#downfall arc

She had been stewing on this thought for over a week, and now, sitting around the dinner table with her parents, Cello found herself staring down at her mother’s mashed potatoes and meatloaf, both of which sat half-eaten on her plate. Her parents were talking about the day’s findings in the mines, but she didn’t hear a word of it.

Guess it was time. Today would be the day she would finally tell them that she was giving up everything.

The thought made her queasy to her stomach, but her mind was made up. If she couldn’t even save people with her talents, then it would be better for everyone if she just stayed home and supported the family by working in the mines with them.

At least then, she might be able to finally make her dad happy with her life decisions. Maybe he would finally approve of her like she’d always wanted him to. Especially considering his new, long-term injury was keeping him from working as much as he’d like to.

She narrowed her eyes a bit more. Yeah... This was for the best…

“Cello? Honey?” Her mother suddenly addressed her, noticing her daughter’s apathy towards one of her favorite meals. “Are you feeling alright? You’ve hardly touched your food.”

Right. Cello swallowed hard and steadied herself. Time to face the music.

The firefly took a deep breath, then quite solemnly declared to the table as her gloved hands balled in her lap, “I’ve decided I’m giving up chemistry for good. I’m going to stay here in the village with you and Dad, and work with the others in the mines from now on.”

There. She had said it. The decision that would change her future forever had been made. She wasn’t happy, but it was what it was. And like it or not, she would have to accept this was her new lot in life.

She briefly winced as she remembered Hex and the others. They would no doubt be sad to hear the news. She would have to apologize to them later on…

The firefly then braced herself for her father’s response, no doubt that it was going to involve a callous scoff and something snarky like, “About time you saw reason!”

But, to her surprise, there was nothing but tense silence for a long moment across the table. She sensed her mother turn to glance over at her husband, and he, in turn, swallowed his food and heaved a heavy sigh. As he set down his fork, it echoed against the plate loudly with a heavy clank.

Then he spoke, and it was the last thing Cello ever expected him to say.

“…No. You need to go pursue chemistry, like you’ve always wanted to.”

Cello felt herself freeze. Felt as if the breath had suddenly been stolen right out of her lungs. She lifted her head and looked at the older firefly across the dinner table. “What?” The word echoed emptily across. She couldn’t hide or hold back her confusion and disbelief. “Dad, are you… hearing me? I’m… saying I want to be a miner. That I’m not going to do chemistry anymore.” Her brows furrowed. “I’m doing what you’ve always wanted me to do!!”

“But is it what you want to do?” Her father asked, making her gape and flounder for words for a moment.

No, it was true. Deep down, she didn’t really want to give up chemistry. But what choice did she have? Her failure, as well as his consistent belittlement of her passion and skills had finally brought about this perfect storm. Leading her to the skewed conclusion that she had just been fooling herself all this time.

He had been fighting her for years on this! Wanted her to follow in the footsteps of the family business for as long as she could remember! Was he simply mocking her? Why NOW would he suddenly be changing his mind?

And she couldn’t help but voice this, finally exclaiming, “W-why do you suddenly care about what I want to do? You never have before!”

“Cello!” Her mother disappointedly chided her, but her father remained silent, not responding with the normal anger and ferocity he was known for. In fact, he seemed to sag a bit, rubbing his gloved thumb over a scratch in the table’s surface, suddenly looking far older and meeker than Cello had ever seen him.

“You’re right. I haven’t,” he agreed with her. “I’ve only ever told you what I thought was best. But, ever since the Metal Virus, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Don’t— get me wrong, what we do here in the mines is very important and all, but…” He dipped his head and his antenna sagged. “When everything returned to normal, I heard from one of your friends that you managed to create a cure for the virus. And I found myself thinking, ‘my little girl…? Surely not.’“

He recalled the Mobian youth from the Restoration, firmly defending Cello’s honor against his unbelief. “But they insisted they had been there with you. That they saw the Zombot return to normal thanks to your formula. But, by that time, it was much too late to mass produce it & administer it to everyone.”

He winced and shook his head. “You did what you said you were setting out to do. And in that moment, I couldn’t help but think, that maybe if I had just… let you go, helped you to pursue your interests sooner, rather than fight you every step of the way... Then maybe you would have been better equipped with the tools you needed to make that cure sooner. Maybe, you’d be a national hero right now, rather than someone ready to give up her passion.”

Cello blinked at him in utter bafflement as she regarded his words; as the memory of her last, desperate declaration to him as her family coated with metal back in their village flashed back into her mind.

“I’ll find a way to fix this!” She had cried with angry tears in her eyes. “I don’t know where I’ll find the supplies, but I’ll make a cure to get you guys back, I promise!!”

Quite suddenly, she realized what was going on here. Her father, the rugged, brash, and innately stubborn man that he was; one whom never admited fault for anything, was blaming himself for her failure.

A failure that, in of itself, had destroyed her self-confidence in the one thing she was great at.

And instead of just letting that be, instead of just keeping his mouth shut to let her fulfill his own personal desires for her life, he was now actively choosing to acknowledge that his stubborn desire to cling to tradition had nearly cost them everything. That if he wanted the best for his daughter, and the world, then he needed to stop being selfish, and just let her go be who she was meant to be.

Finally uttering the words she had so desperately been wanting to hear him say for so long.

Her father then pulled a white envelope out of his overall pocket. The older firefly regarded it for a moment with a sigh, then dropped it in front of her. “Take this. I want you to use it to get into that fancy academy you’ve always talked about.”

Cello, still half expecting this to be one giant ‘gotcha!’ moment, slowly reached out and took the envelope… However, as she opened the flap and saw what was inside, she gasped and covered her mouth in shock. “Dad…” Her eyes began to water up.

It was a check. And not just any check. It was enough to cover her entire tuition.

Despite how her heart pounded with sudden disbelief and excitement, Cello forced herself to quickly shake her head and push it back. “N-no!! I can’t take this!!” she exclaimed. “You and mom need this money for bills, don’t you?? Especially now with your injury??”

Her dad rubbed the back of his fuzzy head and heaved a breath as he rubbed his injured leg. “Feh... don’t bother about it. I’ve been saving that money up for quite a while now so I could eventually take you and your mother on a big vacation.” His wife smiled and slipped her hand over his proudly. “But uh.. I think this will be going towards a better cause. Besides! I know you won’t forget about us when you make it big.”

Cello wasn’t one to usually openly cry, but here in this moment, she couldn’t hold her usual stiff face together anymore. She was steadily falling apart now, letting out a BIG OLE, UGLY SNIFFLE and practically gushing waterworks from her eyes as she clutched the envelope against her chest.

He was being serious. This was really happening!!

“Ohhh, Cello honey,” Her mom smiled softly at her daughter. It wasn’t very often they got to see her soft side anymore.

“Augh— come on, kid— none of that now. You’re going to make your mother cry too...” Her dad grumbled, though it was more due to him feeling embarrassed than anything else.

Cello fiercely sniffled and scrubbed her face clean with her arm before launching herself out of her seat to fly and tackle her father in a hug, nearly upsetting dinner in the process.

“…Thank you dad...” She mumbled into his shoulder, squeezing him tightly. “Really… You don’t know how much this means to me..!”

The man grunted from the sudden embrace and chuckled a bit as he awkwardly hugged and patted her back. “Yeah yeah,” he grumbled, trying to act as if this wasn’t a big deal. “Just… get out there and go be that chemist your mother and I know you can be.”

Cello pulled back from him and gave a confident smile again, a bright spark of light returning to her eyes. “Right! I’ll make you both proud!” She exclaimed.

“We already are proud, dear~” Her mother chimed in lovingly.

“…But we’ll be even more proud when we get to brag about you being on the cover of one of those big, fancy science magazines,” her father added with a grin. Only to then immediately get prodded in the side by his wife. “Ow! What? I was being positive!!”

Despite herself, Cello couldn’t help but laugh a bit. Her father’s remark didn’t bother her one bit. On the contrary. She felt like she was floating on Cloud 9.

At last, a huge stress had been lifted from her shoulders. And for the first time in a really long time, Cello felt… happy. Like that excited little kid with super tight curls and oversized glasses, who had clumsily flown into the kitchen, excitedly exclaiming to her parents about the newest breakthrough she had read about in a scientific magazine she had received from one of the neighbors.

Only now, rather than getting a disinterested, disgruntled response from her father, he instead smiled down at her, sharing in his daughter’s joy as he picked her up to spin her around while she laughed and declared that she too, was going to do something great like that one day.

At the root of it all, it was all she had ever wanted. Support over her dreams. Belief that she was capable of great things, and that she could accomplish them. And somehow… she had finally gotten it.

It was ironic really... Despite the Metal Virus being the very thing that crushed her dreams, it was also the thing that reignited them again. Somehow, some good had managed to come out of this awful event.

And if that wasn’t a testament how hope could be born in even the bleakest of situations, then Cello didn’t know what else could be.

💚🩵💛