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The sound of tinkering echoed in the room like a steady heartbeat, the shuffle of worn boots distantly echoed in the room with the the clatter of tools. A gloved hand reached out and patted around the area where she thought she left the wrench, but her hand graced over nothing. Confused, the cookie tapped around the other side- but finding not her wrench. The mechanic pushed herself out from under her airplane and looked around her area, she found her tools of screws, bolts, hammers, and other but no wrench…
The golden brown cookie pushed her rolley out fully for her to stand and take a loook around. She knows that they have their wrench around, but not it’s nowhere to be found. Timekeeper Cookie wouldn’t take it, not unless it was kicks and giggles. String Gummy Cookie was still out, Baguette and Dark Fondue weren’t anywhere new the wing, and the others were at their stations… so where could’ve her wrench gone. Croissant Cookie adjusted her goggles off of her mis-colored eyes and glanced around, biting the inside of her cheek as she looked around the floor and nudged some of the parts of her airplane to see if her wrench had fallen undernearth a panel or two.
But no wrench… Hrm…
Behind the bread cookie, a tail of sharpened arrow and scales slithered behind the mechanic and tapped her shoulder, getting the cookie to turn around, then it switched side- tapping the opposite shoulder. Croissant Cookie turned around and huffed, raising her head finally to find a face of pink and scales in her face. “Hello Sugar, you wouldn’t happen to know where my wrench is, would you?” The engineer asked lightly, her hands resting on their hips. Eternal Sugar Cookie shuffled herself back on her clouds, her tail returning to her side curling around the tool in question. “I… may know where it wandered off to- but what would I receive in return?” The former beast cooed sweetly, her voice dipped in honey and sugar- the perfect siren.
“You may get a kiss and no oil stains on your feathers when I preen them tonight.” The other replied, tilting their head as the lazier cookie hummed in thought. Her feathered ear-wings flapped curiously, the pink gemstone glimmering in the light of the sunroof. The former Beast of Sloth slowly blinked as she leaned down, “A kiss may interest me, but I have a better offer~” She purred, her feathers and scales rattling with her frame as she crossed her arms and rested her chin on the forearms. Croissant knew what the pink cookie was doing, what her intentions were to be- and she needed to tread carefully.
“Well- that would depend. If it’s a nap, then I’m sad to say that I do have a meeting with the Director later today about some… issues. But I can compromise.” A game of cat and mouse, who will take the bait and pinned by the bigger beast. “Oh?~ A compromise…?” The beast purrs, her wings fluttering softly before lowering to the cloud in a curitan of feathers and soft flutters. “You can take to the Garden after my meeting and then, I can preen your wings. How does that sound?” A reasonable deal that Eternal Sugar Cookie could easily find appealing, but she also knows that she could amp it up more. “What if… I give you the wrench after a short nap, then you go about your daily tasks and meetings, then afterwards~” She lowered her clouds to meet at eye-level with the mechanic, their lips barely brushing and eyes softly locked onto one another, “We can have a full night of cuddles. No leaving in the middle of the night, no wandering off, but you… and me… in the garden… alone… With no one around to hear us…”
Just as the lips were about to brush, a door to the wing bursted open and Coffee Candy Cookie stumbled into the room, “Ah! Sorry- Croissant Cookie? Dark Fondue Cookie is wondering if you- oh- OH! I’M SO SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!” She squeaked, back pedaling, but bumped into String Gummy Cookie who shot his hands out to hold the younger’s shoulders to steady her. Eternal Sugar Cookie was so focused on luring her beloved to her embrace, that she failed to hear the little tip-taps of Coffee Candy Cookie’s heels.
So when the door slammed opened, the Beast of Sloth shot herself up in the hair with her massive wings and got her long talons digging into the wall as her wings fluffed up. She looked like anything but a Beast of Sloth- more like a frightened puffed cat.
Croissant saw her wrench falling from the puff of clouds from the jump and she extended her hand out to grab the tool, feeling the familiar weight fall into her hand. “Hey there Coffee Candy and String Gummy, did you two need something?” The sharpshooter sighed as he glanced out of the corner of his eyes to the puffed up cookie in the ceiling, “Just letting you know that Sandwhich Cookie left you a message on your office phone. She wants you to meet up with her and Hero Cookie. For lunch. Today.” The assistant pushed her small hat back onto her head as she stuttered out, “And- and! Dark Fondue Cookie was wondering if you had those- those reports for the Director to look over for your meeting for-for today.”
Croissant nods, they turned to their table and pulled off their glove that was free from the wrench and scooped up the reports. “I have them right here. And what time did Sandwhich Cookie ask me to be at her shop?” The red-stringed cookie didn’t answer, his gloved hands falling on his belt, his eyes narrowed on the other cookie who started to unhook herself from the ceiling. “At 12:45. That’s in 10 minutes. And she’s not making a request.” Croissant nodded as she turned to the pink cookie who was slowly getting herself soothed from the sudden fright.
“Do you think you can behave yourself while I’m out? And I do mean behave. You can’t go bothering Baguette or Coffee Candy. Or anyone else for that matter. If you want, I can bring back a sandwich for you to eat.” Eternal Sugar Cookie didn’t respond as first, her wings giving out tentative flaps to gain air, and then she unlached herself from the ceiling. Soaring down and landing beside the mechanic. “Must you leave now? Not when you promised me a nap.” The two onlookers watched the pilot snort fondly as she held up her wrench, “We never made it a deal. And I have my tool right here.”
Eternal Sugar’s wings snapped shut and her face scowled into a deep ugly red. String Gummy Cookie rolled his eyes as Coffee Candy Cookie blinked owlishly, unsure if she should interrupt or keep watching. She’s never… actually had an interaction with the former Beast before. She heard rumros and whispers about her but never actually… interacted with her before.
Croissant Cookie slipped her other glove back on and reached up, kissing the edge of the cookie’s jaw, and like a snap of fingers- the reddening face disappeared and was replaced by a warmed pinkish face. “Alright… I would like to try one of the sandwiches. They sound… good.” She admitted, fluttering her mini wings by her head. Croissant Cookie nodded and glanced to the other two, “Anything else you need?” She asked, walking over to the two as they stepped back to let her walk through. “Ah- nope! Just needed the reports! T-thank you!” Then the assistant scampered off before the pink cookie could approach.
“Such a little mouse. It’s adorable~” Eternal Sugar Cookie complimented, watching the little cookie scuttle off before she could approach the smaller. String Gummy Cookie rolled his eyes, “Well- when you have a cookie taller than the Director and emotional as you, not everyone is going to approach you with warm arms.” The sharpshooter received an elbow to the gut. Croissant Cookie shook her head as she extended her hand to the larger cookie, “Just head back to the Garden. I’ll be there in an hour or two. I swear it.”
The magic words were uttered and a spell fell over the slothful cookie. The former beast nodded and summoned her clouds to climb on and relax against, her eyes growing half-lidded and her tail whipping slowly over the edge of the clouds. “Be back soon~” She murmured as she floated away, tucking her wings gently into her body for warmth.
Croissant and String Gummy watched the woman float away and the shooter broke the silence, “What you seen in her, I will never understand.” The mechanic snorted as they looked to the other, “You say that everytime you see her with me.” The war-torn cookie closed his garnet eyes and sighed through his nose sharply, “Because it makes no sense. After the whole “inter-dimensional collapse” of universe AB-12-4O80-3B; you’ve been perfectly fine with her hovering and forcing you to do her bidding. Naps? You laugh in the face of those who tell you to nap.”
And true, once upon a time in the past, the mechanic would laugh at the face of anyone who told her to take a nap. But now, with the literal embodiment of Sloth and naps being at her side constantly, subjecting her to the warmth of nap and sleep, with sugar laced on her tongue and craving for the next kiss from the beast; she could understand how her previous notions of “naps” could be confusing now. But they knew that explaining it to String Gummy Cookie would take longer than they needed it to be, and plus, they have a group of friends to get to. “It’s a long story, but maybe if you talked to her more often, she would enlighten you on how she got me to change.”
And just before the engineer wandered off, she turned to the other and added, “And I don’t nap as often as she does. I just nap if I wanted a recharge my social battery. Something you could do instead of snapping at the rookie agents.” A blush of red dusted over the sharpshooter and he turned his eyes away, grumbling as he crossed his arms. “Whatever you say, Croissant Cookie. Enjoy lunch with the group.” He muttered, before leaving with a swish of his tattered ruby cloak.
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The Garden was a recently rebuilt place for the members of the TBD to relax and have a break. When the Director announced that everyone was allowed to have a series of naps as a part of their breaks, everyone was excited (especially the newbies who weren’t used to the fast-pace of the department), but the only caveat was who was in charge of the space for the naps.
Eternal Sugar Cookie was a… interesting subject that many cookies refuse to talk about. Not because she tried to take over the TBD, not because she was a time entity trying to eat everyone, and not even because she was a Beast from a distant kingdom of old and powerful.
It was because she was very convincing for anyone and everyone to take a loooooooong nap.
Rumor has it that she even lured the Director to take a four-hour nap.
The Garden itself was a paradise for everyone to enjoy; flowing water for hydration, platters of food and snacks to munch on as you winded out, and fluffy clouds of pinks and purples for you to fall on and feel the claws of sleep reach up and drag you down. And the flora around the place were like Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” with jaw-breaker eyeballs with wings, vines with gummy thorns, pink and blue hardened sugar cherubs fluttering around the lollipop bushes with gummy snakes slithering over the eyeball flowers of orchids. Colors of pastel stood out painfully in the aethetic of browns, reds, and mossy green. The walls were a soft crispy brown with the tiles is muted beiges and even cracked whit spinkled throughout the department, and with the sight of the Garden; many cookies try to avoid it’s sight.
Croissant found it oddly welcoming, all things considered. For all the sensory issues and sensations they feel, she often finds the Garden not overwhelming nor unterstimulating. It’s just what she needs to relax.
Entering the Garden was a perfect domain with the living things moving about and swaying to an invisible wind, and carrying a lyre song that lures anyone to the center of the space. Eternal Sugar Cookie once asked to have “warden” to keep her sacred space safe, one of her only creations she kept around when she was still the “Bringinger of Happiness”, but Croissant got one look at it from an alternate universe and refused the idea immediately (even if TimeKeeper Cookie thought it would be hilarious to have a massive heart flying creature in the TBD).
The mechanic ducked unde the swaying trees and approach the perch of the gardener. A massive flower larger than the TBD’s entrance, with the center fluffed up with clouds and pillows and blankets, with trays of food sitting off to the side with the resting clouds fluttering near, as if reaching out for the cookie playing her lyre. Croissant Cookie approached the flower and watched the pink cookie play as if her role in life was to lure and soothe all who entered into a deep sleep. The mechanic would admit the beauty of the beast was something dangerous, a lure of sailors to fall to their deaths, a song that could sweet-talk anyone into her bidding; a soul longing for another to join it’s existence.
And asi if Croissant Cookie’s presence interrupted the Garden into a hush, the lyre stopped playing and two massive winged limbs extended out, a face of richness and love fell on the mechanic and her instrument was forgotten, her arms outstretched and waiting for the other to join her at last. With the sandwich placed on one of the trays, Croissant climbed into the nest and was then smothered with wings and pepepring lips, a seal of promise to never abandon the cookie of sweet delights.