It didn't take Landon very long to find Celeste, who hadn't gotten very far before hunching against the wall and grumbling into her ruined dress. Though it was obvious she was far from happy to see him, and Landon at least 5 steps away from her in result. She wasn't crying, but she did look utterly miserable, though she kinda had every right to be. Her dress was torn and wet with dog slobber, she was forced to cover up her marks with lousy makeup, she'd barely eaten all day, and she was stuck somewhere that wasn't even home.
There wasn't exactly a ton to be happy about here.
Demon servants passed by, giving her nor their prince no mind as Landon awkwardly walked over before freezing in place. He didn't know how he was going to do this, just that he kinda had to. He took a breath before speaking softly.
"Hey...".
Celeste removed her head from her dress and gave him a dirty look before making a stopping motion with her hand, "Look, don't come here and pity me, i don't really need that right now, this place freaking sucks...I dunno how you people live under these conditions...". Landon just shrugged, "We just do...you get used to it when you grow up dealing with this stuff...no one suddenly learns all there is about the underworld in one day after all...the plant for example? You don't think our family hasn't almost gotten injured by that thing before do you? If my mom wasn't such a big safety freak we'd all probably have died by now...".
Celeste grumbled, "Doesn't make up for you and your darn family making my day worse and worse...".
"Look, it's not my freaking fault you're stuck here, ok?!", Landon growled, trying not to raise his voice or drawl a ton of suspicion. He quieted himself down and sighed, "Ok look, sorry for dragging you into my chores or whatever...I didn't mean to make your day worse for you...". He played with the strap of his violin case, still on his back, "Look, can we just...start over or something? If you're going to be living here with us i'd at least prefer us not arguing all the time...i already do that enough with judas...".
She looked him over from head to toe, not impressed, "Don't pretend to care about me...you clearly don't like me, nor does your brother or any of those girls, I never wanted to be here and i don't want to be here...especially not while being treated like a stupid kid...".
"Ok then, fine, y'know what? I don't like you, and they probably don't like you either, but that doesn't mean we don't care at all!", that seemed to shut Celeste up, as she crossed her arms and turned away her head from the boy, who kept talking, "Look, i wouldn't have even bothered to show up if i didn't care!...my brother got me involved in this little adventure of his, something i don't care much about and never really wanted to be apart of, and yet...i'm the one who wanted to talk to you!".
She was quiet, and landon kept up his talking.
"It's only been one day, and if you can't get past one day, you're never going to go back to wherever you're from..."
Celeste didn't push him away as he got closer, one hand shoving itself into one of his pockets and the other reaching out a hand for her, "Look, we never asked for you to be here, and neither did you, but we're stuck with each other, and until you go home, can't we just try something better then this? Because it's not as if i'm having a great day myself..we don't have to like each other, we just...we have to deal with it till you can go.".
The girl's brown eyes were entranced by the floor a bit as she thought, and her previous angry gaze eventually seemed to fade away to something both more sad and more trusting.
She let out a groan before taking his hand, "Fine...whatever, but first you're taking me to my room and getting me something less ruined to wear...". She immediately let go of his hand as she was helped up, wiping it on her dress, "Let's get out of here...".
Landon walked in front of her, letting her follow him respectively though the dark halls of the underworld castle. She didn't see all too familiar with it and it made landon himself wonder much more about her home, "So...my mom is your dad right?."Yes...", the girl said rather coldy as she kept walking," ...and uh...you kinda seem awfully strange around mom...any reason for th-?". Celeste punched the boy's arm, " Oh yeah, because it's not weird at all to see my dad smooching someone else right? Perfectly normal right?"
"Well, no, but you're awfully obsessed with mom in particular...".
"And-?"
"And is mom kinda...weird where you're from?".
"And whose becoming the nosy one now?"
The boy huffed, dropping it, "Fine whatever...I don't care...".
"Good..."
They continued walking in silence, Landon's thoughts wandering as tried his best to read whatever was going on in the girls's stubborn mind. He never truly processed it before, but they were technically siblings even if his mom sure wouldn't know who this girl was. Geez, no wonder their bickering reminded him of how he was with judas, she technically might not even be able to be considered his sibling and yet at the same time they already acted like siblings.
This was going to take a lot of getting used to.
"So if i'm stuck here with you...does that mean...I'm gonna have to do more of these chores?", Celeste reluctantly turned to her companion, who just shrugged, putting on his usual pout. "Honestly, if mom and dad think you're guests, probably not, honestly you're lucky that way...our parents love to put responsibility on our shoulders...". He glanced over to see the girl touch her bracelet, she wanted to take her wand out so bad but was resisting not to, probably because with her wand she could easily fix herself up and being this much of a mess was something she hated.
The girl huffed, mumbling unnder her breath, "Hmm, guess dad hasn't changed that much then if he's still running around giving people orders...". Her voice got more quiet before she realized she was outside of her room, "Alright, enough sap, I'm getting out of these clothes...just...go find me something to wear...or get a servant to do it...i dunno how things work in this stupid reality...".
But landon didn't leave, instead he opened the door for her and entered inside himself first, ignoring the girl she she tired to pull him out by his hoodie ineffectively. He snapped the door shut and brushed her aside, "I'm pretty sure i'm not allowed to leave you alone...which is creepy but then again you're aparently my sister from an alternate universe so...".
"Oh? So i guess I really am stuck in ruined clothes for tonight then!", She yelled at him as he rolled his eyes, "Mom already promised to help get you something and besides, can't you just...i dunno, use magic? There's no one here anyway? I've seen queen Star transform her outfits dozens of times...".
"I'm not very acquainted with that spell, my skills in magic are biggest with healing and weather, transforming your clothes? I mean? What use would i have even to do something like that? ", Landon, with great timing as always, motioned to the situation going on right now much to Celeste's unamusement. She ignored him, "Look, just find me something new to wear for your...dinner i guess, unless normal dinners for you require you to wear stuff like that?".
She motioned to landon's casual wear and he smirked, "Well, considering the underworld is full of ripped clothing, you probably don't have to change at all do you? You fit right in." Then he felt something hit the side of his head and he flinched a moment before realizing it was one of the girls's barrettes. "I'm going to clean up in the bathroom, don't wait for me, if you do don't think i won't try and punch your teeth in...I don't care if you feel like you have to keep an eye on me, I want to be left alone with any dignity i have left...".
She stomped into her private bathroom and landon heard the door locked and he smirked and sighed, exiting her bedroom. Well, at least he sorta kinda made her feel better, so that probably counted as something. Though what he was going to do now was currently on his mind. He closed the the door behind him to come face to face with judas, who was holding out his compact in his hands. " I was just in my room and my compact was left on my desk...So, seems the girls have done what they could, and their dinner is over...did you...work things out with Celeste?".
"You say work things out as if we were friends beforehand...i said sorry, and i guess we're on good terms...she still wants a new dress though...apparently she can't "conjure" up her own...", The younger boy made a face and he felt his older brother tug on his sleeve and walk him down the hall, "Well mom has already sent out for a dress to be sent to her new room after i told her where they could stay, so that's been handled. Sunny and Galexia are in Sunny's room, and after dinner, Lexi's heading back to the butterfly kingdom...so right now...we have something more important to focus on...we need to worry about mason...".
Landon grumbled, "Well of course we do...even if you bribe him he can't keep a secret...well, not unless it comes to hiding his stupid plants", thoughts of what happened at the ball the other night flooded through his head. "The boy is 13, hopefully soon he'll work it out, but right now, we just need to keep him from spending too much time around the girls while they're here...he doesn't spend all day in the gardens after all...". Landon ran a hand through his dark pink hair, messing it up further then usual, "Well, that'll be easy, especially on top of the 50 other things we now have to do...".
Judas simply ignored his tone, "Anyways, let's just keep him out of this...it's not just because if our folks found out we could get in trouble, but if this situation turns out to be more dangerous then we thought...I don't want our brother involved...".
"Involved in what?"
Judas felt his heart stop, and his brother fall into the same line as they slowly turned around to find a small innocent looking demon with rather large dark purple-pink wings behind them. Judas felt himself sweat and fumble around for some kind of lie in order to keep them from being totally busted.
They exchanged looks before Judas wrapped his arm around landon, "Uh well, involved in...getting your brother a date with that boy he was eyeing?". Landon's face suddenly looked completely and utterly mortified, "We...we might go over and uh...well landon didn't get his number last time so we could start with that!".
Then landon felt his compact start buzzing, he reached into his pocket to pull it out, frozen stiff to find the call was from a very familiar human back on earth. "Oh uh...", Judas twiddled his fingers together, "Well, nevermind then, looks like landon already has his number...or well, he has yours...".
"How did...", Landon thought before shaking it off, "No it's...".
"Dude, answer it!".
Landon looked startled, "I-I uh...", then he hung up his compact and shoved it into his compact, "Later...I'll call him back later...w-we have dinner to get back to anyway...". He shifted around, his violin case wiggling on his shoulders as he avoided total eye contact with his younger brother, who looked a bit disappointed in landon's choice. Landon turned around," i'll see you guys at dinner, for now i'll be in my room practicing my violin...I've been carrying this thing all day and i haven't even gotten a chance to play it..".
"Landon?"
"Leave me alone Jude!", He stomped down the corridor, his brothers not following behind, knowing full well just to let him be.
Mason bit his lip, "You think he's ever going to actually ask him out? Or even call him back?". Judas felt his compact in his pocket, sensing it buzzing as well, "Honestly, no, knowing our brother...unless...". The demon felt his mind racing as he suddenly had an idea in mind. "Mason, you're pretty extroverted...perhaps you could help your brother out...".
The chocolate brown eyes started to shimmer, "What do you mean?".
Landon was so going to kill him for this.
"Well, remember last night when i told you how you handle crushes differently then he did? Well perhaps you might be able to help him get a date, y'know, be his wingman? Uh...no pun intended...", a smile popped on the younger boy's face, wings flapping about excitably. "A date? Oh that could be so cool! I could like make a dinner and get them to show up, or send them love letters to each other to get them to talk!, or-". A purple hand was pressed to the boy's mouth and judas laughed weakly.
"Let's uh...not do anything too crazy, just because some things work in movies, doesn't mean they work out here...just maybe start with...convincing him to talk to his crush? You're pretty great with talking to people, maybe you can find him some pick up lines or something...help finally get your brother out of his room and surrounded by people, what do you think?". The demon boy grinned wide, "Aw that sounds like fun! and after I get him a date, I can work on you next!".
The boy blanked for a moment, "Wait, what?".
Mason's wings started to flap, "I'll see you at dinner! I'm totally gonna start working on some pick-up lines!". His wings picked him off the ground and he soared away in the direction of his bedroom in an instant, leaving judas all by himself. That was a close call and Mason seemed to buy it, but boy was that gonna make things more awkward for landon for a little while. Though at least on the plus side it gave them an ability to both keep him buys and watch him so he didn't get too close to the girls.
He took out his compact to see why it'd been buzzing, it wasn't sky this time, nor was it his parents, or even something as ludicrous as the commission or Star calling him. Instead he opened it up to fine none other then Nora texting him, mostly just little "Thank yous" for the night before next to a pic of some kittens but it at least brought a nice smile to Judas's face. Finally, someone who he could talk to to reduce all the stress of today, something normal. He'd honestly forgotten he'd even exchanged numbers with her considering the fiasco of today, but then again it was alright. If anything maybe he should've been happy Nora texted him at all, since she wasn't very social.
He quickly texted her back politely, before he felt someone tap him on his shoulder, surprising him.
He almost dropped his compact as he shoved it back into his pocket to turn and acknowledge whoever it was behind him. And he didn't know if it made him more or less nervous seeing a girl with incredibly beautiful green eyes, brown hair that covered one side of her face, and a big smile. How galexia got here and behind him without making a sound was beyond him, but boy did she practically give him a heart attack. He caught his breath to acknowledge the girl, who strangly looked a little sadder then she normally did.
"G-galexia? W-what are you doing here, how did you-?"
"Judas I need paper, do you have any paper?"
The demon shook his head, confused at her strange request, "Uh...paper? Wait, why do you need paper?".
"Do you have paper?", She said again, and the demon gaped at her, "N-No but I can go get you some...uh...come with me?". The girl clung onto him as he walked his way out of this hallway, on his way instead back to Sunny's bedroom to drop her off, paper or no paper..
The girl started swatting the sky, as if she were trying to swing at invisible bugs, and it made judas just a little uneasy how fast she got here and how quiet she was. He almost wanted to ask how she found him in the first place but he honestly wasn't expecting a straight answer if he asked anyway. When he found Sunny's room he took her inside to fine the small demon girl trying on a dress from a pile of clothes on the guest room's floor, mostly likely'd just been dropped off.
"Galexia? I thought you went into the bathroom...why are you-?", Judas held his hand out, "She's not going to answer, there's no point in asking...anyways she found me and now she wants paper or something...so...just keep her here...we can't have her running around the castle...". Galexia got up and off of him looked around the room before running back into the bathroom. Judas didn't hesitate though before he ran after her, not wanting her to get out the same way she did last time, "Oh no you don't...you're not getting out of my sight...".
He closed the door behind him to find her on the ground, shampoo from the shower in her hand as she squeezed it onto the floor. "Galexia...w-what are you-?", she didn't even respond to him as she kept squirting it out, and judas was about to stop her before he noticed she was making something. He spoke again, "Lexi...what are you doing?".
She spoke softly, "I want to draw something...can't find paper...".
"so you're wasting our guest shampoo?"
She looked up at him, closing the cap of the bottle before handing what was left to him, "I like making stuff, I come up with all kinds of ideas...they always just come to me...". She took a look at her soapy masterpiece and judas was half annoyed, half impressed as he saw what clearly looked like one of the plants in mason's garden. "Well, i can see your time here has certainly inspired you...but uh...i'm thinking we outta instead get you a notebook or something...would you prefer that?".
Her eyes twinkled "YES!", arms shooting straight up in the air like an excited child.
"Great so...you stay with sunny, put something nice on, and i'll get a servant to both get you that book and er...clean up this mess...ok?", She pulled him in for a hug before leaving the bathroom to join sunny, who was finished picking something nice for dinner. A frilly red and black dress with plenty of skull bows on, galexia jumped in the pile of clothes, getting a laugh out of the small demon as she pulled out a rather nice looking pilot jacket.
Sunny made her way over to judas,"Hey so...thanks for letting us stay here...well, me and Celeste...it's really nice of you...after everything this morning..". He shook his head, "No it's fine, my folks rarely would turn down someone in need anyway, honestly you did good back there...talking to them...".
"What do you mean?", Her eyes brows raised up in question, all three eyes blinking in curiosity as he continued, "No it's just...you know, your dad...is my dad...and...sorry this is still a lot to process...". The girl laughed, "No it's fine...daddy...he looks nice here...he's really happy...".
"Why? Is he...not happy...where you are?".
"No no no...", she waved her hands out in front of him, "He's very happy...I guess it's kinda strange seeing him happy...but not know who i am...". She rested her head against one of her arms as she plopped down onto the ground, "Everything down here seems so familiar and...not...daddy and me hang out a lot back home...but...now he doesn't even know me...". The tone of her voice was getting sadder and judas took a seat next to her, "Well, I can see why dad would love you...you seems fun to be around and dad loves cute and bubbly...though me and landon kinda outgrew that already...".
"Did daddy take you flying when you were little too? Or lava swimming at lava lake beach?", She stood up excitably reminiscing about her childhood, "I mean, I never went to the underworld a ton unless we were visiting our grandparents or doing cool stuff but...daddy always loves doing crazy stuff like that...heh..sorry...". She smiled sheepsihy but Judas added onto the conversation, "Yeah, that sounds like my dad, though mom always stepped in because mom would freak whenever he wanted to go do anything "Fun", mom was just...not sure if me and my brothers were as immune as he is..".
"Really? How Come?".
"It's...well none of us were exactly..."Born", we were more...created? It sorta made things more...complicated for us, my parents know more about the whole process then I do though...though...if you need an example of it...I think the fact me and landon's horns turned out very different from our father's is a good example...". Sunny glanced at the light brown ram horns, "Well I think it suits you...and I think you'd like my little brother...he like...turned out more...mewman then demon? So everything with him was suuuuuuppppperrr scary!~".
"You have a little brother too?", His interest peaked further, "I mean...of course you did, you mentioned it before i believe but...i uh...sorry..".
The girl giggled, playing with her hair, "You guys are funny...but yeah...his name is justin and he's got cute wittle cats on his cheeks and big blue eyes and pretty pink hair...he's the most precious little bro ever!". Then her smile faded, "I hope he's not worried about me...he always loved it when I helped read him bedtime stories, cause he gets scared a lot...".
She hugged her legs, "I miss him already...".
Judas reached out to her shoulder, trying to comfort her, "Hey...I'm...I'm going to make sure you see him again...ok? Untill then...you have us...we're technically you're brothers too...yeah that's still gonna take some getting used to...". Sunny smiled at his efforts when Galexia appeared in front of them, wearing the jacket she picked out over a nice new gren and black dress and on first glance it looked entirely normal, until you took a close look at her ears.
"Are those...soda cap earrings?", Galexia squeed, holding onto her wand-purse, "Yeah, i pulled them out of the trash and they looked TOO cute to not use...what do you think?". Judas was speechless but Sunny easily answered the girls' question, "You look so pretty!".
And that's when Judas decided to stand up, "Ok, if you're ready, I should escort you to the dining hall, we can wait there for my brothers, celeste, my parents...the usual...". But both of them simultaneously put their hands out and spoke in unison, "No need, I've been there plenty of times before."
Turning to look at each other, the girls laughed, "You copied me!".
"We're like...twins!".
Judas both sigh and smiled, making his exit, "Ok, enough chatter...you girls better get a move on if you want dinner at all, trust me, you want to be early to dinner before it's all gone...". And like a flash they raced right past him and through the door, leaving the boy behind in their wake, as he soon ran off, kicking his hells and flying to catch up with the two princesses.
"Hey wait up!", he yelled, " When i said get a move on I didn't mean without me!"
"Luna? You uh...you doing ok?"
Luna, in her new nightgown, perched herself on Sky's bed, lost in thought about dinner. "No...I-I have alot of questions...and I'm not sure which ones i should ask first...", she turned her blue eyes towards sky, fingers tapping her chin, sky shrugged. "Well, maybe the easiest one is starting with your mom huh? Well, i mean your other mom...not the mom we share...uhh...", She made her way over to one of her messy drawers, opening one and digging around till she pulled out a photo of her as a little girl with a woman clad in armor teaching her swordsmanship.
She handed it to luna, who took it quietly as sky tried to explain.
"Your mom uh...well, she's always been kinda close with my parents...and she kinda longed for adventure herself. So when she came here, she sorta fell in love with the place, and going exploring and hanging out with her friends...and mom offered for her to be a knight, she loves it...she's kinda our head guard and because she is...well she gets to do a lot of traveling. Me and Judas only see her every few months, she's usually out doing "Special missions" for well..our mom. Though this year? Well i guess you made it in time for her return to train some new cadets...".
"Is she married?".
"No, she never found time for that, I think she's always been more married to her job then anything..".
The girl nodded, understanding, "Is it often your mother performs...pranks?". Judging by her tone she still wasn't very happy about Janna's dinner surprise, and sky could only smile awkwardly at her, "Yeah kinda...I mean, it can be funny sometimes, less so when I'm trying to get their attention...like there...". The other girl looked as though she was strategizing, "Well if that's the case...we better be on our toes more often...". Sky's eyebrows rose, "er...why would my mom pulling pranks mean we have to be more on alert?".
"Because if your mom is sneaky, then it kinda pays to make sure we don't either get exposed by her, or a trap gets us caught...", she relaxed herself before speaking again, "anyways i'm sure you're dying to know more about what i may know after dinner...and i suppose we can safely assume our mom is being honest with us in terms of who can do what...though it's good to get clarification considering i'm not as aware how different this place is just yet...".
"You're...oddly good at convincing her to tell you info...", the bluenette pointed out, "Like, i'm not the best with that kinda social stuff, so...how did you manage to do that?". Luna only shaped her hair and stood up, "It's important to work on your social skills if you want to be a good queen, if you're going to talk to other royals, make negotiations, and socialize with the rest of the royal line you need to know what to say and how to say it...otherwise you stumble and you fail...".
"Oh...ok?"
"Either way, I know how to talk to my own mother...at least she seems to be...not too different from the mom i know...if she were way stricter and more suspicious of my intent, and especially if she knew me she'd very much be harder to convince of anything...", the girl summonsed her wand again, using it to put her hair in curls with her magic, "Though I suppose now this means you have questions about where I come from now don't you?"
"Well...yeah kinda...".
She stared off into the distance, "my personal life is none of your business so i'm just going to tell you anything you need to know...so...let's just put it this way, my kingdom is not this chaotic...in fact issues at all are a rarity. Most of this seems to be in order to how i remember it...with quite a few exceptions...". She started counting her fingers, "My mom of course is a big one, but it also seems as though you have more enemies then my family ever did, topped off with some tricky relationship issues, and of course some clearly less then stable function of a kingdom...".
Sky gave her a look and luna ignored it, "I'm being honest, your kingdom seems very dysfunctional compared to mine...we have a system back home, and we usually get along with everyone, so i don't know where you went wrong in this dimension...". Sky grumbled, "ok, how about instead i ask you the questions? Instead of you rambling about your kingdom?". Luna crossed her arms, "I'm only telling you things that are worth telling you so we can get me home, just keep that in mind."
Sky, still annoyed with the girl, ignored her last statement to ask what she wanted to ask, "Ok,What's wrong with your cheekmarks?"
Luna froze, "What?".
"You have two different cheekmarks..."
"And what does that even have to do with our mission?", judging by her flustered tone, Sky seemed to have hit some kind of nerve by asking about her odd cheekmarks. Which probably meant she should back out from speaking about them. Unfortunately she remembered all the insults luna threw at her earlier today and she suddenly felt she just couldn't resist. She reached forward and rubbed some of the makeup off, revealing the light cheekmark with the black dot on the right side of her face, "I mean, they're even multicolored too...never seen any queen get marks like these before...".
Luna covered her cheek and stood up, "That's quite enough about my cheekmarks thank you...i'm going to bed...".
"Hey! I though we were waiting for Mel's recording tonight!", he voice got the blonde to stop in her tracks, huffing, "Fine...but no more questions about my cheekmarks, you got that?". Sky snorted, "Fine, then no more insults about me or my home, you fine with that?".
"Fine."
"Fine."
They sat in silence on the bed, it was only 9 pm and they had time but melaine had to have been finished dinner by this point. Sky was just eager to go over the conversation already so they had something to do besides sit here and get on each other's nerves. God she wished she was talking to literally anyone else, no doubt judas and his family were at dinner and soon after galexia would be here and she could have other company for a brief moment but until then she was stick with "little miss stuck up" here.
Ugh, and they were going to be living together too! Like, how was this even going to work? What if she got stuck with this girl for years or something and they never got her home? God, that seemed almost like it'd be a nightmare, one she never wanted or asked for. Maybe if she was lucky this whole thing lasted for a week or something and she and judas could have a good laugh years from now when they were adults about the time they got stuck with four girls from alternate realities.
At least, that was the best case here.
Luna fiddled with her wand, "Thanks for letting me stay here by the way, since it's not technically my castle right now you taking me in in the first place is rather polite of you...you do have the authority to throw me out on the street...". Her companion let out a huff as she fell back on the bed, "Yeah, but If i left you out there that'd kinda be a sucky move on my part...plus judas would never let me hear the end of it...". She licked her dried lips, "Doesn't mean i'm happy to have you here..but...i'm not heartless...i'd be freaked if I was you..".
Luna fell back on the bed next to her, staring up at the ceiling, "Your friends seem alright though...you and judas have known each other a long time?". The blunette mumbled, "Since we were little, growing up together can leave an impact on ya...especially when you've known them since birth...you have anyone like that back home?". The blonde shrugged, "Don't worry about it, anyways he seems rather competent, if not very stressed out and potentially dangerous considering what I've heard about earlier..."
"Yeah, that's judas for ya, I-I uh...I'm probably working him to death...", Sky sighed, "I owe him so much...after this is all over...I'm probably gonna lay off calling him when I get myself into jams...he's been running around all day today because of me...".
"How often does this happen?", sky grumbled but complied and answered her question, "Often enough...it's just...I dunno, I'm not as capable...on my own. There's only so much I can do and I just...I feel better with friends at my side, or with their support or whatever...".
"Well, in my experience, it's good to handle things on your own if you want to be a great queen...you need your allies and you're advisers but you also need to take charge. You're going to be a queen after all, and if you can't take charge and handle things on your own it's going to be awfully hard to be a queen. I rarely need to get help from my advisers or my mothers because doing things hands on does so much more for you, how often do you study?", sky felt herself start to sweat and luna, being observant as she was, already knew her answer.
"Dissapointed, but not surprised..".
"I'm trying ok? I-"
Then a sudden loud noise from the side table filled the room and sky shot up to go pick up her compact, checking her messages to find exactly what she wanted. "Looks like mel is ready to send us the recording!", she seemed very thankful to have moved on but luna looked skeptical, "How would she send something to your compact? She doesn't have her own compact right?".
Sky made a face, "if she didn't have her own compact she could'nt send me this message right? I mean i don't know about cell phones but i gave her her own compact a long time ago just to make sure we had a way to call each other...she kinda treats it like her batphone...anyways...". Sky made her way over, reading the texts she received.
Mel: Hey sky, so i finally got that recording, Bernie was happy to give me it cause boy did it take up alot of space, anyway here you go...your gonna be SOOO mad with heka! 3 3 ;)
The girls exchanged looks as Sky got ready to start the recording, turning up the volume so they could both hear.
"You ready...?"
"I've been waiting for some good news all day, of course i am...".
Sky sighed and pressed the play button.
They exchanged nervous looks as two voices of both Star and Hekapoo popped up and they listened carefully.
"-RUINED! YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY STAR!"
"I AM TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY! It's just...c'mon, what exactly do you expect me to do here? The break in-if anything is your fault...the traps clearly didn't work and you hadn't had the place guarded enough! Look, just have omnitraxius figure out who snuck inside, or maybe ask father time or somet-".
"Ugh, Omni tried star, he tried, but something's not right with him recently and he can't!".
"So your next bet was to start pointing fingers at me?".
"Well, someone really powerful had to be responsible for this and you know we have no reason to wreck this place...".
even though it was only a recording, sky could imagine her mother dimming her eyes and looking at hekapoo suspiciously. "Mmmhmmm, right...of course you don't, not like you guys have hidden plenty of secrets in there before you'd love to destroy before i found out..".
"What are you implying?"
"I'm implying you better back off my family! We'll talk about this at a meeting...but right now I was spending time with my daughter thank you very much!".
A sound could be heard of hekapoo huffing, and there was silence for a bit before she spoke again, "What about Sky?".
"What about her?".
"Where was she before you showed up here? Did she tell you?".
Luna and Sky exchanged small glances.
"Hekapoo, are you trying to tell me ...MY DAUGHTER DID THIS?!"
"Well, it's certainly something to consider after what happened last night, like i told you earlier...that wand...we might need to check it out...".
"I told you i can handle it on my own...and my daughter would never do something like this! She's screwed up before, but total vandalism!? She can't even get in there in the first place what in the heck are you trying to do pining this on my daughter!"
"Well-".
"No! No Hekapoo! DON'T PIN THIS ON MY LITTLE GIRL! UGH, I'M DONE...GET OUT, WE'LL SPEAK OF THIS LATER!"
The recording cut off, and the girls exchanged expressions and nervous looks, sky was especially biting back herself. The high commission was already suspect of her? That sure raised a few red flags if they were already looking at her funny. Sure, she screwed up heavily in the past, but she wasn't one to wreck important documents on purpose. Especially ones she no doubt wouldn't have cared about or wanted to even look into until recent events.
There was silence between the girls, until luna let out a deep breath, currently lost in thought.
"Well...", she started, "So much for not drawing attention to ourselves, you're already being suspected by the high commission from what happened earlier...which doesn't help since whoever wrecked the place before us, left without a trace...they don't know that the person who destroyed the place, and the one who set off the alarms...aren't one and the same...". Sky resisted the opportunity to blame the girl for being the one who technically caused the fiasco earlier.
"So what now then? The high commission will always find a way...", luna rubbed her hands together, "Well, if they're trying to frame you, then we need to get our story straight, if they get the drop on us not only will you be in huge trouble...but it's clear they want to confiscate your wand, which we kinda might need since it started this to begin with...".
"Yeah, but what about y'know...the whole "Omni" thing?", Luna only tapped her fingers on her chin and her eyes shifted, "Could be a total lie, but we can look into it...never, and i mean never...ignore any possible outcome. Mewni is a world full of secrets and god forbid something else is actually out there that actually did some damage to him...". Sky flipped her compact closed, " So what's our next plan of action then? This is only day one and i'm still processing everything at a snail's pace...".
"Our next plan...is to sleep...", Luna said, "The sooner we rest...the sooner we can start working this all out tomorrow...". The girl stood up, "It's good for queens to go to bed early and wake up early for a good start of the day, so make sure you rest and we'll plan our new course tomorrow...".
"Wait wait wait wait...", Luna stopped to look at sky, who gave her a questioning look. "We need to wait for galexia, the lucitors tend to have dinner late and she's not back yet, aren't you gonna wait for her with me? I mean, someone kinda has to wait for her to get back so she doesn't...run off..which i'm sure she will...".
"Well then, you can stay up for her...but i'm going to rest...today was a mess and...i needed this...". She opened the door to sky's room only to hear sky making some grunts behind her, making her turns around, slightly annoyed with the girl.
"Yes?"
"You sure...that we're gonna figure this all out?".
Luna stared blankly, before staring at the ground underneath her before connecting with sky's eyes.
"I want to hope so...".
The door closed behind her and sky crossed her arms on the bed, looking off to the side.
"I hope so too.."
Sunny easily made herself comfortable at the dinner table, galexia sitting on her knees next to her. They were luckily the first to arrive though Judas knew his parents weren't too far behind, they usually weren't, his father stopped being late for most things once he got married to their mother. He only hoped Landon was arriving soon, and celeste, he had texted his brother to bring her to the room but who knows if he even checked his compact. He looked pretty unhappy and uncomfortable the last time judas saw him after all.
He found himself texting Nora from under the table as he waited, making sure the girls he was keeping a watch on didn't leave their seats or leave his sight. Nora didn't seem to reply back very much, but that was fine, he tended to be a patient guy.
It was just nice to talk about something that had nothing to do with today's current mess.
Nora: I'm sorry, i don't use my compact very often..
Judas: No, it's ok, to be honest i don't text a ton of people outside of sky and maybe my own parents
Nora: Oh
Judas: Anyways, it was nice talking to you last night, I wish we got more opportunities to talk like that
Nora: Really?
Judas: Of course, i mean we've talked at other balls before, but it was really nice just having company considering how everything went...maybe you could visit the underworld sometime?
Nora: my folks don't like me going to places by myself...
Judas: You're 16 Nora, your parents should let you do some things on your own, and they wanted you to get out of your shell a little, right?. It's good to at least spent some time gaining an understanding of other kingdoms so you can be ready when you're queen someday, sky kinda does that alot herself...even if she doesn't want to sometimes...
Judas: you're going to be queen soon yourself, and...it's ok to be scared...
Nora: I have to go judas, my parents, bye
Judas sighed and closed his compact
Nora was shy, and she wasn't much of a talker so he couldn't expect for her to just simply come out of her shell so easily. Ever since they first met, she had been that way, and it didn't help she didn't get to talk much with other kids her age. She only talked to him and sky whenever they ran into each other and even then they weren't exactly close friends. Judas felt a little bad for not talking to her a ton earlier in their life but then again her parents rarely let her socialize with too many people anyway.
And he'd never be their first pick to talk with in case his curse really did go crazy.
Putting the compact in his pocket he heard one of the doors open and his folks happily entered in, waving as they took their seats before engaging in conversation about who knows what. Though judas felt tempted to reach over to try and cover sunny's eyes as his parents may or may not have gotten just a little too affectionate for his taste. Sunny didn't seem to mind though, in fact she looked really happy to see them, and so did galexia for that matter.
the demon boy's ears flickered to make sure they were careful not to say anything dangerous when the door opened again and landon stepped in, he didn't look very happy still, landon no longer was carrying his violin and he looked as though this was the last place he felt like being in right now. Celeste trailed behind him along with mason, who looked extremely embarrassed and upset as Landon gave him the cold shoulder and sat down.
"Landon sweetie?", Marco immediatly spoke up, "What happened?".
Mason quickly replied, "Well I came over to him and wanted to teach him some pick up lines and he was kinda working on a song and I guess he didn't want me around..." Landon said nothing, red faced and angry, and clearly not interested in being babies right now. That didn't stop Celeste though, "Was it a love song landon?".
Landon grumbled, "Drop it, i don't want to talk about this...".
"C'mon, was it cute?"
"Shut it...", he growled under his breath, shooting Judas a look with his red eyes as his brother looked away.
"Fine, whatever, bring out the food, we're all here now...".
Judas held up his hand as everyone finished taking their seats, "Er no, not quite...". Celeste was about to ask who was left when she felt the ground shaking a little as the largest door in the room opened and a giant red demoness stepped out, with light pink hair that was fading a little, small purple wings, three yellow eyes, and a tiny red tail. She wore a dark sweater and was accompanied by a much much smaller mewman man with beautiful teal eyes and graying brown hair who looked alot like tom.
Celeste's eyes widened as the purple skinned boy spoke.
"We uh...our grandparents live here too..".
The older adults only stared at the sight of the three strange girls taking seats at their table before being drawn over to the sounds of their son, who stood up as they entered.
Tom happily greeted his folks as they took a look at all the new guests before taking their own seats, tom's mother not exactly having a chair of her own and being reduced to sit on the floor. Tom clapped his hands, "Ok, NOW we can eat!". And the room immediately swarmed with servants to place out food for the group of people, celeste was still blinking at the sight on tom's folks and Landon elbowed her in response, "Hey, food's here, better eat some if you want it so bad..".
Sunny seemed the most excited at the sight of tom's parents, and it could only be assumed back home she had fond memories of them. Though right now both of them were only giving her a curious look as Tom explained their presence to his parents. Landon could be seen playing with his food more then eating it and that only made judas feel a tad bit guiltier about earlier though it wasn't all his fault. Actually how did landon's crush get his number anyway?
Then it hit him.
Sky.
Ugh, it was always her wasn't it?
Judas choose to keep to himself, occupied with his eating, at least his parents seemed too busy talking to his grandparents to interact too much with the girls. Though he easily felt eyes on them from all the adults in the room. How they were planning to repeat meals like this for however long the girls were gong to be here he had no idea. His parents went on about trade deals and the ball last night and all kinds of things as the bit into the strange assortment of meat, fruits, and vegetables from across mewni.
The vines they cut up earlier were even here, stewed up and rather juicy.
Though Celeste was eating, she was being very picky of what she ate, avoiding anything that looked too...inedible for her tastes, not that judas or landon were surprised. Sunny and Galexia didn't seem to mind though, not grossed out by anything which immediately intrigued King Lucitor as he noticed Sunny piling some bug meat onto her plate eagerly. "Oh, trying some of that are you? You have good taste, I mean some people find the meat of a giant lava beetle to be a little...well spicy for them, but it's rich in flavor...".
"I know right? Oh and I always really liked trying the legs of a giant forest spider?", Tom looked at her, impressed, "I mean, how can you not with that crunch?". Marco's smile came next, looking between the two demons, "Looks like you've found a new friend with the same taste buds, that's sweet, tom never stops trying to get me to try all his weird food..". Tom's expression became flirty as he kissed his partner's cheek, "You like it marco, you know how much you love trying new things...".
Judas and Landon suddenly felt the urge to hide in their shirts.
"So when did you meet these lovely gals?", Everyone's attention turned towards dave who was still eyeing all of them in curiosity, "You boys have never mentioned anyone like this before...and i know i'd certainty remember this lovely little lady..". Sunny's ears seemed to rise from the praise, "Oh, we met only recently, don't worry about it, we're just good friends...i'm just so happy...well...hanging out with well..ah...the lucitor royal family!". The current king laughed, "Well, when your parents get back we'll make sure to tell them you've been a treat to have in our company...".
"It's ok, they already know...", She happily looked up to the giant demoness in the room, politely handing her what looked like a chicken leg into her giant hands. Celeste grumbled a lot more as she watched the younger girl politely get along with her sorta kinda family, trying to stuff her face with fruits as her eyes wandered. Her eyes caught how upset Landon looked and she bit her lip before tapping his shoulder and motioning him to her fruit, asking him to eat something at least.
He huffed, but felt his stomach rumbling as he eyed the fruit.
He picked up his fork and picked some off her plate to his mouth, his only sign of thanks perhaps being the gaze he shot her back as he chewed.
"You guys picked out some of the clothes you liked?", Marco asked, "I hope you don't mind some of it is a little more "Underworldy", but most of it is donated clothes and any of the others you didn't want we'll make sure to send out to charity...". Celeste just shrugged, "It's something at least...and the rooms look nice...".
"Oh i hope so...we made sure to give word we're housing some guests for a little while so expect your rooms to be frequently cleaned and your clothes washed, since you've probably never been in a castle before i'm sure our boys can inform you in everything you can expect and give you a look around...they're perfect gentlemen.". Landon sunk down lower into his chair, "Mom, c'monnnn...don't do that it's weird...". His face was clearly redder then usual and he could spot the human queen smiling at their son happily.
"Aw fine, but you are...anyways, we hope we can make you feel at home here, if you need to know anything feel free to ask us or our sons, we can also make sure to put some guards on you just to be safe..", judas almost spat out his food before holding his hand out, "Uh mom? I'm sure we can watch them you don't have to keep them on critical watch all the time..".
"No no, they're guests and it's better to be safe then sorry, last thing i want is to take someone in and have them get hurt on my watch...i'll find some bodyguards and have them perched outside of their rooms tonight, galexia? You're heading home after this right?". The girl nodded and tom spoke next, "Well, we're happy to have met you as well, hopefully we'll see you again? The boys rarely bring a lot of their friends to dinner, usually it's just sky.".
He eyed Judas who was secretly praying dinner was almost over since the lies and tension was killing him, "it's not their fault though, some of the other royals just don't click with them, though Nora was rather lovely wasn't she? I wish we could talk to her more often but her parents seem overprotective...well i mean, we're also over protective, but not like...well not as overprotective as they are.". Wrathmelior growled and Tom talked to her as if she said something legible, "Oh the ball was fun, i mean there were some issues, but don't worry. Oh and our presentation was amazing! You should've seen it!".
She growled back and Tom continued to talk to his mother, "Oh no no, nothing for you both to worry about, there was just an accident, but no one was hurt! Star i'm sure is taking care of it.". He felt his spouse wrap their arm around him and marco added on to the demon's words, "Correction, she IS taking care of it, nothing to worry about.". It was usually best not to freak out tom's parents and tom and marco made sure of it, mostly because when they got worried...they got...extreme.
Dave especially wasn't one to cross despite being a mortal.
His glares could kill.
"Well, we'll have to take your word for it, won't we thomas?", Dave took another sip of his tea, "Anyways, I'm letting you both know for now we've had a talk with some extended friends on judas-". Tom and Marco's happy faces immediately left, replaced by ones of concern, "Dad...". But Dave continued, "No no no, don't you both there assume anything, I just think it's possible we may of found a new cure for his arm, or at least a way to reduce it's effects...".
"No...", Tom said immediately.
"Thomas...".
"Mr Lucitor, we've had this discussion before, we're no longer taking anymore ideas to help Judas..", Marco stood their ground, holding onto tom tighter, "It's not worth the risk unless we know it can work...we know you just want to help but it's just not worth it.". But Dave crossed his arms, "Well what does judas want? He's sitting right there.". The adults and even the rest of the kids looked to the brunette who wanted to hide away even more, "Well, yeah...I-I don't want to be cursed anymore...".
"See?"
"But it's...I-I dunno, I mean, is it safe..?".
Dave nodded, "Of course, it's not like those nuts in the past who suggested getting rid of your arm altogether. We were thinking of perhaps something like a shock bracelet? It wouldn't hurt you severely, but if things come to it's worst you could shock your arm and perhaps make it retreat?". Judas felt his parent's eyes on him and he tried his hardest to look into their eyes without turning away, "Well, I could consider it? I mean, it seems safer then other options we've tried? Actually It kinda reminds me of Sky's..uh...nevermind."
Tom and Marco didn't seem so sure but complied to the boy's wishes, and his grandfather looked relieved and happy. "Don't worry, It's perfectly safe, and it's worth a try right? Just in case?". They exchanged glances but seemed to mutually agree, though still a little on edge. Sunny blinked between them and took this as her cue to cheer everyone up, "Hey, I haven't known Jude very long, but I think he's really cool! I think he's going to make a great king some day!"
Small smiles spread on the parents faces, as well as judas himself and mason spoke up, "You guys ready for dessert?". Everyone let out small laughs though Celeste and Landon, seemed lost in their own thoughts to care. Landon caught up in his crush and Celeste in Marco's arm around the current king.
And before Tom could even request dessert,Celeste had finished her food and the sound of her chair scooting back got everyone in the room's attention.
"I'm full, can i leave?"
The adults blinked, as if surprised and worried they may of said something wrong.
"We haven't even taken out dessert yet, you sure?".
"Yeah, i think i need to sleep...".
Then landon got up right after her, "I think i need to as well...is that ok?"
Yeah I-".
Landon and Celeste left quickly, the door shutting behind them and their family left in their wake.
Tom blinked at Judas, whose head hug low as he continued to eat, "Judas? Are they alright? Did something else happen today?".
The boy looked up at them before shaking his head.
"No dad, nothing at all...".
