#with teaching herself monster medicine basically

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

OC in Three

Tagged by @arigalefantasynovels!

Tagging @elshells @e-klair @runner-owen @magic-is-something-we-create @blind-the-winds @sam-glade @lynnedwardswrites @rosellemoon @duckingwriting @elliottsbigstrongboyarms

How-to: Post three images that you feel describe/capture the vibe of one of your OCs. They can be photos, famous works of art, drawings, etc. Be as abstract or specific as you want.

For Micaela Désir, Dorian's honorary bloodborn auntie in Dysthanasia:

From left to right:

Photo 1 by Chris F

Photo 2 by Murat Esibatir

Photo 3 by Furkan Dilek

[thesummerstorms]

so as I try to make a "world state" if you will for my PJO stuff, more and more characters keep appearing. (98% of them are solidly in NPC/Crowd Scene/Lore Entry status, but still.)

So far there's:

Living:

Della Bowers- Daughter of Apollo. Stereotypically, she's an archer and a musician. She's very angry. Her entire existence was inspired by the tone of Scylla's voice at the end of "Scyllla" from Epic the musical. Oldest surviving child of Apollo from either Camp, but was "graduated" (aged out/forced out) shortly after TLO and therefore wasn't around to help her siblings for Gaea. No healing ability whatsoever, but she accidentally curses someone with plagues when she gets angry and sings hymns to her father at some point. In Annabeth Wayne verses, she may or may not be opening for Black Canary.

Cameron "Cam" Wells- Daughter of Athena. Oldest surviving child of Athena still at Camp, but she regularly pretends to be Annabeth and Malcolm's "younger" sibling. Daughter of a medical researcher who used her father's old textbooks to teach herself how to help with basic first aid in the infirmary. She doesn't actually want to pursue medicine though; that's a necessity not a choice. She's Athena cabin's unofficial reference librarian, and forms something of a trio with Annabeth and Malcolm. Currently enrolled part time in community college to prolong her ability to stay at Camp.

Gianna Benenati- Daughter of Athena. 14. Youngest Athena kid to survive Gaea and Kronos. Wants to be a textile engineer. Used to be best friends with her similarly aged sister Isra, who was killed in battle.

Hector Mendoza Parra- Son of Athena. Newest and youngest member of Cabin 6. Arrived after Gaea. Very skeptical of the whole thing. The Campers low key think his name is bad luck because Hektor was a Trojan and also look at what Achilles did to him.

Reed- Most NPC of NPCs. Son of Demeter from somewhere in the Southern USA who is good at herbal remedies and will help the Apollo kids out with handling minor illnesses and pains in exchange for them putting out a little bit of sunshine for his herb garden in the winter. Dresses in camo a lot.

Louisa Cordero & Erik Patel- Former Athena Head Counselor and her second from when Annabeth was a small child. Graduated together when Annabeth was nine or ten, but as far as she knows they're probably still both alive. (If they aren't, she'd rather live in ignorance.)

Dead:

Agatha Nguyen- Daughter of Athena. Former Head Counselor before Annabeth. Used to fight with Luke, so she and Annabeth weren't as close as they could be, but she did train Annabeth's knife skills. "Graduated" at the end of The Lightning Thief, but was killed off-screen by monsters at least by The Titan's Curse while protecting a Satyr on a mission to find a new demigod.

Ianthe & Galen Hargrove- Twin children of Athena. Around Annabeth's age. Their first summer was during Sea of Monsters, and Tantalus's presence drove them to defect with an older daughter of Morpheus to the Titan Army. Annabeth barely knew either of them. Ianthe was killed in the Battle of Manhattan. Galen is probably dead, but no one's sure.

Emmanuel Belanger- Son of Athena who left Camp and refused to fight for either side during the Titan war. Tried to hide in the mortal world, but was killed by monsters when Gaea began to rise. Thought Annabeth was Luke's spy and never learned otherwise.

Isra El-Amin- Daughter of Athena. Was the same age as Gianna. Was the cabin "Weapon specialist". Haven't decided which battle she died in. I do flip flop back and forth between her and Gianna as to who survives/dies; right now Gianna is surviving only so she and Chiara can embarrass Nico with their modern Italian slang that no one else understands.

Emily (surname?)- Daughter of Athena. Was technically "co-counselor" with Annabeth during SOM due to Annabeth's age, but was too depressed to care or intervene at that point. Died off screen between SOM and TTC.

Jessie Holt- Unclaimed. Annabeth used to wonder if Jessie was an Athena kid, and Jessie helped weave burial shrouds after the Battle of the Labyrinth. However, they weren't close. Killed in the Battle of Manhattan.

Lydia- Daughter of Apollo. Had only minor healing abilities, but was targeted and ambushed by TA demigods due to being a medic during the Battle of Manhattan. Her real love was poetry, and Cam, her best friend, is working on compiling her poems into a manuscript for the camp library.

??? Name Undecided- Son of Aphrodite. Lydia's friend and Cam's frenemy, and as a result was sometimes voluntold into using his emotion-sensing abilities to help deal with distressed patients or their more distressed siblings/friends. Also wrote poetry, but Cam thought it was pretentious and now doesn't have the drafts to preserve. Mother writes semi-famous love poems. Killed in the Battle of Manhattan.

[aurallyaddison]

me now: i am well-adjusted and had a good childhood and i am currently working through all of my issues and have no more to uncover :)

me at 11: this is my sona she is a dragon who was born a with super rare mutation (shes like a prophetic guardian) but her aunt the queen is a racist eugenicist (because of the lingering influence of a corrupt leader a generation or so ago) so she was exiled and thrown off the cloud cover she lived on and she died FOR REAL but she came back because her soul was split into five parts from the moment she was conceived and each individual part was inside of another creature who died unfairly so they could live again

(inhale)

so the first is a cat who lives on an island which is also a warrior cats parallel universe except each of the four clans here specialize in harvesting certain resources and his clan is a miner clan where they find cool jewels and minerals but somewhat recently a new deputy has entered the clan and made it so that all miner apprentices are fitted with a band on their wrist that shocks them and makes them feel pain whenever their mentor feels like it and theyre forced to work inhumanely for so long and so badly that everyone forgets that this was never how it worked before (plus the leader is like totally hypnotized and mind controlled) and so this guy is trained by the deputy but after hes named a full miner he turns tail and runs to the closest neighboring clan because he sees the deputy is too power hungry and also the medicine cat advises him to but hes caught and killed on the spot

(inhale)

and so the next one is this wyvern whose egg gets mixed up in a landslide aboveground (wyverns live in subterranean caverns) and shes technically part of the highest and most powerful caste of her society (the moment she hatched she found an opal and hung it around her neck with her natural magic thats how it works) but she never learns this because she is raised by the most vicious group of dragons on the surface and abused and treated horribly and she can only eat because she lives in a hole in a cliff facing the sea and she teaches herself to fish and she is forced into combat training she does not want to do and is too young/small/weak/pacifistic/insecure to safely take part in and so one day she is called to do some fighting and she is deliberately matched against the biggest guy in the group who knocks her off the stump they fight on killing her instantly

(inhale)

and so also more recently i made this cat who because of the nature of her magic and an intrinsic property of her spirit her communitys corrupt leader sees her as a threat so she uses her power to send her out into the forest to fetch something after making her drink Potion Of Attacked By Incorporeal Shadow Monster and so when shes attacked it weakens her spirit enough that she is willing to drink another potion she finds without questioning it except this time the leaders assistants didnt realize that the poison they added was only deadly to non-dragons and it actually increases dragons lifespans and also if someone has a piece of a dragons soul inside them like this cat does it makes them immortal so she actually dies for like a second but then comes back and runs away to live in a cave just outside of where the leader can sense her and takes in the handful of other cats who are targeted as found family (also the other ingredients in the potion made it that so instead of being invulnerable her wounds turn into something depending on the magic they have so like hers turn into new body parts and her friend jades wounds turn into jade and emerald)

(inhale)

this one isnt as fleshed out but basically shes a fox who is killed by her brothers friends because they dont like her but the collars given to her and her brother by their mom allow them to persist after death as unique half-alive-half-dead versions of themselves and also astral project even when theyre still alive and those who possess the collars can talk to one another discreetly without others seeing either so at first she just follows him but then she decides to get revenge and kill the friends who attacked her which makes her brother scared and want nothing to do with her anymore but it was so easy she could do it again and nobody would ever know and so she becomes super corrupted by power and kills a bunch of people (including her brother i think) and she finds a friend who understands her sort of and ignores the killings at first but then she gets fed up and yells at her and cries and claws her collar off not realizing what would happen which is that the foxs wound that caused her death is exposed and she bleeds out and dies for real this time

(inhale)

and so this one was collaboratively written with a friend of mine using paper cutouts of our respective ocs and roleplaying with them and so basically theres this fennec fox whos making the trek to a sacred site to fully receive her magic and one night she digs a burrow to sleep in and when she wakes up for some reason shes in a different universe and is seen by this winged black wolf and her little sister and they speak a different language but her necklace translates it for her because it does and anyway the wolves are on the run and the fennec wants to get home and they might have a way to do both in the world's capital so she begrudgingly accepts and so they journey together through perilous conditions and the fennec starts to warm up to them and they actually connect but right at the end of their journey the little sister is killed so the fennec and the wolf return alone and the fennec gets her full magic and they bury the little sister near an oasis and mourn her and i think the fox goes off on her own and is caught off guard by an ambush and killed

(heavy panting)

me now: haha kid thats cute. :) that wasnt plasmas friend though that was her girlfriend

[unikittybigbrightworldau]

Citizens of Botania

Head over to Botania and rustle up your leaves as I tell about the folks who live there.

(I know- that was bad.)

Lucinda Fox is Dr. Fox’s great grandmother, and she seems to be the matriarch of the clan. She and many other foxes reside in Veridan, Botania’s forest area (with both deciduous and coniferous trees in it), in a neighborhood called Fox Hollow. As you can probably tell from her coat, science runs in the family; back in her day, she discovered five new elements and made the earliest motherboard. She also had a hand in designing environmentally-friendly power systems. She still continues to explore the world around her today, and she has a close bond with her tight-knit family.

Lucinda’s two children are Jessie, Dr. Fox’s grandmother, and Jay, her great-uncle. Jessie has a degree in environmental science and took Dr. Fox to Botania’s natural history museum when she was a little kid. She created a device to measure and keep track of soil fertility. She’s a stylish and lighthearted woman. Jay likes to feed birds and let them land on his fingertips. He’s a lights operator who works at the Flytrap Theater in Veridan. He’s carefree, much like Jessie. Jay and Jessie are twins.

Forrest, Felix, Don and Rosemary are Jay’s children and the cousins of Dr. Fox’s dad, Benton. Forrest Fox studies physics and loves being outdoors, all the way down to sleeping outside. Felix Fox is a mathematician who’s logical yet compassionate. He can’t see very well out of one of his eyes. Donaldo Fox, or Don, is the only known member of Dr. Fox’s family who is actually licensed to practice medicine, and does it professionally. He cooks pastas and veggies in his spare time. He's all about the truth, so he can't stand when people don't get facts right. Rosemary Fox, or Rosie, is a mirthful teacher with a sharp memory. She teaches at a general school, which means she teaches basic life skills to young kids. One of her students just so happened to be Rose, and they’ve always joked about the likeness of their names.

Vita Fox is Dr. Fox’s older sister. Like her cousin Lila, she lives by herself, and her home isn’t too far from where her relatives live. She likes to skate, and she also studies the behavioral habits of people. She’s generous, selfless, and is close with her family just like her great grandma. She and her sister were close when they were younger. To this day, she thinks about her a lot.

Then, there's Needle Herichon, the sea urchin who ruined the lives of many Marevians. I put him here because he's now in a banishment hold a ways away from Botania. It's a place where Marevi and Botania try to rehabilitate their worst offenders. He is controlling, dishonest, and doesn't care what happens so long as it benefits him. He won't admit that, though. He's a social urchin who has no problem talking with other people. However, he's also selfish and hungry for fame. He married Celina and built Spike with her just to get achievement points. He disrespected their boundaries, spreading mean rumors to discredit them while claiming he was helping them. He also tried to force Celina to stay with him, and lured a sea monster to a marketplace, hoping a battle would win her back. The Doom Lords are attempting to recruit Needle and give him the title of Master Deceit. His headcanon voice? Hadrian from Minecraft: Story Mode.

Lord Terran Monarch is the fairy ruler of Botania. He acts as a conscience towards his people and does his best to guide them down the path of life. He's selfless, environmentally aware, and very hail-fellow-well-met. He'll do what he can to ensure that the world will have a future to protect. Lord Terran is also good friends with King Nettle and Queen Moonlily, just like Botania is with Marevi. He wears glasses that help him see and read; without them, he can’t see at all. 

Zora is a dragontail butterfly and a close friend to Kira. He doesn’t like being in just one place for very long, nor does he like getting wet. He travels around Botania’s desert and grassland areas. He is able to fly at great speeds, which makes him hard to spot. Moving at quick paces, Zora gets easily impatient and bored. But, he's a loyal and sympathetic friend and a resilient guy.

Allegra is another one of Kira's friends. She is a graceful performer who is regarded as one of the most beautiful fairies in her tree. She is a skilled trapeze artist, and she's part of the circus at her school. She is the peppiest and liveliest in Kira's friend group, and she loves when people watch her flip and swing. Trapeze isn't an easy art, and Allegra isn't a trapeze expert. She sometimes falls down, but she doesn't let her misses define her.

Bia is also part of Kira's friend circle like Zora and Allegra. Though feisty, she is inventive and problem-solving, and she tinkers with things she finds in the nature that surrounds her. She fixes things and also makes sure that they don't leave behind waste or use lots of energy. She's never been able to feel her wings, so she has these flight aids to help her fly. Her headcanon voice is Tink from the Tinker Bell movies. 

Fern is Kira’s older brother. He is a farmer who is learning to care for crops and plants. He has no problem with getting dirty when he works. He's considerate, so he checks in on Kira most often.

Kira and Fern were raised by their grandmother, Emi. She is a funny and sweet woman who likes to draw pictures. Her works are hung up in restaurants and libraries in the tree. Much like Kira, she likes having fun, so she's always up for some playtime. She also helped the siblings stay safe.

Desiree is a deer/mole hybrid known for selling tickets at cinemas and amusement parks. She lives to experience things, so in her time off, she heads in to see a flick or hop on a ride herself.

In Botania, the Gemflowers are the only people whose names are based on what they are. In their case, it's either their flower or their gemstone. Rose is a dashing Gemflower who's fine with being called either Rose or Ruby. They're also fine with being referred to as a he, she, they, it, or something else. He's energetic, vehement, and is good at chasing monsters or beasts away. They've considered joining the Bramble Wall, which defends Botania by doing that. They're also friends with Fern.

Carnation is an investigative young lass who says something important when no one expects it. She is technically siblings with Snapdragon, the sound effects artist for the Petalstones. Like her, she was created in a lab by Dr. Fox's aunt Daisy. People who Carnation is friends with, such as Allegra and Bia, know this, but she'd never brag about it.

Sapphire is an early bird who never seems to run out of stamina. He likes to work out every morning and makes sure he's getting enough sunlight. He lets fairies and insects rest on the top of his head flower.

Cherry Blossom is a friend of Kira's. He's sweet on one side but sour on the other. He's generally courteous, like Botanians usually are. But on some days, he'll be direct and open, and on others, he'll be tired and want to be left alone. He's always moving forward.

Freesia is a Gemflower who's only a young kid. She's innocent and a little bit superstitious. She often goes to hug the fairy trees, believing it'll make her wishes come true.

Moonstone is an instinctive friend of Kira's who also likes to call herself Brugmansia. She's an animal lover, just like her. She doesn't take kindly to people who don't show basic decency. She shows respect like most others, but knows that she doesn't owe anyone that respect.

[dangermousie]

One of the things I am really enjoying about Rebirth of the Tyrant’s Pet is that heroine is changing the future without really planning to simply because she is a decent person.

I mean, she always planned to change her own future, mainly by staying the fuck away from court and future emperor, empress and emperor’s psycho brother but that was it.

And yet, she is changing things not just by saving Gong Jue but basically changing his moral outlook by being herself.

I mean, in the OG timeline, he got abused nonstop during his childhood and not only was there nobody to protect him, there was nobody to teach him mercy or kindness either. So he ended up a ruthless murder machine with a large harem and devoted to the empress because she occasionally sent him soup to help him with his ruined throat. He was a dumpster fire of a person because if you abuse someone within an inch of their life and then give them a lot of power, most times results would be hella dire.

But when Yimo transmigrates back she changes the entire future. She sees him being abused and steps in. And it’s not really because she wants to win a future supporter, it’s because she’s a decent person and can’t stand a kid being abused even if said kid grows to be a monster. And so she prevents his throat from being ruined, she gets him medicine, she shares food with him. And he actually finds out that not all people are awful and that changes him because he’s young and impressionable and capable of kindness back (like when he keeps bringing her food even though he’s starving himself.)

But also, they hang out and she espouses such unorthodox ideas as masters should show mercy and not always dole out brutal punishment or that it’s good to have only one wife or else wives would be miserable and he’d be miserable with scheming miserable women (and is all don’t you think it would be better if your mom was the only wife and do you really want to make more women like her.) And it all blows his mind because he’s never thought this way and also she’s literally his only friend and I kind of love that instead of a horrifying psycho, he’s just going to grow up into a ruthless but functional dude not because she had an agenda but because she is a deeply decent person.

[floralkittygambler]

Hazbin OC - Lady Luck [WIP shit]

Just a dump of some Lady concepts and some of how she’s developed. Current design + Angel forme [above] Lady’s brief bio: Name: Lady Luck, Lady Age: Various [based on rebirth], most notably the ages 31, 38 and 55. [anyone who knows where these ages from, you know] Gender: female Date of Birth: Various Date of Death: N/A Cause of Death: Perhaps ‘they’ caught up- Race: White British/Irish ‘human’ turned feline demon [current ‘life’], ‘Deity’ Occupation: Fortune Teller/Medium, Lingerie model, part time barmaid and entertainer, only a hobbyist gambler Voice type: Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy [Fiona Belli, Haunting Ground - VA is Irish] Quirks, strange mannerisms, and/or annoying habits: [soon] Appearance: Grey feline demon [inspired by Russian and British blues], Green/Olive eyes, adding more soon lol im tired Personality: soon Sins/Vices: Alcohol consumer [non addict], past minor addiction to medicine, gambling [non addict], money hoarding, ‘playing god’ [unwilling], Witchcraft/magick [main sin]. Prone to wrathful acts, feelings of envy, moderate greedy habits. Sinned in other lives. Strong profanity, dark business, sometimes catalysts for chaos. Self hazardous. Melancholic. Virtues: Can be giving if convinced/interested, deep empathy/compassion, chastity [unintentional], though often impatient can be extremely patient for those in need. Protective of animals, children and the vulnerable but the opposite towards assailants. High tolerance against addiction.   Mental illnesses: Abilities/Powers/Skills: Thin and nimble, quick witted, ability to appeal [emotional], ability to debate, reading traits [acquired], magick/supernatural powers - connects to life/death cycle, monsters, psyche, deity levels. Card magick - throwing weapons, summoning weapons, evasive. Nature connected powers. Analysist. Great with children, animals, the vulnerable. Jack of many trades [incl. mixology, divination, board games, survivalist, etc] to allow more opportunities. More intelligent than she appears. Pickpocketing [magick assisted]. Basic magic tricks. Can speak pieces in some languages, including Latin. Performer/entertainer. Dancer [helps in fights]. Observant. Comforting and nurturing. Humorous. Willingness to stand up for and defend. Listener. Sniper aim. Weaknesses: Phobias [such as mirrors, safety/romance, vertigo/heights, etc], radiowaves [can be triggered by her creations or by her loss of composure], strong deity powers [actively denies and suppresses them leading to ‘charge up’. Emotions can stir them up signaling her difficulty controlling them. Can turn these against herself as well. Prone to overexertion which can easily be fatal. Can lead to great acts of wrath]. Intimacy. Can vary from too trusting to too wary. Grey moral compass [leading to passive inaction in some cases and aggression in others]. Lightweight drinker [in denial]. Drinks when anxious/socialising [often, though easily substituted]. Heightened senses [pro and con]. Easily distracted. Can be rude/jest harshly. Closed off. Handles drug effects badly. Over-emotions can lead to ‘possession’ from a ‘friend’. Exhausts easily. Durable and fragile. Panic [can calm others]. Avoids own issues [can admit and confront them however is closed off]. Overworks. Avoidant. Melancholic. Sadistic streak that’s hard to tame. Could be way better at illusionism. Vengeful. Frozen in past. Terrible runner. Chronic conditions. Low tolerance for certain types. Can often mishandle these violently. Surprisingly shy. Can only mask for so long. Materialistic to replace loneliness. Height: 5′8 - 5′9 [human], 6′5 [demon] Body type: Pear, extremely small bust with larger rear and wider hips. Dislikes: many, soon to list. People/humans, having to socialise, being picked up [esp like a cat], phobias, worms, ‘crawling blood’, perverts, Fears: soon, mirrors,  Goals: soon Relationships/Love interests: She has a potential interest, though she’s likely to approach first [or make a ‘first move’ per say] she most likely wouldnt confess feeling that she wasnt appealing to them. Definitely would make the effort to comfort and befriend [leaving Lady’s comfort zone] Hobbies and interests: Gambling, card and board games, playing games, tarot/divination of many kinds, witchcraft, magic tricks/shows, lingerie modelling [think more boudoir/classy or the playful takes of Bettie Page], botony/herbology, collecting plushies, faux smoking, drinking, overreacting to gameshows/tv shows, comedy stand ups, chocolate making, art and sewing, playing instruments [accoustic guitar, harmonica, lyre, inflatable saxophone, triangle, tambourine], mixology, learning new things, animals and caring for those who need it, fashion [often quirky or outdated], hula hoop tricks, dancing and singing [quite shy], teaching/educating children [especially in hunting/survival], taxidermy, sharp shooting, sometimes being nude [in safe areas], meditation, collecting, true crime files, star gazing, shadow puppets, laser pens, making jokes, berry picking, reading, snuggling, cats, money saving/spending, horror novels/movies, aerials, pole dancing [fitness], general fitness [in the yoga sense, not jogging], sci-fi, woodcarving [no skills], loves 70s and rococo fashion as well as classy looking fashion, playbunnies, aesthetics, nature. Laser tag. Comfy blankets. Nurturing other’s needs. Cute things. Trivial: - Was a virgin in her last life before becoming a demon, dreads sex demons like Val finding this out. - Covered in scars, both self inflicted and otherwise, these remain hidden beneath her fur. - Will go around topless or nude as her fur works as censorship. Even to the dismay of others. - Loves the 60s, 70s and 80s. - Regrets no longer liking cheese like she used to. - Enjoys stronger alcoholic drinks despite being a lightweight, her drunk self showing her softer and more optimistic hidden side. Often giggly, complimentary and cuddly. Occasionally verbally aggressive/wants to fight. - Some of her dreams include; starting a bar fight, visit a magic show, learn to spin plates, [finally] visit a Vegas style casino, own a garden/creatures sanctuary, find a meteorite, attempt to hold a lion’s mouth open for ‘Strength’, own her dream house and business away from ‘fucking everyone’, ride a dolphin, master juggling and magic tricks, create some new potions, slap the shit out of each overlord [etc] - Avoids love; from the topic to her history, though it’s implied that she doesn’t feel like it’s ‘in the cards’ for her as well as implied insecurity. - The memories of each of her past lives often collide, especially in the night, causing hidden distress - She was originally planned to have a power inspired by John Coffee where she could ‘alleviate’ other’s emotional suffering by CBT and physically ‘taking’ it from them, an ability that would land her a job at the Hotel. This idea has since been moved to another character. - She has a ‘baby face’ and is often called cute by others, leading her to be treated little more than an oversized pet. This is something that bothers her when not in jest. - Related to Dead Hand - Has had certain dealings with Valentino and Lucifer that she’s not proud of. - Lady Luck is an ironic name - Old design designed around my old cat Angel, new design ironically resembles our current cat Angel [taken over from Great Auntie. First was named after Buffy characters. Second... Idk] - [soon] [Temp: https://www.deviantart.com/pixichi/art/Very-Basic-Character-Sheet-for-OC-s-By-Pixichi-482645873 ] Old designs:

[mookybear12404]

Dnd asks: 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61

I’m not sure which character you are referring to so ill just choose for each one!

1. why did they choose their class(es)? their subclass(es)?

Desmond decided to be a bloodhunter after another bloodhunter was able to subdue the demon possessing him and get him control back over his body. He basically followed the dude around and was like “please please i have no other thing worth living for I basically killed everyone i love PLEASE TEACH ME BLOOD MAGIC PLEASE” and through the sheer force of pestering he was able to convince him to train him. 

Desmond eventually gets sick of not being able to do enough to help people that he decides to make a pact with the demon in him. Despite the fact this demon has been messing with his head, his intentions, his thoughts, and his emotions, he decides its worth the risk to use this creature’s magic if it means getting a better chance at killing more monsters. (thus, the fiend profane soul subclass!)

11.  what skills are they proficient in? why?

I’ve played Nina in a few different campaigns, so I changed her proficiencies often to reflect the team she was with. She is proficient in Athletics (Because she is a MASSIVE firbolg who has worked a lot in her life), Intimidation (From her past), Insight, (She was a momma and she knows how to read people), Medicine, (From spending many years tending to the wounded,) Nature, (While she never formally studied, her time serving for a goddess of nature gave her lots of knowledge of nature) Religion, (from her goddess) Perception, which is an expertise in one game (she is VERY perceptive in general) and Survival (From as a hermit in the middle of nowhere) 

21. do they follow their head, their heart, or their body?

Characters that follow with their head - Ronan, Ayla (except when it comes to Will, the little boy she’s adopted,) Cree somewhat, Evira somewhat

Characters that follow with their heart - Arlo, Rosie, Celeste

Characters that follow with their body - Somewhat Cree

31. they’re given a blank piece of paper–what do they do with it?

Ronan would take the paper and use it to practice his ink paintings. He’d probably make a nice landscape painting or something silly for his daughter.

 41. what are they attracted to in other people?

Evira is very much the “If you are an underdog, or an outcast of society, I will care for you deeply.” She is drawn to those who are weird, those who overlooked, those who are deemed “unworthy”. This is partially from being a reject of society herself, feeling a close kinship with them, and partially because she has a VERY strong sense of justice. Her best friend was the shy girl in class. Her husband was the awkward one with the stutter. She befriended the terrifying looking guy who runs the bakery. She liked to sit and chat with the weird dude that talked to pigeons. She rarely has any patience for those with money, social status, or beauty. (This is something my DM hopes to use to tie her into the party! She will likely adopt anyone who is even remotely sad or rejected lol)

51. what is the most beautiful thing in the world, for them?

Ronan thinks that his wife and daughter are the most beautiful things in the world. 

61. what kind of flower would they choose to pick from a meadow?

Rosie would absolutely pick the pink flowers only, maybe with some white ones mixed in

[thdorkmagnet]

Light of the Sun and Stars Chapter 40: Mewberty

A/N: It’s also Light of the Sun and Stars three year anniversary today, yay!

Summary: His whole life Marco Diaz has been raised by monsters, living under the cruel rule of their leader, Toffee. But one day Marco escapes into Mewni where he meets a magical princess and Mewman like himself, who begins teaching him all about her world. Together they will learn about life, love, and the lights within each of them, as they change their world forever.

Chapter Synopsis: Marco isn’t feeling well and has no idea why he’s feeling extra clingy toward Star or his body is suddenly so itchy and uncomfortable among other sudden changes. He doesn’t want to worry his friends but the longer he waits the worse his condition seems to get. Can Star and the others figure out what’s wrong or will Butterfly Castle suffer from Marco’s unexpected transformation?

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Index

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. All rights go to them. 

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Marco wasn't feeling well. This shouldn't really be too surprising since it wasn't like he had never been sick before. He used to get a fever or a cough here and there growing up, causing every Monster in the castle to go into panic mode, rushing around like crazed maniacs trying to find a way to cure him of his illness, bringing him soup and medicine and hot water and basically anything the boy was in need of. Even the normally calm Buff Frog would be on edge during this time, flinching every time the boy coughed or sneezed and refused to leave his son's side for even a moment until Marco was completely one-hundred percent cured. And even after Marco had gotten over his initial aliment the Monsters still insisted he stay in bed an extra day, just to be sure he was okay (which Marco always thought was a bit excessive but figured his dad and the Monsters knew best).

Toffee was the only one who seemed to not be affected by the boy's condition. He usually just watched the boy from afar, his blank stare burning into Marco's skin, the boy easily picking up on his aggression in those moments, knowing that the lizard was angry with him for halting missions with his weak immune system but knew better than to say anything with the other Monsters around. But it was ironically due to Toffee's rule of not being allowed to leave the castle or his room most of the time that Marco was spared from suffering any major illnesses or diseases that most Mewmans have. But it was also due to this horrible rule that Marco had zero idea what it was he was sick with now, his very limited knowledge of Mewman illnesses doing nothing to help him determine what exactly he had.

This was the first time he had been sick since moving to Butterfly Castle, after all. Which meant he was completely lost on what exactly it was making him feel so weird today.

Since the moment he woke up that morning, something had felt off to Marco. His body felt strangely floaty and his arms and legs almost felt numb, like they weren't attached to him or something. And yet at the same time, he was aware of every sensation in his body at once and all of them were almost supercharged. His rumbling stomach felt like it was trying to cause an earthquake, his eyelids still heavy from just waking up felt like they were made of bricks, and his back felt super itchy for some reason.

But most of all, he couldn't stop thinking about Star.

This shouldn't be too unusual, I mean most of his thoughts revolved around her, but today it was to the absolute most extreme it had ever been. From the second he opened his eyes, the first thing that popped in his head was I need to see Star.

Once he climbed out of bed and started to change into his hoodie and jeans he couldn't stop thinking about going to see Star, her smile, her laugh, her eyes, all of it circling in his head so much he couldn't hardly focus and he almost ended up putting his hoodie on backward.

When he went downstairs, he ran into Jackie and Janna in the hallway and nearly groaned in disappointment that Star wasn't amongst them. He didn't hear a word they said to him the rest of the way to the dining room, the only thought in his head being a constant chant of: Star. Star. Star. Need to see her. Need to see Star.

And the moment he did see her, he had been so elated he had practically leapt into her arms, much to her surprise, the girl barely even having time to let out a simple greeting before being tackled to the floor. Jackie, Janna, Moon, River, and Lily had all stared dumbfounded as Marco clung tightly to his bestie, saying over and over again how happy he was to see her. Star, for the most part, didn't show too much concern, though she did flush in embarrassment from their audience, telling the boy she was happy to see him and gently hugged him back. After a few minutes though, Marco hadn't even lessened his grip, content to just lay on the dining room floor all day if need be, but when Star had asked to please be let up, the boy had reacted instantly, standing straight up, almost robotically.

This had also seemed to concern the others, but they said nothing of it, trying to ignore the awkward moment, all sitting down to eat their breakfast like nothing had happened. Star, however, turned to Marco and asked, "What was that about anyway?"

The boy shrugged, replying honestly, "I just missed you is all."

Star giggled, saying teasingly, "Seriously. But we just had date night like... last night. We went to the Dimension of a Thousand Sunsets, remember?"

"Yes, but that was hours ago," Marco said, a cute little pout on his face as he clung to his bestie's arm. "I had to go all night without seeing you."

Star seemed shocked by this for a second, but it quickly melted into a loving smile as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Aw, Marco, you're adorable!" she gushed.

The two had quickly joined the others for breakfast, only Marco barely ate, all his attention focused on Star to the point he couldn't keep his eyes off her. Not to mention every time he did take a bite of his breakfast a wave of nausea overwhelmed him and he soon realized he didn't have the stomach for cereal at the moment, simply setting his spoon down next to his bowl.

Moon seemed to notice this, asking him, "Marco, are you feeling okay? You've hardly touched your breakfast."

"Uh, I'm not in the mood for this today," the hooded teen said with a shrug.

"But it's Captain Blanches Sugar Seeds," Jackie pointed out, looking at him incredulously. "Your favorite."

"Guess I'm just not hungry right now," Marco replied shyly.

Star frowned at that, but said nothing, though Marco saw her casting worried glances his way every so often.

After breakfast, the itching set in.

What had originally started in just his back, soon began to spread to his arms, legs, neck, everything, until an hour and a half later his whole body was annoyingly itchy. Marco squirmed in his seat the whole time Skullnick gave him, Star, and Jackie the knight's report about Monster and Mewman incidents all across Mewni (which always sounded more like she was lecturing them like school children than simply briefing) while the hooded teen fought the urge to scratch every inch of his irritated skin. For the most part, he managed to remain still, though he never heard a word the general said, and he did occasionally use his chair as a back scratch whenever nobody was looking. Or so he thought, a pair of keen blue eyes watching him out of the corner of his eye every time he moved so much as an inch.

And if that hadn't been enough to distract him, there was the fact that his chair was right next to Star's and Marco could almost sense her presence next to him, completely aware of her form mere inches away from him. As the meeting ran on, Marco found himself seeking her touch more and more, his fingers twitching in anticipation for her warm palm in his. Eventually, the desire grew too strong for him and he slowly reached out a hand, gently grabbing Star's from underneath the table and the blond smiled to herself, before giving it a quick squeeze.

But then a weird sensation spread through Marco's hand, a tingling and burning feeling that caused Marco to literally cry out in surprise, startling everyone in the meeting room and making Star instantly let go. Soon, all eyes were on him and the hooded teen felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment, which felt like his cheeks were literally on fire with his heightened senses. "S-Sorry," he managed to stammer out, wanting nothing more than to dive under the table and out of sight.

Star, immediately picking up on her boyfriend's distress, took charge of the situation and turning to the knights said in the most regal tone she had, "Can you guys give us a minute?"

Everyone except Jackie immediately left the room, giving the princess and her boyfriend their privacy, though Skullnick looked none too happy about it, frowning and grumbling under her breath the whole way.

Once the doors were shut, Star turned to her boyfriend with a concerned look and asked, "Are you okay, Marco? You've been acting strange all morning."

The boy nodded shyly, before muttering out, "Yeah, I guess I just feel weird today."

"Are you getting sick?" Jackie asked looking equally worried.

"Maybe," Marco replied, scratching at his arm now that nobody was around to notice it. "But I'm not really sure. I didn't get sick a whole lot with Buff Frog and everybody."

Star watched this for a moment before asking, "Are you feeling itchy?"

Marco nodded, admitting, "Yeah." He scratched his arm a bit more before moving to his neck. "It wasn't that bad before but now it's starting to feel real bad."

"And I'm guessing you being sick is why you didn't feel like eating anything this morning," Jackie observed.

Star pressed a hand to the boy's forehead, which caused him to immediately flush bright red against his will, his whole face tingling from her touch. "Hmmm, feels like you might be running a fever too."

"Sounds to me like the chickenpox?" Jackie suggested and Star nodded in agreement.

"That's what I was thinking," Star said.

Marco looked between the two with wide eyes, asking nervously, "Am I... gonna turn into a chicken?"

The two girls laughed, Jackie shaking her head. "No, Marco, you aren't gonna turn into a chicken," the skater girl reassured him and the boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"But you should probably lay down for a while," Star said and the boy instantly frowned at the idea of leaving Star's side, giving his girlfriend a hurt look.

"But what about your meeting later with Mayor Butch and the other Monster leaders?" Marco pointed out sadly. "Don't you need me there to help. "

"Wellll," Star began, thinking her words over carefully. She knew how much that meeting had meant to him, Marco had been the one to help set it up in the first place. "It would be nice sure but I'm more concerned about you getting better. Your health comes first, Marco."

The boy let out a long sigh, before muttering softly, "Yeah I guess."

Star, seeing her boyfriend's downtrodden face, felt her will break and added hesitantly, "Hey, if you really want, I could cancel the meeting for today-"

"No, you don't need to do that," the hooded teen said, shaking his head, despite wanting so badly to say otherwise. He didn't want Star to leave, could barely stand the idea of her being away from him for more than a few minutes, but some sane, more rational part of his brain was able to remind himself what was at stake. "You should go. Just because I have to stay home doesn't mean you need to."

"Yeah but," Star muttered worriedly, biting her lip. She stared deep into her boyfriend's eyes before asking softly, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Marco reassured her, giving her what he hoped was a lighthearted grin. "I just need some sleep like you said."

Star nodded slowly, looking on the verge of changing her mind but finally agreed, saying, "Okay, but if you need me for anything, anything at all, just call me and I'll come right back." Marco felt his heart begin to pound with some powerful emotion as his girlfriend's beautiful face lit up with a mind-numbing smile.

"Sounds good to me," Marco said returning the grin with one of his own, while his mind was screaming, Star don't go! He did his best to ignore his inner thoughts as he stood up from his chair, reluctantly saying, "Well I should probably go lay down before I get any worse."

"I'll go with you," Star said, standing herself, and Marco's face lit up knowing he would have Star by his side a little longer, his heart practically leaping for joy, fighting to free itself from his chest. The blond royal turned to Jackie and said, "Tell everyone I'll be back soon, okay?"

"No problem," the skater responded immediately. The two had only taken a step before she added, "Oh do you also want me to call Buff Frog and tell him Marco isn't feeling well?"

"No you better let me do that," Marco replied instantly. "Dad gets crazy overprotective whenever I get sick and the others just kinda lose it, I don't want them to freak out too much."

Star giggled at that, before commenting, "So guess we can be expecting a visit from your family later?"

"If they don't take me home with them where they can watch me morning, day and night," Marco replied with an exhausted sigh.

"Not gonna lie, Buff Frog losing it is hard to imagine," Jackie said with a playful grin. The other two teens giggled in agreement, before heading out the door again, the skater waving the two off.

As Star walked Marco to his room, the young couple spent a few moments in blissful silence, no words needed as they just enjoyed each others presence in the quiet hallway. Marco couldn't stop himself from continually casting glances in his girlfriend's direction, trying to ignore the tingling that seemed to be spreading through his whole nervous system, making him jittery and hyper. He felt alert to Star's every movement, the way she walked, the way her face lit up every time she glanced his way, the way her hair bounced with every step. Everything. It wasn't the first time he had noticed these things about Star, the simple act of her breathing enough to capture his interest and attention, but it felt different now.

Star was his whole world sure, but now she was the world. Nothing else mattered. Just Star. Just being near Star. Just seeing Star. Just smiling at Star. Just touching Star. Just kissing Star. Just holding Star's hand. Just-

"Marco!" Star screamed, finally managing to capture the boy's attention as he reeled back in shock.

"Huh?" he asked numbly, blinking a few times at his girlfriend in confusion.

"I said we're here," Star explained patiently, gesturing over to Marco's door.

The boy turned in that direction, before his cheeks flushed in embarrassment, muttering, "Oh. Guess we are." He began scratching at his cheeks, giving his bestie a sheepish look as he chuckled awkwardly. "I, uh, I didn't notice."

Star just laughed. "I kinda figured," she replied with a wink.

A silence settled over the two again, Star and Marco shifting uncomfortably on their feet, neither teen quite ready to say goodbye yet. The hooded boy bit his lip in the cutest way, Star nervously playing with a strand of hair as they just stared at the floor. But after another minute of the awkward silence, Marco cleared his throat, before saying softly, "Well I guess I should probably..." He pointed over at his door, still fighting the inner voice in his head that was begging Star to stay with him.

"Yeah, I guess you should," Star agreed, her sad face a perfect match to how Marco currently felt.

"So yeah," the boy said awkwardly, stalling the conversation for as long as he could. "Uhhh, I guess I'll let you go back to the meeting and I'll just, y'know, sleep for a while."

Star nodded. "Okay, I'll call a doctor soon, have him take a look at you just so we know for sure what we're dealing with," the blond said. "Don't want it getting any worse."

"Cool, cool," Marco agreed with a nod of his head. He paused for a moment, clapping his hands together as he shot the girl a grin. "Well then..." And in a last desperate attempt to drag things out with Star a little longer, he reached slowly over toward his doorknob, speaking in a deliberately drawn-out manner, making sure to pause on each word for as long as possible, "I'lllll juuussttt gooooo."

Star just smiled at her boyfriend's precious attempts to stall, moving at the speed of a sloth, and she couldn't help but lean over and plant a loving kiss to his cheek, causing the boy to instantly freeze up. Star took advantage of this as she opened the door for him, helping him inside as his limbs suddenly felt like pudding, the blond royal practically dragging Marco into his own room. "Sleep tight, Marco, I'll come check on you later," she whispered, giving him a quick hug that made Marco's whole body heat up and start tingling again, the weird feeling returning tenfold.

"Uh-huh," he somehow managed to get out, a goofy grin on his face as he watched Star blow him one last kiss from the doorway before waving to him and closing the door, the beautiful smile on her face ingrained permanently into Marco's memory.

The moment she was gone the boy collapsed to the ground with a love-sick sigh, the brightest smile imaginable on his face as his mind replayed the moment he had just shared with his beautiful bestie. And for a moment, the fact that he was alone didn't matter, the pull at his heartstrings and the voice at the back of his mind whining about Star being gone didn't bother Marco in the slightest. The only thing the boy could focus on right then was the tingling sensation in his cheek from where Star had kissed him, gently rubbing it as he felt his heart float around in his chest.

But as Marco pulled his hand away he felt something stick to his fingertips. He sat up, staring down at his palm in confusion, only to see a small orange sun just like his cheekmark laying in his hand. "Huh, that's new," the boy muttered softly, absentmindedly scratching at his arm with his free hand.

After a moment or two though, Marco's curiosity made him pull back the sleeve on his hood only to gasp in surprise as even more of the 'sunspots' covered his skin, running all up and down his arm, all identical to his sun cheekmarks save for hue. The boy blinked a few times, before frowning. He had heard of Mewnian acne before but he had never had it himself. "Maybe this is a symptom of chickenpox?" he concluded, pulling his sleeve back up, before pulling himself into bed. "I'll ask Star when she gets back," he muttered tiredly before closing his eyes tight.

Soon Marco was asleep, snoring softly in the safety and comfort of his room, dreaming of Star and her bright smile. For a few minutes, nothing happened, but soon another sunspot appeared on his skin, then another and another and another until his whole body was covered in them. But they didn't stop there, soon they were piling up all over the bed and floor, Marco remaining oblivious to it all in his unconscious state. Soon an orange cocoon had formed around the hooded teen. And from within this large cocoon, Marco's body slowly began to change.

...

Later that afternoon, after Star had already left for her meeting, Jackie and Janna decided to stop by Marco's room to check up on him, carrying get well gifts for their sick friend, a stuffed bunny that said 'Get well soon' on its chest from Jackie and a new book for Marco to read while stuck in bed from Janna. The two had both promised Star to keep an eye on the boy since the doctor would be running late with another more serious case, apparently one of Pony Head's sisters Teta coming down with an emergency case of what he referred to as 'horn-itis' (but according to Pony Head was just another scheme by her sisters to take her throne) and neither had heard a word from Buff Frog or the other Monsters. That left Marco in the care of Jackie and Janna, both of which were confident they could look after the boy and help him with whatever he needed to get better. After all, it was just the chickenpox.

"You think we should have brought him some soup or something?" Jackie suddenly asked her friend.

Janna shrugged. "I don't really see how it would do much good since he didn't really seem to have much of an appetite before," the creepy teen pointed out. "What we should have brought him was that healing potion I was telling you about."

"Uhh, pass," Jackie replied, with a roll of her eyes. "Marco needs medicine, not some weird goop you heard about from who knows where."

"It was Violet for the record and it's not poison if that's what you're worried about."

"It wasn't. I'm just saying we aren't giving Marco any strange liquids, poisonous or otherwise."

Janna let out a dejected sigh, grumbling, "Fine, have it your way."

The two stopped as they reached the door to Marco's room, Jackie raising a hand to knock, turning to Janna to say something. But whatever thought she had died on her lips as her hand hit the door frame, a cascade of tiny suns raining down around them through the cracks in the door. The skater let out a startled gasp, shuffling away from the door as quickly as she could, the two staring at the pile of orange shapes on the ground before sharing a concerned look.

"You don't think," Jackie began but Janna was quick to nod.

"Oh, I think," the beanie-wearing girl replied.

The skater bit her lip before slowly approaching the door again, grabbing firmly onto the doorknob, sucking in a deep breath in anticipation before pulling the door open. She stood behind the door, watching as a mountain of suns filled the hallway, Janna having to take a step back to avoid getting any on her. Once the sunspots seemed to have settled, the skater peeked around the door, looking into Marco's room with wide eyes. At least she would have if there wasn't another massive pile of sunspots blocking the entire entrance.

Jackie gave Janna a startled look, the teen just shrugging in response, silently conveying her own loss at what to do. The skater just held in a breath as she took a risky step closer to Marco's room, saying in a soft tone, "Marco. Are you in there?" Then, in an even greater risk, she slowly and steadily raised a hand and placed it on the sticky pile of sunspots, her body tensing up in fear.

For a few seconds, nothing happened and Jackie slowly began to relax, letting out a breath of relief, that was until she heard a voice say, "Starrrrr..."

And then in a flash, a hand emerged from the pile Jackie just barely managing to pull her own hand away in time to avoid getting grabbed. But the movement had been so quick and sudden that she stumbling back and into Janna, the two collapsing onto the floor in a heap. The two watched wide-eyed as a body slowly began to rise from within the mountain of sunspots, the new form of Marco now hovering in the air above them.

His skin had turned a light orange color, his hoodie now a bright, almost blinding, red, large clumps of red sunspots clearly seen decorating the soft cloth. His jeans were now orange, tinged with yellow at the ends and his shoes were bright red. His hair was flatter than usual, lacking its typical bounce or spikes, instead it all hung loosely over his eyes. It was also now red with streaks of yellow in it. His eyes were devoid of pupils, instead just two glowing white dots that matched the burning glow of his cheekmarks. His mole now stood out much more on his orange-tinted face, looking like the only thing that hadn't been transformed with the rest of him.

But the changes to his appearance didn't stop there, he was now also sporting an extra pair of arms that seemed to have ripped out from the sides of his hoodie, more red suns clinging to the soft skin, gleaming in the light of the hallway. And to top it off, he now had a pair of light red, almost translucent, wings that flapped lazily behind him, the same sun designs that dotted his arms and hoodie seen on them as well.

The two girls stared at their friend for a few seconds before Janna said in a deadpan, "Yep, it's Mewberty."

"Definitely Mewberty," the skater instantly agreed with a quick nod.

The two stood, walking slowly and steadily over to their floating friend, Jackie keeping her hands raised to show him she meant no harm. Marco, meanwhile, was too busy scanning the bright hallway to notice them, his glowing eyes in search of something, his wings fluttering behind him in almost anxiety. "Hey Marco," Jackie greeted softly and the boy's eyes flicked over to her, his head cocking to the side as he observed the two familiar forms. "That's right, it's just me and Janna. You remember us, right?"

The boy's head cocked to the other side. "You remember that we're your friends, don't you?" Jackie asked, smiling at the boy with her typical cool radiance.

The boy leaned a little closer, his face still blank, as he raised a hand and Jackie instinctively flinched but didn't dare take a step away. But she blinked in surprise as Marco began poking her speckled cheek with his finger. "Uh, Marco what are you doing?"

The boy simply smiled, recognition flashing across his features, as he droned out, "Frienndd."

"Yeah, Marco that's right, we're your friends," Jackie said in slight relief. This was going better than expected.

But suddenly, the boy's smile vanished as he droned out the word, "Sttttaaarrr."

"Uh Star's not here right now," Jackie said in a soft tone. "She went to that meeting with the Monsters, remember?"

"Staarrrr," the boy continued, his head flicking from left to right in search of his mate.

"Yeah, I don't think he remembers, Jacks," Janna spoke up.

"Okay Marco, we'll bring you Star, don't worry," Jackie reassured the hooded teen, before turning to Janna, speaking in a low whisper. "Jan, what is going on? How is he going through Mewberty right now?"

"Well when a Mewman reaches a certain age their body begins changing in many ways-" the creepy teen began in her typical sarcastic tone.

"I know why it's happening!" the skater hissed, glaring at her roommate. "I mean how come he didn't go through this sooner, Star's Mewberty was like three years ago."

Janna shrugged. "Star was an exception. Most Mewmans go through Mewberty at fourteen or fifteen," the girl explained.

Jackie let out a sigh, but didn't question it any further, returning her focus to the task at hand, as she said, "Okay well, firsts things first, we need to get Marco somewhere safe before something bad happens."

"Uhhh, yeah I think that's gonna be kinda a problem," Janna said, her eyes widening some.

"What? Why?" Jackie asked in confusion.

"Because he already flew away," the creepy teen deadpanned, Jackie turning on her heels only to see Marco was missing. But a loud shattering of glass a few seconds later alerted them to his new location farther down the hall. "Oh no," Jackie muttered before running after the boy, Janna close on her heels.

When they reached the next hall they quickly spotted Marco, who was zipping around the hallway clearly in search of something, picking up priceless vases from their mantels before tossing them unwanted to the floor, opening doors (sometimes even ripping them off their hinges if they were locked) and scanning the rooms before moving on to the next one. "What is he doing?" Jackie asked after a moment of watching their friend's odd behavior.

"I think he's still looking for Star," Janna said, though she looked slightly unnerved by the boy's actions.

At the mention of Star, Marco turned to face the two, his glowing orbs almost piercing through them as they jumped in surprise. "Starrrr?" the boy questioned, cocking his head to the side again.

"We already told you, Marco," Jackie began, keeping her voice low and quiet. "Star's not here right now, remember?"

"Staaaarrrrrrr," the boy muttered nervously, his wings flapping a bit irregularly than before, clearly growing agitated.

"But we can take you to her," Jackie continued, taking a risky step forward, holding out a hand to the boy. "Just trust us. Please."

Marco eyed the hand cautiously for a few seconds, making no move closer and the two girls held their breath in anticipation. Finally, the boy seemed to overcome his safety instincts and slowly reached out toward his friend's waiting palm and Jackie and Janna silently sighed in relief.

That was until a loud voice yelled out through the hallways, the clear voice of Skullnick barking orders to her knights drawing Marco's attention away from his friend and onto the new sound. Jackie could see a new decision flashing across her friend's neutral face and quickly said, "Marco, no. That's not Star. Don't-"

But her words fell of deaf ears as the boy took off down the hallway at an incredible speed, the burst of wind startling the girls as they were left blinking in shock for a few seconds, the boy vanishing from sight. "Whoa, wasn't expecting that," Janna commented.

"Come on, we gotta catch him!" Jackie exclaimed before chasing after the boy again, hoping he didn't get into too much trouble. If it was anything like Star's Mewberty than the entire castle could be at risk. Star had nearly destroyed the castle in her emotional and magical outburst, and Jackie remembered that as one of the most intense seven hours of her life as they all did their best to wait out her transformation. She had basically gone on a rampage, attacking anything she considered hostile, and the only reason they had calmed her down long enough to give her some medicine to weaken the effect was because they had used Oskar as bait to draw her out.

And even then it had taken several, long hours for her to turn back to normal. And Queen Moon had even said that sometimes Mewmans could go even longer depending on their magical level or emotional state. Meaning who knew how long Marco would be stuck this way. Jackie forced herself to push these thoughts aside for the moment, focusing all her energy and thought process into finding her friend. She could worry about the rest later.

Meanwhile, in another wing of the castle, the fully transformed Marco was still desperately searching for his missing mate, the sound of voices echoing, confusing the Mewman's fuzzy brain, putting him even more on edge. Marco, in his scared primal state, didn't quite understand what was happening to him, all he knew was his desire to find Star. Nothing else mattered. He needed Star. He had to find her. Find Star. Find Star. And with that single-minded goal in mind the boy pressed on, flying further and deeper into the castle, his glowing eyes constantly scanning his surroundings for both threats and for Star.

The boy paused though as he heard voices coming from within one of the rooms and Marco practically lunged for the door in his haste to open it, his brain momentarily convinced he had found his mate. But instead, he saw the forms of Daisy and Violet who sat around the former's tea table, both too engrossed in watching their pet snake devouring a ruby crystal to notice the boy. "Aww Edith's so cute when she eats," Violet commented.

"She'd be even cuter if you let me put that dress on her," Daisy replied.

"No way! Edith is too cool to wear pink," Violet argued.

"Then what about blue?" Daisy suggested hopefully, even holding up a tiny blue dress to show her twin.

Violet gagged. "Uh uh, not gonna happen."

Marco, the whole time this was going on, just floated there stunned before finally recovering enough to ask the question, "Stttaarrr?"

Neither twin even bothered to look up as Violet said with a quick wave, "Oh hey, Big Brother."

"Star's not here," Daisy added, never taking her eyes off of Edith as she pointed behind her. "You should check the meeting room. She's always in there."

Marco looked over in that direction, continuing to mutter, "Staarr." But he turned back to the girls for just a second as he added, "Thaannks."

"Yep, no problem, Big Brother," Violet said, doing a short wave goodbye.

"Good luck!" Daisy added just as the door slammed shut.

After a moment, Daisy looked up at her sister asking, "Did Big Brother seem weird to you?"

Violet shrugged. "Not really."

A few seconds later the door flew open again as a panting Jackie asked, "Have you girls seen Marco?"

"Yeah, he was headed to the meeting room," Daisy explained, pointing in that direction again.

"Okay thanks," Jackie replied with slight relief, but she added quickly, "Oh, and don't leave your room for a little while. It's not safe."

"Okay," Violet said, still distracted by Edith.

The door closed again and the two sisters shared a look. "What was that about?" Daisy asked.

"No idea," Violet replied. "Probably just some dumb grown-up stuff."

There was a pause before Daisy added, "What about a skirt?"

"We aren't playing dress-up with Edith!" Violet shouted.

…

Skullnick paced in front of the line of knights before her, staring each of them down with a hard, dissatisfied glare as she got ready to berate them as she had done many times before. The group was standing in the general's own personal war room as she called it when really it was more of a large office. "I can't believe you imbeciles!" she shouted, causing everyone present except Higgs to flinch. "How hard is it to find one stinking Monster?! You've had all this time to track him down and we are no closer to finding him than we were months ago! We are supposed to be the best of the best, but thanks to your incompetence we're now the laughingstock of Mewni!"

"Um, but ma'am nobody even knows about that-" one of the shaking knights began only to be immediately shot down as Skullnick snapped, "Well I know and I'm saying it's inexcusable!"

The knight whimpered before stuttering, "Y-Yes ma'am! S-So sorry, ma'am!"

"As far as I'm concerned the only one here with half a brain cell is Higgs!" Skullnick gesturing over to the girl who stood just a little bit taller, a smug look on her face as the general addressed her. "At least she has been pulling her weight around here, instead of slacking off!"

"Thank you general," the redhead replied, saluting her superior.

Jak and Dex who had stood silently on the sidelines this whole time, couldn't help but praise the girl's success, Jak shouting in support, "Whoo-hoo you go Higgs!" Both of the lowly guards began clapping and smiling goofily at the girl's success, but this only caused the young knight to flush, completely humiliated by her dad and his friend. But thankfully it didn't last long as one stern glare from Skullnick instantly stopped the two guards' celebration, dropping their hands and standing at attention.

"And you two, how many times do I have to tell you to stay at your post!" Skullnick screamed and the two cringed openly.

"But we just wanted to see-" Jak began, only for the general to point a viscous finger at the door, screaming, "Get going!"

The two jumped to fulfill the orders, running from the room as fast as they could, Higgs face-palming at her dad's stupidity, doing her best to ignore the judging stares from the other knights.

Jak and Dex both breathed a sigh of relief once out of the large office, both visibly shaken by the general's harsh attitude, leaning against the wall for support as their bodies shook with fear. "Man Skullsy gets scarier and scarier every day," Jak commented and Dex silently nodded.

"Come on, we should get going before she starts screaming at us again," Dex said, the two about to head down the hallway when a shadow fell over them and the two looked up startled only to scream in fright at what they saw. Jackie and Janna heard the terrified shrieks from farther down the hall and both shared concerned looks, not having to guess to know the source of those screams. Oh no, the two girls thought as one, quickening their pace.

Marco, meanwhile, just stared down at Jak and Dex curiously, watching as the two scrambled to get back into Skullnick's office, the two pushing each other out of the way as they both fumbled with the doorknob. Finally, the two managed to get the door open, rushing inside before slamming the door shut behind them.

Skullnick and the other knights all stared at them with a mixture of shock and annoyance, Higgs looking like she wanted the ground underneath her to open up and swallow her whole. None of them seemed even slightly concerned at the two men's panic, the troll general barking out, "What is it now?!"

The two stuttered out an explanation, pointing behind them as they tried to convey their frantic message but their words turned into a jumbled and indecipherable mess, which only seemed to humiliate Higgs more and more, the girl's face nearly redder than her hair color at this point. The general also seemed unamused with their pointless ramblings, rolling her eyes and snapping, "Jak! Dex!"

The two froze in place at the raised tone, turning to statues before Skullnick's eyes, completely petrified and afraid to so much as blink, and sensing her opening said, "Could one of you please explain to me why you interrupted my meeting... again!"

"It's a Code Purple ma'am!!" Jak managed to scream and the other knights all gasped in fright. Code Purple. That could only mean one thing. Mewberty.

"What? Who?" was all Skullnick managed to get out before the door to the room was pulled off the hinges, every knight staring in shock and disbelief as the transformed Marco flew into the large office, his eyes gazing around intently. "Marco?" Higgs whispered under her breath.

The boy looked around for a few seconds more before flying out of the room. There was a beat of silence before the knights all reacted, at once Skullnick shouting to her lackeys, "Code Purple! We have a Code Purple! Put the castle on lockdown! And secure the target! We have a fully-mutated Mewberty case here!"

The other knights all jumped into action after that, some running from the office to try and warn the other guards, while others headed after Marco, who seemed oblivious to the panicked atmosphere he was causing, still too busy searching for Star to care about anything else. Jackie and Janna finally caught up to their friend and seeing the knights chasing after him, they both quickly ran to his side, holding up their arms and blocking the knights off from getting any closer to Marco. "Wait, stop. Stay away from him!" Jackie screamed.

"We can't do that," Skullnick proclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Marco's in full Mewberty, he needs to be secured."

"But Marco's not going to hurt anyone, he's just confused," Jackie argued desperately, gesturing behind her to where the boy hovered, looking around at the Mewmans that now surrounded him in confusion. "We need to take him to Star." Marco's head snapped over to Jackie at the mention of his mate's name, his wings now fluttering eagerly.

But Skullnick didn't seem convinced, shaking her head and saying firmly, "No way! Orders are orders and I was told that any of the castle staff who suffer from Mewberty must be contained immediately."

"But he recognized me, he's not mindless like Star was," Jackie tried but her words now fell on deaf ears as Skullnick took a determined step closer, the other knights shuffling closer as well.

"Doesn't matter, that's a risk I'm not going to take," the general declared, her eyes digging into Jackie's skin. Her gaze darkened as she added, "Now stand aside so that I can do my job."

Jackie shook her head, saying with determination she didn't feel, "No way!"

"Then we'll have no choice but to place you both in temporary confinement," Skullnick replied snapping her fingers and signaling her men to move in, two knights sauntering purposefully over to the two girls.

Jackie looked desperately around for some help as the knights descended upon her and Janna, her eyes finally falling on Higgs, who had yet to move an inch, and she shouted, "Higgs, come on, tell them to stop! You know as well as I do that Marco wouldn't hurt anyone."

Higgs looked over at Skullnick than back to her friend and shrugged. "Yeah, I know but with Mewberty we can't take any chances."

Jackie let out a frustrated huff before one of the knights grabbed her arm and Jackie instantly struggled, trying to pull her arm free from the tight grip. "Hey, stop it!"

Another knight did the same to Janna, the half-Monster fighting back her instincts and forced herself to to be dragged away from Marco, shouting in her defense, "Knock it off! Let go!"

Marco watched numbly as the two strange men grabbed onto his friends' arms and instantly a powerful emotion overcame him, a burning rage and protective instinct flooding his chest. And as soon as his friends' struggles and desperate cries reached Marco's ears, the boy lashed out, thick webs of sunspots flying from his hands and striking the two men who held his friends against their wills. The two men cried out in surprise as they were yanked backward, away from his friends and flung across the room with one flick of Marco's wrist, the pair rolling to a painful stop a few feet away. They moaned in pain but Marco felt no regrets for the necessary action, his protective nature outweighing any guilt he might harbor at the moment.

The room had gone dead quiet at Marco's sudden action, the boy's instincts picking up on the dread that now lingered in the air but he paid it no mind, his glowing eyes instead moving to examine his friends, checking to be sure they were unharmed. He stared into their shocked and gawking faces for a second before concluding they were okay and turned to go back to his previous search for Star.

But the sudden movement set off one of the jittery and unnerved knights, the man suddenly springing into action by lunging toward the boy with a loud shout. Marco was startled to say the least as one of his legs was roughly grabbed by said knight and Marco's instincts took over again as he shot out more sticky webs, coating his attacker and gluing him to the floor, where he lay unmoving.

After that, it was pure chaos, suddenly all the knights swarmed Marco. The boy, frightened by the angry and loud crowd of strangers, began firing webs at them, desperately fluttering around in a desperate attempt to avoid getting hurt.

"Wait, stop!" Jackie screamed pointlessly to the knights. The skater turned to the general, who stood unflinchingly during all this chaos, and shouted, "Skullnick, please. You have to get them to stop! They're making it worse!"

"No can do! I told you Marco was a danger in this state," Skullnick argued, her mind already made up.

"Only because you guys are scaring him," Janna pointed out but this still didn't seem to sway Skullnick's resolve as she ignored the two taking a step forward and shouting orders to her men. Jackie and Janna let out frustrated groans watching as Marco continued plastering knights to the walls and floor. Suddenly a voice said beside them, "So now what are you gonna do." The two looked over to see Higgs observing the scene with a bored expression.

"Oh nice of you to actually listen to us," Janna commented bitterly.

Higgs shrugged. "Hey I can't ignore a direct order from the general." She smirked mischievously as she added, "But you can. So what's the plan?"

"Okay well, I guess our best bet is to get Marco out of the castle," Jackie replied thoughtfully.

"You really think that's gonna help?" Higgs asked with disbelief.

"Well it's better than him staying here," Jackie said, gesturing to the warzone taking place in front of them, a knight flying over them with a loud scream.

"Good point," Higgs agreed with a quick nod. "So how are you planning on doing that?"

Before Jackie could answer, Janna held up Star's devil-horned headband, saying in a smooth tone, "With this."

"Janna! Where did you get that? No, when did you get that?" Jackie asked in shock and slight concern.

"What? Star didn't need it today so I thought I'd bring it to Marco to cheer him up," Janna said with a shrug.

Higgs rolled her eyes, muttering, "Likely story."

Jackie wanted to comment further but knew she had more important things to worry about at the moment, letting the subject drop for now as she grabbed the headband from her friend's grip, her eyes slowly drifting over to the startled Marco.

Marco was afraid. He didn't like the way these strange people kept trying to grab him, tried to restrict his movement and keep him from Star. He especially didn't like that. He wanted to find Star but he couldn't do that if these strange people didn't stop attacking him. Were they trying to keep her from him? At that, anger pooled in Marco's chest and he held out all four hands, coating a new person in the webby substance. No one was keeping him from his Star.

Suddenly, Marco heard a shrill sound, like a whistle, and he turned to see the light-haired girl (Jackie, his inner voice corrected) holding up a headband. Star's headband. Marco felt a powerful emotion flow through him, all the fight leaving him at once as he stared at the sole reminder of his missing mate. "Hey Marco, look what I got," she said to him in a sing-song voice and Marco flew a little closer to her. He needed that. He needed it to find Star. "Starrrr..." the boy droned, hands reaching out to take the object.

Jackie smiled, glad to know her plan was working. "That's right, dude," she said encouragingly, stepping on her skateboard, checking to make sure the strap on her helmet was adjusted correctly. "You can have it, all you have to do is follow me." After that, she pushed off, skating smoothly down the hall.

Marco groaned in despair as the headband suddenly grew further away from him. He needed that. He chased after his friend without a second thought, his eyes never once leaving the sight of the red hairpiece.

Skullnick spotted the boy leaving, as well as Higgs and Janna chasing after, and quickly shouted, "Stop him! He can't get away!" But looking around she saw all her other knights were incapacitated, groaning in heaps on the floor, most unable to move due to the sticky sunspots that coated them. The general growled under her breath at her men's incompetence before her eyes landed on Jak and Dex who stood awkwardly on the sidelines. "You too!" Both guards jumped at being suddenly addressed. "We're going after Marco! Let's move!" With that Skullnick started stomping down the hallway but Jak and Dex hesitated, sharing concerned glances. But another shout from Skullnick got them moving. "I said 'Let's move!'"

"Y-Yes General S-Skullnick!" the two shouted in reply, running to try and catch up to the troll general's quick pace.

Farther down the hall, Jackie was doing her best to keep ahead of Marco but the boy was much faster than normal, even the speed on Jackie's prized skateboard no match for the boy's swift flying prowess. And his single-minded desire to get a hold of the headband was proving to be difficult to counter. Marco lunged, his hands reaching to snatch the headband out of Jackie's grip but the skater sensed the movement at the last second, holding her arm up at the last second and she shifted her position on the skateboard so that it would maneuver to the other side of the hall.

But this didn't halt Marco's efforts in the slightest, the boy reaching out a hand and shooting sticky webs at the headband, hoping to retrieve it that way. Again, Jackie managed to see the movement out of the corner of her eye and her feet instinctively shifted to the back of the board, the skater bending her knees and pressing down on the tail of the board with her back foot. The result was instant as her board left the ground, jumping over the string of webs, Jackie guiding the motion until the wheels met hard ground once more. After taking a second to recover from the jump Jackie took a risky glance back, only to see Marco was on her tail once more, his glowing pupils fixated on nothing but the headband.

The skater, shifted her attention back to what lay ahead only to nearly scream in surprise as she spotted Moon and River coming towards her, chatting happily, their attention too focused on one another to notice anything else. "Your Majesties, look out!" she screamed to them in warning.

The two royals looked over to her in surprise. "Jackie?" the queen said quizzically.

"Move out of the way, it's an emergency!" the skater replied, fear lodging into her throat.

"Moonpie, I think we might want to do as she says," River said as his eyes landed on Marco, grabbing his bewildered wife's arm and dragging her out of the way, just as Jackie sailed past them.

"What on Mewni-" Moon started to say in annoyance, only to gasp in fright as Marco flew past the pair. "Marco?" the queen muttered in disbelief.

"Sorry, I'll explain later," Jackie shouted back.

Moon was stunned as she watched the two disappear around the corner, turning to her husband with a look of pure disbelief. Suddenly though, Janna and Higgs ran past, the girls huffing and puffing as they struggled to catch up to their friend. "Janna! What is going on here?" the queen asked in a demanding tone.

"Mewberty," was all the two girls said before they too vanished around the corner.

"Hmm, well it would seem young Marco has finally reached the age of Mewberty," River commented.

"After them!" a booming voice cried and the royal couple once more looked down the opposite hall as Skullnick and two guards ran toward them, the guards looking close to collapsing from the swift jog. "Don't let them escape!"

"Yes ma'am!" the two guards replied tiredly.

"General Skullnick just what exactly is going on here?" Moon began but the general simply ran past her monarch, saying, "No time, I'll give you my report later!"

Moon could only gap in shock as the troll ignored her, opening her mouth to argue when Jak and Dex ran by, saying in a panted breath, "Queen Moon, King River."

River and Moon could only watch stunned as the final three in the cat-and-mouse chase through the castle vanished from sight, before sharing a look.

"My, my things certainly are exciting today, Moonpie," River said, a look of joy flashing across his face.

"Yes it would seem so," Moon said softly, before she came to a decision, starting after the group as she told her husband, "Come, River, we should make sure no one gets hurt."

"Oh, what fun!" River replied, happily, easily following after his wife. "A hunt through Butterfly Castle! Just like we used to do when we were teenagers!"

"River, I think you and I remember our teenage years very differently," Moon deadpanned.

"Oh come on, Moonpie," River responded immediately. "I remember when you went through Mewberty. Haha, you gave me a run for my money that day!"

Moon smiled softly at her husband. "I remember yours as well," the queen whispered, her tone almost flirty now. "I had to kiss you just to get you to stop."

River sighed at the memory. "Our first kiss," he muttered, getting teary-eyed at the wonderful memory of their youth.

…

Jackie nearly had Marco out of the castle now, the last obstacle in her way was the staircase, Jackie seeing her hurtle up ahead. But luckily, the skater girl already had the perfect way to get down. She once again, positioned her body for a jump, waiting until just the right second to make her board airborne, quickly turning the board to its side in mid-air, before it landed with a loud screech on the stair railing. Jackie glided smoothly down the stair rail, looking behind her to see Marco had stopped. Even with his pupil-less eyes, the skater could still tell her friend was in awe at the stunt. Jackie smiled, before facing forward, needing to be ready to stick the landing.

Marco shook his head, his fuzzy brain pushing aside all thoughts except Star's headband, before descending after the girl, flying easily over the staircase. Jackie finally reached the bottom of the stairs, maneuvering her body at the last second so that her board was now facing forward, just barely missing getting hit with more of Marco's sticky webs.

The girl saw the doors to the castle were closed tight and cupped a hand over her mouth, shouting to the two guards, "Hey, open up! It's an emergency!"

The two guards lazily caught her eye, one of them saying harshly, "Yeah right, Skullnick ordered the castle on lockdown and we ain't openin' these doors up for nobody!"

"Well if you don't then you'll have to deal with that," Jackie replied, pointing behind her to the fast-approaching Marco, determination fueling his movements his glowing eyes flashing sinisterly.

The two guards shared a nervous look, before throwing open the doors to the castle, Jackie skating past them and Marco zooming by a second later. The moment Jackie was outside she threw the headband at her friend, the boy snatching it up out of mid-air, hugging the object to his chest and purring loudly. Jackie brought her skateboard to a stop, pulling off her helmet as she watched her friend fawning over the object and couldn't help but grin at the boy's cuteness. Even in this state, he was still Marco.

Higgs and Janna showed up a few seconds later, breathing heavily as they too just studied their lovestruck friend, still purring like a cat as he rubbed his cheek against the headband. "Okay, well that is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen," Higgs commented.

Janna just scoffed, nonchalantly telling the young knight, "If you think that's strange you haven't been around us for nearly long enough."

Higgs decided it best to ignore that, instead turning to Jackie and asking, "So we got him outside, now what?" The group made sure to keep a close eye on Marco out of the corner of her eye even as they talked.

"Now we call Star," Jackie said, pulling out her phone. "She'll know what to do from here."

"There he is!" Skullnick's booming voice interrupted the moment, as she, Jak, and Dex came charging out of the castle, now carrying thick lengths of rope. Marco, recognizing the voice even in his primal state, started to panic, fluttering in nervous circles, his eyes looking around for an escape and his hands clenching the headband just a little tighter against his chest.

The three girls noticed this and Jackie shouted to the general, "Skullnick, stop! You're scaring him!"

But the general ignored the girls, instead throwing the rope she had fashioned into a lasso at the unsuspecting boy. The length of rope caught on one of his hands and the boy instinctively began fighting against it, making terrified groans and unintelligible pleas as he fought to free his appendage. "Got you now!" Skullnick roared in victory, giving a sharp tug, which pulled the boy closer to her and Marco dropped the headband in his fright. But with his hands both free, he held them out shooting sunspots as the general's body but the troll expertly jumped out of the way, before giving another tug on the rope. "Jak! Dex! Restrain the rest of his arms!" Skullnick cried to her two comrades.

"Yes General Skullnick!" they shouted, before lassoing the boy's other hands, only one now left free. Marco at this point was in a state of pure panic, fighting against the ropes with every fiber of his being, flying back in forth in hopes of dislodging them while the general pulled him in, inch by inch.

"Dad, what are you doing?!" Higgs screamed at Dex.

"Oh hey, honey!" Dex said, shooting his daughter with one of his goofy smiles. "Don't worry, we've got everything under control!"

"That's not what I mean!" Higgs retorted in a vicious shout.

"Please, General Skullnick, you need to let Marco go!" Jackie screamed, watching as her friend panicked more and more. Who knew what he would do if Skullnick pushed him much further and Jackie would really rather not find out.

The general firmly shook her head saying, "No way! I've got this!"

"Higgs do something," Janna said to the young knight who shot her an annoyed glare.

"Like what? Attack the general and my dad?" Higgs snapped.

"Uh or try and talk some sense into them," Janna shot back.

"General, please, I think we should call Star," Jackie tried.

But Skullnick stayed as stubborn as ever, letting out an over-the-top sigh before saying sharply, "For the last time, we don't need Star! I've got everything under control!"

"What is going on out here?!" Moon exclaimed the second she and River stepped outside, taking in the scene before them.

"Queen Moon," Jak and Dex said as one, their attention snapping away from their target and onto the monarch and their hands for just a second slipping on the ropes.

"No, you idiots!" Skullnick shouted to them in frustration. "Don't-"

But it was too late, the minor slip-up was all Marco needed as he pulled his arms free of the heavy ropes, shooting two streams of webs at the unsuspecting guards, coating them and pinning them to the ground in half a second. The boy then grabbed onto the end of the remaining rope with all three hands and pulled on it with all his might, his wings straining as he lifted Skullnick off the ground. Everyone watched in disbelief as the puny and delicate form of Marco flung the tough, muscled form of Skullnick over his head like a ragdoll. The troll general could only screamed as her weightless body soared through the air, before crashing hard to the ground.

Jackie, Janna, Higgs, Moon, and River gaped openly at the sight of the general slowly rising to her hands and knees, groaning in pain. But the skater's attention returned to Marco as she saw his gaze shift off into the distant woods, his wings fluttering as he seemed ready to take off. Jackie, ran toward him in a panic, shouting, "Marco wai-" But the boy was gone in a burst of speed, the sudden rush of air, knocking Jackie back and kicking dirt up into her eyes and the skater had no choice but to stand there and shield her face with her hands.

Finally, once the wind had died down enough, she could only stare helplessly at Marco, who was now no more than a red dot in the distance. Defeat filled Jackie's chest as she just stared longingly toward her friend, helpless to reach him in his time of need, her entire being shaking with worry for her confused, frightened friend. She was so lost in despair she didn't even notice that the general was now standing next to her, also looking off in the direction Marco had vanished. After a few seconds, Skullnick finally let out a deep sigh, before admitting bitterly, "Okay fine. Call Star."

…

Star smiled as she sat amongst the group of Monster leaders, listening to them freely voicing their opinions on the problems they had been facing. The meeting was going really well and Star felt they had made some significant progress into building a trusting relationship with their Monster allies. At first, it had been awkward and uncomfortable, none of the Monsters willing to say a word in the presence of the future ruler of Mewni but, luckily, Butch had been the one to get the ball rolling, freely discussing the positive change he had seen in the attitude for Hydra's Point since Star and her friend had helped. This had been enough to get the Monsters to slowly open up to her, the blond royal making sure to give them all positive and encouraging smiles whenever they did so, until the whole group was chatting happily. The plan was going perfectly, Star easily winning the Monsters to her side even without the aide of Marco.

At the thought of Marco, Star bit her lip, her fingers itching to pull her phone out of her purse. She really wanted to call and check up on him but she also didn't want to risk waking him from some much-needed sleep. Maybe she should call Jackie instead? Or text the doctor again to see if he was ready to see Marco yet. Or maybe she was just being too overprotective, Marco was fine, it was just the chickenpox. Star tried to relax but her mind felt like it was running a million miles an hour, her heart hammering away in her chest. What was going on?

Then with stark realization, Star's eyes widened as it finally hit her, her heart wasn't what was racing. It was Marco's. She was feeling Marco's heartbeat in her chest and it would seem he was panicking over something. Then Star felt a creeping, unfamiliar fear and longing jump up her spine and Star could resist it no longer, she stood up and quickly excused herself, moving away from the group as she pulled out her phone, ready to call and check up on boyfriend. But before Star could do so, her phone rang, the word "Jackie" appearing on the screen and Star swallowed thickly as she put the phone up to her ear. "Hey, Jacks, what's up?" Star asked, trying to keep her voice calm despite the anxiety she could still feel bubbling up in her chest.

"Star, we have a problem!" Jackie exclaimed, Star nearly flinching at the change in her friends' normally calm, laid back tone. She sounded stressed. If Star was nervous before, she was downright terrified now. What on Mewni could cause the levelheaded Jackie to freak out?

"Why? What's going on? Is Marco okay?" Star asked, worriedly, now holding the mirror phone in a death grip.

"We were wrong, Star," Jackie replied, her voice nearly quivering. "It's not the chickenpox. It's Mewberty."

Star froze up at the word, staring unblinkingly ahead as her mind fought to process that. "What?!" Star exclaimed, not caring as every single Monster was now looking in her direction with befuddled frowns. "Mewberty! A-Are you sure?" the girl asked, a tight knot forming in her stomach. That couldn't be good. No wonder Marco was so scared, he probably had no idea what was happening to him and Star instantly began beating herself up for leaving Marco alone.

"Yeah, pretty sure," Jackie said and Star could tell she was cringing. "And there's another thing."

"What is it?" Star asked, her own voice now shaking with worry and guilt. What more could possibly be wrong?

"I did my best but he got scared and flew off," Jackie replied hesitantly. She paused before adding, "We have no idea where he is."

Star felt her heart come to a crashing halt and she muttered into the phone in a remarkably calm voice, "I'm coming back."

…

Star ran all the way through town, not stopping for anyone or anything, ignoring the friendly smiles and waves of the townsfolk, her thoughts only on Marco. And thanks to the stupid anti-portal generators she had plenty of time to do so. How had she not thought of this sooner? Of course, Marco would be going through Mewberty, he was fourteen after all, the proper age for such things. Sure hers had been a few years early but Marco's was happening right on time. They should have been prepared for something like this happening. Got him some pills to help dull the effect or even just talk to him about it, knowing Marco he probably didn't even know what Mewberty was.

It hasn't even occurred to Star when Marco had said he was sick, hadn't even crossed her mind that his overly clingy nature that morning was a result of Mewberty. Marco was just always so innocent and naïve that it was hard to imagine him going through such a thing. But he was still a teenager and it seemed his body was changing to try and deal with his magical and emotional growth just like everyone else's. She should have stayed with him, canceled the meeting and stayed by her friend's side maybe then Marco wouldn't be missing.

After what felt like a lifetime Star finally reached Butterfly Castle, the gates for once opened wide, probably in anticipation for her. The moment she entered the courtyard though, the blond royal froze in her tracks, doing a double-take. There were tiny sunspots scattered everywhere, littering the ground and even places where clumps of them stuck to the ground. But what really caught her off guard was the large crater in the ground, a massive crack no doubt caused by someone and she felt boiling anger in fear that it had been her poor, fragile Marco who had taken the impact. And if that hadn't been enough than her keen eyes didn't miss the ropes laying in the middle of the courtyard either, and her fury doubled. It was clear what had happened, they had been trying to tie up her boyfriend!

No one had noticed her presence just yet, Jackie pacing while Higgs and Janna just sat on the ground, staring off into space, lost in their own thoughts. Jak and Dex stood at attention around them, sad and sorry look on their faces, and Star noticed the clumps of the sunspots stuck to random parts of their body. Her mom and dad stood worriedly off to the side, Skullnick standing rigidly next to them, showing zero emotion, though her tightly clenched fists told a different story.

Jackie suddenly noticed Star and shouted her name, running over to greet her, Janna, Higgs, Jak, and Dex right behind her, with even Star's parents and Skullnick trailing behind. The moment Jackie was in range, she threw her arms around Star in a relieved hug, saying, "Thank goodness you're back!"

Despite the intense situation and worry she was feeling, Star returned the hug wholeheartedly, giving the skater a reassuring squeeze, needing this comfort just as much as her friend did. "I'm here, everything's going to be okay now," she told her friend, Star's voice confident and strong, despite feeling the opposite and she silently thanked her years of royalty training.

"I'm so sorry, I tried to keep him here but-"

"It's fine Jackie, I know you did your best," Star said in reassurance. "We'll get him back."

As the two pulled out of the hug, Star, not wanting to waste so much as a second, asked, "Okay but first things first, tell me what happened? Why'd Marco run off?"

"Well for starters, Skullnick and the other knights attacked him and kept trying to capture him," Jackie explained quickly, uncharacteristic bitterness in her tone.

Star gasped, before turning to glare in the general's direction, the other girls doing the same. "I thought so! You attacked Marco!" she hissed, staring daggers into Skullnick's soul.

Jak and Dex both hung their heads in shame, looking embarrassingly at the ground, but Skullnick showed no signs of regret, instead stating stubbornly, "It's my job to keep the castle safe! I was just following orders!"

"Who told you it was okay to attack Marco?!" Star shouted, her body practically shaking with mirth.

"Actually Star, I'm afraid Skullnick isn't to blame, your father and I are the ones at fault here," Moon admitted.

"Your mother's right, we were the ones who gave the general permission to act in such a way I'm sad to say," River muttered, a guilty frown on his face as he slowly stroked his beard.

Star stared at her mom and dad in shock, saying with disbelief and surprise, "Mom! Dad! How could you?"

"It wasn't our intention for things to go this far," Moon explained, giving her daughter an apologetic gaze. "But after your Mewberty transformation, we realized we needed more appropriate safety measures to protect the castle. With so many of your orphan friends staying in the castle at the time we had to make sure what happened with you didn't happen again."

Star was blushing bright red at this point, fighting the urge to hide her face in shame of her actions all those years ago. She had done a number on the castle and the staff with her wildly out-of-control magic and as much as Star hated to admit it, she understood their reasoning. But that didn't mean she had to like it. "Well was trying to tie Marco up still necessary?" Star questioned, gesturing over to the pile of discarded rope laying off to the side.

"I agree, Star, that was a bit excessive if you ask me," River spoke up.

"Yes, I'm afraid maybe the general got a bit carried away with our orders," Moon agreed, shooting Skullnick a sideways glare. “Which we will be discussing at length later.”

Skullnick realizing she was being accused quickly jumped on the defensive, exclaiming, "Your Majesty I had too! Marco was dangerous in that state! He attacked me and my men!"

"Only because you scared him!" Jackie shouted. "I told you he wasn't dangerous but you didn't listen to me."

"Hey I don't need some kid telling me how to do my job," Skullnick barked back.

"Well if you had listened to us in the first place Marco wouldn't be missing right now!"

"Or maybe if Higgs had actually done something to help instead of just standing there," Janna muttered, burying her hands into her pockets and the young redhead whipped her head around to glare at the creepy teen.

"Hey, I didn't see you jumping in to stop them!" Higgs argued loudly. "This is just as much your fault as it is anyone else's!" The girl crossed her arms before adding bitterly, "But given your track record that isn't surprising."

"Well I'm not the highly trained knight here," Janna pointed out, her voice calm but her tone full of repressed anger. "What's your excuse?"

"We're so sorry Princess Star!" Jak suddenly shouted, tears streaming down his and his partner's face. "It's all our fault!"

"If we hadn't gotten distracted Marco wouldn't have left!" Dex sobbed, burying his head into his hands to cry.

Star just stared numbly as everyone around her continued to loudly argue or apologize, their voices blending together until they were an incoherent mess. The blond covered her ears as the noise grew unbearable, making it impossible for Star to even think, and the rapid heartbeat drumming against her chest made her more and more flustered. Until finally, Star could take no more and she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Enough!"

Everyone froze, staring at the blond in disbelief. "I don't care what happened or who's responsible for what! All I care about is finding Marco and I can't do that if you're all too busy fighting! And unless you have a way to track Marco than I don't want to hear it!" Star screamed, staring long and hard at each person before her, making sure they would stay quiet. The blond royal took in a deep breath, before saying a bit more calmly, "So, now then, can we please just focus on what's important, we can deal with all the rest latee."

Everyone nodded slowly, Star's parents staring proudly at their daughter for taking charge like that, and the blond smiled confidently. "Good. So then, any ideas?"

"Actually I think I already know a way," Janna spoke up, a smug smile on her face, her hands buried in her pockets.

"Well then let's hear it," Star said, nodding her head in acknowledgment.

That seemed to be all the creepy teen needed as she suddenly out a small black device, saying, "I just so happen to have a way to track our dear Marco down, ready to go."

"Seriously, how?" Star exclaimed, grabbing the device out of her friend's hand. Her heart leapt for joy as she saw a red dot with the name 'Marco' dispalyed above it, feeling infinitly better knowing where her friend was at.

"Easy, I just put a tracking device on him, no big," the creepy teen admitted with a shrug.

"Wait, you bugged Marco?" Jackie said in a scolding tone.

"Uh yeah, I have one on all of you for just such an occasion," Janna replied like it was no big deal.

"What?!" Jackie screamed.

"We'll deal with that later, right now let's get Marco back," Star said, already heading in the direction the device was telling her, only to be cut off by Higgs.

"Wait, you're actually going to go with Janna on this?" Higgs said skeptically, jabbing a thumb in the creepy teen's direction. "She just admitted to bugging you! How do you even know you can trust her?"

"Because she's my friend and because nobody else has any better ideas," Star replied calmly. "But if you don't think it's safe than your welcome to stay behind," the blond added, before pushing past the girl, her eyes now on the screen and her Marco's location.

"Ugh, okay fine!" Higgs shouted in annoyance. "But I'm keeping my eye on you." She stabbed the creepy teen once in the chest, who simply smiled smugly in reply. "Fine by me."

"I'll come with you, in case you need back-up," Skullnick started to stay, only for Star to turn to her with a glare.

"I think you've helped enough," Star bitterly snapped.

The general didn't know what to say to that, though the look of anger in her eyes was clear. Seeing this, Moon told the troll, "I agree with Star, General Skullnick. I think it would be best if you stayed behind. Otherwise, you might end up frightening Marco again."

Skullnick looked like she wanted to argue with that, before sighing in defeat, crossing her arms and saying, "Fine but if you need help, don't hesitate to call."

"I think we'll be fine," Jackie responded, sharing a look with Star, who nodded.

The blond turned her attention onto her parents as she asked, "Hey can you guys do me a favor and call Buff Frog? Let him know what's happening. Something tells me Marco forgot to do that."

"Well he was a little distracted," Janna said jokingly.

"Of course, Star," Moon said, giving her daughter a loving smile. "Be careful, Mewberty is unpredictable."

"I will, mom," Star replied with a nod. "But I doubt Marco's going to try and hurt me."

"I do too, but you can never be too careful," Moon agreed.

"If need be just stare into his eyes to break his spirit," River suggested.

Star gave her dad a quizzical look before saying hesitantly, "Uh right. I'll... keep that in mind, dad."

"Good, that's my girl," River said, a proud smile on his face.

The group started off for the woods when something latched onto to Star's ankle and she turned to see Jak and Dex clinging to her leg, sad looks on their faces, their eyes pouring tears, as they stared up at her. "Please takes us with you!" Dex begged brokenly.

"We just want to make it up to Marco for acting like total jerks!" Jak added, sobbing loudly.

"Ugh, dad would you please get off the floor?" Higgs muttered in embarrassment, burying her face in her hands.

Star gave the two guards sympathetic looks, seeing that their hearts were genuine, before saying, "You know what, sure. You can come."

"Yes!" the two shouted, while Higgs screamed, "No!"

"Oh thank you, princess! Thank you!" Jak said hugging the blond royal tightly. "We promise we won't be in the way!"

"Hear that sweetie, it's our first mission together!" Dex proclaimed, hugging his daughter, who immediately struggled to get free.

"Yeah, I heard dad," the redhead replied. "Now please stop embarrassing me!"

Star and the others hid their smiles at the father-daughter moment before the blond loudly cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention. She waited until all eyes fell on her (Dex never once loosening his grip on Higgs as he turned in the princess's direction) before she smiled confidently, saying in a firm, determined tone, "Come on, guys! Let's go bring back Marco!"

…

Star led the group as they trudged through the thick vegetation of the Forest of Certain Death, the blond never taking her eyes off the tracker pad in her hands. She stared at the object intensely, watching the small dot for any changes in position even to the slightest degree, her knuckles white as she held the device in an iron grip. She was terrified for her boyfriend, though the second heartbeat had soothed some, not beating nearly as hard and fast, the fact that she could still feel it meant that he had to be in some form of distress, which caused her own heart to race in response. She had to find him and quick, for his safety and her own sanity. She wasn't sure how much longer she could wait. Luckily, it didn't look like she'd have to, the dot nearing more and more with every step.

Star sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, before turning to the others and saying, "Okay guys, we're getting close. Marco should be just up ahead."

"Ugh, thank goodness," Higgs replied with a roll of her eyes. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."

"We haven't been walking that long Higgs," Jackie pointed out, giving the redhead a confused look.

"I'm not talking about the walking," the young knight mumbled. "I'm talking about that!" The redhead pointed a finger in the direction of her father, who was smiling ear to ear and humming a tune, Jak doing the same beside him.

"Isn't this so exciting Higgs?!" Dex exclaimed, hugging his daughter from behind. "I mean the two of us on a mission with Princess Star! How cool is that?!"

"This is no time for goofing off, dad!" Higgs said, pulling out of her dad's grip. "Marco is in danger, remember?"

"Oh of course I do," Dex said immediately, still as gleeful as ever, not even his daughter's sharp tone or gaze enough to lessen his spirits. "And once everyone hears how Jak and I helped rescue the princess's boyfriend, they'll be so impressed!"

"We might even get a parade in our honor," Jak spoke up, staring dreamily off into the distance.

"Yeah, the king and queen might even knight you," Janna added nonchalantly.

The two guards gasped, but Higgs just shot the creepy teen a glare. "Don't encourage them," she hissed, but Janna just smiled smugly and shrugged. "What?" she asked innocently, causing the redhead's glare to only increase in intensity.

"You really think that could happen?" Jak asked the creepy teen, hopefully.

"You never know," Janna replied calmly. "Heck, Star's a princess, she could make you knights just like that." The girl snapped her fingers for emphasis.

"Do you hear that Higgs?!" Dex shouted excitedly over to his daughter. "We could be knights! Just like you and your mom!"

"Yeah, I heard," the young knight grumbled bitterly.

"Uh Janna I don't think that's something Star can do," Jackie pointed out to her friend.

"She's a princess, Jacks, she can do whatever she wants," Janna replied, patting her friend on the shoulder.

"That doesn't mean she's going to," Jackie deadpanned.

"Guys!" Star suddenly called from up ahead, everyone immediately returning their focus to their leader, who was giving them a look that was a mix between shock and concern, her hand parting a large bush that blocked the rest off from whatever sight had caught her eye. "You're gonna wanna see this," she muttered breathlessly.

The group quickly ran over to join the princess, peeling back the shrubbery so they too could see whatever it was that had caught the princess so off-guard. Everyone gasped in disbelief, no one prepared for the breathtaking sight that lay before them. A large orange structure stood in the middle of the forest, its bright colors making a stark contrast to the dark greens and shadows of the rest of the woods. The thing almost resembling a house of some sort, but it was in the shape of a deformed, lopsided heart. It had to be at least two stories tall and just looking at it almost hurt, Star and the others having to shield their eyes to avoid going blind. The blond royal could see the whole thing was made of thousands of tiny sun shapes, crudely and almost haphazardly stuck together, a gust of wind causing the sunspots to scatter all around the clearing. Spots of red dotted the mostly orange structure and Star's heart pounded at the perfect match to her boyfriend's cheekmarks. "Marco," she breathed, her eyes shining in wonder.

"Whoooaaa" Janna muttered, for once in her life rendered completely speechless.

"Did Marco do all that?" Jackie asked, looking equally as flabbergasted as her roommate.

"I think he did," Star replied, though she sounded like she didn't believe what she was seeing.

The three girls entered through the bushes, Jak, Dex, and Higgs doing the same a second later, all of them staring up at the structure completely dumbstruck. "So is Marco in there?" Jak suddenly asked.

Dex and Higgs face-palmed. "Yes, Jak, I think that's a pretty safe bet," Higgs stated, while sarcastically rolling her eyes.

"What is this, anyways?" Jackie asked, still staring up at the structure in disbelief.

"It's a nest," Janna explained, finally recovering enough from her shock to hide her own bewilderment behind a calm facade. "Mewmans in Mewberty will sometimes make them when they feel threatened."

"Aw, poor Marco," Star whispered to herself, her face now drooping with sadness.

"But why is it so big?" Jackie questioned.

Janna shrugged. "The body produces sticky spots in reaction to emotional states. The more out of control your emotions are, the more spots are made."

"Wow, Marco must be a really emotional kid then," Dex commented.

"You have no idea," Higgs responded with a shake of her head.

"We gotta find him and fast," Star said, out of nowhere, her voice tight with worry. "Before he gets any worse." With that Star headed for the entrance inside, the others following after her, though much more hesitantly.

Inside Marco's nest, it was almost pitch black, the sunspots completely blocking out the sun's rays, leaving everything within covered in inky shadows. Jak and Dex seemed unnerved by this, clinging to each other and casting longing glances back at the entrance but Star was undeterred, merely holding up her wand and using it to light the area around her. "Marco!" Star called out, as she gazed around for any sign of her boyfriend. "Marco are you in here?!"

Silence was the only reply Star received and after an uncomfortable few seconds, Jak quickly said, "Whelp, he's not here! Let's try somewhere else!"

The inexperienced guard turned to leave, only to be cut off by Higgs, who said in a scolding tone, "No way! You two promised to help Star find Marco and I'm not letting you get out of it that easily!"

"But what if he's not here," Jak suggested, his voice shaking in obvious fear. "Maybe this is another Mewman's emotional nest."

"Well, the tracker pad says he's in here," Star pointed out and the guard gulped, his face turning paler by the second.

"Oh right, forgot about that," the guard muttered quietly under his breath as the rest of the group continued deeper into the cave, only Jak's partner staying behind.

"Relax, Jak, it's just Marco," Dex reassured him, before following after the others, Jak reluctantly doing the same, thinking about the future parade that would be thrown in his honor as a distraction from his current predicament.

As the group continued deeper into the large structure, the random sounds of rustling could be heard all around them, completely unnerving the party, all except Star who stared forward with unwavering courage. Jackie clung close to her royal friend, practically stepping on her heels, while the other two girls did their best to hide their own fears, almost shoulder to shoulder, all previous antagonisms forgotten as they pressed on through the dark nest. Jak and Dex, however, were very obviously terrified, shaking in their boots and jumping at every noise they heard, looking ready to dart outside at any second. But to their credit, the guards stayed with the group of girls, forcing themselves to follow along deeper inside.

Star tried to reach him with their bond, honing in on his feelings, reaching through their sacred connection in an attempt to pinpoint his location in the darkness around her. It was a long shot, she knew, but she had to try. But it seemed it was a dead end, she couldn't feel him at all, the boy had hidden himself deep in his self-made nest.

There was another loud shuffling, before a pile of sunspots fell in the path in front of them, causing Jackie to scream in surprise, gripping Star's shoulders tightly for support and comfort. Star didn't even register the jump scare though, cause her ears had just picked up on a very small and subtle voice in the tunnel up ahead. One she would recognize anywhere, even in the weird tone her Marco was clearly speaking in.

"Starrrr."

"I hear him!" Star shouted in joy, her eyes lighting up with relief and warmth. She turned back to the group, telling them all quickly, "He's up ahead, come on!" The blond didn't wait for the others as she ran forward through the dark, hurrying over to her friend in need. She heard the others call out to her but ultimately ignored them, her only thoughts on Marco. As she drew closer, she could feel a warmth in her chest, his heartbeat heating up, as if guiding her right to him. She could see a light up ahead and in a matter of seconds, she was in the very heart of Marco's giant nest. Star had to shield her eyes from the sudden sunlight peering in through a large opening at the top of the structure, the blond blinking as her eyes struggled to adjust. The whole area was glowing due to the rays of light bouncing off their shimmery surface, warm colors of red and orange made the place feel safe and secure and Star was awestruck by it's unexpected beauty.

However, something else caught Star's eye, one that made her heart pound in delight and surprise and her cheeks flush as red as the room around her. All around the center of the nest were crudely-shaped hearts just like the shape of the nest itself, all of them made with bright red suns and molded by hand. And the longer Star looked at them, the more she realized that they were supposed to be her cheekmarks, and she pressed a hand to her warm cheek, completely speechless but flattered none the less.

As Star's shimmering blue gaze panned across the room, looking at each of the pretty hand-crafted hearts, her eyes froze on the form of Marco, his bright red hoodie blending in perfectly with the rest of the room, camouflaging him well. His back was to her, his hands fiddling with something (probably making another heart shape) and had clearly yet to notice her there, but Star didn't care. She was just thrilled to have found her bestie and she called out to him, "Marco!"

The boy flinched, his wings fluttering in alarm as he quickly turned around to see the intruder to his sanctuary. Star was taken aback by Marco's Mewberty form for a few seconds but immediately bypassed that at the sheer joy of seeing her Marco again and she took a step closer to him. "Marco, it's really you! I'm so glad I found you! I was so worried!"

Marco stared blankly down at his beautiful mate for a few seconds, before a smile slowly formed on his face and he muttered in a delighted tone, "Starrrr!"

Star squeaked as Marco crashed into her form, pulling her into an extra tight hug, all four of his limbs wrapping around her and bringing him closer to her, his translucent wings fluttering happily behind him. The blond royal laughed and hugged her Marco back, saying sweetly, "Its good to see you too, Marco!" The boy's grip on her remained as tight as ever as he held her against him to an almost painful degree as if he was afraid if he let her go she would disappear on him forever and Star felt a lump form in her throat for worrying him so much.

Star was about to voice this apology when Marco let out an unexpected hiss, moving the two of them a little farther back. The blond was confused by this action until she heard the voice of Jak call, "Oh hey, Star. You found him!" Star turned her head as best she could still being held in Marco's protective grip, spotting the others standing in the doorway, grinning in relief.

The group took a step closer and the reaction from Marco was instant, his two extra limbs leaving Star's sides and raised so they were aimed and level with the intruders of his nest. Jackie and the others took a fearful step back seeing their friend ready to attack them but Star did her best to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand, letting out a gentle shhh and saying in the softest tone she could, "Marco, it's okay, they aren't going to hurt you."

The boy wasn't convinced, his pupil-less eyes steadying on Jak and Dex, watching them closely for any sudden movements, his fuzzy brain remembering the discomfort and fear at having his limbs restricted by the two and the loud, angry one. He didn't want them anywhere near him and especially Star. "Baadd," he hissed in a low tone so that only Star could hear.

"I know," Star said sympathetically. "They scared you earlier but they're sorry about that." She turned to Jak and Dex and said in a hinting tone, "Aren't you, guys?"

The two nodded quickly, trying to hide their anxious faces as Dex told the boy, "Yeah, we're really sorry, Marco. We didn't mean to scare you."

"We shouldn't have listened to Skullnick," Jak blurted out.

"We won't ever do it again, promise," Dex finished, flashing the boy what he hoped was a non-threatening smile.

"See, Marco, they're our friends," Star said as she turned back to the boy, keeping her voice light and cheerful. "They aren't going to hurt you. Everything's okay, you can relax now."

Marco's arms slowly lowered to his sides, no longer on the defensive and ready to attack anything that moves, and Star took that as a positive sign to continue. "See. There's nothing to worry about. You're safe now." The boy said nothing, but as his glowing orbs turned to face her, no words were needed, his eyes speaking to Star in a way only she could understand, reading her Marco's expression easily.

She gestured for the others to come closer, saying softly, "Okay guys, it's safe, you can come over."

The group seemed apprehensive at first, but it was Jackie who broke the uncomfortable tension, walking slowly over to the two, keeping an eye on Marco for any changes in his demeanor as she did so. Once she was finally beside her two friends, she smiled at Marco, saying in a gentle tone, "Hey dude, you doing okay?"

Marco cocked his head to the side, before reaching up with one of his free arms and poking her cheek. "Friend," he replied vaguely.

Jackie just rubbed her cheek and said calmly, "Yep, that's right, we're friends." Inwardly though, she was more confused why Mewberty Marco kept poking her. Seriously what was that about?

Marco turned his attention next to Janna, saying in a more friendly tone, "Friend."

"Yep, that's right bud," Janna replied, burying her hands in her pockets. "Glad to see you didn't get eaten by anything."

Marco looked over to Higgs, Jak, and Dex, who were all watching him wearily, the young redhead's body tensed and ready for anything. There were a few seconds of silence that was nearly unbearable to the group, Jak and Dex sweating profusely out of fear of what Marco might do to them, but when Marco did finally speak it was in the same pleasant tone as earlier. "Friends."

The group let out a simultaneous breath of relief, Dex saying, "Uh-huh, that's right, Marco. We won't ever scare you like that again, promise."

Marco nodded slowly and Star, seeing all that was finally settled, seized the opportunity to continue with her earlier conversation, turning to the others and telling them, "Can you give us a minute?"

The group nodded, before moving to the other side of the room to give the two lovebirds their space, making sure to keep their backs to them. Once they were (relatively) alone, Star pushed Marco out of their hug, and instead intertwined her hands with his, looking up into his eyes since he was still hovering a few inches off the ground. "Marco I just wanted to say that I'm really, really sorry."

Marco cocked his head to the side but allowed his mate to continue her apology. "I shouldn't have left you. If I hadn't then you wouldn't have gotten so scared or acted the way you did. And I know what you're thinking, 'Well you had no way of knowing.' But that doesn't matter. You didn't want me to go, did you? You spent all that time looking for me and I didn't even realize how badly you wanted me to stay. You were just being the same selfless boy you always are, giving up the things you want for others. And I should have known that. So I'm sorry."

Once the blond was finally done, the two stared at each other for a few seconds, Star's eyes shining with guilt and remorse, Marco's just devoid of emotion. "Can you ever forgive me?" Star asked softly, feeling her heart clench at the brokenness in her own tone.

Marco's reaction to that was almost instant, as he suddenly began cuddling into her neck out of nowhere and the blond giggled at the unexpected action, all previous self-loathing and shame vanishing in a heartbeat, her world consumed by Marco's sweet display of affection. "Okay, okay I get it, you forgive me," Star said in a near laugh, running a hand through Marco's soft hair. She nearly cooed as the boy suddenly started to purr in response to her touch and her heart felt like it was floating around in her chest. How could Marco get any more adorable? "Starrrr," he purred, still nuzzling her neck, proving her previous thought wrong.

So cute, she thought, her cheeks flushing some as her world finally righted itself, Marco, her sweet, adorable bestie was back safe in her arms.

The others were doing their best not to interrupt the sweet moment, struggling to keep their attention on literally anything else as they heard the quiet murmuring of Star behind them. Jak focused his attention on one of the heart piles Marco had made, examining it closely before slowly reaching out to touch it. "It's gonna fall over if you do that," Dex told his friend.

Jak hesitated for a moment, before touching it anyways. It collapsed instantly, the guard jerking back with a surprised squeak. "I told you that would happen," Dex told his partner, who gave a sheepish look in reply.

The three girls, just stood in awkward silence for a moment, Jackie standing between the two feuding girls, both of whom were purposefully avoiding eye contact. Finally, the skater had had enough of the uncomfortable tension and said via whisper, "Okay enough. This has gone on long enough. You two need to make up."

"Uhh, actually we really don't," Higgs commented.

"Yeah, Jacks, this is a classic rivalry thing," Janna explained to her friend. "The two enemies destined to hate each other, those don't typically resolve easily."

Jackie let out an annoyed sigh, running her hands down her face, before regaining her composure saying in her cool, radiant tone, "Okay look, whatever you are, you're both my friends and I'm not putting up with this for the rest of my life. So you're just gonna have to make up, whether you want to or not." She fixed the two with scolding glares and the two shifted uncomfortably under the look.

Still, the two stayed stubbornly silent for a few seconds before Janna finally spoke, staring up at the ceiling as she muttered, "So I didn't really mean what I said. It wasn't your fault that Marco flew off. I've just been... going through some stuff lately."

"And maybe I judged you a bit harshly," Higgs said, keeping her eyes on the ground instead of the beanie-wearing teen. "You may be a troublemaker but at the very least you do seem to care about your friends." The two finally made eye contact, the young knight finishing by saying, "And that counts for something."

The two, for the very first time, shared a smile, a small, almost professional grin but a smile none the less and Jackie took that as a victory. However as soon as it came, it was gone again, Higgs' grin replaced with a scowl as she added bitterly, "But I still don't trust you."

"That's fair," Janna said, shrugging.

"Aww look at my daughter making new friends!" Dex suddenly exclaimed, running over and pulling his daughter into a hug.

"Ahhh! Dad, let go! You're embarrassing me!" Higgs shouted, her face turning redder than her hair color as her father continued showering her with unwanted affection.

Star and Marco, meanwhile, finally pulled away from each other smiling as they stared lovingly into each others eyes, their hands intertwined as they let a relative peace settle over them. Finally, Star broke the silence of the moment, saying to her boyfriend in a soft whisper, "Okay, Marco. So I think it's best if we head back to the castle. I know you probably want to stay here but I promise nothing is going to hurt yo-" Star was cut off as Marco suddenly wrapped his extra limbs around her slender frame, holding her against his chest and she flushed with surprise. "Marco, what are you doing?"

Instead of answering, the boy lifted Star off the ground and the blond gasped in fright, putting her arms around Marco's neck and the boy's other arms securely circled Star. Once the two were airborne the boy met her eye and Star instantly understood what Marco was about to do.

"Oh Marco, that's okay we can walk," Star started to tell him, but it was too late, the boy had already taken off in a burst of wind and speed, exiting through the hole in the ceiling. The others turned and stared up at the skylight for a few seconds before Dex said, "Huh, wasn't expecting them to do that."

"They must really be in a hurry to get out of here," Jak pointed out.

"Can't say I blame them," Higgs responded, flashing the nauseating bright area around her a dirty look.

"Or maybe they just wanted some alone time," Janna said in a hinting tone, arching her eyebrows playfully.

"No," was all Jackie said to her creepy friend, giving her a scolding look for good measure.

Suddenly, a thought hit Jak and he gasped in shock, asking in a panicked tone, "Wait, so how are we getting out of here?!"

"I guess we'll just have to go back the way we came," Jackie replied with a shrug.

Jak let out a strangled groan but kept his comment to himself.

…

Star gasped as cold air rushed around her, her hair blowing freely in the breeze and the swirl of wind in her ears making it difficult to hear anything. Her stomach was doing flips at the feeling of weightlessness and she had to breathe slowly to try and calm down her shocked system. Star risked a look over her shoulder to see how high up they were and immediately regretted this decision, the long drop below causing her to let out a chocked scream, the treetops of the Forest of Certain Death looking even more menacing than usual. Her grip on the back of Marco's neck tightened, fearful of losing her grip. Star wasn't typically afraid of heights but she also usually had the luxury of both feet planted on the ground not dangling thousands of feet in the air, with only four thin arms keeping her from plummeting to her certain death and this has pushed her completely out of her comfort zone. She pressed her head into Marco's chest, trying to calm herself down, focusing on the rapid pulse of Marco's heartbeat pounding against her temple.

Marco noticed his mate's discomfort, casting her a worried glance as she shook in his arms and the boy tried to think up some way to ease her mind. Thinking fast, he slowed their speed and flipped them over, so that Star was no longer the one dangling in mid-air, effectively shielding her from the danger of terminal velocity should something happen, but he made sure to keep his grip tight all the same. Marco felt Star's own grip relax some after that, the death grip she had previously had on his neck loosened, her body no longer trembling in fear and she even looked up from the safety of his chest to meet his eye. Marco gave his mate what he hoped was a reassuring smile and his heart hammered away in his chest as the girl returned the smile, her face lighting up in the most beautiful way that only Star's could. Her eyes were so startlingly blue it was almost painful and the way her golden hair danced in the breeze was simply breathtaking. How one person could be so beautiful was a mystery to Marco but he was beyond happy that such a person existed and that she was currently being held in his arms.

Now that her initial fear began to wear off thanks to Marco's efforts, Star began to grow more confident, openly scanning the skyline. She didn't think she had ever been this high up before even the few times she had ridden Cloudy and the view was breathtaking. She could see almost all of Mewni from this height, the pink hills and lush green countryside blending together into perfect harmony, the wildlife mere shifting dots on the world below. She could see the huge pink cloud that was the Kingdom of the Pony Heads off to her side, as well as the shape of the massive castle that rested atop it. She could see the massive lakes and rivers that the river folk of Mewni dwelled in, she even thought she could see the curve of mountains way off in the distance. And the longer Star looked the more entranced by her beautiful home she became. She had never realized just how gorgeous Mewni truly was.

She looked up at Marco who was watching her closely, not even looking where he was flying, keeping his speed slow and steady, his wings beating at a rapid pace to keep them airborne. Star smiled at her transformed boyfriend, telling him softly, "Hey, I'm okay now, you can carry me like before."

Marco made no movement to do so, clearly torn on keeping Star calm and doing as she said, but the blond gave him an encouraging smile. "I know you won't let me go," she said and this seemed to be all Marco needed to hear, flipping them around again so that Star was once more beneath him, though he shifted her in his four arms so that she was no longer facing him, holding her firmly but gently against his chest, allowing her to freely survey the countryside.

The blond giggled as Marco picked up speed again, now enjoying the wind as it tickled her face, smiling ear to ear as she observed her beautiful Mewni. Marco seemed to tense at first, worried he was scaring her but soon he too was smiling as his girlfriend's cheerful laughter reached his ears. This encouraged him to try and make her laugh more, doing loop-de-loops in the air, causing her to laugh and scream in delight. Under her encouragement, the two began dipping and diving toward the treetops, Star trying to reach out and touch one of the branches before they pulled up again. They flew past a flock of eagles that all looked completely dumbstruck by the two air-born Mewmans. Soon the sky was alive with Star's laughter and Marco felt his heart warm at the wondrous sound.

Finally, the two were both thrown off guard as the sun peaked out from behind a cloud, the two gasping as the most colorful and stunning sunset the two had ever laid eyes on filled the sky, colors Star and Marco had only ever dreamed of invaded their senses and the two stared misty-eyed at the wonderful sight.

But the moment came to an unfortunate end as they had, at last, reached Butterfly Castle the hooded teen guiding him and his blond passenger into a safe landing on the soft grass just inside the courtyard. Star took a few deep breaths as her feet finally touched ground once more, her legs wobbly and her heart pounding but the look of delight couldn't be erased from her face. She turned and smiled at Marco who was hovering over her, his glowing orbs clearly examining her closely. "Thanks for that, Marco," Star said in a loving tone, holding out a hand for him to take, which he eagerly did. "That was... magical." The girl giggled and Marco smiled, pressing his forehead to hers.

"Hey, they're back!" a voice suddenly screamed, interrupting the moment for the two teens, who looked over to see Skullnick, along with several knights and guards rushing toward them. Marco reacted immediately, grabbing Star's wrist and pulling his blond mate closer, wrapping his arms protectively around her. The group all stopped, watching the boy wearily as he kept a suspicious gaze leveled at them all, keeping Star close to letting everyone know she was under his protection. But when no one seemed to get the message, Marco raised a threatening hand up in warning and the others all took a reluctant step back.

The knights slowly reached for their swords and crossbows, but Star quickly shouted, "Wait, everyone stay calm! You're all freaking him out! Just give Marco some space!"

No party made any move to back down, Marco and the knights now in a tense stand-off, all of them waiting for one to make a move. Star was quick to quell this though, as she put a comforting hand on Marco's arm, saying in the lighthearted tone, "Marco, it's okay. They aren't going to hurt you." The boy blinked once, his face otherwise remaining blank, but he allowed Star to lower his arm back to his side.

Star then turned to the knights, who's hands still hovered over their weapons, itching to pull them out in defense and the blond shot a pleading look at Skullnick. The troll general stood there rigidly for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh. "You heard the princess! Stand down, all of you!" Skullnick barked and the knights were quick to obey their order, their postures relaxing though their faces still filled with uncertainty. And after a few seconds, Marco seemed to do the same.

"All right, everyone move along! The princess has this under control! No one goes near Marco without the princess's say by order of King and Queen Butterfly!" Skullnick continued, virtually ignoring the two teens as she glared down her men, forcing them to reluctantly disperse.

Star mentally breathed in relief, while grinning smugly over at the general. It would seem Skullnick had had a complete turn-around from earlier, no doubt her parents had reprimanded her for her previous actions and had given her new orders on how to handle such situations. Skullnick must have noticed Star staring at her because she turned in her direction, staring at the blond royal blankly.

Star gave the general a slight nod of appreciation for her help but nothing else but the general didn't return the gesture, continuing to just stare unflinchingly at the two teens. Marco seemed to be growing uncomfortable from the look, shifting next to Star, but the blond made sure to hold the general's gaze. Finally, the general said in a grunt, "Well it seems for once I was in the wrong here. Just do me a favor and try and not let your boyfriend destroy the whole castle." Star was so shocked to hear Skullnick admit to being wrong that she almost didn't register the last comment, not that she had a chance to comment on it as Skullnick suddenly turned on her heels and marching away, her stance as strong and determined as ever.

Star frowned as she watched the general storm away, unsure how to feel about the apology, on one hand, it was unheard of for Skullnick to admit to making any form of mistake but on the other hand, it had felt very halfhearted and Star couldn't help but wonder if her parents had put the troll up to it. But finally, Star decided she would take what she was given, that was the closest she would probably ever come to having the general admit defeat and that small victory was enough for Star, besides she had more important matters at hand.

As if on cue, the doors of the castle were brutally slammed open and Star flinched in surprise, Marco clutching the girl's arm fearfully. Star watching in disbelief as the entrance to her home was almost destroyed, the doors practically ripped off their hinges and the wall behind them cracking from the sheer force of the violent and careless action. A second later, the flustered forms of both River and Buff Frog emerged from the castle, the later looking like he was having some sort of breakdown, his yellow eyes darting from left to right as he panted heavily, sweat dripping from his face. "Where is my baby?!" the frog Monster practically screamed.

"Hmmm, I don't see them anywhere," River said in his big, bombastic voice, gazing around the courtyard in search of something. "Perhaps they aren't back yet." He turned to a very nervous looking guard and shouted, "I thought you said they had returned!"

"Um, um, th-that's what I was told Y-Your Majesty," the guard said, doing a nervous salute.

Moon appeared behind her husband, saying in an almost exhausted tone, "River, Buff Frog, please. You're both making a scene."

"Hey guys! Over here!" Star shouted over to her parents, causing Marco to jump at the sudden loud noise.

All three adults turned to see the two teens, Buff Frog's body visibly sagging in relief, while the Butterfly couple just smiled at their daughter. The frog quickly ran over to the pair of teens at record speed, before throwing his beefy arms around his son, pulling him in close as he muttered, "Oh my baby! I so glad you safe!" Marco's arms flailed for a moment in an attempt to escape his father's crushing hug, clearly unsure about what was going on and he gazed over at his mate for assistance. But the frog father didn't seem to notice this, continuing to voice his thoughts out loud to his young son, "Thank corn you okay, Marco! When Butterflies tell me what happened I so worried. I feared you'd never come back." Slowly the boy stopped struggling as he recognized his adopted dad's voice, instead pulling into the hug.

The Butterflies watched father and son reunite for a moment, trying to hold back their smiles as Moon said to the Monster, "There now, see Buff Frog. I told you there was nothing to worry about. Star had everything under control."

Buff Frog gave said teen a grateful smile, while still holding his son close to his chest, "I cannot thank you enough for saving my son, Star!"

"Of course, I'd never let anything bad happen to Marco," Star replied pleasantly.

As Buff Frog continued showering his son with affection, Moon looked around the courtyard quizzically before leaning closer to her daughter's ear and whispering, "Star, where are the others that came with you?"

Star gasped, face-palming as she shouted, "Oh right, I totally forgot! Marco sorta flew off with me and we ended up leaving them back at the nest."

"Nest?" Moon asked quizzically.

"It's a long story," Star explained quickly while pulling out her wand from her cloud purse. She held the wand out and loudly chanted, "Summoning Cloudy Charm!" A second later a smiling pink cloud appeared in front of her, greeting her in a sing-song voice, "Hey there, Star!"

"Hey Cloudy," the girl greeted back with a smile of her own. "Think you could do me a favor and go pick up my friends? I accidentally left them back in the Forest of Certain Death." The blond gestured behind her so Cloudy knew the general direction to go.

"Sure thing, Star!" the cloud replied before floating off to go fetch his master's friends.

"Very clever spell, my darling," Moon complimented her daughter, watching the cloud flying off into the darkening sky.

"Thanks, mom," the girl said, proudly resting her hands on her hips.

"Only I have one question for you," Moon said hesitantly.

"What's that?" Star asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"How does he know where they are?"

Star paused at that question, before replying with a halfhearted shrug, "Uhh, he's magic. I'm sure he can figure it out."

A sudden gasp from Buff Frog brought Star and Moon's attention back over to father and son, the frog now holding the boy at arm's length, taking in his son's new form, muttering in concern and fear, "Look at you, my son! I have heard of Mewberty before, but never seen up close!" He tutted to himself for a few seconds before adding, "Hopefully you not in any pain. Does anything hurt, Marco? Do you need me get you medicine or something?"

Star tried to hold back her laughter, as she watched Buff Frog doting over his son, worriedly examining him from head to toe, while the boy hovered there in confusion. Marco wasn't kidding before, Buff Frog really did get overprotective of Marco when he was sick and seeing the normally calm and confident Monster turn into this flustered mess was so jarring to Star she couldn't help but chuckle, clapping a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound.

"Now there's no need to worry yourself, Buff Frog," River cut in, giving the Monster dad a knowing look, understanding Buff Frog's situation quite well himself. "Marco is perfectly fine. Right, my dear?"

"Yes, it's a perfectly normal thing for boys Marco's age to go through," Moon said. "And I can assure you he is in no form of pain, whatsoever."

"Oh thank corn," Buff Frog said, letting out another relieved breath.

"But y'know, right now he almost looks like he could pass for a Monster, don't you think?" Star pointed out, smiling brightly at her boyfriend.

"Da, but I happy with old son," Buff Frog agreed, a smile slowly spreading across his features. He paused for a moment, giving his son a thoughtful expression, before turning to the three royals with a quizzical frown, asking, "How much longer till he turns back?"

The three Butterflies all exchanged glances at that, Star biting her lip as she struggled to answer that question herself. "Honestly, I'm not sure," the blond replied. "He was alone in his room for a while so I have no idea how long he's been like this. It could still be hours before he changes back."

The frog Monster nodded, staring down at the ground in intense thought, before saying almost sadly, "Then it would be best if he stayed here, till he gets better. As much as want to take him home, you know more about how help him, Star." Buff Frog finally released his grip on his son and the boy instantly flew to Star's side, grabbing on tightly to her arm and nuzzling her neck while purring loudly. Buff Frog's eyes widened in shock for a second, before he said almost jokingly, "Besides, it seems he prefer to be with you."

Star flushed in embarrassment from the comment, while her heart swelled at her boyfriend's show of affection, and she gave the frog an apologetic grin, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Especially since me not being here is what made him freak out in the first place." She ran a hand lovingly through Marco's hair, before returning her focus to the frog, adding pleasantly, "But you're welcome to stay, Buff Frog! I'm sure Marco will be much happier having you here too."

"Oh, wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon," Buff Frog replied cheerfully, though he did cross his arms in front of his chest in determination. "After all, Marco may be older but he is still my baby."

"Oh yes, I know how that is," River said, nodding in understanding. "Star is still my baby girl no matter how old she gets."

"Aww dad," Star cooed, shooting her dad a grin, though her cheeks turned the slightest tinge of pink.

"Now then, the big question is where Marco is going to stay?" Moon spoke up, her voice full of regal authority. A habit she didn't seem to be able to break no matter what the situation. "I don't think the castle staff would be too happy having him inside, shedding everywhere."

The group all looked down to see small orange sunspots drifting off of Marco's body and landing on the ground below his feet. "Yeah, your right mom," Star agreed, tapping a finger to her chin in thought.

The blond royal frowned as she brainstormed on where to keep her boyfriend until his Mewberty experience was over with. It would have to be outside somewhere, preferably away from people, where it could just be Marco and his friends and family, no chances of any intruders frightening him and setting him off. But it would also have to be within the castle boundary, Star didn't want to risk moving him anywhere where he might be tempted to fly off again. What Star really needed was a place within the castle grounds that people rarely ever visited. And that's when it struck her, Star smiling ear to ear, as an idea popped into her head. She turned to her parents and Buff Frog, telling them in a proud, confident tone, "I think I know just the place."

…

The castle garden was peaceful and calm as Star and the others entered into it, stars beginning to blink into existence above them as another night on Mewni began. A gentle breeze danced through the flowers and vegetation, making them sway in the wind, creating an even more beautiful scene. And thousands of fireflies circled the air around them, creating a simply breathtaking sight for everyone present to witness.

Marco was clinging to his girlfriend's arm tightly as she led him into the tranquil garden, confusion shimmering in his glowing orbs, but the moment he saw where Star had taken him his wings fluttered in excitement, a smile slowly appearing on his face. He started to let go of Star to go explore the area but quickly looked over at her, waiting for permission to leave her side, like a child would to their parent. Star nodded and smiled, telling the boy softly, "Go on, Marco. It's okay, I'll be right here if you need me."

The boy nodded once before zipping over to the nearest firefly, staring at it unblinkingly for a few seconds, completely mesmerized by the tiny light. He slowly reached out towards it with his four hands before quickly clapping them together around the unknowing bug. He paused before gazing into his hands, a smile slowly stretching across his face before it vanished as he saw nothing in his palms. But a blinking light right in front of his face caused him to rear back in surprise, almost sent tumbling through the air as his wings struggled to balance himself again. Once he had, he looked around for another light, before trying to snatch that one up instead, only to once more come up empty-handed.

From there the boy began chasing lightning bugs all around the garden, his four hands constantly outstretched as he tried to grab at them, while his entire being seemed to be radiating pure joy and happiness at the fun game he had discovered. Buff Frog, Star, and her parents all couldn't help but laugh at the cute sight, watching the boy zooming around playfully. "What a brilliant idea, Star," Moon complimented her daughter proudly.

"Thanks," Star replied with a grin.

Her dad putting a loving hand on her shoulder before adding, "That's my daughter for you, as clever as her old man!"

"River you once thought it was a good idea to eat a map while on one of your camping trips," Moon pointed out.

"In nature, everything is food!" River exclaimed dramatically.

"You were lost for four days," the blue-haired woman sighed, massaging her temple with her fingertips.

"Out in the woods, anything goes," River continued, his voice intense, and Moon just rolled her eyes.

Star and Buff Frog slowly shuffled away from the pair, leaving them alone to their devices and instead going over to join Marco, who was now crouched low to the ground, staring down one of the fireflies intensely, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. His hands slowly cupped around the bug, not taking his eyes off it for even a second, before closing his fists around it. He held his hand up to his face, slowly opening his palm in concentration before his head lowered in defeat, making a low groaning noise.

Star and Buff Frog shared a smile, before the girl sat down on her knees beside her boyfriend, telling him softly, "Here, Marco, let me help." As Buff Frog sat down on Marco's other side, while Star slowly reached out a finger toward the lightning bug, pausing just inches short of it before waiting. A few seconds passed, Marco watching with such childlike curiosity that Star's heart almost melted right there, before the tiny bug landed on her fingertip, lighting up a few times calmly.

Marco gasped, leaning in closer to the girl, who had to hold him back by placing a hand on his chest. She giggled before saying sweetly, "Calm down, Marco. Your gonna scare it away."

Marco instantly relaxed, though his eyes never left the firefly, sitting down in the grass next to her. He scooted as close to her and the firefly as he possibly could and the girl smiled before grabbing his hand. She brought it slowly over to her own, before touching the tips together softly and the two watched as the lightning bug slowly crawled over to Marco's own finger, before flashing once.

The boy's mouth made a cute 'O' shape as he held the bug up to his face, watching it blink in pure delight and both Star and Buff Frog couldn't help but both inwardly coo at the hooded teen. Star leaned over and placed her head on his shoulder, while Buff Frog hugged his son's right side, though the boy noticed neither, his attention still completely on the firefly.

However, when a loud voice called from above, it immediately drew everyone's attention. "Hey there Star! We're hooommee!" came the cheerful call and everyone looked up to see Cloudy descending toward them, carrying a group of passengers in its fluff.

"Thanks, Cloudy!" Star called out to her spell, raising her head off the boy's shoulder but not moving from her spot at her boyfriend's side. "Hey guys, glad to see you back!"

Her smile vanished though as she took in the sight of her friends, who were all covered in leaves and twigs, their hair and clothes now badly disheveled (their clothes even torn in a few places) and they stared down at the girl with either annoyed or impassive looks. "What happened?" the blond asked quizzically.

"Well it seems your spell decided it would be a good idea to fly through every single tree on the way back," Janna explained, while angrily untangling twigs from her messy hair.

"Yeah thanks for the ride, Star, but I think next time we'll just walk," Jackie commented as she slid off the cloud and back onto solid ground once more.

Star chuckled awkwardly while scratching at her blushing cheeks as she muttered out, "Sorry."

"Well, I had a great time!" Cloudy suddenly said, doing spins in the air. "I loved getting to fly through all those bushes, it was so much fun!"

It wouldn't have been so bad if dad and Jak didn't insist on singing road trip songs the whole way back," Higgs muttered.

Jak and Dex quickly put their arms around the redhead's shoulders, Dex said excitedly, "Oh come on Higgs, you used to love those!"

"Well, I don't now!" Higgs snapped angrily, pulling out of the two guard's grip.

"Oh good your all back safe," Moon suddenly spoke up behind them, and the three all turned on their heels, Jak and Dex gaping openly at the two royals standing in front of them.

"Your Majesties!" the two exclaimed before dropping into low bows.

"Thank you so much for your help in assisting my daughter," Moon said, her voice kind but regal as she addressed her two subjects.

"The pleasure was all ours, Your Highness!" Dex said, the two looking up so they could smile to their queen.

"And for your great effort," Moon continued and the two guards held in their squeals of delight. Here it came, the queen was about to knight them. "You have my gratitude," the royal finished and the two's faces fell.

"What that's it?" Jak blurted out, only to be violently elbowed by his partner.

"I beg your pardon," Moon said, an eyebrow slowly rising.

"What Jak means to say is that your gratitude is all we needed to hear," Dex replied, giving the queen a nervous smile, Higgs face-palming and shaking her head in disbelief.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we should be going," Dex continued as he pushed his partner away, still smiling at the queen, who stared at the two quizzically. The moment they were out of earshot, Dex whispered, "We'll be knighted next time for sure."

"Well that was utterly embarrassing," Higgs commented. She rolled her eyes before saying in exasperation. "Now can we please go home."

The two guards shared a look before Dex said, "Sure thing, sweetie." Then, the two began loudly singing one of their corny road trip songs, bellowing it out at the top of their lungs, Cloudy soon joining in. Marco happily bopped his head along to the song, not sure what the catchy noise was but loving every second of it.

Higgs pressed her hands over her ears tightly before letting out an annoyed shout, storming away from the two, who followed after her, still singing.

Once that was all over, Star pulled out her wand and said decisively, "Okay Cloudy I think it's time for you to go home."

"Aww, but I was just starting to have fun-" the spell began, only to vanish as Star undid her magic, before tucking the wand away inside her purse again.

"So I see Marco's still not back to normal," Janna commented, casting the boy a glance as she tucked her hands into her pockets.

"Yep, but until he turns back, me and Buff Frog figured it'd be best to keep him in here and away from everyone else," Star explained, the boy purring as the blond brushed his bangs out of his eyes.

"Sounds good to me," Janna said before her and Jackie sat down in the grass.

"Mind if we join you?" Jackie asked with one of her cool grins.

Star looked over to Marco, who showed no signs of discomfort or fear and shrugged, telling her friends pleasantly, "Sure, why not?"

An hour passed as the group all sat in the grass, talking and laughing as they waited for their friend to turn back. Buff Frog, stayed pretty much silent through it all, never moving more than a few inches away from his son, staying close in case Marco needed him for any reason at all. The hooded teen for the most part stayed by Star, occasionally holding her hand or snuggling into her side, where the girl would either hug him back or plant a loving kiss on his cheek. At one point he curled up into her lap, where Star gently played with his hair as he purred with affection. There were a few times that the boy grew bored of laying around and would fly around the garden trying to play with the fireflies or sniffing the large selection of flowers the expansive garden had. But he would soon tire himself out and return to Star's side, seeking her attention which she was happy to give.

After a while though, the group grew too tired after the long day and one by one drifted off to sleep. Jackie and Janna lay side by side on the ticklish grass, breathing gently in the comfort of their dreams. Buff Frog's body was slumped forward as he slumbered peacefully, his exhaustion for once more powerful than his protective nature. And finally, Marco rested happily on top of Star, who lay on her back running her hands up and down his back in a soothing manner, being careful to avoid his wings. Only Star remained awake, though she too was slowly starting to drift in and out of consciousness, yawning quietly every few seconds.

But still, somehow the girl managed to stay awake, despite her body and mind's attempts to thwart this, because she had Marco and that was all that mattered. She kept casting the boy long, tender looks as she stared at his sleeping face, his body still in stuck in its Mewberty state. Even though a part of her missed Marco's old look she couldn't help but admire his new form, he looked as cute as ever, with his bangs so long they lay in his face, which blew around with every breath Marco took. His glowing cheek marks actually blinked in time to his even breathing. Just like a firefly, Star thought with a smile. And Marco's wings continued to flutter every so often in reaction to whatever he was dreaming about, though not enough to lift him off the ground.

Star sighed dreamily as she stared into Marco's adorable face, her cheek marks turning white as she examined every inch of his features, admiring her boyfriend with every ounce of her being. She gently leaned over and planted a kiss to his forehead, the boy smiled before shifting a bit in his sleep which made Star's pupils dance, her heart beating at a mile per hour at this point. "Oh Marco," Star cooed, as she touched the end of her nose to his, unable to help herself as she wrapped her arms around him in a warm, affectionate hug. Then, without even thinking, she breathed out in a voice just barely above a whisper, "I love you so much."

The blond froze, her cheeks turning bright red as she realized what she had just said. It had just slipped out, she hadn't meant to say something like that to her snoozing boyfriend. The girl quickly looked around to make sure no one had heard her and breathed a sigh of relief when she found everyone still asleep and oblivious to her unintentional confession. After a moment, she willed her cheeks back to a normal hue and lay back, hoping after some sleep she could forget she had just said that.

But the moment she closed her eyes, a bright flashing light invaded her senses, as well as a loud shuffling sound. Her eyes flew open as she looked up to see Marco's whole body now glowing and the girl let out a startled squeak. But a smile widened on her face as she recognized the final stage of Mewberty and turned to her friends shouting, "Guys, wake up!"

Jackie and Janna groaned, the two sitting up and rubbing their eyes. "What? What's happening?" Jackie asked groggily.

Buff Frog, however, was instantly awake and alert, showing no signs of having been asleep mere seconds earlier, as he jumped up and rushed over to his son, saying in panic, "Oh no is he okay? Is normal for him to glow like that? Should we do something?"

Star just shook her head, telling the frog father simply, "Nope, Marco's just fine. He's about to turn back."

"Oh," was all Buff Frog said in reply, his nervous eyes never leaving his son.

The boy slowly lifted off the ground his wings guiding him gently up as they flapped for the last few times of their existence. Sunspots began appearing all over his body, his face, chest, arms, legs, everywhere, quickly spreading and surrounding the boy in a make-shift cocoon. Soon the boy was completely out of sight, only a large orange shape hovering in the air over their heads remained. For a few seconds, nothing happened, the group staring up at Marco's cocoon intensely. Then, all of sudden, there was a bright flash of light from within the object, the outline of Marco's form appearing within, not that the group could tell having to block their eyes from the blinding light.

Once the glow ceased the others all looked up at the cocoon with bated breath waiting for what happened next. Slowly sunspots began peeling off the cocoon, fluttering to the ground below, but as the seconds ticked by more and more followed until it was practically raining small orange suns, the garden soon coated in them. Then, Marco form suddenly dropped from the sky, and Star lunged forward to catch him. He landed safely in Star's arms, although the momentum caused her to fall to the ground and the breath was temporarily knocked out of her lungs. The girl recovered quickly though, shifting her grip on Marco so that Marco was laying in her lap. "Marco?" the girl whispered, trying to keep the anxiety out of her tone.

The boy groaned, turning his head to the side before his eyes slowly peeked open. He blinked a few times, clearly trying to get his barrings, before letting out a tired yawn, stretching his arms over his head as he sat up some. "Aw man, Star you wouldn't believe the dream I just had, it was crazy," the boy began in his typical cheeriness, though his eyes still drooped some with exhaustion. "I was flying and I think I was looking for something and there were these little blinking lights-" Marco paused mid-explanation as suddenly become aware where he was, looking up at the faces of Buff Frog, Jackie, and Janna, before turning to Star with a quizzical look. "Um, Star, what are we doing out here?"

The others all exchanged looks, clearly trying to think of the best way to explain it to Marco, before finally Star said, "It's a long story."

"Let's just say your dream wasn't actually a dream," Janna added cryptically.

"Wait you mean that really happened?" Marco exclaimed jumping up, the shock on his face clear as day. "I really was flying!"

"Yep, you just went through something called 'Mewberty'," Jackie explained.

"Mewberty?" Marco repeated, cocking his head to the side, confusion pinching his brows.

"That's right, it's a normal thing teenage Mewmans go through to adjust to their magic," Star explained.

"Oh, okay," the boy said, nodding his head some in understanding, his eyes shining with curiosity. "So does that mean I don't have the chickenpox?"

The group all shook their heads.

"So then everything in my dream really happened?!" Marco exclaimed in total disbelief.

"Da, everything," Buff Frog said wisely.

"Even the part where you all turned into giant marshmallows?" Marco asked, giving them all a confused frown.

The group paused, looking between one another before Jackie corrected, "Okay, so not everything in your dream really happened."

The boy sat down cross-legged, resting his head in his hands as he asked, "So did Skullnick and the other knights really attack me?"

"Yes, as sad as it is they did," Jackie muttered angrily.

"They what?!" Buff Frog exclaimed.

"Apparently my mom and dad gave them orders to detain anyone going through Mewberty but Skullnick took it a bit too far," Star explained.

"And did I... throw her like in my dream," Marco asked, a guilty look in his eye.

Jackie and Janna both nodded, the latter saying, "Yeah but you didn't really have much of a choice." She paused before adding, "Plus, it looked pretty cool."

The boy looked sadly at the ground before turning to Star and asking in a nervous stutter, "And did we... I mean, in my dream there was like this beautiful sunset and I was wondering if-"

"Mm-hmm, that part was real," Star replied, scooting closer to the boy and putting a hand on his back.

Marco smiled, clearly reminiscing the fuzzy memory, before he said bashfully, "That was my favorite part."

"Mine too," Star agreed, leaning over and kissing his forehead.

Suddenly though a thought occurred to Marco and he gasped, looking around fearfully at each of his friends and dad and asked, "Oh no, the meeting! What happened?!"

"I left early to come find you," Star explained and the boy's face fell.

"I'm sorry for causing so much trouble for everyone," the boy muttered, the guilt evident on his face, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

The group all shared a concerned look, before Star said softly, "Marco, you didn't do anything wrong."

"But the meeting," Marco sniffed, giving his girlfriend a sad, apologetic look that melted the girl's heart.

"That wasn't your fault and the other Monsters completely understood," Star said, cupping his head in her hands, staring deep into his chocolate brown orbs, giving him a warm, loving smile. "Besides, your more important to me than some meeting."

The boy didn't seem convinced though, his eyes still full of regret as he muttered, "But I-I hurt Skullnick and the other knights and-and-"

"Marco," Star interrupted, giving him a compassionate grin, hoping to silently convey her message. "It's okay," she whispered.

"Look, dude, you weren't thinking straight. That's all," Jackie spoke up in a soft, comforting tone and the boy looked over at her hopefully.

"Really?"

"Yeah and I mean, it was really more of Skullnick's fault for antagonizing you, she brought it on herself," Janna added, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I still worried all of you," the boy muttered sadly, looking down at the ground.

The group shared a look before Janna blurted, "Well duh, of course, you did."

"Huh?" Marco asked in confusion.

Jackie sat down next to the boy and told him much more gently, "What Janna means to say is that we're your friends and we care about you. So when something is upsetting or scaring you of course we're going to worry a little."

"We know you don't mean anything by it," Buff Frog added, putting a comforting hand on his son's shoulders. "We just happy you safe."

"The important thing is you're okay," Star finished, giving him a kind smile. "So you don't have to feel bad, we never mind looking out for you."

Marco returned the smile with one of his own, before leaping forward into his girlfriend's arms, hugging her tightly and the girl quickly squeezed him back. The others soon joined all in the group hug, all comforting and supporting their friend, who was sniffing again as tears ran down his cheeks.

After a moment the group pulled apart, Marco swiping at his eyes with his hoodie sleeve before he gave each of his friends and family a grateful smile. "Thanks, guys. You're the best!" He paused, rubbing the back of his neck as he added a bit bashfully, "But I still can't believe how my Mewberty made me act."

"Eh, still wasn't as bad as Star's," Janna commented, jabbing a finger in said girl's direction.

Star gave her creepy friend an annoyed glare, snapping, "Okay I really wish you'd all stop bringing that up now."

"Was yours really that bad, Star?" Marco asked, his eyes shining with intrigue.

"She almost destroyed the entire castle," Janna explained quickly before Star could answer, and the blond royal growled under her breath.

"I was 11 and going through some stuff, okay! Give me a break!" Star shouted, throwing her hands up into the air in exasperation. The girl let out a deep sigh, burying her head in her hands, saying with a muffled cry, "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"Not as long as I'm around," Janna replied with a mischievous grin, elbowing her friend in the ribs and Star promptly looked up from her hands to glare in the creepy teen's direction.

"So what was your Mewberty like Janna?" Marco asked, hoping to change the subject off his clearly uncomfortable girlfriend.

The beanie-wearing girl shrugged, before casually explaining, "Actually I haven't had one yet."

"Oh," the boy said simply. He paused before asking, "Well when do you think it'll happen?"

"Hopefully not anytime soon," Jackie commented, a tired look on her face. "I'm not sure I can handle another Mewberty, especially Janna's. Something tells me it's gonna get way weird."

Janna shrugged, before commenting, "Relax, Jacks, I'm sure mine won't be for a long whi-" The girl suddenly stopped mid-sentence, her eyes going blank and her mouth hanging open dumbly. The others all froze in place, Marco watching with nervous curiosity, while the others grew tense as their friend continued staring off into space. Finally, the girl's head slowly lowered so her eyes were hidden behind her bangs as she said in a low, creepy tone, "Toooommmm."

"Oh no," Star muttered worriedly, slowly reaching for her purse and subsequently her wand, while Buff Frog pushed Marco behind him for protection.

But a second later, Janna lifted her head, a smug smile on her lips, back to her normal creepy self once more as she said with a teasing wink, "Nah, I'm just kidding."

"JANNA!" everyone shouted angrily and the girl just laughed at her successful prank.

While the girl celebrated her victory and received a scolding lecture from Jackie, Marco turned to Star asking one last pestering question that had been on his mind since waking up, "So, um, Star I was wondering, just before my dream ended- or I guess I changed back- I thought I heard you say something to me?"

Star's face instantly flushing bright red, embarrassment and fear causing her brain to go haywire. Her heart began hammering away in her chest as her boyfriend's quizzical, chocolate brown orbs rested on her hot face and she quickly averted her eyes, trying desperately to think up some kind of answer. Any and all words froze on her tongue though and she coughed to clear her tight throat, before playing with a loose strand of blond hair. But she could feel Marco growing concerned by her lack of response and she blurted out the first possible thing she could think of. "Oh, uhhh, n-no, I can't think of anything I would have said to you," she stammered, still not meeting Marco's eye as her cheeks turned a dark shade of crimson. "It must have been part of your dream."

Marco nodded, a thoughtful look on his face for a second before he smiled with his typical cheeriness and exclaimed, "Yeah, I guess that's all it was!" He chuckled to himself, rubbing at the back of his neck in that cute way he always did and Star grinned at her boyfriend, a wave of relief washing through her, glad her secret was still safe. She did like Marco a lot, but she wasn't sure if she was ready for such big words like that just yet and decided it would be best to keep her earlier confession to herself... at least for now.

But unbeknownst to Star, someone else had been listening in and knew exactly how the princess felt about her hoodie-wearing friend.

It had been a total accident on Buff Frog's part, using an old trick he had learned spying for Toffee to appear asleep when he secretly wasn't, relaxing down his muscles and body while simultaneously keeping his mind awake and alert for any potential threats. And with his sensitive hearing, well, it hadn't been difficult to pick up on Star's hushed tone.

Not that Buff Frog would ever say anything to Star or Marco about it. No, he knew better than to meddle in Marco's love life, it was best to let their relationship happen naturally. For now, it would just be his little secret. And as the amphibian watched the pair closely, picking up on every loving look and heartfelt smile that passed between the two, he couldn't help but grin knowing to himself. Give it time, he thought to himself. They'll get there someday.

[drops-of-moonlights]

WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED: SEASON 2 (The Shadow Phoenix)

Or, in which I give the basics of what I’ve changed about the story for the AU. It was originally way more descriptive but if I kept it in that style I would have finished in 2039 and I ain’t got time for that. Let’s cover Season 2!

WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED: SEASON 2

The ceremony for the new school year is about to begin, but the Winx are worried sick. Aisha hasn’t appeared yet and they haven’t heard of her in a month.

They decide to keep up some good spirits and believe she’ll appear for the start of classes proper, and whatever’s holding her back in Andros will not take long.

Down in the depths of Shadowhaunt, Aisha has finally managed to escape her prison and is making a run for it, looking for the Pixies and trying to keep a low profile.

She finally finds them and manages to freeze them, and with some help and miniaturization spells, she managed to get them all and run like hell, as their wings were coated in something and had a hard time flying.

Darkar appears in full finally, and starts chasing after the fairy, attacking her with dark flames and providing extra ways for her to advance.

She’s cornered in a balcony and loses the Pixies due to tripping, Darkar catching them again except for Piff, which is still with Aisha hidden.

Aisha takes a leap of faith and jumps from the balcony, transforming mid-air into Glamourix much to her surprise, not expecting to have earnt it that way.

The surprise is short-lived, however, once she hits the water, knocking herself out for a bit. It’s a good thing she can breathe underwater and that pixies technically don’t breathe when asleep.

Back on Alfea, the ceremony is about to begin yet Bloom finds herself lost in the school, arriving into a weird doorless hallway.

She snoops around a bit and finds the Magic Archive, meeting Concorda in the process.

She’s the Pixie of Alfea and is in charge of protecting the Archive, and tells Bloom she needs to leave as only 3rd year students and up can access it.

A few hours pass and the ceremony has concluded (Bloom notes how weird it is that Avalon wasn’t present), the Specialists go pay the Winx a visit and they hang around for an hour, though the girls are still worried about Aisha.

Right at that moment, she appears from the woods, her Glamourix form damaged and her looking incredibly hurt, before finally fainting on the spot, detransforming.

After a week of rest, Aisha finally tells them what she went through, and Faragonda gets incredibly panicky and scared when she mentions Darkar. She bans the girls from the subject and tells them she’ll organize a way to rescue the rest of the Pixies soon.

Aisha, Bloom and Stella decide to skip school and go save the Pixies themselves, as the authorities were taking too long to do something about it after 3 days without any news, with the other three remaining at Alfea with alibis.

They drag Sky, Riven and Brandon into the mess as well for backup, and after identifying the cave Aisha came out of they start their journey to Shadowhaunt.

On Roccaluce Rehabilitation Center, the Trix find themselves bored and tired of the place, and the ways they try to make them better people, finding it inhumane.

Right around the same time, Darkar breaks in, having sensed them as the witches who weakened his seal with their stunt, and practically kidnaps them so they could help him with his plans.

The Trix follow him mostly out of fear, since the dude’s incredibly powerful and they’d rather not die by cursed fire thank you very much. He grants them part of his power to make them more capable in battle, as well as weapons for Icy and Stormy (Darcy already has a crescent-shaped blade, though Darkar does upgrade it). Icy gets a sword hilt, being able to make the blade with her ice, and Stormy gets a spear.

The Princesses and the three Specialists get lost, and after a battle with Darkar’s monsters they get separated, Stella and Brandon falling into an abyss and Stella unable to transform out of sheer shock and fear.

They wake up in a strange village and are greeted by a Drakian man in blue, called Sponsus. He tells them they’re in Surar, a town that was forced to live underground after a natural disaster destroyed their original settlement. Stella is hella weak due to the fall, the shock and not being able to transform due to all this, so she’s super scared and clinging to Brandon the entire time for safety and comfort, refusing to leave him alone.

They get Stella some medicine and treatment and Sponsus convinces them to meet Amentia, the current leader of the place, for help and instructions to Shadowhaunt since she knows the area pretty well.

They meet her, she seems interested in Brandon which only makes Stella get in an even worse mood, and tells them about what’s been happening lately on this place:

People of the town, as well as Gnomes from the nearby Ephemeria settlement, keep disappearing anytime they get close to the ways to Shadowhaunt, and monsters have started appearing. She’s interested in their plans to save the Pixies and offers her assistance on the way, to see what’s going on.

They get attacked on the way there however, Brandon getting severely injured. Amentia offers to take him back to Surar to properly treat him and Stella to keep going to meet her friend, but she’s hesitant, not wanting to be left alone right now.

Brandon finally convinces her and she rushes off, seeing if she can finally meet with the rest, trusting Brandon and Amentia that all will be fine.

She finally transforms again, earning her Glamourix, and manages to meet with the rest at last.

They decide to simply go to Shadowhaunt as they are and that they’ll meet Brandon later, so he can rest properly.

They finally reach the place and find the Pixies, freeing them. They’re attacked by the Trix at the same time, however, and a battle ensues.

It’s short-lived, however, as Avalon suddenly appears, defeating the Trix and saving the rest. He explains he had actually been contacted by the Paladins to go investigate Shadowhaunt, as they had detected sudden magic readings recently. His cover was blown, however, so he sticks with the group and scolds the girls for doing this recklessly.

They make their way back to Surar for Brandon, and after explaining what they now know to Amentia, she thanks them for the information and tells them that she’ll keep an eye on Shadowhaunt, and inform the Order of Mana if anything else happens.

They finally go back to Alfea and are scolded even further by a very worried Faragonda, who punishes them with two weeks of limited magic access outside of classrooms, as well as extra homework to catch up on what they missed. The guys are also punished by Saladin via holocall, and are forced to help with some of the harder preparations for Red Fountain’s start, as they’re still fixing the place.

Bloom and the rest does ask Faragonda what she knows about Darkar and why did he kidnap the Pixies in the first place, but she tells them she’ll share that information in due time, once she tries to process everything.

Avalon puts Bloom aside for a bit, complimenting her bravery and resolve in saving the pixies even if it was a dumb thing to do, and offers to teach her about Domino and it’s royal customs alongside Daphne, now that she’s a princess.

The girls properly meet all the Pixies, and start to get along. Bloom gets along with Lockette, Stella with Amore, Musa with Tune and Cherie, Tecna with Digit and Cara, Flora with Chatta, and Aisha with Piff. Lockette and Kiko have an Anime Rivalry going on.

A month or so passes, and Red Fountain is finally fixed, a big event occurs for it with all three schools attending, as well as Diaspro finally arriving at Alfea after having some issues transferring on Eraklyon Institute’s part.

The building now flies. Flora recognizes Helia on the crowd and decides to spend the rest of the day with him, catching up after so long. We learn he’s currently living in Magica City and trying to make it as an artist, working as a barista on the side to keep like, living.

The Trix attack during the show battle between Sky and Riven, and the Winx plus Diaspro, the Specialists and also Helia (revealing he’s now a Glamourix witch) decide to help with the issue. Once the monster is defeated the Trix are nowhere to be seen, leaving everyone confused.

Tecna is noticing a weird shift on Avalon, believing him to be really friendly lately. Too friendly.

She decided to ask him what has gone on in his life to make him be in that good mood, and when he gives a cryptic answer she becomes more convinced something’s wrong.

Despite Bloom and Musa’s protests she’s just being paranoid, she starts making a special device to decipher if Avalon is under some sort of spell, or if it’s even the real Avalon at all. The Winx believe it’s not gonna work due to some of Tecna’s past projects, so they don’t worry too much.

To literally everyone’s surprise, the device does work. Except it’s acting as a missile centered on Avalon. Shenanigans ensue.

The device starts targeting other people, meaning the Winx have to transform now. They manage to destroy the object, and Tecna apologizes for what she did.

A few weeks pass, and the girls start taking magic battle classes with Griselda.

Tecna, still slightly stressed with what happened recently (not used to apologizing for being in the wrong), has a nasty fight with Timmy, and after a few days, the Winx convince her to go talk to him properly at Red Fountain, with Bloom and Flora going along.

It just so happens that the Trix attack shortly after they arrive, seemingly looking for something. The girls and the Specialists fight them for a bit before they seemingly retreat, and give chase for them, not knowing what they or Darkar wants from the school.

The Trix arrive at the center of the academy and solve a puzzle, gaining access to the secret armory and stealing a red gem, filled with power. They call it a Keystone and promptly leave, but they’re attacked by Athena, the pixie of Red Fountain.

They’re soon cornered by half the Winx and the specialists, but during battle Icy manages to stab Timmy, and Tecna lets them go, prioritizing his safety despite wanting to simply defeat them now and end it.

Flora rushes as fast as she can and starts using her healing powers to lessen the harm, stopping the blood loss so RF’s nursery can take him.

A few hours pass and Timmy wakes up again, recovering still. He and Tecna finally talk about what had happened a few days ago and make up, Tecna’s admitting of being wrong and showing her emotions fully earning her Glamourix.

After Timmy’s near-death experience, the Winx finally confront Faragonda, and she tells them of Darkar, the Keystones, and Relix. (more info about them here and here)

Some weeks pass, and the Pixies are getting more and more homesick. Someone’s been poisoning them lately with a longing potion, and when fully inebriated they decide to flee Alfea and go back to Pixie Village, but are stopped by the Winx.

The girls are assigned a group test and need 7 people total, so they decide to invite Diaspro along so they can get to know each other better. After a few mishaps, they have a sleepover, and the group gets closer to her in different ways, bonding strongly with Bloom and Tecna (Bloom over a passion for art, Tecna over a deep, deep love-hate relationship with soap operas).

The day of the test arrives, but Darkar himself hijacks the simulation chamber, forcing the girls to do a different convergence spell than planned, defeating the monsters he placed. They pass without issue after that, and the girls feel more together than ever.

Bloom needs to go to Earth for a few days to help her mom with the case against the dudes that tried to destroy her shop, and with permission from Faragonda she brings Stella, Musa and Aisha along, since they wanted a breath of fresh air.

Stella leaves to go sightsee and Bloom meets with her mom, so left alone, Musa and Aisha decide to hit up a club and see how it goes. 

Back on Magix, Flora manages to snag a coffee with Helia, and continue to catch up on their lives. She’s been trying to meet with him again for a while, but he tends to get so immersed in his work he accidentally keeps ghosting her. After an actual outing at last, Helia realizes he’s lowkey crushing on her, but decides to drop that though for a bit and continue with his art, unaware that Flora’s also starting to fall for him.

They have a good time despite an incident with some punks outside the place, and after a sudden slow dance, Musa realizes her crush on Aisha is far more than that. She internally panics the rest of the trip, Aisha somewhat oblivious but also starting to see Musa in a different light.

A few weeks pass, and Stella, Sky, Bloom and Diaspro are summoned by King Erendor, wanting to get some things clear that were left untouched after the Incident last year.

He and Samara talk about the engagement, and that if Bloom and Diaspro are willing, they can rearrange everything in a way they can both still be with Sky.

They all refuse the offer, having already resolved that themselves on their own, and that nothing he says will change their minds. Samara tries to subtly manipulate Diaspro with how her mother is taking all of this, but Bloom defends her, surprising the blonde and the regents. 

Defeated, Erendor cedes word to his wife, who reveals the other reason they called them: A town bordering Quarzis and Eraklyon has been taken by the rogue noble Yoshinoya, who wants to meet with both heirs to get to an agreement. Fearing a repeat of “The Onyrix Fairy incident” (which piques Bloom’s curiosity), they order them all to go see what’s up.

On Magica City, Musa meets with her brother - Jian, a senior Specialist. They’re catching up on what has been happening lately, and after a bit, Jian informs her that Red Fountain’s Academic Showcase is happening soon, and that they’re looking for a musician to perform at the end. Musa jumps at the idea and takes that spot, happy but nervous that she’ll finally get to play for more than just the Winx sometimes.

After they part ways, Jian calls his father, and invites him to come to the Showcase since he missed it last year, and that he has a surprise for him.

Back on Eraklyon, the group talks on the way, and Bloom asks about what Erendor and Samara were talking about. Sky admittedly doesn’t know much about it since it was before he was born, but Brandon fills in and tells her Daphne will know more since she was also involved.

They finally arrive at the town, and are immediately ambushed by a group of weirdos in superhero costumes calling themselves the Patchamen, a group of justice-obsessed mercenaries that believe in Yoshinoya’s cause, being completely misguided. They’re quickly defeated, however, and thanks to them defecting, they manage to capture Yoshinoya and send them to the authorities.

Diaspro and Bloom talk a bit more on the way back, and after everything that happened that day, she realizes she might be crushing on Bloom, especially after the redhead falls asleep on her shoulder.

A week has passed, and the Showcase is finally starting. Musa’s nervous about her solo act (since she’s also helping a band with her guitar earlier on), but Aisha manages to encourage her and everyone else is supportive as well. Riven offers some advice on handling any nervousness in his own way, but Musa’s thankful about the support.

Her happiness is short-lived, however, when she recognizes her father, Huan, on the distance, and while he’s happy to see her, his eyes have a stern look.

The Winx and the Specialists introduce themselves, and Huang pulls Musa aside from a bit after this. 

Once they’re in a private place, he asks her to drop the music act, that she shouldn’t do any of that. Musa asks him how he knows about this - Jian told him. She immediately refuses, she has been practicing like hell this past week and she’s not about to drop it just because her dad is still afraid of performing. 

They’re on the verge of a screaming match but Aisha interrupts, worried about her friend. Musa takes the chance and leaves his father there, and goes to confront her brother on this with Aisha.

Jian told their father about the show in the hopes he had finally gotten over the issue, but he was clearly wrong, and Musa, while appreciating the thought, he should have known their dad wasn’t over it. “We’re a family of thick-headed people, did ya forget that?” Aisha has like zero context about this, so she asks them to elaborate.

Their mother, Marina, died of a magic-resistant illness, and near the end of her life she had started to get slightly better. She wanted to give one last concert, in case she did not make it, and she did. But she passed out shortly after the final song of the concert, and died on the way to the hospital.

They went through some bad patches after this, and while Huan still likes music, he’s afraid of his kids also following that path in case they end like Marina did.

Both Jian and Musa know this is idiotic, but they understand why he would be afraid of this. Marina’s passing hit them all too hard. But Musa is determined to go through the concert with his approval or not, and she’s not gonna back down.

The Showcase finally starts, and while Huan is still grumpy the girls and Riven manage to soften him a bit with how much Musa loves music and how nervous she was about all this.

Musa’s number is close to happening, and after a bit, Huan shows up backstage. He apologizes for what he did that day, and that yeah, he shouldn’t have to force her to not perform just because of his fears.

Musa also apologizes for how she reacted, but also finally calls him out on how his fears have affected her and Jian, how she has felt pressured to keep a big part of her hidden from him all this time, and how much pain this has caused her. Huan apologizes once more, and as they hug, Musa earns her Glamourix, finally being honest with her dad.

She finally gets to perform her solo act, and the Showcase finishes without any major incident.

Bloom gets invited by Mitzi for a Halloween party, and she decides to bring the Winx + Dia along as well, since the rest didn’t get to see Earth last time.

The party goes without any major incidents, but Mitzi does tell her that she hasn’t seen Selina in a bit, seemingly spending a lot of time with her grandma. Mitz’s description of her matches what her parents have told her about the mysterious old lady that showed up each time she went back home, and while she’s worried, if she’s Selina’s grandmother she will probably be fine.

A few more weeks go by and the Winx wake up to the revelation Flora signed them all up for some extra courses at Cloud Tower, and she takes the chance to also meet up with Mirta and Lucy again.

Helia also goes to get some practice on his magic done.

As this happens, Sky and Riven get trapped on their side of the dorm due to some issues, and are forced to spend the entire day together. They get closer, and Riven starts to suspect he might have something for the blonde prince.

During their stay the Trix hijack the school and after some battles, they manage to steal its Keystone after defeating Discorda, its pixie.

Helia and Flora also start lowkey flirting but they’re both bad at it and Flora’s infinite patience is starting to cut short once Helia starts trying to change subjects.

Three days later, the Winx are still bummed about their defeat at the hand of the Trix, and Bloom starts taking some private magic lessons with Avalon to unwind a bit.

They talk a bit and asks Avalon if he knows where Alfea’s keystone is. Avalon says he honestly doesn’t know, but even if he knew he wouldn’t be able to tell her. Bloom makes an offhand comment about the Keystone being in the Archive, and Avalon loses composure for a second.

Avalon offers her some of his homemade tea to relax, and she eagerly drinks it, exhausted after the training.

Bloom gets progressively more and more flighty and happy as the day progresses, and during a small joke moment in the Winx’s dorm, she starts laughing too hard. Everyone gets concerned as Bloom also suddenly transformed, and started flying away.

She’s getting more and more deranged and her eyes are starting to change color, and she arrives at the Archive, starting to burn everything with a childlike glee on her eyes. Her Glamourix also turns from orange to gold.

The Winx follow and attempt to stop her, but they’re overpowered by Bloom’s Dragon Aura and she breaks the roof, flying out with the Keystone and giving it to a shadowy person for Darkar.

She comes back down and starts trying to play (read: attack) the Winx, but Avalon arrives and takes her out of whatever she was on, detransforming.

She spends the next week shut inside her room, afraid of what she had done, not knowing how it happened, and how she almost severely hurt her friends with her magic.

Since the last break before finals is rapidly approaching, Faragonda suggest for the girls to take a trip to the Fatue Wildland Resort, a place low on ambient magic with a lot of stuff for them to take their mind off recent events, and even suggest the girls could invite the Specialists.

The Winx take the offer and bring the Specialists alongside Diaspro and Helia, and they have a nice two days on the Snow Mountains before deciding to camp on the River side of the resort, just 4 days of enjoying nature.

At the same time, Palladium and Avalon go on a small hike in search of a flower, but Avalon gets some flower acid in his eyes, prompting Livy, the messenger pixie of Alfea, to go back and get some medicine while Palladium helps him. Avalon mentions something about Pixie Village’s unique cure seemingly as a random fact, and Livy decides to then go to Pixie Village since it would have been a shorter trip.

She gets attacked by Icy on the way, and she manages to find Pixie Village. She makes short work of the place and takes the last remaining Keystone, and almosts kills Ninfea before being stopped by Livy.

She decides to fold in, and Livy rushes again to help Avalon.

With all the Keystones, Darkar realizes he needs someone else to act as a catalyst to open the gate for Relix, and informs the Trix this person is Bloom, so they need to kidnap her.

The Trix attack the group on the Wildlands, but ultimately fail to get Bloom, the team getting the fuck out of there once the Trix disappear.

At some point between the attacks, Aisha gets separated from the rest, and in a moment of panic, she can only think of Musa and how she could make everything better. She realizes she might be falling in love with her.

The Winx then go to Pixie Village by Livy and Faragonda’s request, as the Tree of Life took a beating and they think Flora might be able to save it.

She does, and thanks to a confidence boost she stops beating around the bush, finally asking Helia out on a date after their ineffective flirting on the Wildlands. Chatta cheers on the background.

Once back on Alfea Bloom decides to go check up something with Avalon, and loses track of the rest.

The Winx then meet with Faragonda and talk about what happened, when Avalon, looking way worse than just a few moments ago, bursts into the hallway.

He explains he was a prisoner of Darkar almost all year, and has only now just managed to escape. Everyone else is doubtful until Faragonda decides to call the Order, and is indeed surprised that Avalon was reported missing for almost a year now.

The Winx, realizing Bloom was gonna meet up with the fake Avalon, rush like hell to his office, but are too late - Bloom is back to that crazed state (Shadow Bloom is what the fake calls it), and formally introduces himself as Bertrand, before disappearing to Shadowhaunt.

Everyone starts panicking like hell until Daphne, filled with rage, finally decides to go to Shadowhaunt and end all this right now. The Winx agree wholeheartedly, and with some preparations from all schools our protagonists venture into the depths of Magix.

They manage to meet with Amentia on the way, who realizes there’s been more monsters lately and that Darkar might be preparing for something big. She agrees to keep those monsters at bay alongside some senior Specialists chosen to help.

The main team manage to go inside at last after a last battle with the Trix, and start looking for Bloom.

On the main chamber, and with Bloom’s magic, Darkar finally manages to open the gate to Relix, and leaves the Trix alone to defend the castle while he executes his master plan (which no one truly knows what is yet).

The Trix are pissed at this, after all they did for him for him to betray them like that, so they defect and decide to go help the heroes as a last “fuck you” to Darkar.

The heroes, meanwhile, are held back by Bertrand, who has been kicking their ass for a few minutes before Faragonda, Griffin, Saladin and Codatorta’s entrance, who agree to entertain the monster while everyone else rushes to Relix with Daphne’s help.

The Ring/Sceptre of Solaria is broken during the battle, causing Stella a lot of distress.

With combined effort, the former members of the Company of Light manage to kill Bertrand.

The Winx, Specialists, Diaspro, Helia and the Trix manage to enter Relix at last, and finally witness Darkar’s plan:

To make Bloom absorb as much power from the planetoid as possible, so she can earn Relix and then transfer his consciousness to her, finally becoming corporeal again and… and…

He stops for a bit. He has completely forgotten what he wanted to do once he reached Relix, centuries old memories mixing inside of him.

The Specialists take this chance and attack Darkar, destroying his armor and suddenly freeing the spirit inside, forming into a giant bird-like form.

Bloom is still absorbing magic, and attempts from the Winx seem futile, a shield protecting her. A convergence spell manages to weaken it enough that Diaspro goes through it, and attempts to snap Bloom out of Darkar’s control as much as she can.

Darkar realizes what Diaspro is doing and attacks both her and Bloom not realizing that he will also hurt his future host, and Diaspro takes the full brunt of the attack to defend Bloom.

She ends up severely burned by Darkar, and faints on the spot, seemingly not breathing.

Bloom looks down to Diaspro, the manic glee in her face disappearing completely, her transformation undone and the curse drug placed on her by Bertrand burnt away by her sorrow.

Diaspro starts to shine, however, and manages to get herself partly up surprised that she’s not hurting anymore, and realizes she earnt Enchantix by saving Bloom via giving up her safety for her. Bloom hugs her immediately, but soon realizes Darkar’s still there and he’s attacking everyone.

However, the headmasters plus Daphne arrive to Relix as well, and with everyone’s power, they manage to destroy Darkar, separating the two souls that formed him and burning them, letting them pass on at last.

Completely exhausted, everyone leaves Shadowhaunt slightly traumatized by everything that happened, and the Trix, while proved helpful against Darkar in the end, are going to have to go to jail for a bit and will have a proper trial to determine their fate.

Everyone finally manages to go back to the schools and rest for a bit before finals start, and for now, peace has been achieved...

[broomballkraken]

Title: A Knight’s Duty

Fandom: Rune Factory 4

Pairing: Arthur/Forte

Word count: 3918

Warnings: None

Summary: As Forte is completing her morning rounds, she runs into Arthur, who is heading out of town to collect some medicinal herbs for a client. She offers to join him as protection, due to the recent increase in monster activity in the area and he accepts. Thus, the knight and prince spend a surprisingly exciting day together, and Forte is left with some...confusing feelings to work out.

“Right. Everything seems to be normal here…”

Forte stopped in the center of the Selphia Town Square, hand resting on the handle of her sword as her head slowly turned to scan the area for anything out of the ordinary. It was a brisk spring morning, but already warming up as the sun rose over the horizon, basking Selphia in a soft golden light. Summer was quickly approaching, and Forte was looking forward to spending some fun days at the lake with her friends. For now, she would focus on the ever-important task of keeping the townsfolk safe.

“Ah, good morning, Forte.”

Turning around, Forte saw Arthur approaching her with a glowing smile on his face. It seemed to be infectious, because she found that her lips were turning upward automatically before she could even think about it. The prince was a sweet, kind man, who had an incredibly bad habit of overworking himself to try and finish his seemingly endless piles of work. He must have something important to get done today if he was up so early, and Forte was curious about it.

“Hi Arthur. What has you up and about so early?” she asked, the smile falling from her face when she noticed the dark bags under his eyes. Had he stayed up late working again? Margaret often complained to Forte about Arthur’s tendency to work well into the late hours of the night, and even into the early hours of the morning. Margaret also mentioned that Porcoline and even Dylas were starting to worry about him. Forte wasn’t surprised; the three that Porcoline had basically ‘adopted’ were all very close friends and cared about each other quite deeply.

“Oh, I’m just going to collect some medicinal herbs from the Selphia Plains,” Arthur said, trying and failing to stifle a yawn, which caused Forte to narrow her eyes at him, “I have a client who is researching new medicine and has a need for them.”

“Are you going out by yourself?”

“Why yes. I was planning on it, anyway.”

“Hmm,” Forte hummed, frowning as she crossed her arms over her chest, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. There have been reports of orcs attacking travelers out on the plains lately. It’s dangerous.”

“Oh, really?” Arthur said with a disappointed edge to his voice, “But I need to send these herbs out by the end of the day, or they won’t get to my client in time.” Forte’s smile returned as she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips.

“Well, I’ll just have to join you, then,” Forte giggled at the silly, shocked expression that crossed Arthur’s face, and he shook his head.

“Oh, no! I couldn’t possibly bother you with watching over me. I don’t think my task will be a particularly exciting one…” Arthur said, and Forte laughed.

“It’s fine. I am a knight after all, and you’re a prince. I can’t just sit by and let you possibly walk off into danger.”

“But-”

“And,” Forte cut Arthur off as she placed a hand on his arm, “you’re also my friend, Arthur, and I want to help you out.” Arthur blinked slowly as he stared at her hand, before he smiled and let out a chuckle.

“I guess that makes sense. If you are certain, then I would be glad you take you along, Forte.”

“Good.”

With that, the pair headed out onto the winding path through the Selphia Plains. Forte stayed alert for any danger, keeping a hand hovering near the handle of her sword so that she could pull it out quickly if she needed to. Arthur filled the silence of the morning by speaking of some local legends, including one about a cave that they passed that was now blocked off because of a cave in.

“It was said that couples who walked hand-in-hand through the cave and back out would be guaranteed to be together forever.” Arthur said, a wistful tone to his voice as he turned to smile at Forte.

“How romantic...” Forte mumbled, her eyes going wide and mouth snapping shut when she realized that she had said that out loud and not just in her head. Arthur raised an eyebrow at her, curiosity glimmering in his bespectacled eyes.

“Er, uh, I mean…” she blurted out, blushing madly when Arthur laughed.

“I did not take you for the romantic type, Forte.” Arthur mused. Forte’s face scrunched up at that, and she turned her head away from him to hopefully hide the deepening of the blush on her face. Ugh, how embarrassing. Knights like her shouldn’t be thinking about romance of all things while on the job.

“It’s just, ah, you were telling that story, and it was interesting, and um, well-”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Arthur said, and when Forte turned to look back at him he was smiling sheepishly as he scratched at his chin, “I did not mean to fluster you like that. I have to admit, this side of you is quite endearing. You’re usually so serious all the time.”

“Well,” Forte said, huffing as she crossed her arms over her chest, “I am a knight, and it’s all part of a knight’s duty to not be distracted by frivolous things. Especially while on duty.”

“I guess you have a point there. But,” Arthur said, smiling sweetly at Forte, whose heart skipped a beat for some unknown reason, “it is just you and me right now. You do not have to have your guard so far up amongst a friend.”

“...You may have a point,” Forte muttered, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as they ventured onward. For as long as she had been a knight, Forte had given an outward appearance of a stoic, no-nonsense protector of the people of Selphia. She kept her love of sweets and cute things under wraps, as well as her embarrassing fear of ghosts. Who could ever look up to someone like that as a protector? She shook her head, trying to push those self-conscious thoughts away, when Arthur suddenly stopped walking.

“Ah ha! It looks like this is a perfect spot,” he said, turning to look at Forte as he waved his arm in front of him. Forte came to a stop beside him and surveyed the area. They were in a small clearing surrounded by trees, with many green clumps of vegetation growing in patches over the ground. She noticed that most of the plants were indeed medicinal herbs, exactly what Arthur was looking for.

“Wow, it didn’t take long at all to find a good batch of them,” Forte said, and Arthur nodded enthusiastically as he pulled out some gloves.

“Indeed. We are quite lucky today, it seems.” Arthur knelt down next to the nearest patch of herbs and started gathering them, stowing them away into a satchel that he had brought with him. Forte couldn’t just sit by and watch him do all the work, so she got to work as well. After a few hours of plant-picking, they had managed to clear out the entire area, just in time for lunch.

“Ah, yes. This will be a perfect amount to send to my client,” Arthur said, closing his now bulging satchel and taking off his gloves, “Are you hungry, Forte? I did bring lunch with me.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I don’t want to impose. I’m not that hungry anyway,” Forte said quickly, shaking her head. He had not planned for company, so she assumed that Arthur had only packed enough food for himself. She would feel bad about helping herself to his meal.

Forte’s stomach, however, chose this moment to betray her, as a loud rumbling noise filled the air. A mortified look crossed her face as she hid her face in her hands, feeling her cheeks burning with embarrassment. Arthur’s laughter hit her ears, and Forte peaked between her fingers to find him pulling two sandwiches out of another satchel. She slowly lowered her hands and blinked at him, confused. Why did he have more than one sandwich?

“I think your stomach is saying otherwise,” Arthur said, another chuckle escaping him when Forte pouted, “And do not worry. I brought two meals with me, just in case my herb gathering lasted all day.” He held a sandwich out to her, and she hesitated for a moment, before a small smile crossed her face and she took it.

“Thanks,” Forte said, as they both sat down in the shade of a tree. She unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite, her smile growing as the delicious taste filled her mouth. “This is really good!”

“Thank you,” Arthur said, biting into his own sandwich. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment and nodded, “Ah, it does taste delightful. I think my cooking is improving.”

“Have you been practicing?”

“Oh yes. Porcoline has been teaching both Dylas and myself. He’s an eccentric man, but a master of his craft.” Forte giggled at that. Eccentric was a bit of an understatement to describe Porcoline. But, he was a good man, giving Dylas and Arthur places to stay and taking Margaret under his wing as well. They fell into a comfortable silence as they ate, and Forte moved to stand when she finished her sandwich, but Arthur motioned for her to stop as he pulled something else from his lunch bag.

“Wait a moment, Forte,” he said, smiling as he held a smaller bag in his hands, “I also brought dessert, if you’d like.” Forte averted her gaze and shook her head as she had an internal battle with her hidden love of sweets.

“No, I, ah, don’t like sweets-” she started, but words suddenly failed her when Arthur pulled a small chocolate cake from the bag, and she almost started drooling when the sweet smell hit her nose.

“Oh, well, that truly is a shame,” Arthur said, raising an eyebrow at Forte before sighing, “I really wanted someone to help taste test this cake. It was my first attempt at it, after all.” Forte bit the inside of her lip as she stared at the cake. Yes, she could just play it off as helping Arthur do a taste test. No need for him to know that she actually really, really liked sweets. She could still keep up her knightly image.

“Well, if you need someone to taste-test for you, then I suppose that I could help you out.” Forte said, trying to keep a smile from crossing her face as Arthur cut her a slice of the cake before cutting one for himself.

“Ah, good! I really appreciate you trying it, although I feel bad feeding you something that you don’t like…” Arthur said, a slight frown crossing his face as a guilty look appeared in his eyes.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Forte waved his concerns off as she turned her complete attention to the slice of cake in front of her. She felt Arthur’s gaze upon her, so she tried to keep a neutral expression as she dug her fork into the cake, lifted it to her face, and took a bite. All thoughts of keeping up appearances were immediately discarded when the amazingly-sweet taste filled her mouth, and Forte let out a delighted hum, closing her eyes as a bright smile crossed her face.

“Oh! This is amazing!” she blurted out, her eyes shooting back open as she shoveled a few more forkfuls into her mouth.

“Hm? I thought you didn’t like sweets, Forte?” Forte almost choked on her cake when she remembered that Arthur was watching her. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, finding that he was indeed looking right at her, with an eyebrow raised and a small smirk on his face. She swallowed thickly and straightened up, sweat beading on her forehead as she tried to come up with an excuse.

“Er, uh, well yes, but...It must be because...y-you’re so good at baking! Yeah, that’s it!” Forte blurted out, laughing sheepishly as she pushed the rest of the cake back at Arthur. “I, er, this is all that I can handle, though! B-But it was...tolerable, even to a sweet hater like me!” A few moments of agonizing silence ticked by, before Arthur started chuckling, which soon erupted into a full-blown laughing fit.

“W-What’s so funny?” Forte asked, her cheeks burning as she covered her face with her hands. Ugh, how embarrassing. It seemed that she had let her guard down a little too much this time…

The laughter died down, and Forte suddenly felt a warmth on her hands. They were slowly pulled from her face, and she saw that Arthur was kneeling in front of her, his hands gently holding her own.

“Apologies, Forte,” he said, a last, lingering chuckle escaping him, “How incredibly rude of me to laugh at you like that. And after I fed you something that you don’t like. I will pack it away, just in case I get hungry on the way back to town.” Arthur winked at her as he released her hands to start packing up their lunch. Forte blinked slowly as she stared down at her hands, the warmth of his own still lingering on her skin. Her chest tightened at the thought, and she quickly shook her head and focused on helping Arthur pack up.

“Alright, we should be heading back now-Oh?” Forte turned around when Arthur interrupted himself, and she watched as he rushed across the clearing.

“What is it?” Forte asked, following him slowly as a hand instinctively went to rest on the handle of her sword.

“I think we missed collecting some herbs,” Arthur said as he fumbled with putting his gloves back on, “Oh, and these look like excellent specimens as well-”

Suddenly, something large burst out of the bushes in front of him, and Arthur let out a startled yelp as a wooly slammed into him, sending him stumbling backwards a bit before he fell to the ground. Forte immediately charged at the monster, drawing her sword as she stepped in front of Arthur. The wooly made the smart decision to turn tail and escape back into the forest from whence it came.

“Arthur, are you alright?” Forte said, sheathing her sword as she rushed to Arthur’s side, kneeling down beside him. He groaned as he pushed himself up, and he let out a sheepish chuckle.

“Ah, I think so. I was just surprised, is all,” he said, and Forte sighed in relief as she stood up and offered her hand to Arthur. He took it and she helped him to his feet, but he suddenly winced and fell against her.

“Arthur?” Forte frowned as she grabbed his shoulders to support him, her eyebrows furrowing with concern as he grit his teeth, looking as if he was in pain.

“Ah, maybe I am not as alright as I thought…” he said, looking down at his right foot, “I think I may have twisted my ankle.” Forte’s frown deepened as she looked up at the sky. It was only after noon, so she might have had time to go and get help for him. However, she did not want to leave Arthur alone, especially since he was injured and could be ambushed by orcs at any time. She knew what she had to do.

“I’m sorry, Forte. Maybe we can wait and see-” Arthur started, but he cut himself off with a yelp when Forte slipped one arm under his legs, while the other supported his back as she lifted him into her arms.

“Nope. We need to leave now, before those orcs I heard about show up,” she said, smiling at Arthur as he stared at her, a light blush forming on his face.

“B-But, Forte, I cannot ask you to carry me all the way back to town!” Arthur protested, his arms hovering awkwardly in the air, as if he didn’t know where to put them, before he settled for folding his hands in his lap.

“Oh, I definitely can,” Forte said, a smug smile crossing her face, “Or are you calling me weak?” She giggled when Arthur’s jaw dropped and he quickly shook his head.

“Not at all! I just...feel terrible for inconveniencing you. It was my fault that I got hurt, after all. I was not paying attention.” Arthur mumbled, averting his gaze. Forte rolled her eyes and adjusted her hold on him.

“Well, I’m the one who’s supposed to be protecting you, so it’s also my fault for not doing my duty correctly.” she said, as she started walking across the clearing to get back to the road, “Just relax and quit complaining about it.”

“...Alright, if you insist. Thank you,” Arthur said, and Forte could feel the tension leave his body as he finally relaxed in her arms.

“You can cook for me again if you really feel that badly about it, and we’ll call it even,” Forte said with a smirk.

“Oh, I believe I can do that. I shall be sure to omit the sweets that you loathe so much next time.” A conflicted frown crossed Forte’s face as Arthur laughed, and they continued to make their way back to Selphia.

They’re journey continued without much excitement...That is, until Forte heard a loud rustling coming from the foliage along the side of the road. She bristled and stopped walking, and Arthur shot her a quizzical look; it seemed that he did not hear what she did.

“Is something wrong?” Arthur asked, a worried frown crossing his face. She didn’t have to answer him, for a second later an orc burst forth from the forest, snarling as it charged straight for them. It swung its mace wildly in front of it, and Forte had just enough time to quickly sidestep its first attack.

“Hold on, Arthur!” Forte said, ignoring his surprised yelp as she quickly threw him over her left shoulder, keeping a tight grip on his legs with her left arm as she drew her sword with her right. When he recovered from his shock, Arthur wrapped his arms around her with a tight grip, and Forte took a defensive stance as the orc turned and charged at her again with a feral screech. Well, Forte certainly had never fought in this position before, but she grit her teeth and readied her sword; she would not let any harm come to Arthur, not while she still drew breath.

With a yell, Forte blocked the orc’s mace with her sword, the sound of steel hitting steel piercing the air. The orc stumbled a bit, and Forte used this opportunity to deliver a swift kick to its chest, sending it tumbling to the ground, with it’s mace landing a few feet away. She then stalked toward the unarmed orc, and it must have realized the predicament that it was in, because it immediately jumped to its feet and retreated back into the forest.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Forte sheathed her sword and gently pulled Arthur from her back and into her arms again. She gave him a once-over, and he looked to be fine, except for the absolutely flabbergasted look on his face. Forte narrowed her eyes, confused.

“Are you alright, Arthur? I didn’t hurt you when I moved you to my back, did I?” Forte said, the very thought of hurting him causing her heart to clench almost painfully. He stared at her for a few moments, as if he was in a daze, before his face flushed a bright red and he quickly shook his head.

“Oh, uh, n-no. I’m alright,” he said, bringing a hand to his face as he cleared his throat, “I appear to have, ah, lost my glasses, though.”

“Oh!” Forte said, planting her feet firmly as she scanned the ground, not wanting to accidentally step on his glasses. She looked over her shoulder and spotted his glasses on the ground, and she carefully turned around, squatting down enough so that Arthur could reach down and grab them.

“Ah, that’s better,” Arthur said when his glasses were back where they belonged, “Now I can properly look upon the face of my savior.” Forte felt her face heat up as she looked away, suddenly feeling shy.

“I was just doing my job. I wasn’t just going to let that orc attack us without doing anything…” she mumbled, and Arthur chuckled, reaching up to brush back some of her hair that had fallen from her hair clip and into her face. His fingers left trails of heat where they brushed against her skin, and she couldn’t stop herself from sputtering with embarrassment.

“W-wha...?”

“Thank you, Forte.”

“Uh...y-your welcome.”

Forte pursed her lips together as she started briskly walking again, and Arthur chuckled before falling silent. Forte’s heart was racing, and her face felt hot. Was she getting sick or something? Or maybe she overexerted herself in that fight? Fighting with someone else’s weight on her back was something that she wasn’t used to...but she had a feeling deep in her gut that it had more to do with the certain someone she was currently carrying in her arms...

By the time they made it back to Selphia, Forte still did not have an answer to her question. She had more pressing matters to attend to, though, and she quickly made her way to the clinic, where Jones and Nancy easily fixed up Arthur’s ankle, much to Forte’s relief. By the time they left the clinic, it was just after sunset, and Forte insisted on walking Arthur home, just to be sure that his newly healed ankle didn’t give out on the way. He protested slightly, saying that he did not want to be more of a burden on her than he already was. She was stubborn about it, however, and he eventually relented, and soon they found themselves outside of Arthur’s door.

“Well, it certainly has been an exciting day,” Arthur said with a smile.

“Oh yes,” Forte said, smiling in return, “Have a good night, Arthur.” She turned to leave, but he placed a gentle hand on her arm. She turned back to him, a curious eyebrow raised.

“Thank you, my courageous knight,” Arthur said, taking one of Forte’s hands in his and lifting it to his face, “for all of your help today, and for protecting me valiantly in the face of danger.” Forte’s jaw hung open in shock as he gently pressed his lips to the back of her hand, and her face suddenly felt like it had been set on fire.

“A-Arthur?” she managed to barely squeak out, and he chuckled as he released her hand, turning around to open the door. Arthur paused in the threshold and turned his head back to look at Forte, an amused grin on his face.

“If I may be so bold, you do look ever-so-cute with your cheeks flushed pink like that, Forte. Goodnight.” Arthur shot her a wink before disappearing inside and closing the door behind him. A mortified look crossed Forte’s face as she reached up to rub at her cheeks, as if that would make the pink blush go away.

“C-Cute?” she mumbled to herself. Arthur thought she was...cute? He did have a notorious weakness for cute things, but she really wasn’t all that cute, was she? Forte couldn’t really believe it, as plain and uninteresting as she was.

The evening chill was starting to get to her, so Forte finally forced her feet to move, and she made her way home. Despite the cold air around her, Forte’s cheeks burned and some kind of spark had ignited inside of her chest...and she did not know exactly why. Hmm, maybe she could ask Margaret about it later...

[thecardsimagine]

Vampire!AU where the plague turned people into Vampires

Not sure if anyone did that before but I am currently in AU-Fever and here is my take on an Arcana Vampire!AU! It’s a long-ass post so most of it is under the cut, but there’s also a frequent mentioning of blood which you should avoid if you are sensitive to it!

Feel free to use it for your own writing/art but please link back to this post or @ me if you do because I’d love to see what you guys come up with from it and for the original idea!

Julian

Got turned half-way while researching a cure for the plague, meaning he can die from normal things like breaking his neck or drowning

He’s an insomniac because of it, neither being able to go through a whole night or day sleeping and always up instead, trying to find a way to reverse it. When he doesn’t research new ways, he keeps being a doctor and helping people, especially those who are attacked by vampires and/or a turning into one. It also solves the problem of hunting for food - because he gets his share of blood here and there - and he leaves the safe zone quite a few times, mostly alone but eventually in company of the apprentice as he teaches them the ways of the vampires on their request

The only vampire who will not get hurt by the sun, and yet, wears a full set of clothes, just because he thinks it fits his image. Wears an eyepatch so people wouldn’t recognize what he is, because he can’t turn off the red eyes like other vampires who are not hunting for blood

Doesn’t want anyone to know what he is, not even his own sister or Mazelinka and suffering under the walls he puts up because he never gets to work up the feelings he suppresses. Lives with the resistance, because no one noticed him not being human yet and eventually confides in the apprentice

Still very dramatic and sometimes wishes he was a full vampire so he could dramatically fall down stairs without risking breaking his neck

Asra

Only one to get away before people started to turn into vampires because he left before the plague hit Vesuvia. He comes back and hides within the not-contaminated part of the town, trying to survive alongside the members of the resistance

Is guilty of actually taking in the apprentice, even though they are a vampire and could hurt him and other people. However, he goes as far as to let them drink his blood which somehow makes them less aggressive and satisfies their hunger if they do it regularly

He’d still do everything for them

Provides herbs and support for the townsfolk, while helping to rebuild the city and defend it from vampire attacks at night. Uses his magic to fight off very vicious beasts and together with Muriel sets up magical charms and border so it’s harder for them to attack the sleeping people in Vesuvia

Knows something is up with Julian, though still tries to figure it out and keep the apprentice safe from him for one reason or another

Nadia

Countess and Leader of the rebellion against her husband. Excellent sword fighter and also helps out energetically with forging and importing - from other countries - silver weapons for the defense. Uses her talent for tinkering to build massive traps and support items

Has slept for a long time after the plague occurred due to unknown reasons, only to come back to vampires and beasts roaming the cities of Vesuvia and instantly knows she has to do something. Made it her new cause to get rid of the remnants of the plague

Works close with Asra and Muriel to keep the city save and is even more suspicious of Julian as Asra is, having caught him slipping out of the borders of the safe zone a few times. She is unaware of him being a vampire but suspects him to have something to do with the plague and wants to find out what is up with him and if he maybe is in connection with her husband

Has constant nightmares because of the stress and pressure on her, as she wants to do everything right and save the people, blaming herself for what happened to Vesuvia. Puts her trust in the apprentice to help them,  is however ready to put them down when it’s necessary, but sees them as a strong ally in these desperate times

Lucio

Count and Vampire patriarch. Not only responsible for the plague to have washed over the country, but also for countless hungry and desperate vampires rooming the once so lively streets of Vesuvia

Still has all their respect since he’s the only one with a magical arm which gives him even more power than the average vampire and since no one knows the metal, they are afraid he could slaughter them with one touch

Red eyes 24/7 cause he’s a thirsty man all the time and loves to watch gruesome scenes and blood baths. Probably never needs to drink one drop of blood anymore after having ingested masses of it already, he just does it because he likes to do it

Is still willing to take back everyone that is in the resistance and make them a vampire like himself, so they can be a whole country again. Lately got infatuated with the apprentice because they are a strong vampire himself and he wants them on his side more than anything

Knows about Julian and thus forces him to do certain errands for Lucio - from bringing cake to luring a human or two ever so often -, or he’ll make sure everyone knows what is up with him soon

Muriel

The only to be killing vampires ever since the plague started. Still refuses to live with the resistance, staying in his hut and only comes out to help Asra and Nadia with defending the town

Only living evidence that bites could kill a human but not turn them into a vampire, as he has many, many bites after so incredibly many fights with vampires. He’s outside of the safe zone, so he is most likely to be attacked

Asra never told him what’s with the apprentice but he knows and absolutely despises them for staying with Asra. His main concern is Asra’s safety and he makes it known that they do not belong under the living anymore

Eventually becoming a second blood source in the event that Asra can’t feed the apprentice and pleads with him to help out. On some point, he accepts the possibility of humans and vampires theoretically living together in harmony if they sustain themselves and tries out new ways with the apprentice and even Julian after they sorted out the whole story about him, like drinking animal blood

Highest kill count and he has emotional scars from all the people he once knew and had to kill due to them attacking him, out of their mind and too far gone to safe

Portia

Came to Vesuvia after the plague happened in search of her brother, only to find it in shambles. Had to take a job at Nadia’s side to gain a little bit of protection

Ventured with the countess as she set up the resistance in defense of the vampires and became her right-hand woman in everything. Picked up sword-fighting more and more over the time though she learned the basics already when traveling before

Absolutely aware of what Julian is and tries to defend him at all costs. She is desperate when word gets out and he is supposed to be put down because of what he is

Trusts the apprentice because Nadia does, but has orders to keep an eye on them and to put them down too if they go wild. Eventually feels bad for them though and relies on them for help concerning her brother

The Apprentice

Did nothing wrong. Got caught by a vampire in the fateful night and left behind with many wounds infected with the plague. Eventually survived because of that and roamed the streets aimlessly searching for blood until Asra came along and pulled them out of their monster-thinking

Could smell what Julian was on their first encounter and so did he. They asked him if it was true and he only mumbled some confusing words before departing again. They learned afterwards that he was a regular at the shop to get medicine and so they started to ask him questions about their species, which Asra couldn’t answer them

Asra and Muriel put up with playing blood bank for them, causing them to realize that vampires could regain human sanity if they drank blood regularly. It’s something they discussed in the small circle of them, though the apprentice eventually confided into Julian too and even went as far as to introduce him to Muriel and talk about how bites do not turn a human into a vampire and how they themselves could have turned in the first place

Julian eventually took them with him on his ventures, where they met Lucio too. However, they refused to bow and follow him, upsetting the count greatly. They’d venture out into the plague-ridden part of the city alone a few times and have encounters with him, which irritated him so much that he called Julian and them out for what they are in front of the humans

After that, they have to hide from the resistance too, Nadia no longer being able to support their stay since she needs to keep up the face and they eventually flee with Muriel, thus parting from Asra, while Julian is supposed to be put down but flees into the vampire area instead

General Info

Due to the plague, the city got separated in two parts where the not-infected people set up a safe zone all around the city center, upper flooded district and temple district, barricading them in. Everything near the docks, Palast, Colosseum and the south end is contaminated with vampires and the animals that got infected with the plague (also meaning the lazaret is not available because it’s not possible to get to the docks, Mazelinka’s house and the Rowdy Raven have been relocated to the safe zone and the original ones are not available unless Julian, Lucio or the Apprentice go there. Please see the original layout of the city for references)

Vampire smell, thus the Apprentice was able to make out Julian. However, while they have to put on any kind of perfume or wash frequently so the smell won’t be noticed, Julian doesn’t face the problem as he is not a full vampire. A vampire can regain their sanity after drinking blood and will even lose their red eyes for a while until they need to feed again, but the smell stays. Vampires are still able to think and talk, but are ridden by instinct and will attack if they smell blood close by without hesitation. They do not feel remorse or will overthink their actions before doing them

The only ways to kill Vampires are: 1.) Killing them with an object containing silver (swords, bullets, knives, etc. - Being touched by silver will cause burns on vampire skin, but they need to be put down properly to actually die) 2.) Being killed by another vampire as they have more strength than a human and can rip through the tougher skin of vampires (Unlikely though, Vampires will not get alerted or attack their own species while roaming the streets aimlessly as there is no blood in other vampires that they’d desire) 3.) Killed by an animal either infected or not infected (a bear could probably still rip them to shreds) 4.) Magic

Muriel falls under category 3 and is the only known human to be able to kill vampires

Lucio’s metal claw does not have any silver in it (in this AU), otherwise, he couldn’t bear to have it so close. He just makes everyone think it has to keep his position above them

Magic still exists and can still be used by the cast as normal, with the Apprentice being the strongest magician still and they can still learn under Asra like in canon

Vampire bites do not kill or turn humans into vampires. Only their inhuman strength while they hold their victims down causes fatalities. To turn a human into a vampire, they have to get infected by the plague beetles by ingesting them or them crawling into open wounds on a still living person. Dead people cannot be resurrected, even by the beetles. The only other distributor are the vampire eels that gained this ability after the plague reached them too

To survive, the vampires in the resistance have to eat normal food, which will eventually cause stomach aches and lower the time they have until they have to drink blood again. They do not gain positive or negative effects out of it, a.k.a. Julian can’t get drunk from Salty Bitters anymore and the apprentice would not feel more awake from drinking caffeine.

The people of Vesuvia have a hard time leaving as the gates to other countries have been shut down from said countries to stop the spreading of the plague and the only other way is leaving through the forest which is also ridden with vampires and infected animals. There is an underlying frustration and anger thought they do their best to live their life normally and keep the community safe.

[insanely-creative-things]

Big Hero 7: The Series

Big Hero 7 S2

City of Monsters Part 2

*Cora continues to struggle in Chris' hold all the way down to the sixth level floor. Once there Cora takes notice of something else: She's not the only person trapped there. Her Grandmother tied up and gagged as she sees Cora with horrified eyes.*

Cora: Grandmama!

'Liv': Hello Cora.

*Cora turns her head to Liv, walking towards them with the smugness of a snake.*

Cora: You!

'Liv': You certainly look happy to see me.

Cora: Just so you know, I knew you were behind the monsters! I always knew!

'Liv': And how did you figure that out?

Cora: The ceremony for you at SFIT, he quoted the tempest which happened to have a character named Sycorax. He was trying to tell everyone that you were the reason he's turned to a monster!

'Liv': So that's why you've been so damn difficult to join us.

Cora: You never had my trust since you snubbed Hiro cause Baymax was Tadashi's.

'Liv': *Glaring* You don't know how that boy ruined our lives...

Cora: *Raising an eyebrow* Ruined your lives? W-what are you talking about?! And what do you want?!

'Liv': Right now I need you and your grandmother to do one thing...

*She goes over to a capsule where the frost melts to reveal an identical looking woman behind the capsule. Cora's and Kaguya's eyes widen in shock in response.*

'Liv': Save Liv Amara.

*Cora stares down at her feet as the memories of Baymax's lie detector and how he responded to her claim now made sense. This woman is not Liv Amara because she is someone entirely different... This Liv Amara is innocent while the one in front of her is guilty.*

Cora: So if she's the real Liv Amara.. then who the hell are you?

'Liv': Aw, that's a little rude. If you must know, I'm her twin.

Cora: Her twin?

'Liv': Yup. I'm Diane Amara, for short. Di. I tried everything to cure Liv, for you see she's been struck by some rare disease. I thought the gold would help... but it didn't.. that's when I found about your little medicine.

Cora: *Slightly growing scared* Medicine?

Di: The healing potion. The one you created that so happened to heal Karmi's wounds.. wounds that was meant to last a month ended in a span of a day?

*The blue haired teen froze in place as she processes all that Diane is telling her before looking up again.*

Cora: But then... why with all the monsters?

Chris: Research is pretty expensive and we didn't want to overstep our budget...

Cora: So you're saying I save your twin and you'll call off the wedding and get everyone better?

Chris: Not exactly.

Cora: Not exactly? What do you mean by that!?

Di: The Mizuchio Clan's inheritance. I want it.

*Cora gasps as Chris goes over to the blue haired teen and offers her a glass of water.*

Chris: Ya see, we're in a debt with the Madame of the household. After all, where do you think we got this giant company from? A fundraise? Then we learned about your daddy and you... Diane marrying him-

Di: Means not only will Liv recover, but we will rise up to power and fortune! Nothing will stop us from getting what we want. But we'll worry about that a little later, we do have 3 days before the wedding. In the meantime; aside from going along with the bridal shower, the rehearsal dinner at SFIT, and all the mushy stuff, you'll be working with your grandmother here on making that potion. You have until the sunset of the third day, and if you hadn't been making process... who's to say something happens to your precious friends and boyfriend?

*She picks up a glowing rose to which she lets out a drop of acid onto the petals, making Cora gasp as it quickly wilts and turns black as coal.*

Cora: *Gasps in horror*

*Chris unties the ropes of Kaguya as the older woman rushes to her granddaughter's side while the other two head out and lock them inside. Cora runs towards the door and starts banging it as a vain attempt to break her grandmother and herself out, despite knowing they are now trapped in the clutches of the Witch of Sycorax.*

Hiro: This is going insane! Liv now has Cora and her father in her hands and her grandmother isn't responding!

*They all met up at Grandville's office as Commander Carter and Chief Cruz are on the line with a face call.*

Wasabi: There's a pretty good chance that Liv Amara had captured Kaguya as well to use as leverage against Cora.

Fred: What are we gonna do?!

Honey Lemon: For all we know, Chris and Liv could mean anything by behaving.

Gogo: She could easily send monsters our way as a distraction to keep us from saving Cora, her grandmother, and her father.

Grandville: *Shakes head as she paces around* And she had the gall to arrange a rehearsal dinner here at SFIT tomorrow night for them while she has one of my students held hostage!

Carter: Either way, you all must remain vigilant and continue fighting those monsters. I'll even send Globby in as back up for you and contact Ice Frost as well. Chief Cruz, keep yourself and your men's eyes open for any clue as to arrest Liv Amara, and when you do contact Big Hero 7.

Chief Cruz: Understood loud and clear.

Carter: Over and out... *To the team* and good luck to you all..

*The face calls ends as Hiro and the gang are left in silence to which they noticed on Kage's silence.*

Grandville: Kage?...

Kage: *Looking up* We'll need more heroes if Liv does choose to release all those monsters... we need Orso Knox and Mothra...and Ned Ludd.

*They all look at Kage with wide eyes as they heard him express his idea on recruiting the two monsters on their side to fight back.*

Fred: Oh~ We're really getting them to join us? That's so cool! And definitely worthy of phase two!

Gogo: But where would we even find them?

Honey Lemon: And Cora is the only one who can understand Knox.

Kage: We need all the help we can get so we need their help now... and I am not letting that witch get away with taking my family hostage.

*Hiro's brow furrows in determination as he nods in agreement with Kage's plan, as without thinking they shake hands on it. After what felt like hours Cora stopped pounding the doors screaming, and even when she looked for any cables connected to the doors she couldn't. She turns her head to her grandmother, staring at the vials in front of them.*

Cora: Grandmama...what do we do?

*Kaguya sighs as she looks at her granddaughter with eyes filled with worry before she ultimately sighs in defeat.*

Kaguya: We do... what she told us to..

*Cora starts to shake her head slowly in disbelief, knowing that this is something so serious that her grandmother would find their situation hopeless.*

Kaguya: I had hoped that when I do teach you this potion it would be at a healthier time... now then... lets put on some gear and look around. I bet half of what we need is in here.

Cora: And the other half?

Kaguya: From the sea.

Cora: The sea?.. *Gets an idea* Wait... that means Diane and Chris would have to take us outside for the ingredients if they want it finished!

Kaguya: Or they could easily demand us the location and leave us here... Not that they'll get it. I have the rest of them at home.

*And Cora's hope deflates at the idea as she knows its most likely be true. Kaguya spots the first ingredient they need for their potion.*

Kaguya: Cora, start the burner to boil the water. *Picks up an empty vial* We got work to do...

*Orso knox is swimming through the ocean as Mothra flies above to keep a look out for anyone during their outing in the sea. While she's flying she spots familiar faces on a ship called 'The Kreifisher' waving at her and calling out. Mothra's eyes widen as she recognizes who they are before she lowers down to signal Orso Knox that they are found by their allies and that it seemed urgent that they talk to them.*

Wasabi: Do you think they heard us?

*Soon enough Orso Knox hops onto the yatch as Mothra lands on the railing.*

Gogo: Does that answer your question?

Baymax: Hello Orso Knox, Mothra. How are you?

* Mothra lets out a happy chirp before she goes over to Kage and sniffs him, to which she proceeds to cuddle.*

Kage: N-Nice to see you too...

Hiro: *Clearing his throat* M-Mr. Knox... Something bad happened.. big time. Liv Amara has taken Cora, her dad, and grandmother hostage at Sycorax. She's planning on marrying her dad to get her medicine!

*Orso Knox's growls heavily as he hears the new, his claws digging into the floor while Mothra looks on with what appears to be worry.*

Honey Lemon: We need all the help we can get should Liv Amara use the monsters on us while Cora and her family are trapped. Think you two can help us?

*To their surprise, Orso Knox huffs as he nods, to which Mothra mimics him as to say she is in agreement.

Hiro: Good, so far here's what we got covered. Now we have to get-

Fred: Ned?! Ned Ludd you there?

*The team are at Muirahara woods underneath the tree house. Soon enough Nedd pops his head out to see the gang, some moth like creature, and a gangly man beside them.*

Ned: What are yalls doing here?

Hiro: We need your help against Sycorax!

Ned: Sycorax? What for?

Fred: Long story short: Liv Amara tricked Cora's dad with some love potion and got her handsome assistant to basically hold Cora hostage along with her grandmother! Its possible they need her for some healing potion!

Ned: Healing potion?

Hiro: A-Anyways, if anyone could sneak in and break any tech its you!

Ned: I truly am sorry but not interested in going to the city folks and all their techno munbo jumbo.

*Honey Lemon then goes forward.*

Honey Lemon: and Liv Amara stole Bessie and turned it to a monster!

*That catches Ned's attention as he hops down to meet all of them.*

Ned: What? You saying them folks from Sycorax turned my Bessie to a monster?

Gogo: Yup. A rock bear chimera.

Ned: Well then why didn't you say so?! I'm coming Bessie!

Hiro: Whoa whoa wait! We can't rush in now! If we do anything drastic they could hurt my girlfriend and her family in response.

Ned: So then whats your plan little boyo?

Hiro: When D-Day comes up in three days-

Fred: Aka the huge wedding between the villain and the heroine's father.

Hiro: Half of us breaks into Sycorax to break her family out of there and find any files that can connect her to the monster attacks tomorrow night, while the other half will stall the wedding long enough for us to expose her. We'll still keep a look out for any monster attacks till then.

Gogo: Sounds solid.

Wasabi: You can count on us Hiro.

*Hiro nods before he looks up to the tree, reminded that this house used to be lived in by Cora's own mother and grandmother. Such an odd place. But that goes to the back burner.*

Hiro: Hang on Cora, we'll save you before you know it.

*With that they return home until they give a signal to Ned to come join the fight. Globby and Miyuki are on board with the plan as they promise to be vigilant. Day one is passing through with the sun setting down. Cora and Kaguya are at work on their potion with about half of what they need ready. And that so happens to be when the door knocks to reveal Chris holding trays of food for them.*

Chris: Dinner time ladies! I hope you enjoy your mahi mahi!

*He places the trays in front of them before he turns back on them.*

Chris: And hows the potion going?

Kaguya: Its coming, but we are missing half of the ingredients for it.

Chris: And where can you get the ingredients?

Kaguya: My house.

Chris: I see.. well, eat up and rest up! Cora is gonna join her new mom for their dress fitting tomorrow and its gonna be a long one!

*The two flinch at his cheery announcement, he knew what this truly meant to them and he either is oblivious to their pain or he's as much a sadist as Diane Amara. He locks the lab where Cora begrudignly starts eating her fish.*

Cora: *Muffled while eating* Stupid Di Amara and her stupid assistant giving us yummy food even though *Swallows* They're holding us hostage and are gonna ruin our lives!

Kaguya: Now is not the time to let your anger blind you from possibilities. Hiro and his friends will come and save the day and we will find a way to stop her.

Cora: Oh that's so easy to say! We hadn't gotten close to discovering anything about Diane and the monsters! Ugh! I just can't stand it! I hate being helpless! And I hate how she keeps smiling even though she's gonna marry my papa and hates me and my friends and boyfriend.*Sniffs*

*Cora pushes away the rest of the food, letting the situation sink inside her as the girl breaks down in tears. Kaguya sits beside her and wraps her arm around the girl.*

Kaguya: My little Cora... *Sighs* I do not know how it will go, but to give up hope is to give up everything in life. Its never easy, but you've grown so much not only as a hero, but as a woman as well. Your light has guided others as much as it has guided you. Come here...

*Cora snuggles close to her grandmother as the old grandmother starts softly singing a song from her childhood.*

Kaguya: Hush now my storeen.. close your eyes and sleep... Waltzing the waves.. Diving the deep... Stars are shining bright.. The wind on the rise.. whispering words.. of long lost lullabies~

*Cora's eyes slowly close as she let herself sleep on, tired from the entire day feeling lost and scared, content to be in the arms of her grandmother.*

Kaguya: Oh won't you come with me... where the moon is made of gold... and in the morning sun, we'll be sailing free... Oh won't you come with me, where the ocean meets the sky and as the clouds roll by... we'll sing the song of the sea~...

*To her joy, Cora is fast asleep, no longer troubled by today's events. They only have tomorrow and the night after that, where if Diane Amara succeeds she will take Cora away to the clutches of Nozako and trap her. Far away from her world.. a world she had yet to explore and discover...*

Kaguya: I will guide you my darling.. and the moment hope comes through.. I'll hold you close, my melody... and sing the song of the sea.. with you~ Sing the song of the sea... with you~...

*Somewhere at the bays of San Fransokyo, Kage and his Baymax are with Mothra and Orso Knox, keeping an eye for any ships that may be targeted or working for Liv Amara. They land back to their cave where Orso Knox curls up to a ball and starts to sleep. Kage yawns in return before Baymax gets up.*

Baymax 1: It is recommended that you get 7-9 hours of sleep for your body and mind to function properly.

Kage: Of course Baymax… But to go back to an empty house?...

Baymax 1: *Blinks before hugging him* It will be alright, there there. I will accompany you with your sleep so you may rest better.

*Mothra's eyes look down as she heard his words and her mind starts filling up with faint echos of warmth beside her in bed. Some of a toddling child crawling under the covers of her parents... then of the boy in her heart being the one beside her.. no one should ever sleep alone. She carefully nudges Orso Knox awake, to which catches Kage's and Baymax's eyes, and walks towards them. She points to herself, and then Orso Knox, then to them, and makes the gesture for sleep.*

Kage:... You want to sleep with us?

*Mothra nods to answer. Then she makes a plea with her hands to join them. Orso Knox rumbles with concern before he gives in, diving back into the ocean.*

Kage: I guess we're not sleeping alone tonight..

*After carefully sneaking underground Kage and Baymax gets Mothra and Orso Knox to the house. Mothra chirps curiously as she looks around while Orso Knox goes down to the basement to sleep on.*

Kage: Alright, make yourselves comfortable... I suppose mattresses are a none issue...

*But before he goes on to his own room he spots Mothra staring at the butsudan. He quietly goes over to see her staring at the two women in photo frames. *

Kage: Um... If you wanna know.. the woman with blonde hair is... was.. my brother's wife and Cora's mother, Akemi. What I've heard is that she is a gentle beauty, compassionate and brave... just like Cora...

*Mothra then points to the other picture, the one of Chara. Kage swallows his throat before he goes to continue.*

Kage: That... is my beloved. Chara Bonete… she was my joy and light as much as Akemi was to Mizuchi… but... sirens had stolen her. And I don't know where she is... I don't know if she remembers me after all this years... I'm not the young man I used to be.. but even now she remains in my heart...

*Mothra felt her heart melt at his description, filling her with joy and happiness, and if she had tear glands she would cry as well. She hugs him gently, crooning softly as if to hum her own lullaby. Kage, though confused, soon grows touched by her affection, hugging her back.*

Kage: I suppose.. you also have some waiting for you...

*Mothra nods softly. Soon Baymax comes back and takes both him and Mothra to Mizuchi's room, sleeping in between the two. An hour or so Knox awakens, unable to rest before crawling upstairs. There finds Mothra, Baymax, and Kage sleeping together. He gives off his own smile before curling up between them, resting with what made up an odd family to comfort a man who had his own taken away.*

_____

*The very next day it cuts to Hiro Hamada getting ready for the day, just getting dressed when Cass comes up to his room.*

Cass: Oh you're awake! How'd you sleep?

Hiro: I-I slept fine.

Baymax: You were tossing and turning in your sleep. You were not fine.

Cass: Woah, really? *To Hiro* Did you have a nightmare?

Hiro: Something like that...

Cass: Hiro... I know you and I have both been very busy with work and all your study groups, but don't be afraid to come to me if you wanna burst out whats in your chest. I've talked to Kage from time to time and... he's getting better in a way.

Hiro:That so?...

Cass: No matter what you do Hiro, I'm always proud of you. Just like how Tadashi is proud of you too.

*Hiro gives a small smile at her before hugging her tightly. Then he lets go and joins off to school with his friends waiting for him. Cass sighs before returning to work. She couldn't imagine hearing the news about Cora's father's wedding coming up, especially since Mizuchi...never mentioned seeing someone before... in fact... why wouldn't he at least told her in confidence about Liv Amara? Especially since marrying Liv Amara would also mean Cora would be gaining a mother and a brand new life? And what's odd is that he hasn't even received her calls when she heard about the announcement either. Something felt wrong about this whole thing and she can't pinpoint what it is.*

Customer 1: Hello! can you bring over some soymilk?

Cass: Coming right over!

*Cass comes forward with her pitcher of soymilk, choosing to focus on her work today and plan how to talk to Hiro later on. At SFIT Hiro had arrived with his friends to which they found the staff hard at work at setting up the rehearsal dinner tonight as with the rest of the students chattering on about the dinner and the upcoming wedding.*

Honey Lemon: Wow... the wedding sure is on everyone's mind...

Gogo: Its honestly a little uncomfortable...

Wasabi: Yeah, I mean.. we know what Liv Amara is as a person but they still worship her!

Hiro: *Turns his head to his heads* That sounds just like when Karmi's fanfic got super popular, where she inserted herself as my 'girlfriend' and Cora's BFF despite knowing she treats us like shit.

*That got the gang to flinch as they recalled that moment, and how in reflection they didn't do much help until later. Hiro then pulls out his phone to call Kage.*

Hiro: Kage? Are you with Globby and Miyuki?

Kage: Indeed I am. They're going to look after the city while you start your plan tonight.

Hiro: Thanks Kage. Bye. *Hangs up phone* Anyways, tonight we sneak into Sycorax and break Cora and her family out of there... assuming Liv doesn't take Cora out for tonight of course-

*That's when he had the misfortune into running into Karmi.*

Karmi: Watch where you're going Hiro!

*Hiro dusts himself off as he stands up.*

Hiro: Nice to see you too Karmi...

Karmi: Don't mention it. Anyway, this wedding is gonna be huge! And I am personally invited to the dinner party tonight! Can you believe that!

Hiro: Don't I know it...

Karmi: I know. Nobody is as lucky as me.

Gogo: You do know that Liv is marrying Cora's father right? Which would technically make Liv *Cringing to himself*… Cora's step mom?

*That got Karmi's attention, recalling all the times she had been a menace to Cora and Hiro. And knowing how giant her father is, if she tells Liv about all the nasty things she said about Cora, it would not end well for her.*

Karmi: Oh look at the time! I gotta go bye!

*She runs off down the hall where she slips on the floor tile and lands flat on her face before running again. Gogo raises an eyebrow at Karmi's path before looking back at Hiro.*

Gogo: and she, is a biotech genius?

*As of while, Liv took the time to call Cora off for school for sometime to prepare for the wedding as she, Chris, and Cora are taken through the city and park in front of Cora's house.*

Liv: Chris wasn't kidding when he said you live in some shack.

*Cora sticks out her tongue in defiance before her door was opened by Chris. The blue haired teen goes up, getting out her key to open her door. It felt odd to return to her house after being absent from it for two night. Even so, she continues forward, and goes towards her grandmother's room upstairs. She swallows before she opens the door, knowing that she had to get the ingredient needed. Inside she is surprised to see that its mainly lit by lanterns, her book shelves containing herbs and books. Soon she finds jars just above her head containing the missing ingredients needed. Cora grunst softly as she realizes that there's no chairs to stand on properly. She hated being short, and there was no way in hell is she requesting help from Chris to reach it for her.*

Cora: OK now think...

*That is when her foot slightly tilts back... a few floor boards were loose. She picks up the floor boards to reveal a trunk inside. Cora's eyes widen as she smirks to herself, now glad that she has a footstool to reach for the ingredients. After propping it up Cora balances on top of it and grabs the rest of the ingredients and places it in her bag. But the longer she stared at the trunk, the stronger her curiosity grows as she wonders whats inside..*

Cora: Just one peek..

*She places her bag aside and opens the latches of the trunk, opening the lid to find oddities she never knew her grandmother would posses. There were sea shells of course, but there were also other vials of liquid with odd sounding names, and the main feature being a gold breast plate armor, forearm guard with a thin opening on the sides, and a helmet that reminds her or roman soldiers.*

Cora: why would Grandmama have armor like this?

Chris: *coming from downstairs* Hey Cora! You need anyhelp?

*Cora snaps out of it when she realizes that Chris' voice is coming downstairs, meaning that he is inside her house wondering whats taking her so long.*

Cora: Nothing Chris! Just getting the things ready!

Chris: Well hurry up and get down here! You have to pick up your dresses and get your hair done for tonight's dinner!

*Cora sighs forlornly before she makes sure to shut the door and hurry downstairs as to not give any reason for Chris to join her. While Cora had been upstairs Chris spotted the butsudan containing Akemi's and Chara's pictures. He got closer to spot behind the golden blonde photo a necklace made of Rose petal telling shells formed into a flower... the same necklace as the photo showed. He smirked maliciously at the photo of Akemi before he slowly licked his lips as his minds begins to wander away...*

Cora: I'm going down!

*Immediately he places the photo back at its place while stuffing the necklace inside his shirt when he sees Cora reach downstairs. Once they reach back to the car outside Diane points to Chris.*

Di: You go off and run back to Sycorax and give it to the old hag. Cora and I have a busy schedule ahead.

Chris: OK then!

*Chris then whispers something to Diane as he hands her something...He runs off through the streets, leaving Diane to drive through the city with Cora. The day turns into evening where everyone is getting ready. Globby is assigned to watch over the party and Miyuki is out in the streets taking over hero duty should any other crime be happening while Hiro and his team get ready for their stealth mission. Once dressed in their ultra armor they wait for the last of the employees to leave.*

Gogo: that looks about the last of them. *To Honey Lemon* Ready Honey?

Honey Lemon: Got it Sweetie!

*She throws out s small chem ball to get the doors stuck so it wouldn't be completely closed.*

Hiro: Its go time!

*The team goes forward with their plan: Fred and Wasabi acting as back up to stand guard while Honey Lemon and Gogo search through Liv Amara's office for any files on her computer that could relate to her crimes. Hiro and Baymax are to go below ground and find the lab to break out Cora and her family. They come forward with their plan; ready as they'll ever be. The dinner meanwhile is setting up nicely, with everyone dressed in their best chattering happily about the wedding tomorrow. Grandville is there of course, being the dean of the school and therefore had to attend. She sighs before she joins in the conversation with the others. Globby is hidden in the leaves as he looks out for any suspicious activity coming forward.*

Student 1: I see them!

*They all turn their heads to see the three main events of tonights dinner. Liv Amara is dressed in a hot red off shoulder long sleeve with black heels while her hair is styled up in a bun. Beside her is Mizuchi, standing tall and proud with his white tuxedo and grey vest, his hair slicked backed, making him more mature and dashing. Cora is standing in between them, in her coral pink dress that is slightly above her ankle showing her white flats. Cora felt herself shrink as some people comment on how lovely the engaged couple look and how cute Cora looked between her father and her soon to be new mother. Grandville comes forward to greet them, her eyes catching Cora's to show that this event is just as uncomfortable to her.*

Grandville: It is an honor to have you back at SFIT in celebration of your wedding tomorrow.

Di: Its nothing much Grace. I'm just happy to have this moment with my new family. Its also not everyday you get a marine bio genius as your new step daughter am I right?

Grandville: Indeed... Well, lets get the festivities started.

*The three adults head to their seats and just when Cora is about to follow them, Karmi comes in, dressed in the same dress that had been worn to the namesake ceremony of the Amara Biotech center. She is giving her best, strained smile towards her. Now Cora's discomfort shifted from the fact that she's attending an event under the threat of her loved ones to being near her bully who's trying her hardest to smile genuinely.*

Karmi: Hi Cora! Wow you look great!

Cora: Thank you... um... this is certainly something...

Karmi: I know right? Liv Amara is gonna get married to your dad!

*Cora flinches at her words before the blue haired teen moves on to the table where her father and Diane are waiting. And to her disappointment Karmi is seated next to her as well. Grandville is standing up tall as she hold the microphone.*

Grandville: May I have your attention? Thank you... it has only been months ago when SFIT was proud to introduce the namesake of the Amara Biotech center and her many accomplishments in such short amount of time. But tonight's festivities isn't just about Liv Amara's successes, but also on her path to a new chapter: Her incoming marriage with her fiance...

*At Sycorax Honey Lemon and Gogo unlock the door to Liv Amara's office to which they start searching around to find anything to incriminate her.*

Gogo: I see Liv's computer! I'm gonna go check it, you go see if there's anything in her files.

Honey Lemon: You got it!

*As of while Hiro is with Baymax where they reach in front of the door that leads to the lab that had trapped Orso Knox long ago. Hiro approaches towards it where he knocks loudly.*

Hiro: Cora? Are you there?

Kaguya: *Slightly muffled* I'm not my granddaughter but she's alright.

Hiro: Kaguya! Are you alright? Where is Cora?

Kaguya: She's at SFIT with that witch and her father for that dinner event!

Hiro: How did Liv even manage to get Mizuchi to marry her? He already knows about Liv!

Kaguya: I don't know how but I will find out so he can snap out of this stupor! Can you unlock the door?

*Hiro stands back and sees that since the break out, Liv had upgraded the lock from a passcode to handprint entrance. He grunts in frustration as he pulls it out and starts rewiring the cables to set Kaguya free.*

Hiro: Baymax, you join Honey Lemon and Gogo upstairs and help them with the search. I'll stay here and break Kaguya out.

Baymax: Understood.

*Gogo had gotten the computer on but she couldn't seem to have gotten the code to unlock it. Honey Lemon had pulled out each file one by one and couldn't find it close to being related to the monsters.*

Honey Lemon: any luck sweetie?

Gogo: Liv Amara certainly made sure to lock it up good. I can't seem to penetrate through it that would let me in.

*Honey Lemon goes to the desk where she starts to pull open drawers.*

Honey Lemon: she could have something that could clue us in what password it is...Hold on... *Pulls out a book from drawer* She read The Tempest too... *Opens up a page with a highlighted quote* 'Cursed be I that did so! All the charms of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you. For I am all the subjects you have.. The rest o'the'island'... Hmm...*Gets idea* Try typing Caliban!

*Gogo looks at Honey Lemon before she types it in where she is easily logged in.*

Gogo: Good call Honey.

Honey Lemon: Caliban was the son of Sycorax in the Tempest. And since Orso Knox knew about the tempest and Liv did too, she would choose a password close to her!

*Gogo nods as she immediately finds somethings.*

Gogo: Security cameras! Going back as far as the time of Orso Knox's first appearance as a monster!

Honey Lemon: It could have recorded Liv Amara and Orso Knox or more!

Gogo: Looking for it.

*And so she starts typing and searching for any videoes that will show Liv Amara and any other villain aligned to her.*

Grandville: And now... A toast to the groom!

Guests: To the groom!

Grandville: To the bride!

Guests: To the bride!

Grandville: From SFIT, who is grateful to be by your side! To your union, and the hope you'll provide for each other the love and guidance needed for you future together...

*Grandville's eyes catches Cora's and seeing her melancholy aura emitting from a normally hopeful girl made the dean pause. Still... this will pass. It has too.. for both their futures.*

Grandville: And may you always be satisfied.

*The guests cheer before they begun their dinner and chatting together. Grandville sees Cora looking at her father and Liv Amara staring at each other with love, Karmi trying to converse her in whatever subject she's rambling on, and wished she could rush over and give her a hug and remind her that she is not alone... just like how she comforted Kage all those years ago. She takes a sip of her cider, trying to keep out her mind the idea that Cora's life will be doomed the moment Liv and Mizuchi got to say 'I do'.*

Hiro: Come on!

*Hiro continues to struggle through the cables while Kaguya starts packing the ingredients to a makeshift bag to keep Diane Amara and Chris. Even if the cure is solely for Liv, she could see greed in her eyes. Baymax had arrived at the office where he sees the horrified and disgusted faces of Honey Lemon and Gogo at the computer screen.*

Baymax: My neural scanners senses that you both are feeling horrified and disgusted by whatever contents are in the computer.

Gogo: You have no idea..

Honey Lemon: I'm gonna download them and hand them over to Chief Cruz.

*She pulls out her flash drive and plugs it in, with Gogo selecting the footage where it showed Liv Amara's villainous acts while erasing the ones containing them right now. But when Baymax goes over to take a closer look, he so happens to knock aside a paperweight where they hear the sound of a wall sliding through. The three turn around to see the familiar, mutated eyes of Momakase.*

Momakase: Hello girls~

Baymax: Oh no.

*The three dodge when Momakase launches herself forward with claws open to when they were busy with Momakase, Sparkles sneaks through the office and sees Fred and Wasabi standing guard.*

Sparkles: Oh this will be fun~... Yoo hoo! Over here!

*The two turn around to see Mr. Sparkles taunting them before running outside. Fred and Wasabi get into their stances.*

Fred: Give it up Sparkles! We got you beat with fire and lasers!

*Sparkles smirks as he soon transforms to his giant self where he chuckles manically. Fred goes in to the attack with his fire, to which Sparkles moves out of the way before Wasabi joins soon after. Hiro soon feels his comlinks be overridden with messages.*

Gogo: Momakase is here! She's on Honey and I-

Wasabi: Sparkles got on Steriods!

Fred: we're doing good so far!-

Honey Lemon: But we need to move forward now!

Kaguya: Hiro! Your team needs you! Go!

Hiro: But what about you?

Kaguya: I can live another day at this prison, you cannot.

Hiro: Alright...

*Hiro runs off where he contacts Baymax.*

Hiro: Baymax, use Rocket Fist on Momakase when you get an opening!

Baymax: Understood.

*Honey Lemon is holding onto the computer as it had yet to fully download the videos to the flash drive while Gogo keeps Momakase busy to give her girlfriend time along with Baymax. Gogo jumps up where it gives the nurse bot a clear view of the mutated thief. He fires his shot where it knocks Momakase to the wall, making her grunt in pain... and awakening something behind the wall.*

Gogo: Thanks Baymax.

Baymax: No problem.

Honey Lemon: *Sighs in relief* OK... I managed to download three of the videos inside, now lets just move somewhere else to-Augh!

*Gogo pushes Honey Lemon out of the way and into Baymax's arm as a green blast hits her instead, sending her sprawling to the floor.*

Honey Lemon: Gogo! *Gasps in horror*

*Bessie the rock bear chimera roars at the remaining two before it starts charging up its blast. Gogo gets up and runs along with Baymax and Honey Lemon with computer in hand to dodge away. The reach down to the main lab where all the workers had joined together and see Hiro reach upstairs in time.*

Honey Lemon: Hiro! There you are! We have to get out of here! Bessie is out and it blasted Gogo!

Hiro: Fred and Wasabi also need our help too! Did you at least get some info about Liv?

Honey Lemon: We did… But we only downloaded about three videos.

Hiro: That's more than enough. Now lets go!

*Honey Lemon ejects her flash drive off and give it to Hiro in time for Bessie to come charging and blasting the computer, rendering it useless. The three climb on Baymax before they fly out the doors and join Fred and Wasabi.*

Wasabi: There you are!

Fred: What took you?

Hiro: Bessie is behind us! Keep an eye out to not get hit by its blasts!

*And so the team jump up to switch monsters. Hiro, Baymax, Gogo, and Honey Lemon going against Sparkles while Fred and Wasabi go against Bessie. The Rock Bear Chimera swipes his claws at Fred and Wasabi to which they jump back as Honey Lemon uses her chem purse and chem boots to make a goo that will trap the Fungi monster in his place.*

Globby: For a giant party I'd thought it be more lively..

*Globby is still at the party where he watches over the three people he's been told should be in his line of sight: Liv Amara, Mizuchi Mizichio, and Cora Mizichio.*

Kage: How is the situation going on your side Globby?

Globby: Ah!

*He falls down splat which caught some guards' attention, but being a gelatinous blob had given him perks, such as being able to flatten yourself to the literal floor.*

Globby: sorry about that! Its still a little weird knowing that you used to be my former boss and we're on this mission to-

Kage: I am very aware. Now tell me, what is happening at the party?

Globby: Nothing much. Everyone's just chatting. Though Cora has been followed by some girl and let me tell you, that chick is clearly too in her space.

Kage: Is she wearing her hair in a pony tail and have the pink phone with a virus emblem on it?

*Globby looks at the girl next to Cora, wincing at how Cora looks uncomfortable when Liv stands next to her while placing a hand on the blue haired teen's shoulder.*

Globby: Yup... why's that?

Kage: That so happens to be Karmi: a biotech intern of Liv Amara and Cora and Hiro's bully.

Globby: Their bully? And Liv Amara's intern? Yesh… No wonder Cora looks like she wants to be anywhere but here.

Kage: Hmmm...*Mutters softly* Not to self, get evidence of Karmi's behavior and send it to Grandville...

Globby: What was that?

Kage: *Changing subject* So other than that neither Cora or Mizuchi are in real danger?

Globby: Nope. They're doing pretty fine right now. How's the others?

*Kage is at his house with his own Baymax checking in on others.*

Kage: Ice Frost is at Night Market Square... Mothra and Orso Knox are at the ocean...Hold on...

*He notes that Gogo's commlink is down to which he quickly goes in to check on Big Hero 7. Sparkles strains as he tries to pull himself off the goo while Baymax fires his rocket fist at him. Hiro had landed to the ground to help Fred and Wasabi push back against Bessie.*

Kage: Hiro! Whats' going on? Why's Gogo's commlink down?

Hiro: Kage! Bessie got Gogo's tech but she's alright, she's with Honey Lemon and Baymax dealing with Sparkles while Fred, Wasabi and I got Bessie!

Kage: And where's Momkase?

Honey Lemon: Unconscious at Liv Amara's office.

Kage: Then you need to defeat them right now! Given Momakase's stamina and her newly mutated form she'll be up and about in-

*Hiro jumps back as does Fred and Wasabi when Momakase jumps up and lands in front of Bessie. She smirks at them before launching forward again. Wasabi gets in the way and uses his own plasma shield and dagger to the combat her graphine blade claws, leaving Fred and Hiro to play keep away from Bessie. That is when Honey Lemon makes the mistake to use her chem purse bazooka to shut Bessie's mouth, only for it to rip it openly and blast her, resulting in her falling to the floor where Baymax catches her.*

Gogo: Honey!

*Momakase flips over and kicks Gogo in the head and stepping on her back to pin her down. She then uses her claws to free Sparkles out. Fred uses his lights to blind Sparkles only for Bessie to strike him again and having Sparkles caught in his hand.*

Fred: OK! This is clearly not going well!

Wasabi: I'm coming Fred!

*Wasabi runs towards the fungi monster to only have Momakase kick him straight in the stomach and pushing him towards Bessie's way, resulting in his powers to be nulled and void.*

Hiro: Looks like its up to you and me Baymax!

*Hiro hops up to Baymax as they fly up and circle the monsters, while hiding the flash drive in his clothes. Momakase gets on Sparkles' other hand and growls.*

Momakase: Launch me!

*And Sparkles does so, sending her flying to Baymax and grabbing onto his wing before slashing it.*

Hiro: Augh!

*Baymax's flight is off balance without his wing and are in threat of crashing down. Momakase hops away while Baymax grabs Hiro to shield him from impact. Hiro quickly grabs the flash drive and throws it aside of Sycorax, using his own tech to guide it safely away from the monsters. They land down with a mighty crash. Hiro opens his eyes to see Baymax entering safety mode due to the crash and surrounded by the monsters. Bessie then comes forward to shoot Hiro with her laser beam, rendering him powerless. The entire team struggles as Momakase and the others drag them to the lab below, and are quick to knock them out unconscious. Smirking at their victory Momakase gives a quick call to Diane. The woman had happened to be standing by Cora as they greet the guests. Their smiles plastered on their faces, but are false.*

Di: Excuse me, I'm receiving a call. *To Cora* Could you be a dear and stand by Chris?

*Diane walks away, answering her phone. And once she hears it, her smile became genuine... genuinely scheming and malicious.*

Di: Thank you for your service. I'll be sure to reward you handsomely after all this is over...

*She hangs up the phone and turns her head to Cora, now with Chris by her side. When the blue haired teen and the assistant look up they see her cunning smile and Cora's blood ran cold. Each time a smile like that appears, it could only mean that things are going in motion for Diane as part of her plan... and something truly horrible must have happened for her to be smiling that giddily malicious. And Kage was no better either, his eyes remaining wide open as he processes what Hiro had managed to tell him before it all went static.*

*Big Hero 7 is now in the clutches of Sycorax.*

___________

*They finally drive back to Sycorax where Diane takes Cora to the lab while Chris takes Mizuchi somewhere else. Cora turns her head to see her father one last time to which they quickly catches eyes. And when Mizuchi did... something pinged inside his mind.. it was small but it was there.. and it was important... *

Mizuchi: Chris?...

Chris: Yeah?

Mizuchi:... Do you know why Cora appears so downtrodden?... I thought Cora would love Liv.

Chris: And..?

Mizuchi:... I don't know... I need to talk to Liv about this... maybe there's something about Cora I need to know if she's this uncomfortable with the wedding coming tomorrow.

*Mizuchi goes the other direction to the Sycorax building to talk to Diane and Cora about all this. Something inside him had been screaming since the dinner party. Liv may be his chosen bride that he had given his heart too... but his daughter is his whole world. But before he could even open the door he felt something pinch his neck, making him drop to the floor unconscious. Chris looks at Mizuchi, almost glaring as she takes Mizuchi back to the car.*

Chris; Its wearing off...

*When the team woke up they see Kaguya adding the last of the coral rings into the pot and immediately call out to her. She had just explained the entire situation before the door opens to reveal the team tied up as Baymax lies down unresponsive by Kaguya.*

Cora: Oh no!

*Cora tries to run only for Diane to hold her tightly by the wrist. She goes over to the team and sees Hiro's suit.*

Di: So this is the team that's been a bane in my existance for the past few weeks! Lets see who you really are.

*Using her hands she removes Hiro's helmet, leading to an angry glare.*

Di: The kid with the robot?! You're Electro Magnetic Alpha? Then that would mean... *To Cora* You're Aqua Girl...

Cora: Yup.

Di: So you've always been a nuisance. *To the team* And each of you are their friends, with Omega Danger being Baymax. Man... in hindsight it should have been obvious.

Honey Lemon: Let us go now!

Di: No.. not yet.. you'll have to wait tomorrow after sundown. Then I'll think about letting you guys go... Don't want you all ruining my wedding.

Hiro: I don't know how you even got Mizuchi to even agree to marry you!

Di: You really wanna know?

*She pulls out a tube of lipstick to which starts to glow pink. Baymax, using what strength he had left analyizes the lipstick.*

Baymax: That lipstick is composed of concentrated chemical reactions of passion, possession, and lust.

Di: Bingo. When I met up with him that night I got this baby ready to go. And my goodness, the moment we kissed he couldn't keep his hands off me~

*Cora's frown deepens at Diane before the woman chuckles.*

Di: Not like that Cora. He merely hugged me and held my hand... But that's only one kiss. The second kiss is where things get more.. interesting...

Honey Lemon: So when you and Mizuchi kiss at the wedding-

Fred: Mizuchi will be under a love spell...permanently!

Di: *To Cora* And he'll forget he even had a precious baby girl in his heart~...

*Cora starts to shake slightly as at that moment, Chris comes in and sees what's in front of him.*

Chris: Oh! You got Big Hero 7! And they're those group of people around Hiro and Cora!... In hindsight you all did smell familiar...

Wasabi: *Somewhat grossed out* Smell?

Di: I genetically engineered Chris to be the perfect assistant.

Chris: Part gorilla, part canine, and part foodie.

Fred: Wait... Gorilla?! Where's that gorilla part showing up?

Chris: *Winks* You'll see.

*The gang are soon thrown into the cells and locked tight while Kaguya catches Cora as Diane pushed her to the old woman's arms. That is when Diane pulls out something that gotten Kaguya's and Cora's attention: Akemi's necklace.*

Di: *Puts necklace on* Tell me, does this necklace it suit me?

*Cora's eyes went from shock to rage as she rips herself off and runs towards Diane, who at the moment is startled as the girl starts throwing punches.*

Cora: Give it back that's mom's!

*Chris joins Diane's side and starts to pull her from Cora as she continues to reach for the necklace. Chris then has to punch Cora which sends her back and knocking a beaker of water... onto Kaguya's lap. Cora gets up to see Diane and Chris lock the door soon after and then realize that she had knocked herself into her grandmother. But when she turns around to help her, both her eyes and the team could only stare as Kaguya lays on the floor... her green mermaid tail in place of her human legs.*

Cora: Wha- Gr-GRandmama you're a... a

Fred: Mermaid!

*With Chris and Diane they check over her being to see if they're any scratches. When they found none they continue on their way; slightly commenting on how much anger could be installed in such a small child.*

Di: Is Mizuchi doing well?

Chris: Somewhat... I think the chemical is starting to wear off. He's asking not only where Cora is, but also why she's appearing so uncomfortable... seems like he's the type of person that won't just marry any one if they don't get along with his child.

Di: Hmm. I'll need to refill it soon. The potion is coming along. Assuming there's no more minor setbacks, we'll be in the clear.

*Kage is shaking as he tries to communicate with Hiro and the team despite knowing the reality of it all. His Baymax had to ultimately pick him up and hold him to help him calm down.*

Kage: My god... they got them...

Baymax: There, there. It will be alright.

Kage: No it isn't! The only hope for my family's rescue is gone and are now in Liv Amara's hands! Face it Baymax! We've lost!

*He rips himself off the nurse bot before he sinks down to the floor, curling himself into a ball. He starts to sniff as the wave of vulnerability washes over him, at this point not caring if its seen by Baymax. What else is there now? Liv Amara had won, and had taken everything away with a snap of her fingers, leaving him all alone... just like Nozako... But Baymax isn't having that. He waddles over to Kage.*

Kage: B-Besides... what can I even do to help them?

Baymax: You have saved Cora by taking her to the ocean for her mermaid blood... And had even helped Hiro and Gogo at the pizzeria as well.. Why don't you rise up and find a solution like before?

*There's a lot of things he could tell Baymax: Because he had stalked all of them, had used Tadashi's image to manipulate Hiro to joining his side, and had been the reason behind Cora's nightmares. But all he could say is this.*

Kage: No one would ever want someone like me to help them...

Baymax:... But Cora, Papa, Kaguya, Hiro, Wasabi, Fred, Honey Lemon, Gogo, Aunt Cass, Grandville, Globby, and my other self had helped you anyway.

*That got Kage to look up to Baymax as he shows video recordings of the times Kage had shared with the gang and their laughs. How with Grandville there's the rekindling of their friendship, how Aunt Cass made jokes and had him help around the café, enjoying reading Globby's text as he goes on about the super hero training program... and all the warmth and love Mizuchi, Kaguya, and Cora had given him at their home. Its there that he got a plan, his mind running to over drive mode. He gets up and starts contacting Miyuki and Globby.*

Kage: Globby! Ice Frost can you hear me?

Globby: Yeah I hear ya! Cora, Mizuchi, and Liv had left the party already though, so whats up?

Miyuki: Did Hiro and the gang get any info.

Kage: they got captured by Liv Amara's monsters and are now held prisoner of Sycorax.

Globby and Miyuki: What?!

Kage: No time to panic now. We're still going with Hiro's old plan in regards of tomorrow with some added changes: *To Miyuki*Orso Knox, Globby, Ned Ludd, and Mothra are going to break them out of Sycorax. Come hell or high water... You, my Baymax, and I will stop the wedding.

*The dawn of the third day rises and everyone is up and about for the wedding that night. From last night the rest of Big Hero 7, Cora, and Kaguya are still awake from Last night had not been a rather pleasant time after seeing Kaguya's mermaid tail on full display, leading to confused shrieks and Baymax trying to calm the situation down. After getting her dry Kaguya proceeds to tell them her entire side of the story: From her home city Oceanus, meeting her lost beloved James, her initial potion creation, how they had survived through the human world before meeting Mizuchi, the sirens, Hiro and Cora's disappearances, and Orso Knox. And all of that lead to Cora staring at her grandmother with disbelief and distrust, hurt that this is the second time she had been lied to be her own family... third if she had added Kage's identity as Obake. It had been a very long story, so long that they had only realized morning came when Diane and Chris have come down to the lab.*

Chris: Oh wow! You all look like you haven't slept all night! We gotta freshen you up Cora if you wanna look good for tonight~ *To the team and Kaguya* Don't worry, I'll make sure to take pictures of the wedding for you all to look at.

*Diane gets over to her own chemistry set where all her chemicals are stored. After quickly assembling them and one insta-freeze later she got back with a fully rejuvenated lipstick for her lipstick tube. She looks at Kaguya and then the pot*

Di: Is it ready?

Kaguya: Yes...

Di: Set it on Liv's capsule, now.

*With the help of Chris they prop it up to the tubes where it soon injects her with the potion. And soon, its showing signs of progress.*

Di: Yes! Her vitals are gaining strength! I bet by the end of the day she'll be all better! Just in time for my return as Diane Mizichio. *Grabs one small vial with the potion*.. and I'll consider this your wedding present.

*She then heads out to the door where Chris takes Cora outside, where the last thing they saw was her smug, preening grin. Once locked behind doors the team look at Kaguya, who is staring at the door with tears streaming down her eyes.*

Kaguya: Why must this be this way?...

Hiro: Kaguya?

Kaguya: I wanted to tell Cora when she was ready, I think sixteen at best... but seeing me like that, in the most critical and dangerous part of this day... I don't know if my own granddaughter would forgive me after being exposed to so many lies.

Honey Lemon: That's not true Miss Kaguya!

Hiro: A-and I meant what I said about loving Cora no matter who or what she is! Yeah, keeping the fact that she's half mermaid along with Mizuchi keeping the whole Yakuza lineage thing a secret was not a smart move in the long run, but that shouldn't change how she views herself as a person! If anything, after we get out of here you can have plenty of time to teach her about her mermaid heritage!

Kaguya:... you're right. The very least I could do to make up for it is to guide her in the ways of a mermaid.

Gogo: If we can even get out the door...

Hiro: Don't forget, we still have the other team out there! They can break us out!

Wasabi: But who's gonna lead them? I know Miyuki's competent but-

Fred: She's more of a suggestions girl than a planner.

Hiro: They already have a leader... and he's the only hope for our rescue now... Kage.

*Throughout the day Kage is hard at work setting up the plan Hiro laid out with Globby and Miyuki, going over strategies and their strengths/weaknesses. Globby is tasked with delivering Ned Ludd to the city for the time while Miyuki heads over to get Mothra and Orso Knox to relay the news and the plan. As of while, Chris, Diane, and Cora are around the city getting ready for their wedding tonight such as getting their hair styled, picking up dresses, and making sure they are properly scheduled with the events... to which they run to a slight hiccup.*

Di: So you're saying that the officiary isn't gonna be there in time? Isn't there anyone else that could take over?

Clerk: I'm sorry Miss Amara, all the others are booked..

Di: *sighs* Fine... thanks for telling me...

*They walk out the building where Cora could not help but grin slightly to herself. Hopefully this would give her friends some time to catch up to the wedding before the last I Do. And all around they went on until they got to where the ceremony will take place: by the clear bay on the docks. The people are hard at work setting up everything from the seats, the arch for the couple to take their vows, and where to serve the food. Diane and Chris discuss rearranging it to something else after relaying the news while Cora stares out to the sea. Kage's eyes pierce with focus on his creation: Battle armor for Baymax, and himself. His Baymax's color scheme will be a navy blue color with tints of red version of the other Baymax while his own is black and red with pink accents. He will have a visor similar to Wasabi's, and Hiro's weapons modified to his size and a mini computer on his fore arm armor to hack. Orso Knox and Mothra fly through the city with Globby acting as a buddy guard to meet up at a designated place Kage arranged with Miyuki using her ice to travel back to the city with Ned Ludd not far behind her on a moose. Finally, it was an hour before the wedding will start and guests are piling in; from other competitive companies like KreiTech (Who only agreed to attend when he learned of the whole thing from Carter in hopes to see Liv finally exposed as the snake she is), to some professors such as Grandville, gulping softly at how ready the ceremony is, to some of her staff from Sycorax. Karmi is bouncing up and down as she repeatedly smooths her own dress as she waits by the side of Grandville. At a building not too far away, Diane and Cora are both getting dressed for the day. Diane is dressed in a mermaid cut dress with a heart shaped neckline, adorned with pearls in her updo hair, with the finishing touch being Akemi's necklace around her neck to which tied behind is the vial of the healing potion used to save Liv Amara. Cora is in a coral pink, off shoulder knee length dress pearls on her neckline as well, her hair set with waves added with soft blush and pink gloss on her lips.*

Di: Dang it! I left my lipstick in my purse. Chris?-

Chris: I'm on it!

*Chris rushes back to the car where he quickly picks up the purse and checks over the lipstick. Once he sees that's its not melted he heads back slightly springting only to bump into a man and spilling both of their stuff. Chris grunts in frustration before he picks up everything, muttering about he should have been given the graces of a dolphin... Lenny smirks from his trench coat and fedora as he stuffs a similar looking colored lipstick in his pocket. *

Di: Finally!

*Diane quickly applies her lipstick to her face before she turns around to face Chris.*

Chris: Looking smashing Dian-

Di: Sh! Not yet! Have you checked Cora?

Chris: Going to right now!

*He heads over to Cora's door and opens it to see Cora still staring blankly at her relfection.*

Chris: well, aren't you as pretty as a rose bud... just like your mother...

Cora: *Turning her head away* Like Diane?

Chris: Of course not silly! Diane is alright, but I mean your actual mother. I could see where she passed on her good looks. You're dad must've been a lucky man to have had someone like her in his life.

Cora: Yeah... because they actually love each other to want to be in each other's lives..

Chris: Aww don't be so pissy… you wanna go out and talk?

Cora: No... I rather wait here and just wait for the ceremony to be done already...

Chris: *Condescending* Are you having a little tantrum, little Cora?

Cora: Don't call me that.

Chris: Why not? Its such a cute name for you, Little Cora-

*Cora takes off her shoe and starts whacking him on the head in retaliation. He was at first off guard before he grunts in frustration and shoves her to the closet and barricading it with a chair.*

Cora: Hey! What are you doing?!

Chris: I had thought about at least getting to know you better and make some pleasant memories after tonight, but now all you'll remember before Diane kills you and whisks your dad all the way to Sutamura to get your inheritance is nothing but a dark closet. See ya later~

Cora: No! No!

*Cora starts banging the door already, trying to push back despite the lock and chair before Chris locks the room with another key. He heads back out to Diane, who is just about ready to have heels on.*

Di: How's Cora?

Chris: Under the weather sadly, she's not exactly in the mood for guests so.. she'll be in the closet for a while.

Di: Figures.. so long as we can get her out before the ceremony so she could at least act like a person would be fine enough.

*The two chuckle quietly, silently celebrating their impending victory. At the designated place globby is there with Orso Knox and Mothra as Miyuki keeps Ned from wandering off.*

Globby; You see Kage anywhere?

Miyuki: There!

*They see two figures emegre from the dark, dressed in their armor and ready for combat.*

Globby: Wow Kage! You look sharp!

Miyuki: Defiantly something new for you two.

Kage: Thank you both.

Ned: So where's Sycorax and this wedding?

Kage: The wedding is at Fisherman's wharf and Sycorax is outside of San Fransokyo. Now *Activating Visor* lets get this party ready.

*At the actually wedding, Mizuchi is waiting around the aisle, looking nervously at the crowd and feeling suffocated by his suit. While the white tuxedo with red rose and slicked back hair made him dashing, he couldn't help but feel so exposed. And this nagging feeling would not go away! He then sees Diane Amara walk down the aisle as did the guests... without Cora by her side. Chris is by the music stands clearing his throat as he makes his announcement.*

Chris: Thank you all for coming for tonight's special event. There has been however one hiccup, the officiary is running a little late so I thought we could pass the time by having the first dance!

*But dancing was the last thing on his mind as Mizuchi whispers to Diane.*

Mizuchi: Liv where is Cora?

Di: She's fine sweetie, she's just getting the jitters.

Mizuchi: But you know I can't start the wedding without my daughter-

Chris: *Cutting through and directing spotlight at Mizuchi and Diane* And I would like to dedicate the first dance to Liv Amara, and her soon to be husband Mizuchi. The guests urge the couple to dance together(Aside form Krei, Lois, and Grandville for obvious reasons) before they do.*

Chris: Where have all the good men gone and...where are all the gods?...Where's the street wise Hercules to fight the rising odds?~

Mizuchi: Are you sure its alright to do this? I want to share this night with my daughter too.

Di: Its alright my love. Sides, you'll love this night so much that you won't even realize its been gone.

Chris: Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?... Late at night, I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need~... Hit it!

*soon the music adds in the vocalization of a choir as the music rises up.*

Chris: I need a Hero!~

*Kage is flying on Baymax as he is joined by Miyuki, using her own ice through propel her through the air along with Mothra, while on the ground is Orso Knox, Globby, and Ned Ludd.*

Kage: Remember the plan! *To Orso Knox, Mothra, Globby, and Ned* You four head to Sycorax and break out Big Hero 7! They are guarded by Momakase, Sparkles, and Bessie!

globby: Heard ya loud and clear boss!

Ned: I'm coming Bessie!

*The four fly off to Sycorax while Kage gives a determined look to Miyuki before heading their way to Fisherman's wharf.*

Chris: I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the end of the night!~ He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the fight! I need a hero! I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light! He's gotta be sure and its gotta be soon and he's gotta be larger than life! Larger than life~

* Globby, Orso Knox, Mothra, and Nedd ludd are sensed through the sensors Diane had installed last night to which rises the monsters hidden in her keep to defend it. The sensors just so happen to get Big Hero 7 and Kaguya awake from their slumber as they wonder what is going on. Momakase, Sparkles, and Bessie are facing the four on their way... with the leader growling at Globby.*

Momakase: Oh its you!

Globby: Aw.. I missed you too Momakase… not!

*Bessie comes rushing in and fires its blast, leading to three of the four to dodge out of the way. But Ned instantly recognizes the green glow and rock formation of the bear.*

Ned: Bessie! Ya'll go fight off them freaks! I'll handle Bessie!

*Ned jumps up and lands in front of Bessie, keeping her busy while Mothra, Orso Knox, and Globby go against Momakase and Sparkles.*

Chris: Somewhere after midnight.. in my wildest fantasies.. somewhere just beyond my reach, there's someone reaching back for me!~Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat! Its gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet!~

*Mizuchi continues dancing with Diane as the guests look on, his face expressing concern and questioning what is truly going on while Diane simply smiles and winks at her groom. Grandville looks around, hoping to see any sign of rescue. Cora is continuing to push through the door, not giving up knowing that this door is made of wood, and she will not waste it and let her papa marry Diane. Kage and Baymax go through city with Miyuki hoping across the streets to catch up before landing up to join him. Orso Knox knocks back Sparkles while Globby fights off Momakase, leaving Mothra to fly down the stairs all the way to the lab, where she starts clawing at the pass code and banging the door.*

Honey Lemon: I think that's-

Hiro: Mothra!

*Mothra chirps in agreement as she continues to claw the key pad, finally destroying it to the point the door opens up, to which she flies over to the cells and starts pressing the buttons to release them... only for a knife to nearly hit her if not for Globby's globbiness.*

*The cells open up where Hiro directs Mothra to pick up Baymax while they try to either run out the room or help Globby against Momakase. Hiro had been the one along with Gogo to stay behind to fight Momakase, landing in a kick to her back while she fought Globby. The capsule beating softly as it nears its opening.*

Chris: Up where the mountains meet the heavens above! Up where the lightning meets the sea! I could swear there was someone somewhere watching me!~ Through the wind and the chill and the rain! And the storm and the flood! I could feel his approach like a fire in my blood~!

*Hiro, Gogo, and Globby lead Momakase upstairs when they saw the capsule nearing its completion and would not risk the real Liv Amara to her. Honey Lemon, Fred, Kaguya, Wasabi, Mothra, and Baymax run up to the main floor where they see on the floor a non-mutated Sparkles beneath Orso Knox, next to Ned Ludd on top of Bessie. They move out of the way where Momakase is slashing her claws only for Gogo to punch her in the face and Hiro landing a swift kick, landing her on Bessie's path where the rock bear chimera blasts Momakase, destroying the chip inside her and rendering her back to normal and unconscious. While the gang make sure to call the police and tie them up to a tree without their weapons, Hiro quickly spots the flash drive hidden safely and picks it up.*

Honey Lemon: *Hugging Globby* Thank you guys so much!

Globby: Aww shucks.

Hiro: Globby, you go take Baymax back to the Lucky cat for safe keeping... we're going to that wedding! Come on!

*And with that, Mothra carries Fred, Wasabi and Gogo while Orso Knox has Hiro and Honey Lemon riding his back joined by Ned and Bessie. Cora finally breaks through the hinges and runs towards the second door and notes its stronger material. She looks around and finds several wire coat hangers nearby, to which she grabs it and starts bending its metal as she looks at the key hole.*

Chris: I need a hero! I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light~ And he's gotta be sure and its gotta be soon and he's gotta be larger than life~!

Kage: We're halfway there! But its not enough time!

Baymax 1: I recommend Overdrive mode.

Miyuki: But doesn't Overdrive mode drain your battery?

Kage: And I hadn't modified you yet for the other battery reserve!

Baymax: Time is of the essence. and flying makes me a better health care companion.

Kage: OK then... Engage Overdrive mode!

*The moments that over drive mode is announced felt like it moved in slow motion... *

Baymax: Overdrive Mode Engaged.

*Until they are suddenly sent flying through the air soon approaching the fishermen's wharf where the wedding is taking place.*

Chris: Oh he's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the fight! I need a Hero!~

*Mizuchi and Diane are now seeing each other's eyes as the former lifted up his bride, now taking this chance to kiss him. And when his lips is about to meet hers...*

Kage: Stop!

*Mizuchi turns his head along with the guests as they saw what appears to be Omega Danger landing on the aisle while two supers hop down to face them.*

Kage: *To Liv* You there! Back away from my brother!

Mizuchi: Kage? W-Whats going on here?

Di: Excuse me? Last I checked you two were not even on the guest list!

Miyuki: Perhaps its cause we could see a rat from a mile away!

Baymax 1: Y-YeAh! A-A-A rAT!

*The two supers note that as predicated, Omega Danger is at lower battery, acting like a drunk as he falls to his face and attempts to walk ahead despite it.*

Di:Who are you two to call me a rat?! And even Omega Danger! Who are you two anyway?

Hiro: They're honorary members of Big Hero 7!

*That is when they see more coming on their way... Big Hero 7 and the rest of Kage's team. Diane shrieks away as Mothra's wings beat before landing as Hiro hops off and joins kage. *

Hiro: Diane Amara! You are under arrest for all the monster attacks on the city of San Fransokyo!

Guest: Diane Amara?

Guest 2: But her name is Liv!

*Now the guests start to chatter as accusation like glances at Diane start forming. Now sweat is developing on the bride's brow. But

she soon regains her composure before shooting back an accusation. *

Di: And how could you be so sure it could be me when Sparkles had admitted to being the one behind the monsters?

Hiro: That does sound true... but we have two witnesses.. and one of them is at your wedding... where is Cora?

Cora: Right here!

*Cora is seen running from the building and towards the wedding, breathing heavily as she tries to slow her heart.*

Di: Oh Cora! Where were you?-

Cora: Chris locked me in the closet and you did nothing!

*The guests look at Chris, who is now nervously looking at them as he nervously chuckles. Mizuchi looks at Cora as his mind starts to become more clear and focused.*

Mizuchi: Wait... Chris locked you in the closet?! What kind of woman did I agree to marry?!

Cora: You'll see soon.. along with everyone else. *Notices Orso Knox behind the team.* Hi Mr. Knox.

Di: Knox?!

*Orso Knox comes forward where he places himself in front of Cora, growling at Diane Amara as Hiro stands by his side.*

Di: W-Wait a minute! How is he even alive! You killed him!

Hiro: No, we faked it. Cora here, *Winks at her* explained that Orso Knox had been trapped by you and living in a cage when you should had cured him already... then we found this...

*Knox shows his arm for them to see the chip within. Diane lightly swallows as Ned comes forward with Bessie as she aims her blast at him as Hiro takes Cora away, to which it finally dies down to reveal a (Thankfully clothed) human man in its place... but the look of anger remained in his eyes.*

Di: M-Mr. Knox! Y-You!-

*Knox quickly closes the gap between them and punches her straight in the face, resulting in the bride having a black eye.*

Knox: Save all your lies Amara! You had transformed me into that thing to keep me quiet when I found out about your more heinous deeds! I would be still be in your 'services' if not for that young lady and Big Hero 7! Not to mention you had transformed all those villains to monsters for your bidding!

*Hiro pulls out the flash drive from his body, to which Diane immediately recognize to have more evidence inside. She then looks at Chris to which he throws a the microphone towards his hands, making him drop the flash drive to the ground and Diane immediately grabbing it.*

Diane: Well then.. If this is how it goes.. *To Chris, holding her phone* Get Cora.

*Chris nods to which Diane pushes a button, where Chris starts growing in size, now nearing the stature and muscle of a gorilla.*

Fred: OK... now I see it.

*Chris hopes over to Cora and holds her in his hands while Diane runs towards the car.*

Mizuchi: No!

Diane: Come and get us if you want your precious daughter so badly!

*Diane starts driving off while Chris drives off and away from the wedding with Cora in tow.*

Cora: Seriously?! Not again!

*Mizuchi, his mind kicking to full gear, starts growling before he starts to run after them along with Hiro and Kage. The guests are left flabbergasted while Big Hero 7 and Kaguya are left with the stunned silence. The team start directing the guests away from the wedding while leaving behind a stunned Grandville, a tight lipped Kaguya, and a flabbergasted Karmi. *

Karmi: So.. she was a fake this whole time!?

Kaguya: Yes.. And you two seem to be like peas in a pod personality wise...

Karmi: W-What?

*Kaguya goes over to Grandville where she pulls out Cora's phone and immediately starts pulling up certain videos. And when Grandville sees what it contains... her frown is directed on Karmi.*

Grandville:*To Karmi* Miss Karmi… you and I will have talk.

Karmi: *Gulps*

*They got through the city streets but Kage and Hiro quickly loose steam as they see Mizuchi no where close to exhausted as he trails after them.*

Hiro: Damn it! How are we gonna catch up to them?! Both our baymaxes are out of commission!

*That's when they see Mothra fly up towards them and holds out her arms.*

Kage: Why don't we hitch a ride with her instead?

*The two are quickly held in Mothra's eyes as they fly through the city where they see Mizuchi running faster, the speed tearing apart his tuxedo jacket due to the amount of movement. It was then that they see where exactly they are heading towards. Sycorax. Once Diane and Chris reach them the woman grabs Cora by the wrist and starts dragging her inside the building. That's when they see the three people along with an enraged father in tow.*

Di: Keep them busy. I am going to deal with this brat!

*She drags Cora down to the lab while Chris heads on to battle with Mizuchi, who starts throwing fists at him.*

Kage: Mizuchi we're coming to help!

*The three land down as Chris starts to pin Mizuchi down, kneeing him in his stomach multiple times. While it did cause Mizuchi to grunt in pain, the adrenaline rushing through his veins along with the wires running through his blood. Mothra flies up top where she lets out her screech to disorient the genetic mutated man for a moment before Mizuchi lands a punch to his face.*

Mizuchi: Take your chances and go! Save my daughter!

*Kage and Hiro head inside the building, running past the villains tied up while Mizuchi makes sure to preoccupy Chris along with Mothra. The door opens up just for Diane to throw Cora to the ground.*

Di: You and your little friends and boyfriends just have to fuck up everything don't you!

*She starts throwing vials to Cora, who quickly moves out of the way as to avoid being hit.*

Di: You just have to be so fucking difficult!

*She throws another beaker at her which sends glass shards flying and one of them hitting Cora's leg, to which the girl yelps in pain. Diane soon spots a patch where she gets a brand new idea. Cora's eyes widen before she gets up and starts running through, avoiding the now manically pissed off woman with the monster patch in her hands. Hiro and Kage get down to see Diane launching herself and pinning Cora to the ground. Kage runs towards them and pushes Diane off hard, resulting in flash drive falling off, glaring at her heatedly.*

Kage: Get your hands off my niece!

*Hiro rushes over to Cora's side and hugs her tightly.*

Hiro: You alright?

Cora: I will be... *Spots the flash drive* Go get the flash drive, I'll send over a message to Chief Cruz.

*Hiro nods before he does so, with Cora getting up and finding a computer to start typing up a message to Chief Cruz along with the evidence provided. Once in his hands Hiro rushes towards Cora while Kage keeps Diane away from them. Mothra continues flying around Chris as Mizuchi continues battling him.*

Chris: For a demonic titan you're pretty weak. Must be an age thing.

*Mizuchi head butts Chris while Mothra zooms down to land a punch with her own fists. The videos starts playing one by one as the message processes them, confirming what they had witnessed. Orso Knox pinned down and stabbed with the chip, making him grow into the very monster he was; High Voltage being held against their will as she inserts her own chips to their necks under the threat of death... but the third one was what caught Kage's attention after he knocks Diane's head to the capsule, rendering her unconscious.*

Cora: No way...

Hiro: Its- Its...

Chara: my name is Chara Bonete Ma'm...

*The video shows Chara, holding her cup of tea handed by Chris while Diane sits beside her, listening closely.*

Chara: I was at sea looking for help... there are others trapped on an island and I need your help!

Di: We're you all shipwrecked?

Chara: In a way yes... by mermaids... I know it sounds crazy but its true. The sirens kept me and others far from their homes. I can tell you where the island is! I also need to find someone... a man. He has black hair and blue eyes and his name starts with a K!

Di:... Give Chris and I a moment... we need to process this...

*They walked out, leaving Chara alone. They see Chara getting up, looking curiously around till she finds a computer. Curios she logs on... and found something that caused her to scream. Diane runs back where Chara starts backing away.*

Chara: W-Why did you turn that man into a monster?! What did he ever do to you?

Di:... He knew too much... and apparently so do you.

*She pulls out the drill used for High Voltage and Chara starts running away. Finally it showed the following... Chara throws a tray of acid to the lady, hitting her in the face resulting in a scream. The scream had made Chara jump back so much that she fell backwards to the chemicals used for the chips along with two insects models of a moth and a water strider. Diane squirms wildly as Chara screams in pain as the chemicals morphed to a black goo, engulfing her before she is transformed to the very monster fighting Chris right now.*

Cora: Holy shit...

Kage: Oh my god! Chara!

*Kage immediately heads towards the door only for Diane to stab him in the back with a scaple. Hiro stands in front of the Cora as the last video is fully uploaded to the message. Diane then pulls out the scalpel and holds it to kage's neck.*

Di: Press that send button and he's dead!

*Cora and Hiro look at each other then to Kage, wincing at the closeness of the scalpel to his neck. They get out slowly as Diane directs them back outside... where the capsule begins to slowly open. Chris is pinned to the floor by Mizuchi's fists, growling as Mothra lands down. That is when Mizuchi looks up to see Diane holding Kage hostage while Hiro and Cora's hands were up in the air. Chris knees Mizuchi to the stomach, giving it his all to which Mizuchi finally growls in pain. Mothra sees Kage held under threat, and all she knew is that the man is in danger. She flies towards him with arms open to grab him away-*

Kage: Chara look out!

*A fist hits the back of Chara's wings, to which she is sent to the floor, with Chris now placing pressure... a sickening crack forming down. She is then thrown over the ledge... heading towards the water below.*

Cora: No!

Kage: Chara!

Mizuchi: Chara?

Di: Now. Mizuchi, get to the fucking yatch down below where Chris will place this rat somewhere he could be less of a nuisance. *To Cora and Hiro* And as for you two. I'm gonna make you my new monsters and lock you below the lab at Sutamura for the rest of your days! I will not allow you ruin my plans!

*She is then punched in the back of her neck, making her let go of Kage, while the hand holds the necklace with the vial of the healing potion. Liv Amara then grabs the phone from Diane and presses the button which changes Chris' stature to normal size, making him look at her with shock and confusion. Kage uses this moment to run off and dive away to the ocean to rescue Chara. Liv Amara then looks at Hiro and Cora, giving her the necklace and vial... along with an additional vial of the healing potion.*

Liv: I don't know if this is enough for you to heal Chara and Kage's wounds... especially after what my sister had done to you...

Di: Liv! Y-You're OK!

*Liv looks at Diane and all she has on her face is disgust and shame, silencing Diane.*

Liv: I've already sent the message to the police. They'll be here soon.. you guys go... My sister and I have already done damage to you all... And we'll pay the consequences..

*Hiro and Cora walk away slowly before they run off, heading to the side off path along with Mizuchi, away from their sight.*

Di: W-Why Liv?! We were this close to getting everything we ever wanted!

Liv: But not like this... this is as much my fault as it is yours...

* Cora throws the vials of the healing potion to her father to which he catches easily. Mizuchi is already at the waves swimming through as Hiro and Cora look out at sea with concern. Finally they see him emerge from the ocean, with Kage and a still mutated Chara in his arms, carrying them to the sand banks. Thats' where Big Hero 7, Kaguya, and Orso Knox arrive to see this. Kage had obviously received his half of the potion as his wounds were gone... but he appeared.. younger... the sea salt had mixed in a bit as Mizuchi fed it to him... But Chara's body still appears broken, her sapphire heart exposed and cracked. *

Honey Lemon: Oh no!...

Knox: *Running towards them as he looks at Chara* oh dear god no...

Kage: Chara! Chara please stay with me!

Gogo: Wait.. Chara?

*The team looks at Hiro and Cora, to which from the look in their faces confirmed that yes... Mothra is in fact Kage's lost beloved, mutated into this... and loosing strength.. Chara managed to open her eyes slightly as she looks at Kage, trying to hold her hand close to his heart.*

Kage: H-Here! This potion should at least heal your wounds!

*He grabs the second vial and pours in to Chara's mouth, some of it streaming down the side as it joins the ocean water touching her.*

Kage: Everything will be alright Chara… I promise... I should've realized sooner who you were... I hope you can forgive me...

*The creature blinks softly before she moves her hand to Kage's face while the other moves to her sapphire heart... pointing it before to him...then... she muttered out words... raspy yet filled with what warmth is left...*

Chara: I... see... you...remember me... I go... happy.. Kage… my heart... yours... always...

*That's when her hands fall away, her eyes closing.*

Kage:*Tears streaming N-No! Please!... I can't loose you!... I love you...

*He holds her close as he starts sobbing into her now cooling body. Cora sobs on Hiro's shoulder as he holds her close, the team dropping their heads in respect. Mizuchi and Kaguya joining the hug around the two teens. joining in mourning of the one held in Kage's arms.. taken from him far too soon. That is when a small faint color of the potion starts seeping to the creature's body, growing around it, catching everyone's attention. Kage lets go as it now wrapped around her, embracing her and lifting her up to the air, her bug like features finally melt away to those of a human... claws becomes hands, wings dissipate into air, hair flowing smoothly, and clothes she wore before taking place. She then floats down to the ground, facing away from the group... the sapphire heart placed at Kage's feet. Kage couldn't move an inch even when the body does. She looks down to see her hands, human hands... to which she turns around to reveal the face of a young woman, strawberry blonde hair framing her freckled face and green eyes. Kage continues to stare at the woman as she starts smiling widely before looking at him with warmth.*

Chara: Kage… its me!

*Kage finally steps forward, looking closely at the woman before catching her green eyes. And all doubt he held before is washed away.*

Kage: It is you!

Chara: *nods* I'm me again...

*The two continue to look into each other's eyes before they go to finally kiss together, the two lovers reunited at last.*

Honey Lemon: Woo!

Fred: Alright!

*The all cheer and celebrate at the couple and their victory over Sycorax that night. After Chief Cruz received the message he sent out his police cars where he arrested Liv, Diane, and Chris while the police shut down the lab by the early sunrise. A police van arrives as it takes the three inside and driven off to no doubt the docks: This time for their way to imprisonment... with a driver similarly looking a lot like Lenny.*

Dunder: Well, this has been quiet a turn off events. Turns out the evil twin has been behind all the monster attacks all around San Fransokyo. Police managed to apprehend the escaped villains but are still on the search for High Voltage. Sycorax is shut down and all employees are held under investigation. The biggest question is now open for all: What happens now?

*The TV is playing on as the gang, Globby, Miyuki, Mizuchi, Hiro,and Cora are decorating the house for a welcome home party.*

Wasabi: Man, its hard to believe that this is all over. Liv- I mean.. Di is now imprisoned-

Gogo: And most of the bad guys we fought are back in jail.

Fred: Except for High Voltage. We're gonna go to that later.

Cora: Yup... and since learning about that fact of my heritage at least I can understand a little now...

*Mizuchi and Hiro look at Cora as she connects the lights to the stairs. Mizuchi had been informed by then that she had learned about Kaguya's secret along with her mermaid heritage. It took a while for Cora to talk to Kaguya again as they both explained to her the reason they kept her mermaid half a secret. After much talking it was decided that Kaguya will no properly educate Cora on her mermaid heritage along with her friends and boyfriend, so that they not only gain an understanding of Mermaid culture in general, but to understand her grandmother and their heritage more. While it had been shaken by the reveal, it would take more than that to tear apart their bond.*

Mizuchi: Anyway, I heard that Kaguya had showed Professor Grandville those videos?

Hiro: Oh yeah! I mean, you could hardly believe what we looked like when Grandville got Cora and I together to tell us that Karmi's expelled!

Cora: Yeah, because she showed my videos of Karmi being the worst... And you know what? I'm pretty happy she did. I mean, I still don't know how to feel about learning being half mermaid by my grandmother... but at least that little bitch gonna be gone forever.

Hiro: Me too...And sides, you can learn all about the ocean.

Cora: Yeah! I'm pretty excited about it! Man its gonna be an experience... well.. after this...

*The door in front of them opens up to reveal Kaguya standing beside Kage and Chara, both dressed in new wardrobe as they see a welcome home banner and greeted by everyone.*

Everyone: Surprise!

Mizuchi: You are looking good brother, as do you Chara.

Chara: Thank you.

Fred: You guys do looke great! Younger even! Like, in your twenties young!

Kaguya: that's cause the salt water had been mixed with the potion. Without it, it simply heals wounds.

Hiro: I see... and again. We're sworn by an oath.

*Cora walks up to the two of them where she hugs them tightly.*

Cora: Welcome hone Chara… and Uncle Kage…

*Kage and Chara then hug the girl back, smiling at the girl's greeting.*

Fred: well what are we waiting for? Lets get this party started!

Minimax: I agree! Commence the celebration!

*Music starts playing from both Baymaxes, repaired and functioning normally, as every one greets Kage and Chara happily. Hiro then goes to Cora where he kisses her on the lips, making Cora smile warmly as she wraps her arms around his neck.*

Chara: Does that remind you of anything Kage?

Kage: I think so... but what I am more interested is if you want to dance?

Chara: I'd love to.

*And so the jovial atmosphere rings through the house, the warmth and light returning to their house, because as far as they know, they are free from the clutches of the witch of Sycorax.*

A.N: Again! I had to re-write the whole chapter after reading it whole and realized it added stuff that didn't amount to anything and exposed stuff too soon. Anyways, I hope you love this chapter! Love you guys! I will try to catch up to the other episode chapters but for now, let me rest. Thank you all so much for your patience and reading Big Hero 7 The series!

[starsgivemehp]

Bruises

@frozenfischer​

It had been a long, long time since Alex had felt this sort of pain.

She should have expected it, really, though at the time it had taken her completely by surprise. Though the monsters had been given their basic rights, and were gaining others more and more as time went on, racism and prejudices still existed. Resentment and jealousy and all sorts of other nasty little emotions that humans were all too prone to.

None tended to be worse than those of young entitled adults who hadn’t ever been told ‘no’ in their lives.

Oh, she’d vaguely recognized them. Students at the University, mostly just a few years younger than she. Frat boys, for the most part, there on their parents’ money and not caring about actually learning, more interested in partying on their parents’ dime, on beer and sex. Every last one of them had propositioned her at some point in the years she’d been first studying, and then eventually also teaching there.

She’d told every single one of them no. Repeatedly. They hadn’t liked that.

It was probably of little surprise that having seen her spending so much time on and off of campus with Red, a monster, that they’d grow angry. She’d never really considered herself that much of a catch, but she’d made herself apparently something of a challenge in their minds. And here was somethingsomeone they felt didn’t have the right to have what they wanted. It wasn’t like they would have known that Red was her Soulmate. It’s very well likely that they wouldn’t have cared, even if they did know.

They hadn’t expected her to fight back.

It’d been well over a decade since the last time she’d been ganged up on by a group of people intending to hurt her. But she was strong from working on her home on her own, and fast from having to regularly walk the two miles between town and her house, and she still remembered how to fight dirty even if she was out of practice.

Being rusty at fighting did come with a price, however.

She’d won. That was the important thing. She’d fought tooth and nail and had managed to get enough hits in for every hit she’d taken in turn to get them to let her go, to go lick their own wounds. But this left her keyed up, injured, and alone in the dark with a long walk to her house.

               Red. I need to get to Red.

It was the only thing she could think as her body automatically turned herself, stumbling her way to her Soulmate’s and his brother’s apartment. It became a mantra as she forced herself up to the right room, knocking almost frantically at the door even as she slid down to sit on the floor and lean against the wall next to the door, fighting back both the pain and the tears, hoping against hope that Red was actually home and not at Pyre’s place like he often was this time of night.

Luckily for her, Red hadn’t gone out that night. He had been up, even, working on a technical essay in his room. The pounding of the door attracted both skeleton’s attention. Vex was the one who opened the door first, only a crack at first, looking around. When he saw nothing, he opened it wider. He didn’t think to look down and to the side at first, confused at the emptiness in front of his doorway. Then he saw her and his sockets went wide.

“ALEX?”

By that point Red was out of his room, and at his brother’s incredulous voice, he felt panic jolt through him. He pushed past Vex, looking down at his Soulmate.

“oh, shit.” He bent down and reached out, then hesitated about how to actually get her inside. After a moment, he blinked her soul blue and summoned two extra magic hands to help him gently scoop her up into his arms with decreased gravity. It was calculated exactly so he could use his right arm without the hand actually touching her. “boss,” he said, his voice terse.

“RIGHT.” He went instantly to the couch and pulled off all but one pillow, then hurried into their bathroom to open their medicine cabinet. As he did so, Red carefully, gently, laid her out on the couch.

“what happened?”

[mindjumpthoughts]

MBTI types of the people I have lived with

INTJ

- Math scientist

- Wakes up without snoring the phone. Ever. Has a efficient morning routine.

- Does all the tasks every time straight after school/work. Never skipped school. Once got a home assigment from p.e. to run certain amount every day, was the only one who actually did it.

- Loves food, is good at making it. Traditional and simple food. Taste over health-values.

- Weird but in a good way. Would love to talk alot, especially with people that share some of his interests.

- Likes to have personal time, would just come to the living room and put headphones on an play. Wanted to be around people but do his own things.

- Would share everything PRECISELY so that it would be equal. Especially food.

INTP

- English major, technical writer.

- Would like to watch a show every time while eating.

- Loves to have lazy friend weekends. Would sit on a sofa and analyze everything with me, personality theories, world construction, anything. And it would always be entertaining!

- Owns many plushies, 2 of them are named Bun and Bun jr. They are round dog boys. Also weird alien/monster plushies. And a bunny that was named Mosh, because of it had flappy ears perfect for a mosh pit.

- Appriciates truth more than many people.

- Gave presents that were super toughtful, color coded, full of small messages and all. Once I found a part of a present many months after it was given, hidden inside the present.

- Was able to manage job and studying at the same time in university. Hard working, even though says that "prograstinates" alot.

- Would go bonkers every time there was sweets, especially cookies.

ENFJ

- Journalism student who wants to learn about truths in the world.

- Allways stays in the common room, wether talking to her family with facetime, eating or just doing work

- Had 1000+ projects going on, finished them all, still got time to cook for all 4 people sharing the flat and watch movies at evening.

- Loves movies. When I was sick, would give me some indian medicine, a blanket and put under sea -documentaries on.

- Breaks the rules every time gets a chance to do so, if the rules don't seem logical in her head. Even in the apartment.

- Filmed a documentary with her friends. Went to places where it was not allowed to shoot, had people with guns behind her back, arranged meetings with super high-rate politicians in her country. All because of a school project.

ENFP

- Was a barber student back then but got into a university to study art upbringing.

- Had a really strong set of customs which helped to, for example, keep the house clean. Teached me to do 30 push-ups, 30 sit-ups and 30 back-muscle moves every day.

- Is forgetful. Has a wandering mind.

- Loooves cats. All cats. Fat cats. Hairless cats.

- Saw really fucked up dreams. Not my-mother-talked-shit-about-me kinda dreams, rather "why are these neon-colored animals trying to harvest my brains out?" -kinda dreams.

- Has super cool tattoos of dinosaur bones and knitting cats.

- For a long time had pastel pink hair. Also has been green and orangish. Rocks all the styles.

- Has a huuuge amount of plushies. Loves soft blankets and hugs. Likes comfortable and nice-feeling things.

INFP

- Psychology student, 10 years experience in cheerleading.

- Loved to stay in her room, all her friends came to her room, but would sometimes ask me and other people to her room from the shared rooms.

- Used incense in her room (got permission from others who shared the apartment) partly because liked the smell, partly because was used to hide the smell of pot.

- Has a best friend, who is basically part of the furniture in her room.

- Loves cartoons.

- Wants to have an apartment puppy. Loves animals. Shows alot of pictures of her moms dog to everyone, while telling proudly how stupid the dog is.

-Once walked in while I was coloring someones hair purple in my room. Said that has never colored her hair. Now she has a purple stripe. She loves it.

ISFJ

- Really talented medical engineer student.

- Stayed alot in her own room, but would come out when people were chilling in the common room.

- Had really long phone talks daily with people from her social inner circle. Would be louder and laugh much louder than normally.

- Would make tea everyday at the same time, and eat small amounts at the time.

- Always asked me if I want too, wether it was food, going to places or something else.

- In first 3 weeks of knowing her, she learned to say common things in my obscure language.

- Told me alot about her home country and traditions, was super interested to learn similarities and differences.

ESFP

- Girl who let me live at her place with her for some time.

- Loves drama.

- Let me wear her biggest and most comfortable hoodies, and would like to try eachothers clothes and styles.

- Addicted to netflix, would always have a show running in the background while we were studying/eating/doing basically anything. Introduced me to Gotham.

-Used to drink tea from huuuge cups. Drank alot of it.

- Would follow political discussion alot, and wanted to talk about it often. Had really stable strong views even though she followed different sides and different medias.

- Called herself boss bitch. Had that strong attitude going on!

[fantroll-purgatory]

Haemir Elazra - Doctroll Extraordinaire

Planet: Alternia, minor AU/Alternate History elements

Name: Haemir Elazra Haemir: From Haem, an alternative spelling of Heme, the oxygen-carrying, iron-containing molecule in blood. Links up to his blood caste woes and his lusus.

Elazra: From Azrael, Angel of Death, and Lazarus, the man brought back to life. It fits in with his role as a healer on a planet of death and slaughter, and also to his status as the last living limeblood. An Angel of Death is also a specific kind of serial killer; a nurse that kills their own patients. Fun fact! @chaoticevilfantrolls (SA here to say that you have designed a troll that 400000% appeals to my interests. I screamed when I opened the box and saw him here!)

Age: 7.5 sweeps. He’s a youngster, compared to my other trolls.

Strife Specibus: caneKind. Not much reason behind it beyond the fact that actual IRL plague doctors would use canes to distribute treatment. Plus the Rod of Asclepius could reasonably fit under this strife spec. (If you wanted to go a bit more Black Death with it, you could weaponize some herbal medicine for poisons? Fight with some syringes?)

Fetch Modus: Quarantine. Items are stored and sterilized in little plastic bubbles. It makes cleaning his equipment a breeze! But, he can’t store anything he intends to eat, and living things have a habit of turning up dead from the storage process. 

Blood color: Limeblood! The whole concept of the character revolves around a mysterious figure with strong empathy becoming a doctor to soothe the woes of others, so I figured a lone limeblood would work. He’s based heavily around the headcanon that limebloods were killed off for their empathic abilities, which lead to a rebellion in this particular setting. (We LOVE an Empath Limeblood. I have not reviewed your other trolls, so I don’t wanna poke too much into Limeblood Politics without knowing the AU, but if they’re still in hiding, I’d suggest on blood-color alone a little bit of generational trauma? A little skittishness from Literally Feeling all of the death and pain his people have gone through, and the Knowledge that that kind of feeling comes with.)

Symbol and meaning: The alchemic symbol for Alkali. Alkali are chemically basic substances used to make soap. That’s about as far as that goes for depth, haha.  (Soap Troll! Soap Troll! Soap Troll!) (There’s a whole suite of Alchemic Symbols out there, but if we’re zooming in on a Soap Troll, I think this dovetails into some expansion. Let me explain:) (Soap’s a cleansing agent, both of wounds and of places. Most alkaline substances (think Lye and Quicklime) wash things away with ferocity, and can burn skin. I think you could easily expand Haemir -who already has a darker, death element to him- with a bit of vengeance? A bit of anger? Something sincere and hard to excise from himself. Someone who, at his core, wants to wash away the sins of the past and plant the seeds of tomorrow.)

Trolltag: caduceusCreed [CC] Caduceus: The staff carried by Hermes, associated with the medical profession through it’s adoption as a symbol of American military medics. The Caduceus was mistakenly chosen over the Rod of Asclepius, and thus has become a bit of a point of contention in the medical professions (for those that even give a shit, at least.) Creed: Well. I mean. Kind of a reference to the Hippocratic Oath, just in a way that fits GCAT, out of personal preference.  (Basic, easy to scan, and effective. I think you could use Asclepion instead of Cadecus for a more fitting tag, though using old Traveler Man’s symbol could hint at a desire to travel, to tell, to proclaim.)

Quirk: He’s got a simple quirk going. All lowercase, with t’s turned into crosses and doubled, as well as doubled x’s to represent stitches. He otherwise uses proper punctuation, and he really capitalizes on his corny jokes to ease the stress of his patients (putting the pun in all caps). He represents his mask in his smiley faces. Which is to say, he only ever uses one smiley for all emotions ever. 8>

CC: ++he quick brown foxx jumped over ++he lazy dog. (This scans well and doesn’t seem too out of place.)

Special Abilities:Beyond having an extensive knowledge of medical practice, as well as some more traditional healing, Haemir’s most fundamental ability is that he’s a powerful empath. He’s not able to impact the emotions of others, nor can he weaponize the feelings he picks up upon. No, the danger of his power is from how it encourages him to help and heal.

Haemir is able to pick up on the emotions and feelings of near-by trolls, especially discomfort and misery. Because he’s a bit of a soft boy, and because he personally feels that discomfort himself, he feels compelled to treat that discomfort in any way he can. He’s been a doctor as much as he’s been a stand-in moirail. (I think my conflict with your vision from a review standpoint comes here. Nothing about the ability needs to change, but I think you’ve let it dominate your character’s Path, put a pin in this- we’ll talk about it further into the review.)

Lusus: You know the big snake monster from Hiveswap? The one with like, sixteen arms? Imagine that, but a horse-sized white leech with massive fangs. That’s the Leech-Lord, and Haemir’s main mode of transportation.  (I find this ESPECIALLY amusing because both of my limeblood trolls have serpentine-modified lusii. Limebloods really just have that Slithery Energies.)

Personality: Haemir is… odd, and by most trolls standards an aberration. He’s a limeblood empath on a hostile world with a strong inclination to help people, even when he knows there’s no reward in it for him. This doesn’t mean he’s a fool, by any means, even if other trolls tend to confuse his compassion and conviction for cowardice. 

He believes strongly in everyone’s right to live, and live well, even if another troll would see him dead for his blood color. That’s why he dresses in heavy clothes, wearing a mask at all times to hide any hint of skin or mark that could potentially betray his color. He also tends to be very flighty and anxious when people attempt to get too touchy with him, often prompting adorable squeaks of frustration. He’s perfectly capable of speech, mind, he just chooses not to most of the time.  (We’re getting into it! There’s a nice undercurrent of justice, of human(troll) rights, of life and death and the societies we build to combat them. Being shaped by the society he lives in and yet wanting to change it, ignoring what’s laid before him to forge his own path…)

Interests: Medicine, biology, anatomy and physiology, and surprisingly enough, an appreciation for teen romance novels and movies. He just wishes there were less books about rainbow drinkers and lycanthropes and more about those hot, hot plague doctors.  (Hshshshshshshsh I want him to have gotten into the Plague Doctor getup due to some ill-advised CW Show about Troll Black Death and he was like “that’s it! I’m gonna dress like a featherbeast!”)

(For expansions on this: I definitely think History is a solid interest, given that he dresses up like a historical profession. Reading about the Limeblood Rebellion and the flow of Alternia- he’s probably done a lot of reading on the Condesce as well- learning how to Speak Truth to Power and how a Ruler shapes the lives of people she’ll never meet and- I could be here all day.)

Title: Sylph of Heart (I will be blunt with you: This character is neither of these things. Remember my comment under Special Powers? Here’s where we take that pin out.) (You’ve built an incredibly solid character here, which makes pointing this out very, very easy. I scanned this profile once and knew immediately what I was going to recommend.) (Let’s talk about why this is ill fitting: -First, this character is no Passive character. He already has the team/community focus that a Passive class would teach him, and given that- he’s taken matters into his own hands. This is a really solid Active player. -With Creation classes (and Sylphs ESPECIALLY), you have to think: What is this character destroying? A Sylph is but a Prince reflected. With Heart, your character would be Actively Destroying Mind- breaking people’s brains and toying with their emotions. Your character FEELS their emotions biologically, he doesn’t go out of his way to take hammers to their decision making. Sylphs also LOVE to meddle, which is why healing comes naturally to them. Your character has elements of this, but not in quite the sly, background kind of way.) (Heart, is traditionally linked to Derse (similar to Time) because it’s portfolio of disguise, facade, and truth being mutable all lend themselves very well to the Dersite playstyle. Your character, while hiding his face, doesn’t deal in facades as much as your typical Heart player, nor does his path as a character seem to fortell him learning to be different people or play with their heartstrings.) (My recommendation: Maid of Life or Bard of Doom) (But SA! A doctor that’s a Life player? That’s so cliche! And yes, it would be, on a character without as many hooks as this one.) (Maids learn to rely on themselves- look at Aradia, who dies and comes back in many forms as she takes time into herself. Your character looks like a Doom Player, and yet is a healer, and grower, a shaper.) (The Life-Doom inversion is much more than Life and Death, it is also Energy and Society. Your character is a healer, an active bringer of Life, and in doing so, not only directly counters Death, but Alternian Culture too. Your character isn’t a Prince of Doom, for instance: he’s not actively challenging society, he’s changing it as a side effect of his own actions.  Life-Doom is much broader than individuals.) (The Path for this character is less in changing as a person and more in reinforcing his good nature. Learning to be more open, learning what needs to be done, learning how he can be the force of good in the world that he’s already being, even if it feels small.)

Land:Land of Miasma and Malaise

Dream Planet: Prospit (I like this guy as a Prospit Dreamer. Even if he hides his face, he can’t really hide who he is- that sense of care and justice end empathy shines right on through.)

CD here with the design time at SA’s behest. The design was already pretty much perfect, just a few little tweaks. The design read a little costumey/like a human dressed up as a troll and I wanted to fix that. So as Really, Really Cute as the eyes were, I replaced them w/ more typical shiny plague doctor lenses in a still contrasty eyeball orange. I put some hair over the horns to make them feel more integrated and less tacked on, and I adjusted the outlines of the shoes to make them feel more integrated and less like the human kids’ shoes! 

(This was a great troll to work through, thank you for submitting!)

[shymaidxn]

Diantha’s Abilities/Skills

I’ve just thought that maybe I should post exactly what I headcanon as Diantha’s skills and abilities in her main verse on here (which is very long so get a bit comfy), which is traveling with the crew just to be a part of the crew and discover/journal about new islands, not the canon of her training to be Head Priestess like in her sr side stories or ssr side stories (that’s a different verse here where she’s allowed to stay on Xochitl Island~). In both, though, Xolotl does understand Diantha’s inner desire to explore the outside world and gives Diantha, which is very important because:

1 - Prolouge to explaining things) Diantha joins the crew of her own wants, not through Xolotl communicating to her that she must leave the island for a bit. Diantha here is unlike her sr and ssr in that it’s not Xolotl’s initial push that gets her off the island, but her own soul searching to realize that she wants to see the outside world after being on Xochitl Island for so long and being a bit confined-feeling in parts of her life. And she decides this right before the crew of the Grandcypher leaves after the event, trusting them greatly and wanting them to be the crew that she travels with. It’s a decision that would obviously leave the rest of the maidens and Bishop shocked, but ultimately understand her desire; as does Xolotl, voiced through Diola (because she’s super like that y’know?) and Lyria through her new connection with the primal beast. Which leads to ---

2 - How she has powers at all) Diantha keeps her singing powers when she joins the crew, it’s just...Different. What I mean by that is, since Diantha in her main verse is no longer a maiden and no longer very associated with the whole ritual except cheering for her friends, Diantha’s kind of maiden powers would be gone or very weak at best instead of “surprisingly intact” like in her cards. Though Bishop and everyone else already knows this and show concern, Diantha would state that she could handle herself and still do whatever she could to help the crew, and even if Xolotl can sense in his friend that she’s clearly uneased by the thought, her resolve and desire never wavers. Feeling that, and for Diantha being stupid selfless in trying to save her island and Xolotl by herself earlier, that’s when Xolotl gives her his blessing in a different way; infusing a bit of his primal energy into Diantha (my thought is he suddenly appears and boops his gigantic nose onto her head and then whamo~). It’s not a huge amount, seeing as how Diantha is not like Lyria in primal beast energy suction by any means, but 3~5% is certainly enough for Diantha to be basically as powerful as a maiden (maybe even a tad more)...When she can muster a word at least. Which leads to ---

3 - How her power works) Diantha’s singing powers very much fluctuate depending on her feelings, with some skills working much better than others in some instances, and not working at all if she’s unable to properly sing or if there’s no confidence/emotion behind her voice. For my Diantha, in a fight scenario, imagine her having the skills of her summer ssr, except her charged attack is just her instead of all of the girls, since that’s the more available one to people and it coincides with the later headcanons on here~.  A game-mechanic explanation can be summed up like this: If she’s calm and collected, then all of her skills are applied in the best case scenario, her charged attack is used, and everything is okie dokie cow pokie~ If her confidence and happiness is through the wazoo (aka very high), everything in her roster is greatly boosted which, in turn, helps the crew bunches~~~ If she’s mad/angry, Standing Ovation and Onstage are greatly boosted, as is her charge attack, but no other skills (support or otherwise) can be activated. If she’s scared for herself/for the crew’s safety, or sad/grieving, but still able to sing, all of her support skills are greatly boosted, as well as Summer Encore gaining a faster cool down, but no other skills will work and she won’t use her charge attack. If she’s a mix of scared/mad/sad, but can still sing (very extremely rare; probably only possible if say danchouorsomeoneshelovesisdyingordeadlike /shot, and she just sings instead of screaming), everything is boosted like at her happy/confident one but 100% more, but it only lasts probably three turns before she passes out from a literal internal overload, and damages herself (the amount of damage dependent on how all out she goes; if she uses all her skills and her charged attack, she might be out for awhile). If she physically can’t sing, then none of her skills are used, including support, her charged attack can’t be used, and she’s kind of a damsel in distress.

3.5 - Resonating Wand and Tlepilli) Diantha can sing with out the resonating wand and still get almost the same results thanks to Xolotl’s blessing/primal energy infusion~, though she still uses it if she needs a mental boost herself. Any danchou having a tlepilli will actually increase her boosts by at least 10% (though i doubt anyone would actually fight with those) and she actually has a tlepilli of her color in her bag that alone gives her a bit of a happy boost (or could help light the way in a cave or something).

A tl;dr, and also just for writing purposes, of all of 3) and 3.5), is that her feelings and confidence level with her singing can either greatly boost the crew in different ways or do diddly squat. When she first joins the crew it’s definitely no singing or scared singing at first when it comes to actual people (the empire or any event villain you prefer~) because she’s at least a tad used to seeing monsters and being defended from monsters, but then a real bandit sticks a gun up her nose and she’s so scared; poor sweet daughter;;. She gets used to it over time, of course, but it takes awhile, and add it on with her insecurities still kind of haunting her at first and even when she’s gaining confidence she still feels like she could be doing something much more useful and feels kind of like a burden for not being even a decent fighter. It weighs on her mind a lot, but the anxiousness and internal struggle of that eventually turns into a new resolve, and so ---

4 - Her other prominent skill) Diantha, along with still doing some instrument practice, also now practices herbalism and first aid, basically becoming another nurse to the crew. She knows that the fighter life is certainly not for her, so what she deems a more meaningful support role is what she goes for. Thinking about it, probably one of the first things she does with this new resolve is to look to people like Jasmine and ask to be taught all they know, something she’s probably wary on when first joining because she wants to pull her own weight, but something she knows will be important for this new goal in her mind. And she writes everything down; a whole shelf and stack are dedicated to either books they’ve given her/she’s bought from Sierokrate, or to the loads of journals with all her notes and sketches. She reserves the biggest pouch in her satchel for herbal medicines and first aid supplies. The first time she gets sick while this is going on, she refuses to let anyone baby her except for the ones who are helping her learn, and they teach her and help her make medicines (but then also put her to bed because this fervent studying was probably what did it yeah). But she gets great at it; by WMTSB2 she’s dual jobs of support and taking care of wounded, and by WMTSB3 (*birdaphon flashbacks*) knowing almost exactly what to do in any given situation...And it makes her feel really fulfilled too. She’s on good terms with her music by then, and feels really integral to the crew, and all anxiousness or concerns about it are almost completely out the window.

And so that’s the abilities/skills headcanons I have for diantha’s main verse~ Hope you liked reading bunches~