Once upon a time!

On some a far-off planets,

Lived an artistic young woman,

I wish I could go to the festival.

An annoyed young man,

I wish we had some food.

And a kinless investigator

I wish we had...

With his alien partner.

...a child.

As every story has it, everyone wished for something.

Devi D. wished to go to the festival...
"You wanna go to the festival?"
The poor girl's parents had died (as it happens).
"You want to go to the festival?"
"The festival?"
"The king's festival?"
On this planet art was held higher than anything else, so much so that plenty of festivals were thrown throughout kingdoms just to showcase people's different styles. While Devi's forced family chose their art to be outer beauty, it certainly didn't impact their insides.
"This festival about beauty? Dear. Look at you!"
"Look at your arms,"
"Look at the way you dress!"
"People would laugh at you."
"Nevertheless, she still wants to go?"
They would start to make mocking gestures.

Johnny C's family on the other hand was very much chosen.
Living with a child he needed to take care of and a broken robotic dog they found, they only wished for more access to necessities.
"I wish that goddamn dog would actually bring real food sometimes...I wish the kid didn't have to be around this hellhole...I wish a lot of things...but I know it gets us nowhere," he'd think.
On this planet, technology hasn't come very far—it seems to be stuck in Earth's state decades ago. The closest area to get nearly real electronics was the bakery run by two men. This place happened to also sell food for fairly cheap, and was close enough for Nny to send Squee to when necessary.

Devi's house owner had a "surprise" for her.
"I've emptied out a jar of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them all out and put them back in the jar before I come back, you can then go to the event with us."
Devi nodded, internally groaning. Once the room was cleared of other life, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, very used paintbrush. She crouched beside the fireplace, painting hand-sized birds onto the bricks. She then watched as the paint twitched and bent, tore then snapped—the birds popping off the wall and onto the ground.
"Hey, could you, uh, help me?" She pointed to the pile of ashes mixed with small lentils.
With a slight nod, the birds began to pick up the lentils and drop them into the pot.

"Eh—come in..!" Zim's antennae perked up from behind a counter as the door's bell alerted someone's entrance. A small boy stepped through the door, torn Teddy in hand. He comes from our world; after his parents abandoned him in a Walmart parking lot when he was much younger, he was swallowed up by the Florpus and left on Nny's property.
"Uh... my friend asked me to get something to eat?"
"Well, yes, this is a human sustenance shop, so we have plenty of that," Zim just stared.
"Be a little nicer?" Dib huffed at his partner.
"Sorry. What do you want?"
Dib shook his head in his palm.
"Uhh.." Squee pointed to some goods, including bread, a couple doughnuts, some small Rice Krispies, and a can of Spaghetti-O's. "Oh—I might need a basket, if that's okay..."
Zim nodded, reaching to find one behind the counter.
The kid stared at everything handed to him, now feeling a bit guilty. "I don't know if I can pay for all this..."
Dib caught a bit on that guilt as well, trying to shake it off. "Hey... just take it. It's for your friend, right? Just tell them to come find us if they ever need a monster taken care of." Dib smiled; Zim raised an antenna.
"Eh?"
"Thank you, sir!" The kid excitedly took the basket, quickly rushing now to get back home.
"Don't let it get stale..!" Dib called out, waving.
Zim stared at the door as it closed. "...that was our last loaf of bread."
Dib froze. "Crap, it was?"
"It's always the bread—why doesn't anyone ever wish to buy the Headcrab Jambalaya?" Zim went to walk back to the lab kitchen.
"Gee, I wonder why."

Meanwhile, Nny was on a quest to get some money. The whole house was pretty desperate, but he didn't want to resort to stealing from people. So instead, he had to come to the other final option: the dog.
He knew this would upset Squee, but what else could he do?
The mechanical dog was broken anyway—it served no good use. Plus, it meowed. What dog meowed? It was all very confusing, but he wouldn't have to worry about it soon.
That's not to say he won't feel bad about it; he surely already does.
"Ngh...god damnit."

Once all the lentils were gone, the birds disintegrated into colorful ash as Devi was called in by her housemates.
"DEVI D.! WE NEED HELP IN HERE!"
"How's my hair?"
"My dress needs some tying."
"Dear lord, why do you smell like that?"
"God—my clothes have torn. Devi, there's a pin over there."
"You look beautiful," Devi muttered through her teeth.
"I know."
"She means me."
"Put it in a twist."
"Who will be there?"
"I know my parents told me to 'just be nice' when I don't like someone, but oh lord, how do I not snap their necks right now..." Devi thought to herself as she tied up their hair.
"Tighter!"
"ALWAYS be good. ALWAYS be nice. Oh, you like to paint? Too bad—that's gross. Oh, is it? Am I? I must be nice, nice, good, nice, g—"
"OW—" one of them cried out as Devi got carried away in thought and ended up tugging on their hair. "NOT THAT TIGHT!" They slapped her, the paint brush she had held in her pocket snapping.
"...sorry." Devi slunk back down.
"Clod."

Zim and Dib wished to have a child. Dib's mother died when he was young and his father died in a science accident, so he never had a true childhood, and Zim didn't even have real parents—they wanted to give someone proper life. However, they never seemed to be able to...
Knock knock knock...
"Who could that be this late? We're closed, and we're all out of bread." Zim looked up from his cleaning.
Dib looked through the curtains curiously, gasping and stumbling back. "It's the...thing from next door..!"
And with that, the door opened to let in a cloaked figure with out of control hair on top of a head covered in pulsing veins, a torn outfit similar to that of Dib's, and shattered visors.
"We don't have any bread—!" Zim and Dib said nearly at once.
"Of course you have no bread."
"What do you wish?" Dib didn't look away from it.
He sighed, exasperated. "It's not what I wish... it's what you wish..!" He grinned a sharp-toothed grin. "Nothing's cooking in either oven, huh?" He pointed to the kitchen, then to Zim (who was understandably greatly confused).
"...my what?"
It then went on to tell the two of them about a curse he'd planted on Dib's family many years ago.
"Curse? Like, magic..?"
"In the past," he began. "When you were only a human smeet, your father and his wife came to this planet. They were an...okay couple, but not okay neighbors. You see, your mother was ready to have another one of you, but she had developed a strange hunger. Which, yes, is normal for human females, but... what she wanted more than anything in the world was greens. Specifically mine. Your father said 'okay, then'—but it wasn't okay! He was stealing from me! Stealing my rutabaga! My arugula! Even my favorite: the plant I had used to make my own gasoline! I should have done my work right then! Could've sent him into space...or turned him into a bug...hehe...or I—" he started shaking, sparks flying from his head. Zim and Dib backed up, a bit more confused. They were about to say something when— "But, eh—I let him have the gasoline, I had lots to spare. In return, however, I said 'fair is fair, you can let me have the child that your wife's having...and then we'll be even'!"
Dib took a second to process, until it finally clicked.
"I had a brother..?"
The thing dragged his hands down his face. "NO, but you had a sister."
But, he refused to tell Dib any more of his sister...not even that her name was Gazlene. He went on:
"I thought I had been more than reasonable...maybe we could have gone about our lives, but, as luck would have it, nah. How the hell was I supposed to know what your father had also hidden in his pocket? You see, when I started that garden to get away from my previous dimensional problems...I had borrowed some things from my Tal..." he winced, hitting the giant lump on the back of his head. "...my leaders. But. They warned me that I would be punished if I were to lose any of the BEANS."
"Beans?"
"THE SPECIAL BEANS! I LET HIM GO BACK; I DIDN'T KNOW HE'D STOLEN MY BEANS! I WAS WATCHING HIM JUMP OVER THE WALL, WHEN SNAP! SPLIT! THE SKY OPENED, AND—EH WEll that's another story, never mind. Anyway! The big day came to make his end of the deal, and of course, they tried everything in their power to stop me. 'oH, dOn'T tAkE hEr AwAy, PlEaSe'! But I did! I hid her where she can never be found! Your father cried and your mother died when my final addition to my unsatisfying bargain results was one small touch..." he grinned directly at Dib, kicking him in the crotch with a spiked boot and holding his head up with a four-fingered clawed hand. "That your family tree would stop at you." He cackled, while Dib just cried out in pain and Zim's squeedlyspooch dropped.
"W-wait...but ZiM is a guy, anyway..?" Dib was even more confused.
"Not even adoption or abduction would work, that was the best part—besides! Irkens don't have sexes. Anything's possible under the right conditions."
"...I what?" Zim just sat down.
"Anyway, there's no more problems and there's no more over the top reactions...my garden's beautiful! But! I'm telling you this now: don't ever, EVER, mess with my greens... ESPECIALLY the beeeaaans."

GIR's head was tilted questioningly at Nny as he put a leash to his collar. "C'mon...dog...we're going out." GIR jumped around, meowing and rolling around too. "Can you...not do that? Please? It just makes this all the more difficult." He didn't stop. Nny sighed. "Look, you like Squee, right? I like 'im too. But I can't leave him out there, huh?" GIR wouldn't be able to understand, but that didn't stop Nny from talking to him like that.

"If you want the curse to be lifted, I'll need a potion for that. Go through the Florpus and bring me back:
1. The dog as green as greens
2. The bear as torn as bonds
3. The hair as purple as a brush
4. The boot as black as night
Bring me these four things by midnight in three days, and you shall have—I guarantee—the child you've always wanted."
The human and the Irken stared hopefully at each other.
"Enter the Florpus!" The neighbor slammed the door shut.

"Now may I go to the festival?" Devi was covered in colored ash.
"You, Devi, the festival? Look at your hair and your clothes—lentils are one thing, but the timing? Your appearance? You'll traumatize everyone there!"
"The engine is starting!"
"We must be off!"
"...I still want to go to the event," she said to herself. "How will I?" Her hand moved around her pocket, feeling the broken paint brush. She sighed in sorrow, until she thought of just getting a new one from her family's literal tree. It wasn't too far away—there would be plenty of time. She just had to go past the Florpus...

"Look what I found in my dad's old lab coat..!" Dib held out a hand of greens.
"Six beans? Do you think they're—"
"His beans? Definitely."
"Great! We'll take them with us!"
"'Us'? ZiM, I love you. But I can't risk you out there—the spell is on my house, I need t—"
"NO! OUR house! We should go off together—you're the one who can't be out there alone after the Bigfeets inci—"
"ZiM! YOU'RE NOT COMING, AT ALL!" Dib's breathing started to calm a bit. "...now. What am I getting?"
"You don't remember," Zim huffed. "The dog as green as greens, the bear as torn as bonds..."
"...the hair as purple as a brush, the boot as black as night..." Dib slowly nodded along.

And so, Dib went off towards the reality rift, not knowing he was also alongside Devi, Squee, Nny, Zim, and plenty of dangers.

TBC

Though, hopefully, they'd be home before dark.