Chapter Text
Glisten sank in the corner closest to the humans on the other side of the shelter. His face hurt. Blood-like ichor dripped from his barely closed wounds onto his golden body in an attempt to fix what was too easily broken.
His face.
Another mirror, a normal one, not another Glisten, sat a bit away from him. The reflective part was turned towards the wall to keep him from seeing what he already knows was there. The reason why he's here…
His biggest regret.
He didn't realize that some humans weren't nearly as careful around other toons as they were to him. His previous… friends? Owners?… friends had taken him out on an afternoon stroll with their little one who had a kickball to play with friends at the park.
Glisten had never been to the park before.
He wishes he never went.
A kid kicked the ball. Hard. It didn't go where the kid wanted it to go. It strayed from its path. It hit him in the face. Broke it. Shattered it. Shattered his hopes of ever being with a family again.
Glisten curled up further into the corner, hands slick with his blood sliding around his body in an attempt to soothe himself as he heard the employees say his name, though he could not for the life of him know what they were talking about.
Well, he could hazard one guess, at least.
His… owners had stormed into the shelter not long after the accident had happened. They demanded for him to be…
Replaced.
Like he was nothing more than the mirror he was based on.
And Glisten thinks that that was what had hurt the most that day.
It has been a couple of months since then. People had come and gone. Each one as eager as the last to find someone to be their forever with, or maybe even as a fun project that could be more… profitable later. Glisten tried to be more like the latter, at first. He kept his appearance up the best he could with the limited makeup palette that was mandatory for his stay here. He showed off. Put himself up there. Made himself seem like nothing had happened.
But when everyone saw his face, their faces dropped.
And they left him alone.
"No one wants to see the poor guy," an employee's voice murmured behind several, granted rather thin, walls, "He can't live like this anymore."
"Well what're you gonna do about it?" A harsher, more angry voice rang out, "Take it home. Keep it? We barely get enough money to work here as is, and you want to bring one of the most expensive freaking toons home?! Hah, good luck with THAT."
"So we're supposed to just euthanize him and hope he doesn't hate us in the afterlife?!"
"Heh, you clearly haven't been in this place long enough. You can't bond to any of these creatures here."
Glisten looked up as a loud bang coursed through the hallway he was in. They were talking about him… weren't they?
"Once you get attached to them," the brash voice continued, "you start to think that they deserve more."
"The younger one's voice tried to pipe up, "But they-"
"And maybe they do. But there's not much we can do anymore."
The two employees stood in front of his cell. The brash gentleman looked sharp, angry from where Glisten could see him, but his face showed a familiar gentleness. The kid, for there was no other way to describe him, stood next to the loud voice, his face pinched with nervousness and pity. They were both holding dog catchers to protect themselves from harm in case a toon decides to go feral.
They didn't need to do that. Glisten ignores the slice of hurt in his heart that they'd think he'd do that.
"Alright you," the brash voice stated, though not unkindly, "Get up now. Time for you to go."
Glisten nods, eyes tearing up as he stands. He uses the walls to help him up and the humans make no move to help him. Glisten sniffles, hand reaching up to wipe away his tears as they start to fall.
The humans open the door to his cell and carefully reach over the opening with their catchers. One, the one that the brash voice had, went carefully around his head before tightening around his neck, though it wasn't harsh enough to truly hurt him. The second one reached behind him to hold his hands behind his back.
The tears started to fall freely now.
The solemn trio start their march to the other side of the building. Thankfully, away from the other toons, but unfortunately quite close to the entrance of the building.
And of course, on this day, there had to be an audience.
Murmurs rose from the seats each talking about the reasons why this Glisten could've been shattered then condemned. Maybe it went feral for a while. Maybe it wasn't up to par with the show Glistens. Maybe it was just a Bad Glisten.
Glisten's eyes were focused on the ground. His feet stepped one after the other. A resounding beat that will lead to his last.
But then, as the trio had made it across half the room, a new noise occurred. A resounding tap-tap-tap-step-step-step-BANG! Everyone jolted up as the door slammed open by a little girl, no older than ten or so years. Her brown eyes were open wide and her cheeks were pink, likely from the run here and the makeup. Her hair was wild and frizzy, all natural, it seemed, despite the hair attempting to look more calm underneath her braids.
"STOP!" The child cried out, like no one had seen her yet, "I want HIM!"
"What?" Everyone murmured, Glisten's being the quietest of them all.
They want… him?
The child strode up to the employees holding him and, once again, demanded, "I came here for a Glisten for the show this spring. I want this one."
The brash human had tried to stutter for an answer, but he could give no excuse. Another person walked in from the entryway, a woman who looked like she could be child's mother, and likely was if her disappointed sneer had anything to say.
"You sure this is the one, dear?" The mother said in a vaguely posh accent.
The child looked to her mom with nothing but determination in her eyes, "Yes, Mother. I choose this one to be my showman."
The woman nodded as she fixed her attention to the employees who were still frozen in shock.
"Well then? Go on, you heard he child. Give us this…" the woman seemed to sneer harder at the pitiful sight that was Glisten, "Glisten."
The meek voiced employee was the one who spoke up first, "Y-yes, ma'am. R-right away, ma'am."
He hurriedly dropped his pole, narrowly avoiding Glisten's legs in the process, and booked it to the front desk. Some hurried typing and some surprisingly fast printing later, the papers were shown to the woman, who as quickly ushered them to the child who signed everything before returning the papers to her mom who also signed some stuff, and gave it back to the employee.
the employee did a quick glance-over before stating, "That's it! Everything looks good! Congrats on your… new Glisten!"
The child celebrated, jumping around in excitement around her mother before rushing towards Glisten and giving him a tight hug. Glisten was shocked. Not just shocked, floored, flabbergasted, even. His hands attempted to rise to reciprocate the hug, but the rope still held him tight.
The child nuzzled deeper into his frame before whispering, "I promise I will take good care of you and protect you. No matter the cost."