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“Oh, Cleo!~”
Cleo spun round just in time to duck, the flaming arrow whizzing just past her head and sinking into the moss behind her. She stamped the lingering flame out with one foot as the archer himself came careening out of the sky, landing and screeching to a halt inches from colliding with the sandstone wall.
“Dangit! Almost had you with that one!” Scar brushed himself off, beaming as if he hadn’t just tried to kill Cleo.
“Yes,” they answered dryly, “and you might’ve done it, if you hadn’t called out and given yourself away. Which you should be grateful about, because if you killed me, I would kill you back, and my respawn is right here”–a gesture towards the archaeology tent–“while your respawn is back at Rusty.”
“Actually, it’s probably at the shopping district, since that’s where I just came from–”
“Not the point, Scar.”
“Right, right, right. I’m sorry for almost killing you, Cleo.”
“No you’re not.” Cleo grinned, happy to have gotten at least that much. “You never are.”
Scar laughed, leaning on his cane. “Oh, you know me too well, Cleo! Though, speaking of the shopping district, I…noticed there’s a little stall set up that I’m fairrrrrly certain belongs to you?”
Cleo raised an eyebrow. “Is that what brought you over here, then? The giveaway?”
“Perhaps.” Smoothing down his jacket, Scar smiled, a particular twinkle in his eye. “Though don’t worry, I’m not here to ask for any more of the stuff that was in there. It’s actually been emptied out, and–”
“It’s empty again already?” Cleo whistled. “Guess I made the right call. I saw that people were taking them, which means they needed the light blocks, so I’m gonna keep refilling it! I have plenty–the farm’s an infinite supply!”
“Oh, we actually confiscated all the sea slanterns and–”
“Ah, so you used them, presumably to light up underneath all the terraforming you did to keep it from being a mob farm, yes?”
“...” Scar opened his mouth. Closed it. Shook his head and cleared his throat. “What’s important is, we’re past the pop-up point of the shopping district, Cleo, and so I came here to politely ask you to either close it down or make something more permanent. By my authority as–”
A twirl, and a blur, and Scar turned into his Monopoly Man skin, bowing over his cane.
“–the master of the season 11 Shopping Experience.”
Cleo snickered at the quick-change, catching herself halfway and not stopping. “I see, you certainly are. And that makes you think I’ll listen to you and tear down my shop this time, does it?”
“This time?” Scar tilted his head in confusion, but quickly caught on. “No, this isn’t like last season–”
“Is it not? It’s sounding familiar. You, Skizz, shopping district, my shops, a purge, perhaps a junkyard–”
“I’m trying to avoid those missteps! I came to politely ask for your cooperation in finding a mutually beneficial solution that retains the sove-sovrin-the jurisdiction of the shopping district!”
Leaning against the wall next to him, Cleo sighed. “You know what I’m going to do if you insist, right? I’m going to figure out exactly the area of the shopping district over which you have jurisdiction, and then I’m gonna plop my sea lantern giveaway booth thingy just outside the border of it. Do my own terraforming around it, now it’s a spawn build. And if you mess with it after that, I’ll make Bdubs rebuild the courthouse so I can sue you. He’ll do it for me, we both know that.”
“Aw, Cleo!” Scar pleaded, “I can’t make an exception, Cleo, they’ll think I’m playing favorites!”
“Of course you are! People in power play favorites all the time, that’s half the fun of being in power! Either do it, or don’t, that’s up to you! I’m just telling you what I will do in return.”
Scar sighed, shoulders slumping and head hanging. “That’s….all what I thought you’d say. I just thought you might love me enough to help solve the problem this time instead of causing it.”
Cleo snorted. “Loving you and causing you problems are hardly mutually exclusive for me, Scar. In fact it’s basically a guarantee. If I’m not causing you problems, that’s when you should worry.” They reached over, tipping Scar’s chin up with one hand. “And look. If you actually use up all the sea lanterns to un-mob-farm the terraforming, and you need the ones the shop is made out of, I’m not gonna be mad. I just don’t want them to go to waste. Or be told what to do.”
A long beat, and Scar sighed, far more in relief this time.
“Okay, okay, I promise.” He lifted his head, the twinkle back in his eyes. “Kiss and make up?”
“Hmm.” Cleo thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I won’t kiss you with that mustache on. Too fuzzy.”
A horrified gasp. “Excuse me, this is not a mustache, it is a MOUSTACHE!”
“Well you can just mou-ve right along unkissed, then!”
A twirl, and a blur, and Scar turned back into himself, spinning himself right into Cleo’s waiting arms. And they both giggled so hard they nearly forgot to kiss.