It was a very chilly night, but Seedos was too set on his goal to even notice or care. He looked at the ground as he usually did when he looked for seeds, trying to not look suspicious. As he slowly walked towards the twisted oak tree on the edge of the desert, he'd occasionally raise his head and look around. It was horribly inconvenient that Leafos lived so close by; if she saw Seedos sneaking into Dastardos' house, it wouldn't end well.

Seedos finally reached the rotting tree that Dastardos called home. He leaned against it and took another look around. When he saw that the coast was clear, he inhaled a sharp breath and parted the curtains.

"Dastardos? Are you-" Before Seedos could say "home," his question was answered. Dastardos was lying down on his couch, half-dozing with Magnar curled up on his chest. Dastardos opened one eye and half-glared at him when Seedos entered.

"This better be important, Seedos. Don't you remember what I told you?" he groused.

"Don't bother you unless it's an emergency, I know," Seedos took a few tentative steps into Dastardos' house, carefully stepping over his brother's discarded mask in the process. "This is important, though! I really need your help!" Seedos practically pouted.

"That face won't work on me," Dastardos grimaced as he threw an arm over his eyes. "Or anyone who isn't blind, for that matter. What's the matter? Did Sour Shellybeans nest in your bathtub again? I told you that wasn't my fault."

"No, nothing like that!" Seedos planted his hands on his skinny hips. "There's this new guy in town and-"

"Is he bullying you? Do you want me to beat him up?" Dastardos gently picked Magnar up and shifted to a sitting position. "I'll do it, but it probably won't do any good since no one in their right mind would link me back to you…" Dastardos chuckled at the absurdity of the idea.

Seedos shook his head vigorously. "No! Eddie told me that this new guy optimized the attention of all of the girls in the Village!" Seedos shrugged off his backpack and crouched down to search through the pockets. "Eddie's having a meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 at Arfur's to discuss what to do about him…" Seedos smiled to himself when he found the flyer and offered it to Dastardos.

Dastardos shifted the still-snoozing Magnar into the crook of one arm and took the flyer. He squinted hard at it; he couldn't read too well with his bad eye, but he wasn't about to let Seedos know that. "This is the gayest handwriting I've ever seen…" Dastardos commented before raising a brow at his little brother. "And why should I help with this, again? I'm a very busy man, you know."

"Um…well…you like to mess with people...so I figured you'd be a good addition to the team?" Seedos grinned hopefully at Dastardos.

Dastardos stroked his chin in thought for a minute before shaking his head. "…Not good enough."

Seedos let out a disappointed sigh. "Well…uh…what about the girls? There must be at least one that you wouldn't want to see go off with this jerk!"

"Hah!" Dastardos barked and rolled his eyes. "Are you nuts? None of them would even think about looking at me twice. Besides, I doubt all the girls could be into this douchebag."

"No, it's every single last one of them," Seedos frowned at the memory of Leena gushing over this Alejandro guy. "Eddie even told me he saw Avalon with him, and she was laughing!" Seedos chuckled in disbelief. "I thought she had some standards, but I guess I was wrong!"

"Wait, what?" Dastardos leaned forward, his eyes widening.

"Mmm-hmm. Leena was talking about how great he is too, so you know my motive…" Seedos' tone turned serious for a moment. "With you on board, we could really terrify this guy! Please help us! Forget about your job until this guy backs off!"

Dastardos' expression had turned completely serious. "I'll do it," he held his hand out to his brother.

Seedos yelped in delight and gave Dastardos an unexpectedly firm handshake. "What's with the sudden change of attitude, hm?" Seedos teased his brother with a grin.

"Hmph," Dastardos pulled his hand away and looked away from his brother. "I just decided it might be a fun change of pace. If I get bored, I'll leave."

Seedos felt like Dastardos was hiding something, but he knew better than to pry. "That's good enough for me!" Seedos laughed joyfully. "Remember, 8:30 in the morning at Arfur's!"

"Got it," Dastardos gave Seedos a two-fingered salute. "Now can you leave before someone walks by and hears us talking? I need to think about what I'll bring to the table tomorrow, too…" Dastardos chuckled darkly.

Seedos nodded, not really wanting to stick around to watch Dastardos scheme. He always forgot what evils his brother was capable of, and he really didn't like to be reminded of them.

He hitched his backpack back up and started for the door, but stopped when he heard Dastardos yell "Wait one second!"

"Yes?" Seedos asked, looking over his shoulder.

"For as long as we're going through with this scheme, you are not my brother," Dastardos warned. "I'm going to insult you. Ruthlessly. Just like I do with everyone else. You can act like you're scared of me or something. Just don't drop One. Single. Hint. Got it?"

"Gotcha," Seedos did a much less elegant impression of Dastardos' two fingered salute.

"Don't take any of those insults to heart," Dastardos half smiled before waving Seedos off. "Now get out of my lair."