"…Very well," he says, leaving through the gate into the dark astral blackness, and with the gate closing shortly behind him.
Everyone on the boat takes a moment to appreciate the quiet as the water of the lake laps against the boat. A distant bird croaks somewhere on the other side of the lake…
The minions all float on the boat for a little bit, totally quiet, with the exception of Maniac Minion's occasional whimpers of anticipatory horror. Scout Minion takes a slow, long breath to cool herself off, and then continues on with the holiday's necessary activities.
"Well, I gotta say, Fishin'ion," Scout Minion says as she looks over, "this really has been a trip."
He nods as he gives a short tug of his line. "Damn right."
Fashion Minion, getting back to his wits, immediately swoons. "Oh, I just had the most horrible dream," he says, collapsing helplessly over to one side of the boat just a second before his eyes widen with surprise. "Wait. Why are we on the lake?"
Scout Minion smiles. "Oh, we were going for a fishing trip, right?" she says, looking over to Fishin'ion who, now grinning, leans over to the side of the boat and gives the bench nearest him a small pat. Scout looks down under the bench: there's sets of fishing rods and bait for everyone.
"Fishin's great alone, but it's best with a partner or two. Let's have a day of catching our dinner, yeah?"
Scout Minion pauses, closes her eyes, and releases a heart-warmed sigh as she let slip Super Insane Maniac Minion.
"Phew," he says with a chuckle as Druid Minion and Fashion Minion, and then with a bit more consideration, even Cardio Minion, regard him with an irritated glance. "Oh, wow. Yeah, let's fish," he says, reaching for one of the rods and hastily trying to prick one of the artificial bait pieces to it. "Yeah, yeah, this has been a great, great time. Good night. Refreshing, refreshing dreams, everyone?"
"The dreams were pretty horrible," Cardio Minion says, a rare look of actual disgust on her face.
"I can't believe that someone did that to me, and I can't believe that person was you," Druid Minion says, notching just a little closer to Super Insane Maniac Minion.
Fashion Minion gives a haughty smile as he addresses him with a superior gaze. "You know, darling, there's not very much fabulous about making such unfun, ungraceful situations for us."
Insane Maniac Minion dodges back, scooting over to Fishin'ion, who at the moment appears to be his last resort. "L-listen, you guys don't understand. It wasn't me that did all that. It was… it was the demon!"
"Maybe that was part of it," Fashion Minion says. "But you caused this thing to happen."
Scout Minion leans forward. "Was it his idea?"
He looks aside like a terrified, purse-sized dog. "Wh-what wa-"
"The swimsuit?" Scout reminds with a light, but cold smile.
Super Insane Maniac Minion begins trembling. The boat begins rocking again, and Fishin'ion, with a sigh, draws back his line. "Now I've had just about enough of that," he says. "Are you fishin', or are you just gonna waste our time?" he says over to the little minion convulsing next to him.
Scout Minion leans forward with a big grin on her face. "Oh no, he won't be. I think he's going to be helping us with the fishing, sure… but I don't think he'll be doing it himself," she says, her eyes slanting into lunar crescents of impeding cruelty.
Maniac Minion's eyes widen with incredulous shock. "Oh no."
Scout looks behind her. "Would you all mind helping me out here?" she says. Only Cardio Minion flickers with a moment of hesitation, but she also agrees. It is a fair way to handle something like this, especially when Maniac Minion's the culprit, and lessons have to be taught in the only way he can seem to understand.
"Wh-why are you guys looking at me like that?" Super Insane Maniac Minion squawks as leans to leap off the boat and swim for shore.
He's not fast enough.
Our beloved dreamer is used as bait for the rest of the day. Obviously, etheriae can't die when they are torn limb from limb. Only a magical weapon with specific enchantments can actually hurt the creature trapped inside the ether frame, which means you can divide them down into about as many pieces as you'd like when it comes to turning them into chum.
They spend a good ten minutes, tearing him into as many tiny pieces as they can, and with his "help" they catch a lot of fish that way, surprisingly enough.
"Mmm. I guess he is good for something," Scout says with a smirk. A few of the others on the boat laugh just as Fishin'ion scoffs again.
"Quiet down," he says. "You're scarin' the fish away."
Scout Minion sighs with a satisfied glint in her eye.
"Okay, so when are we gonna put him back together?" Cardio Minion asks. "I'm sure it's not comfortable for him to be like a hundred different places at once."
"Nah, he doesn't deserve our help," a knife-gazed Druid Minion says. "No one does that to a person and gets away with it."
Scout Minion glances over. "He put you in a bathing suit too?"
"N-no," Druid Minion sighs.
"Oh, that," Scout chuckles, winning a hidden blush from her friend.
"Nevermind it!"
"If you say so."
The other minions decide to let it lie, and then the line from Cardio Minion's rod pulls. "Oh, I think I got something!" she exclaims before rearing back to pull in the catch.
Everyone turns to look when the flash of light cuts into the mists of the morning—an innocuous-looking glass bottle, and on the inside is a scroll.
"Huh. Look at that," she says, jostling it in her hands. "It's glowing! Must be magic?"
"Throw it back. Throw it back!"
"Oh my God. Not again!"
"Get that out of here," three of them shout back.
Fishin'ion sighs, shakes his head, and just keeps to his rod.
"Okay! Easy!" Cardio Minion laughs out, unhooking the clump of seaweed that it's on and tossing it back into the lake.
Scout Minion nods and turns back to her spot. "Good riddance. I've had enough of this magic bullshit for one weekend. Can't we just do something normal?"
"Like fishing, using our asshat friend as bait?" Druid Minion asks.
Scout Minion sighs. "Yeah, I guess. Can't be worse than last year's."
There's a conjoined cringe as everyone, even Fishin'ion, recalls the stories from last year's trip: the hideous, hideous stories.
The End