(GE Copy)

Chapter 22: The Slothful Guard (Part 1)

“What you hear about another, and what they have seen, may both be false...”

Tomato, bacon, lettuce and cheese, Aaron yawned, stacking him a sandwich. Mayo and hot sauce, whole wheat bread, he still felt ready to pack it in with every layer. Maybe some Olives would give him some energy, cheese... No he added that already... and... Um, well, it looked good enough, so Aaron capped off his breakfast and brought it to his room. “Socks, shorts, two glass jars and my last tub... I think I’m good.” Counting his pick and shovel, and bags for storage, he finished his meal, sighing heavily; ready for the longest, most extensive trip so far.

Trotting down his steps, Aaron gazed over upon the couch and stood. As the last man fell in the muddy pond, the commercial came on, and Paul risen to pay the rent on his morning coffee. Slipping onto the saggy couch arm, Aaron dropped his bag in front of Felicity. Felicity looked at it momentarily, and became depressed. “Come on,” Aaron informed, “it’s road time.”

“Oh, why!?” Felicity moaned, wobbling his head. “We don’t have to keep doing things every damned day of the week, do we? I’m so tired of walking, and waiting, and walking, and baking in the sun. Can’t we take a day off?”

“I don’t really have that luxury, remember?” Holding Felicity’s shoulder with a stern loyal dependency, “And I’m sure not going out without you. I’d count it, but you already know what calibre of freaks await us every time we go out.”

“Nothing tried to kill you yesterday; come on, give me a break!” Felicity whined, “Just one day off. You’ll enjoy it! I just want to rest for once and watch these two flashy guys sit on pillows and comment about people getting injured! I still haven’t figured out why one guy keeps hitting the other guy every time he says something funny!”

Kicking his feet together, Aaron bitterly conceded, sitting stagnantly as his mind recovered it’s stride. He knew the days he had to work were thin, and that each passing thought of taking rest felt like he were loosing grip on what he knew was important; like his dreams were fleeting beyond his reach. If nothing else, he could lift his shovel and continue expanding the mobile drop off cabin, but the aching in his back from yesterday reminded him of something else: He hadn’t a day off either, and for a lot longer than Felicity. There was never a moment to rest, always running to the next important thing. The more he realized his lack of rest, the more it felt like all concern faded away, that he was accepting his fleeting dreams. Aaron turned his head to his own hands, gripping them tightly, ashamed of his own weakness. Aaron left the saggy couch arm before his Father could catch him sitting on it. He left Felicity to the company of his Father who returned the ‘bathroom cane’ to it’s coat hanger beside the door in question and sat down. Aaron could hear their comments and laughter from the Garage. He came here instinctively, hoping to convert his ambition to something useful during Felicity’s absence. He did not.

Aaron stood, pacing the room at every tool and every mechanical device, yet it seemed foreign to him. He searched the counters, finding third rate weapons that would falter compared to a blade... Like a certain someone’s blade that was sitting somewhere in the atherial space between the couch cushions and Felicity’s ass. Crying a frustrated moan, Aaron sat himself to the bar stool, wishing there was something he could do. He sat there ten minutes, blank to his own mind, then fifteen, onto twenty and he had forgotten his troubles as a moment’s rest could finally restore him. No thought of the bounty over his head, nor the dangers of being alone, only a quiet hum of peaceful thoughts. Aaron needed Felicity more than he could express, and they were watching Japanese game shows with English satire. Shit. And of all his benign and fascinating gems, none could be weaponized; none shot lasers, explosions, or lightning bolts like the wizards on TV, or games on his console. All they did, were parlour tricks and flicked about, but without the widely coveted card readings as was mentioned three chapters back. Useless, pathetic stones that glistened without any greater purpose; why did he even collect them? All that time, wasted, just like today. Everything he did was useless.

Aaron sat there, frozen, until his mind drew a blank and only a handful of thoughts whispered in behind his cognition. ‘Exhaustion did him good, but was it the exhaustion that...’ And the thought was fled for another. ‘If he did not keep moving, surely he would be caught in the clutches of...’ Of who? And the quiet ghostly thought fled behind the wall of his mind once more. His mouth went dry, and a cold sweat evaporated as quickly as it left him, as though an insomniac finally rested his terrified head against the pillow after a three day bender. A hundred thoughts rushed out from a bottle, all quietly rambling, and his head hung low as he heard all of them. Somewhere a tear had fallen onto his knee and it glowed as a voice within him took notice to it’s reflection. It felt like something moving, something gripping, something slipping, something turning, no reason. The action of a magnet played in his mind, without an image to go with it, nor a word to ponder it and as it clicked loudly in behind his ears, his eyes opened.

In an instant he rose, ripping the box out from under the cluttered workbench and threw the black oiled rag cover away. Inside Aaron retrieved the package, and withdrew his gemstones. It was the green ones, ‘directional friction’. It slipped from his hand, but only in one direction. Then frantically he searched the for one gem that felt to bubble and expand erratically, but struggled to finally find it. Lastly he took them to his table and viced one with a clamp and laid the other parallel with a crowbar as a wall to create a two dimensional chute and sure enough one passed by the other on it’s own. The constant pull and push agitated his barbed gemstone and slowly it moved automatically. The closer he closed them together, the more force was exerted. Not like railgun levels of force, but it was a start. He held them closely, feeling the pressure applied one way like the piston of an engine, but an engine would run both ways to reset, this did not. Somehow, in his fractured quiet thought and boredom, or maybe his moment’s rest... he had unearthed an understanding for his stones that he neglected. The potential of what nature wrought, something he was always too afraid would explode in his hands or give him cancer. He could almost see a glimmer in the reflection of his eyes upon the stone, and he knew not to waste this moment.

He studied them, like the edge of a blade in the way one would inspect it on how to hold a shard of glass without getting being cut. Aaron could not comprehend most metal and the math behind electric contraptions, yet these made sense to him. A matter that moved other matters, and existence that inhibited another, like understanding the density of a ball in his hand, and not the circuitry. His master always gave him two stones that could connect without a volatile reaction, but now he remembered what made them react and understood himself which stones should be safe to hold together. It was unlike his unpredictable metal rattling gem chamber, he could understand how these moved. Aaron withdrew from his crate another gem, and contemplated it’s relations before combining them as well and finding no reaction at all. There should have been a reaction, they were both strong emanations to begin with. He felt their fluttering, like two soft gasses dissolving another, and Aaron remembered his lesson about the byproduct response. Ah, it was creating something else, rather rapidly too, and he could feel it amplify like a burning heat. It came to a flash point before he could register to drop them, and by whatever lucky angel pulled him back, they combusted; flying across the garage opposite another and embedded into the walls. Aaron sweat profusely, perhaps muffled by the loud commentary in the living room, that or his mother was out shopping and missed the tiny asinine explosion in the man cave.

Guess Aaron needed to be a little more concerned with how he used them after all... But seeing the potential of his once benign stones come to life, he finally had the time to do something about it, instead of running around. Felicity, picked a damned good day to be a lazy bastard. It was time to stop running, and learn to take a stand. You know, once he retracted his stone from the wall stud, and managed to retrieve the other from the hole in the drywall.

For the next couple of hours, Aaron applied most of his small play set of powerful catalysts in one fashion or another. Some reacted calmly, some should have been tested outside. Surprisingly though, most seemed to fizzle out to another, some lost their potency for a while, others seemed to be converted into another form or defected. Most likely defected. It seemed some stones were more dominant, more prolific than others, and the submissive energies crippled under the presence of the other energies before it could create any kind of substantial reaction. Only under some circumstances did any of them have the resonance to create something new... Usually explosions and funny smells but the practicality of some were immense.

Aaron lifted his purple shales from the day before, feeling a strange emanation from one side. Unlike the green pillar gems, this one seemed to be sharper. Aaron swung it like a knife, joking in his mind that it could be used to enhance the cutting power of a metal blade, and realized he was only a roll of duct tape away from making the next freaking Excalibur. Blade, blade, his kingdom for a blade! Aaron rummaged through the box of loose parts and moved it to the side when he was finished, revealing an old lawn mower blade. Not quite what he was looking for but it’d work. It was long, dull, rusted, perfect of being stupid and careless. He fixed the transparent stone to the flat iron and gave it a slice. It however, did not take lightly to the mock forging, or it’s playful testing. Aaron fell back, feeling the rusted metal fly from his hands, and he checked his gloves for any tares. Good, no tetanus shots today. Aaron searched the floor for his gem, but could not find the stone intact. He looked up to find it suspiciously nailed into the wooden desk, until it could no longer maintain it’s force and fell between Aaron’s legs.

He returned to give it a less powerful swing, and it did nothing. Perhaps they were broken, or gave up the ghost but it still felt to emanate. He swung it harder, and it stuck again; this time accidentally in the metal vice, and in time it fell off again. The metal, freaking, vice... The more force he gave it, despite the recoil of it connecting, the harder and longer it connected to bloody well anything and everything. It was today that Aaron acquired the inspiration for a device that could grapple him along walls; but not today, today he was broke as hell. He rubbed the two nickles in his pocket together, and returned to work, but the idea clung to him just like he clung to the wall, or the ceiling, or the metal road sign. It didn’t leave any holes, either, just clung through the air.

He removed the tape, stuck it to a monkey wrench, then to a spool, an extendable rod, even the gloves he was wearing, testing which object gave him the best clout, and handhold to grip onto. There he was, hanging from the ceiling, howling like a damn monkey. The drywall didn’t appreciate it very much, and threw him back onto the ground, leaving a tiny tare above him. Looking up, Aaron laughed giddily and like an addict, and he proclaimed his desire of needing more stones. Of course he did, don’t act surprised, he’s been obsessed since chapter nine or something; you saw this coming by now.

Aaron ran into the living room, and pulled Felicity away to see what he came up with. Unimpressed, he simply congratulated Aaron and headed back for the TV. “See!” Aaron returned to catch their attention, “Isn’t it incredible?”

“Cool, yeah...”

“Please! I need you!” Aaron begged, “I need to find more stones! I’ve already tested everything I can think of that I own!”

“I told you already, today’s my day off! Go get Zack to help you or something, the commercial’s almost over. I’m gonna miss all the painful highlights of the day.”

“Pleeeeeaaaase!” Aaron cried, clinging onto Felicity’s back.

“Naaoooo”

“Pleeeeeaaaase!”

“Naaoooo”

“Whaaaaa~” Aaron and Felicity cried equally “Fine...” Aaron submit. Leaving Felicity to catch the last half of the highlights.

“See!” His father chuckled from across the house. “I knew he was gonna end up on the list!”

Aaron cleared his table. Even with all his green stones, there was not enough power to launch any projectiles with it, and he could not contain his ‘explosive’ pair enough to turn it into an effective cannon. Not yet anyway. He mowed over his last couple of ideas and concluded his tests as the phone fell into his hand. “Yo, Zack...” Before hearing what was most obvious to follow, “Yeah, yeah, I know I only call for one thing lately, and it’s fucking disgusting. You wanna see what I’ve been up to or not? Maybe change your mind?... Alright, fine, see what I’ve been up to, and totally NOT change your mind when you see it, that’s fine too. You’re dad still tying you down?... You could say that you’re off for a study group...” Giving Zack enough time to call out and return back, “Yeah, I kinda figured your dad would know that it’s bullshit, but it was worth a try. I could come over to your place, but I’m not sure how they’ll take it. Didn’t exactly look to happy with me lately after I grew a pair and beat your dad at a game of wits... Well, whenever you can get over here, just let me know and I’ll light the pond for you... The... The freaking portal, you know what I meant.”

Well, after a little coaxing, and totally not just some lazy writing, Zack managed to make it over. Aaron knew that Zack changed his mind rather quickly after seeing the look on his face as the lad hung from the garage door casing with a blunt edge tire iron and some duct tape. As he clung up there, Zack lost his pin and it dropped him down again. Smiling as he did so, Zack went to the next thing he wanted to hang off of, being a tree, and finally testing the alleged metal holdings before returning, “Man, this is great, you with your magic hook, and me with my new toy.”

“Your new toy?”

Zack smirked, not giving it away “You’ll ‘see’ it soon enough... Called in that favour for going to space, and it finally arrived in the mail... So, where’s... Where’s the snake? –I mean snake girl –‘dude’... I mean snake Dude... Where is he? Also, don’t tell’em that I’m still forgetting her name –‘His’...”

“Watching TV,” Aaron remorsed, “probably a marathon by the sounds of it. He’ll be at it all day apparently...”

“Dammit...” Zack interrupted “Things always go to shit when we hang out lately, we need our wingman, I mean snake man... Still not over that fact my guy...”

“Which one?”

“Yes... Either, any of them, really.”

“So, why didn’t you tell me about this new toy of yours?”

“I would have mentioned it sooner, but you and Sophie had your thing that day. Plus your enmity with Bel-dude is right straight up caustic; so imagine me not wanting a big downer when I got to announce it, you know, just to hear the same old shit you’ve been spilling for the last two weeks... Please don’t ruin it for me... I’ve waited a long time for this thing...”

“Well, does your new toy kick ass and chew potentially copy written statements?”

Zack smirked harder. “Alright... So, normally I’d tell you that I’m not going anywhere without an insurance card, but...” Looking at his backpack, “I can’t just bring this thing out here and not try it a little, especially after your new invention. You gonna make climbing claws, or?”

“Actually...” Aaron confirmed, “I need some clean scrap metal and some tools that I can’t afford, but one day... Hey, maybe I’ll be the one supplying you with fancy gadgets...”

“You’ll still need the arm strength to use it, but... Still a lot cooler than your fanny pack and supply of band aids... You want to see something cool, lets go somewhere private and have some fun; make sure it works without looking like a bunch of dorks. Where you got that’s private and ain’t infested with monsters? Preferably local...”

Aaron smirked, again, it was a day for smug facial expressions.

As they popped the lid off the container, and poured through on the other side, Zack marvelled. “I said local, dude, what is this... Is this what you do with all your spare time? Do you even sleep bro?” Gawking as his hand brushed against the grainy strands of petrified bone. Aaron began to ask the same question. “Whoa! More gems!”

“Yeah,” Aaron confirmed, “I’ll need to make those climbing gloves, or picks if I want to collect the rest of those. Got a small camp over there across the creek. It’s not much at the moment, got tired last night and packed it in. Surprisingly enough, it’s still only half a days walk from the house...”

“Are you cold at all?” Zack commented, rubbing his arms. “I see snow caps, and that makes me think it’s not just me.”

“Creek runs fresh from it, so don’t go splashing around. There is a town up there, but this is about as far as we’ve come... So, you gonna keep me in the dark, or what? All this build up, and you haven’t really told me much about it. Does it shoot lasers, or send projectiles through space? Does it turn solid matter into liquid and vice versa? Does it fly? Make doughnuts out of tree bark?” Zack kept shaking his head, and Aaron continued guessing “Can it cut through rock? Fabricate items out of nothing? Switch gravity? 3D scan subterranean passages? Tranquilize monsters? Hands free butt wipe? Does it make blue cheese less mouldy?” Constantly getting more fed up that Zack wouldn’t answer “Pick up objects and/or animals and shoot them really far? Does it paint decals on things? Can be used in two locations simultaneously? Come, on, what does it do?”

“You’re not ready for this...” Retrieving his wrist mounted metal fashion statement. It was a metal plate that curved around, and contained many thick protruding studs. They appeared in a hexagonal offset but every time Aaron counted the honey comb separation, it seemed to be in eights. It contained a few steel coated wires and valves, and was glazed with a thin transparent coating. As Zack’s hands moved over it’s dials, he pestered Aaron, “Now do you have idea clues?”

“It conducts electricity and shocks people when you punch them?”

Aaron watched as the earth fractured underneath Zachery, splintering, and stretching into sharp thin rods until they seemed to simply flick out of existence. Even as it finally settled, the earth felt enlarged. Everywhere Aaron looked though seemed normal, however, calling out to him was a small and cat sized Zachery. “Well, this wasn’t the setting I wanted...” His voice, unimpeded like it were right next to Aaron, even as his size fluctuated into a large behemoth. Zack lifted his leg to crush Aaron, but it always landed a foot off from his feet. Aaron could see the space warp as Zack moved, and the closer he came, the more his distant vision seemed to go from miles away to mere inches. It threw him off, and Aaron landed on his ass, holding onto his lunch.

“What do you think?” Zack return giddy. “It’s even more impressive than I thought it’d be!”

“How’d he put something like that together?”

“And here you wasted your favour just to drop out of class. It works because...” Zachery stalled to remember. “Something about a light bend similitude effect. I stay the same size, but the light around me doesn’t.”

“Wait... That’s it? It’s just an illusion”

“I don’t know what kind of imagination you got, but I think it’s pretty cool, and it still knocked you flying. I spent a lot of time thinking about it too... Came to me in a dream when I was ten, even had the same negative reality of being the same size and everything. I’ve had a lot of nightmares about it afterword... Anyway, I knew from his first comments that I’d be at the judgment and intellect of a parental genius, so I had to be indirect about it. I wanted to get a lens that could switch between different visual wavelengths, but Belship vetoed it, saying that I’d just use it to see past people’s clothes... Which is exactly what I wanted it for. That delayed it a couple of days until I came up with the next idea: A device that could create visual portals or see around corners, unnoticed, or something... He figured I would use it to spy on people, which I was totally planning, and he put the kibosh on that also, thus put it on hold for the first week... That and it was basically just a boring mirror... After a while I was beginning to figure he couldn’t actually make anything and was just putting on a show to uphold the image of his space intellect, until BOOM! Now I can hide in plain sight...”

“You sound like you’ve got buyer’s remorse. Not pervy enough?”

“No, I was totally on board, and don’t pretend you’re so saintly; it was practical, could be used for alternative uses, and I was pleased about it... but a couple of days after I ordered it, I started banging my head against the wall over not ordering a device that could connect two people’s thoughts instead. Why look at the woman, when you can be the woman? Was totally gonna market it off to Belship as a device to help learn and better understand people, maybe some spy espionage shit as a backup excuse, and play some noble educational pursuits shit. Might heckle him later for one if I can find enough stones to pay for it.”

“Alright, there’s gotta be some extended logic behind that one. People don’t just do erotic things in public, otherwise you wouldn’t need the device; what’s the ploy with melding minds? You get full control with that one?”

“I don’t know...” Zack wondered aloud, “Haven’t thought about it. Mostly because I have no idea how it’d work. Maybe it’d be a wire that has to physically connect, what happens to their thoughts when I enter... Many questions, not many answers. Weird Wednesday effect? Who knows... Oh well, changes my size and makes people dizzy, I’m happy with it. I say I got the better of the two right here.”

“Well, shit, how big or small are we talking here? Also, I can see the light fracture around you when you move, just not when you’re standing still... Also, I think I hear a bit of a hum coming from it... Does it work with x-ray and inferred?”

“Dude said it shifted down to the photon itself, about the only English word I got out of the whole spiel... You think we could both hide inside it from predators? That would solve so many of life’s problems...”

“You don’t mind if I borrow that, do you?”

“Greatly... Wanna try it out though?”

Giddily, Aaron skipped forward, slowing his pace once near it. Walking into the radius was like looking into a great infinity, and watching time itself halt as the details became vividly surreal. For what felt like minutes, the world bent and stretched until it felt as though Aaron was being hurdled across the plains and watching them rip and tare themselves inside out and finally back into the real world. Aaron shook his head, and from then, they closed their eyes when walking into the distortion field. Instant cure.

“I can still see you!” Zack informed, guiding Aaron towards the branch where they sat it for the umpteenth test, “Little more to the left... Little more... Keep your eyes closed, you’re right about there... Aaaand, good! Now how far away are you from it?”

“Dude! You could fit like three people in here! Shit... I think I touched one of your dials when my eyes were closed. Wait, why are you laughing?” Aaron looked down at the short radius of it’s projection

“You’re legs!” Zack lost himself in laughter, “They’re so tiny!”

“No, my torso is so big...”

“IT IS!”

“You mean we can change the distance of this thing?” And indeed, they found the dial that made it happen. “Didn’t Belship give you instructions on how to use it?...” Before squinting his eyes “You lost track half way and slept through orientation, didn’t you?”

Not long after, it was decided that they’d need something to test it on, and so they carried on with plastic tubs in hand for the next exciting teleport location. “So,” Aaron speculated, as they moved down the road, “You’re tiny... But you’re still visible. The more you crank it, the more imperfections are visible around you and the field, so how are you going to stay invisible if someone’s looking hard enough? You can’t fit into any cracks, and objects will appear smaller under it too.”

“Camouflage I guess... I don’t know, maybe a large camo tarp, or a tiny bear costume. As long as no one tries to pick me up I guess. Maybe a spider costume? Not like I’m actually small enough to get squished when they freak out. I know! People always seem to leave lizards alone, non threatening, kinda gross, eyes that always watch you anyway.

“You notice how most of these solutions involve dressing up an...”

“Don’t you even say it bud!” Cutting Aaron off every time he opened his mouth “Nnn! Neh! Nu-uh! Nope!”

“I’m just saying...” Fighting past the wall of refusal. “Costumes require a lot of carry weight and volume in your backpack, plus the time it takes to crawl into it in an emergency: Not super practical...”

“Oh...”

“That and you’ll be dressed up like a furry.”

“I’ll throw you in the fuck eating river!” Zack spat, chasing his humoured, laughing, travel companion.

“Come on,” Aaron heckled, brushing the grass and dirt from his clothes “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, I said they’re kinda cute. I’m just teasing...”

“No,” Zack admit, “It’s not the biggest insult in the world and I know that you’re just playing but... I’m just a little salty after the comment you made last time we were out with everyone. It was a really malign and mean thing to say, like you really did intended for it to hurt me. I guess it’s a soft spot, and I wasn’t expecting it; so it’s kinda hard to judge in a single moment if you’re trying to do it again, or if it’s just play.” Zack sighed “I just don’t like what’s been eating you lately, and everything I see just makes less sense. Then there’s you and Sophie...” Leaving a long silence in between, “I’m not saying you have to do anything about Sophie, but... Just, think about it is all.”

“Everyone keeps saying something’s up with me, it’s really getting under my skin, feels like I’m the problem all over again. The only thing new is that I have the ability to protect myself finally... Not much new other than that, don’t know why it’s such a big deal all of the sudden.”

“Come on man, it’s obvious that something’s eating you, and everyone seems to know what it is except me... You know everything about me, but I feel like I’m loosing more of who you are. Every ride, one after another seems to take what foundation of who you are, away from you. You look like you just don’t have the energy to tolerate people, and I feel like an annoyance every time I try to cheer you up... I don’t think I can stop it. The least you can do is try and explain to a dunderhead like me what’s going on.”

“There’s too much to even start...”

“Try to, at least, let me understand what’s been going on so I can have an idea the next time something crazy happens. You’re my best friend. Fuck Sophie, you, you’re my best friend, and now I feel like I’m the guy you just hang out with...”

Aaron went deafly quiet, sinking his head down to his feet. It took a couple dozen paces until he finally muttered anything. “I’ve been seeing someone since I was eight. He just kind of showed up one day, like he’d always been there, and never once was there a memory from before that included him. I’ve never been able to talk about him, though I suppose a couple people knew that already. One day, I finally managed to remember him, and after that it began expanding and expanding until it was overwhelming. One moment I couldn’t remember, the next it was all I could think about. When he left, I forgot, and when he returned, I remembered all the hatred I bore inside of me. Every lie he told, every conniving trick, and worst of all I wanted it, crying out that I wished it never happened at all. I knew better, but I felt powerless otherwise. Called me his brother, used me, blamed me, placed me on a pedestal, and praised me like a possession when I had second thoughts. What’s worse, I even called him Brother, too...”

“This like a youth councillor, or something?... He didn’t tou...” Zack stalled, stunned at the liquid light that poured out of Aaron’s eyes, sparkling on it’s way down.

“One day I just kinda remembered everything, even the moment that caused it, and it angered him; and he tried to convince me that I needed him even if I knew it was a lie, because the truth would be even worse... Since then, it hadn’t quite been the same... I guess I’ve said too much...” Feeling himself pull back inside his skin, and his sight dimmed to normal as Aaron chuckled, “Then again, they can’t see us out here, so I can tell you anything I want about old Hedrig... You know, if I actually knew anything about him. All I got is his shit puppet, crawling up my asshole, making all kinds of racket. I know profanity too, fuck you!” Aaron flipped the bird at the world around him, “Not like he’s there to see it anyway... Hey, check it out...” As they abruptly came onto a large statue that welcomed them into the next town. It’s massive joints of wood were visibly joined together and carved to appear as borrow, then painted with a weathered greyish stain. "Talk about an ass you can see from space." Aaron laughed.

Marvelling at the giant donkey statue, Zack remarked “It’s like the world plays itself just to entertain you, doesn’t it... Can we go back to what’s been bothering...”

“Now who needs cheering up?” Aaron moaned, pointing at the rising steam over a thin wall “Over there, they got a hot springs. You can go try our your new toy, maybe they got big busty amazonian babes there... It’s the wrong climate, but you never know, people travel.”

“Nah, I feel too much like a dirt bag about it. It’s great on paper, but I don’t know if I actually have the heart to be a lascivious heathen of society after all... Why do I never have a proper vocabulary when I’m happy?” Looking around to find Aaron missing in the quiet eerie street.

Calling from behind the wall, Aaron cried, “Zack! You gotta see this!”

Wallowing his head, Zack muttered “You know, I’ll just ask Sophie the next time I see her...” Before walking up to Aaron, “What’s it this time... There boobies over there or something?”