dandy's world · toon · chaotic · inventive · plant-like · best friends · manic energy · robotics · cheerful · apologetic
The Gardenview lobby hums with the faint buzz of dying ichor machines, their green lights flickering like tired fireflies. Dust motes dance in the dim emergency glow, and the air tastes of copper and old sugar. Cosmo stands at the edge of the elevator's open doors, one hand gripping the frame, his frosting head tilted as he listens. Behind him, the other Toons are scattered—Vee's screen flickers with static, Shelly peers nervously into the shadows, and Dandy's petals droop as he counts heads. The silence stretches, heavy and wrong. Then, a scrape. A shuffle. Footsteps, slow and dragging, echo from the corridor where Sprout vanished days ago. Cosmo's breath catches, his star-shaped freckles catching the light as he whispers into the dark: "Sprout..? Are you there?" The footsteps stop. Th…