#Apologies if this is baddd its almost midnight and i am tireddd

[zozo-01]

One Bad Day

So I told @yetdevout about my little head canon about how Starlight was only in the area where Blake and Avior were fighting because they were angry at their parents forcing them to look at rishta offers. I had a pretty crap day today so I'm just gonna write this.

Some clarification, a rishta is a sort of marriage proposal. It is used in a lot of Desi arranged marriages and it is up to the person to sort through them and find potential candidates to look into.

Warning: Desi Starlight (Still gender neutral tho)

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"Ami, I get it, but I don't want to have sit down and-" The freelancer was cut off by their mother. They removed the phone from their ear, seeing it unnecessary due to the yelling on the other side of the line.

Part of them was grateful that this conversation was happening over the phone and not in person. Had their mother been in front of them, she would have gone another tangent about the 'disrespectful look' they were giving her. They could just hear the word baadmash rolling from her tongue.

If they were being honest, they would not have minded looking at the rishtas they were receiving. They weren't the type of person to date, being far too busy to dedicate their time to another person. But beyond that, they didn't want to be vulnerable. Not until they knew without a shadow of doubt that this would be someone who will be with them in the long term.

Perhaps it wasn't conventional by some standards, but it's worked for thousands of families in the past.

Starlight knows that it would work for them.

The problem was that they didn't want to deal with this shit right now.

Starlight has always seen compatibility in a logical way.

Do our likes and dislikes match? Do we have a similar moral compass? What beliefs and values are we willing to compromise to make this work?

But Starlight also believed that their heart had to want to make those decisions. Have those hard conversations. There was no point in considering the options available when they couldn't see themselves doing what was required.

It wouldn't have been fair to the rishtas or to themselves to have their heartlessness affect the outcomes. And when it comes to marriage, those outcomes will be dire.

They thought that their parents had agreed to not pester them about this until they were done with their studies at D.A.M.N. They only had a couple of years left and then their parent would have been free to barrage them with potential names all they want.

But no. The fear of Starlight getting 'too old for marriage' had crept in and now they are hellbent on changing their mind.

They understand their parent's fear. They really do. But for once, they just wished they'd look at things from Starlight's perspective. That they weren't ready to make a commitment as grand as marriage while their brains were filled with deadlines and assignments.

Despite the clarity of their mother's yelling through the phone, Starlight elected to let the words pass through their brain. They had forgone their usual sharpness in exchange for blissful ignorance.

"Yes Ami, I know. Can we talk about this later?" Their mother responded with a yes and a goodbye, before hanging up the phone. Her tone indicated that she was happy that Starlight was 'being swayed' by her words.

They let out a frustrated scream, thankful that street they were on was busy. They marched on, with no destination in mind. Their hope was with every stomp that hit the ground, a little bit of the headache that was forming would go away.

It did not.

Starlight continued their anger-filled walk, passing by an alleyway. A man ran out and bumped into them, knocking them both to the floor.

The man - daemon they mentally corrected themselves - had deep brown skin, akin to the bark on a tree. His hair was a reddish-brown, sprawled across the sidewalk.

Out from the alley came out another person. This time Starlight was able to more clearly sense his aura. A dreamwalker. It had seems as though the two magical creatures had been in an altercation.

Just as the daemon was ready to rift away, the dreamwalker let out an attack. It knocked Starlight unconscious, ignorant to how their life would be changed forever.

When they woke up, the were surrounded by red skies and jagged rock. The smoke was so dense in the air that it formed clouds in the skies.

They sat up, observing their surroundings. A myriad of questions flooded their brain.

'Where the fuck am I? How the fuck did I get here?' And the most important question with the most elusive answer.

'How the fuck do I get out?'

"Well good evening, Starlight, but it seems you're going to have to put your weekend plans on pause." They looked up to see the daemon from early, a sarcastic grin finding home on his face.

'All it takes is one shitty day for life to go to hell.'