Lone Survivor

5

Many years ago....

The first memory Dandy has was waking up on a table with many eyes looking at him. Eyes of beings he did not know. Then they started cheering and making loud sounds the freaked the flower out.

"L-001 has woken up! We did it a real life cartoon!"

Cartoon?

What were they talking about? What was he?

He touched his face. It was plush like squishy and soft. He wasn't sure how to feel about this. Then one of the creatures came up to him.

"Hello little one. Your name is Dandy."

Dandy?

Yeah, that felt right.

The creature took him to a mirror to look at himself. He was a flower, a rainbow one. He felt his petals they were soft and warm. The creature let out a soft laugh from see the new toon look at himself.

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As time went on Dandy started to learn about the world he lived in. The creatures were actually called humans and that he lived in a place called Gardenview. The humans teach him how to talk, read, and write. They also showed him the cartoon he was from. It felt weird seeing himself in the show, after all none of it was real and didn't happen. He had no memories of these adventures his cartoon show counterpart had. Because he was real and that version of him wasn't.

At some point he was given something called a Toon handler, a human who was tasked to watch and look after Dandy. His Toon handler was..... interesting to say the least. The flower got a weird vibe from the guy, he was nice sure but in an uncanny way.

One day Dandy was in his room when a knock came from his door. When he opened it his Toon handler was there with his usual smile.

"Hello Dandy. I was told to come fetch you. The others have a surprise for you."

"Really?"

"Yes. You're going to love it."

The two walked toward the room where Dandy first woke up in, and as they got closer he heard the noise of a small bark coming from the room. The door opened and a small rock dog was running around the room full of energy getting pats on the head from the humans.

Dandy recognized the dog. He saw him in the tv show. Pebble was his name. And he was the pet dog for his tv counterpart.

Wait. If he's supposed to be his pet dog in the show.... Does that mean.....?

His thoughts were cut off when the small rock came up to him and started sniffing his feet. He giggled and went to pet him.

"Good rock pup."

" I'm glad you like him." His Toon handler said, "because this is your surprise. Dandy meet Pebble."

The rock gave out a bark as he went and jumped into Dandy's arms. Dandy went to hug the dog back already loving his new friend.

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Present day...

A blacked out happened on the lobby, great just their luck. Dandy never like the dark, in the past whenever the power went out the flower would start freaking out. He would cling to Pebble and stay close to the toons who would admit light. The toons being Brightny, Vee, and most definitely Astro.

But after everything that happened here he had nobody to stay close to. So he'd always tried his hardest to keep the power running. It's just been lately he had other things to prioritize on. Though it was nice to see that Astro still has his glow.

The flower fiddle with the fuse box while his moon friend gave him a little blue glow to see what he was doing. Dandy grumbled in frustration.

"This might take longer than expected. Sorry if this is boring you."

"It's fine" the moon responds. His voice was getting better. That's good.

Astro's eyes wandered around the room. Despite it being pitch black he could actually see in the dark. The room was more of a storage if anything, old boxes on selves, papers from the past, and some old pictures. Something that caught the moon's eye was a box with the words 'Toon handlers' on it.

Just then the lights turned on. Dandy pumped his fist in the air.

"Hell yeah baby!"

"Hey Dandy what are Toon handlers?"

"Huh?"

Astro points at the box.

"Oh well they were humans who look after and took care of us."

"Humans?"

"Ah well it's hard to explain. Here let me show you."

Dandy took the box and led Astro back to the main room and sat down on the ground. Astro did the same. The flower opened the box and inside was the papers for each toon handler. Dandy smiled,

"All of the handlers were very nice except Sprout's, that guy was always grumpy."

"Everyone got their own human?"

"Well some of us shared a handler. Like Goob and Scraps, or Rodger and Toddles, oh and me and Pebble."

"What was mine like?"

"A lot like you actually."

Dandy pulled out a piece of paper from the box and handed it to Astro. The human that was on there looked nervous to have his picture taken. He had a dark blue shirt with a moon pin on it. He had light skin and pitch black hair. Astro could see himself peeking from behind him. Then it hit him.

"I seen him before in a dream I had."

"You did?"

"Yeah it was when I remember meeting you."

"You remember when we met...?"

"Yeah."

Dandy remembers the day he met Astro. Both were so awkward towards each other. The flower had seen the moon but only in the cartoon. The humans told him that they were best friends and they probably expected the two to hit it off right away. How could you be best friends with someone who doesn't know you. It wasn't until the two of them were told to draw something they liked. Dandy drew Pebble but Astro had a hard time.

The moon hadn't developed any likes yet so he drew the only thing he could think of.....him sleeping. Dandy laughed when he saw the drawing thinking it was adorable. This embarrassed the moon who hid in his blanket. The flower then felt bad so he tried making up for it by drawing himself sleeping. It was badly drawn and it looked like he was having a seizure. This made the moon laugh for the first time and something warm and bubbly grew inside the flower.

Dandy was soon snapped back to reality when he heard the moon's voice again.

"What was your handler like?"

"Oh well he was nice. A little weird but.... He was fine."

Dandy really didn't know what to say about his handler. The man never was addressed by his name only was known as Dandy's handler the flower even thinks the man never told him his name. It was just weird. Dandy turned his head back to Astro.

"What to hear about the other handlers?"

"Sure."

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I don't know if they have names if they do please tell me