[Date shared to me: August 4, 2025]
Guita clicked his tongue, as he often did these days. It did little to drown out the melody bursting forth from a nearby view port that hovered before himself, Drun, and Calist. None wanted to say it, but the course of the battle playing out before them was obvious enough. The obnoxiously cheery tones of the Princess' singing mixed with her battle cries meant she was, likely, about to blow the latest batch of pawns to kingdom come, after which Bass would return and they might plot the next encounter. It was his turn next, but he wasn't truly sure of what else he could do to make a difference in the stalemate they found themselves in.
He cast his gaze elsewhere, the platform upon which their Queen rested still hovered in the distance as it had been for some time, it had been quite an event when she spoke, but she had said little since. It had been quite a while since his last turn and the humdrum of watching the others was getting to him, but it was his turn next... Just a little longer, and he'd be able to get out and have some fun. He enjoyed messing around with the princesses much more than watching other people do it after all.
This one from above.
His distracted thoughts of the future were snapped back to the present by the telltale thrum of teleportation magic behind him. Bass was back, and Guita absently noticed the princesses were celebrating another victory on the screen. Laughter spilled out from him like second nature. Before Guita could make a joke about it, Bass had rounded on him immediately.
“Guita, you-!” was as far as Bass managed to get before it happened. A second, melodious voice of laughter joined in.
It didn't take long for what that meant to register for all of them. The Red Queen had stirred again, and like clockwork, all other thoughts were put on hold as the four members of Bandsnatch dropped to one knee before her. Her laughter carried forth as her platform lowered, her throne that had been cast in shadow coming into view before them.
“It seems all of you have been quite... preoccupied? With these girls as of late.”
It carried a clear tone of genuine amusement, but Bass could naturally parse the intent of her phrasing. The Princesses strengthening their musescence was, of course, part of the plan. All the same, each of them had been defeated in embarrassing ways. It wasn't strictly necessary for them to lose as they had time after time.
Calist and Drun were quite content with the state of affairs... But how did the Queen feel about it? He could only swallow. He wasn't nervous, not at all. The bond Bandsnatch had with their monarch had always been of respect and admiration rather than fear, and they had been left to their own devices and interests all this time... but all the same it wasn't yet clear how she might act if things continued.
“Yes, my Queen.” He kept his tone neutral. Unsure of how much to say about it.
“Perhaps,” she started as she rose from her throne. “It is time I took the stage.”
Relief surged in Bass's heart, she wasn't upset with him or the others, she was just-
“Eh? Wait. You can't.”
Three heads snapped to one direction, all eyes in the room fell upon the source of those words. Guita.
“I-... Guita, you-” Bass started, his comrade, his friend, was disrespecting their Queen. In front of all of “Oh? And why is that?” Bass's eyes whirled back to the Queen, who now stood towering over them all.
Each member of Bandsnatch was powerful, far more than they had yet let on to the princesses, but none, not even Calist, compared to the Queen. She could... she could destroy them. Effortlessly.
“It's my turn.” He snapped back, rising to his feet. “You can't just jump into the line!”
The air hang heavy with those words, the others watched his Queen consider them, and though Bass knew it was mere seconds, they passed as agonizing minutes.
As Her hand curled into a fist, Bass's mind scrambled to find a way out. Something, anything.
As Her arm slowly lifted up, his time with Guita flashed before his eyes.
A thousand little moments of annoyance and bluster and jokes and all the things he hated about that boy. None of which he may ever experience again.
His mouth opened, the words wouldn't come out. He had to say something, before-
Her hand leveled at them, his head snapped back to Guita one last time, he had no idea what was going on, he just stood there, hands at his hips as he looked up at her. Perhaps if Bass shoved that fool down to the ground and begged for his life they could-.
“Rock Paper Scissors for it.”
One last without having consciously thought to turn, his vision spinned and then settled.
He was looking at his Queen again.
She was standing before them, that fist was right before them.
“Huh??? No way!” Guita exclaimed as Bass struggled with the desire to murder him himself.
“Guita, come on. The Queen hasn't had a chance at all yet. Let her.” Drun chimed in.
“Mhm...” Guita grumbled. Clearly still not very pleased with the idea.
Calist laughed, though Bass couldn't help but notice the bead of sweat dripping down from his forehead. “How often can you say you've had a chance to play Rock Paper Scissors with Our Queen?
Besides, it's only fair.”
Bass cleared his throat. Pushing his glasses back up. “Guita. You were the one who insisted on turns to begin with. The Queen should be allo-... IS permitted to join when she wants.”
Guita's head whirled between all of them, he clearly wasn't expecting to be ganged up on... He
grumbled again, before letting out a sigh of defeat. “Oh, fine. Whatever.”
He stepped forward, rolling up a sleeve “Rock!”
“Paper.” The Queen replied.
“”SCISSORS!”” ********************************************
“I can't believe I lost...” The queen looked at her hand, dejected.
“My Queen... you... you did scissors three times in a row...”
She turned to him, glaring.
“And you do scissors weird. Who does it with one finger?” Guita started walking away with his hands behind his head, already planning what to say to annoy the Princesses when next they fought.
“It's not weird! It's cool!” The voice of their Queen echoed through the cavernous base as she sullenly returned to her throne.
She would have to wait until next week.
