#idk if it's really urbex if i was just poking around in a park

[thistransient]

[my-little-trash-blog]

Janco/Manna Fluff Fic #001

This idea was bouncing around my head for a few days since I saw this great fan art from @spatziline so I’m glad I was able to put it into words

this is literally just some fluff of Janna helping Marco with some of his chores and them gossiping.  the fic is set after the latest episodes, so all the drama from stump day and deep dive has come and gone (so skip this if you aren’t all caught up. it has spoilers).

idk if I’ll write more of this but it’s a great ship in a really fun setting so I would think I come back to it at some point. thanks for reading

#001: A Walk in the Park

Most squires got their hands dirty. Polishing armor, sharpening weapons, grooming warnicorns, and buying groceries was hard work. It was demanding, sometimes gross, and often thankless.

Marco Diaz wasn’t a typical squire. Because he was assigned to the royal princess, his chores were different: making nachos, scheduling parties, and keeping her secret closet organized. Sure, it was demanding.  And sometimes it could be gross.  But Marco never thought of it as thankless.

Today he was walking Glossaryck and the laser puppies. Figuring this out had taken some trial and error - walking them in the castle gardens was tricky because of all the distracting squirrelicorns. Herding eight laser puppies and a rabid, small blue mystic at the same time wasn’t easy but he couldn’t leave either of them unattended.

The castle guards had laughed him off when he’d asked for help, so Marco made some calls. Kelly was busy sparring with her wolf-tiger-beast friend Jorby, and Pony Head would have just caused more chaos, so he begrudgingly went with a third option: Janna Ordonia.

“I knew you missed me,” Janna snickered triumphantly as Marco sealed the portal behind them.

He rolled his eyes and pocketed the dimensional scissors. “I miss everybody,” Marco insisted, kneeling to gather Glossaryck’s harness, “my parents, Sensei, Alfonso and Ferguson,” his voice trailed off as he scanned the room for signs of the bearded imp.

“And Jackie?” Janna teased.

Marco hesitated before answering as his friend watched impassively. He stood and turned with Glossaryck wriggling in his arms and passed the leash to Janna.

“Yeah,” Marco said quietly, “I miss her too.” He crossed the room to take the puppies’ leashes from their hooks on the wall.

“You two still aren’t talking.” There wasn’t any edge to Janna’s voice, just a casual certainty.

Marco waved a hand at the high, arched castle ceiling. “It’s not easy to talk to anyone back home.” Janna’s mouth was set in a firm line. She wasn’t buying the excuse, so Marco’s shoulders slumped. “Have you been reading my texts again?”

“I don’t need to,” Janna replied as they collared the puppies together. “She’s my friend too. We talk.”

“Oh.” Marco paused, then flinched as Janna reached past him to open the door. She had Glossaryck’s leash in hand while Marco led the puppies into the hallway outside. They descended a spiral staircase and exited a postern gate. He didn’t speak again until they crossed the castle moat.  Outside, the puppies were free to fire their laser beams into the open sky relatively harmlessly.  “So... how is she?”

“Jackie’s fine, I guess.  It’s hard to tell when she’s rattled,” Janna walked a little ahead as Glossaryck struck out on all fours, stretching in the morning sun. “She’s taken up surfing. And she’s listening to more Twenty-One Pylons now.”

“They’re her favorite,” Marco said mindlessly, stopping to let the puppies inspect a charred stump. “She got into Love Sentence for my sake more than anything, I think.”

Janna frowned, watching Glossaryck growl and gnaw at his own leg. “You should really try something new. Have I told you about Shallow Gravy?”

“Didn’t they do that Jackets song?”

“Yeah!” Janna grinned enthusiastically, “They’re so existential.”

“It would’ve been better if it was about hoodies.  I think their sound was too indie for me.” Marco carefully stepped around a pile of bleached-white bones.

Janna sighed. “Didn’t Mewni used to be cool? Like with pickled giants’ toes and goblin heads and stuff?”

Marco idly rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I guess so. But Star’s been putting a stop to that since she moved back here.” Janna groaned and muttered something incoherent.

They passed the royal corn fields and looked up to see how high the magic shield reached, but couldn’t find its ending. Marco was feeling anxious again so he asked how Alfonso and Ferguson were spending their summer.

“They tried to sign up for space camp but joined a LARPing crew by mistake,” Janna answered, lifting a foot away from Glossaryck as he chased her shoelaces, “I think that worked out better for them?”

“That sounds like them,” Marco laughed, “what about you?”

Janna paused and narrowed her eyes. “What about me?”

“What are you doing with your summer?”

Janna walked on without saying anything for a few minutes, then answered, “I’ve been spelunking. And urbexing.”

Marco blinked. “You what?”

“Urbexing,” Janna lifted her free hand and jabbed it into Marco’s shoulder twice for emphasis, “Urban exploring. Going into old factories and poking around.”

“Sajak, Trebek, no,” Marco chided two of the puppies that wandered too close to the Forest of Certain Doom. The royal guards patrolled the forest’s eaves more often now, and Star had earned a lot of goodwill with the local monsters, but he didn’t want to chase a puppy into those shadows. He turned back to Janna and asked, “Haven’t you been doing that anyway?”

“Well, yeah,” she admitted, “but you asked what I’ve been doing.”

“I just thought summer was a time to try new things,” Marco said defensively.

Janna swept her arms out wide, surveying the Mewni countryside. “This is new, right? Aren’t I in a new dimension? Doesn’t this count?”

“Globgor,” Glossaryck agreed.

Marco decided not to press the topic further. They trudged on, passing the new outer walls Queen Moon had ordered built. King River saluted them with a friendly wave from the battlements but was tied up in conversation with a giant eagle.

More quiet minutes passed until Janna broke the silence. “So what’s so great about Mewni?”

“It’s fun,” Marco answered immediately, “I see something new every day.” A flock of geese flew by honking, led by a winged treasure chest, “like that,” Marco finished confidently.

“Do you still get to fight monsters?”

“Sometimes. I helped Star stomp a giant lint beast my first day on the job. Those big rats are still a problem.”

“The ones from my seance?”

“Yeah, but they’re leaderless again. So it’s not that big of deal. I get to spar with Sir Lavabo whenever I pick up our laundry, so that’s fun.”

“I bet you’ll have all the knights of Mewni practicing karate in no time.”

Marco sighed, exasperated. “I wish. They call it my ‘swords-hands-dance’. Mackie Hand would be so disappointed in me.” He slapped his hand against his leg in frustration.

Janna laughed at that.  A real earnest laugh, without teasing in it.   But the familiar tone crept back into her voice. “We could ask him to make sure. Star’s boyfriend could get me the ritual, and...”

“Get out of town!” Marco said hurriedly. “No resurrections. There’s been enough dark magic here already. Star’s ancient evil great-great-great grandma is on tower arrest as we speak.

“And no, we aren’t visiting her,” Marco added hurriedly, cutting Janna off. Their brown eyes met and she smiled toothlessly.

“Eclipsa sounded cool from what I read in his book,” she stared down at Glossaryck, who was scratching behind his ear with a leg.  Janna shook her head and frowned.  “What a disgrace. You should ask her if he’s stuck like this forever.”

“I’ll set an appointment,” Marco grumbled.

“Hey, Marco, don’t let a spooky old witch get you down. So what else is new?”

She listened as they finished their walk, occasionally stopping him with a joke or question. Marco went on and on about his new life in Mewni: how he’d gained new appreciation for corn, how he’d felt disrespected by his fellow squires, how leaving Echo Creek had changed everything for him. He confided how it hurt that everyone forgot his birthday and how he was still confused at being able to use Star’s wand.  Janna let him avoid getting into his confusions about Star herself.

Eventually they returned within sight of the castle walls. They made their way up the streets and came nearer to the moat and gate.

“Thanks for listening,” Marco repeated, “and agreeing to jump dimensions to help me with this.”

“No problem,” Janna answered. She and Glossaryck followed him up the steps and back into Marco’s room, where the small blue man collapsed on a pillow and immediately began snoring. “It’s harder to keep tabs on you from another dimension. Same time tomorrow?”

“What?”

“You walk them every day, right?”

Marco’s mind was blank. “Uh, yeah. Yeah. I do. And that would be great. If it’s alright with you.”

“It’s great with me,” Janna answered easily, leaning in. “You can let go of my hand now.”

Marco jumped, stammering, and glanced down in panic. Sure enough, their fingers were laced tightly together. When had that happened? How long had they been like that? Who had seen them? Why did his hand fit so easily in hers?

“Relax, dude,” Janna chided, “Mewni doesn’t have tabloids, right?”

“Globgor,” yawned Glossaryck. Marco still couldn’t form a response.

Janna smiled again and cut a rift in space and time with Marco’s scissors. She tossed the scissors to him and stepped partway into the portal. “Don’t keep a girl waiting.”