castle built on lies

Star vs. sketch dump

@lemonadesoda

“Come on, Wand, work with me here–Open Wandsesame,” Star grumbled, and tried swinging it into a different position again while again thinking really hard on what she wanted it to do. And again nothing happened. Really, she was going into this completely blind, and still just wildly and spontaneously trying anything–well, she was sorta currently focusing on verbal commands and body positions like that one warnicorn stampede spell emphasized–to get what she wanted.

Glossayrck had said the wand was an extension of her memories–and if that was the case, then did it keep all the memories of the past queens? If it was an extension of her memories, was it an extension of theirs before too? That had to explain the Grandma Room in the wand, right? That the wand did like have an archive of that info? Star really wanted to get to those memories.  

But Glossayrck had been the only one to give her access, and he was still a no-show. Leaving Star to try to figure out a way to enter the wand herself, or make it show her what she wanted to see or something.

Some of the laser puppies bounded into the room, rolling and playing tug-of-war with a toy, and one split off from them to rub against her leg and lick her foot. Star smiled down at the animal, feeling better. She bent down to scratch behind his ear, quietly thanking him. Then she sent him off to play with the others, and feeling re-energized and more determined, the girl continued her experimentation.

Star went upside down into a one-hand stand on her bed, her other hand holding out the wand straight to her side, and all together she had enough balance to remain up.

“Wand Memory Morning–”

Toffee passed by her open door, missing one shoe.

“–oh hi Toffee!–Wand Memory Morning Matinee!” After calling a greeting to him, the girl returned back to finishing her chant.

Still nothing. Unperturbed this time, Star put the wand between her teeth, quickly switched hands without falling, and then held the wand in her switched hand.

Maybe think about how Eclipsa would say this?

The princess took a breath, and tried something more formal.

“I call upon you Wand–”

Star glanced up again with more interest when Toffee rushed past her door again, looking irritated, still missing a shoe–and it finally occurred to her that he was looking for it.

“–to reveal to me your hidden past–oh, Barko Diaz!” Star cut herself off to yelp when said laser puppy jumped up to show her Toffee’s shoe, and she finally realized the animals hadn’t been playing tug-of-war with a toy at all. Well, not an official toy anyway.

“Bad boy,” Star said, beginning to scold him. “That’s not for playing or chewing!” Her voice then rose, calling to outside her room. “Hey Toffee, your shoe’s in my room, one of the puppies got it–no, Barko don’t even think about it, stay!”

But the puppy was still trying to jump down with its misbegotten toy. Without thinking–which was frankly her thing–Star bit down on the shoe, to keep that and Barko in place. The puppy’s eyes lit up–thankfully just with joy and not lasers–and began to earnestly tug back, clearly thinking Star wanted to play. It didn’t help that Star instinctively pulled back on the shoe in response to the dog’s force, and that she began to growl around the shoe in her mouth, though her tone remained scolding and even annoyed now.

Come on, she was trying to figure out a way to see the wand’s memories, she didn’t want to deal with this junk right now–

Still trying to keep the shoe in place with her teeth, Star caught a glimpse of Toffee entering her room. Unthinkingly, she tried to speak around the shoe in her mouth; it was of course muffled, only the words sounding clearly in her head, Hurry up and take your shoe, Toffee–

Then Barko Diaz pulled too hard, and Star lost her balance. The girl fell from her hand-stand position with a yelp, releasing the shoe from her mouth. She tumbled off the bed and to the floor, dropping the wand–which crashed to the floor with a loud bang that made her ears ring.

First blowing some strands of hair out of her face, and then wiping the rest away, Star began to rise, and looking up, she saw–

He checked by the door anyway and his shoe was not there. Nor did it appear the Diazes were home, so he couldn’t ask them if they knew where his shoe had gone either.

Hm. Maybe it fell off (or perhaps he kicked it off in his sleep) and someone put it in his room?

He brushed past Star’s open door, not even responding to the princess’ greeting. He had a shoe to find, walking around without it made his gait awkward.

He swung open his bedroom door, giving the room a quick search. Around his pillow bed, under his dresser… No, his shoe wasn’t here.

Had the Diaz boy taken it? That seemed excessively petty, even for him, but the lizard was also running out of ideas.

He zipped past Star’s room again, the annoyance more plain on his face as he headed to Marco’s room.

There was no sign of his shoe in plain sight and he was at least a touch reluctant to tear apart Marco’s room. If he wanted his privacy respected he should respect others. Fortunately, Star’s call came just as he was considering it, “Hey Toffee, your shoe’s in my room, one of the puppies got it–no, Barko don’t even think about it, stay!”

Of course, it was the puppies, the little pests. Toffee sighed and headed straight to her room; hopefully, the shoe was still salvageable.

The sight that greeted him threw him for a loop for a moment. Though it involved Star and nothing she does should really surprise him anymore. She was doing a handstand with one end of his shoe clenched in her teeth; the other end was clutched in the jaws of one of the pups. She growled something around the shoe but Toffee couldn’t make out what she said… probably some variant of “take your shoe”.

As he stepped forward to grab the shoe, the pup, perhaps sensing that its toy was about to be taken away, tugged extra hard. He saw Star start to lose her balance and backed up to let her fall but when the wand dropped-

Toffee was gone. His suit lay crumpled on the floor. All was still for a moment. And then Star screamed, “OhmycornTOFFEE!”

When her scream seemed to actually startle the crumpled suit-jacket into fleeing, Star felt a surge of confused relief. Toffee had to be okay--wait what--what was going on--how could that mean Toffee was okay--OH I must’ve shrunk him like in that Earth movie--

{BATTLE SCARS || OPEN} 

“Ah yes, this particular scar came from a particularly fierce battle with a particular pig-goat. Not Lil Chauncy, of course, because I won that fierce bout and we had a delicious pig-goat dinner. Made myself a fancy cape with the hide but ah… it’s more suited to a barbarian than a king.”

“Ah Dad, come on--I want to see what you made.” She took his hands and began to bounce eagerly. “Come on, show me, show me! Please tell me you still have it somewhere!”

Star glanced down, starting to squirm a little. 

“Well, n-not exact--exactly...”

Then she tried to perk up, slapping a smile on and giving a shrug. “I just kinda do my own thing, really!”