I Think It's About Time I Posted Something New. A While Ago One Of My Friends Requested The Group Finding

I think it's about time I posted something new. A while ago one of my friends requested the group finding out about Raz's curse; I'm not sure it's the best but I might as well post it. :3

I also got a request for another short fic; don't worry, I haven't forgotten! I just haven't come up with anything yet. In the meantime, enjoy this!

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               It was hot. Sticky, swelteringly, surface-of-the-sun hot. Okay, maybe she was exaggerating a bit, but Mabel was not about to understate how much she’d give for a cool breeze and about a gallon of ice cream. Maybe a whole bathtub, actually. Or even better…

               “The pool!” she shouted, startling everyone in the room. They were sprawled all over the living room wearing as little clothing as they could get away with in the oppressive heat of the Mystery Shack, and had done basically nothing all day. The popsicles had run out long ago, and now they’d had nothing else to relieve the heat ever since the air conditioning had gone out, so the promise of cool water and fun put some energy back into the group.

               “At this point even the lake would do, and it’d be less crowded,” Dipper reasoned, sitting up, and the others nodded. “That okay with everyone? We might even find some cool stuff while we’re down there.”

               “I’ve never gone lake swimming before… there’s not like… weird sucker fish that’ll eat my toes, right?” Neil asked, looking deeply concerned, and Coraline chuckled.

               “Nah, only that Gobblewonker Dipper told us about,” she teased, ruffling his curly orange hair. “C’mon losers, let’s go cool off.”

               For the first time all day the room burst with a flurry of activity as they gathered the stuff they wanted or needed to go to the beach. The twins packed towels into a bag and strapped it to Wybie’s bike while he found a couple of shovels to hopefully dig up treasures or construct amazing sand castles with. Neil, Norman, and Coraline put a bag of snacks together, but there were two who weren’t engaged in the hustle.

               Lili looked over to her boyfriend, waiting to see what he’d do. She’d keep him company either way, but there was no denying the discomfort in his eyes. Where the others saw a fun way to chase the heat off, she knew he saw danger. But after a moment of consideration he stood, stretched, and together they went to where everyone was gathered on the porch.

               “Okay, ready?” Dipper announced once they had everything organized. Everyone was balanced on three bikes, or in the case of the psychics had their own mode of transport. Though it was a delicate affair most everyone in charge of the bikes were accomplished drivers—Dipper wasn’t so sure about his sister but they’d manage somehow. Not wanting to bear the heat any longer, they set off.

               The lake was almost definitely less crowded than the pool on this cloudless day, but there were still plenty of locals out fishing, canoeing, and generally taking advantage of their natural resources to cool off for the afternoon. The group pedaled as close as they could and leaned the bikes against a rail, then headed down, finding a spot a little way from the main beach and setting up camp. Coraline was first to run and dive in with a hoot, laughing at the icy water as she resurfaced. Mabel followed her, somehow doing a cannonball despite no obvious ledge to jump from, and the rest were a little more cautious about their entry into the water. Neil yelped as he stepped on a chunk of algae, jumping to cling to Norman and sending them both splashing down. Dipper started up a game of Marco Polo, and for a while they didn’t realize two of their own weren’t in on the fun. Raz and Lili were content to watch their friends play while they sat under a tree, but they knew they’d be noticed soon enough.

               “Hey, what’re you guys doing over there? Come play with us!” Neil shouted, waving them over, and the others spoke up in agreement.

               “Raz can’t swim, remember?” Lili answered, and he nodded, sorry to see Neil’s face fall.

               “You could still come sit in the water where it’s not deep,” Wybie suggested as he waded around a sunken log looking for snails.

               “I… guess so,” Raz shrugged, passing Lili a look, and together they stood and headed to the water’s edge. “Still, I can’t really play any games with you guys.”

               “Oh! I bet those giant psychic hands of yours are great for splash wars!” Mabel said, almost hopping out of the water, and Lili chuckled.

               “You should see it at Whispering Rock sometimes. It practically rains there’s so much water flying,” she explained with a laugh, wading in. “Or telekinetic skipping stone contests. Not to brag, but I’m the champion.”

               “Ooh, ooh! Let’s see,” Neil, said, and cast around for a good skipping stone, but Wybie already had it covered.

               “I was gonna throw it myself, but seems like you should have the honor,” he smiled, handing the stone over, and Lili took it. She studied it briefly, then lifted it in an invisible grasp. The stone shot out like it’d been fired from a gun, and they stared in awe as it sailed over the lake surface, bouncing once, twice, five, nine, thirteen times before they lost sight of it altogether.

               “Skipping. Stone. Champion,” Lili stated again, smirking, and her friends stood agape before Dipper started a slow clap, in awe. The others joined in, and Lili bowed before they all burst into laughter.

               “There is no way I would’ve beaten that,” Wybie conceded. “My record’s maybe seven. I’m glad that stone was put in the hands of a master.”

               “Please, you should see it when Milla joins in. I’m the champion among the campers, but she’s the queen.”

               “I think we’ll have to take your word on that for now,” Dipper said with a shrug, then flinched as his sister launched a splash blitzkrieg against him. He was happy to return the favor, and soon it’d descended into chaos with everyone for themselves. It was decided that if a wave went entirely over your head you were out, and no cheating with psychic shields either. Because of this rule, it was discovered that Norman’s hair obeyed gravity once it was wet, and it was long enough Mabel tried to convince him to let her braid it as a consolation prize, which he politely refused. Eventually it was down to Lili and Neil, who launched their attacks at the same time and created an awesome wave in the middle that ended up splashing them both. Calling it a tie, they agreed to take a break and just relax for a while. Wybie began shoveling sand into a heap, prompting Mabel and Neil to commandeer it for sandcastle purposes, and they eventually managed to recruit Raz, who honestly didn’t mind.

               Eventually they decided to wander down the shore and found a spot where the water was deep and a rock exposure was perfect for diving off of. Coraline tried it first, simply leaping off before she felt brave enough to try a flip the next time around. Mabel attempted to copy her but landed on her back with a loud slap, and everyone laughed, even her despite the red welling up in her shoulders. Norman wasn’t brave enough to try anything; knowing his luck he’d trip at the last moment and fall in head first. And so he sat with Raz on a log on the bank below, watching the others have fun trying to pull fancy dives from the ledge.

               “You’d probably beat everyone at this if you swam,” he said to the psychic, who nodded.

               “Yeah, probably. I’m okay with not dying though.”

               “Um… yeah…” Norman said, laughing a bit. “We’d help you though. Coraline’s a good swimmer, and Lili… well, she could grab you with telekinesis.”

               “I guess so. I just… don’t wanna put anyone through that,” Raz replied, digging his foot into the silty bank. “I fell into the lake at camp once. Never again.”

               Norman looked at his friend somberly, noticing his usual flair was gone. He knew better than most that there was nothing wrong with being afraid of something, but it was still kind of odd to see Raz without his typical fire. But then he seemed to light up again.

               “Norman, you know all about curses.”

               “Well,” he laughed nervously, “I wouldn’t say that.”

               “But you’ve dealt with one. I’m… so am I.”

               “What?” Norman said softly, blinking in surprise.

               “Yeah. I don’t usually talk about it, especially after Sasha sort of yelled at me about it. He said it was a security risk or something… That if any of my enemies—not that I really have any yet—learned about it they could use it against me.”

               Norman didn’t know what to say, but gave him a sympathetic look. Raz seemed to take this as a cue to go on, not that he minded much.

               “A rival psychic family cursed my whole family to die in water. We can go in shallow water okay, and thank god we can take baths, but anything over our heads and we’re goners. It’s not really a problem, but it still sucks. You know… maybe between all of us here we’ll break it one day,” he mused with a smirk, watching as Coraline performed an impressive flip into the water.

               “I think everyone would be happy to help,” Norman said, shooing away a mosquito, then glanced up at the murmured conversation going on a few yards away. “Uh oh.”

               “You guys, you should come over here!” Neil called, waving them over, and the others joined in beckoning them over.

               “I told you, it’s not a good idea,” Lili could be heard over them, and Raz got a bad feeling—not about his girlfriend sticking up for him, but what his friends probably wanted him to do. He gave Norman a look, and they got up to see just what was up.

               “We’ve all pretty much done everything we can think of,” Dipper explained on behalf of the group, “so we thought it’d be cool to see you pull some real acrobatics.”

               Raz sighed. “Look, I can do that stuff anytime. Does it have to be into water?”

               “Yeah, and I told you he can’t swim,” Lili insisted, standing at her partner’s side with arms folded.

               “Me and Mabel will be there for ya,” Coraline replied, “so it’s no big deal. You’ll be fine.”

               “Guys…” Norman spoke, and blinked when everyone instantly looked to him. He was still getting used to people listening to him—even this group of friends hadn’t always been so attentive, but they’d learned. He swallowed nervously, some ancient part of his brain telling him to stop, shut up, don’t get noticed, but he pushed past it and spoke.

               “Raz… really can’t swim.”

               “But we just said—” Dipper started, but his sister clapped a hand over his mouth knowing Norman had more to say. The medium looked at Raz, who seemed to catch what he was going to do, and gave him a slight nod. Lili’s eyes widened, but she said nothing, so Norman continued.

               “He can’t go into water… deep water… at all. Remember how my town was cursed?” he said, and they all nodded. “Well… so’s Raz.”

               Confusion passed through the others, but Mabel broke the silence.

               “Wait, Raz becomes a zombie if he goes in water?”

               “What? No!” Raz spluttered. “A zombie? Really?”

               “Norman said you were cursed like his town, so I thought that meant—”

               “No, I just meant that he’s cursed, not with… zombification,” Norman explained, pulling a face.

               “So… he’s cursed with… not being able to swim? Or what?” Wybie asked, and he sighed. This wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped.

               “I go in water, I drown,” Raz put simply, an edge to his voice, “and I am not going to demonstrate it. That’s why I didn’t even want to go today.” The others looked crestfallen, and Raz regretted being so harsh. But it was the truth, and he didn’t regret that.

               “So just… leave him alone about it, okay?” Norman said, fixing his friends with a sincere gaze. They all looked varying shades of ashamed, and suddenly diving wasn’t so appealing.

               “I was getting bored anyway,” Dipper finally said in an attempt to move on, only for Coraline to slap the back of his head.

               “You dolt, this isn’t about you! I’ll admit, I wanted to see Raz and his awesome skills, but he’s right, he can do that any time. We were basically asking him to die, and you’re just gonna walk away?”

               “Coraline, it’s okay, I’m—” Raz tried to speak up, but got ignored.

               “No! If it means we never go to the pool or lake again, I’m okay with it, because that means one of my best friends isn’t in mortal peril!”

               “I don’t know that that’s necessa—”

               “So it’s basically like my severe shellfish allergy where my tongue swells up all weird?” Neil piped up, and they all turned to look at him.

               “Uh… in a way? I guess?” Raz replied, scratching his head.

               “Raz, we’re super sorry, and we’ll never make you go into water when you don’t want to ever again,” Mabel apologized, and the others nodded solemnly.

               “Thanks for understanding guys. I guess you know how to destroy me now,” he joked, happy to see his friends break out in smiles again. “Of course, I can always just delete that information from your brains.”

               “But then we wouldn’t know about this whole ‘water bad’ thing and just go through it all again,” Wybie remarked, “Or, yanno, find out about it… too late.”

               “Uh, morbid… but true,” Raz conceded. “No offense, but I’d like to be able to talk to all of you guys, not just Norman.”

               “You… you really think you’d stay on?”

               “Well, it’s ‘suddenly or in a bad way’, right?”

               “O-kaaay, let’s bring it out of creepy town and back into fun town, shall we?” Mabel interrupted, making a pushing motion with her arms. “Who wants to help me build the most epic sandcastle this beach has ever seen?”

               No one objected, and with renewed enthusiasm they ran back down the shore to where they’d played earlier. Between Raz and Wybie and two shovels, they managed to create a pile of sand as tall as Dipper. Using their hands and a variety of sticks, they shaped it into a sizeable fortress with three towers spaced along thick parapets. Mabel and Neil found armfuls of small smooth pebbles and brought them over, and worked with the psychics to decorate the castle’s walls with them. Wybie disappeared into the forest, only to come back moments later with thin, dry branches he then broke into even lengths and stuck into the towers’ peaks, but he turned down Mabel’s suggestion of flags. Lili knew what he was getting at, and set each of the little twigs on fire. Now that it was getting dark, it looked great, and even Mabel admitted that while it had nothing on glitter or bedazzles, it was better than simple leaf flags. With the sun finally dipping behind the mountains and the air starting to cool off, they agreed it was time to wash up and head home.

coraline 12

How’s this? :3

Mystery Kid of your choice in 76 or 80?

This one was pretty fun, but also a challenge! Art without outlines is something I need to work on, haha…

Hi! Um, I would like to know if you are still taking requests for small stories? Like the one with Aggie and the one where Norman loses control of his powers?

I suppose I am! I’ve been a little busy but a new prompt might be nice to mull over! What’s your idea? ^^

Found this article. Found it incredibly helpful. Be sure to go read the full story, but these are the ten questions the author (Lydia Netzer) covers in it:

1. At what point did you feel like “Ah, now the story has really begun!”  2. What were the points where you found yourself skimming?  3. Which setting in the book was clearest to you as you were reading it? Which do you remember the best?  4. Which character would you most like to meet and get to know?  5. What was the most suspenseful moment in the book?  6. If you had to pick one character to get rid of, who would you axe?  7. Was there a situation in the novel that reminded you of something in your own life?  8. Where did you stop reading, the first time you cracked open the manuscript? (Can show you where your first dull part is, and help you fix your pacing.)  9. What was the last book you read, before this? And what did you think of it? (This can put their comments in context in surprising ways, when you find out what their general interests are. It might surprise you.)  10. Finish this sentence: “I kept reading because…”

If you are still taking ideas an idea for a fic could be fixated on the idea that the kids could somehow find an old theme park in the woods and with wybies mechanical experience, get the rollarcoaster working, and a cryptid actually inhabits the old place and Doesn't like visitors. They"re locked in the gates and have to work together to get out. Kinda wanting a wild chase scene in the rollarcoaster with the monster though.

Eh, I don’t know about a whole theme park— but maybe all the abandoned mines in the area could substitute, with old mine carts and such? Sounds like a better place for a cryptid to hide to me, too… But I’m not sure how much of a story that’d make; I’m not feelin; it, if you know what I mean, haha. ^^; Sorry!