That was how long it had been since Toadster last saw of the jester.
Of him, and lil’ Tiny.
To say he was worried was an understatement.
The sheriff had searched high and low all throughout the floor, looking for any sign of the criminal and his captive. He searched through all the areas, all the best spots Bittergiggle tended to hide in when he was upset, and even going down paths he’d never taken before. But no matter how hard he looked, how long he searched, Toadster couldn’t find Bittergiggle anywhere.
And it was… odd. To say the least.
It was as if a looming threat had passed and danger that had always been peeking around the corner had moved on to find different trouble.
And yet, Toadster couldn’t find it in himself to feel even an ounce of relief.
Bittergiggle was still out there somewhere, and with Tiny in his clutches. Who knows what horrors he was putting the young Mutant through?
Toadster wanted to go looking for that scoundrel, but he knew he couldn’t. Not when it would put the queen at risk without a guard. No, as much as it pained him, Toadster’s duty was clear.
He would stay in the Kingdom.
He would continue his duty to protect her majesty.
And nothing else.
🧪
Twelve days.
By now, he had looked through every corner and hallway of the floor, just to be sure the jester wasn’t lying low. He kept an eye out, trying to find any clue, but so far, it really did seem like Bittergiggle was nowhere on the floor.
It was… well, it was a lot of things.
Problematic for one thing. As it turned out, Bittergiggle hadn’t taken just one Mutant with him.
Kittysaurus was also missing.
Admittedly, Toadster should’ve noticed earlier. A giant hybrid cat that could shake a whole room with one stomp? It was hard to miss. And even harder to believe that she could easily sneak by so quietly without alerting anyone.
Of course, he should have figured that if Bittergiggle had gone on the run, he would have taken his pet with him. The sheriff kicked himself for not checking the Employee Exercise Sector more often. For letting his small fear of the big cat get to him. Oh sure, Kittysaurus was, admittedly, a very sweet girl who was too big to be someone’s lapcat, but she was still a beast to the core when provoked or commanded to by her master.
Honestly, Toadster never knew how Bittergiggle managed to command such an impressive Mutant. Kittysaurus has a very limited attention span, and an even shorter loyalty and respect to anyone who wasn’t the jester. The sheriff couldn’t wrap his head around how easily Bittergiggle could make her do anything he wanted her to, while everyone else struggled to even get her to behave.
Still, it was very worrisome.
With Kittysaurus missing, Toadster worried for the Kingdom and the queen’s safety.
Briefly he wondered if Bittergiggle would use his pet to torment poor Tiny, but quickly pushed the thought aside.
Bittergiggle had some standards. He wouldn’t use his pet to hurt anyone… would he?
🧪
Thirteen days.
The bi-weekly expedition had come, and Toadster had no clue how the humans hadn’t noticed a lack of a certain jester.
The sheriff had been worried when the timely expedition arrived, and while gritting through all the probing questions and making sure the queen’s safety was in check, not once had there been any mention of Bittergiggle’s lack of appearance.
He didn’t bring it up. Her majesty didn’t bring it up. No one from the expedition brought it up.
And like that, after hours of interrogation, they left.
A couple of years must have been shaved from Toadster’s life when they finally left, yet he was still worried.
The last time Bittergiggle had disappeared, he missed two expeditions, and that had put some of the scientists on edge when they finally noticed. And when humans were on edge…
He had half a mind to go out there and drag the idiot back here before he got them all killed.
But his duty to the queen kept him from going off to find that criminal, and he swore that Bittergiggle was laughing at his situation somewhere in the facility.
🧪
Eighteen days.
It was too quiet.
Toadster glanced up.
The sight of the Kingdom hadn’t changed.
The mushrooms were glowing. The fake clouds still hung silently in the air. Half-finished buildings still sat around collecting dust.
A sigh left the sheriff, going back to his task of cleaning his Toadstars.
The queen had ordered him to take a break. Not his usual minute-long breaks, but an actual break. He tried to argue, but as usual, the queen made a fair point that was hard to refute, and thus, Toadster found himself sitting on the stairs that led to the throne room, using his favorite rage to clean his trusty weapons.
It was… familiar.
The only time he took an actual break, when the queen wasn’t in direct danger, was when Bittergiggle would be busy trying out a new joke or two with the queen.
Sure, Toadster knew it was a bit impolite to just leave when Bittergiggle was performing, but then again, the sheriff wanted his brain and his ears to still work, so the bipedal toad often sat at the bottom of the stairs, listening to the queen’s thunderous laughs from behind him as Bittergiggle delivered his jokes. It would go on for about an hour before the jester joined him on his break, trying his hardest to get a laugh out of him with his jokes, and ultimately failing. Still, his company had made Toadster feel a sort of ease as they chatted about anything that crossed their minds.
Once the rebellion had failed and Dadadoo’s imprisonment in the pouch… breaks had become… nonexistent.
Bittergiggle couldn’t be trusted to be alone with the queen. No matter how much Toadster wanted to believe he wouldn’t tell a joke and knew the consequences well enough, a part of Toadster just couldn’t allow it. It hurt to take away Bittergiggle’s one purpose in life, but it had to be done.
Even if… even if it hurt seeing how distraught the jester was.
As much as Bittergiggle had done a good job of hiding it at first, Toadster could see it in the jester’s eyes.
They held the same look he had when he had been thrown away, when he had been deemed too good and too dangerous for his role of protector.
Never did he wish that same look on his worst enemies.
Especially from a former friend.
Toadster glanced up, almost expecting the area beside him to be occupied.
It remained empty
He went back to cleaning.
🧪
Twenty days.
He found a chocolate bar.
Bittergiggle had a strange weakness for chocolate.
Even though none of the Mascots or Mutants needed to eat, the jester was head over heels for chocolate.
Toadster didn’t know the exact story, but the queen, Dadadoo, and even Syrinegon had all used chocolate at one point or the other to persuade Bittergiggle to do something the jester would normally never do. Even Toadster had used chocolate to bribe Bittergiggle at one point in the past.
A milk chocolate brand with some peanuts.
Bittergiggle loved it when there was a crunch in chocolate bars.
He also loved strawberries with chocolate.
Toadster wondered if Tiny liked either of those things.
You have a queen to protect. You can’t spare any time thinkin’ ‘bout others. Tiny isn’t a priority. Focus only on the queen and keepin’ the Kingdom safe.
He looked at the chocolate bar.
The bar was unopened.
Carefully, he looked around, then swiftly stuffed the chocolate into his vest.
If anyone asked, he would only say that it was for a bait meant to trap the jester.
And not because he wanted to give Tiny a small treat.
🧪
Twenty-five days.
Toadster stared in horror.
Fabric was pooled around his feet.
The air in the hideout was cold.
There was an eyeless jester inside a glass tube.
Toadster couldn’t stop staring.
He had known that Bittergiggle had been up to something in his little hideout. The jester was always a bit secretive about his own doings and didn’t like having guests in his area. He wouldn’t even allow Toadster inside, and the sheriff had respected the jester’s choice and never pressed.
He should have known better.
He felt sick.
He felt small.
He felt like a young tadpole again.
He wanted to go out there, track the jester down, slap him silly, and demand what the abyss this was.
He wanted answers.
He wanted to know why Bittergiggle had a clone of himself hidden away in his hideout. Why it didn’t have his colors, or eyes, or an arm.
He wanted to lock the fool away for good, knowing no one else would be INSANELY STUPID enough to try and make ANOTHER JESTER other than the jester himself.
One jester was bad enough.
ANOTHER JESTER SPELLED DOOM TO THEM ALL.
Toadster’s breath caught in his throat, looking towards the other cloth that was taped up.
He had a sickening feeling he already knew what was under it, even when he reached towards the fabric with a shaky hand.
🧪
“It was HEADLESS! A whole body! Jus’! Jus’! Floatin’ there! And it didn’t even have A HEAD! The one without eyes and an arm was bad ‘nough, but one without a HEAD?! I didn’t even know how he even managed that!”
The queen looked frightened, ears pinned down beside her head as she took in his report. “Oh dear… that… is rather concerning. Are you… certain that Bittergiggle made these clones and not one of the humans?”
“I’m QUITE certain that only Bittergiggle could be responsible fer this, your majesty. We both know how much Bittergiggle never allowed anyone in his hideout. And there’s no doubt in my mind that he would NEVER allow a human to step foot in that place.”
“That’s true.” Bouncelia’s face fell, eyes looking downcast before she took a deep breath and cleared her face. “Nevertheless, this is something we can’t overlook so easily… both these clones were… inanimate?”
Toadster nodded solemnly. “They… they were. I don’t think Bittergiggle even knew that they weren’t… when he…” He didn’t want to finish. He could only imagine what the jester must have felt when he realized that the two clones in the tanks were… well, at least they weren’t any threat to the queen. That was at least some good news, even if it was a bit grim and disheartening.
But it raised the question. Did Bittergiggle only make those two, or did he make more? Did he manage to succeed, or were there more bodies hidden away somewhere? Where would he stash them? Did he feel anything when he realized there wasn’t any life in any of his creations? Who was he kidding, OF COURSE he did. Bittergiggle was far from being anything like Syringeon, and that Toadster was fairly certain of, even when he had no clue how the jester’s mind worked at the moment.
Bittergiggle had always been emotional. A little over the top, if not slightly explosive. Not to mention that the jester was also a large ham. He would never be able to keep a stone face for more than a minute before his emotions broke through.
And when he saw that his clones failed, Toadster could only guess the frustration and emotional turmoil of grief the jester went through.
For a moment, he almost felt pity for the criminal, but immediately squashed it down. He couldn’t afford to spare that dangerous criminal any sympathy. Not when his crimes were too great. And now with these clones–
His heart stopped as a horrifying thought crossed his mind.
A past memory folded his mind, one that he hadn’t taken into account as important at the time.
But now, after seeing this new information before him, a sickening theory pushed forward.
One that he hoped wasn’t true, but couldn’t find any possible way to refute or dismiss it entirely.
Tiny.
The little young jester.
A young, living, perfect clone of Bittergiggle.
His stomach dropped.
Why hadn’t he put it together earlier?
Why hadn’t he seen and connected the dots sooner?
Had he allowed himself to grow soft and slow with his skills?
Had he failed to sleuth things out perfectly?
Or had Bittergiggle been more cunning than he ever thought?
Sickness twisted his insides.
Tiny… Tiny was a clone. A LIVING clone.
Bittergiggle had achieved his goal of making a clone.
And that clone… was going to help him reach the queen.
The rest of the experiment jesters redesigned! I imagine Minty and Spicy were thrown into floor -4 because Bittergiggle couldn't get them to cooperate, and they brought Savory into the group to try and "fix" the others. It did not go well. Unlike the first batch, all three (four) of these jesters were once whole, but were torn apart later in various ways.
Wintergreen and Spearmint willingly split themselves apart-- they were born in one body but they aren't alter egos or split personalities, they're simply the result of incomplete twinning. So, when they were grown in a test tube, their head was in the process of splitting into two, but wasn't able to finish. Therefore, they were born with one head, but two brains. Wintergreen was able to tolerate Spearmint back when they were one body, but Spearmint felt like he had no privacy and nothing for himself. So, it was his idea to split.
Savory was outright attacked by Sir Dadadoo-- I say this because the canon version of the character literally says he "lost a leg", meaning he originally had both his legs before the player meets him! Savory is like actually one of my fav jester designs (I wanted him to look like meat LOL) but he is SO suffering. I think he should have a little treat to feel better.
Spicy might've had his arms ripped off by Toadster-- his position next to an important switch makes me think he might've had a bad habit of turning it on and off, thus compromising floor -4's security and especially that of Bouncelia's staff (though since my version is not magic, it's less that the staff will be stolen and moreso that Sir Dadadoo would wreak havoc if he had access to Cityngeon again; it'd be a massacre). Therefore, Toadster took away Spicy's arms so he couldn't compromise anything else.
