The pounding of wood broke the silence of a peaceful morning. It echoed off the exterior of the library's front doors and into the streets. After a few moments, the banging of wood repeated, but this time on Fuma's door. This went on for an hour as something went door to door, knocks heavy enough to cause splinters. Could it be something that crawled out of the forest?

No, it was just your king.

Standing before the small house on the small hill, your king in golden armor, with royal grace, pounded a piece of paper into it's door. Pridemoor had some trifles with the woman in the past, but surely, all peasants, Jinx or not, deserved a seat at his royal feast. And this was no regular round table! "And with that," Pridemoor twirled to face the empty streets of Home, "My royal birthday guest list is complete!" On the door behind him, nailed into the wood, was a piece of red construction paper. It spoke gloriously of Pridemoor's upcoming birthday party. This would have been rather delightful to receive,

had he not done this three times earlier this week. Once again, every door in Home had it's own invitation nailed into it. But this time you knew it was legit. He did his own macaroni art, depicting what was supposed to be Pridemoor eating what was supposed to be a slice of cake. Having fulfilled his political agenda, he threw the hammer and nails into the yard behind him. "Now I am hungry..." He rubbed the chin of his helmet in thought, "To the taco stand! The man of bones will make me a breakfast taco, flour with eggs and sausage! And I shall decree it: The Pridemoor Special #5! With royalty discount, of course!" Babbling in his kingly voice, Pridemoor began to strut down the path, towards the sheriff's office. Surely he was awake at six in the morning.

"This will be AMAZING!" Sans shouted excitedly, bolting around his house, which was also both the sheriff's office and local taco joint. After having opening his door thinking to have a visitor, he had gotten yet another royal invitation from King Pridemoor! He figured if he was invited this much, they must be great friends! And great friends needed to be fed great meals, therefor Sans was already working on plans to bring a small feast of tacos to the Royal's birthday.

But first, Sans was getting ready for his day! Having put on his usual outfit, outfitted with his 'battle body' shoulder guards and heroic cape, he jumped in front of his large wall mirror, striking a pose.



After taking a moment to pose in the mirror, Sans got to work in the next most important area; his kitchen. While Fuma and some of the others went out to hunt for food, they only prepped it in primitive ways! Sans was a masterful cook, and turned anything they brought into some sort of taco. Even if there was no meat.

This week, there was meat, however. From some strange, large turtles the hunters found. Goombella had explained they were called Koopas, and were a native of her world; The fact they were being eaten was a terrible thing to her, but she didn't realize these weren't like normal Koopas. They didn't speak, or attempt to even communicate. They just attacked, and if you didn't fight back, you were done for.

Sans hummed to himself, as he began preparing enough food for a snack for everyone in the village: Not that everyone ever showed up for their food, but, even if they didn't, he could always deliver! As long as nobody caused trouble, that is...



After having been awakened by Pridemoor's fourth invitation to his party, Goombella was sitting in the Library (Misspelled outside on the sign when Sans fixed it, which reads "Librarby") enjoying peace and quiet. She simply spent most of her time indoors, unless she needed something, or someone. Sadly, it looked like she might have to go out today. She currently had no water, or food. She wasn't hungry right now, but knew she would be later. "I sure could go for a Glitzville hotdog right about now." She said, sighing.

Deciding to get it over with, the Goomba got up and whipped her hair back, before carefully sliding her head into her miner cap. She was presentable enough, she figured, so she walked out of the Librarby, wondering just what she was going to do about food. She couldn't eat Koopa, so Sans' tacos were out of the question. There had to be something else around here somewhere, right?

But who the heck was even up this early, anyways?

Amethyst had been 'resting' on top of her house, eyes closed and with a smile on her face. She was content at the moment, even if some may find it unusual to be technically lounging atop their house. But to her, any place was a place to rest! Not like anyone could really stop her, even if it meant she would probably get scolded by Sans whenever he made his rounds. However, her rest was soon disturbed when she heard someone making a ruckus with wood and pounding. She chuckled to herself until she realized it was their supposed ruler, making her laugh even louder than before. She didn't really believe him to be any sort of ruler, especially when he seemed like more of a defective person than her, but she honestly didn't really care to do anything about it. Not like she would make a better ruler, but she definitely had him beat at being lazy.

Speaking of that, she still needed to make up her mind on if she would attend his birthday. She wasn't sure why humans even considered doing such a thing, it seemed sorta pointless with how little they lived. Then again, when compared to how long a gem can last... She wasn't so sure. Shrugging the thought off, she decided she would ultimately attend. Free food sounded nice, even if she didn't need it. It made her laugh again when she remembered how she had once made a burrito, poured chips on top of it and then rolling that up with a pizza to make a very large burrito. Man, she really wished they would make one of those again, though she doubted the place could afford it.

And so ultimately, she continued to simply lounge around on her roof some more, continuing to feign sleep and relaxing to the sound of an enthusiastic king's movement.

As usual, he's got one hell of a view of the sunrise. Sure the tiles are cold and more than a bit uncomfortable to lay on but its nothing for something this keen. The village of Home (and what sort of lazy unimaginative loser picked that kind of a name is beyond him) is pretty quiet around this hour and it's a nice time to plan out what he'll probably do that day. Or at least it should be if not for Mr Ego Bigger Than Mr Shell-For-Brains Is Always Beaten By Red Fatsos. Mr L rolls his eyes as the freak finishes pummeling on every door in place. "Geeze. Sometimes I don't know who's worse: him or the Koopa creep. ... eh, probably him as at least King Incompetent ain't nowhere near here."



Speaking of Koopas how weird is it that some of the Pit rejects running around happen to look and move like them? Sure they are dumber than normal and just blindly attack but it sends chills down his spine at the thought of munching on their meat. He's not nuts like a Yoshi so while the thief might eat Koopa Pasta there's no way he'd eat Pasta with Koopa. Blegh. Looks like it's another day of pretty much Shroom Shakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for him.

A flash of something purple catches his eye as Mr L starts to get a move on. There is no small amount of relief when he realizes it's just that butterball. Apparently she's doing the same thing as him, just on a distant roof. Huh. Wonder if she does this a lot. Not like he really paid much attention to her before.

Jibanyan was awakened by something less than pleasant, but not exactly unfamiliar. The loud pounding on the wooden door of the storage house was the fourth time this week, the first one nearly scaring the otherworldly life out of the poor cat Youkai, and he already knew who was responsible, so one could imagine his dull surprise when the red cat Youkai saw the red paper nailed to the poor wooden door. The rather ‘elaborate’ drawing on said paper was new though, so he wondered if the 'king' had finally made up his mind about the event time.

"So he finally did it for real, nyan. Maybe he’s been holding off the party because there’s nyo cake, nyan?" he wondered to himself out loud, having taken a guess from the work of art. "Then again, he most likely will have us watch him eat the cake, nyan…" With a sigh, Jibanyan folded the paper and slipped it into his yellow haramaki, the belly warmer around his red and white body. Since he was up and about, he figured that he might as well start crossing off items from his mental to-do list. A big yawn and a morning stretch later, the cat closed the door and made a jog down the road on his two feet towards the only old-fashioned Eastern house in the village.

Jibanyan promised Fuma that he would bring some seeds over which he conveniently found after foraging near the edges of the forest, but jury was still out on whether or not those seeds would be of use to the hunter. Either way, he thought that he’s bound to find out sooner or later anyway, so he wasn’t particularly worried.



"Shiro, can you open the door?" Jinx's voice could be heard from behind the wooden door moments after Pridemoor had taken his royal leave, sounding not too pleased to hear the loud pounding. She was just about to wake up when the pounding started, so the crude alarm wasn't really necessary. With a squeak, Shiro, the white familiar, pushed the door with all the little being's might before scuttling out to see the invitation crudely nailed to the front door. She tried prying off the paper herself to no avail, so she peeked from behind the door and chattered, calling for her fellow familiar. Already bouncing with energy, Kuro, the black familiar, flew away and disappeared behind the open door. The two tried to pry the paper off together, but were left empty-handed. They refused to give up, however, and so they huffed and puffed before giving the paper the hardest tug they could muster. With a loud squeak, it finally came off... because Jinx, having decided that they were taking too long and having gone to check on them, finally pulled the paper herself.

A brow raised, Jinx glanced at the scribbled picture. That was different than the last three invitations nailed to her door. Maybe it actually meant something, but she couldn't exactly tell what it's supposed to be. "Huh, who knew the royal highness has artistic talent?" she mused, a sarcastic tone for the great 'king'. Taking a look at the drawing, Shiro seemed to get the message and chattered to Jinx, speaking in a language only she and Kuro could understand. "Cake? Lame!" Jinx rolled her eyes in response, then another question popped up. "Who's making it though?" Tapping her chin, the redhead tried to come up with an answer, but she couldn't be bothered to finish the thought. "Eh, who cares? At least we're invited."

To say that Jinx didn't always get along with the golden 'king' was an understatement, but tolerating him had gotten easier with time. She was legitimately surprised that Pridemoor would be gracious enough to invite her after the last hijink between her and the 'king', but she figured that he had let bygones be bygones. Kuro piped up with his own opinion on the matter, chattering and spinning around Jinx's head. "You're right, Kuro. We should get him a present~!" Jinx replied with a smile, but it didn't take long for said smile to pull apart into a mischievous grin as she left the house, Shiro and Kuro following close by. "I wonder if he likes pink glitter bombs!"

"Man of Bones," Knocking returned to the sheriff's door, but much more elegantly than before. For indeed, it was not by the brute force of a hammer, but the delicate whacks of Pridemoor's royal golden staff. "Your ruler, King Pridemoor, humbly sentences you to craft for him the newly decreed 'Pridemoor Special #5'. It shall be crispy and juicy, and will overthrow the might of 'Pridemoor Specials #3 and #2', but not to be greater than the 'Pridemoor Original #1'. That, I save for my special day..." The king had resorted to leaning on his staff as he spoke, lifting a hand in the air to visualize his words to the sheriff's door.

"And I plead you hurry, for as your king's stomach rumbles, this village's welfare is on standby!" Oh, poor poor king! With the grumble in his tumble, how is Pridemoor to keep his Kingdom of Home running. This was quite urgent indeed...

((Please excuse my small post. I'm swamped with work tonight. :S))

"Another Special!" The Skeleton said with delight, though found himself slightly worried; "What's a #5 though?" He pondered, as he bolted over and opened the door. Spotting the presence that was King Pridemoor, he swung his door wide open, inviting him inside. "Hello there, Your Highness!" Sans greeted, excitedly. He didn't much mind Pridemoor; He seemed alright, and he was royalty, so Sans knew he had to be respectful. Anyone that'd come over to eat with him was instantly cool in his book. Though, as he let Pridemoor enter, and closed the door, he started sweating a bit.

"So what's a number 5?" He asked, rushing over to his taco bar; which was really just a fridge that worked half the time, and a long table that'd seen better days. He had a rather large plate of tacos already on the table, all labelled for the townsfolk. Though sometimes he didn't get thanked, he felt like he was doing the right thing by gifting his tacos to others. But if he was to deliver to the entire village, he'd have to finish with his friend Pridemoor first.

"This koopa stuff is really good with ketchup~" He commented, sloppily dumping his homemade ketchup onto one of his tacos, before devouring it before Pridemoor's eyes. The look on his face expressed the joy of his sudden meal, but now he was at full attention for the King; with a bit of ketchup on his face, that is.

All of this cooking, all the time. It made him think of home; Like most of the others, he wanted to go home, too. He missed his brother, his friends, and his bedtime stories! Nobody seemed to like to tell stories except for Goombella, and all of hers were weird, or boring. There was this one about teenage vampires in love, or something. He'd rather read about giraffes instead.

Though he hadn't been able to continue taking Alphys' cooking lessons, he managed on his own fairly decent. He wished she was here, however. She was such a strong, and awesome, fighter. She'd uphold the law a lot better than him.

But she wouldn't.

Sans shook off the thoughts, waiting on Pridemoor's instructions.





Waddling along like a Goomba does, she pondered what she could do. The first thought was to simply ask if anybody had anything without Koopa in it; but she didn't want to seem like a beggar, and she was an independent Goomba for the most part, if she dared say so herself. So she decided that she'd find something on her own. She knew mushrooms grew around here; and she'd even found a couple of Item Blocks before. Not that they had anything too useful. But if she ventured, she might manage to find something.

Of course, most of that was in the forest. And, well... In the forest was that hillbilly and his monster. She'd had a narrow escape from Kled before, and didn't want to do that again, so she hoped she could find something along the houses. Unless someone had been picking them recently, a few should be around at least.

As she waddled along, she simply glanced up at the sky. Through the glare, she noticed a silhouette of someone on one of the rooftops. Judging by the hat, and the general shape, she assumed as she looked back towards the road that it was Mr. L. The man was strange; against all of his claims that he had no relation to a "Red Fatso" she was certain he was Luigi, brother of the Mushroom Kingdom Hero, Mario. She'd met him before when traveling with Mario; Luigi had apparently been on his own quest, and always had a story to tell when the party was in Rogueport.

He seemed to be hiding behind an edgy personality, but maybe that wasn't the case. Luigi wasn't the sort to be so rude and obnoxious, maybe something happened. Or maybe he really wasn't Luigi at all?

She could only ponder, as she continued waddling down the road.

The pale shades of light rained down from the sky and through the windows of the rustic home. Awakening to the sound of birds chirping a young red-haired man removed himself from his covers and yawned silently. Yesterday had been long, but it was worth it to finally finish something that would benefit the town. He would bring it up to the townspeople as soon as time would allow it, but for now- it was morning and with the rising sun meant breakfast. Getting up out of his bed and adorning a hakama Fuma walked out of his room and to the left to the kitchen in order to fix something. When he got to his kitchen however he noticed that there was something off about the morning air, he hadn't prepared breakfast but instead smelled the familiar aroma of beef. Ah yes! Steak had been quite common in his household as Fuma's father would order various servants of the Getsu clan to find the finest quality of beef for them to eat! Although the servants did it begrudgingly, they secretly loved doing it because the Getsu clan never really had any action oriented missions due to it being a time of peace before the Ryuukotsuki's resurrection to the mortal plane.

Yet he couldn't fathom where the smell was coming from. Walking into his garden the smell grew thicker and his appetite began to climb bit by bit. The warrior had worked hard and for once someone else making breakfast for him didn't sound to bad, after all it was good to receive gifts was it not? Humbled by this very thought Fuma walked to the front door and to his surprise some crudely made art had been nailed onto his mahogany door. Odd. He wasn't expecting any letters especially one that looked more like a demon's chicken scratch rather than an actual invitation to a birthday party. Puzzled, Fuma sat there analyzing the macaroni art before finally coming to the conclusion that whatever Pridemoore was eating, it must've been good. He didn't know what it was but he was for sure intrigued by the very thought of it.

Rushing back inside, he quickly ate some Mapo Tofu that he had made the night prior and set out for another long day. He would most likely meet with his friend Gutsman and King Pridemoore today, although he didn't really view Pridemoore as a true king he did view him as some sort of authoritative figure, albeit very loosely. With Hadoken in sheath and taiko on back, Fuma set out onto Home's streets, towards the familiar smell.



A loud ringing and the hulking mass of a robot bolted upright, knocking a small plush of one of his best friends into the wall. It hit the wall with such force that it made a very tiny but noticeable indent and dropped to the floor with a simple squeak. Quickly turning to his left Gutsman picked up the metool style alarm clock, walked to his window and chucked it as hard as he could towards the forest and heard a faint but distinct crash as he did. That'll teach that ravelrouser to distrub my sleep. Mess with the foreman and you get the red paper! Or was it blue? Quickly regaining his thoughts the hulking robot opened his door slowly and made his way to his restroom in order to prepare for daily hygiene, some lubricant and some floor polish made a hard working machine like himself look just like the day he had been created. Reaching into a small drawer he pulled out a Table Buffer and began to slide it all the way across the entirety of his round head like a hairbrush. When finished and shiny Gutsman smiled in the mirror and began the next part of his daily routine which was applying lubricant with a small airhose. As he began reaching around all the areas of his physique he remembered that someone had been pounding on his door earlier. He finished quickly and stormed downstairs.

When he found that the door had been nailed into he just about lost it. Nobody, Nobody messed with the foreman's door unless prompted. It was common sense in the workplace. He was just about to punch straight through the paper when he noticed the crude macaroni drawing that had been plastered on it depicting what looked like a king digging into a cake with something about a birthday being mentioned. He'd been invited to a party!? Now this he could get behind, forget the door, who's door was that? Eh Fuma would help him carve out the damage anyway. Flattered at the invitation Gutsman went back inside to eat his favorite breakfast, a box of PowerBolts™ along with a metool styled bowl and some E-Tank fluid and Gutsman was about as happy as a young schoolboy on the last day of school. He finished his meal and quickly washed the bowl before going outside. The next stop was the Sheriff's Office, he just had to tell him about the letter.

Once outside he went over to something that was basically his means of fast travel, it was a moving and chuting platform from the mining area Dr. Wily had occupied him at during the events of his brother Mega's first adventure. However this platform was on it's back and was engineered to go up like a springboard. Gutsman lowered himself onto the platform and with a click the mechanism began to whirr, soon a loud humming sound readied itself as the platform moved back just a few inches. He was so excited, it was gonna be a great day that he had been invited to a party and he was willing to bet that whoever would be genius enough to print a macaroni picture would throw a big bonanza! It marveled him! The platform finally reached it's peak and zoomed up so fast that from an outsider's perspective it looked like someone had just shot the rising mechanism in 1 FPS. With an audible battle cry he was propelled so far and so fast into the air that he became a blur. About 3 seconds later he landed in the streets, surprisingly on his feet, making a small quake and a a crater as he did. He had overshot himself and began walking towards the way to the Sheriff's Office.

Mr L made his way across a couple roofs before wall-jumping his way down to ground-level. Sure he had a better vantage point up there but all it takes is one idiot looking up at the wrong time to call attention to him. Tch. Whatever about this place that has the Flip magic on the fritz needs a good kick in the rear. With his luck it's probably that really conspicuous tower but sometimes an ominous tower is just a creepy Boo-infested joint or just a distraction from the real problem.

His thoughts drift back to Castle Bleck. Who knows what the grinning freak told everyone? And so, he fled, like a chicken that has lost his head. My my my, so much for the greatest thief. ... Nah. Odds are Dimented told everyone that Mr L arrived too early at the Sammer Realm and his employee membership got Voided or the Mushroom Dimension idiots managed to croak him. But what's worst is that it has been months and this place is still standing. No signs of impending doom or even a hint of the Void in the sky. As long as the Dark Prognosticus is in his possession Count Bleck would be set on his path. Miss Nastasia, although she might offer suggestions and alternate paths, would follow their leader's... well, lead. Barring temporal shenanigans with this place being ultra slow compared to the rest of the multiverse it is possible that the Count might have (probably not) called it quits.

The thought rattles him. Worse is the idea that Fatass, King Incompetent, and Damsel-Always-In-Distress managed to kick the Count's floating keister. Beating O'Chunks is no big deal. The guy's a loonie. Mimi's a fashionable little nut that flips out and becomes something utterly demonic when she doesn't get her way. Dimentio's a loser. He's... admittedly not sure why he lost to them and then Dimented. Maybe he didn't calibrate Bro-Bot right? Maybe sabotage? (He wouldn't put it past the clown to set him up to fail.) And he was distracted... Yeah. Dimentio saw an opening and took it. The 'why' is gonna keep bugging Mr L for a while yet.

He needs to take his mind off of that. Bro-Bot. Yeah, that's something much more important than purple and yellow nutjobs. He's missing a lot of parts and a lot of useful tools to continue working on him. Most people in town aren't exactly masters of engineering or robotics (or even brobotics). There's that one actual robot but... uh... Mr L is a bit concerned about those giant fists.

"Tch. Useless." the thief mutters to himself, rubbing his temples a little as a familiar annoyance can be seen from the edge of his sight. Great. He had to jinx himself thinking about useless or irritating people. When they first met face-to-face she kept calling him by some stupid name. Luigi. Luigi Mario. Sure his name is L but it ain't Luigi. Eluh, not Looo. How hard is it to keep straight? "Hey there Little Miss Egghead. Or should it be Chestnuts-For-Brains?" It's a bit petty that he keeps shifting around different insults for her but no one ever said he was a nice guy.

Pacing down the empty streets, Jibanyan occasionally glanced at the empty houses along the road. Back home, a place like this would be teeming with Youkai, living their merry life however they choose, but the deserted village had its own charm here; that was, when it wasn't under assault from the strange creatures. At the very least, it wasn't teeming with Oni, so that was a good way of looking at his current situation. There were also no trucks as well, so he didn't have to worry about getting hit, something that happened in an alarming frequency in his home world.

A short distance later, Jibanyan caught the sight of red hair. To his best knowledge, only two people in the village had red hair and one of them was a tad too trigger-happy most of the time. However, it was easy to tell apart one from the other from how they wore their hair. Plus, this redhead had a sword by his side and a taiko drum on his back. "Fuma-san!" Jibanyan quickened his jog to a run to meet him.

Having gotten to know Fuma over the year, Jibanyan found his demeanor to be rather similar to that of his legendary ancestor, though he was less manic about cutting things down. The armor he often wore, on the other hand, gave him the creeps, especially when its face came out. Not even the Oni was that scary when he's on a prowl. Still, Fuma was a good person and it was thanks to him that the village often had steady supply of provision to go around.

Once he finally saw him, Jibanyan smiled and stopped to greet him. "Good morning, Fuma-san!" The cat Youkai then rummaged through his haramaki and pulled out a tiny pouch filled with an assortments of seeds. He normally kept his favorite chocolate bar inside his haramaki through some unexplained magic, but since he had no chocolate bar, he used it to keep small items close by instead. "I found these seeds while going near the edge of the forest, nyan. I don't know what kind of seeds they are, but maybe they're useful, nyan!"



While taking a stroll down the road of Home, a lame name for a village in her opinion, Jinx, now wearing a simple set of black tank top, short jeans and red sneakers, looked up and happened to notice Amethyst lounging on the roof of her home, though she called it a scrapyard more than anything else. She often worked together with the purple deputy due to their shared role of keeping peace in the village, though Jinx could admittedly go a bit 'further' than Amethyst. Kuro and Shiro seemed to have taken a liking to her though. Apparently, she reminded them of her fellow Star Guardian Lulu, only less prone to have her mind wander off into the unknown.

"Hey, Amethyst! Rise and shine!" Jinx had a hunch that she was actually wide awake, but it wouldn't hurt to be sure. Taking their own initiatives, Kuro and Shiro flew up and hovered above the purple lady's face, chattering cheerfully as they tried to ascertain for their red-headed partner whether or not she was actually awake. However, Kuro was promptly distracted by Amethyst's purple gem, located on her chest and just visible above her shirt, and tried to touch it, which Jinx noticed straight away. "Ah, ah, ah! Kuro, paws off the shiny!" she called out with a reprimanding tone and a side-to-side wag of her finger. Amethyst had told her about how important that purple gem was for her and, though they had their disagreement sometimes, Jinx could at least respect that sense of importance.

With a sad chatter, Kuro flew away from the gem and back towards Amethyst, Shiro having taken the time to gently play with her lavender hair instead. Jinx's long red pigtails were fun to play with, but Amethyst's hair was thicker and looked more lustrous to the white familiar's eyes.

Surprisingly to Amethyst, it was a relatively peaceful start after Pridemoor's rounds, and she could appreciate that to an extent. Sure, a part of her said it was boring, but another also said it meant she could continue to lay lazily on her roof some more. Or at least, that was what she was hoping for, but she knew it was too good to be true. After all, in mere moments her ears were assaulted with a loud "HEY AMETHYST, RISE AND SHINE." Though, knowing who it was, she couldn't help but just lay there some more as if she didn't hear. It was definitely Jinx, someone that she had helped out from time to time in defending the town, and so she knew that she would probably check up on her.

Her intuition was correct, as the things... the name of them sounds familiar to her... But she couldn't really think of it at the moment, paying much more attention to where she felt them, or lack thereof. She could hear some sort of noise right above her, to where she opened one eye and promptly winked at the familiar before closing it again. The other, however, she wasn't really sure where it was until she heard Jinx talk about not touching the shiny, making Amethyst immediately get up. The one by her gem started to go back, while the other promptly got into her hair. She didn't mind that, simply shrugging that off and instead focusing on Jinx.

"Oh hey Jinx! She asked, jumping down from the roof and having a near perfect landing, the left side of her face being covered as her hair flowed back down into it's natural position. She had a smile across her face, looking rather content."You know me, just enjoying the day. So what are you up to?"

"You've got to be kidding, there aren't any mushrooms anywh-" Goombella, who had been complaining to herself, found herself interrupted by an irritating comment. Being rather short compared to pretty much anyone in the entirety of Home, she often had to look up at people. Mr. L was no exception. And, as usual, he seemed to be throwing insults. As much as she hated them, she had to admit that compared to some of the others in the village, at least he had a little wit. He was more tolerable than Pridemoor, that was for sure.

Narrowing her eyes as she looked up at the man, she responded. "Egghead will do just fine, thanks." She was proud of her intelligence, she wasn't going to let him get under her skin. His attempts of getting attention were easy to shoot down, she'd had to deal with plenty of irritating guys back in school. It mostly ended with them getting bonked on the head, the freaks. Thankfully, at least Mr. L wasn't hitting on her. She wasn't sure if she could handle that, she might breakdown, start screaming. Possibly jump off a cliff. And as much as he'd like that, she wasn't interested in going insane. She'd pass.

"So what do you want?" She questioned bluntly, knowing Mr. L wasn't the most friendly of sorts. If he was talking to her, he was either looking for a punching bag, or something he wanted. And if he actually wanted something, he wouldn't ask first. Or at all, for that matter. He was a dirty thief: Well, not dirty. In fact, Mr. L was surprisingly clean for a crook. Just made him weirder.

Goombella's stomach growled, and she broke eye contact for a moment, slightly embarrassed.

'Shut up down there, before he tries to manipulate the situation.' She thought, irritably.

The dastardly thief cocks a grin at the Goomba's grumbling diminutive stomach. "Heh. What's the matter, short stuff? Skipped breakfast again in favor of a binging of books?" He can't help but snicker even if he has done the same a few times when first constructing his Bro-Bot. And again when upgrading it to L-type. "You do know that ain't good for your health or haven't you found a medical text yet in that place?"

For a moment he considers offering her a Shake. On one hand, it's his and he'd be damned if he let someone else get their mitts on something that belongs to him. On the other... he could drag out a favor from her in exchange. Goody two-shoes types like her are prone to doing that.

"As for what I want... is it too much to believe that I just happened to be in the area?" Although it's the truth, Mr L is aware that the idea does not gel with his personality. After all he wouldn't believe Dimentio if he claimed the same. "It's still barely morning. Though I'm surprised not that many people are up yet with Mr I'm Your King Even Though I Do Bug-All For Ya pounding on every door in the joint. I swear if I find his dumb note on my door..." The human trails off into a low grumble. It would not do to speak any plans out loud around anyone especially not a 'hero' (or one of their sidekicks). For one they may tip off the mark. Even if they don't, they may feel obligated to try to stop him. Sure the added security can make things fun but overall it is just irritating.

Before entering, he made sure to throw his cape behind him. It floofed out as he strolled through the open doorway, the edges of its white fluff rubbing past the frame. Once again, he brought a finger to his helmet's chin as he examined the stand's contents. "But... where are my eggs? My sausage?" He shouldn't have been surprised, as it was extremely hard to gather. Especially without chickens and pigs around. This made Pridemoor upset regardless, puffing his chest up to the ceiling as he averted his gaze from the sheriff. "Unacceptable! My tastes longed for what they longed for, and I wanted not to be disappointed."

His stomach growled. "Though in this rare instance I shall decree a different Pridemoor Special 5#." He hunched back over the stand, finger scanning some of the prepared tacos, "... That one!.. ones..." In a swift motion, the king had an armful of tacos pressed against his chest plate. He stood with his spine erect, with a free hand pointing his staff at Sans. "Sheriff! You have done well to please me this day. And thus, I decree, that you shall get a corner piece of the cake on my special day!" It was quite the decree!... had he not previously decreed Sans to make the cake itself. He bowed elegantly, a taco falling on the floor as he did so. "And with that, I leave you to... whatever you peasants do when I'm not around. Farewell!" Pridemoor waved himself off as he left through the front door.

However, TRAGEDY. For as your valiant ruler walked into the sunlight, his cape! Snagged on a loose nail! And as it tugged him back, Pridemoor lost his balance and tripped face first into the grass with a loud crunch.



He laid there motionless, his helmeted head turned into the mud as he twitched occasionally. From underneath him... red liquid began to pool.

The young man had stepped onto the pavement and began making his way towards the smell of beef. It spoke leaps and bounds to him, the lonely nights on the devil's road slicing away yuurei and other demons had yielded trials but had also yielded delicious food. Many of them had stolen from the good people of Japan and Fuma felt that it would be just if he ate what they had stolen, as a symbolic way of revenge. Of course, there wasn't any real reason to do this except feel the satisfaction of serving justice and eating but it made Fuma feel slightly happier. As he rounded the front gate of Hanawa and began walking along he heard something call out his name. Turning around and seeing the little youkai run up to him Fuma smiled gently and knelt down to see the cat run up to him. He liked the little one as he was unknowingly setting an example for all other youkai that human and youkai alike could exist in peace. It was what the Getsu clan's true goal was however on the outside they never showed it.

"Good morning to you, Jibanyan-kun. You're awful happy today!" The man said gently as the cat youkai rummaged around in his bag. Fuma was legitimately surprised to see him procure a handful of seeds, he had been searching for some near the forest's edge but had never really had any success finding any. Fuma analyzed them for a bit, looking intently at their color, size and then it hit him. The pure nostalgia of this fruit made him smile, it wasn't a normal smile however it was a smile of pure gratitude. If his hunch was right the cat had found Fuma's favorite childhood food! "Ah! What a wonderful find! I believe these are melon seeds, and they're in great quality too!" Fuma was to say the least very impressed, and with a glint in his eye took another glance at the seeds. His hunch was indeed correct.

"Ah these'd go wonderful in my garden. As a bonus as well all the people in Home could have acsess to such a tasty and nutiritous fruit! You mind if I take some and plant them?" He closed his eyes getting caught up in the moment when his thoughts came back to him. "Say Jinbanyan-kun, do you smell any beef? That's what got me out of bed this morning and I was wondering if you knew anything about it?" The smell of beef still hung strong in the air.



Quickening his walk to a jog Gutsman's feet made small quakes as he ran down to the Taco Stand. He jumped over a fence and as he landed he made a small quake. Quickly he looked around and spotted the Sheriff staring at something on the ground. As he was about to make his way over to the Sheriff he noticed that the fence he had jumped over had been cracked and broken. Embarrassed he quickly smashed the rest of the fence into pieces and began collecting them together. Finally he opened his mouth with a little creak and devoured the rest of the fence pieces they hit his compactor with a CLUNK! He then patted his stomach, "I love the taste of plywood in the morning." He walked on over to the Taco Stand and noticed the Sheriff was staring at something, he tipped his helmet and said, "Well howdy there sheriff, I'll fix the fence later, great weather we're having aren't we and-"

Gutsman looked down and saw the King who had nailed such a great invitation to his door earlier that same day in a pool of red liquid, "-HOLY SMOKES!" Gutsman quickly knelt down next to the poor king and ripped his cape off the nail. He shook the king powerfully, making his arm clink and clang as he did. No response, Gutsman then laid the King down and opened his mouth wide and began doing CPR. He blew in and out and the King's chest never rose up, but why? This should've been working, Pridemoore should've been up and running all hunky dory and king like. But then Gutsman came to the terrifying realization, in order for CPR to work their needed to be air breathed into the lungs via lungs. Gutsman, was a robot- He didn't have lungs.

Gutsman had been bested and slowly went over to the Taco Stand, grabbed a Taco and began to eat it. Man what a bad day.

"I'm SO sorry!" Sans replied to Pridemoor's disappointment. He didn't want to let the good king down, but what could he do? He had no eggs, or sausage! If only he was at Waterfall, he could get some Water Sausage. But that wasn't the case. Thankfully, out of the kindness of his heart, he forgave Sans and decided to decree a #52! "Wait. Fifty-Two?" Sans took a moment to process it, before a bony fist met with his palm. "Ah! Five-Two! How SMART!" He cheered, allowing Pridemoor to take all the food he wanted.

And then, he said something that shook Sans up inside.

"you shall get a corner piece of the cake on my special day!"

"R-REALLY?!" He said, taken aback. How generous! How kind! The cake Sans was told to make for Pridemoor's Special Day... He was going to share it! With HIM! A blush crossed Sans' face as he was speechless at Pridemoor's words, shaking with happiness.

And as Pridemoor decided to bid farewell, and somehow managed to catch himself on a nail and fall, Sans was still speechless as the entire office became silent. It took Sans a moment to realize what had happened, but, when he did, he inhaled deeply.

"OH MY GOD!"

Running outside, Sans slapped his hands to both sides of his skull as he saw Pridemoor on the ground, puddling in red liquid. "Are you okay?!" He asked, worried as could be. Suddenly, however, he saw Gutsman! He could help, right?!

But he was eating his fence! Sans stomped a foot. "Guts! Now's not the time for eating my fence!" He yelled, though for a moment, Gutsman seemed to not notice what was happening. But as he looked down, the robot jumped into action! He shook the king, but it did nothing! But then...

He proceeded to kiss the king! Sans' eyes widened, and...

NECESSARY ANIME SOUND EFFECT



He stared for a moment, but, as Gutsman stood, and went to eat, Pridemoor was still laying there.

"I-I THOUGHT KISSES FIXED THINGS!"

Quickly, Sans rushed to Pridemoor's side, getting down on his knees, hands puddled in the red liquid. He tried Gutsman's shaking technique, but it still didn't work. "Snap out of it, King! Wake up this instant! This is NOT funny!" Sans' handywork had gotten the red liquid all over Pridemoor's armor, making a mess. He was in full on panic mode. But realized something:

"Human souls leave the body when the person dies, right? Like Monster souls... His soul didn't leave! Maybe he's not dead!" Sans, hopeful, pondered what to do in a hurry. There were no doctors in the village, and he had no medical experience. As he put a hand up to his chin to think, he caught a whiff of a familiar smell... His homemade ketchup.

Putting his hand in his mouth, he smiled. "Delicious!" He stated, bony hand plopping out of his mouth, perfectly clean. He then looked down at Pridemoor, realizing he was still possibly dying.

"Guts! What do we do?!" He questioned, freaking out again.


Listening to his words, she admitted to herself he wasn't lying about her book binging. But she didn't have to like that. He was lecturing HER? Of course she knew it was unhealthy, but, she was despreate to find out something, anything about that tower looming in the distance. Or just a way to get home. None of the books had such knowledge yet, however. She was stuck with hoping as she read on, and on. It was tiring, and she noted she was neglecting herself. But she couldn't just admit Mr. L was right. "I'm fine...!" Goombella retorts, looking away stubbornly.

Glancing back at him, she decided to believe his words for the moment, about just being in the area. He saw an opportunity, and took it. He hadn't targeted her earlier, or days ago. She let her guard down somewhat as he mentioned Pridemoor, as she was pretty peeved at him too. It was hard to take those notices off her door without arms, or a step ladder... So he'd just pinned them, one on top of the other. Her newest invitation was still on her door.

"He's certainly annoying." She added, finding his insult of Pridemoor accurate. Sadly, it wasn't like he was going to just fall over and die, (Not that she really wanted him too, she just wished he'd be quiet...) so, she figured he'd be around for a long while. "I can't believe he has invited me to his party four times." She said with a tone of annoyance, not really wanting to go to his party. Though, if she didn't, she wondered what he'd do? Probably nothing, as usual. Maybe make a scene... But Sans and Amethyst were around for a reason. It'd be fine, she was sure.

Her face scrunched up as her stomach growled again. Her thoughts? 'Why do you have to remind me...?'

Mr L rolls his eyes (not that anyone could really tell) at her claim. "You're fine. Right. And the sky is polka-dot and filled with mathematical symbols." A bit odd to say but there are dimensions where the later is a real thing. The former... maybe. There's an endless (or seemingly so) number of different realities out there. It's possible!

He tilts his head to the side as he shoves his hands into his previously unseen pockets. Come to think of it, the thief does remember the nut doing this a few times before. Honestly most days just blur together for him. Maybe the freak put the poorly written note on his door before. Maybe not. L'd just rip it to shreds anyway. "If you don't wanna go, then don't. What's the worst that could happen? It's not like he's got any real power. All that 'gold' plating... tch. Most likely he's not even a real king, just some loser wannabe dressing up the part and hopin' no one calls him out on the lie."

There goes her stomach again. Man that's annoying.

"Melon? Really, nyan?" Jibanyan's eyes were bright with joy. His forked tails perked up with curiosity and the blue flames that ignited their tip glowed slightly brighter as if to reflect the Youkai's pride in having found the seeds of edible fruit. Seeing Fuma's face alight with happiness and nostalgia reminded him of the days where he tried to please his huamn friends and he couldn’t help but feel slightly giddy. "Of course nyot, nyan! You can take them all, nyan!" he replied eagerly. The melon seeds would be of more use to Fuma than they did to him. Besides, Jibanyan didn't consider himself to be skilled in gardening anyway, so, all in all, it was a perfect arrangement.

Fuma then brought up the topic of meat. Come to think of it, he did catch the scent of cooked meat wafting through the air, but he had dismissed it as the smell of another person's cooking. He was now curious as to who was cooking said meat in the early hours of the morning and, on that note, Jibanyan could use a warm meal to start the day. "I don't know, nyan," Jibanyan replied with a confused look and a tilted head, now wondering where the scent came from. "Maybe it's from the Sheriff's Office, nyan? Sans does love to cook, nyan! Should we go and check it out, nyan?" Jibanyan was being honest in his observation of Sans' love for cooking. Whether or not the food was safe for consumption, on the other hand, was a different matter entirely, but the cat Youkai thought that should be saved for a more appropriate conversation.



"Eh, nothing much, just taking a walk. Figured that I should hang around and see if everyone's awake since I'm up and all," Jinx replied with a light shrug, Kuro and Shiro rejoining the redhead. "Kinda hard to stay asleep when King Prideboor is busy walloping the door. Next time, I'll let Kuro answer the door instead," she added with a muted grumble. Taking a deep breath, she turned to Amethyst and asked her, "I assume he invited you too?" She then leaned against the wall with Kuro on her head, the latter chattering softly while looking down at her. In response, Jinx frowned and shook her head.

"I can’t. If I do that, I won't hear the end of it from Sheriff Serif," she replied to whatever Kuro was saying before the latter 'spoke up' again, but her next words seemed to clear things up. "Yeah, I know it would be fun to glue his gold armor together, but that would only make him more annoying!" Jinx protested. Shiro opened her mouth, but before she could utter a word, Jinx raised a finger and quickly said, "No, Shiro. We’re not using him as forest bait again. Last time we tried doing that, Sans gave me a timeout."

Jinx had first thought of Sans as a bone with too much zeal and too little common sense, but she had learned that he apparently had the clear foresight to keep her away from her familiars whenever he imposed his bone jail timeout and zapping him only lenghtened her timeout time. With a dejected chirp, Shiro flew towards Amethyst and rested on top of her head since Jinx's was currently occupied. "Amethyst, remind me why we let can-o-gold be our leader." While Jinx knew that Amethyst didn't think too highly of Pridemoor, she was honestly impressed by her ability to tolerate him to a far greater extent than she did.

"Oh, you mean one of those invitations? I have like... 3 of them or so, but this new one has macaroni art. Though, I don't know where he got the macaroni from." She replied, shrugging at the first question as she answered it. The one thing that wasn't in her hair was talking to Jinx now, but Amethyst wasn't really sure how she understood it. Maybe they were like, connected somehow, like how Steven's Lion was kinda connected to him. Yeah, that made sense to her.

But she couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Pridedoof struggling as his armor would be stuck together, imagining how funny that would be. She did agree it would probably make him more annoying though, feeling that he'd start to come to everyone to figure out who did it. She'd probably just give him an I don't know answer like she usually did to him, potentially shapeshifted as a cat just for the heck of it. And then, she remembered Jinx getting timeout by Sans.

Speaking of Sans, it was odd that he hadn't said hi to everybody, but Amethyst simply shrugged that off, by now Jinx had asked her another question, and she simply laughed lightly once more at it.
"Because I'm pretty sure he'd be more annoying if he wasn't in charge than if he was. I mean, the guy is kinda a mess, and if he wasn't 'ruling' *Insert finger quotations here* he'd probably just sit there and whine... or something. I mean everyone knows he really isn't in charge, right? That weird guy in the forest is more in charge than Pridedoof is... But maybe that's just because he's poofed me several times when I wandered in there."

Fuma smiled some more as he took the melon seeds, "Thank you very much Jinbanyan-kun!" As Fuma took the seeds his thoughts turned back to the smell of beef and that was when he realized where it was coming from. "Come to think of it I've gotten a better idea. How about we go to the center of town maybe? If I remember correctly the Sheriff makes this foreign food called tacos." Fuma shuddered at the thought of Sans' "legendary" tacos. He could barely stomach the shell however when it came to the beef stuffed inside it was to simply die for! "I don't happen to like the shells very much however I bet we could get ourselves some beef if we asked nicely?" Fuma glanced above the cat into the deep forest when he heard a faint noise.

The sound of a beatrap. Fuma looked toward the forest as he heard the unmistakable cry of an animal. Not again. He thought as he remembered back to the time where he had almost gotten himself killed. He shook his head. "After we head to the city Jinbanyan-kun I have a change of plan. I'm going to go into the forest later and find whatever it was that made that sound, did you want me to bring back something specific in the forest for you? You've been such a good helper in getting me these seeds, I'm impressed with your work!" As he said this Fuma pet the little neko-youkai. He was reminded of the time that his father Shiro Getsu had made negotiations with the Oni of the southern island and the oni's children had come over to play. Good times for him, but right now Fuma had two objectives. Get some beef from town, and find out what was unlucky enough to cross the beatrap.



"Relax sheriff! A foreman knows just what to do in this situation." Gutsman boomed as he stomped all the way over to a nearby tree. "You see sheriff as an industrial man the workplace calls for all sorts of situations, sometimes even death. However one thing I won't tolerate is my superior slacking off when he's got work to do!" Gutsman dug deep into the earth and with an eigth of his strength pulled the tree out and set it down gently next to the hole. He looked back at Sans who was probably still confused, "What you didn't think I was gonna hit him with a tree did you? That's unproductive and unprofessional." Gutsman then went over to the hole and put his head in it. For three entire minutes the sound of humming could be heard until eventually he un-burrowed his head. "Perfect! Now watch and learn sheriff this is how a foreman does the job!"

With that notion Gutsman winded up his left arm and began spinning it around madly. It reached a point where it made a whirring sound, then with a loud grunt he brought his fist down just inches above where the hole ended. Smiling and humming he touched the soft earth with his pinky. He bent down and lent his hearing receptical towards the hole and heard a faint but audible rumbling. Satisfied, he went over to the tree he had just unearthed and smashed it in the middle. He took the top half of the now hollow tree and placed it in the hole, he waited for a second and when the rumbling resumed he stood out of the way and looked towards Sans. "Alright Sheriff you might wanna stand back. This is gonna be a bit messy." The unthinkable happened next, the tree began to rumble and with almost no warning a huge burst of water came out of the small hole in the front of the tree and hurdled it's way towards Pridemoore.