots going up and down. “Hmm. You have a point. My camera can't even look back there. But I want to go there myself.”
“An extra look?” Brightney smiled. “Yeah! But it’s a lot of walking…”
“It’s fine, I doubt there’s any twisteds in the tunnels.” Vee just crossed her arms, trying to seem nonchalant as Rodger entered the room. “Oh, hey.”
Rodger just waved. “I suppose you two are planning our escape?” Looking at some of the notes across the desk, it was pretty clear.
“How do you expect us to get a train up and working? Especially stopping it?” Vee raised a robotic eyebrow. “It just circles around before retracting itself.”
“It sometimes stops at the entrance. We can go up front and work from there!” Brightney added in, as the two other toons took note.
“You are good with technology, Vee… we can still figure it’s insides out.”
“Mhm.” Vee still leaned against the wall. Any less serious toon could think Vee is super cool. “But I don’t have any cameras in there.”
“We’ll just have to take our chances.” Rodger responded. “Me or Brightney haven’t recorded when it comes and leaves, but we have all of the time in the world.”
Vee chuckled. “Yeah, you got a point.”