Waking up in Steven's room at noon? Yeah, that's what I call a solid power nap. My body felt like it had been through the ringer, but hey, at least the cursed energy wasn't trying to tear me apart from the inside out anymore.
The place was dead quiet, no gems
voices echoing from downstairs, no Steven bouncing off the walls. Just me, I stood and saw the afternoon sun, and that gorgeous view of crystal blue water.
"Well, looks like everyone bailed," I muttered, stretching out the kinks in my back. Unfortunately the thing about training cursed energy is, you can't exactly curl a ghost barbell and you'll somehow work out your soul. Reflexes, stamina, muscle growth, and mediation was all fair game and stuff Icould do to at least prepare for its use.
Walking down the stairs it was clear the house had been abandond, so I wandered out to track down Steven.
Beach City during the day was as calm
Found Steven at Fish Stew Pizza, still radiating that infectious enthusiasm. But what caught my eye was the tragic comedy unfolding outside Lars, trying so hard to look casual he might as well have had "DESPERATE" tattooed on his forehead.
"Hey Steven," I called out, walking up. "Mind if I crash your lunch party?"
"Ethan! You're awake!" Steven's face lit up like Christmas morning. "I was wondering when you'd—oh, but Lars is here too and he's been acting really weird and—"
"Just playin' it cool," Lars interrupted, not even looking at us. His eyes were glancing to the window like he was watching the most fascinating thing in the universe.
I followed his gaze and spotted three teenagers inside the diner. Buck Dewey who had that quiet coolness that said "I know more than I let on." Jenny moved like every action had a purpose, no wasted energy. And Sour Cream? That laid back vibe was hiding some serious mystery.
"Those are the cool kids," Steven whispered conspiratorially. "Buck, Jenny, and Sour Cream!"
"Cool kids, huh?" I glanced at Lars, who was literally vibrating with anxiety. "Let me guess you're hoping they'll notice you and invite you to join their super exclusive club of... what, exactly? Standing around looking bored?"
"You wouldn't understand," Lars shot back. "They're... they're actually cool. Not like—" He gestured vaguely at Steven and me.
"Ouch." I pressed a hand to my chest "And here I thought we had something special, Lars."
The cool kids chose that moment to leave the diner, and Steven's face brightened with an idea that I could tell was going to be either brilliant or catastrophic. Knowing Steven, probably both.
"Hey!" he called out, waving enthusiastically. "Buck! Jenny! Sour Cream!"
Lars went pale. "Steven, no—"
"Oh, hey Steven," Jenny said, actually stopping. "What's up?"
"This is Lars," Steven said, completely ignoring Lars's look of horror. "And this is Ethan! We were just—"
"Steven!" Lars hissed under his breath.
Lars didnt know steven had this weird superpower where being genuinely interested in people makes them actually want to talk to him. Within minutes, Jenny was offering us a ride in her pizza car.
"You guys want to cruise around?" she asked casually.
"YES," Lars said, way too quickly and loud. Then he cleared his throat. "I mean, yeah, that sounds... cool."
I couldn't help but grin. "Sure, why not? I could use some local sightseeing."
The pizza car was a masterpiece of "shouldn't work but somehow does". As we piled in, I found myself wedged between Steven's bouncing excitement and Lars's nervous energy.
"So where are you from?" Buck asked me as Jenny started the engine.
"Far away," I said. "Like, really far. Different dimension kind of far."
Sour Cream nodded slowly. "That's deep, man."
"Right?" I shot back. "Geography's wild like that."
Steven giggled, and even Jenny cracked a smile in the rearview mirror. Lars, meanwhile, was trying so hard to think of something cool to say that I could practically hear the gears grinding in his head.
"So, uh," Lars started, "do you guys ever... party?"
The silence was deafening.
"I mean," Buck said thoughtfully, "we hang out. Explore places. Like, there's this lagoon called Dead Man's Mouth we were thinking of checking out."
Rrigght, every alarm bell in my head started going off. "Dead Man's Mouth?" I repeated. "That's... that's not an ominous name at all."
"It's probably just called that because of the shape," Jenny said. "Or maybe someone died there once. Either way, should be cool."
Steven's face went from excited to worried in record time. "Um, maybe we could go somewhere else? Like the arcade? Or the donut shop? Donuts are really safe!"
"Nah, Dead Man's Mouth sounds awesome," Sour Cream said. "Let's do it."
I watched Steven's internal panic meter spike and decided to test the waters. "Steven, you seem a little nervous about this particular destination. Any reason why?"
"Well..." Steven fidgeted. "There might be some... plant issues? At that specific location? That could be dangerous?"
"Plant issues?" Lars scoffed. "Steven, they're just plants."
I'd seen enough of this world to know Steven's "might be dangerous" usually translated to "will definitely try to kill us in creative ways."
But the cool kids were already decided, and Lars wasn't about to be the one to back out now. So off we went to Dead Man's Mouth.
When we got there, the police tape should have been our first clue to turn around. Steven's face went full panic mode.
"Uhh guys, seriously, we should not go in there," he said. "The police tape means something bad happened!"
"Police tape just means someone's trying to keep us from having fun," Jenny said, ducking under it.
"Steven, relax," Lars said. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Famous last words if I ever heard them. Hopefully I wouldnt need to use my cursed energy again yet.
We trecked in and it was dense. moss cover almost every surface but everything seemed fine for now.
A girlish scream came from my left, lars was freaking out, his foot touched the surface of water covered by moss.
"Yo you good," he said observing but just seeing the mossy water.
"Who nice we found the whole lake, let take a dive!" Jenny pulled off her long sleeve revealung a white t and happily ran into the water.
They all looked at each other and jumped in with her having a blast. I was tempted to go in myself but I had a sneaking suspicion it wasnt exactly safe to do so.
Lars even joined them.
"Hey Steven, Ethan come on in!" Sour Cream shouted.
"Sorry man where good here but you guys enjoy!"
"Alright man your loss, " he replied while chuckling "It feels so slimy, huh what is, Whooa?!"
One minute they're wading, the next they're screaming and covered in green stuff that was growing faster than bamboo on steroids.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Steven was muttering, grabbing Lars's arm before he could follow them in.
"What is that thing?!" Lars shrieked as we watched the cool kids get wrapped up as if they where food.
"Carnivorous moss," Steven said. "It grows really fast and—"
"CARNIVOROUS MOSS?!" Lars's voice cracked. "Why didn't you tell us there was carnivorous moss?!"
"I tried to warn you!" Steven shot back.
I was already moving, trying to pull the moss off Jenny, but the stuff just kept growing. "This isn't working," I called out. "Got any ideas, Steven?"
"The hill!" Steven suddenly exclaimed. "We need to get them to the hill where the moss came from originally!"
"The hill," I repeated flatly. "We're going to carry three moss-wrapped teenagers up a hill."
"It's our only shot!"
"Alright then." I went over grabbed Buck under the arms, he seemed to be the heaviest. "Lars, grab Jenny. Steven, you got Sour Cream. Time for some weightlifting."
We all started pushing up the hill, the trek felt even more dangerous while carrying dead weight I knew I could handle it but the two without training.
We wheregping slow getting slowly wrapped in aggressive plant life.
By the time we reached the summit, we were all wrapped up like mummies. But then the sun came out, and suddenly the moss started blooming into flowers. Within seconds, we were all free and breathing again.
I place Buck down gently, Steven and Lars dropped the others from there backs.
"I think I died," Sour Cream said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, that tracks," I gasped, spitting out flower petals
"How did we get up here?" Jenny asked, looking around at the view.
Steven opened his mouth, probably to explain the whole crazy story, but then he smiled and pointed at Lars. "Lars brought us here. He saved everyone."
Lars stared at him. "I... what?"
"You figured out we needed to get to the hill," Steven continued. "It was your idea."
The look on Lars's face was like watching someone realize they'd been holding the winning lottery ticket the whole time. When Steven held up his hand for a high five, Lars actually took it.
Stevens kindness tended to sway those on the wrong path in the oppisite direction. It kinda left me in awe.
"Not bad for a day's work," I said, stretching in the afternoon sun. "Though next time someone suggests a place called Dead Man's Anything, maybe we go with the arcade instead."
"Deal," Steven laughed.
As we lowered down loaded back into the pizza car, I caught Steven giving me one of those thoughtful looks he gets when he's trying to figure someone out. Kid was starting to realize I wasn't just another random person who'd wandered into his life.
"Thanks for helping back there," he said quietly as the others chatted.
"Hey, we're a team now, right?" I said. "Teams stick together, even when the plan involves carrying people up mountains."
Steven grinned. "Especially then."
The ride back was a bit different, everyone looser, more real. Specifically Lars, he wasn't trying so hard to impress anyone, and the "cool kids" seemed to actually see him now instead of looking in his direction.
The power to change was powerful for sure, maybe along with my training and all my free time I could learn a bit about it from Connie, the more I knew the less likely I'd be to mess up witha full extra life.
———
Thx for watching, plot gonna start plotting just doing a bit of set up before locking in.