"So..can you explain the whole living stuffie thing, now that we're not being chased by a killer zombie?"
Asked Spooky. He, Dezda, and Stuffie were all walking, making their way to Rookie's house.
"O-Oww yea, dat, uhm, whewe to stawt.."
Stuffie thought.
"Weww, for stawtews, i'm actuwwly dead."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Dezda turned her head back and asked in confusion. She had to turn her head to look at them because Spooky was walking behind Dezda and Allite was sitting on the back of Dezda's scarf.
"Weww, I used to be a pwincess Powew Fwower named Allite, howevew, I died, so when I became a ghost, I inhabited the body of dis pwushie i'm in wight now!"
"Dis is the onwy thing I could find to repwace my body, and aftew dat I never saw my kingdom again, because I lost sight of wewe it was..when I became a stuffy, I couldn't wocate my kingdom because I had nevew weaved the kingdom untiw aftew I died..now evewythin' is unfamiliaw to me."
"Huh, well that makes a bit more sense.."
Spooky said.
"Well, don't you wanna go back to your kingdom?"
Asked Dezda.
"...No, not weawwy."
Dezda raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously? Why?"
"Being a Princess sounds so nice..everyone'll do what you want, you get to wear pretty dresses, and you get to live in a big beautiful castle.."
Dezda said, daydreaming a bit.
"It's actuawwy pwetty wame..evewyone is so ovewpwotective of you, dey don't wet you go anywhere, it's so bowing.."
"Now dat i'm a stuffie, I can do whatevew I want!"
"So I think I wanna keep it dat way!"
Stuffie Explained.
"Well, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so nice.."
"Ow yeah, and when youw a pwincess, dere's awways weiwdos twying to kidnap you.."
"It totawwy sucks.."
"Yeaaah, maybe I wouldn't like to be a Princess.."
Dezda said, scratching her head.
"Oh yeah, we know all about that. If you ask our friend Rookie about princesses, he goes on a tangent."
Spooky said, chuckling.
Dezda giggled a bit.
"And despite that, he never even dated one of them before."
Spooky remarked.
"He really does have his work cut out for him.."
Dezda said.
"Honestly, I dunno how the guy can take it. He's always going one place to another, and never really slowing down."
"Heh..he's kind of like a superhe- AGH!"
Dezda said, hitting her head on the door due to being lost in thought.
"..Well that was an interesting way to knock on the door."
Said Spooky, stopping in place.
"Owww- I need to stop doing that.."
Dezda winced as she held her head.
"Who is I-"
"Huh?"
Rosemary opened the door to the house, looking at the three.
"Oh hello! You guys must be Vinny's friends."
"Come on in, he's in the living room.."
Rosemary allowed the three inside.
"Oh, thank you-!"
Dezda responded, entering the house with Spooky following her.
("He's dating *another* Vampire Flower? I swear, he has a thing for those. I'm pretty sure this is the third Vampire Flower he's dated! Wait, he didn't even get with the first one, nevermind-")
("But he did still like her, I could tell. Tsk, he was hiding himself with a blanket and everything..good times.")
Spooky thought, reminiscing on the past.
"Oh..hi guys."
Rookie was sitting on the couch, but Dezda realized something..there was something really off about him.
He didn't have his usual bright smile, it was replaced with a more serious expression, he physically looked tired, and the tone of his voice wasn't was she was used to hearing from him.
Dezda didn't like this one bit, but put on a poker face.
Dezda: "Hey Rookie!"
Spooky: "Hey Rook, what's up?"
Spooky didn't really notice the subtleties like Dezda did.
"Uh, come sit down guys.."
Rookie insisted, as they both sat down, with Stuffie crawling out of Dezda's scarf to sit down as well.
Rosemary went and sat down next to Rookie.
"So uh, who's your little friend there?"
Rookie asked.
"Huwwo, i'm Stuffie, I guess!"
"Huh, a sentient Stuffie, interesting."
Rookie said.
"We actually just rescued her on a mission a few hours ago, which is..sort of why we're here."
Dezda explained.
"Really? Did the zombies have her?"
Rosemary asked.
"Yeah, apparently she's some sorta Princess, it's a long story - but that's not what we wanna talk about."
Dezda said.
"Listen, we uh.."
"We saw on the news that apparently, you're stepping down as a L.E.A.F agent and as a teacher at that one high school."
Dezda said.
After they said this, Rookie and Rosemary both looked at each other for a split second.
"Well, we just wanna know..Rook.."
"...Why?"
"Is there..something..going on you aren't telling us about?"
Dezda said, looking down at her hands and twiddling them nervously.
After that, there was a bit of silence.
Rosemary then whispered to Rookie.
"Do you think we should tell them? I mean, it might scare them.."
Rookie whispered back.
"They've been my closest friends for a long time..I think they deserve to know."
Rosemary pulled away from Rookie.
Rookie then took a deep breath and put his hands together, looking at the ground.
"Listen..guys.."
"I...I took a serious injury last month."
"I got into a serious fight while I was on a mission, and I fought a really strong opponent.."
"He permanently damaged my lungs, which has made it way harder for me to breathe."
Rookie explained.
"S-So..you have to retire because your lungs are damaged-?"
Dezda asked with reluctance.
"No, Dezda."
"I'm dying."
Dezda gasped, left speechless by this reveal.
Spooky was also shocked, barely able to form words after this.
"AH- AH- Ah-"
Stuffie looked shocked, but due to her just meeting him, she didn't understand how devastating this was.
Rosemary watched him react, grabbing onto Rookie's shoulder with a gloomy expression.
Rookie sighed.
"You were right the whole time, Dezda.."
"I kept pushing myself to keep doing more and to keep helping people, putting more pressure on my body.."
"And it finally caught up to me."
"Now, I'm a goner."
Dezda teared up a bit.
"R-Rookie.."
Spooky asked, finally able to form words - though hardly holding it together.
"S-So.."
"How long do you..have to live..?"
"..Well, our medical center told me I have ten months left to live at this point."
"R-Rookie.."
Dezda said faintly.
"..Why did it have to be you..?"
"Frankly..this did happen at a pretty bad time..I had to get replaced as a teacher, so now I'm just wondering what's going to happen next.."
"After that whole business with that explosion that destroyed all of Giddy Park, who knows what the zombies could be doing?"
"Vinny..we talked about this!"
Rosemary, alarmed by his worries once again.
"W-Wait, we actually know what's going on."
Said Spooky, attempting to put his feelings aside.
"Huh?"
"W-What happened?"
Rookie asked, fearfully curious.
"Y'see, we were just on a mission, which is where we found this stuffie..ghost..thing."
He pointed at Stuffie.
"But that wasn't the point of the mission..apparently there had been a sighting of a..shiny crystal gnome in Neighborvillie, and they said that the zombies had gotten it, so we went sneakin' around for it. We saw these really strong looking zombies, with really brightly colored armor for some reason? I dunno, but those guys had this shiny gnome. I think Dezda said that gnome gave whoever uses it the power to fly."
Dezda nodded.
"After they saw we were spying on them, they chased after us, but we escaped."
Spooky put simply.
"Yeah..we have no idea what they're going to do with that gnome! Not only that, but they said that there's seven of them! And who knows what could happen if they're all together!"
Dezda Explained.
"Woah..that sounds..really bad."
Rookie said.
"There's seven of them and they have one..hm.."
Rookie thought, this could truly be another disaster if they manage to find them all. In fact, it could very well be the end of Neighborvillie. Surely he has to do something about it, right? Wait - no, he can't, he has to let himself rest now. But..he is only going to be around for ten months..wouldn't it be more worth it to try and help save neighborvillie?
"...How can I help?"
Rookie said.
Rosemary looked over at Rookie, a bit stunned by this. Is he seriously trying to save the world AGAIN? Doesn't he think he's done enough?! Why can't he just let himself rest?! She felt very torn by him saying this mentally.
"Oh! Uh..are you sure? You did say-"
Dezda got cut off by Rosemary.
"..V-Vinny, come with me."
"Sorry you two, but I need to have a private talk with him."
Rosemary started, grabbing his arm.
"Huh..?"
Rookie said, in confusion.
"Oh, uh..okay, I guess.."
Dezda said, with slight awkwardness.
Rosemary took Rookie into another room and closed the door.
"Vinny...what the hell?!" (Vincent is Rookie's real name, so sometimes Rosemary calls him Vinny.)
Rosemary exclaimed after closing the door, feeling a bit frustrated now.
"You got 10 months to live and you wanna go save the world AGAIN?! Why can't you just let it go?!"
She said, angrily.
"Wh- Rosemary, come on! We have no idea what these armored guys can do, and if someone doesn't get those gnomes away from them, who knows what's gonna happen?!"
Said Rookie, also a bit upset now.
"But it's not your problem, Vinny, damnit, we talked about this - AND YOU AGREED WITH ME!"
"But if this could cause the end of neighborvillie, then why the hell would I not risk myself for everyone else - I mean that's what the job is, anyway!"
"But it's not just you doing everything, Vinny! Other people are have to do that too! You're not the ONLY ONE who can do this!"
"But what if something goes wrong, or everything isn't enough?!"
"THEN THAT'S NOT YOUR BURDEN, ROOKIE! STOP PUTTING EVERYTHING ON YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST.."
"YOU'RE JUST A PEASHOOTER!"
"NO MATTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE, THE WORLD DOSEN'T SURVIVE OFF OF YOU! T-THERE'S SO MANY THINGS YOU COULDN'T STOP BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST A DAMN PEASHOOTER!"
Rosemary was beginning to tear up as she yelled at him, clearly this was a lot for her emotionally.
Rookie looked at her, speechless with a shocked expression.
Then, there was a bit of silence, which was broken by Rosemary crying.
Because of this, Rookie's expression begun to soften.
"I-I only get to see you for..another 10 months, hun..sniff"
"..can you please just..sniff not make it go by faster..?"
"I-I love you and..sniff I just want you to stay around as long as you can.."
Rookie sighed, walking to her and putting an arm around her while she cried.
"Yeah..guess you're right."
"It's funny..when I first joined L.E.A.F, I felt like I could do anything."
"Really..I was only doing what I could."
"Well..I guess i'll leave it to you and everyone else, okay?"
Rosemary wiped her tears and hugged Rooki
"About sniff time you figured that out.."
She hugged him back.
"Let's uh..let's not keep those guys waiting okay?"
Rookie gestured to the door.
They both went out and just saw Dezda and Stuffie watching Spooky juggle 3 firepeas, something he was surprisingly good at.
"Oh hey, you're back!"
Dezda exclaimed.
Spooky noticed this and proceeded to toss the firepeas up, and into his mouth.
"...Ew."
Said Rookie, quietly.
"So uh, what did you guys talk about-?"
Spooky asked.
"Well..we decided that Rookie is gonna stay behind, but i'm gonna help you guys figure this out!"
Rosemary exclaimed.
"Oh, okay!"
Dezda said.
"Are you sure, Rosemary? This could be dangerous.."
Asked Rookie.
"It's part of the job, right?"
She giggled.
Rookie smirked.
"..Yeah."
"Alright then!"
Dezda stood up.
"Let's go to HQ and report this, then!"
Dezda stated boldly, trying to be the leader in this situation.
Rosemary and Spooky both stood up.
Rosemary: "Sure thing!"
Spooky: "No problem."
"Welp, I guess this is bye for now, Rookie."
Dezda said.
"Yeah..i'll be okay, plus, Rosemary will tell me the details."
He smiled.
"I'm rooting for you guys."
They all smiled.
"Let's go, guys!"
Dezda picked up Stuffie, who was taking a nap after Spooky was done juggling fire peas, and gently put her in her scarf so she could keep sleeping.
Rosemary, Spooky, Dezda, and Stuffie all left the house. The safety of neighborvillie was fully in their hands.
Well, not entirely in their hands...