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It was a great day in Gardenview. It was Easter.... Again! Even though the humans had already been gone for a very long time, the Holiday Toons still hid away from the others until their respective holiday. And today was Easter! It was very exciting for all Toons (even Shrimpo), not because it signaled the start of the annual Egg Hunt, but it meant that Eggson would be back again! Toodles, especially, admired him. She really wanted to be the Egg Hunt Champion as well, and maybe getting advice from the former one would make her better at egg hunting. However, right now, Rodger was talking to her about something called "homosexuality". She had no idea what he said!
Now, going to Eggson's point of view...
Eggson was telling the Toons tales of his feats, surrounded once again by young, aspiring extractors and generalists. It was normal holiday routine by now, sitting down near the giant tree and talking about how he won the Egg Hunt 19 years ago.
"I stuck my leg out, and then he fell right over! Heh... that silly little flower was so mad afterwards. And that's how me and dear Rodger won the first Egg Hunt." - the half of an egg finished up with his tale. Even though every single Toon had heard this story before, they all oohed and wowed.
"Oh! And how many eggs did you collect in the end?" - Razzle asked curiously. "Y-yeah...." - Dazzle continued.
"Hmm... I don't really recall how many. But it was a very large amount indeed." - Eggson sighed. He didn't have the best memory nowadays, and sometimes all the small details slipped away like Dandy saying that he needed to do something during the most recent Egg Hunts.
He opened his eyes and glanced up at the clock. According to what he could recall, a run was supposed to be starting now. It was always exciting to head out to one, since sitting around with no company for 11 months of the year proved to be dull. His fellow acquaintance, Rodger, was also heading to this run.
However, he was not here.
"Friends, I believe a run is going to be starting in a few minutes. I am going to find dear Rodger." - Eggson got up from the bench, grabbed his cane, and began heading for the Toon rooms, where his close pal would likely be. He calmly proceeded, walking past the Dandy Store and the Easter Store.
And then he slipped.
The fall was the thing that did him in.
His admittedly tiny glasses shattered upon his impact with the floor, and his cane fell over just like he did. The flat yolk dropped out of his face. I don't know. No one's physiology made sense in Gardenview, especially Eggson's. But yeah. He was now dead.
A few minutes passed. Toodles and Rodger came out of their rooms after the talk, heading to the run.
"Papa, I still don't understand! What is a gay?" - Toodles felt a bit annoyed, and then saw Eggson lying ahead.
"Uhh, papa! That nice Egg Hunt Champion is over there! Is he okay?"
Rodger turned his head towards the Toon laying on the floor, and then he visibly shook.
"No... it... it... can't be..." - the magnifying glass rubbed his eye and made sure he wasn't hallucinating.
He wasn't.
Eggson was dead, and for real, not as a joke. He wasn't moving, and his glasses laid destroyed. Rodger ran up to the corpse, struggling to hold himself together.
"Eggson?! What in the world happened?!" - Rodger thought out loud, and caught the attention of every single Toon from back by the tree. Glisten, known for wanting the latest gossip, was the first one to make it to the source of the noise.
"What is it now, spy guy? You're disturbing everyone, dear." - the mirror snarked. Then, he looked at what exactly got Rodger so fed up, and he felt like he wanted to vomit. "W-what the hell?! He's dead?! For real?!" And then he actually vomited.
---
"We gather here to mourn our dear friend, Eggson. He has given us many happy memories over the years of his existence, and he died too soon."
The Gardenview Toons were making a makeshift "funeral". According to Dandy, funerals were these sad parties humans made to honor those who recently died, and Teagan decided to organize one. Everyone was gathered, even the other Holiday Toons who violated their programming because they were curious about the large amount of noise.
The burial was now happening... however burial was done in Gardenview. Obviously, this was hard for the Toons to do, given that this had never happened before (they had revival machines in case someone died during a run), but Dandy knew what to do. He ordered that Eggson's makeshift casket (made out of broken down extraction machines and pieces of wood recovered from runs) be buried at the Egg Hunt site, the place where the late Toon had visited the most throughout his life.
After going down a few floors, they had reached the floor where it was always organized. Now, it seemed.... sadder. Eerie. Pebble was sent out to keep the resident Twisteds at bay, so the three Toons that had volunteered could dig up the ground in peace. Cocoa, Toodles and Sprout grabbed their shovels from the box provided to them by Dandy, and began their work.
"Get digging, my friends! I know it's hard, but we can't just keep a dead body in the lobby!" - the flower watched and proceeded to... put something small with an orange end in his mouth. No one knew what it was, and Dandy never shared it with anyone else, but most Toons assumed it was something only Main Character Toons got to have.
"Sprout, why was Rodger so sad when Teagan was talking?" - the 8-ball asked her fellow digger.
"Look, kiddo... he and Eggson were super close, way before you ever came to live with us. Holiday Toons never got their own rooms, so when they came out of hiding, most shared a room with some other Toon. Those two I talked about before... they were very close. You might think your momma is his best friend, but at least according to what Glisten said, they were more than-" - Sprout was interrupted before he could finish.
"Sprout, Toodles! We have to finish our work! And besides, Glisten isn't the best source of information." - Was Cocoa just nosy, or did she prevent the Main Character Toon from saying something not PG appropriate? We'll never know, as Sprout complied and went back to work.
"Fine..." - the strawberry replied.
After what felt like eternity, the three had finished. They dug the earth back, and went back to the elevator that had just opened.
"Sheesh... and you say sharing is caring." - their supervisor threw whatever the thing in his mouth was, for the third time, into the garbage bin before heading back in and closing the elevator with the power of being the main Main Character.
Toodles still wondered after she went back to her room.
What exactly did Rodger think of Eggson? Was it the "homosexuality" the former talked about to her a couple days ago?
Maybe it was just a coincidence. And so, she crawled into her bed and took a large nap, after the very long events of the day.