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The state of the spaceship’s cargo hold never failed to amaze Boggles when she was down there. Every other part of the ship was rather well kept; down to the alphabetical organizing of all the instructions. Technical, mechanical, even down to the domestic machinery was neatly organized in one of the cockpit’s compartments! But the small room in the lower deck Mari kept for any of her outside goods maintained a state of disarray the clown couldn't fathom.
Her plan was simple; plant a paintbomb in a crate lid, Any lid. The pressure of which would explode upon being reopened. Hopefully, at some point, right in Mari’s face.
She had done it before. A solid year prior, actually! She knew it had worked from the earful she got from Mari about it during her summer visit. Though no harm had come from her antic aside from a load of laundry and a rather annoyed Mari-Anna, one rule had emerged from it all; Boggles was prohibited from being in the ship’s underbelly unless Mari was there.
But where was the fun in a rule like that? How was she supposed to give Mari any love when she was out in the bowels of space? Thousands of lightyears away for months! Besides, it was good to keep the extra terrestrial on her toes. You could never get too comfortable! Especially in the company of Boggles.
But there was only so many minutes between “I am going to get ready for bed” and plant-a-prank time. Mari didn’t take long to get settled and ready for bed nowadays. Most of the time it was just her slipping into one of Boggles’ shirts or something. So Boggles had to be fast, lest Mari realize she wasn’t in their domestic quarters and hunt her down.
Hooking her fingertips to the underside of a lid lip, Boggles peaked into the closest box.
As easy as it could be to just toss the artistic bomb whatever crate was closest, this was still Mari’s stuff. And some of those things were far too important to wreck with some paint. Clothes could be washed, of course. But if Boggles broke some kind of heirloom or important intergalactic doohickey, Mari would have her head on a pike! Well… maybe not that extreme. But the silent treatment from her would feel just as bad.
Judging by the cables nestled in the container, this was not one Boggles wanted to mess with. Nor was the one full of food, or the one with electrical equipment… Dear god, how did Mari keep track of things here???
As much as Boggles wished she had time to question Mari’s organizing habits, her personal interrogations were interrupted by the sound of the cargo hold’s door creaking open & metallic clacking.
Mari didn’t even need to call out, the sight of the room’s light being on already gave Boggles’ presence away.
Mari-Anna’s gaze met Boggles at the wall cutting off the upper half of the stairwell leading back up to the main area of the ship, hunched over to save herself from having to go all the way down. Her expression went from that of an investigative squint to a furrow of a knowing grin at the sight of Boggles sifting through her inventory, eyes wide like a child getting caught with sweets.
“It’s not what it—” Before Boggles could even try to explain, Mari had hopped from the stairs right to the clown’s side, her tendrils wrapping around Boggles torso. The contact with Mari’s slime made Boggles shiver, goosebumps creeping up her forearms.
“You know you are not allowed down here!” Mari hissed, tentacles trailing dangerously close to Boggles’ underarm. To Boggles’ dismay, Mari had found out how deadly a weapon tickling could be. And she had used it to get confessions from the entertainer before. “Spill your business, or you will get it!”
Boggles’ arms reflexively came down tight. Squeezing Mari’s arms so they couldn't get any closer to that sweet spot. An anxiety filled exhale leaving her lungs as a rather breathy laugh. “Nothin’ Mar! I swear!”
“You are terrible at lying.” Mari’s arms knotted around one another at Boggles abdomen, anchoring herself right onto her partner before beginning to gently thrash her side to side.
Boggles gave a guffaw at Mari’s attempts of rattling a response from her. Bringing her free hand over Mari’s tentacles to try and wrestle away from her. Mari’s attention landed onto the orb Boggles was clasping in her other palm, leaning over her shoulder to get a better look at it.
“Is that one of those bombs? How many of those have you planted?!” Mari pressed, focusing hard on the object.
Boggles knew exactly what Mari was doing- the invisible pressure around her fingers already being a dead giveaway at the telepathic theft. Bringing her arm behind her back, Boggles’ tasseling strengthened to escape Mari’s grasp.
“Do you know how long it took for me to clean your last one? Several hours!” Mari nagged through the wrestling, her grip on Boggles tightening just enough to keep her momentarily still. At least long enough to rip Boggles’ bomb from her grasp. Mari finally let her girlfriend go, backing up to get a better look at the paintbomb. “Is this it?”
“That’s it, cross my heart!” A sigh of relief left Mari at the confirmation she had disarmed Boggles’ plans.
This hadn't been the first of Boggles pranks that Mari had foiled this visit. An attempt to plant some rotten food in Mari’s vent had been found within the hour. It just so happened that very day was Mari’s monthly checks of all the ship’s systems…
Mari hadn’t given the orb back to Boggles, though… instead shuffling past the clown and beginning her track back up the stair. Perplexed, Boggles followed a step behind.
“Where are ‘ya takin’ it??”
“Upstairs.” Mari responded point blank. Her free arm wrapped around some kind of metallic ball that sat upon a nearby shelf, typing in some kind of code on top before setting the paint-bomb into the open strongbox and closing it back up.
“You’re no fun.”
“I am fun, very fun. You are just upset I foiled your plans… Besides, you can have it back when you leave. It is a ‘keys in the bowl’ situation.” Boggles gave an eyeroll at Mari’s explanation, giving the extraterrestrial a dramatic pout.
The exaggerated negativity elicited a tsk from Mari, turning to her partner and resting her tentacles around the base of Boggles’ neck. “Do not be like that, Faustine…”
It was pretty hard for Boggles to keep up a disgruntled facade when Mari played along. The cooing and coddling was enough to make her want to wrap it up real quick.
“We can watch something to pass the time, anyways.” Mari’s proposal reanimated a thought buried in the back of Boggles’ mind. A reminder of a gift she had forgotten to give Mari.
“Oh yeah! That reminds me… the acrobats agreed to let me borrow somethin’ to show ‘ya.” Scooting a few feet to the door, Boggles dug through the small sack she had brought & tossed at the stool nearby. A momentary dig through the bag was rewarded by a brush of a rectangular casing. With the item in her grasp, Boggles pulled out a familiar sight to present to Mari-Anna; an unlabeled, pristinely kept VHS tape.
Mari perked at the sight of the VHS, staring down at the cassette. “Is this a movie?”
“Mmmmaybe!”
“How exciting…! Do you know the title?”
Boggles shook her head, handing the VHS to her partner before resting her hand along their back. “Nooo clue… but I was told it was a thinker!”
“Ohh! you know me too well. It was so polite of your troupe to lend you this!” Mari grinned.
“Yeah, yeah… Now go get your TV set up! I gotta get it back to them tomorrow mornin’.”