Chapter Text
There were three safe havens on the Isle of the Lost: Facilier’s Voodoo Arcade, the Pink Tavern, and Giant District. Staying in your own little shed wouldn’t satisfy the greed of the pirates, or a former tyrant trying to reclaim their status. They’d simply rip it to shreds, chop it down with an ax, or crush it like a bug.
The Arcade was for pure entertainment. Even if you did bring anything valuable inside, you couldn’t spend it. You’d have to buy a Tarot Ticket from Dr. Facilier himself. The only real value inside was whatever Sparrow Hook and Dante deVil had in their pockets after a long day of raiding.
“The only thing we’ve got are fool cards!” Dante said, avoiding eye contact with Zali, the child of Shenzi, one of Scar’s hyena henchmen. She was younger than both of them, but they still feared her, and you can’t show fear on the Isle. It only makes it easier to get mugged.
“Don’t you wanna go raid with James, or something?” Sparrow was staring right into her eyes.
Zali scoffed. A smile grew across her face, revealing her sharp, shiny teeth. “Just how stupid do you think I am? I just talked to your brother before coming here, and, trust me, he wouldn’t mind me putting you both down.” She pounded her fist together, giving Dante a tilt of the head. “Just like 2 weak puppies!”
Dante shrieked. He jumped into Sparrow’s arms. Sparrow began darting to the exit, but Zali cackled, chasing them around the arcade.
There was screaming at the top of their lungs. The boys were leading on the ground, but Zali was shoving everything out of her way. Her coils bounced with every push and shove from the machines. She almost scratched Sparrow’s boney arm with a strike from her claw, but just barely missed.
“C’mon! I can hear the jingling in your pockets, Hook!” She continued prancing around, and shoving kids to the ground just to get her hands in their pockets.
Sparrow couldn’t take a breather. Carrying Dante, as light as he was to anyone else, was like carrying a boulder to Sparrow. He could hear the words of his brother, “Drop everything, and go,” which he probably got from their father.
“Dante, I’m sorry—“
His eyes lit up. He began kicking his legs, and screaming, “DON’T! I’LL BE A BETTER PIRATE, I’LL GIVE YOU EVERY LAST TRINKET IN MY POCKET! JUST DON’T—“
Thud!
Both of them were knocked to the ground by Zali. Sparrow tried getting up, but she knew his weakness: water. She took a red party cup, and poured all the murky water onto his face. Sparrow was starting to squirm, and kick invisible enemies.
Dante’s heart raced. Great! Raiders get raided. He then looked to the right. Poor Sparrow. Born into a family of pirates, but born with a phobia of his surroundings: water.
He tried getting up, to find some paper towels, but Zali had her elbow pinned to his chest. She began going through his pockets. He really did have a few tarot tickets in there, but also a few watches, two crystals, and some shards of broken glass.
“Thank you!” She beamed. “Couldn’t ask for better victims! Now, what about you, Hook?” She reached into Sparrow’s pockets, but as her face got closer, so did his legs…
“AGH!” She was kicked in the eye! “What’d you do that for? I wasn’t even gonna hurt you!”
“THEY’RE ON ME!” He kept squirming like a little kid having a tantrum. “DAMN MERMAIDS!”
“Bro, there are no mermaids,” Dante tried to calmly reassure him. “Just give her your stuff.”
Sparrow gasped. A terrified expression formed on his face. “Just give it? No!” He quivered. He quickly stood up. “Pirates code: never give anything up!”
“Not even this?”
The two looked at Zali with narrowed eyes. Sparrow gasped: a chunk of gold. Dante looked at him with suspicion.
“When did you get that?”
Sweat rolled down his forehead. “I…”
“Well it’s mine now!” She skipped up the ramp, to the exit of the arcade. Sparrow’s impulse got the best of him. He ran, chasing her, and cut her off by climbing on top of a pinball machine. He leaped onto her, and began to slap her head while riding on her back.
Dante hesitantly rushed up the ramp to help Sparrow. Though, It was like a dog trying to find its own. She tried to throw him off of the railing, and on the ground. All she needed to do was to make it seem like she was going to jump. Then, gravity would do the rest.
She somehow managed to get to the top of the ramp. It was in front of the door, and pretty high up. Zali grunted as she struggled to get him off.
The only thing Sparrow could see was the hard, dark blue floor. It reminded him of the ocean. That dreaded place where the tick-tock croc was rumored to live. Where the Kraken’s reigned. Where mermaids feasted on sunken sailors. Stupid sailors! He wasn’t focused. Everything was quiet, like the eye of a hurricane, but reality struck him cold when he found himself falling onto the same pinball machine.
She cackled at his demise. She turned to Dante, expecting another fight, but saw him jump down from the top of the arcade to “help” his fallen friend.
“Did he just attempt suicide?”
Zali looked behind herself. The son of Scar, Khari, looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. He slowly approached her, rubbing her head.
“Tried to save his mate from yours truly.”
He slowly looked over the railing. They were both just…lying there.
“You guys dead?”
“Yeah,” Dante groaned.
Khari pursed his lips back, turning his attention back to Zali. Her eyes beamed with joy. “Look at what I got from those suckers!” She proceeded to show him everything she got.
He took a look at all of those trinkets in her hand. A tarot ticket, crystals, and gold…all of those were practically worthless compared to the envelope he was holding.
“Khari?” Zali said. “What’s that?” She took a closer look, and snatched it out of his hands. She studied its embroidery. The gold, and blue crest with a rip on the side. “Is that stamped from--”
“Yes.”
She stood back a bit. “What’s it say?”
Khari took a deep breath. He was about to explain everything, until he overheard footsteps coming upwards. They were hastening. He could sense the tension between her, and the wannabe pirates. He pulled Zali outside. “I’ll show you somewhere else.” He held onto her wrists as tight, but not as tight as he did the envelope. Their home was too far, but he didn’t feel like running. So, he went to the next best thing: the Pink Tavern.
**********
Now, a lie may have been told in the beginning. Safety on the Isle of the Lost? Not real. Fights could break out at any time. Anyone could do anything. It wasn’t like the royals of Auradon actually cared about what the villains were doing, let alone their descendants. But there were varying degrees of danger.
The Voodoo Arcade was just for the kids, and preteens. If things got messy, you’d shuffle two or three feet to the side. No biggie. But everybody went to the tavern. Something must happen there. At least once a night, right?
Only a fool would cross the Rosetta Elephants. A coven of witches from Walt knows where who adorn themselves in the color pink, and had to always wear an elephant necklace. They thrived off of drunkenness of mundane mortals. It gave them access to the madness of the brain, and fueled their hallucination magic.
It was getting loud, and crowded. It wasn’t even noon! Piper Elephanté was one of the only waiters on deck beside her co-worker, Soul Faclier. The rest were adults, who were either “cooking,” or controlling what their customers saw.
Piper began serving table two: they ordered mashed potatoes, and sweet potato fries. What they really got were dead slugs, and lollipop sticks (just the sticks -- no real candy). Anyone who wasn’t under the influence would think of it as disgusting, and cruel, but Piper had to serve those people their food! She had to keep them drunk and happy, so they wouldn’t throw a hissy fit over their meal, and honestly? She wouldn’t have it any other way. As long as it made her coven proud.
She felt a sudden tap on her shoulder. It was from Soul. She smiled, showing her gaped teeth. “What’s up?”
He pointed to the entrance of the Tavern. A girl with dark skin, firetruck red locs, and a heart tattoo on her eye stood there impatiently, as if waiting for someone.
“I do not want to fuck up her order, and get my head ripped off by--”
Piper gasped . “Henrietta!”
Henerietta’s eyes widened. “Piper!” She ran up to her pink haired friend, and squeezed her with a hug. She looked awkwardly to the side. She held an envelope in her hand, with Auradon’s blue, and gold crest on it.
Piper put her hands over her mouth. “Is it from your dad?”
“No, no. It’s from King Beast.”
“King Beast?” She pointed at the poster on the wall. It originally had a portrait of the king with the crown on his head, with the words ‘BE GOOD’ in a big, fancy font. Inside of the Pink Tavern, the words were crossed out, and replaced with,’GET DRUNK.’
They were all over the Isle, meant to encourage good behavior, but it was more counter productive than anything. The Isle was just a place to lock the villains up. There were no laws, no curfews, and certainly no good influences. Everybody graffitied the poster one way, or another. Henrietta had a collection of just his paper head in her room. She hoped to bring the real head home, for her mother to be proud.
“What does he want to do with you?”
“Well, I didn’t really read it.” She said in a low voice. “I just saw his signature on the bottom, and--”
“You didn’t tell your mom?”
Henrietta slammed her hand on her puffed, red skirt. “If she even sees it’s from Auradon, she won’t shut up about my father choosing that foolish kingdom over us.”
“Ohhhh.” Piper nodded. “Right! Well, let’s read it together.”
Piper hovered over Henrietta’s shoulder. She tried reading the letter to herself, but she just couldn’t. She gave it to Piper to read out loud.
“Okay! Ahem!” She lowered her high pitched voice to a stern, manly one. “To Henrietta Heart--”
“Princess Henrietta Heart!”
“Didn’t say princess in the letter.”
“Next sentence!”
Piper gulped before continuing. “Through the decree of my daughter, Princess Briar Bea-”
“Ah! So his lowlife daughter gets to be called princess, but when he refers to one on the Isle it’s just my name!?” She crossed her arms. “What an insufferable man…beast…What is he?”
“Not sure.” Piper shrugged, skimming through the letter. “But the last few sentences do say that you’re---”
The door had opened wide. A gust of wind blew in. James Hook and Priya Pan, the insufferable teenage pirates, crashed through the door. Priya looked distraught. She was holding onto James’ hand like he was the only thing keeping her stable. Her bright green eyes scanned the room, until she laid eyes on Henrietta, and PIper.
She ran up to them, and gave them a huge hug. “I just received terrible news!” She held up the same letter Henrietta had.
“Oh my god!”
“We’re all going to be executed for the crimes of our parents?” Piper exclaimed, a bit too happily.
Priya began tearing up. “Worse! We’re getting--”
“--sent to Auradon.”
That was a new voice. Everybody looked to the door to see Zali and Khari. Khari furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Priya, and Henrietta with the same letter. “You guys, too?”
Priya began to wail, and held onto Henrietta for a hug, as the Princess of Hearts did the same.
“Dramatic.” Khari muttered under his breath.
“Wait!” Zali looked up to him. “You’re going without me?”
He sighed. “Only people listed on the letter are going.”
“Well who are the other people?” Henrietta’s eyes lit up.
Khari looked back at his letter. “Uh, me, you, Priya, and…” His eyebrows furrowed. He kept rereading the last one.
“Who is it?”
He kept silent.
“Khari!”
“Gayle Blunderbore.”
The group had confused faces. James asked for the letter, and reread it twice. He looked at Priya. She hung around Giant District a lot. He figured she knew him. “Isn’t he the giant with the blonde curls?”
Priya sniffled. “Y-Yes!” She banged her head onto a table. “He’s nice, and all, but they chose him over you, and Sparrow, and Dante, and UGH--” Her tears were practically cleaning the table. James began to stroke her hair, gently.
Soul walked by with a tray of rocks, and fish guts. Probably mozzarella sticks to whoever it was being served to. “What going on…?”
Piper looked to the side with pursed lips. “Doesn’t concern us.”
Soul nodded slowly. It wasn’t like Piper to not smile, but he figured he’d give her some time. She grabbed the tray he was holding. “I’ll help with that.” She marched over to the table he was meant to serve.
Priya sat up, whipping her tears. “Might as well wish the crew good-bye’s for now. And Volos, and Deimon, and Volos, and Lestine, and Volos, and VOLOS!” She began sprinting her way out of the door. She needed to find him. She didn’t care how far away it was. Giant District was a piece of cake to navigate if you knew what you were doing.