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She was definitely different to say the least.
After finally making it out of jail, the two boys had spent their days trying to convince Elder Kettle to let them have their freedom back. Contrary to what they originally thought, their caretaker did hold his end of the argument, and actually enforced the fact that he had grounded them for breaking his glasses.
Reasonably so, Mugman thought. It did cost a lot to fix, and it was entirely their fault, but it started to get incredibly boring being cooped up in the house doing chores all day. Literally all day.
"Eh, I give it a couple'a days, tops. We'll be outta here in no time." Cuphead told his brother, who asked him how he thought it was going to go.
"We'll see, I guess." Mugman answered him, not believing a single word.
And "see" they would.
They "saw" the paint that they used to fix the fence. They "saw" a mixture of lemon, vinegar, and water in a spray bottle as they cleaned all the windows in the house. And they even "saw" a shovel that they used to scoop up the "horsey-sized" present that the goat had left in the house.
So they didn't have much time to think about Chalice at all, and they didn't really know her anyway.
It was very strange though.
They constantly complained that nothing interesting ever happened, and then suddenly this random girl that they had never seen before shows up, and they have more fun than they've probably ever had in their entire life.
She was nice and someone their age. She didn't make fun of them, or ignore them, or run away once she actually started talking to them.
(Although she did almost beat them up, but that's not the point.)
Something just clicked, it couldn't be explained. It was like a puzzle piece was missing.
…Not that it ended in a happy way…
And this was what confused Mugman so much.
She did like them, right? She wasn't just using them to eventually get something out of it. That couldn't be it. It didn't make any sense. Chalice seemed lonely, it was obvious that she had been by herself for a long time.
Maybe even her whole life.
So it stung that she just up and left. When they woke up, she was just gone. No explanation, no helping them get out, nothing. She could've at least stuck around to take the blame with them for something that SHE got THEM into.
Cuphead and Mugman didn't even know what she was trying to do!
"A test", she called it. The way she mentioned a surprise if they did what she asked. It piqued their interest! They couldn't help it!
Yet they were the ones who went to jail.
And Cuphead cried.
So it wasn't like either of them could pretend that it hadn't scared and upset both of them, as much as the other brother constantly denied that any of that was true.
Cuphead may have been sad at the time, but he got over it really quickly and then decided right then and there that he did want to be friends with Chalice. So of course Mugman wanted to go along with it, but there were three issues that he needed to solve first.
Was this all a misunderstanding?
Is Chalice a good person they can trust?
And where was she?