ACT VII: Crescento, the Eager Part 2: Politics
Many years after Festivio's death, Crescento had decided to dive straight into his work. In the first seventeen years of his reign, the latest king of Mewni had married Samantha Tan, put his new dollar currency into effect, placed a universal limit on alcohol consumption, lost his mother and laid her to rest, had a son, and created over five thousand unique spells. As far as politics went, Crescento was one of the more popular kings to have ever taken the throne. But as far as Samantha and a handful of the delegates were concerned, he was a cold-hearted individual who would do anything to get ahead.
Crescento didn't mind much of what anyone else thought of him thanks to his spell "Regiis Solum Lacrimae" to take away all negative thoughts that plagued his mind. Besides, he was much more focused on the political reputations of his fellow leaders. To him, political power was just as important as the power magic granted him. And if his son, Ryan, were to have a successful future, he would need the reputation of the Dragonfly name to remain pristine.
Presently, the King of Mewni was working on re-election campaigns for his democratic companions. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that his son - Prince Ryan Dragonfly - was home from boarding school for a week to celebrate Stump Day, and the young prince burst into the king's office without warning.
"Hey, dad!" The red-haired prince exclaimed as he ran up to his father. "Great news; I passed all my academic tests with flying colors! I finally caught up to your chapter in the Great Book of Magic! Oh, and check out this puzzle cube I invented!"
"Not now, Ryan, I'm working." Crescento waved him off.
"But, dad, I worked really hard on this, and-"
"RYAN!" Crescento snapped. "I have to help Countess Alice with her re-election, right now! I don't have time for any of your little toys!"
Ryan slowly stepped away from his father's desk with a sad expression. "Yeah… yeah, okay. Sorry, dad."
Crescento hadn't looked up from his paperwork after his son left; he was content to resolve the issue later. For now, he still had to help Alice with her re-election, help Eric improve the coral housing development in the Waterfolk Iles, and help Hortense gather enough unicorn blood for the Blood Moon Ball in the next two hundred and ten years. However, as he just finished the paperwork, he looked up to see his queen standing in the doorway with an infuriated expression.
"Your son just got back from boarding school, and that's all you have to say to him?" She fumed.
"I don't have time for this, Sam." Crescento tried to move past his wife, only for her to block his exit.
"Then make time." She growled. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Samantha took a deep breath before she continued with her lecture. "Look, you know how proud I am of all the work you've done for this kingdom. After all, it's your responsibility. But you also have a responsibility as a father. I mean, have you ever once considered talking to your son about something other than magic or politics?"
"Like what?"
"Like his puzzle-toy." She suggested. "He's fourteen and he invented his own puzzle-toy. Isn't that worth talking about?"
"Well, I suppose." Crescento shrugged. "I mean, that's great, but if I don't push him to focus on the role he's going to inherit in four years-"
"He's been away at boarding school for an entire year. He doesn't need a king, Cres." Samantha cupped her husband's cheek. "He needs his dad."
Crescento looked down at the paperwork in his left hand and the pocket watch in his right. With a firm nod, he hugged his wife and headed towards his son's room. "Ryan?" Crescento knocked on the prince's door. "Son? Am I disturbing you?"
"Uh, no, dad. Come in." Ryan opened the door and let his father in. "What's up?"
Crescento immediately noticed the abundance of textbooks and riddle books that took up all the shelf space and all the jigsaw pieces that littered the floor. His son's desk was the only thing kept neat, as it was where Ryan kept his abacus, protractors, compass, micrometer, and his collection of ink pens. The scepter rested on Ryan's bed; in his hands, it had taken the form of a long, twisting rod adorned with a diamond cube that constantly changed shape. "Looks like you've been working on some big ideas, son." Crescento commented as he sat down on the bed.
"Nah, I'm just studying for finals in advance." Ryan remarked. "After all, like you always say; 'it's never too early-'"
"'To prepare for the future!'" Crescento smiled, pleased to see that his son took his studies seriously. "That's good, Ryan. But I didn't come here to talk to you about school. Earlier, you wanted to show me a toy you invented? And I have a few minutes before my meeting with the delegates, so do you still want me to see it?"
Ryan was pleasantly surprised. "Uh, y-yeah." The prince opened the drawer to his desk and handed the puzzle-cube to Crescento. The king curiously examined it in his hands, studying all six sides of the cube and the multicolored individual squares that made it up.
"So, uh… how does it work?" Crescento asked.
"I'll show you." Ryan happily took the cube back from his father and began twisting the sides and unfolding the pieces. Crescento watched as his son changed the cube to resemble the head of a creature from the Earth-dimension. "I based it off of the scepter. The cube can make fifteen different shapes. And each shape has different levels of difficulty depending on how well you can match up the colors. It's kinda like a test, but for fun. You do remember fun, right?"
Crescento gave a playful scoff at his son's remark. "Hey, I am fun! I'm the son of Festivio the Fun! Here, gimme that thing!" He took the toy into his own hands and began to fiddle with it, much to Ryan's delight. "I'll show you how fun I am!"
The king stuck his tongue out as he twisted and folded each piece, trying to get the toy back to its original cube shape. But without warning, one of the pieces fell off. "What did you do?!" Ryan gasped in horror.
"I-I-I didn't do anything!" Crescento tried to put the piece back in place, only to make it worse.
"Give it back!" Ryan grabbed his puzzle-cube back and desperately tried to repair it. But the more he tried to put the pieces back, more pieces fell off until all that was left was a pile of individual cubes. Dejected, Ryan held one cube in between his fingers as he sat back down next to his father. "Aw, man… even with the scepter, it's going to take me at least a week to put this back together…"
Crescento put an arm around Ryan's shoulders, offering him comfort. "Look, son, everything in life has setbacks. Adversity is the only consistent part of the process. But if you're passionate about something, you have to stick with it. Do you understand?"
Ryan nodded as the king gave him a pat on the back and a kiss on the forehead. While his son gathered up all the pieces of his toy and took it to his desk to begin reassembling it, Crescento had to leave to make his meeting on time. Not wanting to deal with the guilt of breaking his son's toy during the meeting, Crescento placed his index finger against his temple and whispered. "Regiis Solum Lacrimae…" Just like before, the spell allowed him to physically remove the negative thoughts from his mind so that he could focus on work.
Twenty minutes later, Crescento was taking deep breaths in an effort to deal with everyone talking over each other. Apparently, King Equus Cranium of the Pony-Heads was offended at King Hortense's insistence on using unicorn blood for the Blood Moon Ball, Eric Kelpbottom wanted to import limestone from the Johansen's to help with their coral production, and the Spiderbites were feuding with the Jaggy Mountains over a patch of land.
"ALRIGHT! ONE AT A TIME, PLEASE!" Crescento shouted, earning everyone's attention. The king took out a pad with an arrow on it, flicked the arrow, and watched as it landed on Equus and Hortense. "Okay, we'll start with you two."
"What kind of war declaration are you trying to make by harvesting unicorn blood?!" Equus snapped at the demon. "My people are floating unicorn heads!"
"Well, they're not related to you!" Hortense reasoned.
"Okay, how about this…" Crescento sighed. "In exchange for three hundred pounds of Cloud Kingdom sugar, the Lucitors will instead harvest the blood of warnicorns?"
"... that is… acceptable." Hortense conceded.
"Fine." Equus nodded in agreement.
Once they left, Crescento spun the arrow again, landing on Robert Spiderbite and Delilah Jaggy. "Okay, why do you need this land?"
"My people need it to expand our fruit crops!" Delilah reasoned. "In accordance with your plans to grow something other than corn."
"Well, my people need it because the land already has special herbs that my doctors tell me can help treat poisonous spider bites!" Robert countered. "Ever since Jeshica died, no one's even tried to find a cure!"
"Okay, this is easy." Crescento cupped his hands together. "Delilah will harvest all of the herbs before tilling the land for the fruit crops in exchange for Robert helping with the harvest and planting fruit."
Delilah and Robert shook hands in agreement before leaving. That left Eric and Alice. Fortunately, Crescento already had a solution for their problem. "Okay, Alice, how's this; in exchange for your limestone, Eric provides the Johansen's with fish?"
"Hmm… it would help my re-election to get more food to my people." Alice considered.
"We've got plenty of fish to spare." Eric offered.
"Alright then, Kelpbottom, you've got yourself a deal." The countess bowed in respect and exited the room. Eric would have followed after her, but he was distracted by Crescento groaning with his face resting on the table.
"You okay, bud?" The mer-man asked as he massaged Crescento's shoulders.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine." Crescento replied, moaning with bliss at his best friend's touch. "As long as I don't have to deal with any more surprises."
Suddenly, Milo Loveberry barged into the room with a startled expression. "Your majesty! The monsters are having their own election!"
"WHAT?!" Crescento fell out of his seat from shock before bolting upright. "What did you just say?!"
Milo took out a map of the Forest of Certain Death and laid it out on the table, along with four sketches of monsters; a lizardman, a frogman, a kappa, and a conjoinicon. "I was leading a reconnaissance team up the river to make sure none of those filthy beasts were trying anything, but then I overheard two of them talking about an election! Apparently, there are four representatives vying for leadership of all monsters."
Crescento looked at the sketches and the map, trying to determine his next course of action. According to the stories he'd read in the Great Book of Magic, his great-grandfather ended the war between mewmans and monsters by killing an immortal lizardman and scaring the other monster species back into the Forest of Certain Death, at the cost of his own life. It was hoped that after that, the monsters would never dare try to attack the kingdoms ever again. However, many theorized that when news of Eclipsine's infidelity reached the monster hordes, they took it as a sign of the hierarchy's collapse, leading to a few rogue groups to try and restart the war. The only reason Milo and the other Solarians were able to hold them back was because they were disorganized. But if they found a leader who could unite them, it would surely lead to disaster.
"I wish my dad was here." Crescento sighed, clawing at his scalp in frustration. "He'd know what to do…"
"No disrespect, your majesty, but your father was more of a figurehead than an actual ruler." Milo remarked. "He never cared much about what the monsters did, so long as they did it outside the border. Too bad the monster candidates seem to all be taking this election a bit more seriously than Festivo did. I'd feel a bit more comfortable if their future leader turns out to be more like him."
Crescento's eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. With a smirk and a wink, he turned towards his best friend. "Did you catch the drift of what he just said?"
Eric smiled, picking up on his king's idea. "I sure did."
Milo, however, was confused by the royals' words. "Um, begging your pardon, sirs, but would you mind letting me in on whatever plan you seem to be making?"
"We don't have to, Milo, you big lug!" Crescento laughed as he gave the general a pat on the back. "It was your idea!"
Milo continued to stare at his king and the mer-man as they made their way out of the war room. "What idea?!" He spluttered.
To Be Continued!
Author's note: TBH, I was expecting a lot more reactions to the last chapter regarding Festivio's comment about his son's love life. I figured you'd all be gushing at how Festivio would've been okay with Crescento liking boys.