A.N.: These are a series of short stories based on my own personal Viva Piñata fanon. There are some references to my other stories, but they shouldn't detract from the shorts, I hope. Please enjoy and let me know what you think if you can! :)
The night was freezing cold for autumn. The changing leaves shuddered in the bitter breeze and even the nocturnal piñatas were quiet, choosing to huddle together in warrens and dens rather than brave this cold night.
It was three in the morning, so nearly no one in the village was awake. The chilly weather had made most people eager to crawl into their warm beds; even Costolot had closed her shop early to get some rest.
The only one awake was Seedos, who was sitting on a bench in the village square, his arms wrapped around himself. His oversized backpack sat beside him and a small, cobalt blue pouch tied with a bow rested on his lap. He was lucky enough to find a coat and boots in the far reaches of his closet. Sure, the coat was several sizes too big and the boots were a size too small, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Seedos wasn't going to let a little chill keep him from what he had to do tonight.
Seedos took a deep breath and let it out slowly, rising to his feet.
"Okay," he mumbled to himself as he hitched up his backpack. "Don't be scared. This is no big deal, Seedos." He leaned over and picked up the small pouch. "You're doing something nice…" He hugged it to his chest protectively as he headed down the village road.
After narrowly avoiding tripping over a pothole, Seedos arrived at Leena's garden. She had overworked herself once again and had fallen asleep under a hazelnut tree, about six brown and purple patterned blankets piled on top of her.
Those are some drab colors…Avalon must have given those to her, Seedos observed as he tiptoed through Leena's garden, taking care not to wake her. I hope she's warm enough.
Seedos hit himself on the forehead of his mask. Now is not the time to be worrying about Leena! There's a more important task at hand, and I'll never forgive myself if I don't do it!
Seedos slipped into the jungle on the outskirts of Leena's garden. I guess if I wander around enough I'll find him…
Seedos spent a good twenty minutes wandering around the dark jungle, extremely disappointed that it was too dark to look for seeds. Another twenty minutes passed and he still had no luck. The most eventful thing that happened during his trek was when he tripped over what may have been a Fudgehog.
As he staggered to his feet and checked that the precious pouch he was carrying was all right, a sound finally pierced the silent night.
Someone far away was singing a haunting melody, and Seedos knew exactly who it was. Normally, that song would have made anyone who recognized it wet themselves and run for the hills, but Seedos did neither of these things. Instead, he began rushing through the jungle towards the source of the voice.
When Seedos was finally close enough to make out the words to the song, he tripped over a tree branch and fell flat on his face. The singing stopped short.
Seedos hoisted himself up to a sitting position and found himself in a clearing with a dead tree stump and an even deader Profitamole.
The Profitamole's assailant was still standing-er, floating-over the body, but he had turned to face Seedos, an annoyed look on his mask.
"What are you doing here, kiddo?" he hissed, hitting his palm with a large papery stick threateningly. "Don't you know it's dangerous to be out so late? You could run into some shady characters…" His tone was menacing, but Seedos smiled at him in spite of it.
"Dastardos…hi!" Seedos was out of breath from running, sweat trickling down his face behind his mask. "I've been…looking everywhere for you…" he wheezed.
Dastardos narrowed his eyes at Seedos. "Why the hell would you want to look for me?" Dastardos placed a bony hand on his chest. "Do you finally want someone to end your pathetic little life? I'd love to help you out, but I only kill piñatas…" Dastardos shrugged with a chuckle.
"November thirteenth," Seedos said.
"…what?" Dastardos gave Seedos a flat look.
"It's after midnight, so it's November thirteenth right now," Seedos explained, fiddling with the blue pouch that was resting on his knee.
"Stop spouting nonsense and get to the point!" Dastardos glared at Seedos, both ends of his scarf rearing up threateningly, like Syrupents ready to strike.
"November thirteenth is your birthday!" Seedos finally stood up, holding the pouch in his hands. "…did you forget?" Seedos asked quietly.
Dastardos' expression fell and he gave Seedos a silent look of disbelief.
"I'll take that as a 'yes…'" Seedos sighed. "Pester doesn't seem like the kind of guy who wishes people 'happy birthday.'"
"…Seedos, I'm not even alive," Dastardos finally spoke. "Birthdays don't matter to me anymore."
"Are you trying to trick me?" Seedos sounded offended. "You're right in front of me, you're speaking to me, you're moving, you're alive."
Dastardos groaned. "…okay, maybe I'm slightly alive, but I don't give a Mousemallow's ass about my birthday."
"I give a Mousemallow's ass!" Seedos thrust the blue pouch towards Dastardos. "I spent all day yesterday gathering these for you!"
Dastardos eyed Seedos' offering with disdain. "What's in there? Seeds? I hate to break it to you, Seedos, but I have no use for those."
"Just open it," Seedos pleaded. Dastardos huffed and snatched the bundle from him.
"A ribbon, really?" Dastardos grumbled as he untied it. "You even tie like a sissy…"
"I've told you before, insulting me will not make me go away," Seedos crossed his arms, a confident smirk crossing his mask's oversized mouth. "Besides, I think you'll like it."
"Well, I think-" Dastardos stopped mid-sentence when he saw what was inside the bag. A bunch of brightly colored sweets filled the bag, each one mimicking the pattern of a piñata species. "Th-these are…"
"Life sweets," Seedos was pleased to hear that the malice had dropped from Dastardos' voice as soon as he saw exactly what his gift was. "I know you still keep Magnar around."
"But…why? How?" Dastardos wasn't used to kind gestures. His heart was twisting and everything he said kept coming out monosyllabic.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you're my brother," Seedos' tone was gentle. "I might not have seen you much over the past years, but I know that you would never let Magnar die." Seedos sighed. "I remember when we were kids; you and that Macaraccoon were inseparable. You risked getting in serious trouble to keep him alive. Always killing the weaker piñatas that wandered in for their life sweets…"
"…and the day you caught me killing a Shellybean for Magnar, I had to punch you in the face to make sure you stayed quiet about my secret…" Dastardos joined Seedos in reminiscing and Seedos cocked a brow at him.
"Why do you only seem to remember the more violent times in our childhood?"
"Eh," Dastardos shrugged. "That's not important right now. What I want to know is how the hell you even got all of these! There must be at least fifty in here!" Dastardos rooted through the pouch, a small smile on his mask's twisted mouth.
He's actually smiling!Seedos resisted the urge to jump for joy. Things were going much better than expected!
"There are sixty-four, I counted," Seedos nodded. "I got them in a lot of different ways. I begged Leena to kill a Syrupent or five for me, I convinced Yoto to sneak into Gretchen's storage room and smash every Crowla in sight, and I got the rest from bribing gardeners."
"Bribing them with what?" Dastardos re-tied the pouch ungracefully and tucked it under an arm. "You run around giving out seeds for free. You must have barely a chocolate coin to your name."
"Well…" Seedos suddenly looked immensely saddened as he shrugged his pack off, unzipping the main pocket. He turned his backpack so Dastardos could see the inside of it.
Seedos' bag was usually practically overflowing with seeds, but today there was barely a small layer of them lining the bottom.
Dastardos floated backwards, his eyes wide with disbelief. "You didn't."
"I did…" Seedos let out a mournful sigh and zipped his backpack shut, a pained look on his mask. "This is the biggest sacrifice I've ever had to make, Dastardos…"
"That's kind of pathetic…" Dastardos snickered and Seedos scowled at him, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. "…did those stupid things really mean that much to you? Why would you give them up for me?"
"I was really getting sick of you dismissing me every time I tried to talk to you," Seedos confessed.
Dastardos gave Seedos a flat look. "Seedos…you only tried to talk to me twice. On the same night. At a party where there were lots of people who could overhear. Not to mention I was completely and utterly miserable and I wanted to kill everyone, you included."
"I-it still bugged me that you could brush off your own brother that easily!" Seedos clenched his hands into fists. "Jardiniero disowned me, Leafos despises me, and Storkos is too busy to see me! I'm the only one out of all of them who knows who you are, who cares enough to worry about you, and you won't even give me the time of day!" Seedos swallowed a lump in his throat. "Obviously telling you that I want to be on good terms with you didn't work, so I figured I'd have to show you." Seedos gestured to Dastardos' gift. "Even if it meant giving up almost all of my seeds…" he sobbed.
"Oh, God…" Dastardos let out a sharp sigh. "Don't cry. Look, fine, if it'll make you happy, I'll admit it. I really appreciate what you did for me. Magnar won't be feeling under the weather for a very long time, and I have you to thank for it! Can you stop crying now?"
Seedos sniffled and reached under his mask to wipe his eyes. "D-do you really mean it?"
"Of course I do," Dastardos sounded a bit annoyed. "You should know that I'd never lie about something Magnar related…" Dastardos scratched his head. "Er, apart from the whole 'killing piñatas behind Jardiniero's back' thing."
"That's good enough for me, then!" Seedos sniffled one last time and gave his brother a pale smile. "I'll leave you alone; I know how you feel about human contact. Make good use of my gift, okay?" He turned to leave.
"Hold on a second!" Dastardos shouted. Seedos stopped in his tracks when he felt something cinch around his chest. He looked down to see that it was Dastardos' scarf just as it whirled him around to face his brother.
"D-don't do that, that's creepy!" Seedos shuddered as the scarf released him and slithered back to its place on the ground below Dastardos' feet.
"I can't control this thing half the time," Dastardos tossed one end of his scarf over his shoulder. "That's not important now, though. I just wanted to say…I can't believe you spent an entire day gathering life sweets for a piñatacidal maniac." Dastardos gestured to himself.
"Got a few head wounds for my trouble, too…" Seedos smiled sheepishly as he slid his mask down a bit, pointing to a few scattered Band-Aids on his forehead. "Plus now more than half the gardeners are probably thinking I switched my obsession to life candy instead of seeds…" Seedos shook his head. "If you ask me, Life Candyos doesn't have a very good ring to it."
"They must all think you're insane…" Dastardos thought aloud.
"They already did, and I kind of am," Seedos shrugged, he never really cared much for his reputation.
"You'd never do something like that back before the incident…" Dastardos mused. "You were a little coward; always worried about making sure you stayed the favorite and never wanting to get on anyone's bad side…"
"I was barely six years old when the incident occurred," Seedos crossed his arms. "I don't know if you noticed, but I'm almost an adult now. I've changed almost as much as you have!"
Dastardos' brow furrowed and he squinted at Seedos. "…well, you aren't corrupted like me, but you certainly grew…" Dastardos floated slightly closer to his brother. "This might sound weird, but can I see your face?"
"What?" Seedos squeaked, putting his hands on the sides of his mask protectively, his eyes bugging out.
"The last time I saw your face was nearly ten years ago," Dastardos had annoyance in his voice. "Besides, you saw my face back at the party, it's only fair." Dastardos let a smirky grin cross his mask. "Not to mention it's hard to take you seriously with that ugly thing on."
"Fine, if you're that curious…" Seedos ignored Dastardos' insult and slid his mask upwards until it was resting on the top of his head.
Dastardos started and flew backwards a few feet.
"Am I that ugly?" Seedos feigned offense, frowning.
"No, you just…" Dastardos had surprise in his voice. "…you almost look older than me."
"You're much older than me, though," Seedos' eyes widened. "Are you sure?"
Dastardos chuckled darkly. "Seedos, I stopped growing when Pester gave me that candy. I'm pretty much eternally fifteen. Sure, I lost a ton of weight and the fact that I almost never sleep took its toll on me, but I never grew a single inch. I didn't change much." Dastardos pointed a bony finger at Seedos. "You said it yourself, remember?"
"Eternally-?" Seedos looked even more shocked than Dastardos did when he revealed his face. "You mean-"
"Yup, I'm pretty sure I'll never die," Dastardos heaved a heavy, morose sigh. "I have no clue why I'm telling you about my problems, but that's the truth. I can't be hurt, I can't fall ill, and I can't age. I get to watch every last person in this village shrivel and die, isn't that great?" Dastardos feigned a grin, fierce sarcasm tainting his tone.
"Dastardos…that's…" Seedos moved to put a hand on his brother's shoulder but Dastardos moved away quickly.
"I don't need any pity from you, Seedos," In response to the sadness in Seedos' eyes, Dastardos huffed and added: "I don't want you to worry. You shouldn't worry about someone like me. I'll be fine. I won't be happy, but I'll be fine."
"No wonder your birthday doesn't mean much to you…" Seedos looked down at the ground, folding his arms.
Dastardos shook his head. "It doesn't…but I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate your gift," Dastardos pulled the pouch of life sweets out of his pocket. "This made me happier than I've been in a very long time. Does that make you feel any better?"
"Just a bit," Seedos finally raised his eyes. "…would you get cross with me if I did this every year?"
"…No," Dastardos said after thinking for a few moments. "What about those dumb seeds of yours?"
"This was…kind of a last minute idea…" Seedos chuckled nervously. "I'll try to come up with a better method by next year."
"Atta boy," Dastardos grinned his twisted grin. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm behind schedule…" Dastardos pocketed the life sweets again and pulled out his Alert System, his eyes widening a bit when he looked at the screen. "Ah, this next one's in Leena's garden…"
"What?" Seedos exclaimed, his voice rising up an octave or two.
"Mmm, yup, one of her recently resided Pretztails. How irresponsible," Dastardos turned towards Seedos. "Warn her if you wish. I like you, so I'll give you a head start."
Seedos shouted in panic yet again as he pulled his mask back into place, not even bothering to straighten it out. "SEE YOU LATER, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" he yelled quickly before rushing off into the darkness.
Dastardos shook his head and counted to sixty under his breath before gliding off into the night himself, a bit slower than his usual pace.