Chapter Eleven
Less Talk More Rokk
Its remarkable how fast time flies, Benson thought as he descended the stairs down to the first floor. Two months after the events of the strange plant monster and Iacedrom, and life had returned to a sense of normalcy in the park. At least whatever Benson's definition of normalcy was. Everything seemed to go back to the way things were before, save that the staff now had a new permanent employee at their side.
When Benson had asked Margaret to stay on with the park full time, it actually shocked her. After all that had happened in the time she was there, he and Pops still wanted her to stay with the staff. Sure, a couple of bizarre events and eldritch abominations manifested themselves during her entire time there, but they were manageable compared to the ones that she and her co-workers had to deal with when she was first hired on. But overall, she was able to keep a level head and figure out the best solution to any of the problems the park dealt with, not limited but including: a home shopping incident, a curse placed on Skip's house, some disturbing gender bended doppelgangers, and how to program the VCR… while it was trying to steal the whole gang's souls.
But in the end, she jumped at the opportunity to stay with them, happy that she found a place of employment that actually accepted her without issues. Well, there were a few issues here and there including the fact that Mordecai had problems finishing his work when he was paired with her to do chores. There was also a problem with her lodgings as she had decided to leave her old apartment behind and move in with the staff. This caused difficulties as there were no more empty rooms for her to adopt, and Benson was against the idea of her sharing a room with both Mordecai and Rigby, specifically Mordecai who was still using the downstairs couch as a bed at that point. And then there was the subject of her love life.
Overtime, as the red robin got used to her surroundings and was more comfortable with talking about herself to the rest of the staff (save for Muscle Man and High Five Ghost who she couldn't stand to be in the same room as), she slowly started bringing home all her boyfriends to the house, boyfriends being the plural of the single meaning. It seemed like she had a new boyfriend every week or two. This wasn't a call of alarm to Benson at first, but when it started getting to the point that Rigby ended up staying downstairs with Mordecai, something had to be done about.
Speaking of which, as Benson crossed down the final stair step onto the ground floor he turned his attention to the couch. The two idiots had apparently left the TV on, and a light from the fuzzy static gave the room a dim glow. Mordecai lay on his stomach, snoozing quietly with his right arm underneath his pillow and the other arm dangling over the edge of the couch. His raccoon friend was resting in an almost identical position on top of the bird's spine. Rigby's chin, however, rested on the blue jay's head using it as a pillow. Other than that, it was the perfect re creation, only replace the couch with Mordecai.
The gumball machine rolled his eyes and proceeded to sneak into the kitchen. When he walked in, he was greeted by the image of Margaret, standing in front of the kitchen window in a lime green robe, looking out into the morning world. She held a cup of coffee with both her hands, keeping it close to her mouth, observing everything outside before taking a small sip of her black drink. For a moment, Benson understood why Mordecai was so attracted to her, as he couldn't help but feel a passing fancy for her at that moment. She seemed so peaceful and kind as the morning sun hit her red and white feathers, illuminating her every feature.
Benson chuckled at the thought of himself and Margaret, quickly dismissing it and instead walked over to the coffee pot on the counter.
The sound of someone in the room with her caused Margaret to snap out of her state of empty bliss. "Good morning," she said turning to the walking dispenser, "sleep well?"
"As good as I usually do," Benson replied as he poured some coffee in a mug. "Which usually isn't very good."
He laughed at himself before walking over to the fridge to see what he could find to appease his morning hunger. Pulling the door open, he stuck his head inside to see what he could find.
"You stress too much," Margaret added.
His body pulled away from the inside of the fridge to reveal a donut in his mouth and a bag of bacon balancing on his head.
"You think?" he asked the woman in a muffled voice.
Margaret burst out into chuckles, underestimating her boss once again. Boss… she still hadn't become used to calling Benson that yet, but she was getting there at least.
The man shut the fridge and proceeded over to a cabinet above the stove, opening it and pulling out a small skillet. He turned the oven on and waited for it to heat up.
"So how are you and Fairness?" Benson asked Margaret as he took the donut from his mouth and leaned against the counter with a small smile on his face.
"Fairness?" she questioned, "he and I broke up like two weeks ago."
Benson tilted his head quizzically. "I thought that was Virtue?"
"Virtue and I broke up forever ago" Margaret continued, "I'm with Angel now."
The female looked at the gumball machine, noticing that he was giving her a bland and indifferent stare, even after he took another bite of his donut.
"Yeah I know," she said with embarrassment, "I have issues with men."
Benson's lips curved into a small grin before turning around and placing some bacon on the hot skillet. "So is Angel upstairs then?" he asked as he watched the meat sizzle and pop.
"Maaaaaaybe," she answered as she took another small sip of coffee.
Benson's face grimaced as he pulled a pair of tongs from out of a drawer next to the stove. "Didn't we discuss that?"
"I'm just kidding," Margaret said waving her wing in front of him. "He went home sometime after midnight. He's such a sweetie too."
"I'll bet," the male answered, tapping the instrument in his hands on the counter impatiently.
"He said he was going to call me later this morning," she giggled.
No more than a few seconds after she said that, the phone begins to ring. Margaret winks at Benson before walking over the phone and picking it up. "Hey baby," she said without even asking who it was.
The bacon on the stove pops, sending burning grease onto the gumball machines hand. He jumped at the sensation before realizing it was time to turn over his breakfast. After doing this act he leans back against the counter and glances around the room, trying to kill time as his food cooks. He looks in the direction of the living room to see Mordecai's head up from the couch, looking directly at Margaret on the phone. His face was filled with annoyance as she so happily talks to her boyfriend. Rigby, however, was still asleep on top of him.
"Really?" asked Margaret over the phone, "alright then. I'll see you there. Bye."
The robin then placed the phone back on its hook and returned to her coffee.
"Angel and I just broke up," she said as a matter of fact.
"Sorry to hear that," Mordecai said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
Benson hesitated before realizing that Mordecai had just magically appeared behind her. His feathers were still ruffled and disheveled from the nights sleep and it was pretty obvious that he was still only half awake. That didn't stop him from taking advantage of an opportunity though. Benson quickly looked back over to the couch in the other room to find it vacant, save for Rigby who had been thrown onto the floor, and was still snoozing away.
"Oh," Margaret jumped in shock, "good morning, Mordecai. I didn't see you sneak up on me."
Benson rolled his eyes as he places the bacon on a plate next to his nearly finished donut. He then turned the stove off and places himself into a seat in front of the kitchen table, ready to hear Mordecai suck up and kiss the feet of his "love".
"Anything I can do to help ya through your break up?" the blue jay asks trying to sound as caring as possible.
"No no," Margaret answers, "I'll be fine. But thank you though."
She turns around and gives Mordecai a quick hug before letting go and walking over to the table and sitting down next to Benson. Mordecai's beak blushes red and he finds himself frozen in place with a content grin.
"There is something we need to do though," she continues. "Angel told me that the coffee shop is having an open mic night tonight. You know, using the stage that we nearly killed ourselves working on. And he wants to know if we wanna come listen to him perform."
Benson looks up from his breakfast, still with a half a piece of bacon in his mouth. "Wait, wait, wait. They rebuilt the stage? I thought you guys said that thing was blown to pieces."
"Well it was," Margaret answers as an annoyed expression forms on her face, "but they must of thought the stage was lucky or something so they decided to rebuild it and hold an open mic. Kind of ticks me off actually."
"I'll bet," Benson answers as he returns to his food.
"I kind of want to go," the woman says as she begins to trace her finger around the rim of her coffee mug. "I wanna see how the shop is doing and say hi to everyone I left behind. Hope they aren't mad."
""Well if they are, they'll get over it," Benson added trying to take some of the worry away from the girl. She gave him a weak smile and nodded.
Her attention then shifted to Mordecai, still standing there with a dumb look on his face. "You wanna come along?"
Margaret's voice caught his attention, and he snapped out of his trance. "Wait, wha… like you and me?" he asked pointing to her and then to himself.
"Yeah," she went on, "and Rigby, and Benson, and Pops, and anyone else who wants to come too."
Mordecai's hopes dropped as she finished. Again, his mind was hoping that her statement was implying a romantic evening between the two of them, and once again, he found all of his hopes dashed as he found himself forever locked into the friend-zone. This was not a good way to start the morning.
"I miss my old shirt," Margaret commented as she looked at her belly-T. The red robin had been surprisingly disparaged since the destruction of her favorite shirt back during the vine thing. The ooze apparently stained the shirt and ruined it completely. When she called to order another one though, she found that the "little sailor boy and his sassy whale" T-shirt was cancelled. So instead, she opted for a completely purple belly-T with the image of a cat/bear/boy thingie on it. She accompanied it with a black leather skirt. Needless to say, Mordecai couldn't take his eyes off her.
"Dude," Rigby said pointing to his friend's beak, "you're drooling again."
Upon entering the coffee shop, a wave of familiar scents and sights overwhelmed the red robin. A sudden urge to clean the tables and rush to the back to pick up supplies for the espresso maker came upon her. Old habits die hard. She had to remember that no longer did she work for the coffee house, but now worked with her friends at the park. It was still a strange sensation to walk back through the doors after a few months away from it. Margaret and the rest of the park staff hadn't even swung by once to get a to-go order of coffee.
The place look like it hadn't even changed one bit. Everything was exactly in its place the day she left it. Well, everything before it all went to hell that fateful night, but she was still trying to push that memory out of her brain. It was kind of surprising to see how little had changed. The only real difference to the place was the stage that they had spent so much time building had been rebuilt and now had real equipment and such on it. Apparently, it was a big hit.
"I can't believe this," Margaret groaned, "we do all the work, and they get all the credit."
Mordecai and Rigby both nodded in agreement with her. It was hard to look at what they had put so much effort into and not get a shred of respect for it. The trio descended the stairs into the shop, hoping they wouldn't all be sharing the same amount of resentment the whole night.
A few rows of chairs had been set up for the open mic night, and just about every single one of them had been filled. Customers lined up from one end of the shop to the next to get a cup of coffee, and the employees seemed to be running all over the place more so than they did when she worked there.
Still, Margaret refused to let any of that get to her and decided to mingle among the crowd. She had decided to talk to some of her former co-workers after the coffee hungry barbarians cooled down.
Other than that, most of the night consisted of various bands, musicians, and stand up comedians performing their skits and exiting the stage for the next performance. Everyone got equal cheer, and even the worst of bands and actors got applause at the very least.
Mordecai and Rigby found some chairs in the audience and decided to sit down and enjoy the entertainment. Rigby found himself as the peanut gallery, offering cheers and jeers to those who truly deserved it, while Mordecai kept looking around the room for Margaret to see if she was flirting with anyone in particular.
"And now ladies and gentlemen," said the announcer from on stage, "I give you the smooth acoustic styles of… Angel."
A loud "whoop" could be heard from a female red robin somewhere in the background, but no one but a few people and some blue guy bothered to check the background for the cause of the sound.
A tall human male with long blonde hair, an open shirt, and an acoustic guitar steps out onto the stage and begins to play his riff for the night.
Truth be told, this was the first time that Mordecai had gotten a good look at his previous competition. He just couldn't see what she saw in any of them. She was always with someone new it seemed like, and even more so, it always ended up being with a human. Mordecai wasn't sure what the reason behind that was, though. Last thing he wanted to hear was that the girl of his dreams had a human fetish.
The performer sang on for a few minutes before thanking the audience for listening and exiting the stage. He got a surprising amount of applause, which only made the blue jay believe if he tried hard enough he could get that much admiration if he wanted to. He just didn't want to… unless Margaret was interested.
"Dude," Rigby sighed looking onto the stage, "this couldn't get anymore boring than that last guy."
"Totally," Mordecai replied, "he's not even good looking!"
"Yeah," raccoon agreed, "wait, what?"
The bird was still in a fit of jealousy and had completely phased out any of the music that had been playing. He peeked over his shoulder to see if Margaret was nearby. Sure enough, she was nearby the staircase talking to Angel about his piece. The red robin laughed and giggled and complimented the man, while he brushed his hair behind his ears and gave her a sweet wink and big smile.
"I'll be right back, dude," Mordecai said getting up from his chair and heading in the direction of his crush and her ex.
Rigby watched his friend leave before peering over his shoulder as well to see Margaret and Angel chatting amongst them selves. He rolled his eyes at his friend's stalker like tendencies and returned to the stage floor.
"Alright," said the announcer up front, "our next act is a little hardcore and a little dark. This is Demon."
An extremely lanky teenager wearing nothing but red (including his hair), save for the fake black tear stains on his face, walked onto the stage with an electric guitar in hand.
"This is song is called," he began, but then paused for a few seconds to stare vacantly at the crowd. "It's called, umm… song."
He then raised his guitar pick into the air, and rushed it down onto the guitar, faster than light. His rifts were jangled and disoriented, finding a specific rhythm and then causing it to crash down into something random and peculiar.
Rigby glanced around at the audience. All of them looked enthralled by his playing. A few people in the background were nodding along to the disjointed mess, while a few women and some men were actually in tears with smiles on their faces. The raccoon had no idea what was going on. He knew that he loved rock, but what this boy was doing to its good name was killing it. And all the people around them just went along with it.
"Booo," he screamed as loud as he could toward the stage. Rigby stood up on his chair, cupped his mouth into his hands and let out another jeer. "Quit killing rock!"
The boy eyed the raccoon momentarily, but kept his pick towards the strings of the guitar. Unfortunately, by doing this, he only gave the little critic more fuel for the fire.
Meanwhile, Mordecai approached the chatting duo in the back of the shop. Margaret saw him coming, and pointed him out to her ex.
"Hey Mordecai," she said happily, "this is Angel! We broke up this morning over the phone."
"I remember," Mordecai said with a mild sneer on his face. It was hard to tell though, as acting like a tough guy was never in the blue bird's nature. "You don't seem to mind hanging with him though."
She coughed out an awkward chuckle before answering him. "Well, we only dated like a week and a half so there really wasn't any hard feelings or anything."
Angel smiled at the blue jay. "Yeah man," he said in a calm hippy like voice, "we just didn't have anything big in common."
"Oh," was the only thing Mordecai could spew out. Of course he wanted to tell off the man for breaking her heart, but he found it difficult since nobody in the group had a broken heart, except maybe Mordecai. "Sounds… good to me."
There was a nervous silence among the three of them. Mordecai felt like he needed to say something in order to break it up.
"I liked your performance up there," he lied through his teeth.
Angel laughed and nodded at him with thanks. "Actually, I mostly do storyboards for television, but when I saw that this place was doing an open mic night, I just had to come."
Margaret sighed, knowing the reason that Mordecai had come over here was to check up on her. While she enjoyed the fact that this shy guy was crushing on her hard, it kind of annoyed her that he didn't have the guts to at least try and ask her out. That and his weird obsessive nature creeped her out a small bit.
A loud guitar rift surged through the coffee shop, as everyone nearby covered their ears unconsciously. Margaret, Mordecai, and Angel looked over at the source of the sound and found Demon, standing in front of Rigby's chair, letting loose as many rifts as he possibly could. The raccoon found himself holding on to dear life in his chair as everyone else around him was thrown to the side.
One final swing of his pick, and a sonic boom flowed down onto raccoon, knocking him out of his chair, and crushing him down onto the floor.
"Ouch," Rigby said quietly.
The player, Demon, then began to look around the room for something, particularly around the floor. He scratched his head with his pick and cocked an eyebrow.
"That's odd," he said, "terrible demons should have burst forth from the earth and begin tearing you limb from limb before dragging you down into the underworld. Odd…"
He looks at Rigby again, kneeling down and checking the animal out. Save for being mostly out of it and completely unaware of what just happened, the raccoon seemed to be fine.
"I'm losing my touch," Demon sighed again, "I must be out of practice." The musician then sighed, and walked away to order a cup of coffee.
The audience looked at the hurt raccoon on the floor, making snide comments about how he deserved it, and got what was coming to him.
"Ugh," Mordecai groaned, slapping his head with his hand and trailing it down his face, "Rigby."
He proceeded to approach the little animal and scrape him off the tile.
Margaret shook her head and heaved a heavy sigh herself. "That boy must be masochistic, I swear."
The red robin suddenly began to feel a warm wind all over her neck. Curious, she turned around and came face to face with the owner of the coffee house, her former boss. The eel's eyes were glowing red with rage and were directed squarely at the bird.
"Hi, Michelle," Margaret began, "how are-"
"GET… OUT!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know he would have some sort of guitar wielding magical powers?"
"Because, dude, he just did."
Both Mordecai and Rigby argued all the way back to the park, discussing their usual politics of who did what, and how it happened. This time, it was Rigby's fault, though he refused to admit that it was; the usual discussion that the two of them seemed to have on a weekly basis. Margaret every so often decided to add her own commentary to whatever unique situation it was at the time, but went against her better judgment, and allowed them to vent out on each other.
"I had fun at least," she said with a neutral expression.
Mordecai acknowledged her and tried to give the girl a brief smile. "Yeah, it was okay. Until Rigby got us kicked out."
"Hey, hey," the raccoon defended himself, "it wasn't my fault. It was Ms. I-Blew-Up-The-Coffee-House-A-Few-Months-Ago-And-Her-Old-Boss-Hasn't-Forgotten-About-It-Yet."
The blue jay then gave his friend a swift slap across the top of his head. "Don't blame it on Margaret, Rigby, it wasn't her fault."
Both the raccoon and red robin stopped in their places to look at Mordecai.
"Yes it was," they both said to him in unison. Afterwards, they both glanced at each other and laughed.
Mordecai felt a little embarrassed, but wiped it away to join in on the laughter.
"Well," the blue jay said, "it wasn't her fault that we got kicked out tonight, Mr. Piss-Off-The-Guy-On-Stage-With-Magical-Guitar-Powers."
Rigby waved his hand at Mordecai and shrugged him off. "I didn't do anything. I was just telling the truth!"
"What?" the male bird chuckled, "that you're an angry, spoiled little kid?"
"I'M NOT A LITTLE KID," the raccoon screamed. His childish outburst caused both Mordecai and Margaret to laugh at him and his behavior.
He huffed angrily, and crosses his arms. "Well, it's not like we were thrown out of there kicking and screaming."
"No," Margaret began, "but it seemed liked my old boss was doing enough of that for the three of us."
"Yeah," Mordecai agreed, "especially Rigby."
She and Mordecai both chuckled at the thought of the eel woman acting like a baby in front of an entire crowd of people. True that they had seen Rigby do the same thing multiple times before, but his was more adorable than pathetic.
The raccoon did not share the same sentiment though, and crossed his arms in a huff. He didn't feel like shouting or screaming anymore and just allowed the two to rag on him this once. His ears still hurt from earlier, so he was already in a bad mood and didn't feel like talking about it to anyone. He just walked a couple of steps ahead of them and left it at that.
Margaret released a deep sigh as she looked up into the night sky. "It feels like it's getting colder," she said as she rubbed her arms to keep warm.
Mordecai nodded and looked up at the sky as well. "Weatherman says it's supposed to be snowing sometime soon."
"Did they say when?"
"No," the blue jay answered looking over at Margaret, "just sometime soon."
Margaret sighed again and looked straight ahead.
"I hate the cold," she moaned. Her attention shifted to Mordecai, with his eyes still on her. She smiled at him and took his hand, wrapping his arm around the back of her neck. The blue jay hesitated at the touch, but allowed her to do what she pleased. "That's better. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your wing till we get home."
Of course he didn't mind. This was something he had always thought about doing for the longest of times. Maybe it was a sign. Maybe she was legitimately interested in him now.
"It's cool," he responded as his voice cracked from the pressure. Margaret chuckled at the broken sound that came out of his throat.
The blue jay felt of tinge of embarrassment spread across his beak in the form of a deep shade of red. He looked at the situation between the two and tried to overanalyze it. They were two birds, walking in the part, with his arm over her shoulder and neck, in which she still hadn't let go of his hand either. The boy didn't know what to feel.
"Hey Rigby," Margaret chimed in Rigby's direction.
The raccoon heard his name and turned his attention to the robin.
"C'mere," she motioned to him.
Rigby stared at her for a moment before approaching her. As he got close he found himself get scooped up into the robin's arms and placed on top of her head.
"Nice and toasty," she giggled.
Mordecai and Rigby exchanged glances at each other, unsure about the sanity of the girl. Mordecai felt his heart sink yet again after seeing that the thing that they shared wasn't just between the two of them. Rigby just chocked it up to Margaret's strange behavior that he couldn't quite figure out. Was she being friendly, or seductive, or weird? Didn't make a lick of sense to either of them, but she was right about one thing… they all felt nice and toasty.
As the group approached the house, they could hear the soft sounds of laughter coming from the other side of the door. When they entered, Benson was on the phone in the kitchen laughing at the top of lungs.
"Oh hold on," the gumball machine said into the receiver, "they just walked in."
Benson pulled the phone away from his mouth, and held his hand down against the receiving end to ensure no sound flowed through. "Rigby, your brother's on the phone!"
The raccoon groaned upon hearing his sibling wanted to talk to him before jumping off of Margaret and walking into the kitchen.
The female bird looked at Mordecai curiously as Rigby snatched the phone from his employer and half heartedly greeted his brother.
"Who?" Margaret started to ask.
"Rigby's brother, Don," Mordecai answered before she could finish. "Awesome guy! You should meet him. You'd like him. Everyone does!"
"Everyone except Rigby?" the female said in a questioning tone.
"They have… a history."
"I see," Margaret added. "Is he cute?"
Mordecai felt a thump in his throat when she asked. He did his best to swallow it and answer her.
"How would I know?" he asked her nervously.
She laughed it off and pulled away from his wing over her shoulder. The blue jay felt a little down now that that feeling of closeness was gone from him, but was relieved at the same time since he wouldn't have to worry about screwing it up in some way or another.
"Thanks," she said as she walked toward the kitchen.
"For what?" Mordecai asked.
"For looking out for me."
"What do you mean?"
"I know you were looking out for me when I was talking with Angel earlier. It's really sweet of you."
Mordecai's blush deepened a darker shade of red as he looked away from her shyly. "I just… ummm… don't want you getting hurt or anything."
Margaret turned around to meet Mordecai's gaze. She walked back over to the blue jay and planted a kiss on his cheek. If this was all that happened, Mordecai would have been able to sleep soundly that night knowing he got another little kiss from the girl of his dreams. But a boldness erupted within Margaret as she leaned over and rubbed her beak against the blue jay's, causing shivers of delight to course through the both of them. Mordecai's hands clenched into fists as he did his best to take this with stride, and while his mind was doing its best to process what was happening, the inside of his body was melting into some romantic goo. He wanted to do something, but his physical body just refused to budge.
"Thanks," she muttered in an entrancing matter, "but I can take care of myself."
To which she pulled away from him again and began her walk into the kitchen. She noticed Benson on the way in, leaning against the door frame, observing that little song and dance that just proceeded in front of him.
"Do you have any idea what you do to him?" Benson whispered to her with a grin.
"Why do you ask? Want me to do it to you?" Margaret countered jokingly.
The gumball machine chuckled heartily as the robin walked past him.
Less Talk More Rokk - Freezepop
Author's Notes
Really, the less said about this chapter, the better. Sadly, I must say a lot. This chapter was rewritten four times as it was written during a period in which I didn't know where to take the story. The original pitch was to lead into the group having to deal with a devil that was summoned by Demon, out to collect Rigby's soul. I wrote the chapter where the incubus was introduced, took one look at it, and threw up for how absolutely terribad it was. It is now saved under a folder I have labeled "Abortions". Then I tried to do an arc where it was a retelling of Mordecai and the Rigby's Triangle style, with a future Margaret as well. That didn't work out. Then I rewrote it as simple character development on Mordecai's side and that was crap too. Finally, I took dialogue and scenes from all the rewrites and combined it into this: a throw away chapter. Needless to say, I know exactly where the story is going now and have written up to sixteen at this point. But I can say I do like this chapter a little, at least. I consider a sort of chapter that describes what their lives are like after all the zaniness that happened to them. What do you guys think?
The next chapters go into some dark territory and actually do advance the plot. It's called the Cold Trilogy, so be prepared for a ratings boost to M pretty soon. Just giving everyone a fair warning!
So Until Next Chapter...
Adieu...