STLTH 100

Another chapter.

9.

Marco took his time following after Star in disappointment, but in deep thought. The princess saw how distracted he looked, but politely maintained the distance he sometimes failed to keep between them. Getting cursed and yelled at wasn't her idea of fun, but he probably needed the emotional and mental break from his earlier tirade at Eclipsa's 'Royal' abode, from the journey there, while being at said place, and most of the journey back until now.

Eclipsa had easily confirmed that the boy was cursed, by magic of course, but uncertain of the source. There were several methods of its removal, but each required either finding the caster first or at least getting some more of the source of the curse (such as the ingredients or a chant) so that she could perform a Hex Removal.

"I can't help but feel as if I'm already familiar with it. It's either similar to a Hex I've encountered before, or a newer version of the same with stealing as a side-effect. No one would curse anyone, especially Marco, with sleight of hand, so it's definitely a curse of hatred. The curse is probably related to Star. But that's what makes it so perplexing," Eclipsa had said.

"What is?"

"It's not a Mewman curse," Eclipsa had replied, nonplussed that he had stolen her hat which had seemingly vanished without a trace.

Marco's face fell. Notwithstanding that the person who cursed him could be anyone in another dimension, making them impossible to find, he was also without the necessary dimensional scissors to even try.

"Frankly, at first thought, it would make finding the culprit harder than it already is," Eclipsa said, trying to mollify the teen, "but there's some hope yet. Since every dimension dabbles in magic that is only privy to its denizens, I'll try to see if I can locate Hexes of that nature that are dimension-specific. Furthermore… don't you think this somewhat narrows down the possible suspects?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's obviously someone who knows of Marco and Star and wishes to be rid of at least one of the two. They're also someone who lives, or has at least been through another dimension recently. This way, you won't have to search all of Mewni, just people you know about from elsewhere…?"

Eclipsa had been trying to give him some encouragement but that was still a tall order.

"Wish I had my scissors," Marco mumbled heatedly. Star wanted to respond, to give some words of comfort, but every attempt at speaking to him seemed to rile his curse even further. She wasn't sure if this would worsen it, but she was feeling selfish and wanted to comfort him.

"Everything will turn out okay, Marco. Tonight, we'll each make a list of who think could be responsible. Tomorrow, we'll just combine it, and then we'll go find them."

"Sounds good… even a dead watch can be right twice a day," he said the last under his breath. Star turned around, having heard the former and only a series of low grumbles. Figuring that the latter could only be insults, she smiled, knowing that Marco was making an effort to not diss her out loud. She couldn't help but want to help him find the cure to his affliction, but she missed her mother too. It would've been nice for everyone to travel together, but Marco refused in indignation.

"I'll take the lists this time, but I don't wanna travel with the likes of you… already have enough heads going with you to make sure you don't screw up like usual. Just get me Hekapoo, and we'll work it out to get my scissors back."

He was eager to go with her before, so why had he changed his mind? Not for a silly reason like having 'too many people with her'.

"You're going to search places. I'm searching for people, and we might not always go to the same locations. It's so obvious! Can't you keep using the thing between your ears?"

He might not have wanted to phrase it like that, but the thorny insults were getting harder to ignore. He'd been like this for the entire time. "That's the only reason why?" she said with a scoff as she continued to walk ahead of him. "We'll just search Mewni together, and then we can go around the multiverse, starting with the list."

"No, you stupid bitch! Look me in the face and read my lips!" Sighing breathily from her nose, she stopped to turn to face him, and he sharply pronounced his words. "I don't want to go anywhere with you!" He chuckled to himself, but Star thought that he didn't appear amused in the least, as if he knew a joke with someone's downfall as the punchline. "Besides, I think I'll just die laughing when you trip over your own two feet or some other stupid shit. I NEED to go by myself."

That's when she saw the tightly gripped rock in his hand.

So that's why he was trying to get her to look at him. He could've easily brained her by throwing it while she wasn't looking, or worse, killed her by bashing her from behind.

"Outta my way. I'll walk in front before you get us lost or something." His face was made, but his lips were seemingly contorting, trying to say something else. "Please," he whispered. With a nod, she obliged him and they switched places.

She wondered if he was getting worse. Maybe he was right after all, and her earlier concerns could come true. Besides, him acting like this wouldn't bode well with her father, or with Tom. Who knows what they would do if Marco tried to assault her? Now, he was trying to fight through the curse, telling him that they needed to separate.

"Okay, Marco. I'll get Hekapoo to come see you. Take care." Without any warning, she morphed into her butterfly state, opened a portal, and was gone. It left him alone to finish the journey back, but he preferred it this way.

He had already hurt her too much. Better she left now than to get seriously hurt, or worse.

He was so miserable.

=X=X=

Marco opened his eyes groggily from a dreamless sleep. He was vaguely aware of someone calling out to him but he was about to go back to sleep when he heard the call again, now sounding impatient and accompanied by knocks on his door.

"Marco!" Hekapoo's voice called. "Are you IN there? C'mon, answer the door!"

He slid out of bed, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes with his forearm. "Alright, coming. And step back from the door."

"Eh?"

He opened the door, and peered at her, before backpedaling away from her, seeing that she had failed to accede to his warning. "Morning, Hekapoo. I'm…" he yawned widely, "glad to see you. I wanted to see you about my scissors. I can't find them. I wasn't sure if you had them, but I need them."

She blinked, unfazed by his appearance, being clad in only a t-shirt and boxers, and his face and his hair mussed as if he'd just been awoken. "That's what was so important that Star said I had to come meet you?"

"It is important. I need to go around the multiverse to find the guy who cursed me."

"You're cursed?"

"The… err, panty thing was the start," he said while blushing hotly, recalling that she had also been a victim, "and I can't stop stealing things when I'm in arm's reach." Despite being out of his range, she still took a few steps back. "I heard that the curse came from another dimension, so I need to find…" He scratched his head. "Suspects, I guess." She was silent for a while as she pondered this, and Marco was waiting for her response in the affirmative, only to hear something else.

"Am I a suspect?"

"No, no!" He said quickly. Truth be told, he had written her name first on the list he spent most of the night on, only to cross it out. Hekapoo wouldn't hex him like that. Furthermore, she could be mischievous, but not quite so vindictive and without just reason.

"You could be at least a little suspicious, you know," she said easily, "I could be the one who cursed you. I'm immortal. I must've learned a few curses by now, and dish 'em out when people upset me."

"But would you curse ME?" Marco asked incredulously, "besides, I even stole from you too. You were really upset about it, so it's not you."

"Makes me look like a blameless victim, am I right?" she replied cheekily. He knew that she wasn't serious, but he couldn't understand what point she was trying to make. "Marco, you're too nice. You could scour the entire multiverse and not make any progress. You need to at least be suspicious of every little thing about everyone who might be out to get you. And what if you don't suspect them in time and you traipse into a trap?" She shook her head. "I really miss the shrewd guy from my quest. Be more sensible."

She was right, but that didn't mean that he felt he couldn't do it. "Let me worry about that, Hekapoo. I need my scissors. Can I get them back or not?"

"I don't have them. If you lost 'em someplace, I guess I can get to them, but I've got nothing to do with how they ended up missing." Using her scissors, she tried to open a portal by focusing on his scissors in mind, but it didn't work. "Welp, that's new."

"What?"

"It's like they don't exist. Or they're in space. Looks like I can't get them back." Looking at him with a small smirk, she said, "I hope you didn't have an emotional attachment to those things."

As if he didn't spend sixteen years earning them under the harshest conditions. "Really?" he said angrily.

"Calm down, Marco, you know I didn't mean it." She came closer, seemingly forgetting about staying out of his reach, and rested her hand on his shoulder. "Since it's you, I'll make you another pair. You just gotta run the trial again, or buy them through the usual channels. Just try not to lose them again. It's already hard monitoring portals, so I can't have you throwing your scissors away every so often."

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Are you serious? I have to go through the trial again if I want scissors?"

"Yeah, or buy them like some of those pompous nobles who can't be bothered." Hekapoo looked fully expectant that he was going to take her challenge again, and he was forced to realize that she was serious. She wasn't going to give him another pair just like that. Marco asked her if he could just be loaned one, but she stubbornly refused. She went on to explain that while she was his friend, she had to be impartial when it came to enforcing the rules of inter-dimensional travel. "Why don't you just go through the trial, Marco? You did it already. Hell, it ought to be easier in your adult form, and with your experience."

But this was still at least a decade. Years didn't matter to Hekapoo, since she was immortal, but they mattered to the Diaz. He'd had to go through a lot of pseudo-rehabilitation to get used to being back on earth after earning his scissors the first time. He couldn't imagine having to do it a second time, reconditioning his mind and spirit to being who he was initially.

"That's too much of a detour, Hekapoo. I don't want to have to go through that again."

"I think you could. The problem, as I see it," Hekapoo said with a shrug, "is that you can't guarantee that you won't lose another pair of scissors."

He hadn't even thought of that. Things were getting worse and worse. It sounded pessimistic, but he took it as even more incentive to refuse her offer. "I can't," he mumbled in disappointment.

"Fine, I get it. I'll go see if there's some way I could stretch the rules for you, but I doubt it. In the meantime, you should probably figure out what happened to your own scissors." Looking him over, an impish thought emerged. "Oh, before I forget…" Two clones phased out of her on either side, and both grabbed him by the arms. Before he could react, she stuck a finger inside his boxers and yanked on it, holding the elastic taut as she cut through it quickly with her sharp dimensional scissors, narrowly missing his manhood, making Marco yell in alarm. Not yet done, she finally cut through the connection at the crotch and through both of the legs on the inside before tugging off the wrecked underwear off of the teen.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Getting even," she deadpanned as her clones disappeared, allowing him to cover himself with his hands as he retreated into his room for something to wear in a mad haste. She sauntered into his room after him, twirling the underpants on her index finger before incinerating it in a quick blaze, turning it into ashes before it even left her hand. "Steal and burn mine, I'll steal and burn yours. I might burn you in your underwear next time, so… try and make sure there isn't a next time."

By now, he'd settled on wrapping himself in his bedsheet, trying to shoo her out of his room. "All right, all right! Get out!" Hekapoo only laughed him to scorn as she went, almost to tears.

"Yeah, yeah, see you later, Marco. Good luck finding your scissors."

She thought that he was behaving rigidly around her, thought that he would fall back into his usual personality afterward. She meant well by taking his underwear like that and although she could've picked a better time, all she'd actually done was make him feel worse.

It wasn't just about the humiliation. He took it as a very important reminder that his list of suspects needed to be expanded.

=X=X=

"What'cha doing, Star?"

"Just making sure everything's accounted for." After checking the contents of the backpack on the ground, she tried — and failed — to zip it up again, and began to worry that it was spoilt. Tugging on it one last time, it finally closed over a large bulge and Star stood up, beaming a look of satisfaction. "Okay! Everything's in here."

"Really?" Tom looked at the backpack, wondering if there was some sort of magic about the backpack that would lead his girlfriend to believe that everything they needed could fit inside. "Extra clothes? Toothbrush? Maybe some food? Socks? What about a sleeping bag? Deodorant? Map?" Seeing her face look more and more dejected with each thing he named, Tom sighed. "That's an ordinary backpack, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically.

"Um… We do have some corn that you can, heh, roast later," she chuckled sheepishly, "and I have a map of Mewni."

"But what about the other things?"

"I have… some of them."

"…" He looked at her silently.

"I have a few of them."

"…" Tom folded his arms, not convinced.

"Okay, fine, it's just the extra socks," Star admitted. "Man, you're taking this packing thing waaay seriously, like Marco would do." He took some umbrage to this since he was always being thrown up to the Diaz who seemed to be a constant measuring stick, but Star didn't notice. "I've got magic, so we'll be fine."

"Couldn't hurt to bring a few more things so we don't have to stop for every little problem. See?" Wielding his arcane powers, he summoned a larger pack than Star that rested on his back, one that was red, had a few demonic spikes at the top, the usual Lucitor fashion. "I have everything else except the corn. I'll even carry some corn too. That one's especially important," he joked. He got her to smile, and he appreciated seeing it. "So ready to go?"

"Not quite yet. I have to give Marco this list." She picked up a sheet of paper from a nearby table and gave it a once-over, making sure she hadn't left out any possible suspects as to might've cursed Marco.

"What's that?"

"Just a list. Me and Marco are trying to figure out who might've cursed him."

"He's cursed?" Tom said, feigning surprise. "How'd you figure that?"

"We went to Eclipsa. She told us that it was a curse."

"Well, you could've asked me about it. I mean, come on, I'm a Lucitor. I know a thing or two about curses," he said easily, being careful to sound as innocent and concerned as he possibly could. "What's it all about, anyway?"

Star nearly gasped. "You're right. You could help us! You already know he stole everyone's underwear the other day, but he acts weird around me too. It's like he hates everything about me. Tried to hurt me, too."

This surprised him a bit. "That sounds bad, Star. He tried to hurt you?"

She decided not to tell him that Marco could have very possibly injured her last night, or worse. She came into close reaches with death often on adventures and such, and but this time it had rattled her. Looking past it, however, she tried to look at the positives. He had warned her, and it was now his own choice for not wanting to accompany her to look for her mother. It was her earlier concerns and misgivings, but Marco was now the one in rejection, for her own safety. "He doesn't hate me, but the curse acts up when he gets close to me."

"But what about trying to hurt you?" Tom insisted.

"He doesn't mean it, and he can't help it. He needs my help."

This wasn't new to Tom, Star being so concerned over Marco. Favoring the one who needed the most help at the time was something that was a part of Star's character, and one of the reasons why he and Star had gotten back together in the first place.

"Uh, Star?" They looked up towards the open doorway to see Marco standing there, looking uncomfortable as if he wanted to leave — they hadn't even heard him arrive. "Got my list, here. Hmm… I'm just gonna… put this like so…" He approached her halfway and rested the paper on the ground before retreating again to the doorway; the more distance between him and Star, the better. Realizing what he was doing, she approached the list and picked it up, and starting reading through the names. It was very similar to the names on her list — in fact, Marco's list was so thorough that it had almost everyone she had thought of herself, so she wouldn't even need to give him her addition for it to be compiled.

But the list continued and included quite a few of their friends. Pony Head, Janna, even Starfan 13. Tom's name was there too, but it was written in a different sort of penmanship. Everyone else's name was written with Marco's steady hand, but the Lucitor's name seemed a bit crooked in comparison. Star didn't consider it.

Star's name kept going back to look at Tom's name. "You put our friends on here too, Marco. What's up with that?"

"Not all our friends. Only the ones from other dimensions and would have some sort of cause or could possibly do it on accident."

Well, that made some sense. Pony Head didn't get along with Marco sometimes, and Star could imagine Janna triggering this, be it either for fun, or unintentionally via some sort of magic or mysticism. Tom's name looked unassuming there now; it wasn't suspect number one, but he wasn't the last, either. Probably meant that Tom was possible, but not above suspicion since Marco was willing to suspect Starfan13, of all people. "I think we can cross off a few of these. Tom too. He didn't have anything to do with it."

Marco didn't answer. For multiple reasons, and not just because of the curse. He settled for raising an eyebrow.

"I was just talking to him about it. He didn't know anything about it, but he thinks he can help you. We might've gotten better info if we had gone to him instead of Eclipsa."

"Yep, friendly neighborhood demon right here, Marco," Tom said with a hint of amusement, "I'll look into it for you, but I promised Star I'd help her find her mom. Can it wait until we get back?"

Marco reacted how Tom expected him to, how he wanted to. He agreed with the Lucitor. "Sure. Thanks, Tom. Sorry for thinking you could have been responsible."

"It's cool. Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it." Tom adjusted his pack on his back for more comfort, while Star put on hers. "We'll be in touch."

"Fine. So which names did you add to your list, moron?" Marco said, his barb aimed at Star.

"Uh…" she and Tom shared an awkward look, the former hoping that the latter would understand that this was a symptom of the curse she was telling him about and not react to it. "You've got way more names than me, Marco," she said as she held hers and Marco's for comparison, the boy's list being longer because it also included friends. "In fact, the only name I've got that you don't is that creepy magician guy from Earth. Presto, or Preston, whatever it was. He was the joy sucker from your sensei's birthday party."

She was thinking far, Marco could admit that. He hadn't even considered the joy sucker, but ultimately decided to ignore him, seeing that he was irrelevant to him and Star on a whole. Maybe he'd save him for last, but Marco seriously doubted that the little man was responsible. "Whatever, dumbshit. Tom, watch out for that one," he said, pointing at the princess, "she stinks of fish. Hope I didn't catch something grabbing whatever stained two-bit fabric she had on the other day." Star's mouth dropped in shock at what he was implying, only now realizing what he meant by 'fish'. No, no, no–

He probably meant that 'Tom should make sure I don't get hurt', she mentally yelled, trying to console herself. Seeing her distress, Tom took the list from her and gave it to Marco in her stead.

"Don't even know who to feel sorry for. Whatever you got, it's bad, man." Marco wanted to say something but thought the better of it. He shook his head and took his leave. Far down the hall, he felt more like himself and yelled that he was sorry and that she should take care, hoping that they'd hear him.

Alone now, he thought back to the list he had. Tom wanted to help him with the curse, was it? He doubted it. Recalling Hekapoo's impromptu lesson through shame, he knew that she was right. Deep down, he knew that she was right. He had to suspect his friends too.

Especially Tom.

He wanted to write Tom's name first, but he knew that Tom would've found out about it and there was no way it would've gone well. Not writing his name would also be suspect, because Tom had cursed Marco once before. To make sure he wouldn't come between him (Tom) and Star in the future, Tom had cursed him with Naysaya only for it to affect him and Jackie instead. Worse yet, there had been no cure for Naysaya, and it had to run its course before it went away on its own.

There were quite a few reasons why Tom was the likeliest suspect besides being a previous offender; distancing him from Star, breaking up their relationship, or at least making his own relationship deeper with Star by either comparison or by filling the void left by a former 'best-friend'.

It could be possible that Tom would never cure him, either by being unable to or at least by pretending to be.

Then again, there were quite a bit of people he was skeptical of.

"No," Marco mumbled, frowning all the while. "It must be because I kissed Star. He did this."

Things were now at a new low. His best friend, gone. Another friend had split them up. Scissor-less. Unlikely to be cured, and possibly no way of getting Eclipsa a sample of what had cursed him. Something pricked him in his hip pocket and he removed it for observation. It was dark sunglasses with three lenses, obviously Tom's; he must've stolen it from the demon when they had stood too close. As he passed a castle window, Marco tossed the sunglasses out in frustration.

He didn't know what to do.