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#I found a broom in the storage room and started sweeping the front hall and my coworker was laughing at me djdhhdh she’s like ur sweeping
abloomntime · 3 years
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A Bloom In Time Ch18 R. King Arc
(This is gonna take place based off the easter egg known as R. King who leaves notes around Hat Kid's ship and you can find all the stuff he turned into gold if you looked it up on youtube. I thought it'd be a fun adventure to add to the story. Im not going to include other easter eggs or references from the game after this one because to me it's hard to keep track of them and most are references to other popular things. As is the message in the ward robe code is not cannon to the story as it's a reference to Undertale. Also since practically everyone on Snatcher's planet has some kind of magic ability Poppy has super-ish strength.)
Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG1unk-2d_4
Y'know. She suspected cleaning to be a rather easy thing to do. Sure it was hard work on it's own and she shouldn't really be complaining about anything she agreed to do in the first place, and yeah these kids could use some clean space to live and run around in, but she guess she didn't really take into account having to crawl through any small spaces today dragging all sorts of things behind her to do the job the ghost had asked of her to do. Since she thought the control room wasn't in any need to be cleaned considering Rumbi had been cleaning it nonstop for a long time as she came to know and it's not like the attic or kitchen needed to be recleaned except for the few dirty plates and forks from whatever those kids had for breakfast. But forget that. From the get go she knew this wouldn't be an easy job one being she had to drag a whole bunch of things from the attic down to the small hallway towards the storage room crawling which took about three trips since the kids and Snatcher weren't around to help. Thank goodness her wrist didn't hurt at least. At one point she could hear the distant screeching of a familiar door opening and inwardly cringed remembering the loud nail on chalk bourd sounds the ground door made. Must've been Bow going into that metro room whatever a metro was. She would've thought to do one of the other rooms first but she didn't know what were through the other doors so it was better to start somewhere she already saw. .....Which happened to be in a big mess. The storage room was still so chilly and there was snow...LITERAL. SNOW. In piles on places around the room which to be honest she didn't know what do to with, but she guessed the best thing to do was to sweep all of it into a big pile. Starting with the smaller and easier piles up by the doors leading into the potion room and the one leading back into the control room. Which honestly went over a bit smoothly if not only annoying with the big broom. Sweeping the snow and whatever dirt there was onto the lower storage room floor. The green floor like the doors looked a lot like the carpet in the control room but it didn't feel like carpet, just cold floor. Unfortunately it didn't take too long for her to get finished with such a small area and sighed as she looked towards the much bigger piles of snow in the corners almost engulfing the barrels or crates or whatever was stored down there. Oh well. She'd get it fixed, she was used to fixing her father's and Uncle's messes on the farm. Once having to fix a door the cow shot his horns through. Easier said than done, but she was sure it wouldn't be too big of a problem. It was like when she had to shovel snow in the winter. She just wished she had a coat to drape over her shoulders to keep the cold away. She had started on the biggest pole of snow in the top left corner in the room, struggling with the broom a little bit sweeping a chunk at the time trying to force as much snow away as possible with each sweeping motion. Maybe a courter through the pile she finally got company in the form of Bow bounding in through the potion room door and getting a look at the supplies Poppy had to drag along with her crawling around.
"Hey, Poppy!," She called down.
"Yes?," she shouted back without looking up from her work.
Bow pointed towards the mop and bucket. "Can I borrow this please?"
"Sure! Just bring it back!"
"OK! Thank you!," Bow called back grabbing the things she needed before rushing off back through the small door, the mop's long handle smacking against the top of the tiny doorway with a thump sound.
She was about half way through the biggest pile and was just starting to heave out a couple wooden planks stuck in the pile when she received yet another visitor in the form of a hat wearing child bounding through the control room door just as she pulled out the second plank and started leaning it against the wall. A proud smile on her face.
"I'M DONE!!," Hattie called down to her in a happy tone leaning a little over the railing.
"Already?," she asked grabbing the third and as far as she could tell the final plank and pulling it out. She heard Hattie hum a yes and she sighed pulling the plank out of the snow, man her hands were freezing! " Is your robot friend done sweeping that big room already?"
"Yeah! It was already clean anyways. Sometimes he sweeps there...OH!" She reached around behind her and pulled out a small white piece of paper out of her back pocket and held it up to look at it. "I found this behind a chair and I think it's some kind of letter, and there was another one under my tool box."
"Good, good. Uh..tell you what. Do all these halls have carpet?"
"Pretty much!"
"Why don't you start having the little robot start sweeping those then?" The final plank was placed back up against the wall and the broom regrabbed.
''Would that make me a good helper?," she asked.
"It sure would since it'd be one thing I wouldn't have to crawl around myself doing," she said going back to sweeping the snow away from the corner and towards the entrance to the bathroom a floor below them, and the green ladder that lead up towards the doorway way above her which to be honest she had no idea where it lead.
But Hattie smiled and turned off. "SURE!! I'll do that!" Shoving the notes back into her pocket she turned and began running back into the hall.
"Thanks! Your the best!"
Her. Arms. ACHED!! By the time the giant pile was all the way swept over by the ladder her arms were starting to ache a lil bit from how hard she was gripping the broom and shoving the darn snow around. But it was all worth it when that corner was cleaned out at least....One big pile down one more big one to go and unlike the other pile which only had three planks, this one had bigger things stuck in it. Which she had to literally drag one after another dragging loose snow with her over to be placed in the cleared corner and then sweeping up the loose snow. HOLY PECK WHAT WAS IN THOSE THINGS!? It felt like they weighed five giant bags of fertilizer each! But like always she did what needed to be done without a fit. But her hands were still cold so of course she took a moment every so often to stick her hands in her pockets to let them warm up. She wasn't no dummy. About Midway through shoveling out the second pile guess who showed up again? Well she momentarily stopped again to cringe at the screeching metal sound...Before shaking her head with a sigh and going back to her work. A moment later the potion room door reopened and a smiling curly haired girl walked out dragging the mop behind her.
"I'M DONE!!," Bow called out happily to her dropping the mop to the floor.
"That's great! Uh...*huff* W-Why don't you go a-and clean another room to pass the time?," she suggested still shoving the snow in the direction towards the already bigger pile.
Bow being the polite child she was grabbed the smaller mini broom with a smile. "Ok! I can sweep the potion room!"
Poppy paused for a moment and looked up at Bow past her messy hair up at the child. "Uh..I-I don't think that's a good idea! You shouldn't be around those witch's brew."
"They're not dangerous. Except for the one that turns everything to gold...But Hattie said it went missing a long time ago."
"......." She shook her head again. "Sorry sweetie. But it's best I do that one. I know." She turned her head towards the entrance way to the bathroom and Bow followed her movements seeming to understand. "Think you can go do that room? It'd be a big help."
She nodded again and set off to there dragging the long handled tools behind her. Jumping down and landing with a thud to Poppy's level and paused to glanced at the ever growing pile of snow and dirt in front of the long green ladder. Gazing in awe at the sight as Poppy just happened to push the last of the second largest pile into the ever growing hill of dirty snow, and ironically the control room door opened yet again and Hattie smiling and walking in, Rumbi beeping curiously in her hands, but she stopped dead in her tracks seeing the giant snow hill in one part of the room. Giving a 'Whoa' of surprise but both girls jumped when Poppy let the broom drop to the floor and huffed.
Placing her hands to her hips, she held her head back up towards the ceiling with a chuckle. "HOO BOY!! What a work out! Haven't moved things around this much since I built my stand in the town square!''
"Wow! That's a big pile of snow!" Hattie gaped at it in childhood wonder while Bow stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose at the sight of dirt.
"Yuck! And dirty!"
"Yeah?" She huffed and glanced back towards the other half of the room and the smaller piles of snow that obviously wouldn't take too long but shouldn't be left unattended anyways. And it wouldn't finish itself, and that rather large crate was in the way...Not for long tho. Stretching her arms out, she walked towards the crate at least three times her size. "Now. Let's get this annoying thing outta the way."
Hattie already turning away from the action and going over to put Rumbi in the potion room hall. The door opened with a whoosh sound and she placed rumbi down. "Ok! It's all yours!"
Rumbi happily beeped and and began to happily go down the halls towards the potion room and disappeared as the door closed behind him. With a smile she turned to go ask Poppy about those weird notes again, but paused seeing what the older woman was doing. Poppy squeezed her way past the gigantic pile of snow and Bow had already made her way into the elevator down, using the broom handle to reach the red button to lower herself down a level. Waving bye to them as she did so. Poppy was looking the giant rectangular crate up and down, with a studious look, brow raised, and hands on her hips. Silently staring at the giant thing before the woman placed her hand on the wooden side and givin' it a lil nudge. The wood creaked a lil bit as it stayed still, whatever in it was unboutfully heavy just like the crates and barrels. Like that would stop her though. Hattie watched confused as the older woman walked to one of the sides facing towards the clear corner she had previously swept out and placed either of her hands on it. Bracing her side against the giant crate and taking a breath. She pushed.
The hard wood creaked against the sudden pressure being pushed against it and it's frame tilted lightly towards where Poppy was attempting to push it towards. The older woman making a grunt of annoyance when it didn't budge. The child watching from the floor above there could only watch feeling a little bad the poor lady wasn't waking any progress on the crate's position at all. She was pretty strong herself for a child....Maybe she should offer to help-
SCCCCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-!!!!!
The AGONIZING sound of a wooden chair being scooted across the floor but ten times louder and more annoying filled the whole room and the crate. FINALLY moved. Blue eyes stared in wonder at the sight while cringing and holding hands over her ears as they watched the giant wooden box be moved slowly across the room. Poppy gritted her teeth and slowly pushed along this giant thing one step after another towards the corner. THIS THING WAS MOVING WHETHER IT WANTED TO OR NOT!! Step after step she took, the sound hurting her ear drums and making her even more annoyed until she felt something solid stop it. Poppy stopped for a moment feeling the something blocking it...Pushing against it a few more times to really make sure it wasn't just stuck on something before grunting and heaving her body off it. The red head sighing and huffing some air back into her lungs as she stepped back to look at her handy work. Arm coming up to push those bangs and wipe the sweat off her brow. Now she was kinda glad the room was cool to help after that warm up, seeing she had completely pushed the pecking thing in the corner like she intended, Poppy nodded, sighed and turned back towards the other half of the room that was now more spacious since that larger crate wasn't randomly in the middle of it anymore. But paused when someone awed in astonishment.
"WHOA!! You moved that all by yourself?!," Hattie asked staring at her with wide eyes of amazement. "How'd you do that?!"
".......Oh. T-That." She chuckled and gave a slightly sheepish smile. "Well, working on a farm always working and hauling around large bags of feed and bails of hay can help build up muscle. But promise me you won't try copying me."
"That's so cool! And I don't want to be a farmer! Too boring."
Poppy snorted. "Well that's one way to describe it." She turned back to the rest of the room and sighed. "This might take a little while."
Hattie immediately lit up at that. "Need any help? I can help!"
"Uh...." She sighed stretching her aching arms out and turning her attention to the random curled up rugs lying on the floor...Making her way over to them. They didn't look as heavy as the barrels. "Well, I suppose you can go clean somewhere else?....Btw I don't think you've told me where that leads." She pointed towards the long green ladder going up towards that opening in the wall above them both.
"That's the boiler room and where the ship's water is stored. I can totally go clear it out!"
"Eh. If it isn't really too much trouble. But I don't think if it's just water in there it'll need to be cleared out." She grabbed one of the rolled up red carpets in the corner and lifted it up, as suspected it didn't weigh much at all.
"Should I get the carpets out?"
"......" Poppy looked at her. "You have carpets floating in the water in there?," she asked making sure she was hearing right.
"Only two!," the small child shouted back defensively.
.......Poppy sighed and shook her head. "It's not good to have carpets floating around in your water supply. You go better get those out and you be careful young lady!"
Hattie saluted her and made a jumped over the railing and hopping to the floor below with a thud. Poppy watched as she ran along past her and waded into the giant pile of show, giving off a soft 'brr' and causing some loose snow to tumble out of the pile as she reached the long green ladder and shimmied up it rather quickly surprisingly for a child. Sending the loose snow from her body floating down to the pile below. Shaking her head she went back to work, throwing the random rolls of rugs, three red and two blue, on top of the giant pecking crate she pushed over along with another random barrel, her sights were set on sweeping the last of the smaller piles of snow into the bigger one which just grew with the added snow and picking up the smaller random things stuck in the smaller piles. Two woven laundry baskets and pink bottles that looked like the shampoos she had seen on the bathroom shelves. Those were placed on top of the washing machine until she could put those away properly. It was a pain to get the snow out of the corner from behind the DLC elevator thing but luckily the long broom was skinny enough to reach behind there. She finished it all up in no time! Hard work really did pay off it seemed. But the strangest thing happened when she discovered something behind the washer, it was easy enough to move both giant machines away from the wall to sweep under and behind them, but when she saw the small piece of paper she paused. Blinking at it and giving nothing but a side glance to it before shrugging and absent mindedly tucking it into her apron's front pocket for safe keeping just in case it was important later-
THUMP!!
Poppy jumped and turned around feeling the chilling feeling of snowflakes falling on her back and blinked at the pile of snow behind her. To her mild surprise there was a rolled up, obviously soaking wet, red carpet sitting on top of the snow pile- With another thump and spray of her, Poppy slammed her eyes shut at the spray of snowflakes coming towards her. Blinking them back open to just slam them shut again as a second wave of snowflakes waved over her face with a blur of blue and she kept her head down..........When she was sure she wasn't about to get sprayed with anymore snowflakes, she opened her eyes to the snow pile. There was two more carpet rolls and a red pillow in the pile as she sighed. Looking up the green ladder at where they dropped from and shaking her head.
A few moment's later the small hatted girl appeared in the small entrance above her, a smile on her face and teddy bear clutched in her arms similar to the one Poppy found in the attic, looking down she spotted said red head stuffing the wet sky diving rugs into the dryer. "POPPY!!" When the lady looked up she waved down at her and jumped. She heard a yell as she fell fast and landed in the pile of snow with a thump splashing snow everywhere and giggling like a maniac. "I'm done!"
"What did I tell you guys about doing that?!," Poppy stared at her with a worried expression and groaned leaning back. "*sigh* You know...Fine just PLEASE don't do that again. It freaks me out."
"Whatcha doing?" She asked crawling out of the pile and giving a little shake to expell the extra snow off her.
"Throwing these into this high tech drying device," Poppy said turning back to her duty and shoving those carpets in. Thank goodness all the buttons had labels telling her how this thing worked. "Can't leave them soaking wet and have 'em grow moldy now. Not healthy at all. The real question is what am I going to do with all that snow."
She mumbled the last bit to herself but the child was quick to get another one of her crazy ideas hopping to the floor and unknownst to Poppy about to change into a completely different hat. "I know how to make that snow get lost! Can I help?"
She shrugged trying to figure out which one of these buttons to press exactly. "If you have an idea be my guest. "...before just pressing start button. A small beeping noise hummed from inside the device before a small red dot popped up and it started moving all over by itself. Slowly she took her hands off it and sighed. "Well...It seems to be workin'. Now what idea did you ha-"
BOOM!!
It was as if a canon went off directly behind her. The loud explosion like sound combined with the vibrations going through the ground was enough to make Poppy yelp loudly and fall to the ground, scrambling back on her bottom away from the source of the noise but only found the small girl there smiling, clutching that toy, and .....wearing a pink witch hat?? She smiled and pointed in the direction of the once giant snow pile. Now literally nothing from......Whatever she had done completely gotten rid of the pile of dirty snow and reduce the space in inhabited to nothing but clear air........Slowly rising to her knees, Poppy stared at the small smiling girl in front of her. Placed her hands on her shoulders gently. And in as calm tone as she could muster said.
"Please. Don't EVER do that again without warning me."
Well, despite that one scare, things were running along actually pretty smoothly and hopefully they would all be finished before the day was out. She wasn't exactly sure how much of the ship was really left since she technically hadn't see all of it but not too long after that Bow had returned with that broom she oh so needed and when asked again to help, Poppy just sent Hattie to get Rumbi and go do one of the other rooms her own way. Whatever the lil alien did spooked her and she wasn't too excited to have it happen again, But Bow was another story. She insisted to come along with her to the potion room too and not having the energy to argue agreed but insisted Bow would NOT be going anywhere near those dangerous looking potions. The young girl happily agreed and skipped behind her on the way there. The potion room though didn't seem as troublesome as she originally thought. To keep Bow away from trouble she gave her the job of sweeping the floor CAREFULLY and as she watched, as she would be the one to wipe down these tables. Safe to say things went really smooth and Bow was such a kind helper quickly working sweeping up the metal flooring. Poppy had to admit she was enjoying this too. Wiping up the small sticking spills under whatever was in these bottles, some were a blue sparkly liquid. A couple were red. And other random colors from pink to yellow, blue, green, orange a one or two purple. And they all smelt of burnt rubbage! Yeah. She was so glad she was the one handling this part of the cleaning. Every few moments Poppy would look over at Bow and smile at the little girl sweeping away at the other side of the room. Bow was a natural at this it seemed. At one point Poppy was carefully scooting over what looked like a weird looking television set with a permanent green screen and paused. Another small shopping list? Without reading it again she deposited the small paper with the other she found behind the washer in her breast pocket without so much as another thought. She'd ask Hattie about it later just in case it was an important alien document. By the end of all their efforts, the storage room was still quite cold but without so much snow piled up(never mind how snow could end up in a space ship in out space of all places) and pretty neat looking. By the time Poppy crawled her way out of the potion room, admiring the work it must've been to weave the realistic blue gear patterns in the carpet looking a slightly brighter blue after Rumbi got done with it, the drying machine had already stopped. Which meant that whatever was inside was dry right? Well that just meant she better get down there and see to it they were taken care if. Bow was nice enough to start dragging all the brooms and other cleaning things back to the kitchen closet and cabinets she originally found them all in while Poppy was putting these rugs back up there with others. And like the usual pattern she'd figure out, out came the hatted child from the door to the control room.
"Hey! I'm all done!...Well, Rumbi's not done, but I don't have to do anything else. Right?," she asked leaning over the railing to watch poppy pick up the rolled up now dry carpets and carry them to throw them up on top on the big crate with the others.
Poppy smiled up at her. "Really? Already? Wow. You're a fast worker. I guess this ship ain't as big as I thought it was," she mumbled as she just tossed the three rugs on top there with the others. With that finished any work she had down here in these sections of rooms thanks to the help of these two lovlies.
"Can I ask you something now?"
"Sure! What is it?," Poppy asked turning back around and walking towards the small ladder to climb back up to the doors.
"Do you know who R. King is?"
"Our King? Hm. Well I wouldn't have the faintest idea who's ruling in this time period, maybe that Snatcher fella knows." Her red head peeked over the ladder as she climbed up. "Have ya tried askin' him?"
"Not 'our' king! R. KING!!," the child insisted before taking off her hat. She stuck her hand into it and a moment later pulled out two wrinkled small pieces of paper, holding them out to her. "I found these in my room."
Poppy gazed at the small notes confused but reached out and took them from her. They were wrinkled from being handled by the little girl who plopped her hat back on her head as Poppy rose a brow and read the notes. They were both written in black pencil and had similar hand writing. "Check Under red box. Signed R. King?" She read over the note confused before turning her head to the other one. "I. O. U....One half cookie?? Check kitchen. Signed R. King." Confused she looked back to the little girl before holding the notes back to her which she took. "Exactly where did you find these?"
"In my room. Rumbi was sweeping under this chair and the note got stuck in his filters. And then when I was cleaning my desk to prove I could be cleaner I found another one under my tool box." She stuck the notes back into her hat. "But I couldn't find anymore."
"Do you know anyone called R. King?"
"No. That's why I asked you. ...Maybe Snatcher's playing a prank again."
"I wouldn't even know where to start. I've only known ya'll for a few days now." She paused.....getting a thoughtful expression and humming. "But funny how it mentioned the kitchen. I think I found a note behind the trash can in there."
Her eyes widened. "REALLY?!"
"Uh huh. I noticed there was some green goop, so I moved the trashcan to mop it up and found it. I placed it on that refridgarator in case it was importa- HEY! Where are you going?"
Hattie didn't say anything but instead turned and belined it out the control room door and leaving Poppy. The woman stood there for a moment before huffing and shaking her head. Looks like she'd have to go after her, she was heading that way anyways. Fast forward one crawl later and she popped back into the control room stretching out her back, thankful for the warmer air hitting her body instead of the cold air back down there. But she didn't get much of a break before Hattie came back running towards her waving a small piece of paper to her. Poppy stared at it for a moment before taking it from her and reading it out loud for the child.
"I. O. U....Pencil?? Enjoy the cookie. Check Basement? Signed R. King. " There was both a smiling face and frowning face on the paper and she rose a brow looking over at her. "You have a basement?"
Hattie shrugged and reached back up indicating she wanted the note back and Poppy handed it back, watching as the small child looked over it curiously in her hands. "What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure exactly." A flashed of recognition came across her face and in a flash she reached back into her breast pocket and pulled out the two notes she found while cleaning back in the rooms down that way. "Could these be useful to our little mystery?"
Hattie blinked at them and asked, "I don't know. What do they say?"
Poppy looked down to the papers in her hands and read, "I. O. U. Vial. Sorry to keep borrowing your stuff. Check lab. Signed R. King." There was a frowning face on this one too as she turned to the second one she found in the potion room. "I found these in the potion room and behind the washer while cleanin'. This was says I. O. U. Nu-clear rod?? The peck is that? Check machine room. Also signed by our Mr. R. King." The second one had some strange lines on it as she looked to the child reaching her arms out for those too which she was glad to hand over. "What do you suppose that means now?"
She hummed an 'I don't know' and looked over the papers in her hands before turning her head towards the doorway at the far wall. It was red with some kind of strange symbol she didn't recognize and pointed. "Maybe they mean the engine room!"
"Engine room?" Poppy turned to where Hattie pointed and after a moment she followed the little girl.
The door opened with a whoosh sound and immediately when she got close enough she heard the strangest noise. The best way she could describe it was if a whole bunch of men were repeatedly hammering away at something metal but that wasn't exactly what it was. Curiously she bent down to peer inside the hall and she noticed this hallway was different from the others. It was red and what looked like ....train tracks?? Boy. These aliens keep getting weirder and weider don't they? The loud grinding sounds got louder as she got further into the hallway crawling after her and when she got to the other si-...OH. MY. PECK!! WHAT DID SHE JUST STEP INTO?! GIANT gears lined the entirety of all the walls and ceiling when she stood up to gawk around at everything. The grinding gears made the noise she had been hearing and there was red wood lining the walls matching the copper n silvery gears everywhere and in the middle was another ramp Rumbi was currently happily sweeping away on. It too had a few gears on it, a telescope, and some kind of closet thing connected by large metal wires going up and into the ceiling. Gawking and staring at the entire thing, Poppy took a few steps in and turning around in circles here and there. Paying no attention to the little girl running around moving things and looking for anymore of those small pieces of paper from R. King. Stopping only to give a look over at the staring woman.
"HEY!!" Poppy jumped and blinked at the little girl looking between books on the bookshelf. "Come help me!"
........She blinked. "Uh...R-Right." She walked towards the little girl and couldn't help but notice the other mini little control panels and other things as Hattie soon got impatient with the books as any child would and shoved whatever books she had in her hands back and went to the crate next to said bookshelf. Curiously looking behind it, a wrench and tool box on top of it. "Uh....So t-thing is your ship's..engine?"
"Half of it. The other half is in the boiler room....Hey! I found one!" The crate was shoved forwards a few inches enough for her to squeeze behind it and a moment later her smile reappeared and she held her arm up. In her hand was another small piece of paper. "HERE!"
Poppy blinked and slowly leaned down to read it as she held it. Looking at it as Hattie squeezed out from behind the crate. " I. O. U. Gear. See you soon. Check my castle in the attic?? From R. King again.....What does I. O. U. even stand for?"
She shrugged excitedly. "I dunno. But let's go check the attic! I didn't know there was a castle!"
She ran towards the door and Poppy blinked after her....Slowly going after her while taking a look around at the strange room one last time before following the child out and back to the control room. Back in the control room Bow was happily munching on an apple but paused as Hattie excitedly ran past her without a word and ran towards the lift to the attic and a moment later Poppy followed closely behind groaning from all the unexpected working out she'd been doing all day. When she looked up to Bow and saw her eating- She gave a sheepish look as a rumble came from her stomach and to save face, stood to stretch out. She needed a lunch break. Wasn't a ghost's employee entitled to that?
"What's all that about?," Bow mumbled through another bite.
Poppy sighed and glanced up towards the ramp noticing the other little girl riding the platform up towards the attic. "Trying to solve a mystery. We found these strange notes everywhere and she's trying to find a 'castle in the attic."' She started walking slowly to the ramp to go up there too and Bow followed right behind her.
"Can I come?"
"Sure. But I don't think we'll be finding any castles up there. Didn't see any when I cleaned it out." The two made their way up and as soon as their heads poked up the top of the platform, they could see Hattie's form over near the wall opening the drawers and looking inside for any castles or notes as the other two ladies came in and Poppy crossed her arms as she stepped into the attic floor. "You're a quick little searcher aren't ya?"
"Help me find it!," She yelled excitedly back slamming the drawer closed and quickly opening another one which turned out to also be empty.
"I didn't find any castles when I cleaned up here, Kid. But I get the feeling if I don't help you won't stop."
"You're not wrong!"
Poppy chuckled and walked calmly towards the ward robe. "Alright. But then we get back to our wor-'' Her stomach rumbled again and she stopped for a moment. "Correction. Food and then back to work."
Bow stood there munching on the apple in her hands as she watched the two go about. Hattie digging through the dresser like a rabbit, and Poppy just opening the ward robe and moving over the two dresses that were in there gazing at the inside of it. Neither noticed Bow just casually walking along the orange carpet up towards the stairs leading up towards the windows and the stars of outer space twinkled at them from outside. The curly haired gal kept munching away as she walked past the part of the carpet that formed into a giant circle and kept walking towards the stairs, but instead of walking up the stairs she walked towards the right side of the stair case and looked up and down the wooden side of the stairs. After a moment of her eyes scanning over the side slowly going down to the about the middle, something twinkled between two planks of wood to which she blinked and leaned closer to look at. After a moment of peeking between the two square shaped bourds, she quickly bit down into the apple to keep her hands free and managed to get her hands into the gap between the bourds and pulled. The creaking of the wood caught the attention of the older woman who turned with a confused brow and froze at the sight of Bow on the other side of the large room pulling at what seemed to be a very large wooden bourd. She quickly went to yell at her to stop but it was too late. A giant snap like sound sounded out finally making Hattie snap her head up and Bow fell back onto her behind. The wooden plank fallen a foot to her left.
"BOW!!" Poppy quickly ran towards the little girl who did nothing much but shake her head and stand back up. Dusting her dress off before reaching back up to take another bite of the apple and hold it. She looked up to Poppy who dropped to her knees and grabbed her shoulders worriedly. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?! WHAT IN TARNATION WERE YOU THINKING!? YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN HURT!!"
Bow looked at the worried look on Poppy face and giving an apologetic look. ''I'm sorry. I was watching Moony Penguin and he found a secret passage way under the stairs."
"Sweetie. I understand that, but you don't do that kind of stuff!" She scowled lightly and pointed at her. "Now you promise me ya'll NEVER do somethin' like that again."
"Ok. I'm sorry, Poppy."
Hattie had ran over when Poppy had but when she realized Bow was ok, her head turned to the hole in the wall and INSTANTLY her jaw dropped. Her eyes went wide. And shiny gold reflected in her eyes.
Poppy sighed and patted her head. "It's alright. But please don't scare me like that."
"WHOA!!" Hattie went up to the hole in the wall and peeked her head inside...Which was gently pulled back when Poppy grabbed her cape and gently pulled her back away from it.
"Hattie. Now you also know better that to do that!" She glanced at the hole. "Now I gotta fix-....HOLY MOTHER OF MOON PENGUINS!!"
IT! WAS! GOLD!!! LITERALLY REAL GOLD!!! Shiny gold objects shined from inside the hole in the wall and all three ladies gazed inside unmoving. Just staring at the wonderous things inside...Until Poppy seemed to snap out of it blinking and moving both girls beside her before shuffling on her knees and leaning into the hole looking in....Before reaching her hand in and pulling out the gold items. The first thing to be pulled out was a golden trophy, Poppy looked at it for a moment. Reading the bottom it said 'Doka DW King 1st to 111'. She had no idea what that meant but when she looked inside it she blinked and pulled her face away a little bit. After a few seconds her hand reached into the top of said trophy and pulled out a PURE GOLD SKULL. The girls awed wide eyed at the sight. What was this? Did this mean they found a pirate's treaure!? Was this buried treasure going to make them rich?! Poppy set both of them to the side to which the excited kids quickly took them for themselves to hold and look at in wonder, and she reached back into the whole pulling out even MORE gold goodies. A cheese wheel with a missing slice and then said missing slice of cheese with the letters BT carved into it. She heard of yellow cheese but gold cheese? A small gold statue of a mafia man. A literal gold cookie. A gold pencil. A gold gear! All of which the girls grabbed and took turns smiling and staring in amazement. But Hattie pointed at the pure gold potion she pulled out next.
"HEY!! The gold potion." She grabbed it from Poppy and held it up to her face. ".....The potion turned itself to gold too! WOW!! ....Hey! My nuclear rod's stuck in it!" She scowled at her reflection in the now useless potion.
"Gold potion?"
"Uh huh. It can turn anything into gold!...Well it used to!"
"What was it doing under the stairs?"
Hattie shrugged. "Beats me. Is there more gold?!"
"Uh..." Poppy looked back inside. "Yeah actually." Reaching back in Poppy pulled out a golden candle with a golden flame still looking like it was on fire and both girls gawked at it, Bow grabbing it from the older woman as she pulled out something much larger than everything else. "Hang on a second?" She pulled out a square looking sculpture turning it over a bit..before smiling and holding it up to them. "Hey. What does this look like?" Her smile widened as Hattie gasped again.
"THE CASTLE!!" Dropping the gold gold potion that landed on the floor with a thud, she quickly held her hands out for it in a silent plea and Poppy happily gave it two the girls. Hattie's eyes shined with happiness and wonder at finding this giant gold castle and Bow leaned next to her to look at the small golden castle sculpture with her.
......Until Bow giggled and pointed at their reflections in the gold. "Look! We're making funny faces."
Both girls giggled at the images the reflections caused making Poppy smile even more at them. They were so happy!
"Is there anything else?"
"Uh...Y-Yeah. Hang on a sec. I don't think it's gold tho."
"Not gold?"
Both girls watched silently as Poppy reached back inside....and a moment later pulled out three things, two pieces of paper that weren't gold and a small golden insect statue wearing a tiny crown. Her blue eyes gazing at the papers curious like. "I wonder what this is all about." She went to place the gold insect statue down but Hattie reached out a free hand and took from her not that she noticed looking at the letters. "It looks like they're letters."
"What do they say?"
"...I had all the gold in the Roach World and yet I was unhappy. I learned that gold tarnishes and turns dull, but a mind filled with gold is safe from tarnish, and can hold limitless wealth. You have a heart of gold, Hat Kid." Hattie blinked in surprise at the mention of her name in the letter. "I have evolved. Sorry we didn't get to meet. Signed R. King." Poppy paused for a moment staring at the letter before turning her eyes to the tiny bug statue Hattie was holding. "R. King and all the gold in the roach world...I think we found Mr. Roach King."
"What does the letter mean?," Bow asked as Hattie looked at the statue in her hand.
"Roach King?"
"It means he's saying that Hattie has a good heart." She smiled. "And a good heart is better than gold. Like what you two have."
"Your heart is gold too, Poppy," Bow insisted making Bow giggle at the cute insistance from the child.
"THAT'S SO COOL!! What does the other one say?"
"Huh? OH! Yeah! Other one." She looked back to the other letter in her hands and skimmed over it before pausing. "....Huh...It looks like this one is talking to Bow too."
"Me?"
"It has been a long journey. Watching you all grow up into young adults was a pleasure. But soon this story must end. Life moves on and new moments await you. We will meet again someday. I look forward to that day. Farewell. Signed...R. King." She smiled and looked over to the two confused looking children as they looked to each other then to her as if in question. "It means...He was probably expecting you to find his treasure and finally meet him even if he 'evolved' into this gold statue. ...And you three finally met like he wanted I reckon."
Both children looked back down to the small statue in Hattie's hand and gave him a neutral look...before Hattie put down the castle and pointed to the letters in her hands. "Can we keep those?"
"Of course you can. These are adressed to you two after all." She held them out and after Bow bit into her food to have a free hand again, they reached out and each took a letter from her looking at them and seemingly happily beaming at the exciting adventure's rewards they had. Making Poppy chuckle and smile more before she looked over at the wall behind her with a sigh. "Well, I reckon I oughtta fix that hole and then finish up the job for that ghost friend of yours."
Her stomach rumbled making all three look at her stomach.
".......But first a lunch break."
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abloomntime · 4 years
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A Bloom In Time P18
(This is gonna take place based off the easter egg showed in the video, and before anyone asks no. Im not going to include other easter eggs or references from the game after this one because to me it's hard to keep track of them and most are references to other popular things, and no the ward robe code is not cannon to the story as it's a reference to Undertale. Also since practically everyone on Snatcher's planet has some kind of magic ability Poppy has super strength.)
Y'know. She suspected cleaning to be a rather easy thing to do. Sure it was hard work on it's own and she shouldn't really be complaining about anything she agreed to do in the first place, and yeah these kids could use some clean space to live and run around in, but she guess she didn't really take into account having to crawl through any small spaces today dragging all sorts of things behind her to do the job the ghost had asked of her to do. Since she thought the control room wasn't in any need to be cleaned considering Rumbi had been cleaning it nonstop for a long time as she came to know and it's not like the attic or kitchen needed to be recleaned except for the few dirty plates and forks from whatever those kids had for breakfast. But forget that. From the get go she knew this wouldn't be an easy job one being she had to drag a whole bunch of things from the attic down to the small hallway towards the storage room crawling which took about three trips since the kids and Snatcher weren't around to help. Thank goodness her wrist didn't hurt at least. At one point she could hear the distant screeching of a familiar door opening and inwardly cringed remembering the loud nail on chalk bourd sounds the ground door made. Must've been Bow going into that metro room whatever a metro was. She would've thought to do one of the other rooms first but she didn't know what were through the other doors so it was better to start somewhere she already saw. .....Which happened to be in a big mess. The storage room was still so chilly and there was snow...LITERAL. SNOW. In piles on places around the room which to be honest she didn't know what do to with, but she guessed the best thing to do was to sweep all of it into a big pile. Starting with the smaller and easier piles up by the doors leading into the potion room and the one leading back into the control room. Which honestly went over a bit smoothly if not only annoying with the big broom. Sweeping the snow and whatever dirt there was onto the lower storage room floor. The green floor like the doors looked a lot like the carpet in the control room but it didn't feel like carpet, just cold floor. Unfortunately it didn't take too long for her to get finished with such a small area and sighed as she looked towards the much bigger piles of snow in the corners almost engulfing the barrels or crates or whatever was stored down there. Oh well. She'd get it fixed, she was used to fixing her father's and Uncle's messes on the farm. Once having to fix a door the cow shot his horns through. Easier said than done, but she was sure it wouldn't be too big of a problem. It was like when she had to shovel snow in the winter. She just wished she had a coat to drape over her shoulders to keep the cold away. She had started on the biggest pole of snow in the top left corner in the room, struggling with the broom a little bit sweeping a chunk at the time trying to force as much snow away as possible with each sweeping motion. Maybe a courter through the pile she finally got company in the form of Bow bounding in through the potion room door and getting a look at the supplies Poppy had to drag along with her crawling around.
"Hey, Poppy!," She called down.
"Yes?," she shouted back without looking up from her work.
Bow pointed towards the mop and bucket. "Can I borrow this please?"
"Sure! Just bring it back!"
"OK! Thank you!," Bow called back grabbing the things she needed before rushing off back through the small door, the mop's long handle smacking against the top of the tiny doorway with a thump sound.
She was about half way through the biggest pile and was just starting to heave out a couple wooden planks stuck in the pile when she received yet another visitor in the form of a hat wearing child bounding through the control room door just as she pulled out the second plank and started leaning it against the wall. A proud smile on her face.
"I'M DONE!!," Hattie called down to her in a happy tone leaning a little over the railing.
"Already?," she asked grabbing the third and as far as she could tell the final plank and pulling it out. She heard Hattie hum a yes and she sighed pulling the plank out of the snow, man her hands were freezing! " Is  your robot friend done sweeping that big room already?"
"Yeah! It was already clean anyways. Sometimes he sweeps there...OH!" She reached around behind her and pulled out a small white piece of paper out of her back pocket and held it up to look at it. "I found this behind a chair and I think it's some kind of letter, and there was another one under my tool box."
"Good, good. Uh..tell you what. Do all these halls have carpet?"
"Pretty much!"
"Why don't you start having the little robot start sweeping those then?" The final plank was placed back up against the wall and the broom regrabbed.
''Would that make me a good helper?," she asked.
"It sure would since it'd be one thing I wouldn't have to crawl around myself doing," she said going back to sweeping the snow away from the corner and towards the entrance to the bathroom a floor below them, and the green ladder that lead up towards the doorway way above her which to be honest she had no idea where it lead.
But Hattie smiled and turned off. "SURE!! I'll do that!" Shoving the notes back into her pocket she turned and began running back into the hall.
"Thanks! Your the best!"
Her. Arms. ACHED!! By the time the giant pile was all the way swept over by the ladder her arms were starting to ache a lil bit from how hard she was gripping the broom and shoving the darn snow around. But it was all worth it when that corner was cleaned out at least....One big pile down one more big one to go and unlike the other pile which only had three planks, this one had bigger things stuck in it. Which she had to literally drag one after another dragging loose snow with her over to be placed in the cleared corner and then sweeping up the loose snow. HOLY PECK WHAT WAS IN THOSE THINGS!? It felt like they weighed five giant bags of fertilizer each! But like always she did what needed to be done without a fit. But her hands were still cold so of course she took a moment every so often to stick her hands in her pockets to let them warm up. She wasn't no dummy. About Midway through shoveling out the second pile guess who showed up again? Well she momentarily stopped again to cringe at the screeching metal sound...Before shaking her head with a sigh and going back to her work. A moment later the potion room door reopened and a smiling curly haired girl walked out dragging the mop behind her.
"I'M DONE!!," Bow called out happily to her dropping the mop to the floor.
"That's great! Uh...*huff* W-Why don't you go a-and clean another room to pass the time?," she suggested still shoving the snow in the direction towards the already bigger pile.  
Bow being the polite child she was grabbed the smaller mini broom with a smile. "Ok! I can sweep the potion room!"
Poppy paused for a moment and looked up at Bow past her messy hair up at the child. "Uh..I-I don't think that's a good idea! You shouldn't be around those witch's brew."
"They're not dangerous. Except for the one that turns everything to gold...But Hattie said it went missing a long time ago."
"......." She shook her head again. "Sorry sweetie. But it's best I do that one. I know." She turned her head towards the entrance way to the bathroom and Bow followed her movements seeming to understand. "Think you can go do that room? It'd be a big help."
She nodded again and set off to there dragging the long handled tools behind her. Jumping down and landing with a thud to Poppy's level and paused to glanced at the ever growing pile of snow and dirt in front of the long green ladder. Gazing in awe at the sight as Poppy just happened to push the last of the second largest pile into the ever growing hill of dirty snow, and ironically the control room door opened yet again and Hattie smiling and walking in,  Rumbi beeping curiously in her hands, but she stopped dead in her tracks seeing the giant snow hill in one part of the room. Giving a 'Whoa' of surprise but both girls jumped when Poppy let the broom drop to the floor and huffed.
Placing her hands to her hips, she held her head back up towards the ceiling with a chuckle. "HOO BOY!! What a work out! Haven't moved things around this much since I built my stand in the town square!''
"Wow! That's a big pile of snow!" Hattie gaped at it in childhood wonder while Bow stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose at the sight of dirt.
"Yuck! And dirty!"
"Yeah?" She huffed and glanced back towards the other half of the room and the smaller piles of snow that obviously wouldn't take too long but shouldn't be left unattended anyways. And it wouldn't finish itself, and that rather large crate was in the way...Not for long tho. Stretching her arms out, she walked towards the crate at least three times her size. "Now. Let's get this annoying thing  outta the way."
Hattie already turning away from the action and going over to put Rumbi in the potion room hall. The door opened with a whoosh sound and she placed rumbi down. "Ok! It's all yours!"
Rumbi happily beeped and and began to happily go down the halls towards the potion room and disappeared as the door closed behind him. With a smile she turned to go ask Poppy about those weird notes again, but paused seeing what the older woman was doing. Poppy squeezed her way past the gigantic pile of snow and Bow had already made her way into the elevator down, using the broom handle to reach the red button to lower herself down a level. Waving bye to them as she did so. Poppy was looking the giant rectangular crate up and down, with a studious look, brow raised, and hands on her hips. Silently staring at the giant thing before the woman placed her hand on the wooden side and givin' it a lil nudge. The wood creaked a lil bit as it stayed still, whatever in it was unboutfully heavy just like the crates and barrels. Like that would stop her though. Hattie watched confused as the older woman walked to one of the sides facing towards the clear corner she had previously swept out and placed either of her hands on it. Bracing her side against the giant crate and taking a breath. She pushed.
The hard wood creaked against the sudden pressure being pushed against it and it's frame tilted lightly towards where Poppy was attempting to push it towards. The older woman making a grunt of annoyance when it didn't budge. The child watching from the floor above there could only watch feeling a little bad the poor lady wasn't waking any progress on the crate's position at all. She was pretty strong herself for a child....Maybe she should offer to help-
SCCCCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-!!!!!
The AGONIZING sound of a wooden chair being scooted across the floor but ten times louder and more annoying filled the whole room and the crate. FINALLY moved. Blue eyes stared in wonder at the sight while cringing and holding hands over her ears as they watched the giant wooden box be moved slowly across the room. Poppy gritted her teeth and slowly pushed along this giant thing one step after another towards the corner. THIS THING WAS MOVING WHETHER IT WANTED TO OR NOT!! Step after step she took, the sound hurting her ear drums and making her even more annoyed until she felt something solid stop it. Poppy stopped for a moment feeling the something blocking it...Pushing against it a few more times to really make sure it wasn't just stuck on something before grunting and heaving her body off it. The red head sighing and huffing some air back into her lungs as she stepped back to look at her handy work. Arm coming up to push those bangs and wipe the sweat off her brow. Now she was kinda glad the room was cool to help after that warm up, seeing she had completely pushed the pecking thing in the corner like she intended, Poppy nodded, sighed and turned back towards the other half of the room that was now more spacious since that larger crate wasn't randomly in the middle of it anymore. But paused when someone awed in astonishment.
"WHOA!! You moved that all by yourself?!," Hattie asked staring at her with wide eyes of amazement. "How'd you do that?!"
".......Oh. T-That." She chuckled and gave a slightly sheepish smile. "Well, working on a farm always working and hauling around large bags of feed and bails of hay can help build up muscle. But promise me you won't try copying me."
"That's so cool! And I don't want to be a farmer! Too boring."
Poppy snorted. "Well that's one way to describe it." She turned back to the rest of the room and sighed. "This might take a little while."
Hattie immediately lit up at that. "Need any help? I can help!"
"Uh...." She sighed stretching her aching arms out and turning her attention to the random curled up rugs lying on the floor...Making her way over to them. They didn't look as heavy as the barrels. "Well, I suppose you can go clean somewhere else?....Btw I don't think you've told me where that leads." She pointed towards the long green ladder going up towards that opening in the wall above them both.
"That's the boiler room and where the ship's water is stored. I can totally go clear it out!"
"Eh. If it isn't really too much trouble. But I don't think if it's just water in there it'll need to be cleared out." She grabbed one of the rolled up red carpets in the corner and lifted it up, as suspected it didn't weigh much at all.
"Should I get the carpets out?"
"......" Poppy looked at her. "You have carpets floating in the water in there?," she asked making sure she was hearing right.
"Only two!," the small child shouted back defensively.
.......Poppy sighed and shook her head. "It's not good to have carpets floating around in your water supply. You go better get those out and you be careful young lady!"
Hattie saluted her and made a jumped over the railing and hopping to the floor below with a thud. Poppy watched as she ran along past her and waded into the giant pile of show, giving off a soft 'brr' and causing some loose snow to tumble out of the pile as she reached the long green ladder and  shimmied up it rather quickly surprisingly for a child. Sending the loose snow from her body floating down to the pile below. Shaking her head she went back to work, throwing the random rolls of rugs, three red and two blue, on top of the giant pecking crate she pushed over  along with another random barrel, her sights were set on sweeping the last of the smaller piles of snow into the bigger one which just grew with the added snow and picking up the smaller random things stuck in the smaller piles. Two woven laundry baskets and pink bottles that looked like the shampoos she had seen on the bathroom shelves. Those were placed on top of the washing machine until she could put those away properly. It was a pain to get the snow out of the corner from behind the DLC elevator thing but luckily the long broom was skinny enough to reach behind there. She finished it all up in no time! Hard work really did pay off it seemed. But the strangest thing happened when she discovered something behind the washer, it was easy enough to move both giant machines away from the wall to sweep under and behind them, but when she saw the small piece of paper she paused. Blinking at it and giving nothing but a side glance to it before shrugging and absent mindedly tucking it into her apron's front pocket for safe keeping just in case it was important later-
THUMP!!
Poppy jumped and turned around feeling the chilling feeling of snowflakes falling on her back and blinked at the pile of snow behind her. To her mild surprise there was a rolled up, obviously soaking wet, red carpet sitting on top of the snow pile- With another thump and spray of her, Poppy slammed her eyes shut at the spray of snowflakes coming towards her. Blinking them back open to just slam them shut again as a second wave of snowflakes waved over her face with a blur of blue and she kept her head down..........When she was sure she wasn't about to get sprayed with anymore snowflakes, she opened her eyes to the snow pile. There was two more carpet rolls and a red pillow in the pile as she sighed. Looking up the green ladder at where they dropped from and shaking her head.
A few moment's later the small hatted girl appeared in the small entrance above her, a smile on her face and teddy bear clutched in her arms similar to the one Poppy found in the attic, looking down she spotted said red head stuffing the wet sky diving rugs into the dryer. "POPPY!!" When the lady looked up she waved down at her and jumped. She heard a yell as she fell fast and landed in the pile of snow with a thump splashing snow everywhere and giggling like a maniac. "I'm done!"
"What did I tell you guys about doing that?!," Poppy stared at her with a worried expression and groaned leaning back. "*sigh* You know...Fine just PLEASE don't do that again. It freaks me out."
"Whatcha doing?" She asked crawling out of the pile and giving a little shake to expell the extra snow off her.
"Throwing these into this high tech drying device," Poppy said turning back to her duty and shoving those carpets in. Thank goodness all the buttons had labels telling her how this thing worked. "Can't leave them soaking wet and have 'em grow moldy now. Not healthy at all. The real question is what am I going to do with all that snow."
She mumbled the last bit to herself but the child was quick to get another one of her crazy ideas hopping to the floor and unknownst to Poppy about to change into a completely different hat. "I know how to make that snow get lost! Can I help?"
She shrugged trying to figure out which one of these buttons to press exactly. "If you have an idea be my guest. "...before just pressing start button. A small beeping noise hummed from inside the device before a small red dot popped up and it started moving all over by itself. Slowly she took her hands off it and sighed. "Well...It seems to be workin'. Now what idea did you ha-"
BOOM!!
It was as if a canon went off directly behind her. The loud explosion like sound combined with the vibrations going through the ground was enough to make Poppy yelp loudly and fall to the ground, scrambling back on her bottom away from the source of the noise but only found the small girl there smiling, clutching that toy, and .....wearing a pink witch hat?? She smiled and pointed in the direction of the once giant snow pile. Now literally nothing from......Whatever she had done completely gotten rid of the pile of dirty snow and reduce the space in inhabited to nothing but clear air........Slowly rising to her knees, Poppy stared at the small smiling girl in front of her. Placed her hands on her shoulders gently. And in as calm tone as she could muster said.
"Please. Don't EVER do that again without warning me."
Well, despite that one scare, things were running along actually pretty smoothly and hopefully they would all be finished before the day was out. She wasn't exactly sure how much of the ship was really left since she technically hadn't see all of it but not too long after that Bow had returned with that broom she oh so needed and when asked again to help, Poppy just sent Hattie to get Rumbi and go do one of the other rooms her own way. Whatever the lil alien did spooked her and she wasn't too excited to have it happen again, But Bow was another story. She insisted to come along with her to the potion room too and not having the energy to argue agreed but insisted Bow would NOT be going anywhere near those dangerous looking potions. The young girl happily agreed and skipped behind her on the way there. The potion room though didn't seem as troublesome as she originally thought. To keep Bow away from trouble she gave her the job of sweeping the floor CAREFULLY and as she watched, as she would be the one to wipe down these tables. Safe to say things went really smooth and Bow was such a kind helper quickly working sweeping up the metal flooring. Poppy had to admit she was enjoying this too. Wiping up the small sticking spills under whatever was in these bottles, some were a blue sparkly liquid. A couple were red. And other random colors from pink to yellow, blue, green, orange a one or two purple. And they all smelt of burnt rubbage! Yeah. She was so glad she was the one handling this part of the cleaning. Every few moments Poppy would look over at Bow and smile at the little girl sweeping away at the other side of the room. Bow was a natural at this it seemed. At one point Poppy was carefully scooting over what looked like a weird looking television set with a permanent green screen and paused. Another small shopping list? Without reading it again she deposited the small paper with the other she found behind the washer in her breast pocket without so much as another thought. She'd ask Hattie about it later just in case it was an important alien document. By the end of all their efforts, the storage room was still quite cold but without so much snow piled up(never mind how snow could end up in a space ship in out space of all places) and pretty neat looking. By the time Poppy crawled her way out of the potion room, admiring the work it must've been to weave the realistic blue gear patterns in the carpet looking a slightly brighter blue after Rumbi got done with it, the drying machine had already stopped. Which meant that whatever was inside was dry right? Well that just meant she better get down there and see to it they were taken care if. Bow was nice enough to start dragging all the brooms and other cleaning things back to the kitchen closet and cabinets she originally found them all in while Poppy was putting these rugs back up there with others. And like the usual pattern she'd figure out, out came the hatted child from the door to the control room.
"Hey! I'm all done!...Well, Rumbi's not done, but I don't have to do anything else. Right?," she asked leaning over the railing to watch poppy pick up the rolled up now dry carpets and carry them to throw them up on top on the big crate with the others.
Poppy smiled up at her. "Really? Already? Wow. You're a fast worker. I guess this ship ain't as big as I thought it was," she mumbled as she just tossed the three rugs on top there with the others. With that finished any work she had down here in these sections of rooms thanks to the help of these two lovlies.
"Can I ask you something now?"
"Sure! What is it?," Poppy asked turning back around and walking towards the small ladder to climb back up to the doors.
"Do you know who R. King is?"
"Our King? Hm. Well I wouldn't have the faintest idea who's ruling in this time period, maybe that Snatcher fella knows." Her red head peeked over the ladder as she climbed up. "Have ya tried askin' him?"
"Not 'our' king! R. KING!!," the child insisted before taking off her hat. She stuck her hand into it and a moment later pulled out two wrinkled small pieces of paper, holding them out to her. "I found these in my room."
Poppy gazed at the small notes confused but reached out and took them from her. They were wrinkled from being handled by the little girl who plopped her hat back on her head as Poppy rose a brow and read the notes. They were both written in black pencil and had similar hand writing. "Check Under red box. Signed R. King?" She read over the note confused before turning her head to the other one. "I. O. U....One half cookie?? Check kitchen. Signed R. King." Confused she looked back to the little girl before holding the notes back to her which she took. "Exactly where did you find these?"
"In my room. Rumbi was sweeping under this chair and the note got stuck in his filters. And then when I was cleaning my desk to prove I could be cleaner I found another one under my tool box." She stuck the notes back into her hat. "But I couldn't find anymore."
"Do you know anyone called R. King?"
"No. That's why I asked you. ...Maybe Snatcher's playing a prank again."
"I wouldn't even know where to start. I've only known ya'll for a few days now." She paused.....getting a thoughtful expression and humming. "But funny how it mentioned the kitchen. I think I found a note behind the trash can in there."
Her eyes widened. "REALLY?!"
"Uh huh. I noticed there was some green goop, so I moved the trashcan to mop it up and found it. I placed it on that refridgarator in case it was importa- HEY! Where are you going?"
Hattie didn't say anything but instead turned and belined it out the control room door and leaving Poppy. The woman stood there for a moment before huffing and shaking her head. Looks like she'd have to go after her, she was heading that way anyways. Fast forward one crawl later and she popped back into the control room stretching out her back, thankful for the warmer air hitting her body instead of the cold air back down there. But she didn't get much of a break before Hattie came back running towards her waving a small piece of paper to her. Poppy stared at it for a moment before taking it from her and reading it out loud for the child.
"I. O. U....Pencil?? Enjoy the cookie. Check Basement? Signed R. King. " There was both a smiling face and frowning face on the paper and she rose a brow looking over at her. "You have a basement?"
Hattie shrugged and reached back up indicating she wanted the note back and Poppy handed it back, watching as the small child looked over it curiously in her hands. "What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure exactly." A flashed of recognition came across her face and in a flash she reached back into her breast pocket and pulled out the two notes she found while cleaning back in the rooms down that way. "Could these be useful to our little mystery?"
Hattie blinked at them and asked, "I don't know. What do they say?"
Poppy looked down to the papers in her hands and read, "I. O. U. Vial. Sorry to keep borrowing your stuff. Check lab. Signed R. King." There was a frowning face on this one too as she turned to the second one she found in the potion room. "I found these in the potion room and behind the washer while cleanin'. This was says I. O. U. Nu-clear rod?? The peck is that? Check machine room. Also signed by our Mr. R. King." The second one had some strange lines on it as she looked to the child reaching her arms out for those too which she was glad to hand over. "What do you suppose that means now?"
She hummed an 'I don't know' and looked over the papers in her hands before turning her head towards the doorway at the far wall. It was red with some kind of strange symbol she didn't recognize and pointed. "Maybe they mean the engine room!"
"Engine room?" Poppy turned to where Hattie pointed and after a moment she followed the little girl.
The door opened with a whoosh sound and immediately when she got close enough she heard the strangest noise. The best way she could describe it was if a whole bunch of men were repeatedly hammering away at something metal but that wasn't exactly what it was. Curiously she bent down to peer inside the hall and she noticed this hallway was different from the others. It was red and what looked like ....train tracks?? Boy. These aliens keep getting weirder and weider don't they? The loud grinding sounds got louder as she got further into the hallway crawling after her and when she got to the other si-...OH. MY. PECK!! WHAT DID SHE JUST STEP INTO?! GIANT gears lined the entirety of all the walls and ceiling when she stood up to gawk around at everything. The grinding gears made the noise she had been hearing and there was red wood lining the walls matching the copper n silvery gears everywhere and in the middle was another ramp Rumbi was currently happily sweeping away on. It too had a few gears on it, a telescope, and some kind of closet thing connected by large metal wires going up and into the ceiling. Gawking and staring at the entire thing, Poppy took a few steps in and turning around in circles here and there. Paying no attention to the little girl running around moving things and looking for anymore of those small pieces of paper from R. King. Stopping only to give a look over at the staring woman.
"HEY!!" Poppy jumped and blinked at the little girl looking between books on the bookshelf. "Come help me!"
........She blinked. "Uh...R-Right." She walked towards the little girl and couldn't help but notice the other mini little control panels and other things as Hattie soon got impatient with the books as any child would and shoved whatever books she had in her hands back and went to the crate next to said bookshelf. Curiously looking behind it, a wrench and tool box on top of it. "Uh....So t-thing is your ship's..engine?"
"Half of it. The other half is in the boiler room....Hey! I found one!" The crate was shoved forwards a few inches enough for her to squeeze behind it and a moment later her smile reappeared and she held her arm up. In her hand was another small piece of paper. "HERE!"
Poppy blinked and slowly leaned down to read it as she held it. Looking at it as Hattie squeezed out from behind the crate. " I. O. U. Gear. See you soon. Check my castle in the attic?? From R. King again.....What does I. O. U. even stand for?"
She shrugged excitedly. "I dunno. But let's go check the attic! I didn't know there was a castle!"
She ran towards the door and Poppy blinked after her....Slowly going after her while taking a look around at the strange room one last time before following the child out and back to the control room. Back in the control room Bow was happily munching on an apple but paused as Hattie excitedly ran past her without a word and ran towards the lift to the attic and a moment later Poppy followed closely behind groaning from all the unexpected working out she'd been doing all day. When she looked up to Bow and saw her eating- She gave a sheepish look as a rumble came from her stomach and to save face, stood to stretch out. She needed a lunch break. Wasn't a ghost's employee entitled to that?
"What's all that about?," Bow mumbled through another bite.
Poppy sighed and glanced up towards the ramp noticing the other little girl riding the platform up towards the attic. "Trying to solve a mystery. We found these strange notes everywhere and she's trying to find a 'castle in the attic."' She started walking slowly to the ramp to go up there too and Bow followed right behind her.
"Can I come?"
"Sure. But I don't think we'll be finding any castles up there. Didn't see any when I cleaned it out." The two made their way up and as soon as their heads poked up the top of the platform, they could see Hattie's form over near the wall opening the drawers and looking inside for any castles or notes as the other two ladies came in and Poppy crossed her arms as she stepped into the attic floor. "You're a quick little searcher aren't ya?"
"Help me find it!," She yelled excitedly back slamming the drawer closed and quickly opening another one which turned out to also be empty.
"I didn't find any castles when I cleaned up here, Kid. But I get the feeling if I don't help you won't stop."
"You're not wrong!"
Poppy chuckled and walked calmly towards the ward robe. "Alright. But then we get back to our wor-'' Her stomach rumbled again and she stopped for a moment. "Correction. Food and then back to work."
Bow stood there munching on the apple in her hands as she watched the two go about. Hattie digging through the dresser like a rabbit, and Poppy just opening the ward robe and moving over the two dresses that were in there gazing at the inside of it. Neither noticed Bow just casually walking along the orange carpet up towards the stairs leading up towards the windows and the stars of outer space twinkled at them from outside. The curly haired gal kept munching away as she walked past the part of the carpet that formed into a giant circle and kept walking towards the stairs, but instead of walking up the stairs she walked towards the right side of the stair case and looked up and down the wooden side of the stairs. After a moment of her eyes scanning over the side slowly going down to the about the middle, something twinkled between two planks of wood to which she blinked and leaned closer to look at. After a moment of peeking between the two square shaped bourds, she quickly bit down into the apple to keep her hands free and managed to get her hands into the gap between the bourds and pulled. The creaking of the wood caught the attention of the older woman who turned with a confused brow and froze at the sight of Bow on the other side of the large room pulling at what seemed to be a very large wooden bourd. She quickly went to yell at her to stop but it was too late. A giant snap like sound sounded out finally making Hattie snap her head up and Bow fell back onto her behind. The wooden plank fallen a foot to her left.
"BOW!!" Poppy quickly ran towards the little girl who did nothing much but shake her head and stand back up. Dusting her dress off before reaching back up to take another bite of the apple and hold it. She looked up to Poppy who dropped to her knees and grabbed her shoulders worriedly. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?! WHAT IN TARNATION WERE YOU THINKING!? YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN HURT!!"
Bow looked at the worried look on Poppy face and giving an apologetic look. ''I'm sorry. I was watching Moony Penguin and he found a secret passage way under the stairs."
"Sweetie. I understand that, but you don't do that kind of stuff!" She scowled lightly and pointed at her. "Now you promise me ya'll NEVER do somethin' like that again."
"Ok. I'm sorry, Poppy."
Hattie had ran over when Poppy had but when she realized Bow was ok, her head turned to the hole in the wall and INSTANTLY her jaw dropped. Her eyes went wide. And shiny gold reflected in her eyes.
Poppy sighed and patted her head. "It's alright. But please don't scare me like that."
"WHOA!!" Hattie went up to the hole in the wall and peeked her head inside...Which was gently pulled back when Poppy grabbed her cape and gently pulled her back away from it.
"Hattie. Now you also know better that to do that!" She glanced at the hole. "Now I gotta fix-....HOLY MOTHER OF MOON PENGUINS!!"
IT! WAS! GOLD!!! LITERALLY REAL GOLD!!! Shiny gold objects shined from inside the hole in the wall and all three ladies gazed inside unmoving. Just staring at the wonderous things inside...Until Poppy seemed to snap out of it blinking and moving both girls beside her before shuffling on her knees and leaning into the hole looking in....Before reaching her hand in and pulling out the gold items. The first thing to be pulled out was a golden trophy, Poppy looked at it for a moment. Reading the bottom it said 'Doka DW King 1st to 111'. She had no idea what that meant but when she looked inside it she blinked and pulled her face away a little bit. After a few seconds her hand reached into the top of said trophy and pulled out a PURE GOLD SKULL. The girls awed wide eyed at the sight. What was this? Did this mean they found a pirate's treaure!? Was this buried treasure going to make them rich?! Poppy set both of them to the side to which the excited kids quickly took them for themselves to hold and look at in wonder, and she reached back into the whole pulling out even MORE gold goodies. A cheese wheel with a missing slice and then said missing slice of cheese with the letters BT carved into it. She heard of yellow cheese but gold cheese? A small gold statue of a mafia man. A literal gold cookie. A gold pencil. A gold gear! All of which the girls grabbed and took turns smiling and staring in amazement. But Hattie pointed at the pure gold potion she pulled out next.
"HEY!! The gold potion." She grabbed it from Poppy and held it up to her face. ".....The potion turned itself to gold too! WOW!! ....Hey! My nuclear rod's stuck in it!" She scowled at her reflection in the now useless potion.
"Gold potion?"
"Uh huh. It can turn anything into gold!...Well it used to!"
"What was it doing under the stairs?"
Hattie shrugged. "Beats me. Is there more gold?!"
"Uh..." Poppy looked back inside. "Yeah actually." Reaching back in Poppy pulled out a golden candle with a golden flame still looking like it was on fire and both girls gawked at it, Bow grabbing it from the older woman as she pulled out something much larger than everything else. "Hang on a second?" She pulled out a square looking sculpture turning it over a bit..before smiling and holding it up to them. "Hey. What does this look like?"  Her smile widened as Hattie gasped again.
"THE CASTLE!!" Dropping the gold gold potion that landed on the floor with a thud, she quickly held her hands out for it in a silent plea and Poppy happily gave it two the girls. Hattie's eyes shined with happiness and wonder at finding this giant gold castle and Bow leaned next to her to look at the small golden castle sculpture with her.
......Until Bow giggled and pointed at their reflections in the gold. "Look! We're making funny faces."
Both girls giggled at the images the reflections caused making Poppy smile even more at them. They were so happy!
"Is there anything else?"
"Uh...Y-Yeah. Hang on a sec. I don't think it's gold tho."
"Not gold?"
Both girls watched silently as Poppy reached back inside....and a moment later pulled out three things, two pieces of paper that weren't gold and a small golden insect statue wearing a tiny crown. Her blue eyes gazing at the papers curious like. "I wonder what this is all about." She went to place the gold insect statue down but Hattie reached out a free hand and took from her not that she noticed looking at the letters. "It looks like they're letters."
"What do they say?"
"...I had all the gold in the Roach World and yet I was unhappy. I learned that gold tarnishes and turns dull, but a mind filled with gold is safe from tarnish, and can hold limitless wealth. You have a heart of gold, Hat Kid." Hattie blinked in surprise at the mention of her name in the letter. "I have evolved. Sorry we didn't get to meet. Signed R. King." Poppy paused for a moment staring at the letter before turning her eyes to the tiny bug statue Hattie was holding. "R. King and all the gold in the roach world...I think we found Mr. Roach King."
"What does the letter mean?," Bow asked as Hattie looked at the statue in her hand.
"Roach King?"
"It means he's saying that Hattie has a good heart." She smiled. "And a good heart is better than gold. Like what you two have."
"Your heart is gold too, Poppy," Bow insisted making Bow giggle at the cute insistance from the child.
"THAT'S SO COOL!! What does the other one say?"
"Huh? OH! Yeah! Other one." She looked back to the other letter in her hands and skimmed over it before pausing. "....Huh...It looks like this one is talking to Bow too."
"Me?"
"It has been a long journey. Watching you all grow up into young adults was a pleasure. But soon this story must end. Life moves on and new moments await you. We will meet again someday. I look forward to that day. Farewell. Signed...R. King." She smiled and looked over to the two confused looking children as they looked to each other then to her as if in question. "It means...He was probably expecting you to find his treasure and finally meet him even if he 'evolved' into this gold statue. ...And you three finally met like he wanted I reckon."
Both children looked back down to the small statue in Hattie's hand and gave him a neutral look...before Hattie put down the castle and pointed to the letters in her hands. "Can we keep those?"  
"Of course you can. These are adressed to you two after all." She held them out and after Bow bit into her food to have a free hand again, they reached out and each took a letter from her looking at them and seemingly happily beaming at the exciting adventure's rewards they had. Making Poppy chuckle and smile more before she looked over at the wall behind her with a sigh. "Well, I reckon I oughtta fix that hole and then finish up the job for that ghost friend of yours."
Her stomach rumbled making all three look at her stomach.
".......But first a lunch break."
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