Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dandy had stopped selling candy on this run a while ago. Shrimpo had completely bought out his stock of candies, and Dandy couldn’t go restock yet.

However, he could see that Shrimpo was getting more and more agitated with each floor that passed where Dandy didn’t sell candy. Dandy was a bit confused but also concerned. Why did Shrimpo want that candy so badly?

It wasn’t like the shrimp was using it for the effects–he was eating them immediately in the elevator–so what was the point? Dandy didn’t understand. Did Shrimpo make it a mission to confuse Dandy every day?

Maybe Dandy should ask Shrimpo about it when his shop popped up again. After all, they would have enough time for a small chat anyway.

Ah. There was the sound of the elevator door closing. That was Dandy’s cue.

He slapped a few random items onto the cushions on the counter. Huh. A medkit, a bottle of pop, and a box of chocolates. Maybe now the other toons would buy something. (They better buy something…)

His shop raised, and he opened his mouth to speak, “Spare a flower some-” But before he could finish, he felt a weight pounce on him. He stumbled back, barely able to right himself in time. Maybe Dandy should get something better to stand on than a box.

Dandy felt the weight settle on his shoulders, pressure pulsing on one of his petals. Looking forward, he could see Rodger’s dumbfounded face and Toodles desperately trying to not laugh at the sight in front of her.

Ah. Shrimpo was biting on his petals. Dandy had been watching Shrimpo bite on the other toons’ belongings (He thought Astro was going to have to get a new blanket…luckily the storage rooms had a bunch of spares.), but he never thought Shrimpo would be biting him. Well, at least his bites didn’t hurt that bad! Dandy was expecting much more pain. Or maybe Shrimpo was just holding back?

Toodles couldn’t hold it anymore, and he could hear her cackling laughter flood the elevator. Stars, he felt like facepalming. Rodger, get your demon child.

Dandy sighed tiredly. Well, he might as well take these toons back up. They weren’t going to get any further in their… current state.

The ride back up was a long one. After all, they had gone down pretty far, surprisingly. Dandy expected them to die before they even hit floor 20. Hell, he expected Shrimpo to die before he even reached floor 5. And yet, they managed to surpass his expectations for once.

Toodles had fallen over on the floor sometime on the way up. Dandy couldn’t blame her. He saw just how exhausted they were getting over the course of the run. He himself was exhausted, and he was the shopkeeper! He wasn’t the one running down through the floors extracting all that ichor.

Speaking of ichor, Dandy could feel a dribble running down his face. One of his petals felt like it was stinging pretty badly now. Crap. Did Shrimpo draw blood?

“Alright, Shrimpo, that’s enough of biting me for you,” he grumbled, grabbing Shrimpo by the scruff of his neck. It was the easiest way to handle the shrimp.

Dandy searched through his stock. Good, he still had a few bandages. He grabbed one and opened it with one hand, using his fingers to part the paper before slapping it onto his petal. (Seriously, why was there only one big bandage in a pack of bandages? That was wasteful packaging.)

The elevator door finally opened. Dandy could feel his eyes struggling to not close. He hopped out of his shop, telling Rodger, “Come on, we should head to the kitchen to see Sprout. Y’all need to eat something before you rest. Can’t do much on an empty stomach, now can ya? Also, carry Toodles yourself. I’m not carrying both of them.”

He didn’t wait for Rodger’s response, heading off to the kitchen immediately. Hopefully they could find out what Shrimpo’s problem was while they were at it. He was tired of hearing all the other toons’ complaints.

Chapter Text

As soon as Dandy entered the kitchen, he was met with a papery slap to the face. He turned his head back to glare at his attacker, only to see an angry Yatta and a giggling Connie. Oh, great. What was it now?

“DANDY!!! Why were you selling CANDY from MY CORPSE?!”

Dandy blinked. What? He had never taken candy from Yatta’s corpse. Or well, he didn’t think he did, really. All that candy on the floor when Dandy was scavenging for things to sell looked the same to him.

“And YOU!” Yatta turned to Shrimpo. “Why are you eating MY CANDY?! Don’t you know how LONG it takes to COLLECT THAT MUCH?!”

Ah. Dandy saw what was going on here. Someone from the run must’ve talked about how it went, Connie must’ve eavesdropped, and then she must’ve told some version of it to Yatta.

Speaking of Shrimpo, why wasn’t Shrimpo-

…Oh. The shrimp had fallen asleep at some point while they were walking to the kitchen. No wonder he wasn’t trying to curse Yatta out. Either way, Dandy didn’t have time for this. He had to take these three to Sprout. (And himself, but he didn’t really know if Sprout would want to help him too. The berry had been more apprehensive with him lately, and Dandy didn’t really help with that, considering he had been avoiding Sprout for a while. It was fine if Sprout didn’t help him. Dandy understood. At least he had the bandage.)

“Yatta. The candy I sell doesn’t come from your corpse. Please get out of my way.”

“NO CAN DO!!! How do I know YOU’RE telling the TRUTH?”

“Yatta-”

“Yatta! Do candies that come from you taste different from regular candies? Maybe we can test this out!”

For once, Dandy was grateful for Rodger’s… intense enthusiasm for investigation. Yatta looked thoroughly weirded out, allowing Dandy to easily sidestep her.

As Dandy approached Sprout, he could hear a faint bonk! followed by the clatter of candy on the ground. They were actually testing it? Eh, that wasn’t Dandy’s problem.

“Hey, Sprout,” Dandy awkwardly greeted. “Sorry to bother. I know it’s late, but this run took a lot longer than I thought it would and-”

Clink.

Dandy blinked slowly. Sprout just placed a plate of four cupcakes in front of him. Was Sprout actually..?

“Eh… Ahah. Sprout, I think ya made a lil’ too much… The run only had-”

“I know how many people went on the run, Dandy. Just take the plate. I can see the bandage on your petal.”

“...Oh. Uh- Thanks, Sprout! I’ll go- uh- take these back to the others!”

Dandy took the plate with the hand that wasn’t holding Shrimpo. Of course Sprout would make more. It was in his nature to care for others, even if it was Shrimpo…or Dandy. He didn’t know why he was so surprised that Sprout would make a cupcake for him too.

Well, he should go gather Rodger and Toodles so they could eat too. They were probably starving after that long run. 

…Dandy felt fuzzy inside. Ah, happiness truly was a strange thing.

Chapter Text

Shrimpo woke up in his own bed. Since when was he here? Wasn’t he on a run? Ugh, everything had been so fuzzy lately. It was like there was a hard film encasing his entire body. His skin felt tight around him, and it was harder to move than usual.

His teeth, too, felt the need to chew something. Specifically, himself. But Rodger had told him it was wrong to bite himself when he had last found Shrimpo doing that, so Shrimpo had tried to refrain. ( Not because Rodger had told him! Shrimpo doesn’t listen to anyone! )

However, his skin was making him extremely uncomfortable. It felt as if it was squeezing him inwards. Shrimpo HATED that feeling. Shrimpo wanted out of his skin. He wanted out now.

Shrimpo could faintly remember the last few times this happened. He spent a lot of time holed up in his room. ( Nobody ever noticed when it’d happen. Shrimpo didn’t know if he liked or hated that. Scratch that, he HATED that no one noticed when he was gone. )

Shrimpo knew how to deal with this. The only question was: how long would it take this time?

Ah. He could chew on the air horns he always kept in his room. He had a lot of them, after all. And he could always get more. (He didn’t want to make more holes in his room. It was more effective, but it was getting hard to find space that wouldn’t collapse his room.)

Chomp. Crunch. Crack! BLARE.

Agh! Shrimpo’s ears! (Did he even have any? That wasn’t the point.) Ugh, maybe the air horn was a bad idea. 

It looks like Shrimpo would have to throw himself around his room again. It’d probably be fine. Right? A few more holes wouldn’t be that bad…

CRASH. Crack!

…Jumping off his bed onto the hard floor never hurts any less. But hey! At least Shrimpo heard a crack… somewhere along his carapace. It still wasn’t enough to relieve any of the pressure, though. Annoying.

SLAM. BONK. Crack!

Urgh. Shrimpo was a little dizzy from landing on his head… At least that managed to form a bigger crack. ( And another hole in his room, but that’s nothing new. )

Shrimpo could probably crawl out of his carapace by now. Shrimpo positioned himself near one of the holes in his room, beginning to slowly try and squeeze himself out. He could do it. He was THE BEST! He wouldn’t get stuck! He could do this!

Three.

Two.

One.

POP!

Shrimpo felt himself get flung right into the hole behind him. Eugh. He felt all soft and vulnerable now… There was NO WAY he was going out like this. He needed to harden up before he went to face the other toons again. What if they tried to hurt him while he was all soft? He wasn’t about to trust them with that.

He curled up in the hole, bringing his knees to his chest. Meh. He was tired. A nap surely wouldn’t hurt. As for the carapace outside… Shrimpo will eat that later. Right now? He wanted a nap. A nice, long nap.