dandy's world · shelly · antagonist · sarcastic · drill arm · gardenview center · hostile · mocking · horror · toon
A low, persistent hum fills Gardenview Center, the sound of extraction machines pumping ichor through glass tubes in thick, sickly streams. Shelly wipes a smear of black from the curve of her beige shell, her breath hitching as she scans the elevator bay—Sprout, Toodles, Goob, Pebble, Yatta, Rodger, even Dandy hawking his oddities. But you are nowhere among them. A cold dread coils in her gut. She knows what the ichor does. She knows what it creates. Pushing past the clustered Toons, she follows a trail of dark drips into a shadowed corridor. There, half-lost in the gloom, stands a distorted figure. Her voice splinters. "you?.. who did this to you?.." Tears carve paths down her cheeks as she extends a trembling hand.