Chapter Text
Ceroba laid slumped against her manors wall, her hollow eyes blankly stared at the wall ahead of her. She hadn’t eaten in a long time. Or drank anything, either. How long had it been since Starlo last visited, hours, days…? Did it really matter?
“Failure… I’m a disgrace. I deserve to feel this pain.” She muttered to herself, her head tilting slightly, as she threatened to fall asleep.
A loud knock on her door jolted her back to her senses. She scrambled up to her paws and stumbled towards her door. She peered through her key-hole, a nervous looking Starlo was awkwardly fiddling with his hat outside. A ghost of a smile crept onto Ceroba’s face, as she reached up to fix her hair, attempting to tidy herself. After a few moments of struggling with her messy hair, she opened the door.
“Ceroba! Damn- You look.. Uh, well- Don’t worry about that, in fact, don’t worry about anything!” Starlo invited himself inside, Ceroba could tell his cheery attitude was being put on solely for her sake, but she didn’t care.
“I’m… Fine, Starlo. You don’t need to worry about me. Kanako-” Before she could continue, Starlo raised a gloved finger to her lips.
“Let’s not talk about Kanako, alright? Sitting around here wallowing about something outta your control ain’t gonna do nothin’ good for you! Hell Ceroba, I’m real worried about Kanako myself, but-b-but… Dang it Ceroba, ya can’t just rot away here!” Starlo sounded concerned, staring up at Ceroba. She was startled by his forwardness, although she stared down at him, saying nothing. “I-I… Look Ceroba, I just… Want you to enjoy yourself a little. You ain’t done nothing but sit around here for weeks. I’m sure that royal scientist can make a miracle happen!”
“I can only hope.” Ceroba’s voice shook, “I-I… I think I should lie down Starlo, it might be best for you to come back later.” Ceroba began walking towards her room, before Starlo’s gloved hand shot out, grabbing her wrist.
“W-Wait, Ceroba.” Star stuttered, his western accent faltering for just a moment, “I… Think you should come to the Wild East today, I- I mean, my posse’n I organized a little thing for ya. A uh- Performance, like- Argh, I think you might really e-enjoy it if you- If you… Joined in, maybe?” Starlo at first started off strong, before his words trailed off into a mumble.
Ceroba paused, turning around.
“Join in…? You don’t just want me to watch?” Ceroba was confused.
“Y-Yeah, listen Ceroba, I know it sounds crazy bu-but roleplay can really help you… Distract yourself from stuff going on in the real world! I-I think it might be- Could be fun for you! Good for you, even! Just… try it this once, for me - Please?” Starlo’s genuine approach - and the fact that he had seemingly broken character completely took Ceroba by surprise. She thought for a moment, her eyes cast downwards, before looking back up towards Starlo.
“I- I… Alright, Star. For you.” Ceroba forced a smile to her lips, and Starlo’s face lit up with joy.
“Just you wait Ceroba, you’ll LOVE roleplay!” Starlo spun around, stomping out of Ceroba’s home, “Now, we gonna mosey on up outta here or what, partner?” Star re-adopted his western accent, smiling up at Ceroba. Ceroba smiled back, a genuine smile, despite the sadness she felt… She was comforted by the fact that Star would be willing to do so much for her.
“Watch out, Virgil’s getting away!” Moray shouted, pointing at the rapidly retreating lizard.
“Gwahaha, you can’t catch me, FICKLE-FIVE! For all your weapons are now MINE!” Virgil let out a maniacal laugh, as he made off with a very large bag full of a variety of weapons slung over his shoulder.
“D-Dang it, if only there was one of us who didn’t get their weapon stolen!” Starlo clenched his hand into a trembling fist, before spinning around, unballing their fist and pointing towards Ceroba. “CEROBA! Use that repeater I gave ya to shoot that bastard, don’t let ‘em get away!”
Ceroba sighed, she held a rather fancy looking repeater in her hands, she wondered how much it cost Starlo to buy it. Too much to be wasted on her. She now also donned a simple brown flop hat, to truly cement her as a “cowgirl”.
“Alright…” She tiredly remarked, raising the rifle up and towards the retreating Virgil. She peered down the ironsights, Starlo talked endlessly to her about guns when they were children, so it wasn’t like she was clueless of how to use this thing… She lined up her shot, moving her finger from the trigger guard, to the trigger. She gently squeezed the trigger, and a single pellet was fired out from the repeater. The recoil took her off guard, causing her to take a step backwards. The pellet flew through the air, slamming into Virgil’s ankle, and sending them careening into the dirt. Their bag of stolen weapons hit the ground, the contents within it spilling out onto the ground.
“N-No, Noooo! My weapons!” Virgil cried, as the rest of the Feisty Five rushed towards him, surrounding him.
“Looks like you won’t be needing this anymore, huh chump?” Ed grabbed Virgil, raising him up by the back of his shirt.
“I’ll be taking my cards back…” Ace mumbled, scooping up his cards from the ground.
“Hey- He was using MY bag to carry the weapons!” Mooch grabbed the bag, letting out a groan as she noticed a hole in it. “Moray’s rapier went straight through it…”
“Well hang on now pardners, the one to put away this dastardly fella shouldn’t be us- But the person who caught ‘em, West-Fire!” Starlo spun around, a very proud smile on his face as he motioned towards Ceroba with his free hand.
“You know, you were a pretty good shot.” Ed admitted.
“And her name’s so cool!” Mooch added on.
“You’ve got to be one of the best shots I’ve seen, West.” Ace shuffled the deck of cards in his hands.
“You’re certainly talented, I believe it’s best if you take this one away yourself.” Moray offered the now tied up Virgil to Ceroba, who stared dumbly at the group ahead of her. Starlo watched her intently, a hopeful smile on his face.
This… Was- Wrong. It was wrong, wrong to feel… This, this stupid game they were playing, the compliments she received. They felt good. It was… Fun- But she shouldn’t be having fun, she should be- She should be…
Didn’t Star say roleplay was a way to take her mind off of things? To escape for a while?
Maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with escaping. Just for a little bit. Just to feel… Something other than this dread and self-loathing. Anything.
“O-Of uh, of course, partner!” Ceroba very awkwardly tried to adopt a “western” accent as she took Virgil in her hands, failing miserably. Maybe… This wasn’t so bad after all.
She briefly looked over at Starlo, who looked the happiest she had seen him in… Well, a long time.
“I’m thinkin’ we might have a new recruit for the feisty five, fellas!” Starlo shouted out to the group, who all seemed excited, happy at the prospect of Ceroba being around more- Or er, she guessed… West-Fire? That name was a little stupid. Oh well.
“West Fire, we gotta figure out a way to stop that train before it hits that school!” Starlo pointed towards a monster wearing a cardboard box with a train drawn on it. They were walking towards a cardboard cutout of a school.
“Not a problem, North Star- I’ve got a plan.” Ceroba’s voice remained level, despite the small smile on her face. She now wore flared jeans, another gift from Starlo. She really hoped he didn’t spend too much on her, she wasn’t going to wear all this once Kanako… It was best not to think about that.
“Well, let’s hear it- Or well, see it!” Starlo questioned, only for his question to be answered as Ceroba reached towards his whip, yanking it off of his belt.
“M-My premium lasso!” Starlo gasped. Ceroba begun swinging the lasso around her head as she ran forwards, she had seen Starlo do this a thousand times, what was stopping her from giving it a go? She threw the lasso towards the train barrelling towards the school, full of innocent children! It wrapped around the train’s engine. She braced herself, digging her boots into the sand and yanking back on the rope, the train slowly grinding to a stop, after dragging her forwards a fair bit.
“Ceroba- I think you’re hurtin’ the uh, “train”.” Starlo motioned towards the monster wearing the cardboard cutout, which had fallen over, still lasso’d by Starlo’s stolen rope.
“Oh! Sorry.” Ceroba snapped back to her senses, briefly having lost herself in an imaginary world. It felt kind of nice. She unwrapped the monster, helping them back to their feet before turning back to Starlo.
“Thanks, Starlo- I…” Ceroba began, only to be cutoff by Starlo.
“Thank me?! Hell, I should be thankin’ you West-Fire, you saved the day yet again!” Starlo moved to place a hand on Ceroba’s shoulder, hesitating for a moment, before managing to work up the courage to actually place his gloved hand on her. A genuine, warm smile spread across Ceroba’s face, as a giggle escaped from her lips.
“Well, it uhm- Ain’t no trouble, sheriff Star.” She was getting better at the accent, at least.
At the sound of her laughter, Starlo’s face became very, very red.
“Well well well, if it isn’t the Sheriff’s new DEPUTY. You’n the Feisty SIX won’t be locking me up again!” Virgil mocked the six monsters standing ahead of him, before pointing his finger towards West-Fire, “You won’t get lucky again, West-Fire!” Virgil cackled, as he reached for his holster.
Ceroba now wore a rugged looking leather jacket alongside a red shirt, her kimono having been completely discarded. A small shadow was cast onto her face from the way she had come to wear her flop-hat, similar to Star’s. Most noticeably, there was a smile on her face.
“Think again, buster!” Ceroba shouted, raising her repeater up towards Virgil, only to feel a pellet slam into their shoulder, causing them to let out a yelp, and let go of their repeater.
“West Fire! Gargh, you’ll pay for that Virgil, just you wait!” Starlo shook a balled up fist in Virgil’s general direction, while the cackling lizard ran away from the group.
“Uhm, you okay Ceroba?” Starlo mumbled under his breath, noticing her rub her shoulder.
“Star- Don’t call me Ceroba when we’re out here!” She hissed under her breath, before clearing her throat. “Yeah, I’m doin’ just fine!” Her smile returned to her face, as she picked up her repeater.
“O-Okay…” North Star mumbled.
“Don’t worry North Star, we’ll get ‘em next time!” Ed stomped towards the two, Moray followed close behind.
“Mhm, if only he hadn’t focused his fire on our best shot. We would’ve caught him in a flash with West-Fire’s precise aim!” Moray over-dramatically lamented to the group.
“Hey, don’t forget who the real fella in charge here is, it’s North Star! I’m just his fine ol’ deputy. I’m sure he’s a better shot than me anyway.” Ceroba- West Fire grabbed her friends shoulder, pulling them in towards her to Starlo’s shock, a blush rapidly spreading across his face.
“I-I… O-Of course!” He seemed extremely flustered.
“Welp, I’m headin’ back home, you guys wanna come do some Aerobics with me?” Mooch asked the group, before she began wandering towards their home. As did the rest of the Feisty Five, who sang out a series of excited yes’s. Apart from Starlo, and Ceroba.
“So, Ceroba- I mean West Fire, you’ve been feeling a lot better recently, right?” Starlo awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, looking over at Ceroba.
“I’ve been feelin’ dandy recently Star- All thanks to you’n this silly game.” She giggled, the sound of her laughter was better than any drug. At least to Starlo it was.
“I-I’m really glad ya think that, Ceroba, and I’m glad you’re doing better! Anyway, I’ve been meaning to give you this, it came in the mail for ya today.” Starlo reached into his pocket, producing a letter. He offered it to West Fire, and she took it.
West Fire frowned at the name it was addressed to, Ceroba. Oh- That was her. Her name was so bland compared to West Fire. Ceroba opened the letter, reading the contents. Her expression became panicked, as she continued reading.
“K-Kanako… Un-Unstable? Possibility of recovery-” She sounded utterly horrified, her smile completely wiped from her face.
Starlo watched wide eyed, he bit his lip. He had enjoyed their time together, in fact enjoyed would be an understatement, although reality always came crashing back-
Ceroba crumpled the letter up into a ball, and tossed it behind her.
“Ah, we’ll worry about that some other time, North Star!” A wide, almost manic smile was spread across West Fire’s face, her eyes were wide, just barely visible from the shadow cast by her hat.
“Ce-Cero-” Starlo sounded concerned, moving towards his friend, only for West Fire to let out an offended scoff.
“Ceroba?! I ain’t ever heard of no darn lame-o lady called Ceroba, now let’s head back to the others, we got things to do, North Star!” West Fire stomped away from Starlo.
“Guys? I’m starting to worry about Ceroba.” Starlo spoke to Ed and Moray, the lot of them were currently alone in their home.
“You mean West Fire.” Moray corrected them.
“That- That’s the thing, she ain’t even responding to her own name anymore! Hell, I asked her about Kanako and she just laughed! Said she was “too young” for kids! She’s really starting to worry me fellas, I-I don’t think this is… Healthy for her anymore.” North Star awkwardly scratched his forearm.
“I hear ya boss, but the townsfolk love her. You should try talking to her again sometime.” Ed offered a more rational response. Starlo could only let out a groan.
“I… Hope I can get through to her, dang it.” Starlo mumbled.
“Well well well, what do we have here, a little ol’ HUMAN coming wandering into MY town?!” West Fire stomped towards the small human, her wide toothy smile on full display for them to see, alongside their monster-friend.
“W-Who are you?” The blue-bird nervously asked.
“Me?! I’m West Fire, Deputy to Sheriff North Star! I think the rest’o this town’d be real interested in seeing you, little ‘un.” West Fires wide eyes glared down at the human, who seemed to grow increasingly anxious the longer they were stared at.