Chapter Text
Astro tried to give Shrimpo good dreams. No matter how mean he may be, everyone deserves a nice dream every once in a while. Everyone deserves to have the chance to relax in their dreamscape, even if it's just for one night.
Astro tries to give Shrimpo good dreams.
But the nightmares are stronger.
Astro had seen a lot of nightmares.
Teeth falling out, falling off a steep cliff or ledge, even the more extreme he'd seen leaned towards normal.
Some of the most extreme he’d seen out of his coworkers were still simple. Friends and family dying, consumed by ichor. Being chased by horrible mutated animals. . .
But this was something else.
This was an entirely new beast.
It usually started the same. Shrimpo restrained, sometimes to a wall. Sometimes strapped onto a table. Handcuffs, vines, lengths of soft silk, and even sometimes just being trapped in a blanket that just wouldn't stop coiling around him like a snake.
It was always dandy who came next. In a huge, hulking form with bloodshot eyes and teeth larger than Shrimpo himself.
Tentacles emerged from the ground, prehensile, powerful, and made of leaves and ichor. They coiled thickly around Shrimpo's form, pulling each of his limbs in a different direction.He thrashed to get free, but it was never enough.
Dandy cackled at him, his head twisting all the way upside down and back, like a clock gone screwy. When he reached the apex of the turn is when the horrors really started.
Ichor dribbled out of dandy's mouth before he opened it. A stream of it shot out, grabbing for Shrimpos face like a hand. It forced his mouth open and crawled inside. The ichor caressed Shrimpos body, shoving itself down his throat. It filled him entirely, distending his belly as it traced a path down his intestines.. Sometimes it filled him so full he popped, and the dream would end there.
Other times, he wasn't so lucky. It would melt him down to his exoskeleton, leaving him a zombie sloshed full of the stuff.
Shrimpo would thrash and shriek around the intrusion, trying to bite down on it or spit it out.
Astro wasn't stupid or naive.
He knew what Shrimpo's subconscious was struggling to digest.
If Shrimpo could get free, he'd start to gut himself. Digging at the flesh on his belly until he broke through to his intestines, and he'd rip them free and cast them out like they were ribbons. Or he'd be desperately trying to vomit up the ichor before it could hurt him, jabbing his fingers down the back of his throat in a.desperate bid to get rid of it. Before it could turn him. Before
Astro tried to give Shrimpo good dreams. He'd tried to intervene at this point. Only once.
Astro wasn't sure what happened, really. No matter how many times he recalled the sickening scene. All he'd done was give him the key.
One second, Shrimpo was handcuffed. Attached to a chain link fence by one arm with one leg forced in the air while tentacles climbed up the other. The next, Shrimpo was on him. Straddling him while he bashed his head in with a brick. Dandy's skull caved in with a disgusting squelch. Ichor leaked out on the floor, making it slippery and tacky and
Shrimpo kept going.
He wouldn't stop.
He couldn't stop
He kept bashing until the brick was missing chunks and was coated in ichor and pieces of Dandy's petals.
He woke up shrieking that night.
He couldn't bring himself to stop, even after every toon on the floor had gathered into his room. They gathered around the bed, goob rushing to make sure he was okay while the rest watched and whispered to each other.
Astro slipped out during the chaos.
He wasn't the same after. At least, not for a little while.
He didn't bother anyone. He just stared off into space when he wasn't needed for filming. They fondly remember the week Shrimpo barricaded himself in his room. Not even leaving for meals. Just sitting in there. Rotting with the weight of what he'd done.
When he didn't intervene, the dreams usually went about the same direction.
After Shrimpo gutted himself, Dandy swallowed him whole. He chewed on him until he was mangled and then swallowed him into a new landscape. The parking garage. Shrimpo did his best to hide. Ducking behind cars and shelves.
Dandy always found him, though.
I just want to talk
I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!
Shrimpo sobbed, like the mantra would keep him safe,like it would free him. He tried to shove past, but it was like Dandy was made of stone.
Dandy grabbed each of his wrists and pinned Shrimpo up against the wall, leaning in close enough that his fuzz tickled Shrimpo’s forehead.
“Come on, now, don’t be so rude to your only friend.”
Only friend
Only friend. . .
Dandy threw Shrimpo away, down an endless hallway. As he tried to make his escape the landscape never stopped twisting and turning underneath him. They laughed at him, the other toons. Shrimpo ran as fast as he could, but he stuck to the floor like molasses.
It dropped out from underneath him, and dandy served him on a platter to the rest.
And
They
Feasted.
They dished his body out on fine platters with intricate cutlery on each side. But the toons just cast it all aside and dug in with their teeth. Each face morphed into Dandy’s as they chewed and swallowed down shrimp.