Chapter Text
“Twinkle, Winkle, little star…” The twisted mumbled, running his ichor stained fingers through the doll’s fur, feeling her blood dampening his sweater, but he couldn’t care less about that. He had him, that was enough. That was more than enough. “How I wonder what you are…”
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It’d all started a fateful day in 1992, a little toon being created to be part of the main cast once more. The whole show had been getting repetitive, they needed to spice things up a little bit. How else than creating another little rascal all the kids would surely love? The new one had red hair, peachy skin tone apparently, and yellow eyes. Three little pairs of wings came from his back, starting off pearly white and turning a warm yellow by the tips, and a halo hung over his head, two shiny stars there.
They were in the middle of giving him the necessary memories of the show’s currently aired episodes, as if he’d been there from the very beginning, but they began doubting. Would it be a good idea to introduce a toon that looked straight out of a bible fanatic into a show meant for kids? Parents would probably hate it… But his floor was created already. He ’d been created. They couldn’t just…destroy him! Well, Delilah had suggested so, but the little guy was there already. So they gave him the most basic name they could think of when eating some Korean snacks. Han, as a last name, way too easy to remember, and Eunjae, to pretend they’d given it some thought. So, they discarded him, and then they got to creating the actual new main character. Some strawberry dude or something. That was more kid friendly. Yep. No lawsuits here!
And they stuck Han with the intern, some Greek guy that was simply looking for work experience to go actually work somewhere else. At least, they handed him to him while they thought about what they’d do with him. They handed him some clothes for the little Toon and sent them off to the new floor. The Greek guy ended up being a man named Dianthus Zervas, and he thought taking care of toons would be easy enough.
No one told him they grew up like fucking crazy, though. Two weeks in and the little guy was already twice his original size, even if he was only like three feet tall right now. Then two more weeks, and apparently he was fully grown? Huh. Four feet tall only? Well, alright, whatever. Fun-sized, he supposed. He was forced to tell the toon that he’d be in his room until they called him for an episode of his own.
So Han waited. And waited. And waited. Years and years went by, and he still didn’t get called. But that didn’t deter him! He could wait, he didn’t mind! And he had Dianthus here with him, that was also pretty nice! He kept playing with him, even getting him a small sword he got to decorate himself to pretend to be a knight. And then he lent him his coat to use as a cape, telling him, “you keep it, my little hero. You’re going to need it when you save more lives.” While also ruffling his hair and leading him to his bed to put him to sleep for the day.
Han didn’t know that was Dianthus’ way of saying goodbye, though. He didn’t know that would be the last time he ever saw him. That, once he walked into that elevator and out of Gardenview Center, he would be gone forever.
When Han woke up, he waited for Dianthus to show up, feeling a little sad when he didn’t but feeling that maybe it was just an off day. Then the next day, it happened again. And the next. And the next. And the next as well. It got to a point he felt he wouldn’t ever return. Him. Han. The energetic, optimistic toon. He was giving up the thought of his handler ever returning.
And then something happened. The elevator door opened, thing that hadn’t happened in weeks. He quickly rushed over to the elevator, exclaiming, “Mr. Zervas! You’re back! I knew you’d come-” but he couldn’t find him. He thought maybe he was playing a prank on him or something, so he looked around, continuing to call out to Dianthus while running around his room with his sword and his coat. But why wasn’t he there? He heard the door, that signaled Dianthus came! Unless… He had a visitor?! No, that couldn’t be. He never even went out. Dianthus brought him his food, he wasn’t allowed to go down. Which, by the way, was taking its toll on him. He was pretty dang hungry.
But, as he ran more and more, he realised Dianthus wasn’t here. He wasn’t back to play with him as he promised he would’ve. But no! He couldn’t lose hope, not now! So he kept looking for him. Problems began when he didn’t realise his foot had hit something, making him fall down and practically faceplant against the ground. Okay, ouch. Rude.
He looked back to whatever he’d hit, his eyes widening slightly when he saw some blue fur in the shape of a ball lying down on the ground. It had what seemed to be a party hat on its head as well, and… Oh, no. It blinked. It had eyes! And a mouth?! Wait- No, it was alive!
Han immediately shifted back, yelping as he stared at the weird furball, which wasn’t actually a furball now that he looked at it. It had a body, like, with a cyan, light blue, and yellow starred dress. And it had white gloves or something. And black shoes. And… Okay, Han, stop describing. Ask if it’s okay.
But then it turned its head to him abruptly, making him yelp once more and aim his sword at it. But it didn’t seem scared. It just…stared with a blank expression, a forked tongue poking out of its mouth along with two fangs. Okay, weird. He was supposed to be threatening with his sword, Dianthus had told him many times he was. And then he gasped. Had he had the audacity to lie to him?! Rude…
“Hi…” It said, again scaring Han. Dangit, he wasn’t supposed to be the one getting scared, he was supposed to be the scary one! “I’m….W-…Winkle.” And it had a name?! Now Han was really freaking out. This was seriously not what he’d expected! One second ago he was sitting on his bed, hoping for Dianthus to come in and tuck him into it. The next he was talking to some truffula kind of thing, even if it felt like it was made out of hard glass or something.
“..W-what are you?” Han asked. Wrong question! It was ‘How are you?’, not this! Whatever, just play along, Han. Pretend like you know what you’re doing and there are chances it’ll just leave you alone. Hopefully. Maybe.
“I’m a..clown,” the thing replied, its eyes turning side to side, even if they weren’t actually in the same level and the pupils were so wide, Han couldn’t tell it they’d just straight up made the iris white or something.
“...I can see that.” Han looked Winkle up and down, narrowing his eyes at…Winkle. Sue him, pronouns were hard to guess! But, he supposed that if he was at least going to threaten this poor creature, he could do it right. “...But..like… What should I call you, I mean?”
“Winkle!”
“...I’ll just do all..” He mumbled, having a feeling he wouldn’t get anywhere with this clown. The title fit them, that was for sure. No matter, he at least made a decision, and they seemed satisfied with it. Good enough. “...And how did you get here..? Did someone bring you? I’m pretty sure you need a keycard to come and only Mr. Zervas, Ms. Delilah, and I have one..”
“The…e..elevator.. What is a card..?” She asked, pointing somewhere. Han supposed she attempted to point at the elevator, but that…wasn’t really the way. Now he was convinced this kid was just blind..
“...The thing you used to unlock this floor? W-who brought you here?” He was honestly so confused, starting to lower his sword slightly while clenching it tightly. He still couldn’t deny the disappointment he felt when he realised it wasn’t his handler, but he supposed he should’ve expected it. He’d never come back, no matter how much he waited…
“…I don’t know…I came alone.” Han looked..unimpressed, really. With how weird this interaction was going, he supposed he should’ve expected that at least. Winkle was clearly not going to be of much help, which while annoying, he also supposed he couldn’t blame them. They didn’t seem completely focused on the present.
“..Right. Well, a card is like… A rectangle shaped thingy that is made of… I don’t know, a weird plastic. It lets you come into this floor, really, it’s the only way… So I don’t get how you did it..” Han explained, his wings fluttering slightly behind him as he crouched down to look a little closer to Winkle.
“Like this one?” She asked, taking the keycard out of her glove and showing it to Han. She’d definitely stolen that, because there was no way either Delilah or Dianthus would’ve given theirs to her.
“...Where did you-..” Han cut himself off, realising it wouldn’t make any progress to ask something like that. It was stupid. He was supposed to be in charge of…whatever this was. And now he was speechless because of a clown. Yay…
“I like your…wings.” Oh, wait, no, she could see. Well, that made things easier, kind of. Han felt himself growing a little flustered, never having gotten a compliment from someone other than Dianthus. Still, he couldn’t help a small smile, him soon moving to sit beside Winkle and patting her forehead.
“...Well, thanks. It means a lot, really..” He chuckled, shaking his head before looking up at the ceiling as Winkle turned his head up again. “..We’re looking at something in specific or..?” Han asked, seeming a bit confused as he laid down like the furball and tried to decipher what was going on inside their head. When she didn’t reply, Han just murmured, “Oookayy…” and continued staring up at the ceiling in silence.
He eventually remembered something, turning over to look at Winkle and asking, “..have you eaten anything yet?” Though, he supposed that was easily answered with a no. The kid looked like she barely knew she was alive, he wouldn’t be so surprised if she told him she hadn’t. And then he got a head-shake, making him hum and stand up. Okay, he could just..give the kid some ichor. It was…decent, kind of. Though bitter. But it was really the only thing he’d been eating lately. But..he supposed she wouldn’t be able to take it, so he’d have to do the one thing he hadn’t done in a while. Go upstairs. Yay…
So, he picked up the kid, taking her over to his bed and sitting her down there. He smoothed her dress quickly, patting their head and telling them, “I’ll be right back, you just stay here, okay?” And then he rushed over to the elevator once he grabbed his keycard. He got in, pocketing the card and hitting the button for the lobby. This should be simple enough, just try and talk to people. He’s done so before, right? In previous episodes, he has.
Once he got to the lobby, his eyes widened a little when he saw the amount of toons there. Okay, he knew the basics, kind of. He could maybe ask Vee or Shelly. Or maybe Dandy! Where was Bobette, by the way? He couldn’t really see her. No matter, he’d think about that later. He just needed to find someone…
And then he bumped into what seemed to be a chocolate roll cake. Great. Awesome. Woohoo! Lets go, I guess? No matter, he could just ask them if they had anything to give poor Winkle, or maybe just ask where they could find the others, that worked too. But…why wouldn’t words come out? He had prepared for this day many, many times. He was sure he could just talk to them, it was normal for him. He’d done so before, kind of. But he couldn’t say anything. Why couldn’t he say anything? He wanted to first apologize for bumping into..whoever this guy was, but he couldn’t really speak. Maybe the years only talking to Dianthus and the weeks on his own were taking their toll on him now by taking away his ability to talk.
“...Uh.. Sorry? Are you new? I’ve never seen you before..” The roll cake guy asked, seeming both concerned and surprised, before he smiled and extended a hand at Han. “It’s nice to meet you! What is your name? I’m Cosmo! Have you met-” And Han, instead of shaking Cosmo’s hand, covered his mouth to stop him from talking any longer. Too much information in just a second.
Just then, some strawberry headed toon walked over to them, staring at Han before looking down at the hand covering Cosmo’s mouth and lowering it by pushing it down. “...Right. what’s going on?” He asked, looking rather confused as he stared at them both. He didn’t seem to recognize the supposedly new guy, which was honestly weird since the mains were supposed to know everyone. They were there from the start.
Han was about to try to reply once more when he saw a familiar flower running over to what seemed to be a store, which made him pause for a second before rushing to him. To heck with these two, they couldn’t help him, clearly. He didn’t know them, they didn’t know him. They didn’t need to know him, he didn’t need to know them. He’d rather keep it like that, honestly.
As soon as he caught up with Dandy, he smiled and threw his arms around him, getting a confused ‘huh?’ from him. Okay, he just needed to ask for what he could get Winkle and be gone, yes, but he also wanted to talk to him. It’d been a while since they’d seen each other, at least according to Han, he wanted to know how he was going!
“Dancifer! I missed you! How’ve you been?” He asked, shaking Dandy around. He didn’t seem to notice the now growing crowd around them, the toons clearly curious to see who was the one seeming to be so comfortable with Dandy to do something like that. But as soon as the flower turned to see him and actually processed who he was, he looked… Did he look uncomfortable? No, that couldn’t be. They were friends!
“...Oh. You.. Yay…” Dandy replied, forcing out a smile even if he was actually trying to find a way to get away from that situation. He had forgotten the handlers said he was a lot . He’d originally wished to meet him, because, well, new friend, but… maybe not anymore. Maybe some other day, not today. “...Listen, I gotta go-”
“But we’ve got a lot to talk about!” Han exclaimed, again shaking Dandy around before getting his hands swatted off his shoulders. He yelped, but he composed himself after a moment. He was practically vibrating with excitement, which would’ve been nice had it just been reciprocated.
“..We really don’t.” Dandy looked away, now frowning a little as he dusted off his shoulders where Han had touched him. He wasn’t ever supposed to come out of his floor, what brought him there? Whatever, not the point. He needed him to leave quick. He didn’t want to have to explain more than he clearly already had. “...did you need anything or why are you down here?”
This seemed to remind Han of what he had come down for, one of his stars shining a little brighter for a moment before he replied, “Right! I need food. Like, for a kid. She said their name was..Winkle? No matter. A big, hard furball or something she was. I just need something to give her, ‘cuz she looked..young. Like… A baby, I think? Didn’t even have teeth other than the fangs. You got something I can get her?”
Well, now this was something he hadn’t been warned about. Another toon? But everyone was already here, he was sure of it. Even Blot, and Blot didn’t even come out of the circus! No matter. He could get Han out of his back with this. So, he sighed, looking around in the bunch of things he had before pulling some candies. This should surely do it. They’d keep the kid entertained and Han wouldn’t come back for a while (hopefully never again).
He handed them to Han, rolling his eyes as he hugged him once again and rushed back to the elevator. He’d definitely have to elaborate on a lot of things if the expressions the Toons had were something to go by. Well, at least he was gone. Dandy’d take that as a win.
Eventually, Han returned to his floor, taking the candies over to where he’d left Winkle. Only to find they weren’t there. Okay, rude? He’d let them stay on his bed and they just left, that’s so annoying…
He eventually found them roaming around the floor, clearly not understanding where they were going. Well, that was something, maybe. Kind of. Yay. He found them, took them back to his bed, and gave them the things Dandy had given him. They ate them in less than a second, not even trying to savour them. They just swallowed with little concern if they choked.
Okay, note to self, teach Winkle how to eat slowly. Maybe that way they wouldn’t end up with a piece of the stupid candy stuck in their throat.