"Olivia I..." She shook her head. "No, this is how it must be. Good girls don't make mistakes..." She followed Olivia at a distance, knowing Olivia just needed some time to walk off some steam.

"Grape, if you want to talk, I'm here for you."

"If you want me to join your kingdom, you'll have to force me."

"Then force it will be. Unfortunately for you, I'm not the kind to force anything. That'll have to wait until you see Olly again."

Grape rubbed her bracelet again. "I never told you what these were from, did I?"

Olivia stopped. "Don't try anything. If you're trying to trick me-"

"No, honest. I think it might help things make a bit of sense." She took one off and placed it in Olivia's hand. "I stole those from a museum. It was the first thing I'd ever done for the Elder Bunch, although it was highly shellfish of me to disobey orders for some jewelry that only I wanted to wear."

Olivia looked at the pale green gems sparkling in the autumn noon light.

"They...actually belonged to Shadow Queen's mortal body, before it was destroyed in the Thousand-Year War for the Thousand-Year Door. They were put on display and I'd stolen them without knowing she'd even existed."

Olivia gave her bracelet back.

"I suppose that after that, we formed a sort of connection? She was able to speak to my mind." She tapped the top of her mask. "I accepted her deal and got my body stolen...Heh. What I'm trying to say is that the entire Shadow Witch accident was entirely my fault and I should take the blame for it. Or...something."

Olivia smiled a bit. "This is what I'm talking about."

"Hm? Me telling you how I was possessed? A zero-out-of-ten review! I never want to do that again."

"No, you're so nice. You just hide it. Why?"

"Because I don't want to get walked all over, unlike you."

"What?"

"If you're nice, people will just use you. And so I strive to be the opposite. It matters not to me if people get hurt. If they get in my way, they should have come with warning."

Olivia started off again. "We don't want to be late, Bobby will start worrying. He doesn't seem like it, but he gets worried easily."

"So, just out of curiosity, who do you qualify as the most powerful person in the Mushroom Kingdom? Or, any kingdom in general; any that you've been to."

"That depends on how you mean power. Because I have to say that Queen Bean has the most power in her kingdom. The Beanbean Kingdom really respects her, and knowing that Fawful and Prince Peasely used to be friends helped us create a unity with them once they'd made up. She's really nice, and always to steps ahead as well."

"I mean...strength. Like...magical or technological strength."

"Technology has to go to Bowser. He's been king of the skies since long before I was even folded! You're not planning on using this info for anything, are you?"

"I said I was just curious! I haven't been here for long so I'm trying to get to know the place better. That is, so I can be prepared if I were to return for a heist..."

"Magical power? I wish I could say Olly but...I think Dimentio's stronger."

"What?! Why him? Even when focusing all of his Darkle into one attack, he still lost against me!"

"He's been holding himself back. Olly and I both know it. Last time he used his magic to its full potential...Have you met Rudiger yet?"

Grape shook her head.

"Ah. Well, Dimentio accidentally hurt Rudiger. That happened before you were captured by Deku, so it makes sense how you don't know. But he's been scared to use his magic since. I asked him about it, and he went on and on about possibly hurting Fawful or Olly or somebody else. Also, I think he's just stronger because he was the only one to survive so many beatings so soon after the other. Olly died, and Dimentio didn't. Dimentio's been attached between the two worlds of life and death. Although, I think his Darkle might be trying to keep him alive, now that I think about it. Also, Olly told me that Dimentio was the only one to survive a direct hit from Sandi's power. Zeth survived, but was badly injured. Dimentio however...he barely had a scratch."

"Sandi?"

"That's a bit personal. You'll have to ask Olly about that. And either way, I don't think he'll tell you until he can fully trust you, but that comes with joining his kingdom or kingdom alliance." Olivia waved to somebody up ahead. "Bobby!"

She ran off to join the person. He was certainly small, and round. He did look like a bomb, like Olivia had mentioned.

"Bobby! I want you to meet Grape! You probably know her from the final battle. She was huge then! And she was kind of cute too."

"C-cute?"

Bobby bowed the best he could for lacking a body. "It's nice to meet you. Olivia said you would be coming. I was kind of hoping you'd brought someone else but...this is fine."

"Somebody else? I left Drew and Timothy back with Olly and his friends. I'm hoping that them offering to help with the float will earn me some trust...But not from pity, no; from real genuine blood, sweat, and tears."

"They can bleed?" Olivia said, bit disturbed. "Actually, don't answer that. I don't want to know."

"But, I do have Wendell who's free. If you didn't want me to come alone then..."

"It's no big deal," Bobby said. "Anyways, the pumpkins are over here."

Grape sniffed and rubbed her nose. "Is it just me, or it feel a bit...off up here?"

"You might not be used to the cold, or the season. We'll have to get you a sweater or something."

"Oh!" Olivia clapped her hand together. "Grape! Olly forgot to mention-his forgetful butt-that he put all of our contact information into your phone already, in case you did ever want to talk but couldn't come for some reason. That's all he did though, you still need to add a password and wallpaper and everything. You can delete them if you want though, you don't need to keep them if you don't want to."

"I thank you for that knowledge."

Bobby gently kicked a round, orange thing. "How about this one? Think it can survive pumpkin smashers?"

"I don't think any pumpkin can, unless Ol folds it. But he's been so exhausted lately, and I don't want to put extra work onto him." Olivia picked it up to examine it closer.

Grape sniffed again. "I wish I was kidding, but I think there might be something wrong with me."

"That's stupid! You're perfectly fine!"

Bobby carefully pressed a shoed foot against another pumpkin. "Do you think she could be allergic to autumn? Like how some people are allergic to spring?"

"Allergic..." Grape repeated to herself.

"Maybe," Olivia said. "And if so, I'm sorry for bringing you out here like this. Maybe we should stay inside the rest of the time."

"Sorry..." Grape felt her eye twitch when Olivia said that word.

"Maybe Grape is ace or aro? Or maybe aroace, like Marko?"

Bobby mumbled something to himself. "Maybe? Since she said she doesn't feel love and all."

"Or maybe she hasn't found the right person yet?"

Grape grabbed a small pumpkin. "I can hear you talking about me."

"Yeah, I know."

"And don't mumble. I hate mumbling. You can't hear anything anyone says. Blah blah blah, it's all very annoying."

Olivia had a certain look on her face but said nothing else on the topic. "So, you like that one? You seem to be examining it pretty hard there."

Grape looked at the pumpkin she was holding. "I...forgot I was holding this. I was too focused on the conversation and-"

She sneezed and her mask went slightly askew. She fixed it and looked at the pumpkin.

"Oh...I can sneeze out my own core. Noted." She wiped something off the pumpkin.

"Are you okay?" Bobby asked. "Core?"

Grape tapped the pumpkin. "Yes, my Darkle Core. It's what I am, yadda yadda. I get tired of explaining this to everyone. Why hasn't the glow gone away?"

"Glow?" Olivia asked, now worried. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! And for the record, it's where my Darkle was, so it's probably just a bit of leftover." She rubbed it with her thumb.

Olivia came over and looked at the pumpkin. "It's glowing all right...That's safe, right?"

"I'm not sure...I've never even sneezed before today. It's unbearable."

"Right?" Olivia giggled.

Grape let out a small squeak.

"Grape? Was that you? I didn't know you could do that with how deep your voice is. It was so cute!"

"It just moved, I felt it. It's alive. Oh...by Grambi's beard, I accidentally brought it to life!"

Bobby peeked around Olivia. "Huh? But aren't plants already alive?"

Grape dropped it. "Ah!"

It hit the floor with a thud, then rolled onto its side. Vines twisted around the bottom of the pumpkin, and it turned around to hop onto the four new vine-made legs. Olivia hid behind Grape, and Bobby stood in front of them both. Grape moved Bobby aside and touched the pumpkin.

"I think it's friendly."

"What did you do?" Olivia asked.

"It's like my pets, my Darkle gave it a soul, a mind, a beating machine heart."

It rubbed against her hand, purring. Its jagged mouth and eyes showed it was happy, at least.

"And..." Grape uprooted a sign next to them.

"Grape wait, no!"

Grape smashed it against the pumpkin, the sign shattering to bits. "It's completely smash-proof!" She tossed a piece of the sign in the air and caught it again, now holding the opposite side than she had been holding before. "So you can thank me later. Now, do you want more of these untouchable creatures or is one enough for you?"

"O-one?! I'd rather have none! What will Olly do if he finds out about this? Oh, he'll be furious! He told me and the rest of the kingdom not to mess around with magic, and we did and now you just created life and-"

Bobby rested himself on her leg. "I'm sure he'll be confused but fine. Grape isn't a part of your kingdom, and it was a mistake so that's understandable right?"

Grape picked up the pumpkin. "I'm naming you Pettigrew!"

"Why?" Olivia asked.

"He looks like a Pettigrew. Plus, he's my baby now, so I need to take care of him, right?" She felt her eye twitch again. "But we should probably head back soon. My eye keeps twitching and I'm worried the 'allergies' will only get worse from here if we stay outside any longer."

"Okay. Let's grab some pumpkins and go."