Bassie's World - Chapter Ten

Instructions

[ Dandy, 3:38 PM, Lobby ] I stood next to Astro in the crowd of Toons greeting me and the others back. Right now, it was all "Hello!", and "How are you?", but I knew soon enough it'd die down. Bassie walked up to me. "Hello, Dandicus." she said. "And hello to you, too, Astro." "Hey there, Bassie!" I greeted her. "Uh... hi, Bassie." Astro also greeted her, yet with less enthusiasm than I liked. Why couldn't my best pal be a bit more joyous, a bit more like me? "Well, I just wanted to say hi." Bassie looked away. "You know, before I have... uh, work to do." "I understand." I winked at her, showing approval. Being in charge of Gardenview must be hard work! Sometimes I feel like I can perfectly understand how she feels, but maybe I'm just overreacting. "Hey, uh, Dandy..." Astro grabbed my attention (not really) by tapping on my shoulder with one of his little twinkly star hands, and whispering to me. "I don't feel too good, so if you'll excuse me..." "Oh! Of course! Rest up, friend!" I smiled. "Take aaallll the time you need, hehe!" "...Thanks." he said, and then began walking away at a surprisingly fast speed for someone who doesn't feel "too good", but maybe I'm just overreacting! Again! I decided to go up to Flutter. She was talking to Gigi and Connie, who I didn't particularly like, but Flutter was my friend! "Hi there, you all!" I waved. "Hey." Gigi said. "What's up?" Connie tipped her hat. "!!!" Flutter turned to face me, doing a flip in the air, which I can only assume is a sign she's happy. "How have you two been since last year?" I inclined. "I've been good." Connie rubbed her left arm with her right hand, studying my appearance. I looked over to Gigi, who was rummaging around in her head. "Mmh... I'm doing fine." she said a bit incoherently, before pulling out a hairbrush. "Hey! That's where that's been all this time!" Connie yelled, trying to grab it. Gigi stuffed it back in her head, cackling. "Mewhehehe... you're not getting that back, girl!" "Oh, you!" Connie flouted. My gaze flew to Flutter, who looked at me in return. I briefly glanced back to Gigi and Connie, who were now having a sort of playful fight. "Well, that's fine, Flutter." I said, putting on a chipper grin. "...?" "Hm, me? Well, you know... the same way you've been for the past 10 months!" "!!!" "Well, I can assure you, it's definitely the same for all the Holiday Toons. Why would we all have different experiences for isolation?" "..." "Flutter!" Gigi called out. She was now waving her sweater-covered arm at the butterfly, beckoning her. "Go on, Flutter. I have other Toons to check up on anyways!" "!!" Flutter flew over to them as I began to scout out who else I could say hello to. It'd have to be someone I know at least a little bit, and someone that I know doesn't dislike me- Oh! Cocoa's there! She definitely knows me, but I don't know if she likes me or not... oh well! "Cocoa! Hii!" I waved. Cocoa looked at me, and her smile dropped. She stared at me in a rude way as I went over to her. "GREAT to see you, Dandy..." Cocoa said. "Hm? What's the matter?" I put my hands on my hips. "Oh, nothing. Just not in the best mood." "Hmm. Well, it seems like less people are here in the first place!" I wiped the dust off my raincoat. "Uh, yeah, I guess so. There was a little accident, so maybe they didn't want to come." *A little accident? Why doesn't she just tell me?* I thought to myself, a bit sad that Cocoa was keeping this from me. I understand we aren't the closest, but it just makes me angry! Of course, nobody can know that. "Uh, I'm... going to... go." Cocoa hopped away awkwardly, leaving me standing by myself. Now when I looked around, nobody was there. Only me. I chose to go back over to the elevator, specifically the one with the ichor-stain trail leading to it. How odd... I noticed small splotches of ichor going into the elevator itself, perfectly lined up with the ones outside the elevator. They lead straight up to the buttons, where a little blot of the stuff was smudged onto the "Sprout Floor" button. I didn't want to seem like I was following anyone, but this person might be hurt! I pressed the button too, and the goo transferred onto my finger. "Yuck!" I shook my hand around, and it eventually dropped onto the floor. The elevator went down for a considerable amount of time, longer than I expected. When it opened up, I saw Sprout and Cosmo leaning against a kitchen counter. "Why, hello, you two!"