Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

   Magolor has been talking to the Lor once again. Of course, it never responds. He's not sure if it's because the Lor can sense his ill intent, or if it's because the rumors of the Lor having a mind of its own are false. Magolor suspects it's the former. While he believes his goal of taking over the universe and changing it for the better is a noble one,he knows not everyone would agree with it. However, if the Lor did not agree with what he was doing why did it still let him use it?

   Oh well! If he keeps thinking about this, he won’t get anything done. Discarding the stray thoughts about the Lor’s nature,Magolor floats over to the ship's monitor to check if the ship has reached his destination. The destination being the wish-granting clockwork star,Nova. you see Magolor hasn't had luck obtaining the master crown by himself. Although he has the power of the Lor on his side, it seems it may not be enough. Now if he simply wishes for Nova to get him the crown, that would be quite easy! The people may think he was cowardly for this...oh well! He could just simply lie and say he took it himself! Once he has the crown people would have to listen to him!

   Magolor knows that to summon Nova, he has to go to multiple planets for it to show up. Still, there's no harm checking where it's supposed to be! Maybe someone already summoned it, and he can use that to his advantage. Perhaps, he can swoop in and steal their wish? Is that even allowed? Well, it's not like someone would just let him use their wish, how dumb would that be!

   Looking at the monitor, Magolor sees he's getting close to the area where Nova should be. However, there is something strange on the monitor. The screen tells him there's some sort of life form ahead. It can’t be Nova since Nova is a machine and technically not alive...Is someone making a wish? If so, this could be his chance! Making the Lor speed up to catch the person by surprise, Magolor reaches his location and halts to a stop. Magolor leaves the Lor and quickly flies over to Nova.

   Flying past what he assumes is space debris, Magolor halts to a stop once he finally reaches his location. He is frozen by the sight he sees. Nova is there but not completely. Bits and pieces are scattered around the area. Gold chunks, along with the random objects that made the clock, now float haphazardly around the area. Stunned, Magolor tries to reason what happened to the comet that was Nova. Did someone destroy it? That seems possible. Maybe someone thought the amount of power the clock held was dangerous and needed to be destroyed? That may be correct, however it doesn't leave him less frustrated. What's he supposed to do now?! He doesn't have any other ideas. Maybe he could find the other clockwork star? Oh, but he has no idea where that one is!

   Floating in circles in frustration with his ears flopping down, Magolor tries to think of a solution to his problem. Hmmm... Maybe he can rebuild it? No. Magolor knows ancient tech like the Lor, but not the one of a clockwork star. Find an ancient and ask them to rebuild? Too risky and probably impossible to do. Ugh, he's getting mad now. Maybe he could find the idiot who destroyed Nova in the first place and put them into their place! No. No, Magolor just needs to calm down. He needs to think rationally.

   While breathing in and out slowly, Magolor attempts to calm himself down when suddenly something hits him. He gasps slightly and falls forward before quickly turning around to see what hit him. The offender is a person. Magolor remembers the Lor telling him about the life form and quickly puts together that this is them! The person is a ball of purple wearing a blue and red jester hat. They are face down and limply floating. Are they passed out? Do they know what happened to Nova? They have too! They're passed out directly near where it usually resides!

   Magolor considers his options: he COULD bring them onto the ship and fix them up from whatever happened to get them to spill whatever happened to Nova. They'd have to after he helped them. However, they could be dead. He would just be bringing a dead corpse into his clean ship...He’ll take the risk. It's his best option at the moment. Maybe after he has more info, he can figure out a solution to this whole situation. After making up his mind, Magolor scoops up the purple limp body of the stranger and begins making his way back to the Lor past all the parts of what was once the clockwork star.

   Once back on the sleek white and blue of the ship, Magolor takes the stranger into one of the many rooms. He sits the stranger down onto one of the many beds on the Lor and quickly floats back over to the main area.

“Lor, show me what's wrong with the newcomer.”

  The Lor’s main screen lights up as words begin appearing on it. Magolor, during one nasty cold,had found out the Lor could scan anyone in it for any ailments, and he has been using this to make sure he was always in top shape. Can’t rule the universe with a tummy ache! Looking at the screen, Magolor pauses at the info it has given. It seems there is somehow no major damage on the newcomer. However, they have been knocked out in some sort of magic induced coma.

“Can you wake them up?”

   The response is not immediate, but it eventually comes.

“I can speed up the process of waking him up, but you have to use your magic to fully wake him.”

   Magolor sighs. This has to be some sort of strong magic if even the Lor itself cannot fully wake him. He wants to wake the newcomer, but Magolor is not experienced very well with healing magic. He's never needed it. But Magolor isn't one who gives up. This person knows what happened to Nova. He needs this info. No healing inexperience will stop him!

“Do it. I will do my part in a moment.”

    Magolor floats away from the Lor’s monitor and heads over to one of the ship's many rooms, but he's heading specifically to the one he has made into a library. Bigger than most other rooms in the lor and circular in nature,the library is lined with tall book shelves full of books all from different planets he's visited. It is lit by multiple hanging candles, a mix of browns,yellows and dark blues. A single table in the middle of the room with one chair specifically for him. Not like anyone else would use it anyways. Magolor floats over to where he puts the magic centric books.

   While flying over, Magolor scans the shelf for anything relating to healing. He sees mostly books relating to either offensive or defensive magic, nothing relating to healing. Magolor starts to wonder if he even had any books about healing until his eyes finally settle on a dusty,old and ragged looking book with a simple “healing magic” title on its side. He takes it out and flies over to the table before sitting and placing the worn book down. Magolor just sits there pondering. He doesn't remember buying or gaining this book but one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth! Magolor opens the book and is surprised to see that the words in it seem to be handwritten and well written nonetheless. Magolor pretty much speed reads the contents.

    What Magolor gathers is that healing magic focuses on someone's will to help someone. Magolor frowns at this. He's not sure if he can do that. Sure, he wants to help him, but only because he has info Magolor needs. Is that enough? Well, no harm in trying. After closing the book and placing it back upon the shelf, Magolor begins floating back to where he left the newcomer. The newcomer is still there however, his face, instead of being emotionless, is now scrunched up. It seems he is still not awake.

    Magolor holds out his hands over the unconscious body of the stranger. While focusing on his need to wake this person up, He feels a strange sensation like he's about to cast a spell but somehow it feels lighter? It pools in his hands, but Magolor keeps his focus. He needs him to wake up. He needs to know what happened to Nova! Then after a moment, the newcomer suddenly shoots up with a gasp which makes Magolor stumble back with his hands in tow. Manically the newcomer starts frantically looking at his surroundings until his eyes finally land on Magolor.

“Wha-”

   Magolor swoops in before the newcomer gets the wrong idea.

“Hello! Glad to see you awake, I'm Magolor. I found you floating while passed out in space, so I brought you back into my ship. Are you alright?”

   The newcomer squints his eyes and scans Magolor, quite clearly trying to get a read on him. He suddenly gets a giant smile on his face and nods. 

“I’m fine! Haha! Man, Oh man, I must be lucky if you found me waaaaaaay into space! Oh, name's Marx by the way!”

   Magolor pauses...that's one way to react. Oh well he’s awake, time to ask the big question.

“Right...Where I found you was where Nova is supposed to be, but all there was were broken parts of it. What happened?”

“Oh my gosh, were you gonna make a wish!? That's suuuuuuper unfortunate. I feel so bad! Well you see it was crazy what happened, so I was about to make my wish when this monster showed up and blew it up! It was crazy!!!”

    What? Is all Magolor is thinking, he may not get out much, but even he could tell that this Marx guy is lying. Why? Is he hiding something?

“Okay, what did this monster look like?”

   Marxs keeps smiling.

“Oh it was HUGE, super big and scary, I didn't stand a chance and neither did Nova! One hit and BAM! Nova is gone.”

  Marx’s smile falls into a sad expression which Magolor suspects isn't genuine.

“You’re messing with me aren't you?”

“Noooooooo.”

  A pause.

“Okay, yeah I am.”

   Magolor groans and tugs on his hood in annoyance.

“ Listen I need to know what happened to Nova, I have to make a wish and seeing Nova in pieces doesn't bode well.”

   Marx gets a sinister grin upon his face at this.

“Oh I can tell you! But I wanna know what you're going to wish for first!”

“I think saving you from the cold of space and waking you up is enough for this info.”

“Oh it’s not like I don’t appreciate that! I do. It's just that I'm really curious, I'm not saying anything until you spill!”

“Okay. Tell me, and I will say it.”

“Nuh uh, you say it first. I'm not risking you just kicking me out when I spill!”

  Magolor groans again as Marx starts lifting his feet up and down while he waits. This guy is a handful, who does he think he is? Magolor could definitely just threaten him, maybe summon one of his swords but he has a feeling that wouldn't work. He could lie about it. Yes, this seems to be the best approach, it’s less messy this way.

“Fine,I want to improve my ship. I travel a lot so it'd be beneficial.”

“That's a Lie.”

“What?”

 Marxs grin grows wider.

“Well why would you wanna hide that? You seemed to have been hesitant to tell me your wish earlier, and the answer you gave wasn't something someone would be hesitant to share! So what's your real wish?”

   Panic rises in Magolor, something he hasn't felt in awhile, as Marx emphasizes “real” in his sentence. What should he say? Of course, Marx is right that it was a bold faced lie, but should he admit that? One thing is for certain, this Marx guy is sharper than he looks. Apparently Magolor has been thinking for too long, because Marxs starts speaking again.

“Honestly, no need to lie, it can't be any worse than what I did!”

   This catches Magolors attention. “any worse than what I did”? What does he mean by that? Feeling bold, Magolor decides to tell the truth.

“I wanted to wish for Nova to get an item of great power for me since I cannot achieve it as is.”

“Hmmmm...lemme guess, you want this item so you can rule over everyone huh?”

   If Magolor wasn't shocked before, he sure is now.

“How did-”

“Yeah, I'm right. I got that vibe from you! I knew because I basically tried to do the same thing! My case is a bit different though!”

“...You tried to rule over everyone?”

“Well not EVERYONE , only a single planet I lived on.”

   Magolor is too stunned to talk.

“Anyways, since you answered, I guess it's my turn to spill. You see, I had this plan to rule over my home planet Pop Star. It started with me getting the sun and moon to fight. When everyone was in a panic, I approached the local hero Kirby and told him he needed to summon Nova. Guess what! Kid fell for it. HA! So I waited until he summoned Nova, and BAM I swooped in and stole his wish and told Nova I wanted to rule Pop Star! Oh, it was great. The look on Kirby's face was so funny! Unfortunately for me however, it seemed I underestimated Kirby because he stopped Nova! Obviously I went to stop him, but the little bastard used his hammer to swing me directly into Nova. Then, it blew up with me inside!”

  Magolor watched as Marx spoke his tale, Standing and jumping in place, his expression shifting to fit parts of the story. Magolor was in awe. Marx was truly something else, and Magolor wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

“Okay so, lemme get this straight. This Kirby kid pretty much blew up Nova to stop you from taking over his planet?”

“Yep!”

“Well, that makes much more sense than whatever nonsense you were saying before. It seems I can’t use Nova for my plans after all.”

“Seems like that, unless it puts itself back together somehow.”

“Like that'll happen”

   Magolor begins pacing around thinking of his next plan of action. Nova is clearly a no go now. What else can he do? He's not powerful enough to defeat Landia, and neither is the lor! Magolor keeps thinking, lost in thought. So much that he doesn't even notice Marx getting off the bed and coming towards him.

“Ya know, you could just do what I did!”

“Do what you did?”

“Yeah! Kirby is a powerhouse. I can guarantee he can get that item for you easily, if you convince him too.”

“Uhm, wouldn't he be on guard from your attempt?”

“Trust me when I say that he really is too trusting for his own good.”

“I don’t even know what he looks like!”

“He’s a Pink ball with blue eyes, pretty easy to spot.”

“I-I I don't even know where Pop star is!”

“It's in the name, it's the planet that's shaped like a star hard to miss.”

“Why are you even trying to help me?”

“Honestly? Well I kinda wanna see someone put that pink puff ball in his place. It'd be really funny to hear about.”

“I honestly don’t know how to respond to that.”

“I get that a lot! Anyways, I should probably leave now. We both got what we wanted, so I see no reason to stay!”

“Right..”

   Magolor isn't sure why, but he finds himself disappointed at this. He quickly dismisses the feeling as he leads Marx to the exit of the ship. Before exiting the open door to the star-ridden void of space, Marx looks at Magolor one last time with that grin plastered on his face.

“See you around Magolor! Or maybe not! Hope you find what you're looking for!”

   Magolor cannot even respond as Marx suddenly sprouts a pair of golden wings,hesitates for a moment and quickly flies out the Lor’s exit. After Marx’s leaving, Magolor finds the ship feels a lot quieter and empty than before.

Chapter Text

   It's a nice day. Almost sunset and Magolor, in his cart, is handing the bag of tomatoes a Scarfy has bought from him. The Scarfy gives Magolor a bit too much money for the item, but he doesn't say anything as the Scarfy thanks him and walks away. Magolor takes a moment to stretch, today was another long day of transactions. His shop is quite popular despite Magolor not quite knowing why. Yes, he sells a variety of things such as weapons, books, food and some random trinkets he comes across, but he would think residents would be hesitant to buy from him considering his past? Oh well, he's just grateful he gets any customers at all!

  Magolor is relaxing in thought when suddenly, he hears some scuffling, gasping and whispering? Magolor takes a peak out of his cart and sees the locals gathered around...Something? Curious, Magolor floats on out his cart to get a better look at whatever seems to be going on. Magolor pushes past some of the residents in his way, muttering his short apologies as he does. What's everyone so worked up about? Is there some sort of monster? Is someone making a ruckus? Surely not, that would be foolish! After a bit of struggling to get to the source of all this crowd, Magolor finally manages to get to what everyone is looking at.

  It makes him freeze in his tracks. No way, this has to be a trick ! Magolor simply cannot process what he is seeing as his eyes have to be playing a sick joke on him. There, right in the middle of this plaza, Magolor has set shop in are three familiar faces, and it makes Magolors stomach sink. The first he sees is Kirby, how could he miss him? The pink puffball is standing there with concern on his face looking at the person next to him saying something Magolor cannot hear. Next to him is the stern Meta Knight, Magolor cannot get a good read on the look on his face, which is probably because of his mask but still! 

   Now these two aren't the ones Magolor is worried about, Kirby visits him a lot! It’s always pleasant to get visits from your friends. He'd usually give Kirby some sort of sweet he has on hand, and they'd chat about how they were doing. Meta Knight is...Well he doesn't visit often, and when he does, it's quite clearly to make sure Magolor hasn't caused any trouble as of late. While yes it hurts slightly that Meta Knight doesn't trust him, he can't say he doesn't get it. But enough of that, he needs to get back on track.

   No, neither of those two are concerning to him, but the person in front of those two is very much a cause for concern. An old face he hasn't seen for quite some time. Marx, the eccentric guest he saved from space all that time ago, has his back turned to Magolor. What is he doing here !? Is his first thoughts. It doesn't make any sense! From what he remembered from their talk before him being on Pop Star makes no sense! Was he here to try and take over again? Well, if that's the case, he clearly got caught! Maybe just maybe he had a change of heart like he did, that would explain why Marx is with Kirby and Meta Knight. Why are they here though?

   As Magolor is lost in thought at this sudden development, he suddenly notices that Kirby has made eye contact with him, breaking him out of thought. Kirby seemingly says something, and just like that, Marx quickly and sharply turns around, and a big grin stretches on his face at the sight of him. Magolor is confused and, even more so, when an excited Marx starts running to him, jumps up and captures him in a hug with his wings.

“Wha!?”

   Marxs looks up at him, a grin still plastered on him.

“Mags! It’s so great to see you again !!!”

    Mags?

“Marx!? What are you doing here!?”

“Oh ya know, just dropping by casually.”

   Kirby and Meta Knight walk up to them, and Meta Knight is the first to speak.

“Magolor, sorry you had to be dragged into this, but you see we found Marx here on Pop Star, obviously to cause trouble.”

   Kirby makes an upset face at that.

“Meta dont say that! Marx said he changed!”

   Meta Knight sighs.

“Yes he did say that. He also said you could vouch for him, is this true?”

    WHAT???? Is all Magolor can think of, he only met Marx once and he surely cannot vouch for that, what is he supposed to say!?

“Uhm-”

   Before Magolor can even say anything, Marx, who's still clinging to him like a cat on a tree, starts whispering to him.

“ Lie! I promise I'll make it up to you, I just need you to vouch for me!”

   Magolor hesitates for a moment before giving out an answer in a rush.

“Yeah! Uhm I mean, I can vouch for Marx for sure...We've known each other for awhile and he told me himself he wanted to change and felt bad so uh yep!”

   There's a moment of silence, and for a moment, Magolor fears he's oversold it as he strains to keep his face in a completely normal expression. He thinks he's failing. Marx finally lets go of him hovering in the air next to him with a cocky smirk on his face.

“ SEE ! I told you guys I wasn't lying. Ugh, people these days. You try to take over a planet once, and suddenly you're the bad guy! Am I right Mags!”

“Uh Yeeeaaahhh ????”

   Magolor rasps out, and Marx gives him a soft slap on the back.

“Well, seeing as I'm totally innocent and clearly a good person, I'll just take my leave!”

   Marx is about to fly away when Meta Knight quickly grabs him by the wing.

“Ugh, what gives!?! You want me to swear an oath to you or something!?”

“While yes, Magolor could be telling the truth, Magolor has had a past of lying as well, so his words may not be truthful.”

   Kirby gives Meta Knight a look of sadness but doesn't say anything. Marxs has this annoyed scowl on his face.

“Wow, real noble there Mr hypocrite. I seem to remember someone trying to take over Pop Star that one time with his ship, and I'm not talking about Magolor!”

   Meta Knight seemingly doesn't flinch. However, Kirby does. Meta Knight speaks clearly and calmly while looking directly at Magolor.

“Magolor, since you vouched for him, I don't see why you shouldn't be tasked with this. Consider this a trial for Marx. Dedede is having a party soon. Watch over Marx until then, make sure he doesn't run off or do anything harmful. You two may come to the party when it is time. If he behaves and doesn't do any harm, then he's free to go. Got that?”

   Marxs breaks himself from Meta Knight's grasp.

“Ha! That's it!? Easy peasy, besides this gives me time to catch up with my friend here.”

   Marx places his wing around Magolor in a sort of hug, Magolor breaths in and then out. What exactly has he gotten into, oh well, have to keep up the act.

“Yes...I will make sure to keep an eye on Marx until then to prove his uh innocence.”

   Meta Knight gives a curt nod and begins to walk away while Kirby stays for a moment.

“I’m sorry Meta was so harsh, you know how he is! I’m just glad you're okay Marx uhm after ya know.”

   Magolor feels Marx flinch.

“Yeah well that's in the past! Water under the bridge to say!”

“I know and I believe you but it's just-”

   Just then, before Kirby could finish, Meta Knight's voice rings out.

“Kirby? Come on, we gotta go. Dedede is gonna get worried.”

“Ah! Gotta go, I’ll see you at the party!”

   Kirby gives a small wave before running off towards Meta Knight, leaving Magolor and Marx alone.

“Well that certainly wasn't something I expected.”

   Marx drops to the ground and his wings vanish while smirking up at Magolor. 

“It’s exciting isnt it! After all that time ago we met again, who would've guessed haha!”

   Marxs laughs ring out, and Magolor finally gets a moment to assess the situation at hand. Just a moment ago he was working at his shop, and now he somehow got roped into a scheme by someone he met long ago. What should he do now? He lied to his friend which he isn't proud of but Marx seemed desperate and he sort of panicked. Did he do the right thing, oh my what if Kirby finds out he was lying!? That wouldn't end well, especially with his past. Would they think he was teaming up with Marx to do something bad he would never do?! Oh boy what if-

“Hellooooo? Pop Star to Magolor? HEY!”

   A swift hit to his back snaps Magolor from his spiraling.

“Huh?”

“I was asking what we should do now as I am apparently under your watch now. Like where are we, where do I stay, what is there to eat here and oh-”

   Magolor stops him.

“Listen we can talk but maybe not in the middle of the plaza hm? Let's go somewhere more fitting, follow me.”

   Magolor beckons Marx to follow him as he starts floating across the plaza. Lots of makeshift shops have placed themselves around here in a bid for customers, it's one of Magolors favorite spots to set up shop. However none of these are his destination. Flying past them with Marx following behind, they find themselves at a Waddle Dee owned Cafe. Magolor makes for a table outside and sits down, Marxs follows suit.

“This is much better! Always a nice spot to chat.”

   Marx uses his wing to grab a menu.

“Hmmm, well I’m more interested in the food here now.”

   That's when a Waddle Dee, in an apron, walks up to them holding a pen and notepad.

“Good evening sirs! What would you like?”

“I’d like a Coffee no sugar, thank you!”

   The Waddle Dee nods, writes it down and turns to Marx.

“Well I’d like the biggest cake you have! Oh! And add lots of strawberries with it!”

   The Waddle Dee once again writes it down, nods and walks off.

“No offense, didn't you just recently get back here? Are you sure you can afford that?”

   Marxs just laughs at that as if that's the dumbest question he could have asked.

“Erm I seem to remember YOU bringing ME here, I assumed you would be paying for the visit!”

“Oh well that's correct I suppose...I guess I just assumed you'd be paying for your order?”

“Man, this is the worst date ever. I cant believe you brought me here and then expected me to pay, rude much?”

   Magolor Ignores most of that sentence, focuses on the date part and hopes his face is covered enough to hide the blush he can most definitely feel at the moment.

“DATE?!?”

   Marx laughs, Magolor tries to calm down while covering his face with his hands.

“Relaaaaax, I'm joking!”

   Magolor peaks at him through his hands.

“Buuuut I'm still not paying for this as I am completely and utterly broke.”

   Magolor puts his hands down and groans.

“Why are you even here?”

   Marx smiles.

“Hm?”

“Why are you on Pop Star and don't even try and tell me what you told Kirby cause I'm not buying it.”

“Well why are YOU here?”

“What?”

“I seem to remember someone telling me he was planning to take over the universe! Sooooo what happened???”

   Magolor falters for a moment before speaking.

“...Well clearly I failed, I work as a traveling merchant now trying to make up for all the trouble I caused.”

“Hmmm, it sounds boring.”

   A silence fills the air for a few moments before Magolor breaks it.

“Soooo...again why are you here?”

   Marx gets a look as if he's mulling something over, but it quickly disappears into his smile.

“I don't wanna say!”

   Magolor makes an audible choking noise.

“What's that supposed to-”

   Just then the Waddle Dee from before is back holding a tray with a single cup of Coffee and a big two layer strawberry cake with what seems to be vanilla and strawberry icing and lots of strawberries topped on it. Marx looks like he's about to lunge at the Waddle Dee to get the cake...

“Here you go, enjoy!”

   The Waddle Dee sets their orders on their table and swiftly leaves. Marx immediately lunges and starts to eat the cake, face first.

“Uh, shouldn't you use your fork? You're getting cake all over your face.”

   Marxs gives a swift I don't care or at least that's what Magolor thinks he heard, hard to tell when Marx has cake stuffed in his mouth...

“Alright...Anyways what did you mean you don’t wanna say?”

   Marx does not respond as he keeps stuffing his face with cake.

“Eugh, Listen I lied for you earlier to my friends no less! The least you can do is give a slight explanation!”

   Marx finally lifts his face from the cake, said face is now covered with frosting and crumbs. Magolor is about to look for something like a napkin to hand over to Marx when he sticks his tongue which is way too long Magolor thinks out and starts licking his face clean. Magolor watches disturbed but also sort of fascinated. When done Marx begins to speak.

“Ughhh fineee, I've been moving from planet to planet, but I got soooo bored! So I decided to have a short trip here, but I got caught by the goodie two shoes squad.”

   Magolor takes a sip of his coffee and hums, that does sound correct if even a bit vague, Marx continues to talk.

 “Anywaaays, It's quite obvious you failed taking over the universe but like what happened? Did Kirby drop kick you immediately or something?”

“Uhm well not exactly, You see I actually took your advice after a particularly nasty fight trying to get the Master Crown-”

“Master Crown?”

“Oh well that was the item I was trying to get, I think I mentioned it before? Anyways, while crashing I landed on Pop Star! However my ship was in a grave state, luckily for me, it seemed Kirby was around and found me sulking and agreed to help fix my ship-”

   Marx busts out laughing at this, wings bursting out and flailing up and down.

“AHAHA OH OH THAT'S SO- AHAH HES SO GULLIBLE!”

“Yes well, It wasn't just Kirby-”

“NO-”

“Meta Knight, Dedede and Bandana Dee where there as well-”

   Marx starts cackling harder at this.

“STOP, NO, YOU'RE JOKING! HAA, THEM TOO?!? OH MY GOSH MAGOLOR AHA I'M GONNA THROW UUUP AHAHA!”

   Magolor finds himself smiling despite himself.

“Hmm, if you think that's funny imagine their faces after I tricked them into getting the crown for me.”

“I CAN ONLY IMAGINE HA! MAN I WISH I WAS THERE, IT WOULD'VE BEEN PRICELESS! YOU'D THINK KIRBY WOULDVE LEARNED FROM LAST TIME HAHAAAA”

“Haha, well I guess it was a bit funny to see their shocked faces, Kirby is a bit foolish but kind hearted! After putting on the crown I-”

   Magolor pauses, a wave of sudden discomfort washes over him.

“Well it wasn't enough, Kirby managed to beat me and now i'm a merchant as i've said before!”

   Marx finally seems to be coming down from his laughter high and leans forward wings holding him steady on the table, he is beaming . 

“Man, I'm so glad I've found you again, I haven't laughed that hard in a while!”

   Magolor feels a sense of pride well up in him as he waves a dismissive hand.

“Oh surely I'm not that funny!”      

“Don't be so modest! Anyways I'm assuming I'll be staying with you as I don't really have a place to stay.”

“Yes well, that does seem to be the case since I have to keep an eye on you.”

   Magolor responds as he takes out his pouch of money from a portal he summoned And places the correct amount of money and a nice tip on the table and floats out of the table. Marx makes his wings disappear and jumps out of his.

“Okay soooo no offense but please don't tell me we'll be staying in that tiny cart of yours.”

“Oh no, that wouldn't be quaint at all!”

   Magolor hears Marx snicker from behind him and smiles, despite the hecticness of Marx showing up so far it's been fun? Magolor and Marx arrive behind Magolors cart, it's a good sizable clearing. Magolor reaches into his cape and pulls out a small sized Lor, Marx walks up to him, trying to get a good look at Magolor is holding and has a confused look on his face.

“Woooow...A small model of your ship, sooooo cool, that doesn't answer my question from before. I mean there's clearly nothing here and-”

   Magolor laughs.

“Marx this isn't a model of the ship, this IS the ship!”

   As if to prove his point, Magolor floats the Lor to the center of the clearing and puts out his hands in front of it and focuses on the magic pooling in his hands and the intent of what he wants. Marx watches, but Magolor isn't focused on that as the Lor begins to expand in size and cuts the magic off as the Lor gets to its normal size. Magolor lets out a satisfied huff and jumps back in surprise when Marx jumps in front of him with a seemingly impressed look.

“How did you do that?! That was cool!”

   Magolor is taken aback by this, Cool? Flustered and sort of confused, Magolor quickly responds.

“Oh, Uh it's not that cool! It's a simple spell and I am the Lor’s owner so-”

   Marx makes an annoyed expression at this and stands on top of his feet to look at Magolor directly.

“Oh come on! I can't do that so it's objectively cool, learn to take a compliment!”

“Oh, well thanks...I guess???”

“That's more like it! Now come on let's go! Beat ya there!”

“Wha-”

   Before Magolor can even question what Marx meant, the jester just runs off laughing. Magolor quickly flies after him but isn't quick enough as he is met with a very smug Marx inside the ship's entrance.

“Ha! I won!”

“Why didn't you warn me first!?!”

“Well firstly I wanted to win-”

   Magolor grimaces.

“Aaaand secondly it was REALLY funny seeing the look on your face!”

   Magolor audibly groans.

“Surely it's not THAT entertaining..”

“You’d be surprised how untrue that is.”

   Magolor just stares at him. Marx turns away from him looking around the lor’s interior.

“Anywaaaays! Gonna show me where I'm staying or what? I don't know about you but I'm tuckered out!”

   At the mention of sleep, Magolor perks up.

“Right! Well if you follow me, I'll show you to the spare room.”

   Magolor floats ahead while Marx follows behind him. Magolor knows there's quite a bit of room in the Lor, but he's lived in it for quite a bit, so he pretty much knows the ship by the back of his hand! Navigating the ship, they pass multiple doors, rooms that either are empty or have been used for something else. None of them are bedrooms as there's only two, his and a spare. While yes, he could have made more into bedrooms, it would've been pointless! It's not like Magolor had plenty of visitors that stayed over anyways. This whole situation is foreign to him.

   Finally they reach the spare bedroom, and the door automatically opens to show...Well a very simple white room with a medium sized bed with steel framing, a blue cover and a single white pillow. As for other furniture, well there's not much, a single metal stand right beside the bed,a single blue floor mat and...That's all.

“Well here we are! Your ro-”

“It’s kinda boring isn't it?”

   Magolor staggers for a response.

“Oh uhm, Well I don't have many visitors so-”

“I can tell! Well that just means I get the honor of spicing up this room myself! Seeing as I'm staying here for a while.”

“Whatever makes you more uh comfortable I guess! Do whatever you want.”

   Marx gives a sinister grin in response, and Magolor suddenly feels like he's made a horrible mistake.

“Oh I sure will get to that! Buuut it's late and I'm tired so the spicing up will have to wait until tomorrow hehe .”

“Riiiight, well I will be off! Uhm, if you need anything just ask? Goodnight.”

   As Magolor begins to leave, he hears Marx shout.

“GOODNIGHT DON'T LET THE BED BUGZZY BITE!!!”

   Magolor cannot help but laugh. He begins floating over to his room, and as he does, he begins to think about this whole situation. So much happened in a short amount of time! He was just tending to his shop when BAM, he was thrusted into a situation he had no business being in! Or maybe he should be in it as well. He had helped and took Marxs advice. Maybe this is the universe's way of getting back at him...He probably deserves it. Marx is his own thing as well, Magolor can never tell what he's thinking or what he's playing at! Magolor would be lying if he wasn't intrigued. Maybe that's why he lied to his friends? Well one thing is for sure, things are about to get way more interesting .

Chapter Text

   Darkness overwhelms the area Magolor is in. He tries to use his magic to admit a light but can't. Magolor tries to find something to help him but finds himself stumbling over something. Is he on the ground? Magolor slightly floats up to avoid tripping and then suddenly a light flashes the area where he is, revealing a mirror in front of him. Magolor falters as what he sees is not him. Well technically, it is, but it's not the form he usually takes.

   Staring back at him is the form he took when he first put on the master crown, said crown is grasped upon his head. Magolor, at that time, thought he was glorious, powerful and everything he wanted. However, now he feels a mix of fear and disgust at this form. Tearing his eyes away from the offending mirror, Magolor is greeted with what he tripped over before. Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee all lay on the floor motionless. Magolors form shakes with dread. Did he do this? No! He would never do this! He's their friend, what's happening?

   Magolors thoughts come to a stop when he feels something strange, and his form begins to shift. Fear turns into panic as the familiar feeling starts taking him over. A storm of NO plagues his thoughts. It's no use as his body twists and morphs into something truly horrid. As an eye begins forming in Magolors mouth, he is unable to scream. 

   Then, it stops.

   Magolor jolts awake with a gasp to the sound of his alarm blaring. Looking over, he sees it is morning. A sigh of relief pours over him as he calms his breathing.

“Just another bad dream.”

   Magolor says in a mutter to himself. Truthfully he's had dreams or well nightmares like this for a while. Though the horror he faced has ended and he's in a better place now, the nightmares don't end. Some are worse than others, and they vary in content. Some concern him when he wore the master crown, and some concern his time in the strange dimension he got trapped in for a bit of time. It's what he gets for everything he's done. Besides, it's just some dreams, nothing he cannot handle!

   Getting up from his bed Magolor begins his morning routine, starting with putting on his clothes. Magolor floats over to his closet opening it and he scans- well more so glances as he only has two versions of an outfit. One blue,Yellow and white and another Green, white and some brown. After his escape from whatever dimension he was in, he popped back into Pop Star with a new outfit strangely enough! He wore it for awhile, but recently donned his old outfit once again.

   It's not that he doesn't like the outfit...It's just- It's a bit boring, isn't it? Lacks the detail the blue one has. He would change the outfit, but he feels as though he doesn't have the right. Considering it's the exact clothes he donned after his escape, it just doesn't feel right? Oh, this is just a bunch of excuses! Magolor reaches for the green outfit but hesitates for a moment before switching to the blue one. He glances at one of the copies of the green outfit and determines to find someone to maybe spruce it up. Maybe add some gear patterns like his blue one! Yes, that seems to be a good idea. It's not tarnishing the original so it's fine!

   Magolor quickly puts on the blue outfit and floats into the room's bathroom. A quick refresher and he's almost ready for the day. He desperately needs a coffee fix. He floats out of his bathroom, out his room, and into the kitchen. Truthfully Magolor isn't the best cook, at least he himself doesn't think so! He knows the basics but that's about it. Usually, he visits one of the local food stalls for food. Maybe that's not the best- but it's probably fine! Quickly Magolor prepares the coffee machine for a lovely cup of coffee, it doesn't take too long for it to dispense. Picking up the cup, Magolor takes a sip and floats out the kitchen.

   Magolor heads down to the main area of the Lor with his cup of coffee. He feels like he's forgetting something... That something becomes very clear when Magolor finds none other than Marx on a stool and typing with his claws on the main computer's keyboard. How did he forget Marx was here?!? Swiftly Magolor flies over to Marx and coughs, getting Marxs attention.

“What are you doing!?”

“Jeez, way to greet someone in the morning!”

   Magolor gives Marx a glare.

“Ughh don't give me that look, I was just talking to the Lor!”

   Magolor’s eyes widen at this.

“WHAT!?!”

“Yeah! I've been chatting this thing up for a bit.”

   A million questions run by Magolors brain in a second.

“What do you mean you talked to it!?! Be more specific, did it speak into your mind or out loud????”

   Marx gives him a look that very much reads as he's talking like a crazy person.

“Oh yeah this ship has totally been chatting me up all day can't get enough of me!”

“REALLY?!”

   Marx Laughs loudly.

“No silly! I've been talking to it using this computer, ya know the one that's always been here?”

   Magolor groans loudly.

“That's not the Lor, It's just an ai instilled into it. The actual Lor was said to speak to those worthy of its words.”

   Marx keeps giving him a look.

“Uhm yes it is.”

“No it's not.”

“It may not be speaking to me out loud and I don't know I may just be super dumb but I thiiiink talking through a computer counts.”

“You cannot fool me into thinking this whole time the Lor has been speaking through the computer!”

   An exasperated noise escapes Magolors mouth, Marx speaks again.

“Why? Is it because if it's true then that means you were super dumb and never realized this!?”

   Magolor chokes as a response.

“Oh yeah I totally get that I would feel super silly because it's soooo obvious!”

   Magolor cuts him off there.

“Agh! Stop that, It's my ship! I would know if the Lor was communicating with me at all!”

   Marxs face gets a smug look.

“Are you sure about that? Here, just look at the messages-”

   Marx moves himself and the stool in turn, out the way so Magolor can fully see the screen.

“Best places to get performance balls.”

“ Hello Marx. ”

“Ohohoh the computer talks!”

“ Yes I do in fact talk.”

“K, do you know where I can get performance circus balls though.”

“ Well, this is a shopping district with tons of carts, surely you could find one that sells what you desire. ”

“That seems about right! Sooo I'm assuming you're the Lor then?”

“ That's correct. ”

“Hmmm can you only talk on the computer oooor?”

“ I can do lots of things as I am the ship. I can sense anyone who enters the ship and also help them if need be, I seem to remember helping you all that time ago. ”

“I thought Magolor woke me up????”

“He did, I just simply helped slightly, he did most of the work. ”

“OHOHO THAT’S CRAZY! Magolor is crazy lucky to own you.”

“ Yes, speaking of which it seems he's approaching. ”

“oh-”

   Magolor blinks at this whole convo and swiftly begins typing his own message.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE THE LOR.”

“ You never asked. ”

   Magolor face palms and screams into his hands, why hasn't he seen this before? It's very obvious when you think about it. Maybe it's because he visualized an actual voice speaking to you instead of a computer. Then again legends do get muddled as years go by... 

“Believe me nooooow?”

   Marx's voice rings out smugly, Magolor is too busy suffering to answer so Marx continues. 

“You'd think for someone so smart they'd figure it out! Hohoho, maybe that makes me smarter than you!”

   Magolor finally lowers his hands from his face.

“I wouldn't count on that.”

   Marx laughs.

“Ooooh, getting snarky with me? I love it!”

   Magolor gives him another glare, Marx keeps smiling.

“Sooo grumpy, what's on the agenda for today?”

“The agenda is what I do everyday, Run my shop.”

   Marxs face twists into a grimace.

“That's boooringgg!!!”

“Well, it seems as you're under MY supervision you're gonna have to deal with it!”

   Magolor turns to leave.

“Ugh fineeee, Don’t expect me to help out though.”

   Magolor begins to hear footsteps following him as he leaves. Swiftly making his way out the Lor, Magolor heads for his cart with what he assumes is a grumpy Marx behind him. Finally reaching his wooden cart Magolor opens the door on its side and heads in and immediately starts stalking up the shelfs with items. Suddenly Marxs voice rings out.

“Do you have any chairs? Unlike you, I can't float unless I use my wings, and even then that gets tiring.”

   Wordlessly, Magolor portals in a chair, better to do as Marx says then have him complain the whole time. Magolor hears the chair scrap along the floor and a plop, indicating Marx has sat down. During this, Magolor opens up the front window of his cart indicating he is now open for business. He puts on a happy face as he does. Gotta look your best or no one will buy anything!

   Magolor keeps attention steady on attending to his various customers, but cannot help but hear Marxs groans and the moving of the chair he's on. At one point, a Tac walks up to his cart and quickly asks for a new bag as their old one has gone missing. Magolor quickly gets on it, looking for a bag. When suddenly Tac speaks.

“What's with the guy in the chair? I haven't seen him with you before?”

   Magolor freezes. Marx immediately chimes in, slouching in his chair clearly bored.

“Actually I'm not real, I'm in your head.”

   Magolor gives a stern glare to Marx. Marx glares back, still slouched.

“What? I'm not doing anything right now so I may as well be!”

   Magolor sighs, grabs the bag and floats over to the Tac and hands over the bag and the Tac speaks.

“I didn't expect you to be in the company of someone so uhm...Interesting.”

   Marx perks up and quickly gets out of his chair, wings sprouting out and flies over to the window of the cart directly in front of Tac.

“Ohoho and what's THAT supposed to mean!?”

   The Tac, to Magolors horror, does not simply just pay for their item and walk away but instead continues.

“Well...I don’t think I've seen anyone like you before?”

“ OH! ”

“It’s very strange, like a Noddy but demented?”

“Ooooooo demented hahah that's a new one!”

   Magolor suddenly senses a very concerning aura emanating off Marx. Magolor slowly turns to him to find the jester grinning wider than ever. It's quite clear this isn't gonna end well...Magolor quickly moves in front of two and tries to defuse the situation.

“Uh! Hey Marx, it's fine! I'm sure they didn't mean any offense!”

   The Tac suddenly jumps and sputters out.

“MARX?!? The villain who tried to take over-”

   Marx, before Magolor could stop him, Grabs the Tac by their hood and gets directly in their face. Magolors alarm bells start ringing loudly.

“Maybe I am! Maybe I aint! Either way you better keep your mouth shut, which should be very easy for you seeing as it's covered! Or else I could easily blast your face off here right now!”

   The Tac quickly nods, Marx lets them go and the Tac begins running away. Marx grabs the bag off the counter and throws it to them.

“Hey you forgot your bag ohohoho!!”

   Magolor is flabbergasted at this display, so he just says the first thing that comes to his mind.

“They forgot to pay...“

   Marx lets out a laugh, holds out his wing and opens his claws. Some money falls out and onto the counter. Magolor stares at it for a long moment before looking up at Marxs smug face.

“This isn't your money is it.”

“Nope!”

    Magolor lets out a long sigh and takes the money and portals it away.

“Sit back down Marx, please .”

“Ha! Well anything for you Magolor!”

   Marx winks at him and Magolor just gives him a glare, Marx flies back over to his chair and sits once again. Magolor closes his eyes and sighs, this is fine, everything is fine just keep going and the day will be over before he knows it! After his mental prep talk Magolor opens his eyes and gets back at it and for a while it goes well despite Marxs comments, stuff such as asking about his products, how much money he makes and common customers. At first Magolor gave answers but slowly Magolor eventually stopped, in turn Marx got bored once again and slumped in his chair.

   Eventually, a Waddle Doo walks up to the cart asking for eye drops. Magolor blurts out what he first thinks.

“Oh no! Is your eye infected again?”

“No, no, nothing like that! I recently ran out and you can never be too prepared.”

   Magolor hears Marx scoff behind him, but he pays Marx no mind and goes to get the eyedrops and then a bag, as this Waddle Doo always asks for one. Suddenly a thought crosses Magolors mind: he hasn't pranked anyone for a while. Should he prank this Waddle Dee? Well he surely hasn’t snuck any tricks on this specific customer, so this seems to be the perfect time! Making up his mind, Magolor puts the eye drops into the bag and then quickly, with a slide of hand that is very much experienced with this practice, summons a portal and pulls out his very own glitter bomb. Nonchalantly, Magolor sets and places the glitter bomb into the bottom of the bag. 

    Magolor happily hands over the bag to the Waddle Do. The Waddle Do gives a nod, hands over the money, and walks away. Suddenly Magolor hears a loud thump behind him and the sound of running. Quickly Magolor turns around and is faced with a grounded Marx who has a very apprehensive expression. Magolor freezes for a moment, not used to seeing the look on his face but manages to get out something.

“What’s wron-”

   Magolor is cut off by a quick speaking Marx.

“Did you just put a glitter bomb into that Waddle Do's bag?!”

“I- uhm Well-”

   Marx sprouts his wings and flies up to directly face him with a smug smirk.

“You totally did, didn't you!”

   Magolor is in shock, Marx saw that!? He was sure he had been sneaky enough not for anyone to notice!

“What?! N-no, I wouldn't do-”

“Haha! Yes. You. Would! ”

    After Marx’s emphasis on each of those words, he starts excitedly- Well what Magolor thinks looks excitedly, flying around the small cart and laughing.

“Ohoho! That won't fool me Magolor! I can tell a prankster from a mile away!”

“But i'm not-”

“Hehehe! I'm soooo excited!!”

   Magolor said nothing. Still stunned by this, Marx stopped flying around hovering in the air looking down at Magolor.

“Aaaannnnd we're gonna go have some fun right now!!”

“What?”

   Suddenly a clawed hand grabs one of magolors and starts dragging him out the cart. Magolor quickly grabs the edge of the cart's exit, keeping him from being completely dragged out. Marx looks at him in annoyance.

“Ugh! What is it come oooonnn! Let's go and have some fun!!”

   Magolor sputters out a response.

“M-My shop!”

“Magolor your shop isn't gonna go out of business and disappear while we go pranking.”

“Can I AT LEAST close up shop for the day!?”

“ Ha ! Go ahead, but after that were going praaanking!”

   Marx lets go of Magolors hand, and Magolor heads back into his cart and begins portaling all these items away. Why is he going along with this? What else is he supposed to do...It might be fun! Wait no, not fun! Sure, Magolor sometimes pranks his customers, but that is different ! Magolor snaps out of his thoughts when he faintly hears Marx shout about hurrying up so they can have fun. Finishing closing up his shop by closing the windows to his cart, Magolor floats on out to face a very expectant Marx.

“About time, Let's go!”

   Marx once again grabs onto Magolors hand and starts dragging him through the plaza passing multiple people. Suddenly a loud BANG rings out. Magolor looks over to see the Waddle Do from before covered in glitter. Magolor quickly places a hand on his mouth to cover his laughing, but it seems Marx heard it.

“I KNEW IT HAHAHA YOU ARE A PRANKSTER!”

   Magolor calms down enough to respond.

“No I'm not! I was just coughing and besides that must've been a coincidence.”

   Magolor knows he has no ground to stand on especially when Marx gives him a less than impressed look.

“Really? Why do you keep trying to hide it like it's this big bad secret?”

   Magolor doesn't respond. Marx groans and continues to drag Magolor along the plaza. Eventually they reach the center then Marx grabs tighter onto Magolors hand and begins flying upwards, with Magolor dragged along squirming in surprise. When Marx stops and lets go of Magolors hand, Magolor finds he has a perfect above view of the plaza and the residents. Marx suddenly gets close to Magolor and points down to the residents down below.

“Soooo, who's the unlucky victim?”

“Wha-”

“Oh come on! Oh, what about that Bronto Burt, Knuckle Jo or ooooh that Bio Spark!?”

“Well I couldn't possibly-”

“Ugh, boring! Don't be boring! Come on, just pick someone!”

   Magolor determines Marx won't stop until he picks someone, so Magolor begins searching through the crowd. Magolor then spots a Rocky casually walking through the plaza absently minded and clearly a prime target.

“See that Rocky over there? She seems clueless enough!”

   Magolor didn't realize the tone of what he said until Marx started bursting out in laughter and snidely comments.

“Wow! For someone who doesn't prank people you sure do know how to pick them!”

“Well it's just, look at her! She's clearly not paying attention and besides you asked me to pick someone!”

“Uh huh. Anyways, what prank should we do to her!?”

“Uh-”

“You have no idea do you?”

“Well-”

“That's fine! I have an idea, while I execute it you can cook something up in that big brain of yours!”

   Magolor isn't sure if he should take that as an insult or a compliment. Either way, he flushes much to his annoyance. Marx finally leaves Magolors personal space and speaks.

“Can I have something to write with, paper and tape?”

   Magolor quickly portals the items into his hands which are swiftly taken by Marx. Marx turns away from him and starts writing on the paper. Magolor tries to get a look, but Marx keeps shooing Magolor away with his wing making him unable to see. 

“What are you doing?”

“Mmm, well nothing too crazy! That's for later.”

   That doesn't reassure Magolor. Eventually, Marx seems to be done writing as he just drops the pen and tape he was given, making it fall all the way down onto the ground. Magolor is about to scold Marx, when suddenly Marx lets out a manic cackle, quickly starts flying up higher. Then, to Magolors horror, directly downwards. 

   Magolor starts freaking out. Is he gonna hit someone?! Oh what do I do! Should I stop him? I'm not fast enough! Maybe if I teleport? This is all my fault someone is gonna get hurt and I’m gonna get astrosized! Magolor tears his hands away from his face to look down at where Marx is just in time to see Marx hit an unoccupied spot in the ground and phase through it. Magolor is high up and isn't quite sure how that happened, but he's completely sure Marx just phased into the ground. Magolors mind becomes a cacophony of WHATs as he descends from the sky a bit to get a better look.

   Just then, Magolor spots what looks to be a dark circular shadow on the ground moving around on the stones of the ground. Magolors eyes track the shadows movement. That has to be Marx right? The shadow creeps up behind the unsuspecting Rocky, and a single golden winged claw holding a piece of paper with tape, effortlessly places the paper on the Rocky’s back. Once the wing phases back into the ground, the shadow begins moving once again until it reaches an unoccupied spot. Then Marx busts out from the ground with a laugh, causing the shadow to dissipate and flying all the way back up to Magolor.

“What did you just do! Don't tell me you-”

   Marx grabs Magolor and spins him around to look at the Rocky, and Magolor now sees the paper clearly has “kick me!” written on it.

“Really?”

“What?”

“ Kick me? No one's gonna fall for that!”

   Just then the sound of running rings out. Magolor looks back at the plaza. A Knuckle Joe is speeding towards what seemed to be the Rocky.

“There's no way-”

   Just as Magolor says that, the Knuckle Joe reaches the Rocky and winds up a leg and swiftly roundhouse kicks the Rocky so hard it launches her directly up and flying past them into the clouds. There's silence for a moment. Magolor looks over at Marx who's looking at the sky smiling, when suddenly.

Swoooooooooshhhhh

   A sudden swoosh sound echoes out throughout the area. Magolor hears Marx audibly laugh which confuses Magolor. Until Magolor looks where Marx is and sees the Rocky plummeting from the sky. Slowly the Rocky falls from the sky and eventually, with a loud SMACK , hits the ground leaving a medium size hole in the stone ground. The pedestrians all look over at the Rocky now embedded in the ground while the Knuckle Joe seemingly looks at the Rocky proudly. Magolors hands immediately shoot to his mouth as he feels a laughing fit about to sputter out. Marx seemingly doesn't notice Magolor struggling to hold his laughter as Marx speaks.

“Well seems you've overestimated the locals-”

   Magolor cannot keep it in anymore.

“BWAHAHAHA OH MY GOODNESS THAT WAS SO GOOD!!!”

   It was very much dumb in nature, especially dumb in how it somehow worked out! The ridiculousness of the situation doesn't help the onslaught of cackling.

“DID YOU SEE THAT?! THAT KNUCKLE JOE KICKED HER SO HIGH, I DIDNT EVEN THINK THAT WAS POSSIBLE!? HOW DID SHE NOT SEE IT COMING IT'S SO RIDICULOUS!!!”

   At first Marx’s expression looks confused, that is until Magolor begins talking through his fits of laughs. Marx practically beams and lets out a hearty laugh.

“Ha! Well when you're around me things tend to get ridiculous!”

   Magolor laughs for a bit longer before being able to get composed once more. Flaring his hands up and down as he contently sighs, he hasn't had a laugh like that for awhile!

“Sooooo, it's your turn! What have you cooked up?”

   Magolor thinks for a moment, he does have an idea but is it worth it, should he shut this down? Hmmm well it was quite funny...And besides if no one gets too hurt it'll be fine! Making up his mind, Magolor quickly grabs Marxs clawed wing and flies down to the ground to a spot where they won't be noticed by the locals. It's away from the plaza so the ground is a soft green grass, a few hills and trees scattered around but other than that it's quite clear.

“Okay here's what we're gonna do.”

   Magolor portals in a bag of apples and hands it over to Marx.

“I need you to lay these apples in a path from the plaza to this area, when done meet me over there”

   Magolor gestures to a clearer area.

“Hmmm, what are you gonna do?”

   Magolor lets out a small chuckle and waves his hands dismissively.

“Oh you'll see!” 

   Marx's grin stretches wide and he flails his wings up and down in what Magolor assumes is giddy.

“Ooooo, I'm so excited! You know how to keep a guy invested, Magolor!I’ll lay these apples out before you even expect it!”

   With a cackle, Marx and the bag of apples phase into the ground. Now It's his time to shine. Magolor portals a very special bag of gem apples he stocks up on just in case of certain situations. This is one of them. Magolor floats over to a clearer spot across the grass and places the gem apples into a pile on the ground. It's not too much, don't wanna over do it, only around ten to thirteen gem apples in the pile. Now he just needs to wait. Eventually he sees Marx enter his vision as he carefully places apples in a path, eventually reaching where the gem apple pile is. Marx faces Magolor with a grin.

“Done!”

   Just then, Magolor sees a gray blur start to approach. He quickly grabs Marx and drags him behind a tree. Marx is about to speak, but Magolor quickly quiets him.

“Be quiet, watch.”

   Silently the two tricksters watch as the gray blur gets closer. Eventually Magolor is able to make out the form of a Phan Phan approach as they pick up the path of apples with their trunk and puts the apple into their mouth. As the Phan Phan gets closer to the gem apple pile, Marx speaks up in a hushed voice.

“Question, I don’t see where this is going-”

   Magolor places a hand on Marxs mouth.

“Shhh! Just watch!”

   Marx squints at him and then turns back to watching the Phan Phan and so does Magolor. As he does, the Phan Phan has reached the gem apple pile. Magolor watches in anticipation as the Phan Phan grabs the whole pile of gem apples and stuffs them in their mouth. However the moment they try to bite down, a loud BANG erupts around the area, and a bright blast of red and orange bursts from the Phans Phans mouth. The blast is only strong enough to knock out the Phan Phan as they fall over, eyes swirling as they lay passed out. A waterfall of laughter pours from Magolor, and, from what he hears, Marx is having his own fit of laughs.

   After a moment, both of them calm down from their laughter fit. Magolor grabs Marxs wing and teleports them back to his cart. Magolor can't even breath before Marx gets in his personal space once again.

“Mags! That was amazing, I knew you had the prankster heart in you! What was with those apples, did you somehow stuff explosives into them!?”

   He's calling him Mags again, why? No matter, better to focus on his question.

“Well you see those weren't any normal apples, those were gem apples!”

   Magolor gestures to the gem apple tree next to his cart.

“After my uh, defeat I discovered these wonderful fruits and began to grow them in various places I do business in!”

   Marx gives a long look to the gem apples on the tree.

“Hmm, I saw some people giving you some of these and buying them while you were working.”

“Oh yes! I sell and accept them as payment for things.”

   Marx looks back at Magolor with a confused face.

“So these things blow up when you eat them?”

“Oh no, no, no, that was my doing. I used my magic to make them do it after...Well after seeing someone else do it. I call it Gem Apple Bombs!”

“A bit obvious isn't it?”

“Well-”

“Can you actually eat them though?”

“I mean yes you can-”

   Marx then flies up to the tree and snatches a gem apple off the tree and takes a big bite out of it making a loud crunch ring out. Magolor quickly flies up to him, very much annoyed.

“What are you doing, you can't eat those!”

   Marx gives a smug look at him.

“Oh? Why not?”

   As if to exaggerate his point Marx eats the rest of the gem apple including the core.

“Because those are mine and I didnt give you permission either!”

“Ha! Well alright then, oh smart and handsome Magolor may I but a humble peasant eat your gaudy gem apples?”

“Gaudy!?”

“Why was that what you focused on?”

   Magolor flushes out of frustration and totally not because of the past “ Compliments ” besides it quite obviously said in a sarcastic manner. However maybe it wouldn't hurt to let him have a few apples to eat, some more will grow later.

“Listen you can have some but only four, those gem apples are a part of my business I can't be giving them out like that!”

“Oh Mags! What a gentleman, giving some of your precious gem apples to me!”

   Magolor just stares at him blankly, honestly there's no way he was gonna get used to these comments. Marx gathers the four apples and one by one puts them in his mouth, looks directly at Magolor and with a sickening crunch eats them fully. Once done with his feast Marx speaks.

“Sooo those gem apple bombs, can I have some?”

“What- why do YOU need some?”

“Because I want them? Those things open up a whole new pranking world! Besides, never know when you might need some hehe.”

   Magolor hesitates on a response, giving Marx bombs that look like gem apples sounds like a bad idea but finds a part of him kinda wants to hand them over just to see what would happen. Marx is very interesting even if Magolor would rather not admit it out loud due to fear of both Marxs reaction and admitting the fact to himself. After what seemed like forever Magolor had made up his mind.

“...Marx I can't just give you some, besides I'm supposed to keep you out of trouble, not help you!”

   Marx groans loudly.

“Oh come on! It's not like I'm gonna blow up people left and right!”

   Magolor gives him a deadpan stare.

“Okay maybe I would but I promise I won't.”

“That's still a no from me.”

“Augh! Lame, fine I'll just make some MY way!”

   Just like that Marx flies up and once again goes into the ground. Magolor starts freaking out, Marx can't just run away like THAT !

“Ah, wait- No, no, no, stop!”

   Magolor screeches out quickly, hands tugging at his hood, he's supposed to keep an eye on Marx! Not just let Marx run off to do who knows what!? Suddenly from the dark circle on the ground, Marx’s head pops out.

“Jeez chill out Mags I just wanted to do some shopping!”

“...I thought you didn't have any money? You know because I paid for our food yesterday?”

“Hm? I never said that, I just wanted you to pay for our little cafe date.”

   Marx then quickly dips his head into the ground once again, and the dark circle quickly darts away into the plaza, leaving Magolor alone. What just happened? Maybe Magolor should follow Marx, make sure he doesnt get into trouble? However he is a tad curious about what Marx will do, besides Marx said he was only shopping surely something so simple will keep him out of trouble! Magolor turns to his cart, might as well open it again the day is still young and he has nothing better to do. Magolor enters the cart and begins stalking the shelfs, but his mind cannot help but wonder back to the eccentric jester.

Chapter Text

   An hour or two passes as Magolor falls into the familiar role of shopkeeper. Magolor finds himself alone, a moment of calm releasing the sound of wind and chirping birds, eyes closed. Marx would probably say this is boring, but it's nice to take in these calm moments every so often. Speaking of Marx, Magolor wonders what he is doing. He did say he was going shopping but for what? Marx seems to be the food type, and they haven't eaten today...Or well Magolor hasn't, he isn't sure about Marx. For all he knows, Marx found the kitchen and ate everything in the fridge! Magolor makes a mental note to check that later.

   That calm is interrupted with the sound of familiar laughter ringing out. Magolor opens his eyes to see Marx walking over to his cart, an ice cream in hand. Once there, Marx takes a single lick of his ice cream and throws the rest in his mouth, eating it fully. Marx jumps up and hovers to get at Magolors eye level.

“I see you've finished your shopping. Did it go well?”

   Marx grins.

“Oh it went just great!”

   Magolor curiously decides to push for what Marx got besides the obvious ice cream from moments ago.

“So, what did you get?”

“Oh some stuff for my room, I did say I was gonna spruce it up and also something very special!”

“And that something is?”

“Oh you’ll find out eventually!”

“Right..”

   Magolor can't lie, that's very concerning. He decides not to press knowing Marx won’t say anything at all if he doesn't want to. Magolor decides to change the conversation instead.

“Well since you're done with your shopping spree, it's time to help out with the shop.”

“Huh? Why would I do that? I seem to remember saying that's boring and I wouldn't do it.”

   Magolor deadpans. He knew Marx would react like this, but he needs to make up for that loss of time in his shop! Especially since his time was lost due to engaging in misthief with Marx.

“Well I seem to remember losing precious shop time pranking with a certain someone.”

   Marx lets out a strained noise but then quickly it transforms into a laugh.

“Oh really? Magolor, you enjoyed it as much as I did, maybe even more!”

   Magolor thinks for a moment. He did enjoy it, that's very apparent but still.

“You may be right, but again I had to close the shop and lost good business time! Least you can do is help make up for lost time!”

   Marx groans loudly, face scrunched up.

“Hey! You choose to do that, not me!”

“If I remember correctly, You tried to drag me out. I had to close it as you wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

   Marx glares and sputters out a reply. Even Magolor can tell he's struggling for ground.

“But- That's boooooring!!!”

   Magolor puts a hand to his face, pinching his fingers together. He has no time for this.

“It's only fair, let's not fight about this.”

   Suddenly Marx perks up, face brightening. This could only mean trouble.

“No, That's exactly what we should do!”

   Magolor looks at Marx confused.

“Uhm, what?”

“Fight, We should have a fight to decide this!”

   Magolor falters for a moment, just staring at Marx. After a moment, Magolor determines he's completely serious about this. Magolors eyes widen in both disbelief and surprise, Magolor frantically speaks all at once, out of breath.

“We aren't gonna fight!?”

   Marx gets a smug look and waves a wing as if dismissing Magolor.

“Oh you're right, there's no reason to fight anyways.”

   Magolor sighs in relief.

“Good I-”

   Marx turns, staring directly at Magolor as if challenging him.

“Yeaaaah, I'd clearly wipe the floor with you, so I don’t blame you for being scared!”

   Magolor’s ears flop down in disappointment, of course. Magolor lets out a bitter chuckle.

“Oh I’m sure it wouldn't go that way, wouldn't be much of a competition.”

   It's the truth really. He used to get into fights all the time in the past, his knowledge of offensive magic is vast and no joke. No one has been able to beat him, well except one. Although Marx has magic that Magolor can admit is impressive for what he's seen from the jester so far, Marx is no match for Magolors smarts to be frank! Marx hums thoughtfully.

“Oh really? Well then, you shouldn't be worried, I mean if you're sure youll wipe the floor with me!”

   Marx leans over the opening of the cart, eyes gleaming.

“I mean besides the faster we get on with it, the faster you can get back to your shop!”

   Magolor thinks for a moment, Marx does have a point, besides Marx wont let up about this even if he refuses. Once Marx has an idea, he won’t let it go, which means he’ll bother Magolor about it to the point he wouldn't be able to focus on work. Better to just indulge Marx. Once he wins, Marx will have to help out. The thought of Marx having to work the shop with him makes a smirk tug at his mouth.

“If that's what you wish, follow me.”

   Marx displays a triumphant grin, wings disappearing and following Magolor as he heads to the Lor. Once inside the familiar white and silver of the Lor, Magolor goes towards an area with multiple doors and opens one. Once inside, the room has a sort of play room patchwork pastel theme, with some blocks scattered around.

“Woah! This ship keeps on surprising me, you just have a whole arena here?!”

“Well, It's mostly training rooms along with the other doors you saw before. Kirby used to use them when he was helping me out!”

   Marx’s face visibly lowers.

“Eugh, Now I don't like it as much.”

   Magolor isn't sure why, but his mood begins to dampen, ears lowered.

“Oh..”

   Magolor isn’t sure why that upsets him so much and isn’t able to dwell on it as Marx quickly responds.

“Buuut that just means I gotta use it way more! Spice it up a bit and make it my own so it's not associated with that pink gumball!”

   Magolor clasps his hands together, mood brightening. It has been awhile since anyone has used the training rooms. However, the thought of Marx using them gives a strange worry of what would come of that. Magolor’s mood is now less bright because of this.

“Like...Fighting?”

“Oh yeah.”

   Marx begins running to the other side of the room, the patter of his shoes ringing out. Once on the other side, Marx’s wings appear, and Marx begins to stretch.

“Sooo, on the count of three we just go at it, just duke it out. Until one of us forfeits or cannot fight anymore!”

   Magolor quickly cuts in.

“Let’s not hurt each other that badly though!”

   A crackle rings out as Marx stretches out his left wing.

“Duh! It’s not like we’re gonna kill each other Mags. Anyways the terms are if you win, I’ll help out with your little boring shop, and if I win, then well we will work that out!”

 Magolor feels concern wells up at those ‘terms.’ Especially Marx’s vague winning reward. Although he shouldn't be, as Magolor is sure he will win, so no need to worry! Seemingly satisfied with his stretching, Marx jumps up, standing up straight and at attention.

“Alrighty! Now on the count of three!”

   Magolor stares ahead.

“One!”

   Magolor lets out an inhale and exhale. Magic wells up in his body.

“Two!”

   Magolor worries for a moment if he's gotten rusty as he hasn't needed to fight in awhile but then steels himself.

“Three!!!”

   Marx begins speeding forward and jumps up, wings appear, wind propelling forward in a rush.

   Magolor raises his shield, bracing for impact.

   The impact never comes.

   Confused, Magolor puts down his magical shield and looks around.

   Magolor is then violently hit by a Marx whom hits him from below. Magolor flies backwards at the impact.

   Not missing a beat, Marx begins rushing towards Magolor once again.

   Magolor focuses and quickly releases a beam of magic from his hand, making Marx swerve.

   Acting quickly, Magolor throws his hands in the air, clenching them and releases the energy upon the ground, hands lowering down.

   Multiple purple spikes erupt from the ground. One hits Marx, making him fall backwards.

   Marx gets up from the ground and seemingly manifests a white, blue and red performance ball, perched on top of it, Marx begins rolling towards him.

   Magolor decides to give Marx some of his own medicine and flies up, spins and flies forward, wind wrapping around him.

   It doesn't take long for Magolor to hit Marx, flinging him off the ball and causing Magolor to stop his rush.

   Marx is in the air, flinged backwards. Magolor holds out his hands aiming for the mid-falling jester, Magic gathering as Magolor focuses.

   Suddenly Magolor feels a harsh pain as he misfires and is flung back, a loud BANG ringing in his ears. Smoke and confetti flying around him as he hits the ground harshly.

   Loud ringing consumes his mind, however, Magolor can hear the loud cackle of Marx as he tries to get up.

   Getting up slightly, hands on the ground, Magolor hears a manic Marx.

“Hahaha! I knew you'd fall for that, do you like my own take on a disguised bomb? No one would expect a simple performance ball to explode!”

   Magolor slaps himself internally as a groan leaves his mouth. Sitting himself up, shaking off the smoke and confetti off his body.

“Is that what you meant by making it ‘ your way ’?”

“Hohoho! Yep indeed!”

   Marx summons another ball and promptly kicks it, flinging it directly at Magolor.

   Magolor Raises a hand and shoots out a small beam of magic, intercepting the ball causing it to explode, smoke and confetti pour out.

   Magolor can't even think of his next move when a beam of pure magic blasts directly into his face, burning pain erupting.

   Falling onto the ground once again, Magolor struggles to get up, not knocked out just yet but worn out.

   Magolor strains when he hears familiar laughter above him. Magolor gives a slow glance up wards, hands on the ground.

   Marx is looking down on him in the air, circling around him like a vulture.

“Oh Mags, I expected so much better!”

   Magolor squints, raises a single hand, the other supporting him up.

“Why not just give up? Raise the white flag?”

   Potent magic pours into his hands, intent and focus mixing, staring just behind Marx.

“Is it because you refuse to give up thats so cute, really Mags it-”

   SNAP!

   With a snap of his hand, Magolor releases the magic and it forms into a portal behind Marx, inhaling whatever was around it and in this situation, it was Marx.

   Marx squirms and tries to get out of the grasp of the portal to no avail.

   Finding strength, Magolor springs himself up and flies up to where Marx is.

   Magolor portals in some gem apple bombs and harshly throws them directly into Marx.

   For extra measure, right as the portal disappears, Magolor lets out a fierce fire beam that circles each other. Marx flings sideways.

   Marx hits the ground, his laughter rings out.

“That's what i've been waiting for!”

   Marx flies up, flies forward a bit but doubles backwards as multiple arrows shoot out of Marx.

   Magolor raises his shield, multiple impacts hit, all taken up by his shield. When the onslaught is finished, Magolor’s shield dissipates.

   Magolor lets out a breath, but then Marxs appears directly in front of Magolor.

   Marx has his wings around him then cackles before flaring his wings out, body splitting in half. What looks like turquoise liquid drips out the splits in Marx’s body, causing a black hole to form between the two parts of the body.

   Magolor puts all his effort into flying away from the black hole, being able to stay in a good space away from the black hole, however never being to go any further.

   The pulling force disappears causing Magolor to fling forward due to not being prepared.

   Marx teleports near above Magolor, wings flared up a sinister grin plastered on his face. With a flick of his wings, several cutters made out of air manifest.

   Magolor panics and teleports away near the ground, falling down onto the mismatched patched floor.

   Pushing himself up, Magolor feels something hit his head. Looking down, Magolor sees a seed embed itself into the ground.

   Flying back up, Magolor is confused to see Marx just simply flying over him.

   Magolor pauses in confusion when suddenly a vine appears and wraps itself around Magolor, thorns digging into him.

   Suddenly another wraps around him.

   Then another.

   And another.

   Magolor finds himself wrapped in multiple thorny vines, all digging into him, pricking skin. 

   He's gonna need to get his clothes mended later.

   Magolor holds out a single hand that isn't wrapped up and summons one of his swords.

   With a powerful slash, the vines get cut down, falling down, withering, disappearing and releasing Magolor.

   Looking upwards, Magolor sees a cackling Marx, eyes closed, twirling in place and very much not paying attention.

   Taking his chance, Magolor teleports semi close to Marx, who seems to not have noticed, too enraptured in his giggling fit.

   It's time to end this.

   Magolor raises his sword and pours magic into it, making it grow more powerful and eventually, Magolor is satisfied.

   He swings.

SWOOOOOOSH

   A loud swoosh rings out as Magolor swings down the massive sword on its flat side. Marx opens his eyes, and his face morphs into confusion with a hint of fear, or maybe Magolor was imagining that..

   The sword collides with Marx. The force instantly slams Marx directly into the ground, and a loud THUMP echoes.

   Magolor takes a moment to breathe. Silence plagues the room...Oh no did Magolor over do it? That fight was definitely something else. Marx is very strong, that's for sure. Magolor may have actually lost! A loud coughing breaks the silence and Magolor’s thoughts. Marx’s voice rings out with an edge to it.

“Hahahaaaaa, Alright Mags you win hoooo boy..”

   Is he alright? Magolor hasn't heard that tone in Marx’s voice before, maybe Magolor should be relishing this moment. However Magolor finds dread creeping up. Marx should never speak in that tone...It doesn't fit Marx at all.

   Concern etches Magolor’s face and thoughts as he floats down towards the ground. Marx is laying in a crater looking upwards, eyes fixated, almost glazed over. Magolor’s dread creeps up farther, Marx’s eyes flick over at Magolor, and just like that the eyes come back to focus. Marx jumps up on his feet, face turning gleeful and cheery.

“Wow Mags! What a great fight, honestly I wasn't expecting you to win!”

   Magolor isn't really paying attention to Marx’s words, more so he's staring at the medium gash across Marxs face. Turquoise blood dribbles down his face. Marx is bleeding, when did that happen?

“Honestly I usually win!”

   Was it when Magolor rushed at Marx, did the wind around him do that? No, the wind cannot cut people. It has to be when he hit Marx with the sword even when he hit Marx with the flat side it still must've cut him. It’s HIS fault.

“The only other person whos beat me was that pink gumball-”

   Magolors eyes snap up to meet Marx’s.

“You're hurt.”

   Marx stops talking immediately, a spark of light enters Marx’s eyes portraying something . As soon as it appeared, it disappeared leaving a laughing Marx in its wake.

“Ha! I've suffered worse, besides you got stabbed by multiple thorns, honestly not a big deal!”

“But it's my fault-”

   Marx cuts Magolors self blame off.

“Magolor it was a fight, I hurt you as much as you did me! I would be surprised if you were not bleeding as well after those thorns. No need to apologize, it doesn't fit you.”

   Marx lets out a groan of disgust, tongue sticking out. Magolor pauses, he doesn’t think he’s bleeding so there's that. Marx doesn’t seem to appreciate sympathy. Which is strange, but thinking about it makes sense. Marx probably doesn't like to seem weak, maybe it hurts his ego. Might as well remind Marx of the deal.

“Well if you're gonna work at my shop the least you can do is be presentable!”

   Marx huffs as Magolor grabs his hat and drags him out the arena, floating through the ship and into a familiar room. The same room where Marx first woke up. Magolor ushers Marx onto the bed. Marx begrudgingly jumps up and sits down upon the bed. Magolor portals in a medical kit and a water bottle. Magolor takes out a cotton ball from the kit and dips the cotton ball in water.

“Oh? No magic, too tired out from the fight?”

   Magolor tries to focus on the cotton ball.

“That is a part of it, however I've never been that good at healing magic.”

“Huh? Didn’t you help wake me up though?”

   Magolor hums and floats over with the cotton ball.

“That was a one time thing, surprising it even worked at all.”

   Magolor holds the cotton ball up.

“This may sting.”

   Magolor then applies the cotton ball on the wound cleaning it, turquoise blood soaking into the cotton.

   Marx doesn't even flinch, but gives a small chuckle.

“Pretty impressive for a one time thing Mags.”

   Magolor focuses on getting all the blood. When done, Magolor portals the cotton ball away. Floating back over to the med kit and pulls out a bandaid and swiftly places it over the wound on Marx’s face.

“Why couldn't you have just had the Lor to heal me?”

   Marx’s face scrunches up, eyes trying to get a look at the bandaid on his face, which is pink with hearts scattered on it. Marx sticks out his tongue to try and pick at it, but Magolor gives him a hardy hit with his hand.

“Don't pick at it! Also it's a minor injury, no need to get the Lor involved!”

   Marx pouts, tongue sticking out as he slouches.

“That's dumb why does it matter? Best to use whatever you have!”

   Magolor ignores Marx, hands clapping together.

“Doesn't matter now, it's time to run the shop together!”

   Magolor watches as Marx’s pout turns into pure annoyance, body falling over on the bed and mouth agape. Marx kicks up and down like a child.

“Really! With this stupid thing on my face?”

   Marx sits back up, wings sprouting, claw pointing at the offending ‘thing.’ Magolor gives him the curt response.

“I won did I not? Besides, it could be worse, maybe the residents will actually talk to you!”

“You did win...Fine! But I don't like it! Also if any of those brainless idiots try to make conversation, I will blast their face off”

   Magolor grabs Marx’s wing before anymore protests can be said and begins dragging Marx out of the Lor.

“Yeah well if you do that, then I personally will reward you with a lovely trip to Meta Knight hmm?”

   Marx’s face distorts to anger, glaring at Magolor.

“YOU WOULDN'T!”

“Well then feel free to find out!”

“Mags, are you sure you're not evil anymore? Cause that’s something I'd do!”

   They exit the Lor, entering the outside.

“Seems you may be influencing me.”

   Magolor says completely ironically, but of course, Marx takes it seriously.

“Ha! Good next thing you know, you’ll be just like me!”

    At this, Magolor visibly stops, lets go of Marx and acts out a motion of vomiting, holding his head.

“Ugh, no thank you, I'd rather not be a third rate manic clown.”

   Marx runs in front of Magolor, jumping up and down with a frown.

“Oh shut up! I’m a great clown!”

   Magolor begins laughing; he really can’t help it, and from what Magolor sees, Marx’s frown begins to curl into a smile as well. With that, they enter the cart. Here goes nothing.

Chapter Text

   Magolor has never needed help, not when he wanted to take over everything, and not when he was alone in a strange pocket dimension. Everything he’s done was something he controlled. Even when Kirby defeated Landia, he was on top because he controlled the situation and masterminded it all. But, even then, if someone were to ask why Magolor currently enlisted the assistance of Marx, he would smile kindly and say he needed help.

   In reality, Magolor just couldn’t pass up the chance to make the jester squirm, even if just a bit. After all, Marx made him squirm so many times today, it's only fair! The cart is a bit small but big enough to house the two. Marx is looking expectantly at Magolor, no doubt expecting an explanation.

“Now, I know how much you dread conversation with the residents so-”

   Magolor gestures towards the shelves inside the cart housing several items.

“I will do the talking, meanwhile you will be getting the items requested and bagging then handing them over to me.”

   Magolor gives Marx a lookover. Marx looks less than thrilled but doesn’t seem too mad which is a good sign and then sighs.

“That’s fiiiine, I'm just happy I don’t have to talk to those brainless residents.”

   Magolor nods and swiftly opens up the window of the stall, indicating its open for business. Taking a deep breath in, Magolor musters an inviting face and waits for the first customer of the day.

   Things go quite well for all things considered. Marx is able to get items semi fast. After a bit, he seems to get accustomed to where the items are placed, getting the requested goods to Magolor quickly.

   However, it quickly changes as he spots a particular resident walk- er well, more like carried towards his cart. In a pot with soil, resides the flower, Lovely, and beneath her, carrying her with his head is Leafan. Magolor mentally prepares. Not her, not today. His luck must be horrible if she shows up right now!

   She reaches the cart and faces him, leaves holding her head as she gives a sickly sweet smile. Magolor wants to throw up. He forces a smile and clasps his hands together while he grates out a greeting.

“Ah! Leafan and Lovely, welcome back, what is it you want? It's been awhile!”

   Lovely laughs, eyes focused on Magolor the whole time.

“Oh goodness Magolor we all know why that is, with someone like you!”

   Here we go..

“I mean, with someone with your past, it’s a wonder anyone trusts you!”

   He really can’t deal with this today.

“Yes but-”

“Now I know you have high quality rare items never seen, and your shop is one of elegance. However, people have been talking, and they’ve been saying you tampered with your items for sale!”

   Magolor was about to stop her but freezes when Lovely keeps talking. A sharp chill itches his back. Is she talking about the pranks? He never meant any harm to them at all! Oh, but they wouldn’t know that would they, of course they'd get the wrong idea. He can’t just say that though, it’d just make it worse. Best to play dumb for now.

“...What?”

   Lovely smiles, dimples shining on her face.

“Oh but it’s just some silly rumors, nothing crazy! I’m here for some gem apples, honestly I’d get them anywhere else but alas you’re the only one who sells them!”

   Magolor blanks before responding slowly. She just said the rumors are silly, and now she says she wouldn't buy from him if she could! Talk about hypocritical. Magolor can feel the blooming headache from all this.

“If you don’t believe the rumors then why-”

   Lovely laughs.

“What a silly question! Goodness Magolor it’s quite obvious, I don’t believe all of it however rumors always have a hint of truth!”

   Lovely points one of her leafs at Magolor, smile ever present.

“You can never be too careful! Especially with someone dressed like THAT !”

   Leafan suddenly speaks, slightly silent from being on the ground.

“Lovely, you should try to be a little nicer..”

“Oh hush, it's just a bit of banter!”

   Is he dressed badly? Why would she say that? There's nothing wrong with his outfit right?

“You look more confused than a Blipper out of water! Truly, you have had to realize it by now? I mean look at it, it’s all tattered and torn an-”

   Just then, wind rushes past Magolor’s head, and he watches as Lovely gets hit with a gem apple right in her mouth, stuffing it. Magolor quickly turns to see Marx with a snarl on his face bouncing a gem apple in his clawed wing.

“Oh I'm sorry, it seems my claw had a spasm, probably due to your grating voice.”

   After a moment, Lovely spits out the offending apple and her face is twisted into a scrunched up frustrated one. Leafan’s voice rings out.

“Oh, no! Lovely are you alright?”

   Lovely’s face contorts back into a pleasant smile.

“Oh I'm fine! Magolors friend just had a spasm.”

  Magolor floats forward, hands shaking.

“I’m so-”

   Marx flies over and pushes Magolor backwards before he can finish, a grin plastered on Marx’s face.

“What is it you need? Cause your presence is already making my wing flare up, so best to get it over with before a precious petal on your head wilts.”

   Lovely’s face shifts to a concerned one, her leaves hold her face.

“I already said I wanted a gem apple, goodness is your hearing alright? I can recommend a doctor if you need one!”

“Oh, I can hear just fine, good to know you have a doctor cause I feel as though you may need one soon!”

   Lovely flutters her eyelashes as she blinks innocently.

“Oooooh, I know an empty threat when I see it.”

   Marx’s grin grows wide.

“Are you sure about that?”

   Lovely doesn’t falter and gestures to Magolor.

“Hm? I would be more worried about your friend, he looks like he’s about to blow up hehe!”

   Marx faces Magolor, his eyes are wide, and he’s clutching his hands into fists trying to steady himself but he knows he’s shaking. Lovely tilts her head when Marx turns back. Leafan’s voice rings out once again, soft and gentle.

“Maybe you shouldn't antagonize him Lovely..”

   Lovely brushes him off.

“Wouldn’t want him to lose it just ‘cause you couldn’t handle a small weak flower.”

   Marx snarls, floats over to the gem apples and bags some, handing them over to the awaiting leaf of Lovely.

“Thank you!”

   She sings in a grating tune. Leafan begins to walk away with Lovely going along. Marx laughs loudly.

“What that idiot doesn’t know is there's a worm in those gem apples.”

   Marx turns to face Magolor, Magolor gives him the most intense fiery stare he can muster. Marx visibly deflates and becomes confused.

“Uh, why are you looking at me like that?”

   Magolor’s mind was silent before, having processed everything that was happening in the moment. But now after things were said in done Magolor’s mind has become ablaze and all those rapid thoughts are directed at the jester. With a jerky sway of the hand, the front trapdoor of the cart slams shut with a loud slam, all while Magolor keeps direct eye contact with Marx.

“Why. Would. You. Do. THAT!?”

   Marx’s face transforms from confused to annoyed.

“Do what? Defend you from that sickly sweet two faced flower!?”

   Red hot embarrassment and anger consumes Magolor.

“I can defend myself!”

   Marx lets out a quick breathy laugh.

“ Oh , right cause it totally looked like it when you stood there like a statue!”

   Magolor feels his eye twitch.

“Why wouldn’t I just stand there!”

   Marx stops and gives him a confused look as he eyes Magolor up.

“Are you serious????”

   Magolor glares at Marx for a moment trying to determine if he's actually confused. It seems he is, and Magolor sighs and explains.

“What do you think would happen if I yelled and fought with Lovely? She’d tell the whole plaza, and surely there would be people who heard it! No one would even step near my cart again! Some residents already don’t trust me, this would be the last straw! This is my last chance .”

   Magolor spins away from Marx, hands on his head.

“But wait they probably heard you yelling at Lovely before, and since you were working for me, that makes it my fault! Oh no, no, no! Lovely is gonna tell everyone, then the village will hate me and run me out of town! Then they’ll go to Kirby and they’ll run me off Pop Star or even worse, Kirby will finish me off for real-”

   Just then, Magolor is spun around and finds a pair of claws in his hood. An angry Marx stares back at him, face in a snarl and close.

“STOP THAT! Kirby isn’t gonna ‘finish you off’ how dumb do you think he is? Besides who CARES what those idiots who can’t even think for themselves with half a brain cell think!”

   Magolor falters, not quite liking how close he currently is to Marx.

“But I-”

   Marx shakes him a bit while groaning.

“But nothing! If those residents even have a slither of intelligence in them they won’t listen to that overgrown weed!”

   Magolor stares at Marx...Is he trying to help? Marx stares through Magolor eyes sharp and piercing, claws tightening on his hood.

“Even if things here sour you can just go off to a new plaza! Heck even a new planet if you’re so worried about it so much!”

   Magolor pauses. He could do that but..

“I can’t not after everything i've done this is how I make it up to everyone! I give back to the people I hurt and most importantly to Kirby.”

   Marx looks at Magolor intently, studying him.

“Magolor, let me ask you a very simple question.”

“What?”

    A pause, Marx speaks.

“Hypothetically, let’s say you had another chance to rule the universe and actually succeed, no way to lose, would you take it?”

   Magolor pauses and feels a cold chill replace the fire that was just burning in him moments ago. Why would Marx ask that!? He shouldn’t even give him an answer since it's obvious that- That he...Would he? Would he take that chance if offered. I mean it’s quite easy to say he wouldn’t but another to actually be offered it. The universe offered up easily on a platter with no one to stop him, he could make a change...NO! Marx is just messing with him besides no opportunity like that will ever come up, he's totally happy with where he is now!

“I’m not answering that.”

   Marx grins as if he just won something.

“Oh, why's that? Is it because you don’t wanna face the truth, hmm?”

   Magolor begins to float to the exit.

“What’s done is done, it's in the past. I need to do something, hold up shop while I'm gone, okay?”

   Magolor can’t see Marx’s face, but he’s sure Marx is flabbergasted.

“WHAT!? DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE ME TO WORK THE SHOP!”

   Magolor teleports away before Marx can chase after him.

   Magolor appears in his room in the Lor. Maybe leaving Marx alone to run the shop isn’t the best idea, but Marx knows better than to mess around now. Or at least Magolor hopes so, he's not above involving Meta Knight. Magolor opens his closet and switches his clothes, changing into another identical pair. He holds onto the tattered blue ones as he needs them for now.

   Holding onto the clothes, Magolor is about to teleport back, but he gets an idea. Leaving his room, Magolor treks through the ship until he ends up at a familiar door, the one that leads to Marx’s room. Magolor knows he shouldn't snoop in someone's room, however Magolor did give Marx this room, so technically it's his room as well!

   As Magolor approaches, the door opens automatically, and Magolor becomes stunned as he sees what's behind the door. The room has completely changed, the circular room walls are now plastered with a big top pattern. Hanging lights are scattered on the ceiling, the bed is gone and replaced with a medium circus tent with pillows scattered on the inside. The night desk has been seemingly painted red with triangle patterns. The blue circle mat has somehow gained white circle patterns, finally a single wooden box is filled with deflated circus balls.

   When did Marx have the time to do all this? Magolor shakes stray thoughts away. No matter, this isn't what he's here for. Magolor floats over towards the nightstand and opens the drawer. Inside are three pairs of jester hats and bowties identical to the ones Marx wears. Magolor sorts through the clothes and pauses when he sees something at the bottom of the drawer. A simple leather journal with a white gem embedded in the front. Magolor picks it up and finds the gem changes color as he moves the journal in different angles.

   Magolor doesn’t even think twice before opening the journal, curiosity lingering. The first page of the journal has crude ‘MY JORNA Diary’ written with crayon on the top. However, more curious is the drawing of what seems to be Marx on the bottom of the page.

   Magolor flips to the next page has ‘IF YOUR NOT ME THEN DONT READ THIS YOU STINKY!’ written messily. However at the bottom there's a passage written in what seems to be red ink that says ‘That means you Magolor! DON’T READ THIS IT’S NOT FOR YOU!!! Put it back and then I won’t maim you! <3 <3 <3’ next to it is a drawing of Magolor being split in half with ‘you’ titled on it.

   Magolor, disturbed, quickly closes the journal. He knows a warning when he sees one. He would prefer to not be sliced in half, thank you very much! He puts the journal back where it was, it wasn't what he was looking for anyways. Magolor grabs one of the hats and bowties and piles them with his clothes.

   Teleporting back outside, Magolor finds himself back in the middle of the plaza. Both pairs of clothes in hand, Magolor floats on over to a particular shop, or well more accurately house. After a moment Magolor reaches his destination, a medium size wooden house with flora growing around it. Magolor floats over to the trapdoor part of the house on the wall, above it is a black wooden sign with purple trimming that says ‘Silk Mariel Patchwork’. Magolor knocks on it, the sound of muffled scuttling echoes out and before long a shrill voice reaches out.

“I’ve got it!”

   However, another voice with a feathery nature to it responds.

“Dear, despite my age I can answer the knock myself, go back to your sewing.”

   The scuttling gets louder until the trap door opens up revealing Mariel, a black circular spider who runs this shop. She adjusts her glasses and hums in acknowledgement before speaking.

“Magolor! So lovely to see you again, in need of more copies of your clothes?”

“Thankfully for you, no.”

   Magolor hands over his and Marx’s clothes to Mariel who grabs Magolors clothes with her left middle arm and Marx’s in her right.

“You see, I'm going to a party soon with a friend, and it would be nice to have some new clothes for the event.”

   Mariel practically shrieks with delight after hearing that. She begins examining the two pairs of clothes.

“I must confess I've been dying to design and make something for you! Copying clothes can be so drab and mundane.”

   She looks back at Marx’s clothes and squints.

“Your friend darling, what does he look like? You know body type and such.”

   Magolor portals in a pen and paper and draws a simple image of what Marx looks like, Magolor likes how well it came out so he signs it with a M on the corner as well. Mariel takes the paper in her front arm and scans it.

“Ah, a Noddy! I can work with that.”

   Magolor wants to say Marx, at best, isn't a normal Noddy, but he holds his tongue.

“When is the party?”

   Magolor opens his mouth to respond but pauses when he realizes he doesn’t actually know what exact date the party is being held. 

“Well, I was told it was soon.”

   Mariel sighs.

“Darling, that's gonna cost extra.”

   Magolor nods in complete understanding and portals in a basket of gem apples.

“Is this enough?”

   Mariel puts down the paper from before and takes the basket in her front arms and nods.

“Of course this is enough dear! I just can't get enough of these apple beauties; they taste and look glamorous.”

   Just then, another spider, who Magolor recognizes as Como, Mariels grandkid and assistant. They slink down from the ceiling and all three eyes focus on Magolor, a high pitch voice ringing out.

“Marmar, is that Magolor!?”

   Mariel scutters around to look at Como and swiftly says.

“It is! However, dear, we have to focus on work, not chit chat!”

“Ugh no fair! You always talk with the clients!”

“Well maybe when you get older, then maybe you can but for now being my sewing assistant is enough.”

   Como lets out a huff and climbs back on the ceiling. Mariel looks back at Magolor.

“Sorry about that dear, I will make the outfits as soon as possible.”

   Magolor nods appreciatively.

“Thank you, I need to get back to my shop. The person I've left running it is probably over it by now.”  

“Ha! Well let’s hope they’ve held their own. I’ll meet with you when the outfits are done.”

   Magolor gives a curt nod and teleports back to his cart. The area has taken an orange tint as it became sunset. Magolor sees Marx slumped on the front window. He looks bored and tired. Magolor floats closer and in view.

“Are you alright?”

   Marx immediately animates, straightening up and face turning into a snarl.

“YOU!!!”

“Yes, me.”

   Marx flies out the cart and gets face to face with Magolor.

“YOU LEFT ME ALONE TO DEAL WITH THOSE IDIOTS!”

   Magolor makes a shrugging motion with his hands.

“If you'd like, you can take all the profit you made while you ran the shop.”

   Marx deadpans but fires up again after a moment.

“That’s not the issue and you know it! You can’t do that without warning!”

   Magolor sends him a glare.

“Personally, I see it as karma for assaulting my customer.”

   Marx lets out an audible growl, another reason to believe he’s not a Noddy, Magolor thinks. Noddy’s don't growl .

“That flower had it coming!!! Besides, what were you even doing that made you even consider this was a good idea?”

“Nothing too crazy, just commissioned us some clothes for the upcoming party.”

   Magolor feels a wave of tiredness overcome him.

“But, for now, best to get some rest seeing as the sun is setting and this day has gone on long enough.”

   Magolor closes the shop's doors with a wave of a hand and begins floating towards the Lor. The sound of pattering feet behind him tells Marx isn't far behind.

“Sounds good to me, tired from all the social interaction today.”

   Magolor hums and, with some debate, responds.

“Can’t agree more. Oh, also I enjoy what you’ve done to your room. When did you have the time to work on that?”

   The silence is deafening, then Marx lets out a shout.

“YOU WENT INTO MY ROOM WITHOUT TELLING ME!? Jeez Mags, ever heard of privacy?”

“Well I needed a reference for the seamstress.”

“Hmmmm, I’ll forgive you this time Mags, but do it again, and I’ll maim you!”

   Magolor refrains from flinching from that direct line from the journal and focuses on getting back to the Lor and having a good nap.

Chapter Text

   Two days pass without incident, Magolor hasn't brought up their argument from before, and it seems Marx doesnt wanna dwell on it as well. Honestly even if they did, there's not much to say. Magolor doesn’t regret what he said and he's quite sure Marx feels the same.

   However, it seems Marx is intent on working for him at the shop still. Magolor supposes that makes sense as they never really specified how long Marx was gonna help out. But one would assume that Marx would take advantage of that and use it to get out of it early. That seems to not be the case however, Magolor thought about questioning Marx but determined that he wouldn't get a factual answer from him.

   Even stranger, while working, Marx seemed to cut back on the rude customers. While there hasn't been a lot of them, the occasional annoying ones would show up. Magolor would put on a welcoming face, even if he wasn't keen on them, while Marx just glared at them. Is this because Marx doesn’t want to be yelled at again by him, or something else? He would question it but again, there's no use and besides you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

   Things seem to be going very well and Magolor is sure that the weekend will be at least somewhat better!

   In the middle of the morning, Magolor wakes up to the sound of shouting.

   Bursting out of bed, Magolor puts on his clothes, because he is not going out without them and rushes out. He reaches the main room in which the screeching is coming from, however what Magolor sees causes him to freeze in the doorway.

   Marx’s body is tense and he is standing on the top of his toes, a nervous smile etched on his face. That's not the strange thing however, pointing a gun directly at Marx’s head is his friend Susie. She is making direct eye contact with Marx, face stern and calculating.

   Marx’s eyes dart over to Magolor, and his face turns into one of annoyance.

“Jeez, took you long enough! I’ve been shouting my head off about the time you got here!”

   At this Susie turns to face Magolor, gun not wavering, Magolor asks the obvious question.

“Susie, what are you doing!?”

   Susie’s eyes squint at this.

“There's an intruder on your ship. I am simply taking the right precautions.”

   Magolor quickly rushes between the two, waving his arms around frantically.

“Not an intruder! He’s living with me on the ship-”

“You? Living with someone? Willingly?”

   Susie cuts him off, gun lowering, she looks very confused. She glances between Magolor and Marx as if trying to figure something out. After a moment, she finally puts away her gun, she then turns towards Magolor.

“Well, I'm glad you finally listened to me and found someone to spend time with other than myself and Taranza. Even if I wasn’t expecting them to be living with you...”

   Magolor’s ears perk up. She doesn't think they’re living together permanently, does she? Magolor flushes at the thought before quickly setting things straight.

“It’s not a permanent thing!”

   Suddenly Marx is next to Magolor, expression sad.

“Awh, really Mags? You’re gonna evict me? I wanted to stay here forever!”

   Susie’s eyes dart between the two, calculating, not good, Magolor cuts in.

“Ignore him, usually whatever comes out of his mouth isn't worth analyzing.”

   Marx jumps up.

“Uhm, rude much?”

   There's then an awkward silence as it seems nobody knows what to say. Magolor coughs and asks a simple question to break off the tension.

“So, what are you doing here Susie?”

   Susie puts a hand to her hip and rolls her eyes.

“The same reason why I visit you anytime, I finally had a break off work and decided to visit.”

   Before Magolor can respond, Susie floats over to the counter hosting the main computer. She runs a gloved finger over it, dust covers the finger when her finger retreats. Magolor’s ears flatten. Magolor knows what’s next when Susie sighs in disappointment as she turns to him.

“Magolor, really? I don’t wanna get on you about this every visit but honestly you need to take a duster to this place.”

   Beside him, Marx cackles in amusement, Magolor tries to ignore it.

“It’s not my fault I've been busy, as you can see I've been dealing with a visitor.”

”Quite, usually that would mean you’d need to clean it more but I digress.”

   Susie wipes her hand on her skirt then floats over towards Marx and extends a hand at him.

“Greetings, I am Susie, head of the Haltmann company, my greatest apologies for threatening you at gunpoint earlier.”

   Marx’s expression turns to nervous confusion.

“I’m Marx! Local jester and prankster. Not sure why you’re holding your hand out to me, as I am clearly handless.”

   Susie visibly falters at this, hand falling down slightly. However Marx then sprouts his wings and quickly grabs Susie's hand, claws sinking into her gloves. Marx laughs loudly, expression turning smug.

“Just kidding!”

   Susie is wide eyed for a moment before returning to a more calm expression.

“Interesting..”

   Magolor watches the display and decides he’s gotta redirect it before Marx gets any other ideas.

“Is Taranza with you?”

   Susie stares at Marx for a long moment, whom finally decides to stop clawing at Susie’s hand and let's go. She looks at the clear tares in her gloves before tuning to Magolor.

“Unfortunately, no, apparently he had to work on his garden, but he did say he would be visiting soon.”

   Magolor audibly groans loudly.

“Why does no one tell me exactly when things are happening, it's always soon , Never an actual date or something!

   Susie puts her hands on her hips and leans forward.

“Well maybe you should be more adamant about knowing exact times?”

   Magolor lets out an exacerbated noise.

“I guess! But come on , people need to just be specific.”

   Just then a few thumps ring out, Magolor turns to see Marx jumping up and down, wings waving frantically.

“Helloooo!? I’m still here!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes.

“I know, listen I need to go and stock up on food, since someone has been eating everything.”

   Marx gasps.

“What, you want me to starve!?”

   Magolor deadpans.

“Obviously I don’t, I just wish you didn’t scarf down all the food.”

   Magolor turns to Susie.

“Susie you should come with me, Marx stay here.”

   Marx lets out a choked noise, face scrunched up.

“What!? How come she gets to go with you and I have to stay here!”

“Well I'd like to catch up with my friend, besides I need someone to watch over the Lor, alright?”

   Marx growls, frown ever present, flies and perches on the chair in front of the computer, back turned away from Magolor.

“ Fiiiiine ! I’ll just talk to the Lor then, hmp!”

   Magolor pauses, eyes lingering on the jester. He feels like he just did something wrong, but he's not sure what. Wouldn’t Marx be pleased to be alone? Oh well, Magolor turns and leaves with Susie following after him. The two exit the Lor and into the outside. Magolor floats along the path to the food stalls, Susie beside him.

”What an interesting friend you have there Magolor.”

   Friend...That gets Magolor thinking, is Marx his friend? I guess some people would probably see it that way but Magolor’s not quite sure.

“He, uh, sure is, What have you been up to Susie?”

   Susie gives a quick glance at him. It’s clear she's digging for more info about Marx, however it seems she's decided to humor his deflection.

“The usual, working on my business, helping others with our new technology.”

   Magolor is about to ask for more details but Susie continues.

“I’m going to be direct, I wanna know about Marx. I can’t buy you’d let someone stay with you in the Lor just because.”

   Magolor knows he probably shouldn’t say everything but this has been festering inside him for way too long he has to tell someone. So, Magolor spills just about everything to Susie, when he first met Marx, how they met again and how he got stuck being a glorified babysitter, all in a hushed voice.

   Susie hums, they reach a fruit stall, Magolor grabs a bag and picks out some fruit, Susie speaks up.

”Personally I would've turned him down the second Marx asked, this is what I mean when I say you gotta speak your mind.”

   Magolor gives her a sharp glare and returns to picking out fruit. Does he really need apples when he has gem apples? Susie snaps him out of thought.

“Don’t glare at me, I simply want to help. I am interested in this party however, I haven’t got an invite? I would enjoy seeing Meta Knight again. I haven't seen much of him.”

   ‘Yeah, because he's avoiding you.’ Magolor thinks but doesn't say, he’s tried to hint at Susie about Meta Knight’s distaste of her but it never works.

“You should message Kirby about it.”

   Susie sighs.

“Seems so, anyways pardon me asking but do you know what Marx is exactly? He looks like a Noddy but Noddy’s don’t have wings and growl.”

   Magolor lets out a huff as he pays the stall owner for the fruits.

“That's what i've been thinking!”

   Magolor begins to float to the next stall. Susie responds.

”You should do some tests on him, he seems somewhat fond of you.”

   Magolor full stops and lets out a choked noise.

“Fond of me!? Listen Susie, you’ve talked to him for only a few moments you don't get it. Marx is like water, you think you got him figured out but then he slips from your fingers.”

   Susie simply stares.

“I’d like to talk to him myself, would that be okay?”

   Magolor gives her a confused look.

“Why are you asking me, it’s not like I own him?”

“You do though, you keep watch over him and control him. But that's besides the point, I’m going back to the Lor to speak with him, have fun getting your food.”

“... Okay ?????”

   Susie doesnt respond, she turns and leaves towards the direction of the Lor. Magolor watches her, most of the time Susie is straightforward and easy to understand but sometimes she does stuff that he cannot understand. Magolor huffs, ears flopping down, today is gonna be an exhausting one he can already feel it.

   Magolor eventually finishes his shopping and heads back to the Lor. Upon entering he sees Susie on her phone, no Marx in sight.

“Where's Marx?”

   Susie lets out a long sigh and puts down her phone to look at him.

“I may have scared him off.”

“Marx, scared, really? Susie, I don’t buy that.”

“Of course you think that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

   Susie rolls her unoccupied hand with a look of patience.

“Well, Magolor you're certainly not the best at reading people's emotions, unlike me.”

   Magolor feels concern well up inside him.

“Susie, get to the point.”

”I might be wrong but, Marx seems to mask his emotions, I think? I’m not a psychologist and I didn’t talk to him long enough to get a good read. However you know I pick up on things others don’t, it is my job after all.”

“I mean yeah-”

“Anyways, I was just asking about his past, he seemed really annoyed that you shared his past with me. Marx seemed to evade the issue all together or just brushed it off. Eventually he said ‘This isn’t an interview you low grade microwave!’ and ran off.”

   Magolor’s ears flatten, sympathy for Marx wells up. Magolor himself has been on the burning end of a Susie ‘interview’. Susie tends to pick and study people; it's just something she does with just about anyone she interacts with.

”Susie, I honestly don’t blame him, you can be a bit overbearing.”

   Susie squints at him.

“You can’t better yourself without knowing the problem, I point out people's flaws so they can be their best self.”

“I know, I know...Uh, I think I'm gonna check on Marx, okay?”

   Magolor mostly says that to have a moment away from Susie before she goes on a whole rant about Magolor’s own flaws. Not that he isn't concerned about Marx somewhat, but Marx is stubborn and wouldn't let something like that get him down at least that's what Magolor thinks. Susie lets out a deep disappointed sigh and takes out her phone once again.

“Alright, if that's what you wanna do.”

   Magolor floats out the main room and into the hallway. He wonders if Marx would really be upset about what Susie said. He reaches the door to Marx’s room, there’s only one way to find out. 

   The door automatically opens, Marx’s room is the same as before except for one small detail. The circus tent with a pile of pillows inside seems to have a resident inside. Facing away from Magolor, Marx is slumped over the pillows, feet sticking out from his sides.

   This is the most Noddy thing Magolor has ever seen Marx do so far.

   Marx seems to have heard the door open as he speaks, voice muffled by the pillows.

“Go away interviewer I don’t want to answer your questions!”

   Magolor floats in, the door shutting behind him.

“Well, actually it’s just me.”

   Marx uses his feet to move himself to look at Magolor,still in a slumped position.

“Oh, well I'd show you around but seeing as you've already been here there's no point.”

   Magolor continues to float closer until he’s at the entrance of the tent, he floats down and sits.

“Uh, Susie told me about what happened.”

   Marx’s face immediately scrunches up.

“UGH! What is wrong with that lady, does she have nothing better to do?”

   Magolor puts a hand on the back of his head.

“Susie is a bit ,uh, imposing but she means well, she picks and prods cause she cares!”

   Magolor knows he is reaching, Marx knows too.

”Ha! Yeah, right.”

   Magolor decides to try a different direction.

“Don’t you also do that? I’ve seen how you acted with Lovely, you poked and prodded at her and also me!”

   It’s true, Marx constantly digs for more info and annoys people because of it. That would be a bit hypocritical if he was upset at Susie for it.

”Unlike her, I do it to get on people's nerves, she does it to be ‘good’ which is dumb and hypocritical. She doesn't even know me! Honestly I wish she tried to shoot me cause then i’d have an excuse to have blasted her face!”

”I mean she does own a company- Look, I get it. She can seem intimidating, but can you try and behave, think of this as practice for the party maybe?”

   Marx stares at Magolor with an unreadable expression before Marx shoves his face into the pillow and screams, which is muffled by the pillows. Eventually he stops, Magolor then speaks again.

“Think about it? You can stay in your room if you wish until she leaves.”

   Marx stays still, face still shoved in pillows.

”...Or you can just stay face down in your pillows...Well I'm gonna go back, you may join us if you feel like it.”

   Marx doesn't move in the slightest. Magolor sighs, gets up and floats over to the door and exists.

   Once returning to the main room he finds Susie on her phone, but she spots him and puts it away.

“I talked to Kirby, I've been officially invited along with Taranza. Apparently Meta Knight, who was in charge of invites, forgot to invite me! Usually he’s so on top of things I can’t imagine him making a mistake like this.”

   ‘It wasn't a mistake.’ Magolor briefly thinks, Susie breaks his thoughts.

”How did things go with Marx?”

   Magolor sighs, body sagging.

“Well, I was able to talk to him. I don’t think you scared him as much as you annoyed him honestly. I will say however he doesn't seem like himself.”

   Susie rolls her eyes and crosses her hands.

“He’s being unproductive, that is what he is. Also Magolor you’ve only been with him for a few days for all you know what you assume is Marx isn’t Marx.”

   Magolor pauses, Susie is right, why did he even say that-

“Yeah cause you sure know so much about me, lady!”

   Magolor’s ears perk up and he turns to see a grinning Marx by the main room's entrance.

“Ah! Marx, you decided to join us!”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

“I didn’t wanna leave you alone with the robot lie detector here. Besides, you'd be soooo bored without me!”

   Before either of them can respond, Marx’s wings burst out and he flies. Marx proceeds to perch himself on top of Magolors head. Magolor immediately stammers out incomprehensible words in surprise at this intrusion of personal space. Marx grabs onto Magolor’s ears and leans over, becoming face to face with Magolor.

”Which is why I came up with the brilliant idea! I assumed usually you two nerds just stay in the cramp dusty Lor all day.”

“Wha- no! Get off-”

   Magolor tries to pry Marx off with his hands, but Marx’s grip is iron tight. He laughs at Magolor’s attempts. Susie moves to get in front of the two and waves a hand.

“Marx is right, we hardly leave the Lor when it's just us hanging out.”

   Magolor gives her a glare. Marx, now away from Magolors face, gives a disgusted sound.

“Ugh, don’t even wanna ask what you two do alone.”

   Magolor flushes, Susie gives Marx a tired look.

“I can assure you nothing you’re currently thinking of is what we do.”

   Marx rolls his eyes pointedly at her.

”Anyways, sooo, I came up with a perfect plan! You just gotta get out of this stuffy ship and actually do something!”

   Magolor feels Marx shift on his head and settles into a bird-like position. Magolor sighs loudly, hand going towards his face.

“And where exactly would we go?”

”There's this cool bar in the village with karaoke available!”

   Magolor watches as Susie perks up, eyes widening. Magolor huffs.

“I don't know about you, Marx, but we cannot sing.”

   Magolor jerks as Marx grips his ears and tugs them, claws digging into them.

“That doesn’t matter!!!”

   Magolor is about to suggest otherwise, but Susie steps in.

“I for one think it’s a good idea.”

   Magolor gives her a disbelieving look. Susie shrugs.

“What? I think it would be a nice change up.”

   Marx laughs hard. Magolor feels Marx’s grip softens and Magolor knows this is his chance. Magolor’s hands grip both sides of Marx’s hat, flinging Marx off of him. Marx lets out a shriek and falls onto the ground with a thump. Magolor sighs.

“I relent, don’t expect me to sing however!”

   Marx jumps up and runs over to Magolor and stands in front of him, bobbing up and down.

“Awh, what!? I wanted to duet with you though!”

   Magolor pauses. There's no way Marx is serious, but he finds himself thinking about it for a moment, would that really be bad?

“...I’ll think about it.”

   Marx proceeds to lead both Magolor and Susie into the village and then into an alleyway. Magolor’s eyes dart, taking in the fine details of the alleyway, it's not extremely narrow. However this does not put Magolor’s frantic mind at ease, for as long as he's been in this town he has not entered the alleyways. To put it simply the brick alleyway was just much too dark , damp and dirty for his liking. He makes a conscious effort to make sure his cape doesnt touch the floor.

   Magolor eyes Susie, hoping to see a similar look of concern on her face. Unfortunately, Susie seems to be completely unphased, looking straight ahead with a calm expression. Magolor then looks down at Marx, who is walking along the filth ridden ground like he owns the alleyway.

   Thankfully midway in the alley, there in the way is an entrance with a neon sign atop it simply labeled ‘Bar’. Magolor feels a wave of discomfort fill him as he stares at the very clearly shady Bar entrance, however he cannot mull over it as he is dragged inside by a giddy Marx.

“Stop standing there, let’s go in!”

   The inside of the bar isn't as bad as Magolor assumed it would be all things considered. It has a sorta rustic look, brick walls, wood support in the corners and some plants hanging up on the ceiling in planters. A lone stage with a karaoke machine is set up, it seems Marx wasn't lying about that. 

   Marx runs for the seats at the bar table. Magolor follows, Susie sits next to him, Magolor glances around, the bar is fairly empty at the moment. There seem to be only three workers, a Gim who is shaking up some drinks, a Chilly who is preparing the food on the plates and a Burning Leo who is cooking.

   A mechanical whirl rings out as a blur of yellow, red and purple spins its way behind the bar and stops with a resounding squeak in front of Magolor. Once stopped the blur is revealed to be a Gim, they extrude a mechanical hand from their side with a flourish.

“Yo, yo! My radical homies, how's it going?”

   Magolor blanks at this Gim’s colorful way of talking, he hasn't heard something quite like it. Marx leans over the table, wings supporting him.

“Oh it’s just going so wicked Jim!”

   Jim’s single eye focuses on Marx then and his finger snaps in what seems like joy?

“Marx, my homeboy! Welcome back, you brought some homies with you this time?”

   Marx laughs and gestures to Magolor and Susie with his wing.

“Uh huh! Meet Magolor!”

   A pause, Susie coughs, Marx rolls his eyes.

“Oh...And also Susie.”

   Jim turns to Susie, a small glint rolls in their single glassy blue eye.

“Yo! Another rad mech homie! Susie, homegirl, how's it hanging?”

   Susie gets a pleased expression on her face and rolls her hand as she responds.

“It’s going quite well, it is nice to see another person like myself.”

“For sure!”

   Magolor coughs.

“Can we have the menu?”

“Oh! For sure dude!”

   Jim retracts his arm and after a moment of a shuffling noise, withdrawals the arm, hand now holding a paper menu. Magolor takes it and places it on the table. A click rings out as Jim finger guns at them.

“Give a gnarly shout when you homepals are ready!”

   Jim lifts a single foot up, and a puff of air spills from the pipes on his back. They then spin off, a whirring sound following. Magolor glances at the menu, reads it over once and sighs, deciding to voice his concerns.

“I’m not sure about this establishment, I don’t quite like the atmosphere it presents. I mean, is this place even licensed?”

   Susie is about to speak when Marx speaks up.

“Let's ask them!”

   Marx then shouts, catching the attention of the bar workers, who all turn their heads to their direction.

“HEY, DO YOU GUYS HAVE A LICENSE OR NAH!?”

The Chilly lets out a harsh huff, causing a small spray of ice to leave his mouth.

“Well, not EVERYONE can just casually get a meeting with the sooooo great Dedede, just so they can set up one. simple. BAR!”

   The Chilly practically shouts ‘bar’ causing a spout of ice and chill to escape his mouth. The Burning Leo steps in front of the Chilly and waves her hands in dismissal frantically.

“Yes, it is hard, but we did it and are licensed.”

   The way that the Burning Leo’s voice strains makes it clear. Magolor doesn't need to be an expert social reader to tell that's a lie. Magolor feels his concern grow greater, his ears droop, he wonders if he's gonna get food poisoning today. Marx simply cackles and Susie stays silent staring at the works now going back to work.

   Since there's only one menu, Magolor goes through it first, he gave it a glance but didn't read the backside. Turning it over, a bunch of food items are written. Magolor internally grimaces and decides a black coffee is good enough for him.

   Once done, Magolor grabs the menu and hands it over to Susie. As he does, out of the corner of his eyes he sees that Marx was gonna grab it. Once Susie is handed it and she scans it, Marx’s wing drops and he snarls, empty handed. Susie looks over the menu quickly and then she moves her hand to give it to Marx who quickly grabs it.

“Ugh, Finally!”

   Magolor looks at him, confused.

“Haven’t you been here before, why would you need the menu?”

   Marx gives him an exacerbated look.

“Mags, I've only been here once . I wouldn’t have the time to go more than once, dummy.”

    Magolor deadpans, he hates that Marx is right. Marx goes back to looking at the menu, after a moment he finishes and shouts for Jim. Jim spins over to them, their arm extends and has a notebook in hand.

“Yo, yo! You dudes ready to order?”

   Magolor gives a curt nod.

“I would like a black coffee, that's all.”

   Another arm extends from the middle of their face, holding a pen and begins writing in the notebook. Marx taps his foot on his seat getting the attention of Jim.

“I’m hungering for some blueberry soda and blueberry cake!”

   What's with all the blueberries? Magolor ponders before Susie coughs to get Jim’s attention.

“A sweet tea and strawberry ice cream for me.”

   Jim hums and writes all their orders down, and then spins away and shows the Chilly and Burning Leo the order. After a moment of silence Susie speaks.

“Magolor, I can’t help but notice you didn't get any food.”

   Magolor turns to her and sees she's making her studying face, oh dear. Magolor waves her off, trying to make it look casual.

“Oh, I'm just not that hungry at the moment.”

   That’s a lie and he knows it, he is very much hungry. He just simply doesn’t trust this bar. However it seems Marx is also aware of Magolor’s lie.

“Ha! Good one Mags, we all know you haven't eaten today!”

    Susie states her own opinion, much to Magolor’s annoyance.

“Magolor, it’s very important that you keep a healthy eating routine, you haven't eaten today so you should’ve ordered something.”

   Marx puts in his own quip.

“Mags, I cannot think of any reason why you wouldn't wanna eat.”

   Magolor’s ear droops, he places his hands on his face. There's no use in lying again so he simply mumbles out.

“ I don’t wanna eat at a clearly unlicensed bar..”

“ Really??? Jeez Mags did they never tell you to not judge a book by its cover.”

“I have to agree with Marx, your reasoning isn't sound.”

   Marx, he expected to fight against his reasoning, but Susie?!

“Susie, you literally run a company, you should know why I have my concerns.”

   Susie sighs.

“Magolor, As a owner of a company I can understand how hard it is to run something. I can appreciate the drive to run this shop without a license. I may know Dedede but not everyone does and to carry on despite that is a show of how much passion and strength they have.”

   Susie waves a hand.

“The presentation of this establishment helps as well.”

    Magolor stares, frozen. She does have a point. From the corner of his eye he sees Marx roll his eyes.

“Wow Susie that's such an interesting take, personally I just like the food and don’t care if they have a stupid license or not.”

   Magolor huffs and decides to close off this discussion.

“Well, we’ve all ordered so there’s nothing to be done.”

   A grin stretches across Marx’s face, oh no.

“That's a loser mentality!”

   Then much to Magolors horror, Marx takes a deep breath and then yells.

“JIM GET BACK HERE, WE HAVE AN ISSUE!”

   Gim, who was in the middle of shaking up a drink, pauses, then puts the drink down and spins over to them.

“Yo, yo! My homepals, something harshing your vibe?”

   Marx waves a wing.

“Oh nothing like that, it's just my forgetful Magolor forgot to order his food!”

   Magolor practically deflates this whole situation is quite upsetting, also what does Marx mean by ‘my Magolor’ He is not an object!

“No, no its fine-”

   Susie interrupts him.

“Nonsense, you haven't eaten so you get something to eat, simple as that.”

   Jim extends his side hand and gives the menu once again.

“Gonna need this homeboy!”

   Magolor mutters a thanks before scanning the menu once again, he has no idea what to get.

“Uh, I'm not quite sure what to get…”

   Susie leans over the bar table to get a look at the menu.

“Magolor, in my opinion, you should get a salad. It's healthy and refreshing.”

   Magolor doesn't like the sound of that.

“I don’t even like salads..”

   Susie is about to retort when Marx shoves himself into Magolor’s personal space and points to a specific listing on the menu.

“Mags, I know you don’t want no bland stupid salad , you should definitely get this brownie!”

   Magolor looks at where Marx is pointing. The brownie in question is quite frankly the most sugary looking thing Magolor has seen. Which is impressive seeing as Pop Star residents love their sweets. The brownie has a thick layer of frosting and, to top it all off, a big whip of whipped cream. Magolor can feel his stomach turn just by reading it. He isn't as accustomed to sweets as most Pop Star residents.

“I don’t-”

   Susie cuts Magolor with a huff.

“Marx, that brownie is basically a death trap. Better to eat something that will help your body not destroy it.”

   Susie explains, flipping her hair aside, Marx practically cackles.

“Hahaha, heheh! Wow, okay, I know miss strawberry ice cream ain’t talking!”

“I actually eat quite healthy, the icecream is simply an indulgence.”

“Then why can’t this be Magolor’s own indulgence huh? You’re such a hypocrite -” 

“It’s not being a hypocrite, it's being a good friend, I'd rather not have Magolor suffer a major stomach ache because of a brownie.”

“How noble of you, perhaps if everyone followed your exact beck and call the world be better off, hmmm?”

“I never suggested that I-”

   Marx interrupts her, grinning wide, brows furrowed.

“Who cares about freedom or self will , you must know what is best for Magolor way more than he knows what's best for himself!”

“And you do?”

   Magolor has had enough.

“ STOP ! Both of you, I’ll just get both!”

   Jim, who's been standing there the whole time, gives a curt thumbs up and awkwardly spins away. Magolor glances at Susie and Marx who both have unhappy faces.

“..What?”

   Marx is the first to explain.

“Really, both!?”

   In response, Magolor slams his head onto the bar table. He thought ordering both things would be the correct choice, but apparently not! Susie sighs and then speaks in a calm smooth voice.

“Magolor, I know you're a people pleaser, and I may have been a bit forthcoming with my recommendation. However, you really need to stand up for yourself and say what you want.”

   Magolor hears Marx move from beside him.

“That's what i’ve been saying!”

   Now this is just getting tiring, Magolor can stand up for himself! It’s just in certain situations he just cant be so aggressive...Magolor grumbles out a response, slightly muffled as his head is still planted on the bar table.

“I can stand up for myself…”

   Magolor hears Marx laugh.

“Finally someone else who gets Magolors faults, Susie, I could fall in love with you!”

   Magolor’s ear twitches as he processes what he just heard. When he does, he shoots up away from the bar table.

“ WHAT !?”

   Magolor shrieks, looking at Marx, he is simply grinning. Marx turns to Susie. She’s chuckling a hand to her mouth, Magolor isn’t sure why but he hates this. After a moment Susie stops laughing and places a hand on her cheek.

“While I am flattered Marx, you're not my type, for many reasons, including the fact you’re a guy.”

   Marx eyes her for a moment before laughing.

“Ha! You’re not quite my type either, I could not imagine the work I'd have to do.”

   Susie waves a hand.

“You’re right, my partner would have to be a woman of hard work much like myself. Relationships are nice but she’d have to be able to help run my company first and foremost.”

   What is happening? Frankly, Magolor has no idea. One second Susie and Marx were fighting, then Marx says he could fall in love with her! Which is implausible as one, Marx just met her and two, Susie is incompatible with him! Magolor feels like he's in a horrible fun house where he’s being mocked and nothing he knows is correct. However he isn't sure why he is all this worked up, maybe because it just makes sense. He wishes their food would get here already.

   Magolor’s wish comes true. The three workers all walk over with their food and drinks. The Burning Leo breathes flames onto Magolor and Susie's drinks to make sure they're warm, Chilly blows chill on Marx’s soda. The three workers place their respective drinks and food down and then walk away.

   The silence that follows is quite awkward, except for the sound of Marxs claws scraping the glass that holds his soda. Magolor wishes he would stop as the sound is aggravating his ears, however Marx’s claws are the only form of hands he has, it’s not his place to say anything. A pang of sympathy wells up, but Magolor smoothers it as he’s sure Marx wouldn’t appreciate it.

   Instead of glancing at Marx every so often, Magolor focused on eating his bland salad and sugar infested brownie. Taking great care while lifting the bottom of the cloth that wraps around his mouth at an angle that no one would see his mouth, not even himself. It works fine. The salad isn't as bland as he thought, and the brownie tastes good, but from the corner of his eye he sees Marx staring at him.

   Marx’s eyes are fixed at where Magolors mouth is, fear wells up. There’s no way Marx was able to see his mouth, right? From Marx’s angle it should be impossible to even get a glimpse of his mouth.

“Unless you have something to ask me, I'd rather you not stare at me while I'm trying to eat.”

“Oh, it’s nothing!”

   Marx quips with a smirk before going back to devouring his cake. The cake, upon further inspection is just covered in blueberry everything, frosting syrup and even some regular ones sprinkled on top. Along with his blueberry soda, Magolor thinks it’s a wonder that Marx can stomach that much blueberry.

“I’m curious, why all the blueberries?”

   Marx glances at Magolor for a moment then stabs one of the blueberries on his cake with a claw making it stick on it. Marx then turns to face Magolor, eye making direct eye contact, face strangely smug.

“Well, I’ve just been craving blueberries a lot recently.”

   Marx then, without breaking eye contact, sticks his tongue out and uses it to grab the blueberry on his claw, brings it to his mouth and biting down on it with a splat .

   A sound of a chair moving across the floor rings out. Magolor turns to see Susie leaning over and staring at Marx with narrow eyes. Marx rolls his eyes at her.

“Take a picture, it will last longer.”

    Susie's eye’s squint even more, calculating.

“That display wasn’t for me, I have no place to do so.”

   Magolor cannot help but be confused. He assumes that display was for him, but for what reason? To prove Marx was craving blueberries? He cannot help but find that silly along with Susie’s strange reaction. No matter, no need to dwell on it. Magolor has some food to finish.

   The rest of the meal goes smoothly, some chatter happens, mostly Susie telling some work stories, nothing much else.

   Once done eating, Magolor notices the bar is empty except for them and the workers. This is a good thing as Magolor feels a pair of familiar claws grab onto him and drag him over to the karaoke stand. Susie follows. Magolor knows what's about to happen and sputters.

“We really shouldn’t disturb the staff-”

   Susie stops him.

“They wouldn’t mind I'm sure, they have it set up for a reason.”

“HEY, CAN WE USE THE KARAOKE MACHINE?!”

   Marx shouts, he quickly gets a yell in response from the chilly.

“We don’t care. Besides there’s no other customers other than you three so it’s not like you're scaring anyone away!”

   Marx wraps a wing around Magolor and stares at him with a smile.

“See? It’s fine!”

   In return, Magolor just gives Marx a strained look. Marx stares at him for a long moment before suddenly letting go. 

“I get it, I really do! You’re shy, don’t worry I’ll go first, just for you!”

   Marx flies over to the karaoke machine and pokes around with it trying to figure out how it works. Susie settles beside Magolor, and Magolor lets out a sigh.

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

   Susie giggles, hand to where her mouth should be.

“I’m actually excited for my turn, it's been a bit since I sang.”

“...You sing?”

“Mostly as a hobby, when I'm bored doing paperwork or such, I sing.”

“I’ve never heard you sing when we hang out?”

“Yes, because when we hang out I’m not bored.”

   Susie states, rolling her eyes. Magolor is about to respond when a shriek of delight rings out. Marx seems to have finally figured out the karaoke system.

“They have one of my favorite songs!”

   Marx grabs a mic with one clawed wing and presses a button on the karaoke machine with the other. Marx turns to face them, grin wide. After a moment of silence, it is replaced with loud drumming. Magolor’s ears immediately fall flat on his head in agitation. Marx begins screaming out lyrics.

   Of course Marx is a metal fan...

   Magolor turns to look at Susie, as if he hates this then Susie must as well, right? Susie has a bright expression, hands together, staring at Marx, watching intently. Magolor really shouldn't have assumed, he guesses.

   Marx is still screaming lyrics Magolor can’t really understand, thankfully he can read them on the screen above. Marx seemingly doesn’t need it as he knows the lyrics by heart, the lyric’s in question are a bit...Well, they seem a bit dark but also sad. Magolor isn’t sure what to make of that.

   Marx’s singing is fine, a bit grating, but honestly it works with this type of song. During the performance Marx jumps and runs around the stage in some sort of frantic way.

   Eventually, thankfully for Magolor’s ears, the song ends. Marx halts to a stop in front of them and raises a wing up, the other bent at his side, smirk ever present. Susie claps, Magolor does as well and after a moment basking in the praise Marx points a wing at Susie.

“Your turn! Show us what you got!”

   Susie nods and goes over to the machine. Marx replaces where she once was.

“Soooo, Mags whatcha thing about my amazing awesome performance?”

   To be honest he didn’t enjoy it that much but...

“Well, as someone who doesn’t prefer metal music, I fear my opinion would be biased.”

“Oh yeah? Then what music do you like ?!”

   Marx says with a huff, Magolor doesn’t even need to ponder.

“Personally I enjoy classical music!”

“Of course you do .”

   Magolor is about to ask what exactly Marx means by that when he's startled to attention by a cough by Susie.

“Ahem!”

   Just like that the song starts, immediately it's much better than Marx’s song as it is more soothing to his ears. Susie has a quite good singing voice, soothing even, the song seems to be about a cold hearted snake? Or something like that, snakes are cold blooded, so Magolor assumes it would be somewhat accurate to say they have a cold heart. Susie isn’t erratic in her movements. Unlike Marx, she stands in a fixed position and Magolor finds that she has her eyes fixed on Marx the whole time.

   Magolor glances at Marx, trying to ascertain any type of expression that would give away something. However Marx’s face is blank and unreadable, at least to Magolor.

   Eventually the song comes to an end. Susie bows, Magolor claps. Marx gives a nonchalant attempt at a clap by slapping his claws together making a clinking sound rather than a normal clap while rolling his eyes.

“Welp, Magolor’s turn now!”

   Magolor freezes, he only listens to classical music which has no lyrics, how is he supposed to do this? Susie speaks up.

“Perhaps Magolor needs someone to help him?”

   Magolor is about to protest that he doesn’t need help at all, but then a claw grabs his hand and begins dragging him over to the stage.

“Ha! You snooze, you lose Susie, it’s Marx and Magolor duet time!”

   Magolor breath hitches and in a hushed voice, he frantically gets out.

“Marx, I can’t even sing that well-”

   Marx huffs.

“Well, then my angelic singing voice will drown yours out!”

   Marx lets go of Magolor's hand and walks over to the karaoke machine and once again, fiddles with it.

“Don’t worry so much, I’ll pick a simple song!”

   Magolor sighs, picks up a mic and glues his eyes to the screen that displays the lyrics. Marx runs over to his side, grinning wide and the song begins.

   The song is...Fine, something about a birdhouse being in someone's soul? That doesn’t quite make sense and is a bit disturbing, this is why Magolor listens to classical music.

   At first Magolor barely moves, focusing on the lyrics, his eyes dart at Marx who's staring at him almost expectantly. As the song goes on, surprisingly Magolor finds him and Marx harmonizing and their singing syncing. Marx begins to dance, if you consider running around the stage jumping and head bobbing dancing.

   Magolor finds he doesn’t even need to look at the lyrics as the song repeats itself. Suddenly he feels Marx grab his hand and spins him to the other side of the stage, intentions clear. Marx wants him to dance. Magolor isn't quite sure what to do so he gives Marx a pleading look, Marx smirks, rolls his eyes and so begins their dance.

   They dance around each other, in a sorta clumsy manner. Magolor sees Marxs smile and wonders if this is what he wanted, to lead Magolor in a dance. Who knows really, Magolor cannot figure out Marx and he’s pretty sure Marx doesn’t want him too. Unfortally Magolor finds that he wants to know more, why the way he is and what exactly is his deal.

   Marx bumps Magolor with a smile. Magolor wonders if Susie was right about Marx masking his emotions. Magolor feels there's truth to that but doesn’t understand why Marx would even need to do that. There's one thing for sure, Magolor hopes the smile on Marx as they sing and dance is genuine.

   The song ends. Marx quickly grabs Magolor's hand in his claws and raises it up in triumph. Magolor thinks they did fine, no need for a spectacle after all Susie and the staff are the only ones there.

   However Magolor freezes when he hears multiple claps. He looks around and sees multiple customers came in during their song and watched it. Magolor feels embarrassment well up. The locals saw him, singing and dancing like an idiot! Whatever respect they had for him is now gone. Magolor’s face burns, so he hides it with his hands. Marx lets go of his hand and wraps a wing around him, pulling him close.

“Awh, Mags, no need to be shy. We practically destroyed that performance!”

“But-”

    SNAP!

    A sudden snap rings out, Magolor looks between his hands to see Susie giggling and holding her phone.

“Wooow, you really just took a pic of me and Magolor while Magolor was hiding his face. My suggestion from earlier was a joke!”

   Magolor lowers his hands to send a glare at Susie.

“Why would you even take a picture?”

   Susie makes a cheerful expression.

“You see, I informed Kirby about our outing and wanted to send him a picture.”

   Marx lets out a snarl and flies over to her, dragging Magolor with him.

“What!? No, no, no! I do not give you permission to send that to Kirby!”

“Too late!”

   Susie says cheerfully, she then turns her phone around, revealing the screen. On the screen reveals that Susie had sent a picture of them and sent it. Kirby sent ‘=◔v◔=’ as response, an emoticon if Magolor remembers the term correctly. Magolor messages Kirby from time to time and he would send those emoticons a lot. Marx makes a gagging sound. The sound reminds Magolor that Marx is still right next to Magolor so he pushes away from him, face flush.

“I think i’ve had enough for today!”

   Marx gasps.

“Whaaat!? You don’t wanna do an encore!?”

“I think that performance was enough for a lifetime..”

   Marx sighs, feet touching the ground, wings disappearing.

“Fineeee, but there will be a next time.”

   Magolor hopes that ‘next time.’ is a time far from now. Susie coughs, gaining their attention.

“I assume we will be leaving now?”

   Marx rolls his eyes at her.

“Seems so, poor Magolor tired himself out from one song.”

“That’s not-”

“You two go ahead, I'd like to speak to the staff about some things.”

   Susie cuts in, causing the two to pause. Marx speaks first.

“Oh no, she's gonna nag the workers to death, let's get out of here.”

   Marx runs across the room and out the exit. Magolor rushes after him, not wanting to let Marx out of his sight.

“We’ll be waiting outside when you're done!”

   Magolor shouts quickly to Susie, before exiting the bar and back into the alley. Magolor frantically looks for Marx, not seeing him, however a mocking voice makes him jump.

“Looking for someone?”

   Magolor turns and sees that Marx was right beside him leaning against the wall of the alley.

“Yes, you. Don’t run off like that.”

“Ha! What next, you’ll put a leash on me?”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

“If you wanted me to be around you that much, you could’ve just said so.”

   Magolor pauses, that was clearly not what he meant, but does he like having Marx around?

“I- Thats clearly not what I meant!”

“I know, it’s just so fun to see you confused.”

“That would explain a lot of your actions then.”

“Mags, I don’t do what I do just for you, how pathetic would that be?”

   Magolor knows what he’s about to say is pointless but might as well try.

“Then why do you?”

“Secret!”

“Of course..”

   Just then the door to the bar opens and Susie steps out. Marx runs over to her, bouncing excitedly.

“So, what was so important that you had to ditch your friends!?”

“Nothing much, I had a chat with them, and then set up a meeting with Dedede for them.”

   Magolor falters.

“You WHAT!?”

   Susie can just do that? Well Magolor supposes if anyone could it would be Susie.

“It’s honestly not a big deal.”

   Marx cackles and responds sarcastically.

“Yeah Mags, she just gave them a hangout with the king, it's not a big deal!”

   That was the end of that, nothing more to be said, so the three of them began walking or floating back to the Lor.

“Ugh, why do we gotta walk back? Mags just teleport us there!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes.

“The Lor isn’t that far; it would be a waste to exert my magic energy like that.”

“Magolor is correct, no reason for him to teleport us.”

   Magolor watches Marx growl and nash his teeth.

“Marx, can’t you also teleport? Why not do it yourself?”

“I can only teleport so far!”

   Marx says, steps rougher than usual. Susie floats over beside him and takes the end of the left side of his hat in her hand.

“Hmm, you shouldn’t be able to teleport at all..”

   Magolor watches a cascade of emotions appear on Marx’s face, first confusion, then a look of fear , which surprises Magolor and finally anger. Marx roughly turns at her, wings appearing and attempts to swipe at her with his claws. Susie doges quickly, floating away from his range.

“Who are YOU to dictate what I can and can't do!?”

   Susie has a look Magolor has never seen on her, shock. She straightens up and is about to speak when.

    Ring, ring!

   Susie pulls her phone out of her skirt pocket, and her face turns into an annoyed one.

“Excuse me, I have to take this call, be right back.”

   Susie floats away from hearing distance, leaving Magolor and Marx alone.

“Marx, what was THAT!?”

   Magolor shouts, he cannot believe this, he attempted to claw at Susie! Worst of all he just stood there , what if he actually hit her!? Marx looks at him with disbelief.

“She grabbed at me!”

   Magolor thinks, yeah she did. She should've asked but that doesn’t warrant violence!?

“That doesn’t mean you can claw at her!”

“SHE’S A ROBOT SHE WOULD’VE BEEN FINE!”

   Marx yells in clear frustration, Magolor is beginning to think Meta Knight made a mistake when trusting him with Marx.

   Susie returns, hands on her hips, she looks at both Magolor and Marx and falters, clearly seeing the mood they’re in. Nonetheless she clears her throat and explains.

“That call was from work, someone messed up some papers and I'm needed. Seems that the hangout will be cut short for today, Magolor.”

   Marx lets out a huff.

“Finally!”

   Magolor turns to him, he doesn’t understand why Marx is acting like this? Sure he can be a bit much at times but he was never this negative before Susie showed up!

“I don’t understand why you’re treating Susie like this!”

“It’s because he's jealous.”

   A pause, silence rings out. What? Magolor hears Marx make a strangled sound beside him.

“I- Wha- Excuse me!?”

   What is Susie even talking about? Marx...Jealous? That doesn’t sound correct, what Magolor knows is that Marx is quite proud of himself. What would he even be jealous of? He already expressed that he hates work, so he can’t be jealous of Susie owning a company or something? The idea of Marx being jealous of him is even more unrealistic!

“Susie, care to elaborate?”

   Marx jumps in to add in his own thoughts before Susie.

“Mags, this is ridiculous and unrealistic! Honestly, we shouldn't even entertain this idea, in what world would I be jealous-”

Susie cuts him off.

“He’s specifically jealous of me.”

   Marx busts out laughing.

“Hahaha! Me? Jealous of YOU !? Why would I be jealous of an overworked robot?”

“...It is a bit unbelievable.”

   Magolor adds. Susie eyes him, a glint in her eye.

“Marx is jealous because of me hanging out with you and gaining all your attention.”

   Magolor snaps his head at Marx, trying to see if his expression would give away if this is true or not. Marx has a blank look before it goes back to annoyed and he snarls.

“Someone call a mechanic cause I think Susie has some screws loose! We shouldn’t even be listening, why would I want Magolor’s attention?! I already get enough of that, It's suffocating!”

   Susie stares directly at Marx. Magolor knows that look, it’s the look she gives when she backs someone in a corner.

“Marx, first you tried being rude, then you threatened me, then you tried making me uncomfortable by saying you loved me, and when that didn’t work, you tried being somewhat nice but your anger showed again eventually.”

   When Susie puts it like that, it seems obvious, however Marx has only known him for a few days! Magolor feels strange thinking about Marx being jealous because of him , it’s strange and profound. Magolor was used to being praised, people idolizing. Though those days are over, he must've no longer be used to the feeling, that's got to be why this feels strange! Magolor looks over at Marx, his eyes are sharp and are staring daggers at Susie. Magolor decides to ask.

“Were you jealous?”

   Marx responds with a yell.

“I can’t believe this, you're supposed to be smart Magolor, you’re really buying her idiocy!?”

“He is smart, just not people smart.”

   Susie chimes in. This seems to just make him more mad, he thumps his left foot on the ground harshly.

“Okay fine, I did want Susie gone, NOT because I was, ugh, jealous , but because she’s annoying and tried to blast my face off!”

“I never said that wasn’t part of it.”

   Susie quips, Marx snarls at her. This is getting way out of hand. Magolor knows he has to try and deescalate the situation before the two start physically fighting. Magolor takes a deep breath and makes an attempt to calm Marx down.

“Marx, it’s fine, I think-”

“STOP!”

   Marx practically shrieks.

“Do not say another word I will throw up! You know what? I’m gonna go on ahead, away from that crazy lady!”

   Marx makes a running start, jumping up, wings appearing, gliding before phasing through the ground, a dark shadow speeds off in the direction of the Lor.

   Once again silence, Magolor isn’t sure how to feel. All he knows is that he probably messed up and Susie as well. Susie sighs. Magolor doesn’t know what she was trying to accomplish by attacking Marx like that. Magolor knows that Marx never gives a clear answer and hates being questioned.

“Susie, I would love a clear answer as to why you just caused Marx to blow up.”

“Well, you questioned Marx's motives, so I have an answer.”

“Yes but your answer doesn’t seem plausible. Me and Marx have only known each other for a few days! We barely know each other, I know I barely know anything about him and the fact he doesn’t seem to be the type of person to get attached to anyone.”

“Magolor you’re simply just-”

    Ping!

   Susie’s phone pings. She gets it out, annoyance evident.

“We’ll have this discussion later, I must go.”

   Magolor lets out a sigh, he relents.

“Fine, we will talk later alright?”

“Of course. Before I go, you better study Marx or I'll be extremely disappointed. You and I both know we are dying to figure out what he is.”

   With that Susie waves goodbye and begins heading the opposite direction, leaving Magolor to head to the Lor alone.

   The trek back is silent and unnerving to say the least. Magolor thinks the highest of Susie, she’s smart, generous and a hard worker. However, she has an issue of being overbearing. Magolor doesn’t have to be a good reader to know that. He’s not sure why, it’s just how she is. Magolor knows this and has accepted it. Marx however doesn’t, thinking about it, at first Magolor thought Marx was overreacting a bit but Marx just met her.

   Magolor makes it to the Lor and floats inside into the main room. Marx is nowhere to be seen, probably in his room if Magolor had to guess. Maybe if Magolor just let Marx stay in his room and not egged him on to give Susie a chance this wouldn’t have happened. Marx wouldn’t have been mad, and Susie wouldn’t have been chewed out by Marx. 

   Once again, Magolor has ruined things.

   Magolor floats over to the control panel. He debates asking Kirby for advice as Kirby, unlike himself, is actually good at having friends. A sorta sick feeling wells up however, Magolor doesn’t wanna bother Kirby about this. Instead, Magolor simply slams his head into the control panel and mumbles.

“Maybe things will be better tomorrow..”

Chapter Text

   Throughout his travels across many planets Magolor has seen many types of creatures. Living plantlife, robots, even creatures that were on fire! However none of that compared to Marx. Magolor has never seen anything like Marx before. The fact he looks like a Noddy but can summon wings, summon vines and can even split himself in half! These thoughts have plagued Magolor ever since he first met Marx, even more so now that they are basically living together.

   Which leads Magolor to where he currently is at this moment, in his library next to a table with books stacked upon it. At the moment, he is browsing through a book about common pop star species. He specifically is currently on the Noddy section, there's not much there.

   ‘Noddy’s are simple creatures who have a simple round body and pad feet. Their bodies are most commonly pink however, they can also come in other colors such as orange and even green! Noddy’s are usually found asleep around well, right about anywhere in Pop Star!’

   Magolor rolls his eyes, this is basic at best! He needs something with more details. Magolor tosses the book behind him onto the ground in frustration and begins flipping through his stack of books until he stops when he sees one of potential. It’s quite old looking, parts of the cover are damaged, but Magolor sees it is titled ‘The inherent magic of different Pop Star creatures Vol.1’. Another book he doesn’t remember gaining...Magolor opens it up and finds a chapter about Noddy’s.

   ‘Noddy’s are simple creatures, simple in shape and in form. However they are quite interesting in the magical sense. Each creature has at least some positive amount of magic in them that keeps them going. Noddy’s are different in this aspect as they’re one of the few species that have a very low amount of magic. The result is a creature which has very low energy and can overexert itself by simply walking for a small amount of time! This is why Noddy’s are asleep so often as, due to their low magic, they in turn have low energy causing them to be sleepy most of the time!

Now, as stated in previous chapters, every creature has different magic amounts. Even if you’re the same species as something, you don't have the same amount of magic as each other. The question is, is there a Noddy out there that somehow was able to have a positive amount of magic? Unlikely. If there is, then neither myself or any others researching this topic have found or heard of one. All in all, Noddy’s are as simple and straightforward as they look.’

   Magolor blinks, processing and then busts out his notepad and begins to write down his hypothesis or well theories.

   ‘Theory 1: Marx is a Noddy with great magic stored in his body, and this allows him to do… Well whatever he does allows him to be awake and energetic unlike other Noddy’s. However, him being born with magic would be a very rare thing and unlikely.

   Theory 2: Marx gained magic from Nova? More so unlikely as it would be confusing as to how Marx was able to even get to Nova in the first place.

   Theory 3: Marx isn’t a Noddy but just another creature all together, or perhaps a hybrid?

   Theory 4: Somehow all of this is wrong, and it's something entirely different, and something Magolor didn’t even think of at all.’

   Magolor sighs, closes the notebook and heads over to his pin board. Said pin board is decked with red string connecting to writings and drawings Magolor has made. This board shows the effort of the past hours Magolor has spent in the library. One may find this concerning. However Magolor enjoys researching something to his best extent, so to him it’s normal.

   Besides, it's a distraction from yesterday's events…

   Magolor takes a glance at the state of his library, it's a mess. Books and papers scattered around the floor along with pens that long ran out of ink, books placed in the wrong sections since Magolor couldn’t bother. Magolor knows later this is gonna be a pain to clean up, but for now, he turns back to the board to ponder.

   Magolor’s ears twitch as he hears the door open behind him. He knows it’s Marx before he even speaks.

”Woooah Magolor, what are you doing? Investigating a murder or something? This place is a mess!”

   Magolor shoots up, turns quickly and covers the board with his body and cape, using his hands to flare it out and cover it more.

”Just some research, nothing to concern yourself with.”

”Erm, I think I'm allowed to be concerned when my warden holes himself up in his library.”

   Warden..? Is that how Marx sees him? For some reason the thought puts a nauseous feeling in Magolor’s stomach. Apparently Marx sees something in his expression that makes him give Magolor a questioning look.

”What’s gotcha so worked up anyways?”

”Oh you know...?”

”Uh, no I don't, that's why I'm asking.”

   Marx rolls his eyes then sticks out his tongue and lets out a raspberry. Magolor feels the spit hit him, wipes it off with a gloved hand and rolls his eyes. Was that really necessary?

”Like I said, it’s nothing to be concerned about. It’s just a subject I've been meaning to explore. Besides it’s the weekend and I-”

   Magolor is cut off as he’s suddenly dragged to the ground by a vine, no doubt Marx’s, leaving the board exposed.

   Magolor struggles to escape the vine by pulling it off him. However the second he hears Marx cackling from above, he knows it’s a futile effort. The damage is done. Magolor slumps to the floor, the vine dissipates leaving Magolor to lay on it.

”Wow Mags, didn’t think you were this obsessed with me! Get a guy some dinner first before you make a whole stalker board about him.”

   Magolor can feel his face burn. He jumps off the floor and turns to Marx who is currently flying and looking at the board.

”It’s not like that, and you can tell from the notes on there!”

   Marx turns to him, grinning.

”All I see is a board that you made all about my body sooo-”

   Magolor sputters for a second. It’s crazy how he isn’t used to this teasing yet, what is wrong with him!?

”Oh hush , you know it’s not like that! Besides, why are you even here?”

”I’m bored, duh.”

”Then why pester me? I thought my attention was ‘suffocating’?”

   Magolor immediately places his hands on his mouth, he hadn’t meant to say that.

”Oh wow and here I thought you wouldn’t bring it up!”

   Magolor didn’t mean too.

”It’s a breath of fresh air to be honest, it’s cute when you get all shy and flustered-”

   CUTE!?!

“But that gets sooo boooooring!!!!! I wanna see something different, something exciting, and be more assertive! I-”

   Marx suddenly stops, he looks confused. He blinks, a slight sign of irritation...? Shows on his face before he goes back to a smug smile all in a second.

”The point is, Mags, if you just asked nicely I would’ve let you study me up close and personal.”

   Marx bats his eyelashes. Magolor pauses, Marx wants him to be more assertive? Fine.

”Marx, it would be greatly beneficial if you helped me with my research.”

   Magolor holds out his hand. Marx sticks out his tongue.

”Ugh, why so professional? You sound like Susie, gross. But yeah whatever i’ll help.”

   Marx takes out his clawed hand and grasps Magolor’s hand just a bit too much and shakes it.

   Suddenly, Marx pulls Magolors hand closer, along with his body and suddenly they’re so close. Their faces are almost touching. Magolor’s breath hitches.

”Besides I don’t think you’re gonna get a concrete answer, so i’d lo-, like to see you try!”

   Marx lets go of Magolor’s hand and pulls back with a laugh. Magolor feels his hand tingle from the after feel of Marx’s grip. He’s pretty sure Marx’s claws tore into his gloves.

   ...Magolor has never been so interested in someone his whole life.

”Mags if I didn’t know better, I'd think you knew I was gonna let you study me.”

   Marx says with a laugh that has a slight tone of nervousness.

   Magolor is currently measuring Marx’s body size. Marx is attempting to stay still.

”Well, you can never be too prepared, please stay still.”

   Magolor gets both Marx’s body's height and width and writes it down in his notebook. Once done, Magolor moves in front of Marx. 

”Wings out if you will.”

   Marx rolls his eyes like he didn’t agree to do this in the first place, and his wings appear.

”Thank you.”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

   Magolor takes his tape measure, immediately measures Marx’s wings and writes that down.

   Magolor then tries to get a feel about what the wings are made of. The base feels of metal? Then of course you can't forget the multicolored disks floating under the base of the wings. They seem to be some sorta mirrors?

”Ha! Having fun getting a handful of me right now Mags?”

”This is purely for research purposes.”

”Riiiiigggghhhhht.”

   Magolor ignores him and proceeds to write down his findings. Once he finishes, he faces Marx again.

”Open your mouth please.”

”Erm, why?”

”I wanna measure your fangs and tongue.”

”Wow, okay my fangs and tongue ? Fangs I get, but my tongue!? Talk about weirdo behavior.”

   Magolor blinks.

”I’m not a weirdo , I noticed you have a very long tongue, and I need to record it to understand you better.”

   Marx pauses before smirking.

”All I heard is that you’ve been staring at my tongue like a freak .”

”I don’t wanna argue about this-”

”Why should I? Kinda hypocritical, you seem keen to hide your own mouth! What's the deal, scared of what’s there or something?”

  Everything freezes for Magolor. Right then his hand goes limp, and he feels the tape measure fall as he sinks to the floor.

”Magolor!?”

   But Magolor cannot hear him. His head is heavy with the crown that weighs upon it.

   He can FEEL it, the invading eye that isn't his darting around in his mouth. Tears prick the sides of Magolor’s eyes, he didn’t want this. When he put the crown on his head, he never expected this . If he knew putting the crown on would twist and bend his form beyond recognition, he would’ve never even touched it. He’d repent a thousand times to just be normal again. Eyes shut, Magolor doesn't dare to open them.

   Magolor is afraid of what he might see.

   SLAM!

   Magolor is dragged from his mind as he is hit from behind and stumbles forward. Magolor stays on the ground. He looks down at himself, he’s fine...He lets out a breath, pulling himself together before getting up.

”Finally back to reality?”

   He hears Marx’s voice. Magolor cannot believe that happened, in front of MARX no less! Magolor has had these, well, episodes every once in a while. They started obviously after Magolor managed to get out of whatever dimension he was stuck in. However they slowed as time went on and took form in nightmares...Apparently, they have yet to completely go away, annoying. 

   Magolor wipes his eyes free of any tears with his hand and turns to face Marx once presentable.

”I- uh- yes...”

   Magolor feels his voice strain for a moment. He knows Marx noticed. Magolor cringes inside for a moment.

”Good, now I seem to remember someone was about to measure my fangs and tongue.”

   Marx says casually as he walks over to the stand and gets on it, waiting patiently.

   Magolor watches in unease. Are they just gonna pretend that Magolor didn’t just have an episode? Magolor grabs the tape measure off the floor and floats over to Marx.

”Right, open your mouth please.”

   Magolor finds he’d rather not talk about it. He’s a bit thankful that Marx has seemingly let him off easy, which is strange, but with Marx he never knows what he thinks.

   Marx opens his mouth...Quite wide, way bigger than normal. Magolor tentatively goes to measure his fangs. They are quite long and sharp, which Magolor finds out by pricking himself on one of them accidentally. Marx cackled as he pulled his hands back to see if he was bleeding. He was not.

   After writing the fang info down, he moves to Marx’s tongue.

”Excuse me.”

   After a moment, Magolor gently and carefully takes out Marx’s tongue from his mouth.

   He is both horrified and oh so intrigued when he sees that Marx’s tongue reaches his feet.

   Magolor glances at Marx’s face to see him wiggling his eyebrows. Magolor’s mind flashes back to the ‘freak’ comment Marx made and feels his face burn. Bold assumptions with no proof at all! 

    Magolor goes back to measuring the tongue. Marx’s tongue is as big as his body... THAT'S NOT NORMAL !!!! Magolor then watches Marx retract his tongue back into his mouth, somehow. Magolor writes everything down quickly.

”That’s almost everything, just one more thing.”

”Ugh, fineee.”

   Magolor ignores the complaint.

”How often do you sleep?”

   Just then Magolor sees it. Marx pauses, eyes fixate to nothing and glaze over as if he isn’t here. Just like how it was after their fight. It takes a second for Marx to unpause, and as soon as he does, his eyes come back to focus and become bright again.

”Uhm, the normal amount duh! Jeez, what a dumb question, even for you Mags!”

   Curious, Magolor finds he wants to ask Marx what that was about. However Marx didn’t question him when he had his little episode, so perhaps he shouldn’t touch the subject...For now.

”Right, that's all for now.”

”Finally! Ugh, no offense Mags but that was torture! I assume I'm dismissed?”

”Yes, remember no leaving the Lor-”

”Without your permission yeah, yeah, I got it warden.”

   Magolor watches Marx run off, presumably to his room. Magolor takes out his notebook and flips through all the info he's gathered. He leaves the room and heads over to the library. This shouldn’t take much time at all!

   It’s been three hours. Magolor has exhausted all his books and still hasn’t a clue of what exactly Marx IS !!!

   Magolor flips to a blank page and goes over his theories he made before once more.

   ‘Theory one: Cannot be true as for one, no one has documented a Noddy with major magic, and two, Marx has sharp fangs and a long tongue which are NOT NODDY TRAITS!!!!!!!!!!! Having a large sum of magic wouldn’t make him have those at all!!

   Theory Two: This seems plausible until you remember, if Marx didn’t have magic, how did he even get to Nova? He didn’t have wings, and if he had low magic, he wouldn’t have the energy to do so!

   Theory 3: No other creature in any of my books has anything like Marx. The only hybrid that Marx could be with a Noddy would be a Scarfy. Would explain the fangs and appetite, but that wouldn’t explain the wings and everything else! These wings are gonna be the end of me. NO OTHER CREATURE HAS THOSE!!?!!?!

   Theory 4: Upsettingly the most likely one.’

   Magolor tosses the books on the table aside in frustration, and they fall onto the ground with a THUD .

   What is he to do now!?!

   Magolor slams his head on the table and yells. The sound is muffled by the table.

   After a bit of that, an idea comes to Magolor’s mind, Susie! She was the one who asked him to do all this in the first place. Perhaps she can help him with this?

   Quickly, Magolor gets up and rushes over to the main computer and opens up direct messages to Susie. Lets just hope she’s not busy…

”Dearest Susie, I hope I am not disturbing you. I assume you remember your request you gave to me yesterday?”

   It takes a second for her to respond.

”Magolor are you texting me via the Lor?”

   Oh no, not this again.

”Yes, but there are other matters at hand.”

”Magolor, do all of us a favor and get a phone .”

”I don’t need one.”

”Don’t lie, yes you do! Taranza and I both have one, and we both know you don’t stay in the Lor all the time, even though you’d like to.”

”Listen, I'll get one... EVENTUALLY .”

”That’s what you said last time.”

   Magolor is about to reply when Susie sends another message.

”That’s it, I'm gonna get one for you.”

”There is no need for that.”

”Trust me, I’m doing everyone a service by doing this. I will give it to you at the party.”

   Magolor knows that's that and relents.

”Fine, can we please get back to the topic at hand?”

”Naturally, I assume you are talking about Marx. What did you find out?”

”NOTHING! All my research has yielded nothing. Marx even let me measure him and take a close look but nothing!”

”Why not just ask.”

”What????”

”Why not just ask.”

”I read it the first time. Marx would never tell me.”

”I feel it’s at least worth asking, he may surprise you.”

”Susie, we both know he won’t.”

”I’m not helping you until you try.”

”Fine.”

   Magolor retracts from the computer with a groan. Why must Susie make things difficult? After a moment, he begins to float over to Marx’s room. He takes a breath, preparing himself for the disappointment that's sure to come.

Magolor enters Marx’s room and sees Marx, faced away from him, running in place on one of his performance balls. Magolor lets out an “Ahem,” and Marx stops and swerves over to Magolor on the ball to face him.

”What's up mags? I thought you were figuring out the mystery that is me apparently!”

   Magolor feels his ears flop down involuntarily.

”Yes, well about that...Uh, I couldn’t figure it out…”

   Marx lets out a loud laugh at that. Magolor continues.

”Despite all my research, I haven't got a clue. So, this is my final option.”

   Magolor knows this is a lie. He still has Susie, however Marx doesn’t need to know that. Perhaps Marx would let something slip if he believed Magolor was at a complete loss and that he won?

”Marx, what are you?”

”I’m me.”

   Marx says with a voice devoid of any mocking or usual Marx tones. It startles Magolor for a moment before he absorbs Marx’s answer.

”I don’t think you understood the question-”

”Oh no, I understood it perfectly.”

   Marx blinks, face blank. Magolor is confused.

”Elaborate?”

”Erm, what needs elaborating? You asked what I am. I am Marx. That's it.”

”Marx I meant what type of creature are you? You know what species-”

”I don’t care.”

”What?”

”I. Do. Not. Care. Honestly Mags, it’s that simple, I’m just me, and that's all there is to it!”

”I- I don’t get it?”

”You don’t get it cause you were so eager to put me in a box as something when i’m something better, myself! Boxes are so boring. People worry about others all the time when they should just focus on themselves and not what others see them as.”

   Magolor is stunned.

”I’m not a Noddy or anything else. I am me and there's nobody like me, and I wouldn’t have it anyother way!”

”You- but that’s..?”

   Marx finally grins and does a pose on his performance ball.

”I’ve never seen anyone like you Magolor! But you didn’t see me trying to peg you as anyone other than well, Magolor. Honestly, I know you’re a nerd and all, but not everything needs to be studied and known. Although I do like the attention, hehe!”

   Magolor once again feels his face heat up.

”I HAVE TO GO !”

   Magolor doesn’t wait for a response and rushes out the door and into the library. Marx’s cackling sounding out.

   In some sorta frenzy, Magolor tears everything on his Marx conspiracy board off and looks for his Notebook. Once found, Magolor turns to the pages with his theories and updated theories, and crosses them out harshly with a marker. He then grabs a blank sheet of paper and writes crudely and largely.

‘MARX IS MORE THAN I COULD IMAGINE’

   Magolor drops the marker and takes a few breaths, calming himself down.

   Marx is...Something else. That Magolor knows, he is a contradiction. Most people would be adverse to this and stay away, but Magolor has found he wants to know more. He knows Marx essentially told him not to. Magolor cannot lie and say his scientific curiosity isn't going wild around Marx. If he could get Marx under a microscope, he would. He wants to know why Marx is the way he is…

   Essentially, Magolor wants to understand Marx’s everything.

    Ding!

   Magolor’s ears perk up, snapping him from his train of thought. Oh, that's right, Susie! She must've messaged him to check in. Magolor immediately flies over to the main room with the computer and opens up his messages.

”Did you ask him?”

”Yes, he told me.”

”I told you, tell me about it later, work calls!”

   Magolor knows that's the end of that, he’s about to leave when he sees he has another message from Taranza!

”🪷Hi Magolor! Susie told me about her visit. I know I said I'd visit soon, but I've been having trouble with the garden! You know how it is, however, if you wanna you can come and visit me at my cottage. :3 (Kirby told me about emoticons! He said this one looked a bit like me so I've started using it. I hope i’m doing it right Haha,,,,) 

Susie also mentioned Marx? I’m glad you made a new friend,,,,I haven’t made much since moving to popstar 3:, a bit my own fault I think as i’ve been huddled in my cottage a lot. I’m rambling again but uh yeah! Visit whenever you want!🪷”

   Well, it seems Magolor knows what he’s gonna do tomorrow!

Chapter Text

   Magolor remembers when he first met Susie and Taranza. Kirby had invited him over to his house randomly, not one to decline, Magolor went. That's when Magolor met Taranza along with Susie. His first impressions were that Susie seemed very closed off and guarded, in contrast with Taranza who’s emotions were very clear. Magolor could tell he was very uncomfortable.

   Kirby grabbed Magolor’s hand and dragged him over to the table they were at and made him sit down on the third chair. Kirby then explained that they brought them all together so they could be friends. Magolor knew even if Kirby didn’t say it that Kirby did this due to the acute lack of friends they had. Although one could say it wasn’t their fault, most people wouldn’t be keen on befriending past villains.

   Kirby was definitely the director of this get together and suggested they begin with simple introductions. Magolor got to start then Taranza and finally Susie. However after that it seemed none of them were keen on beginning an actual conversation, Kirby tried to help but all the starters he did ended with short stilted responses.

   If Magolor had described the energy in the room, it would be suffocated and cold. None of them seemed to want to be there. Magolor at the time felt this was a waste of time, he could be working right now! All in all it seemed the only one who wanted them to be here was Kirby who grew more and more upset at their lack of interest.

   Eventually everyone's attention snapped to Kirby when he let out a sigh, face clearly extremely sad.

“Come on you guys this ain’t gonna work if you don’t try!”

   Magolor really didn’t like seeing Kirby sad, but what can they do when no one is interested?

“You have so much in common, maybe you need space? I’ll go outside so you can talk without me!”

   Before any of them could protest Kirby ran out his house, leaving them alone. It was silent for a moment before Susie spoke up.

“Well there he goes once again, it’s illogical how much faith that kid has.”

   Magolor hummed in acknowledgement, however Taranza seemingly disagreed.

“Uhm, well I think it’s nice, even though people like me probably don’t deserve it.”

   This piques Magolor’s interest.

“People like you?”

   Susie looks over Taranza clearly interested in his response as well.

“Oh, uh, well I mean- I used to be a villain so-”

   And just like that, something changed.

“So was I?”

“...I was as well.”

   Magolor says along with Susie speaking a few seconds afterwards. A silence before Magolor starts laughing, the realization as to why Kirby brought them together hitting him. Soon the other two, as they realize as well, begin to laugh with him. The energy shifts, a connection. Suddenly to Magolor these two were not strangers but people he could relate to! Magolor feels his edges soften a bit, that's hard to find especially for someone like him.

   After that, conversation flows easily, miscellaneous topics, mostly about books and such fill the room. Eventually the obvious topic about their past arrives, and they each explain in the order they introduced themselves. Magolor heard about both Taranza and Susie's situations before, however never to this extent, also the fact he never knew who exactly was behind it.

   Magolor finds himself relating to both Taranza and Susie even more so than before. Taranza seems to also be interested in magic and the nature of it. Magolor makes a mental note to compare what books they each have later. With Susie it seems she too has experience with being sent to an alternate dimension. At first Magolor wasn’t gonna reveal that part of his story, however when Susie revealed she was sent to one at a young age, well Magolor couldn’t stop himself from blabbing. Other than that, Susie and Taranza seemed to genuinely connect over their loss together. Taranza started crying at one point and Susie comforted him. Magolor stood aside, a bit bitter, he’s never had anyone to lose.

   Eventually Kirby comes back in and is greeted by Magolor laughing hard, and Taranza is chuckling through his gloved hands. Susie had just told a very funny story involving one of her coworkers. They didn’t even notice Kirby had entered until he let out a happy ‘poyo!’ they all immediately stop and turn to him.

“See, I told you!”

   He sure did, even after that it became a regular thing for them all to hang out when they had the time. Even if one of them was unavailable, the other two could still have fun. Magolor is always astounded that Kirby is seemingly always so helpful. Even when things go wrong, Kirby always fixes them. Magolor can’t imagine how Kirby stays so positive and happy.

   Magolor shakes off the memory and goes back to the task at hand, which is him currently directing his ship. 

   Suddenly Magolor hears the distinct pitter patter of familiar shoes. Magolor glances behind him and isn’t surprised to see Marx is there.

“Mags, am I losing it, or is your ship MOVING!?”

“Yes, well, that’s what ships tend to do.”

“Wooow, okay, sassy much? Where are we going exactly?”

“Taranza invited me over for a visit, so I’m going to his cottage.”

   Marx gets a blank look on his face.

“…Who?????”

   Oh, that’s right, Magolor never bothered to tell Marx about Taranza, an honest mistake really.

“Another one of my friends-“

   Marx cuts him off with a shriek.

“OH NO, please tell me he isn’t like Susie!!!”

   Magolor feels laughter bubble inside him which escapes his mouth accidentally. The comparison between the two is a bit too funny.

“No, no, he isn’t like Susie!”

“Well thank goodness, I still haven’t gotten over Susie, girl is crazy!!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes, Marx chuckles.

“I’m gonna go back to my room, yell for me once we are there!”

   After a while, Magolor looks at the main screen and sees Taranza’s cottage in view. In an area that’s full of plant life, there are many flowers littered around. However the cottage is placed in an area where no other people are. Magolor has been here before. He honestly believes no one else would even know Taranza was here if the spider himself didn’t say anything.

   He puts in a command for the ship to land and proceeds to yell out Marx’s name.

   Just moments after, the creature in question comes running in.

“Oooh! Are we here!?”

“Yes we are, Marx.”

   Marx faces Magolor with an expectant expression. Magolor wonders if what he’s about to say next will even work, but he supposes it’s worth a try.

“Please do try and be respectful-“

“Ha! Like I haven’t been respectful!”

   Magolor gives a deadpan expression.

“Just- try at least? Taranza has been through it. Besides, if you do, consider your next trip out to eat on me.”

   This instantly makes Marx perk up.

“Now that’s something I can get behind!”

   Marx then immediately starts running toward the Lor’s exit. Magolor rushes to follow him.

   If Magolor was being honest, part of him really didn’t wanna bribe Marx into being nice for Taranza’s sake. Honestly, he wanted to see Marx interact with Taranza naturally, or well, as natural as Marx can be. It would help with his research on Marx, noting how Marx reacts is very important! He still does intend to study him. Once Magolor has his mind set on something, he will see it out.

“Slow down!!!”

   Meanwhile, Magolor was still attempting to catch up with Marx. Thankfully for Magolor, Marx slows his pace down, allowing him to catch up.

“Mags, it’s soooo sad that you float everywhere and somehow I’m still faster than you, without even having to fly!”

“Well, to be fair to me, I have a ship, so I don’t tend to rush to places often.”

“Aaaand that’s your issue, Mags. Personally I-“

“Oh! Magolor is that you!?”

   Magolor stops looking at Marx and looks forward and sees Taranza, who’s a bit farther away in front of his cottage.

   Magolor motions for Marx to follow him, and eventually they reach the cottage where Taranza is waiting.

   The cottage really isn’t that special, it’s a bit circular and made of wood. Magolor swears every time he visits, more vines and flowers infest the walls outside it.

“It’s nice to see you Magolor,”

   Taranza’s eyes darted over to Marx.

“Oh! You must be Marx, I’m Taranza!”

   Taranza smiles and holds out one of his dirty gloved hands. Magolor guesses that it makes sense they are dirty since Taranza gardens, but he still can’t help but cringe a bit.

“Hehe! The one and only!”

   Marx extends his wings and shakes Taranza’s hand tightly with his claws and then promptly lets go. Magolor watches this with a tinge of annoyance, he’s not sure why.

“Well, uhh, come on in. I’ll get you something to drink?”

   Taranza opens the door and goes inside. Magolor, along with Marx, follows.

   The inside is about what you should expect, lots of orange, green and brown. It’s very charming, well in its own way, Magolor eyes. Lots of spider web theming, mats, table cloth etc. Of course Taranza has bookshelves full of books of different types. Magolor knows some of his books probably rest there as well.

“Do you two want anything in particular..?”

“Coffee.”

“Any type of soda is fine with me!”

“Uh, I don’t have any soda..Uhm, want anything else?”

“Lame, then get me coffee too, make sure to drown it in sugar and cream though!”

   Taranza nods and floats over to the kitchen. The two decide to settle down. Magolor sits down on the pillows on the floor near the table, Marx does so as well. Specifically moving his pillow to sit next to Magolor. Marx gives him a smile.

   After some idle banter and nothing conversation, Taranza shows up with their drinks along with his own tea. He places the drinks on the table and sits down opposite them.

“So, Taranza, Magolor has said you’ve been quote ‘through it’, care to elaborate?”

   Magolor chokes on his drink before spitting out a retort.

“MARX!?!”

   Magolor supposed that was coming. He should’ve phrased it better, he just made Marx curious!!!

“What? I wasn’t gonna ask you, even though I knew you would tell me. Thanks for blabbering to Susie about my whole whole deal by the way! This is the nice thing to do, besides I’m curious!”

   Magolor whips his gaze to Taranza to see his reaction, only to be confused. Taranza doesn’t look upset, just mildly surprised. Taranza blinks and responds.

“Oh, I don’t mind, I’m actually surprised. Most people already know what happened! Uhm, I guess it’s a bit refreshing to see someone who doesn’t know?”

   Marx groans and sticks out his tongue.

“Obviously I don’t know. I wasn’t here and missed all the good stuff!!!”

   Taranza tilts his head.

“Are you not from Pop Star..?”

“Oh I am, I just took a break!”

   Taranza is still clearly confused, Marx elaborates.

“I’ll explain what my deal is after you do!”

“Oh! Okay, that sounds fair?..So..Hmm, where do I start..?”

   Taranza’s sentence trails off. Magolor sends a glare at Marx to make sure he won’t say anything.

   Taranza seems to finally find his trail of thought and speaks.

“I’ll try to keep things short, uh, basically my friend Queen-“

   Taranza pauses and then shuts his eyes tight, hands tightening on his cup. This is why Magolor didn’t want Marx to bring this up! Magolor sees Marx’s face shift to a curious one.

“Sectonia, just Sectonia..Tried to take over Floralia, uh, you know the islands above Pop Star? Yeah, uh, I kinda helped her with that whole thing, not because I wanted to but because I was her friend!”

   Taranza pauses, face scrunched in worry. If only he knew Marx of all people couldn’t judge him for this.

“Anyways, the residents of Floralia did something to get both Kirby and Dedede’s houses taken up there. I was sent to go and get the ‘hero’ that they sent here but unfortunately I mistook Dedede as the hero-“

“Pffft, HAHAHAHAH!!!!”

   Magolor snaps his gaze over to Marx who started barreling with laughter.

“AHA! Sorry, I’m sooo sorry but, HEHE! Dedede? A HERO!?! AHAHHAHAHA!!!!!”

   How is this funny? Sure Magolor knows about Dedede’s past as a villain, well a villain to a mild extent compared to them…But when Magolor showed up, Dedede fought alongside Kirby. So in truth, Magolor isn’t sure why Marx finds this oh so funny?

“Uh, well I wasn’t aware the real hero was Kirby…”

“He sure doesn’t look it, HA! Okay I’m done, you may continue!”

“Righhht, uh, so, obviously Kirby tried to stop me and it got to a point where I took control of Dedede to stop him-“

   Marx snickers.

“Once Kirby defeated Dedede, that was when I realized I chose wrong…I-I asked Sectonia for help and she..-“

   Taranza pauses once again, a shudder.

“Well, she didn’t appreciate my mistake and tossed me aside, that was when I knew she was too far gone..”

   Out of the corner of his eye, Magolor sees Marx pause.

“I helped Kirby put an end to things and well, I moved here!”

   Taranza gives a crooked smile, Marx replies slowly.

“So…Sectonia is…?”

“Gone.”

   It goes quiet, Magolor decides to step in.

“Thank you, Taranza, for explaining! Now, Marx, it’s only fair to return the favor!”

   Marx’s eyes darted to his before smirking.

“Oh, it would be my pleasure! Sooooo, I was feeling a bit silly and decided to try and take over Pop Star!”

   Taranza's face turns confused, Marx doesn’t mind it.

”My plan was so good too! I chatted up the Sun and Moon and managed to manipulate them into thinking they said horrible things about each other, HA! Obviously this resulted in them fighting, which was bad, at least for the others. I managed to find Kirby and informed him of the situation aaaaaand a solution, go to the necessary planets to summon Nova. Of course it was a trick. I kicked Kirby out the way the second Nova was summoned! This was when I made the wish to rule Pop star, and Nova tried to go over to Pop Star to help, buuuut the Sun and Moon held it back.”

   Marx rolled his eyes.

“Kirby then crashed the party by destroying Nova from the inside. That’s when he managed to stop me, by beating me up! Needless to say, after all that, I wasn’t that popular. Can’t imagine why! I hung out on some other planets for a bit.”

“Wait…Was Nova that big clock thing in the sky?”

“Yep!”

   Marx says with a smile, eyes closed. After a moment, he then opens his eyes wide and gasps out.

“WAIT HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!?”

   Taranza blinks.

“Well, Floralia was always very close to Pop Star, so we all saw that happen.”

   Taranza closes his eyes in thought.

“I…I remember because Sectonia was scared out of her mind once she saw the sun and moon fighting. I tried my best to console her, but well-“

   Taranza opens his eyes with a sad smile on his face.

“When Nova shows up seemingly trying to crash into us, all I could do was hold her.”

   Out of the corner of his eyes, Magolor watches Marx make a blank face. Magolor isn’t sure what to make of that. Silence rings out for a few moments before Taranza breaks it with a strained voice.

“Oh, uh, I’m sorry if that was a bit too much ahahhh. Uhm, Magolor, you know Susie told me about Marx, but she didn’t explain the whole situation. Do you mind filling me in?”

   Magolor’s ears perk up, he has been watching the conversation play out without much interruption. Mostly to gauge Marx’s reactions and body language, but nonetheless, he will comply.

“It’s not much of a story. Marx needed someone to watch over him until the party, and I’m doing so!”

“Ugh, oh my gosh, Mags, stop selling yourself so short!”

   Marx stands up, wings sprouting and points a claw at Magolor.

“He vouched for my inherent want for change, even if in turn he then basically became my warden.”

   Ugh, that word again.

“Again, I am not your warden-“

“Whatever you say, warden!”

   Magolor groans. When will Marx stop calling him that, he much prefers ‘Mags’ at this rate…

“Essentially, I’m making sure he doesn’t get into trouble until the party, in which it can be determined if he is up to anything.”

“Ughhhh, you make it sound boring!!!!”

   Taranza chuckles, Magolor is confused.

“Well, I bet it’s nice to be around someone and uh, not being alone..”

   Silence, Taranza’s face turns to an embarrassed one.

“Uh! That sounds wrong just ignore-“

   Marx hastily cuts him off.

“Nah! You’re so right!!!”

“Marx don’t tease him-“

   That’s the last thing he needs.

“Erm, I am not teasing him!! What, are you saying he’s wrong? Wow, Mags and here I thought you liked my company!!!”

“Wait, that’s not-“

“HMP! I might as well stay with Taranza.”

   Marx then suddenly gets up and walks over to sit next to Taranza, opposite of Magolor and oh so far away.

“Besides, Taranza is cuter anyways!”

“Wha- HUH!?!?!!”

   Magolor screeches out, unable to stop himself. Annoying. Even more so is, suddenly, he feels a sorta sick feeling bubble inside him. Strange, unknown, maybe this is because he hasn’t eaten yet?

   The feeling worsens, as he watches Taranza’s face light up in surprise. He makes a high pitch noise, his face flushes orange, this cannot stand. Not only is this unlogical, it’s annoying. Besides, Marx can’t stay with Taranza. It was MAGOLOR who was put in charge to watch him, not Taranza!!!

“Marx, Meta Knight gave me the task of watching you, not Taranza!”

   The words come out a bit more venomously than he intends.

“Wooow, okay warden.”

   That horrible word again!?

“Stop calling me that!”

   Marx glares.

“Why not, Does it hit too close to home?”

“I’m just stating the facts and besides-“

“GUYS!!!”

   Magolor snaps his gaze to Taranza’s, Taranza gets up from the floor.

”How about we go outside and look at my garden, huh? Been a bit since you’ve visited me Magolor, and I've made some changes!”

   Magolor blinks, before reality settles in. He cannot believe he just did that, in front of Taranza as well! Magolor watches Marx get up as he stews in the fact he must’ve looked ridiculous.

“I think that’s a great idea, lead the way!”

   Magolor gets up as well.

“Yes, please do.”

   Taranza gives them a nervous smile and leads them outside.

   Once outside, Magolor focuses more in Taranza’s yard. A cascade of multiple plants and flowers are scattered around the area. However the most prominent is a pink and orange flower. Magolor knows why this is.

“Okay so,”

   Taranza to a patch of sorta tall purple flowers.

“Magolor as you can see I’ve been growing more Sage, also known as Salvia officinalis! I’d be happy to give you some more if you’re still having trouble with sleep-“

   Magolor sputters.

“UH, THAT'S FINE! I mean, there’s no need, I still have some from last time anyways…”

   Magolor should’ve known Taranza would’ve brought that up. Magolor has many problems with sleeping due to his nightmares. So of course he confided in Taranza about this and was given some sage to help. To Taranza’s credit, it did help a bit, and so he kept getting more and more. He is appreciative but not appreciative to Taranza just blabbering this info to Marx on a silver platter!

“Woooah, excuse me but I’ve seen zero flowers on the Lor.”

“Well, that’s because I keep it in my room.”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

“Ugh, of course. Anyways back to what’s important, Taranza any reason why you mainly have those pink flowers or???”

   Taranza perks up.

“Oh! Uh, it’s simple, this flower reminds me of Sectonia, so I grow it more than others.”

   Taranza then gestures back to the sage.

“However, I associate flowers with everyone I know, like with the sage for Magolor, and with Susie, I associate her with iris flowers!”

   Taranza beams. Marx begins to bounce up and down in excitement.

“Ooooh! I want a flower, come on Taranza, give me one!!!”

   Taranza falters but then looks back to his cluster of flowers and hums.

“Uh, let me see…”

   Taranza floats over to his flowers and begins shifting through them. Taranza pauses and plucks one out of the ground and turns around, presenting a white flower to Marx.

“This is a moonflower also known as an Ipomoea alba! Here let me…”

   Taranza trails off and floats closer to Marx, flower in hand. Magolor tenses when he realizes what Taranza is going to do. Magolor is about to try and stop him; however, when Taranza gets close and tentatively tucks the flower into Marx’s hat, Marx doesn’t claw or bite at him. Strangely, after Magolors fears are disproved, he doesn’t feel better, he feels a bit worse.

“Wow! What a gentleman, the name of the flower is fitting even, considering I did mess with the moon, HA!”

   Taranza fumbles.

“Oh, I’m not that much of a gentleman…”

“Nonsense! You made coffee just the way I like it! Unlike someone…”

   Where did that come from!?!

“Excuse me, that was one time, besides you didn’t even specify you wanted it sweet! Unlike what you told Taranza!!!”

   Magolor hisses. He remembers the incident in question. Marx saw him in the kitchen making coffee and asked for some. Saying specifically ‘it’s the least you can do, I am working tirelessly for you!’ So Magolor did. However once given it, Marx spat it out in disgust and called him dim for not making it sweet. Honestly, how was Magolor supposed to know? Yes, Marx likes his sweets, but he didn’t know if he liked his coffee that way!

“Erm, I wasn’t talking about you.”

   What? The sick feeling festers, if not Magolor then who..?

“Wha- then who???”

   Marx rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed.

“My life doesn’t revolve around you ya know!”

   Taranza steps in.

“Guys, guys…Let’s calm down, uhm, how about we do something else?”

   Once again, silence, Marx cuts in.

“Yeah!!!! I have the perfect idea. I have a board game in my room we all can play!”

   He does????

“You do???”

“Duh, Of course I do! I’ll go get it right now.”

   Marx, without warning, begins to run back towards the Lor. Magolor calls out to him but it’s in nought. Magolor sighs.

   Magolor is alone with Taranza, it’s quiet for a moment. Taranza breaks it.

“Uhm, Magolor are you okay?”

   Where did that come from? Magolor didn’t accidentally say any of his thoughts aloud, did he?

“Uhm, yes, I’m fine?”

“Oh, wait let me elaborate-“

   Taranza fidgets in place, clearly trying to piece together a clearer sentence.

“What I mean is uh, are you okay with this? Having to look over Marx that us, he seems a bit uh, much..?”

“Huh..?”

“I’m sure that if this is all too much, Meta Knight would understand and could watch over Marx instead..?”

   Irritation. Does Taranza really think that little of him!?

“What, do you think I’m not capable!?”

   Taranza flinches, his face scrunches up. Instantly, Magolor regrets his hostile words.

“Sorry! Sorry, you’re right. I was projecting, I think, sorry!”

   Magolor swears he hears Taranza whisper ‘why do I always say the wrong things?’ Under his breath, looking downcast.

   Magolor feels bile in his throat.

“No, Taranza stop apologizing!”

   Taranza jumps.

“You were simply worried about my well being. I’m in the wrong for assuming you meant ill will.”

   Taranza blinks.

“Oh…Okay. Uh, I'm still sorry though. Uhm, so, are you and Marx friends then..?”

”Well, I guess? I mean our situation is a bit strange, so I'm not quite sure that term would best describe our relationship? Although I cannot deny the fact that I've had moments where I've had fun in his company, but also have had moments of frustration. However Marx, despite his annoying moments, always draws me back with his strangeness. It’s really interesting, I wish I could get into his head and-”

   Magolor speaks without thinking, he doesn’t realize exactly what he’s saying, that he’s speaking his thoughts. He pauses his rant when he looks at Taranza’s blank face. Magolor feels heat rise to his face, embarrassment.

“Well, anyway, that’s to say that I’m completely fine with watching over Marx despite any difficulties!”

   Taranza stares for a moment longer before smiling.

“I think it’s nice that you have someone you like around.”

   Taranza’s smile lowers.

“Not like everyone can say the same thing…”

   Taranza shifts in place.

“Susie says I should talk to others more often, but I made sure to move away from everyone for a reason you know?”

   Taranza gestures with his hands in random directions in an erratic fashion.

“Being lonely is scary, yes, but I can’t bring myself to talk to others.”

   Magolor is confused, what brought this on? Magolor finds it very hard to understand what Taranza is talking about.

“Taranza, we are talking right now? Besides not even just me, you are friends with Susie as well.”

   One of Taranza’s hands pull at his hair.

“T-that’s different, Magolor!”

“…How exactly..?”

   Taranza pauses all movement, in thought.

“It- It just is!”

   Magolor feels as though Taranza is deliberately not explaining his thoughts to Magolor. However Magolor will not push him. He doesn’t see the point, and it would probably make things worse.

“Woah, what is going on here? This energy is way off!?”

   Marx’s voice rings out, the two turn to see Marx standing behind them with a box under his wing.

“Stop being angsty or whatever this energy is, I got Monopoly!”

   Magolor looks between Taranza and Marx, then coughs.

“Well then why are we still out here? Let’s go back inside, hm?”

   Taranza blinks.

“Uh, right!”

   They all go back inside without much fuss.

   Marx starts setting up the board game while Magolor and Taranza sit in their spots. Marx places out the player pieces before them.

“I’m taking the shoe figure, cry and weep, but it’s mine!”

   Magolor is sure neither of them were gonna pick the shoe.

“I don’t think either of us were going to.”

“Well, I am and I’m claiming dibs!”

   Marx grabs the silver shoe and runs over to his seat beside Taranza, much to Magolor’s annoyance. Must he continue this? It would be better if he stopped being difficult and just sat beside Magolor, as he should.

   Magolor studies the other player figures and decides to pick the top hat. Taranza picks the dog.

   And so, Monopoly began. As the game goes on, Magolor is in a good position. He has a good amount of money and some good properties he invests in.

   Taranza however, he’s frankly not doing too well. Magolor suspects this is the first time he’s played or at least is just not all that good at it. Barely any money or properties, it seems Taranza has the worst luck out of the three of them.

   Marx’s position is a strange one, he somehow has the most money. Magolor doesn’t even know the exact amount. He also has the best properties and is, all in all, steamrolling over Magolor and Taranza.

   It comes to a point where Taranza is about to go bankrupt. He landed on one of Magolor’s expensive properties. However before Taranza could declare bankruptcy, Marx makes a deal with him. Taranza would fork up one of his properties to Marx, and in return, Marx would give Taranza the money to pay off Magolor.

   This is all very confusing to Magolor, why would Marx even bother..? He watches the trade go on. Okay, he can’t sit here. He has to know why.

“Marx, I don’t see the point of this?”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

“The point is, I felt like it and also now I have a full pink set!”

   That is very illogical.

“Marx, if Taranza went bankrupt, all of his properties would’ve gone to auction. We both know you could’ve out bid me!”

   Marx sticks his tongue out at him.

“Ugh! That’s so boring though, besides this is way funnier.”

   Magolor glances at the messy pile of fake paper money he has.

“How much money do you even have?”

   Marx huffs.

“Erm, I don’t know I’m not keeping track!”

“Well I could count it if you-“

   Magolor pauses, voice trailing off. He sees something green in the corner of his eyes that’s near the bank.

   Magolor quickly swerves and witnesses a familiar vine disappear, holding orange paper.

   Silence, Magolor glares at Marx, he doesn’t say anything.

“Marx…”

“Yesssss?”

   Magolor takes a deep breath to try and calm himself.

“Are you cheating, did you really use your vines to steal money from the bank?”

“What? Nooo, you’re seeing things!”

   Magolor feels bubbling in his throat, why does he continue to deny it!? Magolor looks over to Taranza who seems to be shrinking into himself.

“Taranza you saw that too right!?”

   Taranza squirms in place.

“I, uhm-“

   Marx interrupts.

“Oh, come on! Don’t rope Taranza into this.”

   Magolor will not be distracted.

“Have you been taking money this whole time? No wonder you have so much you’re cheating!!”

   Marx rolls his eyes annoyingly.

“It’s more fun this way, besides it’s not cheating if you don’t get found out!”

“That’s- that’s not even remotely true!?”

“I took what I wanted, not my fault you didn’t notice until now.”

   Is he really passing the blame on Magolor!?

“Yes it is, you shouldn’t have been taking the money to begin with I-“

“Oh! I’m sorry, should I have been acting more like you, give stuff away?”

   A pause, a chill runs through Magolor.

“..What?”

“You used to get it Magolor, you used to be a taker like me, but now you just give away everything like a lame-o!”

   What is Marx even talking about?

“If you’re talking about my shop, then clearly you are mistaken. I enjoy running it, and I don’t just give things away-“

“Yeah, yeah, like I was saying you used to be like me! I could tell from our first meeting you know, someone who knows what’s important, themselves!”

   Marx laughs. Magolor doesn’t like the sound. He usually does, this however just makes the coldness spread.

“But then you tried to take waaaaayyyyy too much, like the whole universe, seriously? Unlike you, I understand how much I can take!”

   Just like that, Magolor feels the coldness melt away and make way for a boiling hot anger. What does Marx know!? Marx knows nothing of what Magolor has been through or the extent of his past!

”YOU TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND!!!!”

   The sound of his shouting is alien to him, he’s usually so composed. Magolor is usually so put together, no one would even be able to get this much of a reaction out of him. Marx however, somehow seems to know the perfect strings to pull to make him snap.

“U-uh, guys c-calm down-“

   Taranza’s voice quivers, Magolor disregards him. This doesn’t involve him. Besides, he needs to make things crystal clear right now.

“NO! I will not, Marx you say all this but you did the same thing as me!! You took way too much then you could handle, you- you hypocrite!!!”

   Marx doesn’t seem phased at Magolor’s outburst, making the boiling rise.

“I mean, you’re I did, I thought I could do it, take over Pop Star! However, unlike you, I did not kneel, I did not give up.”

   Marx stands up, leans over the table and stares through Magolor. Magolor does the same, propping himself up by his hands.

“Yes, unlike you, I became good!”

”Ha! Good!? Keep telling yourself that, you keep giving and giving and people will keep on taking from you! One can say your sorta like a scapegoat, you keep destroying yourself for others. Even worse, you think it's good!”

   The coldness returns, as does the sick feeling. Where is he going with this..?

“I- you- don’t know me!”

”I don’t, know why? Cause you keep suppressing yourself! You think the real you is bad, don’t you? That's why you try so hard to destroy yourself while pushing the real you away! I’ve seen it, the real you sometimes. Like when we pranked together, I saw you, bright, shining and brilliant!”

   Magolor feels himself begin to shake involuntarily. How did he know, how did he find out!? He feels helpless, he hates it. Marx continues despite this.

“I wonder…How long until there’s nothing left of yourself to give, what will happen then.”

“STOPPP!!!! BOTH OF YOU STOP!!!”

   The sudden shrieking of Taranza’s voice seems to surprise the two. Magolor looks over  to Taranza who is clearly overwhelmed, a phone in his hand.

“I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!! MAGOLOR, GO OUTSIDE WHILE I TALK WITH MARX!”

“Wha- why me-“

“GO!!!”

   Magolor shoots up, so disturbed by Taranza’s outburst that he immediately listens and heads outside, shutting the door behind him.

   Then he is alone with his thoughts.

   Marx is wrong, all of that dribble was all nonsense! Magolor has to believe it, he didn’t spend so long crafting the perfect image, polishing and removing all of his more, well, evil flaws. The nice merchant who is calm, smart and a delight to talk to, that is who he is! But that’s not true is it?

   Some parts of that identity may be true, but no matter how desperately he tries to self deconstruct, the real villainous him crawls out. It can be easily seen with his pranking habits, boredom is a horrible thing. So he cannot help but do small pranks on his customers, small ones, nothing big. Until Marx came along at least, it was fun. Although Magolor couldn’t say that aloud.

   His thoughts are only thoughts. It’s another thing to speak them aloud, then it becomes the truth. Is that what Marx meant about how it’s not cheating if no one sees? If that’s the case, then perhaps Marx was right.

   Marx is so very much more than he appears. When Magolor thinks nothing can surprise him anymore, Marx pulls out another trick. Although Magolor is angry and oh so ashamed of what happened. The want to know more about Marx persists. A fire, not like anger, burns constantly in his mind. Marx will be the death of him if this continues. He doesn’t even know what ‘this’ is!

   One thing is for certain, Marx saw through him. What is he to do? Continue to deny Marx’s claims despite Marx clearly knowing otherwise. Or should Magolor just come out with it to him, only him. Maybe confiding in one person wouldn’t hurt? However, who knows if Marx would keep that a secret. But again, who would believe Marx about that? Magolor knows he has to decide his course of action, before he lets his emotions decide.

   Magolor jumps, startled out of his thoughts upon hearing the creaking of the cottage door opening. Magolor turns to see Taranza who has a clear pout on his face. Magolor wonders what happened.

“Are you alright?”

“I should be the one asking you that, Magolor…”

   Isn’t it clear how Magolor feels right now?

“Well, I am slightly annoyed and off put.”

   That’s just the least of it too. However, Magolor doesn’t wanna worry Taranza by going on a rant.

“Uh, well, no need for that anymore! Marx has calmed down, we talked and uh, yeah.”

   Well of course Marx is the calm one here, he wasn’t the one getting verbally attacked!

“Oh, great that he’s the one who’s calm now.”

   Silence. Magolor thinks he may have messed up when suddenly Taranza speaks slowly.

“Magolor, I think Marx said all that to help you?”

   Magolor is so surprised by this. He sputters a moment before responding in a coherent voice.

“What!? How does yelling at me and essentially calling me an idiot help me?! If he wanted to help me he should’ve talked to me normally!!”

“Look, Magolor, I’m not gonna give any details about our conversation. However, from what I’ve seen Marx doesn’t really do things normally?”

   Magolor pauses and looks Taranza in the eyes to tell if he’s lying. The fact that Taranza doesn’t avoid his gaze or fumble gives him his answer. Taranza continues his speech.

“Also, he kinda complimented you too during the fight in a, uh, weird sorta way..?”

   Magolor’s mind flashes to Marx saying ‘bright, shining and brilliant!’ And isn’t sure how to feel.

“I- that’s true but it still doesn’t make it right.”

“Yeah, but, uhm, I don’t think he knows how else to help?? Reminds me a bit of Sectionia actually…”

“What!?”

“She never really knew how to talk to people in the ‘correct’ way; people would often misinterpret her.”

   Magolor never knew Sectonia, so he cannot verify if that’s true or how many similarities she had with Marx. Magolor isn’t sure why, but he hopes that’s the only one.

“All I’m saying is try and consider what he said might have been said with good intent. You don’t need to forgive Marx.”

   Magolor sighs, maybe Taranza has a point.

“Perhaps I will, no harm in thinking after all.”

   Taranza smiles wide, a rare sight.

“Good! Wow, Susie was right, talking to you two did work!”

   What, how is Susie involved in this!?

“Wait, Susie!?”

“Oh, uh, while you two were fighting I uhm, talked to Susie on the phone for advice on how to calm the two of you down, hah haaa…”

   Magolor face palms. Of course Susie was the mastermind behind this stunt. Taranza isn’t exactly the best in this department.

“Uh, anyways you can come back inside, I’m gonna cook some food for you two before you leave.”

   Magolor can’t decline that even if this may be a bit awkward.

“Alright.”

   The two go back inside. Magolor spots Marx laying face down on Taranza’s couch. The second he hears Magolor enter, he jumps up.

“Oooooh, look who’s back! Taranza had to comfort me, no thanks to you!”

   Here we go…

“Yes, well, I needed my own time to cool off.”

   Marx lets out a laugh. Magolor begrudgingly floats over to the couch and takes a seat. Taranza regards them.

“Alright I’m gonna make some food. You two can chat or uh, anything while I do so…”

“I hope it’s something sweet!!”

   Taranza then leaves into the kitchen. Magolor is now left alone with Marx on the couch.

“I hope you don’t think I’m gonna apologize Mags.”

   Magolor glues his eyes on the ground. Here we go.

“I meant every word I said ya know!”

   Silence.

“Buuuutt, maybe I could’ve  phrased it better!”

   Magolor’s ears perk up, what did Marx just say..?

“Huh?”

“Yep! It was probably the high emotions of Monopoly that made my important speech sound wrong!”

“..Then…What exactly did you mean for it to sound like..?”

“Ha! Curious are we? Cute how you just wanna know so much about me!”

   Cute!? Like Magolor forgot what Marx said before! 

“That’s not what I mean, besides I thought Taranza was cuter than me?!”

   Nonetheless, Magolor feels his face flush annoyingly.

“Ohoho, is someone jealous? Taranza is cute, but he cannot beat the look on your face right now!”

   Magolor does not care for this off topic banter.

“Just get to the point!”

”Sheesh, fine! All I was trying to say was that you don’t have to pretend with me! I still stand by the fact that you even pretending in the first place is stupid and dumb...But you don’t have to pretend when I'm around.”

   Think with your head Magolor, not with your emotions! Who cares if he doesn’t mind, you very much do!

“I’m not pretending-“

   Marx cuts him off with a laugh.

“Whatever you say Mags! You could honestly be way happier if you just drop the act.”

“Marx, I-“

Magolor turns to look at Marx, and his sentence catches in his throat. 

   Magolor begs for his mind to not betray him. However, as he looks at Marx’s expression, the open look of someone who cannot judge, someone who wants to know you, it’s hard to be logical.

    Perhaps being honest is the correct choice, if Taranza is right, and Marx wants to help. However the idea of being honest about himself truly, makes him feel sick. Not because he doesn’t wanna be honest with Marx, although he probably should feel that way. But because he’s afraid that admitting it to himself and saying it aloud will damn him.

“I am not…Good, at least in the way I pretend, and I definitely wasn’t before.”

   Silence. Marx has a listening face clearly waiting for Magolor to elaborate.

”You are right in a way. I was a taker who only cared for self preservation. Back then, I saw people beneath me, I saw myself powerful and brilliant. Before my plot, I was a traveler, and constantly, people would ask me for my help. I gained a bit of an ego. I honestly thought ruling everything was a great idea, since I was so great, that’d I'd be doing everyone a favor...Stupid I know.“

   Magolor finds the words flowing out way more easily then starting them.

”Ehh, honestly you’re still smarter than most people on Pop Star combined. Plus you’d be a way better leader than Dedede that’s for sure!”

   Magolor laughs.

“Yes, well from what I’ve heard, he used to steal food from his own subjects!”

”Oh he totally did, I was there! That gluttonous king sent his pesky servants to steal everything from my fridge. Not a great day for me. If I didn’t know Kirby was gonna sort it out, I would’ve beaten him myself!”

   Marx smirks.

“Did you know Meta Knight tried to take over Dreamland because of him? Guy was so lazy Meta Knight got fed up working for him, HA!”

   Magolor cannot help but continue to laugh.

“Haha! That is very ironic!…Anyways, Marx the thing is, it’s like back with what I said at the shop. I have to act a certain way to please people.”

“Ugh, always a people pleaser, who cares! All that matters is if the goodie two shoes squad thinks you’re okay! Not the randos…Your happiness should come first.”

   That’s actually really nice? Maybe Taranza was onto something. Magolor feels himself smiling.

“Oh, really? Marx, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you cared about me!”

   Magolor watches in fascinated amusement as pink spreads across the jester's face. Finally Marx gets a taste of his own medicine!

“WOW! Where did this Magolor come from, and can I please have more of him!”

   Marx jumps up and stands on the couch leaning towards Magolor.

”SEE! This is what I meant. You’re way more fun like this, instead of being so stuck up. Way more vibrant and less stiff. The Mags that likes pranks and can retort in conversations!”

“Oh, do you just want me to act like you then?”

“Ha! I’d like to see you try, but nah, I don’t. That would be boring if you were completely like me! I like you as is, besides you acting like a goodie two shoes, ugh.”

   Marx likes Magolor for himself? That cannot be right. Even despite being honest, he hasn’t been completely honest. Marx saw some of the ‘real’ him, yes. However, Marx hasn’t seen it all, the worst, the ’bad’ part of him. Magolor hopes he never does.

   He is not good, so the least he can do is pretend and try to remove the rest.

“Oh, well, thank you?”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

“Don’t let it go to your head, ex ruler of the universe!”

“Too late, I can feel my ego growing once again as we speak!”

   Marx Cackles.

”…Marx, it’s not like I put on a full act!”

“I don’t pretend to like researching and reading, do I?”

   This is true, but those were never bad, were they?

“Ugh! I never said you did, could do without it. However, that is a part of you, so I guess I just have to deal with it.”

“Oh, how forgiving of you Marx!“

“Hehe, only for you Mags!”

   Despite everything, Magolor feels the act he puts on relent a little. Magolor should be concerned, however, at this moment, he feels happy. Perhaps this is fine. Marx doesn’t seem to mind, and it’s not like Magolor is fully giving it up!

   After a few moments, Taranza finally leaves the kitchen. Three plates and three drinks in his hands. Magolor is baffled at the fact he can balance all that. Taranza places the plates and drinks on the table. All the drinks are their respective ones, while the plates host a singular big baked apple.

   Taranza settles on the couch next to Marx. Magolor is a bit confused as to why he chose to sit there. Marx looks at the apple and then to Taranza.

“Sooo, what’s with the apple?”

   Taranza blinks before speaking.

“Well, you said you wanted something sweet, and I have a lot of apples laying around since there’s a lot of apple trees around here! Uh, also Sectonia liked them a lot…”

   Taranza’s voice trails off at the end, but Magolor still hears it. Marx nods and then immediately stabs the apple with his claws and lifts all of it directly in his mouth and eats it whole. Magolor watches Taranza’s face morph from confusion into shock. Magolor supposes that’s normal. However Magolor is way too busy wondering how far Marx’s throat can expand, because surely, if it couldn’t, that apple wouldn’t have gone down that smoothly.

   Marx then takes his coffee that’s infested with sugar and downs it. You’d think Marx would have health issues, but Magolor cannot tell. Perhaps it’s natural for Pop Star residents to be used to consuming so much sugar?

   Afterwards, they drift into idle conversation as Magolor and  Taranza eat and Marx yaps.

   Eventually before they know it, it’s late in the afternoon. Taranza is the first to notice and hastily says they should probably get going. 

“Aw! Already, I was having so much fun though!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes.

“Yes, however we need to go now if we wanna get back to the plaza in the morning.”

   Marx groans as Magolor grabs his hat and drags him outside as Marx refuses to walk for whatever reason. Taranza stays by the door waving them off as they head over to the Lor.

   Once back inside, Magolor lets go of Marx, and the jester in question falls to the ground face first.

“Are- are you alright?”

   Marx groans which is slightly muffled by the ground.

“Ughhh, I’m so tired!”

“Well, I don’t personally think sleeping on the ground is the best idea.”

   Marx jumps up, a smirk on his face.

“So true! Better to do that in my room.”

    Magolor stares at him for a moment.

“Alright, goodnight then Marx. I’ll be here for a moment to command the Lor to go back to the plaza.”

“You do that, captain!”

   Marx says before running off in the direction of his room. A shame actually. Perhaps Marx could’ve stayed and chatted a bit more? Just to get more data on him of course. And also, strangely the main room of the Lor has been getting colder recently? Perhaps it’s just a vent issue. Magolor will need to check.

   Magolor watches him run off, then floats over to the main computer.

   However, once he turns it on, before he can even type in the command, he sees he has a message. Magolor blinks, people have been sending him a lot of messages lately, huh? Magolor opens the message and is surprised to see it’s from Meta Knight. He rarely ever uses his phone! Magolor isn’t even sure he even knows how to use one…

“Party tomorrow. At 1pm. Prepare.”

   Magolor pauses. It seems like ‘soon’ has finally arrived.

Chapter Text

   Magolor claps along with the crowd, the party has come to a close. Dedede stands on the ballroom platform with a smile, waving.

“Thank you for coming and for an exciting time!”

   Magolor’s ears twitch as he hears familiar voices. He glances behind him. Beyond the crowd, he sees Meta Knight and Marx. Magolor feels as though he should make sure nothing is going on, so he floats on over.

   Once in range, Marx spins over to look at Magolor, grin evident.

“Magolor, guess what. I finally got the okay. I’m clean as a whistle, I’m free to go! Hehe!”

   Meta Knight nods.

“Yes, I’ve been watching Marx all day and have concluded that it’s alright to let him stay.”

“Yep! I’m now a part of the goodie two shoes squad!”

“No you’re not, don’t call us that.”

“Awh, no fun!”

   Meta Knight rolls his eyes and walks away, clearly done with the conversation.

“Well, congratulations Marx!”

“Hehe, thank you Magolor!”

“Yes, well, what are you going to do now?”

“Hmmm, not sure!”

   Magolor sucks in a breath. He's thought about what he’d do once Marx was free. Magolor knows what he wants is probably quite selfish, especially if the jester has other plans. However, Magolor cannot help but ask. Perhaps he can be selfish for once.

“Well, perhaps you can continue to stay with me? You already have your own room that you're accustomed to and such.”

   Marx blinks for a second, but then bursts out in laughter?

“BAHAHAHA, OH THAT'S- HOHOHOHEHE!”

   Magolor gets a sinking feeling he doesn’t enjoy.

“OH MAGOLOR YOU’RE SO FUNNY!”

“I- I wasn’t joking!”

   Magolor shouts desperately. He swears he can feel the crowd's eyes on him. It doesn’t matter right now, he needs to deal with this.

   Marx pauses at his shout, then he snorts, and then he doubles down with laughter. After an agonizing second, it fizzles out, and Marx is able to get up and speak.

“Magolor, why would I wanna stay with someone so boring!”

“But I thought- you said-“

“Oh my gosh Magolor, did you honestly believe that!? Hahaha! I was lying! That’s kinda my thing!?”

   Magolor is stunned.

“Speechless, huh? Lame, can’t even say anything interesting. Oh well, I have better things to do now!”

   In the midst of talking, Marx turned around and began to walk towards the exit.

“Wait, Marx, don’t go!!!”

   Marx pauses but doesn’t turn around.

“I-“

   Magolor gulps. He feels every single eye in the castle on him, every single one except the one he wants. Magolor disregards them once again, finding his speech.

“Listen, please just hear me out. Marx, I know we’ve only known one another for only a couple days. However, I feel as though we’ve made a connection. A strange one, but it’s there, even if I wouldn’t like to admit it.”

   Magolor, shut it. You’re trying to convince him not trying to make him go away faster!

“What I mean to say is we are very alike. Both past defeated villains who are just trying to exist. I do enjoy your company, I truly do. Even though I am scientifically interested in you, I’m also interested in you as a person, Marx. So please stay with me at least until you know what it is you want to do. Perhaps we could figure it out together..?”

“Gosh, do you ever SHUT UP?!?”

   Magolor freezes. He feels as though someone just dumped ice cold water on him.

“Oh now you’re silent. Magolor, I’d rather die a thousand times by Kirby’s blade then spend another second in that dinky ship of yours!”

   Magolor cannot speak, breath even. The gazes upon him are pitiful, he knows this. Don’t look. He hates when people look at him as if he’s small.

“Seriously, I don’t even think your ego disappeared at all, it's clearly still there! All you think about is yourself, what others think of you, how me leaving would affect YOU! Get over yourself.”

   Magolor, strangely, feels tears in his eyes.

“I’m not gonna stay around and be your science experiment or whatever weird stuff you wanna do. I’m gonna go to the opposite end of this planet to be the farthest away from you I can be!”

   Marx begins to slowly turn around.

“And I’ll take great satisfaction that you’ll eventually fall. While I-“

   Magolor shakes involuntarily. Marx fully turns around and his face, oh gosh, his face.

“Won’t. Remember. You. At. All.”

   His face is just an eye, why is it an eye!?

   The world around Magolor suddenly darkens. He can now only see the eyes of the crowd and the single eye on Marx’s face. The darkness creeps in on him, suffocating him. Magolor yells and-

   Magolor wakes up with a shout, covered in sweat. Another nightmare.

   This one was different than usual however. Usually, they deal with his friends getting hurt or Magolor himself turning into a monster, sometimes both. 

   No time to dwell however. Magolor looks at his clock on the desk beside his bed. It’s currently nine thirty am. The party starts at one. He and Marx should have plenty of time to get things ready and be there on time!

   First things first, Magolor needs to get dressed for the day! The routine is the usual one: clothes, shower, coffee. He chugs this coffee. It burns a bit, but that’s fine. Honestly he’s faced worse heat in Halcandra.

   Afterwards, once finished, Magolor has the pleasure of waking up Marx. Usually, he simply waits for Marx to wake up. Marx usually wakes up early. Marx might already be awake, but still, Magolor needs to get things going if they are gonna show up on time!

   What Magolor was expecting was Marx to be face down asleep in his pillow tent. Yet when entering, he finds Marx in his pillow tent but wide awake, focused on eating a gem apple frantically.

“Careful, you’re gonna choke if you keep that up.”

   Marx’s eyes snap up from the gem apple to Magolor. Somehow he didn’t even notice Magolor enter?

“Ha! I never choke on anything ever. I’m way too skilled for that!”

“Personally I wouldn't call that a skill. Skills are usually useful.”

   Marx rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Mags.”

   Marx finishes the gem apple and proceeds to throw the core inside his mouth, and with a crunch, swallows.

“Marx, how many of those have you eaten?”

“I don’t know, lost count.”

“I’m gonna have to restock the fridge, aren’t I?”

   Marx snorts, figures.

“Hehe, yep! Not my fault they taste so good, besides you’re the one growing them anyways. It’s not like you’ll run out or anything!”

“I know that, I just wish you were a bit more lenient with your eating.”

   Magolor earns a lot of money, mostly from his job, but that doesn’t mean he has endless money to spend on his friend who has what seems to be an endless stomach.

“Wooow, okay, Magolor are you saying I should starve!”

   Magolor is not taking the bait.

“Well, if you did, perhaps my fridge wouldn’t need to be restocked as often as it does.”

“Ha! Yeah tough luck on that Mags.”

   Magolor takes a moment to be relieved that he can actually speak his mind about something and retort.

“Anyways, it’s like super early, why are you here?”

“Well, you see, last night I got a text from Meta Knight-“

   Marx immediately brightens in clear excitement.

“The party is today at one pm, we need to-“

   Marx jumps up, wings sprouting keeping him in the air.

“Well, why didn’t you say so, I gotta get ready!!!”

   Marx then attempts to fly outside the room. Magolor grabs him by his hat to stop him.

“Slow down, we have plenty of time. Besides, I didn’t even say what we are gonna do.” 

“Awh, what makes you think I didn’t have my own plans?”

   Magolor makes a clear display of rolling his eyes.

“Have you forgotten that I need to watch you, I’m sure whatever you had planned, we can do it together.”

   Marx cackles.

“Wow, sounds like that’s just an excuse so you can have me all to yourself, Mags!”

“Ah, yes, you figured it out, Marx. This whole time I simply was using that as an excuse to keep only my eyes on you.”

   Marx pauses, looks him up and down. Suddenly his face lights up and a laugh escapes his mouth, cheeks brighter than usual.

“I’m so glad you’re being honest! Finally we are getting somewhere, so what are we doing to get ready, hmmm?”

“Not much, I need to go pick up the clothes I got us made-“

“YOU BOUGHT US CLOTHES!?”

“Oh, did I never mention that?”

“Uh, NO!?”

   Marx floats down to the ground and begins patting his feet impatiently.

“What kind of clothes did you get? Pleaseeeee say it’s something flashy and bright!!! Oooooo, what about something elegant?! Come on, don't leave me hanging Mags!!!”

“Well I sorta left it up to the seamstress. Mariel is capable, so I left the designing up to her.”

“So you don’t know what they’re gonna look like?”

   Magolor nods, he didn’t really request anything. He trusts Mariel knows what she’s doing.

“Even better, we’ll both be surprised together!”

“Yes, well we should be going now.”

“Yep can’t wait. Wanna let go of my hat first, promise I won’t run off!”

“Oh-“

   Magolor didn’t even realize he still had a grip on Marx. Strange. He’d think he’d let go at least after Marx stopped floating. Magolor lets go and moves his hand back to his person.

“My apologies.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re clingy I know.”

“Yes, well, let’s get going then, hmm?”

   Magolor leads Marx outside and through the busy streets of the plaza.

   Eventually the pair reach the familiar, well at least familiar to Magolor, wooden house. The sign ‘Silk Mariel Patchwork.’ Standing out.

   Magolor floats over to the window trap door and knocks.

   Sounds of muffled scuttering echo inside the house. Eventually the door opens, but it’s not Mariel.

“Magolor! Hey, hi!!! Are you here to talk to Marmar?”

   Como opens the door, their three eyes all focusing on Magolor.

“Indeed I am, is she in?”

“Yeppers!”

   Como then focuses their eyes behind Magolor at Marx.

“Oh, is that your friend!?”

   Marx laughs and walks over to be beside Magolor.

“Heh! We’re a bit more than that.”

   Magolor pauses, what? Como’s eyes dart between the two of them.

“Excuse me?”

   Marx jumps up, wings manifesting and hooks one around Magolor, and pulls him to Marx’s side.

“Obviously we are besties!”

“Oh, yes, we are uh, besties.”

   Are they? Well, to be honest, Magolor never really considered or thought of anyone as his ‘best’ friend. Of course he is close to Susie and Taranza, but never once did he associate that title with them. Magolor snaps out of his thoughts when he hears Como gasp.

“Woah! How’d you do that!?”

   Magolor watches Marx falter and his expression fall to a neutral one.

“Do what?”

“Your wings, they’re so cool!”

   Marx smiles wide.

“Heh, they are, aren’t they? Wanna see something really cool kid?”

   Magolor feels like he should intervene. However, his curiosity about where this is going leaves him silent.

“Sure!!!”

   Marx lets Magolor out of his grip, gives a wink then wraps his wings around himself for a moment. He then promptly flairs his wings outwards and splits in half. 

“Wooaaahhh, sick!”

   Magolor remembers that Marx did this during their fight a while back. Unfortunately, he never was able to study that, as he was too busy with trying to not get sucked into a black hole. Magolor mentally slaps himself for not asking Marx to do this when Magolor was actually studying him.

   Marx is split cleanly in half, turquoise liquid, that Magolor has come to understand is Marx’s blood, drips out his split sides. Marx looks over at Magolor with a disjointed smirk. Magolor’s curiosity flairs.

“Magssss, imf yuuu-“

   Marx’s face morphs into an annoyed one as his speech comes out garbled. Clearly caused by the fact his mouth is literally split in half, along with his tongue.

“Ughhh, wat a shecnod-“

   Marx says before his two halves come back together with a ‘slurp’ noise.

“As I was saying, Mags, I could practically feel the hole you were staring into me. Hehe, if you want we can go back to your place and experiment, wink, wink!”

   Marx winks, Magolor is confused. Why would they do that? They can’t go, they haven’t even gotten their clothes yet!? Frankly Marx says the most strange things sometimes, although that’s not a bad thing. Magolor snaps out of his confused thoughts as he hears Como make a sound of disgust.

“Ugh, gross! I don't wanna even know what that means! I’ll go get Marmar for you two.”

   Como shuts the trap door, leaving the two of them.

“I didn’t know scientific experiments troubled the youth so much.”

   Marx blinks.

“Uhhhhhh, sure.”

   What was that reaction, does Marx know something he doesn’t? Before Magolor can even ask, however, the trap door opens, and there stands Mariel.

“Hello again, dear Magolor!”

   Mariel looks at Marx.

“Oh, you must be Magolor’s friend. I must say you are quite accurate to the drawing Magolor did!”

“Wait, Magolor drew me!?”

   Magolor’s face flushes, he forgot he did that.

“Only so Mariel would know your body type-“

“I wanna see the drawing!!!”

“Well dear, I have it inside along with the clothes, mind coming in?”

“Of course not!”

   Marx shouts before Magolor even has a say.

“Good, I’ll get the door for you.”

   Mariel shuts the trap door. Magolor leads Marx over to the house's door inside. Mariel opens it and gestures for them to come in.

“Pardon the mess, it’s part of the process.”

   Mess indeed, fabric is scattered around in random places along with other sewing materials. Frankly to Magolor, he wouldn’t be caught dead in a mess like this.

“I was hoping you two would try on the outfits to make sure they fit or perhaps make some adjustments.”

“Ohoho! A fashion showcase, how can we say no?!”

   Magolor feels a slight pang of fear, a hand absentmindedly reaching to his face.

“I assume you have a place for us to change..?”

“But of course dear! I have a spare room you can use.”

   Mariel walks over to a wooden desk and pulls out two boxes. For a moment she opens one of them and places something in it? Then she places one in front of Magolor and the other in front of Marx.

“The boxes have your clothes in them. I do hope you’ll like them. The spare room is over there, so feel free to use it.”

   Magolor nods, grabs his box, and Marx does so as well by using his wings. Magolor sees Mariel‘s eyes widen for a moment as they walk away. They both get to the door of the spare room and pause.

“Mind if I go first?”

“Of course not, Mags, knock yourself out!”

Magolor nods, going inside the room and closing the door behind him. The room isn’t anything special; it's mostly empty, a single bed and a mirror. Magolor places the box he was given down on the bed and opens it and pulls out the clothes inside and lays them out to get a look.

It’s somewhat similar to his current outfit, however the white parts have been replaced with black. The blue remains along with the yellow, however the yellow accents now shine like gold. Along with that, the gear pattern along his hood had been changed to a spikey one. Thankfully the mouth scarf is there along with a big blue bow tie with what seems to be a red jewel in the middle and gold accents. The ear tips of his hood have gold beads attached to the top that end with two stars one red and one blue. The gloves are normal, however they have black cuffs with gold cufflets. Finally, he has a jacket, red and blue buttons with a tail coat with gold lining.

   Magolor begins the motions of putting the outfit on. He’s quite happy with the result. He likes the elegance of it. However, he’s not exactly the biggest fan of the spike pattern on the hood. Obviously Mariel isn’t to blame, how would she know that it would remind him of the Master Crown? Honestly she doesn’t even know what it looks like. Magolor just needs to push that discomfort aside.

   Magolor finishes putting it on and floats over to the mirror. He looks quite good, at least he thinks so! Perhaps some people would think it’s a bit gaudy or flashy, but Magolor has always been a fan of dramatics.

   Magolor exits the room and pauses when he sees Marx there with his eyes closed.

“Uh, Marx, why are your eyes closed?”

   Marx frowns, as if Magolor asked something dumb. It’s clear, if he could, Marx would roll his eyes.

“Isn’t it obvious? I don’t wanna see your outfit until I have mine on too. That way we both can see each other's amazing show stopping outfits together!”

“I guess that makes sense. Well I’ll be with Mariel waiting.”

   Magolor leaves it at that. He heads over to the main room where Mariel is. Mariel turns from her desk as she sees Magolor enter. Her eyes light up.

“You look great dear! I assume your friend is changing now?”

“Yeah, he didn’t see my outfit though. He said it should be a surprise.”

   Mariel laughs.

“What a wonderful idea! You know, dear, I never got his name?”

“Oh, his name is uh-“

   Magolor cuts himself off, should he tell her? Marx is a known villain especially here. Would Marx mind? Mariel didn’t seem to recognize him from appearance, but perhaps his name would be recognizable. Magolor knows he wouldn’t appreciate that, so..

“Actually I think he’d prefer you’d ask him yourself!”

“Oh! Of course, how about we sit while we wait for your friend, hmm?”

   Mariel gestures to a black and purple plush couch. She scutters over and sits on the far right. Magolor follows suit and sits on the left side.

“So, dear, I know you’re friends Susie and Taranza, but I’ve never seen this one, what’s the story?”

   Magolor needs to choose his words carefully. The best way to lie is to use the truth and obscure it, leave out details.

“Well, it’s simple really. He needs a place to stay as he’s, uh, getting on his feet so to say. So, I offered him a room in the Lor to stay at for the time being!”

“That’s very kind of you. You must care for him a lot.”

   Does he? Magolor is withholding a lot of details.

“I guess, it’s just-“

   Magolor pauses, as the air suddenly shifts, and Marx appears. Clearly he’s teleported, standing right in front of them. Magolor is not quite sure how Marx knew exactly where they were, but nothing about Marx makes sense anyways.

“Tada! Surprise, whatcha you think Mags, pretty cool right?!”

   Magolor blinks before studying Marx. The first thing Magolor notices is that Marx’s hat is different; it's still a jester hat, however the red and blue has been replaced with a light pink and darker blue. The patterns are different as well, stars on the pink side and hearts on the blue. Even the puffballs at the end have changed to a star and heart on their respective sides. His bow tie has changed as well, its pink with blue ribbons sticking out, it seems his bow tie has the red jewel as well. His shoes are pretty similar to his old ones as well, however they now have blue and red buttons on them. All that being said, the centerpiece has to be the dark purple cape that now drapes his body, the ends becoming jagged and torn, gold lining the edges. From the edges seems to be fluff, pink on the left side and blue on the right.

“Does that cape let you summon your wings?”

   Marx hums in thought, then suddenly jumps up, spins and flairs his wings. Magolor feels his brain run on overdrive when he sees that the wings just phase through the fabric??? Magolor makes a mental note about this new info.

“Seems to not be an issue! But I must say, Mags, you look great. I could almost swoon for you!”

   Almost..!?

“Excuse you, almost? I look great!”

“Hehe, well you aren’t exactly sweeping me off my feet, Mags. Takes a lot for someone to do that to me, haha!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes.

“Well, dears, I’m glad you like the outfits!”

   Magolor pauses. He totally forgot Mariel was here. Mariel looks at Marx studying him.

“Both your outfits seem sufficient. However, before you two leave, I would appreciate a name from you, Magolor’s friend.”

“Oh! But of course, silly me, my name is Marx, also known as the villain who tried to take over Pop Star!”

   Magolor chokes on air, he should’ve known. And right after he went through the trouble to cover for him! 

   But to Magolor’s surprise, Mariel simply laughs?

“Oh dear, I already know all that. I just wanted to do the polite thing and let you introduce yourself.”

   Marx begins to laugh hard, wings dissipating, causing him to double down on the floor. Meanwhile, Magolor is in shock. How is Mariel so okay with this, there’s a known villain in her shop!?!

“How did you know, and why did you let him inside if you knew!?”

“Well, firstly, the wings gave it away, dear. Secondly, why wouldn’t I? Aside from the fact I already made his outfit, I let you in, didn’t I?”

   She's correct, that makes sense. If she had issues with Marx, then she would’ve had issues with him. Magolor kinda forgot he too tried to take over Pop Star for a moment..

“And you’ve always been nothing but a delight! If you trusted Marx enough to let him stay with you, then I saw no issue with any of this! Besides, that incident was so long ago, people move on, and people change.”

   Marx finishes laughing on the floor and gets up. Suddenly he jumps up and wraps his wings around Magolor. Magolor sputters at the proximity.

“So true! Magolor trusts me soooo much, he’s my favorite person ever!!!”

   Magolor chokes on air once again, because of how tight Marx is holding him, surely.

“That’s a bit much-“

“Woow, are you saying you don’t agree! I can’t believe you, my heart is breaking into a million pieces!!!”

   Marx practically gives him puppy eyes.

“What? I just meant-“

“You hate me don’t you?”

“WHAT, OF COURSE NOT!?”

   Marx turns his face away from Magolor’s own, wings still wrapped around Magolor. Magolor’s gut twists, common sense says Marx is just messing around with him but-

“I apologize, that was insensitive of me.”

   Magolor places his hands on Marx’s face to turn it to face him once again. Marx’s face has changed to a cocky smile as if he just won something.

“Hehe! Well, I guess I can forgive you this once, Mags!”

“Hey, Marmar are they gone-“

   A sudden shriek from a familiar voice causes Magolor to let go of Marx’s face, Como.

“Oh gross! Gross, ugh, get a ROOM. Preferably far away from here!!!”

   Como scutters away out of the main room, presumably to their own room. Marx cackles loudly.

“Oh, you two don’t mind them. You know how preteens are.”

   Magolor doesn’t know but nods anyway. Marx lets go of Magolor. Magolor feels a bit cold, and Marx moves away.

“Well, Mariel, we have other things to attend to. It was nice to see you, and thank you for the clothes.”

“Yeah, I might stop by here myself in the future with some requests!!”

   Mariel giggles.

“I do hope so. It would be interesting to see what you have in mind dear. I wish you two a good time at the party today!”

   Mariel sees them out. They walk away for a moment before Magolor speaks.

“So Marx, what were your plans?”

“Huh?”

“Well, the next thing I wanna do isn’t that complicated, so we can do whatever it was you wanted to do?”

“Oh, I was just exaggerating about that. I didn’t have any plans! Hohoho!”

“Of course.”

   Magolor says with a somewhat fond tone, although he didn’t mean to speak in that tone.

Magolor takes Marx to a basket shop stall in the plaza run by Grizzo. You’d think the big bear wouldn’t be all that good at basket weaving, but the work is actually quite good. Magolor buys a simple basket and leaves. 

   Magolor then visits a shop run by Rosely, Lovely’s sister. However Rosely is much more pleasant than their sister thankfully. She sells wonderful bottled drinks. Magolor buys a bottle of blueberry juice. Marx tilts his head at this. Other than that, nothing eventful happens.

   Magolor and Marx begin their walk back to the Lor, Magolor with basket and bottle in hand.

“Okay, so do I even wanna ask what we’re going to do with a basket and a bottle?”

“Like I said before, nothing complicated. I’ll explain more back at the Lor.”

   Marx frowns but follows Magolor all the way back to the Lor.

   Inside the Lor, Magolor sits on the main room floor and places the basket with the bottle inside on the floor. Marx tilts his head in clear curiosity.

“So, care to enlighten the class as to what your brilliant plan is?”

“Ever heard of a hostess gift?”

   Marx raises a brow.

“Simply, it’s a gift you give to the event runner, in this case Dedede, to show appreciation and good will-“

“WOW! That’s dumb.”

“How so..?”

“It’s a party Mags. If anything Dedede should be giving us gifts. He's the one hosting the party!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes. He begins to focus on constructing his gift basket.

“Marx, this is the polite thing to do. Besides, it might help out with your test, we could say you helped put this together as well.”

“Ughh, Meta Knight is the one who’s conducting this test though! Dedede‘s an idiot too, would be wasted on him.”

“Yes, well, Meta Knight cares a lot about Dedede's opinion. I’m sure he’ll discuss your results with him and perhaps Kirby as well.”

“Erm, last I saw, Meta Knight was literally trying to take over Dream Land cause of how lazy he was! I mean I heard vague stuff about how they made up or whatever. But like, no way Meta Knight would care about that idiot king's opinion?!”

   Magolor laughs, pausing from his work for a moment.

“What, is there something I’m missing!?”

“Marx, from what I know, those two are an item.”

   Marx freezes, processing, then begins to stammer.

“Shut up- there’s no way- you’re lying!!!”

   Magolor shrugs with his hands.

“I don’t really know how it happened. Perhaps you can ask Dedede about it at the party?”

“This is actually insane, and that’s coming from ME! How much have I missed since I was gone? That's it, I gotta figure everything out when we get to the party!”

   Magolor hums. He finishes his work on the basket. Magolor grabs it and spins around to show Marx.

“What do you think, pretty good, hm?”

   The basket itself is blue mixed with yellow weaved together. Inside lies the bottle of blueberry juice, but now houses multiple gem apples along with it. Attached to the basket is a card with the words ‘From Magolor & Marx.’

“It’s fine, I’m just saying Dedede is a king. I don’t think he needs MORE things to add to his hoard or whatever he has these days.”

“Good enough I suppose.”

   Magolor sits the basket back down and gets up and floats toward the computer. The current time is eleven thirty five am. It seems they should leave now. Magolor types in the command for the Lor to fly over to Dedede’s castle. Marx runs over excitedly.

“Oooo! Are we finally gonna get going!?”

“Yes. Dedede’s castle is a bit far away, so we shouldn’t get there that fast. However, we will be on time for the party.”

“I’m sure I won’t even notice the wait with you, hohoho!”

   Marx laughs and begins to run around the room. Magolor wonders how that jester has so much energy all the time. Suddenly he stops as if just remembering something.

“Oooooh! Before anything, I need to hang up your amazing drawing you made of me!”

   Magolor pauses as Marx pulls out the drawing he made for Mariel out of his hat.

“When did you get that? I didn’t see Mariel give it to you?”

“Hehe, She put it in my clothing box, lucky me!”

   So that’s what she was doing..

“Where are you even gonna put that?”

“In my room on my wall, dummy! Be right back Mags!”

   Marx runs off towards his room, leaving Magolor alone.

   Magolor’s thoughts drift to the dream he had today. Magolor hopes that’s not how this party will end, but he cannot help but feel nervous. The fact Marx is hanging up his drawing in his room is a good sign he would wanna stay, as why would he decorate it when he just plans on leaving? But who knows? Marx isn’t exactly someone who makes sense. No, Marx is more akin to chaos incarnate. Perhaps he should just not ask Marx to stay at all and avoid everything. 

   Magolor sighs and stares at the map on the Lor’s screen. All Magolor can do now is wait for the party to find out how things go.

Chapter Text

   The Lor eventually reaches its destination of Dedede's castle, The castle being visible on the Lors screen. Magolor makes the Lor land and turns to Marx who’s currently laying on the ground.

“Marx, we are here!”

   The reaction is immediate. Marx jumps up and begins to run to the exit. Magolor jumps after him and grabs the end of his hat to stop him. 

“Try and calm yourself Marx, this is the big moment. I’m sure Meta Knight will be watching your every move.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. I’d rather he didn’t!”

“Yes, well you sorta signed up for this.”

Marx rolls his eyes.

“Sure, sure. That just means we’ll have to be careful!”

   Magolor pauses.

“..Elaborate?”

“Oh, come on Mags! Surely after all this time, you wouldn’t think I wouldn’t try to cause no mischief at the party!”

   He’s right, Magolor should’ve known, it’s practically in Marx’s blood.

“Marx, perhaps the event in which you’re getting judged whether you’re a threat or not isn’t the best place to cause mischief.”

“Ugh, always so practical. It’s not like a bit of mischief hurts anyone! It’s not like I’m gonna blow up the castle Mags!”

   Marx frowns, sticking out his tongue.

“Seriously, it will just be a few pranks, nothing crazy, promise! I simply wanna make the party a bit lively, and who better to help me than another prank expert?”

   Prank expert..? Marx thinks Magolor is the prank expert!? Magolor feels a strain in his mind relent a bit at that. Well, if they’re careful, then maybe..

“Oh! Well, perhaps I can help just a bit!”

   Marx grins brightly. Magolor lets go of his hat. Marx thumps his feet on the floor in excitement.

“Ohohoho, yes, YES! Okay, now let’s get this show on the road!”

   Marx then promptly begins running out of the Lor.

“Marx wait-!“

   Magolor quickly grabs the gift basket from the floor and rushes after Marx.

   Marx runs surprisingly fast, especially without flying. You’d think Marx would prefer flying. Magolor tries to keep pace, the castle getting closer and closer.

   Marx reaches the castle and then promptly falls to the floor after bumping into some Waddle Dee’s guarding the entrance.

“Hey, what’s the deal!”

   Marx shouts angrily. Magolor finally catches up with a huff.

“Marx please give a warning next-“

   Marx jumps up from the ground, getting right in the face of one of the guards and snarling. 

“Is this how guests are treated, huh? I’ll have you know I’m quite the special guest!”

   Magolor huffs and places a hand to Marx’s face to push him back.

“What Marx means is that we were invented personally by Meta Knight. Mind letting us through?”

   The guards look at each other for a moment before they nod. One of them motions for them to follow as they walk inside the castle. Marx and Magolor follow suit. Marx looks around the castle as they do.

“Jeez, ya know, I’ve never actually been in here before.”

“Yeah?”

“This place is way bigger than the inside suggests. Why are there so many pillars? Dedede needs to fire his decorator, this is atrocious! Now if I was in charge-“

“What? You’d plaster your face on all the banners instead of Dedede’s?”

   Magolor says jokingly, gesturing to the banners hanging up with Dedede's logo on them.

“Ha! That would be a start!”

   Magolor laughs. Imagine that, a castle owned by Marx! Honestly, probably wouldn’t even be much of a castle, more like a circus tent if Marx’s room is anything to judge by. A castle ruled not by a king but a jester, what a strange thought.

   The trek through the halls of the castle is nothing much to note of, just some idle banter between the two.

   The ballroom is big and quite flashy, gold being the main color that takes up the room. The floor is polished and shining, the area around the walls adorned by multiple tables with food and drinks hosted on them. However, near one wall is a music set up, a Cappy situated in a Dj table.

   There’s quite a bit of people around in their own little groups. However the guard leads them over to a space where, next to a table of food, Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee are talking.

   Kirby is wearing a simple red bow tie and red bow on their head. Dedede is wearing a blue suit jacket, blue pants, white gloves and a red bow tie, a bit more dapper than Magolor was expecting. Bandana Dee is wearing a bow tie and his signature bandana. Meta Knight is uh, the exact same strangely, guess he’s not the dressing up type?

   As the three get closer, they begin to hear them converse.

“Come on I know I lost the last batch of spears-“

“No.”

“But the only way I can do long range stuff is if I throw them!”

“No.”

“Oh, Meta lighten’ up on the kid would ya? It’s not like we’re low on the spears or anything!”

   Kirby laughs. Meta Knight lowers his head in thought. Suddenly Bandana Dee looks over and makes eye contact with Magolor, and his face immediately sours.

“Welp, fun’s over guys, they’re here!”

   Magolor decides to ignore Bandana Dee’s tone. Him and Bandana Dee..Well they simply don’t get along. Magolor tried, really he has, but it seems to not matter to Bandana Dee, as despite Magolor’s niceness, he still acts cold.

   The other three in the group turn to them, multiple reactions happen. Kirby brightens, Dedede grins and waves, Meta Knight..It’s a bit hard to tell with the mask.

“Magolor!!!”

   Kirby yells, runs over, jumps up, and hugs Magolor. Magolor hugs back then holds Kirby up to face him.

“Well, hello there Kirby!”

   Kirby giggles.

“Wow, I didn’t know this party was a sap fest!”

   Kirby looks over to Marx. Magolor lowers Kirby down back to the ground. Kirby immediately makes a beeline to Marx.

“It’s good to see you too, Marx!”

   Kirby attempts to hug Marx who immediately makes a face and summons his wings to stop him.

“Er, personal space, ever heard of it, puffball?”

   Kirby simply smiles.

“Ahem!”

   Meta Knight says. Everyone turns to him.

“Hello, both of you.”

   His gaze immediately snaps to Marx’s.

“You, don’t even try anything, I will be watching you.”

   Dedede lets out a laid back laugh and slaps Meta Knight on the back.

“What he means is don’t cause too much trouble, this is a party after all!”

   Meta Knight looks downward..Embarrassed..? Magolor steals a glance at Marx and sees his mouth agape. Well, at least now he knows Magolor isn’t lying!

“Yes, we won’t be keeping you then-“

“WAIT!!!”

   Marx shouts. Thank goodness, they almost left without the gift basket-

“When did you two start dating, seriously how much did I miss, how did that happen!?”

   Meta Knight blinks. Dedede pauses before erupting in laughter, hand on his belly. Meta Knight huffs, and Magolor swears he sees a hint of pink from under his mask?

“That is none of your business. We will be taking our leave now.”

   Magolor sputters.

“Before you go! I have this for Dedede, crafted by yours truly, and of course, Marx.”

   Magolor floats over and hands the gift basket to Dedede.

“Ha! This is good stuff!”

   Dedede picks out one of the gem apples, takes a big bite and hums.

“That sure did win some favor from me personally!”

   Meta Knight places a hand to his face and sighs.

“Seeing as there’s no more invasive questions of gifts, it’s time for us to go, come on Kirby.”

   Kirby nods and waves goodbye as the three leave- wait, three? Magolor looks around, and it seems sometime during their conversation, Bandana Dee snuck off out of the area, of course.

   Magolor looks to Marx.

“Told you, what should we do now?”

“Hmmmmm, let’s see..”

   Marx looks around, scanning the area and crowds before seeming to spot something.

“OOOOOOO! Mags, look at who it is!”

   Magolor directs his gaze towards where Marx is looking. Magolor squints and then spots two familiar faces, Susie and Taranza! They’re near the table with a punch bowl, Susie being the only one with a glass.

“So, we’re excited to see Susie again, hmmm?”

   Marx makes a gagging noise.

“Ugh, no! I wish she wasn’t here in the first place. Taranza however, a touching reunion is in order!”

“You saw him yesterday-“

“I know, that was forever ago!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes, surely Taranza isn’t that interesting.

“Lead the way then, fanboy.”

“Okie dokie!”

   Marx runs off in their direction, Magolor follows.

   As they get close, they begin to hear their voices.

“-And that’s why Taranza.”

“But, I don’t understand. Wouldn’t it be better if-“

   Marx cuts Taranza off with a shout.

“HELLO PARTY PEOPLE!!!”

   Marx jumps in between the two. Susie raises a brow, and Taranza jumps a bit.

“Greetings, Marx.”

   Susie turns to Magolor.

“And to you too, Magolor.”

   Up close, Magolor can see Susie is wearing a different outfit than usual. She's wearing a white dress shirt, a hot pink tie, a black vest with pink stripes, a diamond shaped pin with a pink gem and gold border, yellow gloves with white cuffs with cufflets that look similar to the pin on her vest, black pants with pink stripes. And her hair seems to be styled upwards in a sorta curl, her gold hairpin remains.

   Taranza blinks before startling.

“Oh! Right, hello Marx, hello Magolor!!”

   Taranza is also wearing something different. It seems like Magolor and Marx aren't the only people who decided to dress up. Taranza is wearing a dark green kimono with a flower pattern, the Obi is a sorta salmon color, the string around it orange, and the obijime is white. Along with that, he’s wearing his normal gloves, and tucked in his hair is a familiar pink flower.

“Hiiiii Taranza! Today's my big day. After this party is over, I’m officially a free man!”

“Well, that is, if Meta Knight decides so.”

   Susie jumps in. Marx’s face falls.

“No one asked.”

“Yes, well, I simply wanted to clear it up.”

   Magolor cuts in before they begin fighting, this is the last place they should.

“It’s great to see you both, especially you Taranza. Didn’t think parties were your thing!”

“They’re not, Susie kinda dragged me here..”

   Susie flips her hair.

“I’m doing you a service Taranza. It’d do you better to get out more.”

“What are you, Taranza’s MOM?“

   Marx states. Susie’s face turns to disgust.

“No, I’m just a good friend.”

“Okay, mom-“

“Please do not call me that.”

   Magolor leans over to Susie and whispers to her.

“Too late, once he has a nickname for you, he will not let it go, trust me.”

   Susie grimaces. Marx laughs and sticks out his tongue, did he hear that?

“Anyways, I’m not here to talk to you! Taranza, wanna dance?”

   Taranza blinks in surprise, processing. Magolor makes a choked noise. Susie hums.

“Hmm, well, I didn’t expect that.”

   Susie twirls the glass in her hand. Marx groans.

“Susie, again, no one asked you! Taranza whatcha say, hmmm? I promise I’m a good dancer, if you had toes, I wouldn’t step on them once!”

“UUUUHMMMMMM-“

   Taranza’s gaze darts between Susie and Magolor, clearly looking for help. Magolor just stares with wide eyes. Susie shrugs with her hands.

“Suuuureeeee????”

“Good enough for me!”

   Marx cackles, summons his wings, grabs two of Taranza’s hands and drags him away to the dance floor.

   Magolor watches in silence.

“Susie..What..Just..Happened..?”

“Well, it seems Marx just took Taranza to dance with him.”

   Susie squints in the direction of Marx and Taranza.

“And quite badly might I add. What are those dance moves? Poor Taranza, no idea what he just got into, I think.”

   Magolor stares on, what is happening? Why did Marx ask Taranza to dance with him!?! They only met yesterday. Honestly, it would make way more sense if Marx asked him! Frankly it’s a bit insulting, did Marx think he’s not fit to do so? Well that’s just-

“Oh, Magolor, by the way, I have this for you.”

   Magolor blinks out of thought and looks to see Susie handing him a phone.

”I told you I’d get you one! I even already put everyone’s numbers into it as well.”

   Magolor studies the phone. It is a flip phone, it's blue with yellow accents, it even has a gear pattern, very clearly his.

“Thank you, Susie.”

“Yes, well, you were never gonna get one yourself, so I stepped up. Also I made one for Marx-“

“You did!?!”

“Of course, I assume he has none for himself, so I might as well.”

“You want me to give it to him?”

“Oh, no, I’d rather give it to him myself. I’m hoping it will at least tone down his animosity towards me, at least a little bit.”

   That probably isn’t a good idea. It’s quite clear Marx isn’t keen on Susie. However, Magolor knows Susie is driven, if she wants to accomplish something, then it probably will get done. Honestly, if Marx and Susie got along and worked together, well, that would be a scary image. Probably would be able to accomplish anything at that rate.

“Oh, I think Meta Knight is calling me over!”

   What? Magolor snaps out of his thoughts. He looks over and yep, seems like Meta Knight is motioning Susie to talk to him. So many strange things are happening today!

“I’ll be back later Magolor. If Meta Knight needs to talk to me, I’m sure it’s something of importance.”

   Susie floats over and disappears into the crowd. Magolor is alone.

   Might as well get a drink while he’s here. Magolor floats over to the punch but then pauses at what he sees. He sees Gooey, whom he knows is a good friend of Kirby’s, pouring a random liquid from a bottle inside the punch. Magolor backs away and vows to not drink from that punch bowl specifically.

   Magolor waits for a bit until it seems Marx and Taranza’s dance comes to an end. Most of the ’dance’ is just Marx spinning both him and Taranza wildly. Magolor watches, and at a point, makes eye contact with Marx. Marx smirks and spins them over to where he is and spins to a halt, letting go of Taranza who stumbles.

   Marx laughs and is about to speak when-

“Excuse me?”

   Marx and Magolor turn to see a mouse. Meanwhile, Taranza is still busy trying to stop being dizzy.

“Very sorry to bother you, but I saw you on the dance floor and had to ask for a dance!”

   Marx smirks.

“Ohohoho! Well how can I-“

“Oh, no, sorry for the misunderstanding. However, I meant him.”

   He points a claw to Taranza, who just seemed to just now finally stop being dizzy, only to see himself being pointed at. 

“Wha- huh- me?”

   The mouse chuckles and grabs his cape, pulls it around himself only to flair it outwards in a dramatic fashion.

“But of course! Who else would I mean?”

“Me, but sure, continue.”

   Marx says, rolling his eyes. Magolor sends him a glare. Marx sticks out his tongue.

“Uhm, sorry, but who are you?”

   Taranza questions. The mouse bows.

“Daroach at your service.”

   Daroach reaches into his cape and pulls out a card, handing it over to Taranza. Taranza grabs it and looks over it, eyes going wide.

“Thief and leader of the Squeak Squad!?”

   Daroach nods and winks at him. Magolor watches Taranza’s face flush.

“The one and only! Don’t worry, I know what you’re thinking. I'm not stealing anything from Dedede's tonight. I made a promise I wouldn’t, and by my attire, I sure couldn’t sneak around without being noticed, I’m sure.”

   Magolor studies Daroach’s outfit, and what he says seems about right. He’s wearing a ruffled white blouse, black pants, what seems to be a gold belt, a red cape trimmed with gold at the edges, a big gold bell attached to it, a big red hat with a gold ribbon, and not to mention the gold rings and earrings on his person. Needless to say, it would be pretty hard to steal anything in an outfit as flashy as that!

“However, I would hate to leave with no treasure.”

   Daroach smirks.

“I looked across the dance floor for a treasure. Then I saw you, truly a sight for sore eyes. So my treasure, I truly hope you’ll let me steal you away into the dance floor..?”

   Daroach bows once again and extends a hand towards Taranza. Taranza, whose face is as bright as a max tomato right now, and slack jawed.

   After a moment of what seems like processing, Taranza nods his head and lopsidedly smiles.

“Uhm..Sure!”

   Daroach grins wide. Suddenly,  a group behind them begins cheering.

“Way to go, boss!!!”

   Magolor looks to see a group of mice cheer and holler.

   Taranza grabs Daraoch’s hand, and they both walk off to the dance floor.

   Magolor watches them go, what is happening today!?!

“Ha! Well, this sure is an exciting party, huh? How about we make it a bit more exciting!?”

   Oh? Sure, why not, might as well see what Marx has in mind.

“Oh?”

   Marx grins wide.

“Oh yeah, time for a bit of chaos to spice things up.”

   Marx points a claw towards the crowd. Magolor looks at the direction. There lies Adeleine and Ribbon. Adeleine is seemingly painting the ballroom, Ribbon floating, watching from behind. Magolor studies the scene and then notices someone in the shadows. Strangely, it seems Dark Meta Knight is in the shadows watching too?

“Let’s do a prank separately first. I’ll take them. Mags you’ll take her-“

   Marx points to someone else, the Fairy Queen who’s conversing with Nago, drink in hand, giggling.

   Considering everything, it seems Magolor has the easier task.

“I’ll go first, Marx.”

“Oooooo, I didn’t have to convince you to do it this time! You’re going first too, hehe!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes. He gave his word, did he not? Besides, it's not like a small prank would get them in trouble!

“Just keep an eye on me, yes?”

   Marx grins wide.

“Always!”

   Magolor backtracks over to the table with the punch. Seems Gooey left. Magolor glances and finds a glass similar to the one the Fairy Queen is holding. He grabs it and pours the punch inside.

   Marx watches with a brow raised. Magolor looks over to the Fairy Queen and concentrates on the glass.

   Then with a POP! The glasses get teleported, swapping them.

“Erm, wha-“

   Magolor rushes over, shushes Marx, and points over to the Fairy Queen.

   She laughs, then takes a drink of the unknowingly swapped drink. Suddenly she pauses, her face turns green, and she begins to gag and cough.

“Eugh, gross, ew, ew, why is this drink so gross!?”

   Both of them immediately begin laughing.

“What did you put in her drink!?”

“Oh, that part cannot be attributed to me. Thank Gooey for that.”

   Marx blinks before laughing harder.

“Okay, okay, my turn!”

   Marx then jumps and phases down into the ground. 

   Magolor watches the shadow on the floor closely as it darts over to Adeleine. 

   Marx raises his wing from the floor and hooks it around her ankle. Then pulls it forward, making the girl yelp, and her paintbrush tearing a stroke across her canvas. This also causes her to fall to the floor with a thud.

“Oh, my gosh, Adeleine, are you alright!?”

   Ribbon says with a squeal. Adeleine gets up and brushes her dress.

“Uh, yeah, I don’t know what happened! Ribbon, did you accidentally push me?”

“Wha- no, of course not!”

   Marx’s shadow darts back over to Magolor, and he jumps up and out laughing. Magolor is chuckling. That may be a bit mean, but..Well, it’s funny too!

“Oh, I know EXACTLY what happened!!!”

   A sudden shout rings out, causing Magolor to pause his laughs. Magolor looks over and sees Dark Meta Knight, clearly angry. He’s by Adeleine, making sure she’s alright, even bandaging her knees? Magolor isn’t quite sure what the deal with the knight was before, now he’s even more confused.

“I saw it, something hooked around your leg and tripped you!”

“Wha- really, who would..?”

   Dark Meta Knight cuts her off.

“Oh, I have a hunch, and I’ll make sure they’ll pay.”

   As if to make his statement more potent, he flashes his sword, pulling it up from the hilt. Magolor watches with concern at this display.

“I think that may be a cue to stop..?”

“Oh, come on, you're scared of that, Mags? Who even is this Meta Knight reject???”

   Oh! That’s right, Marx probably wasn’t around for that particular incident.

“That’s Dark Meta Knight-“

   Marx looks at him blankly.

“He’s from the mirror world-“

“Why do I always miss the interesting stuff! I didn’t even know there was a mirror world!?”

“Yes, probably better not to dabble in it though. I was told that the mirror containing it is what caused Sectonia to go, well, crazy.”

“Wait, does that mean DMK caused that!? Wow, that’s crazyyyy. Taranza is in the same room as the person who lowkey took his crush away!”

“What??? No, that doesn’t even make sense??? It was the mirror itself, besides I don’t think Dark Meta Knight would even-”

   Wait a second did he just call him..?

“Did you just call him ‘DMK’???”

“Yeah, I did. His name is way too long!”

   A pause. Marx continues.

“Anyways, let's not run like cowards. I have an idea. Let’s knock this guy down a peg, hmm?”

   Hmmm, probably not the wisest of ideas, but Magolor decides to see what Marx is cooking.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Oh, nothing crazy, obviously. Just you teleporting a seed that will sprout a vine and knock him over!”

“Where-“

“Hold out your hand real quick to my mouth.”

   Magolor gives Marx a look but then does as he says. Marx then begins coughing, much to Magolor’s discomfort. He must be getting all kinds of germs on his hand right now. Then suddenly, a single seed pops out of Marx’s mouth and lands on Magolor’s hand.

   Magolor’s mind immediately races with multiple questions and concerns. Magolor suddenly has the strong urge to go take Marx back to the Lor and-

“Better hurry and teleport it before it burrows into your hand, hahaha!”

   Magolor’s thoughts are cut off immediately. He quickly looks over to Dark Meta Knight, focuses on the floor near him, and teleports the seed there.

   Dark Meta Knight is talking to Adeleine and Ribbon when suddenly a vine sprouts from the ground behind him. It shoots for the knight's foot, lifts him up in the air, and promptly slams him on the ground. Recovering quickly, the knight takes out his sword and slashes the vine to pieces recklessly with anger.

   This is all quite funny to Magolor. When was the last time he made someone this mad? It’s been quite awhile, he thinks. He used to do it all the time, wind someone up and watch them go, it was hilarious! Why did he stop? Doesn’t matter. Magolor shakes with laughter, the sharp laughter of Marx’s mixing together with his.

   However, Magolor spots a sharp gaze pierce him, Dark Meta Knight. Magolor immediately stops and quickly, on impulse, grabs Marx and drags him into the dancing crowd.

“He saw us, time to go!!!”

“Hohoho, sure Mags! I’m sure he did, and you totally didn’t do this so we could dance.”

   Marx moves, and with claws, grabs Magolor’s hands and begins to lead him into a dance, following the crowd.

“For your info, Dark Meta Knight stared daggers right at me. I practically saved the both of us!”

“Heh, whatever helps you sleep at night!”

   Magolor rolls his eyes as the two sway together along with the crowd. While it wasn’t quite Magolor’s intention, it’s nice, the dance that is. It reminds Magolor of when they did karaoke together, although less energetic. Magolor is grateful that Marx isn’t spinning him around like a madman, neither of them are really taking the lead.

   In the midst of their dance, Magolor spots Taranza and Daroach. They’re dancing in a sorta tango, not following the crowd at all. Daroach has the new addition of a rose on his hat, and Taranza is smiling. 

   Honestly, Magolor would’ve never seen these events coming. He knew of Daroach, not enough to immediately recognize him but had heard about him through Kirby. Frankly, if someone told him that the eccentric thief and the socially awkward gardener would dance and kinda hit it off, Magolor would tell that person to stop passing their romantic literature as fact.

“Ha! Honestly didn’t peg Taranza to be the type to bag a thief.”

“Hmm, well things aren’t certain right now. Too early to call that, I think.”

“Heh, yeah, yeah. I’m usually right though sooooo-“

   Magolor rolls his eyes playfully. We will see where all this leads eventually. 

   Suddenly, Magolor is grabbed by his cape and roughly dragged out the dance floor. A choked noise escapes his mouth as he falls to the ground, along with Marx.

   Magolor opens his eyes to see Marx on top of him. It seems he got dragged along and fell as well, and Susie and Meta Knight looking down at them.

“That’s enough dancing for you two. Come on.”

   Marx groans, annoyed.

“Aw, but I’m just sooooo comfortable right now!”

   Magolor watches as Marx wraps his wings around him, a bit too tightly.

“Marx, Kirby wants to talk to you-“

   Susie steps in. Marx sends her a glare.

“Oh, now I really wanna move!”

   Magolor’s breath escapes him as Marx squeezes him. Personally, Magolor would like to get off the floor for a start. His new clothes are getting dirty!

“Marx, let’s just go. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Ugh, fine.”

   Marx dismisses his wings, letting Magolor go and gets up. Magolor does the same.

   Meta Knight motions for them to follow him and leads them over to Kirby, who immediately smiles and waves.

“Hi! Oh, Susie, you're here too!”

“Of course, I couldn’t miss this.”

   Meta Knight nods.

“I’ll be back. I need to speak to Dedede about something.”

   Meta Knight doesn’t wait for a response and leaves swiftly. Susie sighs.

“What a shame, really.”

“Don’t take it too seriously, Susie. Meta is always busy!”

“Oh, I know.” 

   Magolor watches as Marx runs over to the nearest table and grabs a drink in his claws. He comes back over with a blank expression, tapping his foot. What’s going on with him?

“Anyways, Marx, it’s great to see you again! Are you excited?”

   Marx scoffs and takes a drink.

“That I’ll finally be free to get as far away from all of you, yes!”

   Magolor almost sends over a glare to Marx. It’s like he doesn’t understand that he’s on watch right now! However, to Magolor’s surprise, Kirby just laughs at the comment.

“It’s so great to have you back Marx, you’re so funny!”

   Magolor watches in concern as Marx’s eye twitches.

“Yes, I am a jester. That's what I’m supposed to be!”

“Personally, I haven’t laughed at him once.”

   Susie speaks up. Marx gasps.

“Untrue! You laughed in that bar when I said I could fall in love with you!!!”

   Susie rolls her eyes, her glass swishing in her hand.

“A laugh and a chuckle are two different things.”

“Wow. Okay, dictionary!”

   Kirby glances between the two with a frown. Right, this is the first time Kirby is seeing them interact. They’re probably a bit confused.

“Marx, Susie, please there’s no need to fight, especially at a party.”

   Susie takes a sip of her drink. Marx huffs. 

“Oh! Marx, after this is all over, you should hang out at my house! I got some new stuff, and we can play like we used too.”

   Susie chokes on her drink. Magolor feels his eyes go wide. WHAT DID KIRBY JUST SAY!?!

“Wait you two-“

   Marx looks really upset. Kirby has a simple innocent smile on his face, seemingly not noticing Marx’s emotions.

“Yeah! Oh, it was so fun. Marx would teach me how to balance on his performance balls! I would fall a lot, but it was still fun!”

   Magolor stares at Marx, he sees Susie is as well, practically burning holes into him.

“Other times, I’d show Marx all the cool stuff I had and, uh-“

   Kirby falters, finally seeing Marx’s upset expression, a deep scowl.

“Are you alright, Marx..?”

   Marx shakes for a moment. Magolor almost tries to intervene before the jester stops, a smirk on his face. Magolor and Susie exchange a glance, Magolor with concern and Susie with suspicion.

“Oh yeah, good times, good times! However, as we all know, after that, we had a little fight over some silly things-“

“Over you trying to take over the planet.“

   Susie cuts in without hesitation.

“Details, details! But that’s all in the past. New day, new me! As they say, probably more true in my situation. I kinda died in that explosion!”

   Silence, then a small voice.

“I- Marx, I thought you did die..”

   Kirby speaks so quietly that you wouldn’t hear it if you didn’t pay attention. Magolor feels a tug on his heart.

-“I really thought you did, that I did it too! I-I wanted to go back, to check, but I was too scared. Scared that I’d be right. I’m so sorry, Marx..”

   CRACK! SMASH!!!

   The sound of glass cracking and then shattering fills the room, forcing Magolor’s gaze to turn from Kirby’s tearful one towards Marx’s. 

“Is- is he okay!?!”

   Magolor’s gaze whips around at the sound of Taranza's voice. It seems his dance came to an end, and he was coming over. Daroach standing with him. Taranza rushes over with concern etched on his face.

“Marx-“

   Magolor says carefully, a hand reaching out-

“AHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHA, OHOHOHOHOHO, HEHEHHEEHHEAHAHAAAHHHHHH!!!”

“Am I Okay!?”

   Marx screeches manically, fangs out on display.

“You’re so funny, really, you are! HEHEHE! I need to take a break from you hilarious people!!!”

   Marx then promptly jumps, then phases through the floor, shadow darting away. 

   What just happened?

“Magolor, what are you waiting for, follow him!?”

   Susie shouts. Taranza chips in as well.

“Uh, yeah, Magolor, I think it’s best if you do..”

   Magolor snaps out of whatever funk he was in and nods quickly before rushing off to follow where the shadow went. He manages to spot it darting along the hallways of the castle. Magolor follows until the shadow darts under a door.

   Magolor takes a breath, opens up the door, and steps inside, closing the door behind him.

   The room seems to be a spare bedroom, which makes sense. Magolor imagines Dedede has quite a bit of guests over. The room has the essential Dedede colors: yellow, blue and red.

   CRASH!!!

   However, the room is also currently being trashed by a cackling Marx. Darting with extreme speed, knocking over objects, tearing and ripping at things, then moving to another spot, as if he cannot focus on one area at a time.

“Marx-“

   Marx immediately pauses, turns to face Magolor as if he just noticed he was there, smiling wide. It feels wrong.

“It’s all so funny, isn’t it, Magolor!?”

“What is..?”

   Magolor trails off. He needs to consider his words carefully right now he feels.

“That ha- Kirby thought I've changed to the point of apologizing!!! Hehehe I think- ah- I may throw uppppp!!!”

   Parts of Marx’s speech are stopped by invading laughter and gasps. Can he not control himself right now?

“Marx-“

   Magolor reaches out, but Marx turns away sharply and starts flying around the room erratically.

“Kirby is an idiot, thinking I can change! As if this-“

   SMASH!!!

   Marx knocks over a nearby vase on a table, shattering it.

“Isn’t who I am!! Hehehehahahaaa!!”

   Marx looks at Magolor, smile ill-fitting.

“The others aren’t as dumb. The only way they’d really forgive me is if I spill my guts and rearrange myself in front of them!!! Not happening, I’m not serving myself up to them! It’d all be an act anyways, just like you!!!”

   Magolor feels it’s best to let Marx ramble, get everything out before he says anything.

“I don’t blame you though, I don’t!! We are extremely similar, Magolor. That’s why I like you!!!”

“..We are.”

   Marx floats closer. Magolor notices his pupils have turned to essentially slits.

“Yes! You understand, you do. Nobody else is like us-“

   That’s not true?

“What? That’s not true, Susie and Taranza-“

“HA! As if, Magolor. There’s one big difference between them and us.”

   Marx jumps in midair and claws frantically at his hat.

“They weren’t the masterminds behind everything. They were followers! Big difference. They have that back to fall on.”

“Susie? Following her fathers orders, heck she even tried to stop him! Taranza, don’t make me laugh, he just followed a crazy queen!”

   Marx suddenly darts and gets face to face with Magolor, grin never leaving.

“But us, the world only forgives us if we give up everything that is us, only to get forgiveness in return.”

   Marx burns holes into him.

“Cause’ we are the issue, our being is what they have issues with! I’d rather die. I’m sure no one would miss me anyways!”

   Magolor feels as if someone just hit him, he needs to speak up.

“That is not true!?”

“Hehehe, I’m sure if I did, it’d be a holiday. Everyone in Pop Star celebrating the day of my death! Hahaha!!”

   That’s it, Magolor has had enough. This is not the Marx he knows, and he’s gonna set it all straight!

“Do not say that!!!”

   Magolor impulsively grabs Marx by the sides. Marx immediately stills.

“I can’t speak for everyone else, but I definitely would miss you!!!”

   Marx stops grinning.

“You’re so interesting, and I can never tell what you’re thinking or what you’ll do!”

   Magolor grips tight, as if Marx could slip in between his fingers any moment now.

“If you were de- gone, I wouldn't know what to do.”

   Magolor softens his gaze. please.

“Besides, aren't you always telling me not to care what other people think? Even if they wanted to change you, I don’t think I’d let them.”

   Please, please, please. Magolor isn’t quite sure what he’s begging for, but he is stressed. Has Marx been feeling like this the whole time? That no one would care if he was gone? The thought makes Magolor sick. Marx has always seemed so.. Put together..?

   Marx laughs softly, floating down to the floor. Magolor follows him, still holding him. Once on the floor, Marx snuggles up to Magolor with a sniff.

“Hehe, Mags, you’re something special yourself..”

“Yes, well, I guess that just makes us both strange, huh?”

“I guess so!”

   Marx smiles, and it’s correct.

“Marx, once you're free, I’m not sure you have anywhere else to be, but that room in the Lor is always yours.”

“Heh, is that your way of asking me to be your roommate?”

“If that’s what you want, then yes.”

   Marx’s face goes to a natural one.

“Magolor, I hope you understand I’ll just make you worse if this happens. Ever since we met, I’ve been changing you, you know this. I will ruin you, well at least to the others. I can’t accept your offer if you don’t understand this.”

“I think I’ve changed you as well. I did make you help out with the shop at least, heh. We’ll ruin each other, how does that sound?”

   Marx’s eyes go bright, an enchanting look on him. Marx wraps his wings around Magolor, pulling him extremely close, staring face to face.

“Is that a promise?“

“Of course, it’s a promise.”

   Marx sparkles.

“Ha, ha! Oh, oh, Magolor, I’m so excited!!! Everyday on your ship will be something you won’t expect, I’ll make sure of it. With me around, things will be interesting and horrid-“

   BANG!!!!!!

   The two jump up and off each other at the sound. Magolor’s mind immediately races. That was so loud, what if something happened!?!

“We should go and check that out!!!”