Chapter Text
The elevator ride was longer than usual.
Shrimpo had been on the elevator to the cinema a few times, it did feel longer with others, but not like this. He could swear they had passed it already. “Dandy?” Shrimpo had to ask, “Where exactly are we headed? You said we were headed to the cinema, and this is NOT how long it usually takes. Y'know, I HATE being lied to, so where are we going!?”
Dandy’s tail curled around Shrimpo, “Oh? Heheh, you think we’re going to the basic cinema? Oh, no no no, Shrimpy! Me and the other mains have a much better showing room than the one down there.” Dandy gave a coy smile as he spoke, giving Shrimpo a mix of mild infuriation and confusion, “Ot-other showing room?” Shrimpo’s voice wavered slightly.
“Of course, silly! Did you honestly think we would hang out down in that dirty cinema? No! The mains have their own place to watch films without commentary from other toons, except for Vee, with some fresher snacks to boot, courtesy of Sprout, heh.. Of course to get those we had to let Sprout bring Cos along. But, eh, those treats are well worth the trade!” Dandy seemed to warble endlessly about this and that, he sounded especially annoyed when talking about Vee’s endless commentary about shots and scening, and the script, always about the script. Shrimpo started to wonder if talking was even a good idea with how much the conversation had started to shift, before Dandy looked over and realized how little Shrimpo was enjoying Dandy’s monologue, “Oh! I’ve been talking too much, eh? Hehe.. So.. Uh, how did you enjoy making the episode with me?” Dandy’s tail never seemed to stop wiggling or trying to corner Shrimpo.
“WELL, I can complain. The set wasn’t that comfortable in the first place, like it ever was. But the acting was.. Fine, I suppose, script wasn’t too bad, but Hate somehow still feels like too strong a word for it.” Shrimpo responded, having to back away a small bit. Dandy’s smile tensed a bit before going back to normal, “Oh? Is that so? I thought that everything was phenomenal!” Shrimpo scoffed at this, slightly confused by how Dandy had to know that big a word for a big star, “Well, that’s your opinion of it, and you are ALWAYS such a ray of sunshine, for everything.” Shrimpo tensed slightly after saying that, unsure why, but it felt as if he was choosing the wrong option for something he always said. Shrimpo couldn’t even see Dandy’s expression from how far he backed away from the flower, but it wasn’t long until his tail hit the back of the elevator, he had never felt this emotion before, it was normally rage or some brand of it, yet Shrimpo’s vision began to dull as he started shaking and slowly slid onto the floor, nothing about this felt right.
Before Shrimpo or Dandy could say anything or do anything more, the elevator started sliding open, to a room which Shrimpo had never seen before. He slowly uncurled from his position and went back next to Dandy, letting the flower lead him again as Shrimpo took everything in. To his left, was a table with a pile of various treats, mostly sweets, definitely Sprout’s works, but he could definitely see some of Cosmo’s doings in there as well.
“Well, here it is! The Main’s Showing Room.” Dandy said of the obvious. Shrimpo looked over it all, and still could not find a well-enough description of this ‘gilded’ room. His eyes were still blurry from shaking in the elevator, and everywhere he turned, he could still see some part of that flower near him, practically embedded in the shrimp.
After one more turning, however, Shrimpo finally spotted others in the room, and almost ran to meet them.