Cuphead and Mugman in "Fate Will Find You"

Interview with a Demon

After breakfast, the three of them traveled to the middle of the island. Kettle either stayed ahead or behind the young mug to avoid conversation as much as possible. It just depended on his boys' current speed. Djimmi's orange figure greeted them outside his white pyramid. The genie waved them over.

"Good to see you boys again!" He greeted. The cup brothers nodded in agreement.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay with him for a little while?" Kettle urged, making Mugman even more uncomfortable than he already was. Djimmi rested his light-weight hands on the little mug's shoulders as the child turned to face his guardian.

"We're going to be totally fine!" The genie beamed. Elder Kettle took a quick glance at his boy before averting his eyes to the orange being.

"Thank you, Djimmi. Come on, Cuphead. We have things to do." He kept his farewell short, even forgetting to say so to his boy. Cuphead, however, wasn't going to forget his sibling that easy.

"See you in a little while, Mugs!" Cup called as they began to walk off.

Mug felt the genie's hands lift off his shoulders.

"Well Mugman, what say we have a little talk?"

The mug child slowly turned around with a worried expression. If this went anything like their last encounter, Cuphead wouldn't be there to help him calm the demon. But his level of control had increased significantly since then, so the chance of the dark creature popping out was much less. Especially if Djimmi didn't prod it with his astral hands. The genie realized this was Mugman's fear and assured him that everything would be fine.

"No need to be nervous. I just want to know how you're holding up."

"Okay..." The young mug replied and followed the magical creature into his home. They stopped in the same room in which they had last talked. Mugman went to take the blue beanbag chair his guardian had sat in a few days prior. Djimmi folded his legs up as he sat on the floor like usual. With a snap of his orange fingers, a notepad and black feather pen appeared out of thin air. They floated next to the genie's head. The pen's inky side pointed to Djimmi's head, waiting for something to write down.

"Let's start with your training. I understand Kettle has been making fake enemies for you with the morphing spell I gave him." An orange elbow rested on his leg as he let his cheek rest into his hand. A puff of smoke came out of his pipe as he awaited an answer. Mugman took a deep breath and prepared to tell him the truth.

"That's right." He started. "It's going fine. The demon and I work together to take down the little devils that spawn from the potion."

Djimmi took a big gulp of his pipe as the feather on his turban shot up into a question mark shape. This was far from what he expected to hear from the child. It was a much more intriguing response than he expected too. Never had someone claimed that a demon would work with them.

"Work together? Elaborate on that for me, Mugman." Said the genie, taking the pipe out of his mouth. The pen next to his head scrabbled furiously on the floating notepad to keep up with what they were saying.

"We consult one another for strategies and share our abilities." Mugman said, keeping calm and truthful.

"So it actually talks to you?"

Ahem! The demon grumbled from within the little mug. For the dark creature did not like to be called an "it". He was a person just like the mug and genie after all and he intended to be treated as such.

"Yes. HE talks to me. We are like friends." Mug said, encouraging the idea that the parasitic creature had feelings too. "The closest type of friends there can be. Heh..." He chuckled as he made air quotes as he said "closest", referring to the fact that they were stuck together.