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 Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 7:39 pm
Quote: Pinecone Projectile (10) : A strange anomaly has befallen Destiny City. Ordinarily, a falling pine cone would hardly be worth noticing; there are plenty of them littering the city on a daily basis. However, recently some of these pine cones are causing a bit of noise. Scientists are blaming some bacteria in the trees natural sap as being responsible, but some pine cones are falling to the ground and making loud crackling, popping sounds–or worse, exploding upon contact. As if the sound of small explosives aren’t enough, some reports even claim to have witnessed sparks and small fires. You’d better be careful when walking around any areas with trees–and definitely don’t start throwing these just to see what happens!starring: Gabi, Malory, America, and Eion!
(Distantly, she realized that, on some level, the pinecones probably were up to something. This was one more reason why certain Long-Legged Traitorous Bitches Who Abandoned Their REAL Friends But Shall Remain Nameless [Murikabushi] were totally wrong about the Negaverse. Like, why did they have to be up to anything nefarious and bad when they were really just the same as the Court but with a slightly different aesthetic? And the Court wasn’t bad, so obviously, the Negaverse weren’t either and Muri was probably just making up things to get upset about because he was sweet on that literally flaming, jerkass General-Supremo or whatever Muri’s precious meow-meow boyfriend was at home.
Anyway, Muri was a traitor so anything he thought about anything was Invalid Forever. Also, the Negaverse were probably just trying to survive the constantly Up To Something-ness of life in Destiny City, same as everybody else. They didn’t make people detox from alcohol alone in a dingy cell with no medical attention or access to anyone who cared about them. You’d have to be, like, completely heartless to do that. It just didn’t make sense, which in turn did make sense because Muri was a lying, traitor slut. Gabi knew things! She had connected the dots.)
Another easy dot to connect was what to do with crackling pinecones who were certifiably Up To Something: call Malory and get him to come join Gabi in throwing them at people. The best thing to do, in order not to get swept away by all of Destiny City’s ambient constant Up To Something-ness, was for one to also be Up To Something on one’s own. So, from behind some hedges in Ramsett Park, Gabi peeked out at the pickings.…… Old lady. Old lady. Another old lady. Not that they deserved to be exempt from anything because of fairness and equality, but they all made Gabi think of Meemaw and Abuela and that made her feel, like, bad about her actions.
She was super not about that life. ******** off, annoying Saturn Knight and his even more annoying alien boyfriend with the magic that made her feel all judged and stuff.
“Ugh, maybe we picked the wrong park,” Gabi whispered to Malory, and then sighed. “It’s like wall-to-wall old ladies, some big guy who’d probably beat us up, and some redhead kid and her big brother.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 8:16 pm
Face half buried in his fluffy black fur collar, Malory watched Gabi start and stop in her nefarious doings as she tried to pick out the right target that deserved the full force of her ire. He knew full well that the actual source of her ire was far away, avoided, and mostly chided at an emotionally safe distance that didn't involve actually talking to the other party or watching their reaction. And good for her!If it hurts to face then comfortably run away and make it someone else's problem. Plus, Gabi was exceptionally cute when she was trying to be what she considered a Bad Girl. Which was why Malory decided it would be more fun to accompany her out today, rather than be comfortably ensconced in attractive arms, with a hot drink, in front of a nice fire. He could do that later.So his look was more fond than annoyed as she passed on yet another target, proving that the elderly were definitely a weak point of hers. Perking up a bit at big guy who'd probably beat us up, Malory looked over with a little hope but... no. He wasn't precisely picky, but he did have some standards to be met. Then there was the redhead kid and older brother and... " Oh. It's Little 15," he hummed softly. "She was at that club that opened, the one with the aquarium. Extremely bratty," he assured Gabi, to help encourage her to attempt some petty villainy. And the brother, was definitely on the cute side, but also a little too much of a minor for Malory's tastes. He didn't look much older than the girl, probably only sixteen or seventeen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Holding her phone between them so Eion could see the screen, America played the video over again. It was a tree timelapse, from pine-cone to tiny pine. "We should like, do two! One for each of us, 'cause you deserve a nice little tree too. But," she lowered her voice, "...if I do pick up a flannel lumberjack boy out here, don't tell him." It'd make a boy sad if he knew he had way less planned permanence than the pinecones they were also picking up. Yes, the time of the Autumn Boyfriend has already passed and been gently released back into the wild. Now was the time for a Winter Boyfriend, slightly longer lasting and so she was a little more picky about him. Maybe a bit too picky this year, since she liked to give them at least a month to get to know her and figure out what to get her for Christmas. But she was busier than usual this year, what with the Nega work and adjusting to a lot more demanding school work at Ramen's Constantinople Heaven. Luckily she had Eion to help her on the hunt today! Four eyes were better than two, and he'd help fool other boys into the Not Like the Other Girls trap they just loved to fall into.
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 8:58 am
As he watched the nearly two-year timelapse with her, Eion figured that, like her planned seasonal boyfriend, the tree would likely outlast him. Fitting, then, that he'd leave behind a tree that germinates by fire. He doubted they'd find any sort of flannel lumberjack boys in this park, or even inside the city limits, but they could probably find a poser somewhere. Maybe a hardware shop or one of those sporting goods stores. Sounded like she just needed someone who would share their pre-warmed flannel with her until the end of the season, anyway.
It was a good scheme, he thought. Maybe if he were less of a dreamer when he was her age, he'd have found more success with it than with his ideas for finding true, everlasting love. And while he'd found the latter, it took unspeakable sacrifice to get there. Perhaps everything would've been different if seasonality was enough.
I'll only tell him if he can't read sign language, he wrote for her in reply. It'd give Meri leverage in a breakup.
They were going to need pinecones for this, of course, so Eion pocketed his notebook and pen in the side bag that was partially obscured by too many layers. Snow covered the ground well enough that they could yet see the natural shape of it, so he expected pinecones to stand out easily. Barring that, perhaps they could find a stick or something and knock one from a tree.
The nearest tree looked like a pine under the small heaps of snow; that was enough for him. Standing under it, Eion motioned to his own eyes and then shooed America off to go look for boys. If he saw her talking to one, he'd trot up later and figure out how to assist. Boys were surprisingly easier than he first thought, though, so he doubted she'd have much trouble.
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 10:49 pm
“Ohhh, she was bratty at the club, huh?” Gabi’s face lit up at the promise of a completely reasonable justification for harassing two people who really weren’t doing much of anything besides, presumably, trying to have a nice evening in the park. The little ginger one had been mean to Malory? She had been bratty to him like someone who didn’t know her place? Oh, jail for Little Fifteen and her offensively cute hair!!! “Who even lets a teenager into a club like that? Nobody ever did that for me when I was fifteen. Maybe we should teach her some manners.”
Something that would definitely be accomplished by throwing around crackling pinecones that were certifiably Up To Something.
Gabi took a moment to feel out the wind (minimal) and check that nobody was coming through to obstruct the shot (thankfully, no). She squinted, lining up her throwing arm with the targets. Then, with her currently in-hand pinecone starting to make sounds like popcorn being made in an adjacent room, Gabi hurled it toward the allegedly very bratty teenage redhead and her big brother. Once it had sailed, she ducked back behind the hedges……mostly. So what if she kept peeking over them a little bit? She needed to be sure that the pinecone did literally anything aside from making noise, mind your own business!
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 11:16 pm
"She really was, and I think she was part of staff," he added, vaguely recalling glowstick collections and pins that all the staff seemed to wear. After thinking about it for a moment, Malory went on, watching as Gabi readied her attack. Was she testing the wind? Did she do sports? He'd always assumed his friend was more theater like him, but it was a little fun to think of what she could have played in say, middle or high school. Was it baseball? Soccer? Lacrosse? No, she wasn't actively violent enough for that one... or was she?Picking up a pinecone, he followed Gabi's action with a halfhearted I did something underhanded toss that landed almost precisely in the middle of where their targets stood and where he was hiding behind Gabi as she hid behind a tree. And then...there was an explosion. "Oh...did you kill them?" The question was very mildly spoken in her ear. ---------------------------------------------------------------- "ARE YOU TRYING TO ******** KILL US?!" America roared even as she was patting the smoking black spot on her winter coat. Placing herself firmly between whoever has thrown that and Eion, who was probably terrified and maybe even traumatized by the sudden explosion. Thank god it hit her and not him, though. The boy looked like a mean breeze might do him in, let alone s**t like this. "WHO THE ******** THROWS FIRECRACKERS IN DECEMER?" Save that s**t for fireworks season! "YOU SICK ******** GET OUT HERE BEFORE SOMEONE NEEDS TO CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!" There was a pause as she flicked her foot, kicking a pinecone up from the ground and right into her hand. "But not for me."She was so mad that she practically feel the thing vibrating her hand before she threw it right toward the stupid peeking faces.
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 9:15 pm
Something burst, and his ears rang in response to the pop. He'd jumped, and for but a moment, he was sailing through the air again over a battlefield pelted by black rain. The only sound that topped the ringing was the rush of breath in and out of his longs, steady but harried, while his heart hammered its blatant terror against finebone ribs. Eion had gone numb.
He looked down, blinked, their landscape confused with dark grasses. He couldn't see his legs. Couldn't see his arm. Eion held himself, his right hand searching for his left as if it wandered of its own accord. At first he didn't feel it, but slowly, surely, his fingers grasped over something solid. As he looked down, the emptiness he glimpsed filled with a black forearm with a clawed hand. He still couldn't feel his legs.
His mind needed time to stumble out of its panic, to recognize its place in time and the history leading up to that point. Shutting his eyes, Eion counted backward to himself. When he opened his eyes again, only wisps of a battlefield remained — benign hauntings that clamored for his attention in his periphery.
He looked from the back of America's feisty form to his own body again. His legs were still there, still working. He stood in a fine blanket of snow with splinters of a pinecone littering the area.
He could breathe again, though a sweat-soaked pallor still coated his face. The chill felt unconscionable, like a punishment for his weakness.
s**t, he cursed silent to himself.
When Eion was certain his legs wouldn't give out beneath him, he marched up to join America's side. Holding a hand high in the air, he beckoned for them to come out. He had but a few knuckles to stuff down their throats for now, and time set aside for a little starseeding later.
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 10:23 pm
When she’d thrown the first pinecone toward Bratty Ginger and her Big Brother Or Whoever, Gabi had mostly emulated things she’d seen on TV and hoped for the best. She threw insults, she threw invective, she threw spurious accusations about certain traitorous skanks’ personal lives and relationship preferences. Not quite so much actual physical objects.
So, it was with great satisfaction that she watched the pinecone collide with Bratty Ginger’s shoulder. Feeling herself and really feeling like she’d done something, Gabi grinned over the popping sounds, first from her own pinecone and then from the one that Malory had thrown out there. When the Bratty Little Ginger started to blossom, verbally, Gabi indulged in a moment of snickering, which quickly gave way to genuine laughter.
“WHAT FIRECRACKER,” she called back, doing nigh on ******** nothing to control her obvious delight over her own bullshit and how it had palpably upset somebody. Enough control to spit out the words, but not enough to actually stop laughing. “COME ON, LITTLE PRINCESS! IT’S A ******** PINECONE!”
A ******** Destiny City pinecone that had, in Gabi’s own assessment, been definitely and obviously Up To Something. But still, not actually a firecracker. For that matter, Gabi leaned more full out from her hiding place and added, “FIRECRACKERS AREN’T EVEN LEGAL FOR CIVILIAN USE IN VIRGINIA! ********’ GET REAL!”
Although it didn’t entirely stop her laughing, something loosely adjacent to guilt twinged in Gabi’s chest over how the Older Brother reacted. This was supposed to be stupid and funny and annoying but mostly harmless, not something that made somebody go all spaced out and sweaty. Gabi cringed as she watched the Brother fumble around about grabbing at his arm. She coughed up increasingly tense, nervous but still delighted sounds, hoping that he’d say “psych!” sooner rather than later and this could go back to being fun.
In watching this play out, she sealed her own Icarian downfall.
Only the crackling sounds as the Bratty Little Ginger’s pinecone flew toward her roused Gabi out of focusing on the Brother. Time seemed to slow down. A chill crashed over her like standing under a waterfall for a solid hour. Her mischievous, self-satisfied grin slowly dropped as the realization slapped her with the subtlety of a comically oversized bluefin tuna: I’m about to be hit in the face with an explosive pinecone.
She flinched away a mere instant before the pinecone hit her. Shut her eyes. Closed her mouth. Turned her cheek to catch the pinecone, rather than letting it hit her between the eyes. The collision sent woody prickles and scales flying. Heat rushed over her skin, and the smell of smoke. Not exactly the smell of burning flesh, but the sound of smoldering skin. Either way, it was enough to set Gabi shrieking and blubbering like the paper tiger that Certain Traitor Skanks liked to accuse Lete of being.
“Malory!!” She yelped, “Quick!! Snow!! On my face?!”
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 11:06 pm
With eyebrows raised, Malory first looked at Little Fifteen who was very loudly proving that she was neither dead nor seriously injured. So clearly she was fine and Gabi had done nothing wrong. Next was the older brother, who looked even paler and somewhat dazed. He tracked the not-quite movement and not-quite breath of the boy and thought maybe he was not-quite there. As potential trauma responses went is was both notable and yet fairly subtle. Malory tracked the motions and expressions with a solemn intensity he rarely showed anything else, cataloging the body language for later study in front of a mirror. Oh but it didn't take long for the boy to rouse, a violent edge now painted into every line in both stillness and motion. Maybe they were in trouble. Maybe he should faint? But then Gabi was a little bit on fire, oh dear.Even as he scooped a double handful of snow, Malory assured her with a vapid smile, "Don't worry, it'll be fine. You wore waterproof right?" As her face turned into a frosty facial, he went on, "At least your hair isn't on fire?" It should be noted, that through his gentle and caring ministrations, Malory kept Gabi firmly in between him and their intended "victims". ----------------------------------------------------- "WHO THE ******** FOLLOWS FIREWORK LAWS IN JULY?!!" For a moment, America nearly let hersaelf get dragged into a stupid argument. Good thing karma came swift, via her own accurate as ********> arm. "CONSIDER THIS A LIFE ******** LESSON IN NOT MESSING WITH ME OR MINE, YOU SNIFFY PILE OF MOTH EATEN UGLY SWEATERS!"
Oh and now her boyfriend was using it as an excuse to cozy up to her and comfort her, huh? Rubbing it in her face that she'd found a Winter Boyfriend first and...well, he looked kinda wimpy. That was an Autumn Boyfriend, and just went to show that this b***h has no common sense and...oh, it was that guy. "Ugh, Sleeping Moody is here too huh? Figures," America sneered, turning to Eion, who come to join her and...
"Jesus wept, hun. You okay?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2024 2:44 pm
Eion watched as Meri beaned their adversary right in the ******** face. A delightful throw, to be certain — he had half a mind to recruit her afterward. He waited, standing on the tips of his toes, hoping to glimpse some serious maiming. He'd have liked to see the girl lose one of her eyes, or at least suffer a considerable nosebleed. He'd take tooth loss, too, but only if they were able to seize the tooth afterward as a grim souvenir. Then he could drill a hole in it and fashion it into a necklace. America deserved to wear the fruits of her labors.
Eion gestured how much he thought of the other girl with a single finger.
Too bad that she had a boy helping her out, though. He couldn't discern many details from their distance, but what he could see was unfortunately c u t e. If he was with her, then he was probably straight, and his taste probably sucked for dating such a ******** little t**t. Despite such a scathing assessment, he still had to revise his earlier plan: he could keep his starseed, but Eion would have to scare the s**t out of him instead.
Eion was about to ask who Sleeping Moody was, perhaps for his own Boy Research, but Meri was already asking her questions. Eion felt his own face, wiping away the sweat of what must have been six heart attacks and an aneurysm.
Then he nodded. He was fine enough to deal with Dipshit and Dumbass and their little pinecone war. And if the little shits were all explosive, then — he and Meri were at quite the advantage for being beneath a pine. Since discovering that he still had all of his limbs, Eion figured it was best to toss her the freshest ammo he could find, straight from the source.
Tapping her shoulder with the back of his hand, Eion pointed up at the tree boughs. Then he went for the trunk, where he ditched his side bag and leapt to catch one of the lowest branches. It was easy enough to haul himself up the tree, and easier still to find his footing with his weight balanced between two branches. Eion plucked each pinecone within easy reach and stuffed them into his kangaroo pocket, treating each of them like unexploded ordinances. When he'd found enough, one of the lowest boughs shook, and a single thin arm protruded with a fat pinecone on offer for his redheaded comrade.
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