AN: Tiny warning, a bit of implied swearing. -w-"
Also, transphobic people get the heck out-
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Timpani, Rudy, and Aqua were in front of Marcus' door as I walked from the kitchen with Toady trailing behind. I went ahead and cleaned the rest of the dishes, not really in a rush to get involved in anything. But now, it looked to me like none of them could really get a proper response from Marcus no matter what they tried.
I paused my walk back to my room, stopping to see what kind of interactions they were even having. Rudy was knocking on the door frantically, Aqua was trying to get Rudy to stop knocking, and Timpani just seemed upset about Marcus locking himself in his room.
"Marcuuuuus!!! What's wrong?!" Rudy exclaimed.
"Rudy, you'll make it worse!" Aqua scolded her brother in a hushed voice.
"Marcus, could you please at least tell me what's wrong? I'm here to help, sweety," Timpani called through the door.
"...g-go away..." Marcus squeaked out.
I frowned in response, continuing down the hall with Toady before Timpani or the twins noticed me. Toady seemed concerned about me, giving off a beep with a worried look as we reached the Mirror Hall. I let out a sigh, opening the door to my father's old room and walking inside.
"I know that I really REALLY shouldn't be wanting to help out because it's literally life or death for me here, but I gotta do SOMETHING! I mean, if someone's upset you've GOT to cheer them up, right?" I asked Toady.
I sat on my father's bed, looking down at the robot only to see it look at me perplexed. Sighing, I pulled my legs up to my chest, burying my face into my knees.
"Why do I even bother, Toady? All I seem to do is look for trouble," I stated, mumbling into my legs. "I mean, why is the path to destruction always paved with good intentions?"
I readjusted, lying down on the mattress and looking up at the ceiling.
"Where is that fine line between doing a good deed to help everyone, or just doing a good deed in spite of someone?" I questioned. "Isn't that how villains are made? Isn't that how my parents ended up in The Underwhere? By taking their good intentions too far?"
I looked over the edge of the bed to Toady, waiting to see its answer. The mushroom bot beeped and stuck out its digital tongue, making me chuckle.
"Heheheh... Do you really think it'll be a smart idea to try and find out what's wrong?" I asked. "I mean, I always run the risk of his psycho alternate coming out and killing me with this."
Toady beeped again with a smile, which I returned.
"Very well," I replied. "Let's see how I can help!"
I sat upright and jumped to my feet with a smile. Kneeling down, I gave Toady a quick pat on the head.
"Stay here, okie dokie?" I told it.
I hummed and took my dirty clothes, putting them on top of the drone.
"And if Mrs.Timpani comes by asking about laundry, give her these, alright?" I said.
Toady beeped, bobbing its head a little to nod. I smiled, walking to the door and opening it up.
"If I'm not back in about a few hours, assume I'm hurt," I stated.
I heard Toady beep again as I slipped out, although I didn't see what its expression was in response. Maybe at some point I should get Toady a voicebox installed...
Starting back down the Mirror Hall, I tried to peer ahead and see if Timpani, Aqua, or Rudy were still there. Because this would end up being at least two times more complicated if I had to attempt to explain myself to any and or all of them. Thankfully, I couldn't see any of them as I neared Marcus' room.
I crept up to the door as quietly as I could, attempting to listen to see if I could at least hear him inside. For all I knew Timpani was able to coax him out, and I didn't want to lean against the door on account of what happened last night. However, all I could hear on the other end was sobbing.
Man, whatever that letter was had to have been MESSED UP.
I took a deep breath, balled up my hand into a fist, and gently rapped my knuckles against the door. The sobbing inside paused, so I could tell that he was at least awake.
"Marcus, I'm here to try and help you out," I called inside. "I might not get it entirely, but I can at least try to help-"
"J-just please DON'T, o-okay?" Marcus interrupted, pausing to sniffle. "I-I j-just need to try and f-fix it on my own..."
I sighed, shaking my head.
"Marcus, it's not okay to keep it bottled up. It'll be better for you to ask others to help with whatever it is!" I replied.
Although I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what the problem was.
"J-just go away..." Marcus mumbled.
I paused, hearing nothing else before I sighed again.
"Alright, I'm opening the door," I stated.
Not hearing a response from inside, I grew slightly more concerned as I slowly cracked open the door. Everything in Marcus' room was overall normal... except his bed looked like a mass of blankets on top of a large lump. I could only assume that he was curled up into a ball somewhere in the quilt cacoon.
"Marcus? You can tell me what's wrong, buddy..." I murmured, walking over to his bedside.
"Go away, jester boy."
I paused, arching an eyebrow in confusion. Did he..?
"Maastor?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah? Who'd you EXPECT, the tooth fairy?!" He retorted, sitting up and glaring at me with all of the blankets still wrapped around him.
Honestly, he didn't look really threatening right now, he just looked cozy.
"N-no, I just... thought that you guys only swapped at nighttime?" I questioned.
"HA! Shows what you know about either of us!" Maastor spat, tossing the blankets off of himself onto the bed. "Marcus' and my trigger isn't night and day, PHA!"
"Then what is it?" I asked before I could stop myself. "Wait, sorry, bad question right now... Um..."
I paused and looked up at him, being greeted with his normal frown.
"I just wanted to make sure Marcus was alright," I stated. "What was in that letter, anyway?"
Maastor scoffed, rolling his eyes and pulling the blankets back over himself.
"Marcus, Marcus, Marcus, BLECH! Don't bother to see if I'm fine," Maastor sarcastically retorted with an eye roll. "Get out of my room!"
With that, he wrapped the blankets around himself again and flopped back onto the bed turning away from me. That was... odd, to say the least. He seemed to be upset that I didn't ask about him instead of Marcus..? I didn't think he cared about me more than he would a spec of dirt!
"Look, I just came by to check on him because your mom and siblings couldn't get in," I tried to explain. "I'll happily leave you alone if you could at least tell me what the letter was about."
He growled in response, still not turning to face me.
"I thought that I told you to LEAVE?" He spat. "If you want answers about MARCUS, then annoy MARCUS! Do I look like his f***ing answering machine to you?!"
I stood taken aback a little by his outburst. I wasn't really sure what to do because I was mostly certain that something bad would happen if I left him alone. The last thing I needed was Marcus vanishing again and causing another panic.
I glanced around a moment until I saw his desk. On top of his desk was the opened letter with the paper neatly tucked back inside the envelope. Silently, I walked over to the desk and reached for the paper...
...only to find Maastor grabbing my wrist as I was about to pick it up.
"Move. That. Hand," Maastor growled.
I grunted as I tried to wrench my hand from his grasp, struggling to move it.
"Then let go of me!" I exclaimed as I felt his fingernails dig into my skin. "Ow! OW!"
I turned my head to look at him only to see a grin spread across his face as I struggled.
"Let go of me, man!!!" I shouted. "How would you like it if I grabbed you!?"
I whipped out my hand and grabbed ahold of the gem on his collar, ripping it off and leaving the front of his neck exposed. We both stumbled back a little, myself breathing a little heavy as I held the charm in my other uninjured hand.
"Not so nice when someone does it to you is it?! HA!" I laughed between breaths.
Maastor seemed to pause and do a double take, lifting a hand to his collar as if to check if it was actually gone.
"Did you just-?" Maastor questioned.
I flinched as his appearance suddenly changed in an instant, his body looking almost completely different. His facial structure changed to look more human but with a pale purple pigment, now with a nose on his face and sharp teeth instead of a jagged mouth. His hair was now slightly longer and looked wilder, still a purple color as well. The cloak he wore was the same color but looked more like a dress, highlighting his bust.
You read that right, he had a bust.
"Uh..." I trailed off, taking a step back. "I didn't see anything-?"
"I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU, JESTER BOY!!!" He screamed.
I quickly jumped to the side as he dove at my head, only to land on the desk and break it in half. Not wanting to be the next thing broken, I made a beeline out the door with the charm still grasped in my hand.
"GET BACK HERE WITH MY AMULET!!!" He yelled as he pulled himself from the pile of rubble.
Why do I always have to run for my life all the time?! I've only been in the living world for almost a week and I've nearly gotten killed about five times, not including this one! But then again, I apparently inherited my dad's luck since I haven't game overed yet.
I charged down the hall running as fast as I could manage, hearing Maastor hot on my heels. Not gonna lie, I either had to find a way to get him to stop or I was burnt toast. But what could I even do to calm him down?! Even if I just gave back the charm thing, he would still be after me!
Soon enough, I found myself at a dead end in the kitchen. I honestly didn't know where I expected to end up since I haven't been to a lot of places here...
"You can't run forever, brat!" Maastor spat, his voice close.
I frantically looked around the kitchen for any kind of item that could be used in defense. The frying pan Timpani left out from breakfast seems promising.
I started over to where the frying pan lay but paused in my stride, seeing something else. On the countertop, I could see something that I think was called a blender. This new plan was risky for mostly myself, but it involved fewer people getting injured, so that's the one I was going with!
I quickly rushed over to the blender and plugged it in as I could hear Maastor's footsteps coming closer. Maastor turned the corner and ran inside, stopping only a few yards from me, breathing heavily with a ticked-off expression.
"Give it back RIGHT NOW or I SWEAR TO GRAMBI-!" Maastor paused, seeing the blender next to me. "What in The bloody Underwhere are you doing?"
I took the lid off of the blender and dangled the gem over the container with the blades inside.
"Stand down man or I'm gonna make this purple gem into a grape smoothie!" I exclaimed.
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't know how a blender worked.
"You're bluffing," Maastor spat, his eyes narrowed.
I flipped one of the switches on the blender and it turned on, the blades whirring inside.
I had absolutely ZERO intention of actually wrecking his gem because that's way too mean in my opinion. At this point, I was just faking it until he wasn't gonna kill me. This is where my inherited great acting skills from my father come in!
"DON'T YOU DARE DESTROY THAT CHARM!" Maastor shouted.
The two of us tensed up, hearing someone else rushing down the hall towards us.
"Rudy, are you trying to use the blender again?! I told you that's off limits!" Timpani yelled from down the hall.
"Give me the amulet already, I'll do whatever, JUST GIVE IT BACK BEFORE MY MOTHER COMES!" Maastor frantically exclaimed in a hushed voice.
He looked extremely nervous, pulling at his hair from stress. Apparently, Marcus pulls his collar up when stressed and Maastor pulls at his hair.
"No more trying to kill me, got it?" I replied, curling my lip into a frown. "Or maul me, or stab me, or just hurting me in any way in general!"
Maastor scoffed in response, his normal angry expression back.
"What, so you can just kill me when my back is turned?" Maastor questioned sarcastically. "No de-"
"Marcus is that you in there?!" Timpani called from the hallway, now getting closer.
"Fine, DEAL! JUST GIVE ME THE GEM!" Maastor yelled, holding his hands out with his frantic expression back.
I closed the lid of the blender, turned it off, and tossed Maastor the purple gemstone. He caught it and pinned it back onto his collar with one swift motion. His appearance changed back to normal in an instant, just as Timpani rushed inside.
"DJ? Marcus? What are you two doing in the kitchen?" Timpani asked.
The two of us paused, not exactly having thought up an excuse to explain this.
"Uhhh... Marcus was showing me how to use the blender?" I offered.
Timpani arched an eyebrow in response, crossing her arms.
"I was simply yelling at DJ to turn it off before he hurt himself!" Maastor exclaimed, perfectly copying Marcus' tonality of concern.
One of these days he's gonna make me think he's Marcus or something because he is REALLY good at pretending.
"Well, I'm glad you're at least out of your room, sweety," Timpani replied with a smile, uncrossing her arms. "But what's with the alternate outfit..?"
Yeah, Marcus definitely didn't wear black, that was obvious when I met him. Plus Marcus always has his hair tied back with bangs covering his red eye.
"I-I just found it in my closet... My other cloak got a little messy from breakfast, eheh..." Maastor said with a really convincing sheepish smile and Marcus' voice.
"As long as you both clean up afterward and are super careful, you can try and make whatever it is you're making," Timpani giggled. "Just please turn it off when you're done, you know how the twins get."
"Alright, no prob, Mrs.Timpani!" I replied, waving goodbye to her.
Timpani waved goodbye to us with a smile and walked off, leaving the two of us to ourselves. (Which was in itself a dangerous thing.)
"Ugh, I hate pretending to be perfect little Marcus, BLECH!" Maastor spat, brushing invisible dirt off of his cloak. "I'm going back to my room."
"And I'm going with you," I stated, placing my hands on my hips. "You have a LOT of explaining to do to me!"
Maastor sneered in response, rolling his eyes as he started out of the kitchen, me following him.
"And why would I bother to do THAT?" Maastor questioned. "Just because I said I wouldn't kill you, DOES NOT make us friends!"
"You're going to tell me because I haven't told ANYONE, not even Mrs.Timpani about what happened when you and Marcus were missing! And if you don't want me to spill the Shroom Shake, you gotta tell me what this is all about!" I exclaimed.
He glared at me and I tried to frown in response, although I'm pretty sure that I looked rather ridiculous.
"NO," he stated flatly. "It's bad enough that you managed to take my charm off of my collar!"
"Speaking of which, I would like an explanation for that too," I replied.
Maastor growled and crossed his arms - or more like invisible arms - at me.
"Fine, don't say anything! I'll just keep annoying you until Marcus comes back," I said with a shrug.
I was mostly exaggerating, but I knew that the last thing he wanted was for me to be near him for longer than needed.
"Grrrr... If I explain what you want me to explain, will you FINALLY leave me alone?" Maastor questioned, sounding exasperated.
I raised my hand and crossed my heart.
"Promise!" I stated with a nod. "Assuming that's what you want me to do."
"Oh, trust me, I'd prefer you gone," Maastor spat with an eye roll. "Just follow me."
Maastor turned and walked out of the hall, only to stop.
"Huh? Why did you stop?" I asked, stepping out next to him.
"Eh, I gotta do something really quick," Maastor simply replied. "Gimme a minute."
He started down the hall in the direction opposite to where his room was. This was extremely suspicious... If I recalled correctly, Timpani said that this way led to the living room? What the heck would he want to do there?
I followed behind him at a reasonable distance as he went down the hall, eventually ending up in the living room. Staying by the doorway, I noiselessly watched as he crept inside, apparently trying not to make any noise going in. Sitting on the couch, both of them reading books, were Rudy and Aqua.
I watched Maastor stalk over towards them and panicked, seeing a smirk form on his face. Was he going to do something to his own siblings?!
"BOO!" Maastor shouted, jumping up from behind the couch.
Rudy and Aqua shrieked in surprise before the three of them all burst out laughing, Maastor laughing the hardest out of all of them.
"BLEH HEH HEH HEH! Glad to see that you two have hardly changed a bit since you were babies!" Maastor laughed with a teasing smirk.
The twins both burst into giggle fits as Maastor leaned over the back of the couch and messed with both of their hair.
"Where have you been for the last ten years?!" Aqua exclaimed.
"We missed you, Maastor!" Rudy giggled.
I arched an eyebrow in perplexion as Maastor wrapped both of them in a hug, a smirk on his face.
"Eh, came with the whole 'deal with the devil' thing," Maastor stated with a shrug. "But even after that you both STILL spook way too easily! Hahaha!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT. You both can tell the difference between Marcus and Maastor and yet your parents CAN'T?" I questioned the twins.
Rudy and Aqua both turned to look at me as if I had asked a question with an obvious answer.
"Well, yeah, comes with the whole tattle ability thing," Aqua replied.
"Plus it's kinda obvious sometimes," Rudy added with a shrug. "Marcus almost NEVER makes any kind of trouble."
"And that is why I'M the fun one, right~?" Maastor teased, squeezing them both in another hug.
Rudy and Aqua giggled more before Maastor let go of them, standing upright.
"Just don't cause mother too much trouble, alright?" Maastor told them with a grin. "At least not without me!"
Aqua and Rudy smiled and nodded in response, still giggling under their breaths.
"I'll catch up with you more later," Maastor stated, giving them a mock salute with his hand. "See ya!"
"Bye!" Rudy and Aqua chirped in response.
Maastor turned and started down the hall, and I couldn't help but gawk in response. Snapping myself out of my daze, I rushed up behind him.
"Dude, what was that?" I asked with a smile. "It's sweet that you have a soft spot for your sibli-!"
"Tell anyone else about what you just saw and I'll rip your intestines out," Maastor spat, his mood back to sour. "Let's just get to my room so we can get the stupid questionnaire done with."
His response caught me off guard a little, although it reminded me of who I was dealing with.
"U-uh... Right," I replied.
I kept my head down as the two of us made our way back to his room. At least now I know that he's able to care about people. I mean, he seemed pretty vulnerable around his little siblings... Could he maybe be that vulnerable with others?