#shellcup

Once the gang stepped into Garden View, all the worries, all the horrors of what happened seemed to suddenly disappear for only a moment. Bendy recalled the times he sneaked here with Dandicus after their shows and steal little kisses while Joey was searching for them. Boris looked at the intriguing designs all over the place with floating gardens and mid-air waterfalls that seemed out of a movie. Shelly and her trauma response team were home; breathing in the fresh airt of the plants around them. Only the cup brothers were reluctant; not once in their life something so beautiful lasted long. All good things come to an end at some point. 

Sprout, very impatiently tried to yank Cuphead’s body further from the group and dispose of it accordingly, since it was a corpse. By all medical terms, Cuphead was dead, finito, basta, asta la vista; but like hell would Mugman let some rotten strawberry man ever think of something like that. “Hands off my brother before I personally turn you into a smoothy for the searchers outside the gate.” That was enough of a threat to make the young man back away. 

“Sheesh... what’s wrong with you lot?”  “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with them,” Dandy answered half mouthed, clearly forcing himself to look at his ex-stage-partner there “They turned my Dyle into a fucking monster, because someone cannot think for once about anyone other than themselves!” 

While the others continued to bicker, at the high pitched barks of Pebble, Shelly’s eyes wondered at the four people they just saved, her breath coming to a halt seeing the spirit of the cup collector going into the disfigured body, possessing it, controlling it in some twisted kind of way. A puppet whose strings were cut off mid performance had more grace falling than what Cuphead was trying to call walking on his own or even talking. Even with no eyes, and a missing 3 quarters of his head, the man somehow turned to the fossil, like he knew what she was thinking about; that she was looking in disgust at him. 

“R-ruhhhhghh-” He groaned and tried to take a step forward, being stopped by his own brother. Cuphead allowed his spirit to slip out for a moment to talk normally. “Betrayal! This is betrayal from my own Glaze and porcelain!” The mug just scoffed, bonking him in the back, since he didn’t had a head anymore, scolding him about freaking people out with his ungodly look. “ughh mmman” The older brother groaned out while he seeped into his body again. 

Freaky things always happen around Garden View. After all, this was the biggest medical bay in all of the main isles and closest to Toon Town that could handle searchers and bloat cases. Shelly has seen her fair share of horrible things happening here: from degloving of children by their own parents who were desperate to stop the bloat from infecting their youth, to people having attacks right when they seemed they were getting better and the fake ink injections seemed to work, only to melt at her feet like some useless pile of ice-cream. If ice-cream could cream in agony while their faces melted off into a myriad of bubbles, skin and ink boiling into the air- 

“I’m sorry about my brother, Miss. He does tend to be very oblivious to social queues.” Mugman tried to reassure the poor woman who looked like she was shell shocked only from seeing the cup trying to for words normally. She shook her head, forcing a small smile “Oh, no need. I am Shelly. You can drop the ‘Miss’ part, we are friends here.” 

Yes, friends... there are a demon and a wolf who might want to tell you a small story about these two, miss Fossilian. One is a total suicidal lunatic who got what he asked for and the other is a two-timing bitch that will give out meds then maim you into the ground. They were anything but friends, yet no one said anything because they were all just saved from the very angry twisted dark ‘friend’ they just made. Speaking of which Astro still had a very hard time understanding ding who could’ve done such a thing to Doyle.what on earth happened that made the automaton clock turn… Into that thing. 

But Mugman caught the idea quickly, the animosity of the B-Brothers mixed with the odd friendliness of the kind fossil that helped them was a weird thing. “And I know it is not my place to ask, but are you and your brother ceramic?” 

“Porcelain, toots.” Cuphead chimed in dropping his lifeless body over his brother’s shoulder with zero curtesy, like it was something most normal to do. “Grandpa kettle made us from bone porcelain back in the day, but we do have some patches with random clay here and there.” He added in a meter of factory way, swooshing in the air around Shelly, drinking in her appearance. He hadn’t seen many toon quite like her. If he still had a heart, it would most definitely pick up the pace, beating in his chest like a wild motor from a runaway train. 

Shelly stored that information deep in her mind, but not too deep to forget it easily. Maybe it will come in handy later. After all, despite being dead, the collector was also still alive. Most intriguing. This could help them revolutionize medicine as a whole: a connection so deep with the body that can turn the soul into something almost palpable, into life beyond death, so many people being brought back to life after meeting their painful demise. She wanted to learn more about it, eat it alive in the best way possible. 

………………………… 

Pebble’s surprisingly soft paws hit the concrete layer outside of the research area; e hadn’t been allowed inside after a small incident with some DIP canisters being mistake for wet canned dog food. Let’s say Vee and Spout spent 2 ours pumping out his little belly of all the DIP before I could do any damage to his little tummy. But why was he outside the research area, walking in circles and circles and- it was because his best friend, Shelly, was inside, studying some old books about toons those if she could find something about toons who could live outside their bodies. 

Suddenly, the soft pittle-pattle of the paws came to an abrupt stop and Pebble let out a confused whimper. “No, no… go ahead to sleep, boy. I’m good…” Fossilian reassured the small rock, thinking he was just tired from waiting for her to finish with her reading for the night. But that wasn’t really the case, as she very soon felt a chilled gust of wind filling the rom and a particularly colder one right behind her. “Brr…” she stood up, chair scrapping against the tile floor, in order to go close the windows, or the door. When she turned around, though she was nose to beheaded corpse with Cuphead. “Grrrroo-…” he groaned earning a terrified shriek from poor Shelly, phasing his spirit enough to replace his head at the moment “ what’cha doing, toots?” He asked like he hadn’t just scared the poor woman senseless. 

She took in a shaky breath, sighed out calming herself. He was just a man, not some scary killer, right? She’s seen much worse than this, so why was she acting so jumpy round the cup, she couldn’t tell. “Oh, just researching something, don’t worry-” He cut her off, with a rather rude shove, his gaze running down the papers. 

“You monsters-”  “I-I can explain-” she shouted, trying to explain her reasoning behind all of this. The Ink Machine, Cuphead’s ability to ‘live’ as a ghost; all this could’ve saved many, could’ve saved Toodles and Fin. She was panicking, of course she was, trying to hide the books she found, not that they were of any help.she found nothing on he ability to live with nobody of ink, not a damaged one not just- 

Seeing the distress on her face, Cuphead laughed almost toppling over. To him, it was funny tormenting people. “Relax, Shelby! I can’t even read,” he explained through avid laughs “you could tell me you’re reading a cake recipe and I’d still believe you.” The collector gave a very heartfelt laugh, getting more into her personal space. “But I’m actually curious. What’cha cooking, good looking?” 

“G-goo... what-” Shelly ignored the fact he didn’t got her name right, she ignored the fact he was let in a very high security area with zero checks; but she did fluster at the compliment. She eventually came back around after a very cold hand came to cup her face, then dragged across it. “Aaaaaand the moment is gone,” that made the cup laugh again “but I’m trying to find anything on your condition.  How you can just-” the shell gestures vaguely at his whole-body muttering something incoherent.  

She sighed, looking back at all the text she found until now, unable to find even the slightest little link to what the cup brothers were experiencing. It was a lost cause, and maybe it had to do with a demon being here – though it was very classist to think all demons were like that. Why didn’t she ask the people who could know exactly what was going on, she didn’t know. Maybe she was hiding behind fake courtesy. Shelly sat down at her desk, in defeat, with zero progress made in the past 3 hours. 

“Why are you alive?”  “Well.. it all started when two pieces of china loved each other very much-” hearing the stupid child-friendly talk, Fossilian wanted to slam her head against the still opened book, but a cold hand softened her hit, the palm gently recoiling and upping her forehead. “Sorry, sorry…” Cuphead muttered with a bit of remorse at his own bad joke. It was a horrible idea to tell these people the secret society, the heritage him and Mugman had, but on the other hand they did help them despite all odds. 

He remembered the way Shelly came in his life, all action and sparkles, breaking into the train and helping them all out. And, for the record, if he was not spent as a sprite back then he would’ve saved his little lady instead of letting the mutt do it. His lady? He certainly loved the sound of that. “Ill tel ya, don’t worry about it, sugar.” 

The two brothers were gasping for air, running for their lives across the Inkwell Isles; four feet, four eyes, two straws made a beeline for their home, for the safety of the forest and their grandfather. “Elder Kettle is going to kill us…”Mugman slumped against a tree as the reality of their wrongdoings finally settled in hand-in-hand with the fatigue and terror that Cuphead just sold both their souls to the literal devil. 

“Mugs-”  “What. Were. You. Thinking!” The younger brother jumped him, pining him to the ground, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him violently. “We are as good as dead!” 

Head hitting the ground, his first chip fell off. The first one he refused to ever get repaired because ‘it taught him a lesson’. “Grandpa is getting older mugs… the workshop ain’t doing well and- a-and money. Imagine what we could’ve done with it!” An early retirement for Kettle, a way for mugs to never worry about going to school anymore – affording it for as long as needed. Maybe even he could go, show his ‘prototypes’ and… 

It was all wishful thinking from a kid that was too fucking stupid and dreamed way too much for hope in a world that always bit back and took triple the amount. 

“Cuphead, I’m sorry- you dealt with the Devil?!”  “And that’s not even the good bit, Shelby-” “Shelly!” “Whatever.” 

Finally when the two made it home by midday, having been amiss from home from the night prior, they saw their elder cane-in-hand, having waited all night out by the porch for them to return. When he saw his younger boys coming back running, he never imagined they done something so wrong and wished, he just thought they missed home. Elder Kettle gave a warm smile and opened his arms, he boys running right in them, hugging him as crying. 

When the two finally calmed down enough to explain to him what happened, the kettle’sepression hardened. It was his fault. He took these youngsters into his care after their creation, hiding the truth, being too leaned back in their training… 

“And then what?” 

“And then he told us all about our lineage, the Calix Amini. A thousand of years old cast of the calixes, a spirituality that could mend and bend souls, change your being and revive.” He sighed, walking around the room and looking over the artefacts that were laying around on dusty shelves. “As long as we are a community, together we are unstoppable. Even two are enough.” 

“You and your brother-” “exactly.” 

He goes to explain the fact that they were descendants of those powers, soul that travelled from a dead bearer and split into two when one of the eldest potters alive made them. But there was a catch, they could use this magic of the soul as long as their calix was intact, as log as. They had somewhere for the soul to return to. ”And since my head is in smithereens, my soul has no place to return to.” 

It was too much, way too much information for the poor fossil to take in; she didn’t know if the headache was for the countless night’s spent awake reading much to Astro’s dismay, or because of this rollercoaster of a story. To be obligated to deal with the devil because of a small mistake you made as a child, was getting to her heart. “A-And the pieces of your head, where are they? Did you manage to salvage them?” Cuphead nodded, clarifying that Mugman carried a bag in which he managed to get most of the pieces before they were attacked by searchers in the forest outside Toon Town.  

Shelly got an idea, a very stupid and reckless idea, but an idea nevertheless. She had an old friend in her childhood, a flower vase, porcelain, who people would keep picking up on and throwing pebbles in. And Shelly, the cute little fossil she was learned basic pottery to help her and patch her up. The collector gave her a ton of information, and now she felt indebted to him for this. “I think I can help you, Cuphead.” 

“You can’t even begin to understand how much I wanna smooch ya now, toots!” But looking at the maced face, would still sputtering and pulsing under roughened crystallised blood and grime of the day, the fleshy, dry tongue still there, giving small jolts in muscle memory; the shell narrowed her eyes and passed it for another time. Now, they needed to convince mugman of their newfound plan. 

Shelly walked to the main quarters, Cuphead trailing behind her, legs slumping on the ground, Pebble behind him, wagging his tail and yapping at every butterfly that visited Sprouts new-planted begonias around the paths. “Uhh, what room was your brother staying in again?” she asked confused again, but the confusion cleared when she bumped into someone smoking at the corner of the quarter’s building. 

“Cuphead, I can explain-”  “... get that crap out of your mouth before I slap you into the river you were made from.” 

Mugman sighed, extinguishing the cigarette and tossing it aside somewhere on the wet, freshly rained soil of a cabbage garden. Why cabbage- I don't know, do people ask you if you stir your stir-fried rice from left to right or from right to left as well?! “Why are you two strolling around? Aren't you supposed to be with that strawberry head?”  “Well I’m sorry, but I am not his fucking science project!” He muttered before sinking in again and groaning in annoyance. 

The woman picked up her companion from the ground, opened her eyes wide and put on her best begging voice ever. “May I please see your brother’s pieces? I know pottery!” She added the last part very fast as she already saw the way Mugman’s browa furrowed and he was ready to refuse her. “I will take care, please...”  “Doll, it’s not that we don’t know how to, but-” 

Cuphead started mocking him, making chicken sounds, or what he wanted to sound like chicken sounds. He always knew that got him to give in. As children, as teens, and even now, to his worst, mugman agreed, leading the two in the room he was put in. The bag containing the pieces of his brothers head was placed on the nightstand like some kind of sick twisted memorabilia. The younger brother just pointed at it and waited for the short fossil to grab it and go before he changed his mind. 

Shelly blinked once, twice, then quickly went in and grabbed the bag, running into the horizon with a limping, beheaded body after her. The view was.... horrifying to say the least, but the collector couldn’t deny that he felt a bit heartwarming seeing his brother might get well soon. 

......................... 

Once back in the research area, Shelly softly placed the bag on the main table, some big rounded wood stub actually, that she often used when restoring old artefacts and scripts. She was known as a very patient person, and despite what many may say about stubby hands, those little things were very dexterous when working with old things. “we’ve got this. First I just need to dry match them into the shape of a cup...” she trailed off, gently unpacking the pieces and placing them on  the table, sorting them on size, curvature, and trying to map out the skeleton. 

“Put that the other way, toots-” Cuphead not-go-gracefully placed a hand on hers and guided it when Shelly got confused, making the woman’s face heat up slightly and make her wonder even more how would he feel like with warm, alive hands instead of that frigid and dull porcelain. The soft growl of Pebbles woke her up from the minimal daydreaming; her companion having brought her some adhesive he saw her using other times. “Hey, what’s got you so stress, Sheldon?”  

She sighed, lightly smacking his arm. “Shelly… and maybe I’m worried. Teegan was way better at this than me.”  

“Tee-gain… toots, comes on. Me and my brother lived in a fucking workshop, our Kettle repaired us so many times you’d think we would at least grasp the basics of keeping ourselves together.” He explained trailing along-  Like that one time we fought agains some devil-powered flower and his roots shoot up from the ground, took us by surprise and mugman got ripped in half with those jacking roots ripping and shattering porcelain- One got in his eye socket and pulled an eye out. 

“Oh man, I had to parry him to live so fast dude-” Cuphead laughed, but the laugh did nothing more than to worry the poor fossil even more. Just how much damage could these cups get before they really kick the bucket. “But of course, I had o kill him myself first, because somehow he was still alive. Ha-! The look on your face just now toots. Priceless.” 

“You’re laughing… at your brother being hurt?!”  “Oh please… when we were fighting this… Stagepay or whatever her name was, the stage collapsed on me and he did the same. Though he was using some bullets that didn’t really work too good and it took more than a shot-” 

Shelly’s stomach turned upside down and she was already feeling sick. She really wanted to shut him up, but how does one make a ghost shut up in the first place. “W-well, gruesome details out of the way, wait... Stageplay. You and your brother really are the collectors!” The cup chuckled at that, amazed by how very idiotic the girl was in moments like this. 

“yes... that’s the whole fucking idea, toots.” 

With steady hands, despite the very unpleasant tales of the past Cuphead reminiscent of, Shelly managed to put his head back together as much as possible getting the fact some bits were completely shattered and couldn’t be repaired. What the two haven't realised was the time that passed since first entering the room. It was now well past midnight, the sky as dark as possible. Darker than any joke either of them could think of. 

“Damn, i really did keep you occupied all day, didn’t I hon-,” when he turned to her, Fossilian was already asleep, her head on her arms; arms that were resting on the table as a makeshift pillow. “ney....” he smiled at the view, before mentally slapping himself and covering her with his coat so she wouldn’t be cold, he himself settling his body prepped against a wall.