Halloween I.F. – “Something Rich and Strange” – Day 10
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Star woke to find himself alone, which was rarely a surprise, but, as a cuddler, was often a disappointment. Then again, he knew he often slept on his side with his limbs stiff, so he apparently wasn’t a great sleep-buddy.
Nobody else was home, which was mildly worrying as he walked naked through the place, checking various rooms. There was a note on the kitchen table: Have some personal business this morning, then off to meet my acquaintance. Call around or shortly after lunch if you’d like to meet him. It was signed with a doodle of a dandelion.
The rest of his worries were assuaged by check-ins on his phone that he’d received unasked. None of Adrien’s special someones were missing, but he’d stayed out overnight with a couple of them and was likely to be out for much of the day. Caoimhe had only managed to contact a few last night, who were fine, so she was following up with the rest of them this morning.
It did make the situation feel more targeted, but Star supposed it was good if nobody else had weird people brainwashing their friends.
Dom’s check in was simpler: Still fine, nobody new, have lessons today but I’ll break the stick if anything happens. Star fired off a quick XOXO back.
Shit, there was even a message from Dr. W: Remember to do something for yourself today. 🙂
Star stared down at his list of recent contacts, all worried and urgent. “I would fucking love to,” he said aloud, “but I don’t think I’ll have the fucking time.” Dandelion and Dom could both be in trouble! What was he going to do, just blow them off?
For a moment, he considered texting everyone to get back here, group chat, whatever, we need to plan plan plan. That’s where his head was, anyway, next step, doing the next thing for the greater good, whatever. But he was fucking sick of planning. He was not a man who wanted to sit around and chat and, besides, they’d just done that last night. At the least he needed more info before turning everything into another big get-together.
Still, Viv hadn’t messaged, and they had roughly planned to work on things together, so he sent her a message first: I’m gonna hit up the track. You should go to the TC. Try to ask around about protection magic & those freaks, ok? Ps reply if you’re alive.
He got an answer back a few minutes later, as he searched the fridge. I was sleeping. I’ll gator. Probably auto-correct, he decided. A sleepy typo of go later? He sent her back an emoji of an alligator.
Breakfast, then. He grabbed a pack of ground beef from the fridge and ate handfuls raw while trying to feel a bit less grumpy, then made a cup of tea in a disposable to-go cup and made himself go get dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie that he owned that said Save a Horse, Ride a Nixie across the back. He didn’t bother to put anything on underneath, nor did he put on shoes. Society had asked enough of him already for a man who was biologically inclined to hate clothes at all times.
He was meant to languish over lost loves under waterfalls, not follow decency laws.
The run to the track was fun, at least. Maybe that counted as doing something for himself? He wasn’t sure Dr. W would agree.
It was over almost too soon, though, the half-hour run to the track going by in no time. Star transformed back out front, finishing his tea and tossing the container in one of the compost bins there before heading in.
What should be first, he thought to himself. Although Dom hadn’t specified, he certainly had talked to the weirdos in the clubhouse somewhere—probably somewhere near the paddock if Halle had both seen them and been distracted by a nightmare being put up there. He could explore around there, maybe? Or, he could look for witnesses. Halle had been here, and obviously so had Heronika. It might be worth tracking down the janitors, or trying to follow up on the scheduling thing, or asking around who else had been here last night, and of course he could try to talk to—
“SON. SHOWIN’ YOUR FACE AROUND HERE, YEAH?”
There was only one person who called him Son, instead of his full title or just the usual Star. Also, there was only one person who talked at that weirdly monotone growl at such a high volume. “Georgio,” Star said, sighing. “Were you put up in the paddock here already? I thought your race was bumped out.”
“GOTTA KEEP TRAINING HARD ANYWAY, YEAHH? IT’S MIND-BOGGLING TO YA, YEAH? THAT I’M TRAININ’ NOW? YOUUUUU’RE JUST LUCKY YOU AREN’T FACING ME, YOUR GREATEST RIVAL, YEAH.” Georgio’s macho manotaur body was filling the clubhouse hall, his bearded sweaty human face comically small at the end of his bull neck.
Ugh. Rival. There was that word again. His mind drifted back to how Dandelion had said it. A rival to Dom. In what? They had almost no activities in common, except—
—no fucking way. Star froze, leaning against the wall as his legs suddenly wanted to make him leave immediately. He tossed his head, trying to shake the thought out. A love rival? That was stupid! Sure, Dandelion and he slept together and shared intimacies, but that wasn’t uncommon, the whole band was in this weird casual polywhatever. Why would Star having someone else who—oh fuck, who he’d let halter him, control him, give him a say over his life in the same way that Dandelion had through his very nature, why would that, of course it would, ohhh fuck—
“SCARED, YEAH? YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING—”
“I don’t have time for this,” Star wailed, throwing a hand up in front of Georgio’s face. He just straight up couldn’t have a full meltdown over this! He couldn’t simply run back out the doors and into the valley and never be seen again! He still hadn’t even figured out what he should do first here at the track yet!
[Leave a suggestion in the comments!
Ideally, who to talk to, where to look, what to talk about while here at the track
since previous comments hadn’t specified, but other stuff also is fine!]
6 Comments
C
Fight or flight! Start a fight with Georgio!
Mehr
Maybe a quick run WOULD make you feel better though. It’s not absconding into the valley, but you are at the track…
Noah
Deep breaths. You might be jumping to conclusions, brought about by anxiety and stress over, well, everything. Which is not to say you haven’t stumbled upon a good lead! But you did come to the track for a reason, and you should try to focus on that first.
Actually, since Georgio is here, why not ask him if he’s seen anything unusual recently? Even if he hasn’t, it’s good to cover all your bases.
fordatspoff
+1 to this! Also, didn’t you want to try and figure out if Georgio’s race time got double booked on purpose as a way to make sure Dom would be at the track? He might know something about that, or at least know who did those bookings.
RubyD
I now love Georgio, Big G
Skivx
I concur with my fellow commenters and say we should turn Georgio from our greatest rival, into our greatest friend.
He can be our Piccolo+Vegeta to our Goku.
Lets tell him anything and everything that’s happened so far, and ask him if he’s seen or heard anything strange/out of the ordinary.
He seems like the type that is like “Only I am allowed to cripple/defeat/hurt/injure/kill/wound my greatest rival, no one else!” so I think we could easily turn him into a true and loyal ride or die friend.
Maybe he can even help us investigate. We don’t know what special abilities he has (besides cutting sick promos, don’t know if on the level of “cream of the crop” or “Scott Steiner’s math lesson”, but I bet they’re pretty sick promos), so maybe he has something that could help us?
At the very least, he could be our MACHO MAN, excuse me, bad cop, to our good cop during the investigations.
Ty again for all this. Hope everyone has a wonderful day, and a wonderful upcoming weekend!
Til’ next section! 🙂