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[singlespacedad]

This is Mando.

[And then a beep.]

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[singlespacedad]

[Mando wakes up early, as he usually does, and shuffles to the kitchen. He's actually in rare form this morning: still helmeted, as always, but not wearing his breastplate or most of the rest of his upper armour. He still has his pauldrons on, for some unknown Mandalorian reason, but otherwise, this is about the least amount of armour he's been seen wearing in months.]

Riz. You're awake.

[Excuse him, Riz, Mando is just going to be moving across the kitchen way faster than an old guy should be able to move and scooping you off the chair, into a bone-crushing hug.]

[nightyorb]

[Riz grunts as he's swept up out of his reverie and has the life squeezed out of him. Mando is way too used hugging folks who wear heavy armor, cause Riz is certain he can hear all his bones complaining.]

Woah, hey, too much, too much! Some of us as squishy, remember?

[singlespacedad]

[It's not so much that Mando hugs a lot of people wearing heavy armour, and more that he usually lets his squishier friends hug him, so they can judge how close they want to get to his beskar.]

Right, sorry.

[He lightens his hold and puts Riz down, but keeps his hands on Riz's shoulders to hold him in place.]

I'm glad you're back.

[nightyorb]

[Riz gives Mando a pat right on his helmet as he sets him down again.]

Technically you could say I never went anywhere.

[singlespacedad]

Your sleeping body is a terrible conversationalist.

[Mando pats Riz's shoulders with both hands.]

Do you want me to make you breakfast? Or just some coffee and we'll wait until Boober gets up?

[nightyorb]

Jokes on you, the same has been said about my waking body.

[Somehow most people don't want to talk about crime all the time? Weird.]

And yeah, I can eat.

[He'll eat Mando's breakfast and then Boober's breakfast later. He needs the food! He hasn't had a chance to eat anything solid in a week.]

[singlespacedad]

Whoever said that leads a boring life and wants to keep it that way, apparently.

[But okay, Riz is hungry. Mando moves to start making breakfast, but he hits the coffee machine first to get it going.]

I'm sure Boober will make you something better later.

[Because yeah, this is going to all come from cans and get heated up.]

So what did you do back home?

[nightyorb]

[That's an... incredibly open question, Mando. Riz actually is at a loss for what to answer, not because he didn't do anything back home, but rather, because so much happened. Where does he even start? Especially where there is so much he wasn't able to tell Mando about before.]

Well... we are definitely getting an A on our project.

[singlespacedad]

That's a good start. Now what project was that again?

[Has Riz ever told him about his project? Mando can't remember.]

[nightyorb]

[Riz has probably mentioned some stuff here and there. But he's also had to leave out a lot, so he doesn't blame Mando for not remembering. Or really getting it.]

Retrieving the crown of the Nightmare King. It got stolen from our principal's office at the end of prom, and if they could take it to the forest, they could bring back the Nightmare King

[singlespacedad]

He sounds unpleasant.

[And not really the kind of person you should be sending teenagers after, but Mando digresses. He sets a plate of warmed up breakfast beans in front of Riz.]

Here. Bacon is coming next.

[Veggie bacon, of course, since Boober does all the shopping.]

So where was it?

[nightyorb]

What gave it away, the nightmare part?

[Sorry, Mando. He is still a teen and he must sass.]

Forest of the Nightmare King, believe it or not. [he sighs for a moment.] Obviously, we tried getting it before it got that far but... well, there was a lot we were dealing with.

[Adaine getting kidnapped had waylaid them to Fallinel, and then Fig getting subpoenaed had waylaid them to Hell. And Riz had had a little Heaven trip, but time had been mostly frozen for that, so it wasn't such a large interruption. Plus! His dad and him had put the case together there. It had been a very important Heaven trip.]

[singlespacedad]

So he just hid it in his own forest?

[Mando is unimpressed! That's the most obvious place!]

What else was going on?

[nightyorb]

Not really.

[Sorry, Mando, he's gonna need to talk magic at you.]

It's pretty complicated, but the Nightmare King is not a creature native to our plane -- I guess you would call it our world? If you are extraplanar, you are always pretty susceptible to getting banished back to your own plane, so the crown was a talisman that kept it anchored to our plane.

The last time an adventuring party dealt with him, they managed to get the crown and banish him, which sorta sent him back to his own realm, but he was also still kinda connected to the forest through the curse he put on it. He just couldn't leave or do anything.

That's why Kalina was trying to bring the crown to the forest. Cause if they could do a ritual there, they could reestablish the connection and summon the Nightmare King back to his full power and abilities. And that would've been so bad.

[singlespacedad]

[For someone from a sci-fi canon instead of a fantasy one, Mando follows that reasonable well.]

He could exist in areas you couldn't.

[Like the whales that travel in the hyperspace lanes.]

I see. You needed the crown so you could keep him from returning to your world and causing problems.

[nightyorb]

[Maybe Mando is smarter than we give him galactic credit for.]

Yeah! Cause, we are good, but we aren't fighting an evil god good. Not yet, anyway. That's a little above our pay grade. So we had to try and get it before it got that far.

[singlespacedad]

[He put all his points into Survival, thank you very much.]

And how did you do that?

[nightyorb]

[Riz puffs out a breath before shoveling more food into his mouth.]

We... didn't, really. So I guess we were good enough to fight an evil god. Sorta. It's--

[He runs one hand through his messy curls.]

I need to pull back a little. None of this is going to make sense. The report I'm gonna write on this is going to be insane.

Lets start... I guess let's start at the actual beginning. We were heading into Spring Break, we were helping Fig, Kristen and Adaine move into Mordred Manor and Aguefort shows up. Tells us that they've finally lifted the border restrictions that went up after last year's 'diplomatic incident' [yes, finger quotes and all.] and we could finally leave and collect the crown. Oh, and by the way, this project is going to be 60% of our grade, which is... insane? I guess it isn't a big deal if you don't actually go to your classes like some folks, but I'd been working really hard keeping my grades up, and now Aguefort just shows up and tells us, oh yeah, this project is 60% of your grade? That was nowhere on the grading rubric!

[Somehow, this is more of a cause of complaint to Riz than the whole 'sending some teenagers out to get a powerful magical artefact back lest his servants use it to summon an evil god back into the world']

[singlespacedad]

[Mando didn't go to Space University, so he's unfamiliar with syllabi and unfair grading practices, but he can tell it upsets Riz, so he simply nods and plays along.]

That seems like a lot.

[Nailed it.]

So now the pressure is really on, right? Both because of the evil god returning thing, and also for your grade.

[nightyorb]

Yeah. Not that I want an evil god to come back or anything, but just. I got plans, you know! I can't just repeat the year.

[University, maybe? Detective office, definitely. And then hopefully making more than enough money that his mother will live in comfort. Maybe he could buy her a house. That'd be nice.]

Anyway, we broke up, went home and we were gonna leave the next day. Gorgug's parents sold him their old van and we were gonna drive in that.

[It is about as glorious and fashionable as the Razorcrest.]

But uh. [Riz's nail finds a groove in the table, worrying at it.] I got kidnapped.

[singlespacedad]

[Mando is not the guy to talk to about career moves which allow you to buy a house. Maybe Bo would have better advice about that? It took him until middle age and working at a laser tag place to get into the housing market.]

A road trip!

[That is a concept Mando understands completely, and he brightens at the idea. Only to immediately get serious again when Riz reveals he was kidnapped.]

So, let me guess: you weren't stuck in there with them, they were stuck in there with you?

[He has confidence in you, kid! He hopes you ruined those kidnappers' day!]

[nightyorb]

[Riz hates to ruins that confidence, but he must.]

I wish. One moment Baron was in my office and then the next I remember, Fig is standing over me with a knife ready to sacrifice me.

[And then very quickly and firmly added, cause he doesn't want Mando to think badly of Fig in this case.]

She got taken too. Different way than me, but same folks. They did something to her mind and had her completely under their control. It was not her fault.

[singlespacedad]

[This just keeps getting more complicated.]

So how'd you get out of it?

[nightyorb]

My friends, of course.

[Riz says that with the certainty level of certainty one might reserve for saying the sun will rise again tomorrow or that fire is hot. He doesn't need to doubt that his friends will come for him; he knows they will.]

Adaine snuck in and dispelled the magic on Fig, and then Fig grabbed me and Dimension Door-ed me somewhere safe. And then we kicked everybody's asses.

[singlespacedad]

Damn right you did.

[Mando might not understand magic, but he understands ass kicking, and he practically glows with pride. You go get them, Riz and friends! Kick those asses!]