Henry Stickmin Oneshots And More!

Dave's Prison (Part Two)

A part two to the Dave's Prison one shot. I think you can tell from the title.

Not really angst, not really fluff, just Dave kind of existing and Sven being the idiot who can't open doors like he is. (Are all Toppats just bad at opening the airship doors?)

Hope y'all have a wonderful day and/or night, and I'll catch y'all later!

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Dave woke up to the repeated beeping of a keycard being rejected. He'd found that a theme in his time here. All Toppats, or at least the ones who walked through the brig, all sucked at opening doors.

He stood up curiously to see who it was. He didn't dare harbor any hopes that the Toppat would stay and talk, but... wouldn't it be nice if they did?

The Toppat was short. That was the first thing Dave noticed. About as tall as Rupert was- which meant short. He had blonde hair and startling blue eyes. He wore a slightly oversized white button up shirt with a blue tie, black slacks, and blue sneakers. His top hat was also slightly too big for him, and it fell over his eyes occasionally as he grumbled something in another language.

After at least five minutes of solid failure, the Toppat kicked the door in frustration.

Instead of continuing to try, surprisingly, the Toppat slumped down against the wall, sitting almost directly across from Dave's cell. he looked up at the ceiling, leaning his head back against the wall.

"This has got to be the worst day of my life," The Toppat said to himself. He didn't seem angry anymore, just tired, drained of energy.

Dave must have made some unintentional noise, because the Toppat glanced at him.

The security guard felt the sudden urge to duck down, away from the Toppat's penetrating gaze. But at the same time, he felt the bold urge to stare back at him. His life had already reached rock bottom. What could this Toppat possible do to him that could be worse than what he was already doing?

Quite a lot, actually. But Dave didn't know that yet.

"I guess we both have a problem with locked doors, huh?" The Toppat said with a tired smile.

Dave tilted his head in confusion.

"Get it? Because you're a prisoner? And if the doors weren't locked, you could escape and you wouldn't be a prisoner?" The Toppat groaned and facepalmed. "That was terrible. I'm an idiot."

"Y-you're not an idiot," Dave said, surprised at himself for protesting. Why was he defending a Toppat- a part of the organization who'd taken him prisoner- from himself? It was insane! "I mean, y-y-you're bad at opening doors, but-"

"I'm not bad at it," The Toppat protested, not sounding at all defensive. He looked more exhausted than argumentative. "The door's just jammed, see?"

Dave glanced at the door. "Are all the doors here terrible?"

The Toppat laughed. "Ya think? In general it's about a one in five success rate. Not sure why we don't just replace the doors, but I'm not the one in charge, so I guess I can't complain."

"Would you... want to be a leader?" Dave asked, half out of curiosity and half because he just really, really wanted to keep talking to this Toppat for as long as possible. He was so lonely and never wanted this moment of actually talking to someone to stop.

The Toppat shook his head vehemently, startling Dave. "Absolutely not! I've heard enough about Toppat chiefs to know I'd never want that position. Sure, I'd step up if I had to, but anything else? Never."

"Is being chief hard?"

"You don't even know," The Toppat said tiredly. He looked absolutely exhausted, even more than Rupert used to working multiple shifts and helping mentor Dave.

The Toppat started talking about the Clan's leadership and how chaotic it was, and Dave listened, fascinated. He didn't follow half of the things the Toppat said, but it didn't matter. Someone was talking to him and he could talk back and it was amazing and he hoped it never ended.

The Toppat had just started saying something about a Headset Society and how terrible that had been, when the door opposite of the one he'd had trouble with. The Toppat stood up as a brown-haired Toppat walked in.

"Sven! What are you doing in here?" The new Toppat asked. "The meeting ended twenty minutes ago, and the chief is starting to worry!"

"Oh, hey Carol," The Toppat Dave had been talking to- Sven?- said, grinning tiredly. "Sorry, the door jammed."

"So you spent an hour trying to open it?" Carol asked.

"No. I gave up after like, two minutes. I think I fell asleep though." Sven adjusted his top hat. "It's quiet in here."

Carol huffed. "Of course you could fall asleep in the most isolated part of the ship. You're Sven."

"I wish I could argue with that, but I can't." Sven stifled a yawn. "Ugh, I'm still tired. Let's go finish up so I can take a nap."

"A nap? You just spent an hour skiving off work and now you want a nap?" Carol asked incredulously.

"Yep. C'mon, Carol, let's go. It's bad to waste work hours, ya kno- ow!" Sven cut off as Carol smacked him over the head.

"Stop acting smug and superior," Carol said as Sven rubbed the back of his head. "Just because you can act like a child doesn't mean you should."

They both started walking away, and Sven glanced back at Dave. He gave a small wave, and Dave waved back with surprise.

Don't get your hopes up, Dave, the security guard told himself sternly, sitting down against his cell door as Carol and Sven left. Just because he talked to you once doesn't mean he'll come back to talk to you again.

Just wait, this time tomorrow he'll forget you ever existed in the first place.

That time tomorrow, Sven came back.

"You will not believe the kind of day I've had."