I do not own Phineas and Ferb.
The vending machine stood in a rarely frequented section of OWCA HQ. It had been there as long as Perry had been working there. He could only hope the snacks inside were changed out same as in the other more often used ones. Normally he wouldn't buy anything from a vending machine but it had been a long day and he still had several reports to write up before he could go home-he hoped his boys weren't worrying about him being gone so long. The vending machines in the break room would have been his first choice, but they were... out of commission due to an incident with Agent E.
He looked over the choices before feeding in the necessary coins. As the last one slid into the slot, a strange sound came from the machine. The closest the secret agent could compare it to was a contented sigh. But that didn't make sense, it was a machine, it couldn't sigh. Unless it was sentient, but who would make a sentient vending machine?
If he hadn't glanced at its screen, Perry would have dismissed it as his overworked, tired brain imagining things, but seeing the words: THANK YOU - NO ONE EVER FEEDS ME repeatably scrolling across it made him gasp instead.
Maybe one of Doofenshmirtz inators had hit it somehow? Or maybe, as crazy as it sounded, Doofenshmirtz was onto something when he said he feared vending machines becoming the dominant race.
Perry smiled, though it was forced, and gave a short chatter before turning away and hurrying back to his cubical, snack forgone. Maybe he'd bring it up to the Major-no, better to bring it up to Carl. The intern would handle it better.
Or maybe he was overworked, tired, and imaging things and would forget about all of this after a good night's sleep.
Based on Prompt 140 in Writing Prompts for the Sleepy Imagination on Wattpad:
It's normal for an old vending machine to eat your change.
It is not normal for the machine to give a contented sigh and flash THANK YOU - NO ONE EVER FEEDS ME on the screen.
Like... seriously. Yikes?