I don't own the TV show, Regular Show. I don't own Mordecai, Rigby, Benson, Pops, or the finally developing character after two seasons Margaret. Cartoon Network owns them, so nobody better come and sue me because I got a copyright up so I'm fine. I think. Though somehow I have a feeling that J.G. Quintel secretly reads his fans fanfiction.

DemiHuman123 presents…

The rays of sunlight shined down over his face, stirring his slumber and bringing him back into reality from a dreamless sleep. His senses and consciousness came into focus once more and he opened his eyes and remembered where he was. It was one of the few times he had actually woken up without his alarm clock going off first. He lay in bed looking up at the ceiling, before turning to his side and getting a glimpse at the wall his bed had been pushed up against.

Today was another day, he thought to himself. Today was going to be like every other day. Nothing was going to change. He was going to get up, take a shower, eat a quick and certainly unhealthy breakfast (due to a lack of proper funding), and then leave his quiet and empty little apartment behind to go to work. It was going to be the same thing as it was everyday. He'd get there, and his levels of stress would rise to a point where it affected his judgment and made his day worse off than he originally thought it was going to be.

He sighed and accepted his rut, getting up from bed and approaching the bathroom just outside his bedroom in the hallway. The gears inside him were jittery and itchy; too much soup from the night before. It had worked its way through his system and needed a quick source of evacuation. After using the facilities, he flushed the commode and turned on the shower. The morning rituals were running like clockwork as always.

He leaned against the wall, taking in the cool untouched feeling of the depressingly grey tiles lined all over as he waited for the water to heat. He let out a groggy yawn and stretched out a bit. Testing the water, he still found it a bit too cold for his tastes and adjusted the warmth. He waited as the water slowly began to heat up to something more manageable: too hot or too cold would be the death of him, considering his body type.

Waiting impatiently, we walked over to the bathroom mirror and glared at the person across from him: Red painted body, long and lanky arms and legs, a slightly bulbous see-through head complete with pinkish gumballs inside. This was him. This was the sad little person he had to live with every day of his miserably agonizingly long life. He wondered for a split second as to why he was born such a creature – a gumball machine – and wondered as to whether or not there was any significance to it. Fate apparently had a sense of humor, as evidenced by the platypus, skunk, and daytime television soap operas.

Strange that he was feeling like that, that morning. He never really thought about philosophy or circumstances or anything like that. Who knows? Perhaps that morning was just one of those beginnings that got him up and thinking about where he was going in life. It didn't stop him from dreading the incoming day's work load though.

The water was still cold. He had to wait longer. He took another long look in the mirror and closed his eyes, letting his thoughts drift away to the sound of running water.

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The florescent lights above the man's head fizzled and hissed violently as he washed his hands with warm soapy water. He stared up at the brightness of the bulbs, flickering and fading. One of them burst, causing him to jump slightly and get water all over his bright red chassis. He sighed unhappily, grabbing for paper towels next to the faucet. The man quickly wiped down his body. Finding the water on his hands dried as well for having touched the towel, he threw it into the trash, collected a folder he had set on the counter and walked out of the restroom. As if sensing its guest leaving, the bulbs stopped flickering.

This place was like a labyrinth, the man thought to himself, scratching at his glassy dome. Where was this person's office again? The man he was supposed to see? And what was his name again? Mallerd? Mellerd? Maellard? That was it! Mr. Maellard. He had heard that name several times before, but then again, who hadn't? The billionaire owned more than 80% of the city, plus several conglomerates outside of the city, state, and country. It was almost off putting to be called into an interview with a man so rich and powerful. And all over a job interview to work at a park?

It made the man nervous. But worry wasn't going to stop him today. He needed this job, even if everything about it seemed so adverse. By the sounds of it, it didn't pay that much, and the hours were going to be quite unbearable, but at this point, a job was a job, evening at minimum wage. At least he was going to be getting some benefits. When was the last time he was able to go to the doctor without having to spend an arm and a leg?

"Hold that elevator!" he screamed, rushing towards the slowly closing door. He was sure he was going to miss it, until a kindly old man inside put his arm out and stopped the door. It slid back open, giving the running man a chance to jump inside. He pressed the button for the floor he was wanting and leaned back against the back wall of the enclosed room, taking a sigh of relief in the process. Who knew how long he would have to have waited for another elevator if this kind gentleman next to him hadn't helped.

"Thanks," the sighing man said to the gentleman. It was only just then that he got a good look at this person.

He was skinny and tall, very tall in fact. So tall that the top hat he was wearing touched the ceiling, making it slightly out of balance, tilting to one side. But the height was only one of the things the man noticed about him. He wondered how a body that looked so frail and bony could support such a swollen head. It was huge! Probably the biggest he had ever seen in his life. The smaller male's expressions suggested awe and shock at the taller man. The gentleman looming above him noticed the change in facial tone and smiled down at him.

"You're very welcome, my good sir," he said with compassion. His nose twitched slightly, shining attention on the silver peach fuzz growing out over his upper lip. "My name is Pops," he continued with sheer excitement growing in his voice. "And you are?"

The smaller man suddenly shook himself back and attempted to regain his composure. "Uh," he started, trying to recollect himself and be on his best behavior. "It's Benson."

Pops smile widened as he look down at the man, fondly observing him. This was a sight to behold, thought Pops: A living, breathing sentient gumball machine. He had only heard about them in the stories his father told him when he came back from business trips. The old man remembered his father telling him that they only made about 4% of the world's population, somewhere in the line of 16,000,000 of them, if he was correct. Pops couldn't tear his eyes away from that beautiful bright red armor and all the colorful gumballs scattered around in Benson's head. He thought he would like to try one. What a marvelous idea, he thought as he bit down on his lower lip!

Benson wasn't sure what to think of this man. Surely he was either very excitable, or not mentally well. He was hoping that it was only the first one. Last thing he wanted was to get to his interview only to be brutally torn limb from limb by an enthusiastic psychopath. And why was he staring at his groin? The old man wasn't going to get much out of it, that much Benson could assure him. Or maybe it was something else.

"Ummmm," Benson continued as he looked at the man strangely, "would you… like a gumball?"

The codger nodded as a look of child like innocence and excitement spread all over his face in anticipation. Benson could sense no malice or anything of a threatening nature coming from him, so perhaps it was alright just this once. He brought his hand up to the crank above his groin area, and turned it quickly. His insides spun, and clanked, causing an opening somewhere to pop and allow a single gumball to fall onto his metal tracking, and roll toward the door located, unfortunately, where someone's privates would be.

Benson gasped as his gears turned in a way that sent a pleasing shiver through his body. He hated doing that kind of thing outside of his home, but he also understood that people don't know what that crank does to him. When he felt the gumball knock against the inside of his metal flap, he opened it and let the gumball fall into his hands, offering it up to Pops a second later. The gentleman jumped up and down in a giddy way, before snatching it and shoving the thing into his mouth. He chewed on it greedily, but happily, enjoying the lovely sweet flavor of it.

The gumball machine watched on as the man happily rejoiced at the taste, dancing around in circles and feeling truly happy and accomplished. He was just happy he gave Pops one of his normal gumballs. And then he suddenly found himself in a tight hug as Pops took him into his arms, squeezing as tight as he could. The shorter man wasn't used to this type of thing, especially coming from a stranger. There were really only a few people he knew that he would let them hug him, and they were either dead or not on speaking terms. He couldn't begin to describe how truly uncomfortable he felt.

The elevator dinged, and the door slid open onto a floor that wasn't the one Benson was waiting for. As the door opened, the view of the outside world seemed cut off. In front of the two men was a large bulking figure, eyeing the two with a dead emotionless glare. Both Benson and Pops look at him with a sort of fear growing in their bellies. The hulking beast skipped, not walked, into the elevator and turned to look at the button panel. He extended his finger out to one of the buttons, but stopped short when he realized the floor he was going to had already been pressed. So he straightened himself up and stared quietly at the closing metal door in front of him.

Benson took in the full sight of this gigantic man. He may not have been as tall as Pops, but the width of his body… he was built like a tank! He was covered from head to toe with a bright white fur, save for his face and Adonis like chest and abs. A strange compelling feeling to touch and feel at them seemed to sweep over Benson for a few seconds. Not because of lust, or admiration of any sort, but simply to touch them. Like a woman, he just wanted to see if they were "real". His eyes floated down to his pants. Pants? Blue jeans at that. Benson cocked an eyebrow at the strange fashion sense this thing had.

A moment later, Benson remembered he was still being held in place by a hug. Apparently, Pops had forgotten too and was too busy staring at the large creature in front of them as well. The gumball machine freed himself of his grasp and stood straight up, returning to wait for the room to reach his destination.

Pops turned his head and stared at the two of them, his vision darting back and forth, trying to size them both up. The old man nudged over to the giant hulking beast and smiled at it. The creature looked at him in return and nodded, before resuming his stance of door watching.

"I'm Pops," the gentleman introduced himself. He looked over to Benson and brought up a weak finger, pointing at him. "And that's Benson!"

The gumball's lip twitched for a second. He wasn't sure what to feel at this moment. He had only just recently met Pops, and already the giant headed man was treating him like his best friend. It was weird.

The creature turned his head slightly to get a good look at Benson in the corner of his eye. What he could see from the walking automaton, there was nothing really impressive about him. He could see a deep spark of anger festering behind the curiosity in his eyes, and a fire in his belly, but nothing too out of the unusual. He hadn't met a lot of "inanimate life forms" as the technical term was, so his knowledge of them was minimal at best. He understood their rarity all too well. He took a glimpse at Pops next, taking in all the splendid child like wonder that the old man was producing. If the large man had seen this for the first time, he might have found it heartwarming and produced a smile. But he had seen displays of this time and time again, so it was nothing unusual to a man of his age.

"Skips," he muttered in a monotone voice. "My name is Skips." There was a small silence as he stared at the excited man. "I'm a yeti."

"Oh," Pops exclaimed happily, "how splendid! And what brings you here?"

The yeti shrugged, and muttered, "job interview."

Benson's interest piqued. This yeti was here for a job interview as well. And judging by the fact that only one button on the panel had been highlighted, it seemed to be a safe bet that Skips was heading upstairs as well for the same job. Still, Benson knew he couldn't jump to conclusions like that. Doing that would lead him to grow more nervous as the interview came closer, and he didn't want to sit down with a rich and powerful tycoon while in a state of anxiety.

"What kind of job?" he asked curiously. He just wanted to make sure.

Skips shrugged again, and answered without looking at either one of them. "Park groundskeeper."

Benson's eyes shot wide. That was the same job he was after. "The one with Mr. Maellard?"

Suddenly, Skips full attention focused on what the gumball machine had asked. Was this lanky little gumball machine his competition? He might have to work extra hard to get this job; shouldn't be too difficult, he thought. Who was Maellard going to choose – the skinny weak looking gumball machine, or the well built muscular yeti?

Pops suddenly began to hop up and down, in the most excited of manners Benson had ever seen of him do yet. "So you both are here about the advertisement Papa put out in the daily broadsheet?"

"Papa!"

The elevator dinged again as the door opened up to the floor everyone was waiting for. It led into a small enclosed room, with a few chairs and tables strewn about for guests and two large doors across from the elevator, obviously leading into Maellard's office. As it turned out, Mr. Maellard himself was poking his head out of the door that instant, speaking to his secretary. When he saw his son come prancing out of the elevator, he gave a fatherly grin and stepped out of his office to embrace the man.

Benson had only seen pictures of Maellard before, so it kind of shocked him to see that he looked much older in person. He was also so much shorter than his son, it wasn't even funny. He had the same round, lollipop shaped head as Pops, but his seemed to be more crusty, broken, and dried out. Benson wondered if Pops might end up looking like that one day.

"Good to see you, my boy," he said with a proud expression on his face. "Are you ready to help me with the interviews?"

"No need Papa," Pops said with a joyous smile. "I already found the two men who I want helping me around the park!"

Maellard's expression switched to that of confusion and curiosity. Pops pointed back toward the elevator at the two men that had stepped out. Maellard let go of his son, as he began to slowly step toward the machine and the beast, trying to understand them simply by their physical traits alone. If he had to choose right then, he would have gone with the large white thing, but Pops seemed to take a shine to both of them, so he might as well humor his son and go along with it.

"And you are?" Maellard started as he glared at Benson.

The gumball machine had to shake himself out of his trance to answer. His mind was still caught up in this strange turn of events.

"Benson," he finally coughed out. "My name is Benson."

There was an awkward silence among the room. The only thing heard between all of them was the light muffled sounds of a DJ coming from the radio on the secretary's desk.

"Good Morning! Today's forecast calls for blue skies!"

Diamonds

By DemiHuman123

Chapter One

Mr. Blue Sky

He forgot the time! He had spent so long in the shower and in his own thoughts that Benson had forgotten to get out the door on time. It wouldn't matter since Pops would probably excuse him either way. That man was too trusting of everything. It worked for and against everyone's favor.

Benson jump dashed out of his apartment, grabbing a sack lunch he had prepared the night before, and locked his home up tight. He never understood his apartment complex. Why did it have windows that stared out into the apartment building hallways? The only actual windows that lead outside were in his bedroom and bathroom and he rarely got any use out of them. For the price of rent though, he wasn't going to do any complaining today. So he ran out of the building and towards his place of employment.

Sun is shining in the sky!

There ain't a cloud in sight!

It's stopped raining

Everybody's in a play

And don't you know?

It's a beautiful new day!

No matter how many times he grimaced at it, no matter how many times he cursed it out, and no matter how many times he wished it would burn to the ground, Benson always found there to be some sort of quaint charm to the park he had been working at all these years. Maybe it was just the warm breeze pushing through his body that day, or maybe it was the quiet sounds of children playing in the distance, or maybe it was the fact that everything seemed more peaceful than usual today, he didn't know. All that mattered was that he was in a good (though slightly panicked) mood, and nothing could change that… he hoped.

Running down the avenue…

See how the sun shines brightly?

In the city, on the streets

Where once was pity

Mr. Blue Sky is living here today!

In the distance was the park recreational house where the team ended up meeting and divvying up chores for the day. It was also the home to Pops, the park owner, and Mordecai and Rigby, two ground keepers. Benson moaned in anticipated annoyance, knowing full well that the duo was going to do something to make his day a living hell. It was just another part of his day that was predictable thanks in due part to babysitting those two. He could handle Pops just fine, but them? Sometimes he wished he could drink on the clock.

Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

He didn't like having to get to work on foot, but it did have its benefits. The three mile walk gave him some early morning exercise, and it gave him a chance to observe the park and see what needed working on. He didn't want to be in work mode before he got to the house, but after working there for so many years, it had become second nature to notice the littlest things at the park. Even worse, he was noticing these things from far away off in the distance, from his apartment even. It was his job, and it had slowly become his life.

Hey you with the pretty face,

Welcome to the human race!

A celebration, Mr. Blue Sky's up there waiting

And today is the day we've waited for!

Benson was always surprised to find the house looking so good on the outside. The two story behemoth looked prim and proper, and certainly could have fooled anyone. Inside however, depending on the day, the place could be seen as clean and organize, or a rotting piece of hell. Today seemed to be the latter. Pizza boxes and soda cans laid strewn all over the floor and coffee table of the living room, while a static fuzzed TV remained on. The gumball machine looked over to the couch and found it empty. He had expected to find the slackers sleeping there as they usually did: Mordecai with his blue jay feathers and legs stretched all across the thing, while the little raccoon, Rigby, clung to some part of him in an effort to unknowingly enjoy his friend's warmth. Sadly, neither of them were there, which meant they went to bed leaving this place a pigsty.

Hey there Mr. Blue Sky

We're so pleased to be with you!

Look around see what you do,

Everybody smiles at you!

Benson looked into the kitchen and saw just as equally a grotesque site. A used blender was on the kitchen table, still filled with some sort of disgusting concoction. The tired man quickly dumped it into the sink and turned on the garbage disposal having realized just how chunky the substance was. He washed out the glass mixer and put in away before getting to work on the rest of the kitchen. He didn't want to leave this to Pops. The old man would take hours doing it, and Benson already had a chore in mind for him that day. And he knew he couldn't trust the idiots to clean up their own mess. No, no. He could deal with this himself. Five minutes a piece per room, and the lower floor of the house was looking mighty spiffy again.

Mr. Blue Sky

Mr. Blue Sky

Mr. Blue Sky

The front door opened right as Benson had finished cleaning up the living room. In walked a stout little green man with brown locks formed into a mullet. A smiling little spirit followed along behind him, whispering something into his ear that warranted a deep laugh from the green man. Muscle Man noticed Benson by the couch and greeted him, as did High Five Ghost with a wave of his hand that was protruding through his head. They plopped themselves down on the couch and continued their conversation, ignoring their employer. Benson didn't mind. Though they may be… questionable on a good day, they at least got their jobs finished and well done.

Mr. Blue, you did it right,

But soon comes Mr. Night: creeping over

Now his hand is on your shoulder.

Never mind I'll remember you this

I'll remember you this way!

Pops would certainly be up soon enough, and no doubt, he'd bring both Mordecai and Rigby down with them. Benson could hear their alarm from the bottom of the stairs and knew that neither one of them was going to listen to it. It was like clockwork how predictable the day was. Barely passed 8am, and his good mood was already disappearing, being replaced by stress and a wish that he could go back to bed for a couple of hundred days. Still, he had a job and needed the money. Skips was going to be arriving shortly and he was going to help Benson divide up the chores amongst the others.

Benson sighed and sat down in a chair adjacent to the couch. He tried to listen in on Muscle Man and High Five Ghost's conversation, but had trouble following along. He looked down at the coffee table and at Mordecai and Rigby's video game system. Actually, it was Pops, but the park owner had decided to give it to them after he saw how much they enjoyed it. Benson had only played it a few times, and on the occasions he did play it, he had a lot of fun. One of these days he'd actually like to sit down and play through one of their games and beat it. He might actually get to feel a sense of accomplishment then. Anything to get that feeling would be most appreciated.

He leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling. As much as he hated his job, it was a necessity in his life. A few minutes pass, and just like that, he drifts off to another dreamless sleep. He wasn't as awake as he had originally thought.

Mr. Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra

Author's Notes

Yep... I came back. With what I can only coin as a spiritual successor to Triangles, that originally started off as a prequel, then a pseudo-sequel, and then to just its own story. Anyways...

This is a spiritual sequel to Triangles based off the style of writing, the chapter titles are still songs that inspired me, and the idea of mini arcs. The difference between this and Triangles is that the pacing is a little faster, the arcs are shorter, and the story is a little more lighthearted too. It also focuses squarely on Benson, with the others as story drivers, though there is a central romance, I won't tell with who yet. You'll have to read and find out. So I apologize to any Mordecai and Rigby readers out there: those two are on the sidelines for this story. Also, be on the look out for some guest writers for the story as well! I won't say who, but I know some people already know who. Get excited peoples!

As for this chapter: It was written a long time ago. Written about a month after I finished with Triangles. By then though, I had burned myself out on fanfiction and took a break from it. After a while, I came back to it, finished it, and continued forward with it. Not much else besides that.

Anyways! I'll be updating this behemoth every Monday like I did with Triangles. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Ciao!

So Until Next Chapter...

Adieu...