Why am I writing this? Because Monster Prom is an adorable fucking game with my kind of cynical narrating and profanity laced romance. That, and I adore all the playable characters and decided to give them a little more love. (I ship no one with Scott, btw, he's just too pure and a good boy for this bunch of psychotic, murderous, gambling, arson-loving maniacs) I love everyone who reads this (and also those that are regular fans of mine y'all are lil rays of goddamn sunshine)
ONWARDS! TO DEATH! Or, uh, high school drama? Same thing.
Oz "Yellow" Darkling knew a few things. He knew most people thought he was mute - he wasn't, just for the record - he knew everyone outside of three monsters thought he was lame and underwhelming - he was actually a bit too brash and reckless for his three friends to keep up with - and most people didn't know he was, actually, royalty. He never really mentioned his mother being the queen of the void, it just wasn't a natural thing to talk about. He didn't hesitate to use it to get out of detention, though. It was how Vicky and Amiri knew about his status.
Luckily, it was easy to bribe the franken-girl into silence with a high-powered car battery and the promise of a trip to an electric chair. She...was far too into it, if he was to be honest. Amiri didn't actually care, but promised to be quiet if Oz introduced her to his royal family. They loved her, though he wasn't shocked in the least.
Also, no one seemed to have a full grasp on whatever the fuck he was. Oz knew, of course. His mother always mentioned they were the kin of great eldritch creatures; they had no name, but feasted upon fear and were born from despair and pain - almost always, one parent would die whenever one was born.
Oz ate his father upon birth. His sister did the same to her father, too.
But right now, he wasn't comfortably at home sipping wine while playing chess with his glorified nanny - he was at school. Learning about history that didn't belong to him or his species. Hell, most monsters didn't even know shadow beings existed, not until his mother had sent Oz here for "a more diverse education" as she had bullshitted before shooing her oldest son out of the room. He hadn't complained too much. His baby sister was a handful, and he was grateful to be away from her during the years of puberty. He still missed the brat, though.
"Oz, hey, pass that to Liam, will you? My phone died. Like me." The shadow being was startled from his thoughts as Brian, one of his only three friends, prodded for his attention. The zombie was holding out a folded piece of paper to him, looking oddly like the scented stationary a certain vampire had gifted to him. Oz flicked blank eyes towards said vampire, who was glaring rather worriyingly at his phone.
"Sure." Was muttered softly as he took the paper, sending a long shadowy hand to give the stupidly fancy note to Liam. Immediately afterwards, his gaze was caught by something much more interesting than the undead romance in front of him; Damien, pyromaniac sex machine of the entire goddamn Midgardian plane, holding a lighter and giving some poor sucker's homework a thoughtful, scarily intense look. As calmly as possible, Oz kicked the back of the devil's seat, getting a scathing death stare in return.
"WHAT the FUCK do you want, shadow bitch?" Wow, uncalled for. Oz only rolled his blank eyes, causing the little blobs of shadows on his shoulders to do the same. He simply gestured at the lighter still in Damien's hand, arching an eyebrow for good measure.
"Are you telling me not to set something on fire!? What the fuck is your problem!?" The red devil was, without a doubt, pissed off at something that wasn't Oz - he only knew this because he rarely spoke to the prince of hell, if only to save himself from being burnt to a crisp. Unless being ignored was what was pissing Damien off? Once again, he tilted his head, putting his hands up in politely tactical surrender before pointing over at the teacher's very flammable desk. Damien seemed to get the idea, as he produced a small gas can from his backpack and stalked to the front of the class.
Oz heard a maniacal giggle, glancing over his thin shoulder to see Vicky and Amiri making kissy faces at him.
"Fuck off." Was all he shot at them, quiet enough to avoid another monster hearing, but with a lot of passion for such a polite and well-mannered blob of fear-induced darkness.
Sure, he liked Damien enough to give him arson based ideas. So what? He wasn't about to break his rumor of being mute and lame by actually speaking a sentence to the guy. He was sure Damien was way more into Vicky, anyway, the girl was fucking crazier than Polly on Cocaine and bath salts. Suddenly, he felt heat flare up from the direction of the teacher's desk and turned around, finding a fire already raging and students fleeing the classroom. On his way out, he spotted Brian bravely carrying a heavily blushing Liam to safety...or to an empty classroom far away from the fire. Presumably to do what every high school student did instead of go to class; fuck each other - or, y'know, play video games while camped out in some nook in the school.
Good lord and Void above he was skipping his next class and hiding in the bathroom either way.
On his way there, he ran into Vicky, Vera, and Damien. All of them looked completely unharmed from the fire, which wasn't shocking in the least, but the red devil still seemed rather angry. Vicky had a hold of his arms, attempting to pry his worries out of him.
Jealousy wormed its way into Oz's stomach, as did regret at not making a move sooner, as right before he came into earshot he saw the stitched up girl laugh, let go of Damien, and kiss the bad boy's cheek. His chest hurt, and his eyes burned and watered up with ghoulish tears. Oz caught the burning gaze of the demon as he looked up - but the shadow being veered off towards the library, chest aching like someone had taken a jackhammer to his poor pitch black heart. There was no point. Any chance he had was gone, gone with Vicky's stupid boldness and her ability to win everyone over.
Fuck them, then. He didn't need this bull anyway.
Oz still called his sister and cried to her about it; he had really liked Damien, alright? And Vicky knew that, that bitch! In a moment of rare violence, he lashed out at the first thing to come into contact with him. Unfortunately, that something was Scott. The werewolf's screams were rather loud, having been attacked by a crying, horrifying monster with multiple eyes and mouths and a hatred for sports - Oz quickly dropped back into his tiny cardigan wearing self, apologizing to Scott in a small, tinny voice.
"I-Its alright, Oz. No harm done, right?" Scott smiled in an uneasy manner, only making Oz feel worse about the entire day. With a frown sinking into his face, he turned to go hide somewhere, like maybe with the coven or in the rafters with the bats. He was stopped by Scott's hands on his shoulders, which was followed by tiny protests from his shadow sprites.
"Hey, bro, are you good? You seem really sad. I don't what made you sad, but I'll do everything to get you not sad right now!" Oz couldn't help but smile, even if it felt half assed and he was once again on the verge of sobbing like a widowed banshee.
"I'm fine, Scott. Thank you." He was mumbling, shaking a little with anger when he thought about the scene from just a few minutes ago, but he found himself less angry and more...disappointed. Maybe that was a sign that he'd be ok? He gave Scott a bigger, brighter smile. "I mean, I'll be ok, I think. Go be a good boy to someone else, Scott."
The werewolf was more than content with that and bounded off, leaving Oz to stand in the empty hallway all by himself. He knew he said he'd be ok, but as soon as the only sound was his own harsh breathing, he sank to the floor and let the tears slip, and this time, no one came to bother him.
All his friends were busy with their lovers anyway - oh how he grew wrathful when he thought of Vicky smothering Damien with affection, or Damien even holding the franken-girl's hand and giving her little kisses and sweet nothings and things on fire like he'd daydreamed about getting. Fuck everything, he just wanted to go home; he called his sister again, once again getting her surprisingly endearing voicemail. He left her a message about visiting home for a week, and that he needed to talk to her and their mother soon.
Now he just needed to survive watching Vicky date his crush for the next two or three days before he got to go home where the worst thing he would deal with would be princely duties and possible war and having slumber parties with his sister and her friends. What could go wrong?
A lot of things could go wrong, apparently. He'd run into Damien twice and Vicky just kept popping up wherever he went. Oz was getting sick of it, but he had been raised with manners - and a taste for slightly seared flesh seasoned with fear - so he said nothing and continued avoiding them. He had just managed to sneak off into the bathroom without seeing either one of them when he turned and nearly ran right into Vera. The snake headed queen of crime had her hands on her hips and a particularly nasty scowl on her face.
All hopes for a quiet session of skipping class withered and died right there. Sighing inwardly, Oz raised his hands in surrender, wondering what the self proclaimed businesswoman had in store for him.
"Vicky told me you're not yourself today. I don't care, but she does and I care about what she cares about, so what's your deal, loser?" Vera spoke fast, but with a cutting edge in her voice that told him she wanted the full, complete, pathetic story of how he had been so terribly betrayed by one of his friends because he'd been a coward and hadn't asked Damien out like he had wanted to and she had beaten him to it.
Of course, he wanted nothing to do with them anymore, so he just...shrugged and made a vague gesture of being moody. This, of course, was not good enough.
"Look, you can even lie and tell me some stupid bullshit and I'll be fine with it. I don't care enough to check your facts." Alright, well, he could work with that, right? He didn't even have to mention it was Vicky herself who had upset him, right? That might make Vera more pissed than usual, and all her snakes were hissing at this point. He wasn't about to make that worse.
"I...it's rather dumb." By the widened eyes and the sudden shock on her face, Oz had to guess that Vera had never heard him speak before. He'd been told his voice was the equivalent of pure terror and dread sliding down your spine. "Someone knew I had a crush on this other person, but the other day I...I saw them kiss my crush and now they're acting like there's nothing wrong with stomping on my heart and shredding it into tiny pieces and they won't leave me alone to wallow in self pity."
It was dead silent. Vera opened her mouth, then shut it. She seemed to be thinking of something, and it wasn't about money or her illegal murder app this time. Oz wasn't sure he liked that thoughtful look on her face. After a minute, she waved dismissively at him; the shadow being was all too happy to sprint out of the bathrooms, this time choosing to hide in the library, away from everyone else.
At lunch, Oz tried not to look at Vicky sitting with Damien and Vera, but ended up catching the gorgon's gaze anyway - he didn't stay staring at her, but gave her a nervous smile anyway before he slunk off to sit with Liam, Brian and Amiri. Only Amiri seemed to have caught on to why Oz was poking apart his lovingly homemade food, but Brian and Liam both seemed to just know how foul his mood was; the vampire sidled up to him and Brian set his chocolate pudding on Oz's plate like a peace offering. He got lost in the conversation about Instagram followers and the perfect food picture - he let Liam use his food, because honestly, he wasn't using it for the intended purpose.
Oz had even forgotten about the blatant betrayal, until, of course, Amiri brought it up as soon as Liam and Brian ran off to make out in some corner of the cafeteria. The shadow being buried his face in his hands, his chest aching all over again, before he dared look behind him. Damien wasn't at the table anymore, but Vera and Vicky appeared to be having a very serious discussion. Was it about what he had told Vera about? A part of him hoped not. Another, far more vengeful side hoped that it was, and further prayed that Vicky knew she was the one who had hurt him so badly.
"Never thought I'd want to stab one of my own friends. She knew you liked him." He barely heard her hissed words, but nodded and heaved a loud sigh in agreement. The hot-headed teenager continued, blowing smoke out between her teeth. "I mean, who even does that? It's the hoe code, y'know? You don't fuck what your friend crushes on, it's like, the second rule in the friendship handbook."
"What's the first rule?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Always share your weed." Of course. How silly of him to even think any different. "The third rule is always having their backs...if you wanna fight her, I'll follow the that rule for ya. I'm ready for a smack down."
Despite feeling enlightened by this teaching of the "hoe code" Oz gently turned down the offer of a fighting partner. He still cared for Vicky, he just also wanted her to walk into a pit of ravenous vipers, that's all. He heard footsteps, and heard Vicky's voice from behind him - as well as the usual profanity from Damien and Vera - but he ignored it in favor of informing Amiri of his decision. He didn't want to leave her in the dark.
"It doesn't matter. I'm going home Friday, and I'm not sure I'll be coming back." He said it loud enough for others to hear him, loud enough that the growl of despair and the whine of agony was clear in his tone, that the tune of eldritch music in his head bound to his words and made them echo. In the resounding silence and fear - which was delicious, thanks - Oz simply packed up his uneaten lunch and stalked out of the lunchroom.
At least that put an end to the rumor of his being mute.
Over the next two days, Brian and Amiri tried to convince him to come back after his vacation, giving him all sorts of actually good reasons not to go back to being homeschooled. Even Liam and Polly attempted to get him into promising his safe return; Polly's suggestive "toilet wine" and drug parties wasn't really that great of a reason, but having Liam tell him that by then any talk of him would be gone was...comforting. He could only guarantee an answer by the end of his vacation. He'd had least come back to empty his locker, so they'd get their answer then.
Vicky was flat out ignoring him, Vera scoffed at his back whenever he passed her, and he hadn't seen horn nor tail of Damien since he had announced he was considering leaving the school. That was fine by him. On Friday, though, he was starting to regret being so rude in the first place. He'd be gone for a whole week, maybe longer, and he had yet to say his goodbyes to Vicky, who had been his friend since he came here. He wanted to say farewell to her. And a few other things, too, for good measure.
It wasn't hard finding her, Oz just had to go to her locker at the end of Gym and wait there. The franken-girl was with Vera, as usual, grinning ear-to-ear; until she saw him leaning besides her locker. The shadow being swallowed nervously when she glared at him, and he was filled with regret and pain at having caused so much anger in his friend that it almost prompted him to burst into ghostly tears right there.
"Vicky, I -" He was cut off when she shoved him, easily able to get him to stumble back a few steps. Silence fell in the hallway, everyone staring at the two ex-friends. Even Vera had stepped back from them, and Oz could feel Brian and Amiri somewhere behind him, ready to jump in should he need their help.
Oz raised his hands, like he always did to calm someone down, and then he let his arms fall to his sides. He didn't want to fight Vicky. If she hit him, he deserved it.
"You can hit me, if you want to." Vicky became visibly startled, turning to look at Vera - and Damien, looking tired and a little under the weather, but also shocked at Oz's words. He straightened his back and continued, putting more emotion into his words to make them ring and sound like heavenly trumpets played by impish demons. "I don't want to leave us like this. With us both angry and upset, I want to leave with you as my friend again. So you can hit me if you to. I'd deserve it, I've been acting like an ass since I found out."
As he spoke, Vicky had started to smile, right up until the last bit.
"What do you mean? What did you find out?" Did she not know? Oz looked at Damien, then he turned to look over his shoulder at his friends. Brian was aggressively shaking his head, but Amiri gave him a thumbs up and mouthed "tell her!" silently. The shadow being gave them a curt nod and returned his attention to Vicky, but his gaze was half on Damien, on the pyromaniac he'd crushed on for most of the year.
"You knew I liked Damien." Jaws fucking dropped. He heard Brian yell in surprise, while he heard Miranda and Polly scream "I knew it!" from somewhere he couldn't see. Vicky just stood there, mouth open in surprise. Damien looked beyond furious. Oz didn't blame him. "You knew I liked him, you knew I was chicken to ask him out because of how courtship tends to go where I'm from, and you kept hyping me up to ask him out. Y'know, I wrote up this really quaint love letter that used fire as a metaphor; I was gonna slip it into his bag, but then I saw you kiss him in the hallway. I tore it up and burned the paper. I was so upset I almost hurt someone who was completely innocent."
Apparently, this was news. Vera looked like someone had just cut off one of her snakes, Damien was frozen, and Vicky was crying. He hated to see her cry, and took a step closer to her, hands coming up like he was going to hug her. Instead, he clutched his hands to his chest.
"Oz, it wasn't -"
"I'm not even mad anymore. I'm just disappointed. You hurt me and you won't even acknowledge that, you just kept trying to buddy up to me like my heart wasn't on the floor in a million pieces. It's ok though. I want...I just want to be friends with you again, you're the kindest, most fun person I've ever got to hang out with. My pain will go away, and I'd much rather see you happy than get what I want by force or make you upset by acting like a really rude person."
Oz paused to take a deep breath, acutely aware of how many people were staring in awe at him. He looked down at the floor, feeling like he too would end up crying.
"I'll be going home now, ok? I'll call when I get to the void. If you no longer want to be my friend, that's ok, just don't pick up. If you do I...I still owe you and Amiri that tour of the castle."
With that, Oz hurried away, completely ignoring Vicky calling for him. Of course, Polly easily caught up to him, as did Liam, but they only wished him a safe travel before returning to their girlfriend and boyfriend respectfully.