#Howitt Tractorpull

[vaishino]

The bee: which high school clique?

Roll some random values for my chart here and...

Amnac is a trendy girl who was secretly a brain. Her friends wonder why she’s taking AP Chemistry and Bio.

On the flipside, Havardia is a nerdy girl who takes all the AP classes, is in several clubs, and speaks 3 languages just because it’s handy. She’s secretly a hot girl, if only a protagonist would do a makeover episode so she’d ditch those glasses and ponytail!

Howitt is one of the stoner kids who... do kids still play hackey sack? He puts tags around school grounds, but seemingly never gets caught. He’s failing math.

Boxcars is a senior who got held back, not for failing, but too many suspensions. She’s part of a biker gang and is really too cool for school, but her rich dad promised her a graduation present if she finishes high school.

And just because, obligatory mains:

Huvi is the hippie girl who wears a bindi and those raver beads and a hemp necklace and always has a poofy skirt. She sees Amnac in AP Chem and thinks she’s real pretty, but also has an eye on the math nerd Amnac’s flirting with in physics.

Staxxy graduated early and is already placed in university level courses.

[orgrimmarandbust]

Tractorpull Revenge Extravaganza Part 14 - Intestate Succession

The body of Grottz Tractorpull lay in repose atop his desk, a sickly grey colour rather than his usual lively green. Steamplate paces the room, thoughts run through his head a mile a minute. How could she do this? What would become of the family now? Does he inform the Baron and gather the guards, or is this all somehow… on the level?

He turns to the door as it creaks open.

The sharp knife drags through the soft supple flesh, juices leaking out of it as the cold metal slides effortlessly. It is sharper than it needs to be, sharper than it has any business being, but that makes her work easier. Pleased with the events of the day, Alibi Tractorpull takes her slices of tomato and lines them end on end across the sandwich she’s made for herself and returns to her now dead husband’s office.

Her eldest son, Steamplate, paces in the office, turning to her when she enters. He isn’t sure how to react. This is his mother, after all. On the other hand, she just murdered his father in front of him. He tenses.

“Steamplate, go join your siblings. I will be along shortly, I need to address the assembled.”

His eye twitches. She can’t presume to be ordering him now, can she? He looks her over, sizing her up. The knife is there. Tucked into her belt. But she is quite calm, eating a- does she have a sandwich?

“Fine. I’ll go find the brats.”

He leaves the office and the door closes behind him. He isn’t sure he trusts her with the body, given that she’s responsible for it, but what can he do? He doesn’t want to knife fight his mother for obvious reasons.

Staxxy is in the vestibule, he can hear her down the stairs, sobbing loudly as if this whole thing isn’t her fault. He decides to approach, as his mother requested, and as he descends the stairs he sees another member of the family has entered the manor.

“Boxcar, let me get your coat, sister.” He approaches her and offers to unfetter her. “Husband and kid not joining us today?”

“No, I thought, given what the courier had to say, that I’d best come alone. Is it true?”

He nods at her as she keeps her sable trimmed jacket rather than handing it over. Always about looking regal, this one. Dress to impress turned up to 11. “Yeah, he’s in the office, laid out on his desk. With her.”

“So she did it?”

“Had help. That one.” He gestures at Staxxy, still curled up on the bench, being hugged by Vrixx in an attempt to comfort her older sister. “She attacked him first.”

“Hm. Odds on that outcome were pretty good, actually.” She shrugs, seemingly expecting something like this. “He called, and the river dealt him a bad hand.”

Steamplate rolls his eyes and moves past, descending the rest of the staircase. “Good seeing you Boxcar. Don’t go too far, she wants to address those gathered.”

He doesn’t bother looking back to see where she’s headed or what sort of reference to dice she’s going to make next. Instead his eyes fixate on the remaining siblings on the ground level.

“Well I hope you’re happy. You came for this, and now he’s dead. You got your wish.”

Vrixx glares at her older brother, Staxxy is absolutely in no shape for this sort of confrontation, but before she can speak up, before she can object, her older sister turns to him.

“Th-this isn’t what I wanted!” She ripples, tears still streaming down her cheeks. Her eyes are a bright red from the crying she’s been doing. “H-he pushed me to it! I’m not a- I’m not a killer!”

“But he’s dead Staxxy. And you had a hand in it. You’re just as bloody as she is.”

“Steamplate! Fuck off! Leave her be!” Vrixx snaps at him. She’s tearful as well, but not nearly to the extent that Staxxy is. She’s never seen her like this before. It’s worrying.

“You aren’t even supposed to be here! He kicked you out!” Steamplate is having none of it from Vrixx. How dare she presume to lecture him, the heir apparent, when she was such a fuck up she got disowned.

“You didn’t- you didn’t even care how he treated your own sister!” Staxxy cries out through sobs, buried in Vrixx’s shirt. “You cannot lecture me on family when you’re clearly only a blind follower! Sycophant!”

Steamplate trembles with anger. He does what he does to continue the family. To safeguard their way of doing things. Now that their father is gone, it falls on him. He reaches into his breast pocket and draws a switchblade-

Then the water lands on him with a loud splash.

“C-calm down S-steamplate.”

The runt’s voice hits him. Howitt’s been holding out, if he’s got this level of control over the elements.He flips open the switchblade and, surprise, it’s a comb, which he now uses to sort out his now wet mess of hair atop his head. “Didn’t see you there.” He decides not to interact with the siblings on this floor after all.

Alibi Tractorpull draws the last remnants of energy from the corpse of her dead husband, faint wisps of green energy float up gently to her fingertips. Long has this day been coming, and now she claims the prize that was due her for two and a half decades. The green energy floats, directed by her fingers, into her open mouth, which is soon occupied by sandwich.

“Time to get this show on the road.”

The door opens, and she emerges, coming face to face with the eldest Tractorpull daughter, whom she ushers down the stairs with a wave of her hands. She doesn’t have time to deal with her analysis of the odds.

“Children! It’s good to see at least one of you could make it on such short notice.” She speaks, her voice booming with purpose. “As you know, Grottz is dead. The how and the why is unimportant. What is important is the unambiguous nature of inheritance.”

Steamplate looks up at her with suspicion, expecting her to grab power. Staxxy ignores her entirely, still sobbing. The room is honestly split.

“As his wife, ownership falls on me. But, we have a good family here. We have people with expertise. As such, the day to day operations of Tractorpull Incindiaries LLC will be headed by… my dear son Steamplate.”

The eldest son of clan Tractorpull looks at her with surprise. He had expected a coup, not to be given more power. This changes things. “I- th-thank you? You won’t regret this mother.”

She nods at him, certain of such. She doesn’t want that role. She doesn’t want that day to day nonsense. She has more pressing matters to attend to. “The direction the family has taken needs correcting. I am calling a truce with the Threespark family. We’ve wasted enough of our resources on a feud that gets us no profits. I know some of you have done good on your old role, and that’s fine, but times change.”

Boxcar smiles, knowing she’s still going to take her Threespark to the cleaners every Thursday at the casino. She’s not too concerned about the company, but she’s glad it doesn’t come down on her to run anything.

“The family trust fund will be divested fully from the business.” Alibi continues, once the running commentary is concluded. “And I’ve decided that I am putting my youngest daughter, Vrixx in charge of running the fiduciary interests of the family.”

This one is a surprise to the room. Steamplate blinks, wondering if she’s crazy not only bringing an exiled daughter back, but handing her the family vault. Boxcar didn’t see that one in the cards. Vrixx almost doesn’t hear her name being spoken.

“Pardon? What was that?”

“I said, you are now in charge of the family trust fund. You obviously are having your place in the family restored, and you will once again be afforded an allowance drawn from the fund.”

“I- what?”

[orgrimmarandbust]

Tractorpull Revenge Extravaganza Part 13 - Matrimonial Property

Staxxy dips her fingers into the water and the darkness swirls around her, drawing up her arm.  “Hellscream was a fool, unable to control this power.” the black inky sha stuff erupts from her lips and settles on her chin. Her voice booms as she starts to rise into the air, propelled by the raw power of fear. Fear for her family, fear for her sister, fear of what her father might do.

“You must be stopped.” her voice booms with dark energy, reverberating through the parties assembled. “before you harm another.”

Steamplate scrambles out of the front door of the house and pulls a switchblade from his pocket, flicking it open and turning to his little brother.

“C'mon runt, we gotta stop her before she kills him!” He pulls the hatchet from his belt and dashes forward, only to find the ground beneath his feet coming loose.

“L-leave her alone!” Howitt cries as he grasps the air with a fist. A fist the ground mimics, grappling Steamplate and stopping him from interfering. Tears flow from the corners of his eyes as he adds, “s-she's right!”

Staxxy's eyes glow a pale white; her hair blackens and flows with the primal energy as she looks to her target. Masses of inky energy flow from her shadow, briefly taking the shape of the second youngest Tractorpull daughter before attaching to Grottz’ limbs, holding him in place. A sharpened black spear forms and levels with his eyes.

“This is for Vrixx!”

“What's for me?!” Vrixx finally arrives in the yard of her family manor for the first time since her father threw her out. “I- I don't want this Staxxy!”

The archmage stops, feeling the black ink rising in her throat. Her eyes well up and she speaks, ichor flowing from her maw, “you aren't real. You can't be real. You were gone!”

“I'm real!” Vrixx runs up and pulls her sister down to earth by the ankle. “I don't know what you saw but i'm real!”

Staxxy's shape ripples as her sister pulls her in close, arms wrapped around her in a hug. The black film retracts from her face, shimmering as she assays her sister for traces of illusion, subterfuge, obfuscation, anything. She’s the real deal.

“You were gone.”

“I’m fine! I’m-” Vrixx’s words are cut off by a boot to the chest as their father breaks free of the inky black grasp and strikes back.

“Not welcome in my house! I thought I kicked you out you whiny little failure!” Grottz strikes back, apparently more offended that Vrixx is back than that Staxxy tried to kill him.

“You leave her ALONE!” Staxxy lashes out, the black seeping back into her extremities. A wave of dark power bursts from her chest, throwing him across the yard and back toward the house. “I don’t CARE if she’s not gone. I cannot let you continue to hurt this family! To foment fear in our hearts! Do you think anyone cares about the vendetta? They fear your wrath! Well now you learn to fear MINE!”

Vrixx rolls on the ground, clutching her chest in pain; Staxxy takes to the air, blackened ichor drips from her maw as she floats, gathering her power for a decisive strike against her father, who by now has climbed to his feet and steadies himself against an incoming strike.

“STOP. FIGHTING. THE. CHILDREN!”

A sharp blade pulls across the throat of Grottz Tractorpull, taking him by surprise. His hands go up to his neck as blood pours from the wound. He turns to see his assailant and comes face to face with his wife. Alibi Tractorpull.

“Y-you!” Grottz manages to choke out between gurgles, thick with blood. “B-been waitin for this?”

Alibi licks the blood from her kitchen knife and smiles as Grottz drops to his knees and the life leaves his body. His skin drains of colour and he slumps backward, collapsing in a heap as his legs come out from beneath him.

[orgrimmarandbust]

Tractorpull Revenge Extravaganza Masterpost

Hi.

If you’re reading this, odds are you are perhaps interested in my 14 part plot concerning developments within the Tractorpull family. Here you will find a chapter by chapter guide:

Chapter 1 - Salvage Operation

Chapter 2 - A Reluctant Reconnoiter

Chapter 3 - Accounts Payable

Chapter 4 - You’ve Reached The Voice Mail Box of Vrixx Tractorpull

Chapter 5 - Non-Liquidated Assets

Chapter 6 - Back Pay

Chapter 7 - Lost Assets

Chapter 8 - Mineral Rights

Chapter 9 - Boom Economy

Chapter 10 - Run On The Banks

Chapter 11 - Consolidation Agreement

Chapter 12 - Housing Development Project

Chapter 13 - Matrimonial Property

Chapter 14 - Intestate Succession

[orgrimmarandbust]

Tractorpull Revenge Extravaganza part 3 - Accounts Payable

“This should help cover your expenses this month.”

Staxxy handed a bag of gems to Vrixx. They thrummed with magical energy slightly, and would surely fetch a decent price in the Underbelly where someone as well connected as Staxxy couldn’t be seen.

“It’s not exactly the easiest thing, getting my hands on something untraceable. I don’t exactly go down to the surface often, so… how goes the job hunt?”

Vrixx tucked the satchel into her vest pocket and smoothed the garment out, looking fairly pleased with herself. “I got in with a crew that takes work. We’ve got some work cleaning up on the broken shore, so yeah, I’ve got some money coming in. This is probably the last loan I’ll need.”

Staxxy waved her hand dismissively. “I keep telling you, don’t think of this as a loan. I look after my family. This is officially off the books.”

“You’re too good to me. I’ll still owe you, but we’ll call it favours then, instead of hard cash.” She beamed and the gears in her head clearly started turning. “I’m just glad I’ll soon be able to put my plan for dealing with my Threespark into effect. I’ll be back in father’s good graces in no time!”

Staxxy twitched. “Excuse me?”

“Well yeah!” Vrixx continued, “I’ve got it all planned out. I’ll lure ��im into a trap, and once it’s fueled up, I’ll rain death down on ‘im from above. I’ll do one better than financial ruin. When I’m through, he’ll be dead.”

The water globe on Staxxy’s staff turned a deep cloudy black as her hands visibly shook.

“No Vrixx! You know full well how long the old man holds a grudge.” Staxxy had heard enough. Was it possible she was the only one who realized what was going on? That her father had wound the whole family around his finger and turned them loose in a way that was wholly and inevitably self-destructive? “Vrixx you can’t scheme, bribe, or kill your way back in. He doesn’t operate like that! No matter what you do, no matter what you achieve, he’ll turn it back on himself and take credit!”

Staxxy had told herself this a million times before, but had kept it bottled up. Her brothers? Her older sister? They still believed, but Vrixx? She could be swayed now surely. She’d seen what he considered family loyalty first hand. Her eyes clouded black, her fingers smoked black as the power she’d borrowed from Pandaria began to manifest.

“You think I don’t know that he brags about how well his work paid off whenever he speaks of my success? That he claims to have an inside man in the Kirin Tor?” She spat the last words. “I’ve tried, and you know what? He’s not worth your consideration. You’re better off this way. He’s toxic, I saw it, but not until he’d already bitten me. Now he’s bitten you too.”

Vrixx’s jaw hung loose as she listened to her sister practically rave. She’d never seen this side of her. She barely even noticed the darkness taking over as she shouted.

“The rest of the family? They don’t know. Maybe Howitt, but the older kids? No, they were out in the world before he got this bad.” Staxxy put her hands on Vrixx’s shoulders, crackling with black energy, and looked down into her eyes. “You still have family. You know mother’s side never cared for him, and uncle Two-Shakes never went in for the vendetta. You have me. But the rest?”

Vrixx trembled slightly as Staxxy’s eyes locked with hers. She hadn’t wanted to consider ever writing off her family. She couldn’t entertain that notion. She pulled free of her sister and bolted out the door as fast as her feet would take her.

Staxxy’s hands reached forward into empty space before her staff found its way into her grip. Her knuckles turned white as the darkness drained from the globe and she reverted to her normal form.

Dropping to her knees, she breathed heavily, still quaking, still gripping the staff with all her strength.

The older kids? They don’t know…

“I was a fool to think Vrixx was the only one I needed to help.”