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“C’mon, put your back into it!”
“Shut up, cat! We’re the ones doin’ all the heavy work!”
The large, ornate doors that Morgana insisted led to Kamoshida’s treasure were as heavy as the castle was gaudy. There had been no guards whatsoever in the throne room’s chambers, which was odd. The door also seemed like there weren't any locks on it, the door was just obnoxiously heavy to keep intruders away. Another reason to despise this castle and its ruler.
“Stupid Kamoshida with his… stupid doors!” Panther grunted as they finally made progress with the doors slowly creaking open as they applied more force. Her boots slipped a little on the floor and she had to regain her footing before the door could slip closed again.
Joker, despite his shoulder already aching from accidentally ramming into an armored guard earlier, pressed harder against the door and ignored the pain to keep pushing forward. Mona, the littlest of the troop with his small hands and feet, still seemed to try his best to push alongside the rest of the team. Joker wasn’t sure if he was actually doing anything to contribute but he’d chalk it up as helping anyways.
“Almost… there…” Mona said through gritted teeth as they pushed once more. It seemed as though they hit a certain threshold or something because all of a sudden, with a very loud click and creak, the doors became much lighter and practically swung open.
Joker managed to catch himself from falling immediately but ended up tripping on Mona as the cat (not cat?) tumbled forward. He let out a groan as he landed chest first onto the metal spine of Skull’s outfit and a pained wheeze when Panther’s weight fell onto him and his poor bruised ribs. “Oof… Sorry, Joker.” She mumbled as she managed to get herself up and off of him. Her knee jabbed right into his side as she struggled to right herself and it nearly knocked the wind out of him.
“Sorry, ‘Joker’?! What about me?! You used me as a landing pad!” Skull cried out indignantly from the floor. Joker took a brief moment to dust off the shoulders of his coat before reaching down to give Skull a hand off the floor.
“Hey, you worked great to cushion my fall.” Panther smiled and stuck her tongue out in response to Skull’s flabbergasted look. “Thank you for being such a gentleman, Skull.” She curtsied in an exaggerated fashion.
“I’ll show you gentleman-”
“Hey, hey! Quit whining and take a look at this!”
Three heads turned in Mona’s direction and three pairs of eyes widened behind their masks at the sight before them. Bright, glittering gold in all directions. Piles of valuables, jewelry, gems, shiny antiques. The light coming from the open window seemed to make the room sparkle even more. Like someone dropped a bucket of slow falling glitter from the ceiling.
“Woah…” Skull breathed and let out an incredulous little laugh. “Seriously? He has a whole room full of treasure just layin’ around?”
“Half of his castle is decked out in gross gold. I’m not even surprised at this point.” Panther crossed her arms and glared at a speck of dirt, or what could have been a little gem, on the ground. “But… this is pretty cool.” She admitted after a moment of consideration.
Joker found himself stunned silent at the display of wealth in front of him. He thought that swiping things here and there from the castle was fun and exhilarating; imagine taking a whole room full of treasures. Now that was a feat worthy of a phantom thief. He didn’t even think he could fit all of this in his room but he could sure try!
His eyes swept over the piles of treasure until he noticed the big, sparkling blur in the exact center of the room. It looked as shiny as everything else in the room but had the consistency of a cloud. Or a bubble full of water. Like it would pop if he tried to touch it. “Hey, Mona. What’s that?” Joker pointed at the anomaly and both Skull and Panther looked in the direction he gestured in.
“Finally! I was waiting for one of you to notice!” Mona huffed and crossed his stumpy little arms, his tail lashing in irritation. “Some phantom thieves you are. Can’t even notice the most important thing in the world.” He mumbled but just loud enough for them all to hear.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whine about it later.” Skull said with a roll of his eyes. “So, what is it? Looks like… I don’t even know what.” He squinted a little and tilted his head just slightly. “Feels like there’s somethin’ in there, but I can’t tell.”
“Hm, astute observation, Skull. Surprisingly.” Mona murmured and cleared his throat to continue speaking before Skull could catch on. “This here is the Treasure of the Palace.” His paw pointed right at the center of the cloud. “This is the heart of a Palace. Where a Palace ruler’s desires all congregate.”
The three taller phantom thieves stood together in front of the so-called ‘treasure’. It really did look like something stuck in there but whatever image they could see faded into the swirls of the cloud and it made it near impossible to actually figure out what it was.
“So, if we take this out of here, this Palace won’t exist anymore?” Panther asked. When Joker looked over he saw she had a pensive expression on her face. A hard to read look in her eyes hiding behind her mask.
“Basically. Nice to see you’ve been paying attention, Lady Ann.” Mona sidled up next to Panther’s side with a purr, even though his head only came up to her knees. “All we gotta do is swipe it and we’ll take Kamoshida’s desires.”
“What’s gonna happen to him in the real world?” Skull asked. One of his legs started bouncing anxiously and Joker noticed it was the leg he sometimes saw Skull rub at after a strenuous fight.
“Well, if we’re lucky then his desires that made him like this will be gone. I won’t say he’ll be reformed but he won’t feel the urge to do such disgusting acts anymore. Hopefully.” Mona explained and tried to sound sure of himself but it almost sounded like he was making it up on the spot.
“And if we’re unlucky?” Panther asked, finally taking her eyes off the Treasure to look at Mona.
Under Panther’s scrutiny, Mona shuffled one of his paws against the floor. “Well… let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Instead of elaborating and before anyone could protest about such a vague response, Mona hopped to stand in front of them to speak to them all. “Now, it’s time to prepare! We got a Treasure to steal!” He declared with a paw raised in the air.
“Okay, soooo… how are we gonna get this thing out of here?” Skull asked, pointing at the dismorphed cloud that didn’t even look corporeal enough to touch, let alone grab a hold of.
“Well, we can’t do anything about it now. Right now, it’s time to go.” Joker and Panther stepped aside for Mona to walk past as their little navigator started making his way back the way they came. Small splashes of purple sprouted from the ground with each little hop and step. “We’re gonna have to make the Treasure manifest in the real world before we can grab it in the metaverse. To do that, we’ll have to-”
“Woah, hey, hold up, Mona!” Skull scrambled forward to grab the back of Mona’s handkerchief, making the cat let out a squeal of surprise.
“Don’t grab me like that, dammit!”
“We had to go through all that trouble and deal with all that bullshit and we don’t even get to enjoy the treasure?” Skull gestured to the piles of gold and jewels behind him without turning his head. “C’mon, let’s at least take a few handfuls with us!”
Mona scoffed while grooming some of his ruffled fur with his paws. “Honestly, Skull! What are you, a bird? You attracted to shiny things?” He looked up at Skull with a smug little grin on his face. “Maybe we should change your codename.”
While Skull sputtered and was ready to hurl whatever insults came to mind first, Panther turned her attention to the treasures. She let out a hum of consideration. “You know, this is pretty cool.” She stepped forward, stepping on a few gold coins as she did, and reached out to grab a handful of gold. Panther smiled and giggled as she threw the coins in the air and watched them clatter back down into the pile with a satisfying jingling sound.
“C’mon, Mona! Can’t we stay for a little longer?” Panther turned on her heel, her hands up in a pleading motion.
Mona’s fur puffed up just a little and he reached up to scratch at his ear. “W-well, if Lady Ann wants to… theeeen I guess it’s okay to stay a little while!” He declared, head suddenly held high and confident.
Panther squealed in delight and practically jumped for joy as she immediately turned her attention back to their hard earned treasures. “Let’s see what we got in here!” She said excitedly, her hands digging into the gold pile to see what was hiding under the horde.
“Hell yeah!” Ryuji cheered with a little giggle and raced after Panther to copy what she was doing.
Joker couldn’t fight the warm smile on his face watching his friends play around in gold like kids in winter snow. Even Mona slipped right by his legs to hop right onto the tallest pile and meow in triumph over being the tallest one in the room. Panther’s eyes widened almost comically large as she pulled out a necklace with a golden chain studded with green gems and wasted no time putting it on. Skull seemed drawn to the bars of solid gold and seemed to be on a quest to either find them all or find as many as he could.
“Don’t wanna be left out, now do we?” Joker murmured to himself and decided to indulge in the time they had. Who knows if Kamoshida even knew if they were there? They could be playing on borrowed time, after all.
Joker decided to tackle a pile that had yet to be disturbed and knelt down to start looking, wondering what he could find. Most of it was gold coins that he had to sift through but even the coins were pretty and eye-catching. A silver goblet with a rim studded with sparkly copper was pretty but it was gaudy as the rest of the castle so he tossed that over his shoulder. He pulled out something heavy and large that looked like it could have been some kind of ornate jewelry but he honestly had no clue where it was to go on his body so he tossed that aside too.
He was almost ready to move onto another pile when something sharp poked at his glove. “Ow!” He hissed under his breath, yanking his hand away with a start. Did Kamoshida booby trap his treasure room? If he did, then it would be stupid to put the traps in the treasure itself but sounded like something Kamoshida would do.
Joker cautiously dug his hand around and moved until he felt something solid and rigid. Praying that it wasn’t some golden plated bear trap or something stupid like that, Joker pulled the object out to look at it and… it was definitely not a bear trap.
A beautiful diamond. Perfectly shiny and fitted perfectly in his palm. When he moved his wrist to examine the sides, the light caught the faceted sides at the perfect angle to make it shimmer. The bottom tip was sharp and pointed but even that looked appealing. Definitely better than any treasure he’d managed to swipe from this castle so far.
’How much could I get for this?’ He thought idly to himself. Selling the junk they collected netted them a decent amount of yen for Palace supplies, but selling a diamond like this could net them millions of yen. Tens of millions, maybe. He’d have to ask Iwai if he knew anyone willing to buy a gem and maybe deal with some sketchy people but it would be worth it.
Or… maybe he could keep it for himself? A trophy for a job well done in their first Palace expedition. A memento, even. He could already picture it sitting on the shelf in his room. Just the idea of keeping it all to himself made his eyes sparkle in anticipation.
Another bright glimmer out of the corner of his gaze finally drew his attention away from the gorgeous jewel in his hand. Something green barely sticking out from under a pile of gold. Joker brushed the coins aside and reached in to grab it and it had a solid and heavy weight to it when he pulled it out.
A bright green emerald. It was so big and shiny he could see himself in it. He could almost use it as a personal hand mirror; it was so reflective. He looked at the emerald in one hand and the diamond in the other with wide eyes. Joker smiled and let out an incredulous little laugh. And he thought a single diamond would make him happy enough.
Wondering what other gems he could possibly find, Joker gently set down the emerald and diamond and tried to keep his excitement down as he started digging through the gold more eagerly than before. The idea of more shiny, shimmering gemstones just hiding from him made him want to dive right in. Maybe he really did miss his calling as a phantom thief earlier in life.
Joker caught himself before he could get too excited and look like a dog digging in dirt in search of precious bones. He took a moment to assess the surroundings first. Panther had on an assortment of necklaces and rings and was admiring herself in a platinum mirror also studded with gold. Mona hopped from pile to pile and slid down like it was a slide until he landed in front of Panther, to which she began cheering and clapping for him to do it again. Skull laid on his stomach in a pile of gold, looking like he’d already made a gold angel like he was lounging in snow, and making a little tower of gold and silver bars.
Good, they’d be too busy in their own little worlds to notice him. Joker went back to eagerly digging through the coins and other trinkets trying to find more gems that he knew had to be hiding in there. And he was gonna find them all.
It was embarrassing to admit, even to himself, but he’d had a fascination with gems ever since he was a little kid. He remembered his grandmother on his father’s side (the wealthy side of the family) always coming around for family events wearing a different jeweled necklace every time and he also remembered trying to discreetly look at the necklace and all the gems embedded into it and wondering if he was small enough that nobody would even notice if he snagged it. The few times he visited his grandparents home, he always managed to find his way into his grandmother’s closet to find the hidden box of jewelry so he could see the gems up close. He always had a good amount of time to himself before someone noticed he was gone.
It was like winning the lottery when he found out where his mother kept her stash of jewelry and he would sit in her closet while home alone, just poking through her necklaces and earrings and bracelets and rings. Always being so very careful because if he damaged or broke them, he’d never hear the end of it. And he wouldn’t get to admire them anymore.
He grew out of the habit as he got older but that never stopped him from looking at the jewelry ads in magazines and commercials or glancing in an older woman’s direction when he noticed her sparkling diamond ring on her finger. It made him feel childish that he still had this little fascination with gemstones but it wasn’t his fault that they looked so pretty and shiny and valuable.
His reminiscing was abruptly interrupted when he touched something with smooth edges and he hastily pulled his hand out to see his prize. A beautiful, glimmering, tear dropped shaped sapphire that was such a dark blue it was almost black without the light’s reflection.
Another bright glare from the pile had him digging around again and he pulled out a large, triangle shaped amethyst that almost made him gasp out loud. That shade of purple was something out of this world. To have this sitting on his shelf would be something else.
The more he dug around, the more he found for his collection. Another diamond, this one with more of a blue tint to it, a circular amber topaz, a good sized ruby bigger than his palm and the same shade of red as his gloves, a faceted aquamarine. It felt like a never ending fountain of jewels and Joker was not complaining in the slightest. He could stay there forever if he could if it meant more gems would come his way.
He was so engrossed in examining the sheen on his ruby that he didn’t hear the sounds of footsteps crunching on the gold coins behind him.
“Whatcha doin’ there, magpie?”
Joker bit down the very unmanly squeak of surprise, covered it up with a loud clearing of his throat, and instinctively clutched his spoils to his chest to protect them before turning around. Panther, still decked out in her gold necklaces, stood over him with her hands on her hips and an amused grin on her face.
“Nothing. What are you doing?” Joker replied as casually as he could while discreetly pushing a few gems behind him and out of view.
“Having fun, but not as much as you are apparently.” She giggled, crouching down to his level and making jingling noises with each move. “Lemme see, lemme see!” She reached out with grabby hands towards his gem pile but didn’t actually go to reach for one. “No way! A ruby?! Gimme gimme!”
Joker rolled his eyes but his lips curled up in a small as he showed off the treasures he’d been hoarding the past few minutes. He’d had his guard up initially, afraid that he’d be seen as weird or face some skewed judgement, but Panther’s excitement matching his own (except, you know, his was internally) made him feel like his hackles didn’t need to be raised so high.
”Mrow!” From out of nowhere, Mona darted in his line of sight and sprayed gold coins everywhere as he pounced out of a pile of treasure. Eyes twinkling with glee, little paws outstretched as he hopped onto the emerald that was big in Joker’s hand but looked huge compared to Mona’s little body. “So… pretty…!” The cat purred like a car engine as he cradled the gem to his face to admire the sheen up close.
Skull laughed at the display as he wandered over to see the commotion. “Like a cat on catnip.” He mused at Morgana before his attention was nabbed by the gems. “Woah, check these out! You found a haul, Joker!” Skull exclaimed, nudging Joker with his elbow as he got down to their level.
“No kidding! Look at all these!” Panther cheered, holding up the ruby in one hand and an aquamarine in the other to see them in the light. “They look so real!” She turned to look back at Joker and saw the other gems piled near his other side. “Have you just been collecting these the entire time?” She asked.
Joker hummed and averted eye contact, preferring to fiddle with the diamond still in his hand. “Hmm… maybe?” He shrugged, suddenly feeling a little sheepish. “I don’t know, I saw one and wanted to see if there were more.”
“So, you a fan of pretty gems or just shiny things in general?” Skull teased, holding his hands up in surrender when Joker fake threatened to knock him off balance with his elbow.
“So I like gemstones. Sue me.” Joker said a little defensively. “Isn’t that the sign of a good thief that I know their worth? Mona?” He looked over in the direction he heard purring and Mona was far too busy laying on his back and playing with the emerald like it was a ball of yarn. “Mona?”
Upon realizing that all eyes were on him, Mona abruptly sat up. His face under his mask looked a mix of mortification and surprise at his own behavior. He cleared his throat and discreetly smoothed down some of his ruffled fur with one paw; he still refused to let go of the emerald.
“Agreed, Joker. A phantom thief’s ultimate goal is always the treasure.” Mona declared confidently, moving to get up but found it a little difficult with the gem weighing him down. He stumbled as he stood but quickly straightened his spine. “Speaking of, we gotta get going. That treasure isn’t gonna steal itself!” He pointed at the amorphous cloud behind them.
“Yeah, guess Mona’s right. Time to pack it up.” Ann said, sounding disappointed but it was hard not to laugh at the way she jingled like pocket change every time she moved with all that jewelry on her.
“Hell yeah! Kamoshida won’t know what hit him.” Skull grinned and cracked his knuckles as he stood up. “We’re gonna take this castle down!” He whooped and the energy that had dwindled since the start of the venture in the metaverse today returned tenfold.
Joker didn’t know who to thank for his coat having so many pockets; Mona said their outfits came from their subconscious so maybe he could pat himself on the back for that? Regardless, it made it incredibly easy to slide some of the gems into his pockets, but he preferred to carry the diamond in his hand.
As the three thieves approached the door, each carrying their own haul of stolen goods, Mona scrambled to get in front of them and held his paws out. “Hold on now! We gotta leave the room looking the same as we left it. That means putting all of it back.” He ordered. Joker realized he didn’t see the emerald in sight and he wondered if Mona already tossed it aside or if he was hiding it somewhere on his person. Somehow.
“Awwww, what?” Panther whined, one hand coming up to clutch at her literal pearls. “We get all this cool stuff and now we have to put it back?”
“Yeah, not cool, Mona! We earned this!” Skull chimed in, both hands holding a gold and silver bar. “Didn’t you just say that stealing treasure is like the thing about being a phantom thief?”
“I did and I’m still right.” Mona asserted, his little arms folded across his chest. “But, this operation isn’t done yet! We still need another day or so to nab the real treasure and until we do, we can’t take any chances.” He brushed against Joker’s leg as he walked past him and gestured at the Treasure floating amidst the physical treasure pile. “If the cognitive version of Kamoshida became aware that we were in this room and took anything, he might put up extra security. Which could mean sealing the door entirely.” He pointed at the large double doors that they had struggled with.
The three of them were quiet as they considered what Mona said. Having to give up all their cool stuff would suck but having to get back into this room to steal the real Treasure would suck even more. With a unified groan of disappointment, Joker, Skull, and Panther separated to go and place their goods back in whatever pile they’d taken them from.
Joker dragged his feet a little and carelessly flopped back down onto his knees to start digging in his pockets. It felt painful letting go of each and every shiny, glittering gem that he worked so hard to collect. It felt like millions of yen slipping through his fingers.
When it came time to give up his diamond, he hesitated. Well, Kamoshida wouldn’t notice if one diamond went missing from a pile, right? There was plenty of treasure already there. He could just slip it back into his pocket and-
“Ahem.” He felt the eyes in the back of his head before he heard the voice.
“May I help you, Mona?” Joker asked politely without turning his head. Nonchalance was the key in negotiation.
“Put it back, Joker.” Nonchalance only worked sometimes in negotiation.
“Fine.” Joker gritted his teeth and tossed the diamond away like it burned his hand.
Once all the Phantom Thieves reassembled, and three out of four of them pouting unhappily, Mona took the lead back out the way they came.
“First things first, let’s get out of here. Joker, if you would.” Mona looked over his shoulder to address him and Joker dug his phone out from his pocket to open the metaverse app. He could probably get them back to the entrance from here. “Once we get to safety, we’ll go over our next steps.”
“As long as Kamoshida gets to pay for what he’s done.” Panther muttered darkly. Her face couldn’t be seen under her mask from where she stood. “I don’t care what we have to do.”
“Damn right.” Skull nodded once and rolled the shoulder of his dominant arm to stretch it out. “You ready to settle it, Joker?”
Joker looked to all three of his teammates and felt the weight of leadership as he nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We’ll get through it. Kamoshida won’t know what hit him.” He asserted and pressed the button to lead them back. The weird vibration and vertigo was easier to ignore when he thought about why they were there in the first place. It just meant they had to be ready for it.
~~~~~
“Oh… my God… that sucked!” Ann heaved, head down and her hands resting on her wobbly knees while she struggled to catch her breath.
“You… You didn’t say… it was gonna fall apart!” Ryuji pointed an accusatory finger at Morgana. “We could’ve died!”
The cat in question bought himself time answering by grooming his paw and swiping it over his ear. He was noticeably breathing a little less heavier than the rest of them. “I didn’t know what would happen once the shadow calmed down. But I had faith we could get out in time.”
“You didn’t even have to do anything! You hitched a ride on Joker!” Ryuji looked to where his friend was leaning up against the brick wall with one arm, also trying to catch his breath and not collapse.
Arguing was too exhausting so they took a few minutes to just stop and breathe and try not to throw up in the alleyway. They were already sore from that fight and their legs burned from running for their lives, but there was still that hint of adrenaline in their veins. Akira just wasn’t looking forward to when it finally crashed.
“Hey, where’s the crown?” Ann asked, looking around the alley. Last she recalled, Akira had grabbed it from Kamoshida and had it in his hand when they had to make their hasty escape.
Akira looked down at his feet first in case he dropped it but there was no gaudy king’s crown that he could see. He patted himself down, trying to find anything out of the ordinary, when he felt something in his pocket.
“Is that… a medal?” Ryuji questioned with his eyebrows raised as Akira pulled the gold medal attached to a bright ribbon out of his pocket.
Morgana hopped up on the nearest trash can to be at eye level with the object dangling in Akira’s hand. “This must’ve been the source of Kamoshida’s desires. In his mind, this medal is worth as much as that crown was in his Palace.” He explained.
Ryuji stepped forward to get a closer look. “An Olympic medal, huh?” He mused, looking at the detail etched into the medal. “Guess the perv couldn’t let go of his past glory. Just kept thinkin’ about it.”
“But, does this mean that his heart was really changed? Did we do it?” Ann asked, anxiously playing with one of the strings on her hoodie.
Ryuji quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen a few times. “Hey, look at the nav!” He said, and Ann and Akira stepped a little closer as Ryuji’s phone chimed.
The destination has been deleted.
“Guess that answers that.” Morgana said. “Without his desires fueling that Palace, it ceased to exist.”
For a long moment, nobody said anything. It felt more than a little surreal. If they’d done their job right, it would mean getting justice and making things right. But they had no real proof that it worked apart from the medal in Akira’s hands and they still weren’t sure what it meant.
“Well, guess we’ll just have to wait.” Akira said to break the silence. “We got rid of the Palace, so there’s that. I guess we’ll have to see if-” He cut himself off when he went to put the medal back in his pocket. There was something else already in his pocket.
When he pulled his hand out, his palm was full of coins. About four thousand yen, maybe. But he didn’t put this in his pocket.
“What’s up man?” Ryuji asked, looking between Akira and the handful of change. “Ain’t it your’s?”
“I think so but-” Akira’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to put the puzzle pieces together to form a picture. He mentally retraced his steps from that morning and what he put in his bag. He hadn’t needed to go into his wallet to get any yen today so…
“Oh.” Akira blinked and the yen felt heavier in his hands. “Aw, man…” He whined quietly.
Morgana tilted his head and his ear twitched as he seemed to find the correlation. “Akira, did you try to smuggle out some of that treasure from the Palace?” He questioned with a suspicious tone.
Both Ryuji and Ann looked to Akira and the guilt was written right on his face. “Dude, seriously?” Ryuji chuckled in surprise. “Did you shove some gold down your pockets before we snagged that crown?”
Akira made a noncommittal sound that wasn’t a yes or a no.
“You tried to take that diamond home with you, didn’t you?” Ann knew she hit the nail on the head when Akira’s neck practically cracked with how fast he looked at her. She smirked and folded her arms, tapping one nail on her sleeve.
“No!” Akira answered far too defensively, clutching the yen to his chest as if to hide the evidence.
“A bonafide thief. I’m so proud.” Morgana pretended to wipe a tear from his face with his paw.
“You really did like all those gems, huh?” Ryuji nudged his elbow into Akira’s ribs and the yen in Akira’s hand jingled with the movement.
“God forbid a man have hobbies.” Akira pouted and shoved the yen back into his pocket.
“C’mon, buddy, let’s go celebrate. You can buy dinner.” Ryuji draped an arm lazily around Akira’s shoulder. “Since, y’know, you’re just loaded with wealth right now.”
“I agree. I’m starved after all that!” Ann skipped forward and linked her elbow with Akira’s other arm. “Let’s go, Mr. Moneybags!” She cheered while Morgana hopped off the can with a happy chirp.
“Yay, dinner!” The cat rubbed in between Akira’s legs. Despite his unhappiness, Akira still knelt down and helped Morgana hop into his bag.
“You guys suck. I wanna go home, I’m in mourning.”
“It was a rock, Akira.”
“A really pretty and valuable rock!”
“Still a rock, bud.”
“Well that rock meant a lot to me.”
“Stuffing your face with food will make you feel better, c’mon.”
“Yeah! Time to eat the pain away!”