HAHA, finally, I think I've finally figured out a schedule for my fics. Who knows how long that'll last, but enjoy it while it does. I own nothing.
"Are you sure there's nothing else you wanted to tell me?" Moon pressed on as she fulfilled her duties, signing documents and whatnot while talking to her son. The time had come once again for Quartz to report his sister's progress. It would've been easier for her to just call Glossaryck, but she learned a long time ago not to interfere into the blue man's teaching methods. For whatever reason, Glossaryck insisted on 'keeping it in the classroom' so there was nothing she could do there.
"Nope. Other than chasing after three puppies, tackling two cereal mascots, and creating another hole in one of the school walls, but nothing else that eventful." Which was only half true, but Quartz thought it would be best if their mom didn't know about the constant dimension hopping, Ludo's attacks, or the literal noodle incident that almost cooked all of Echo creek into spaghetti. At least it tasted good enough.
"And I'm guessing you still won't tell me what happened when you spent the night over there?" When he came back, Star came back with him, and the two looked absolutely exhausted, like they just came back from fighting a pack of wolves. It was already a sign when she realized they ended the sleepover much, much earlier then she expected. Despite immediately pinning for details, the two stood in silence, outright ignoring her presence as they made their way to Quartz's room.
Moon felt furious with them, and a small part of her still felt hurt by it. They made no effort to hide whatever they did, and yet they remained outright defiant to her concern.
"Star, what happened over there?" The mother begged her daughter with a pleading anger in her tone. "Star, answer me right now!" Reaching out for her arm, she grabbed it with a tight rug, causing the girl to wince in pain.
"Stop, please, just, just please, not now. Please let it go. Let it go." Star begged her mother, who had finally noticed the bandage wrapped around her arm.
"Star, you're hurt, tired, and you're scaring me." Moon let go of her arm, and pleaded again with softer voice. "I don't see you all the time anymore and you've been more scarce with you're calls. I need to have some idea of what's happening if I'm going to trust you to stay on Earth!"
"No! Please, she, we can't talk about this. Not now." To the Queen's shock and disappointment, Quartz was now being unruly. "Nothing happened. Everything is fine." The lie was so clear it was transparent.
She knew the kids defended each other, Quartz especially, no matter what. But when they were caught, they never denied it. They would confess.
But something terrible must've happened if they were both so willing to lie straight to her face while they were both in such a weak state.
With a reluctant frown, she walked away without another word.
Quartz chose to remain silent, much to his shame. Their mother thankfully never pressed for details after that, but it didn't save him from a two day grounding either. He had hoped for her to be too distracted by her 'business time' for her to even remember about it, but unfortunately for him, he and Star were pretty high on her priority list.
He didn't fully understand why Star wanted to keep this moment under the rug. From everything he remembered, it was his fault. He made the cat fingers. It was his body, his problem, his story to tell.
But what he put Star and their friends through still frightened him. It was a terrifying experience that he never wanted to go through ever again, like a repeating nightmare. He couldn't wake up the next morning afterward without feeling dirty and afraid for himself and others.
Star was still shaken up by the experience as well, hence her insistence on never bringing it up again. She even went as far as to never look at a cat again, a promise quickly broken once she saw Lion again and cuddled with him.
Besides, it wasn't like they would keep quiet about it forever. He just had wait until he was ready to tell her. That's all that was. Still, it stung to hear her passive aggressive tone whenever she 'subtlety' pestered him about it.
Knowing it would be a long while before she dropped it, Quartz changed the subject to something else that was on his mind for a while. "Um, Mom? Why did you send Star to Earth, but not me? Why not teach us both what you're teaching me?"
Moon saw what he was doing, but she chose to go along with it. Looks like an explanation won't be given today. There was more than one answer to Quartz's question, but for the moment, only one was needed. "I know you're trying to avoid talking about it, so don't think this is over." Quartz pouted a little. "But recall that it was you who suggested Star needed the opportunity to grow. You're father and I chose Earth because of it's more tame environment. In a setting like that, Star can learn about restraint more easily then a kingdom constantly surrounded by monsters." It probably defeated the purpose since Star had the scissors, but he wouldn't say anything about that. "..and despite how rambunctious you two are together, restraint isn't you're problem. You know how to listen."
Quartz blushed a little at that. Nice to know his mother wasn't too mad at him. "But you listen to your sister way too much though. You're still too clumsy with your new abilities, and you get way too attached to things at times. I still don't understand why you got so upset about that snake."
"They don't have any arms!" Quartz blurted with watery eyes. "They have so many problems we don't even think about! Like 'How are they going to scratch themselves?'"
Ignoring this outburst of childishness, Moon continued. "In any case, both you're abilities need discipline, just different forms of it. Believe me, if I could, I would keep you both here, where I can know what you're ALWAYS doing." The 'subtleness came back, and it was as bitter as ever.
Not wanting to further this, Quartz excused himself to his room to get ready for bed, leaving the mother disappointed and concerned. She was being hard on him, but he was the one that she knew she could trust. She put away time and effort to help him in everyway she could. They've been bonding in a special way that could only exist between them, even if he didn't know it. There should be absolutely no reason why he wouldn't talk to her about it.
"Uggh, I really need to stop overthinking this." Moon told herself as she prepared to end the day as well. So what if her son was having a lapse in judgment? He'd speak to her about it soon enough, and she could finally put this all behind her. "When did having children become complicated?" Better question, when did it ever not be complicated?
Slipping into her nightgown, Moon laid beside her husband and did her best to push any negative thought out of her head for the night. The last thing she needed to do was dwell on this for too long.
For a brief moment, it worked. Aside from River's heavy breathing, she found herself able to relax. No troubles, no mischievous children, and the scent of her mother's Red Solanaceae pie filled the air. Almost nothing came close to pure perfection and bliss than this.
Which is why Moon woke up not that much later when she felt something small and soft hit her face. Waking up alert and irritated, she found that the object that hit her was a crescent moon pillow, aka, one of Quartz's. "What are you doing up?" Had he finally come to confess, or was this going to lead to another grounding? "Quartz?" He wasn't anywhere she could see him. "Where are you?" Right above her, a small blanket falls from the ceiling, covering her had. Pulling it off, she slowly turned her head up, seeing the boy, siting upright upside down, completely unaware of the position he was in now. "Quartz?" She whispered a little louder.
That was enough to spark his attention, and as the boy awoke, he fell straight down towards his mother, who caught him with open arms. The boy seemed completely unaware of what he did, yawning as he greeted his mother. "Hey. Is it morning already?"
"How are you getting stranger with Star not living at the castle?" It was the only sane response the Queen could give in that moment.
Coming down the stairs from one of the most restful sleeps he's ever had, Marco trotted down the stairs, barely able to keep his eyes open. Yawning, his eye's remained shut as the peaceful jungle noises made him want to drop right back to sleep. His peaceful rest was interrupted as a swarm of purple parrots rushed by him, leaving a plentiful trail of feathers in their wake. That was how Marco knew Star was up already.
The entirety of the living room seemed to have transformed into a section of the Amazon. Lush green trees, a rich moist atmosphere, a tiny stream that flowed into the kitchen, and vines hanging out everywhere. Despite his initial shock at the house's new landscape, Marco had to admit this new setting had a serene touch to it. He could imagine actually enjoying himself in this new environment, doing his homework as he swung from tree to tree..
"Wow, Star's getting better at her magic. This is very peaceful.." He moment in bliss ended as a giant leopard with four eyes and a cobra for a tail grabbed him by the torso and flung him in every conceivable direction, tenderizing him for its breakfast.
Alerted by her friend's girly screams for help. Star popped out of nowhere and fired her wand. "Mega explosive crystal laser!" Instead of blasting it into oblivion like he expected, the spell turned into a simple laser pointed, distracting the feline hybrid long enough for Marco to slip from its jaws of death. "Made that one for Quartz. If it can work on Lion, it can work on any cat."
"Good to know." Marco tucked away that piece of information for a future date. "Thanks for the save. That makes it 28 saves for you.." taking out a notebook, he marks a checkmark on a piece of paper divided by two sides for Star and himself. "..and 4 for me." His dejection was lost on Star. This didn't help his image in the slightest. "But who's counting?"
Looking around, Star admired the living room's new interior design, and Marco assumed it was just pride in her own handiwork. "Wow Marco, I got to say.." Star gazed at the parrots that flew by. "..I just love what you've done with the place." One parrot lands on her head and begins pecking. "Aww, too cute."
Thinking it was the start of some joke, or Star's forgetfulness, Marco laughed. "What, I didn't do this." He didn't think he was even capable of imaging this. "It was like this when I woke up."
"Well somebody did."
"Somebody? Really?" It was too obvious by this point. To let it go on would be ridiculous. "Birds, rainbows, whatever that is." A centaur-poodle creature at chips from the background. "There's literally only one person who could've done this."
"My brother?" Stat guessed with full sincerity. "Could this be all some elaborate plan for my birthday? Quartz, you've done it again!" She gazed at the forest with a newfound perspective. "Huh, never thought he would go for the jungle theme."
"No silly, you, you're the only one here that could do this." He clarified. "This has to be you."
"Sorry, it wasn't me." She defended. As amazing as everything was now, she couldn't take the credit from somebody else. Marco, remaining unconvinced, shrugged off a few vines from a white stone structure, revealing it to be a fairly accurate larger than life replica of her head. "Hm, nah, it feels more like your dad's work."
"It WAS my work!" popped out from the mouth of the structure with a chisel and hammer at hand. Proudly, he admired his handiwork. "Worked on it all night. But no to everything else." He pointed towards the rest of the house. "This was here when I started.
Not being terribly bothered by this mystery, Star left with a smile as she headed towards the kitchen, though Marco held up a face of confusion to her lack of interest. "You're sure you didn't do it? There's literally no harm in admitting it."
"Well I would love to, but I don't remember doing anything besides going to bed last night." She poured a bowl of sugar seed cereal for her new feathery friend. "I don't take credit for other people's work. I have more than enough pride in my own magic. That's just how I roll." Quartz definitely seemed to think so. Speaking of which.. "Ohh, that reminds me, I should probably call my brother."
"Is it to talk to him, or to check on him?" Marco saw how shaken both the siblings were since that night, and how they promised to never speak of it again. Marco assumed correctly. That meant not bringing it up with their mother.
"Why can't it be both?" She answered before taking out her own mirror and call the castle.
Moon kept a keen eye on her son the following morning, not that Quartz seemed to notice. He wasn't phased that he work up in his mother's arms this mourning, he didn't question it as he made his way back to bed, and he ate breakfast like nothing had happened.
He didn't even seem to notice that his mother's eyes were glued to him like flypaper. If anything, he seemed to be more than happy she didn't say anything about the cat finger incident. Great corncakes, right Mom?" He caught her off guard. "That's why you're quiet, right? The corncakes are just that good." He finished off his stack before dismissing himself.
"Hold on Quartz, I need to speak to you." Moon caught up with him. Quartz didn't even looked worried in the slightest. "Did you have any trouble sleeping last night?"
"Hm, not really." He answered honestly. Moon could tell he wasn't making an effort to be dishonest with her, but the nagging feeling was still in the back of her mind.
"You sure? You didn't have any weird problems, like tossing and turning, or waking up on the ceiling?"
"Now that you mentioned it, I had a weird dream that I was." He recalled. "Star was blasting her magic everywhere and something, and we both heard you voice, but you weren't their." Moon leaned in closer to soak it all in. "You kept telling us something about Star's future and how we need to come to you for something, but that part was pretty vague. Other than that, I slept fine." He didn't think there was anything significant about it. "And also this three eyed lady came up, but she didn't really say anything. Just kinda stood there for no reason."
Okay, he seemed sure nothing was wrong, but still, his strange acts from last night still rubbed her the wrong way. "Then what about.." Before she could go one further, a ring was heard from her mirror in the main hall. With a patient huff, Moon answered it, and to her surprise, Star was the one who called. This could only mean one thing. "What did you do this time?"
"Hah, I'll have you know I've just got up! You have nothing on me this time, mommy!" Star bragged to the unimpressed Queen. "Anywaaaays, I just needed to talk to Quartz for a quick second." Quartz waved from behind their mother with a large smile. "Like right now." Quartz moved up to speak, with their mother not moving an inch. "It's a surprise we're planning, so it's best we don't tell everyone we meet."
Taking the hint, Moon left in a big huff. "You know she didn't buy that line about the surprise, right? She's been more on the edge with our personal business lately." Quartz warned.
"I know, I just needed to get her out of the picture for the moment." She rolled her eyes. Moving out of their Mom's surveillance just so happened to be an unintentional perk of moving to earth. "Speaking of which, you haven't told her about it, have you?"
"No, I've kept my mouth zipped, for as little good as it did." His tired tone made her sulk a little bit, knowing about how he got grounded. Star truly felt sorry for her brother. She didn't want him to get in trouble after all that. "I still don't really understand why we're not telling her though."
"Look, it's a magical mishap, and you know how she get's about those. Didn't you say she was getting more strict with your training?" She tried to excuse.
"I guess, but still, it was my problem. I got turned into a monster by my own magic. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't get in trouble." He tried to explain, though it looked like Star was doing her best not to pay attention. "Star, you know I've never been a fan of hiding stuff from our parents. I know there's stuff you like to keep in the dark, but I always get an ache in my stomach whenever I don't tell them what I want to tell them." A tired and weary weak was painted all across his face.
"Look, just give me some time to think it over. Let me have that at least." She pleaded once more, and Quartz, feeling very defeated, just shook his head a little somberly. "Hey, don't be like that. We're star-crossed siblings, we don't let each other get down, got it?"
"Yeah, alright. Alright." He mumbled with a tiny smile. That was about as get as it was going to get for now. "So has anything eventful happed already?"
"Oh of course! It wouldn't be me if it wasn't!" The normal positive tone between the two had returned to normal. "Somebody planted a jungle in the living room last night, and for once it wasn't me!"
"Really, that would've been cool to see." A smidgen of regret enters his mind. "Aw, does that me I can't do a jungle theme for your birthday this year?"
"Of course you still can! If you're still doing it, do it. I'll just pretend that I didn't know."
Marco's skepticism lingered on for the rest of the day, though he didn't really have much time to think about it as the day continued. Homework, karate, and nachos were what occupied the duo for most of their day, and the headed off to bed with hardly a worry in their head.
The only thought Marco had once he made contact with his pillow was about the situation with the living room. Star surely didn't act like it, but he felt something was a bit amiss with her lack of knowledge of it. Magic was already kind of an unknown to him already, but Star usually knew what she was doing, at least when it came to intent. He couldn't shake the feeling that something messy was happening, and he wanted to help Star get out of it as soon as possible.
His cautionary instincts proved to be correct, as the middle of the morning rolled around, he woke up to the sounds of magic and drowsy murmurs. The giant caterpillar crawling across his face didn't help matters either.
Knowing exactly where to go, the teen cautious tip-toed his way to Star's room. From the outside, eye-straining lights of various colors flashed like a disco ball. Marco paused for a moment, not knowing exactly what was on the other side. Preparing for a potential attack, Marco slowly creaked the door open out of carefulness and tiredness.
What he saw was what exactly what it sounded like. Star was waving her wand around in random directions, blasting random spells at nothing in particular. What made it strange was the fact that she did it without opening a single eye. Snoring loudly, she swung her body in a complete circle, aiming her wand at her 'intruder'. "G-get, g-eet back, st-stay away!" She shouted in tired anger.
Marco was incapable of leaping out of the way as he was pelted by a tiny swarm of narwhals, sending him flying into the wall. "Star, what the heck are you doing!?"
Showing no signs of awareness, she waved her wand again as she turned her attention elsewhere. "Lamp, destroy." Firing off an electric purple light, she encased the lamp next to Marco in it's magic, granting it sentience as it began shocking the boy's backside. His cries of pain fell deaf on the sleep walking princess, dragging her body around as she pressed the random dials on her magic mirror. "Shh, get away, y-you, y-you can't have h-him.."
"Star, just calling with your daily reminder to behave like the Queen you are." The old message of Mewni's Queen told the sleeping Star with a berating tone that caused an obvious reaction out of the girl. "Paper, tornado.." A green blast was fired onto a stack of papers, ensnaring Marco in a cyclone of never ending spinning.
"Star! Star you got to stop!" He yelled as it took him on a ride all across the room.
"No, N-O, n-no, you'll, you'll ever ake him.." Her words began slurring even more, as if she was somehow getting even more tired. "Beanbag, Monster, metamorphosis..." She pointed her blast at a beanbag, transforming the once soft and comfortable cushion into a slightly menacing creature slobbering form pellets with each step it took as it chased Marco.
As he ran for his life, his arm rendered useless by the magic paper, his prayers were finally answered as a portal was ripped from above him, and out from it entered Quartz, slamming down shield first on the beanbag monster. "Quartz?!"
"No time to explain!" Quartz helped pick Marco up, only to be shot down again as the lamp monster shocked him on the neck, leaving both the boy cornered. "Star, you gotta wake up right now!" He begs for dear life as the two creatures began slamming their fist against his shield.
Yawning, Star stretched out her arms like she was getting up for the day. "Ahhh, good morning Marco, good morning Quartz, good morning beanbag chair monster." It only took a second for the reality to hit her. "GUYS!? LIGHTNING SPARKLE RESCUE!" The monsters returned to their normal state of lifelessness as the two tried to catch their breath.
"Wow, thanks Star." His gratefulness sounds more bitter than he intended as he popped out the notebook again to add a checkmark to Star's side. "Now you're at 29 saves."
Scouring the mess that was her room now, she picks up one of the tiny narwhals she fired with a little concern. Which was weird, considering she fired bigger one's at people almost on a daily basis. Somehow, this didn't feel as natural as the other times. "What happened?"
"You were spelling in your sleep!" Noticing the lamp leaning on her shoulder, Marco side kicked it away, most likely so it wouldn't have the chance to attack again. "That's probably why you don't remember turning the living room into a jungle."
An awful, yucky feeling started to fill the Princess's gut. She couldn't get in trouble now like this! Especially if she isn't even conscious for it. Speaking of which.. "Why are you here?" She turned to Quartz with even more worry brewing in her mind.
"It's not because mom sent me, so you can breathe a little." A nervous chuckle emanates from his mouth. "Heh, it's actually kind of the opposite..."
Moon didn't know what possessed her to do it, but her curiosity and worry got the best of her. While everyone else in the castle was sleeping soundly, the Queen had planted herself across from Quartz's room, gazing at it with no intent of looking away. Her son was one a strange kid, she had to admit that, but sleepwalking somehow took the cake.
She didn't really know what she would do once she caught though? Was she suppose to just send him back to bed and just hope he wouldn't do it again? Just follow him around and see what he does? Did any of this have anything to do with his family and was just a natural course he had to take?
It was an unknown to her, and that was scary. The main job of the Magical High Commission was knowing everything, and she made that a high priority once she took up the mantle of Queen.
Which is why it was so frustrating for her to know Quartz wasn't telling her everything Star did on earth. She gave up that luxury the minute they stepped into that dimension. She'd give her daughter the space to grow, and in return, she needed to return the trust she had given to her.
For all the progress Quartz reported, it just didn't feel like enough anymore. She needed some sort of sign to put her at ease. That was the very least she needed.
"I wonder if Saint Olga's still accepting registrations." She murmured. It was the nuclear option, but Star proved to be an explosive child, quite literally.
Quickly though, her thoughts changed from one troublesome child to another, as Quartz's door swung wide open with a loud smack. Just as she assumed, he was still asleep in his sleep wear, slightly drooling from his lips as he held a shield high up in the air with his left arm. She had to admit, it was kind of cute.
"Hughhh, go, go, Staaar, get away from, her.." Quartz's tired moans echo as Moon does her best to hold him down. "Let, let, go, I, protect, protect, protect her..."
"Quartz, whatever problems you're having.." Her attempt to awaken him fails as he flung around his shield every time he attempted to get close. "..whatever the case of what's happened on Earth, you can tell me what's going on. You don't need to hide anything from me."
"No, no, get away, go away, GO AWAY!" Waking up by the sound of his own voice, Quartz, not knowing where he was at the moment, let go of his shield, making it ricochet off the walls. "Huh?"
Moon manages to catch the shield with little difficulty, tossing it on the ground as it begins to dissipate. "What happened, what was in your dream?"
"I, I don't know, I, I saw Star their and she was.." His eyes widen in horror upon realization. "I have to get to Earth!"
"Whoa, so she just let you go to Earth just like that?"
"Not exactly." Quartz sighed sadly. "She sent me back to my room so I would calm down, but I, snatched away her dimensional scissors when she wasn't looking." Star stared at her brother with huge agape on her face. "Is it really that bad?"
"No, I'm just surprised you went that far.." Ignoring the little factoid about their mother probably stalking him while he sleeps, it sounded like her brother was doing the sleep thing to. "Agh! This emotion bond thing is suppose to make life better!" She caused enough trouble for everyone today, it was time to suck it up and face it head on. "I'm not dragging you down with me bro." Turning her attention to the safe kid, she fell apart and begged. "You got to fix me Diaz, your my only hope!"
Marco's face lights up brighter than any of Star's spells. This was a rare opportunity he wasn't about to waste. "Yes, now it's my turn to save you!" Planting his arms right on the princess, his smile widens as he stares straight into her eyes. "With psychology!"
"Psychology?"
"Psychology!"
"Psychology." She whispered with deep intrigue, only to return to confusion. "What's that?"
Marco was all to eager to explain. "Psychology is like karate for your mind. I'm going to crack open the head of yours and see what makes you tick." He looked like he was about to take a spoon a scoop out a piece of her brain.
"You don't really mean that right?" Quartz questioned worriedly. "Because we have something like that back on Mewni. You're placed on a catapult and launched into the air. Once you recover from the two week coma, everything in your head should be back in order."
The completely straight face he kept on freaked Marco out just a bit. "Yeah, this here is pretty different. Now before we start, I must transform myself!" He shouted quite dramatically.
"Transform?" Star didn't get much of an explanation after that as Marco began spinning himself, almost like that how she changed outfits during the football incident. "Glasses! Paper! Clothes! Book!" Proclaiming loudly, he dresses himself in a somewhat nerdy attire. "Dr. Marco, P.H.D!"
"What does P.H.D stand for?"
Before Marco could elaborate, his mother walked by with her own definition. "Pretty handsome dude."
"Mom! Shouldn't you be in bed?" He whined. His moment of coolness was now over. Before Star could coddle him with that line, he moved himself downstairs. "Meet me in the living room when you're ready."
The two royal siblings were once again left by themselves, not really that sure were this was going to leave them. "So, I guessing you'll be taking off now." She said with a small twinge of disappointment. "Don't want to rile up Mom again."
"No, no, I don't have to leave right now." Quartz threw out their, though he seemed to be a little reluctant to go through with it. "I started sleep walking when you started sleep walking. Maybe we're suppose to get through this together. Besides, unless mom start's calling, I'm sleeping soundly in my room as far as anyone's concerned."
Star had to raise an eyebrow at that. "Since when did you get so sneaky?"
"Probably since the beginning. I have you to thank for that."
Expecting something a little more elaborate, Star found it a little underwhelming that all he did to set everything up was just bring out some sort of long couch in the middle of the jungle room. To her surprise, Marco actually insisted Quartz sit as close to Star as possible, something about needing to feel comfortable. Honestly, it was hard not to follow along with what he said. He looked too adorable in the dorky getup he was all excited about.
With both royals scooched right next to each other, Marco sat right across from them in a rolling chair, leaning forward like a wise professor. "Alright Miss Butterfly I'm going to administer a series of psychological tests in order to uncover what's bothering you."
"Oooh, tests, that sounds like fun!" She squealed, only to pout once realization hits. "Wait, no it doesn't!"
"And Quartz, since your magical bond thingy is making you both act crazy, I'm going to need you to participate as well. An extra perspective on the matter should help make things clearer." Quartz showed more enthusiasm for the task as he shook his head in compliance. "Alright, Test #1!: I need you two to pretend to be someone close to you. Acting like someone else should give us insight into how you feel about others."
The two looked at each other in confusion before nodding their heads, the smile on their faces confirming they had the same idea. With seconds, the two had thrown own each other's attire, Star putting on a bigger version of Quartz's armor, while Quartz put on Star's turquoise dress, devil horns, and boots. They even painted over their own cheek emblems to match with each other's.
"I'm Quartz Universe Butterfly! I'm an adorable, innocent prince that's always striving to help people, even when they hurt me!" Star did her best impression of her brother's voice. "I never give up, and I will become Mewni's greatest knight!"
"And I'm the rebel princess Star Butterfly, the chaotic, the unpredictable, and all around amazing magical princess. I live on earth and live to explore! My endless energy and endurance allows me to beat evil wherever I go, and I'll do anything for the brother I love!"
Feeling the sincere praise and love in each other's impersonation, the two soon joined together in a hug. "That was nice and all, but I think it would be better for Star if you didn't do you're brother." There was kind of no need for her to do that, he already knew how tooth-rottingly sweet the siblings were around each other. Besides, there were too many similarities between them to tell the difference.
"I totally understand!" Within another matter of seconds, Star had slipped into a Marco's daily attire, the red hoodie, pants, and even the same hairstyle as she deepened her voce more. "Hey-Hey, I'm Marco Diaz! My skinny jeans are awesome! Ooh, here comes Jackie Lynn Thomas, I better impress her with my karate! Look at my cute little mole!"
Marco observed unimpressed. A near perfect imitation, but it showed him nothing. "Ngggh." Grunting, he could only come to one conclusion as he finalized his analysis on his notepad.
THIS ISN'T WORKING
"Test #2!: Art therapy!" He handed Quartz and Star two paintbrushes each as Star began playing with her hair, already beginning to lose interest in what they were doing now. "Paint me a picture of your childhoods. Perhaps the answer lies within your past.
Taking the next few hours, Quartz and Star were separated to draw on their own canvases. Marco took a look at Star's first, and was taken back by the colorful details made by the princess. Aside from the wild unicorn and rainbows that Marco honestly expected to be there, one the side was a group of familiar looking monsters being held back by a struggling Quartz, while Star herself was in the middle, being strangled by a large green, hissing snake that hade light blue hair and a crown on her head. "This, this is incredible! Such depth! So many symbols, what does this say about your childhood?!" This could be the final key he was missing to all of this!
Sadly, he had to slap his face at what Star stated next. "Wha, nahh, I just drew this because I think monsters and unicorns are cool." Making monster noises to prove her painted, Marco walked towards Quartz a bit crestfallen, hoping the boy took the exercise a little more seriously.
Quartz's drawling was more crudely painted then his sister's, but it was just as, if not more colorful than hers. The main focus of it was himself and Star standing side by side as they blasted away dark, shadowy hands that looked like they were trying to tear them apart, with a bright blue crystal heart symbol in the middle of them. A little detail that both Quartz and Marco both missed though were the four small gems above them, each of them red, dark blue, purple, and white respectfully. "Please tell me this isn't just somethin you've always wanted to draw." Marco's desperate tone was made abundantly clear to the kid.
"Oh no, I just did what you told me to do, and just drew what came to my head." Instant relief and justification came to the teen. "This is part of what I saw when I went to bed last night. It's why I was in such a rush to get here. Does this help a little?"
"More than Star's at least." Okay, so the two paintings had similar themes, even if Star didn't really know it. He could practically taste how close he was to solving this, it just remained a bit out of reach. He was so close to helping Star. He just had to keep on pushing.
"Test #3!: Inkblot test!" Marco sat them down on the long couch again, shoving a pile of large white papers in their faces. "Tell me the first thing you see.."
"An inkblot! I win!" She proclaimed proudly. Quartz even applauded her with a small clap.
"Nonono, tell me what the inkblot reminds you of." Marco elaborated.
"Ohh, a fat porcupine!" Star exclaimed immediately.
"Really, because what I see is a butterfly emerging from a rosebud." Quartz countered. "Am I doing this wrong?"
"No, this, this is really good. Feel free to see what you want." Marco supported. Finally, he was getting somewhere with the both of them. He revealed the next inkblot.
"OOh, a little alien guy in a gnome cap!"
"Huh, weird, I'm pretty sure that looks like mom about to blow her top off in a fit of boiling rage." Quartz answered, to which Star scoffed.
"Pfft, as if. I think I know what a little alien in a gnome cap looks like. Hm, maybe I'm sleep spelling because I'm secretly a little alien guy in a gnome cap."
"Or maybe you're doing it because little aliens in gnome caps are trying to abduct you."
"Yeah, no." Marco dropped immediately before they could go on any further, showing them the next card. "Okay, next we.., okay sorry, this one's a mistake." He tried to put away the card, which just had a plain black dot in the middle of up.
"Hughg! That reminds me of my overbearing mother suffocating me with all the duties of becoming a queen for the rest of my life!" She gasped out, leaving both the boys in shocked silence.
For Quartz, it blew away a little piece of his mind to see Star admit something so personal, and slightly uncomforting, in one breath. He knew she was struggling with the whole princess training, but he couldn't have imagined her putting so much stress on herself because of it. He thought she didn't even think about, considering how happy she appeared most of the time.
For Marco however, it was exactly what he needed to hear. His smile couldn't have been any wider as he got up. "I believe we've found the root of your problem. You have mother issues!" He exclaimed like he found a diamond ring in his pocket.
Confused by his excitement, Star proudly proclaimed it also. "I HAVE MOTHER ISSUES!"
"No Star, that's bad." He explained.
"Aww, I have mother issues."
"Don't worry, it's good that we've found it. Identifying the problem is the first step towards recovery." Star's eye's gleamed at that idea. "Now Quartz, has their been any issues you would like to discuss. I believe you're insight can tell us what we need to do next." Still a little taken back by the sudden outburst, Quartz thought carefully about what he wanted to say next. "Feel free to say whatever you need to. This is a safe place."
Taking a deep breath, Quartz followed in Star's footsteps and realized it all in one go. "Well I think that Star and Mom have numerous problems when it comes to trust and thus I always feel like I have to get between them in order to maintain the peace between them like how I convinced her not to go the saint O route but now that I tell mom about what you do on Earth she get's a little mad when I don't tell her the whole story like what we did with the cat fingers thing and seeing her feel like she can't trust me is just very awful for me to see!" The shoe was now on the other foot, as it was now Star's turn to hang her mouth open. "Too much?"
"I, wow Quartz. Things are getting that bad at home." Quartz chose not to answer back, though the silence does it for him anyway. "I, wow, I can't, we, we need to fix this, don't we." The boy nodded. "I, I guess the only way to do that is to go to Mom and come clean with what happened that day, among other things." The silence only got more uncomfortable. "Need a hug?" Quartz wasted no time to jump into her arms. "Dr. Marco, you've saved us!"
"All in a days work." He said with a hint of smugness in his voice. With confidence, he headed upstairs as he placed a checkmark, this time on his own side. Now he could revel in satisfaction.
"So exactly when are we going to Mom?" Quartz asked, and Star's attitude immediately began to sour. Admitting the problem was easy. Knowing what she had to do was easy. But going through with it? That was a bit of a tougher order.
"I, I don't know. As soon as possible I guess?" She threw out there, though she was more unsure of it as she said it out loud. "I, I'll do it tomorrow. I promise."
"Thanks." He said with a weak smile and a loud. Today was too exhausting than it needed to be. "I'll just head back to Mewni before Mom realizes I'm.." Star didn't let go of her grip.
"Just, just rest here with me for now. We'll deal with Mom in the morning." Star said as she laid down on the couch. "I don't think I can be comfortable anywhere else."
Marco was able to relish his victory for the next two hours, able to sleep soundly knowing that he helped out his friend. It was a huge relief off his shoulders. Which is why when he woke up to the sound of magic literally flying through the air, all that self-satisfaction slipped down the drain. "What the.." His bed was turned into a giant inflatable kitten as he floated into the air, witness Star burst through her down, rolling along the floor with her brother in her arms, who was also still asleep. Occasionally Quartz would summon his shield and Star would thrust his body forward to throw it, like they were two parts of an action figure. Marco would've admitted this was a rather cool sight if the two weren't also destroying his room.
"Aww man!" Marco whined as he crossed off the extra checkmark from his side of the list. "Back to square one I guess." Before he could lament on all the extra work he had to do now, an unfamiliar voice of struggle sounded off below his bed. From the angle he was at, he could see Star was firing a continuous blast of magic at something that was trying to grab her. He pressed forward, trying to get a better look at the thing, only to pop the kitten from squeezing it too tightly. Screaming, he plunged downward into the two royals hard, instantly snapping them both awake once more.
"Huh, Quartz? Where are we?" Star shot her eye's open to survey her surroundings. A pair of boxer shots with hearts float in the air due to multiple blasts of magic. "Underwear? Oh no! Marco naked!"
"No, no, I'm just in my jam jams!" He corrected. "Look!" Pointing outward, the trio gazed at the intruder, a purple elephant like creature with a bushel of hair covered in hairspray. She wore a lot of jewelry and make up as well, though they did nothing to hide her wrinkly skin and large tusk like teeth.
"I want your face!"
"You weren't sleep spelling, you were just defending yourself from that sleep, goblin thing." Marco realized. Wow, he was way off with this problem.
"Wait, I've seen her around before." Quartz examined the intruder, who looked worried and jumpy, constantly gazing at the nearest window, waiting for something. "She's a princess!"
"Yeah I am, but that's the problem, which is why I need your face!" She pointed back to Star. "I came hear to steal your face! You hurt me in the butt!" She turned her backside to them to show the damage, reveal a tiny narwhal that was still imbedded into her bottom. The trio never felt more sorry for a sea creature.
"Okay, we get the point, but would you stop yelling?"
The intruding princess looked offended by this remark. "Well sorry, but I don't have any ears!" Her voice was so loud and grainy that they couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic. "Camera phone." Why she took random selfies, they never found out. "Look, I'm on the run from Saint O's."
Why oh why did that name keep popping up in her life? "Well you can't stay here! I don't wanna be sent to Saint O's!"
"Oh, you're going to Saint O's!" The monster princess explained. "You see, we're both big girls! The same highs and lows, the same easts and wests." She began compare herself to star as her delusions finally begin to kick in. "You can hardly tell us apart, except for in the face, Camera Phone!" The trio stood completely agape at what they we're hearing, shaking their heads. Did she really believe.. "So I'm going to laser fing'a your face off of yo head." It was at that moment the trio stopped listening from the shear nonsense of this girl's perception of reality. "Don't worry, you can have my face, 'cause I'm going to be wearing your face, so when the heat comes, you can go to jail, cause ya look like me! It's just a classic face switch scinariooo." She gave a gloatful smirk, like it was the most intelligent thing she ever said.
The trio exchange looks for 5 seconds before bursting out in laughter. "HAHAHHAAAHAH, That, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Marco bellowed out. He wonders why any of them took the situation so serious after hearing that crap of a plan.
The elephant girl was less inclined to laugh. "It's not funny."
"You're right, it's ridiculously hilarious!" Quartz's laughter was the loudest out of all of them "Hehehah, you, you have no idea how much we needed that, after, after the day we've had!" He could barely keep his words together as he manage to spit something out.
"Glad I could help, now if ya don't mind." Using their distracted state, the elephant girl snatches away Star, making her lose her one as the intruder carried her down the stairway.
"Star!" Reacting on instinct, Marco leaped to catch up with her, sliding down the stairway rails, hardly noticing that he had left Quartz by himself. "Hang on, I'm coming to save you!"
"Hey Marco, you forgot about the.." He picked the fallen artifact, and like before, it changed forms upon sensing his intention to use the wand. "Thought it would be a lot longer before I had to use this again."
Meanwhile, the chase downstairs refused to slow down. The girl, despite how downright ludicrous her idea was, she seemed to be dead set on going through with it, and didn't relent in the slightest. At one point, she even attempted to outwit the boy by hiding behind a newspaper. It didn't work, mostly because she used a newspaper from Mewni, and the cover story was a picture of herself. "Really?"
Not even phased, the elephant princess climbed onto a vine, and swung around like a manic. Marco was right on her tail, swinging around even more widely, mostly due to his inexperience. Still, the monster princess swung away with a face of triumph, even when she smashed herself into the ceiling and on the roof. "Camera phone."
The chase want on, but now it was close with Marco right on her tail. Despite Star's attempts to slow her down by grabbing on one of the lightning rods, the intruder still pushed on through, using her truck to climb on the roof of Star's room.
Marco was helpless as he watched the kidnapper ascend to the top, laughing evilly as she used her own pair of dimensional scissors to open a portal. He struggled to gain a steady balance as the monster continued to mock him. "Careful on the roof! It's slippery from the evening dew."
"Let go of me, you weirdy weirdo!" She frantically kicked at the girls stomach, though her enlarged mass made it very futile
"Is Marco small, or is he just really far down? I can't really tell." She strangely asked before pointing her index finger at the girl, and a small but focused ray of light was fired at the center of her forehead. "Laser finger."
"Marco help!"
"Star, I'm one my way!" Marco jumped, only to fall flat on his back, and as he did, the square glasses he had worn before fell out. Could this be the answer? It didn't really work before, but he was out of options by this point. Only one way to find out. "Glasses! Paper! Clothes! Book!" Once again 'transforming' into more appropriate attire, the teen readied himself for some serious psychological analysis. "Dr. Marco, P.H.D!" A bold, optimistic smile was plastered on his face, only to revert to a pleading and slightly pathetic one afterwards. "Wait, you don't have to do this! I have an A in psychology, I can totally help you!"
Feeling a lot less confident about this idea after he revealed that, Star's panic amped up to an 11 as the elephant girl firmly denied his request and walked towards the portal. "USE YOUR MIND KARATE!" Her face began to sweat from both the stress of the situation and the heat of the laser.
Marco pleaded again for her to stop, pointless attempting to climb the tower to reach them. The monster was more or less annoyed by him by this point. "I already told you, I don't have any ears!"
"Well, maybe that's why you're in this mess!"
The girl took a moment to ponder this before responding, finally stopping her lasering of Star's face. "Okay, I DO have ears, but I don't use them to listen to people, cause the only people I listen to is my mind." Star actually began to soak in her kidnappers words. Huh, she wondered if this is why Quartz tried to be nice to monsters. "And now, my mind is telling me to steal her face."
Taking off his glasses, Marco gazed into the eyes of the princess, and prepared to finally end this. "But you can't keep running from you're problems. It'll just add on more and more, until it becomes an endless cycle that you'll never get out off. When you stall other people's faces, the only thing you're taking away, is her, and your own future."
"But, but I like my future." The two sighed in relief as a small smile came to them. "And that future had me wearing her face! HAHA!" Seemingly getting the last laugh, the girl began entering the portal, with the two too blindsided by this turn to do anything.
"TINY PINK WHALE HIVE FIVE!" Quartz, shouting from behind her, floated up from the window of Star's room, and used the wand, now a red and blue microphone with a small crown at the bottom and a rosebud at the top, to blast the girl right in the head. Within seconds, the elephant creature was knocked out, and fell from the roof to the backyard. What didn't help was the tiger creature from before, now mauling away at her like a chew toy. The trio could only pity the intruder as they made the call to Saint O's to take her away.
After the goons from the reform school arrived, and after applying a lot of peroxide to her wounds, the escape was back to where she belonged, while the trio sat soundly from the roof to make sure it stayed that way. "Too bad we couldn't talk it out with this one. We were pretty close to doing that." Quartz said with only mild disappointment. The girl clearly had issues if her plan was anything to go by. Who knows? Maybe a good hit to the head just what she needed.
"Hey, I almost fell for her sincerity, so maybe next time will be it." She suggested optimistically to her brother's delight. "Anyways, I really got to thank you two. You guys totally saved my face there."
"Yes! Finally!" Marco chucked his arm in celebration as he began to write down on the notepad again. "Though Quartz kinda did the hard part, but I did keep her distracted, and since you insist.." He added another checkmark to his side.
Star gave the boy a curious glance. He had been carrying that notepad around all day, and she didn't know why. "I don't get it, why is that tally chart such a big deal to you? I mean, I don't keep track of how often I have to save this little guy." A playful elbow to her side was pushed into her stomach. "Oh, you know you save me just as much."
Marco was a bit stunned. He had silently wished Star would've just glance over what he had been doing all night. "I, I don't know. After everything we've went through, I've began to notice how much you do for me. You're this magical princess from another dimension, and I'm just.." His eyes drifted downward in defeat.
Knowing exactly what she had to do, Star put on Marco's glassed. "Star P.H.D." Marco and Quartz had to laugh at this a little, thinking it was all in good humor. "Marco, you are awesome. We don't have to get caught up in who saves who. All that matters is that we have each others back." Quartz placed a shoulder on Star, knowing exactly what she meant.
Marco smile returned. "Thanks, but you got to admit, this time I TOTALLY SAVED YO.." He lost his footing as he began to congratulate himself, almost falling off the roof if Quartz hadn't caught him by the arm. For a 9 year old, he was very strong.
"So should I start adding Quartz to that tally chart now?" Star asked.
Marco laughed it off as best he could, realizing how much of a humbling position he was in right now. "You're right, we shouldn't be keeping track anymore."
After reassuring they wouldn't hold that moment against him, Marco headed off to bed once more, hopefully for the last time tonight. That just left Star and Quartz on the roof, leaping into Star's room through her window. The dilemma might've been over, but Star had a sinking feeling that their night wasn't. "Wait, so since all that sleep walking was just you defending yourself, does that mean we don't have issues with our mother?" Quartz asked hopefully.
Star really wanted to put that part of their lives behind them, just a teeny, tiny mess scooped into a corner they'll never notice again. How easy it would've been if she just said 'Nope! We're problem free!'.
But that small bit of what Marco said earlier, about an endless cycle of problems, this was starting to become like that. "No, we wouldn't have admitted anything if we didn't have some issue on our minds." An awkward silence came about. "Come on, let's go talk to her now before we find a way out of it." She began making a cut with her own scissors before Quartz stopped her.
"Okay, glad we're doing this, but if we want Mom to understand, we need to make the situation look as good as possible. Make a portal to my room and make it look like you just came in. We'll do the rest from there."
"You're a bit more manipulative than you let on, you know." Star stated quizzically.
"I spend a lot of time with Mom. I just have an advantage."
Moon didn't think about checking in on her son until very early the next morning. She waited outside his door for about another hour after he began sleep walking, so she hopefully assumed nothing else happened after that. Going in, she saw Quartz still resting on his bed, which calmed her down at least. What she didn't expect was to see Star sitting on the edge of his bed with a newly made portal glowing from the side. It didn't look like one of Lion's, so she had to assume it was from a pair of dimensional scissors. Where she got them, she didn't know.
"Before you say anything, I'm here because I was starting to sleep walk back on earth because another princess was trying to steal my face and use me to replace her at Saint Olgas and when she got caught I took her pair of scissors when she wasn't looking." Star explained in one go, hoping her mother caught all of that.
She was able to catch the more important parts at least. Now she new why Quartz was sleepwalking. "O-okay, I, I'm glad to see you're doing fine after all that." Moon didn't expect to see her daughter in person for a while. This was really catching her off guard.
"Anyways, the reason why I'm here is because Quartz told me how you wanted to know about what happen, that day, right?" Moon nodded quickly. "Well, I, the reason why he didn't say anything before is because I asked him to. It was a long and terrifying day for us. I thought it would, look bad on us, on me if we told you."
So much honestly was coming out right now that Moon wondered if this was the real Star. "Star, you had a bandage wrapped around you're arm. Nothing could've made it any worse, I assure you."
"Not even if I told you it was because Quartz bit me?"
"WHAT!?"
"Calm down, it wasn't really him." She backtracked, making the mother breathe a little easier. Okay, now was the time to slow it down. "Well, it was, but he didn't do it out of his own free will. It's, it's a long story that, that I should've told you a lot sooner.
"Yes you should have." Moon berated, making Star shrink a little. She wasn't going to come out of this unscathed. "Star, I'm you're mother, for the good or the ill, it's my job to be involved in your life, even when you're not living with me." Moon signaled Star to stand up and follow her. "I don't just need to know what happens in you're life, I want to know." Her voice became more tender and motherly, making the chills in Star slowly fade away. "I want to be able to trust you in the way you're brother trusts you."
"Thanks. I, I'll try, I promise I will." Star successful resisted the urge to cry. It looks like Quartz's plan was working. "I guess it started when I went through Mewberty at school.."
"Star, you what?!" Moon stopped in her tracks. "I know school's important, but you should've came here as soon as the signs started popping up! No Mewberty goes off without some form of trouble brewing."
"I'm sorry, but Glossaryck was no help and I didn't know what to do. Besides, nothing too crazy happened." That was a total lie. Over half the male students in the school wouldn't look at her for a week.
"Star, I've been through Mewberty, trust me, no one escapes without developing some kind of trauma from it."
"Ohh, this sound's like a story I got to hear."
Smiling widely, Moon countered. "Oh no, you're not off the hook here. You're here to explain your story first."
Joyfully watching from far behind, the young prince nodded slowly before making his way back to his bed. "Told ya."
Next time, a chapter that I've been waiting a long time to write:
Blood moon ball