Chapter Text
There was something wrong with Wally Darling.
Julie and Sally noticed it.
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Julie adjusted the flower that had she pinned onto the collar of her dress, its colorful petals masking a secret. She had bought it from the street vendor after they advertised it as “the perfect thing to cool your friends down on a hot day”. It was a small little thing, with green and yellow petals that faded together in an ombre. It was a bit jarring on her pink and white dress, sure, but she made everything work! After all, she wasn’t the Floral Rainbow Sorcerer of The Neighborhood for nothing! If anything, the flower brough additional colors to her entire palette and made her look even better. She quickly spun around and watched her dress poof out, revealing a vague flower-shape if one chose to view her from the top.
She giggled to herself. Okay! It was time to give some joy to her neighbors!
The Neighborhood’s most recent adventure had brought them to a semiarid region of the world to deal with a group of monsters attacking a mining facility, which was affecting the connecting town. The sun seemed to love shining down with little to no clouds to block it, and the wind was warm and slightly dusty. While the workers in the town swore that it rained there, based on how flushed and sweaty her neighbors — herself included — were, the rain didn’t fall recently. So when she rummaged through her belongings and found the old floral trinket and a small piece of paper with hand-written instructions, she knew what she had to do.
On her prowl for an unsuspecting neighbor, she hummed a tune to a song that she made up. She lovingly named it “The Fun In Your Frown”, in honor of her best friend Frank. With her endless smile and his forever frown, it was hard for others to understand how the two of them became friends. However, why would they need to understand something that felt so natural to her? After all, not everyone had the honor to see him get so flustered over someone, with that someone he was now married to!
“Oh Frank,” Julie whispered, “you lovable grouch.”
Oh! Maybe she could find Frank first!
With that in mind, she knew exactly where she needed to go. If he wasn’t outside searching for butterflies to observe, he was inside researching them. The town didn’t have a library, but they had a bookstore where they sold small books and scrolls. If her suspicions were correct, he would be there.
On her way there, fate seemed to have different plans as she bumped into the shortest neighbor. “Oh! Hello there Wally!”
Wally looked up at her with his adorable half-lidded eyes. “Hello neighbor.”
“Have you seen Frank anywhere? I have a present to give him!” She could already imagine it, no matter how disastrous it would probably be. After all, he was a person of routine and didn’t exactly enjoy surprises. However, she felt as if she would get off the hook easily if she did it in good spirits.
“Hmm.” Wally placed a finger on his chin as he thought. “I believe I saw him in the bookstore. He seemed very busy.”
“I knew it!” She pumped a fist in the air. “Thanks Wally!”
“Anytime neighbor.” He brought a hand to his mouth and blew her a kiss goodbye. “I’ll be on my way to study some spells now.”
As he turned to walk away, Julie glanced down at her pinned flower, then back to Wally. He was right here ! If there was ever an opportunity to try out her trinket, it was now. Who knew when the next time she might run into him would be. She was suddenly relieved that she didn’t run into Barnaby, seeing he would absolutely hint at her present to Wally, being his best friend and all.
“Wait! Wally!” she cried.
He turned back around to face her.
She took a few steps to approach him and clapped her hands together. “I have something to show you!” She gestured to the flower pinned on her collar as she added, “Wanna take a closer look?”
Wally took the bait. He leaned his face closer to look at the yellow and green flower. “This is a very nice flower neighb — ”
Julie snapped her fingers.
A large gush of water sprayed out of the middle of the flower and into Wally’s face.
Oh, wait! That was too much water! Julie winced. Did she overload the trick flower with too much magic? Thinking back on it, the instructions did say to only cast one small spell to charge the flower with enough magic for a “small surprise”. Ah, so repeatedly casting a few small spells to save some time compiled the magic together instead of keeping them separate!
Wally stood there, his face and upper section of his clothes dripping wet. The force of the surprise water caused his hair to unceremoniously flop down, freed from its pompadour style. His eyes were wide, and while his smile stayed, it was clear that he was caught off guard.
Julie knew how much Wally took pride in his appearance.
“By the gods! I’m so sorry Wally!” Julie reached out to brush his hair out of his face, maybe cast a small spell to help him, or even offer to restyle his hair back into its signature spiral style. “I didn’t know that the surprise would be that powerful!”
Before she could initiate any of her planned actions, she saw Wally’s shoulders start to shake. Oh no! Did she make him cry? An apology was ready on the tip of her tongue, but it died when she witnessed something else.
Quite the opposite of crying actually.
Wally was laughing.
But, this wasn’t a laugh that she had ever heard from him. A “Wally laugh” was monotonous and quiet. This laugh was loud and filled with some sort of emotion. He threw his head back and laughed. His eyes and smile were wide and his small body shook with the force of emotion that was emerging from him.
That emotion wasn’t happiness. Yet, it wasn’t anger. It was some emotion that Julie couldn’t quite place a finger on, but it made her take a step back.
This laugh unsettled her.
As quickly as it started, it ended. Wally inhaled a deep breath and looked at Julie. His face slowly contorted back into a standard surprised look for the wizard. Gone was any hint of the mania that had overtaken him. “I apologize, neighbor,” he said. “I enjoyed your surprise. It cooled me down.” He held some of his wet hair in a fist and wrung it out. “My hair, however, did not enjoy it.”
Julie swallowed, then shook her head. Don’t worry about that for now. “I’m sorry Wally! I can help style your hair again! And you can play with mine while I do.” She removed the flower from her collar and pocketed it, just in case there would be another misfire.
Wally’s eyes became half-lidded again at the suggestion. “I would enjoy that. Thank you, neighbor.”
As the two found a cafe and took residence on one of their outside tables, Julie summoned her hairbrush and started to style Wally’s hair back into its signature spiral, not once forgetting his odd laugh.
There was something wrong with Wally.
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When Sally kicked open the door to the room of the inn that The Neighborhood had paid for, she exclaimed that she had a genius script written out and that she needed only the best selection of her neighbors to execute it. It was a mashup of a few famous fairytales, so much so that it might as well be a vague spinoff. It was a stretch to combine each one she picked, but somehow, it worked.
At least, it seemed like it worked. Sure, Sally might’ve had to omit some characters that she would’ve loved to include, might’ve had to change up the plot several times, and might’ve crumpled up some parchment in frustration. But in the end, she was left with a script she felt like would blow the audience out of their seats! She was sure of it!
“Alright, alright!” Sally exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. “If anyone has any questions for their parts, let me know now or forever hold your peace!”
For the most part, her neighbors nodded along with her shenanigans. There were a few grumbles about their respective parts —
(“Hey! Why’d ya make Eddie play the werewolf? I’m a canine being! ”
(“That’s why people will never suspect it!”)
— but otherwise, she expertly picked who would play a part, who would help with props and special effects, and who would eventually switch over.
“I want lines memorized by tonight! Chop chop!” Sally punctuated her statement by hitting the side of her hand against her palm. “We’re saving money tonight from my plays, so I don’t want you ruining my reputation!”
“An’ I thought Julie was bossy,” Eddie joked. “Say, Barnaby. Could’cha help me practice howlin’?
Barnaby looked up from the extra script that Sally passed out. “It comes from your gut. Like a belly laugh.” He threw in a demonstration for good measure.
Sally winced. “Out, out! Go howl outside you two!”
“Don’t need to be so ruff on us Sally.”
She groaned. “Ha ha.”
As her neighbors slowly started to disperse, Sally walked outside as she skimmed through her script once more. There weren’t any plot holes that were glaringly obvious (though, even if there were , she’d want to fill those in as soon as possible so she wouldn’t have to completely rewrite anyone’s lines), and the stage direction was straightforward enough for both her actors and backstage crew.
Alright! If she had to say so herself, then this play’s script was fit to be coming from a star. However, it was the audience’s reaction that truly determined whether her plays were a success or not. She had seen herself what a bored audience looked like, and while it wasn’t her own play that garnered that reaction, she still felt a bit bad for the director. Imagine pouring one’s heart and soul into a play only for it to fall flat!
Her figure unconsciously started to glow brighter as her mind raced over her play’s potential reception. Perfection! She would only strive for that! Nothing less!
“Hello neighbor.” A soft voice and gentle tap on her shoulder grounded her back to reality.
Sally turned around to be faced with Wally. He had his script in his hands and looked a bit confused, as his brow was furrowed slightly and his smile was a bit off. “Hey Wally! Do you need expert direction from me?” she asked as she placed her hand on her chest for emphasis.
“Yes, I do.” He turned the script around and pointed at his parts. “How do you want me to do this?”
Sally squinted at his lines. She had assigned him the villain of the play. Sure, it played a bit into the stereotype that necromancers were “evil” or whatever, but it wasn’t as if Wally flaunted his specialty in magic. If anything, beings were drawn to him, not repulsed. Besides, what better way to subvert a tall and menacing villain than by giving the role to her shortest and most polite neighbor?
“It says here to say this line ‘with a deep, sensual tone’.” Wally looked at the star and asked, “Could you demonstrate what you mean?”
Sally grinned. “Gladly!” She cleared her throat and lowered her voice a bit before making her eyes half-lidded like the shorter of the two. She pretended to check her nails as she asked “ What is a man? ” She widened her eyes and looked at Wally. “ A miserable little pile of secrets! ”
Wally smiled. “Oh. That makes sense, neighbor. You’re a very good actor.”
Sally shone at the compliment. She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and dramatically said, “Oh, keep the praise coming! It might spark another idea!”
“Your acting is the most. I believe you could play more parts in your own plays.”
“I could , but my neighbors deserve their time in the spotlight as well!” While she was a star on stage, she didn’t want to hog the limelight from the potential talents of her friends. They all deserved their own time to shine.
“One more thing, neighbor.” Wally flipped to another page and pointed once again to a directional line. “What kind of laugh do you want me to do here?”
Oh. That was an oversight on Sally’s end. She was aware of how Wally laughed, if she could even call it laughing, as he sounded as if he was saying “ Ha ha ha ” with a slight intonation. He had made some progress with Barnaby to where it sounded more musical and genuine, but something happened after he broke his magical-induced fever. Progress had regressed back to a static-sounding laugh.
“Here. You just want to dig deep, and laugh loudly. Let yourself loose. Like this!” She inhaled and let out a loud, manic-sounding laugh. It caused a few beings to turn towards her in surprise, but she ignored them. “Like that Wally! Here, why don’t you try it out, yeah?”
Wally looked at the page again as he processed how Sally laughed. Then, he let out a louder, but still monotonous “ Ha ha ha. ” His smile crinkled at the corners before he tried again, this time with more volume. On his third attempt, his laugh went on for longer, then it grew louder. Before she could process it, Wally was full-on laughing in a manner that was perfect for the part!
Sally clapped her hands together as she exclaimed, “Perfect! Perfect laughter!” Excitement flowed through her before something else crept in. Wally never laughed this much, nor this loud. Gone were his half-lidded eyes, and his dark irises almost melted into his pupils as they grew wider. If she squinted, maybe she saw something in them. A flash of yellow?
If she listened hard enough, maybe she heard something hidden in his laughter. Like something else was laughing alongside him.
Then, almost as suddenly as it started, he stopped. Wally caught his breath and looked at Sally, as if nothing odd had happened. “Was that a good laugh for the part, neighbor?”
If Sally was anything, she was an actor. Actors were great at pretending. She winked at him and gave him a thumbs-up. “Yep! Just tone it down a little bit because you got a bit too loud back there.”
“Oh. I see.” He flipped through his copy of the script again and hummed. “Thank you, neighbor. You were very helpful.” He turned around to go someplace else, probably to practice or to paint. “Goodbye for now.”
As he walked off, Sally let her grin drop from her face. What did she just hear? She heard a loud laugh, yes, but she also heard something else. Potentially, someone else, just lurking beneath the surface of his laughter.
There was something wrong with Wally.