Caleb let out a groan as he stretched, his mind still a few hours behind. The last few hours of the festival were insane, with everyone partying and drinking and eating and dancing and- He shook his head, blinking as his early morning thoughts made him more delirious. With a sigh, he rolled out of bed, careful to knock Gladius down on the floor. He stumbled on his feet before catching himself on a nightstand.
Taking a bit to steady himself, he lets out a second sigh and moves over to his dresser. Passing a glance at his three critters, he smiles slightly at the sight of them all cuddled up together in a jumbled pile. They honestly deserved their rest.
After looking away, she started to pull out his outfit for the day. It was cosy but still presentable, all because they had their early screening of Encanto today! The timing was a bit unfortunate, but they'd just have to shoulder on and not pass out. So with one final shake of his head, he stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
As he turned the shower on and started getting undressed, he started to glance over at the mirror. He felt the inklings of a beard starting to form, and frown, not a fan of how it felt at all. So as the steam started to pour out from the now heated shower, the boy took his electric razor and headed into the show.
As the water rushed over his body, he shaved all over where he knew the beard was. He was pretty good, but knew he'd have to do some clean up after he was out. So when he felt he had shaved more than enough, he set his razor down on a shelf, and started to properly wash his whole body of all the smelly festival funk. It was nice, and did help him wake up just that bit more. But it still wasn't enough. Nothing would probably be enough.
After soaping up, he started to use his brush to scrub all over. As he did so, his mind wandered at the upcoming movie. He was still worried how he would react to it, especially since he had learned more plot details during the week of planning for the festival. It was really starting to hit too close to home for him, so he was scared it would spiral into him hating the movie.
He just pushed those thoughts aside and focused on finishing up in the shower. That was all that mattered now. So he scrubbed up, washed off the soap, turned off the water, and stepped out of the shower to get dried off. Today would be okay, he told himself. It was going to be a-okay. So he smiled and finished drying off, doing a quick once over with his razor over the sink. When his beard was shaved down to perfection, he made quick work of getting changed and getting out of his somewhat stuffy bathroom.
Once he was in his wider space, he saw his roommates were all still fast asleep. So with minimal movement and not a sound coming out of his mouth, he tip-toed out of his room and headed into the hallway, carefully shutting his door behind himself. Once he knew no sound would disturb his sleeping companions, he started heading towards the cafe for a hearty breakfast.
As he walked down the hall, a very dishevelled Amy stumbled out of her room, looking like death.
Caleb yelped. "Amy! Jesus, what happened to you?"
The Girl Who Waited gave the boy a very deadly look. "What do you think?" She rasped out. She then blinked and sighed, head limply looking down at the floor. "Sorry, last night was just a lot. And even after me and Rory decided to have some… fun…" The boy's eyes bugged out as he paled. "And we were at it till 4 in the bloody morning."
The boy shot her an over dramatic frown, eyes still wide and wild.
"Yeah, I know…" She shook her head again. "So I'm just going to get me and Rory some coffees while he's in the shower. We'll probably join you guys later, but if not definitely when we go to the movie…" walked over, movements sluggish and rigid. Caleb watched her leave, wincing when she smacked her hip into one of the hall's side tables.
Frowning, he continued down the hall, with more of his friends walking out of their rooms looking no better.
"Maybe I should stick up a curfew date or something…" He mumbled to himself.
"Do that and you're probably dead", Steve said suddenly, making the boy jump and look at him. The crafter was one of the only few who looked like their usual selves. "Especially if Majima or Eva hear that. They really had a lot of fun, but don't look… great… right now…" Caleb followed the builder's gaze down the hall, and gulped fearfully as the yakuza and Fitness Buff stormed past towards the cafe. Their eyes were dark with deep bags under them, and their usual hairstyles were a complete disaster of loose strands and split ends.
As they marched off, Caleb slid up next to Steve as a sort of protection. "If they come at us, you're going first."
Steve gave him a wide-eyed look, then silently walked on ahead towards the cafe. Upon entering, things were in an eerie in-between of calm and tense. Those that were sitting down still looked on the brink of passing out, or were on edge because of the lack of sleep and way too much partying. Off at a corner table, Izzy and Merida were leaning against each other for some semblance of support. Elsewhere, Scrap Baby was sputtering and occasionally glitching, with NightBon's gears clicking loudly and Molten's wires squeaking loudly.
Everyone else besides Steve, Jenny and Katania were no better. So deciding not to poke the bear with the stick, he headed over to Katania, who actually left the party early last night to get a decent sleep. Seems like that was paying off.
"Everyone looks awful…" Kat mumbled as she sipped her tea, scanning over the others. "And you wonder why I said all those drinks and snacks you got for our spot were a bad idea…"
Caleb nodded, taking the seat next to her. "Yeah, yeah, you were right. I'll remember that next time we decide to play party planner." He took the bottle of water she passed him, taking a sip before speaking again. "It makes me wonder if we should postpone the movie to tomorrow. Or next week."
"We could…" Kat whispered. "But Rainbow's been very on board with this. So I feel like pulling out at the last second would make her pretty upset."
"She's my mom, she'd understand…"
"I'd still like to see the movie today, though", Jenny said as she sat with the duo. Steve joined them shortly after, breakfast in hand. "Sure, we have a lot of sour pusses with us right now, but give it a bit and everyone will be back to normal in no time."
"How can you be so sure, Jen?" Caleb asked, his voice laced with doubt.
"Considering just a gut feeling", she responded as she scratched her non-existent nose.
"I'm with Jenny, honestly", the crafter said as he started to eat his breakfast. "A nice shower, getting dressed, and especially some breakfast will help reinvigorate everyone. And before you know it, we'll all be heading out to the theatre!"
Caleb simply hummed as a chef came over to his table. He quietly mumbled his order and returned to his silent thoughts as his food was being prepared and his table mates discussed other topics. But his thoughts were cut off when Katania nudged him.
"Are you excited for the movie, Caleb?" She asked gently. "I know you felt like you were connecting with Mirabel a lot in the trailers…"
"I am excited!" He said a bit loudly. "Like, honestly I am. But… I don't know. I guess I'm also just kinda scared at what I'll see… You guys know my parents sucked, so I'm scared that if something happens in the movie, I'll shut down and crack."
There was a sombre silence over the table for a moment, before Steve leaned over and put a reassuring hand on Caleb's shoulder. The boy looked over at his friend, and he could see the reassurance in the crafter's eyes.
"Whatever happens, Caleb, we'll help you", he said. "I promise."
"Same here", Jenny said with a nod.
"Never think otherwise", Katania said with a smile.
The boy beamed. "Thanks guys."
Things fell into a comfortable silence as Caleb finally got his food, and the four table mates started to spark up a new conversation to help lighten the mood. It did do wonders, and it seemed to slowly fill out into the rest of the room. Looking past his friends on occasion, he could see how the rest of his family were starting to recover from their hangovers and lack of sleep.
Steve's eyes glinted with a slight smugness, which made the others roll their eyes.
Time continued to truck on at a decent pace, with all the others slowly but surely doing their usual morning routines. As Caleb walked out of his room with Gladius by his side, he took a deep breath at the now much lighter mood.
The sword stretched his wings as he fully started to wake up. "I never had a sleep as amazing as that in all my life…" He strained out with a groan. When he recovered, he looked down the hall. "Well, I believe we should head to the foyer. Rainbow might be waiting for us at this point."
Caleb nodded in response, heading down the hall towards the front entrance. As he turned the corner, Katania joined them with a beaming smile and fully dressed up in more appropriate attire. Caleb smirked at her.
"Kinda bummed you you aren't going in that cute house-coat", he joked.
Katania blushed, then lightly smacked his arm. "As if I was going out in my special house-coat. That thing is basically my wearable blanket. I'm not going out to a sticky, dirty movie theatre with it on."
"I'm only kidding, Kat!" The boy said with a smile and laugh. "As if I'd let you go out in a fluffy green coat like that. You deserve to have your untrained comfy clothes."
The girl gave her friend a pointed look, then glanced at Gladius. "Do you have anything to add?"
"No I do not", the sword said with dignity. "I know now not to kick the hornet's nest."
"Good." Things fell into a comfortable silence as the trio walked down the hall. They waved good morning to staff, stopped to occasionally have a brief conversation, and discussed future plans after the movie. But soon enough, they reached the front entrance, and sure enough, Rainbow was there waiting for them by the open door. The goddess paused from staring at her phone to glance up at them, and smiled as they came down the steps.
"I was wondering when you guys would show up", she said cheekily. "After last night, I knew you'd all need some extra time, so I delayed the screening till an hour after."
Caleb perked up and looked at his adoptive mom. "Really? Wow, thanks mom. I didn't think you'd go that far."
"Nothing is too far for you and your friends, sweetie. Now get into the limo, Virus is a bit caught up with something so we got some extra time."
The trio nodded and headed outside, the skies a bit overcast but not dark. It made it feel a bit more cosy. The boy smiled as he opened the door for his two best friends, and after they got in, he headed in and got comfy. As he relaxed, the others slowly started filing into the vehicle with brighter expressions.
With a relaxed sigh, Caleb let the sound of the conversation enter his mind as the limo drove off.
~X~
Despite living here and having so much to do over the three years since arriving, none of the group aside from Kat ever went to the Capital's movie theatre. So when the limo pulled into the parking lot, the group all filed out and looked at their destination.
It was a massive building that used architecture of the earliest single screen movie theatres to its advantage, fusing it with the neon lights of a casino from Las Vegas. Virus and Rainbow walked ahead with Lightness and Darkness by their sides, leaving the rest of the family to take in the exterior.
"So this is the theatre, huh?" Majima said with an impressed tone. "Makes me wonder why we never came here sooner."
"Because we have our insane home theatre system", Star said as she skipped ahead a bit, Tom following after her (he ended up staying the night) with a silent nod.
"She's got a point", the demon said with a shrug. "From what I heard, you guys have the best set-up ever, so going to a movie theatre seems pointless."
"But that just makes this all the more special!" Caleb cheered as we walked ahead and turned around to face the others. "This'll just be another memory we get to share together, and then look back on with massive smiles."
"That was so cheesy, Caleb", Flowey said flatly, which made everyone look at him with a glare, but he just ignored it and continued. "But it's also true. Plus, I know these kinds of places have more than just movies, so let's go and see what we can break!" The flower used vines from the bottom of his pot to crawl towards the building with surprising speed.
As he darted off, most of the others shared looks, shrugged, and followed, leaving Caleb at the back of the pack with Katania and Gladius. He turned to face them and smiled. "Of course Flowey has to say he cares in his own way."
"Sometimes I really wish I could clip him like a weed…" Katania mumbled through clenched teeth. She shook her head and followed after the group, with Caleb and Gladius in tow. They both stayed silent, not really knowing how to react to what she said.
As the group all entered the building, they were all jaw-dropped at the sight of the interior. It looked less like an old theatre, and more like the inside of NASA headquarters. There were several stories to this place, with multiple offices, restaurants and a massive arcade all just here.
The group heard someone call them, and looking ahead they saw Rainbow waving them down at the concessions stand. Caleb made his way over as the others all disbursed to explore the area more. When he made it to Rainbow's side, he looked up at the massive menu.
"So we're ordering consessions?" He asked.
"Yes and no", Rainbow explained. "We basically have our own personal theatre, kinda a VIP one, with a bar and everything. This is more just so they can have more time to get all the food ready and such."
"So while we do this, the others get to mess around?" Caleb asked again.
"Yep. Now c'mon, the sooner we do this the better." The mother and son headed towards the counter, which left the others to all do their own things elsewhere in the cinema.
Off towards a bunch of authentic movie posters, Steve was with the still estatically engaged twin fireballs, the three of them looking over the wall.
"It's crazy how much history these things give off, huh?" The crafter said in awe. "All of these movies are legendary! Or at least based on what Caleb and Katania told me."
"Some of these are…" Izzy said with a nod. Her eyes fell onto one movie, and she let out a gasp as she pointed to one poster in particular. "Ooooooo, Merry, we should see this movie for our next date!"
The princess looked at the poster, and was pleasantly surprised to see it was for The Never-Ending Story. "Really? Would've expected you to pick Willy Wonka or maybe even Tarazan."
"I don't know, I'm feeling in a bit of a whimsical mood", the Psycho Hose Beast said with a shrug. "Blame it on Encanto."
Steve blinked then looked over the posters, humming in thought. "I don't know a lot about it, but maybe you two can see Twilight too?" When he looked back, he nearly fell over at the intense glares the couple shot at him.
"NO", the both droned out. They walked on past, the builder sighing a bit before following after them.
Elsewhere, Buttercup had broken away from her sisters to tag along with Majima, Barranco and Flowey so she could check out the arcade. She hovered through the rows of consoles, eyeing everything with the gaze of a hawk. Some other kids were running about, playing games at their own skill levels.
Eventually, she spotted a cabinet with light guns as the main way to play. Seemingly a generic shooter about giant bugs or something. With a shrug, she hovered over and put in a quarter, grabbing the Player 1 gun and getting ready. As the game started, the yakuza, flower and Rabbid came up and all watched silently.
"If any of you want, I could use a Player 2", the green-clad Powerpuff said, gesturing to the second lighter gun.
"Ah, what the heck", Barranco said. He jumped up onto the stool and put in a quarter, grabbing a gun and tag teaming the game with Buttercup. Thanks to his previous experience with firearms, he was a pro at this.
Majima grinned evilly as the duo crushed the game, but was thrown off as he felt a tug on his pant leg. Looking down, he was surprised to see a sweet looking kid looking up at him innocently.
"Excuse me… ?" The boy said quietly.
"What do you want, kid?" The yakuza said with a surprising amount of restraint.
The boy looked down shyly for a moment, nervously shuffling his feet before he held up a notepad and pen. "Can I have your auto-graph?"
The eyepatched maniac gave a look of surprise, then smiled and took the notepad and pen. "You're lucky you're cute. What's your name?"
"Jeff."
"Alrightly then, Jeff, here you go." The man gave the kid back his notepad, and the boy ran off while calling back a thank you. When he was out of sight, Flowey appeared on the yakuza's shoulder. "Didn't think someone would ask me that."
"Well, we did help with the festival", the flower mentioned offhandedly. "And that was our first big contribution to this city. So now people will probably be wanting to talk to us more when we head out."
"Great, just what I wanted…" Majima said with a sigh. He looked over at Buttercup and Barranco as they got a high score, high-fiving at their success.
"Let's go and see what else we can crush!" Buttercup cheered. Barranco cheered as they both ran off, the yakuza and flower following after them. As they walked, Majima's expression soured about getting all this potential attention.
He did like attention. He just also liked to spend his time how he wanted to. When he was on break, he wanted to be left alone. Having to hide his identity like a celebrity made his stomach lurch.
Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about that too much when he felt his phone vibrate. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled it out to see the text. "Time to go and see the movie, punks. C'mon, the sooner we get back the better."
Buttercup and Barranco stopped and groaned, and followed the man towards where the group were all meeting up. But when she flew back over to her sisters, the green-clad Powerpuff did lighten up again.
At the front of the pack was Caleb, Katania and Gladius. They were standing before a guarded hallway, waiting for the group to all form up.
"Okay, movie starts in a few minutes…" The boy said. He looked over the group. "Is everyone here?" The group all shared looks, then looked back and nodded. The boy sighed and smiled. "Alright! So we'll have a personal bar for ourselves, just be sure to stay quiet when you go and get yourself something to eat. And do eat something, this'll be lunch."
Everyone nodded and headed down the hall, walking past other empty theatre rooms with various movie posters lining the walls. Some were for current or upcoming movies, and others were for classics. Maria mumbled to Manolo about maybe watching Titanic at some point, while Vanellope discussed with the other kids what kind of crazy movies they'd want to see.
Ralph overdramatically frowned, mumbling to Amy "Never show them Despicable Me…"
Dave Overheard him and shot him a glare, but was brushed off as they all filed into the massive theatre room. It was what you would expect, only with all the normal seating replaced with more traditional restaurant seating. Caleb was led to a table off to the side by Kat, which she seemingly claimed the moment they walked in.
"Need a good view of the screen", She said with a smile.
Caleb rolled his eyes with a smile, and turned his attention to the screen as the lights dimmed. The music for the main Disney logo started to play out, and the bespectacled boy braced himself for a movie that was definitely going to destroy him emotionally. He just knew it.
~X~
About two hours later, the family as a whole left the theatre, discussing the movie and how they felt on it. Reactions were generally positive, with the stand out points being the music and the visuals. Although something everyone definitely agreed was amazing was the main character Mirabel. She had a sort of energy that reminded everyone of a certain someone.
Said certain someone who was stewing with conflicting emotions.
Just as he felt was going to happen, he both loved and hated the movie. Loved because he loved the characters, the world, the music, all of it. But hated it because of a spiteful, burning jealously for a life he never had. For a family that should have been like the Madrigals, especially at the end.
So he walked on with a clouded expression and lips pinched shut, hugging himself as a sort of support. Gladius and Katania were at his side, offering their own reassurances to hopefully keep him from snapping, which was getting progressively harder as the family all made their way outside back towards the limo.
Rainbow bit her lip, looking at her adopted son's rigid form and tense movement, and cleared her throat. "If it means anything, Caleb, it just shows how irredemable your old parents were…"
Caleb twisted his body a bit, like there was an itch on his back. "I know… It's just… Why. Why did they treat me so badly. What was so wrong with me that they had to lash out at me specifically." The family all winced at the mention of 'lash'. Even though Caleb's scars had long healed at this point, they were still visible, and almost tended to flair up whenever he was stressed. "Just… Encanto is just making me jealous."
"Hey, kid, look at me", Ralph said, speeding ahead so he could kneel in front of the boy. "Even if that al happened, just try and focus on all that you have now. Don't start spiralling on us just because it makes you jealous you never had a certain life. Because if you did have a life like that… where would that leave all of us?"
Caleb blinked and then wiped his nose, his body relaxing as a smile slowly started to form on his face. "You're right, Ralph. I wouldn't have had this life, so I guess in the end it was good." He looked over his shoulder and smiled, then quickly grabbed Gladius and started to swing him around, running on ahead. "I wouldn't have gone on a crazy adventure where I saw worlds collide, rules shatter, and…" He stood straight for a moment. "Well, the almost dying wasn't that good, honestly…"
"But even still!" Kat cheered as she hugged Caleb's side, making him blush a bit and the rest of the group to share discreet glances. "You got to meet me and Gladius, you have a home, all of that! You're my best friend anyway, and I don't think I'd have it any other way!"
Caleb beamed and stabbed Gladius into the ground, who quickly wiggled out and hovered next to his two companions. He crossed his wings, making the boy blush sheepishly.
"Sorry about that, Gladdy…" He said apologetically. "Just getting pumped up again!"
"I know you are, my boy", the sword said with a laugh. "We just don't want to have a repeat of last time, right?"
Caleb paled and shook his head. "Definitely not." He turned around and took a step…
Only for the sound of a deep, booming crack to echo across the parking lot. Everyone froze, eyes wide. The world around them shook a bit, but after a moment everything still. Caleb relaxed and looked between Kat and Gladdy, the three of them sharing a shrug.
But as soon as Caleb took another step, the ground underneath him suddenly cracked apart, starting from where he stabbed Gladius into the ground. With a yelp, the three of them were pulled into a strong force as a portal revealed itself under the pavement.
"CALEB!" Everyone else screeched. They all ran ahead, but were too late as the trio were pulled into the swirl of colours. When Ralph made it over and reached down to them, the portal closed, revealing only pipes and wires.
No one said a word as the gravity of the situation weighed on them, only for Rainbow to finally speak.
"MOTHERFU-"
~X~
And that's chapter 11 done and dusted. It's time we begin the next part of the story: A retread of the first DCT! Obviously, it won't be the same worlds, I want things to still be different. But yeah, more multiverse hopping! I was super excited to get to this point. After so long, we're here!
I won't spoilt too much, I'll give two hints for the upcoming worlds: one is that they are all new, and two is that you already know one of them. That's all I'll say.
Another big thing is that Katania is tagging along this time! She is and always was a big part of the cast, considering she's one of my main three OCs, so this is to make up for not really having her at all except at they beginning and end of the first DCT. She'll get a lot of moments to shine, you won't be disappointed,
Anyway, the beginning arc is fully complete! Yep, I'm fully bringing back the arc set-up, they're just going to be less arcs. To make up for it a majority of them will be longer rather then the majority being three last the first story. So hopefully y'all have fun!
Up next: Off on another inpromptu adventure, Caleb, Gladius and Katania are whisked away to an isolated tropical island in the middle of the pacific that is home to a parculiar hyena and vicious shark…
~Caleb~