[WHAT IS THIS CRAP?!]
"Saiko!" Tari scolded as the Melony baby put in…the SpongeBob Movie. Meggy didn't even know this was a thing, let alone this sponge? She can't imagine this wouldn't be more than a few silly gags for kids and nothing else.
Well, it now made sense to why Melony picked it out of all the movies. If she were to choose, it would either be something related to food or cooking. Or have guns. A lot of guns. Maybe an explosion or two. Still, no one had the heart to deny Melony her movie, so they were stuck with it. Heck, worse case is she just sleeps through the entire thing. The girl did bring some really comfy pillows and blankets.
Saiko seemed especially bummed, sulking a little but smiling when the fruit girl looked at her worriedly, [Sorry, I'm…almost sure it'll be okay. Can't be any worse than what Axol made in the Meme Graveyard or whatever that place was.]
"It good! Melony promise friend!" Melony promised, giving the other three some puppy eyes. Any rebuttal or complaint practically died on the spot and they all got themselves comfy. Melony laid down on her belly, eyes about a good 5 inches away from the screen. Tari and Saiko took the couch, which was to say 'the anime girl laid her leg across the entire thing and onto the gamer girls lap, who is too polite to do anything about her new role as a footrest'. Meggy, not really too fussed about seats, opted to stay on the floor with a single pillow under her. A little wiggling to get comfy and she was set. They all had a bowl of buttery popcorn (a bowl of gummies in Melony's case) and started the movie.
And it started with Pirates getting buried treasure. Which were tickets...to the movie...they were watching. Ooooookay.
Meggy's head spun throughout the intro, though maybe that was just the booze finally kicking in. So much for never getting drunk again, but in some odd way it...helped? Sort of? It was hard to tell through the haze. But it seemed to be good enough...if Saiko wouldn't stop talking over the damn thing.
[374 weeks? Ain't that 31 years?!]
"Saiko…"
[You know he's got a point with the sponge being too childish to be a manager. I've had to turn down a few of my own employ-UH I MEAN I know from experience.]
"Quiet please?"
And so on and so forth. Until they got to the scene at the kids restaurant. Were they...getting drunk off of ice cream? They got away with that in a kid's movie?
"Wow, the pressure's already setting in…"
...They got away with THAT?!
[Gettin' smashed on ice cream, hell yeah!] Saiko grinned deviously, [I like this movie already! I'll drink to that. Cheers!]
Melony stopped giggling at the spoon-spoon-spoon-bowl tower and turned to Saiko with a curious expression, "They drink? But… ice-cream not drink?"
Saiko knocked back another bottle of wine, [I'll explain it when you're older. Probably. If I remember.]
Tari huffed and glared lightly, "Can we stop talking over the movie please? I'm trying to listen."
A snort from the chubby friend drew her attention, "What, you're actually getting invested with a sponge?"
"YES!"
Both Meg and Sai shared a look that showed a type of disappointment you can only know from the heart before they all resumed the movie. Hey, at least Tari seemed happy again, nibbling on a stray popcorn. Meggy sighed and knocked back her...eighth? Ninth cup of wine? Things were starting to get blurry indeed. But it kind of made the movie more enjoyable, and the horrible feeling in her mind was slowly going away. Well, for now. So she smiled and sipped more of the wine. Saiko had already guzzled her share of it anyway, not like she had more for later. The rest of the movie went by without too much trouble; they cheered and cried at the happy and sad moments, Saiko blubbering especially considering her supposed disinterest in proceedings; Meggy silently filmed her breakdown when the two protagonists nearly fried for uh, later viewing.
...Yeah okay the movie was good. And as the credits rolled over some...oddly catchy tunes, the girls were giggling and cheering - even if only one of them was at all lucid by this point.
"Awright...dat wash pretty good, Melo...M-Mellona…Megalovania..." Meggy mumbled, her speech a bit slurred.
"Thank!" Melony giggled like a happy child, "It real good movie!"
[Eh, it was okay…] Saiko grinned, [So, now what?]
"Hmm...it's getting late…" Tari said, staring at the clock; it was 11:34PM. She brushed her hair aside, "I think it's time to wind down a bit. As in, no more booze."
[It's alright, I've had my fill…] Saiko said, before looking over at a smashed Meggy, [Chunky drank the rest.]
"Is she...okay?" Melony asked, "What wine?"
"It...I'll…" Tari sighed, "Nevermind. They could do with sleeping it off. We could wind down by, uh...ooh, painting our toenails! How's that sound, Meggy?" a pause, "...Meggy?"
Meggy was trying to stand, her legs buckling from the strain. Eventually, she managed to hoist her heft up, her legs still wobbling underneath her. All of a sudden there was an odd melancholy about her. Her face was slowly, softly falling, and she wasn't sure why. She shook her aching, buzzing head, "I'm. Fine. Letsch paint dose nails…"
"If you say so…" Tari shrugged, though her expression of worry remained. Melony shifted herself on the bed, and draped a blanket across herself, leaving her feet exposed for the nail painting. Saiko was more of a painter than a paint-ee, so she sat on the floor and let Tari try the monumental task of keeping the excitable Melony still. She would paint Meggy's nails, she supposed. Meggy was suddenly very glad she showered before all this...and clipped her nails.
A wave of nausea washed over her again, "You...are disgusting…I bet she's gagging just thinking about it."
"Shut up…" Meggy whined.
[Pardon?] Saiko asked, dipping a brush into a jar of blue nail varnish.
"N-Nothing...I think," Meggy mumbled again, hands slowly pressed over her ears. Saiko simply shrugged and started painting her nails; the varnish was kind of cold, sending shivers up her back, "Cold… like the floor… where you failed. Remember that Meggy?!"
"S-Stop it…"
[Stop it? I only just started.]
"NOT YOU!" Meggy screamed, before clasping her hand over her mouth. Saiko looked kind of offended at the outburst; she always was quick to anger, "Oh no…"
[Okay, what's goin' on here?] she asked stubbornly, [Clearly something's wrong, so tell us what the damn hell is wrong!]
"Saiko…" Tari replied fearfully, while Melony coo'd lovingly at her new green toes.
[Look, if you're just gonna be a problem, if you're just gonna keep screaming at nothing and gettin' upset over minor things, then maybe this wasn't such a good idea to begin with! I TOLD you we should've given it more time, Tari!]
"That's it!" Desti's voice rang out amongst a continuously worsening static, "Scream at her! At us! Make us out as the losers we are!"
"Desti PLEASE!" Meggy was begging now, hands pressed tightly over her ears.
Tari flinched at Saiko's response but then steeled herself, "We couldn't just leave her anymore! We already did that for a year! Did you want her to be left alone for even longer?!"
[Look, I want to help her as much as you guys, but it's not gonna work if she's gonna be a pain in the ass about it, much less unable to MOVE from her own!]
"G-Guys?" Melony muttered a little fearfully, now only noticing the rising conflict happening between the two girls with Meggy caught in the middle.
"And you are so helping by pushing her for answers! You can't just force her to be happy Saiko!"
[Oh of course, cause she's estatic right now in her house, ALONE!]
"We're here, aren't we?!"
[And how much has that helped?!]
"Well YOU'RE not making it any better!"
[Oh, you want me to piss off now?! Thanks Tari, real team player you are!]
"I'm trying my best here! You're the one making it difficult!"
[Don't you dare! Don't make it like you're any better!]
"Yessss! Hatred, suffering! All because of us! All because of YOU!"
The orange haired girl couldn't even see or comprehend much beyond that. The booze, emotions, shouting… it just swirled her head in sorrow and hatred. She thinks she saw Melony hide under some blankets, but she couldn't tell.
She didn't care. This whole sleepover was obviously just destined to fail. All she knew was that she was moving to a new room while the voices called out. Were they to her? Were they even real at this point? It wasn't until she fell against a door that she realised she went back to her own bedroom. She huddled in the corner, hugging her legs. She was just a mistake. Why didn't she just accept it earlier? Why did she get her friends involved? Now they were yelling and attacking each other as well, in their attempt to help her. She was-
"Worthless. Truly worthless…" Meggy stopped, looking up. There, looking over her rotund frame, was Shadow Desti. Only now her purple was awash with static, and her expression was furious. The snarling beast continued, "You make your friends fight without you even doing anything! How fitting, eh?"
Meggy suddenly felt a white hot pang of anger. No, FURY. She got to her feet, "Get. Out. Of my-"
"No," came the booming reply, "I'm stuck in here, FOREVER! Because of you. You and your stupid monkey bones!"
"SHUT UP!" Meggy screamed, throwing a fist at the static creature. She missed, of course, and her fist hit the wall. She screamed in pain, and that only fueled her anger more.
"Yes, that's it!" Shadow Desti cried again, "All that pent up anger! ALL out on me! Always on me, because you could never blame yourself for anything!"
Meggy reared up another punch, but then...paused. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her fist trembling. She went to bring it down on the wall...but then brought it down upon her arm instead. She riled up the sleeve and slammed her fist into it. Pain echoed through it, but she did it again. And again. And again. Pain was screaming through it now, but a weeping Meggy kept at it; she had done this...too many times before.
"COME ON!" Shadow Desti screamed, "Bruise your arm! Draw blood! Break the bone! Just like Leader did to your leg. It's what you deserve!" Meggy was slowing down, her tolerance for pain nearing its peak, "You were worthless as an Inkling…" another thump, "You are worthless as a human!" another thump, this time with a cry of pain from the human, "YOU should have died on that island! NOT ME!"
A final scream and a final thump, and something at least cracked inside. Overwhelmed by pain, she collapsed to the floor. There was heavy bruising across her arm now, her other hand slightly bloodied, agony and weakness spreading throughout her body. Was it broken? She couldn't tell. Meggy looked up, tears in her eyes. A hic-up sounded before the tears fell. Just more and more tears and she sobbed into whatever she could.
*knock knock knock*
"H-Huh..." She didn't even get a chance to think before… a moving blanket opened the door? Did her mind finally snap? Wait, no, the blanket moved before a Melony head peaked from under it. Meggy wasn't completely sure, but it looked like the girl was crying as well with wet cheeks, "M-Melon-"
As quick as she showed up, the girl tackled Meggy and curled around her in a tight hug. She was shaking and not from the belly jiggling at the impact, "S-Saiko and Tari… really loud. Melony scared… so I find comfy girl." She explained, nuzzling into the tummy fat. The girl sobbed a little more, but already seemed to relax in the warmth.
Meggy didn't realise it until she hugged the kid back, crying softly. It was… something. She still felt awful, but… Melony felt alright to cry with. She was more or less a baby, kind of. So the two cried some more, still wrapped in the blanket Melony brought with her. It only took a few minutes before the fruity girl was out like a sleepy zapfish. Her arms were wrapped as much as they could around her chubby friend as she breathed peacefully. Honestly, it felt a tad bit uncomfortable, having a whole body resting on top of yours, but she felt more at peace. Meggy will later admit that a sleepy Melony was pretty cute.
*knock knock knock*
What th-again? Meggy cleared her throat with a weak, "Come in…"
The door creaked open, and there was a rather sad Tari and Saiko on the other side of it. Tari was openly weeping, because honestly who wasn't at this point? Saiko took the initiative, speaking in a very forlorn voice, [Listen, kid. I'm...we're sorry, we snapped at you like that. I let my anger get the better of me...a-again, and I really shouldn't have. And, uhh… bringing drinks probably wasn't a great idea either… I'm sorry Meggy.]
"I'm so sorry too…" Tari sobbed, "I...we didn't know...how bad it was. We were gettin' so loud, uh...your neighbours threatened to call the cops on us. And then we heard you hittin' walls and then screaming...I…what, happened?"
Meggy didn't know if she should respond...if she even could. She slowly eased Melony off of her, and slowly got to her feet. Her battered arm creaked out and she had to muffle her screams of pain to not wake Melony, but she stood up. And Tari could see the horrible, purple bruise and drawn blood on her arm. Meggy mumbled again, "I...feel so worthless. Like I'm just...a punching bag."
Tari felt like she was going to be sick, "Holy sh...uh, shoo…" she got closer and looked over her arm, "You didn't tell us you were self-harming! It looks like you went over it with a sledgehammer!"
"...I'm sorry…" Meggy sobbed again, pitifully, trying her best to wrap her arms around Tari in a broken hug. Tari sniffled and returned the favour, wrapping her arms slightly more successfully around the chunky girl and stroking her soft hair. Meggy continued to cry, "I'm worthless...I'm so fucking worthless…"
"No you're not...sssshhh, no you're not…" Tari said quietly, stifling the girl's sobs, "It's okay...it's okay...no more tears...please…"
[Jeez,] Saiko said, astounded, [Even I couldn't do that kinda damage! Hold on, I got medical training. Lemme make sure the damn thing ain't broken…]
/
It wasn't, thankfully, but Meggy's arm was quite battered by the assault. It was too late to walk to the hospital, and Meggy didn't have a car, so Saiko did what she could; cleaning off the blood, wrapping the arm in crepe bandages, that sort of thing.
[Now, try not to move it,] she said, [You weakened the bone pretty badly. We'll get you down the hospital for proper treatment tomorrow, before SMG4 picks us up.]
"Want Melony to kiss better?" Melony giggled, awake once more. Meggy sighed, and nodded. The Melon girl reached down and planted a soft kiss on the arm, just gently enough to not agitate it, "There, all better!"
"Thanks, guys…" Meggy sighed, a broken smile on her face and tears still in her eyes, "I'm...really sorry this sleepover went really south. It's...all my fault, isn't it? Isn't everything?"
Saiko placed a hand on Meggy's good shoulder and made sure she was looking her straight in the eyes, [Meggy, stop that. You can't be blamed for literally everything that goes wrong in life. And if we're talking about this sleepover, I'm gonna take some blame since I was the first to get annoyed and brought my drinks. It's not your fault.]
"Exactly." Tari chirped, before once again hugging the fat girl close, "You're not to blame Meggy, nor are we here to blame you. You're our awesome friend, alright?"
Melony smiled, lightly kicking her legs off the bedside, "Meggy comfy! That mean Meggy good friend!" The three others giggled a little at that statement, but Melony just took it proudly before lying back down on Meggy's bed.
"Y-You guys are gonna keep me crying, hehe..." Meg responded, gently wiping away some fresh tears. Tari and Saiko were smiling warmly at her while Melony yawned a little. "I think she's getting sleepy… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.." A yawn slipped out of her too, with Tari then making a third one moments later.
"Yeah, sleep sounds really good right now."
Saiko nodded and turned to the door, before looking over her shoulder to the group, [I'll grab some more pillows and blankets. We can crash in this room tonight. That okay Meggy?]
"Mhm, I-I don't want to be alone..."
[Cool. I'll be back in a flash.] It wasn't long before Meggy's bedroom was re-made into a four person sleeping area. Melony, to Meggy's slight embarrassment, was huddled up in the crater where she would sit on her bed for too long; her weight making a big dip in the mattress. Which just so happened to be the perfect size for the girl to curl up in. Tari giggled at the sight while Saiko draped a blanket over the snoozing baby. Tari and Saiko would be on the floor, but both had plenty of cushioning to make it really comfy and Meggy herself would take the other half of her bed, next to Melony.
"Guys…" Meggy said sleepily towards Saiko and Tari, both looking over at her. She smiled lightly, "...Thank you. For not giving up on me."
"We'd never give up on you, Meggy," Tari smiled warmly back, "We never gave up looking for you. And now that we've found you, we're gonna help you get back on your feet. Like therapy!"
[I know someone who could do that, eh?] Saiko chuckled softly, pointing to herself, [Goodnight, kiddo.]
"Night, Meggy!"
"...Goodnight guys," Meggy sighed, flopping back into bed. After the night they had, everyone was out like a light before long. They dreamed; Tari of winning a game tourney, Saiko of beating Leader's head in with a shovel. Melony of...sleeping. And Meggy's dreams, while still static-y, were clearer and calmer now. Shadow Desti tried to butt in, but her friends were there to help. Mario was sitting on her, the once rampaging beast now helpless and struggling under the plumber's rolls. And she thought she saw glimpses of...him. Here and there, travelling through the void. She swore she could hear his voice again.
"You always had that spark in ya, kid. So what if you lost? I think you're the true winner over that embarrassment, no doubts about it. I know your friends'll help you. Maybe one day, you'll get another chance…"
Meggy's consciousness was shocked, almost; "...Wren?"
Oneshot Wren smiled as he dissipated, "You still have a ways to go… but I know you'll do it. Be seein' ya, kid. We'll meet again. I'm sure of it."
And for the first time in a year, surrounded by her friends, cuddled in Melony's grasp, Meggy felt…
...Hopeful.
END