Dancing, maybes and card games
A/N: Ok, remember when I said that you would be able to tell that if this was a tv show episode that you'd know where it begins and ends? Well, it's a tie by either this one, or the next chapter. When I originally wrote Trapped in a Cave, this part was a total bitch to write. In the author's note at the end of the original 'one-shot' I said that I spent all day writing it out, which is why there's way more mistakes than I usually have, well, I wasn't lying. And this part took me 6 HOURS to write. The rest was a few hours each part, but not as much as THIS FREAKEN SOUL SUCKING SCENE. Well, hopefully you all like it, enjoy :D
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with SVTFOE, just my OC's and the idea for THIS particular story.
On the other side, we find ourselves in the cloudy club of the Bounce Lounge. "Star, what are we doing here? I nearly died the last time!" I say to her.
"Aw, come on!" She says hopping through the portal. It closes behind her, and she makes her way to a bar cloud. "We need to celebrate in a good way! Come on, let's get something to drink."
"But I don't drink alcohol," I say. "And you shouldn't either!"
"Don't worry Marco," she says, "I know we shouldn't drink stuff like that, this place cards anyway."
"Wait wait wait," I say, "alternate dimensions have such a thing like plastic card identification?"
"... I have no idea what words you just said," she says, slightly confused. "But yes, everyone has an ID. It's called your face!" She says, and then touches one of her heart marks on her face, and a square card appeared in a flash of light from her heart mark, with her smiling face, and a bunch of her information.
"Um…" I think my mind just blew up.
"You got one too!" She says poking my cheek where my birthmark is. "Um…" she pokes it some more.
"Star," I say grabbing her hand, "I'm not magic, remember?"
"Ohhhhh," she says. "Neat." She stares at me, and her face blushes a bit. "Um, Marco?"
"Yeah Star?"
"Mind giving me my hand back?"
"Oh!" I say quickly dropping her hand and jumping away. "Um, right, drinks!" I say, face feeling like molten lava, "What kind of stuff do they have that's non-alcoholic?"
"Oh a bunch of stuff!" she says pulling on my arm. Once we get to the bar, the bartender said, "Ah! S. Butterfly! What can I do for you today?" He asked with a slight surfer accent. He was a tallish blue alien dude, with ram horns poking out of his forehead, and yellow hair. He was also dressed in a semi formal suite.
"Just two of the usuals Jasper!" Star says happily, still a bit red.
"You got it!" He points at her, and makes a 'chick-chick' sound. "Two Purple Whatever's, coming right up!" Then he walks down the bar a bit, and starts making two cups of whatever he just said.
"Uh, Star?" I ask. "Whats a Purple whatever?"
"It's a drink silly," she says, kind of playing.
"Yeah, I know, but what's in it?" I ask as the bartender, Jasper, come up and hands me a cup of this purple looking syrup with a mini umbrella.
"Oh I am so glad you asked, friend of Star Butterfly," Jasper said. "It's a mixture of honey, maple syrup, grapes, porcupine juice-"
"What!?"
"A little bit of this spicy sauce, buttered fingers, ice and an umbrella. Pretty simple, and must have for our underage patrons." He walks away to tend to some other people who came and sat down at the bar.
"Star!" I say, admittedly whining a bit. "What did you have that guy make me? Is it poisonous to humans!?"
"What? No! Of course not silly," she says, picking up a couple of straws from a dispenser and putting one in her drink. She takes big sip and sighs. "Gosh I needed that!" She says content.
"Umm… What about the thing called 'porcupine juice'?" I ask.
"Oh, well, on some dimensions, porcupine quills are poisonous," She takes another sip.
"WHAT!"
"Don't worry, it's like an earth bee sting. Some people use it to treat things like arthritis and headaches." She takes another sip. "But if you boil them down, and add this herb, that's actually kind of like earth mint, you get porcupine juice. It's like soda, only it's not fizzy."
I look down at my drink. "And it's not poisonous?" I ask double checking. She makes an "Mmhmm," sound through her straw. Making up my mind, I put the straw she handed me in and took a sip. "Wow," I say. "Tastes just like hot chocolate!" If hot chocolate was made out of grapes, then yeah, this would be exactly this! "Seriously!" Sip. "If it wasn't for the fact that it tastes like grapes," another sip, "it would be just like the hot chocolate that mi Abuela makes!"
Star laughs. I look at her, and she's shaking her head, but good naturally with a smile. "Well, to Abuela's!" she toasts.
"To Abuela," I toast back, and clink our glasses.
After we finish our drinks Star hits the dance floor and starts tearing it up. At one point she pulls me in and starts spinning me around like she did when we were here with Pony Head the last time. After that, we both went to a really comfortable cloud couch and sat down, both of us panting heavily. "Man," she says, "I think this was my best idea yet!"
"I'll bet," I say. "Hey, the day's still young back on Earth, right?"
"Oh yeah," she nods.
"Ok, well, how about we kill some more time here, and then see what else there is in the universe to do?"
"Sounds good! Come on, let's get one more song in!" She grabs me again, but I stop her.
"Hey, where do they get their music from?" I ask.
"Oh, all over! They have this type of magical computer that searches and translates whatever language and dialect, and plays the song from that dimension! Kind of like that youtube thing you showed me last week."
"Ok, go on the dance floor, and I'll get you a song."
"Don't you mean, 'us a song'?" She asks with a confused smile.
"Uh, naw," I say. "I much rather watch you dance, I'm all danced out."
"Oh, so you wanna watch me,eh?" She says with a smirk. I start to blush and splutter, but she laughs it off and says, "It's fine Marco! I just wanted to see the look on your face!" Then she skips off and starts to dance.
I watch for a few seconds, completely dumbfounded, then shake it off. Star can be diabolical when she wants to be. But, I get up and make my way around the dancefloor, aware of Star watching me as she's dancing, and make it to the DJ booth.
"Hey, dude!" I ask the blue DJ. He looks kind of like Jasper, but his hair is red, or what I can see is red, he has most of it under a backwards cap. The rest of his attire is that of a basic DJ, baggy pants, a white undershirt with a black T over it, gold chains, sunglasses and headphones.
"What up?" He shouts over the music.
"Can I make a request?" I shout back.
"Sure! Your request will be… number 43!" he shouts.
"What!? No no, um, how much to skip ahead?" I ask pulling out my wallet.
"43 Ruuples," he says holding a hand out, with a 'gimme' gesture.
"Umm…. how much in Earth american? I only have Earth currency, and I'm not familiar with interdimensional trades." I hold out a 5 and a 20, part of the hundred and fifty that I had for the rest of the weekend, but since it's Friday back on Earth, it is the weekend.
The DJ's eyes go wide and he smiles and starts to sweat. "Did you say… Earth?" he asks.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Dude! You are my new best friend! I go to Earth all the time! And the currency from any country is worth 10 times as much in this dimension! And the currency for this dimension is worth more in others! Look bro, I was gonna stiff you when you pulled out the money-"
"What?!"
"But from one bro to another, and the fact that the girl that came with you is eyeing you, don't look!" He says as I was about to look at the dance floor. "Don't look, but, give me the 20, and you'll be set up for the next 20 times you come in. Sound good bro?"
"Um… sure, why not?"
"Ok, what song you craving?"
"How about… Light em' up by Fall out boy! Earth dimension."
"You got it bro!"(I was having trouble deciding between that, and Where did the party go, also by Fall out boy.)
He types on his computer, a laptop, and messes with his DJ equipment, and winks at me. "It'll come on after this song! Why don't you go and get a drink for you and your lady?"
I nodded as the song I requested came on. As I make my way over to the bar, I see Star looking at me as this song comes on. She grins widely and starts to dance, she motions for me to come and join her, but I shake my head and point to the bar. She nods, and continues to dance.
Everyone started to dance like they were at a rave back on Earth, they put their fist in the air, and moved in place, not really stepping dancing, but just curving their bodies and banging their heads to the beat. And Star was a MASTER at it. Looked like fun actually.
I turn to the bartender and say, "Hey, uh, Jasper, right?"
"Yup," he says smiling, but it looks strained.
"Can I get two more of those Purple Whatevers?" I ask with a smile.
"Sure thing, braw," he says. Typical surfer dude. "Hey, dude," he asked.
"Marco," I correct him. He starts to put a bunch of stuff in a martini shaker, namely honey and grape juice.
"Yeah, whatever," he grunts out. "How do you know Star Butterfly?" He asks, not taking his eyes off of his work. But the look in them is kind of hard.
"What?"
"How do you know her," he slams down the shaker and looks at me.
"Woah dude, take it easy!"
"Listen boy," he says pointing a finger at me, "if I find out that you hurt one hair on her head, I will personally decapitate you, with this." His other hand brought out a golden sword from under the bar.
"WOAH!" I say leaping up and putting my hands up in a 'I give up' way. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!?"
"Making sure you see the point," he says, and brings the tip of his sword to eye level. "Here it is!" He says happily and tosses the sword over his shoulder. "Sit down," he says as the sword clatters to the ground. I do as he says, and he goes back to making the drinks. "Listen pal," he says, "I'm a cook for the castle at in Mewni, this is a part time gig. I have been for the past 20 years, and I literally watched Princess Butterfly grow up," he points to the dance floor, and I look to see Star dancing to a new song. I don't know what it is, but it also sounds like it's from Earth. "And I've seen the type of guys she's into. This one dude named Tom, total cunt." I shoot a look at him, but he just shrugs. "Look, the point is, just treat her well, and we won't have a problem."
"Dude, what are you saying? I'm not with Star-with Star, she's my best friend, and my housemate. Her parents sent her to Earth and she's been living with me and my family."
"Oh…" he says. "Well this is awkward."
"Yeah, no kidding," I deadpan. "Look, whatever. I'll let the whole 'sword thing' slide, and in return, no charge on the drinks?"
"Star's tab goes straight to the kingdom of Mewni. All her drinks are for free," he says pouring the Purple Whatevers into a few glasses.
"Oh," I say.
"But I will give you some free advice," he places a mini umbrella in them, and pushes one towards me. "Don't wuss out," he says.
"What?" I say, completely confused.
"With Star, don't wuss out. I seen the way she looks at you, and I see the way you look at her. And I've only known you for, like, 5 minutes, but I know Star like the back of my hand. She likes you, you like her. It's obvious. And I mean, I would have gone for her if I wasn't so much older."
"How old are you? You look 19."
"My species age differently than yours do. I may look young, but my years are 5 times that of you or Star. To you, I would be a 129 years old," he shrugs at my face. "And if I was one of 'those' guys, I would have taken Star, and when I was done, chuck her away like yesterday's garbage," he smiles when he sees my face. "See, you do like her. Point is, if I had the chance to be with Star, I would take it, but I hold back because I'm so much older. And I mean, in long terms, by the time she would be 90, I would look like I'm still in my 20's."
"Well…" I say, struggling for something to say, "at least you aren't one of 'those' guys," I say making finger quotes, and take a sip of my drink.
"Oh, I would have gotten all up in there either way," that make me splutter and he laughed like hell. "Dude, you need to lighten up. Listen to the music, loosen up, and think about what I said." And with that, he left to tend to the other patrons at the bar.
I take another sip of my drink, and look to the dance floor. She's dancing to an upbeat Earth song, and I can't help but smile. Yes, I admit, I do like her, but, she's a princess. I thought the only reason why she puts up with me is because she has nowhere else to go on Earth. But… if what Jasper said is true, then, maybe…. I look at Star again, so carefree, dancing to foreign music like it was her own, and I smile.
Maybe, I think as I sip my drink and close my eyes, head baning softly to the beat of the music. When I open my eyes, I don't see Star, on the dance floor. I look around, and spot her sitting with a shady guy in a hoodie. Their playing a card game.
I take her drink and go over to where she is. "Hey Star," I say placing her drink down. "What are you doing?"
"Shuush Marco," she chided me. "I'm trying to concentrate." She then bends down, so her face is hidden by her cards from the stranger.
"Um, concentrate on what?" I ask.
"This guy says that he has a map to a secret dimension. I wanna see it."
"So… you're gonna play him at cards for it?"
"Yup!"
"Do you even have a poker fa- WOAH!" I whisper shout. It looks just like poker cards, but only the hearts are the same. The diamonds, shamrocks and spades are instead replaced by an hourglass, a scepter looking thing, and a crown. And she has 3 kings of crowns, and Ace, and an 8 of hourglass. 3 of a kind.
"Wow, Star, are you cheating?"
"Nope!" She said proudly.
"Ok," the stranger said. "Let's see what you got." He has a soft voice, kind of gravely, like he hadn't had a drink of water in a while.
"Ok," Star said giddily. "Read em' and weep!" She showed her hand and waited for the stranger.
He looked at his hand, tapped the cards on the table and said, "I fold," placing his cards face down. "Looks like I lose Princess Butterfly, here are your winnings." He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a rolled up piece of parchment. "You just unfold it and place your dimensional scissors near it. It'll automatically know where this location is and take you to it. And once you know where it is, you'll always know where it is." He places the map where the pot usually goes. "Oh, and a warning. The world may be dead, but it hides a terrible danger, tread lightly, and you may be finding what ever that world may hide."
He then took out his own pair of scissors and cut open a red portal. He bowed to Star and stepped through.
Once he was gone, Star snatched up the map and unrolled it. And… for a better or worse word, it looked like gibberish. "What is this?" I ask. It had a bunch of dots and dashed lines connecting some of them, and some circular diagrams.
"It's a Star Map!" She said excitedly. "Ancient dimensional travelers would use magic to open portals or travel through space, they would make these maps. Their magic, and anyone who can decipher them can learn where to go!"
"And do you know how to read it?" I ask, going over to where that guy put down his cards.
"Nope!" She said proudly.
"I thought so," I said.
"But I know something that does! Blegh!" I look up to see her tongue out, holding her dimensional scissors. She lays the map flat on the table, and puts the scissors on them. They start to glow, and the illustrations on the Star Map began to move around. "This will take a minute," she said sitting down.
"Hmm," I say, and pick up the cards. And what I see makes my breath hitch and eyes go wide. "Um, Star? Can you take a look at this, like, right now!?"
She gets up and piers over my shoulder. Then her eyes go wide. "Is that a…"
"Winning hand," I finish for her. He had a Royal Flush. A 10 of hourglass, an Ace and all three royal cards; Jack, Queen and King. "Star, I think he took a dive."
"What? But there's no pool here," then she gasped. "Unless he went to a pool dimension! I think I know which one he went to!"
"No! Star, I think he took a dive as in he lost on purpose! He wanted you to win to get that map!"
We both look at the map, the diagrams on it still moving around, and the scissors glowing. Finally, they stop, and it's just normal looking scissors and old parchment.
"Didn't he say that the world was dead?" I ask.
"Yep," she replies.
"And that there's a danger there still?"
"Yeah."
"But we're still going… aren't we?"
"Oh yeah," she exclaims, going over to pick up the scissors and cuts open a portal. It looks muted grey, like old paper about to fall apart. "Come on, I thought you wanted a little danga' in your life?" She says.
"Star," I say warningly, "don't go there!"
"Oh come on, you actually want to be called Safe Kid?"
"That's it! Come on, let's go!" I say marching to the portal.
"That's what I like to see Wild Man," She says smugly from behind me.
"Shut it princess," I say, though I was smiling when she wasn't looking. "And let's see what this world is hiding."
Somewhere in a different dimension. 3rd Person PoV
The group of 6 was inside the same room, only now they were all focused on the table that's showing them images of Star and Marco. The room was dark, save for the light of the scrying table. "Well then," the apparent leader said. "Phase one complete, even if they do suspect something, the plan is now full steam ahead. Kassy, mind contacting Ryan and Felix? We need to get ready for the later stages if all goes well." The woman who spoke earlier, now revealed as Kassy, nodded and left the room. With the remaining 5, the leader said, "Now, let's see where this takes us."
End Chapter 2
A/N: Ok, I wanted to wait for Friday to post this, but you all need your Starco fix, don't you? Well, like I said this scene was a total bitch to write, mind my french, and the one sided Starco, and implied two sided Starco from the DJ and Jasper always puts a smile on my face. You know how immensely satisfying and relieving it is to hear, even if it's veigue, that your crush sorta, maybe, DEFINITELY, in Jaspers opinion, likes you? Well, this is what I realized WAAAAY after I wrote this, that that is what Marco is feeling, which is why he's less apprehensive, and more gung ho to jump into an unknown situation without Star pushing him too much. Cuz, and feel free to correct me on this, this is just my opinion, in the show he's always cautious, unless a monster is trying to beat him or Star, Star's always, literally, pushing him into situations that end kind of badly. And even though I portrayed this pretty well I think, this shows that this time Marco has more of Star on his mind than his own ego. Well, let me know what you think in the reviews. Don't forget to favorite/follow, as well as checking out my other content, this has once again Bigmike33321, signing off! :D *BOOOOOOP*