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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.”

Alright, if you say so. Personally, I agree with everything you've said about it and would probably enjoy watching it, but it's always seemed just too childish. I'm a pretty big fan of formulaic myself and I did enjoy Phineas and Ferb. It's just the way everything is written, you'd think this was Preschool not Highschool. It takes away from the other undeniable good points just too much to get through. But hey, with every other work you've given us, somehow I doubt I'll be able to make that claim about Miss Matched. Can't wait to see what you do with the place.

Well, I certainly didn't expect that, especially after the chapter before. I’d expected what I’d guess everyone who watches StarvFE expects in the end and for Marco and Star to get together. Still, I’m not complaining of course. You do good work and are the only one I know of who will even touching ideas like this. I congratulate you for yet another story well written and a job well done.

Suddenly, Marco looks like the typical protagonist of a harem anime movie. As Rogelio said, true friendship requires faith. Star has that faith in spades. Jackie and Oskar's hints helped Star and Marco jump-start their arousal. Once their motors were running, though, they were ready to do things their own way. I couldn't imagine Star and Marco having sex without talking. I mean, these guys don't even stop talking when they're fighting monsters. Thank you! Final chapter to be posted shortly. Yikes. I didn't even think about that. BTW, in your review of chapter 6, you mentioned that you were pretty sure what “gift” Tom was going to have Janna pass along to Star. Were you right? (The gift was the four passes to the Chillaximus Spa.)

Miraculous is seriously formulaic, but as Phineas and Ferb proves, a formulaic show can be great if the formula works. And Miraculous has certain qualities that make it good lemon fodder: -an understated sensuality (eg, Ladybug's nice figure in her form-fitting costume) -two main characters who are attracted to each other in a big way -magic, which makes many a plot device plausible Oh, I left out a fandom in my previous post: I’ve been working on a Steven Universe story on and off for some time now. .

One thing, whenever I see “Lol, I suck at summaries just read” or similar I don’t. Because if you can’t even put that effort in to write something then it doesn’t bode well for the story. And now I must fly off mysteriously.

Seriously, the first chapter of that story is perfection. LOL