The unplanned hiatus is over! Basically, it was a combination of writer's block + low motivation, but I powered through. I also wrote a good chunk of the next two chapters already, so it's not like no work was done on the story.

Chapter 6 – The Invitation

Buster clapped his hands together. "Great job everybody! Let's take a break. You earned it!"

Backstage at the Crystal Tower Theater filled with the chatter of relieved cast members. Before anyone could scatter, Buster pierced the area with a sharp whistle. Ms. Crawly rolled in a cart filled with sticky buns, cinnamon buns, donuts, and other baked goods glazed in cinnamon and sugar. The old lizard yelped as she was nearly mobbed by the hungry crowd.

"We've got a special treat for you today," Buster said, watching the cart get ransacked.

"I think my teeth are melting," Ash moaned after biting a cinnamon bun. "But it's so worth it." Nooshy followed her lead.

"Sweet, Moon-man!" The lynx swayed with an improvised dance as the sinfully sweet treat played at her taste buds. "You sprung for the good stuff! What's the occasion?"

"I just wanted to show my appreciation to everyone here considering the circumstances," Buster said, grabbing a sticky bun for himself before they were all gone. "Out of This World is on hiatus until we recast Porsha's role, but it warms my heart seeing you all stay so dedicated despite the uncertainty."

"Speaking of, where is Porsh?" Nooshy threw a few looks around as she finished off her cinnamon bun. "Ain't she supposed to be your intern? She's been scarce the past two days."

"About that... she's been dealing with her dad lately."

"Sounds like a full-time job in and of itself," Ash said.

Buster's chest buzzed. He grabbed his phone from within his suit jacket and read the message he just received from Porsha. The text said she'd just arrived with her dad and they were coming through the theater's hotel entrance.

"Good news," he announced. "She'll be here very shortly."

Buster hoped everyone was too busy gorging themselves on sweets to notice his nervous smile or how he shifted the anxious energy in his body from one heel to the other. His brain went into overdrive conjuring up a plan, a scheme, anything to deal with the potential disaster incoming. His answer came in the form of Darius. The yak barely finished cleaning the remains of the cinnamon bun with a moist towelette when Buster grabbed his wrist, pulled him aside, and uttered a sentence he never thought would leave his lips.

"Darius! I really need you right now."

Darius's surprise shifted into a conceited grin with the flick of his hair. "I wasn't going to say anything, but I do know I can pull off that alien costume and fill Porsha's role in—"

"What? No, that's not what I'm talking about! Porsha's on her way with her dad and they'll be here any minute."

"But... could have been me?"

"It couldn't. Sorry." Buster gave him a reassuring pat on the leg.

The yak's lips quivered in disappointment for a second before he said, "Wait, you said her dad? Jimmy Crystal is coming here?"

"I was thinking... when he gets back on his feet, he'll want to make a big splash in the entertainment world." Buster scurried out to the front stage and beckoned Darius to follow. "He'll need someone to headline his next big thing. Think about it, this could be your big opportunity."

Darius followed along as the koala waved his hand out over the empty theater seating, his imagination filling in the crowds, the cheers, the lights. His big breakout as the star of Crystal's comeback show.

What wasn't part of his imagination was the two wolves and the cat making their way down an aisle.

"Look, there he is!" Buster pointed out. "Go show him what you're made of, and don't take no for an answer! I wouldn't!" With a gentle push, the yak was making his way up the aisle to meet them.

"Mr. Crystal! I heard you were staging a comeback."

Jimmy looked Darius over and grunted, "Who wants to know?"

"Darius," the yak introduced himself, reaching out a hand that was never taken.

"I'll let you two catch up while I check in with Mr. Moon," Porsha said, then sprinted for the stage.

"Catch up? I don't even know this guy," Jimmy said, eyes flaring with aggravation.

Darius pulled his hand back to smooth down his hair. "I was in the show. The duet, if you can call it that. I carried that scene."

"Huh, so you were," Jimmy murmured. "That's funny; it's almost like you weren't even there."

"We'll just have to agree to disagree," Darius said with a dismissive chuckle. "I can make a lasting impression on you. Wanna see my moves?"

"Why would I want to see that?"

"I've done a lot of shows, won a lot of awards, you know. If you need a headliner, I'm your guy." The yak closed his eyes and his hips began to swivel as muscle memory took over, breaking into one of the dances from his many videos. His hips swayed to the left, then the right, tail following along to the silent rhythm before he went into a full gyrating circle. He chanced a glance at the wolf to find him unmoved at best, perturbed at worst.

"You're quite intimidating, Mr. Crystal," Darius admitted, body still in motion.

"Thanks. Keeps losers from approaching me and wasting my time," Jimmy said, his mood beginning to descend into disgust. "Doesn't always work, though."

Darius upped the ante. Jerry jumped ahead of Jimmy, arms out like a living shield.

"I'm going to have to ask you to pelvic thrust in another direction," Jerry said, but quickly lost control of the situation for two reasons.

One: Darius turned around to shake what his mama gave him.

And two: Jimmy snapped.

"You cannot be serious!"

Buster flinched at the crack of indignation in Rosita's voice. He knew the news wouldn't go over well, but the backlash was fierce.

"It's just a nice, friendly visit from Crystal to help smooth things over," Buster insisted. "He's working on himself and we're in an open and safe environment."

"Safe environment? This is the same place where he almost killed you!"

"Things are different now, we should try..." Buster trailed off as Ash inspected him, checking his pockets and the inside of his suit jacket. "Uh, what are you doing?"

Ash jammed a finger against Buster's forehead, saying, "I'm looking for your mind because you've clearly lost it."

"Very funny."

"Wait a minute," Johnny said, suspicion focused on the last piece of sticky bun between his fingers. "This wasn't an award. You were tryin' to bribe us!"

Ryan, with the taste of cinnamon still on his lips, said, "It's a good bribe." Suddenly, he was at the center of several disapproving looks. "What? It is!"

"Are you going to tell them, or should I?" Rosita threatened, hands on hips.

"Don't!" Buster pleaded. "T-that... that won't be necessary."

Rosita's steely gaze moved from Buster to the rest of the troupe as she said, "He still has nightmares about Crystal."

"Ugh!" Ash shut her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. "Truce or no, you really want to be around someone you even have dreams about throwing you to your death?"

"Now, see, that's simply not true. I don't have the falling dreams anymore... now I have dreams of Crystal in my theater while it's on fire."

Ash felt a headache coming on. "Moon, no!"

Porsha moved ahead of Buster, hoping to take some of the heat off him. "Guys, please. Don't be mad at Mr. Moon. It was my idea. My dad's been a bit lonely. He spends all day at home in his robe binging movies and shows he forgets and waiting for job opportunities that never appear. And he's been struggling with therapy on top of that."

"Sucks for him, but that's not really our problem," Nooshy said, unable to even feign sympathy.

"I know that but... he blames all of you for everything. He thinks you're the bad guys. I want him to know you like I do. I convinced him to come here give you a chance, and it'd be awkward if won't do the same for him."

The troupe mulled over the idea through a chorus of murmurs but had no time to make a definitive decision before Jimmy and Jerry arrived in the backstage area.

Buster flashed a smile that was all teeth. "Welcome, Mr. Crystal!" When he noticed someone was missing, he asked, "Uh, where's Darius?"

Jimmy dusted off his hands. "If you're talking about the bozo with the hair, he might be a while."

"Oh no. I hope everyone's okay."

"I'm doing great!"

Meena took a deep breath before she stepped forward and asked, "What did you do to Darius?"

Jimmy shrugged. "He wouldn't get out of my way, so I stuffed him in a seat."

"Was that really necessary?" Buster asked. "All I did was suggest that Darius might want to grab your attention—"

"Wait. You're the reason that freak started twerking on me?"

Porsha squeezed her father's arm with considerable strength. "Daddy," she growled, causing him to drop that subject.

"I don't see Calloway," Jimmy said after scanning the area. "So how is this supposed to work? Do you all get in a line and apologize to me individually or is this a group effort? Oh, wait! Moon loves putting on a show. You were gonna do that, right?"

Ash quirked a brow. "Why on Earth would we apologize to you?"

"Do I need to list all the things you did to me?" Jimmy threw a glance in Jerry's direction. "I have a list, right?"

Jerry yelped and scrambled to find his phone in his pockets. "Right here on my phone, sir!"

"We can go down every bullet point and you can apologize for each one if that's how you wanna do it."

Nooshy snorted, her eyes rolling so hard her head followed the motion. "You need a mirror, mate? If anyone should be apologizing it's you—for the threats, for the violence, for just being you."

"That's rich coming from the girl that put Jerry in the hospital." Nooshy's fire went out, emboldening Jimmy. "Thought I wouldn't recognize ya, huh?"

"Lay off her!" Johnny said in her defense. "It wasn't on purpose!"

"Everyone, let's all just calm down and take a deep breath," Buster pleaded to no avail. Before he knew it, everything spiraled out of control.

"They should've never let you out of jail."

"It's because of Mr. Crystal's generosity that none of you are behind bars after all the things you did to him!"

"He's been here all of five minutes and he already hurt Darius."

"The fact that you even let that loser in your little troupe shows just how low your standards really are!"

"Our standards must be low since we let you in here!"

"This is my theater! You wouldn't have a show or a venue if it weren't for me!"

Buster darted between combatants, waving frantically in a fruitless attempt to grab their attention. He pulled on his ears as the situation continued spiraling out of control, heated words colliding into a vortex like flaming breath of warring dragons. "Guys, this is getting us nowhere! Please, let's just settle down for a moment and—"

"Everybody shut your pieholes!" Miss Crawly barked through a megaphone, drowning out the dissent.

"Thank you, Miss Crawly," Buster said, clenching his teeth at the ringing in his ears. "As I was saying, if we all just settle down, we can hash out our differences. There are grievances on both sides, hurt feelings on both sides, but that just means we..." He stopped to blink at the wolf-sized hole next to Jerry. "Wait, where's Mr. Crystal?"

In the rest area behind the theater, furnished with tables and dotted with foliage made in a crystal façade, Jimmy found a moment of solitude, but not solace. He sat alone at a table, protected from the blistering sun under the shade given by the large umbrella planted in the table's center.

He should've known better than to let Porsha talk him into that situation, to walk into a territory that was no longer his own, populated with people that already schemed against him once before. They practically swarmed him, or maybe it felt that way once their faces began to whirl around him as they spat their vitriol. These were the people his daughter was willing to go to bat for?

What left him most bitter was how much of an effect that encounter had on him. A year ago, and he wouldn't have cared what anyone truly thought about him, so long as they gave him the respect he commanded. Now that judgmental look in their eyes ate away at him.

"What a joke," Jimmy said. "I'm losing my edge."

The glass doors of the theater's back entrance flew open. Jerry scampered out and across the pavement, holding a portable, ornate dish of snacks in his grip.

"Mr. Crystal! I'm so sorry, I should've realized what was going on with you!"

Jerry presented the snacks. Jimmy's gaze slid over and beyond him like the feline was made of ice. Jerry immediately wilted like any other plant deprived of water, light, and the very things that give life.

"Mr. Crystal... sir... if this isn't working anymore... I can re—"

"You've got a lot of nerve!" Porsha howled, storming out of the theater. Jerry scrambled out of the way as Porsha slammed her hands down on the table, looming over her father with a fierce glare he refused to meet. "You're gonna quit because you couldn't control what was happening? Because you couldn't handle what they had to say? Like some coward?"

Jimmy's eyes locked onto Porsha's, his growl so low it was nearly imperceptible. "Did you come from another reality? Did you see what happened in there? The way they looked at me... the way they talked about me... like I was—"

"Some kind of monster? You ever think they feel that way because you were acting like one? This is what happens when you make people fear you. You're not the only one that got hurt back when everything first went down."

They fell into silence, Jimmy's gaze fixated on his folded hands resting on the tabletop. Porsha noticed her father's labored breathing, the beads of sweat perched on his brow, and the snacks Jerry was holding, and everything began to fall into place.

"Did you have another—"

"No, but I felt one coming."

Porsha let out a deep sigh, and with it, flushed most of her outrage as she took the seat across from him. "Daddy, you know this was never going to be easy. You have to try to make things right, but it's possible they might not accept that."

"Then what was the point of coming here?"

"Because you should still try," a voice said, surprising them. They turned to find Buster suddenly in their presence. He went on, "Because making amends is about personal growth, a way to prove that you know you made mistakes, that you don't want things to stay this way. Trust me, I know the feeling of reaching out and being rejected. Of being afraid to reach out. Of fearing what it means that you even have to reach out."

Those words hung heavy in the air before Buster continued.

"I'm sorry about this, Mr. Crystal. It's partially my fault. I didn't tell them about you coming to the theater until you were already here."

Jimmy aimed a narrowed gaze at the koala. "I feel like withholding information so no one can tell you 'no' is something you already got called out for by Kilborn."

After stifling a chuckle, Buster said, "He... he may have said something about that. Old habits die hard, I guess?"

"I can't have them looking at me like that, Moon," Jimmy said, voice quiet and woven with trepidation. "I don't know why, but I can't stand it. I didn't go into business to be seen as some sorta monster, ya know? When I started Crystal Entertainment, I tried to be the nice boss, the fun boss. I could be your friend. But you know what happens when power and opportunity is that close by? You get taken advantage of. I became the biggest, baddest wolf in the room because it got me respect, it got me protection, and most of all, it got shit done. But the way they looked at me in there... they don't get it. They don't see me. They see the things I need to do to be me. And that's... I can't..."

"That guilt and shame right there? I want you to remember that—it's evidence that you have a soul," Buster said. "Pain is a signal that something is wrong. Your soul is crying out because deep down you know you did something horrific. Some part of you is not okay with it. Hold on to that part."

Buster moved in close to pat Jimmy's chest to make a point, realized that even sitting the wolf was a bit too tall for that, and resigned himself to patting his thigh instead.

"Mr. Crystal, I know what that feels like. I've let just about everybody back there down at some point or another. And you already know about the little incident when my theater collapsed. For weeks I used to dwell on the thought that I almost got my friends killed, played alternate scenarios in my head where someone did die... sometimes I couldn't look them in the eye. Turns out they all forgave me; I just couldn't forgive myself. I'm not saying it'll happen overnight, or you have to forget what you did... the shame will stop you from making those mistakes again, but don't let it consume you. That's no way to live. We all have to move forward."

"I see why I got conned by you," Jimmy said, much to Buster's chagrin. He chuckled at the koala's frown. "I ain't judging you, Moon. I'm just saying, you got a way with words sometimes. Maybe you should be my therapist."

"Uh, ah..." Buster let out a nervous chuckle, visions of Oliver Schwartz fleeing his own office in his mind's eye. "I'll leave that to the professionals."

Porsha got up and moved over to her father, offering a hand. "Are you ready to try this one more time?"

He took her hand.

Buster returned to the theater with Jerry and the Crystals right behind him. The fierce discussion between his troupe came to an abrupt halt upon sighting the arctic wolf. At least Miss Crawly wouldn't be needed to quiet them all down again.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" Buster asked, an unnecessary plea as he already had it. "This could have all gone a little better. It's my fault I didn't say anything about inviting Mr. Crystal here until the very last second. But he was invited, and that makes him our guest. I don't think it's too much to ask that we be cordial to our guests." There were a few sour faces, but he let out a quick sigh of relief when the protests he expected never came. "No one's going to forget the things he's done, especially not me. But that conflict wasn't as one-sided as it may have seemed, and in the aftermath, Mr. Crystal did drop the dossier against me and got Out of This World up and running again. Those were acts of good faith, and I think we can show him the same consideration."

"Please," Porsha added on, "I want my dad to know how cool, sweet, funny, smart, and loving you all are. We don't have to fight him anymore."

"When we came to Redshore City, all we wanted to do was put on the best show possible. No one was supposed to get hurt. We weren't supposed to make enemies." Buster gave Jimmy a passing glance. "I definitely didn't plan on breaking a dozen or so laws. I want to go back to that ideal version, where we can all coexist and win. After all, I stan optimism! And you guys do too, because that's maybe the first time I said that without getting any groans."

"I think we're just desensitized to it," Ash said.

Buster squeezed the porcupine's shoulder and gave her a smarmy grin. "It doesn't matter what you say, I consider that a win!"

Johnny turned to read the rest of the troupe's thoughts but found his gaze stuck on Ryan. The tiger flashed a faint grin, a nonverbal sign that he was aware of the gorilla's thoughts and backed them wholeheartedly. "I'm willing to give it a try," Johnny said. "Better than fighting all the time."

Similar sentiments were expressed among the rest of the troupe. Mending fences—or at least trying to—was much more appealing than unending conflict that had a chance of reigniting at the worst moments. And with Celeste Cassidy breathing down their necks, making peace with Jimmy Crystal would be one less thing to be stressed over, and could serve as a potential boon in the future.

"Great!" Buster exclaimed. "Now that that's settled, everyone should use these next minutes wisely because break time is almost over." He clapped his hands twice to motivate them, and the crowd broke off.

Buster retrieved the sticky bun he stashed away for later from Miss Crawly, broke it into two halves, and presented them to Jimmy and Jerry. Jimmy took a bite and Jerry reluctantly followed his lead.

"You're welcome to stay as long as you like," Buster told them. "No better way to get to know somebody than to spend time with them in their natural environment!" The koala went back into director mode, with Porsha following closely behind as his intern.

Jimmy took him up on his offer. After a few minutes of watching members of the cast and crew scurry about, he found his attention drawn to a particular pig with all the fashion sensibility of a disco ball.

"You!" he pointed at him. "The fatty with the funny accent."

Porsha slammed to a halt, whipping around with a scowl. "Daddy!" she hissed.

"Yeah, my bad. The fatty with the foreign accent."

Looking around, the pig realized there was no one else that fit the description and began a funeral march toward Jimmy. "Gunter," he introduced himself.

"Yeah, yeah, guten tag and all that. I wanna talk to you."

"It was not my idea to be tricking you with ze fraud, Mr. Crystal."

"No, we're past that. Mostly. I remember you from the auditions. A space epic with Clay Calloway... Out of This World was your idea, wasn't it?"

"Jah!"

"You're a creative guy, aren't ya?"

Gunter beamed and nodded.

"Let me ask you something... how would you like to be my Chief Creative Specialist? I'm looking to make a comeback and I need that kind of larger-than-life creative energy to pump up whatever I decide to do next."

"Chief... Creative... Specialist?" Gunter repeated as if hearing those words for the first time.

"You got it. I want you to pitch me ideas."

"You... you want to hear my ideas?"

Jimmy chuckled. There was a childlike charm to this odd if not imaginative simpleton of a hog. "What's the matter? You're the ideas guy, right? I'll pay you, naturally. What d'ya say?"

"You got it!" Gunter yelled. He did a triumphant shimmy that saw his body jiggle like gelatin.

"Great! When you're done with this rehearsal business, we can hash out the details." Jimmy began perusing his phone, but before he wandered off, he added, "I expect great things."

A few minutes later, his clothes and hair disheveled, Darius stumbled into the chaos of the backstage rush. "What did I miss?"

A/N

I want to apologize to all the Darius fans (?) reading. You probably figured it out already, but I have nothing for him. I could try to brainstorm some kind of arc or development for him, but the truth is that Sing already has a ton of characters and this story is better off if I prioritize certain characters rather than trying to give everyone a bit of spotlight. All I can promise is that he will continue to exist.