Masa con Papas: - A Punch Clock Animal Story

[A_Mi_Manera]

Charon: I'll probably keep an eye on them, make sure they come back to get their sleep. 

Hickory: We can hear you.

Charon: Gotta make sure you're not sleeping in random barns you know? 

Hickory: Hehe, no promises. 

Fenton: Honestly I'm pretty bushed... I think I might be up for that. 

Hickory: I guess..... ya'll better not pull anything. 

Charon: I swear on my grandma's life, no shenanigans.

You look at Erica with a bit of guilt and mouth "sorry" to her. 

She glares and mouths "I can't read lips!" back at you. 

Fenton lets out a yawn. 

Fenton: Hick, lets do our errand fast yeah? I don't wanna like.... I'm kinda tired and I think we really should take up their offer.

Hickory: If ya'll really need it I guess we'll have to. 

Arabis and Erica whisper among themselves. The train station at the nearby town shouldn't be much further from here. 

There's silence for awhile. You look over at the two. They both seem to be asleep. You take another read at them, see their scrap forms. 

Hickory's seems much more defined than yours. Big personality, confident, you get a sense that they're stronger than you're ready for if they were to turn on you but... you doubt it.



Your eyes turn toward Fenton. His form is softer, less combative looking. His connection is not as strong, he has a normal proxy. You get no hostile energies from him at all.



Hickory: Why you staring?

Charon: Huh?

Hickory: You got something to say to us?

Charon: No, just.... uh..... 

Hickory: Eyes off me and my friend yeah? He's sleeping, let him rest. 

Try to play it smooth. You can't let them know you were snooping through their minds like that.

Charon: Actually I do uh... got something to say. 

Hickory: Yeah? 

Charon: Uh.... how long have you both known each other?

Hickory: Not long, met a couple weeks ago I think. Hard to tell time in here.

Charon: Ah. 

Hickory: But.. I guess we got close awful fast, you know? This sort of situation does that to people. Something about him makes me wanna keep him safe. Reminds me of some good folks I used to know that aren't around anymore so... I dunno kid. That weird?

Charon: I don't think so.

Hickory: I don't want you misleading us, for his sake. Sorry we hit it up so rough but I don't wanna take risks. Not while I got someone I wanna keep safe for the first time in god knows how long.

Charon: Tell me about it.

Hickory: He's kinda just the first face in a long time that doesn't piss me off. Plus he's got a bad leg and a fussy robot arm so I couldn't leave him hanging you know?

Charon: He okay?

Hickory: Yeah.... I mean as much as he can be with all things considered. Came from a awful place, they make you work factories as early as you can do a basic task so they get injured all the time. He got hurt more than once, had to replace a few parts.

Charon: You from the same world?

Hickory: Nah, my world is uh.... a whole lot of nothing these days. I'd like to take him back with me somewhere safer but I can't give him that. 

Charon: You could come to my world! It's a lot better.

Hickory: Maybe, if we can find a way there I'll consider. 

Charon: Family would be down to find you somewhere safe. 

Hickory: Yeah well... lets see how this goes first. 

Charon: Yeah, that's fair.



Hickory: Also don't stare at him again, I don't want some bastard with a pomp breaking his heart.

Charon: Wait what.

Hickory: Joking. My grandma used to say stuff like that though to make friends nervous. 

You sigh in relief. 

Charon: Okay I thought we were on bad terms there

Hickory: Nah. Not yet, gotta piss me off. Don't do it though for real, I'll kick your ass into a box if you hurt him.

Charon: Noted-

You're cutoff by the speaker in the room. 

"This is your conductor speaking. We're about to arrive into town. Destination, Possumtown. Please make sure to take all luggage with you. In case of crowded booths, line up when exiting the door."

Arabis: Charon, make sure you got everything you need yeah? If you lose something on this train you're not gonna find it again. Double for you Erica, you got more on you to forget.

Erica: Noted....

Charon: I forgot you both were right there.

Erica: We didn't want to interrupt your heart to heart.

Hickory looks the other way.

Hickory: So guess we'll meet back up with ya'll yeah? Which place?

Arabis: Sad Rabbit Inn. Ask for the Judgment party. You wanna bunk just the two of you or with everyone else?

Hickory: Whatever they got. Yo, Fenton.

They started nudging at Fenton until he woke up.

Fenton: I was having a good dream....

Hickory: We're there, we gotta get our fortune done yeah? We're gonna try and make it quick. 

Erica: I'm gonna stop by a shop or two after grabbing Geezer. Charon, anything you need?

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