The doppelgänger was defeated and Carbuncle ran off through a window too small for Arle to get through. Arle hastily entered through the front gate on the lookout for Carby.

Long story short: Arle forcefully entered Dark Prince's bedroom, and the person behind gasped. Before she noticed the Carbuncle wallpaper, the Carbuncle pillows, the Carbuncle bed sheet, the Carbuncle carpet, the Carbuncle-style curtain, the Carbuncle glasses (the drinky kind), the Carbuncle glasses (the cosmetic-y "look at me, I'm smart/cool" but you're actually a dork kind), the Carbuncle dolls, the pile of Carbuncle plushies, the Carbuncle chairs, the Carbuncle tissue box, the Carbuncle garbage can, the Carbuncle horn polisher, the Carbuncle bathrobe, the Carbuncle sleep mask, the Carbuncle alarm clock, the Carbuncle pajama, the Carbuncle sleeping cap, the Carbuncle earmuffs, the Carbuncle slippers, the 'Carbunny & Me' scrapbook dating back to the dinosaurs I'm sure, the Carbuncle altar, the Carbuncle shaped tear stains, the library book on a unreachable high shelf against Carbuncle bookends and a modest amount of Arle photos, romanticized portraits one of the Dark Prince himself, Arle and Carbuncle.

Before she noticed all of that! She noticed a blue robe wearing girl around her age, green hair in a ponytail that's messy and off center and a face she knew all too well. "Not another copy! I thought I made sure I was the only one left!"

"Gugugugugu!" Carbuncle yelled behind the green haired girl.

"So you reveal yourself not to be my Arly right away? Thank you very much to make it easy for Carbunny and me." The doppelgänger had the voice but talked and gestured very un-Arle like.

Arle's face froze. "Dark Prince?" She said just as frozen.

"There's only place for one Arly!"

"You're an 'Arly' now too, yo-"

"I know, I KNOW! It's a spell gone awry I assure you." The Prince of the Underworld was rather defensive on that one. Arle and Carbuncle visibly rolled their eyes. This upset the morphed prince. "It really is! Honest! I'd rather be with her than be her. I shall avenge you, Arly!"

"I just want Carby back." Doppelganger Arle said full of passion.

"If you want Carbunny, you'll have to go through me first!"

"Bring it on, Princess."

Chapter 13: Need Help?

It was a practice day at the Puyo Puyo Circus. It's not hard to guess what everybody did. Pierrot already got her in practice and checked up with her crew.

She remembered she promised herself to be nicer a while a few weeks ago. What a time to remember. She felt bad about that but better late than never. Time to lend her services to her crew.

Oshare Bones was busy building his new magic prop, a complex magic box. Cursing at the instruction booklet in his hands. Pierrot tip-toed with a smirk on her face. "Boo!" The skeleton jumped, failing to catch the manual he threw three times.

"Ah! Not cool Silvana. Don't scare me like that, you're gonna give me a lack-of-heart attack."

"Fufufufu. Sorry. I forgot to have fun, so I tried some… Is a lack-of-heart attack even a thing?"

"It is, and for your sake you never become undead." The miffed skeleton resumed his manual staring.

A few seconds of silence later Pierrot tried asking for what so approached him for. "Need help?" Casually asking the obvious.

"Yes, what made you guess?" He answered annoyed, not at Pierrot, but at the box.

"Can I help?" Pierrot picked up some tools in advance.

"Yes. Can you explain how a typo in a crucial part of this manual is acceptable?"

'Are you that hung over a typo?' The sun shines, water is wet, Pierrot is annoyed. "I can't. Need help with anything else?"

"Some modeling at my shop, but Raffine volunteered for that, she'll come and pick me up later. Otherwise, I can handle this, Boss."

"'Kay… Get back to work then."

"Thanks for asking, though."

Pierrot really wanted to help, but there are more opportunities.

Like the circus' superstar: Donguri Gaeru! He actually came up to her, tapping her knee. "Bit, Ribbit."

"Huh? Oh, hi. Need help?"

"Ribbit, ribbit."

"A pickle jar? You're the guy who does that amazing stuff, and you can't open your snack?" Pierrot looked down at Donguri in two ways.

"RIBBIIIT! Rib rib ribbit!"

"A toughy? Let me try." The clown snatched the slimy jar from the frog orb.

"Hng, hnnnnmhnhnhnhnnnmnmhnhnmhnmhnggh!" Pierrot's face got red.

"Rib?"

"Shut up, you can't do it either." She frowned. "Sorry I couldn't help. Ask Sig if you can find him, if not I guess you can ask teach." Pierrot got closer. "Worse case scenario Raffine, if she can't do it, she'll probably kick you."

Donguri nodded. "Riiibbit." The Acorn Frog hopped off.

'Helping people is hard.' The harlequin sighed.

She spotted Hohow Bird leaning against the tent. Holding a notepad and a homemade writing quill, Ho Ho-ing to himself.

Pierrot walked up with her arms crossed. "What did I say about leaning against the tent, Hohow?" She tapped her foot, for she was disappointed in his lack of ability to remember that.

"Huh Ho, Sorry." The bird stood back on this talons. "Hm Hmm… Say can you help me with one little thing?" He sounded concerned about his work, he had a nervous grin.

'Unfortunately…' "Yeah, what do you need?"

"Ho Ho, Thanks. I've thinking up a new catchphrase for Hohow Hero for days. I want it to be a sentence long and flashy, and easy to change up. To show the wit of the dashing Hohow Hero."

'You're stuck on a catchphrase? Wait…' She started to remember something.

Back when Doppelganger Arle was younger indulged in superhero fantasies every once in a while. Mostly because of envying and sometimes overcompensating in wanting to be Arle, who had adopted the vague image of one. On a night where she was sick, she took the idea to the extreme and came up with a mythos she's mostly forgotten nowadays. She remembered a catchphrase she came up with. She shivered in embarrassment. Would giving Hohow this catchphrase be safe for her wincing jaw and the world if she got to help someone?

Eh, to heck with it.

"I got one."

"Ho Ho, really? Please tell!" The bird got enthusiastic, send help.

Pierrot cleared her throat, preparing to say it all hammy like. She quickly decided against it. "If you hear something like the sounds of three chalkboards being scratched, that's no boards being scratched. That's Hohow Hero! And you can change the sounds if you like. Like 'the sounds of unstable potions brewing'?"

"Hm Hmm." 'My ears.' "It's best I got. Thanks." Surprising Hohow Bird was neutral towards it, as he wrote it down. Pierrot was disappointed. Speaking of which… No that's too harsh, apologies. Amitie walked by.

"Hey Ho, Ami." "Yeah?"

"I need a catchphrase that's easy to come up with a variation of." "Oh geez, Hohow, I need to think about that." Amitie started freestyling. "I am the… um… something that uh… does something? I'm the shark that ruins your… picnic… on sea?"

Hohow saw stars. "I AM HOHOW HERO! I like it." He furiously shook Amitie's hand.

"No-no-no prrrrrrobl-blemmm."

'Seriously, Am, Hohow!? That's basically the same thing.' Pierrot was peeved, with a hint of feeling rejected, once again she was no help. At least she knew who else she's gonna ask for help next. Because she always needs all the help she can get. She waited until Hohow was nowhere near.

"So Am… Do you need help with something?"

"Um… Yes, if you think you can. But can we talk in private?" Amitie sounded kinda solemn about it. This would catch anybody off guard.

"Of course." Pierrot escorted Amitie to her caravan's living room. Silvana took off the harlequin suit for the sake of comfort. Both to Amitie and herself.

Amitie laid down straight on the couch. "It's that bad, huh?"

"…Please don't tell anyone, I don't want them to be concerned about me."

"I think most won't worry." Sil's comment made Amitie turn her head sadly towards the couch's back. "Unless it's that serious. What's the problem?"

"I went to the doctor…"

"Ouch, so don't have long?" The room felt like a funeral.

"No, I visited him to see why I'm so clumsy." And for Sil, the room felt like a normal room again plus Amitie. "Turns out one of my legs is shorter than the other."'

Sil closely looked at her classmate's feet. "Huh, you're right."

"You're magically gifted, I thought you might know some spells to fix it."

"No, I might be able to it physically, but that might break your leg."

"Neato! Get onto it then." Amitie seemed happy again. Sil stared deep in her eyes, frowning. "Why are you looking at me lik- Oooooh. Yeah, let's not do that." She rubbed the back of her head.

"Am. Did your dad kick a ball in your face too hard as a kid?"

"Pffff…" Amitie cracked up. "Get real, Sil, he'd be an adult by that time if I was around."

'Wha?'

"Mommy did accidentally kick a ball in my face when I was a five, though! It's why so nice to me ever since."

"Okaaaaay… You'll be fine, you've lived your life so far with uneven legs. Now get out!"

"Okay, thanks, Sil. Wicked place you got here, by the way." Dashing back to the circus tent, she probably tripped.

'Once again I failed to help someone…'

On her way back into the circus, Sil saw Vento and Raffine approaching each other. Raffine towards the circus, Vento from it, struggling to carry a crate twice as big as him to a storage caravan. This'll lead to trouble and Sil's last chance to help.

They two bumped into each other. Hard to tell which one did it. Vento's cargo dropped. "Yo! Don't bump into me! That could've been fragile!"

"Excusez-moi?! You bumped into me, Lilliput!"

"No, because I'm not as freakishly tall as you are!"

"Freakishly tall? I'll have you ruffian know that I'm only slightly above average height for my age. You bumped into me because you were carrying that box."

"Okay, Miss Fancy Smancy Face Puncher Pants. I couldn't see in front of me. What's your excuse?" Vento undoubtedly smirked beneath the mask.

"I was thinking about how superb Mr. Bones's clothes would look on me." Raffine told bluntly to the green thunder.

"So you weren't thinking, explains a lot."

"Don't push me or I'll swipe your horrid mask off. Do you hav-"

Vento plugged his ears and made noise to cancel out the other noise. "Oh, La-ti-da, la-ti-da, la-ti-daaaaa."

"You little! Is this your idea of fun?!"

"Honestly at this point, I'm getting a kick out of making you mad. It's way funnier than Sil ever is."

"Gee, thanks, Vent."

"No problem Sil." Vento kept his eyes on Raffine. Both Silvana and Raffine both awaited for Vento to backtrack on his comment.

Nope!

"Need help keeping her hands of your mask, from one mask wearer to another?"

"Thanks but no thanks, Sil. I can handle that snob myself just fine." He got into a comical battle stance.

This was concerning to Sil. "You do know the consequences of losing, right?"

"Yup." The imp replied nonplussed.

Raffine kinda forgot why they were arguing. "Pah! You're all a waste of my valuable time. Out of my sight." Raffine haughtily "Hmph"ed towards the circus.

"Hey don't go, you stink!" Somehow that pushed Raffine's button, they Puyo'd. Sil just watched.

"You sure you don't want help, Vent?"

"Nope."

"Okay, glad I'm appreciated… " Sil sarcastically told herself, slumping off.

Author's Notes:

A Hat in Time happened. Didn't feel like writing because that game was good. Highly recommended. Like Sunshine without spraying and the annoying bits and a whole lot of charm. It's also like Dark Souls in the sense you use buttons to do things. I don't even like joking about Dark Souls, also haven't played nor do I care about Dark Souls in general, I'm sorry. But play A Hat in Time, you'll likely enjoy it if you enjoy Mario (in general except for maybe the sport titles), Banjo-Kazooie, Psychonauts, fun, music, creepy stuff, atmosphere, charm, black comedy and/or pushing buttons.

The Dark Prince was supposed to be sick with a regular Genderswap, but this felt more fitting.

One of these days I'll give Raffine some nuance. I never feel that I get her right.

Bumped the age rating up to K+ to be on the safe side.

I may've lost some passion, but I chalk that one up to being a boring premise. I should've planned out it more. I have something planned, a chapter I've been looking forward to from the beginning, one of several. I'll see if you like it.

Next up: Some plot progression…