Chapter Text
Astro sighed as he silently walked through the hallways of the toon rooms. He poked his head in, checking on every individual toon personally. The ones who were kicking in their sleep, he worked to carefully craft the perfect dream for them. He had been doing this ever since the end of the ichor operation.
Toons were being plagued by nightmares, and one of Astro’s new duties was to try and combat this. It was working- mostly. Gourdy was having so many that Astro had to sit by him almost every night and comfort him as much as he could.
He stepped into Looey’s room, seeing him shift uncomfortably underneath his covers. Astro laid one of his hands on their head, channeling his magic to try and help- a dream of him standing on a bright stage, everyone cheering and clapping for him. Those kinds of dreams always cheered him up. Astro watched as he slowly calmed down and relaxed, causing Astro to smile a bit.
Once he finished going around to every room, he finally sat down in his. He didn’t know what time it was, but all he knew is that it was late. He loved sleeping in, but his new duties prevented it- well, except for the fact Vee had promised to take over his morning duties until he woke up.
Astro didn’t know what he’d do without her. Ever since he lost Dandy… she had stepped up to help him the same way he did. Astro assumed it was partly to get back at Dandy, but at least he had someone helping him.
He laid down on his bed, closing his eyes, and prayed he could get any ounce of sleep.
“C’mon, Astro! We’re gonna be late!”
“Hmph… hang on… I’m tired…”
“I know, I know! But you gotta wake up!”
A shadowy figure grabbed at Astro’s hand, pulling him out of his bed with an unhealthy amount of energy. They dragged him out into the hallway, happily bouncing all the way to the elevator. They were upbeat for a reason Astro didn’t quite understand, but to be fair, Astro could never match their energy.
“Astro! [REDACTED]! You made it!” Another voice clapped, taking Astro’s other hand and dragging him in the same direction. Their dress was still a bit wrinkled, meaning they likely just crawled out of bed for… whatever was going on.
“Guys… you all have so much energy…” Astro sighed.
“I bet [REDACTED] stole all of your energy.”
“Did not! I would, like, NEVER do that!”
“C’mon, [REDACTED]! Don’t be so SHELL-fish!”
“HAHAHAHAHA! SHELL-FISH! LIKE SELFISH! YOU’RE SO FUNNY, [REDACTED]!”
“Heh… guess I am!”
“Arf! Arf!”
“Bwoof…”
A whole cacophony of voices arose, and Astro’s eyes were barely even open. Wherever he was, there were certainly others around him- about ten, as to what he heard. Nine too many… because one of the voices brought him comfort for a reason he couldn’t understand.
“Astro! Astro! You’re so tired! I was tired this morning too, but [REDACTED] played some nice music to wake me up!”
“It wasn’t THAT impactful…”
“I bet [REDACTED]’s music would make a great present! Have you ever considered writing songs for the other toons?”
“Um… not necessarily…”
“My crafts make good gifts!”
“Mmmppphh… you’re all so loud…” Astro groaned. He blinked a few times, before opening his eyes- and gasping in complete fear.
It was them- Yatta, Boxten, Toodles, Scraps, Finn, Shelly, Gigi, Bobette, Coal, Pebble… and Dandy. The toons who had become Twisteds so consumed by ichor they were nothing but mindless beasts.
The comforting atmosphere faded in an instant as the scene processed in his mind. All those toons that he couldn’t help. A recurring nightmare he had.
All he could do was dream about them, and what could’ve been. What could’ve happened had Astro convinced Dandy to end the ichor operation sooner.
“No… no, no! None of this is real! No!” Astro cried, shutting his eyes so tight that they began to hurt. He opened them once out of curiosity, only to be greeted by the sight of Dandy- twisted, nothing like his friend.
He raised his claws- rainbow, mocking the environment that they used to have- and Astro woke up with a scream right before the slash hit him.
He rubbed his eyes, trying his best to not cry. That was the only thing he could think about- Dandy, and the Twisteds.
“Astro! Are you okay?! I heard a scream!” Sprout panicked, rushing to his room, Vee close behind him.
“Y… Yes. I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” Astro sighed, standing up and grabbing one of his spare blankets that Tisha had freshly washed.
“Astro… please. Take a break. You’re going to hurt yourself at this rate.” Vee put a hand on Astro’s shoulder, her expression being a mix of concern and worry.
“I can’t. The other toons need me. I can’t abandon them in a time like this.” Astro closed his eyes, shaking his head to get the image of the nightmare out of his head.
“…If you say so. But, please, ask for help more. I know you, Astro. You can’t do this alone.” Sprout reached for one of Astro’s hands, before pulling him into a hug.
Astro sighed, before hugging him back. What would he do without them?
Astro, Vee, and Sprout entered the kitchen, where Cosmo and Ginger were busting their asses into making food for everyone- mostly Cosmo, but Ginger was trying her best to make it look appealing. Dyle was helping the best he could, but the speed was throwing him off a bit.
Sprout rushed in to help them, while Vee helped deliver plates to everyone. Astro looked out at the other toons, taking note of them- Brusha and Tisha had made up, likely bonding over the ichor incident. Glisten had draped himself over Rodger, complaining about how hungry he still was, and tried to discreetly reach for one of Rodger’s muffins.
Soulvester and Bassie had essentially adopted Gourdy, with Bassie giving him all of her food, while Soulvester “inspected” it to make sure it wouldn’t hurt him.
“So… anything new I should worry about?” Astro sighed a bit, asking Cosmo as he finally sat down.
“Uhh… no, not that I know of. Goob is still a bit iffy after losing Scraps, Connie’s trying to keep it together from losing Gigi, Shrimpo has just downright given up after losing Finn, Blot and Looey are trying to cope, and Rodger… well, Rodger isn’t coping well after losing Toodles.” Cosmo explained, looking out over the crowd of toons.
“Well… that I can figure. The amount of times I’ve had to give him better dreams… I worry for him.” Astro looked over at Rodger with concern. Glisten had promised Astro that he would help Rodger cope through this time, and at least it seemed to be somewhat working.
“Here. I don’t mean to interrupt, but you do need to eat. Cosmo set this aside just for you, Astro.” Ginger smiled, setting a plate down in front of Astro. She had mastered only having one hand- something Astro found fascinating.
“Well, thank you both. You truly are lifesavers in a time like this.” Astro laughed, looking down at the plate and then back up at Ginger. One of the few times he could relax… he knew to savor it.
Vee and Brightney joined their table soon after, with Brightney having a new pile of books that made the table shake as soon as she sat them down.
“Waow… that’s a lot of books. And they’re all on, uh… biology?” Cosmo shook his head a bit, reading over every title of the books Brightney had brought. Ginger and Sprout tilted their heads to read the spines, all while Brightney just laughed.
“Please- it’s about TOON biology! Because… y’know, Delilah and Arthur wrote all those notes about us. I figured if I knew more about our biology, we could fix the Twisteds.” Brightney explained, her voice somber yet hopeful.
“That’s… actually a pretty good idea. I bet it might actually work. Way to go, Brightney!” Sprout clapped a bit, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair as he reached for one of the books that Arthur had written.
The toons weren’t very fond of their creators, at least not anymore, but the documents they left behind were coming in rather helpful for fixing Twisteds back into regular toons.
“Right, right, well… I’ve got an idea. Rodger still has ichor samples from toons when they were Twisteds- specifically Goob, Brusha, Teagan, and Vee. So, I was considering taking ichor samples from the Twisteds still contained and seeing just how different their biology was. If it isn’t that different, then we can probably use the same method as before, just a bit more… intense. If it is different, then… well, we can work around that.” Brightney shrugged, looking through some of the various notebooks Delilah had kept.
“Works for me. Let’s grab Rodger for this, since he’ll know how to help.” Cosmo nodded, and the rest of the toons at the table all agreed to Brightney’s plan- it sounded promising. Better than some of the other plans they had heard- such as Cosmo’s plan of just feeding them cookies and cupcakes until they went on a sugar high and hopefully got fixed.
Astro stood up from his seat, following after the group with a bit of a nervous expression. This was his chance. This was his chance to get Dandy back.
…Even though there were several toons who aren’t even the slightest bit upset that he’s gone. So if they found out Astro was trying to bring him back as well…
Things certainly wouldn’t end well for him.
“…Wait up, I’m coming. Besides, you need me to put the Twisteds to sleep. You can’t do this without me, right?” Astro awkwardly laughed, but felt better after the rest of the group laughed with him.
He would be fine. Everything would be fine. It had to be.