#threads; solos; putain de puppies

[letsbenditlikebennett]

TIMING: Current SUMMARY: Alex goes to Mike's Pawn Shop to buy a new guitar and gets more than a little sidetracked. CONTENT: Warm, fluffy puppies?

There was something of an electric feeling running through her as of late and Alex couldn’t quite place where it came from. Some of it, she was certain, had to do with the venture into the Emerald Oasis with Cass. She found she hadn’t been the same since, but she supposed simping could do that to you— she was still new to the whole simping thing, so she wasn’t entirely sure. Still, looking forward to seeing someone and sharing new things with them was exciting. Not even that, their meeting had brought in an array of new friends into her world that she could just be herself around. It was refreshing and it had something of a creative energy flowing through her. 

She had already filled her garden with some new wildflowers in a particularly aesthetic arrangement and sketched some of the rocks she’d seen around the forest for Cass. Even her music ventures had seemed particularly inspired as of late. She’d strummed her acoustic guitar more and more as of late, and found herself enjoying that outlet the most. 

As much was the reason for her trip to Mike’s Pawn Shop. An upgrade to her guitar might be nice and she did have a good chunk of money thanks to the people of Wicked’s Rest loving the gays– which was a win in her book. A guitar that didn’t look beat up would be a nice improvement. Maybe she could even customize it herself to make it even more aesthetic, but for the moment, she was more focused on the music itself. She did have a couple of Speak Now vault tracks to learn still. 

There was a sense of excitement as she approached the shop. She’d been humming on her scooter when she pulled up, but found the inflatable tube man outside the shop had caught her attention first. She wasn’t sure how long she had been staring at it, but she had been almost entranced by it. There was a glassy haze to her eyes as she turned as she found herself walking in the direction the tube man danced, toward the abnormality, rather than towards the shop. 

Years of hiking difficult trails made navigating all the fissures near the abnormality easier than it would be for most. Even in somewhat of a daze, she was able to scrabble during some of the rougher parts with ease. She had nearly reached the abnormality and her hand extended to touch it, but a whimpering in the distance pulled her from the fog she’d been in. 

“Putain de what the fuck,” Alex murmured to herself, unable to be amused by her own combination of French and English. She barely even remembered walking there and the abnormality still had an almost magnetic pull to it. The black of it was darker than that of magnet and the smell was putrid, but she felt almost hesitant to leave it. “Nope,” she spoke aloud, “Don’t know what sorta cursed trick magic you’ve got going on, but not today Satan Rock.” 

Another whine came from a few feet away and it sounded like a small animal. Alex knew she should just leave it. It wouldn’t surprise her if whimpers were actually attached to some vicious beast that was like ten times her size or something, but something softer in her wasn’t able to ignore the cries. 

She followed the sound of the small whines and carefully climbed into one of the more shallow fissures. This was a terrible idea. She still took slow and careful steps down the rough, cracked pavement and into the small hole. As she approached, she smelled something almost familiar, animalistic— and it almost made her turn away until one of the small puppies poked its head above a rock. 

“Oh my god,” she cooed, rushing over rather clumsily to the small animal only to find a whole litter of puppies. Excited sounds escaped from their little snouts as she knelt down on the group next to them. “Well, look at you,” she exclaimed, picking up the one who had shown its face first, “How’d you get down here, huh?” 

She held the puppy close and soon had the others gathering around her. “Aw,” she let her free hand pet some of the others, “Aren’t you guys just the cutest?” As if to mock her statement, one of the puppies burped a cloud of smoke. That wasn’t normal. Her gaze drifted to the abnormality in the distance and some of the crystals and sludge collected around some of the fissure’s edges. “Big ‘ol mineral got you feeling a little… gassy, bud?” 

Decidedly, she couldn’t leave a litter of helpless puppies to this crack near the abnormality. With this town’s luck, they’d grown into some weird abnormality giant hellhounds or something. Right now, they were just cute puppies that looked like little German Shepherds that may or may not have had some quirks. Another puppy… mooed? Okay, definitely had some quirks. 

There was no way she was leaving them there and the one in her arms, she had already decided was hers and Andy’s. “How do you like Puppyeye for a name, lil guy,” she asked in a baby voice, “So you can grow strong– but you gotta finich your spinach.” Her eyes drifted towards a somewhat quiet puppy that seemed content to watch over its siblings. Something in the way it carried itself reminded her of Kaden. Did he even want a dog? Too late. “How would you like a grumbly but kind French guy as your dad?” 

The puppy seemed to perk up. That was settled. Now to get them all home and find homes for the other… five puppies.