Scarie LeVeau Presents: New Goreleans

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

"S-so..." Rory looked up at the apple-filled treetops, suddenly realizing that this was the closest to 'nature' he'd ever been. "What do you, uh, do hexactly, at a gorechard?"

Marceline couldn't help but hide a half-smile.

"Well, you pick apples, a'course. You can pick apples from any'a the trees, until your basket is full, then you get to bring 'em home! An' when you're tired of apple-picking, you can go up t' the spiderhouse an' enjoy an apple spider, or some apple pie, or apple cookies, an apple-filled scare-claw...just about anything tasty you can imagine, as long as it has apples in it."

"How do you pick them?" Rory asked, looking up above them at the apple-dotted canopy of leaves and branches. "They're way up there and we're way down here."

"That's what the stools are for, silly. And these claws with the snips on the end." Marceline held up a fiendish looking extension that gripped like tongs on one end when she squeezed the other end. "Or alternatively, you can just do it the lazy way like my brother Crim used to, and buck the tree."

"Buck?" Rory scratched the back of his head. "You don't mean...."

"Yup! You just back up a few feet and-" Marceline threw herself backwards, bonking into the tree behind her. The branches shook and a few overripe apples came tumbling down.

Rory freaked right the heck out.

"Oh no! Look out! Augh! That's! So! Dangerous!" He dove for cover, tumbling across the ground before ducking behind one of the large bins for bruised/discarded apples, a move which was really more dangerous than a couple of apples plopping on the ground. In spite of Rory's concern, Marceline couldn't help but smile at him. This was the boofriend she knew and adored, not the weird, glowy, prophecy-spouting spook he'd been a few minutes ago.

Thinking about that gave her a weird jump in her stomach-area. She punched it back down and stooped to pick up a few fallen apples for her basket.

"Sorry 'bout that, sweetieshine." She held out an apple, imploring him to get out from his hiding place. "C'mon, it's perfectly safe. I promise you."

"Are you sure?" Rory asked. "Because now that the other guys aren't here to tell me that the word 'dangerous' is forbitten on this trip, I can finally say this has been THE MOST dangerous trip I've EVER taken in my entire unlife and I can't believe we all survived it!!!!"

"Well....you did survive, didn't you? That means you're a lot tougher than any of the so-called dangerous things you ran into. That's the scientific truth. When two forces meet up with each other, the stronger one will always break through the weaker one."

"I'm not tough..." Rory peeked out from behind the apple bin. Marceline raised one perfectly-penciled eyebrow at him.

"Sure you are. You're my big tough manster-boo!"

"Well...maybe I'm a LITTLE tough." He finally admitted, crawling out and taking the apple Marceline had offered him. "...But only a little."

Marceline propped herself next to Rory, leaning their backs against the big apple bin. A slight fall breeze lazily meandered through the gorechard, rippling the leaves and sending the snappy green smell of raw apples wafting to them. Marceline inhaled deeply through her nose, and Rory followed suit.

"This is actually pretty kinda really nice." Rory took her arm and leaned his head on her shoulder. "Thanks for grimviting me. And, uh...all of my crazy tagalongs."

Marceline laced her bony fingers in his shiny, fractured ones and gave his hand a tiny, gentle squeeze.

"I wouldn't mind one bit if this moment lasted f'ever."  

[Kai Merha]

"So, we really should talk about the trip back home." Kai tossed a Hackintosh apple to Nero, who was juggling two mold'n delicious already. "Glen's already home - apparently, - and while I'm sure Rory wouldn't mind mirror-teleporting everyone home, we still have the van down here and it has to be driven back home."

"The long bro-ad home!" Nero grinned, taking a bite out of each apple one by one as he juggled. "Epic."

"So, what I'm getting at is, if you guys would like, it'd be gnarly if either of you decided to drive home with us over the freakend." Kai gave Ronan and Gryff a grin. It was an unlikely group, yes, but it could also be a really fun group from Kai's perspective. He knew Ronan could tell a great story, and Gryff...well, Gryff for all of his jerkishness did have an uhh-mazing knack for finding out about parties, events and adventures no monster else seemed to know about. Who knew what he could discover outside of the monster scene in New Salem?

"Plus, I hear that big cross-country mirror teleportations upset the stomach." Kai added, remembering how green Gryff had looked when Rory had suddenly appeared with him. Gryff wrinkled his nose in memory.

"An entire road trip-"

"Broad trip." Nero corrected Gryff, who gritted his teeth.

"ROAD trip up to New Salem with the three of you? Versus an unsettled stomach?"

"Yeah, think about it. The more people in the van, the more energy efficient it is. And it's already a hybrid; it runs on half gas, half energy from the nuclear reactor in the pool back at home."

"Plus I have a plan to wire up that fly record player I got at the market so we can listen to some vintage vinyl all the way home!" Nero finished juggling his apple cores and bounced them off of his biceps into the composting bin. "I found some choice wax at that market, bro."

"That's gonna be great." Kai agreed. The van had some crazy sciency wiring that Kai would never touch on his own, but if it had a speaker system, Nero could figure his way around it. So he looked at Ronan and Gryff, waiting for an answer.

"So, will you guys come with us?"  

[Ronan Aalto]

Ronan looked a little unsure, carefully plucking apples precisely the way Gryff claimed they should be plucked and placing them into the basket.
He thought back to the disorientation of Rory's teleportation and whether they could end up completely somewhere else and even more stranded.
The very real possibility occured to him that they could end up stranded somewhere with no cell signal and no Rory either.
A road trip was beginning to sound more and more appealing.

Kai's hopeful smile certainly helped sway his decision.
He nodded slowly.

"S.. sure. but... " He glanced to Gryff, who he seemed to consider the expert on all things and enquired "What is a... broad trip?"  

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

Rory and Marceline rejoined the rest of their gang just as Gryff was finishing up his description of what a 'Road Trip' entailed to Ronan.

"-and probably a great deal of various body noises and smells at every rest stop, not to mention a bizarre, overwhelming seeming REQUIREMENT to stop at every tourist-trap, two-bit fangtique chop, and giant novelty oversized fiberglass sculpture. It's an inefficient way to get home-"

"But a lot of fun!" Rory chimed in at the end. "On the way down, we saw the world's largest ball of string!"

"How large was it?" Ronan asked, genuinely curious.

"So large, that if they hadn't put the world's largest doorstop next to it, that it's rolling would have crushed the next town over!" Rory held his arms as high as he could. Marceline giggled.

"Y'all should head down route six sixty-six on the way back. Growl Drug's on that route an' you can't really say you've traveled till you've stopped there. It's about th' biggest stop for booveniers an' pictures with giant fiberglass sculptures this side'a Monte Scarlo."

"Monte Scarlo!" Nero and Kai hexclaimed together. They started nudging each other back and forth, much to Ronan's confusion. Gryff let out a highly defeated sigh.

"Ronan, if you are determined to drive anywhere with these two-"

"I am not quite sure yet-"

"Then I will simply have NO choice but to accompany you just for the sake of ensuring that there is SOME culture and class on this trip to Tackyville."

"Is Tackyville near Growl Drug?" Ronan asked. Gryff ignored him.

"My requirements are this: Shotgun, the entire trip. Stops at any fangtique shop that LOOKS like it may contain vintage coffinchino machines. Unrestricted access to the phone charger for my Bleakburry. Silence in the van from the hours of-"

"Dude! We've got us a bona fide bro-ad trip!" Nero held up a claw for a high-five. Kai answered him in kind and then held one up for Ronan. Ronan looked at it quizzically, and then responded in kind.

"I am still not hexactly sure what a bro-ad trip is, but I guess now I'll find out..."

"You coming too, chromebro?" Nero turned to the shiny boo. "Room for one more!"

"I'm afraid I'll have to pass this time." Rory answered, almost regretfully. "Mother wants me home tonight, and I also promised I'd bring Glen's things home for him."

"Awww." Kai replied. "Well, next time, then."

"Definitely." Rory answered. He laced his hands back into Marceline's. "So, should we go have some of that hot apple spider?"

"Absolutively." She smiled.