#sorry babycorn and cherry and tilika

[hqmillioncorn]

Never let this merciless world erase you!

'Why are you so determined to solve this case?" Someone had asked Tilika. It made sense for someone to ask. It didn't make sense for her to latch onto a case this hard, especially since it had only been a few months since she had joined. They probably assumed Tilika was just trying to prove herself by solving the first case she saw. That was a part of it, yes. The whole of it was her connection to the missing people. Her very own aunt and uncle.

Lalapril 4/26 Musical

Ai somnium files au! tilika and babycorn continue their journey on the mystery of where the hell babycorns parents went.

In the end Babycorn’s somnium provided the investigation with just the lead they needed.

As it turned out,  just the night before her parents went missing she had seen them talking to a person she didn’t recognize. Babycorn had been half-asleep at the time which had the effect of making her memories a little muddy.

Neither Teteo or Tilika could tell who Babycorn’s parents were talking to, just like Babycorn didn’t. That was how it worked. Or they just had lousy luck.

While Tilika was a little frustrated they couldn’t see who it was, she was relieved at the same time. Babycorn had seen the entire conversation hiding behind the door to her room. She was taught not to approach any person she didn’t know. Which apparently could even happen inside of her own home. 

Still, it wasn’t like hiding prevented Babycorn and Cherrypit from getting caught in this whole mess. They all were a part of it. And of course Tilika was worried about Aleria and Lalatov too. They were her aunt and uncle. Whether they left of their own volition or were taken, it didn’t matter. Tilika was going to find them safe and sound. She had to. 

Inside the car, Tilika glanced at the backseat from the car mirror. Babycorn was sleeping, her head resting on her shoulder. Cherrypit was safe at a friend’s house but Babycorn was set on not sitting around and letting Tilika look for her parents all by herself. She had practically pushed herself into the investigation by force. 

Tilika had her doubts of course, considering Babycorn’s age and the places they were going but there wasn’t much she could do after Babycorn threw a rock through her car window and crawled her way inside.

‘She’s rather tenacious isn’t she? Did she get that from her parents?’ Teteo asked.

“Pretty sure. She gets that from her mom.” From all the stories Tilika’s own mom had told her of her and Aleria growing up both of them had pretty much inherited each other’s hotheaded streak. 

‘I see. Then with that information I’ll be glad to predict that Aleria and Lalatov are alive and well! Wherever they are!’

Tilika laughed to herself, “I’ll be sure to tell Babycorn you said that.”

‘No!’ Teteo panicked so much that she almost popped out of Tilika’s eye socket to yell at her, “You can’t let her know I exist remember?’ 

“I remember.” It’s not like Teteo ever let her forget.   

‘I personally don’t think it’s fair that only one of us has to remember!’ 

“Hey Teteo? Are we almost there? How much longer?” Tilika asked, without any other ulterior motives. 

‘Don’t just change the subject! Hmph!’ Despite Teteo’s annoyance she still calculated the time of arrival. ‘We should be there in abouuuut twelve minutes or so. Five if you decide to run every red light which I should advise against.” 

“Then why even give me the idea in the first place?”

The destination in question was a theater located downtown. It wasn’t used for too many big shows lately, mostly being a place where theater majors from the local college were able to hold their rehearsals and the occasional class. Tilika personally had never been there but today was different. 

Because while Babycorn had not clearly seen the person her parents talked to, there was some good news. Teteo noted that she still heard the entire conversation. She and Tilika were able to hear what the person sounded like.

Albeit the words coming out of their mouth were gibberish as Babycorn hadn’t understood a single word. But, they still had a voice. And Teteo was able to compare the voice until she found a match.

A retired actress, Priscilla Genesis. 

Once a renowned performer she lived out her glory days performing all around the world. By all means she was lucky to be able to keep performing until she decided she was done. Nowadays she spent her time teaching acting classes, specifically at the theater where they were headed to. 

Sure Tilika had heard of the actress, mostly from glancing at magazines at the supermarket check-out, but she couldn’t come up with any reason why the Starsingers would know her. Especially on a level where she would show up to their house in the middle of the night to talk to them. 

The sound of a small yawn behind her interrupted her thoughts. For now Tilika decided to let Teteo take the wheel. “Babycorn? Did you sleep well?” Some of the medication they used for the psync machine must have still been affecting her. Hopefully that was the last of the side effects. 

Babycorn rubbed her eyes, getting used to the light around her. “I’m fine.” She looked around, “Are we there yet?” 

“No, not yet.” Tilika paused, “We’ll be there in like ten minutes though!”

“Oh. Okay.”

Babycorn rested her head on the window. Tilika guessed that she didn’t feel like talking. Who could really blame her? At the same time however, she wished there was something she could say to make Babycorn feel just a little better. 

But it was a little too late for that. 

The rest of the drive to the theater all Tilika could think about was; What if she had decided to visit the house that night? Would she have also been to stop whatever happened or would she have disappeared too? The only reason she hadn’t gone was because she had slept through Babycorn’s phone call.

That was probably another reason Babycorn was a little hostile towards her.

‘I wouldn’t think like that. What happened happened and now we’re here. It’s as simple as that.’

“If you say so…” But what if it hadn’t? What if things had gone just a little different? Was there somewhere out there where something completely different happened? 

‘It’s not like parallel worlds exist Tilika.’ 

When they arrived at the theater Tilika had a surprising amount of trouble keeping Babycorn still.

The opulent look of the theater had excited Babycorn so much she almost took off running trying to see more of it. “Look! They got a popcorn machine!!” Babycorn yelled out. Sadly it wasn’t being used on that day but Babycorn was amazed by it all the same.

It made Tilika happy to see her cousin so excited about something again. ‘Teteo? Can you remind me to pass by a gas station to buy popcorn on the way back?’ 

‘Only if I can have some too!’

‘You don’t even eat!’ 

‘Caramel popcorn please!!’ 

As luck would have it Priscilla was at the theater that day but they would have to wait until they could question her, since her meeting was running a bit long. Her assistant had kindly offered them the chance to meet with her tomorrow but Tilika insisted on meeting her today. 

‘You don’t think she’s trying to get rid of us? Is she?’

“If she is, we’re not gonna let her.” Time was quickly running out. Tilika wasn’t going to let another day just pass by without any progress. If her job wasn’t on the line she would have burst into that meeting room and dragged Priscilla out of there herself.

For now they were waiting for the meeting to end, which left them with a lot of free time to look around the theater. 

‘What kind of person has a meeting at a theater? Seriously?’ Teteo commented. 

Other than a few security guards and tourists there weren’t that many people around. Inside of the auditorium it was the same story, empty seats and empty aisles as far as the eye could see.

There wasn’t much any of them could do but wait until they could finally talk to Priscilla. 

Unfortunately, it  looked like the allure of the theater had run its course for Babycorn and she had once again returned to her familiar quiet nature of the past few days. There wasn’t much to do but think about her parents situation when there was nothing to do. 

Tilika watched as Babycorn kicked her legs back and forth, she was sitting in a seat in the front row. Meanwhile, Tilika was just resting her back, leaning on the stage itself. ‘I wish my phone still had battery left. I could have let her play one of my games on there…’ Tilika thought to herself. 

‘Don’t all those games have microtransactions?’ Teteo asked. She knew this very well as all of Tilika’s transactions had to go through her first. ‘If you let Babycorn loose in one of those games I’m sure she would spend at least one-hundred dollars.’ 

Tilika grimaced. Teteo wasn’t just making guesses. A few years ago during her mother’s nameday party Aleria had joked about how Babycorn had spent almost eighty-dollars while playing on her phone. Clearly there was a track record there. 

But if gacha games wouldn’t help in this situation, what could? 

Tilika decided to walk around a bit. That’s when she noticed that the staircase up to the stage was open and free for anyone to walk up there. ‘Rest assured, I’ve checked recent incidents at this theater and it seems that the stage is open access as long as there are no rehearsals scheduled.’ Teteo explained. 

There was a playful glint in Tilika’s eye. That was all she needed to hear. 

Her steps grew louder as she ran onto the stage. It was a pretty strange feeling, she had never done something like this before. There were those times she had sung in front of her parents with their karaoke machine but that paled in comparison to standing on a huge stage like this. 

Babycorn still hadn’t noticed that Tilika had run up here.

Tilika cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled out a hearty, “Yooooohoooo~!” She surprised herself just how loud she had sounded. “Woah.” Hopefully she hadn’t scared anyone doing that. Or gotten them in trouble. Or a third thing. 

Babycorn jumped from her seat and walked towards the stage. It was pretty obvious she was trying her hardest to look annoyed but she was really curious about what Tilika was up there for.  “What are you doing? How’d you get up there?” She hopped up and down as high as she could to see if she could reach the stage like that.

When it was clear she couldn't, she stomped her foot down in frustration.

Tilika was about to go back down the stairs to lead Babycorn up to the stage when Babycorn’s voice stopped her. 

“Are you supposed to be up there?”

“Well, no.” Tilika looked around, “But It’s okay I read the security guard’s mind and they said it was fine!” 

“Y-You can’t read minds!” That had to be a lie! It just had to! Babycorn had been thinking of so many names to make fun of Tilika with, it would be a bummer if she knew them before Babycorn used them! “...Can you?”

‘I’d like to remind you that I actually can’t read minds. Choose your next words carefully.’

Tilika winked, “Guess we’ll find out”

‘I told you to choose carefully!!’ 

Babycorn had no idea what her cousin was going on about. “You’re weird…” Wasn’t Tilika supposed to be a grown-up or something? “If you go to jail I’m not gonna help you! And neither will Cherry!” Anyone would be lucky to have Cherrypit help chew their way to freedom. 

Tilika walked down the steps to the stage and held her hand out to Babycorn. “I promise I’m not going to get us in trouble.” The two made their way up to the stage together. The steps were a little steep so Tilika made sure to hold onto Babycorn’s hand tightly. “I won’t let anything happen to you or Cherry. Promise.” 

‘Teteo promises too.’ 

Teteo sniffled, ‘It’s true I do promiseee!’ 

Once Babycorn stepped foot on the stage her eyes became wide as she looked all around her. Her mouth was wide open as she kept walking forward, letting Tilika’s hand go. It looked so much bigger than it had from below.

Or maybe she was just small? It didn’t really matter. 

Babycorn turned to face the empty seats in front. There were so many people. SO many that could be sitting there and watching her. 

A memory in her head began to resurface.

When she was even smaller she used to perform for her mama and papa all the time. Whether it was singing, dancing or even pretending she was a weather reporter, Babycorn just loved doing it but only for her parents. That was until they got too busy to play with her anymore.

Before they started…

“Hey?” Tilika's voice cut through to Babycorn. When she looked up at her cousin she looked worried. “Babycorn are you okay?” 

Why would she ask that? Babycorn raised her hands up to her face and felt something wet. In a stroke of horrible luck, she had been crying. She tried to wipe her tears away as fast as she could but it was too little too late. “I’m fine!” Babycorn shouted, crossing her arms and looking away.

Tilika decided to believe her, despite the clear evidence. 

She walked forward and took a seat on the edge of the stage. “That lady sure is taking her sweet time, huh?”  

“I think she should hurry up! We don’t have all day!” Babycorn huffed. 

“You and me both…” 

Tilika looked down at the empty seats and a thought crossed her mind. “You know, this place reminds me of the time I had to sing in a class performance when I was around your age.” Generously you could call it a performance but really it was just a bunch of kids seeing who could remember the words to the song they were assigned to sing. 

A pair of small steps came up from behind Tilika. “Class performance? Do you mean like for mother’s day?” Babycorn asked. 

“Oh yeah! That’s the one I was talking about!” 

Babycorn groaned, the less she heard about that stupid event the better. 

“When we sang it was our turn to sing, it was a total disaster!” Contrary to her words Tilika was laughing loudly, almost concerningly so. “I got really nervous in front of all those people that I started crying and ran all the way into the audience to find my mom! Of course I stopped crying once I found her but no one wanted to sing after I had just balled my eyes out.” 

“Were they mad at you?” Babycorn got ready to hear the worst.

But the worst never came. Tilika smiled and shook her head, “No. I don’t think so and even if they were it doesn’t really matter to me. Bad moments are just that, moments. They don’t last forever.” 

Babycorn silently sat down next to Tilika. “Good! Cause if those kids were mean to you I would have beat em’ up!” She gave the air in front of her a good ol’ two punch combo. “Like this! Shu-shu-ha!!” 

‘Cute…’ Teteo wanted to cry.

“I don’t doubt that but I can take care of myself too you know.” Tilika pet her head, ruffling some of her hair up. “And I’m here to take care of you and Cherry too.” 

“Yeah, yeah.”

At that exact moment Tilika had an idea and Teteo instantly agreed with her idea. Tilika jumped to her feet, her eyes shimmering. “How about this? Why don’t we do a little performance here together?” Tilika had a bunch of song lyrics in her head. Surely she knew at least one song that Babycorn also knew. 

“R-Right here?!” Babycorn stood up and took several steps back. “C-C-Can we do s-something like that?!” 

“There’s no rules saying we can’t.” Something Tilika knew thanks to Teteo’s quick search of the guidelines. “Come on it’ll be fun I promise!” 

Babycorn believed her. It would probably be fun but…

“What if someone sees…?” Her stage fright had been the thing that ruined her mother’s day song in the first place.

Except instead of running towards her mother Babycorn had run off entirely, the entire event had to be canceled because she went missing. Everyone had told her it was okay but her classmates had all called her a baby for it. And they were right. 

“Well then it’s perfect!” Tilika ran to the edge of the stage and turned back around with a twirl. “There’s no one here but you and me! So now is a better chance than any to go all out!” She ran back towards Babycorn and reached down for her hand. “I’ll be here with you no matter what you decide to do. So don’t feel like you have to do this. Okay?” 

Babycorn nodded. “Okay…” 

“Either way! If you don’t dance I’ll still put on a show for you!” Tilika did an incredibly outdated dance move that Babycorn didn’t recognize but she knew only old people danced like that. Even Teteo agreed that this was too much. 

Babycorn burst out laughing. “Tili Tili stoooop! You’re so old!!”

She thought for a moment, looking out in the audience. Though a majority of the seats were empty her imagination managed to fill in two of them. Right there in the front row were her mama and papa, holding Cherrypit in their arms. 

They cheered her on and told her to do her best. 

Babycorn took a deep breath, and let it out.

“Okay! Start the music!”

[hqmillioncorn]

FFXIVWRITE: DAY three three irty: Sojourn

‘Maidens with flowers of hope blooming in their hearts!’

babycorn really wants to show tilika around the first but its very hard considering she cant actually go over there. So babycorn comes up with a genius and very convoluted plan

Tilika stood by watching as random objects after random objects went flying her way. She looked behind her to see the mess that Babycorn was currently making, some of the things she threw behind her were walking away on their own. As unnerving as that was, Tilika had to admit she was slowly getting used to it.

“Any luck in there?” Tilika watched as a small wind-up toy began to walk and climb up on her new pink couches. The toy took out a sword the size of a toothpick and started waving it around “Hmm…” There was probably nothing to worry about there.

Tilika turned back to see Babycorn still digging through Hungslta for something. Just when it felt like Babycorn had just about taken everything out of the backpack, there were another hundred little things taken out of it. Most of it felt like it was just thrown in there and forgotten about. Including the many many wrappers of snacks Babycorn had eaten.

“I just know she's in here somewhere!”

Another old bag of chips went flying past Tilika’s head. One of these days she was going to have to remind Babycorn that she needed to clean up more than she actually did.

“Take your time!” Tilika moved her head just in time to dodge a whole parasol, ignoring the ominous crashing sound behind her. It sounded like a jar just shattered but she could deal with that after Babycorn found what she was looking for.

On cue, Babycorn let out a gasp and held up her treasure in the air for everyone to see. “Found it!!!” It felt just like finding a big treasure at the end of a maze after taking on waves of enemies upon enemies. Only less shiny.

“Tilika check it out!” Babycorn got up from sitting on her knees and held up a doll, it vaguely resembled a Calca and Brina doll if not for the small differences scattered all over it. One leg was a little longer than the other and the pigtails were just a little wrong. The dolls eyes were also just sewed on with different colored thread. Maybe the biggest difference was that the doll was wearing a white dress.

“I made this for Cherry back when I started to get better at weaving.” Babycorn held the doll in front of her and turned it in all sorts of different directions, examining it to make sure there weren’t any loose strings. “I thought you could only make like-clothes and pants with weaving but you can actually make lots of things! When I found out I could learn to make toys I had to find out how!”

“I think you did a good job! It’s cute!” Tilika knelt down and looked at the doll closer. Taking special note of the little blushes that Babycorn must have also sewed onto it. “Sorry for asking but if you made it for Cherry then why was it buried so deep in your backpack?” Usually Cherrypit’s dolls were running or sitting around the house, not in Babycorn’s backpack and certainly not as still as it was right now at the moment.

As weird as it was to say, it was strange that a doll around Babycorn wasn’t walking around.

“I was, um, planning to give it to him as a present for his nameday this year but…You know.” Babycorn hugged the doll closer to her. “...I’ll just give it to him as a wake up present!” Babycorn smiled up at Tilika. Though she was trying, Tilika still noticed the small tears in her eyes.

“I’m sure he’s going to love it.”

“Yeah! He will!” Babycorn jumped up and twirled around with the doll in her hands. “And for right now-! This doll is perfect!!!” She ran past Tilika and sat down next to the small coffee table near the pink couch. Babycorn shooed away some of the wind-up toys marching around the living room.

Unlike the Calca and Brina dolls, Babycorn’s doll couldn’t stand up on her own, needing some support to stay upright. “I think I made her head a little too heavy…” Babycorn frowned as she held the doll from the stomach, watching as the doll’s head flopped down behind their back.

“Aww…” There was something a little cute about how the head flopped around. In Tilika’s opinion, it wasn’t a bad first try of making a doll from scratch.

“I put a bunch of cute little rocks in there just for Cherrypit!”

“Ahh…” Yeah, that would explain it.

Babycorn grabbed one of the cups on the floor and set it on the table so her doll could lean up against it. “There!” She stood up and stepped back, grabbing a familiar necklace from her pockets. The main jewel hanging off of it resembled the same jewel that Chelinka had shown her so many years ago, she guessed that being a Starsinger finally gave her access to it.

Also hanging off the necklace was her Azem stone.

Babycorn wasn’t quite sure what gave her the idea that what she was going to attempt to do would work but something also told her that she had to at least try. This was the only way that Tilika was ever going to have a chance to see the First, so she had to try her very best!

“Okay, okay, okay…!” Babycorn held the stone in her hand and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure what she was really going to do but she was sure it was going to come to her eventually.

Tilika stood behind her, unsure of what to really do in this situation besides cheer Babycorn on. “You got this…!” Tilika whispered in a hushed tone, just in case Babycorn needed some quiet to concentrate.

“I got this!”

The Azem stone let out an orange glow and an assortment of glowing orange strings came flying out from it and towards the doll. The strings wrapped all around it until they all came to a stop and disappeared, leaving behind some light orange dust to fall on the doll.

“Woah…” Tilika had never seen anything like it. She had seen Cherrypit’s talents of bringing dolls to life firsthand but it wasn’t anything as showy as what Babycorn just did. All Cherrypit really did was tap a doll and they were running around as if they were always alive.

The light from the stone faded and Babycorn slowly opened her eyes. Without a word Babycorn stood up and waved her arm up and down, the doll in front of her followed her lead. When Babycorn jumped to the left and wiggled around the doll also followed her exact movements.

“Yes! I did it!” Babycorn turned around with a pose and the doll next to her mirrored her same pose. “

Tilika clapped for her, “What’s next after this?” All she really knew of Babycorn’s whole plan was that somehow her being able to bring a doll to life was pivotal in her plan of letting Tilika know what the First looked like. 

She hadn’t wanted to ask too much about it since it felt like Babycorn wanted it all to be a surprise, even if Tilika was the first one to bring it up.

“Tilika! Tilika!”

“Yes? Yes?” Looks like it was time to find out what she was up to.

Babycorn had a playful grin, her doll clumsily walked over to where Tilika was sitting and sat down on the floor under her. “I’m gonna make it so you can see through my doll’s eyes! Using your eyes! Doesn’t that sound cool!?”

“Ah-!” 

That sounded really dangerous actually!

———————————–          

The next thing Tilika knew she was sitting on her couch with her eyes closed and an entire different world in front of her. It felt sort of like looking through a pair of binoculars, though she could still see the Source when her eyes were open. 

She could only see the First when her eyes were closed. It felt more like a really vivid dream now that she really thought about it.

“This is the Crystarium! It’s the second place me and Cherry visited here!” Babycorn stepped out in front of Tilika and pointed up into the sky. “When we got here the sky was full of light! It really hurt to look at but we helped to get rid of it!” Babycorn figured the less details she told about the nitty gritty of the situation, the better.

She didn’t want to stress out Tilika anymore than she already had been after their whole Edge of the universe thing. Maybe she would include the whole Lightwarden thing as a footnote after the tour was concluded. That sounded like a smart idea.

Tilika was awestruck. “Woah…” The First looked pretty much exactly like it did back home. Everything but the purple trees were pretty much par of the course, and she had known about those ahead of time already. 

For some reason Tilika found that she could actually make the doll move around wherever she wanted to. For all extents and purposes it was almost like Tilika was piloting a really small giant robot. A very very small giant robot. 

It was so weird, just suddenly being smaller than Babycorn.

Just as the two of them were about to set off, Babycorn froze. “Oh! Wait, hoooold on!” Babycorn reached into her backpack again but unlike last time, she managed to find the exact thing she was looking for in record time. “Ah-ha!! Got it!” Whatever she managed to find, she was quick enough to hide behind her back so Tilika couldn’t see.

Not that she was actually looking either way. Tilika was too busy looking at the everything around her. She knew about the Crystal Tower ahead of time too but actually seeing the whole thing in person was a whole different experience. She really needed to make time to visit it back home in Mor Dhona.

While she was distracted at wondering why people walking around them weren’t too surprised at seeing a walking doll in their city, Babycorn surprised her with a sudden push on her head.

“What the-?!” Tilika did feel something push down on her head and now it felt like there was something on top of there too. She could feel it with her small doll hands, which she just found out were capable of feeling. That was really weird.

“Yay! They fit!” Babycorn knelt down and flicked the pink Viera ears she had made herself for this very occasion, “I made them so I could know that it's you! I looked really hard at your ears for days to get the shape right! I think they’re pink enough too!” The little Viera ears were made of paper and pink stuffing around them. They weren’t anything too spectacular but they sure did make Tilika stand out.

So that was why Babycorn had been staring at her so hard during the past nights they ate dinner together. Tilika was worried that she had done something wrong, like throw away something that Babycorn really liked, or something.

“Uh, thank you!” She didn’t think she needed a pair of ears resembling her own to stand out to Babycorn but it was still nice. Tilika was sure it looked really cute on the doll too. She would find out when Babycorn came home. “Where’s the first stop then Babycorn?”

“Glad you asked!”

Somehow, while Tilika wasn’t looking, Babycorn had changed into an outfit that was much fancier than the jacket she was wearing earlier. She was even wearing a fancy little hat over her pom. “Okay! Let the official Babycorn tour begin! Yayyyyy!” Babycorn cheered, while waving a small flag in the air. “Don’t worry you won’t need to walk a lot! I’ll teleport us to the best views!”

“That’s good to hear!” Tilika was not at all used to walking around with such small legs. If she ever admitted this to Babycorn, she would never hear the end of it from her.

“Is there anywhere you really wanna see Tili Tili?” Babycorn was excited to show her everywhere! There was a story she could tell for all the places they visited together. Maybe she would leave some of the more dangerous parts out but most of her stories were perfectly fine to tell her new not-older sister cousin.

Tilika opened her eyes to think. Normally she would be closing them but closing them wouldn’t have the same effect as they usually would.

She closed her eyes again and she was greeted with Babycorn doing an excited little dance in place. Time worked differently from the Source so who knows how long Babycorn had actually been waiting for Tilika to respond. “I really want to see the Pixie kingdom! If that’s alright!” The little tales Babycorn had already told her about it sounded amazing, she wanted to see everything with her own eyes.

So to speak.

“You got it! Ooooh my gosh! Feo Ul is going to be so excited to meet you~!” Babycorn did another happy little twirl. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too jealous of Tilika being able to spend all her time with Babycorn. 

“Before we go let’s stop by the Pendants! You can see me and Cherry’s room! They still let us stay there cause we saved the world probably!” Babycorn couldn’t think of any other reason they could still sleep there.

“I’d love to see it! Let’s go!” Tilika was so excited she ran ahead of Babycorn, despite having no idea where she was going. Babycorn did not catch on to this and just ran behind Tilika, happily waving her tiny little flag up and down.

[hqmillioncorn]

Lalapril Day 6: Sweet

‘Dreaming Chu Chu★ Choco la ta ta ta ta This sweetness made just for you~”

babycorn and things that require precision and also fire dont go well together. but never fear here come a catgirl and a catboy to the rescuuuuuuuuuueeeee!!!!! 

“Are you all done?” Babycorn turned her head back as far as she could to look at the Brina doll behind her. The doll looked up at her and back to the bow she’d tied behind Babycorn’s back, giving her a thumbs-up back as an answer. 

Babycorn stepped away from Brina (who was standing on a chair to reach Babycorn’s back) and did a twirl. “Great! Thank you!” She gave the doll a bow and the doll in turn bowed back. 

Her cooking uniform was finally ready, after spending hours trying to tie the ribbon by herself. Not only was she ready to bake she also looked adorable. Which was the plan.

“Cherry is so right. Pink is a good color, don’t you think?” She looked at the other dolls that were running all around the kitchen to see if they agreed with her. To no one’s surprise they all nodded. 

“Yay!” she cheered, “Okay I think we’re almost all ready to get started…” At that moment Babycorn heard a knock on the door. “I’m coming!” While Tilika had told her to be careful who she opens the door for, Babycorn desperately tried to reason with her that she was an adult and could more than take care of herself.

‘I know you are and I know you can! But remember you’re the Warrior of Light. You don’t know who could come after you. And I just-worry, okay?’

Reluctantly, Babycorn had promised Tilika she wouldn’t answer any strange knocks on the door or missives from people she didn’t know if she wasn’t home. 

However, in a rare clever idea from Babycorn she figured out that she could ask Cherry’s dolls to knock on the door in a certain way so she knew it was them and not Zenos or something. 

Today she asked some of them to go and pick up some ingredients from several different shops. Since the Calca and Brina dolls liked her as much as they liked Cherrypit, maybe even more so now, they were happy to help. 

Babycorn turned the corner of the living room and heard the same familiar knock again. Opening the door she saw a Brina doll standing on the shoulders of a Calca. The one on the bottom looked particularly annoyed.

Several other dolls were now coming into the home with bags full of ingredients that Babycorn asked them to get. She hoped that by now the merchants of the stores the dolls frequented didn’t freak out over a Calca or a Brina going to pick up Babycorn’s orders.

“Sorry for the wait. Did anyone give you trouble this time?” Babycorn hoped the answer would be no.

The dolls shook their heads and held up the bags of ingredients they brought.

Babycorn sighed and smiled. Cherrypit would have been happy that people were being nice to the dolls. “That’s good. I guess people are getting used to you guys!” 

With all the ingredients now in place, Babycorn pushed a stool closer to the table in the kitchen. 

A group of dolls climbed up onto the table alongside her. Some of them were wearing large chef’s hats. For fun

“Okay! Everything looks like it’s supposed to…Let’s make some tasty snacks!” Babycorn cheered. The dolls cheered alongside her. Or at least some of them did. There were still a few among them that were still a little shy around Babycorn.

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Today was a big day for Centella Springs.

The day before Babycorn had asked her if she could deliver something to her. This delivery in particular was extra extra important! (according to babycorn) It was the first time since starting her employee as Babycorn’s retainer that she had been actually tasked and paid to grab and deliver something! 

While it was nice to be technically employed and paid to do pretty much nothing while working under Babycorn. It was another type of nice to be trusted by Babycorn enough to deliver something to her. 

Especially after Centella had heard rumors of how headstrong and stubborn Babycorn was in asking others for help.

Though, now that she was thinking it over, maybe the weight of the box in her hands meant she’d gotten too many Chocobo feathers.

With a tired sigh Centella adjusted the crate in her arms, finally having given up trying to open the front door to Babycorn’s temporary home with Tilika. 

Truthfully the box wasn’t nearly heavy enough to make her tired but the herculean task of having to deal with making the trip to Labyrinthos while accompanied by her step-brother was absolutely EXHAUSTING.

Especially when he was little, to no help at all.

Finally enough was enough. “K’achow! Would you stop gawking at singles you have no chance with and actually help me?!” Centella’s voice tore through the crowd of people walking past them. Enough so that a few stopped walking to wonder what was going on. 

Meanwhile, standing (that's right standing) on a bench, a Miqo'te with an eerily similar fashion sense to Centella paused his looking around to shoot his sister an annoyed stare. “For your information I’m not gawking at anyone. Since when is it a crime to look around? Especially somewhere I’ve never been to.” he said lying through his teeth.

“Since it’s stopping you from helping me! Which is what I brought you here to do, you jerk!” 

“Geez, quite whining. Can’t you just put the box down and open the door yourself?”

“I could. The key Babycorn gave me is in my pocket. Oooor maybe someone could actually do something to help!? And don’t think I don’t know you’re lying. I know what you look like when you’re looking for some poor soul to flirt with.” 

“Oh yeah? Enlighten me, what do I look like?”

“Desperate!”

K’achow let out a groan. “I guess you would know-you make the same look all the time too.”

Seconds later K’achow was on the ground writhing in pain from being knocked over the head with a crate full of Chocobo feathers.

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“You know if I’d known how heavy a box full of stupid feathers was I would have kept my mouth shut.” K’achow closed the front door and stumbled into the house behind Centella.

Centella instantly turned around and gave him an ice cold look and for a few fearful seconds K'achow was afraid he was about to be knocked to the ground again.

Luckily for him that wasn't the case.

“Little kerneeel~! I’m here!” Centella called out to Babycorn hoping she would come out of wherever she was hiding. Meanwhile K’achow took a seat on the empty couch in the room, where he happily helped himself to a bowl of free peanuts someone left lying there. 

When there was no response Centella frowned, she moved the box in her arms nervously. There was no way someone wasn’t home. Otherwise the front door wouldn’t have been mysteriously left opened. Turns out she never even needed the key.

Centella couldn’t help but wonder, however, if the small doll she saw running away from the door had been her imagination or not. “Maybe she’s sleeping?” Centella whispered to herself. She hoped to herself that she and K’achow hadn’t accidently woken Babycorn up if that was the case. 

From the couch K’achow tia’s ear twitched. “If she is then I say we let her sleep. Remember the whole story Tilika told us before we came here?” 

“About the whole trip to save the star? Yeah, I don’t think I could forget.”

“Exactly. She’s probably still tired from it, I know I would be.” That and K’achow tia didn’t feel like dealing with Babycorn’s insistent questions about Chocobo racing today. Or any day for that matter.

“If it’d been you up there instead of her I’m pretty sure we would all be eating nothing but carrots on an oversized spaceship by now.”

“...I happen to like carrots.”

A large noise, some would liken to an explosion of some sort, rang out from the direction of the kitchen. “What was that?!” K’achow was almost thrown off the couch entirely, only barely able to hang on. 

As he was trying to find some sort of footing Centella had already taken off to the kitchen. Which as it turned out was about four steps away from the living room.

“Little kernel?! Are y-OH SWEET BABY CORN!”

The scene that Centella entered into was nothing short of a nightmare to anyone that cooked. Which unfortunately included her. “What happened in here?!” she was in utter disbelief everywhere she looked worse than the last place she looked.

There were broken shards of dishes and glass thrown about, stains on almost every surface, not to mention a prominent burning smell all throughout the kitchen. 

There must have been something burning somewhere because Centella found herself moving out of the way for several dolls frantically carrying buckets of water. 

“What on…” Suddenly she felt a tug on her tail. Looking down in shock she noticed an out of place wind-up Chimera trying to get her attention. If being friends with Babycorn taught her anything it was that if a doll was trying to tell you something, it was probably in your best interest to listen.

That didn’t mean it still wasn’t weird or creepy. “Uuuh…Hi? W-What’s up little g-guy…?” Centella knelt down to try and talk to it. Even if she was certain the Chimera didn’t have a mouth. The Chimera doll swayed back and forth until it looked up and pointed to the ceiling. 

Hanging from the ceiling was a large gooey marshmallow mess and stuck right in the middle of it was Babycorn, hanging upside down, stuck to the marshmallow by one foot. “Ooh!! Hiiii Centella!” she didn’t look any worse for wear, happily waving at Centella as the blood continued to rush to her head. 

“Babycorn?! How did you get up there?!” The question of what she was doing up there would have to wait until she got her down. Centella grabbed a chair handed to her by another doll and carried it closer to Babycorn. 

“I tried to heat up some marshmallows!” Babycorn wiggled from side to side. As much as she moved she wouldn't budge. 

Centella grabbed Babycorn’s hands and pulled as hard as she could. Turns out she didn’t have to try that hard, because as soon as she tugged her-Babycorn popped right out. If it wasn’t for the brave efforts of a few more dolls keeping Centella and the chair in balance both of them would have fallen to the floor. 

“Phew…” Centella loosened her grip around Babycorn and lowered her down enough until she was barely hovering above the ground. “You can put me down now Centella!” Babycorn reassured her. 

Centella listened and let her go. Babycorn landed on the ground with a plop!

Now that Babycorn was back on solid ground Centella turned her attention to more pressing matters. “How did all this happen!?” She didn’t just mean the marshmallow on the ceiling, rather, she gestured to the entire kitchen. 

Babycorn looked around, her expression read like she was just registering the mess around her for the first time. It should be noted that a handful of dolls were already hard at work cleaning things up. “I tried to bake something.” she looked down, sheepishly kicking her feet. 

“What were you trying to make?” Obviously it must have been something with marshmallows. Centella hoped her question wouldn’t make Babycorn feel bad about her attempt.

A doll scuttled over, they held up a large book towards Centella. “Thanks…?” taking it she noticed a bookmark placed in between the pages. She opened it to see a recipe on a chocolate marshmallow cookie. Along the page were numerous little drawings seemingly drawn by Babycorn herself. 

Centella noticed there were a lot of drawings of Cherrypit.

She stopped herself before she brought up something she would regret. “Don’t tell me you were trying to bake these?” Centella turned the book around so Babycorn could see what she was talking about. Babycorn nodded with a smile, “Totally! I was going to make them as a present for my friends! But…” she trailed off, looking around the kitchen. “I think I might have gotten something wrong.”

Centella sighed, handing the book back to the same doll who quickly scuttled away. “Babycorn, I hope you don’t mind me saying this but shouldn’t you still be resting and not trying to burn down your kitchen?” It was only a few days ago that Babycorn got her cast removed.

“What? Why would I be resting? I feel fine, see?” To prove her point she moved around the arm that had been previously wrapped up in a cast. “Besides, Tilika has had me cooped up in here for weeks now! And I wanted something to do! I figured if I can’t go out I can stay in and make a present for her and my friends. You know, as a thank you for…everything.” 

“Everything, huh?” The sincerity in Babycorn’s voice was clear, and by the ingredients strewn about it was evident she was trying her absolute best. 

The problem probably lied in the fact that Babycorn was as clumsy as a person could get, and very enthusiastic. Not that kind of attitude was a bad thing, just bad in the context of baking.

“I got an idea! Centella could you help me with baking?”    

“Huh?!” Babycorn’s request caught Centella completely off guard. “You’re…asking for my help?”

Babycorn nodded, “Mhmm! When we visited you guys the first time Tilika said you and K’achow were the ones who made lunch, so you probably know a lot more about cooking than I do!” She ran off into the corner of a kitchen and retrieved an extra apron that had been left hanging on a stray chair. 

“I know I already asked you to bring the Chocobo feathers for the present wrapping but I hope it’s not too much trouble to ask. You can even borrow Tilika’s apron!”

Centella looked at the apron and Babycorn in amazement. “Yeah…Yes! Of course I’ll help!” her eyes were shining with newfound determination. Before she took the apron to descend into the monumental task of helping Babycorn bake however, she asked for Babycorn to wait a second.

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“K’achow get off your ass and get in here!!!!” 

K’achow tia nearly fell off the couch for the second time that day. Only this time it would be much worse because falling alongside him would be dozens of empty peanut shells. “What? What?! What is it now?” He figured that whatever had exploded in the kitchen was already being taken care of without his help.

He poked his head above the couch only to have an apron thrown at him.

“Mhmmpp??!” he asked.

“We got an emergency on our hands! A baking emergency! So get up and get over here so we can help Kernel make some cookies!” Centella said, tying her own apron around her waist. Thankfully Babycorn had figured out where Tilika kept her extra. 

“Why do I have to help?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, out of the two of us you’re the one that knows more about baking. And besides-” Centella ran behind a wall and despite Babycorn’s protest, picked her up and held her in the air with ease. “-you wouldn’t want to go and break the heart of the savior of the star. Would you???? Just wook at hwer…!” 

Babycorn didn’t have to try very hard to look sad. Enough time had passed that she didn’t feel incredibly guilty being near K’achow tia but there was still the lingering feeling of remorse for eating his counterpart on the First.

(Long Story.)

K’achow tia looked at Babycorn, taking careful note of the large piece of marshmallow stuck on her hair. “Alright. I’ll help. Who knows it might be fun!” He tied the apron around his own waist and jumped over the couch to head towards the kitchen, “Just leave everything to your favorite six-time Chocobo racing champ Miqo'te!” 

“Coolio! When are they getting here?” Babycorn sneered.

Centella let out a snort of laughter, causing her to nearly dropping Babycorn before setting her down. 

K’achow was less than amused, “Watch it. Or else I’m going to tell that hot cousin of yours that she’s going to need to cut your hair to get that marshmallow out.”

Babycorn had no idea who this hot cousin of her’s was but she preferred to keep the hair she had.