Chapter Text
In an unnoticed alleyway one morning, Star was sleeping on a broken and tattered mattress, dreaming of a memory from long ago. She was about 2 years old in this memory and stacking chairs on top of each other to get a cookie jar in a high up cabinet. After about 20 minutes of stacking and balancing, Star finally got to the cookie jar and climbed down the tower with it. She snuck it into a nearby floor cabinet where teacup and mugman were and gave them both some cookies while taking most of the cookies for herself. Just then, Elder Kettle opened the floor cabinet and grabbed Star by her handle, giving her a stern look. Star couldn't remember his face, but she still remembers what it felt like in that moment. The dream always seems to end here, and Star stirs awake, her back sore. She must have slept on one of the springs poking out of the mattress. She gets up and stretches, rubbing her back before lifting up a corner of the mattress to pick up her handle that has broken off years ago. She stares at it for a moment, saddened that this memory she was just dreaming of is no longer her reality. Star places her handle into one of her pockets before walking out of the alleyway and into the crowded town. As she walks by a fruit stand, she steals an apple to eat for breakfast without being noticed thanks to her stealth and sneakiness. Her actions wouldn’t have been noticed anyways however, since all eyes looking at her were drawn to the broken handle back at the back of her head, clearing away anyone in her path who noticed, as they were all disgusted and shocked.
During her walk, Star only got to take a single bite of the apple before being slammed in the face by the glass door of a shop, dropping the apple and falling to the floor for a bit, dazed, before getting back up. She looked up to see who had hit her with the door and saw two cups, one dressed in red and one in blue. They looked oddly familiar to Star. It was on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn't place it. The two strange cups had begun to walk the opposite direction to Star, and she quickly decided to follow them. Maybe then she would be able to realize who these people are to her and if they’ve met before. After all, what else could she do? Mope about being homeless in an alleyway like she always does? She followed closely behind these two for about a mile before they entered what seemed to be their home. Star felt wave after wave of nostalgia and familiarity, compelling her to get closer to the house. While carefully approaching, she remained hidden in the trees, trying to get a closer look. She eventually gets so close that she's just outside of the fence surrounding the house.
Star peeks over into the front yard, spotting the two cups in the window. She still can't place why he knows this place so well or where she even knows it from. After a few moments of trying to remember, she sees elder kettle through one of the windows asleep on a sofa, making her realize this was her old home. She recognized those two cups as Cuphead and Mugman. She was so close to her own home for so many years, so many long years of waiting and looking, and it was only a mile in the opposite direction she kept searching. How painfully ironic. She immediately hopped over the gate and ran to the door, about to throw it open, only to hesitate. She was so close to her home for so many years, but she hadn't found it. Elder kettle hasn't found her. Did he even try to search for her? Were there any missing posters put up? Star hadn't seen any, and they were sure to have been put up for more than a mile if elder kettle had ever cared. As these thoughts and reasons came flooding into Star’s head, she grew more and more angry and resentful. She had grown too used to the alleyway, so used to looking in one direction and waiting for elder kettle to find her one day, she didn't think to search in this direction since it's not the direction the 2 year old version of her remembered. Elder kettle would have surely found her, given both of their locations and where Star had gotten lost all those years ago.
Star stood still for several moments, her hand hovering over the door handle before moving it away and walking back towards the fence. She hopped back over the gate, deciding she was done waiting for kettle to find her, done waiting to be saved, and fully believing he didn't truly care about her. She slowly made her way back to the alleyway, processing these new thoughts, and once she made it back to her ‘home’, she began to boil over in a fit of rage, tearing up her already tattered and dirty mattress on the floor, kicking the broken radio against the wall, before taking her handle out of her pocket. She stared at it for a few seconds, hesitating, before throwing it against the wall as well, not even bothering to see if it shattered or not. After her half hour long meltdown, Star collapsed against the mattress, exhausted from destroying nearly everything in the alleyway, then looking up to see where the sun was. It was now mid-day. She felt empty, devoid of purpose, and with nothing to hope for now. All she felt she had now was King Dice’s radio show on the now shattered radio of hers. Star decided she would make it work for now and began fixing the radio. After an hour or two, garbled speaking could be heard, but it was still understandable. She listened closely, and to her surprise, she heard one of the best things she could have heard at that moment. A purpose. A hope. “heeeELLOOOO LISTENERS! Would you like a chance to PERMANENTLY co–host with THE king dice himself? That's right, YOU, With the man himself, up on a stage and all over the radio! Well, how about it, folks? If you're interested, then come on down to the local theatre in town tomorrow morning at 9 AM, where King Dice will be judging your auditions! But beware folks, he's going to be VERRYYY picky about who wins, so good luck to you!”
Star was shocked at this announcement, going from feeling empty to ecstatic. Since it was already getting late, she decided he would go to sleep right at that moment so as to get plenty of rest before auditions. The next day, she tidied up her appearance as much as she could and ran to the local town theatre, which was conveniently close to her alleyway. She took her place in the quickly forming line and stood against the wall, trying to keep her happiness at this opportunity contained so as to not make a scene in public.
“Disgusting hobo” someone dressed in dominantly purple clown attire stated, staring at them with disgust and annoyance. Star was about to start a fight with this clown, but instead thought for a moment.
“Good point.” she said, then punching the stranger in the face, knocking them unconscious and stealing their clown clothes, giving the stranger her old tattered ‘hobo’ clothes in place.
After a long wait, and what to Star could gather were several rejections since lots of people came out crying or fuming, it was Star's turn to go and audition. But the stage fright Star never even knew existed kicked in, and she was frozen in place. After a few moments, he was dragged in with a cane and pushed onto the stage by a staff member. Right when Star was pulled onto stage, the lights shut off, and a spotlight was aimed at her, blinding her for a moment as she instinctively brought an arm up to shield her eyes from the light. Once her eyes adjusted, she quickly brought her arm down, panicking now that she was actually on stage. She looked down at the desk in front of her and saw King Dice, looking down at a piece of paper. Star thought it must have been all the contestants who were going to come back for round 2, if any. King dice looked at the paper, then back up at star, seemingly comparing something on it to him, making Star confused, curious, and even more anxious than before. After a few times of looking back and forth between Star and the paper, King Dice put the paper on the desk, face down, now having an almost evil smile on his face.
“Introduce yourself” he said, reminding Star he had yet to speak, making him fumble for words
“oh! Well, well I uh, uhm, my name is Star” she stuttered, already regretting her decision to audition.
“Well, Star, what makes you think you can be my co-host? Do you have the guts for it? The passion, the pizzaz?”
“Uh, uhm, well-”
“Don't answer that. Achieve it. Go back home, and come back in 5 hours.” King dice said half-heartedly, as if he were focused on something else.
Star was shocked and confused to hear this. How was this an audition? Why was she coming back so soon? Did she win? Before she could even think about these questions, she was pulled off stage and out of the theatre by the same cane that pulled her in. After a few moments of standing still outside the theatre, auditions had closed to everyone, causing an annoyed crowd to disband and go back to their homes. Star had eventually begun to make her way back her alley, sitting down on her battered mattress, beginning to think. How could she be in front of an audience and on the radio if she couldn't even handle being on stage in front of just King Dice? How could she handle being his co-host if she's got this stage fright? What type of co-host would she even be? As Star remained deep in thought and self-reflection, she had lost track of time.
When she had snapped out of her thoughts, it had already been 5 hours. She only knew this thanks to the garbled radio still near her, telling all of the contestants to come back for audition finals. Star immediately got up, legs shaking, and pushed himself to go back to the theatre.
This time, there was no line trailing outside the theatre, but rather, a very short line was from near the door to the stage. Star was ushered to the very back of the line since she was the last one there, and the doors were shut after her entrance almost immediately, nearly catching the big bow on the back of her new clown attire. Star clumsily fumbled forward, accidentally knocking down the whole line like dominos. Several surprised shouts filled the air as everyone collapsed on top of each other, shortly followed by several angry, annoyed stares and displeased grumbling directed at Star’s blunder. Star immediately stood back up, panicking on the inside, waiting for people to kick her out of the building.