Chapter Text
Runs were always interesting, in both good and bad ways.
Glisten couldn’t remember a time a run had ever bored him, or anyone for that matter. Perhaps Astro, but he was perpetually tired anyway. Too much happened on runs to ever be boring. Sometimes they would breeze through, getting easy twisteds and good items from Dandy, while other times they would encounter Twisted Pebbles on floor five and all die unceremoniously.
As for enjoying the runs, that was another story entirely. Being made to subject yourself to potential death, however brief, was not pleasant for anyone.
Especially when caused by the aforementioned floor five Twisted Pebbles.
“I HATE ALL OF YOU FOR DRAGGING ME INTO THIS!” was the first thing any of them heard while their bodies were reforming from the ichor that had been spilt in the floors below.
“No surprise there,” Glisten muttered under his breath. “I HATE YOU” was all he got back.
“Gee, that Twisted sure was E-fish-ent,” Finn nervously said, trying to break some of the tension. Granted, it was Shrimpo, so any attempt would be futile, but the rest appreciated it. Except for Glisten. If he wasn’t occupied with the seafood, he would have laid Finn out.
“WE LOST BECAUSE MR. PERFECT WASN'T FAST ENOUGH!” the shrimp belted out. Glisten was taken aback.
“As if YOU could do any better, you little cretin. I am perfect at what I do. I’d like to see you fill those machines without making enough noise to alert the entire compound.”
“Alright, both of you, calm down, I don't want you two to make a mess of things.” Glisten and Shrimpo both looked at Tisha, then went back to glaring at each other. She sighed. It was always hard to get those two to back down. “Well, we have time since that one ended so fast, we may as well go back down for another run. And I don’t want any arguing.”
“I’M NOT GOING BACK DOWN! I HATE YOU ALL!” Shrimpo screamed as he stormed off. The other three just looked at him with annoyance.
“Are you gonna stay?” Finn questioned, looking at Glisten.
“Who me? Why of course, why not?”
“Well, I just thought you wouldn’t be in the mood, after… that, ynow?”
Glisten scoffed. “I’m perfectly alright. I can do another run with no problem at all.” In truth, Glisten’s mood had been completely ruined, but he wasn’t about to back down now.
They all moved to the elevator doors, but before they stepped in, a dreary voice called out.
“Hello everyone… May I assist you?” The voice belonged to none other than Astro, a beloved main character. How wonderful.
“Oh! Assistance would be lovely,” Trisha exclaimed. Maybe Astro could provide the calm they needed after… all that. Astro nodded and stepped in with them.
Glisten wasn’t all that fond of Astro. Always popular. Everyone loved him. “Give me good dreams,” they would clamor, begging to be in candy land or some other saccharine nightmare. Though… Glisten had to admit to himself, he had thought about doing the same once or twice. His dreams had never been pleasant, to say the least, and perhaps a good dream would provide more beauty sleep than he gets now. Not that he needed more of course, he was already perfect. Already perfect…
He was jolted out of his thoughts by a tapping on his shoulder. “What do you want, Astro?” he asked the toon of dreams.
“I wanted to talk to you about your dreams… I’ve been watching yours lately, and-“
“Don’t,” Glisten curtly cut him off, a hint of defensiveness in his voice. He didn’t need anyone hearing about his dreams.
“Glisten, I’m worried-“
“Not now. Later,” he huffed. Astro nodded and turned away as the doors opened.
The toons rushed out of the elevator, looking for twisteds to distract and machines to fill depending on the role they best fulfilled. Glisten was the best at machines, dare he say, even perfect. He grabbed the handles of one and turned, deftly spinning the wheel with no sound made. Before he knew it, the machine was done, and the light above flashed green. Glisten smiled. His handiwork should be admired. He promptly turned to go find the next one.
Floor two was much of the same, as was floor three. On floor four, he found a clump of candies on the ground. It was his lucky day. Glisten grabbed what he could and walked off to find the next machine.
Along the way he stumbled into Tisha. “Oh, I found this for you,” he said, offering her a stamina candy. He had no need as he was an extractor and could teleport, so the distractors may as well have it.
She nodded, staching the sweet neatly in a pocket of her maid uniform. Glisten looked as she walked off, feeling a little dejected. He would have have expected more appreciation, he had done this dozens of times, but if anything, the “thank you’s” had disappeared. It was like he was expected to do this now. Never thanked anymore. He sighed and got back to his duty.
Not much of note happened on floor five, outside of a couple close calls with Finn. Luckily, Astro was there to keep his stamina up and allow him to escape the Twisteds after him.
Floor six was where it got interesting again. He has used his teleport to get out of a situation with a Twisted Finn due to the slowness when he finished a machine, and had been filling the next machine when a Twisted Flutter had appeared. He panicked and tried to teleport out, but his mind was still a little dazed from the last time, and he couldn’t pull it off. Which meant he had to run. He tried to run as fast as he could, but couldn’t find cover. The Twisted Flutter was persistent, and Glisten couldn’t shake it. It caught up to him and slammed into him, knocking him off his feet. The Twisted Flutter didn’t stop there, and swooped in for a second attack, biting into Glisten. He screamed and tried to get away. Right before he was about to get attacked a third time, the fogginess in his head cleared. He dissipated, appearing right in front of Tisha.
“AH! Glisten, don’t-“ she cut herself off as she looked upon his sorry state. “Oh my…” was all she could get out. “Are you alright?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” he grumbled, not wanting to talk much. He began to limp off to see if there was a machine in the area.
“You’re limping…” Tisha pointed out. Glisten sighed heavily and forced his leg to cooperate, standing tall with an even stride. It hurt. It really hurt, but he was perfect. He could deal with it. But what was really getting him was what happened on floor five, right before this. Astro had saved Finn each time, and now, getting chased by one of the strongest non-main twisteds, and no one came.
They really did hate him, didn't they?
He clenched the wheel of the machine he had wandered to while lost in thought, and began to turn it. Why hadn’t anyone come for him? Surely he would have ran into someone. Were they avoiding him? Did they think he could have taken care of himself?
He was perfect. He did take care of himself. He was alive. Glisten grit his teeth as he completed the final spin and ran back to the elevator.
Astro and Finn noticed his condition and exchanged worried glances. “Are… you alright, Glisten…?” Astro prodded for an answer.
“I’m fine. I can handle it,” Glisten lied through his teeth. The pain wasn’t going away, and it was getting really hard to keep walking on his leg normally. He took off the leg warmer that was on the injured limb and wrapped it around the wound to try and make it easier. Seeing the wound, Astro reached out a hand, but retracted it before he could make contact. He figured Glisten wanted to be left alone.
The doors opened to floor seven. The toons stepped inside, Glisten slower than the last floors. He shuffled around, trying to find a machine to start working his magic with. The mirror saw the telltale red glow and stepped to it. Right as he was about to turn the wheel, he heard something.
“Hello?”
He froze. A shiver ran through his spine and his head spun. That… that was his voice. Glisten turned around to see…
…himself.