Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Scraps, there you are.”

Scraps’ ear horns twitch upon hearing someone call his name. Craning his neck, he looked up from his messy crayon self-portrait and spotted Arthur poking his head into the bedroom. Scraps stared at Arthur with wide eyes before he scrambled to his feet. He smiled at the Toon Handler, who crouched down and rubbed his head.

“Hi Arthur!" Scraps purred, his tail lashing happily. “Do you need something?”

“Actually, Scraps, I’ve been looking for you. You see, me and Delilah have something for you. Come with me.” He stood back up, offering Scraps a hand. He grabbed it, following the founder out of his room. Scraps walked alongside Arthur. Walking down the hallway, Scraps noticed that there were some new signs on the doors that he hadn’t noticed before.

“Hey Arthur, are we going to be meeting new Toons soon?” He looked up at the man and tilted his head. The founder chuckled in response.

“We are! And in fact,” He stopped walking, looking down at him “You’re going to be meeting one of them right now.”

“We are?!” Scraps immediately lit up, eyes shining in excitement. It had been so long since Delilah had made a new toon, that being Gigi. Sensing how excited he was, Arthur took his hand again and led him towards the elevator.

Scraps watched as the elevator door shut and started to take them to the top floor of Gardenview. The only noises coming from around them was the whirring of around them. Scraps was out of questions for now, but his thoughts were racing. He was starting to question why he was the first person to meet the new Toon. If anything, he would’ve expected one of the mains to be introduced first or everyone to meet them at the same time.

The elevator halted after a while, and Scraps and Arthur stepped out into the main area of Gardenview. He followed the older man to the nearby Staff Only door, and then down the dark hallway behind it. It made Scraps uneasy being down here, his grip on Arthur’s hand only getting tighter when he felt himself step on some slimy and wet puddle of black. Arthur pulled him along regardless of what he was feeling.

In the dark, Scraps could make out a sign with Holiday Toons - Christmas on it. Were they really being kept in the basement, or was that a door down to their room? Scraps hoped it was the latter — he’d hate it if he was forced to stay in the basement for months on end.

Up ahead, Scraps could see light spilling out of one of the doors, and he could hear frustrated murmurs. Arthur was probably taking him there. Arthur stopped walking just outside the door before turning to Scraps.

“Stay here for a moment please. I need to talk with Delilah before you can meet the new Toon, okay Scraps?” He asked, letting go of Scraps’ hand. Scraps nodded. The founder smiled before he entered the room and left Scraps alone outside.

Scraps fidgeted with his paws, shifting nervously outside the door. He could hear hushed yet upset whispers coming from inside the room, but he felt like Arthur wouldn’t like it if he eavesdropped on the conversation. Scraps was so curious though, and eventually caved under his overwhelming nosiness and pressed his head against the door to listen to the conversation.

“Delilah, we can’t just scrap a Toon because he doesn’t look how he was supposed to in the references. He’s still a living being, I’m sure we can figure something out.” That was Arthur’s voice. He sounded worried and upset.

“What will the audience think? I don’t think that they’re going to like him. I can simply reuse the Ichor he’s made of and see if I get better results this time.” And that was Delilah. What was she talking about? Why would she ever want to destroy one of the Toons? She had always scared Scraps a bit since he didn’t see her as much as he saw Arthur, but the thought of being destroyed scared him a lot more.

“Delilah! I already told Scraps that he was going to meet him today, I can’t just go back out and tell him that we have to go while you destroy another Toon just to make him again.”

“Well what if we get the desired results this time? It won’t take too long, maybe just another week.”

Scraps cracked open the door a bit, peering through the crack. He could see Arthur and Delilah talking in front of a desk stained in black Ichor. Looking to the side, he could see something else sitting on the floor, watching the two of them argue about him with confusion written all over his face.

He was beige and small, his fur appearing a bit dark and slimy in spots and sticking to his body. If it wasn’t wet though, it was fluffy. Only one of his eyes was focused on the two founders, the other staring at nothing. The most noticeable thing about him was his arms. They were long and almost cable like, dripping with Ichor, and had two red and blue paws on the ends of them.

Scraps hadn’t noticed how much he had been leaning against the door until it ended up swinging open and he hit the floor hard, knocking the wind out of him and letting Arthur and Delilah know that he had been eavesdropping on them. He pushed himself off the ground and looked up at the two of them. Delilah looked pretty upset with him, but Arthur smiled warmly at him.

“Scraps! There is someone I want you to meet.” Arthur picked up Scraps and put him back on his feet. He gently led him over to the other Toon sitting on the ground, much to the displeasure of Delilah. The smaller Toon looked up at the two of them, tilting his head as they approached. Arthur stopped in his tracks, letting Scraps walk ahead of him.

“Now Scraps, be gentle with him. This is your little brother, Goob.”

Scraps stopped in his tracks, processing what Arthur said. This was Goob, and he was his little brother. They looked nothing alike whatsoever, Scraps was paper and Goob looked more plush. The only thing that the two of them had in common might just have been their somewhat similar color, and even that wasn’t perfect.

“He’s made out of the same Ichor you are.” Arthur said, arms crossed. Scraps’ eyes widened. After not getting a response, Delilah spoke up.

“He is, though he wasn’t supposed to look like this. Something clearly went wrong while I was working on him,” She sighed, crossing her arms, “So I’ll fix him. He’ll be more like you afterwards, Scraps. It’d be better anyways. Everyone would actually be able to tell that you and him are brothers-”

“N… No!” Scraps suddenly hissed at Delilah, getting between Delilah and Goob. “That’s my brother! There’s nothing to fix about him! He’s fine just like this.”

Both Delilah and Arthur seemed genuinely surprised at Scraps’ suddenly lashing out at the woman. Neither of them even looked angry, just more shocked than anything. Eventually, Arthur turned to his business partner.

“Looks like he’s already attached to him, hm? It’d just be cruel to remake Goob now, Delilah.” He remarked to her. She shot him a glare, but eventually relaxed even if just a little bit. She looked back at Scraps, though still a bit frustrated.

“Fine. Goob can stay. If the audience doesn’t like him for how he looks though, you’re both taking the blame for this.” She turned back to her desk, looking over the papers scattered about it.

Supervised by Arthur, Scraps turned back to his new brother, who was staring at him with wide eyes. Scraps stared back, not sure what he should say. He sat down in front of Goob, a low, cat-like purr rumbling from his throat. After a moment of sitting like that for a few moments, Goob suddenly lunged forward and wrapped his long arms around Scraps, who didn’t have a chance to move out of the way.

Goob snuggled himself against Scraps, using his long, Ichor-stained arms to keep him in a tight yet not uncomfortable hug. Scraps was taken off guard when he suddenly hugged him, and was admittedly startled at first, but quickly relaxed and leaned into it. He just feel Arthur and Delilah’s stares on the two of them, maybe they were talking about them, but he didn’t care right now.

Scraps was going to protect Goob, no matter what happened to them.

Chapter Text

It’s been years since Gardenview shut down. Scraps still catches herself thinking about the better days when the halls were filled with the laughter of children and not the empty sounds of the air conditioner running. She missed when the floors below weren’t occupied with the other Toons who let themselves be overcome by their emotions or physical wounds or bad Ichor. She hated having to go down into the dangerous floors of Gardenview to extract Ichor and nearly die each time to things she used to recognize as friends.

Sometimes, Scraps would blame herself for Gardenview shutting down, even though she knew it was something to do with health code violations and not her. She knew that a lot of people didn’t like how she was originally designed as a boy and was a boy for a good chunk of the first season. Sometimes she could’ve heard them whispering about how she was a bad example for kids, and corrupting them with her unholy self, and that she should have never been added to such a beloved show. That made her think that they all left because they didn’t like her just because of that. It was really far-fetched though.

Scraps laid awake in her bed. It’s morning right now, but she doesn’t want to get up. Too comfortable to get up from where she’s laying right now. The blanket covering her seemed to drag her back to bed if she even tried to get up. It wasn’t her turn to make breakfast anyways, she’s sure no one would mind it if she slept in a little bit. Well, except Shrimpo, but he minds everything.

As she tried to snuggle into her pillow for the umpteenth time this morning, she felt something poking her side. Opening her sleep-ridden eyes, she made out the blurry figure in front of her. Her sunshine in the dark.

“Good morning, Scraps!” Goob was hovering over her, smiling. He seemed just as energetic the first thing in the morning as he always did. Scraps didn’t know how he did it, but it made her crack a smile seeing how optimistic he always was for the day, even with everything terrible going on around them. Scraps yawned, slowly forcing herself to get out of bed.

“Mhm… Good morning.” She murmured. After rolling out of bed, she was face to face with Goob. “So, what’s for breakfast today? Do you know?”

“Uhhh… Nope! But I did see the scheduled runs today!” Goob smiled, fidgeting back and forth.

“Oh? Aw man… So what’s scheduled?” Scraps tilted her head, her tail lashing behind her in slight irritation at the news.

“The Morning Run down to higher floors with Brightney, Blot, and Teagan already left.” Goob said, humming to himself for a bit while he tried to remember who was going to be on the later run. “And for the Evening Run, it’s me, you, and I think… Rodger and Gigi!”

“Really? Great.” Scraps sighed, grumbling angrily about how she’s always being sent out on runs and never getting the chance to have a break.

Following behind her brother, Scraps and Goob left their room and headed to the kitchen. Arriving there, Scraps noticed that they were the last two people on the floor to arrive. It was a bit humiliating, but it was fine. Tisha, the one who had been in charge of cooking that morning, turned to look at the two of them.

“Good morning, you two! Why’re you both late? Did you finally get around to cleaning your room?” Tisha smiled and immediately began bombarding the siblings with questions. Scraps rolled her eyes, sitting down at the nearest table with empty seats.

“Our room isn’t messy! Besides, I've told you that I like the yarn.” She huffed, tail lashing in annoyance of being bugged about this once again. “Hang on, you’re not even from this floor! Why’re you making breakfast for us today?”

“Oh, well Brightney asked me to cook today because she was on the morning run. So, I made some porridge! Please eat it all, I got up so early to make it.” She turned back around before bringing two bowls of that cooling oat gunk to them. Scraps glared at it, feeling her appetite dying the more she looked at it. She looked over at Goob, who was happily eating regardless. She didn’t know how he liked this. Stomaching her dislike for the food, she ate it slowly under the watchful eye of Tisha and hated every moment of it. Talk about passive aggressive… Was this really all because Scraps didn’t wanna clean her room?

Finally finishing the nasty sludge after what felt like days of torment, Scraps pushed her bowl away from her and sighed. Tisha smiled after she had finished, taking the two bowls over to the sink. By the time Scraps had finished, most of the other Toon had already left to do whatever they got up to throughout the day. The only ones left in the kitchen were Scraps, Goob, Tisha, and Shrimpo, who was whining about how much he hated the food. For once, Scraps wanted to agree with him, but he’d probably just yell about hating the fact that she was agreeing with him.

Scraps sighed, standing up. She began to walk out of the kitchen, though she didn’t have any particular direction in mind. Apart from the evening run later that day, Scraps didn’t really have much of a plan on what she was going to be doing that day. Maybe she could hang out in her room and spend the day drawing, but she was all out of crayons yet again. She would have to go ask if Dandy could get her more soon.

Taking the elevator to the main floor of Gardenview. Stepping out, she spotted Dandy standing in the hallway, leaning against Dyle’s shop and presumably talking with the stopwatch himself. Scraps scrambled up to Dandy, yelling his name while she changed at him.

“Hi Dandy. Hi Dyle.” She smiled at the two of them, coming to a halt in front of them.

“Oh, heya Scraps! What’s up?” Dandy responded first, directing his cheerful smile over to the other Toon. Dyle gave her an acknowledging nod, but not much more.

“Oh not much really. But do you by any chance just happen to have another box of crayons I could use?” Scraps asked as politely as she could, teetering on the edge of sounding like a complete suck-up. The flower let out a muffled chuckle before looking at Scraps with an amused expression. Dyle stared at Scraps in a mixture of indifference and confusion.

“Hm, Scraps, didn’t you ask this exact question only last Sunday?” Dyle questioned her. Scraps smiled and looked away nervously.

“Youdunnothat.” She spat out quickly, crossing her arms and looking away from Dyle, which just got another laugh out of Dandy. He sighed, smiling at her.

“Don’t you worry, Scraps! We’ll get you some new crayons soon, just not right now ‘cause we don’t have any right now,” Dandy reassured her, patting her shoulder, “But seriously, how do you even go through those full boxes so quickly?!”

“I just like drawing a lot, you know that, Dandy!”

“Yeah, I gotcha! We’ll get you some more crayons soon. Maybe we’ll get some more when another supply train comes by, right Dyle?”

“Yes, yes, Dandicus. Now, are you going to go back to your research?” Dyle piped up, turning around and disappearing back into his shop. Dandy was flustered when he called him his surname, but quickly shook it off and scampered back to his own shop after waving Scraps goodbye. Scraps was left standing in the middle of the hallway alone. So much for spending the day drawing.

Scraps was heading back to the rooms when she heard one of the elevators begin to open from the other side of Gardenview. The Morning Run was back. Scraps made a u-turn, running down the hall to go and be the first to greet the group. She skirted to a halt though when she saw the group exiting the elevator. Something was horribly wrong.

Blot sprinted right past Scraps, not even bothering to spare her a glance as he bolted to the rooms. Scraps watched as he ran for a moment before turning her focus back to Teagan and Brightney. Teagan was supporting Brightney, doing her best to keep the hyperventilating Toon’s eyes on her and not her arm — or the mangled, Ichor-dripping where it used to be.

“Brightney, dear, eyes on me. You’re going to be alright. Blot’s going to get Cosmo right now-” Teagan frantically murmured, using her free hand to force Brightney to keep looking at her. Her usually gentle and refined voice was now laced with stress.

“Teagan- Oh my god, my arm. I can’t- I CAN’T FEEL MY FUCKING ARM, TEAGAN!” Brightney was panicking, shaking and trying not to start crying. Her sudden shouting took the two other women by surprise, but neither of them bothered to mention it, more worried about Brightney.

Just what had happened during that run?

Before Scraps knew it, she was also at Brightney’s side, surprising Teagan a bit, but she could tell her help was appreciated. The two of them guided the lamp to sit down against the large tree in the center of the elevators. Scraps stepped back while Teagan continued to try and stop her from bleeding through the wraps that she must’ve hurriedly applied to her while they were in the elevator. Not too far away, she could hear two sets of footsteps running towards them.

"!ereh revo s'ehs ,omsoC" Blot yelled not too far away. The two Toons ran out from the hallway, spotting Teagan, Scraps, and Brightney.

“Oh my god,” Teagan stepped out of the way for Cosmo to crouch down next to Brightney, starting to open the medkit that he had brought with him, “What happened down there?!”

“It was Eclipse. She probably had a way to follow after Ribecca after she escaped the halloween floor. We were only on the ninth floor when she caught Brightney off guard and…” Teagan trailed off.

"...reh ot deneppah ev'dluoc tahw tuoba gnikniht ekil t'nod I .esrow tog noitautis eht erofeb roolf taht ffo reh teg ot deganam ew elcarim a s'tI" Blot chimed up, though nobody could understand what he said.

“Can you three help me take Brightney to her room?” Cosmo asked the three of them, finishing wrapping the tourniquet and fresh bandage wraps around the stub.

Slowly, Scraps and Blot moved to help with carrying Brightney to the elevator. Teagan and Cosmo followed behind them, the latter piping up about being careful with her. Going down the elevator, the four of them arrived at the first group of Toon rooms. Scraps could feel the concerned stares from those they passed by while walking down the hallway. Reaching Brightney’s room, the two of them fumbled to put her on her bed. Once she had been laid down, Cosmo moved to be next to sit next to her, poorly masking how stressed he was.

“Don’t worry, guys. I’ll take care of this, you should give her space. I think she’ll be alright… I hope so, at least.” Cosmo reassured them, though it seemed like he needed reassurance himself.

“Okay then. Let us know if she needs anything, dear.” Teagan added, turning to leave Brightney’s room.

“Actually, could you find Ribecca please? She’s good with all that sewing stuff, and I’m sure we have medical thread somewhere. Brightney’s probably going to need stitches soon- so please hurry…!” Cosmo called out to her as she left. Teagan glanced back at him, nodding, and then sped out of the room. Scraps and Blot followed her, leaving Cosmo alone with Brightney.

Outside of the room, Scraps watched as Blot was immediately stopped outside of the room Razzle and Dazzle, Dazzle looking like he was midway through a panic attack, and Razzle juggling comforting him and questioning Blot. He must’ve been so worried about Brightney. Scraps could only imagine how it felt to have one of her closest friends be so badly injured, and not even knowing whether or not she’d be okay.

While she was thinking, Scraps suddenly felt two hands wrap around her and pull her away from them. Before she knew it, she had been pulled into a tight hug by her brother.

“Scraps, I found you!” Goob said cheerfully, most likely oblivious to what was going on with Brightney. Eventually, Scraps returned the hug. “Um… What’s going on? I heard a lot of running earlier.”

Scraps looked to the ground, shifting around nervously. On one hand, if he found out what happened to Brightney, he might be too scared to go down. On the other hand, he’d be just as reckless as he normally is during the Ichor runs. She sighed quietly.

“How about I tell you when we get back from the run? I wouldn't wanna clutter your head with anything too stressful right before we go out for our run this evening!" Scraps leaned out of the hug, smiling. She was doing her best to cover up her own worry, but she couldn’t tell if he believed her or not. After a second, Goob smiled.

“Alright then!”

Scraps forced a purr as Goob let go of her. Goob suddenly grabbed her hand and started dragging her along with him. The two of them entered their room, Goob still keeping his cheery smile. Scraps was still confused when Goob grabbed something off of his bed and brought it back to Scraps.

“Check it out, sis!” Goob pushed the new crayon box into Scraps’ arms. He watched as his older sister lit up seeing it.

“What the- Where did you get this?!” Scraps asked, trying to act mature about the gift. Her excitement was hardly contained, though. Deciding not to wait for an answer, she scurried off and snatched a blank piece of paper off of her nightstand.

The two siblings sat together while Scraps drew with the new crayons Goob had gotten from who knows where. The room was quiet, besides the sounds of crayon against paper. It was nice, though it was really surprising that Goob wasn’t being so energetic as usual, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still a comforting moment after what Scraps had just seen. Goob always found a way to cheer her up, didn’t he?

Chapter Text

The elevator is descending. The familiar noises of the not-so-comforting metal taking the group deeper into Gardenview ring in Scraps’ ears once again.

Scraps has lost count of how many times they’ve done this at this point. Every single time the elevator doors opened, dread stabbed through her. As much as she tried not to think such dark thoughts. Thoughts saying that this was the floor something terrible would happen to Goob, or Gigi, or Rodger, or even herself.

“Scraps,” The paper craft jumped hearing her name, turning to see Rodger behind her, “Do you think you could lend me some extra pens?”

“What? Did you already run out of the last batch I gave you?” Scraps looked at Rodger skeptically, tail twitching. How did he keep blowing through all of the supplies she lent so quickly?!

Actually, that was a bit hypocritical coming from her.

“Yes, I had plenty to write!” Scraps could practically see his eye light up like a young child’s would when saying that, before he went back to his more serious self, “I also need some red yarn.”

“Red yarn? Don't tell me you're stringing the corkboard again.”

“I'm stringing the corkboard again!”

Scraps sighed, her tail flicking in annoyance again. She buried her face in her paws. At this rate, he and Gigi were going to take everything from her room! Tisha was gonna think that she actually, willingly cleaned her room.

Looking over her shoulder, she could see Goob putting a bandaid on a few cuts Gigi got on the previous floor after Goob accidentally got her hit. She wasn’t too badly injured, she had managed to outrun Twisted Poppy despite her stamina being so poor, so she’d probably be alright for a while more.

Scraps couldn’t remember how many floors they had gone through so far. Some were lacking any Twisteds, but that was only when they were lucky. Other times, they’d run into a few Twisteds that weren’t too hard to deal with. Goob would distract them while everyone else worked on machines. It was an effective approach to doing runs, having one faster Toon distract while everyone else extracted.

The noises from the elevator ceased, and the large door opened, revealing the next floor. It was one of the greenhouses. Gigi stepped out first, a smug look on her face, followed shortly after by Goob.

“Eyes on the prize, everyone. Eyes on the prize.” She said with a smirk, spinning around on her heel to face the rest of the group.

“How after this floor we return to the main floor?” Rodger asked the rest of them, following after Gigi. Murmurs of agreement rose from the two girls.

Scraps noticed that Goob had already run off to see if there was anyone on the floor this time. He must’ve run off earlier when she was focused on Rodger. It’d be fine, she could just tell him once he got back to the elevator.

The three of them split up, Scraps quickly finding an empty machine. Starting to extract, she watched the slime-like liquid dribble out of the tube at the top of the machine at a steady pace. The handle stopped turning at one point, getting jammed. She struggled with it for a while until it started turning again, making a loud noise when she got it turning again. Just as she finished the machine, her ear horn twitched.

Scraps heard a low, guttural growl nearby.

She froze, scrambling to get off the machine. She made a mad dash towards the best hiding spot she could find. Just as she hid behind the metal shelf, she watched Pebble come barrelling towards the machine she had been on. Any second later and she would’ve been mauled by the monstrous, twisted dog.

He sniffed the machine, growling, but eventually turned back the way he had come, returning to wandering the floor. Scraps held her breath until she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore. She was frozen in shock for a few seconds before she started to run towards where she had seen Gigi and Rodger go earlier. She needed to tell them that Pebble was on this floor.

The paper craft found the two of them not too far from the elevator, both on machines that were luckily close to each other. Rodger was the first to look up from his machine, noticing that Scraps was terrified. He turned to look at her while Gigi kept extracting.

“Hm, Scraps, are you alright? Did something happen?” The magnifying glass inquired. Scraps nodded frantically, trying to come up with the right words to describe the situation.

“PEBBLE’S ON THE FLOOR!” Scraps yelled as quietly as she possibly could. Rodger’s eye widened, surprised. Gigi immediately fumbled off of the treadmill she had been on to join the conversation.

“What do you mean Dandy’s dog is here?! Isn’t he like… crazy fast?!” Gigi asked in a hushed tone like Pebble would hear them no matter where he was. She quickly started digging through her head, pulling out a few different candies, jumper cables, and an airhorn. She groaned, sounding more annoyed than distressed. Scraps tried to reach for the airhorn, but Gigi smacked her hand away.

“Gigi, Scraps, focus on extracting for now, alright? I do not believe there are too many on this floor. If it’s similar to the last floor, we’re only going to have around… seven, I believe.” Rodger stated, going back to his machine and finishing it up. “And that’s one down. Gigi, finish yours.”

“Actually, three done. I finished one earlier.” Scraps chimed in.

She watched Gigi struggle on the treadmill for a bit before both she and Rodger started to creep through the floor looking for the next machine. Not too far from where she had been, Scraps spotted the red glow of the light on an unfinished machine in the middle of the hallway. She started to work on it, and she finished it with minimal issues. With that one down, there were only about three left, assuming that Gigi had finished the treadmill machine to the best of her abilities.

Scraps walked to the empty room near the broken elevator, spotting Goob maneuvering around Twisted Flutter. She also noticed the next machine was near his distracting spot. The paper craft whipped her tail towards the machine and pulled herself to it, starting to extract with her brother nearby.

When it was finally filled and the light turned green, Scraps glanced over to see Goob running up towards her with a cherry smile still on his face.

“Hey, Scraps! Watch this!” Goob called out, before turning around and running right at Flutter. Scraps froze, looking on in terror as her brother ran towards certain injury. At the last second, though, he sidestepped right past Flutter and kept running the other way just before she could attack him. Scraps was relieved he was alright after that. She was still worried though. Wasn’t there something she was supposed to tell him?

Oh wait.

OH GOD.

“GOOB, WATCH OUT!”

Her warning came out too late. Ferocious jaws crunched down on Goob’s head before he could move. Pebble raised him up like he was nothing, shaking him around before throwing him like a ragdoll. Scraps could hear a loud thud as her younger brother hit the hall. Goob didn’t have bones to break being a plush, he could still feel pain. Scraps could tell that from the horrific scream that followed.

Scraps needed to get the attention off of Goob. She could see it from here that he was in agony. She had promised to protect him no matter what. If she got too close though she’d be in danger. God damn it, if only Gigi hadn’t refused to let her have the airhorn.

Without another thought, Scraps started running towards them, wrapping her tail around Goob and pulling herself in between him and the Twisteds attacking him. She grabbed his paws before starting to run and drag him along. She wasn’t trying to be gentle, she was trying to get him to safety. Scraps could hear the plushie’s pained noises, but she could also hear the rapidly approaching footsteps and wing beats of the two Twisteds chasing them down.

Making a sharp turn, Scraps pulled Goob behind a bookshelf. The two of them held their breath as Flutter lost interest and Pebble’s run came to a walk, growling loudly. Scraps swore that, just for a moment, she could feel the dog’s breath on her back. Once Pebble finally left, she turned to look at her wounded brother. She could see tears streaking his cream fluff. Holes where Pebble’s fangs had dug in were left leaking Ichor-stained stuffing. Scraps wrapped her arms around Goob.

“You scared me so bad! Are you okay?!” Scraps mumbled into his fluff, hugging him a little tighter. He suddenly whimpered, pushing her away. She was shocked — Goob always loved hugs! He must be really badly injured if he even pushed her away.

“Ergh… Everything hurts…” He mumbled, sounding dazed and confused.

“Don’t worry, Goob, it’ll be alright. Gigi and Rodger are probably on the last machines right now. C’mon, let’s head back to the elevator.” Scraps tried to reassure him.

She stood up slowly, gently pulling Goob up with her. The two crafts walked slowly, Scraps leading the way with Goob limping behind her. Every few steps, Goob would stop and whimper in pain. She would stop with him, staying by his side until he was ready to keep walking. They didn’t hear any of Pebble’s footsteps, meaning the dog was probably far from them. Flutter was a tougher case, since she didn’t make loud noises as she flew. If she did spot them though, Scraps would lead her away and give Goob some time to hide.

Then the alarms began to ring. The elevator was leaving in thirty seconds, and Scraps and Goob were nowhere near it.

“Shit- WE HAVE TO GO!” Scraps held on tighter to Goob’s arm and started running. She could hear Goob stumbling around behind her trying to keep up. The two of them needed to get out of here.

Making a sharp turn, Scraps halted. Pebble was right there. He noticed the two of them, and charged at unnatural speeds right towards them. Scraps froze like a deer in headlights before she hissed, holding onto Goob. She whipped her tail towards the machine just past Pebble and near the elevator, luckily latching onto it successfully. She wrapped her arms around Goob tightly, heart breaking at the sounds of his pain, and pulled the two towards the machine. Just as she did, though, Pebble lunged.

Pain tore through Scraps as the dog’s jaws clamped down on her tail, the sounds of paper ripping being drowned out by the alarms. She let go of Goob from shock, letting him fall to the ground while she was trying to pull her tail away. Pebble readjusted his grip before suddenly throwing her towards the elevator.

Scraps hit the wall like Goob had only minutes before, new pain flaring up in her back. She felt two arms wrap around her waist, pulling her into the elevator. Her vision was starting to blur with tears of pain, but she could still see what was going on outside of the elevator.

Goob was running towards them the best he could in his wounded state, Pebble hunting him down like the demon he had become. Scraps forced herself to stand up, panic running through every cell in her body. She needed to help him. She needed to *save* him. She couldn’t lose Goob — She couldn’t lose her little brother. She reached out her hand, hoping he’d grab it so that she could pull him in.

Gigi grabbed Scraps’ mangled tail, pulling her back into the elevator just as the door shut. They left Goob behind.

At first, the idea itself was unreal. The one Toon she had promised she would always protect was gone? No, that couldn’t be it. He was better than that. He was brave and sweet and loyal and always there for everyone else.

And they left him behind with that monster.

Scraps stared at the door in disbelief, shaking with grief. The paper craft felt the first tears of many run down her face, a raw sob ripping itself from her throat. She made no attempt to stop herself from crying, not even trying to hide it. The scene kept playing in her head. She didn’t save her brother like she had promised she would. How could Scraps have let this happen?

She could feel Rodger gently put a hand on her back, the older man turning her to look at him. Scraps leaned forward, planting her face in his chest as she sobbed, digging her claws into his back. He didn’t seem to mind, though, letting her hold onto him.

“I… Oh god, Scraps, I’m so sorry… We couldn’t lose you too though… there was no way Goob was gonna make it…” Gigi offered her condolences, but her voice was pissing Scraps off.

“You…” Scraps choked out her words whenever she had enough breath to do so, “This… THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT…!”

“Huh?” She could hear the surprise in the usually laid-back Toon’s voice.

“YOU DID THIS! YOU- YOU DID THIS GOOB!” Scraps hissed, pushing herself off of Rodger and storming over to Gigi. She grabbed the gachapon’s arms, digging her claws into her sweater sleeves deep enough to pierce skin.

“Ow- Scraps, stop it! You’re hurting me!”

“YOU REFUSED TO GIVE ME THE AIRHORN! IF I HAD IT I COULD’VE GOTTEN PEBBLE AND FLUTTER AWAY FROM HIM, BUT YOU REFUSED TO GIVE ME IT! AND THEN YOU STOPPED ME FROM HELPING HIM- WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU GREEDY BITCH?!” Scraps yelled, face flushed with angry tears. She only stopped digging her claws deeper into Gigi when Rodger forcefully pulled her away from the other woman. Gigi shuffled away fearfully, putting distance between herself and the infuriated paper craft.

“Scraps, we’re going to need you to calm down.” Rodger said, his voice shaking ever so slightly as he tried to regain control over the situation. He kept his hold on Scraps firm as the elevator brought them back up to the main floor. She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he didn’t let go. Why was he on Gigi’s side in this? How could they do this?

The second the elevator door opened, Scraps shoved past the small group of Toons who had gathered outside the elevator waiting for their on-time return. She tried her best not to cry again. Behind her, she could hear worried conversation.

“Rodger, Gigi, what happened?!”

“...It’s… Shit, Shelly, we- we lost Goob.”

Scraps didn’t stick around to hear the rest of their conversation. She went right back to the Toon rooms and slammed the door to their- her room, pressing her back against it. She stood like that for a moment, before she slid down to the ground and buried her face in her knees, starting to sob again.

The room was empty apart from her cries. This time, Goob wasn’t there to comfort her, and he was never going to be again. What was she supposed to do now? How was she supposed to move ahead alone?

Chapter Text

Scraps had been stuck in her room for the past days? Weeks? She didn’t know anymore. The whole concept of time was just squishing itself into a blob. Sometimes, she’d try to get up, maybe even look around the room a bit, but seeing Goob’s empty bed across the room took any motivation to move she had in her right back out. She was hungry, but she never bothered to eat. She was tired, but she couldn’t stay asleep at night. Occasionally, she’d hear hushed voices outside her door. She could never make out the words, though.

The loud knocking was a shock to Scraps, causing her to flinch and look up from her pillow. She wasn’t intending to open the door, but she slowly opened her mouth.

“…what… who’s there?” Scraps croaked out. Her voice sounded awful. Maybe her vocal cords were fried from the crying she had been doing as of lately. She didn’t get a response at first, but eventually the person on the other side of the door spoke up.

“Hey Scraps. It’s Cosmo. I… I heard what happened with Goob. I know how it feels to lose the one person you really care about… You know I was just like this when Sprout… if you don’t mind, maybe you could let me in and we could talk about it?”

The first person who visited Scraps was Cosmo, surprisingly, but his words weren’t helping right now. The paper craft dug her claws into the mattress, tail lashing behind her in anger. She didn’t need to talk with anyone. They wouldn’t get it anyways.

“Um… Scraps? Are you-”

“Leave me alone, Cosmo.”

“Are you sure? That’s not going to be good for your mental health… you’ve been in your room for two days, please just come out here-”

“I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!” Scraps snapped, jumping up and arching her back, hissing like a cat. Cosmo didn’t say anything after Scraps had suddenly yelled at him. She relaxed after a moment, tears starting to well up in her eyes again as she flopped onto the bed, gripping the sides of her pillow.  She felt bad for yelling at him like that, but she couldn’t help it.

Time passed, maybe a few hours, and it was a good while before anyone else came to visit. Scraps was trashing her room when they knocked. At first, she didn’t hear the knocking. All she heard was the noises of objects hitting the ground in her grief-driven outburst. The only reason she actually heard the knocking was because of a brief pause when Scraps had run out of things to throw. She walked over to the door, pressing her ear against it.

“Hi Scraps!” A cheery voice from the other side of the door chirped up, though she sounded nervous speaking. Scraps could recognize the voice, but she couldn’t put a face to it. She didn’t respond, just listening.

“Um… Cosmo told me to bring you some of the soup that he made, cause you haven’t been coming out of your room to get food. So I’ll leave this for you, okay?” A light clink against the floor could be heard as the other Toon put a bowl on the floor. She was quiet for a while afterwards, Scraps waiting to see if she was going to say anything else or way away.

“I really hate seeing you like this. If you ever want to talk with someone about anything, we can talk about anything you wanna talk about! Maybe even sabertooths again, if you want! I just don’t wanna leave you alone, ‘cause mental distress can also turn us Twisted, yeah?”

“...”

“...No? Okay. I’ll… I’ll go then.”

Scraps opened the door hearing the Toon was leaving. She spotted Shelly walking away from her room, and a bowl of cooling soup in front of her. She slowly reached out and took it in her paws. She was about to return back into her room when she heard someone call out her name behind her. She craned her neck to look behind her.

It was Gigi.

Scraps slipped back into her room without another word as fast as she possibly could, slamming the door behind her. Gigi and Rodger were the last two people that she wanted to see right now. If she never saw them again, if something terrible happened to them while they were out on a run, she wouldn’t mind at all.

That was a really dark thought. What was getting into her?

Scraps could hear Gigi’s attempts to get her to come back out of her room through the door. She ignored them. She didn’t want to see Gigi’s face right now. She waited for the gachapon to stop banging on the door before she started eating the room-temperature soup slowly. It wasn’t gross at all, it was actually really good. She’d give the cake roll props for that, his cooking and baking was way better than when they had first met.

Scraps finished the soup and pushed the bowl under her bed, not wanting to open her door and put it outside in case Gigi was still standing right outside of her door. The more she thought about it, she really didn’t want to see anyone. She wanted to be alone to mourn in peace. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t just leave her alone.

She laid down under her covers, pulling the blanket up over her body.

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Scraps woke up in her room, head spinning. It seemed much brighter than usual, though it couldn’t be day anymore. She rolled out of bed, trying to keep herself standing. She stumbled towards the door, feeling everything that was wrong with her currently. She felt nauseous, her tail was in terrible pain, her ears were ringing, and her teeth hurt for some reason.

She pushed open the door, falling to the ground right outside of her room. She smacked her face against the ground and laid there dazed for a moment before she forced herself to stand back up and keep walking down the hallway. She stumbled and slammed herself against Glisten’s door, though she knew the room was empty so she didn’t have to worry about waking him up.

The paper craft found herself in the kitchen, standing there. She wobbled for a moment before going for the sink. Before she knew it, she was hunched over the metal bowl and vomited. The Ichor tasted foul in her mouth, it burned her throat. She stared down at the viscous black liquid in the sink. Her mouth hung open, remnants of Ichor dribbling from her mouth and down. Was the soup that she had eaten earlier bad or something?

She flinched hearing something behind her, quickly spinning around to face the figure behind her. Despite how bright the room was, Scraps couldn’t recognize the person standing there. They were a black silhouette of someone Scraps felt like she knew.

“Scraps, is that you? Why are you up this late…? It’s so dark.” They said gently, starting to approach Scraps carefully. The paper craft hissed watching them get closer to her, her tail lashing. She wanted to tell them to get away from her, but anything she could’ve said left her throat as a growl or a hiss. It was like she was unable to talk whatsoever.

“What’s going on?” They asked again, reaching out a hand for Scraps.

Without thinking, Scraps suddenly lashed her tail towards the figure, noticing how much more stretchy it was. She heard a cry of pain come from them as her tail made contact with their side, latching onto them with new teeth from a crack that must’ve formed when she had been asleep. The pained reaction made a small smile break out on Scraps’ face which quickly grew.

They pulled at her tail, trying to wriggle out of its bite. Once the Toon was out of her grip, they turned and ran back the way that they came. Scraps was stunned for a moment, before she shook her head and chased after them.

She followed them until they suddenly slammed the door. She threw herself up against it, clawing at the wood trying to get into the room. Scraps was trying to scream and get the person who was hiding to come back out, though all of her shouts were sounding like hissing. Slowly, though, she lost interest in chasing after them. She sighed, turning around and starting to wander around the hall.

Scraps couldn’t figure out what was going on in her head. She never thought of herself as a violent Toon, but it felt good to attack that figure. It was almost stress-relieving from everything that had been going on in her life, in a way.

Time passed. Scraps didn’t know how much time passed, but she was only snapped out of her aimless wandering by someone yelling her name. She turned around, tail lashing. She was fully prepared to attack whoever was calling out for her when she froze.

The sight of Dandy and Dyle standing in the hallway startled her, since she had almost never seen the two of them outside of their respective shops. She couldn’t see anyone else besides the two of them there. The urge to attack them was slowly dying down, overcome by confusion. What were they doing here?

Scraps can’t remember much of what happened after that. It’s fuzzy. She can remember that she approached the two of them with no malice whatsoever, and she remembered that Dandy had grabbed her paw, leading her away from the rooms and to the elevator. She remembered being taken to the main floor of Gardenview and to the other elevators that took them to the deeper floors of Gardenview when they did Ichor Runs, and she remembered the elevator door shutting on her and locking her out of her only possible chance of going back up.

She stood like that for a moment, wobbling a bit while trying to figure out what had just happened. She couldn’t hear anything besides the ventilation of the floor. Why had Scraps been abandoned down here? She felt like she knew the answer, but just couldn’t quite put her finger on it. So she started walking.

Scraps didn’t have a goal in mind, she just didn’t know what else to do. It wasn’t entertaining in the slightest, but it gave her something to do that wasn’t just standing there waiting for the elevator to come back down.

This place seemed familiar in a way. Scraps has been here before, and recently too. She just knows it. Each corner and wall and decoration rang bells in her head when she saw them. Every scratch and Ichor pawprint on the floor too big to be hers struck a familiar fear into her.

Turning a corner, Scraps found herself staring at a puddle of Ichor and stuffing. She remembered why this place was so familiar. This was the floor where she lost Goob. Was he still here? Her walk turned to a sprint as she searched the rooms for her brother. 

Not here.

Not here.

Not here either.

Where was he?!

Scraps halted realizing that she had just run in a circle, staring at the elevator that she had just been dropped out of. This was pointless, he wasn’t here anymore. He must’ve found a way to get to a different floor. That meant he was still alive though, she just wasn’t searching hard enough.

Her mind thought back to the numerous Staff-Only doors scattered around Gardenview. She knew that they led to the different floors in Gardenview. She just needed to find one of them. Scanning around the room, Scraps spotted one of the doors with a Toon smudged off. Scraps grabbed the doorknob, swinging it open and rapidly descending down the flight of stairs presented to her.

The paper craft entered the lower floor. It was the giftshop, pieces of merchandise of the Dandy’s World show scattered about. They were of no interest to Scraps. The paper craft returned to her wandering, though more frantic. She couldn’t call out her brother’s name, but she sure was trying.

Scraps looked down, feeling that she had just stepped on something both soft and sticky. It was another small puddle of Ichor and stuffing, which was relatively fresh. Goob might be around here somewhere. He has to be close. Scraps made a weird noise, a mix between a screech and a meow that vaguely resembled a word. A name.

She was surprised when something else responded.

Without another moment passed, Scraps ran towards the voice, continuing to make that noise and hoping for a response. Following the noise, she found herself in a room with a bunch of plushies of the main Toons. Some of them were trashed with claw-inflicted holes dripping Ichor on them. In the center, facing Scraps and hugging a Pebble plush tightly, was a wounded, Twisted Goob. He was staring at her before a small flicker of recognition shone in his eye.

“...Sc…Scraps…?” He tilted his head a bit, staring at the other Twisted. Before Scraps could move, Goob clumsily stood up and swung his arms towards her, wrapping them around her torso and pulled her over to where he was. Before she knew it, Scraps had been pulled into a tight, nearly painful hug. She didn’t try to pull away, slowly raising her arms to return the hug. She could feel Goob shaking against her, pure Ichor tears running down his face and staining her paper dress.

“...Scra…ps… I’m so… scared…” The plush sobbed into Scraps’ shoulder, the terror in his voice evident. Her heart ached listening to him. She hugged him a bit tighter, letting him dig his claws into her back. “...I thou…ght you were… leaving… me…”

Scraps nuzzled her face into Goob, trying to reassure him that she wasn’t going anywhere this time. It didn’t calm him down though, if anything it was making him cry even harder. It made Scraps feel even worse that she couldn’t make him feel better, but maybe he just needed to cry in her arms for a bit.

The two siblings stood together, Scraps trying to comfort Goob silently using whatever noises she could make, Goob crying in a mix of horror and relief that someone came back for him. They didn’t move in the dark room, and the only noises were muffled breathing and crying.

There were so many things that Scraps wanted to tell Goob. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, that she would’ve never left him if she had a choice, that he should’ve never been abandoned like that, but all her words came out as unintelligible purrs. It was alright though. As long as she was here, Goob was never going to be hurt like that again. It was her new promise. She broke her old promise to him, but that was never going to happen again.

As long as Scraps was here, everything was going to be okay.

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TWISTED REGISTRATION

Fill out this form when a Toon becomes a Twisted.

Name of Toon Filling Out Form - gigi

Twisted Name - goob

Alive at Time of Twisting - alive (we think)

Method of Twisting - probably physical distress

Cause Of Death (If any) - no

Presumed Threat Level - 3/5

Any Notable Abilities - arms are super long could probably grab us from far away

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TWISTED REGISTRATION

Fill out this form when a Toon becomes a Twisted.

Name of Toon Filling Out Form - Boxten

Twisted Name - Scraps

Alive at Time of Twisting - Yes

Method of Twisting - Mental distress.

Cause Of Death (If any) - None.

Presumed Threat Level - 3/5

Any Notable Abilities - Last night I woke up again. I heard some noise and went to go check it out. I saw Scraps just standing in the kitchen and when I tried to talk to her she attacked me with her tail. The cup on her tail also has the weird mouth-like thing that bit me really hard. . .