"What do you think?"
Toffee blinked a bit at the mask that his adopted daughter Olivia had put up on the wall in her room. She had her headphones looped around her slender, dark-skinned neck, the little African American girl smiling up at the spiked mask she was gesturing at, Toffee tilting his head to the side. The bluish/grey-skinned, faintly reptilian monster stood tall, scratching his chin in a thoughtful fashion as he analyzed the mask that laid on the pale, faded-paint walls of his daughter's room, his beloved husband Gumdrop the human standing by him, adjusting his large, circular goggles, brown hair slightly messy from bed head as he blinked a bit.
"...um...where'd you get that from?" Gumdrop asked. Somehow the mask looked oddly familiar. He was sure he'd seen it, but from where, he didn't know. It was faintly heart-shaped, with ten spikes upon its frame, four on the sides, two up top over the "eyes" painted onto the ornate purple mask, eyes that glowed like embers, with piercingly powerful green irises within a secondary burning iris, and deep set black pupils within, with ornate designs all over its purple frame.
"Internet." Olivia said. "I buy just about everything on there, from video games to pizzas. I think it really adds some color to the room! Brightens it up."
"It's...angry at the room, Olivia. It wants the room to burn in nuclear fire." Toffee remarked nonchalantly.
"C'mon, this is my room! I can put whatever I want on the wall." Olivia protested as Toffee sighed and looked at Gumdrop, who quietly muttered. "Best not to argue".
"Alright, alright. We're going to go pick up some Chinese food for dinner. What did you want?"
"Beef and broccoli." Olivia said in a slightly nonchalant fashion, sitting down in front of a large Dell computer, typing away as Toffee shrugged again, heading out the door with Gumdrop, resting a clawed hand on his husband's shoulder.
"She always orders that, what's wrong?" His human husband inquired.
"It isn't that, it's just…" Toffee hesitated, heading down the stairs, sighing. "Sometimes I hear her typing away into the night on that PC. I'm a bit worried what she's doing that has her SO obssessed that she spends that much time on. I mean, what could she be doing that makes her stay shut up in her room for so long, for hours on end?"
"A lot of kids these days do that." Gumdrop confessed. "I mean, fewer and fewer are playing outside. This is just what they do. We've got to give her space to grow, and to be like other kids. She needs more interaction with other children, even interaction like this. Then she'll make more friends, she'll invite them over, they'll start to properly play together and things will seem more "normal" to you. It's how things work these days."
But unbeknownst to the two of them, Olivia had taken the mask off the wall, putting it on over her face, her eyes glittering beneath it as she began to rapidly type away at the computer...typing away at someone's facebook page.
"You're stupid and you're ugly. You're a total dumb blonde. It's the 2010's, what kind of real woman would be interested in being a "Princess" anyway? That stuff's for four year olds, you need to grow up, stop curtseying at school, and being a stupid bitch."
She sniggered as she left the message down, then turned to the NEXT photo in the Facebook feed. It showed her victim at an ice cream store with her friend, the two taking a selfie with her eating Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, her friend holding the camera and a Cookie Dough cone. "Like you really need that ice cream, thunder thighs. Plus, your cheeks are so fat, it makes you look like a squirrel storing nuts for winter. Stop stuffing her face."
Laughing evilly, she scrolled on to the NEXT photo in the Facebook feed. This time her victim was posing over the form of a blown-down monster. "You're the real monster, all these problems come to town because of YOU. Why don't you do everyone a favor and just go kill yourself?" She read aloud, giving a snort of delight. "Oh, I hope she replies! Got some real good pictures of her on my phone to upload. COMPROMISING too. Let's see how she likes it when I upload those pics of when she thought that wine was apple juice and actually puked all over her nice new dress at that performance of "Shakespeare in the Park"!" Olivia sniggered. "Seriously, how dumb can you be to not recognize that stuff isn't apple juice?! Wonder if she'll cry. I KNOW she cried when I posted up that picture I took of her getting off the slide at the park, when she tore the back of her pants and underwear on that little bit of nail sticking up…"
Olivia sighed wistfully. "Oh, that made following her around for three weeks straight all worthwhile to get all angles. Especially when she tried to tuck her underwear back in, then THAT didn't work, and neither did trying to pull her shirt down more to cover it up! Then she had to leave the park by scooting around on her BUTT! Hilarious!"
All this...all this cruelty…
And she had no idea Toffee had come back up to her room to ask if her she'd wanted an appetizer with her main dish. He stood outside her room, peering in through a crack in the door, mouth agape, eyes bulging wide as he heard his little girl just TRASHING the Facebook feed of none other than his rival, the daughter of the woman who'd cut his finger off, one of his greatest enemies...Star Butterfly.
Meanwhile…
"MARCOOOOO!" Star Butterfly roared out.
She slammed the phone down in her room, making her way down the steps and into the living room where he was on the phone with his Skype friends, the whole gang in the middle of playing some "Overwatch" together. Marco always played as Reaper, aka Gabriel Reyes, of course. But upon hearing Star's yelling, he turned, seeing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed young girl heading down the stairs, her rosy, heart-tattoo'd cheeks flushed with fury, eyes glittering as he stared up at her. Marco Diaz was a nice-looking young Hispanic American with brown hair, deep brown eyes, and a cute little mole under his right eye, a "tickle button" as Star liked to say when she was in a good mood.
She sure wasn't in a good mood today.
"What's wrong?" Marco asked, turning away from the screen, looking at Star's face.
"Bad enough some...some JERK on Facebook keeps harassing me, and I'm SURE someone's been following me around, now I'm getting calls from total sicko weirdo freaks! This one guy called from NORWAY! What the heck is going on?!"
"If I had to GUESS…" Marco tilted his head to the side.
"The Internet. Truly the ultimate bathroom wall." Olivia sniggered, typing away on her Tumblr. "Ooh, wait. Got it. "For a really, REALLY good time, Call Star Butterfly at..."
"This has been going on for months!" Marco sighed, as he heard his Skype friends talking on the other end.
"So it's still going on? We've been looking over her Facebook wall." Lilo Pelekai's voice rang out from the other end, her buddy Jia listening intently to everything along with Prometheus, with Jay, Evie, Mal and Carlos, children of the villains of the Isle of the Lost also browsing the Facebook feed. "And WOW, this is some ugly stuff."
"This is a big deal, guys." said Mal with a sigh. "I mean, if someone like STAR can get this much hatred…"
It was a big deal, after all. Star Butterfly was frequently in the news and well known throughout the Earth, through the many Dimensions and even the STARS. She along with her friends had had various diplomatic meetings with the alien race the Drakgons that were current traders with the Earth, and she had set up trading opportunities between Mewni and Earth as well, allowing a great spreading of resources. In addition, she was frequently being interviewed and appearing on radio and on podcasts for others, eager to talk about issues of the day. She was telegenic, she had ZAZZ, and above all, she was pretty and likable. Star Butterfly was one of those people that it seemed everyone seemed to love!
So who was this person harassing her so horribly?
"Whomever it is…" said Venus Moonstone as the match wrapped up, and her character of Orisa in Overwatch did a victory pose. "...the person involved knows their way around the net, and clearly is doing , has done and continues to do their homework." She said quietly, purplish eyes glittering darkly. "We should do something. We should try and trace the IP address of where all this is coming from."
"We'll have to appeal to Mark Zuckerberg directly." Marco offered.
"Aww, he'd be happy to do that!" said Jay, the son of Jafar with a little laugh. "Wouldn't say to "no" to our little Star."
"I dunno...his company's fine with giving out private information to COMPANIES. Star really isn't a company. I mean, if he does this...what's to stop him from giving out other people's personal information? Like, there's a slippery slope to continue." said Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen with a sigh, hanging her head.
"We're only asking for an IP address, a GENERAL area. It won't be so bad." Lilo insisted. "Let's get in contact with Mr. Mark tomorrow, and meet up at the Pretzel Shack!"
…
…
…
…Toffee had now been spying on Olivia every single night as, bit by bit, Lilo, Venus, Marco, Star and their friends narrowed down the IP addresses to neighborhoods, investigating one house every night...getting closer to figuring out who was behind the daily abuse of Star. It was getting do disgusting that Star had to log OFF of Facebook, and had delegated the task of caring for it...to Butters Stotch.
Butters was now vomiting quite a bit into his wastebasket lately because of this. Nobody was happy.
Toffee, meanwhile, was increasibly disturbed by the late hours Olivia was spending hunched over the screen, eyes pitilessly glittering, laughing maniacally, spreading ugly, evil messages to Star online. More horrifyingly...she was working on something in her closet, and he'd gotten a peek one night as he stood outside on the edge, eyes bulging wide.
The light had glowed, a foul, unnatural blue shade, showing off the emblem of her family's wand. A wand with an infinity symbol in it, similar in form to STAR's family's wand with an ourorborus symbol wrapping AROUND the infinity symbol.
But that wasn't the worst part. No, what was worse…
...was he'd heard the Mask talking. Talking through her. Toffee could tell, even when he was moments from sliiiiiightly pushing open the door to peer in that the Mask was talking, for it sounded faintly childlike, sinister, with a faintly reverberating, echoing edge. Muttering about what they should do with Star.
...and then came the night it no longer needed her to talk.
"Oh, what fun we're going to have." It whispered to Olivia, softly floating right by her side, hovering in midair, faintly pulsing and throbbing as if it was a real, beating heart. "Just imagine what you'll be able to do when this is finished, Olivia." It murmured.
"Yes...I'll make that bitch pay." Olivia murmured back, her voice sounding...somewhat strained. She sounded oddly...weak, and it made Toffee feel a sense of shuddering fear stab into his heart.
"We'll make everyone who's hurt you pay. We'll toy with them until they break. And then toss them away. If you can't have fun with something, it should be thrown away." Majora's Mask murmured, circling around Olivia over and over.
"Yeah...yeah, that's...that's right…" Olivia mumbled, Toffee nervously backing away from the door, looking horrified, pure disgust and terror on his reptilian features, barreling down the stairs, out into the garage, Gumdrop working on some power armor and glancing up.
"You don't look good at all! What's wrong?" Gumdrop inquired, adjusting the goggles he was wearing, putting them atop his head as Toffee stared back at him.
"That mask isn't just talking when it's on her, now it's got a life of its own. It's been helping her remake her family's wand, and...and it sounds psychotic. I think its hurting her. Draining her of life." Toffee murmured...unaware they were being watched from a pair of binoculars by Marco, Lilo, Venus and Star, who were passing the binoculars around, and speaking with every pass.
"Shoulda KNOWN that Toffee or his family would be behind this." Star murmured.
"Just the kinda thing he'd do." Marco grunted.
"Can you hear what they're saying?" Lilo inquired.
"Something about Olivia." Venus said with a frown, now looking up into the window and gasping in shock and horror. "Oh my stars and fuckin' garters, LOOK UP THERE. The window." She said, pointing with a finger.
All of them glanced up, eyes bulging. There, in the glow of the window on the second floor...they could see Olivia holding up something. A wand that was glowing...glowing an evil glow.
"...this is bad." Star murmured. "This is very bad. I recognize that wand."
…
…
…
… "This...is the Ouroboros ." Star said, taking out a large history book, putting it down on the table in her home, giving Toffee a bit of a glare as he stood by Gumdrop across the table, Lilo, Marco, Venus and her other friends leaning around the kitchen table and staring down at what laid in the book. "It's an immensely powerful symbol of rebirth and infinity, of the cycle of life and death and a great representative of magic. Plus...big giant snakey monster." She added, pointing down at the slightly horned snake on the page, tapping it with a fingernail.
"Snakes are cool!" Lilo remarked with a sage nod.
"The Wand of the Ouroboros is meant to invoke the spirit. If it's at full power, it'll be corrupted! Corrupted by...Majora." Star shuddered. "Mom told me stories about Majora. None of them good."
"They pale compare to the stories our race has of it." Toffee said, clearing his throat as they all turned to look up at him. "Majora was, at one point, a real monster. A powerful one, with immense magical skill who could easily manipulate time and space. It could change its appearance, it could alter people's minds, it could bring out the innate evil within someone, or trigger sparks of madness. Being too close to it ALONE for too long would drive someone positively insane, that is why all of its servants had to take turns tending to it. And then it started to try and spread. It wanted to make more of its kind."
"The Ouroboros stopped it last time." Star said, turning a page over in the history book, showing a giant snake enveloping a twisted, demonic, tentacle-armed THING with a foul neon color scheme. "It crushed the thing in its coils and ripped its head off and the only thing left after it was done was its oddly-shaped, skeletonized, hardened face...that SOMEONE turned into a mask!" Star shuddered in disgust. "I mean, what sort of idiot just picks up something that's lying around in a pile of bones and skin parts and organs and says "Hey, this'll make a great mask"!"
"Shigeru Miyamoto?" Lilo offered, all of them tilting their heads a bit to the side before going
"Yeah, yeah."
"Makes sense."
"Can't argue with that."
"Well how can WE call the Ouroboros spirit so SHE can't?"
"For starters, we need to get the wand away from her. Second, we'll need…" Star took a deep breath, then bit her lip. "...you two." She looked up at Gumdrop and Toffee. "You two are her family now, which means you're bound to her and thus, the Ouroboros, by spirit, even if not by blood." Star Butterfly hesitated, seeing Toffee looking at her, clearly amused at the prospect of her asking for his assistance. "We are gonna have to distract her. Get her away from the wand so YOU two can take it."
"However do you intend to do that?"
"Oh, that's easy." Marco said with a smile. "We need something quick, easy and simple. Something Olivia won't be able to resist so she can blog about it online. And the best way to do it is something that will get Star looking vulnerable. So…"
TWO HOURS LATER...
"SPLATOON FEEEEEST!" Star Butterfly called out, holding up a giant Ink-filled super soaker, laughing maniacally and firing away in the direction of Marco, who ducked behind a large bunch of barrels he'd set up in the middle of the street. Lilo readied a giant water balloon, writing the words "Big Bertha" on the side of it, stationed atop a nearby tree with black paint underneath her eyes as she grinned, pulling it back further...further…
Meanwhile, Venus was currently pinned down by Jay and his friends, who were feeding him ink bullets into a machine-gun esque super soaker loaded up with ink whilst she wore a big, fancy samurai helmet and readied a giant katana, grinning in delight, the deep black katana made of ink shimmering and squirming a bit, as if ALIVE. "Ready or not, here I come!" She cried out, barreling out from behind the car she was taking cover behind. A car that wasn't hers, but Toffee's.
"My car...OUR car…" Toffee said, clutching at his hair, looking as though he was going to tear it out, Gumdrop gaping in amazement as Olivia's eyes glinted. This was perfect. All she had to do was wait for Star's outfit to get really inky and messy and then...then the PERFECT shot. Star...wearing no clothes. The ultimate humiliation.
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." Olivia lied, heading out the back door, getting her smartphone ready as Toffee looked back in the direction she'd went, waiting along with Gumdrop until they were sure the door had slammed...racing up to her bedroom as Toffee rummaged around in her bedstand. Gumdrop, meanwhile, tossed the bedsheet over the mask that hung on the wall, looking underneath the bed for the wand.
"...what...do you think you're doing?" Majora's Mask whispered darkly, its eyes beginning to burn beneath the bedsheets as Toffee moved to the closet, finding it locked. Ah HA. So this is where it was. He began to tug hard, ripping the door open as Majora's Mask grew louder. "Are you trying to spoil my fun?"
Meanwhile, Star looked up into the sky, gasping. Down from above came "Big Bertha", the immense, bulbous ink balloon SPLATTERING all over her with thick, wavy blotches of ink that exploded over her with the force of a tiny nuclear bomb. She flopped into the street, dramatically grabbing her chest, flailing around and flopping about like a fish. "Ahhh! I'm hit, I'm hit! They GOT me! I'm...I'm a goner! Game over, man! Game over!"
"Clearly somebody ought to try for their actor's equity card." Olivia whispered, peering through the bushes, waiting for Star to get up, seeing her rise and call out "I'm gonna go change over here!"
Grinning, she watched Star head for a nearby group of trees off in the distance, heavily shielded from the street so that few could see her change, and Olivia made her way closer...closer…
Toffee, meanwhile, was tugging hard on the Wand of the Ouroboros, grunting and growling, a snarl on his features, sweat dribbling down his brow as Gumdrop gripped it as well. Foul, ugly, sickeningly purplish/neon bands of energy were wrapped around his hand and the wand, Majora's Mask having BURNED the bedsheet clean off itself! It hovered in the air, the bands of energy extending from its foul frame like tentacles. "I'LL be taking that!" It screeched out, the air becoming hot and heavy, waves of pure, absolute hatred barreling through the room at them as Toffee found the front of his clothes beginning to slowly dissolve away, being burned off in the waves of intense heat. "This belongs to me! SHE belongs to me!"
"She's our daughter!" Gumdrop screamed back, his glasses lenses being cracked and dissolving along with the frames, his t-shirt turning into burning tatters as the ground around them was shattering and shuddering, the entire house now beginning to shake! "You can't have her!"
"You'll do no more manipulation in my house!" Toffee snarled angrily. "You stay away from Olivia!"
"You want this just as much as me! You want Star Butterfly to suffer!" Majora cackled insanely, Toffee flinching, feeling his CHEST now beginning to be exposed to the horrific burning, his skin beginning to crack and peel as if he was suffering from the worst sunburn in the world. "You're petty and pathetic, mortal. Embrace it. I have!"
"Olivia's too young to know what she really wants!" Toffee snarled. "You're exploiting my daughter, and I shan't forgive that!"
And with that, Olivia and the others suddenly seemed to realize the house was now hovering clean off the ground, everyone dropping their various super soakers and the like, Venus turning her head, her ink sword now slammed right into Evie's stomach, splattering the ink all over her nice new pink shirt she spent 40 bucks at the Gap for. Their eyes all bulged out, Olivia's mouth gaping in surprise and then…
The bedroom blew clean open, exposing Toffee, Gumdrop and Majora, all of them floating in the air, hovering around in a cage of burning, intense, purplish fire that was peeling away at the front of ALL of them, each one howling in different pitches and tones. Something had to give. Something…
And then a moment later, a powerful, shuddering burst of pure magical energy slammed into Majora's Mask, Star Butterfly holding up her wand, her cheeks glowing brightly as Lilo, Venus, Marco and the others rested their hands on Star's inky, stained, sloppy shoulders, Star's eyes glittering like diamonds. "You! Go! BYE! NOW!" She roared out.
Majora couldn't handle its attention being split, for now it's own defenses were fraying away, and a distinctly SERPENTINE spirit now seemed to be wrapping around Toffee and Gumdrop, their skin healing, patching up before their eyes, its jaws wide as it reached out with it's tail, wrapping around Majora and then…
KRA-THROOOOM! A sonic boom sent it launching high, high through the air, vanishing into the distant blue, becoming just a speck as Toffee and Gumdrop flopped down to the grass below, Olivia screaming, racing over to them, kneeling down. "DADDY!" She howled out, embracing the two as they heaved and moaned, their heads sore and ringing, barely being able to stagger up as Star approached, Olivia panting a bit, her grip tight on her two fathers.
"...WHY." She demanded to know. "Why did you...I wanna know...after all I did…?"
"You needed help." Star said quietly. "...and Toffee really, really wanted me to help you. He must love you a lot if he has to ask ME for help."
Olivia groaned and covered her face. "You d-don't get it, this is...you can't be...I...I…" Olivia murmured.
"I forgive you." Star said with a small smile. "I learned a while back what blind hatred does. How badly we Mewni treated monsters, and so I've tried to make up for that. It doesn't do any good to close yourself off and hate, because then you forget what you were."
"I lost myself in that hate." Toffee sighed as he hung his head. "I stopped caring about getting back the land and culture my people had lost and just started to become enveloped in the desire for revenge. That was all I had in me. Just the desire to get even. Just the hate. That first spark had died out."
"So we forgive you for following me around and posting nasty stuff on my Facebook." Star offered. "Let's start over." She added, holding out a hand, Olivia sniffling a bit, wiping her nose on her hand and nervously taking the hand.
"It'll take a while, I get it." Lilo offered. "It took ME a while to get over Myrtle Edmonds making fun of me for so long, then wanting to be a part of my ohana, but if we could do it...you and Star can too."
"We're not asking to be your BEST friend. Just to try." Marco offered.
"I'll...try." Olivia murmured, chewing her lip. "...I'll try."
"Awesome!" Star said, eagerly shaking Olivia's hand before blinking a bit. "We should probably ALL take baths."
"You're not using MINE." Toffee said quickly, pinching his nose, looking disgusted.
"Friends let friends use their baths." Gumdrop said with a snarky grin.
"We really ARE a bad influence on you." Toffee chuckled, giving Olivia her wand, all of them laughing uproariously…
Unaware that many miles away, Majora had slowly risen off a grassy knoll in the center of a deep, dark forest, its gaze murderous and hateful. Olivia was a perfect host for it. It might have been temporarily separated, but the influence was now just...dormant. Lying beneath, waiting for a new awakening.
It would take her back. It would gain its splendor anew.
...it would make them pay.
ALL OF THEM.