#26/12/2023 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pokeprism · 1 year ago

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From Clay To Brick: Day Trip

Here's a vignette of an original fiction idea I've had in the works for a bit. It quite literally just got done, and I thought it'd be a good Boxing Day present to the lot of you! There's three thousand, eighty five (3,085) words to this thing!

Questions, comments, and any concerns you might have go here!

Enjoy!

The late summer day dawns at about six AM. Amari, the youngest of those in the house, wakes up shortly after in accordance with her school schedule. Now awake, Amari rises from the air mattress that Umol and Atticus had set up last night, taps her pants’ side pocket to confirm that she has her phone, and begins to walk around her hosts’ home.

Amari walks from the living room towards the hallway then stops to check the time on her phone.

The phone’s clock reads six thirteen AM in pastel pink against the purple galaxy lock screen that Amari picked out.

Barely a moment passes as Amari reflexively locks the screen, sets the phone back into the pocket, and turns into the hallway before peeking her head into Umol’s doorless room. Besides noticing all of the crafting supplies and small animal plushies strewn about, she finds Umol shirtless and passed out face down on top of a large seal-shaped beanbag.

Now curious about what else is in Umol’s room, Amari carefully steps in to investigate what plushes she can recognize before something catches her eye.

She turns her head towards what caught her attention, and sees a circular golden emblem nailed to the wall opposite from where she entered. The emblem resembles a compass, and Amari hangs on the thought of what it means long enough that she loses track of where she’s stepping and steps on a rubber discount rat toy.

Amari’s second long shriek alerts Umol, and four tendrils erupt from his back at the noise.

The child stumbles to the floor at the sight of Umol’s inhuman tendrils.

Amari’s thud then makes Umol shoot up from his beanbag seal. “Gah!”

Umol looks towards the source of the noise with his golden, pupil-less eyes and sees a concerned Amari on the floor near the door.

Umol releases a sigh of relief. “Oh gods, it's only you…”

“What’s with the back tentacles?!” Amari barks.

Those ‘back tentacles’ recede into Umol’s back as he answers. “Oh, those are just my extra hands, Amari! They come out when they think they’re needed…”

Amari sighs and steadily gets to her feet. Umol quietly watches, allowing Amari to get an eyeful of Umol’s pupil-less, golden eyes forgetting to blink for a moment.

Amari softly sets her hand on her forehead as she begins to speak. “I get that you’re a god or whatever, but I still need time to get used to your type of quirky!”

Umol, still watching Amari’s face and thinking she has more to say, remains quiet.

Amari rolls her eyes. “You forget to blink a lot.”

Now aware, Umol blinks twice. “Oh.” Despite his lack of facial features, the area where his cheeks would be blush into a light terracotta color in contrast to his usual sandy tones. “I need to remember to do that, hehe…” Umol adds, before blinking twice more.

“Well uh…” Amari interjects. “What’s on the docket today, mister god guy?”

One of Umol’s extra hands emerges and snakes across the hallway as Umol slowly steps past Amari. Away from Amari’s awareness, the end of Umol’s extra hand forms into an extra eye to peek through Atta’s partially open bedroom door. Amari watches the god carefully enough that she sees his face turn red less than covertly.

Umol clears his throat. “Well, Xavier and Atta aren’t in a place to be talked to…”

The investigative extra hand, having seen enough for Umol’s sake, snakes back into Umol’s backside from the hallway.

“What do ya mean?” Amari says as she tilts her head.

Despite clearly knowing what those two did last night, Umol opts to side step saying what exactly they did.

“They are asleep, we shouldn’t bother them.” Umol says.

Amari nods. “Okay… What do we do instead?”

Umol ponders this for a moment. “... Would you like to take a day trip?”

Amari raises an eyebrow in response. “Where to?”

“Well, we are very close to downtown, and I haven’t walked through there in…”

Umol begins counting on his hands, and his extra hands come out as he runs out of fingers on his usual hands. The god pauses as he finishes tallying, and his extra hands recede back into his backside.

“... About fifteen years.” Umol adds.

Amari chuckles for a moment. “No biggie, I’ve got a phone with the Navi G app!”

“Ah, right. Atticus uses the same thing to get around…��

“I guess it’s settled then, we’re gonna go to downtown Sleezington!” Amari exclaims.

Umol starts to exit his room when Amari zips in front of him with a finger pointed at his chest.

“Remember your shirt, ya doof!” Amari barks. “And also the rest of your going out gear…” Amari adds in a more mild tone.

Umol laughs. “Fair enough.”

Amari smiles and walks out of Umol’s room to grab her going out gear, including her decorated window bag and reusable water bottle. After putting on his favorite handcrafted hoodie, Umol walks out of his room to meet Amari at the front door, ready to unlock it and step out into their suburban nook of Sleezington.

Amari pulls out her phone and boots up the navigator app. “Apparently downtown is a ten minute walk from ‘ere…”

“Is that too long?” Umol asks.

“Naw, it isn’t.” Amari confirms. “I’ll turn on the route for us both, just follow me.”

Umol nods. Amari sees his gesture, starts the route, and begins walking. Umol follows close behind her at a similar pace.

Ten minutes later, Umol and Amari are walking down a street in downtown to a metallic human statue standing atop a stone base. Despite the heavy nature of both the statue and its base, the base is chained to the floor.

Amari, who hasn’t looked up from her phone screen for the last four minutes, steps on an uneven patch of concrete and loses balance. Milliseconds before she begins to fall, one of Umol’s extra hands swiftly emerges to catch Amari before reorienting her to be back on her feet.

Umol looks Amari in the eyes with a slightly annoyed expression.

“... Thanks, Umol!” Amari says, adrenaline still pumping.

Umol’s extra hand retreats into his back as he sets one of his usual hands on his forehead. “Fixing your gaze on that phone screen has almost gotten you hurt four times now…”

A notification noise from Amari’s phone goes off. The Navi G app says the route has been completed.

Amari breathes a sigh of relief before she locks the screen and slots her phone into her pocket. “I guess we’re in the heart of downtown now.”

Umol steps forward to get a closer look at the statue. He looks down from the statue and begins to read the plaque attached to the stone base. Amari notices Umol’s shift in attention and also begins to read before a name in the text catches her eye.

“Oh! This is a statue of Arthur Sleezer!” Amari remarks. “... What’s that one’s deal?” Umol asks.

Amari chuckles slightly as she begins to speak. “Mister Sleezer was the founder of this city if my history classes taught me right. It makes sense that a statue of him would be here to honor that I guess.”

Umol blinks twice. “Interesting.” Umol doesn’t waste a moment to scan the surrounding area. “So now that we’re here, what should we do?”

Amari gestures to Umol to wait a moment, pulls out her phone again, and begins typing the phrase “things to do near me” into Navi G’s search bar. The app loads for a moment before showing its results.

Amari’s face lights up with joy upon seeing one of the results. “Yo! Downtown’s got a Scrimblo Builder place?!”

Umol tilts his head. “A what place…???”

Amari explains with stars in her eyes. “A Scrimblo Builder place! You walk in, pick an unfilled scrimblo plush, fill the plush with the material you want, select some accessories, have the adult pay for all that, then go home with your new plush!”

“So a corporate plush store?” Umol asks.

Amari considers for a moment. “... I guess, yeah.”

“I could do that for ya for free.” Umol says plainly. “You and your brother seem to forget I’m a sewer…”

Amari shrugs as she responds. “Welp, that’s a thing to do once we’re back at your place.”

Amari looks back at her phone screen and scrolls down through the results. “Do you eat?”

Umol speaks plainly. “I mean, I can.”

Amari raises an eyebrow. “But…?”

Umol blinks twice. “I can’t eat with my face. My extra hands do the eating.”

It’s Amari’s turn to blink twice. “No wonder Xavier says you’re scary at meal times…” Amari looks back to her phone and taps on a promising result. “Oh hey! This restaurant has separate rooms for its guests!”

Amari puts her phone in front of Umol’s face so he can look for himself. Umol reads through the details for this place, and softly shrugs.

“Eh, seems good. Let’s go there!” Umol says.

Amari smiles. She boots up the route to Supreme Italiano’s, the restaurant in question, before beginning to follow the route that Navi G set up for them both.

After they get through Supreme Italiano’s front doors, the clerk at the front sees two guests and directs them to a room/table for two. The room isn’t a completely separate unit from the rest of the restaurant, seeing as a pane of glass faces the hallway that leads from the front of the place, but largely undeterred, Umol and Amari begin to mull over the menu(s) after Amari gets her preferred soft drink.

Amari gets to the page in the menu with the text “Build your own!” at the top as a heading and carefully reads.

She looks up from the menu at Umol. “You got any preferences, my man?”

“As much as I think most animals are cute, I enjoy meat.” Umol says.

“... So you’re wanting a meat-za.” Amari says, eyes narrowed.

Two of Umol’s extra hands emerge and shrug behind him as he holds his menu with his usual hands. “Pretty much, Amari.”

Umol’s extra hands recede into his back as the waitress walks into the pseudo-room that he and Amari are in. Amari also takes a moment to look up from her menu to make eye contact with the waitress.

The waitress asks what the two would like to have for their meals, Amari asks for the four meat pizza to share between them, and the waitress nods before taking their menus.

About twelve minutes later, the four meat-za comes out and is set onto Amari and Umol’s table. The waitress notices that Amari’s drink could use a refill as she leaves straight for the soda fountain to attend to that.

Amari looks up from the pizza at Umol. “Welp, here’s the pizza! Ima divy this up…”

Umol and Amari take a closer look at the pizza and both realize that the ‘za came pre-cut into eighths.

Amari takes two slices onto her plate and begins to eat after a swig of her soft drink.

Umol’s extra hands emerge and begin moving four slices of pizza onto his plate. After the pizza slices are moved safely onto the plate, the ends of Umol’s extra hands morph into four small, toothy mouths and begin to messily chew through the ‘za.

Amari, only midway into one pizza slice at this point, watches Umol eat in paralyzed shock and awe for a moment before the waitress walks in with Amari’s refill and not a care in the world.

“Here is a refill, girly-”

The waitress reopens her eyes and sees Umol’s extra hands making quick work of the meat-za she just served. Amari, clearly embarrassed, simply steps towards the waitress and gestures for the glass of soda.

The waitress gives Amari a questioning look as Umol’s extra hands continue their consumption.

Amari shrugs. “Long story, I’m still getting used to him too…!” Amari whispers.

The waitress lets Amari’s statement sink in before nodding and handing the glass of soda to the girl. The waitress then quickly leaves the room.

After both Amari and Umol finish their halves of the pizza and wipe their mouths, Umol and Amari get up, proceed to the front desk to pay for their meal. After paying with the debit card of unknown origin that Amari fished out of her bag, Umol takes the receipt and begins to follow Amari out the front doors of Supreme Italiano’s. Umol catches a glimpse of the waitress that served them whispering to the clerk at the front desk. That clerk’s expression of surprise radiates pure comedy gold to Umol, who knows exactly what that clerk heard.

Amari leads Umol to a bench barely half a block away from the Italian place they just ate at before taking a seat.

Umol, raises an eyebrow in Amari’s direction. “What’s on your mind, kiddo?”

“... I’m tired.”

“Already?” Umol blinks twice. “Usually Atta’s tired after the third stop we make…”

Amari looks Umol in the eyes. “Well, I’m not Atta! But I don’t know if you’d wanna carry me back to your place…”

Umol speaks as plainly as he can. “I have no problems carrying you home.”

Amari perks up. “Wait, really?!”

Umol nods. “I’ll also mention that I could try out this one thing again…”

“Oh?”

Umol twirls his right hand as he explains. “The last time I was here, I found an alternate way to move in the city that didn’t involve walking.” Umol sets the recently twirling hand back at his side as he continues. “Though I will ask if you’re comfortable with a, um… Roller-coaster like feeling first.”

Amari’s eyes shine as she smiles. “How can I say no to that?! I LOVE roller-coasters!”

“Alrighty then, it’s settled. I’ll explain the safety stuff as I ready up…”

A few minutes of orientation and explanation later, Amari is ready with Umol lagging slightly behind. Umol has wrapped one set of his extra hands securely around Amari to keep her close to his chest. Amari’s window backpack is also ready to go, with it tucked between Amari’s back and Umol’s chest. Umol begins to stretch to prepare himself.

After Umol’s stretches conclude, Umo clears his throat. “You ready, Amari?”

“Hell yeah…!”

Umol senses a question from her uneven delivery. “You wanna ask something?”

“... Can I record this?” She says, meekly pulling out her phone.

Umol pauses to blink twice. “You know what, I might as well do that for ya…”

Umol offers one of his usual hands to hold the phone.

Amari unlocks the screen and hands it his way. “You know how to work this, right?”

Umol flips over to the camera app and sets it to video near instantly. “Yep, I do.”

Umol taps the recording button to start the video.

“Hey!” Amari says, jokingly annoyed.

Umol forms his hand around the phone so that it keeps recording without fear of it slipping away and points the camera towards him and Amari.

“Hey internet, or whoever is watching I guess!” Umol says.

Amari pokes her head further into the view of the camera. “Yeah! We’re aboutta do something fun!”

Umol and Amari speak nearly in unison as Umol throws up a peace sign with his other usual hand. “So let’s do this!”

Umol repositions the camera as he winds up to launch, then launches. Umol and Amari go sailing through the air of downtown Sleezington, with Umol’s other two extra hands acting as the main means of keeping them aloft as they seamlessly grab and stick to the tall buildings of downtown. The phone continues recording as Umol and Amari whiz through the city at about the speed of a falcon’s flight, with the occasional pedestrian below looking up to see the both of them jetting by. All while Umol’s extra hands instinctively dodge around any birds flying at their altitude to avoid high-speed collisions and the possible damage.

Within a few minutes of starting this joy ride, Amari and Umol have already reached the edge of downtown, and to be extra showy to the camera, Umol extends the arm holding Amari’s phone forward as they leave downtown’s borders. Sure that things are in view of the camera’s eye, Umol then coordinates his extra hands to simultaneously grab onto the two last nearby buildings, spring upward with a slight twirl, then as Umol begins to feel the gravity take hold, he reforms his hands into bat-like wings before beginning to glide back down to Earth.

Umol, still hanging onto Amari as tight as he can, softly touches down in front of his and Atta’s apartment unit as his extra hands turned wings revert to their rope-like shape and recede into his back.

As soon as Umol comes to a full stop, the set of extra hands that had been holding Amari quite tightly up to this point release the girl and also return to being inside Umol’s backside.

With the camera still recording, Umol looks straight into Amari’s phone camera. “That’s how you get through downtown.” Umol makes another peace sign. “Peace!”

Umol taps the end recording button on Amari’s phone, frees the phone from the cage his hand formed around it, and hands the phone back to Amari, who has already turned to face him.

Umol puts on the most smug expression he can muster. “How’d you like that, Amari?”

Amari can barely contain her excitement. “THAT WAS SO AWESOME!” Amari settles enough that she can speak at a normal volume. “... Could we do that again sometime?”

Umol sets his hands in his hoodie’s front pocket as she shrugs. “Eh, we could. For now, you want to start on making a handmade plush like I mentioned earlier?”

Amari answers with gusto. “Sure!”

Umol chuckles slightly as he pulls out his apartment key. “Gotcha. Let’s go in.”

The door unlocks like a charm and both of them walk into Umol’s apartment. As they enter, the now awakened Xavier and Atta are quietly eating some budget ramen at the dining room table.

Atta notices Umol and Amari’s entrance first, and Xavier’s eyes follow Atta’s to see them enter a few scant seconds later. Xavier sees Amari’s extremely windswept buns and drops his fork on the table. “Where the hell were you two today?!” Xavier says.

Amari and Umol both chuckle before Umol begins to explain. Xavier picks up his fork as Atticus primes himself to listen to Umol’s summary of today…

#jamie w. (pokeprism)#short story #original fiction #writing #my writing #from clay to brick #day trip #vignette #12/26/2023

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