Chapter Text
It was a simple day in the Gardenview, Dandy was doing his work, leading about while others were hunting for supplies in the floors below. Dandy had never been a fan of this place, it's bright colors were nice, but it simply provided him no real comfort other than being a home.
recently Dandy convinced Rodger to hand him some science and biology books because he was running out of things to do in his free time. Rodger only accepted the offer by convincing Dandy to give him at least two medkits in return.
Dandy didn't think it was exactly a fair trade, but, he gladly took his books and brought them back to his space. He set them down on the floor, sitting besides the pile on the scruffy carpet.
"Alright, let's see!" Dandy grabbed the first book out of the pile, it was titled 'The prince and the princess'
Dandy paused, furrowing his brows. "Hey, wait a minute... This is not at all what I asked for!" Dandy gasped, he could not believe it. He was scammed. By Rodger, nonetheless.
Dandy growled under his breath, throwing aside the childish fairytale, he didn't ask for any fairytales, did he? He already read a billion of them. All the same, they were getting tasteless.
He rummaged through the pile, finding nothing but more fairytales and children books. Dandy was fuming, understandably so, he never knew Rodger had it in him to be such a scammer.
After a long while of rummaging, he picked up the last book that he hasn't checked yet. It was tilted 'The star of our solar system, the Sun'
It seemed like this was the only non-childish book, which still didn't take from the fact Dandy had been fooled so easily, but at least there was something decent to read.
Dandy had heard about the sun before, he was aware of it. It was literally painted on the walls of the Gardenview center, yellow, seemingly bright and shining. Dandy never paid mind to it, not bothered with it. He remembered that his handler would often mention plants and the sun in his sentences, but Dandy was mostly zooned out during their biology lessons.
Dandy opened the book with a sigh, hoping this book is actually interesting.
...
Hours later, Dandy did in fact find the book interesting. He was mesmerized by the idea of the sun, mostly because the sun gives plants the energy in the sunlight for them to produce the nutrients they need. It was fascinating. It was always cold in the Gardenview so the though of an actually beneficial and constant warmth in the sky sounded extra special. Dandy sighed, pleased with what he read.
He stood up, setting aside the book on his makeshift bed of old instruction papers and used blankets. He stacked the rest of the books on top of one another before giving them back to Rodger.
Apparently he forgot to shout at Rodger for his awful disrespectful and cunning behavior, but Dandy reminded himself that he will indeed get revenge soon enough.
Dandy, on his way to his shop where he sold various trinkets and stuff to others, bumped into Shrimpo. "Oh, hello my shrimptastic friend!" Dandy greeted with a forced smile, of course he didn't really like Shrimpo, the aquatic toon was always on about how he hates everyone and everything. Especially Dandy.
"Hmph, I hate bumping into people!!" Shrimpo groaned, although he sounded a bit more tired and not as interested in shouting. Dandy fought the urge to roll his eyes, patting the toon's shoulder. "How about you go to bed, hm? I see you've been very busy trying to get to floor 3 alone."
Shrimpo glared at Dandy, "I hate condescending behavior!!!!!!" He shouted loudly as he speed walked, as much as he could, back to his own room.
Dandy watched him leave, shrugging lightly, before going back on his path.
He went to his shop to pick up some pop cans, chocolates and gumballs to sell to the others who were going down the floors, and did his work as always.
Went with his own little elevator and came by other's to sell his stuff, most either ignored him or didn't think the items he was currently offering were worth it.
After such an annoying day as a businessman trying to sell his stuff, but not succeeding, Dandy sat on a bench in the Gardenview center, looking lazily at the sun drawn on the wall. He's feeling a bit agitated due to the fact most of the toons didn't give him any tapes, but be couldn't afford twisting right now. He needed to relax and wait a bit until he started chasing them all down.
He stood staring at the drawing of the sun for a while until he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Astro got back from a supply run.
"Hello, Dandy..." Astro greeted, sleepy as always. He stood in front of Dandy, blocking the drawing of the sun.
"Hey, you're blocking my view!" Dandy complained.
"Huh..?" Astro looked behind him, noticing the sun that was drawn on the wall. He turned back to look at Dandy, chuckling a bit awkwardly. "That's what I'm supposed to do, no...?" Astro asked with a small smile.
Dandy raised a brow, before humming in thought. "I guess so... Very well, I'm not mad. What did you need?" Dandy watched as Astro sat down besides him on the bench.
"Nothing much... We've witnessed much more twisteds than any run before, 8 in one floor. Poor them, It's crazy what ichor does to a toon..."
Dandy gave a light nod, waiting for Astro to get to the point, "Yeah."
"We also found a piece of paper on the ground when we were on floor 30 about my 'solar opposite' toon."
Dandy raised his eyebrows, this is the first time he heard about it. "Solar opposite?" He piqued, if Astro was based on a moon, then his solar opposite would be the sun in most cases.
Astro nodded lightly, "yeah..."
"Can I have the paper?"
"It's with Glisten..."
"...Of course."
Dandy sighed, standing up. "I'll see if he can give me the paper."
With that Dandy went to Glisten's room, not bothering to knock at all. Glisten was in the corner of his room at his desk, staring at his reflection in the mirror while he applied new makeup on himself, mascara, blush, eyeliner...
Dandy glanced at him, before turning to rummage around the room, not caring about the fact he never announced his entrance. Poor Glisten was startled when he noticed Dandy going through his stuff, "H- hey! What's this about?" Glisten stammered, very startled.
Dandy could only roll his eyes, "Astro told me you had a paper about a certain toon. I need it."
Glisten furrowed his eyebrows at the attitude. That's what he was supposed to act like, not Dandy!
"Well, since you're so polite about it," Glisten scoffed, taking the paper that was hidden under his bed and handing it to Dandy. "Happy now, rainbow petals?"
Dandy stood in silence as he skimmed over the paper.
"Just get out of my room, please?"
"Alright, alright," Dandy walked out of the room, leaving Glisten alone.
He spent a few minutes reading through the paper with Astro, both toons unsure how none of them discovered this up until now. "Says here this toon was called Solatius 'Sunny' Starton... Goes by Sunny or Sol..." Astro lead outloud to Dandy. "Hm... Sol is the latin word for the Sun," Dandy pointed out. "Well, yeah, it is my 'solar opposite', no wonder they're based on the sun." Astro set the paper down, sighing. "Their stats are pretty much nothing much special, other than their speed... Stealth is very low, not as low as Shrimpo's though, they're alright when it comes to machines it seems, but not as good as Rodger at them..."
"Does it mention anything about if they radiate warmth like the sun?" Dandy questioned, taking the paper to doublecheck it.
"Tch, not a single word about this toons qualities other than their stats," Dandy grumbled a bit.
"A shame," Astro nodded tiredly. "Who knows where they are now."