Somewhere in Gardenview, there was a room. Inside laid a sleeping strawberry in bed, named Sprout Seedly. He snored ever so loudly, with his roommate, Cosmo, trying to muffle the sound with his pillows. Cosmo got annoyed, stood up from his bed and stomped over to Sprout's.
"Hey, wake up, sleepyhead..." Says Cosmo, budging the other. Then, he stopped, as he notices a brown spot in Sprout's shoulder. "...Sprout? SPROUT?!" He screamed his name as he desperately tried to wake him up, which he succesfully does.
"What the pith..?" Sprout slowly wakes up, surprised at the sight of Cosmo in the edge of tears. "Cosmo, what are you doing?"
"Y-Your shoulder!" Cosmo said, pointing at it. "You- You're rotting!"
Sprout looks at his shoulder, chuckling. "Oh, that? It means I'm molting! " "MOLTING?!" Cosmo exclaims, surprised by the reveal. "What do you mean, 'molting'? I thought only insects did that!"
"Well, I mean... We did meet that one yellow girl that could molt. And she wasn't an insect, I'm pretty sure!" Says Sprout, giggling.
"...I forgot about that." Cosmo replies. "That was... Freaky..." He says, grossed out as he remembers the molting process.
"Wait... Don't tell me..." Cosmo gasps. "Will that happen to you, too?!" He asks, horrified.
"Oh, no! Don't worry, haha. What will actually happen is, I will come out of this old Sprout skin as a brand new and much better Sprout! You'll see."
"...Freaky..." Cosmo shivers at the thought.
Outside, Sprout walked around with the brown side of his shoulder showing. Some toons noticed, some didn't. Suddenly, someone pulls on Sprout's scarf, strangling him a bit to get his attention. "AH!" Sprout squirmed in surprise as he looked around and saw Toodles.
"Hi!" Toodles says, looking up at Sprout, as innocent as ever. Sprout tried to fix his scarf.
"Toodles... This isn't how you greet others..." Sprout said nervously, crouching down to Toodles' level.
"Oh? But Shrimpo did that to me once!" Toodles crosses her arms.
"Toodles, he gave you a wedgie. He's not a good example for you..." Sprout pats her head. "Now, who's taking care of you?"
Toodles points at Glisten, who was looking for her. "Toodles? Toodles, sweetie, where are you?"
"Right here, mister!" Sprout said, as he picked up Toodles and puts her over his shoulder. Toodles giggles as he does so.
"Oh my, thank you!" Glisten picks up Toodles into his own arms. "Don't run away from me, you little rascal..."
"Sorry!" Toodles replies to their frustration with giggles.
Glisten then looks at Sprout's shoulder, seeing the brown part. "..Sprout, are you hurt?" He asks, looking uncharacteristically worried.
Sprout looks at the part again, which has grown much more. "Oh, it's nothing. It means that I'm molting!"
"Molting? Oh, like how Flutter did when she was a caterpillar?" Glisten tilts his head.
"Well, not exactly..." Sprout gets interrupted by Toodles.
"Sprout is a butterfly?" She asks, grabbing onto Glisten out of fear. "Sprout is an... INSECT?!"
"No! Don't be silly..." Sprout looks nervous, shaking his head.
"Yeah, don't be such a foolish gal. Now, go play with the other kids..." Glisten says, putting down Toodles and letting her run to the plauground. "Don't wander too far!" Toodles runs away on all fours. Glisten facepalms.
"Haha, she's so silly." Sprout says.
"Yeah..." Glisten pauses and looks at Sprout. "...So, how does this 'molting process' work, hm? It it isn't too invasive of a question."
"Well, I like to put it in some phases. One, my skin slowly turns brown, two, my skin starts to peel off my body and three, I shed my skin, like it's a coccoon!" Sprout explained with a smile.
"..Does that hurt?" Glisten asks, now a bit more worried.
"No, but it feels weird. A lot of fluids go inside my shedding skin... But it's all worth it. After all, I'll come out as a much better Sprout!"
"...You know, I could make you look much better." Glisten says, eyes half-lidded. "I have a lot of special liquids in my room, and I used them on Flutter when she was just a green caterpillar, and look at how she is now!" Glisten looks at Flutter, who was chasing Toodles around.
Sprout looks at Glisten weirdly. "...Uhh, no thanks. I think my body can work by itself."
"...Fine. Let your body make itself 'better'." Glisten walks away, a bit annoyed.
Sprout frowns a bit, not wanting to have annoyed any other toon today, but decided to just let it go. He walks away, back inside the corridors of Gardenview.
As he walks, he suddenly
Sprout thinks about it for a second. "...Sure... But I think you should only do that when I'm actually shedding." He replies, chuckling.
"Alrighty then... Call me when ya need me." Glisten says, winking at Sprout before walking away. Rather, running away, as he realizes Toodles is missing again.
Sprout chuckles at the scene, before walking into Gardenview's corridors. He went inside the restroom, going to see how bad this brown part really is. As he looks at the mirror, he notices something.
He sees it's a bit pudgy, and it smells really bad. He gets a bit worried about it, but doesn't think too much of it.
It's a bit puffy, like his skin is going to burst.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
This fanfic was heavily inspired by one of my favorite horror movies, The Substance (2024). With that being said, in the future, this fanfic may include body horror, gore and many others.
This comic is recommended for a 13+ audience.
Do not click two route buttons at the same time. Otherwise, said two routes will appear at the same time.
As always, please send me feedback/contact me if anything's wrong with this fanfic.
Most buttons require you to click twice for them to actually work. If anybody knows how to fix this, please contact me! :-(