Chapter Text
After all these years…
He was here. Tylor had spent his childhood watching the scariest of monsters make their way towards Monsters Incorporated, dreaming of the day that it’d be his turn to do the same. Now it was. He was one of the scariest monsters around, and after years of studying and working hard, he finally stood before the factory, looking up at the massive structure that stored the hundreds of thousands of doors that he would soon walk through amongst his coworkers to keep his world and home powered on and safe.
Sure, he heard a few rumors about the CEO having just been arrested the day before, but Professor Knight reassured him that he’d be fine and it shouldn’t have any impact on his job offer.
So he walked up towards the doors with a smile.
“We scare because we care.” Tylor let out a soft chuckle. “Mornin’, coworker.” Tylor waved at a staff member near the sign. He had no clue why she was up there, but she was a maintenance worker, so he didn’t need to worry about it.
Tylor swung the doors open, filled with excitement as he looked around the lobby.
“Hey nice cone,” Tylor tried to break the ice with another scarer. He recognized the guy as George Sanderson. He had all of his fur shaved off though. Poor guy, probably got hit with a 23-19. “First day as a scarer.” Tylor bragged a little.
“Hmm. Or your last.” George muttered back.
Tylor wasn’t gonna let that comment bring him down. The guy had obviously been through a rough time, no need to take it personal.
He turned around, getting a full view of the lobby. Even this area alone was huge, imagine how big the scare floor would be!
“Wow, can’t believe I’m actually here.” Tylor said in awe as he stood at the receptionist desk. “Hello? Oh.” He thought they might’ve been on break for a moment, but then he heard humming and saw a woman with snakes stand up.
“Monsters Incorporated. This is Celia Mae. I no longer answer the phones. Goodbye!”
“Hi, there. Excuse me.” Tylor tried to get Celia’s attention, slightly stuttering over his words. “Uh. Tylor Tuskmon. Official Scarer.”
“What? Scarer?” Celia chuckled at that. “No, I’m sorry, talk to the receptionist.”
“I thought…” Tylor looked around the desk, seeing no other monster there.
“I’m the floor supervisor!” Celia cheered as she walked away.
“Then who’s the…” Tylor sighed. “Okay, thank you.” He turned towards the janitor nearby.
“Hi.” He got a grunt in response. “If I were Ms. Flint’s office, where would I…” He got another grunt in response and a point in the right direction.
“Got it.” Tylor nodded and headed for Ms. Flint’s office.
Something was off
.
.
.
Everything was off.
Everything was wrong.
After years of dreaming, years of studying, years of hard work. His entire life dedicated to becoming a scarer. Now all of it was suddenly gone down the drain because the company switched from scream to laugh power.
Who ever even heard of laugh power before? Was there any proof that it even works?
…Of course it worked. That was a dumb question, why else would the entire factory be in such a frenzy for ‘jokesters’?
His parents, they risked everything for him to get through college and be in Monsters Incorporated today. How in the world was he supposed to tell them that the factory had changed what they were using to power their homes and now he wasn’t able to be a scarer because Monsters Inc wasn’t even hiring scarers anymore, and he got thrown down underground and stuck with the Monsters Inc Facilities Team! And some girl that kept saying she knew him from MU apparently, so there’s that.
Everything was just wrong.
He came in with the job offer in his hands, before it meant his dreams were coming true.
Now it meant nothing .
Tyler crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it behind him.
“Whoah, nice shot!” A monster called out.
“Shut up, Smitty. Can’t you see he wants to be alone. He’s depressed.”
“Why’s he depressed?”
They knew he could hear them, right?
“If you’re a scary monster like him, now what do you do? Unless you can make a kid laugh, you got no future.”
Yeah, they had to be doing that on purpose.
“That’s depressing.”
“Shut up! He can still hear you.”
Their bickering became background noise when it finally hit Tylor.
“Make a kid laugh…”
It couldn’t be that hard to do. Scaring different kids required different methods. Each kid had different fears. There was a reason that it took years of hard work and studying to become a great scarer, or even just a decent scarer.
But if Monsters Inc was so quick to switch to laughs, then it must be easy to make a kid laugh, right? Kids in general found everything funny, if the scarers already working there were jokesters now, how hard could it be for him?
Crack a smile, tell a joke, get a laugh…
What could possibly go wrong?
.
.
.
Well, first off, Tylor could get in trouble for being on the floor despite not having the proper authorization to be there in the first place!
Tylor mentally facepalmed, trying to figure out how he was supposed to get out there and prove himself when he wasn’t allowed to be there!
“How did I end up here?” Tylor asked himself with a groan. As he looked forward, a monster pulling a canister cart entered his view and it was heading straight to the floor. “Huh.” Tylor blinked and shook his head, quickly jogging up to the cart and grabbing onto the canisters, crouching down and making sure nobody saw him as he let himself get pulled to the Laugh Floor.
Hopefully the MIFTers forgot about his donut promise.
He peeked around the side, the caution line entering his view.
Once when he was little, he had gone on a school field trip to the factory, told to stay behind the line for his own safety. Of course he understood and listened, but he itched to cross that line like the scarers he watched walk by that day.
It felt otherworldly, like crossing through a barrier when he went over the line.
The cart came to a stop, nearby the new CEOs. Tylor felt his heart drop, realizing just how close he was to being busted way too soon. He looked around, seeing a nearby key card.
With determination, he held his breath and reached out-
Knocking over several empty canisters and bringing every monster’s attention on him as he tried to balance himself on a fallen canister, falling down and catching clipboards on his horns.
There was a beat of silence and Tylor was sure he was going to be so fired and-
“Did Ms. Flint send you?” Mike asked.
Tylor was still frozen and wide-eyed before he shook himself out of his stupor and started standing up, attempting to fix his mess.
“Oh, uh, well I did see her earlier today so…” Emphasis on attempting .
“Perfect! If you’re Ms. Flint approved then get in here!” Mike waved his arm invitingly.
“I’ll get him a door, pronto. Fungus?” Celia called.
“Come on, time is funny. Wait a second! Could that be the new slogan?”
“Keep trying, Mikey. Keep trying.” Sulley replied.
Well…that went way smoother than Tylor could’ve hoped.
And it felt surreal being in the same room as Mike Wazowzki and James P. Sullivan. He’s had their Rookie of the year cards and their official scare cards since he could get his claws on them.
“Door is…active.” Fungus’ hesitance caught his attention. Fungus smiled at him nervously before running off towards Mike and Sullivan.
Weird but whatever.
“Just make the kid laugh.” Tylor quietly scoffed. “Shouldn’t be too hard.” He grabbed the doorknob and took a deep breath before going in. When he didn’t open the door to a child’s room, he realized that Fungus hadn’t powered on the door. He had seen everyone in a frenzy, so he just mentally shrugged and powered up the door himself, double checking that the light was red before opening the door, seeing the kid’s room this time and going in.
“What do you mean, bad door?” Mike asked Fungus.
“I mean this was one of the doors that Randal was going to use before he ended up using that little girl’s door. He tried taking this kid, but his parents came in and chased him out. He said that the kid was too dangerous to take.” Fungus was panicking.
“Okay, okay, well then just get another door and we’ll have this one shredded.” Sulley said before looking up. “Oh no.”
“He already went in!” Fungus panicked again.
.
Tylor stopped as he was crouched down on the ground. This was an odd room for a child to have. The windows were completely boarded up, covered in drawings of different monsters made by the kid. They must’ve had several different scarers before the switch. The fan connected to the ceiling had a blade broken off. Well, two of the four blades broke off. Like someone hit it several times. The remnants of what was once there before now leaning against the wall in a corner. The wooden floorboards looked and felt like they were falling apart and about to give in under his weight. The paint on the walls was old and peeling.
A part of him was screaming at him that this wasn’t normal, to turn back and ask for another door, but he couldn’t take that chance. Not now. Not when he had the chance right now to prove himself. MU never covered anything like this, but Scarers probably had to deal with rooms like this all the time. Just because he was a Jokester did not mean he couldn’t deal with odd rooms. Tylor only had one shot at this. So he started creeping forward, his scarer training kicking in.
The floor immediately broke under him and his foot got caught in a gap.
Tyler grunted, pulling his foot out of the hole in the floorboards and standing up. He held back a wince, feeling the wood scratch the surface of his skin, just not deep enough to bleed. He silently thanked his parents for the genes they gave him to have his tough skin. He heard shuffling coming from the kids bed.
He turned towards the kid, the little boy letting out a squeak. The kid’s breathing quickened, staring up at Tylor with wide eyes.
“Hi!” Tylor waved at the little boy. The kid hugged his stuffed toy, opening his mouth like he was going to scream and started making a noise that sounded like a dog whistle. Tylor slightly cringed at that.
“Hey there, little guy. Uh, you ready to laugh?” Tylor leaned forward a little and waved his hands around.
“TRESPASSER! INVADER! INTRUDER!” The kid started screaming at the top of his lungs, his pupils turning into slits as he stood on his knees in his bed and screeched at Tylor.
“Woah, no, no, no.” Tylor tried shushing the kid as he backed up towards the door. He stopped in his tracks. The room started shaking, everything in the room rattling. Books started falling out of place and toys fell off the shelves as the shaking started getting worse and worse.
“What is happening?!” Tylor exclaimed. He heard a sound like thunder getting closer and he turned in time to see a blur bursting through the bedroom door and launching itself at him with a roar.
Tylor shrieked as he started rolling and tumbling backwards. Whatever had tackled him rolling with him. Tylor could barely process the sound of the kid and what was probably the voice of his parent calling out at the thing attacking him. His back collided with the kid’s closet door, smashing it to pieces as he was sent rolling through it. The back of Tylor’s head slammed against a desk, finally ending the tumbling and rolling but making his vision blur. Tylor let out a small groan as he registered the pain. Tylor started to panic as he felt pressure on his neck, the weight cutting off his airways. He struggled to breath, wrestling with his brain to refocus on his surroundings.
As his vision started to clear, he let out a grunt and a wheeze as he tried to catch his breath. He blinked a few times and saw that his attacker was…
Another monster.
She was shaking her head, adjusting to her new surroundings despite having her arm against his throat and her free hand up and ready to punch him. After her own eyes adjusted to the light and her ears stopped twitching, she shook her head and glared back down at Tylor with a glare that sent a shiver down his spine.
She blinked again, lowering her hand and tilting her head at him. Her glare was replaced with a confused and curious gaze. Tylor felt the pressure on his neck starting to lessen little by little.
“You’re a monster. A pure blooded monster.” She said it like she couldn’t believe it. Tylor suddenly became aware of his surroundings and realized that the canister that had been attached to his door had burst out of its place. It hit a cart full of full canisters, causing all of them to go haywire and one was heading straight for them. Tylor grabbed the monster on top of him by her shoulders and flipped them over, the canister just barely missing her head. Tylor looked down at the monster now under him. They both looked at each other awkwardly until she lifted her legs and shoved him off with her hooves.
“How in the name of hell did you even get in my cousin’s room?” The monster asked, standing up, ducking before another flying canister could hit her horns.
“What were you doing in the human world?” Tylor pointed his arm at her.
“Human world? Wha-I was born there!” The monster exclaimed as if it was obvious. A flying canister slammed into her midsection, making her scream in pain and causing her to suddenly shrink and hold onto it as it launched her up into the air. The now much smaller monster started screaming, the lights starting to burn brighter and all the power in the building going haywire.
“Watch out!” Sulley yelled out, ducking down to avoid another canister.
The canister the monster was on finally came down and dropped her onto the ground. The woman panted and held her stomach, trying to catch her breath. The woman saw the wide opening towards the lobby. She started running towards it and crashed into Mike.
Tylor was left speechless now seeing a human adult falling on the floor in front of Mike.
“A human!” Mike yelled out, pointing at her. She backed up, running from him. “A HUMA-” Mike’s screaming got cut off when he got hit by a canister.
“Oh my god!” The woman exclaimed, only hoping that she didn’t just witness someone’s death.
“No, no, no!” Tylor panicked, watching the chaos unfold. Canisters were flying everywhere, doors were a mess. Monsters were running, trying to avoid being hit, and now this monster-turned-human was on the loose. They both briefly met each other’s gazes for a moment.
“Don’t even think about it!” The woman shook her head and backed away from him before turning around again and bolting for the exit.
“No, wait!” Tylor started chasing after her, having to run through doors as they fell between him and her. “Human lady, miss!” Tylor called out as he kept opening and running through doors. The woman glanced behind her for only a second. She would have laughed if she wasn’t the one being chased.
“Gotcha!” Tylor picked her up by grabbing her sides, getting a squeal out of her.
“No touchie!” The human yelled, hitting Tylor’s arms with her fists and swinging her legs around. Tylor just held her as far away from himself as possible and ran back to her door. Both of them froze with wide eyes. The door was broken in several pieces and still falling out of its frame.
“Oh no.” Both of them said in unison.
“That’s bad, right?” The human asked, leaning her head back to look up at Tylor.
“Yeah.” Tylor mentally wished he could pull the same move the human did and shrink right then and there. He put the human down, wondering how he was supposed to get out of this mess now.
“How does that even..?” The human stepped through the frame and looked around, stepping back. “How do I go back? Where am I?” She asked, looking up at Tylor.
“I…I, uh.” Tylor shook his head. The human was looking up at him expectantly before she noticed all the other monsters slowly starting to circle around and creep towards her. The canisters had all emptied, no longer being a distraction. Every monster’s attention was now on her. Since they knew she wasn’t toxic or armed, she held no threat. All they needed to do was hold her down so she didn’t cause any more problems.
“Woah, woah, woah! No, please don’t do that!” The human tried looking for a way to escape, finding none.
“Just hold still.” Sulley said, reaching out to grab her.
“Do not touch me.” The human backed away from him, only to have to back up from another monster. And another. And another. “No, no, no, no.” The human took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, forming her hands into fists in front of her. Everyone started to step back when they saw the human starting to grow in size, her hair turning into fins, her human ears being replaced with fin monster ears, a large set of horns growing on her head, her legs turning into bull-like monster legs, complete with a long tail and hooves. The human-turned-monster opened her three eyes and let out a breath, smiling awkwardly.
“Ta-da?” She chuckled nervously, doing jazz hands.
“What the…” Mike asked, looking her up and down. She was now nearly as tall as Tylor.
“So um, can somebody please tell me where I am?” The monster asked, tilting her head and holding her hands together behind her back.
“Everyone off the laugh floor!” Celia called, getting everyone else to a different floor so that the mess could be fixed. The other monsters except for Mike, Sulley, and Tylor started to leave.
“Who are you?” Sulley asked.
“I’m Tauro. Tauro Gibbs-wait a second.” Tauro squinted her eyes at Sulley and Mike. Now that everything was calming down and her fight or flight instincts were no longer kicking in, she was able to recognize the two monsters standing before her. “Oh…my god.” Her eyes widened. “This actually explains so much.” She laughed. The lights pulsed. “You’re Kitty and Mike Wazowski, aren’t you?!” She exclaimed, gesturing at them with a huge grin.
Both monster’s jaws dropped.
“She knows, you know, what?” Mike looked between her and Sulley.
“Where did you hear that name?” Sulley asked.
“My little sister went missing for twenty four hours, she finally shows back up safe in bed with two new words in her vocabulary! ‘Kitty’ and ‘Mike Wazowski’! When I asked her if she could draw what she was talking about so that we could figure out who took her, all she was drawing all day was pictures of you two! And a few drawings of someone called ‘Schmoopsie-poo’?” Tauro laughed. The lights pulsed.
“It’s actually Sullivan and Mike. Schmoopsie would be Celia.” Mike told her, letting Sulley process what he was hearing.
“Oh, that makes sense.” Tauro nodded. “Sorry about the mess. Somebody tried to break in before my sister went missing and everyone in the house was on high alert.”
“Yeah, yeah, we heard. Nobody’s in trouble for the mess, that door should’ve been shredded already. However, someone does need to explain why they were here without Ms. Flint’s approval.” Mike turned towards Tylor with crossed arms.
He really wished he had Tauro’s ability to shrink.
.
.
.
“We’re shutting down Laugh Floor F, activating Laugh Floor G. I’ll need to transfer Sanderson and Phlegm…” Tauro heard Celia’s voice from not too far away, trying to get any information she could on where exactly she was and what this place was. Though her eavesdropping wasn’t getting her anywhere. Everyone in earshot just seemed hyperfocused on either cleaning up or continuing their work.
“I am so sorry, Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Wazowski…Ms. Gibbs.” Tylor sighed, apologizing to all three of them. Tauro gave him a glance, tuning in to the conversation now in front of her. “I, uh, appreciate the opportunity that I have completely blown. You’ll never see me again.” Tylor was turning to leave. Tauro’s ears twitched. Figuring out where she was and getting home should’ve been her first priority, but she didn’t want this guy to leave. She was about to speak up when Kitty- er, Mr. Sullivan beat her to it.
“Hold it! You’re Tylor Tuskmon, aren’t you?” Sullivan asked him. Tylor Tuskman. Tauro kept repeating his name in her mind.
“Uh, yes, I am. How did you know?” Tylor asked.
“ Who do you think recommended you for the job? You graduated top of your class. Even broke my record in the simulation room.” Sulley recalled.
“Ah, yeah. Well…what can I say? I seem to be good at breaking things lately.” Tylor shrugged. Tauro’s ears drooped after hearing that.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, man.”
“It’s been a rough day for all of us.”
“Yep, everything’s changing.”
“Laugh power instead of scare power, me and Mike in charge. They’re gonna have to change the ol’ MU School of Scaring to the College of Comedy.” Sullivan looked at Mike with a knowing glance.
“Comedy college. Right! Sulley, you're a genius. And seeing that I am the official SCPOMICE-VDADOCREM, I'm making an executive decision to begin Monsters, Inc. Comedy Classes, featuring Professor Me! I'll teach all you scary monsters how to be funny.” Mike said proudly.
“What?” Tylor and Tauro both asked in unison. Although for different reasons.
“'Cause I know what it's like once you've stepped across that line.” Mike said to Tylor, “You'd do anything to be on this floor.”
Tauro could feel the history behind that sentence.
“So I actually have a chance at being a Jokester?” Tylor asked.
“Mike and I, we worked our way up from the mailroom.” Sullivan told him. “So anything’s possible.”
“No more scaring.” Tylor turned towards the laugh floor. Tauro watched two smaller monsters cleaning up the pieces of her little cousin’s door and throwing them away. A heavy weight settled in her chest as a weight was lifted off of Tylor’s shoulders.
“Now it’s uh, laughter you’re after.” Tylor nodded to himself.
“Bingo! Our new slogan, ‘It’s Laughter We’re After.’” Mike said excitedly.
“Wazowski!” Someone shouted Mike’s name, making him jump.
“Roz?” He asked, the group turning towards her.
“The name’s Roze.” The monster replied.
Tauro was pretty sure her little sister had at least one drawing of her.
“Wake me up, I’m having a horrible nightmare.” Mike shook Sulley’s arm. “One where you actually smell things.”
“Eugh.” Tauro cringed.
“They just delivered the new kid’s hat and ID.” Roze said, handing both over to Tylor through the window.
Tylor took both with a thankful smile and put them on.
“And from now on, call me Sulley.”
“And call me Mike.”
Tylor turned around to them, giving Tauro a small glance.
“My friends call me Tay.” Tauro nodded.
“Whoa what happened here? Sure know how to make an impression.” Tauro turned to see a monster with a pretty pink and yellow fur pattern walk in. Two small pink buns tied back on the top of her head.
“Where’d you go? I thought you were getting us appreciation donuts.” A tall blue with grey and blue fins asked Tylor.
Dangit. Tylor had been hoping they’d forget about that. He definitely did.
“Remember, I’m onto you.” Tauro saw a small green monster with multiple eyes attempting to intimidate Tylor.
Tauro let out a small snort. The lights pulsed.
“Now…what do we do with you?” Mike asked, turning towards Tauro. She gave a small shrug.
“I mean, you could just give me a door close to where I came out and I can make my way home from there.” Tauro suggested.
“I don’t think it’s that simple.” Sullivan spoke up. You’re a shapeshifting monster, yet you’re related to a human.”
“Oh no, my sister is only part human.” Tauro chuckled and shook her head. Her eyebrows furrowed as the light pulsed again.
“What do you mean?” Mike asked. Tauro’s smile faltered when she saw just how clueless and lost both monsters in front of her really were.
“You don’t know?” Tauro asked softly. “You don’t have a single clue about any of us, do you?”
“What are you talking about?” Sullivan asked, both himself and Mike wanting answers just as much as her.
“You really did think banished monsters just dropped dead on the other side…didn’t you?” She asked softly.
“What do you have to do with banished monsters? Where are you from?!” Mike asked, feeling his patience running thin.
“Most banished monsters survive. They have survived since banishment became an acceptable form of punishment not long after the first door was built.” Tauro explained, not noticing Roze listening closely from her window. “And generations of monsters that had nothing to do with the crimes their predecessors committed yet still had to suffer the consequences for them having followed ever since monsters were thrown to fend for themselves against the human world. Myself being part of one of the many generations.” Tauro told them. “Banished monsters never faded. They survived. And they ensured that their bloodlines survived as well.”