#yes merlon is also going to be an Absolute Disaster hope you're looking forward to that

[spmcomic]

27 on the drabble list with timpani and anyone else of your choice?

27. “I don’t want to feel like this tomorrow.”

 Plates and utensils clinked against each other at the crowded tables of Saffron’s little restaurant. Merlon slouched back in his seat, drumming his fork thoughtfully against a slice of puffy bread as he contemplated his spicy soup. His mustache flowed and billowed as he twitched his lip underneath.

Tippi clambered around the little plate of glitter and confetti that Saffron had set on the table for her, poking and prodding at the clouds of auras crowded into the diner at its peak hour.

That’s Skeet Azure... He’s here to blow his money after yet another long day of doing nothing... Max HP: 130, max FP: 4.

That’s Chap Green... He’s thinking of writing a novel… based entirely on the last book that got him excited, of course. Max HP: 155, max FP: 3. He’s ordered a new dish, tonight. Maybe he is branching out, after all…

That’s Lucy Muffy… She broke up with her boyfriend today. Max HP: 120, max FP: 20. She wanted the new year to open a new chapter of her life, so she cut her romantic attachment… he understood completely.

That’s Nora Lara-

“Tippi,” Merlon said again. Tippi jolted and swung her antennae in his direction. Merlon’s eyes narrowed a fraction, then returned to their listless mope. “I was speaking, you know.”

Tippi adjusted her balance to more fully face him. His steely blue aura sat under the thick shroud of a jittering, colorless cloak. “Sorry… You were saying?”

Merlon stared at his hand. “Do you think I should… try to best Saffron’s Special again? I fear it may be the only way to win her attention.”

“Hm…” Tippi fluttered, kicking up some loose bits of colorless, translucent confetti. “Have you considered, um, just telling her how you feel…? That sounds like the most direct way to get her to talk to you…”

Merlon scoffed and dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

“You don’t have to be weird about it, you know…”

That earned her a blustering grumble. “You don’t understand romance, Tippi. The dance of it, the battle of wits-” He gestured as he spoke, and flinched when he tapped against his spoon in the soup and nearly launched the broth across the table.

Her antennae perked with interest. “Can you tell me about it? How does romance work?”

Merlon slumped back again, expression dark. “If you make your move before proving yourself, Tippi… your opponent, er, I mean, the object of your affections, she will not trust in your ability to be a proper partner. You must make grand gestures, displays of your prowess, that will impress the love into her.”

Tippi thought that over for a moment. Her wings quivered. “That sounds… pretty weird, Merlon.”

“If you fail to impress your conquest, then she will reject you,” Merlon continued, over the second half of Tippi’s sentence. “And you will never get another chance, because you have revealed your inability to be patient, or to play hard to get. You will have revealed it for all of Flipside to see. And then no one will take you seriously as the town’s shaman. Impatience is a simply unacceptable character flaw, in a partner and in a leader.”

Tippi waited for him to finish his lecture before she spoke. “So… if you want to be a boyfriend, you have to be a leader first?”

“Exactly.” Merlon decisively grabbed at his spoon, his appetite incensed. “I cannot fail. I must be absolutely certain it is the right time to make my move. If I fail… Well. I will become unable to perform my duties, I will lose all the respect I have fought so hard to win from these folk for the last five decades, and I will lose Saffron’s affections. I will become a loser. I do not want to feel like this tomorrow, and so I will not ask.”

“… But-”

“Tomorrow is New Years’ Eve. If I feel like this tomorrow, I will get terribly drunk, my dear. Let us attend the festivities with clear minds and clear consciences.”

“That sounds like a plan, yeah…” Tippi plucked at the confetti on her plate, watching the flakes drift around the plate’s flat surface. “Thanks for taking the time to teach me all of that.”

“Of course, Tippi. And thank you for indulging an anxious old man…” Merlon chuckled, and then twitched when he spilled the soup out of his spoon onto his mustache.