Firestarter's yaoiful day out
Written by Martin
This is my first fully written fanfiction! It took me a bit to get back to a level of confidently showing off my self indulgent/fan written work and to fully complete it but I'm proud of having done so for this fanfic!
This is by no means perfect and was meant to be a "small" and quick draft of an idea I had, this fanfic is by all means a "crack"/joke fanfic taking itself seriously at the beginning and middle and is a small character exploration of the TTCC character "Firestarter/Flint Bonpyre". Inspired by the actual month long plush campaign by the official TTCC crew and Makeship.
I am also testing out the Ayano comment widget for the first time! So apologies if it doesn't quite work at first, please alert me on that via my neocities profile or my email for such.
Idk if I didn't get the intsurctions right or the widget just doesn't work anymore but unfortunately the comments are not showing up when I definitely know there are comments :sob: so unfortunately I will be looking into other methods for commenting.
Without further ado, please hopefully enjoy my writing :-]
It’s not uncommon for a cog to take breaks, far from it, even the hardest working suit has to recharge eventually before continuing the monotonous cycle of work. If you’re particularly lucky, or more importantly, wealthy, you could reward yourself with a nice vacation. However, that isn’t the case for a majority of cogs and especially those working under C.O.G.S Incorporated in their never ending attempts at claiming Toontown as their property.
As the toons continue to fight back against the cogs more and more, it becomes harder to combat against such silliness, almost demotivating for a good majority of cogs endlessly fueling this conflict, but it will never end on their part. Perhaps out of sheer stubbornness, definitely out of greed and an excessive amount of hubris. What’s most important is that C.O.G.S INC themselves continue pushing and pushing back in response lest they lose to what the Chairman deems as “inferior animals”.
For such a selfish reason, you can now see why breaks are rather uncommon, even looked down upon amongst C.O.G.S INC employees, especially for those of a higher rank within the company. Which is where this leads us to a particular bossbot who patrols the icy streets of the Brrrgh, the Firestarter.
Upon hearing that they were given a day off, it gave him quite the shock, like getting soaked by a squirt gag some toons tend to carry when engaged in battle. Flint knew what role he had in C.O.G.S INC, not only as a street manager but as a bossbot, a high ranking cog at that! Even if he was given some leeway in making mistakes here and there compared to other cogs like a poor fellow flunky, it was still a mistake in need of fixing, and one of the many things considered “mistakes” in C.O.G.S INC was slacking off. So to say when given the news by the CEO himself to take a day off, Flint could not believe what they were hearing.
And now, they were conflicted with how to spend this singular day all for themselves before it was gone. Say what you will about the abysmal work culture present in C.O.G.S INC, Flint could bring up many instances to easily convince someone who was somehow oblivious no doubt how stressful the conditions there are, but there’s a painful familiarity and trust within such a system. He honestly wouldn’t mind pretending this was another work day, trudging continuously through the snow all day on the same 4 streets, being pelted with snowballs and gags by toons. Flint is a cog after all, maybe it’s just in their hard wiring to act out his purpose in serving C.O.G.S INC, he has a job to fulfill.
But perhaps, Flint thought, he should just suck up these feelings and have a damn break, they were commanded by the CEO to do so after all, he should cherish this rare occurrence of “kindness” bestowed upon him. Flint also thought back to the many pieces of advice the sellbot he was closest to, the Pacesetter had given him for motivation. While Flint couldn’t be more grateful for all of that, he had to admit… a lot of what Graham had advised him was easier said than done, especially when their personalities were as similar as apples and oranges, Flint’s just never had the heart to tell him that.
It’s honestly inspiring how well put Pacesetter was in comparison to themselves, well he had to be, for Graham held a higher if not highest ranking for the managers especially for a sellbot. He’s cocky and extremely proud of all his achievements to get to the position he’s at right now, but Flint was far from ever reaching that level of confidence Graham just naturally developed. But he knew one of the many advice Graham gave in was to “own” his worth, that Flint was “one of the best” and whatever net positive came his way should be hung up on a shelf like a prized trophy (Graham had later also said that if anybody less superior dare disagree, that they were simply just jealous of their success but Flint was a little more unsure of that additional advice given).
“This is a win… I suppose” Flint thought to himself, “I guess I’ll appreciate this for now… I earned it after all” he now had the whole of today to do whatever they wanted, just as long as none of those crispy critters decided to pick a fight with him “I wonder if it still counts on a break day” Flint wondered. The only downside he could see from this was not being able to actually spend the day out with Graham, he’s still busy with work so it would just have to be a solo day unless another manager or any cog really also coincidentally had a day off right now.
“Well… I guess I’ll get a bite somewhere close, the Mozzarella Styx could be good…” better start the rest of this break satisfyingly Flint supposed. While he and the owner of the Mozzarella Styx weren’t on very… friendly terms to say the least, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal to just eat in for a bit and leave. If only he had kept his mouth from slipping about Plutocrats lackeys, Flint still held the opinion that they were too nosy for their own goods but the feud between him and Mr Kuiper could’ve probably been avoided had the Plutocrat not been so personally offended by their personal opinion.
The stroll towards the Mozzarella Styx wasn’t long as Flint arrived to the entrance of the restaurant, he decided to take a tiny peep through the doors just to double check for any toons present within the premises, they’d be stupid to not be aware of the Mozzarella Styx’s status of being a quite popular area for toons to simply sit back and relax for a while, that or the couple of toons taking on Mr Kuiper and his satellite investors in a brawl. Perhaps it was unprofessional, even a bit petty to think so but the idea of Mr Kuiper with his tough guy persona alongside his goons getting beat relentlessly by a bunch of critters puts a smirk to their face.
Upon seeing that there wasn’t a toon in sight, Flint breathed a sigh of relief as he let himself in and sat down on a random table in the room. “No table menu huh…” Flint observed as he looked over to the view of the menu on the wall above the reception, squinting for a better view from where he was seated.
Flint had a vague idea the food quality of the Mozzarella Styx was not up to par from what he’s heard, of course it wasn’t going to be the quality of any of the CEO’s banquets, that’d be giving Mr Kuiper too much credit, but man looking at these menu items, maybe it wasn’t the best to come here for lunch… And considering the seemingly desolate state this restaurant was in, Flint probably wouldn’t be getting anything out of this place. Just to make sure, Flint stood up from where he was seated and peeked into the entrance of an area that was labeled “employees only” to find an empty freezer. With plans for a quick lunch failed, Flint booked it out of the pizzeria, looking out of the entrance doors of the Mozzarella Styx like they had earlier just to make sure there were no toons in the vicinity. “I’ll just have take-out later… I could get some for Graham too maybe.”
With his lunch plans now canceled, Flint stuffed his hands into their pant pockets and strolled away from the pizzeria. “Man, nobody told me how hard it would be planning out what to actually do on a break day” sure, Flint could just go back to his humble abode and stay in, but they’d felt like if they have just gone home and done nothing, they would’ve wasted a rare break day on just lazing around, that simply could not do for a suit of his caliber. This thought has also reminded him off a certain coworker of his, the Multislacker, Flint knew the very basics of Mx Bravecog, one and most obvious, they were the child of the SR V.P, second Mx Bravecog is very very lazy (relaid to him by Graham) and third of all, Graham also did not like them, almost to an extreme extent seeing as while they were both working within the same department, Graham knew almost as good as Flint does about Mx Bravecog beyond having brief interactions with them as they both had also shared an interview date.
Flint had seen the aftermath of Graham frantically yelling about losing his job opportunity after just learning of Mx Bravecog’s familial background, it was honestly a very rare sight to see Graham this worried over such a miniscule thing seeing as it hadn’t affected his hiring chances nor his current position within the sellbot department and C.O.G.S INC as a whole. I mean, Flint could understand why since they weren’t aware of what Mx Bravecog was capable of or the power they held, but from what Graham had further ranted of Multislacker after having a few work bump-ins with them, they seemed totally incompetent for the current position they were given, no, gifted, Graham emphasized.
Flint snapped out of his current pondering as he arrived into Barnacle Boatyard, better known to them as the Offshoring & Drilling District. While it was seemingly connected to the main city of “Toontown” (or in the Chairman’s words, the soon to be “Cog Nation”) it seemed to be very empty apart from a few residents and shop keepers, there of course was also his other fellow co-workers located in the area such as Mr. Anna, the Deep Diver, Mr Crow, the Land Acquisition Architect and last, Ms. Monsoon, the Rainmaker.
While he had interacted with Ms. Anna and had well small talk with her, some of which included Ms. Monsoon, Flint figured he wasn’t going to interrupt the important work of the both of them while Mr Crow… Mr Crow had been working with C.O.G.S INC way longer than Flint had, they honestly didn’t know too much of Mr Crow’s status within the company beyond his work with expanding the company’s property within the Offshoring & Drilling District, so same with his fellow managers Flint wasn’t planning on giving him a visit.
Flint took advantage of the currently empty streets of the district to stroll around the area, the skies were much foggier here making the atmosphere quite gloomy, even for a cog. They eventually came across a small designated area they found intriguing, a worn out bench right next to a small pool of water too shallow to fish from, while about three balloons of the colors, red, blue and yellow were tied to the bench, not having deflated yet, as if it was left for someone to find.
Seeing the desolate state the current street he’s in was, Flint sat down on the bench, definitely built for toons in mind, or at least not for cogs of his large physical status. He looked up to observe the gray sky and looked back to the balloons now right next to them. “Hmm, now if only Graham was here with me…” Flint knew Graham could’ve definitely spiced up this moment, maybe make a witty remark about it, “he would definitely hate being here though, haha” Flint thought, Graham was all about the glitz and glamor, bright lights and the big cities, if Graham was accompanying him at this moment he would’ve just broughten Flint to the Luxury Suites & Textiles District, or even the Brass & Shipping District! Flint knew how much Graham enjoyed that district, especially with his favorite musician located there.
A creeping thought that occurred within their mind crawled its way back now that he was thinking about Graham again. Actually, out of all the things Flint has thought off today, Graham has consistently appeared and popped into his train of thoughts. Could they really not go a moment without thinking about him? Flint knew it was inevitable not only because they were co-workers, but because of their current relationship status, despite how boisterous Flint initially assumed Graham would’ve been about it, he’s surprisingly kept his mouth shut about it and so has Flint. Flint wasn’t ashamed of having this relationship with Graham, far from it, same obviously with Graham but it was simply much more convenient if they both kept their personal lives separate from their business lives and while C.O.G.S INC doesn’t seem too intolerant of cogs with different attractions or even gender identities as with Flint and Graham’s case, same with some of the managers, more so the higher ups and cog society as a whole had a long way to go when it came to displaying or discussing such topics too much, that was all Flint was willing to think too much of for the moment. Toon society on the other hand seemed much more progressive and accepting, Flint quickly noted from what they’ve briefly observed.
Back to what this initial thought was about, Graham just seemed to fill up his mind way more than Flint guessed, he and Graham always hung out together when they both could no matter what, or more so… Flint had always tattled right behind Graham. A cloud of insecurity built up in his mind at that moment, “have I always been so superficial? Why are the only things I ever focus on my job and my boyfriend…” this question really shouldn’t be eating him up especially on his break day for pete's sake! This was a time for him to relax and do something meaningful, not worry about his sense of identity.
This culminated in Flint feeling a tinge of shame and embarrassment over these feelings, he should know himself best, right? Why does the majority of what they thought off and wanted to do hinge on his boyfriend? They weren’t even going to take this damn break if he hadn’t remembered what Graham advised him on. It was certainly a strange feeling having to acknowledge all this at the moment, as he was still sitting here on this tiny bench in a playground he wasn’t all too familiar with.
Flint looked back up to the sky once again to take in sights and back again to the balloons, they had hesitated to but caved in and untied a balloon from the bench and held it within his hand. Flint took in his surroundings once last time before shutting his eyes and taking in the salty air and fog. This had certainly helped calm him down from his realization earlier, “... I think I’ll have to talk about this with Graham soon…”
However, before he could continue further from where that thought was headed, a loud alarm noise started playing, Flint checked their phone to find that they were receiving a call from the SR V.P which is very rare. They hit the answer button immediately in which the V.P proceeded to yell in a hurried fashion “MX BONPYRE! You are called into MY office at sellbot hq for an important meeting, I expect you to come in IMMEDIATELY! This is of utmost importance for the company.” before Flint could even respond, the V.P hung up the call once he’d finished his message. “An important meeting? At sellbot hq?” Flint was unsure if V.P or someone in higher management had messed up the files or whatever for this occasion but he supposed he could not oppose, the last part of this being of “utmost importance to the company” swirled around in their mind before they decided to take a short cut and fly towards sellbot hq via their propeller, a convenient little thing that is.
As Flint had arrived upon Sellbot hq property, he assumed this meeting was most likely going to occur in the V.P’s office, so Flint headed towards the main office building it was located in and briefly greeted and explained the situation to the sellbot hq secretary, Ms. Janet Jennings, to the best of their ability given how vague the statement “important meeting at sellbot hq, come immediately” was. Luckily Janet seemed to agree with that sentiment and allowed him in where he waited for the elevator leading to the top floor of the V.P’s office.
As the elevator finally arrived and the doors shifted to allow Flint in, a familiar voice that went ”NOT SO FAST!” shot out from the very quiet floor he and Janet were in, someone had then brute force sped their way into the closing elevator doors before pressing the same button towards the top floor. Flint and this mysterious cog finally faced each other in which they both yelled,
“GRAHAM?”
“FLINT?!?”
“Okay, okay! First Mister Craig Edgar Oilcan gives you and only you a random day off, then I get called in for a super duper urgent meeting with my boss Mr Bravecog and now YOU’RE HERE!”
“I know! This is all quite surprising…” Flint cut in as Graham finished his tangent.
“Just what is going on today?!” Graham questioned, “I’m honestly just as unsure as you… nonetheless your boss giving me a call to come to Sellbot hq immediately” Flint replied back, they retained eye contact throughout their incline up to the V.P’s office, fortunate for them there were no other employees within the building who needed to use the elevator they were on, so they had the cubicle to themselves to discuss and speculate.
“There’d better be some good reason we’re both being called in, do you think it’s anything detrimental?” Graham asked, “I hope not, I mean, we are C.O.G.S INCs top employees…” Flint attempted to rationalize, the last thing they would want is getting extremely anxious in front of a higher-up “plus, if it was something truly threatening to our statuses, wouldn’t it be more fitting to be meeting Mr Cyger instead of Mr Bravecog? No offense dear, but your boss, as hyper and impulsive he can act, is not what I think for when it comes to serious talk like that, especially for me, a bossbot having a meeting with another cog department I’m not in” he finished trying to help piece together what was going to happen.
“You’re right for that assessment! See how smart my burning beloved is” Graham replied, Flint’s cheeks blushed a little with that sappy addition, it may be a tad unprofessional acting “lovey-dovey” in a workplace setting, but they were by themselves, hopefully nobody eavesdrop on this through security… and even then, despite this nice little moment, Flint couldn’t help but think back to what he reflected on during his time in the Offshoring & Drilling District, man was this really going to eat at them, but that can wait till after this meeting.
“Or cog help me!”
Flint yelled mentally, their convo seemed to die down past that point beyond small talk, mostly Graham proceeding to yap on about his day and what he’s been up to, which on most chances if it isn’t fighting toons, is nothing.
Finally, they landed on the top floor of the building and exited the elevator doors in-sync towards the V.P’s office, the V.P who was seated behind his massive desk in his massive office that could well fit more than the amount of sellbot suits working in the department. Their entrance into the V.P’s office alerted him immediately as he spun into his “happy” face and greeted the two cogs.
“Why good afternoon boys! Now that you’re both here, let us cut to the chase” the V.P greeted, from his view both Flint and Pacesetter, despite being some of the more taller cogs within C.O.G.S INC looked like tiny ants staring back at him. “As you may notice, we are in my office and there is a reason you’re here Mr Payser being as you’re also a sellbot, one of my top workers” The V.P explained, Graham nodded and replied back “why of course Mr Bravecog! I only provide the best service” nonchalantly boasting their many achievements throughout their employment in C.O.G.S INC. “Yes yes yes we know, but you can see what I’m going to lead into do you?” The V.P continued, “Mr Bonpyre here, despite his surprise break day from work is called here alongside you despite not being a bossbot, correct” the both of them now nodded back retaining all focus on their higher-up. “Well, me and my superordinates, alongside my personal marketing team have been discussing ways this company can try to market towards a more toon centric audience, allowing us to squeeze more and more of C.O.G.S INCs products to those who are naive enough to allow us into their little critter hearts”.
“Despite Mr Cyger’s hesitance to allow ourselves to even envision, in his words ‘warming up to those animals’, with enough convincing and overwhelming positive reception, he let the project I’m about to unveil to you go past conception which is what I’m going to discuss with you two as it heavily involves the both of you” The V.P finished, waiting for a response from both managers.
“Oh sure!”
“Yes… definitely”
“We are both onboard with whatever plan you have!”
“Indeed Mr Bravecog sir”
Graham and Flint both answered back to back, they were honestly both just ready for Mr Bravecog to finally tell them this apparently urgent news. “So polite boys! Continuing on, we’ve been looking to expanding our merch line production, turns out, obviously, branded pens and business cards do not make a great market for toons, the stubborn little creatures” the V.P continue on, slight grimace shown in his voice at the end upon mentioning the toons once more “Soooo, we have decided what better way to better advertise the C.O.G.S INC brand than MARKETABLE PLUSHIES OF THE TWO OF YOU!” the V.P exclaimed excitingly, nearly strong enough to make the ground shake.
“Uhh… What?” questioned both Flint and Graham upon this new fed information settling in.
“Plushies! You both certainly notice how many toons wear those flunky plush backpacks don’t you?” the managers slowly nodded in agreement “and you notice how many toons seem to strangely follow you around Flint, nonetheless obsessively fight you both over and over again?” they nodded in response again to the questions being asked to them, Flint and Graham were honestly still in shock over such a decision being made. “And most importantly of all! Let’s face it, men to men, everyone whether in this company or outside of it knows you guy’s little… situation if you know what I mean~” that was the final straw to jumpstart Flint and Graham from being merely surprised and confused to bewildered in seconds, their cheeks slightly reddening not only from their relationship status they tried so hard to hide from their job being blurted out to what felt like the entire world, and it was going to be blurted to everyone from toontown to suitopia it seems, how embarrassing!
Flint knew something needed to be said right before Mr Bravecog continued any further with this news “Ex-excuse me Mr Bravecog! If I may ask a few more questions about this deal?” they blurted out before any more jaw-dropping news could be dropped. “Why of course Mr Bonprye, answer away, there’ll be some things C.O.G.S INC will give you more details on before we finalize and release the product but I welcome any inquires made now” the V.P replied, Flint personally noticed now, the way Mr Bravecog was acting was strangely… calm and laid back, well of course he had to be calm and collected in a business setting! But Mr Bravecog was not exempt from having some nasty rumors and gossip talk spread about him throughout his years within C.O.G.S INC as a superior, being in charge of admittingly the weakest department within the company, and despite his many highs and accomplishments that helped elevate the company, he was also responsible for various lows during the times where C.O.G.S INC was struggling against the toon’s efforts. As a result, Mr Bravecog was known to be quite… manic to put it lightly, some business decisions seemingly made out of impulse before it inevitably crashes and burns way too many times for his or the chairman’s liking. So for Mr Bravecog to be this uncharacteristically calm about a big marketing idea he has or even having this meeting with him and Graham is surprising to see.
“Well… my first question is how do you know for sure this idea will take off? Yes it seems like some toons have a.. What do I call it? Cute aggression towards us? But with how the toons are, wouldn’t they or at least toons heavily against us just refuse the sale or even try to sabotage the production of these plushies?” Flint asked attentively, he was honestly quite curious what Mr Bravecog would say in response to this hypothetical.
“Well, it’s quite simple! We’ve got it all worked out” the V.P answered chuckling slightly “These plushies will be released for purchase in the month of june, and you know what time is the entirety of june? PRIDE MONTH!” Mr Bravecog exclaimed excitedly. “They’ll be so enticed by this pride month gift from C.O.G.S INC to them, they’ll just have to get it not only for how progressive and cute these plushies are but they’re a limited sale! Only for this month will they ever be available unless we get more demand for supply, it’s quite simple”.
The two managers couldn’t help but agree it was quite a smart marketing tactic, taking advantage of the upcoming celebration bound to happen in Toontown seeing as how a majority of toons they notice tend to wear their pride on their sleeves, quite literally.
“I see… Thank you for answering Mr Bravecog” Flint responded back, surprisingly as well, he noticed throughout after the revealing of this news, Graham has simply stayed quiet this entire time! Not only surprising as it’s free merchandise of Graham, something he had always dreamed and expressed that idea to Flint but it’s just not like Graham to be this quiet for so long. It reminded him of what Flint had thought about earlier, hearing back from Graham after his interview with Mr Cyger’s assistant and how after ranting to Flint about what had occurred, how he stayed completely silent for the rest of the day, them both having to text each other for communication.
“I can see you boys are still quite shocked about this revelation, but don’t worry! I’ll be so nice to let you two get back to whatever you both were doing before and I’ll get back to you both more on this plan just to make sure everything goes smoothly but tata!” the V.P said as Flint and Graham simply nodded and gave their goodbyes before leaving his office building.
They both sighed in relief of that meeting having ended early, it was already embarrassing the way Mr Bravecog had worded their relationship with one another, nonetheless also stating the idea that everyone knew and it was so obvious, if they had stayed any longer one or both of them would probably start overheating or combust in overwhelming emotion. “Well… that was… a meeting” Graham started the conversation after a brief moment of silence, “I mean, I see where Mr Bravecog is coming from, it’s brilliant, but… WHY US?” he then yelled, but soft enough for any unsuspecting cogs to not draw attention to, “I mean, I get me, the toons go crazy for me, not that you don’t have ‘fangirls’ of your own sweetie, but I would’ve expected them to make a plush of, I don’t know… the Major Player! Those toons love him!” Graham tried to rationalize, Flint didn’t know quite how to respond to that, “cog dammit did this really had to be revealed the moment I start having doubts of my self worth and relationship status?” Flint wondered, he’ll REALLY have to talk about that with Graham today, but not now.
“Well… I guess maybe we can talk about that later? Take some time to just take all this in and then discuss it, plus… I guess it’s for a somewhat nice cause, celebrating pride month and all!” Flint tried to possibly calm Graham down from furthering his rant, which had worked, as always. “Sure babe, I guess you are right, and it wouldn’t be too bad subtly telling the world that no matter what… You’re my one and only burning beloved” Graham replied back, winking after finishing his sentence that made Flint blush once more. “Ohhh Graham dear please… spare the pleasantries after work will you?” Flint replied, trying to match Graham’s confidence the best they could “Hah! Of course, you’ve always been the wiser of us two, but what can I say? I guess we just make a perfect pair” Graham countered, leaving the two managers smiling widely.
“I guess I’ll get going then, I’ll let you enjoy what you have left of that day off, and later we can get some dinner and hang out at mine” Graham stated, Flint excitedly nodded “No problem! Have a good rest of the work day my dear, I’ll see you later" they replied back "Back to you babe” Graham replied back one final time before placing a kiss on Flint’s cheek and flying back to the Luxury Suites & Textiles District. Flint placed a palm onto that cheek Graham had smooched and smiled longingly at the sky he had made his exit from.
“What a day…”
