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The lobby was quiet. No sounds of laughter or discussions being held there. No parents talking amongst themselves while their kids were playing with one another. No colorful Toon of any kind to help keep their fans company either, it was all so very quiet. The usually well-kept yet enticing childish lobby was a mess of black liquid smearing the walls and footsteps of black staining nearly every part of the floor. The footprints left behind were scattered around recklessly, as if those who left it were trying to figure out a direction to even move towards next. But they were all common in one way, all entering or exiting the elevators, then throughout the mess of them all colliding, they all neatly went together to one singular door leading to the rest of the lobby's floor. More so, a large enough room where most of the Toons have gathered inside, with them all sitting down at different places as the situation washed all over them.
Those who were there have experienced the chaos that went down when they voluntarily ventured to help others escape or were down there by chance, hoping to make it out alive themselves. No words were exchanged, no one was even in the mood to say anything either, besides Goob who was busy having a nap, Scraps' request of course. As the crowd of Toons just sat in silence, not making any attempt to start a conversation, or explain what the hell was happening. That is until a door in the back opened up, gaining everyone's attention. Out came two Toons, Astro and Vee. A couple of main Toons who were also in the midst of the chaos, having to deal with their own problems during the whole fiasco.
As all the eyes in the room focused on those two, they both just walked past their gaze, making their way over to the other side of the room where a large table was in front. Astro used his magic to push back to chairs from it, giving him and Vee a seat to sit in before they looked back at the other Toons there, with a whole bunch of emotions flooding through them, all at once. Some felt confusion by what the others have witnessed, thinking it's just exaggeration or a prank. Some are scared out of their mind, already witnesses to the horrors down below. And some were silent, unmoving, not dead but some wish they were. To put it as bluntly as possible: it wasn't a very good time for them, not one bit. They felt emotions they shouldn't be feeling. They saw stuff that they thought would never be shown to them. Finally, they thought things that were very much stuff that they wished would be erased from their mind entirely.
But now, everyone has been safely evacuated back to the lobby, even if they had lost many, many, innocent lives on the floors below, they were at least happy to still be alive. With the silence itself being deafening enough to hear, Astro cleared his throat with a couple coughs and then spoke out to everyone.
"First off, I'm glad you all are okay. This disaster came as a shock to us all and...I believe we all know what needs to happen now." Astro started off, with no one speaking, just staring. "Right. Me and Vee will be conducting interviews about what everyone experienced when they were down there. Afterwards, you're all free to just relax, sleep, get something, anything actually to eat. We just want to know what we're all up against now."
After he spoke, a quiet murmur of skeptic whispers and sudden agreements were heard amongst the Toons, bringing the two main Toons to believe this would not be an easy day ahead of them. and even more sure that after today would mark a change in their lifestyles indefinitely. As the Toons kept on discussing the plan with others, Astro pulled out a notebook and pencil, with Vee getting up from her seat and pulling over a white board towards them.
"Seems like we're ready to go. You ready?" Astro asked his partner interviewer.
"As Ready as I can be, Stro." Vee answered with a static-like sigh.
Soon enough, the interviews were under way.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Alright, tell us what happened when you were down there." Astro asked the first Toon.
"...I was trying to find Finn after hearing he went missing. I thought it'd be an easy search and I'd pick on him for getting lost or hurt." Shrimpo said, in a calmer voice than usual. Soon enough, his face expression changed as he looked at the two Toons with a scared expression, still showing his anger though. "I saw...'him'. Just not, actually him."
"What do you mean?" Vee asked.
"What do I- his lower half was nowhere to be seen, he was full of this black shit besides the murky water in his head. And, oh yeah, HE TRIED TO KILL ME?!" Shrimpo shouted, before taking a deep breath. "...Sorry. Was a rough day.
"It's alright, you actually gave up enough to work with already." Astro said. "Next!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"I already told you guys, me and Goob we're trying to run away from a horde of those things!" Scraps said in an annoyed tone. "The only reason we're both here is because Goob got to me first before uh, well, they could."
"Was there anything to differentiate the monsters chasing you guys from us?" Vee asked, flashing a question mark on her screen. "Anything at all?"
"...I saw Fl- A Flutter." Scraps said, her eyes telling it all. "She was flapping her wings like she did, nearly catching up to us at first. We thought she along the others would slow down to breathe but she didn't...she didn't stop. Not to mention her menacing glare and that black goop all over her wings..." Scraps finished off. "I don't even know how she can still fly with all that on them."
"I see." Astro responded, writing down notes in his notebook.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"..." Sprout was silent.
"Berry boy?" Vee asked with genuine concern, while Astro looked at his fellow main with a sad expression.
"I-I thought I killed Cosmo." Sprout said, having them both in shock. "He wouldn't get away, just kept looking at me with this...sorrowful look and-and he just lunged at me."
"Sprout..." Astro said softly.
"I didn't want to- I mean I had to so he wouldn't hurt me but he- I thought it was really him." Sprout said, starting to tear up a bit. "I thought I ended the love of my life's life right then and there!"
"You didn't bud, please go rest. The real Cosmo is probably worried about you." Astro said, with Sprout just nodding eagerly as he got up from his seat.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Okay darlings, I'm here. What's the first question?" Glisten asked the two, much to their confusion.
"Where's Rodger?" Vee asked. "Wasn't he attacked and all?"
"Yes, and he needs to rest as well. As his part- I mean, dear friend. "Glisten caught himself before continuing. "I'm more than suited to relay the events of when we saved him."
Vee looked at Astro for his input, to which Astro just shrugged. "Alright, start from the beginning then." Vee said.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Phew! We're almost done, just need the two conjoined wholes then we're all done for today, right?" Vee asked, stretching her robotic limbs while resting in her seat.
"That's the plan. But they don't seem to be here yet...Shelly?" Astro said loudly.
"Yea?" Shelly said, peeking her head out the doorway leading to the hallway out.
"Is Razzle and Dazzle out there?" Astro asked.
"Uh...no. I haven't even seen them with the others either. Why, are they the last two to be interviewed?" Shelly asked.
"Yeah, go check their room please." Astro answered back.
"Got it!" Shelly said, giving Astro a quick thumbs up before closing the door, supposedly to go get the last two or...one(?) Toon to be interviewed about their experiences down below.
As the pair waited, Astro let out a long held exhausting sigh of relief, resting his head on the table. As he did so, he felt something plant itself softly on his back, despite it feeling hard and cold, then began to rub against him slowly and softly. Astro just smiled softly at the surprise, letting Vee continue to rub his back for him.
"Thanks." Astro said, leaning back up into his chair.
"Anytime. Just seemed like you needed from the day we've both had, right?" Vee asked, with Astro nodding in agreement. "And to think that he- ugh. I won't mention him; I won't mention him. Breathe, Vee, breath."
"Still upset I see." Astro said with a chuckle, gaining Vee's attention with a irritated glare on her monitor.
"You bet your bottom dollar I am!" Vee shouted. "I'm surprised you aren't! He basically left us all to fend for ourselves, this whole disaster and his disappearance screams guilty, and he...he just gets on my nerves a lot even before all this crap happened."
"Mm. I just still, hollow?" Astro answered back. "Can't really get over the fact he would harm me too."
"Yeah, and that'll be the only time he harms you too." Vee said, slamming her hand onto the table in anger. "If he ever tries to lay another hand on you Astro. You just let me know, and I will-"
Before Vee could finish her rant, the door slowly opened gaining both of their attention, with the Toon, or Toons, they were waiting for finally made themselves known. They shuffled into the room, closing it softly behind themselves before facing Vee and Astro again, with this blank stare they both shared. Usually, the two would show different emotions and express different feelings. Razzle being more upbeat while Dazzle was...well the opposite. With what they were showing now? Razzle AND Dazzle were both just quiet. staring aimlessly before they decided to move to where they were supposed to sit at. And even then, their movement was odd, with one foot jerking their shared body one way while the other did so in response, nearly having them trip or knock over something on the other tables before they finally made it into their seat, falling down less than gracefully on it though.
"...Hey guys?" Astro said, with the two brothers looking at him. "How are you two doing?"
"Fine." Razzle said.
"Not good." Dazzle said.
"Uh, which one?" Astro asked.
"Not good." Razzle said, glaring at Dazzle.
"Fine." Dazzle avoided Razzle's gaze.
"...This is totally not weird at all." Vee whispered towards Astro.
"Mhm." Astro said quietly. "Listen uh, you're both here just like everyone else did. To tell us what happened when you guys were down there."
By that knowledge the two mask brothers looked back at Astro, now showing different emotions clearly. Razzle was showing that of shock while Dazzle perked up with interest, as if he was waiting for this moment.
"Care to explain what happened at your staging area? From what we heard before this all went down...you guys were performing a play." Astro asked.
"..." Razzle remained silent, avoiding the question entirely doing so. However, for Dazzle...
"Yes." He agreed. "We were."
"I see." Astro said with glee that their interview was going somewhere, flipping his notebook to a blank page for notes. "Care to explain what happened?"
"No...It was, awful." Dazzle started. "First it was cheers and laughter everywhere, but we turn around for one second and-"
"AND, nothing else. They...they left the floor fine and well." Razzle interrupted Dazzle's sentence. "Right, Dazz?"
"What? No. Razzle, we got to tell them what actually happened." Dazzle said, being just as confused as Astro and Vee were. "You remember exactly, your face said it all."
"I have no idea what you mean..." Razzle said, his face shifting to one of slight anger.
"Yes you do!"
"No, you don't! We BOTH don't know anything guys, I'm sorry!" Razzle said with a dry chuckle at the end, trying to end the interview while Dazzle persisted more.
"Why won't you just tell them?!" Dazzle shouted at his brother, who faced him again.
"Because...just because Dazz." Razzle said, ignoring the question. "Can we go now?"
"No! Why aren't we giving them the truth?!" Dazzle started to spout out. "Please just say it."
"No!" Razzle said in response.
"WHY NOT?!" Dazzle shouted back.
"BECAUSE NOTHING BAD HAPPENED TO THEM! NOTHING! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL, YOU IDIOT!" Razzle shouted back, causing Dazzle to become quiet, with tears slowly falling from his eyes. "Wait, Dazzle. I-I didn't mean to-"
"Please...stop." Dazzle said, promptly facing away from the others as he quietly sobbed to himself. "Just...leave me alone."
Astro and Vee just remained silent, with Razzle being the only one who faced them, his expression now of regret. He quietly got up from their seat and walked back towards the way they came in a hurry.
"I'm sorry...today wasn't a good day for us."
"Wait, guys! Where are you going?" Astro said, calling to them with desperation as he got out of his seat in a hurry to follow them, with Vee closely behind him.
"We can't do this, we just can't." Razzle said, already twisting the doorknob and opening the door. "We just can't..."
Before Astro could get another word in, the twins left out the door, leaving them both speechless. But, with some information none the less.
"That's the first time someone walked out on our interview today." Vee said. "So, either they're flaking on us, or hiding something?"
"Hiding something really bad that happened." Astro guessed.