(Now with a cover by Metanaito-kyou! Thank you so much, Meta!)
Quick Note if you haven't read much of my recent work: Since Meta Knight is not employed by Dedede in the game verse, my headcanon for his/his crew's funding is that they make their money from his skills with technology, like doing programming jobs and designing/repairing/modifying machines. Not too important plot-wise, but some of his vocabulary, thoughts, and decisions throughout the story might be confusing without a mention of it. Anyway, Onward!
Checklist: (Dates)
T-GEY Project C++/MATLAB joint—9/7
Check SD's project—finalize by 10/15?
Pull buoy and return to SCiO Co. at end of October
LABVIEW I/O (BREAD BOARD) DUE 10/18 -
Rare amiibo get—A-Game THIS MONTH
Repair Engine No. 2
Check Engine No. 5
Other:
Special cake for SP
Attend Bandana Dee's family gathering, 9/5-9/18
A lot of good this list is going to do for me in a village full of Waddle Dees with minimal electrical consumption—if they even keep many electrical devices around at all. I hope they don't mind—although, Bandana Dee plays video games, so there are hopefully no customs about technology.
Once upon a time, Meta Knight agreed to attend Bandana Dee's yearly family reunion…or at least, halfway 'family reunion'; all the Dees lived in the same place, so it was more of an annual party than a 'reunion'. He had not been slow to point this out, though his friends had complained that he was being too picky with wording. Not that he particularly cared—Meta Knight preferred things be as accurate as possible, whenever possible. It saved hours of time and much hard labor in his detail-oriented technical jobs, but for his friends, technicalities were of little use to them. And quite possibly detailed planning.
The sapphire puffball had a small pile of his belongings to take with him to Bandana Dee's family reu—family party. The first was Galaxia. Galaxia went everywhere with him. The second was a sack of spare swords in case he and Kirby got into an argument (again) over something offensive to puffballs, like who was allowed to deal with the king, and who got to eat first at meals. Being an honorable puffball was always a top priority and all honorable puffballs resolved their disputes with sword fights.
But did his hosts? Most Waddle Dees lived in 'neighborhoods' of sorts, though they called their groups 'tribes' for tradition's sake. As Waddle Dees were the dominant species on Popstar, these tribes could be a few hundred Dees large, though their sizes varied drastically from tribe to tribe. Their rules and fur contrast varied, too; some of them wandered, some of them stayed put…but for the most part, they were all still Waddle Dees. Meta Knight liked Waddle Dees. Waddle Dees had always been kind to him; he knew they wouldn't betray him. Unless they were possessed, or something of similar nature.
…Problem was, he'd never actually seen a proper Waddle Dee tribe. Sailor Dee was from a family of Dees that lived in a town with various other creatures of Popstar, and this was the first time Bandana Dee had invited him to see his family. And while Meta Knight had done odd jobs for Waddle Dees or just helped them out along the way, he'd never stayed with them for more than a night or two. He wasn't sure of their customs, and he really wished he knew more about them. For example, knowing whether flashy, electric gear would offend them would be very useful.
Should he wear his regular armor? Most Dees only wore headgear, if anything at all...so was dressing up considered offensive? He should have asked Bandana Dee, but it hadn't been on his mind.
But these safety goggles... Meta Knight could help letting a huge smile slip across his face upon picking up his latest piece of gear. After spending half a fortune on them, it would be so wonderful to test them out, and the face guards on them are so convenient and light. Not to mention the energy detector, infrared sensors, internet and wireless connectivity, multicolored lights—and they're on the same grade metal as Haltonium, not to mention the ability to track your eye movement and directly relate it to—
"You're trading in your mask for glasses? How much did that cost you, Meta?"
The sapphire puffball almost jumped in fright upon being caught, but fortunately, the Dee at the door was familiar to him. "That's classified information, Bandana. I spent a paycheck on these, and I'm under oath not to reveal anything about the job."
"You spent a paycheck on a single pair of glasses?" Bandana Dee repeated incredulously. "Are you out of your mind, Meta? I knew the metal for your equipment was expensive, but paying so much money for some glass is insane!"
"It's not mere glass, Bandana." Meta Knight grinned, sliding the goggles over his head and pressing one of the many buttons on the side of them. Some thin—but definitely sturdy-looking—metal folded down over the puff's cheeks from the sides of the device. "It's a special type of rare, fortified metal as the frame, and the 'glass' is actually a type of clear crystal fragment that's nearly impossible to shatter, therefore making this safer for repairs and shop work than my actual armor. Not even mentioning its immense library of technological functions that I can add on to, reprogram, and generally modify to my every preference."
Bandana Dee wasn't sure what to say to that.
"Besides..." The puff's grin wavered a bit, his expression growing slightly uncertain. "...they...do look cool and advanced, don't they?"
Please confirm that, after I spent all this money on them—
"Well, yeah, they do, but...Meta, I would never pay so much for them!" Bandana Dee protested.
"I've not even told you what I spent for them. Classified, remember?"
"But I know you, Meta..." the Dee sighed. "You'll spend anything on cool gear and flashy electronics. They cost a small fortune, didn't they?"
Meta Knight crawled onto his bed, sweeping his cape over his belongings for the trip. This included a highly-sophisticated scientific calculator, some loose paper and pens, some video games, a folder labelled 'CG-#3801', a few other electronic gadgets, and a large electrical supply. "Bandana, quality is more important than quantity, and I only want one pair of goggles. Not even mentioning that most other electronic pairs wouldn't fit with my hats and headphones. I had no choice."
The sapphire puffball was having some difficulty fitting the electrical supply into his cape. It wasn't as large as a generator, but it was still bigger than his cape and thus, likely impossible to transport with it.
"Ummm…Meta, we do have our own electrical batteries." Bandana Dee scuffled his feet awkwardly, watching the knight try to manipulate his cape into the right position. "You, uh…don't have to bring your own battery, you know. We mostly use our tents when we have our parties like this, but my parents do have a house. We just put out the tents because it's fun to camp."
Meta Knight fidgeted with his safety goggles. His species' large eyes had been a huge problem while searching; the glass covered half of his face because of this. Like most of Meta Knight's equipment, it was something that most denizens of Dream Land would never consider wearing. Probably because they had shorter lifespans than him, so being permanently maimed, blinded, or otherwise injured for centuries wasn't something they had to consider when buying clothes. Yet another reason Meta Knight liked Waddle Dees—they lived to be about 200 on average. They were a little more cautious than the rest of Popstar.
"Should I leave it behind, then? I'm not familiar with your tribe, as you're aware."
"Of course, Meta. You can just use my parents' battery; they won't mind." Bandana Dee then produced a blue bandana similar to his. "But before we leave, do you have something to cover your head? We live by the beach, and it's sunny most of the day. You'll bake without something on your head"
Meta Knight was very glad that the Dee hadn't seen the humongous beanie cap he'd originally planned on bringing as a backup plan. Bandana Dee was truly the sanest and most normal-slash-reasonable out of the quartet and a small, lightweight bandana was infinitely more normal and reasonable than wearing a beanie cap solely to look intelligent. Nevertheless, he still pawed at his goggles again.
"It's…not offensive if I still wear these around your tribe, correct?" the puff asked, slightly uneasy. He didn't want to give up all his equipment. He was willing to trade his armor out for something else but it had to be a trade, not a complete surrender of cool-looking gear.
Fortunately, Bandana Dee looked rather surprised. "Of course you can wear them, Meta! I mean, you'll probably get hot in them after a while, but then again, I'm not wearing your outfits… But yeah, we don't care! We don't hate you for looking different than us. You're actually not that different from us at all."
Meta Knight let out a quiet sigh of relief, which Bandana Dee barely picked up on. The puff leapt off his bed, secretly stowing Galaxia in the pocket dimension in his mouth. He didn't want Bandana Dee to know he was taking weaponry to his family party. That would only provoke a speech about how he was being too paranoid, and that no one would attack them, etc. It was a good thing he'd stored his armor in his cape, too. No need for Bandana Dee to see him bringing that, either, since he'd promised the Dee that he'd try his hardest to just relax and be himself. He didn't want to hurt the Dee's feelings by ignoring the request, but if he was going to bring a sharp weapon, he was going to bring equipment that would protect him from equally-as-sharp attacks from enemies.
…NOVA, he sounded paranoid…Rare space guardians shouldn't fret over everything.
"Thank you, Bandana…" The blue puff slipped off his bed, bouncing on the floor and strolling over to his friend. "I suppose I'll just wear these, and…" He kicked off his boots, stuffing them in his cape. It was a miracle he still had space left in it, but it had dimensional powers, after all. "…the bandana, if, you'd…Does your tribe wear them a certain way?"
"Sit down, Meta." Bandana Dee sounded rather amused. "But no, we don't have rules about how to wear bandanas."
The sapphire puffball sat in silence as Bandana Dee adjusted his new hat for the week.
"Don't worry so much, Meta. We aren't going to kill you if you aren't like one of us, 'cause you aren't, so don't worry. Everyone will be really happy to see you."
Meta Knight blinked. "What sort of tales and stories have you told them about us?"
"Not much." Bandana Dee tugged on the fabric, trying to gather it into a knot. "Just that we've all saved Popstar together a few times. I figured Kirby and Great King would tell the rest, given the opportunity."
The puff felt his friend pat him where his shoulder would have been. He stood, preparing to follow Bandana Dee out to greet—
A familiar-looking penguin poked his head in the door, eyes lighting up when he saw the duo. "Heh-hey! Meta—whoa!"
"METAAAA!" Kirby shrieked, barreling through the door. Judging by the way he 'innocently' trampled on Dedede's feet, he was probably doing it just to irk the king. The pink puff slowed down considerably after he'd passed Dedede, smiling at his fellow puffball.
"Hey, Meta! You never told me when our next online video game playtime is. We all tried to call you but we couldn't get an answer."
Meta Knight blinked. "Oh. I…rarely use that phone. I should turn it on now that I've upgraded it, but I wanted to work out the errors—"
"You've had the stupid phone off for the past MONTH and you never thought to let us know?!" Dedede roared. "I thought you'd fallen off the face of the planet! You could've died in the wilderness and I'd never hear word of it until months later! I thought I bought you a portable phone charger for Christmas; where IS IT?!"
"Your Majesty, I've been busy with deadlines." Meta Knight started heading for the door, hoping to avoid the argument. "I haven't had time to reorganize everything, but I promise you that I'll manage the phone within this month. Now Kirby, where will you take off with the warpstar?"
Dedede gaped, watching as the puffballs strolled past him and out the door. Bandana Dee hesitated next to his king, unsure of what would happen next.
"I…META!" the king bellowed. "YOU ARE FIXING THAT PHONE BEFORE WE LEAVE! I SWEAR, Meta; if you walk out the door without turning that thing on, I'll harass you until you give up and think about that! Meta! Stupid PUFFBALLS!"
Meta Knight sighed, taking out his phone and powering it on as Kirby filled him in on the fishing cruise Bandana Dee had invited him on. Their king had paid for his best Dee to take a guest, but he hadn't been aware that it was Kirby, which only fueled the king's anger. As opposed to when Kirby first arrived, however, Dedede was more upset that he would have gone along and dragged Meta Knight too, so they could all fish together. Meta Knight was somewhat relieved about this, because he didn't like fishing. That was more of Kirby and Bandana Dee's thing.
"Kirby, if we're to arrive promptly, I'd suggest you take off from the center deck," the blue puffball advised. "Especially considering that we've never flown to this location before."
With that, Meta Knight did his best to try and move out to the deck in a hurry, hoping to land in the Dee village soon and learn how out-of-place he potentially was. Yes, Bandana Dee could assure him all night and day that he wasn't intruding on their customs, but…not knowing made him nervous. How could you prepare for something you knew nothing about?
Look at it this way, Meta—they're Waddle Dees. They're sane. It'll be a good chance for you to relax, and have two weeks away from work! What could go wrong in a village of normal people? You're overexaggerating.
He sighed softly as he climbed onto the warpstar, letting his wings and one of his feet trail in the open air. As the warpstar took off, he gazed at the landscapes as they flew over them, following Bandana Dee's directions.
At least, the puff noted, it's much easier to see everything in these goggles than my normal mask. If there is anything positive that comes out of this expedition, at least that will be one thing.
"Ow!" the king complained. "Kirby, did you just kick me?"
"Hi!~" Kirby taunted, giving the king a candy-sweet smile. "Kirby!"
After calculating that they would not be landing within the next fifteen minutes, Meta Knight decided he wouldn't tell Dedede that yes, Kirby had indeed kicked him.
C/N: Aaaand welcome, to the beginning of a Kirby fanfic like no other! ...Seriously, my stories don't reuse everybody else's common fanon. I prefer to pull off canon, even if it means nobody else is doing it...well, doing it more than one decade-old way considering how open-ended the Kirby universe is when it comes to building motives and backstories.
This is an edited version and not the original post. As a matter of fact, everything outside Meta's To-Do list has been completely changed, so if you've stumbled upon this searching for another chapter you've already read...be on the lookout for future rewrites.
For the Anime Readers: This is presumed gameverse, but if you choose to believe the anime happened beforehand, it fits well with the story. I usually wrote this way because I enjoyed making the best of both universes, but this is going to focus more on gameverse events, and if canons contradict each other, the games are always the base. PLEASE keep that in mind. The only events that follow from the anime are the (presumed since I don't really mention them) existence of the anime characters, the concept that there are star warriors of various species who fight Big Baddies every century or whenever they're reborn, and the fact that Nightmare is a Big (Huge) Baddie who was terrorizing the galaxy for years in the past. (As of now, I'm split as to whether I'll continue this, for multiple reasons that I might make a journal on if asked enough. We'll see.)
