#i really loved this one because the scorcher looks so *shocked*

[robo-dino-puppy]

knockdown!

(this is from some shots i was taking to help fill in cards for entries in the Horizon Database! if there's ever anything you wanted to know about horizon gameplay, it's probably there. XD it's put together by members of Arktix's discord server and it's an awesome resource!)

[ninnodesu]

“Can I See You?” ch 5 || Modern!Thomas

It's time, guys. We've reached the ending of this little thing I created! I will be writing an epilogue, but the mainstory is now over.

I so hope you liked this little story, and I appreciate every single comment, kudos and share I've gotten from all of you! It's been so much fun actually writing and ending my first ever fanfiction! Thank you, thank you thank you! Tipjar/sneak peek collection

The more you started to walk on your own, the more the atmosphere in the house had changed. You could feel it, it was heavier. Charlie’s eyes had become colder. He started following you when he noticed that Thomas felt safer leaving you alone for longer periods of time. His eyes had almost gotten… hungrier.

The feeling of eyes dragging over your body during times you’d been alone and doing simple things such as baking, doing laundry, reading, was becoming something unbearable. You’d also begun to notice how Charlie had been home more in general. He came home earlier from his patrolling, and left later than he usually did. That is, if he left the house at all.

At first, it didn’t really bother you. You guessed he just wanted to spend time at home in general. But then came the subtle comments from him. Those… hints. Whispers directed at you if you were close enough to hear them; “Your leg looks nice ” and “I wouldn’t be runnin’ yet, though”. It was always either those hints, or he’d come straight up to you to stand close and breath in your scent. Charlie wasn’t stupid, though, he knew to keep away when Thomas was close by, but even if you remained close to your self-appointed guardian, you could still feel a pair of - literally - hungry eyes following you. Today, however, you were blessed. Because Charlie had decided to leave you alone thanks to Tommy, who you had dragged out to sit under one of the big trees at the end of the yard with. The weather was cool, the sun wasn’t as much of a scorcher for once, so you’d taken the opportunity to relax.

Tommy was leaning up against the tree while you resorted to lay down, starfishing in the grass. “Tommy?”, you spoke up, and he grunted in response. So you turned your head to look at him, noticing he had his eyes closed and arms crossed behind his head. “Does your face still hurt?”. Your only response from him was a side glance and a cocked eyebrow. “I mean…”, you sat up. “Does your face still hurt where you cut it?”, at that moment his brows knit together, still not giving you a proper response. “I’m just saying… If your face isn’t in pain…”, looking down you shrugged. That’s when a deep sigh erupted from him and he proceeded to lean forward. He glared at you, annoyance clear as glass, and you knew; You pushed that particular button one too many times “I...I’m sorry I just…”, you stammered out. He was tense as he raised one hand to spell.

‘E’ ‘n’ ‘o’ ‘u’ ‘g’ ‘h’

And that was it. He left you sitting alone on the grass outside as he stomped off, hands clenched into fists. And you knew you’d gone too far. The front door slammed hard enough for you to hear it, even though you were a few feet away and you flinched slightly.

“Shit…”, you mumbled to yourself and laid on your back again.

Looking up into the sky, you traced the clouds as they slowly drifted by, and your thoughts started to venture into your life back home. Sure, you have your family. But the contact with them has always been sporadic. Not because you didn’t care for them, but only because that's just… how it’s always been. A natural occasional communication, which both you and your parents are comfortable with. Friends? That’s another deal. You have a few, and you keep in contact with them, but you’re not close to any of them. Most of them just being the “ I know you through that person who I met at a party ”-kind of friendship. But you always felt that was better than not having anyone at all.

All that thinking about home awoke a sudden urge to talk to your parents, and you patted the pockets on your jean shorts, cursing at the fact that you hadn’t brought your phone out with you. Groaning, you reluctantly got up from your place to head back in. You didn’t get far, however, before the apparent bloodhound Charlie had transformed into grabbed your arm and pulled you around a corner.

He gripped your upper arms hard enough to leave bruises as his eyes undressed you.

“So, your guard dog left ya, didn’t he?”, you just glared at him and scrunched up your nose as the smell of alcohol wafted towards you. "Let me go, Charlie.", you tugged your arms to try and free yourself, but his grip hardened, making  you hiss in pain. "It’s Hoyt to you, bitch. ", he growled. "What do you want, Hoyt?", you pronounced his make-believe name in a childish way, doing your best to get your face into neutrality. "Oh, hun'", he started as one of his hands came up to caress one of your cheeks, "I think we can arrange somethin’ real nice." You turned your head from him, you couldn’t look at him, you knew exactly what he meant by that, and the thought alone was enough to make you sick. But your reaction was not what he wanted, as he grabbed your chin in a hard grip to make you look at him before he continued; “If ya can open those pretty legs o’ yours to his ugly mug”, he started breathing deeper, a low moan escapes him as he continues, “then maybe you’ll do the same for me.”

You just stared at him, Doing your best to hide the obvious shock at what he had said. But if his grin was something to go after; he saw it. “Oh, I heard ya alright. You think you’re being quiet, but I heard him fucking ya.”

You frowned at the obvious breach in private life. You shook your head to get away from his grip. “You make me sick.”, the only words you could even imagine giving as a retort before you inhaled sharply, as you felt one of his hands drag itself over one of your breasts. He leaned in close to your ear and whispered;

"I'll make ya feel better than him." You whimpered at his words, doing your absolute best to ignore the prickling sensation of oncoming tears. "That boy doesn't know how to properly treat a pussy." "Please… Let me go.", you couldn’t help the pathetic plea. "Or…" "Or what, bitch ? You'll call your dumb guard dog to come rescue you?"

That disgusting grin off his returned before he made your blood run cold; " I can't wait to eat you. "

Meanwhile, down inside the basement. Tommy was leaning on his hands as he looked into a cracked mirror, Thoroughly inspecting his scars and deformities. He hated what he saw, always had. He didn’t have a nose and parts of his lips were missing. Your words rang in his mind as he let his head hang.

I want you, Tommy.

For some reason, he was annoyed. The fact that your leg is fully healed now means you could just get up and leave him whenever you wanted. But he wanted to believe, by God, how much he wanted to believe that you wouldn’t. That you’d choose to stay with him, become his and, maybe even… He shook his head. That was a dumb thought.

Looking back up, he was met with a darker shade of his usually light eyes. And he sighed as a storm began to rage inside him.

- I told you. - Stop. - No, you stop, Tommy. Open your eyes. - I have. - You haven't opened them for shit. She's leaving you. - You don't know that!

He punched the mirror, and glass rained down. Blood welled up from where the glass cut him.

- I do know that. And you do too. - No. She- - She what? Loves you? - … - Look at yourself, man. You're nothing to her. - We slept together. - She did that to get on your good side. She did it for survival. - No… - Look in the mirror…

Thomas glanced down at one of the biggest shards on the ground;

- And come up with one good reason she would stay for that.

He growled and crushed the shard under his heavy boot before buckling his mask back on and walking up to the main floor. With the feeling of hunger attacking his stomach he did his best to try and sneak into the kitchen, knowing mama is making supper. His plans got spoiled, however, as he was quickly shooed away from the kitchen by words such as "I don't need you eating everything before dinner!" or "Nuh-uh, Thomas Hewitt. Don't think about snacking before dinner!".  A towel getting smacked at his arm had him chuckling and raising his hands in defeat. So he decided to trudge to his upstairs bedroom instead.

A satisfied hum left him as he ran his fingers through the dirty locks on his head, his mask hanging loosely around his neck, before finally letting himself collapse on the bed. He grimaced a bit as he began picking on the bloody scabs that were starting to form.

Shit, these went deep…

He shrugged and proceeded to stare up at the ceiling. Again disappearing inside his head.

- Why don’t you go find her? - Why should I? - To tell her the truth. - Pssh. - Haha. See, I told you. - Told me what? - The truth. - That if you’re ever dumb enough to confess, - she’ll leave. - … - I’m just sayin’, since she can walk again. - I’ve told you to shut up. - Because you’re a pussy and can’t handle hearing facts. - She doesn’t love you. - She used you. Fucked you to get on your soft side. - Do you really think she would love you? Are you that dense? - What do you mean? - You think you could live a happy life? - Get married? - Have kids? - I… uh... - Jesus christ, you actually are stupid, Thomas. - …

He was jolted out of his brain as he heard a knock on his door, to which he tapped the floor with his boot in response. "Supper’s ready, hun.", his mama lit up the gloomy room when he saw her head poking in. He nodded and got up, tucking his hand away from sight. If she saw the cuts, he would just get an earful from her, something he was not in the mood for. The smell of food wafted through the main floor, and his stomach made one of the loudest growling sounds he’s heard; chili was on the menu. Looking around, he noticed you were nowhere to be seen… neither was Charlie. A detail that did not sit right in his gut. He tapped the table, gaining mama’s attention, and motioned to your empty seats;

‘Where are they?’

Luda just seemed to look at the chairs, then at Monty who just shrugged. "I don't know, dear." Thomas didn't like this, he couldn't trust his uncle alone with you. He knew Charlie was a creep towards women, especially so attractive ones. He had, unfortunately, both seen and heard it. But The funny feeling in the pit of his stomach began simmering down just slightly as he saw you both walk into the dining room. Your expression, however, made a chill run down his spine. You didn’t look at anyone. All you did was sit down in silence at the dinner table.

All of you hung your head and listened as Charlie began reciting the dinner prayer. Thomas nodded along as it ended with “ Amen ”. Tommy saw how you mainly just pushed food around with your spoon, mostly just taking the smallest of bites. He knew you weren’t the biggest fan of eating human meat, but he did also know you actually loved his mama’s chili. Wanting your attention, he nudged your ankle with his boot carefully, hoping you would look up at him or at least give him a glance. But you didn’t react much.

- I told you - Fuck off.

It mostly looked like you tucked your feet behind the legs of the chair, if the way your thighs moved as he looked over you was anything to go by.

Dinner was silent, only a slight murmuring coming from mama and Charlie. Thomas finished eating first, but decided to stay seated and wait for you. He wanted to know what was up with you and why you looked so… out of it. Your expression relaxed, no smile. Your eyes looked empty, merely staring out into nothingness as you slowly forced yourself to eat. Something was up. But as you thanked mama for the meal and rose to stand up, with Thomas mimicking you; Charlie spoke up. “Thomas, sit down.”, The man stopped in a hunched over position, hands flat on the table, brows furrowed. He glanced over to you, who looked pale and your lips were pressed into a thin line as you left in a hurry. Clatter then came from the kitchen and it almost sounded like you basically threw your plate into the sink. He listened to your footsteps. And finally, a clue. The back door closed shut.

Back yard. Barn, probably.

“Thomas.”, Charlie’s voice rang out again, harder. He just looked over at his uncle with a cocked eyebrow, sitting across from him as he sat back down. “It’s time we talked, boy.”, slowly, Thomas’ breathing increased, brows knitting together as he signed.

‘About what?’

“About your friend, hun.”, his mama spoke out next to him and he snapped his head to look at her before mouthing the word “ no ” towards her. “Tommy, it’s time we talked about this. We agreed.”

‘I’m not killing her, mama.’

His hand movements were stiff, and his face twisted into a scowl. His mama sighed and proceeded to lean back and put her hands on her lap. “I know you like this girl, darlin’, but…”, he was breathing heavily, the thick leather of the mask making every breath sound like a huff. The look between his mama and Charlie made him sick. Banging the table with the palm of his hand he gestured for her to continue before inquiring;

‘But, WHAT?’

“She ain’t family, boy.”, with those words Thomas shot up from the chair, knocking it back on to the floor. He was furious. It was rare for him to get that angry at his own family, which made his motion all the more shocking to the rest of the people in the room. ‘ What do you mean she’s not family?’ In his mind, he knew it was a stupid question. The only one who knew you, was him. They didn’t. To them, you were nothing more than cattle. He stormed out, kicking one of the empty chairs out of his path and making it fly to the corner of the room. “THOMAS BROWN HEWITT!”, his mother called after him. But he ignored her. He couldn’t look at her. All those times she’d talked about grandbabies, and then she was talking about taking away the only person who… He just shook his head and headed off to the barn.

Thomas was off to hunt a specific kind of prey.

The barn was cool and damp, a stark contrast to the settling warmth of the evening sun. You’ve curled up behind an old rundown couch in one of the corners to try and hide from the world. Charlie’s voice echoed in your head. You just wanted to go home, to your apartment, most preferably with Tommy. The only person who could make this hell house bearable.  A sudden gust of cool evening wind hit you, and a shiver ran down your spine. “I don’t want to die…”, you mumbled into your arms as you wrapped them around your knees and sobbed. Heavy tears accompanied by hulking whimpers. You were crying loudly, almost screaming out your pain in a desperate way to drown out what Charlie had told you before dinner.

“I hope you said your goodbyes, girlie” “What do you mean?” His smirk, his disgusting grin plastered on his face and that breath that reeked of stale tobacco and alcohol. “You’re invited to our Sunday barbeque,” a tongue slowly dragging over your neck, “but you’re not going to like the menu.”

Heavy, shuffling footsteps alerted you of his presence and made you glance in their general direction before peeking up from the back of the couch. And there you saw him, that beacon of light of yours, how he knew you went out here, you weren't sure. But there he was, and so were you. Taking a deep breath, you swallowed down any remaining tears and hulking sobs. "I'm here.", you weakly called out and threw a hand up from behind the sofa to notify where exactly " here " is. You didn’t have to look up to know he was leaning over the back of the couch, because your entire form was cast in shadow. All you did was curl back up into a ball. "What do you want?", you mumbled, probably too low for him to hear properly, but then the robotic voice you’ve come to associate Tommy with rings out in the barn.

Talk

"About what?", you swallowed again, Fear of what might be about to come bubbling in your stomach.

Charlie

You grimaced as you heard that disgusting name, but you put on a childish voice and imitated Charlie. " Actually, it's Hoyt .", why you did it you weren't sure. But you figured it was because of the sheer fact that you couldn’t stand being mad around Thomas. And you smiled as you heard that deep chuckle of his come from above you. Suddenly, you felt a large hand come lay on the top of your head.  He smoothed your hair down, putting a stray strand behind the part of your ear he could reach. Looking up, you were met with those deep eyes of his. His hand pulled away slightly, but all you did was reach for it with your own and put it to your cheek, nuzzling into his rough and calloused but soft palm.

You closed your eyes while enjoying the feeling of his warm hand against your cheek. But then, the memories of what Charlie had told you crept back into your mind. You were invited to a barbeque, but not the way you'd like to be. Reaching up, you grip around Thomas' wrist desperately. Full of angst, fear, a grasp signaling he's the only thing holding you above water. But you couldn't look at him, if you opened your eyes at this moment, the floodgates would open. Because you were too scared of the fact that one day you’d never see his face again.

You didn’t want to look at the man you were going to leave in the worst way possible. Even if you did your best to swallow any and all sobs that wanted to escape, eventually you couldn’t anymore. And you cried. Fat tears running down your cheeks and over Thomas’ hand still resting on you, a big thumb coming to wipe one of them away. His hand disappeared from you before you heard shuffling and a low grunt. Shortly after, you found yourself surrounded by two big arms that lifted you up, only to be sat down on his lap.

His hold was warm, comforting, a castle of coziness and solace. You woke up one day, terrified for your life, looking up into the eyes of the man you’ve talked to online for months, maybe even close to a year, waiting to die by his hand. But now; those very hands were holding you tight to him, shielding you from the real monster, and all you could do was cry. You felt his chest start to vibrate before you heard a low and booming… hum. Thomas was humming a tune, a melody you hadn’t heard before, and soon after, you felt him ever so slowly start to sway from side to side. He was comforting you. 

He sighs as he rests his chin on top of your head, calmly swinging while humming the lullaby his mama always sang for him when he had nightmares, or came home after getting rocks thrown at him. He couldn’t be angry at you anymore for nagging on him to start talking. You felt as small as you did during the nights you’d had nightmares and asked him to come sleep with you.

Right then, and right there, he could stay forever. That was better than the first time you’d had sex. When he felt that you’d started to relax a little bit and when he noticed your sobs had started to die down, he swallowed, wetting his dry throat before clearing it with a faint cough. “Mine.” He lifted his head as you looked up at him with huge eyes. An unsure smile danced on his lips before he gave a small, discreet nod. Hoping you would get his message, what he wanted to convey.

You were his. In his heart, you had been his for a long time and Tommy could never live with himself if he lost you without letting you know that you were. He knew the conversation wasn’t over yet, due to the fact that Hoyt would still be on his ass about killing you. And if Thomas wasn’t careful enough; he would do it himself. You weren’t safe here anymore, and he knew that. The deal was that you could stay alive until your leg healed. What would happen after that? Tommy was truly scared that he would lose you, one way or another, and he made the decision to confess his feelings for you then and there. The look you gave him sent the butterflies in his stomach into a frenzy. Carefully, he took your chin and turned your head slightly for him to easier whisper into your ear; “You’ve always been mine.”

He bit back a chuckle when you quickly turned your head to look him in his eyes. “What…”, all he did in response was smile at you and slide a hand under your jaw to caress your cheek with his thumb as he took your face in, making sure to remember it. His eyes travelled over your eyebrows, outlining the shape of your nose... Those beautiful eyes, and the shape of your cupid's bow, loving the fact that your lower lip was just slightly thicker than the upper one. He moved his thumb from your cheek to slowly let it drag on the edge of your lower lip. Your heart fluttered in your chest, butterflies wreaking havoc in your stomach as you felt his lips land on yours. It’d been two weeks since you’d slept together. Neither of you had initiated anything more than just leaning up against one another - or mostly you using Tommy as a pillow - while watching late-night TV when neither of you could sleep.

His lips were warm, his raspy breathing fanning over your cheek as you entangled your hand in his dark locks of brown to pull him closer to you as you accepted his kiss. A small delighted hum came from him as you did. He surprised you, however, as he made the decision to deepen your kiss, a sign of dominance he hadn’t shown you before. His heavy tongue asking for entrance by tenderly dragging over your lower lip. And you happily accepted his question, parting your lips to give his strong muscle room to take the control he seemed eager to express.

You only gave him a quick taste, however, then moved around on his lap to instead straddle his big thighs and wrap your legs around his waist. Thomas, ever the shy man he was, reacted as you’d expected him to. His face turned a lovely shade of red, and his hands started to awkwardly hover over your hips. Every ounce of bravery he just had in his body seemed to have just seeped out through his very pores. Hands balled into fists only to unclench again.

You giggled at how fast he relaxed as you took his hands and put them on your hips. “Tommy… Relax.”, you whispered close to his face. “You’ve touched me before. Remember?”, you breathed out a laugh as you saw his eyes shoot open, his face becoming redder as he nods quickly, and his eyes dart around the barn as if trying to avoid you. Your fingers carded through his hair to find the buckles of his mask. After silently asking for permission to remove it, a smile grew on your face as he nodded, closing his eyes as you slowly unbuckled it and put it down next to him.

His shyness always got to you. He was such a hulking giant, covered in muscles made for manual work, muscles made for crushing bones. His mere presence had the ability to invoke fear, yet there he was, seated on the floor behind a couch. A blushy mess, with you on his lap. It didn’t take long after straddling his thighs before he pressed his lips to yours. Again, he asked for permission to taste you. And again you gave it to him. His tongue met yours, and you moaned as he pressed his against it. Tongues, curious to taste and to feel one another. To commit each other's taste to memory. Last time, every kiss you had shared while he thrust himself into you was hurried, Hungry, and in the heat of the moment. But now? The kiss had a meaning, it was a silent communication between the two of you. It was between two people, two hearts connecting. Both of you knew what the kiss meant, you were made for each other.

You’d fallen in love with a perfect stranger, long before he had shown you his face. The way he had talked to you, about his hobbies. The love he had for his family, the passion for his work. He was your shelter and your knight. All it took for Thomas to fall for you? Your voice. He still remembered when you accidentally sent him a voice recording, how you laughed at your dumb little miss click, ending the recording with “oh well, hi” . And to him, you fit perfectly into his arms, the spaces between his fingers made for yours.

A devilish thought hit you, and so you ground once over his crotch and laughed when he broke the kiss with a loud grunt, almost pushing you straight off his lap. An action only hindered by your hands wrapped around his neck. He glared at you and shook his head. “Why not?”, you replied in a sultry teasing voice. He refused with his head and nodded to the open space behind you. “Oh, no one will notice us here.”, his face reddened up again. He kept vehemently indicating “ No. No sexy times in here. ” But you wouldn’t back down. Again, you ground on him, causing him to groan and move his hands to your hips. You attacked his lips, hungry to taste his moans as you moved over his growing erection. After another hard grind, Tommy grabbed your hips hard and took control, Slowly moving you over his crotch while you ate up every sound he made. It didn’t take long for you both to end up in a frenzied dry humping session. At some point his hand had found its way up under your top, lightly pinching a nipple between his fingers. The barn was filled with grunts and heavy moans from the both of you, but a sudden high noise startled you. Your movements stopped. You turned to look towards where the sound had come from, both of you silently listening for more noises while Tommy reached for his mask and buckled it back on over his head.

A bang. And a scream .

Thomas was fast up on his feet, basically throwing you off his lap and bolting towards the house.

The scream belonged to mama.

Inside, Tommy was met by the frightened stare from a woman he had never seen before, something that wasn’t uncommon and Thomas figured she was one of Hoyt’s hookers. The drunk idiot had probably slipped up: he either accidentally told the woman what really goes on in this house, or she snuck off after he had passed out and ended up finding the basement. And so, that woman was holding his mama hostage with what looked like one of Charlie’s guns. She was terrified. Thomas' chest was heaving as he glued his eyes on the gun.

“Drop the gun, hun. And nothin’ is gonna happen to ya.”, Luda’s voice was calm, but Thomas could hear the faint undertone of fear in her voice. She’s terrified but refuses to show anything. ”L-let me go! A-and I won’t call the cops!”. When the woman spoke his eyes snapped to her, so Thomas took one step forward, but she quickly pressed the gun into mama’s temple, making him stop with a muffled growl. "S-stop! Or I'll… I'll do it!", he remained still, opting to look at his mother as she explained the situation with only two words. “She knows, Tommy.”, Luda Mae flinched as the stranger behind her scoffed and pressed the gun even harder into her temple. But her face was locked in neutrality, and he couldn’t help but admire the strongest woman he’s ever known. “Yeah! I-I know! Fucking crazy, inbred psychos…”, she hissed

Thomas raised a hand, spelling out;

'H' 'o' 'y' 't'

His eyes flickered down to her finger doing an upwards motion to the floor upstairs.

Fucking asshole

Was all Tommy could think before the poor woman’s eyes suddenly shot open in shock. Blood bubbled up from her mouth and she sputtered, covering mama's right cheek in crimson. The hand holding the gun fell to her side, and as it did, Tommy made an act at lightning speed to pull mama behind him. He just stared as he saw… you. He saw you pulling the knife out of the hooker's throat. You'd stabbed her. Straight into the jugular, and as she went down he followed her before shifting his eyes to you as you wiped a bit of blood off your cheek. Your face was unreadable. He wasn’t sure what kind of emotions you were conveying at that moment. Fear? Disgust? Anger? Sadness? He didn’t know. But the hand holding the knife was shaking, almost to the point where it would vibrate out of your palm. He listened to your raggedy breaths coming out in sobs before you suddenly dropped the weapon, then leaned over the sink and threw up.

The sound of rushing water echoes on the upper floor where you’re furiously scrubbing your hands while hyperventilating, hands shaking badly as you do. Your thoughts are in a whirlwind, trying to wrap your head around the fact that you’d killed someone. And knowing what will happen to her body now, that she won’t have a peaceful burial in a beautiful grove or surrounded by her family, makes you nauseous. You had essentially just handed them dinner.

Suddenly, your airways tightened and you couldn’t breathe, the room was too small, too hot. And with a bang, you slammed the water off and ran through the house, ignoring the angry voices that yelled after you as you shut the back door. You don’t care. You need air, now . Outside, you pressed your back against the tree that you early on shared with Thomas, before sliding down it as you feel air returning to your lungs. All you did was breathe for a few minutes, focusing on returning to your senses while staring up into the night sky, counting the stars. As you did, your mind wandered back to your apartment far away from here. Patting your pocket, you smiled slightly as you felt you had your phone with you, and pulled it up. You replied to a few text messages, answered the occasional neglected work emails, and finally opened the gallery app.

Looking through it you realized just how much you actually missed it. It was your home after all. You even missed those neighbors who always had loud hangouts, that old lady who seemed to have more plants than her balcony could fit, and then there was that old divorced man and his cat. That… stupid cat who always forgot where it lived and had ended up in your apartment too many times to count. “Dumbass cat…”, you mumbled as you remembered the first few times it had startled you when you got out of the shower or got home from work and suddenly there was a cat laying on your couch.

Then it hit you.

I should call mom and dad.

Before scrolling through your contacts to find your mom's phone number, you looked at the setting sun and sighed, while figuring out what to tell her exactly, but hoping it would go to voicemail. You took a deep breath as you pressed the green phone symbol. Each dial tone sounded heavier and heavier before you were finally connected to what you had hoped for, voicemail.

"Hey, mom.", you started, straining your voice to sound happy. "It’s me. I just wanted to talk to you, but it seems you're busy."

As usual…

"Uhm… I'm sorry, mom. For everything I've ever said.", you pulled a bit at a loose strand on your shorts, going quiet for a minute. "I love you. And I miss you. Please forgive me."

Ending the call quickly as you felt the telltale sign of tears start to emerge, you pushed your phone back into your pocket and brought your knees up to your chest. Hugging your legs you just sat there, with nothing in particular in mind as you leaned your head on your left knee and closed your eyes.

You didn’t remember actually falling asleep, but what you did remember was being enveloped in strong arms that carried you from a cold night's breeze into warmth, along with faint but angry voices spitting nasty words, and finally ending up laying on something soft. The familiar scent of Thomas’ skin invaded your nose as you nuzzled your face into his pillow. A soft hum escaped you as he laid the cover over you. The floor creaked, and you couldn't hide the tired smile tugging at your lips as the sound of a familiar sigh echoed around the room. Reaching your hand for the giant trying to sneak out, you beckoned him. "Tommy…", he turned. Looking at you from the doorway, his eyes flickered between you on the bed and your outstretched hand. "Come." At first, he shook his head. And turned again to let you sleep alone but stopped when he heard you ask for him again. "Please. I’m cold.", a lie. That's when he caved and closed the door before turning towards you. He loomed over you, his massive form shielding you from everything that went on in this house of terror. Carefully, you reached up behind his head, fingers gliding through his soft hair to search for the fastenings to his mask. Even if he’d had his mask off just hours ago, he seemed just as nervous as earlier when it came to you removing it.

But you loved him, even if he didn’t have a nose.

Tommy sighed in relief as he felt the mask leave his face, and though he still hated being without it, it always felt nice taking it off. He pressed his forehead against yours just to feel close, but couldn’t help to smile as your lips came close to his. "It's okay…", you whispered to him., your low voice sending shivers down his spine, and he nodded.

Looking down at you, he realized how much smaller than him you truly were. He knew his muscles would mean death to you if he ever were to lose control during encounters with trespassers. The mere thought of him not being able to distinguish you from any potential dinner victim and going berserk before you was something that scared him. Scared him to the point of sending a wave of anxiety through him. But now, it wasn’t time to hunt. You were here, laying under him on his dingy bed. The only ray of sunshine in the eternal night that was his cursed life. His heart swelled when he saw your smile as he leaned in to capture your lips with his own and he sighed softly as your hands returned to his hair to pull him closer to you. When he felt your tongue meet his, he hummed in appreciation.

Slowly, Thomas tested the waters. One of his hands slid over the side of your stomach under your tank top, feeling the softness of the skin before letting his hand travel down towards your thigh. He was nervous since he’d never taken initiative with a thing like that before. But you didn't stop him, so he continued. His hand reached your plump thigh, one firm delicious squeeze making you let out a pleased hum into his mouth, a sound he happily swallowed down. He wasn't exactly sure why, but you moaning against his mouth sent chills through his body, which made his cock tingle.

You giggled a bit when he suddenly wrapped the leg, which thigh he was in the middle of groping, around his waist, making it easier for him to snugly fit his hips between your legs. His mouth left yours, traveling down your jawline, his small gentle kisses turned into bigger open-mouthed ones as he got to your neck. Your breathing increased as you felt his tongue slowly drag over that one sensitive spot you had. His whole demeanor changed when you moved to get a better hold of his hair and pulled. As you did, he took your wrists and pinned your arms above your head in an iron grip, not leaving the spot on your neck that he seemed hell-bent leaving a mark on. He nipped at you to test your reaction. You gave him what he wanted and let out a quiet moan, a sound that made him buck his hips into the space between your legs. When he finally lifted his head to look at you, arousal raced through your body because of what you saw.

Normally blue eyes taken over by something dark, hungry, and almost… animalistic. The look his eyes held made need surge through you in a way you hadn’t meant for this to end in. You’d given Thomas a taste of pleasure, and all he wanted now was more. You could see it in those eyes. He wanted more, and he was going to take it. “Oh…”, was all you could say as he rose up, squeezing your wrists once and giving you a look that said, “ Try me. ”. He smirked as you looked at him with those beautiful eyes of yours. Letting your wrists go, his hands moved towards your breasts. A shuddering breath left your lips as his big hands cupped your plush skin, groping your mounds deliciously, before pulling your t-shirt up over them. One thumb came to run slow circles around one nipple, while he kissed his way to the other one. A low moan crept up your throat as you finally felt his tongue drag over the hardening bud.

You answered his action by slowly moving your hips, making your sex rub against his clothed erection. A shiver ran down your spine as you heard him groan against your breast at the friction given to him, a puff of hot air hitting your collarbone. Lifting his head, his eyes met yours, and you could see he was as turned on as you, stare glazed over by lust. "I need you.", you whispered out shakily as you moved your hips again. He smiled, and your heart melted.

Thomas moved his kissing down your body until the bed seemed to run out of length.

Only then did his fingers find the button on your jean shorts, clumsily unbuttoning them as he sat up. As soon as he'd gotten them open, they were thrown away, discarded on the floor somewhere. He took the previously broken leg of yours and put it on his corresponding shoulder, a hand running over it and leaving trails of kisses down to your knee. His other hand, not occupied with anything, found its place on your pubic mound. His thumb landed on your clit, a mischievous grin dancing on his lips as he pressed down firmly once on your sensitive spot. "Ah!", you jerked and he chuckled at your reaction. You just pouted at him before your face relaxed into pleasure, his thumb slowly rubbing in circles while his lips kissed your leg gently.

His digit traveled south and found its way inside your needy hole, the intrusion making you buck your hips to the best of your abilities as you groan. His eyes fixated on your face, the way your brows furrowed, your mouth slightly opened as a symphony of moans and gasps came from your lungs. He loved the sight and sounds you made, they only made him braver. Knowing he made you feel good, only him. That despite him being inexperienced, all his attempts bore fruit.

No matter how much his cock throbbed inside his jeans, or how warm he was starting to feel, he wanted to make you cum before him just like the first time. "T-Tom-Haah! Tommy, I'm-!", sweet sounds left your throat right before he stopped, grinning again as you shot him an annoyed look. "That's mean…", he chuckled in response and shook his head. Thomas suddenly lifted you up with no effort, replacing your body with his own as strong hands firmly grasped either side of your hips. And before you knew it, he had maneuvered you above him. His head takes a dive between your thighs, fingers wrapping around generous amounts of your rear and eyes glinting from below you as he dragged his tongue along the inside of one of your plush thighs, making you gasp. The closer he moved towards your aching cunt, the heavier you started breathing. But right as he was about to rub against you, he stopped. Again, you groaned. "Please stop teasing me, you ass.", you whined. One of his hands came into view and he slowly spelled out two words.

'B' 'e' 'g' 'm' 'e'

You silently did as you were told by sliding closer to his face, but all he did was grab your waist and lifted you away from him, shaking his head. That was not what he wanted. He wanted to hear you beg for him to eat you out. Your voice was low as you shakily gave him what he wanted; "T-Thomas, please. Please, please, please… eat me. " He smirked before slowly dragging his tongue through your folds. Relishing in your taste coating him, he hummed when he felt your thighs tremble against his arms as he held you tight, the countless videos he’d watched on various porn sites of this specific position running on a loop in his head. "Oh my God.", you said as you let your head fall back, a loud "Ah!" coming from you as he found your clit and flicked his tongue firmly against it, your hands coming to rest in his hair. The urge to rotate your hips hit you, though when trying it, you were met with a bruising grip on your hips and glaring blue eyes staring up at you. Silently daring you to move on your own accord, his glare told you that you were not in control. You whimpered at the sight but reluctantly stilled your hips.

You gasped as you noticed his tongue prod and tease your entrance, feeling how he moved it slowly, digging the strong muscle deeper into you.

Below you, Thomas found himself in heaven between your soft thighs as he pulled those sounds he loved hearing from your throat. Sounds he knew only he could cause. When he couldn’t hear them anymore, he only pulled you close to his face. And right there, right then, Thomas enjoyed having no nose, the absence helping him reach far into you. "Ah… To-!", your words are interrupted suddenly, your body jerking before tensing as he finds your clit again, sucking gently on it. "Fff-... Shi-.", you couldn’t form words as he alternated between sucking gingerly and massaging your nub with the flat of his strong muscle and moving his tongue in and out of you.

The coil tightened quickly, almost too quickly. Looking down, you met his eyes, glossed over with hunger and animalistic lust. His firm grip on your thighs kept you seated on his face when you were thrown over the edge in a cry, as he gave one hard suck over your clit. He moaned against you as you clamped your thighs shut around his head, lapping up your orgasm like he was actually starving. He then returned to slowly fuck you with his tongue to let you come down from your high. You panted as you looked down at him, fingers lightly scratching his scalp with a postorgasmic smile plastered on your lips. Thomas grinned as he licked your thigh to catch a stray strand of your arousal.

Shortly after you’d collapsed next to him on the bed, Tommy got up to finally take his own clothes off, his tank top sticky with sweat and the fly of his jeans rubbing uncomfortably against his raging erection. He let out a sigh of relief as his dick was finally released, the front of his boxers moist with precum. The bed dipped under his weight as he returned to position himself between your thighs again, letting your legs rest over his meaty ones. His hands gingerly went up and down your thighs, thumbs rubbing circles as he waited for your signal. His stare revealed his hesitation, wanting nothing more than to push himself into ecstasy, but not having the heart to take something he thinks he wasn’t allowed to. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt you. His cock throbbed as it lay on top of your mound, and his chest swelled with pride as he saw the evidence of how good his tongue had made you feel as he waited for your approval to take you. You reached down to gingerly take hold of his cock with your soft hands, your fingers rubbing over his sensitive head and coating him with his own arousal. A thumb lightly pressed on his silver barbell, eliciting a throaty groan from him as you looked up to meet his eyes. "Wanna fuck me, baby?", you asked in a sultry voice as you dragged your hands over his length. You saw how a shiver ran through his body as he nodded, instinctively bucking into your hands.

"Take me."

You gasped as his length pressed into your waiting entrance, and you arched off the bed when you felt him bury himself to the hilt in a swift, desperate motion. "Ohh… oh.. God…", you scrambled to find his arms, needing something to hold on to. Tommy breathed out a laugh before hissing in slight pain as he felt your nails dig into his arms. Even with the wetness from both your orgasm and his mouth, it's a stretch.  So both of you needed a minute to adjust.

His breathing was hot over your face. An experimental thrust from him had him gritting his teeth, and you digging your nails deeper into his arms. Craning your neck, you got close to his face with a smile on your lips. "I'm fine, Tommy. Take me. " Upon hearing those words, he pressed his lips against yours, the taste of you still on him, just as his hips started to move. He lifted your legs up only to wrap them around his waist, and soon enough the movement of his hips began pummeling your insides. His cock hitting all those right places in your cunt that made you squirm and moan under him. Your mind went blank, not even trying to comprehend how he was able to so easily transform you from a rational being to only a mess of moans and limbs made off putty after only having sex two times. But not a single nerve in your body was complaining about the fact that he could. Incoherent sounds meant to resemble his name tumble from your throat inbetween loud moans. Down there, inside the room within the basement he was so used to dwelling, Tommy didn’t give two shits if his family heard you or not, he just needed to listen to every sound you made.

You yelped as he suddenly switched everything up. your legs were wrapped around his waist, making it easier to pull you up and onto his lap while he positioned himself on his knees. His cock buried deep into you as you clawed at his back, afraid you might float away if you don’t. His hands came to grope your ass, effortlessly holding you up as his strong arms moved you up and down his cock. The wet smacking sound of your soaking thighs hitting his echoed around the room, only adding to your arousal. His movements were deep and hard, hot moans brushing against your neck as he found your sensitive spot and lightly bit down on it. A loud grunt surged from his throat when he felt your cunt clench hard around him as a result from his biting.

He shifted again, pulling his cock out of you to turn you around and prop you on all fours, a position that gave him a perfect view of your ass and the way his dick stretched your pussy out as he re-entered you. Another shiver ran through his spine as a new kind of deeper moan comes from your throat. His large hands gripped your hips to make it easier for him to pull you onto his dick in rhythm with his thrusting. Your moans were muffled by his pillow as tears of pleasure streamed down your face. Your ears managed to capture the occasional deep baritone of “shit”s and “fuck”s coming from above you, causing your eyes to roll back into your skull.

You let out a whine as you felt a hand snake itself south and a pair of big fingers find your clit. His movements were fast, clumsy and almost desperate as he rubbed your most sensitive spot. The added pleasure making it so the coil in your lower belly tightened much faster. As Tommy leaned over you, you were pressed deeper into the mattress when he propped himself up on the hand not occupied with rubbing tight circles around your nerve bundle. A heavy puff of air coming from him made your hair billow exposing the ear he was looking for. His voice was strained and raspy when grunts and moans tumbled from his throat as he felt your walls clench around him.

He swallowed thickly, desperate to wet his parched throat before uttering one single word into your ear, a demand.

“ Cum.”

The delicious combination of his cock pumping in and out of you and his fingers massaging your clit gave you only seconds to fulfill his demand. The orgasm that washed over you was strong enough to make you scream into the pillow as you clamp down on his cock, your hands desperately trying to grab onto the mattress. Above you, Thomas let out a heavy moan that vibrated against your back as he felt the increasing tightness around him, his own orgasm quickly closing in. Four more hard thrusts into your then battered pussy had him gasping, the hand supporting him pressing into the mattress hard enough for his knuckles to turn white before cumming deep inside you. A satisfied hum came from you as you felt his dick twitch and pump his thick seed inside you, delightfully filling you up.

Thomas hissed as he pulled himself out of your throbbing core, then collapsed next to you with huffs and heaves surging from his tired lungs. You slowly slid your legs down to lay flat on your stomach and turned your head to look at him beside you. He had his eyes closed while running a hand through his sweaty brow, trying to catch his breath. You smiled at him and brought your right hand close to his face to stroke his cheek with your index finger. “Hey…”, you whispered, getting close to kiss the scars on his cheek before pressing your forehead to his temple. He hummed in response, signaling that he was listening to you before you continue; “ I think I love you. ” His eyes shot open and he turned his head towards you, eyes filled to the brim with a combination of emotions as they seemed to search for something on your face. Doubt, maybe? Or ridicule? Lies? But all you do is nod and smile again.

One of his hands came up to the back of your head and entangled slightly in your hair as he pulled you in for a kiss. It was soft, full of emotions he either didn't want to say out loud or couldn't. But you knew what it meant.

"I love you too."

You snuggled up against him, taking his right arm between your own, giggling as you felt him stiffen slightly when you pushed it between your breasts. Your hand reached down to lace your fingers in his before letting sleep take you.

You were abruptly woken in the night by screaming voices and hard bangs on the floor above you. Thomas was equally startled awake, and sat up, breathing heavily as he carefully listened.

" Thomas!", you heard Hoyt's voice yelling for your beloved, who reacted quickly. But you grabbed his hand and tried to pull him back to you. "Tommy, don't… please .", you pleaded. He gave you a look you've never seen before. You felt small as if a beast was staring you down with a threatening look that said " Let. Me. Go. ". And it was at that moment you realized you weren’t talking to your Tommy anymore, which scared you. The Thomas you’d fallen asleep with just hours ago is gone. And the Butcher of Texas is all that was left. So you listened. You let go of his hand and watched him dress up, holding your breath to avoid starting a fire within him. And finally, your eyes followed him to the door.

Curling up under the covers again, the bitter realization hit you.

It was your chance to leave, to go back home. The family would be busy with trespassers for a few hours, Hoyt most likely harassing some poor woman, Thomas off to ki-... hunt.

Getting out of bed, you quickly threw your shorts on, internally thanking Tommy for never removing your t-shirt. Even if you knew this meant leaving him for good, the man you just hours ago confessed your love to, it also meant you would most likely live, and a normal life at that. Besides, you could always contact him through the phone, and that thought made it easier for you to sneak up the basement stairs. The sliding door was heavy and screeched as you pushed it open. You heard Thomas' chainsaw roaring from somewhere close by, along with Hoyt's encouraging howls and a blood-curdling scream. You felt nauseous and wanted to puke as you knew what was going on, but tried to cast those thoughts aside while you walked on your path to freedom.

You hurried across the old dining room, but probably due to the fear-fueled trembling of your legs, you curse as you trip over your own feet, attempting to swerve around a puddle of blood. Hissing, you rub the knee that took the brunt of the fall. And when your eyes start to look around for any threats, you see him.

Hoyt. The last person you wished bore witness to your endeavor.

Your fall had seemingly alerted him of your presence. As you stood, you kept your eyes locked on him before noticing the sharp pair of scissors laying on a small side table. And upon grabbing them, you taunt him, adrenaline coursing through your veins. "Come on, old man. You’ve wanted to kill me since I got here!" Before you knew it he was on you. The man knocked you to the floor and straddled your waist while pinning your arms above your head. "He ain't here no more to protect ya, bitch.", he licked his lips as you struggled to get him off you. Seeing him lean in close, you took the opportunity to bash his nose in with your own head, causing him to release your arms to grab it as it gushed out blood. You pushed him off you, straddling him instead. Breathing heavily, you grabbed the scissors in both hands and raised them above you, stretching your entire body to get as much power in your killing blow as possible.

Hoyt grinned as he looked up at you preparing yourself, his tongue reaching out to catch fat drops of crimson dripping from his nose.

Your blood ran cold as ice as a giant shadow fell over you. "To-", a huge hand gripped the main hand holding the scissors. His grasp was tight and you winced as a sickening crunch rings out of your joints before the sharp pain hits you. And you screamed, dropping the scissors. The pain was excruciating as Thomas forcefully lifted you up from his uncle and threw you into a nearby corner. You clutched your broken wrist close to your chest and cried as you watched the predator that has taken over your beloved Thomas slowly walk towards you. Both hands moved to grip his chainsaw. Your breathing started picking up, your heart rate going too many miles per hour and the rushing of blood deafening in your ears.

"Tom- Tommy, please. It’s me!", you pleaded as you saw him pull on the snare to start his weapon. "No… no no no!", behind Thomas you saw Hoyt standing up, hollering words of encouragement to him. "Fucking get her, Thomas!", you shook your head as you sobbed violently, berating yourself. Why did you think trying to kill Hoyt was a good idea? He was Thomas’ family, after all, something you weren’t. Something you would never be.

He pulled the string once, and the saw sputtered, then died. He pulled it again, the same result. He growled and pulled it a third time before realizing it had run out of gas, something you took as a chance to run away. But before you knew it, he'd grasped you by the throat, lifting you up against the wall. You cried out as his grip tightened, your good hand scrambling to grab his wrists in an effort to break free.

"Tommy… p- pleas- hck", he clamped your throat shut, interrupting your begging. Your vision started to blur as the air became sparse, and your nails dug into his arm in a desperate attempt to get Tommy back. Your lungs hurt, your brain was in a blur and your vision started to fade. You focused the last remaining strength you had to look at Tommy in the eyes, his usual sky blue irises now taken over by darkness. Hidden behind sweaty hair and the face of someone else. The last air in your lungs is spent on three words.

" I love you."

Crack.

Thomas watched as the dinner guest fell limp against the wall.

"Good job, boy.", Hoyt patted his shoulder blade. Thomas just grunted and threw the body over his shoulder to head back into the basement to finish his work. This was one of three bodies he had to cut up and he sighed as he knew he wouldn't get any sleep the remaining hours of the night. He grunted as he hung two of them up, saving the freshest one for last since that body hadn't been waiting for as long.

Heavy sighs came from him as he finished preparing to cut up the last body. All he wanted was to get back into bed with you and sleep the remaining hours. The last body was small, something he greatly appreciated because that meant sleep was imminent. Thomas removed his mask after he laid the dead cattle on his table as sweat started to pool and stream down his neck. Lumbering over to a bucket of water, he splashed water over his face to cool down.

When he turned back; his heart stopped, blood turning to ice and nausea rolling over him in big waves before he rushed over to the table. This wasn't a dinner guest or cattle. It… "No…" , he was shaking badly as he put a heavy palm on your cheek. A lump formed in his throat as he looked over your body, running his eyes up and down it, making sure there was no mistake, that he wasn’t hallucinating. You were just here moments ago. With him. Happy. Alive. He pressed two fingers at your neck, searching for a pulse. Tommy panicked when he saw the bruising on your flesh. He'd killed you. In the middle of hunting trespassers. The last thing he remembered from his killing spree was walking into the… the old dining room… and seeing someone sit on top of Hoyt threatening him with something sharp. And then there you were, an unmoving corpse resting before him, right on the same table he had sworn not to put you back on. He couldn’t remember anything else, couldn’t remember even seeing you up on the main floor.

How did all this happen?

But what he did know was that there was no going back. Nothing could bring you back now. He took one of your hands in his while mumbling desperate prayers that you weren’t gone. You were just asleep, and he wanted you to wake up. " Please, wake up..." , he sobbed. You were cold, so cold. Nothing like he remembered you just hours ago. When you'd hugged his arm before falling asleep, your fingers intertwined with his, your breathing even against his shoulder. You were warm then.

Not like the unmoving figure you had become. And he let himself cry, something he hadn’t done in so many years, his eyes burned, another punishment for ending your life. Stroking your cheek, he turned your head so you were facing him. His thumb traced your bottom lip as he thought back on the last kiss he gave you. Tommy has never cried for another person as he did now. You were the first one outside of his family that had shown him tenderness, that felt like home. The first one to show him, love. His rage took you away from him, something he had feared deeply since you set foot in his basement. You were supposed to be his forever. His wife. The mother of his children.

Pressing his forehead to yours, he whispered the words he never got to say earlier. " I love you too."

[slashscowboyboots]

Happy Taco Truck: Ice Cream Dreamboat (Part 1)

(all photo credit goes to owners)

I know it’s only been months, but it feels like years since I’ve shared a fic!  This is a continuation of @no-stone-no-bone​‘s awesome fic Duff’s Doughnuts (link here).  I agree with Skyler, I’d love to see other writers write about the different food trucks and make this a series.  This was supposed to be a one-shot, but as I am physically incapable of writing short fics, this is a two-parter.  Buckle in!

Tag list: @izzysdenimjacket​ @no-stone-no-bone​ @sexcoffeeandrockandroll​ @awrestlinggirlwholoves80sbands​ @smokeandmirrorz​ @sodalitefully​​ @roger-taylors-car​​  @harley-m-rose​ if you’d like to be tagged let me know, we all know how wonderful the tags work though

Warnings: language, sibling promiscuity, lonely cooking, terminal embarrassment, Axl and Tracii are Axl and Tracii

Thunk thunk thunk.

It was another scorcher inside your food truck, the vicious heat wafting off the griddle pummeling your face as you deftly raked your spatula through a pile of crisping beef tips, then piled them into a fluffy shell, handing it off for your sister Skyler to kiss with your award-winning cilantro lime crema and hand out to the customer.

You couldn’t resist moving up to the open side to watch the patron, a long-haired man wearing a nose chain with “Endless Burgers” stitched on his shirt, take a bite of your creation, then bend at the knees from ecstasy and dig a ten dollar bill from his pocket, stuffing it in your tip jar.

It has been gangbusters during the lunch rush in The Circle, the informal name given to the parking lot of ornery hooligans who fed the masses during the day and lingered behind late in the evening for a bit of recreational hell-raising. 

There was a plethora of culinary delights scattered around you, including Duff’s Doughnuts, Tracii and Phil’s Sno-Cones, Stoney & Cready’s Homewrecker Corndogs, and Jon and Richie’s Jersey Essentials (you never really knew what they were selling, apart from Aqua Net and the occasional cheesesteak, but after they began offering rippers-deep fried hot dogs-Skyler made frequent trips over to ask Richie if she could eat his weenie).  And from what you heard, they all knew how to throw down at night.

You never stayed to find out, though.  Your shyness forced you to fire up Helen the Happy Taco truck and drive home, leaving Skyler behind to do God-knows-what to who-knows-what, and you arrived in the mornings to find her either helping Kelly from Nickels’ BBQ feed his pink-painted porcine smoker, both of them covered in hickeys, or nearly trading blows with the loudmouth redhead who ran the ice cream truck.

Today, however, you’d found her with someone new.  When you pulled into the lot, you saw her with her arms wrapped around a guy with long hair wearing a flannel shirt and shorts, gazing raptly into his piercing blue eyes.  “Bye, Ed,” she murmured, pecking a kiss on his mouth.

“Who was that?” you asked, your eyebrows shooting skywards.

“Produce man,” she answered quickly.

“Were you getting us a good deal?’

“You know it.”

You peeled your gloves off and wiped your sweating face with a paper towel, trying to blot off as much grease as possible.  “I’m taking a break.  I need some ice cream.”

“I got you a frozen lemonade on my break.  It’s gonna taste like shit when you drink it with that ice cream.”

“I don’t care.”

“Punch that dick Axl in the face while you’re over there.  He’s on my last fucking nerve.”

You trudged down to “Axl and Izzy’s Frozen Delights,” eager to leave the brutal swelter inside your truck.  Standing in front of their window, you bent backwards and cracked your aching back, then a raspy voice asked, “Can I help you?”

You looked up into the most beautiful doe eyes you’d ever seen, hazel verging on gold in the afternoon sunlight, belonging to a guy with messy brown hair tied back with a bandanna, and suddenly your feet didn’t hurt anymore.  “Hi,” you said faintly.

“Hey,” he replied, smiling at you, and you felt your breath leave you.  “I’m Izzy, who might you be?”

“Y/N.”

“What can I get for you?”

Your brain instantly forgot how to make words.  “Cone,” you muttered.

His smile grew even bigger.  “What do you want in your cone?”

“Ice cream.”

He chuckled softly.  “What kind?”

“I don’t know.”

Those gorgeous eyes were full of merriment, crinkling at the corners.  “You don’t know?”

“No.”  Get ahold of yourself, you’re sounding like a moron.  “Uh, chocolate?”

“Sure.  I mean, as long as you’re sure about that.”  He winked at you, then turned to the freezer case behind him, and you got an exquisite view of his perfect ass, your mouth open and your breath coming in gasps, then he turned around and grinned, catching you mid-gawk, and you immediately wanted the earth to swallow you up.

“Thank you,” you blurted when he handed you your cone, then you turned to leave.  

“Uh, Y/N?”

“Uh huh?”  You couldn’t believe he was going to prolong putting up with your awkward ass.  

“Aren’t you going to pay me?”

“Oh,” you said, humiliation bringing a knot to your throat, and you handed him a crumpled pile of bills and scuttled away before you could cry.

“Sis, you mind if I head out a little early?” you asked.  “I’ve got a headache and I want to go home.”

“Sure.  I think we’re done for today.  You sure you’re okay?”

You hadn’t said a word all afternoon, just cooked and sweated and tried not to think about what a failure you were.  This was why you didn’t stick around at night, even though you longed to, to laugh and have fun with all the crazy characters around you.  Because you’d fuck it up if you did.

Why wasn’t I born normal? you thought bitterly.  Why am I the disaster in the family?

“Yeah,” you said quietly.  “I’m fine.”

That’s why your tacos were so delicious.  Because you were such a loser, you stayed home and perfected them instead of going out and having a life.  With no demands on your personal time, you discovered that lime made your chicken taco sing, while a little tomato sauce was the secret to juicier ground beef.

Your loneliness was the key to Happy Taco’s success.  

And you’d give everything you knew away just to be cool for five minutes.

“OPEN UP!!” a male voice hollered.  Bam!  Bam!  Bam!  “Little pig, little pig, let me in!”

Skyler dropped the hatch.  “Tracii!  Ferfucksakes!  We just got here!”

Tracii grinned under his bandanna.  “I wanna eat your taco.”

“It is an honor and a privilege to serve you a Happy Taco,” she answered, leaning on the counter and linking her fingers.  “However, we haven’t got anything set up and the only kind we can get you is our el pastor.”

“Okay,” he said, “gimme two,” and Skyler nodded to you.

You sliced the meat off the trompo, carefully evening out the sides, all the while reliving the embarrassment of the previous afternoon in your head.  Maybe you could drive Helen down to Baja California and start life anew, under a different name.

“Hey!” Tracii yelped, his eyes on you.  “I know you!  You’re the one Izzy was talking about last night,” and your knife nearly stabbed the metal pole holding up the pork and pineapple mass.

“Yeah,” he smiled lazily, “you are a looker, aren’t you?  How come you don’t party with us?  Izz said you seemed kinda shy.”

With your eyes wide and heart hammering, you handed the tacos to Skyler, whose mouth was hanging open in shock.

Before she could say anything, Tracii handed her his money and sauntered off, orgasmically moaning as he chewed, and Axl stepped up to the window.

“The fuck you want?” Skyler snapped.  “”It’s too early in the day for you to pick a fight, asshole.”

“I’m not here to fight,” he growled, slamming down a wad of dollars.  “This is from Izzy.  For her ice cream,” and he jutted his chin towards you.  “He says you eat for free at our truck.  The bo-both of you,”  he gritted, the agony of that idea etching deeply on his face.

“Thank you,” you smiled in surprise.

His eyes met yours, waving off your delight.  “Yeah, he’ll be down later.”

“Yes, thank you, Axl,” Skyler said.  “May we offer you an el pastor taco?”

“No,” he said, already retreating.  “Pork gives me the shits.”

Izzy did come by later, just in time for your sister to run off on her break.  

“Hi, Izzy,” you said, feeling your cheeks heat up.

“Hey,” he smiled, looking delicious in his sunglasses.  “So what kind of tacos do you have?”

You recited the list.  “El pastor, carnitas, beef tips, seasoned ground beef, chicken, shrimp, and uh, lengua.”

“What’s that?”

“Uh, tongue.”

He pulled a face and stuck out his tongue, and you giggled, your shyness melting away at his goofiness.  “No, no, it’s really good.  Imagine the most tender, flavorful pot roast.  Everyone always orders seconds.”

“I think I’ll pass on the tongue, that one anyways, and have one shrimp and one chicken.  How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing.  Uh, you and Axl, you eat for free here too.  Thank you, by the way, that’s very generous.”

He grinned wider, and you noticed he’d hadn’t stopped smiling at you since he showed up.  “Don’t mention it.”

You opened the shrimp and chicken containers, then threw the meat down on the griddle and moved it around, forcing yourself to focus on sauteing and not burning down the fucking truck because Izzy was outside.

He peeked in the window, looking around the interior of the truck.  “So how long have you been cooking?”

“Oh, since I was small.  I was at a stove before I could see over it.  These are all my grandmother's recipes.”  You scooped the fillings into their shells, then grabbed the crema.  

“Hey, I only ordered two,” Izzy protested when you handed him his tacos in a cardboard to-go basket.

“One of the chicken ones is Axl’s.  Consider it a peace offering.”

“Thank you.  Hey, Y/N, I was wondering if-”

“Hey, Y/N, I was wondering if I could get some fucking service around here,” a mullet-sporting, Confederate flag t-shirt wearing asshole growled, and Izzy waved, then walked away.

He returned the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, working his way through your menu and bringing you a different-flavored milkshake each time.  He loved all of the tacos he tried, even daring to sample the beef tongue, then immediately ordered another one.

“Told you,” you grinned.

He always made conversation with you while you cooked, his eyes locked on yours as he ate, but every time he finished, there was always a line to tend to, and Skyler made herself scarce as soon as she spotted him.  You never returned to his truck for ice cream, and spent your downtime cleaning the flattop, lighting out as soon as you turned over the CLOSED sign.

“You know,” your sister said to you as you turned the key in the ignition, “if you stayed, you’d probably hook up with Izzy.”

“No,” you said sadly, “I’m a hot mess.  I’d say something stupid and he’d run away.”

“Can’t talk with his tongue in your mouth,” she teased, “or some other part.”

“SKYLER!” you shrieked as she cackled, then you sighed and leaned your head against the steering wheel.  “I’m not like you.”

“You don’t have to be,” she said, leaning over and stroking your hair.  “Just give him a chance.”

“I can’t stay here and have Helen be a-a sin wagon.”

“It’s not like we have orgies!” Skyler laughed.  “At least your man doesn't.  He plays guitar and Axl sings, when he’s not being a dumbass.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.  And then Izzy sings, and Kelly gives me The Look and……”

“Or the produce man shows up.”

“Or Eddie the produce man shows up.”  She gave you a slight smile.  “C’mon, Sis, stay.  He likes you.”

“He doesn’t know me.”

“Then get to know him.  Axl says he’s pining.”

You looked at her in surprise.  “When did you talk to Axl?”

“When he told me that chicken taco you gave him was the best thing he’s ever had.”

You smiled at his praise, drumming your fingertips on the steering wheel.  “Maybe I’ll stay sometime.”

“Pining,” Skyler said, then hopped off the truck.

[calpalirwin]

The Locket

Summary: Anon request: OoOo can you do a soft ash or cal period fic~~?

A/N: So, this was a story I started a long time ago and hit a wall with. But I made some tweaks and additions. And this is that result. Everybody say thank you to Lauren Alaina’s The Locket for the original inspiration and to the anon for giving me the opportunity to finish this.

Content: World War Two era Cal love story

Word Count: 2.3K

And away, and away we go!

~~~

Her hand fumbled with the locket around her neck. Clumsily, she opened it and sighed. She rubbed her thumb over the worn out picture taped inside. “You can’t tell here,” she rasped, “but his eyes were such a rich brown. Like melted chocolate. He hated them. ‘Brown is such a dull color’ he’d say. So, I loved them for him. He was a great man. The greatest man, and  I miss him so. My brown-eyed boy.” Her eyes closed and a tear rolled down her cheek.

A young woman leaned close by, a notebook laid out in front of her, a pen twirling in her hand. “Do you want me to tell you stories about him,” she asked gently.

“Would you?” the old woman smiled. “My memory isn’t what it used to be.”

The younger woman opened her notebook and started reading.

~~~

June had barely begun, but it was already looking like 1941 was going to be a scorcher of a summer. Two girls swung lazily on a front porch swing, chatting and wiping sweat from the back of their necks. From inside the house a clock struck and moments later an older woman poked her head outside. “Hazel, come help me get lunch on the table. The boys will be home soon.”

“Yes, Momma,” one girl said before turning to the other girl. “I gotta go, but I’ll see you after?”

“Mike and I were going to spend the afternoon together…” the other girl responded shyly.

Hazel flashed her friend a grin. “Oh! Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then. And tell me everything!”

The two friends laughed and then parted ways. “Hazel, what took so long?” Hazel’s mother scolded when Hazel finally made her way into the kitchen.

“Sorry, I was talking with Britt. Apparently, she’s the girl that Mike’s been seeing.”

“Oh! Good for them both. She’s such a sweet girl. She’ll do your brother some good,” the mother said offhandedly. “Now, go set the table.”

Hazel moved to the cupboard where the plates were kept and grabbed four. “Oh no, Hazel. 5 plates.”

“But Britt is coming by after. She said so herself.”

“Not Britt, Mike is bringing a friend from work. He just moved here with his mother and sister. I don’t recall his name.”

“Oh, you mean Calum?” Hazel asked. She remembered her brother going on about somebody new at work. She was almost certain his name was Calum.

“Yes, Calum! That’s the boy’s name. So five sets Hazel. Then put out the sandwiches.”

Hazel had just set the sandwich platter on the dining table when the screen door jumped open and then slammed closed. “Michael Gordon! What have I told you about slamming that door?” the mother scolded.

Mike gave his mother a grin. “Sorry, Momma. I’m just hungry is all. Is Pops joining us? This is Calum by the way. Cal, this is my mother Karen, and my sister, Hazel.”

A young man who looked to be no older than Mike stepped forward, hand extended. “Pleased to meet you ma’am. Thanks for having me. Lovely home.” he directed at Karen before turning towards Hazel. “Miss,” he greeted warmly, dark curls falling into his equally dark eyes. He turned towards Mike and whispered, “You didn’t tell me your sister was so pretty.”

Hazel leaned in and whispered to Calum, “The pretty sister can hear you and wants you to know that she’s only younger than Mike by two years.”

“Hazel!” Mike said, shocked. “Sorry, my sister must have misplaced her manners.”

Calum just laughed. “Pretty and spunky. My type of girl.”

Hazel wanted to say something disarming and witty in retort. But there was something about the way his eyes danced that was irresistible. And Hazel had no doubt that his grin had gotten him out of more than his fair share of trouble. Thankfully she was saved from having to respond by her mother calling out that lunch was ready and her father coming in through the front door. “Perfect timing, dear,” her mother greeted her father, “We just got lunch on the table. Come, let’s eat.”

Lunch passed with a small bit of conversation here and there. Most of the conversation revolved around getting to know Calum. By the time the dishes were cleared, Hazel had learned that Calum had moved to town right after his sixteenth birthday with his mother and older sister. “Staying in Australia was a little too hard on Mum after my dad passed. Everything reminded her of him,” he said, and his rich brown eyes lost their dancing glee for a brief moment.

Daryl Clifford pushed back his plate and looked at the clock. “I best be getting back to the office. You boys need a ride back to the shop?”

“No, sir,” Calum answered politely.

“We only work half-days, Pops,” Mike told his father.

“Well, isn’t that nice. Karen, dear, I’ll be home in time for supper. Mike, watch after the house. Calum, it was nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you too, Mr. Clifford.” Calum stood up and shook the older man’s hand.

“Bye, Daddy,” Hazel said, clearing away plates.

“See ya, Pops,” Mike nodded.

“Have a good day, sweetheart,” Karen called from the kitchen. “Hazel, leave the dishes. I’ll get to them.”

“I’m going to run across the street and get Britt. Cal, did you need to get home or anything?” Mike asked.

“No, I don’t have anywhere to be. But if you have something you need to do, I can go.”

“Nonsense. Britt and I don’t do much. Plus, I’ll need someone to talk to because all Britt does is talk with Hazel.”

“I don’t want to impose…” Calum said.

“Oh, please!” Hazel scoffed at her brother. “All Britt does is talk about you these days! Calum, please stay. If I hear Britt go on about my brother any longer, I’ll go out of my mind.”

Calum ran a hand through his dark curls, grinning. “Well,” he drawled, “if you insist…”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Hazel said, taking him by the hand. She quickly shook away the thought that told her she really liked the way her small hand felt in his larger one. “Come, we can wait on the porch while Mike gets Britt.”

Mike, for his sake, pretended not to notice as he dashed across the street and knocked on Britt’s door.

Hazel didn’t move to let go of Calum’s hand until they were seated on the porch swing. “You don’t have to let go if you don’t want to,” Calum told her softly.

Hazel blushed, “I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable…”

“This is the most comfortable I’ve felt in a long time.” He traced his thumb over the back of her hand. She shivered at the touch and he stopped abruptly and dropped her hand. “Sorry… I didn’t think… Sorry,” he sputtered.

“Oh, no! It’s just I’ve never… I’m sorry. So,” she said, changing the subject, “How are you liking Virginia?”

“I like it okay. After living in Australia my whole life, it’s a nice change.”

“I’m sorry about your father,” she told him, grabbing his hand and holding it in hers.

“Don’t be. It is what it is. I have my memories to give me comfort. And I still have Mum and my sister.”

“That’s true.” She smiled up at him, gazing into his eyes. Brown, she decided, was her new favorite color. “You have pretty eyes,” she told him.

He ducked his head. “I hate them… Brown is such a dull color. Of all the colors for eyes, I get stuck with the dullest.”

“Well, you just need somebody to love them for you, then,” she answered.

They spent the rest of the afternoon on that porch, talking about everything under the sun. Some of the topics were light-hearted, like how their favorite places both happened to be by water. Other topics were darker, like the war in Europe and whether or not it would come to them.

“You’re still here, Cal?” Mike’s voice sounded, pulling Calum and Hazel out of their trance.

“I thought you were going to join us,” Calum said as a way of greeting.

“Where’s Britt?” Hazel asked.

“Oh, we ended up spending the afternoon downtown. I just saw her home.”

“Do you have the time?” Calum asked.

Mike pulled out his watch. “It’s a quarter to six.”

Calum’s eyes flew wide. “I best get home, then.” He stood up, letting go of Hazel’s hand. Her hand fell limply into her lap. “Hazel, it’s been a wonderful afternoon. Tell your mother I said thank you again for lunch. Mike, I’ll see you at work?”

“I’ll see you at work,” Mike responded, before heading inside the house.

Calum smiled at Hazel one last time before heading off the porch and towards the gate. Hazel called out after him, “Cally, wait.” He paused at the gate and she ran over to him. “Don’t you want to see me again?”

“Is that something you want?”

“Of course! Someone’s got to love your brown eyes for you.”

He laughed a soft laugh. “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he told her.

“I’ll be waiting.”

~~~

True to her word, she waited. And true to his, Calum was on her porch the next day, and every other day that week.

“You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with this Calum fellow,” Mrs. Clifford commented during supper that Friday evening.

“What of it?” Hazel asked.

“Nothing, Hazel. Just that you’re still a girl, and that boy is off doing the work of men.”

“So is Mike, and he’s going steady with Britt,” Hazel pointed out.

“Hazel Rose!”

“Now, now,” Mr. Clifford interrupted. “All your mother is saying, is that you should be careful. We have no problem with you seeing Calum. He seems like a respectable young man. But, you are both still young. And love is a fickle emotion, it’s not something to be taken lightly.”

“Love?” Mrs. Clifford choked. “Oh, dear heavens. Whatever feelings you have for that boy, please don’t call it love. Not at fourteen.”

“Momma,” Mike interrupted, “Cal has only been seeing Hazel for a week. Of course she doesn’t love him. Do you, Hazel?”

Hazel paused to think about it. Did she love Calum? She loved the way he held her hand. She loved the way he would walk home with Mike to spend time with her every day even though he lived on the other side of town. She loved his brown eyes and his crooked grin. Was that enough for her to love Calum wholeheartedly? “I certainly could learn to,” she said definitively.

~~~

“Oh, Cally,” she breathed before flinging her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. “It’s beautiful,” she marveled, pulling back to admire the delicate golden locket on an equally delicate chain.

“Open it,” he said, smiling proudly.

Her fingers fumbled with the clasp on the locket, flicking it open. Inside was a picture of him with those dancing eyes and crooked grin smiling up at her. “Oh, Cally,” she breathed again, flipping it shut and clutching it to her heart. “I love it.”

“So, you’ll go steady with me?” Calum asked, his dark eyes hopeful.

“I couldn’t think of anything else I'd rather do.”

Calum smiled bigger. “May I?” he asked, his hands reaching to grab the locket. She handed it to him and lifted her hair off her neck, turning slightly so he could secure the chain around her neck. “Pretty locket for a pretty girl,” he admired and she turned back to face him.

“Your pretty girl,” she clarified, smiling up at him.

“My pretty girl,” he agreed, both of them liking the way the words sounded rolling off his lips.

“I’ll never take it off,” she swore, her fingers wrapping around the locket. She would never let go of her brown-eyed boy that was quickly stealing her heart.

~~~

“Come home to me, Cally,” Hazel cried at the train station, gripping tightly to Calum’s hands as the rain fell down around them. It was 1943 and the war was calling Calum’s name.

“When I come home, I’m going to marry you Hazel Clifford. My pretty girl will become my pretty wife,” he promised, covering every inch of her hands with his lips, searing his kisses into her skin.

“I’ll be waiting,” she smiled at him as he thumbs brushed across her cheeks to catch the tears that mixed in with the rain.

“I’m with you always, darling,” he said, eyes shifting down to the locket she still wore around her neck two years later. Then, his lips were on hers, saying all the feelings he couldn’t put into words, and she was kissing him back with the intensity of letting him know she felt the same.

The tears fell faster as they broke apart and he began to walk backwards towards the train that was waiting to take him far away from her. “I love you Hazel Clifford!” he called out after her. “I’m going to make you my wife, my pretty girl, just you wait!”

“I love you Calum Hood!” she cried back to him, her fingers clutching the locket like a lifeline. Please, God, she prayed, bring him back to me.

~~~

“Cally was always a man of his word,” the old woman said, dabbing at her eyes as the young woman closed the notebook.

“That he was, Grandma,” the younger woman said tapping her notebook. “Do you miss him?”

“So much. The memories only bring so much comfort.”

“I know, Grandma.”

Hazel’s fingers clumsily undid the clasp on the locket, the chain pooling into her hand. “Here,” she said, pushing the locket into her granddaughter’s hands. “I want you to keep this. Keep my brown-eyed boy close to your heart the same way I did. My heart belongs to the boy inside your locket and I think it’s time I go see him. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

~~~

Tag List (if you keep liking/reblogging enough, eventually I’ll just ask you to join myself)

@goeatsomelife​ @flameraine​ @cashtonasff5sos​ @here-for-the-uproars​ @cxddlyash​ @1-irwin-94​ @baldcalum​ @sparkling-chaos​ @tea4sykes​ @youngblood199456​ @5-seconds-of-obsession​

[shanghai-ohmy]

MaoMaoctober Day 24: Trickster

Welcome back, G-rated fics! In today’s fic, a string of thefts breaks out across Pure Heart Valley. Badgerclops is on the case. Mao Mao connects the dots. Snugglemagne is also there. Read it on AO3, or under the cut.

It was the third theft in a week, and it was even more brazen than the last two. Mao Mao stalked around the scene as Badgerclops and Adorabat placed down evidence markers. Sunlight streamed through the shattered glass of the skylight. Where there should have been a rich tapestry on the wall, there was now only empty space.

"Oh, it's absolutely horrible!" King Snugglemagne lamented, throwing his hand against his head dramatically. "My beautiful palace, vandalized! And my precious self-portrait, stolen!"

Badgerclops patted him on the back. "There there, it's not so- wait, SELF portrait? You weave?!"

The king turned his nose up indignantly. "I have many talents, thank you very much!"

Mao Mao slammed his fist on a nearby table, startling both of them. "It doesn't make any sense!" He glared at the bare wall. "What's the message? The motive? Why steal a prized tapestry from the king?"

"Political unrest?" Adorabat suggested.

"Raw, visceral attraction to the king's hot body?" Badgerclops posited.

Mao Mao shot him a withering look. He addressed Adorabat's theory instead. "That's a good instinct Adorabat, but it doesn't have enough backing. There haven't been any recent upsets, and King Snugglemagne is very popular with the sweetypies right now."

"Perhaps it wasn't a sweetypie at all," the king said nervously.

Mao Mao's eyes widened. "That's it! These aren't local crimes at all! Someone is trying to send me a message!"

"Hey man," Badgerclops interrupted, "I know it's like, your hunch and all, but why does the message have to be for you and not me? I used to hang out with literal thieves, remember?"

Mao Mao shushed him. "Badgerclops please, don't be ridiculous. This case could only be meant to challenge me, the legendary Mao Mao! It'll be my greatest investigation yet!"

Badgerclops huffed, crossing his arms.

"Um, Mao Mao?" Adorabat asked. "How do you solve a mystery?"

Mao Mao grinned. "Just watch me, Adorabat. You're about to find out." He swept out of the room, cape billowing behind him. Adorabat flew in his wake, dazzled.

A bright flash painted the room in stark white contrast. Badgerclops remained behind, photographing the crime scene. He carefully examined each piece of evidence. As he glanced over the shards of skylight glass, he noticed something out of place.

---

“The first thing you need to do is establish a motive,” Mao Mao explained. “Who would hate me enough to track down Pure Heart Valley and threaten the king?”

“The sky pirates?”

“It’s possible.” Mao Mao pinned a blurry photo of Orangusnake to the corkboard behind their office desk. Already up on the wall were newspaper clippings about the three thefts that had occurred, along with a map of the city. “But I suspect this crime is too high-minded for the sky pirates. This thief is playing games with us. Toying with us. And I can think of one tanuki who just loves to play games.” He pinned a photo of himself with Tanya Keys to the board and pointed at her face.

“But I thought she liked you again after we saved Badgerclops!”

Mao Mao sighed. “Tanya is a complicated woman, Adorabat. She could be sending me a message. Or she might have turned on us again. But she has all the right motives for revenge!”

“Umm… does she?”

“Of course! I mean, we… um, she and the king… hm.” Mao Mao put his hand on his chin, thinking.

“What about a bad guy you and Badgerclops fought from before you came here?”

“That’s it! Adorabat, you’re a genius!” Mao Mao flung open a desk drawer and began to sort through a pile of mugshots clipped from newspapers. “Let’s see, the Honeybee Bandits were released a few weeks ago, Red-Eyes Rex got out last month, The Scorcher really had it out for us when we put her away…” He mumbled to himself as he pulled out potential suspects. A few moments later, they were all pinned to the board. 

“Okay, Adorabat. Let’s narrow the field.” Mao Mao went criminal by criminal, explaining their methods and how he and Badgerclops had caught them. He and Adorabat argued over motive, modus operandi, and possible alibis for every one. After an exhaustive process, they’d narrowed it down to a field of four suspects.

“And now for the real work.” Mao Mao pulled a ball of red string from the desk.

“I thought you said it was time for work… why are you getting out your favorite ball of yarn?”

“Huh? Sorry Adorabat, what did you say? I was… distracted.” Mao Mao’s claws were out. There was string tangled between his fingers. His pupils quickly contracted again as he snapped out of it.

“ANYWAY, the board!” He turned his attention back to the suspects. “Hmm…” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Hmm,” Adorabat mimicked, copying the motion too.

---

Badgerclops trailed the suspect carefully. It wasn’t easy work; he was huge compared to the sweetypies, and his fur pattern was very distinctive. Even Mail Mole could see him coming. So he’d requisitioned a car with tinted windows instead of following on foot. It was cramped, but effective. 

The target made a sharp turn into a park. Badgerclops swore. Had he been noticed? The car wouldn’t be able to follow in there. He had to make a choice: ditch the car and hoof it, or try to anticipate the suspect’s point of exit. Reluctantly, he parked. This was too close to over. He couldn’t risk losing the trail now. He’d make it work on foot, somehow. 

He slipped into the park. His suspect was nearly out of view, nothing more than a distant figure. But he couldn’t run; that would make his pursuit far too obvious. He followed at a distance, taking different paths and keeping trees between them. Sometimes he’d lose sight of the target, but never for long.

They exited the park. Badgerclops could feel it now. The thief’s stash was close. All he needed now was a chance.

---

“My god, Adorabat.” Mao Mao looked shell-shocked. “It goes all the way to the top.”

A tangle of red string criss-crossed the corkboard, a baffling series of connections twisting and angling around one another. Many of them converged to a newly-added picture of King Snugglemagne, a glamorous headshot adorned with his signature.

“It all makes sense now…” Mao Mao stepped back, awed at his own conclusion.

“Umm, can you please explain it one more time?”

Mao Mao sighed. “Adorabat, please. It’s very simple. King Snugglemagne faked the theft of his own self-portrait, along with the two earlier burglaries, because he’s under immense blackmail pressure from Red-Eye.” He traced his claw along the connecting string. “The details in these articles line up exactly with Falkestrasse’s Ten Behaviors of the Blackmailed-” he pointed to a sheet of paper that looked like it had been ripped from a textbook. “But the king doesn’t know that Red-Eye is actually Tanya Keys disguised as Red-Eye Rex. She’s scamming him for his fortune with a fake blackmail scheme. Of course, the king himself set up the blackmail as part of a-”

Before he could continue, Badgerclops kicked the front door open. “Yo, Mao Mao! Get the jail cell open!”

“Badgerclops?! What are you-”

“LET ME GO! I’LL KILL YOU ALL! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M CAPABLE OF!” Pinky wriggled fruitlessly in Badgerclops’s mechanical grasp, screaming at all three members of the sheriff’s department.

Mao Mao laughed. “Hah, I guess the mystery was too hard for you, huh Badgerclops? Back to arresting Pinky for petty crimes again?” He swung the jail cell open. “What was it this time?” He asked Pinky. “Steal another ice cream?”

Pinky spat at him. “I want my lawyer! It’s my tapestry! I already had it!”

“Tapestry?”

Badgerclops slammed the cell door shut and locked it. “Yeah Mao Mao, tapestry! The big thing that got stolen? Remember?”

“No, that’s… that’s not possible, Badgerclops!” Mao Mao laughed nervously. “It can’t be Pinky! I mean, look at the evidence!” He gestured to the unintelligible mass of string and paper pinned to the wall. “I figured it all out!”

“It’s actually very simple,” Adorabat explained. “You see-”

Badgerclops cut her off. “Adorabat, do you want to learn how to solve a mystery?”

She nodded.

“Step one, you review the evidence. You know, the ACTUAL evidence?” He dropped a manila folder on the table, fanning out an array of photographs from it. The crime scene was meticulously documented. “Before you go making any assumptions about how the crime is really all about you-” he glared pointedly at Mao Mao- “you need to examine everything thoroughly.” Badgerclops pulled out a photo and showed Adorabat. “This sliver of glass had a tiny bit of blood on it. AND: pink fur.”

Adorabat gasped.

“BEING PINK ISN’T A CRIME!” Pinky hollered from the jail cell.

“Dude shut up, I’m trying to have a parlor scene here!” Badgerclops walked over to the cage and pulled a tarp down over it, muffling the sound. “Ahem. Step two is to find a suspect. Obviously the pink fur was a major clue. Now it could be a red herring, laid by a clever criminal to misdirect us. But in this case, we already have the perfect perp.” He gestured towards the covered jail cell. “Pinky’s fur matches, he has the motive of being a generally horrible person, and he’s always been kinda weirdly into the king. It makes sense that he’d steal the tapestry.”

“Next you need to track your suspect down and see what you can find out about them. This part’s really important, even if you have the perfect suspect, because it might be a frame job. Now, Pinky is easy to find thanks to the general unpleasantness he inspires, so I was able to get on his trail within a few minutes. I tailed him for about an hour before he went for his stash. He slipped into a closed-up storefront, and when I followed him I found THIS!”

Badgerclops slapped a photo down on the table. What it depicted could only be described as a shrine. The tapestry hung proudly from a wall, flanked by candles and various Snugglemagne memorabilia. “Half of this stuff was filed as stolen goods, and you can see the two thefts from earlier this week in there too.” Badgerclops pointed out a couple of the objects. “Anyway, I secured the whole scene and took Pinky into custody. And now we’re here.” He folded his hands pleasantly.

Adorabat was starstruck.

Mao Mao cleared his throat. “Badgerclops, I… I’m impressed. That’s some top notch detective work.”

“But you had fun with your string, right?”

Mao Mao crossed his arms and fumed. “I was trying to be nice.”

Badgerclops patted him on the head. “I know. But you were kind of a jerk earlier, so…” Badgerclops stuck his tongue out. “I caught the bad guy and you didn’t! Ha ha!”

Mao Mao wanted to punch him, but he knew Badgerclops was right to gloat. He’d messed this one up pretty bad. “Yeah yeah, keep going. You were right and smart, I’m a dumb asshole, blah blah blah.”

Badgerclops’s eye softened. “You’re not dumb, Mao Mao. You just got carried away.” He kissed him on the forehead. Mao Mao blushed all the way up to his ears.

“You are an asshole though.”

[ozzdog12]

2017- Top 7 (And 1)

Well as another year closes, so does another fantastic year in gaming. In fact, this could be one of the best in history!! You may say, Why only a Top 7 and there are two reasons. 1: Everyone does a Top 10 or Top 20, but nobody does just 7. It also makes the list more prestigious 2: I’m lazy. 

But I do give my biggest disappointment

Well lets get on with it. 

Biggest Disappointment: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)

Now I know you’re shocked and you’re saying things like “ This list is shit! BotW is the GOTY!” or “WHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT how?!?!” Let me explain. I don’t have the nostalgia for Nintendo that a majority of people have, so I can give a pretty non-biased opinion when it comes to Nintendo games. BotW is a decent game, but its not without its faults. Actually it’s a really bad Zelda game and an even worse ‘Open-World’ game. It’s an open world game made by people who haven’t played one in a decade. However, most alarming is the story, or lack thereof. I know part of the charm in Zelda games is creating your own adventure, but I found almost zero motivation, especially in the early hours to even progress forward. BotW is vastly different from previous Zelda games and takes a lot of risks. Some paid and most didn't. The game is gorgeous for a launch game and being able to play it both on my tv and ‘on the go’ is also a huge plus. The biggest complaint though is the controls are complete ass ( NOTE: I did not play it with a Pro controller, but I understand its much better) I get that with the way the controller is designed you're limited to certain buttons, but some of the controls are so counter-intuitive, that I constantly found myself looking or thinking about which button did what rather than naturally doing it ( I’ve been playing videogames for 25 years, so its not a user error, its a design error). All in all, its a Fine game and a lot of people love it, but its not the best game of the year.. it’s not even the best game on the system….

Number 7: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (PS4)

Hellblade could be on this list for its impeccable sound design alone. Seriously, play this game in the dark with a good headset. While there is combat, the game is not predicated on heavy combat, its more about the deeply personal story told with a Norse mythology backdrop.The puzzles are simple, but unique. The game also looks incredible.The voice acting is superb. In a gaming environment littered with so many open-world games, a well-designed, linear story-driven game is great palette cleanser. Seriously, check this game out. 

Number 6: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Xbox One)

This is in no way a political post, but in the current state of the United States, a game about killing Nazis is so refreshing. It also helps that its actually a really great game. While I do think The New Order is a more meaty, complete story and game, The New Colossus has more jaw dropping “HOLY SHIT!” & “WTF!” moments than any game I’ve played in the last 7-8 years.The game knows what it is and it excels greatly. The game takes some really creative plot twists. BJ isn’t just some standard FPS goon that murders Nazis ( well HE is that too, but you learn more about his past and find a very human side to him). Its also go violent and so satisfying taking an ax to the face of a Nazi. MY biggest gripe is right when the game really starts hitting its stride, it just sort’ve ends. You can go back and revisit previous locations to take of Ubercommanders, but unless you just want more of the same, there is no real incentive to so. I’m really looking forward a 3rd(4th?) chapter in this Wolfenstein story.

Number 5: Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

I’m not the biggest Mario fan and like I said above, I don’t have the nostalgia for Nintendo. As a person, who thinks Mario 64 is way over-rated and is a sub-par game, but loves Mario Galaxy, my biggest concern going in was that this was going to be more like 64. To my surprise, after getting used to the sensitivity of the controls, I found my self REALLY enjoying the game and constantly looking for moons to collect, even when I had enough to move on to the next world.The game is set up in a way to encourage you to revisit worlds even after you’ve beaten the game. I found it to be relatively short for a Mario game, but honestly there is enough there even if you don’t want to 100% the game. Cappy is a new and fresh introduction to Mario that the franchise really needed. 

Number 4: Prey (XBONE) 

Man I have to admit something about Prey. I played the demo and didn’t like it. Finally played the full game and for the first 2 hours thought it was kinda dull, but I knew there was something there and I kept on playing and boy am I glad I did. Prey is THE BEST game seemingly nobody played. I fault a lot of that to the failure to market it correctly. Prey is such a unique experience and a game that is so different from anything our there, it has to be played to fully comprehend it. In terms of gameplay, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s one of those games that when I wasn’t playing, it’s all I thought about. When I was playing, I just wanted to explore every nook and corner within Talos 1. It also has one of the most unique endings/twist to a game I've experienced in a long time. I don’t want to dwell on too much because I’ll ramble into spoiler territory but do yourself a favor and PLAY this game!

Number 3: Injustice 2 (PS4) 

As a massive DC fan and a massive Mortal Kombat, I was hotly anticipating I2, I was a little concerned with the gear system prior to release fearing it would cause imbalance (especially online) but it didn’t for the most part. In a gaming world, where loot boxes are all the rage, I think NRS handled it fairly well. At the end of the day, I wish it was all just cosmetic because i rarely looked at the stat boost and just went with what i liked cosmetically. The story picks up following the events of the first game. Its also very odd to me that NRS can make a better, more compelling story than Warner Bros can with their movies…but I digress. There are plethora of new and returning characters and all are different enough to fit your fighting preference. Some characters i would’ve preferred over others, but all in all, I think its a very impressive roster. With different towers/multiverses rotating in various intervals, its a significant upgrade to the S.T.A.R labs challenges from the previous game. I put in over 100 hours and thats even before all the DLC characters are out.  

Number 2: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4)

Being that Uncharted is one of my favorite gaming franchises, this should be no surprise. Goodbye Nathan Drake, Hello supporting cast! With Nathan Drakes adventures ‘completed”, I am all for more Uncharted with side stories for supporting cast. (Young Sully next please). Chloe (being absent from Uncharted 4) and Nadine (being a villain in Uncharted 4) is an interesting tag team set up. Personalities clash and deception and lying is ever present as you’d expect. As per the status quo from Naughty Dog, the game is graphically top notch and the mo-cap and voice acting is superb. There are several nods to previous games and even an appearance by a certain character. The game is shorter than previous Uncharted games and its honestly the perfect length for this style of story an price tag. More Uncharted is always a good thing!

Honorable Mentions: Pyre(PC), & Metroid: Samus Returns(3DS) 

Number 1: Horizon Zero Dawn(PS4)

Man, what can I say about HZD that hasn’t been covered before. From the first trailer I saw, I had an expectation of what I wanted from this game and its surpassed it ten fold. An achievement in and of itself these days. There are a lot of great open -world games out there, but one of the biggest issues with all this open-world-ness is that story gets dumbed down or sacrificed ( see Breath of the Wild). Horizon Zero Dawn has a really great story that keeps you going adn trying to figure out “What is Zero Dawn?” Trying to uncover all the little secrets is so much fun, the collectibles make you explore this gigantic world. The (post-apocalyptic) )world never feels empty or barren ( unless that was the intention)  Even the side quests feel meaningful for the most part. There is a lot going on in this game, but its all organized and presented together well. My one gripe is that the game doesn't do a great job of telling you the differences and benefits to certain ammo types, you’re basically left to figure it out on your own. Fighting robot dinosaurs never gets old and with the addition of The Frozen Wilds, you get 3 new creatures and they are brutal as ever. Every fight with a Thunderjaw or a group of Scorchers feels meaningful and satisfying even when you hit level 60. While I don’t think its fair to compare Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, they are often compared ad nauseum. I will say that in my opinion HZD did almost everything better than BotW in the things they both tried to accomplish. Horizon Zero Dawn is not only my favorite game on 2017, its made its way into my Top 5 favorite games of All-Time!

[galacticbugman]

My favorite photographs so far

Hi gang how is it going; you know exploring Texas and many other areas of the U.S I have seen some pretty amazing creatures. The world of wildlife is so vast and amazing to observe and photograph. There are many photos that I have taken while exploring the world of nature and wildlife. So here are just a few of my absolute favorite shots that I have collected over the years of being a naturalist. 

One of the most dramatic shot that I took that showed the relationship between predator and prey would have to be this shot I took on one of outings at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area or (LLELA) which is out in Lewisville Texas. I was with a few of my friends and fellow naturalists on a BioBlitz and we decided to head down the Bitter Trail that goes down the river that runs through there. Near the end of the way to the observation deck we saw this butterfly sitting really still. It’s wings were sticking straight out we didn’t know if it was alive or not but the wind caught its left wing and blew it over to reveal a Bold Jumping Spider feeding on this Gulf Fritliary Butterfly. It was quite shocking to see this and once the spider was in view all of us began to click away trying to get our best shots of this crazy scene. This was one of the best shots I got. I tell you; you could hear nothing but shutters when the wing blew to the opposite end of its body. Talk about a powerful scene between predator and prey. 

Another one of my favorite shots would have to be of this Sad Underwing Moth. We were at Cedar Ridge Nature Preserve in Cedar Hill. We were all hiking around the Butterfly garden and my mother called me over to this tree. I had no idea why she was calling for me but I knew that it had to be a creature. She pointed at the tree and I couldn’t see anything. She moved me and tilted my head down and then I saw it after a few seconds. This moth was gigantic but amazing. He blended in with the tree perfectly you couldn’t see it without looking extra hard. When I got this shot home I blew it up on the computer and in this shot (which you can kind of see) You can see almost each individual wing scale. It was quite amazing and one of my favorites for camouflage. I love moths and this is by far one of the biggest moths I have seen so far on my adventures. It is amazing to see moths up close there you can see all the patterns and details. When they are snoozing on a tree or a wall don’t be afraid to get a closer look at it. Notice all the colors, patterns, and textures of the larger moths. Some are more beautiful than others. Most of your bigger moths tend to be the most colorful and most interesting. I may like some of the smaller moths but I am more partial to the bigger moths myself. 

How about a bit of a laugh here. This was taken on my Birthday last year. We went to Grand Prairie to go and revisit and old hangout that we hadn’t been to in years. We often would go out to the Oasis area in Grand Prairie at the the lake. On this day it was on of the hottest days of the year. I remember it was a scorcher and this female Mallard knew how to cool herself down. She was sitting on the fountain letting the water splash her. She was the only duck doing this action. She did get scared off at one point but she didn’t let that keep her down she got right back up there and sat under the sprayer. This was one of the craziest photos I have taken and one of the most comedic. I had never seen a duck do this but she had the right idea to do this. It was quite amusing but I don’t really blame her it was in the triple digits and she was really comfortable. I must say this was one of the most interesting photos in my collection. It was just too darn funny but hey only in Texas am I right? In Texas you see a lot of strange things go on. I don’t get too many shots like this but there are some that are just down right hilarious. You can’t make stuff like this up. 

Another bird photo I took which was one of my favorites was of this Greater Roadrunner. I have a true fondness for the roadrunner being one of my favorite Looney Tunes characters and being one of my favorite birds I have really come to see these birds as fun. This was taken when I first started out as a naturalist and a volunteer at my first place called the Southwest Nature Preserve. This was one of the coolest photos I have ever taken. I was pretty close when I took this. Normally these birds will run when they get the chance too but this one allowed me to get its photo which was really cool. Yep I would never had guessed that we got roadrunners in my neck of the woods but it is not that uncommon so I have come to find out. They are seen quite frequently out there but we have not seen that many Coyotes out there in case you were wondering. this one is the only good photo I have of this particular species. These guys are few and far between for me. Still a fun shot of one of my favorite birds in Texas. 

A cool Tersa Sphinx I saw on campus a couple of semesters ago. I almost fell when I saw this one. No fooling! I stumbled and had to stop myself. On my campus we get a ton of moths some are quite huge. It has often made me wonder what goes on out there at night. I have thought about trying to get an event where we could put out moth lights and attract them to see just how many species we could get for the campus. I have a new nature club and we might just do that some time. For me this is one of the most beautiful moths you can ever see in your life. It looks like someone carved it out of wood. It is a nice maple colored moth with a really beautiful pattern. I love these guys. The Sphinx moths in general are my second favorite moth type. My first favorite is the Saturnids. My personal favorite of all moths is the Luna Moth which I am still trying to track down and get a photo of. The Luna has always been my absolute fave but heck I will take what I can get and this one was a real treat to observe for the first time in my life. This is also the only one that I have ever seen. 

I volunteer out a River Legacy pretty often when it comes to public events and things. This photo was taken on one of our Scout Days late early one December. It was kind of hot for a December day and I was surprised that we had been seeing Snakes out. This hawk was spotted by one of the guys from the Fort Worth Audubon Society that often volunteers for the hikes like I do. This Red-Shouldered Hawk few down in the shrubs and tall grass and grabbed something. I was showing some kids some of the native vegetation when the others started to shout and started to wonder what this hawk had. It wasn’t long until he flew to this branch and showed off his prize. He had killed himself a Western Ribbon Snake which you can see wrapped around his talons. This picture is one of the grossest because if you are to blow up the snake you can see that it has no head be cause the hawk bit it off. You can see just a little bit of blood. I have never had a picture with blood before so this is by far I would say the goriest picture I have on record. I have never seen much gore on my travels but I have seen my share of roadkill and stuff but I never photograph that sort of stuff. I only take pictures of animal hunts when they happen but I don’t always see animals hunting like this so this was one of the most dramatic and one of the moments that has really stuck with me since the day it happened. Kind of cool to see a hawk get its meal. How he saw the snake is beyond me but heck they do have sharp vision and are able to spot things better than we can. So this has a rightful spot on this list. 

 Another moth picture because I am just crazy about moths and butterflies. This Vine Sphinx Moth was found one morning while I was at school on a study break while I was waiting for my next class to start. It is always fun to see something like this on campus. I have seen four pretty large moths on campus and all of them that I have seen are pretty awesome to look at. This one I am often told by friends looks like Darth Vader or a Storm-trooper from Star Wars and as a total science fiction nerd of course I would have to agree with them. This might be my favorite on campus observation of course I can’t really say because I have so many cool observations of different organisms on campus grounds that have so many cool characteristics and a whole lot of cool data on them. Some are even rare for Texas as a whole. 

Another neat one I found at Jesse H. Jones Nature Preserve in the Woodlands of Texas just outside Houston. This Swamp Darner is one of my favorite dragonfly photos I have taken in the past. It was about late evening and this guy was about to rest. Darners you must know can go hours without slowing down so always look for them as the sun start to sink but when the light is still out you might be able to find some starting to roost like this guy. This one decided to buzz me a couple of times and almost landed on me. Darners are some of the largest dragonflies and can get several inches long. This one was a total monster compared to some I have been chasing in the past. However there is one that I am just dying to observe and that is the Dragonhunter which is our largest Dragonfly. I have already seen the largest Damselfly which is called the Great Spreadwing but I still have to see at least one Dragonhunter. The clubtails are the group that the Dragonhunter belongs too. I would like to try and catch one and make some up close observations to add to my experience. I often go looking for Dragonflies and Damselflies. Like moths in the last couple of years of my life I have been really into dragonflies as well. I am also getting into beetles too. Those three groups of insects have really grown on me at this point in time. It is fun to find new species of anything but for me these are what I look for the most it seems. Dragonflies are so amazing and its getting about time to start looking for more of them again since it is starting to warm up out there. I am hoping to go to a few new hot spots this year that a friend keeps telling me about. 

Another one of my favorite photos that I have taken on campus was this one of two carpenter bees. I was focused on the yellow one and didn’t see the other one until it flew in to view. I reviewed my shots and got this really neat on. We get all kinds of stuff at our native plant gardens on our campus. This one was really neat and beautiful. I like this one because you can see all the detail plus you can see most of the wings of the bee that is flying. It was kind of a neat picture and my late grandmother really liked this one so that is really special to me. I love this one a lot for to me it was a very unexpected shot. I love it when I can get natural photo-bombers. Some times I get a new species to my life list that way. 

So those are pretty much my favorite photos that I have taken on the trail. I have more but to be honest when you are like me you have a ton of photos. I have a bunch more that I have really grown a fondness over the years but I had to limit myself which is very hard to do sometimes on a personal note. You never quite know what will turn up on the trail of life. Sometimes you can’t predict or anticipate what you might find when exploring the great out doors. You just have to show up and be prepared for anything. Look hard and don’t over look the tiniest of things because sometimes the tiniest of creatures hold special value and sometimes like in some of my cases are super hard to find and are considered rare organisms. So stay active and be mindful of your surroundings you never quite know what little friend is behind each corner. 

[elder-schraderham]

So I’ve been typing this silly AU out for a few weeks now and I finally got some help on how to actually turn this into a thing. This is my first Sunny fic, and it happens to be a superhero/villain au. I have like 22000+ words already typed out in drabble form before I started to actually sit down and break it down into chapters. Hopefully this can become a thing.

There hasn't been an active superhero or a super villain in Philadelphia since the 80's, but that doesn't mean that super humans don't exist. They do, and a handful of them are sitting inside a bar in South Philly. Two for good, one for evil, one who doesn't know it yet, and one who could care less. The poor city of Philadelphia is in for it...

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 >

It was an oddly warm day for Pennsylvania in early March. But then again, nothing about Pennsylvania’s weather made any lick of sense, no matter what the month or season. Even in South Philly it was comfy. Comfy enough to be working in a shady alleyway behind a bar.

That’s what Mac was doing. Surrounded by boxes and bins of papers and important documents while a trash fire burned in front of him, in the middle of a shady alleyway that couldn’t be reached by the sun. At least the heat of the fire was warming to the man in a muscle tank top in front of it as he continuously fed the fire. The first day the thermometer hits above sixty, everyone freaks out and goes for the shorts and tank tops because it’s going to be a scorcher. And today was the day Mac didn’t expect to be asked to go outside and burn stuff.

He had just dumped a box of nonsense into the trash fire when Charlie walked outside with two large black trash bags in each hand.

“They let you burn shit?” Charlie asked, arching an eyebrow at his friend.

“It was more like we didn’t want you burning shit,” Mac then explained.

The two stared at each other for a moment before Charlie spoke up. “Can I throw stuff in?”

“Yeah, sure,” he shrugged. Charlie then took his trash bags and started to throw it in the trash fire. Mac spoke up again. “Throw those in the dumpster, not in the fire.”

Charlie grumbled to himself as he lugged the bags to the other side of the alleyway and tossed them into the dumpster, fighting the urge to jump in to see what bountiful goodies he could find in there. Fire was more important, and calling out to him subconsciously. It had been a good long while since the two of them had had a trash burning and he was not going to pass up this opportunity.

The last one, that Charlie could remember, them doing a trash burn was back in tenth grade. But he couldn’t remember exactly why they stopped and he didn’t really want to ask Mac why either. Odds were, they just stopped and that was that.

“Just find a box and throw papers in. For the love of God, only paper. Nothing else,” Mac explained, emphasizing only paper in the fire.

“What the hell are some of these?” Charlie asked, routing through one of the boxes.

“Receipts, flyers from who knows where, important documents that need to be forgotten, miscellaneous shit. Anything you can imagine that needs to be destroyed.”

“Whoa, check this out.” Charlie pulled up a piece of paper. “It looks important.”

Mac plucked the paper from Charlie’s hand, expecting it to be something meaningless or stupid like a flyer for a street show or open mic night. He was not expecting it to actually be important. After a brief scan over the document, and Charlie breathing down his arm attempting to read it, Mac decided to read it aloud for his friend to actually understand what it said.

“Listen to this dude, it came from New York City,” Mac cleared his throat before beginning to read it. “Dear Mr. Reynolds, thank you for your detective work done for the insider trading debacle in the New York stock exchange last May. Blah, blah, blah, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit… Whoa! New York needs great superheroes like you again. Please consider this our warm welcome to become New York City’s newest superhero. Dude, Frank is a super human!”

“What? No way, man. You think I wouldn’t know if he was or wasn’t?” Charlie gave him a ‘really dude’ sort of look. “We live together. He’d’ve told me… right?”

“I don’t know,” Mac shrugged, looking over the document again. “Let’s be real, this could be legit for a second though. Philly hasn’t had a superhero or super villain since we were in elementary school. There’s a chance that there’s still a bunch of them in hiding, or even moved to more populated cities where they’re needed.”

“If the ones we even had were from Philly.” Charlie then noted.

“Also possible.”

“Isn’t the super human gene passed down from generation to generation too?” Charlie questioned.

“It can, yeah. At least, what I know about it. Come on dude, who do you really thing would have it?”

“Anything’s possible, man.”

Mac nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.” Paper still in hand, Mac crumbled it up into a little ball and tossed it in the fire.

When the document fell into the fire, the fire seemed to explode as if someone had dropped a paint can or something compressed into the flames. Mac and Charlie fell to the ground to keep from getting severely hurt and burned. They held their hands over their heads to protect their faces on the cold, damp, concrete of the alley. Once it seemed like the coast was clear, Mac peeked first.

He patted himself down, seeing no signs of burns or damage to himself at all. As he went to open his mouth, he saw that Charlie’s bomber jacket was on fire.

“Dude! You’re jacket’s on fire!” Mac exclaimed, getting Charlie’s immediate attention.

Charlie pushed himself off the ground and haphazardly attempted to unzip the jacket to get it off. He wasn’t really getting anywhere in a moment of panic, and Mac saw this. Not thinking, just as his friend was, Mac decided to aid his friend and use his bare hands to pat down the flame.

Instead of patting the flame and extinguishing the fire with small amounts of pain and maybe a slight burn with bare hands, something different and unexpected happened. When Mac put his hand over the flame, it seemed to jump off of Charlie’s jacket and onto his hand. Charlie’s eyes widened at what had just happened. His eyes were locked on Mac’s hand that was now holding fire.

It took Mac a second to actually process what had just happened. His hand was on fire and it didn’t hurt. As the flames danced on his palm, it seemed like a warm tickle as if he had just pet a shedding cat. When he did actually realize ‘holy shit my hand is on fire’, he shook his hand violently as if to just sort of shake it away. Shaking away the flame took a bit longer than expected, but finally the fire went out and a wave of relief fell over Mac.

“What the fuck just happened, dude?” Mac exclaimed out of confused frustration.

Charlie was still staring at his friend’s hand that had the flame. He hadn’t broken eye contact the entire time out of shock and confusion.

“Charlie? Dude!” Mac was now directing these exclamations at his friend, who had seemed to zone out for a minute.

“I’m sorry… I’m just sort of…”

“Me too, dude! What the hell just happened!”

“Does it hurt?”

“Does what hurt?”

“Your hand,” Charlie pointed to his hand that he still hadn’t broken eye contact with.

“My wha-“ Mac began to ask before he actually looked down to inspect his hand. Nothing was wrong with his hand, at all. It wasn’t red from the heat, there were no blisters or burns. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the palm of his hand. “Dude, I’m freaking out here. What the hell is going on?”

“You think I know, dude?” Charlie shouted. “I’m just as confused as you are right now, man. This is some weird shit.”

“You’re telling me!” Mac stood up from the ground and took a few steps back away from the trash fire, still burning in front of them.

Charlie finally managed to tear his gaze away from Mac’s hand and stand up. Shook up from whatever they just endured, Charlie joined Mac away from the fire. The two stood there in silence, just watching the flames dance inside the trashcan. Neither of them knew what to say to what had just happened, so they said nothing. That was until Charlie deiced to pipe up.

“So, what are we going to do about those papers?” Charlie pondered, pointing to the several boxes of shit they still had to get rid of.

“No offense, dude, but I’m still a bit freaked and don’t really want to go near that thing right now.”

“No worries, man. I got you.” Charlie smiled to his friend.

Before he could take a step towards one of the boxes atop a stack began to hover a few inches off the stack. Charlie and Mac’s eyes both seemed to widen at the same time as they stared at another odd occurrence that they were witnessing. The box floated higher above the stack of boxes before it was hovering directly over the trash fire. Once over the fire, the box began to tip over to dump the contents into the fire.

Neither of them were moving a muscle as they watched the box then begin to float back down onto the stack of empty boxes Mac was making off to the side. Charlie took a half a step back and was now shoulder to shoulder with his confused friend.

“Mac?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah?”

“One of two things just happened. One, ghosts exist and are haunting our bar and they want us to get out of immediately.”

“And two?”

“Hear me out on this one,” Charlie took a deep breath. “We might be super humans.”

“I’d believe in ghosts before I’d believe that we have super human abilities. And that’s saying something, dude.”

“It makes sense though!”

“Back up,” Mac turned and faced his friend. “Why do you think we have super human abilities?”

“Think for two seconds about what just happened here. Fucking fire jumped off of me and into your hand and didn’t burn the shit out of it or even do any sort of damage. That box of papers just levitated and got dumped into the fire because I was thinking in my head ‘huh, that’d be sweet if I didn’t have to get near the fire’. What does that mean?”

“Dude, we don’t have super human abilities!” Mac groaned loudly.

“And why shouldn’t we? Keep thinking about it, man.”

“About what, Charlie? That our parents have super human abilities that they hid from us all of our lives?”

“I never knew my dad!” Charlie exclaimed. “Who’s to say he didn’t have some sort of ability? That makes sense.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll buy that. But what about me? Do you really think either of my parents had powers?”

“What about your dad?”

“My dad?”

“Yeah. He lied a lot to you growing up, was always sneaking around, doing who knows what. Who’s to say that he didn’t have something?”

Mac actually began to ponder on what his insane friend was babbling about. The more he thought about the whole scenario, the more he thought about his grandmother on his dad’s side. She always seemed a bit off till the day she died. When he would visit her when he was younger, he would always remember how much of a plant enthusiast she was. Mac remembered always seeing plants of all sorts in her house and outside her house. Even once, he could recall seeing a flower grow before his eyes-

“My grandma,” Mac blurted out.

“What?”

“It wasn’t my dad who had an ability, it was my grandma on his side. She could grow plants and shit like Poison Ivy. Sometimes, powers skip generations. Or my dad did have one and hid it from my mom and me… But my grandma did for sure.”

“You believe me?” Charlie questioned.

“I do, yeah. Charlie, I think we have super powers.”

He nodded. “It would seem that we do.”

“Dude, you do know what this means right?” Mac then exclaimed to his friend.

“Uh, we abuse these powers for our own personal gain?” Charlie arched an eyebrow up at Mac.

“No, dude. God gave us these powers so we can do his biding! We can finally earn our way into heaven!”

“You lost me, man.”

“Don’t you see? We can actually do some good around here. Ya know, clean up the streets of Philly and all of that other super hero garbage.”

“You’re really serious about this?” Charlie asked, seeing how his friend was getting over the thought of doing good. “Holy shit you are. Who are you and what have you done with Mac?”

“Charlie.” Mac sighed, giving him a look.

“I’m serious, dude. What happened? Now all of a sudden you’re talking about saving people and doing good shit for people who we don’t know and don’t know if they even deserve this to happen to them?”

“But we won’t go to hell. It could make up for all the shit we’ve done prior that would make us go there.”

“That’s true…”

“Think about it. We have these bitchin powers, we can make our own costumes, team up, and kick stranger’s asses. Are you having trouble processing this?”

“I mean, a little bit… But you're right. It does sound like a good idea. The whole teaming up thing and all…”

Mac gave him another look. “You want kickass costumes, right?”

“Dude, yes!” Charlie exclaimed with a bright smile. “That’s the best part of every superhero!”

“Not even the powers part. Just the costume.”

“Uh, duh.”

“We should sort of learn to control our powers though… Ya know, figure out how they work and shit.”

“Should… Or we can make our cool costumes?” Charlie asked hopefully, smiling sweetly to Mac.

“Basement of Paddy’s?” Mac asked.

“Basement of Paddy’s.” Charlie agreed. Before they could scamper off, Charlie then turned to the trash fire. “We should probably do something about that first.”

Mac nodded sadly and went back over to the trash fire. The two thought that they would try to use their powers to start getting used to them, and to see if they were real or not. Charlie just needed to think of something to be done and it was done. He willed the boxes to be dumped into the fire and then placed in the pile of empty boxes.

Once Charlie was done that, Mac sort of just stared at the fire with a quizzical expression. He had no idea what to even do to put it out, even if he did have powers. Thinking about what Charlie said earlier, he was going to imagine the fire dissipating. He thought long and hard about it and decided to make a hand movement where he wiped his arms to the sides. To his utter surprise, the flames were out.

The two exchanged eager smiles before they then bolted into the bar. Dennis had been behind the bar while his twin sister Dee sat across from him on a bar stool. The two had been arguing about something meaningless when the two ran in from outside. When Charlie and Mac ran into the bar, the twins had ceased arguing and turned their attention to the other two.

Dee arched an eyebrow at the two, but Dennis spoke up first. “What are you two so happy about?”

“Dude! Me and Mac-“ Charlie began to excitedly blab to their friends before Mac elbowed him in the chest to shut him up. He took it as a sign to stop talking about what happened and began to lie instead. “Me and Mac were gonna head into the basement and check the rat traps.”

“The two of you?” Dennis asked suspiciously, gesturing between the two of them. “Mac, you’re too good for Charlie work.”

“Yeah, I know, but he asked me to help him out. Besides, someone has to keep him from eating the old cheese from the traps.”

“How can I not, dude?” Charlie then faced his friend, bummed out that he couldn’t partake in a snack and completely forgetting about their recent discovery of powers that seemed to take a backseat to the new conversation at hand.

“No, that’s really smart of you,” Dee noted. “Remember the last time that Charlie ate the cheese off the traps?”

“Oh right. We found him in the basement in a little ball on the floor, shaking in a puddle of his own piss…”

“Yeah, dude, do you remember what happened? Like, at all?” Mac asked.

“Nope.” Charlie shook his head.

“Haunting…” Dennis trailed off before turning back to his sister. “As I was saying…”

Before Charlie and Mac knew it, the twins were back to their usual argument. Awkwardly standing there now, the two just looked at each other before Mac pointed to the stairs to the basement to indicate that they should go down. Slowly, they crept towards the door as they continued to listen into the twin’s argument.

Mac opened the door and ushered Charlie down first before following him, shutting the door behind him. Charlie jumped down the last few steps to find the light switch. Paddy’s basement was huge. Alarmingly huge. It was large enough to be a sweat shop. It would be large enough so the two could practice with their new discovered powers and make their costumes.

“Charlie, try to see if you can turn on that light on the far side of the basement!” Mac happily exclaimed as he joined his friend at the bottom of the stairs.

Charlie stared intently at a darken wall across the basement where he knew another light switch was. Concentrating intently at the area, he willed the switch to flip up and turn the light on. And he’d be damned if it didn’t work. The darken side of the basement illuminated with light from the switch that Charlie made flip on.

Excited that it worked, he ran over to the other side to see if the switch was turned on. When he got over there, he threw both hands in the air in a celebration. “Holy shit it worked!”

“Alright, man!” Mac exclaimed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Charlie caught a glimpse of an old bucket that he used to throw old rags in that he used for cleaning. He picked up the metal bucket and brought it over to Mac and set it down on the ground by him.

“Dude, totally set these rags on fire.”

“But why these?”

“I’m sorry, can you make fire come out of your hands like the Human Torch or not? What’s not to love about fires? Just do it, dude.”

He shrugged, not really sure what to even do. It wasn’t like Charlie’s telekinesis where he could just will things with his mind do move or do shit. Like, did he imagine a fire in his hand or what? Or was it a Hulk thing where he had to get really pissed off at something to summon a flame. Or was it a Warren Peace thing from the Disney movie Sky High, that he had seen one too many times on Dennis’ Netflix account, where he had to almost simulate a bic lighter.

In the process of overthinking how to make a fire on his hand, he had already began to summon a flame on the palm of his hand. Hell, he didn’t even know it was there until Charlie said something. More like yelled.

“Dude! Holy shit, you’re doing it!”

That’s when he directed his attention to the flame on his hand. A slight bit of panic came over him as he saw the palm of his hand on fire again. He shook it off and it fell right into the bucket and the entire bucket of rags went up in flames, causing the two to jump back in surprise. Charlie yelped at the sizable flame in the relatively small bucket.

The two panicked as they heard the basement door open and footsteps bound down the stairs. Dennis and Dee were standing on the bottom few steps, looking at the two and the fire bucket between them.

“What the hell are you two doing?”

“Oh, uh, I was smoking and went to put out my cig in this bucket… Turns out there were flammable objects in there.” Mac shrugged, hands behind his back in case there were any remnants of ash or flames still on his hand.

“Right…” Dennis nodded.

Dee, on the other hand, was not so accepting of the lie. She could tell that there was more to what was going on than the two seemed. They were hiding something, and she wanted to know what. Dennis, on the other hand, couldn’t care less. He spun around and went to go back up the stairs and groaned when Dee wouldn’t move. Instead of asking her to move, he began to push her back up the stairs.

Once they heard the door shut, they let out a breath of relief in unison.

“That was close,” Mac noted, inspecting his hand that was just recently on fire.

“Really close. Want me to try and lock the door?” Charlie asked.

“That might make them suspicious to something being up.”

“But this needs to be our secret lair. No one else can know about this, you said so yourself.”

“Well, yeah, but-“

“But what, dude? Are you having second thoughts on this whole thing already?”

“Man, I don’t know how to use these damn powers! I don’t even know how I set that on fire!” He exclaimed, gesturing to the fire in the bucket.

“What were you thinking about?”

“Thinking about what the hell to do to summon a flame!”

“Well whatever it was, it worked.”

“But I don’t know how, dude. I thought of like fourteen different ways that it could work and I didn’t even realize it was going until you said something. It’s not as easy as telekinesis.”

“I’m not even sure how I got tellakhan…”

“Tele-kin-esis.”

“Tele…kin…esis. Telekinesis.”

Mac nodded. “Yes, telekinesis.”

“I got a power I don’t even know how to say!”

“You can move shit with your mind, dude. That’s still pretty awesome.”

“Weird. Dude, I wish I got your power though. Summoning elements and shit? That’s some Avatar shit, man!”

“If I knew how to use it!”

“Don’t sweat it dude, you’ll figure it out. Somehow.” Charlie then paused and gave him a weird look. “Did it like… hurt? When it was on your hand like that? Is that why you panicked? Cause it was the second time you did that.” “No, that’s the thing. It didn’t hurt. My mind thought that it should hurt so it reacted to a flame being on my hand. It felt like… I don’t know. It was just warm and kinda tickled.”

“I have an idea. Put your hand in the bucket.”

“What?” Mac gave him a strange look. “Put my hand? In a bucket? That’s on fire?”

Charlie nodded profusely. “Yeah! See if fire really does hurt. Or touch the bucket first. Test to see if your vulnerable to heat too!”

“Doesn’t hurt to try.”

“I mean, it might, but go for it!” Charlie gave him a double thumbs up.

That was good enough for Mac. He shrugged and knelt down next to the bucket. In his mind he knew that there should be intense heat coming off of the burning bucket, but there wasn’t. First, he put his hand on the metal exterior of the bucket to feel warmth. To his surprise, there was none. It felt like a normal, room temperature, bucket. Curious now, he put his hand into the fire and felt nothing. Like it was a normal empty bucket.

“Dude.” Charlie gasped.

“This is freaky…”

“Are you kidding me? That’s awesome!” He exclaimed. “Dude, try to pick up some flames!”

Mac shrugged and pulled a Ghost Rider and scooped up a bit of the fire and stood up. Shockingly, the fire stayed in his hand the entire time. It didn’t hurt him at all, all it did was tickle a bit. Feeling powerful, and a bit cocky by this point, he looked across the room at the brick wall. Iron Man plasma blast style, he launched the fireball at the wall. The ball of flames flew threw the air before exploding and dissipating on the brick wall across the room.

Charlie’s eyes were wide with awe. “Dude. Holy shit. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” He then began to jump up and down from pure excitement.

“That was awesome!”

“This is amazing, dude. Holy shit, we’re actually going to be super heroes!”

Mac smiled at the sudden realization of what Charlie said. They were actually going to do it, they were going to be real life super heroes. “We’re going to be the best god damn super heroes Philly has ever seen.”

[lotsofdogs]

Things I’m Loving Friday #204

The weekend is here! Hooray! I am so pumped for this weekend for a number of reasons: 1.) I have a day-date planned for me and Ryan for Saturday 2.) My mom is coming in town later this evening 3.) I’m off to Vermont for the first time ever on Sunday for a super-short blog trip! Lots of fun stuff goin’ on over here and I’ll be sure to bring you along for the ride.

But now it’s time to dive into our usual Friday business: Things I’m Loving Friday! Below you will find a short roundup of things that are making me smile today and, as always, I’d love for you to join in and share a little bit about something that is making you smile in the comments section of this post as well.

I hope you all have the best weekend!

Things I’m Loving Friday

Ink & Elm Food Photo Backgrounds

I briefly mentioned my new food photo backgrounds on the blog last week but they are amazing! I was feeling a little uninspired by food photography lately and, as it turn out, adding some fun new photo backgrounds to my collection was exactly what I needed to look forward to snapping food photos again. I browsed Etsy for options and stumbled upon Ink & Elm’s shop and had a bit of a field day as I added four new backdrops to my cart. (FYI, they have a buy 3 get 1 free deal.) I tend to gravitate toward clean, white backgrounds but with the fall and winter months here, I wanted some bolder, moodier backgrounds and have really enjoyed toying around with richer blues and textured backgrounds. Definitely check out their shop if you need some inexpensive but high-quality photo backgrounds for products, food, etc.

Celebrating Ryan’s Birthday

Ryan’s birthday was yesterday and we had a fun little celebration at home once he was off work for the day! Chase and I made “Happy Birthday” signs and decorated and we all ate birthday cake while Ryan opened his presents after dinner. In keeping with our love for experience-based gifts, I planned a date for tomorrow with him (I’ll be sure to recap it next week!) and another short weekend getaway since we loved the two days we spent in Hilton Head so much. Weekday birthdays can feel a little rushed sometimes but this was a good one!

1000 Rep Workout 

Yesterday morning I headed out to the 6:30 a.m. class at Burn Boot Camp to work up a sweat before the craziness of the day set in. Whiteboard workouts are some of my favorites because they allow me to go at my own pace and make me feel victorious as I complete various exercises down the board. Thursday’s workout was a core + agility workout (aka core + balance + cardio) and I made sure to snap a picture of the whiteboard before I left because I liked this one a lot! The only two exercises I would’ve preferred to go away were the one-legged burpees (ughhhh) but other than that, this workout challenged me without making me want to throw in the towel every second.

In case you want to give a similar workout a try, here are some high-rep workouts I’ve shared in the past: 1000 Rep Workout / 500 Rep Workout / 50 Rep Workout (plus Part Two and Part Three)

Mom’s Night Out

I got together with some of my closest girlfriends for dinner earlier this week and it was so nice to relax and connect with friends without our little ones interrupting us every 2.5 seconds. I love, love, love our play dates but there’s nothing like a night of unwinding, laughing and completely relaxing with girlfriends when you feel like you are fully present. We had the dinner on the books for a couple of weeks and ended up morphing the meal into a surprise birthday dinner with balloons and a group gift for Danielle who seemed shocked so I’d consider it a success! (And thanks for the pic, Danielle!)

Hannah Max Cookie Chips

I bought these crispy cookie chips at The Fresh Market earlier this week when I thought they would work well in a recipe I was creating. Unfortunately they didn’t hold up in the recipe but I had no problem snacking away on the cookie chips because they were so light and crunchy. They were chocolaty but not overly sweet and the punch of sea salt was a fantastic addition. Keep these on your radar if you like super thin, crispy cookies!

Around the Web

Food: Shrimp Curry Noodle Bowls (I made this last night with chicken thighs and it was fantastic!!) / Bacon Brussels Sprouts Fried Rice / Sweet Potato Brownies

Fitness: Stair Circuit Scorcher / Resistance Band Glute Workout

Columbus Day Weekend Sales: Extra 20% off at Macy’s with code STYLE (Lots of great moto jackets for fall) / Extra 20% off at Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids with code FRIENDS (If you need a baby gift, we received this stroller blanket from Pottery Barn Kids for Chase at LOVE it. So soft and cozy and the perfect size.) / Extra 40% off at LOFT (Love this gorgeously simple shirttail sweater)

Friday Flashbacks

Pumpkin Spice Bark (This pumpkin spice bark combines coconut oil, pumpkin puree, vanilla almond butter and festive fall flavors for a sweet treat that only tastes indulgent!)

Spooky Circuit Workout (I named this circuit the “Spooky Circuit Workout” to be a little festive back in 2012 even thought there’s nothing inherently spooky about this workout… unless burpees freak you out, which I fully understand.)

Question of the Day

What is one thing that is making you smile this week?

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