All possible worlds

That makes a lot of sense, I don’t think I would have felt it needed to be that big a scene if it wasn’t the, for lack of a better term, “main piece” of its own chapter. It is actually a pretty nice sex scene, on a second read. I guess I was holding up to the standard of being the story’s climax (heh). The point of the story is made either way, and is not like I can complain about the lack of steamy scenes in this fic as whole
Well, I guess I should have put my argument in terms of ἔρως (Eros, romantic love) being somewhat overrated and φιλία (Phillia, love between friends) being underrated, which is a weird argument for me to make when reading an *erotic* fanfiction, but nonetheless true. Either way, it is a great theme, specially for this series.
My take on starco as a couple in cannon is that, while the jealousy triangle thing is certainly an obstacle to overcome one way or the other, they will probably keep their friendship whether or not they become an item romantically. But honestly, when “Just Friend’s” aired and based on wild speculation from the released episode summaries, my hope was that season 2 finale would have Marco (and possibly Jackie) rescue Star from Ludo/Toffee while we got a triumphant reprise of “Just Friends” for background music. There is not a thing wrong or lacking about those two being friends.
Well, it is one possibility. If that theory is not true, then I guess Tom didn’t actually think of the implications of his plan if he did somehow manage to “trick” the Blood Moon into binding their souls when they were not at least compatible. It is not an unidirectional link, so Tom would also just have gotten her soul entangled for all eternity to someone who would hate him for it. I guess a forced soul-bound could be played for off the charts dark drama in the right kind of light, in a way that even rape or forced marriage don’t quite reach. Then again, the show does have a lot of elements that are super dark if you dwell to long on them, and supposedly “nicer and kinder” season 2 Tom did threaten to kill Marco just so that he wouldn’t tell Star that he was using the counsellor to spy on her...
I guess “The Blood Moon binds Star and Tom” is a good potential prompt for a seriously messed up fic on this site

Exactly. And that’s a good observation to make, because the similarity among Dippers will continue to be important to the plot.
Thank you!
She may not be in love with Dipper, but she certainly likes him, so she wouldn't just use him and cast him aside. She just assumed that Dipper was operating on the same set of assumptions that she was, and that after a couple more years of fooling around together, they would amicably break it off, and Dipper would go find himself a Mrs. Robinson. She didn't count on Dipper actually being in love with her.
One thing I especially enjoyed in planning the shotaverse chapters was figuring out how social norms would differ if it was usual for older girls to date younger boys. Basically, it gives girls both more power and more responsibility. (For example, as we saw with Tambry and Chez, it's the girl's responsibility to make sure the boy is home by curfew.) And I really liked the idea that in the shotaverse, losing your virginity is a bigger deal for boys than for girls.
She is kinda butch. The word Mabel uses to describe her, “lumbersexual,” is typically used for men.
Thanks! Being on a journey of self-discovery, Dipper is going to be doing a lot of introspection in the course of this story, which provides plenty of opportunities for bits like that.
I love writing Grunkle Stan's dialogue.
My bad. I totally forgot about that line. Although, as you point out, it does rather concisely illustrate one of the down sides of life in the shotaverse.
No spoilers.
Yeah, I could see that. Except she’d probably break into a hacking cough halfway through the first line.
Thanks for the review!

Star taking impulsive bad decisions and then feeling like shit about them is a recurring pattern in this fic, and of course if she is going to seek something from Tom is punishment (and comfort/absolution). I sometimes worry I am making the normally very happy-go-lucky Star too angsty here, but, honestly, she was pretty angsty during the particular Season 2 arc I am basing all of this on, so…
 
I considered having even more Hekapoos, but it did not seem anatomically feasible… Food for thought: if she does the same trick by herself, is it an orgy or just masturbation? (Hekapoo’s sex life, like Moon’s, is probably something Star should not think too hard about)
 
I am forever in your debt!
 
I see what you mean. That is there as part of a series of “verbal ticks” that try to be particular to the POV character (e.g. Star for the first three chapters). But I also realize I am using the third person for every pronoun except the “I” in “I mean”. Not sure “She meant” works there, might just have to remove those altogether. Will review this with the other language/spelling errors when I get them. Thanks!
 
Glad to hear! Hopefully the spelling errors don’t ruin things too much for you, and hopefully you like the plot when it starts picking up!

That makes a lot of sense, I don’t think I would have felt it needed to be that big a scene if it wasn’t the, for lack of a better term, “main piece” of its own chapter. It is actually a pretty nice sex scene, on a second read. I guess I was holding up to the standard of being the story’s climax (heh). The point of the story is made either way, and is not like I can complain about the lack of steamy scenes in this fic as whole
Well, I guess I should have put my argument in terms of ἔρως (Eros, romantic love) being somewhat overrated and φιλία (Phillia, love between friends) being underrated, which is a weird argument for me to make when reading an *erotic* fanfiction, but nonetheless true. Either way, it is a great theme, specially for this series.
My take on starco as a couple in cannon is that, while the jealousy triangle thing is certainly an obstacle to overcome one way or the other, they will probably keep their friendship whether or not they become an item romantically. But honestly, when “Just Friend’s” aired and based on wild speculation from the released episode summaries, my hope was that season 2 finale would have Marco (and possibly Jackie) rescue Star from Ludo/Toffee while we got a triumphant reprise of “Just Friends” for background music. There is not a thing wrong or lacking about those two being friends.
Well, it is one possibility. If that theory is not true, then I guess Tom didn’t actually think of the implications of his plan if he did somehow manage to “trick” the Blood Moon into binding their souls when they were not at least compatible. It is not an unidirectional link, so Tom would also just have gotten her soul entangled for all eternity to someone who would hate him for it. I guess a forced soul-bound could be played for off the charts dark drama in the right kind of light, in a way that even rape or forced marriage don’t quite reach. Then again, the show does have a lot of elements that are super dark if you dwell to long on them, and supposedly “nicer and kinder” season 2 Tom did threaten to kill Marco just so that he wouldn’t tell Star that he was using the counsellor to spy on her...
I guess “The Blood Moon binds Star and Tom” is a good potential prompt for a seriously messed up fic on this site

That makes a lot of sense, I don’t think I would have felt it needed to be that big a scene if it wasn’t the, for lack of a better term, “main piece” of its own chapter. It is actually a pretty nice sex scene, on a second read. I guess I was holding up to the standard of being the story’s climax (heh). The point of the story is made either way, and is not like I can complain about the lack of steamy scenes in this fic as whole
Well, I guess I should have put my argument in terms of ἔρως (Eros, romantic love) being somewhat overrated and φιλία (Phillia, love between friends) being underrated, which is a weird argument for me to make when reading an *erotic* fanfiction, but nonetheless true. Either way, it is a great theme, specially for this series.
My take on starco as a couple in cannon is that, while the jealousy triangle thing is certainly an obstacle to overcome one way or the other, they will probably keep their friendship whether or not they become an item romantically. But honestly, when “Just Friend’s” aired and based on wild speculation from the released episode summaries, my hope was that season 2 finale would have Marco (and possibly Jackie) rescue Star from Ludo/Toffee while we got a triumphant reprise of “Just Friends” for background music. There is not a thing wrong or lacking about those two being friends.
Well, it is one possibility. If that theory is not true, then I guess Tom didn’t actually think of the implications of his plan if he did somehow manage to “trick” the Blood Moon into binding their souls when they were not at least compatible. It is not an unidirectional link, so Tom would also just have gotten her soul entangled for all eternity to someone who would hate him for it. I guess a forced soul-bound could be played for off the charts dark drama in the right kind of light, in a way that even rape or forced marriage don’t quite reach. Then again, the show does have a lot of elements that are super dark if you dwell to long on them, and supposedly “nicer and kinder” season 2 Tom did threaten to kill Marco just so that he wouldn’t tell Star that he was using the counsellor to spy on her...
I guess “The Blood Moon binds Star and Tom” is a good potential prompt for a seriously messed up fic on this site

I've always had mixed feelings about the notion of Star and Marco having a romantic relationship. On the one hand, they are great together, and no doubt they would be great in a long-term boy/girl relationship, too. But on the other hand, I feel like their getting together romantically would be, in a sense, a step down for them, because romantic feelings could easily get in the way of the wonderful friendship they have (which seems to be pretty much what happened in season 2). So I decided to make “Star’s Crossed Lovers” about the strength of Star and Marco's friendship and how much each of them values it.
You SO get this. Thank you.
That's fair. To be honest, when I wrote that scene, I was still thinking in terms of all of the material in chapters 12 and 13 being one chapter, and I didn't want to cram two prolonged sex scenes into one chapter. Also, I couldn't think of what to do differently with Marco and Jackie's second sexual encounter that would distinguish it from the first. So I was not at my most creative there.
Not now, not ever.
I guess that's the Star-and-Marco way of saying, "And they lived happily ever after."
In the end, it's all love. Romantic love is just one flavor.
That's an interesting theory. It would explain why the painting talked to Marco (something that has yet to be brought up on the show). It also casts Tom in a less asshole-ish light, because it implies that Tom might have been merely hoping that Star was destined to be his soulmate instead of trying to trick her into becoming that.

Author Notes (SPOILERS)
The idea for “Star’s Crossed Lovers” came to me when I was writing my previous SVTFOE story, “It's Different for Boys,” in which Star volunteers to help make Marco look cool in front of Jackie, and Marco tells Star that if she ever needs a wingman with Oskar, he'll be there. The story goes in a completely different direction after that, but the idea of Star and Marco becoming each other's wingmen stayed with me. I figured, they're opposite-sex best friends who have crushes on other people, so why wouldn’t they help each other out?
The other inspiration for this story was a sketch by Kyder of Star fist-bumping Marco while he's getting it on with Jackie. The one thing I thought would have made the picture even better would be if Star were doing Oskar at the same time (because I loves me some parallelism), so I decided to make that happen in story form.
After having the initial idea, I had to do some research, because I didn't know what a wingman actually does to help his buddy get with someone. So I posted the question on a couple of different forums. The general consensus was that the wingman’s role is to make the other guy look good by saying things like, “Hey, I heard about that big raise, congrats!” in front of the woman the guy is trying to impress. That helped me figure out what Star and Marco would say in front of each other's respective crushes.
Coming up with the title was difficult. Not satisfied with my own ideas (eg, “Flight of the Wingmen”), I posted a brief summary of the story here on the AFF forums and asked for suggestions. Fellow SVTFOE fanfic writer GrayNeko came up with the nicely witty title “Star’s Crossed Lovers.”
As mentioned in the disclaimer at the start of the story, I began writing before season 2 aired, and I fully expected that at least some of the events of season 2 would contradict what happens in the story. This proved to be the case, to such a great degree that I didn't even try to reconcile the story with season 2 canon. Here are some of the points of contradiction:
•    In chapter 4, Star gets upset at Marco for describing Star and himself as being “just friends.” But in the episode “Mr. Candle Cares,” Star uses this phrase to describe her relationship with Marco.
•    In chapter 10, Janna uses the narwhal blast spell and implies that she learned it from Star’s spell book. However, in season 2, we learn that narwhal blast isn't in the book (because Star made it up herself).
•    Tom actually proves to be a bit sympathetic in the season 2 episodes “Mr. Candle Cares” and “Friendenemies,” whereas in “Star’s Crossed Lovers,” he's a straight-up villain. (Before season 2 began, I thought that Tom might end up being the Big Bad for the season, given the scuzziness of his trying to trick Star into binding her soul to his in “Blood Moon Ball.” But upgrading Ludo was a valid villain choice, too, IMO.)
•    The big one: In season 2, Star develops a crush on Marco. I'm not against that; it just wasn't the direction I wanted to go in this story.

Boner is based on the skeletal guy who is chained to the wall and about to get smashed with a mace (voluntarily, it seems) in “Blood Moon Ball.” I created Boner mainly to give Tom someone to talk to as he formulates his evil plans, but he's there for comic relief, too. I imagine Boner as having the slowest, dullest voice that Tom Root (the actor who voices Tom's life coach, Greg, as well as many characters on other shows) could manage.
Grandpa Rogelio was inspired by the World's Most Interesting Man from the Dos Equis commercials.
The first bit of dialogue I thought of for Rogelio was his words to Marco in chapter 9 about how “the pasión, she die...Not quickly, like the slaughtered pig whose slit throat sprays blood like a lawn sprinkler...but slowly, like the pig with the chronic atherosclerosis.” His fondness for disgusting similes grew from that.
The name of Tom's favorite brand of horn polish, Dr. Boggs’ Hex Wax, is a play on Mr. Zogs’ Sex Wax, which is used on surfboards.
The bit in chapter 6 about Janna's parents lamenting the loss of their favorite business establishments (the goth store for her mom, the coffee shop for her dad) is meant to imply that Janna is the offspring of a goth and a grunge. That would explain her behavior and fashion sense perfectly, don't you think?
I've always thought it was a little weird that Oskar has those fangs and that they have yet to be explained, or even mentioned. So I came up with the half half-demon thing to explain why Oskar has them.
The idea of Janna finding Marco’s handwritten five-step plan in chapter 6 was inspired by Fairy Slayer. When he beta-read chapter 1, he commented that Marco putting the list in his pocket was surely a setup for someone to find it later. I hadn't even considered that, but then I thought about a certain girl who gets a kick out of picking Marco's pockets, and there we were.
The title of chapter 7, “To the Maximus,” is sort of a double entendre, as it refers to both the Chillaximus Spa and to the gluteus maximus—the muscle of Jackie's that Marco especially wants to massage.
The bit about Star and Marco cuddling up with the laser puppies for warmth at night was inspired by my cats, which I sometimes find sleeping on top of me when I wake up on a cold morning.
The only laser puppy that has been named on the show to date is Sajak, who is presumably named for Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune. Thus, the three laser puppies that are named in chapter 9—Harvey, Barker, and Eubanks—get their names from other American game show hosts: Steve Harvey (Family Feud), Bob Barker (The Price Is Right), and Bob Eubanks (The Newlywed Game).
A few ideas I toyed with and rejected:
•    Rogelio (and therefore Marco) is descended from a noble family that was banished from Mewni for siding with the monsters in the Great Monster Massacre. Rogelio is in the current royal family's good graces, though, and he contacts them (through a magic mirror of his own) at the end of the story to give a mysterious report about “how things are progressing” between Star and Marco—implying that they are expected to get together eventually. I rejected this idea because it implies that there will be a sequel (which I am not planning at this point) and, more importantly, because it undercuts the story's theme of friendship over passion.
•    Janna is not fully human but is partly some sort of spider-creature. This idea came from Janna inexplicably baring a pair of spider-like fangs in “Interdimensional Field Trip.” (Yes, they were probably plastic fangs Janna bought at the museum gift shop, but who knows?) But I didn't think this would add anything useful to the story.
•    We find out that Jackie has known about the five-step plan for some time (maybe because Janna blabbed), but she isn't angry about it; rather, she feels flattered that Marco would go to such lengths to become her boyfriend. But that idea seemed contrived and, ultimately, unnecessary, because Jackie could easily figure out on her own that Star was the catalyst for Marco starting to court her.

I often “proofread” my work by having the Voice Aloud app on my phone read it to me, which makes it easier to notice misspellings and repeated words and such. (I got this idea from Fairy Slayer.) Amusingly, although the app has problems pronouncing certain words, like “piece” and “wash,” it pronounces “Uncle Hardegarbamar” perfectly.
If this story were a movie, I would want the poster to show Star and Marco standing back to back, ready to kick some butt, with the tagline, “Not just friends. Best friends.”

True. He pretty much got more character development in Starcrushed than in the rest of the series put together and that still puts him far behind Ferguson in terms of development. But, yeah, in Oskar’s case I meant to say that he stayed true and consistent to the character you developed him as.
 

Whoops. Then I literally have nothing but praise for you
 

True. He pretty much got more character development in Starcrushed than in the rest of the series put together and that still puts him far behind Ferguson in terms of development. But, yeah, in Oskar’s case I meant to say that he stayed true and consistent to the character you developed him as.
 

Whoops. Then I literally have nothing but praise for you
 

Thanks! My ego is now fully inflated.
Whoa. Time dilation…
Thank you!
Although Oskar is a canonical character, he has been used so little on the show that writing him is almost like writing an OC. That has given me a lot of freedom to develop him.
When I first thought of writing this scene, the awkward start -- especially the hysterical laughter when they try to kiss -- was the first thing that came to mind.
I love words and wordplay, so I like coming up with ways to use it in Star’s dialogue. Being from another dimension means that she isn't necessarily familiar with all of our idioms (nor are we familiar with all of hers, like “riding the unicorn”), so there’s lots of room for language fun.
Thank you! It took me quite a while to figure out how that scene was going to work. Eventually, I realized that the action needed to flow from the two characters’ personalities, and that meant their letting loose and having fun.
My bad: My original plan was to end with the 12th chapter. But as I wrote it, I realized that there was too much material to fit into one chapter, so I split it into two. Now the last chapter will be 13 -- which will be posted soon, because it's already written and just needs a little cleaning up.
*blushes*
Actually, the omission of the quotation mark there was intentional. When a piece of dialogue continues into the next paragraph, you leave off the end quote in the first paragraph as a clue to the reader that the same character is still speaking.
Thanks so much for the review! Final chapter coming soon.