Probably one of my weaker chapters this time, we've finally got the exposition dump. Perhaps not needed for the average fan of the show, but I've had a surprising number of fandom blind people reading and enjoying this fic! We finish off the McDonalds arc of the adventure and see a really cool spell about 4 seasons early ;)
Chapter 14
Star immediately snaps to it, figuring out how to open her box of nuggets quickly. She tosses one in her mouth and begins munching down. A frown quickly forms, and she sticks out a surprisingly long tongue to look at the mushed goop on her tongue. "Something wrong, Star?" I ask, leaning back and away from her. Gross gross gross. Who does this?
Her tongue disappears back into her mouth to finish chewing the gross looking chicken before it can completely destroy my own appetite. Thankfully she swallows before answering "I don't know… it's hard to explain. Like, sure, it's tasty, but it's so different. I can't taste any real obvious corn products, which we put in literally everything on Mewni. The taste is chicken, I think, but that texture is so odd. It's gonna take me a while to get used to the food here. Sugary sweets are the same everywhere, though! That drink and cake this morning were both amazing."
Interesting stuff. I assume there's things she doesn't even have the ability to put words for. Are both of our dimension's chickens even the same species? Do we have the same periodic table, the same taste buds or dietary needs? And if her society is medieval, she'll not have any answers to any of the bigger science questions. Hell, if they're a magical society they might never develop that far down the science route. I suppose I should be grateful that we're so similar to each other physically, most people would never guess that Star was a different species. "Hey, Star, that reminds me." I open up our dipping sauces and demonstrate their purpose for my new alien friend by soaking a nugget in sweet and sour and munching down on it. "What are your people called? Like, on Earth we're humans as a species, American is our nationality from the country we currently live in, I'm of Latin descent in terms of what I look like physically and where my ancestors come from. What about you?"
Star takes to the dipping sauce like a fish to water, alternating between licking straight from the container and actually dipping her food into it. She also begins munching on her fries with far less confusion than earlier, I imagine salted potato sticks are less of a culture shock than processed food. "Well, our dimension is called Mewni, so anyone who looks mostly like me is considered a Mewman. Our continent is divided up into several different kingdoms, along with the wildlands where the monsters live. The Butterfly kingdom is the place where I'm the princess of, so I guess that would be our nation. I'm not sure we have a proper term for our nationality thing, just citizens of the Butterfly kingdom. Half my ancestry is the Butterfly family, who all tend to be really fair skinned, slight, pretty people. We've historically been very rich, as my family controls the wand, the most powerful magical artifact on Mewni. This doesn't make us the leader of all the other kingdoms, really, but we're the most powerful individually and tend to take the lead when alliances need to be formed or outside forces need to be dealt with. My father is not a Butterfly, though! He's from the Johanssen clan, a family of massive warriors and monster hunters. That's where I get my monster fighting from, I think." Star lifts up her arm and flexes a rather impressive bicep, though it's less amazing considering she still is covered in grime and now has sweet and sour sauce around her mouth.
Wow, that was quite the info dump. I allow the conversation to fade away into the near silence of crunching and munching on our lunch while I consider all of that. The biggest surprise of all is that my dumbass friend actually remembered all that. It sounds like she was quoting from some lecture or something, they must have really tried hard to get it to stick. I say a brief prayer for whoever suffered through that particular experience. More seriously, I had no idea that wand was that important. It still kind of looks like a plastic pink toy to me. Is that why Ludo wanted it? So that the monsters could try to overturn the powerful Butterfly family? Hmm.
I've heard her refer to dimensions quite a lot, as well. She doesn't seem to refer to planets much. Did they gain access to the multiverse before they even fully explored their whole planet? I'm not sure what kind of scale Star is talking about when she talks about her whole continent, but I get the feeling her kingdom is actually pretty small if she managed to set the whole thing on fire in a few days. Maybe I should set up a homeschooling curriculum for her to help catch her up on Earth history, politics, religion, and geography. She might be the worst student possible, but I'm sure I could manage to beat the basics into her head given time.
But for now, we both seem to have finished up our lunch though. We can have more info sharing later, probably, since I'm sure she's already getting bored of it. "Hey, Star, let's get out of here. I've got a couple more friends I'd like you to meet, these guys I -actually- like."
"Sure!" The Mewman gal slides out of the booth and starts skipping towards the exit, her eyes constantly on all the new things that she sees. The longer I spend with her, the more I understand how truly strange and new my mundane life is for her. Since she clearly adores adventure as much as I do, I find it difficult to really become frustrated at her various antics. I'd be the same in her shoes, if maybe a bit more sane about it.
"Where'd you get this wagon anyway?" I ask once we've made it back to our vehicle of choice. Star only responds with a shrug, which does not make me feel any better about its origin.
"Who cares? We're not gonna be pulling it anyway. I'm done with that gig. Hop in!" Star jumps into the wagon, landing on her backside with a giggle. She slaps the bottom of the thing in front of her, clearly excited for what she has planned. Then again, when isn't she excited? Considering it's just a boring old wagon and no one else is around, I imagine our method of locomotion is going to involve magic.
"I-I'm not sure, Star. This doesn't seem safe, like, at all. And I don't even know what you're going to do yet." Star rolls her eyes, then points more aggressively down at the space in front of her.
"Get in the wheely box, Diaz." I grumble a little bit more, but my adrenaline junkie side just barely manages to win out over my dedication towards keeping my head on my shoulders where it belongs. I hop in, grabbing the sides of the wagon and preparing myself. What'll she do? Summon a horse to pull us? Shoot a rocket from our back? Give the wagon sentience?
"Super Sparkle Box Fly Wings!" I hear yelled out behind me, along with a flash of pink light. Oh god, that does not sound good. Wings?! We don't have a flying permit! Do you need something like that?! I'm pretty sure it's illegal to be in US airspace over a certain distance! And we don't have any seat belts! I let out a whimper that quickly turns into a scream when giant purple wings pop into existence on the side of our wagon and lift us up way higher than should be possible in just one flap.
"STAR! Why would you do this?! We're going to fall and definitely DIEEEEEE" My voice is lost to the rushing of air past our improvised flying vehicle as it experiments with its capabilities, dipping up and down in dramatic nose dives, corkscrews, and loop de loops. I feel like I'm on the most violent roller coaster to ever exist, with no seatbelts. The only thing holding me in place is one of Star's arms around my waist, my iron grip on the sides of the wagon, and centrifugal force at times. On the bright side, I've managed to completely and totally forget about the feeling of lacking all body hair.