Colours Collide

Chapter 1 - Jet Black

It's been months since the Gardenview Educational Centre and Museum had officially closed its doors to the public. The original owners, Arthur and Delilah took whatever money that they had left to their names and fled the scene leaving their past passion projects behind to fend for themselves. Since then, times have been hard for the toons of Gardenview. Everyone was going through their own personal rollercoaster of emotions but eventually they learned to cope and survive together as a family. Lots of toons missed their past lives and routines, others missed whatever relationships that they had before their lives were derailed, and the rest disappeared underground to become whatever monsters they were.

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.

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Brusha stood back, blankly staring at her recently finished masterpiece.

Back then, seeing her finished work always brought a sense of joy to her heart but now... she felt nothing. Brusha often found herself missing those days. The times when she'd spend all day joyfully pouring her soul out onto canvases. But that was back when a certain force was the fuel that drove her. The only thing that was keeping her into art now was the commissions that she received from the other toons.

The artist was in the middle of putting her painting up to dry when there was a knock at her door. "Why knock, the door's wide open, just speak." She turned around to see Looey poking his head inside. His ears dropped from her scolding.

"S-sorry," he apologized, shrinking back.

"What do you want?"

"The run is about to start soon, everyone is in the lobby waiting," the clown reminded them.

Brusha faced back to her painting, waving her hand as a gesture for them to leave. "I'll be right down." She told him.

"Wow! Is that Dandy painted as the Mona Lisa?" Looey said, pointing at the painting in front of her.

"Yes, isn't it a work of art?" Brusha finally smiled, happy that someone was admiring her hard work.

" Yeeeah...Minus Dandy's face..."

Brusha sighed looking at the painting. Yes, it was weird having Dandy's face in it but she wasn't in any authority to judge. In fact, it made her curious on why Dandy would request such a strange thing, but Brusha couldn't care less since she was getting paid to do this. Maybe she'll give it to him when she got back from the run.

Brusha closed her door for privacy then walked over to her wardrobe and picked out something comfortable for her to move around in, a simple pair of sweatpants and a sweater would do. She made sure to neaten up her hair?? Bristles?? and packed her sketchbook and other art supplies with her. Drawing during a run sounded a bit useless and distracting but she noticed that whenever she stood beside a toon that was filling a machine whilst drawing, they'd report about it suddenly being easier for them to extract. It was like a special little ability she had. It wasn't the best, but it made her feel special.

Once she was all set, Brusha made her way down to the lobby to join the others. Like Looey had stated, everyone was already waiting, standing near the roster board, chatting, checking their supplies and doing whatever they were up to. As much as Brusha hated having to do this. She didn't have much of a choice honestly. Ever since Gardenview shut down Dandy made it mandatory that EVERY toon had to work for their own ichor. Unlike other living organisms that made their own blood, toons on the other hand couldn't do that, so every day they needed a special dose of purified ichor, which was tablespoon in portion. It tasted terrible but if you wanted to live and not go twisted, you had to stomach it. This meant whether she liked it or not, she had to go on these stupid runs.