The Coffin Bean

[Vanissha de la Luz]

Harry Herne

Harry was going to politely turn down (what he thought were) . Vanissha's flirtation attempts until she mentioned Hauntlywood . "Hauntlywood! They're part of the problem , dudette! ! ---"

Vanissha stopped listening after 'Dudette' because suddenly her attention was snapped to the TWO winged creatures in the room.

"OH EM GEE!!" Vanissha shot up, out of her seat, nearly knocking over poor Henry in the process. Her head looking at Dansher then again at Falconnie. Then back onto Dashner then back at Falconnie .

"You're not the same person!?" Her hands covered her mouth dramaticly, for just a moment of silence, dropping her hands to her side, she jumped on the table with Henry, nearly knocking him over a second time. "In this instant I know the TRUTH! After months of hideing who you are, Dashner, you could not choose! I understand now! The only salution would be evident ! No other way is possable!"

She pointed to them with a steady hand. "You cloned yourself to experience both genders similatniouly! " Because, twins ? Yeah right, what was this? A Normie prodution! Nope It was Monster High!  

[Kai Merha]

Kai leaned over to Harry.

"She does this a LOT." He whispered, deftly avoiding one of Vanissha's flailing heels as he did. His tail rattled in response to the near-miss. "It's beast just to let her get it out of her system."

The downside of Vanissha's ....'display' was that Kai could see Gryff rolling his eyes somewhere in the shadows of the Bean. So long as she was engaging in dramatics, he wasn't going to come over and talk to Kai and Harry. His distaste for Vanissha had been pretty evident in the past.

"So, Ros." Kai turned to his alien bluddy, trying to divert some of the attention away from Vanissha's 'table dance.' "Would you be up to doing a performance for Woestock? For a....which clawse are we representing?"  

[Roswell Grey]

"Do you know what this means?" He look momentarily depressed, "More earth money for food!!" His eyes light up at the sight of his screatcha arriving. Not even Vanissha's outa this world antics could bring this boo's mood down.

"Mmmm!" He look a large bit of his sctreacha the cheese stringing off it into his mouth, some chews later he'd finished his first slice and going on his second. But of course made sure not to talk with food in his mouth when he answerd Kia's questaions.

"Bringing back the band! That would be STELLER! It's been light years since we've fanged out. We could practice here on stage before the show too! I just have to ask the Manag-rrr."

"Clawses... Hmm.. I perfrome to bring joy to Earth. Up lift the spirtis of Monster High." He didn't really undstand the question so he hoped this was ok.  

[Harry Herne]

Harry nodded knowingly at Kai.

"Typical Hauntlywood sheeople. Always concerned with how monsters look and their own whims. On to ghoulier things! Of course your band can play at Woestock! I loved local, indie boo-sic. We'll also need so bigger names to make everyone know we are serious about the fearstival."

Harry produced a scrap of paper and a pen from his monsterbag.

"The Boo would be a good choice. Bone Jaez, Bald Mountatin, amd The Jimi Hexdrix Hexperience too. Maybe we could invite a normie band or two. To be inclusive...."  

[Jewels Underne]

Jewels cringed away from Vanissha, trying to come up with just the right zinging reply to her comments, but nothing worked.
Thankfully, the invisible ghoul's attention span was frightfully short and soon enough Vanissha was hurling screaming accusations at another monster.

Jewels let out a soft sigh of relief and edged away from flailing semi transparent limbs.

"i uh.. i'm n.. notsureit'sentirely realistic to.. " She tried to interject to the boo's hexcited listing of bands they could get to perform. Sadly they were't listening,

Jewels frowned and coughed meaningfully.

"I think you may be putting the mine cart before the pit pony"  

[Falconnie Hawke]

"Thanks," Falconnie said to Dashner and he slid off her stool and she sat beside Marceline once again. "So, what happened?"

Meanwhile...

Dashner looked around, and then his orange eyes locked onto Roswell Grey. How long had he been without seeing him? It had felt like forever. Dashner suddenly exclaimed, "Roswell Grey!!!" As he ran up and tackled him like he would his own brother. unaware that Roswell was in a conversation.  

[Marceline LaGhede]

Marceline had clutched her hat and pulled it down over her eyes, wishing desperately that she was Invisibilly or Vanissha for a moment. Meanwhile Dashner was making small talk with the ceiling next to her, until his sister returned and he walked away. Char-lene, who had been preparing to close the cafe and also eavesdropping on their conversation, grabbed the brim of Marceline's hat and nearly yanked it off her head.

"You need to listen to me right now, ghoul." Char-lene hissed as her flame hair ignited into a blazing fire. orange] "That boo? You don't owe him anything. If he can't get over you enough to be your friend and stand by you even when you have a boofriend, he's not worth your time. You're too smart a ghoul to let him walk all over you and I'm sick of seeing him get the beast of you!"

"Hey!!" Falconnie squawked. "I'll have you know that's my brother you're talking about!"

"Then maybe you should get him to lighten up." Char-lene spat. "That kid acts like the world is against him and I don't think he realizes how much he hurts other monsters."

Falconnie shrugged, unsure of what to say or do, just as...

Atomica Servo

"This belongs to you!" She informed Marceline. "School records state she is YOUR doom-mate. That means YOU get to deal with her. Tootle-boo!"

Atomica Servo plopped the brightly-colored Pegasus ghoul down on the stool next to Marceline and Falconnie; Marceline sipped her scream tea, biting down on the rim of the mug and wishing again to be invisible.

"So I guess you're our doommate? I'm Falconnie Hawke! I saw you've met my twin brother Dashner, already... and this is Marceline LaGhede!"

"Hi..." Marceline murmured, her teeth still clenched on her mug. Great, Dashner's new ghoulfriend was doomming with us, she thought as her stomach turned in knots.  

[Peggy Springwell]

Peggy grinned widely "hihihihihi. Have you tried this stuff?" she held out her steaming mug of espresso.

"it'soooooogood. Oh My Ghoul, we're DOOMIES. Somuchfunwe'llbethebestoffriendsIjustknowityay!"  

[Dashner Hawke]

"I-It's nice to meet you.." Falconnie nervously smiled, looking back at Marceline. Dashner came up behind Peggy, tapping her shoulder.

"Hey, do you wanna go now? I can show your way back to the Doomitories when we're done too, I'm sure your bags are already in your room." Peggy nodded eagerly, practically skipping out of the Coffin Bean. Dashner followed, smiling to himself.

Slowly, monsters finished their gatherings and they were slowly leaving. Falconnie and Marceline stayed awhile, before Falconnie spoke up. "Wanna go back to the doom? It seems like you need some rest." Marceline tried to insist, but Falconnie walked with her out of the Coffin bean, talking about the latest book she had read.  

[Melody Nocturna]

Despite the cold chill in the air, and the intense dryness in her scales, Melody adored winter. Especially the warm drinks and seeing friends.

She walked into the Coffin Bean and waited in line to order, everybody and their boothers wanted to come in and order something on a cold day like this, so to pass the time, she messaged Roswell.

Roswell Grey

Roswell,
Going to get some warm drinks at the Coffin Bean. Want to join? I'm still shivering from the snowball you threw!  

[Marceline LaGhede]

While nearly the rest of the school was wrapped up in the events of the pep rally -- and the plot for revenge -- Marceline huddled in an armchair near the Coffin Bean's faux fireplace with a mug of scream tea in her lap. She was still reeling from the events earlier that day...

Flashback: After The Food Fright

Just as Marceline was turning the corner toward the creepateria, ready to apologize to Rory for acting so irrationally, her iCoffin gave a furious rumble in her purse. She dug it out, to be greeted by the latest from Spectra and the Ghostly Gossip!

The Ghostly Gossip!

HUGE SCANDAL ALERT! Tombcoming King Rory Bludworth and new ghoul Arillena Faedathanna spend lunchtime together underneath a lunch table! Some say it was probably to avoid all the flying food, but I say there's more than meets the eye! After all, where was Rory's ghoulfriend, Marceline LaGhede during all of this?!

She bit her lip... maybe she wasn't thinking so irrationally after all; and this proved it! As if on cue, the creepateria doors opened and Rory and Arillena emerged side by side.

"Oh, hey Marceline!" Rory grinned. "We were wondering where you've been! You just missed a --"

"Don't 'hey Marceline' me, manster!" Marceline spat, raising her iCoffin to his face. "Under th' lurch table with 'nother ghoul!? What hexactly were you two doin' under there??"

"Marceline, it's not what you think--" Rory began to protest.

"Don't you dare tell me what t'think, Rorrim Bludworth!! In fact, let me tell you what I do think. I think you're a liar, and a cad, and I curse the day I met you!!!"

Marceline raised her hand, intending to slap Rory across the face; but she couldn't bring herself to do it. After all, what if she cracked his cheek in the process? But still, this moment needed a solid punctuation, and Marceline's eyes fell upon Arillena's lunchbox.

"Can I see that a sec?" She asked rhetorically, snatching it from the elfen ghoul's hands. After opening it, she grabbed the small cake that was inside and shoved it into Rory's face before storming off.

She sighed, staring blankly into the artificial flames and bringing her mug up to her lips. She wondered if maybe she was a bit too rash, but how could she deny the proof?

Her iCoffin buzzed on the cushion next to her. Another hext message from Rory, 56 in all. She hadn't read a single one and didn't plan on it.

"Isn't there a graveball game tonight that you were supposed to go to?" Char-lene flopped down into the chair across from Marceline's, swinging a damp mop rag in the air. Droplets of water flung off the rag and spritzed Marceline in the face, and turned to steam as they hit Char-lene's flaming faux-hawk. "I mean, wasn't that why you had a day off today? Or did you decide to ditch the whole school spirits thing and brood here all night?"

"Char--ack!... First've all, quit it with that rag. Ain't you supposed to be workin' the counter?"

"Yes, for aaaaaall the customers we have tonight..." Char-lene clicked her tongue sarcastically, and waved her hand at the empty cafe. "Graveball game tonight, remember? This place always un-dies when there's a big game on. So what's got your wrappings in a twist anyway? Boofriend dump you?"

"I think I may have dumped him..." Marceline hung her head, staring intently at the bubbles of foamed milk in her tea.

Char-lene rolled her eyes. "So, what. You're gonna... drown your sorrows in scream tea until we close, then go back to your doomitory and wrap up in blankets and cry to Gore-issey's discography until you fall asleep? Is that your plan?"

"No, I--" She began.

"Listen, Marce. You're a smart ghoul. One of the smartest I know. You shouldn't waste your tears on a manster who is too busy making googy-eyes at other ghouls when you're not in arm's reach."

"Wait, how did'ya know about--"

"Monsters talk... that and I follow the Ghostly Gossip..." Char-lene looked a bit embarrassed, but pressed on. "The point is, you're better than that. If I were you I'd go to that graveball game and cozy up with a manster who actually deserves you. If nothing else, it'll make that boo of yours so jealous he'll realize what he took for granted and try to win you back."

"Char, that's toads not me..." Marceline wrinkled her brow. "I didn't think you were all'at into the 'ffairs of the heart anyway."

"Hey, I've got a heart under all this fire." Char-lene sneered. "And this heart's been broken more times than I can count... it's still working, for the most part; I still can love..." She trailed off as the thought of a hippogriff boo crossed her mind. "Ah, erm... my point is. I did what I had to do to get over it. And so will you."

Marceline paused, thinking about what Char-lene had said. "... thank you. I'm not sure yet if I'm gonna go t'the game, but I think I've been able t'put a lot int'a perspect've."  

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

Roaming through the Coffin Bean, a sophisticated river monstress took out her compact to powder her nose. The mirror in it looked dull and frazzled (not that she noticed). On the other side of that mirror like all mirrors, was the Mirrorverse. Mirrorverse was the dimensional location of the other side of all mirrors, throughout the world, hanging up in inky blackness like stars in the sky. From the location of that river monstress's pocket mirror, zooming through the darkness, existed a large, Victorian-style manor. Through a dark hallway inside and across a lonely, quiet corridor, was Rory Bludworth's bedroom.

Rory sat on his bed wrapped up in blankets listening to Gore-issey's discography waiting to cry himself to sleep.

Like you do.

"Oh, Bone-a Drag, all of your songs know how I feel." Rory told a nice, shiny CD as he popped it into the doom box next to his bed. "Why? Why did she dump me?"

"You got dumped?" Rory nearly jumped out of his bed at the raspy-sounding voice of Hagetha Mistie breaking into his tragic, jilted-lover's-reverie. "HAH!"

Rory slumped even lower underneath his pile of blankets. Sometimes he forgot that the rotund old swamp witch Hagetha Mistie wasn't living in the Mirrorverse as his mother's personal assistant because she wanted to, but because she had broken witch law and this was her punishment. Therefore, Hagetha often went out of her way to savor anymonster else's misery whenever she could.

"Why'd your skinny stick of a ghoul dump ya?" Hagetha eased herself in from the hallway, plopping down on the end of Rory's bed and abandoning the basket of laundry that Rory's mother had apparently asked her to fold. "She find a better looking kid? One not all cracked up and goofy looking?"

"No! I-I mean, I don't think so..." Rory replied. Hagetha cackled a bit more.

"No wonder your ghoulfriend dumped you. Did you know that you have cupcake all over your face?" Hagetha asked him, giving him the once-over with one fat, bloodshot eye. "Is that what all the kids are doing these days? Wearing food instead of eating it? What a waste!"

"Oh, that...I guess I forgot. Marceline did that." Rory traced the sweet remnants running down his cheek. Such a poetic, pathetic visage! "When she...wh-when she t-told me..."

"Ah, the old dump-n-mash." Hagetha nodded sagely. Rory's bed creaked dangerously under her massive weight. "I used to have beaus lined up around the block. In fact, that's what they called me - Haggy-From-The-Block. My milkquake brought ALL the boos to the yard, you know what I'm saying! And if a boy displeased me, I smashed his face into a pie, a cake, a souffle...whatever I had handy at the time. It's nice to hear that ghouls are sticking to the old traditions of getting rid of a boo."

Rory started sniffling again.

"All I did was hide under a table during a food fright! I didn't know it was going to lead to her breaking up with me!"

"Well, that's what you get for being a coward." Hagetha leaned forward, causing more dangerous creaking and popping sounds from the boards under Rory's bed. "A ghoul doesn't want some sad, fragile boo who's scared of a few crumbs! She wants a MANSTERLY guy. A boo who sees a food fright, feels the battle-lust rise in his throat, and dives in, chin-first!"

Rory rubbed his cracked chin.

"I don't think that's what caused her to break up with me-"

"Ah, whadda you know?" Hagetha asked. "If you knew what your ghoulfriend was thinking, she wouldn't have broken up with you!"

"That....that's probably true..." Rory agreed.

"Now, you listen to me. I don't go out of my way to help out obnoxious ickle brats, especially ones that helped to foil my brilliant, world-conquering revenge schemes, but you're so pathetic I can't help myself. You need to show this ghoul that you're not a quivering whelp who's scared of every last little thing."

"But...I am a quivering whelp who's scared of every last little thing." Rory pointed out. Hagetha snorted.

"Yeah, but SHE doesn't have to know that. Aren't you supposed to be going to some big graveball game tonight?"

"I thought I'd skip..." Rory replied. Hagetha hopped up off his bed, nearly causing it to ricochet him across the room.

"Skip? And let her know that she got to you? Boy, you kids today, you're the worst at relationships, you know that?! You gotta show up there and show her what she's missing! Show her that you're a tough, no-nonsense, brute of a manster! Have ghouls hanging off your arms! Drip confidence and machismo!"

"Machismo?"

"You get your shiny butt to that game, you pick the first ghoul on your right as soon as you see Marceline, and you plant a big wet one on that new ghoul. Watch her bony face turn as green with envy as her hair!"

"Shouldn't I ask a ghoul permission before kissing her?" Rory quavered.

"What?! No! You're showing her that you take what you want! You're a strong, impulsive manster! Ghouls melt under your smoldering gaze! Here. Stand up!"

Hagetha reached out a hammy arm and yanked Rory to a standing position.

"Pretend this lamp is Marceline." Hagetha pointed at a standing lamp in his room. "Should be easy...They have about the same profile."

"O...okay?"

"Now, I'm some dazzlingly gore-geous ghoul who's sitting and watching this graveball game. I'm bored because graveball is stupid boring with about ten seconds of action between twenty minutes of boos in tight pants shuffling around each other. Now. What are you going to do?"

"Sit down quietly and watch the game?"

"NO, you idiot! You're going to glance at Marceline-"

"The lamp?"

"I SAID IT'S MARCELINE, you're going to glance at her, make eye contact, flash her a daring smile and then scoop up this gore-geous bored ghoul and make her night by planting a big one on her lips. Now, do it!"

Rory looked at the lamp. He looked at Hagetha, who cracked a huge, yellow smile underneath her long, pointy nose. He gulped.

"Come on, scoop me up and kiss me like I've never been kissed before!"

Rory took a deep breath. Being broken up from Marceline was easily the worst thing to ever happen to him in his un-life.