The word cube is mentioned 24 times in this

"Alright. I've been ignoring it before, but I'm tipsy enough to be honest and coherent at the same time. What the fuck."

Astro and Hops turned to look at Merry, confusion on both their faces. The three of them were hanging out in Astro's living room, Merry splayed out across the couch while Astro fidgeted with a rubik's cube in the rocking chair and Hops reached up from the bean bag she was situated in to grab a bottle of whiskey from the table arranged to be in the middle of the seating. When both just continued staring at Merry with no understanding of what it was referring to, it elaborated.

"That's, like, the sixth fidgety thing I've seen you pull out from- I don't even know where, actually. But why do you have so many? All of them are just... turny thingies."

Astro took his time just staring at Merry, still turning the different sections of the cube in his hands as he answered, "I think you're a little past tipsy actually. It's not weird for me to have things."

Hops offered her own opinion before Merry could comment again. "Actually, I hadn't noticed before, but it does have a point. I think I've seen you with at least ten different cubes at work. I'm not sure if the gear-shaped one counts since that's more a sphere than a cube, but it did turn."

Astro's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, the gluttony-horned bun shifting a bit in his seat. "...Well. I still don't think it's weird. I like rubik's cubes, they're nice to turn."

Merry flung an arm up, gesturing wildly as it spoke again, "Why do you need so many of the fuckin' things though? They can't be too damn different from each other!"

Astro mumbled something that was too quiet for the two of them to hear, Merry leaning forward and asking him to repeat himself. He mumbled again, then laughed alongside Hops when Merry tried to shove at his shoulder but instead ended up just falling off the couch as it misjudged the distance between them, the pride-horned bun cursing as it's legs got tangled in the blanket it had draped over itself before.

It took several minutes for Merry to calm down enough to get back onto the couch, grumbling and making grabby hands towards Hops, who handed over her bottle of whiskey. Taking a long drink from the bottle, it set the drink back onto the table before turning back to Astro. "You're not getting out of this. Why the fuck do you need so many rubik's cubes."

"...I kept losing them so I kept buying more and it eventually just became a habit. I don't think I can stop buying them at this point."

Astro set the now solved cube he'd been playing with down, reaching to pull another one from under the table- while the first had just been patterned regularly with bold solid colours, the new one had faces finely carved from different colours of crystal, fancy gold swirls also set into the piece.

The expression on Hops' face was one of incredulity, "What... how much did that cost?"

"More than I care to admit. It was just so pretty and shiny... also it is actually very high quality, has never gotten stuck when turning it."

"Could we see the rest of the collection? At this point my curiosity is peaked."

"Uhhhh... sure. Lemme just... try to figure out where all the rest are. I don't really keep them organised."

Astro carefully stood from his chair, laying the crystal cube down beside the significantly less fancy one on the table to go searching through his home for the rest that he owned.

Merry shifted on the couch, pouring itself a drink before turning towards Hops. "So, how many do ya think he has?"

"Hm?"

"How many cubes do you think he's gonna come back with? I bet you my fancy bottle of strawberry vodka that it's at least sixty."

"Sixty? He can't have that many- I say it's closer to... half of that. Thirty. I'll get you a pack of beer if you're closer.”

"Fuck yeah, free beer! Wanna hear about the new trick Mirth pulled off yesterday?"

"Sure!"

As Merry was regaling Hops with the tale of it's jestie's talents, Astro returned, apparently having found more than just the rubik's cubes when searching through his home, indicated by his chirop happily circling around him and a bulbug looking out from the large bag he had slung over his shoulder as he made his way back to his seat, balancing himself with a hand pressed against the wall.

Dropping back into the rocking chair, he placed his cargo down to reveal it was in fact full of rubik's cubes that the bulbug was balancing on to peek over the edge, despite the small imp being in a bag large enough to beat out a typical suitcase in storage room.

Hops was the first to speak as Astro made himself comfortable and started pulling out the toys to place on the table, "I didn't know you'd adopted a bulbug recently?"

"I didn't either, but I found them in the cupboard and then they started following me so I guess they're here now."

Merry raised an eyebrow, "I thought it was those furdin imps that forcefully adopted themselves into houses, not the fucking nightlights of all things."

"Well then I guess every one of my imps is actually a furdin, since I also don't remember having a carousea last week but have somehow had a designer pet in my water tank for at least three days now. This just happens to me," he was interrupted by Glimmer letting out multiple loud chirps, "Yes yes, you were the only one that I actually got from the Imporium rather than you just showing up in my house, congratulations on your 'purposefully adopted' status."

The chirop made a pleased humming-like noise as he placed the last cube from the bag onto the table, having set his newly acquired bulbug onto his lap to get to the stack of fidget toys they had been sitting on.

Merry clearly started to count the contents of the table, as Hops again gave Astro a disbelieving look. "...You have ten imps, and only got one on purpose?"

Astro thought for a moment, quietly petting the surprisingly docile bulbug for a moment before replying. "Twelve, actually. Thirteen now if we're counting this guy. Fifteen if you count the virtues that showed up as well."

"Hold up, you fucking have virtues?"

Astro huffed in amusement at how shocked Merry seemed by that, the pride bun clearly losing count to stare at him, "You're not special for having a temperentia, you know. But yeah, I think Cosmic and Stardust are trying to steal my socks back from the uniqors, unless they've given up on that within the last ten minutes."

Almost as if summoned, a benevolia and patentia flew through the room holding a sock each, a small stampede of uniqors chasing after them and into a corridor. Clearly having gotten bored of listening to the conversation, Glimmer flew after them, the chirop eager to get in on the chaos.

Seemingly unbothered about the dramatic chase scene unfolding within his home, Astro only passively gazed in the direction the imps went. "I don't know why all of them seem to care so much about my socks. How's the counting going, Merry?"

"Well maybe I could get past the seventeen mark if someone didn't keep fucking distracting me, wouldn't I?"

"You'd also probably get past the seventeen mark if you stopped forgetting which cubes you've already counted and restarting."

"You're the one who just threw them all on the table willy-nilly!"

"Then move them, Merry. You can reach the table, just take the ones you've counted off and put them on the floor so you don't count them again."

His irritable friend glared at him, but it wasn't even slightly intimidating since he knew it was just embarrassed at having to be told such a simple solution, even when by all means it would've figured such a thing out itself if it weren't definitely drunk. It's counting wouldn't be reliable anyway, Astro just didn't feel like lifting himself out of his chair to properly reach the full table so it moving the cubes would help him count instead.

Hops just sipped at her drink, handing one over to Astro as well when the gluttony horned bun asked.

The many cubes on the table had a surprising amount of variety. There were a couple regular ones, but many of them had some kind of different pattern or weird shape. Some weren't even cubes, like the matte black rectangle that had uneven sections, or the slightly bizarre one shaped like a bonezo's head. There was also a dodecahedron, it's colours completely mixed since Astro admitted to not even once trying to actually solve it, the same case being with the 21x21 cube, which he just found annoying to try turning accurately.

He had at least five cubes which had faces inset with distinct kinds of wood. There were also some patterned to look like food, some translucent, and there was also one that just looked to be neon green on all sides, which Hops asked about.

"Oh, you can only see the different colours on that one in the dark. It glows. Some of the regular looking ones do as well actually."

When Hops mentioned that the gimmick seemed inconvenient, Astro shrugged. "I usually have it by my bed, so I always see it when it's dark anyway."

Two of the cubes were personalised, one having different photos of Astro's imps printed on it while the other had a pattern reminiscent of the gluttony bun's fur.

Overall there was a large variety, and Hops had long since realised that she would be buying a case of beer for Merry after all, as she had clearly underestimated just how much of an impulsive spender her friend was when it came to these things.

"And fifty four!" Merry grinned, holding the last cube, a simple 2x2 printed with a heart motif, in the air like a trophy.

"Fifty seven, actually. You knocked one of them off the floor with your elbow," Astro corrected, waving his arm to point out the spherical 'cube' that had rolled towards him, “And you just skipped over two of them.”

"Fuck you. Anyway I win, so Hops has to buy me beer. Also, I'm stealing this thing."

Astro assessed the black and white cube it was holding up and shrugged, "Yeah, sure. Go ahead."

"Woo! Also what are you going to name that thing."

"That thing you're pointing towards is a bulbug. And I don't know, you have an idea?"

"Nightlight. Because that's basically what it is."

"...Yeah, sure, why not. Nightlight the bulbug."

When the time turned late, both Hops and Merry stayed overnight as they had drank too much to even find the spare rooms in Astro's house themselves, let alone get home, and their host was also tipsy. No one bothered to pick the cubes up off the floor, which Astro and Merry would start a passive aggressive fight over the next day until he pulled the trump card of the fact he could just refuse to let it take the cube it wanted otherwise.

Also that day, they found out that the virtues had in fact managed to save five of A

stro's socks from the uniqors. They both got treats for it.