Howard Pine's Story

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It had been a calm morning for the pair of newcomers. Adam and Howard decided to walk around town and start meeting people. Granted, this was more Adam's idea then Howard's as you couldn't be a therapist without patients. He had to practically drag Howard along as the young man wasn't the best with introducing himself to people. Their first stop was the main street of Bluffington where most of the shops were.

"I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but isn't this a bit of a weird way to introduce yourself to people?" Howard questioned his well dressed friend next to him. That was just Adam's style. In his mind, tweed never went out of style and a vest and tie was winter, summer, spring, and fall wear. "It's a little unorthodox, but then again, so is this town, if you haven't noticed." Adam remarked, checking his watch to check the time. "What would you have me do? Send letters? "Hi, I'm Dr. Wicker. Choose me as your therapist because dead men tell no tales."?" Adam continued, surprised with how much he actually liked the sound of his last sentence.

"Look, we need to meet people anyway, so why not multitask? Besides..." Adam stopped in his tracks, quickly noticing Howard wasn't by his side. Instead, Howard seemed transfixed on a golden haired girl on bike who leaped from her vehicle and sprinted into the nearby bakery. Howard was stuck with a stupid look on his face when Adam walked over to him. "It's impolite to stare." Howard's awareness returned as he noticed how stupid and lovesick he looked and quickly returned to normal, clearing his throat for some reason. "I was just....you know..." Howard quickly trailed off, having no way to explain his way out of this. He was staring at a beautiful girl. Plan and simple. Something about her was entrancing to the young man, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Oh, my sweet little, innocent Howie. You've never dealt with supernatural beauty before, have you? And in this town, I bet you'll be seeing a lot of it." Adam spoke through a wide smile. He forget sometimes that even though Howard was his friend, he didn't have the experiences that he had. "Why don't we take a break. Grab a cupcake or something." Adam said in an understanding tone. He too had been knocked on his ass by many beautiful women. Hell, even a few beautiful men managed to pull a similar stupid face from the Fext, but that was a long time ago. Howard wasted no time and quickly entered the shop, leaving Adam in his dust.

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As Howard entered the bakery, he was instantly bombarded with the smell of baking bread and sweets. It smelled heavenly and a perfectly welcoming atmosphere. Adam soon followed, looking around the establishment with his usual curiosity. The pair strolled over to the counter, Howard eyeing the girl he saw a moment ago, busy with a cake it seemed. His view was blocked however by Adam's hand. "I know she's pretty and all, but don't stare. It's rude and honestly, you seem like a creeper." Adam admitted, leaning against the shop's counter.

"Creeper? You are actually dead and you're calling me a creeper?" Howard spoke with an obvious annoyance in his voice, but Adam was right. Howard had never been the best with the opposite sex and Adam loved reminding him of it.

"Yeah, which proves my point even more." Adam retorted. "Look, just follow my lead." and with a hand on his friend's shoulder, Adam pressed the small bell to hopefully bring an employee to the counter and bolted out of the bakery like a child who had done something wrong, much to Howard's chagrin and confusion. The young man panicked for a moment until he heard the undeniable sound of footsteps coming from the kitchen. Unaware of who it was, he tried to make himself look presentable, wiping away the nothing on his grey t-shirt and jeans to make himself feel better as the steps grew closer.

"Morning miss Lifaria..." she'd hear, turning her attention again to the man she now recognized as Thanos. And she'd smirk, grinning playfully as she answered, "Well hello Thanos.." she'd coo, adjusting her position just to give her an exscuse to flick her hair. She stood, with her hand on her hip and one leg cocked slightly as she glanced over the gang, identifying the faces; Kris the butcher, Thanos, Bridgette who had a store across from Kris and then the new girl, who she overheard was apparently called 'Fox'.

As she waited for the others to talk, Lif squinted her eyes and focused on the distant behind the group, watching two men enter the bakery, then only one of them leave. She wondered why, and hoped there'd be some kind of drama to follow. Shortly after the first man left, a different man, exited the boutique and then hopped into the bakery. Lifaria eyed the man then shifted her attention to the boutique, wondering if she should go there later.

But now she'd bring her attention back to the group, absent-mindedly admitting a warm heat that anyone close enough would feel surround them. She'd smile softly, feeling the energy and the heat grow inside her, standing in one place with nothing to do and no-one to put on a show for made her bored, and when she was bored she would burn, in hopes that someone would notice, and she'd be able to show-off once more.

KORBIN&VEE

Everything thing was a blur except for her face and of course the all too familiar dagger. These dream was all too real, the terrified feeling coursing through him. He knew exactly what was happening and yet had no control.I fucking fell asleep. She came in close, her emerald eyes all full of hate and anger. “Hello Korbin.” Shit. Shit. Shit. Her face flew back and the silver rune encrusted dagger appeared, within seconds pierced through his skin and into his heart.

“NO!” He screamed flying off the chair landing face first on the cold metal grate of the fire escape, which however painful was nothing more than relieving from the sweat that was pouring down his face. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down and rolled to a sitting position messing his hair back up so it wasn't clinging to his face.

“Nightmare?” a voice squeaked.

Korbin managed a smile looking at Vee slumping in the window sill a worried look horribly trying to be hidden. “I’m fine.” he said reassuring her.

“Good, cuz i’m not,” she perked up fluttering to his face. It has been nearly 24 hours, and I haven’t had a single piece of delicious...mouthwatering...sugar.” She dragged on, slowly falling to her knees.

Shooting his head back in complete confusion he grabbed his pocket watch from around his neck, the only thing he still had that tied him to 1600’s. “For one, it’s only been nine hours since we came and two you had almost an entire box before we came here.”

“oh yeah.” she said slowly rolling her eyes to the left.

“I told you to save them.”

“N-”

“But you clearly didn't listen.”

“Bu-”

“And now you’re complaining, just like I said you would.” He smiled victoriously. Vee was pouting, she had nothing else to say due to the fact that more often than not she would tend to win these little arguments, this was one of those rare occasion she had not. “Gimme a minute.” Or maybe she didn't. He groaned stumbling through the window. “Let me change, I smell of the road and that mishap just then didn’t help any.”

“Yeah, wasn't gonna say anything for fear of hurting your ego.” she teased as Korbin flopped into the window and onto his back. “Why’d you go in head first?” she asked flying over his face.

“Give me five minutes.”

“I’ll hold ya to it.” Vee winked as she flew off.

Korbin slung himself up and quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. Every new place begins with a cookie run. “Lets go Vee.” Almost on cue she immediately dropped onto his head. Korbin was most likely related to a taxi when it came down to it thanks to the unfortunate accident of her wing breaking making it so she never flew the same. Although it was different now she still flew, it was just never long distances.

As she sat on his head he felt her begin to slow tap his head, something she often did as a way to pass the time which turned into a little jam session with her humming as well as keeping the beat and his harmonica. A little over fifteen minutes went by and Vee gave up the beat to simply lay on his head soaking up the sun as Korbin stayed with his harmonica. That is, up until Vee shut up, yanking on Korbin’s hair. He let out a subtle wince “The Hell?”

“Do you smell that?”

“What?”

“The sweet smell of sugar,” She had a smile from ear to ear as she peered through the window. “finally.” she said slowly moving under his shirt and to the back of his shoulder with her head sticking out, a spot she proclaimed to be her “hiding spot” when it comes to being in public. As they were looking at the arrangement when a man came out of the store, almost on instinct Korbin grabbed it as it was closing and walked in. “We must buy one of everything.” she whispered.

“Like hell.” he said louder than expected as he stepped in line, completely unaware of his surroundings.

(Sorry this reply took so long. I wrote this four times and lost my post before I could post it every single time.)

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"Okay. Don't panic. She's just a girl. It's completely fine." Howard thought to himself as he waited for someone to arrive at the counter. While he waited, he eyed the bakery's decor as well as some of the deserts they had on display. Howard even saw a particular piece of carrot cake that looked pretty appetizing. It was around this time that Howard heard the familiar sound of metal clanging against a door frame. Out of instinct he turned to check who it was and was greeted by the image of some form of canine in a leather jacket entering the sweet shop.

"There is a dog with eyeliner behind me. Everything's not fine." Howard was officially freaking out. Sure, Adam told him that there would be some people who wouldn't look completely normal, but how was he supposed to prepare himself for seeing a bipedal dog-thing wearing a leather jacket and eyeliner.

"Hello, welcome to Sasha's Sweets. What would you like?" the woman he followed into the shop broke him from his fearful state for a moment. While he was still panicking, he was trying to suppress it as much as he could. "Are you new in town?" the girl asked after addressing the still growing line as another man had entered recently. At least this one didn't have a squid face.

"That carrot cake looks pretty good and, yeah. That obvious, huh? I'm Howard, by the way." the young man said, placing his hand out forward for a handshake.

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Howard thought it was going well. He hadn't ran out of the store due to the giant hound behind and wasn't tripping over his words too badly. The boy was trying to think of something else to say to the girl behind the counter as she readied a knife and asked how many pieces of the now present carrot cake he wanted. It was then he heard the familiar and dreaded tone of his cell phone's received text noise, dreaded because only one person had his number and that person didn't text unless something bad happened. Howard, worried, quickly pulled the phone from his jean's pocket and unlocked it, seeing the message was indeed from Adam. "Went home. We need to talk about something when you get here later."

"Crap." he said aloud, forgetting where he was. "Oh, sorry. Two pieces and to go." Howard noted to Aubrey, suddenly remembering why he came into the shop in the first place; to talk to Aubrey. "So this whole town is full of people like you?" Howard asked, trying to start a conversation, only realizing after he said the words, how they could be misconstrued. "People who have more to them then regular people do, I mean."

Kris Metzger

Kris groaned, staring out the window and into the street. "Aw christ, that probably means..." Kris said with a sigh, getting cut off by an impatient croak from Little man, who had his arms crossed over what passed for his chest. "Yes, I figured as much as soon as Miss Deroove said she saw him outside, Little man. Guess I know what I'm doing after I get done in here." Kris said exasperatedly, reaching down and grabbing the twine and a pair of scissors from the golems. He wrapped the meat distractedly, occasionally glancing up and into the street, hoping against hope that Sweepy hadn't wandered off. He nodded at Euphemia, smiling slightly in spite of himself. "Glad you enjoy the smell so much then. If a health inspector wandered in I doubt he'd have the same opinion, even in this town." Kris replied, pushing the wrapped and tied package of meat off to one side.

"I dunno if I'd be able to swing turning this place into some kinda steakhouse, Miss Deroove. That'd be a pretty hefty investment on my part, not to mention having to rearrange the shop and get everything set up and locked down. Can't quite have people eatin' not ten feet from a working alchemy lab now. 'Sides, I would probably have to hire you on to cook what with your little firey tricks you do. I don't think I could afford buyin' the equipment to cook as well as someone to operate it. Lord knows I couldn't cook and make sure the boys did their jobs. I have a hard enough time doing that now." Kris said, spreading paper and repeating the weighing-and-wrapping process for the pork. "Alllllllright, Miss Magdalena, this'd be your order. Anything else I can get you 'fore I have to run into the street and track down one of my little helpers?" Kris said, gesturing to the neatly wrapped packages of meat with one hand as he grabbed the card Adam left on the counter with the other.

Sweepy, waddling slightly less urgently now that he'd managed to get out of Kris's line of sight, glanced around. To his left he saw a shop he'd only been in once or twice with Kris, one filled with cakes and cookies and things Sweepy didn't quite know. There were a few people inside standing around, one behind a counter like Kris and a few in front of it, two of whom the golem didn't recognise but one he had seen a few times before, with some kind of dog head. Croaking curiously, Sweepy drifted towards the window in front of the shop, staring in at the people waiting in line to buy things from the lady behind the counter.

Vee

Vee turned around,hearing the metal door close, Stupid Korbin. Leaving me here. What is he doi- she cut herself off looking towards the kitchen. A certain smell caught her attention and almost as if she was being pulled she flied over the blonde, or blondes, and a dog thing. If she was being seen, she didn’t notice and she didn’t care, there were goodies in the kitchen and she was getting them one way or another and almost on cue, there was a delicious looking and meticulously decorated cake just sitting there.

Well, can’t let this go to waste. Grinning from ear to ear she flew directly over the cake and flopped in it face first, letting out a laugh that sounded more evil than good she began making frosting angel all while eating chunks of cake. "This is amazing." she blurted out, mouth stuffed with frosting.

Barry grunted softly and turned his head slightly from Sasha, “Did you hear that?” Sasha quirked a painted brow in answer. “That, there it was again.” Barry quietly pushed away from the wall Sasha had him pinned against and inched towards the slight fluttering nose. “Oh my god, babe, look,” Barry stage-whispered and pointed around the corner. Sasha peaked over his shoulder and gasped, covering her mouth to stifle a giggle, “And Aubrey worked so hard on that one, too.”

Barry brought a finger to his lips, hushing Sasha around his grin and waggled his brows impishly. He ran his fingers through his hair, only to find they snagged, coming away goopy green. Hey, maybe it looks like he’s trying out a new brand of hair gel? Barry shrugged to himself before he smirked and pounced out from behind the corner, silently morphing into a sleek, blue sphynx.

Gracefully and without more than a light thud as he bounded to the stainless-steel countertop, Barry crept towards the preoccupied intruder. Barry glanced over his hairless feline shoulder to see Sasha watching him from behind the corner, trying her hardness not to laugh. Her amusement only spurred Barry’s antics on. He could hear Sasha barely containing her fitful giggles as he thrust his rear in the air, tail swaying, and stalked towards his ‘pray’.

Barry’s soft paws padded silently as he approached the cake, and he inwardly chuckled to himself before dropping back into a pounce and propelled himself forward. On his arch over the cake, Barry caught the small intruder by the bright hair, now coated in frosting, sprawling behind her and loped towards the front counter.

Barry bounded up towards the cash register, carrying the small pixie gently in his maw before plopping it down between his paws, playfully batting the winged creature back and forth. “This belong to anyone?”

Korbin

Korbin got back to his feet and was greeted with an outstretched hand. Something dark in him wanted to grab it but he quickly pushed the feeling away and looked to to her eyes. “No.” I think that was rude. “We haven’t, I’m Korbin,” he added smiling with a nod “Me and my friend arrived last night.” Pointing in the store window at a now empty spot where Vee should still be. “Uh.” He quickly turned to the window and cupped his eyes while he pressed against the window. “Shit.” he mumbled looking around the store for Vee.

He backed up and pulled the stores door back open. “I have a situation I need to deal with but it was nice to meet you.”

“This belong to anyone?”

Being ping ponged in the paws of an, apparently talking, cat was Vee covered from head to toe in frosting. Korbin's jaw hit the floor and he couldn't help but realize that he should have seen this coming.

“Vee. What the hell did she do? he asked stepping up to the counter.

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"No, you didn't. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. I've been holding up the line for long enough." Howard said, taking the to-go box from the counter. "Honestly, I'm not used to any of this stuff. I'm just a guy. No magical bells and whistles to speak of." he tapped the white box now in his hands as he talked, trying to focus his thoughts. Howard never thought of himself as anything other then human. Sure, he didn't remember anything before age 16, but the doctors Adam had him see told him this was just trauma induced amnesia and honestly, if it was that bad, he definitely didn't want to remember it. But still, there was an odd feeling he got in certain situations. It was a comfortable feeling, a warmth he felt when the wind was blowing all around him and while it was a good feeling, it had a bit of sadness to it also.

Howard then remembered the text he had received moments ago and picked up the pace, pulling out his wallet and placing a fifty dollar bill on the counter top as he had no time for the awkward exchange of change. "Keep the change and since I don't have time to be subtle..." Howard's sentence trailed off as he picked through his pockets for a pen and one of Adam's business cards. He flipped it over to it's blank side and wrote his cell phone number on the card, sliding it across the counter towards Aubrey as he continued his sentence. "If you maybe wanna hang out sometime." he said, rubbing the back of his head with nervousness as he left the sweets shop, cake in hand ready to head home.

..........

The walk home was longer then expected as Howard had gotten lost along the way. But, after circling the block for ten minutes and seeing the same tree fifteen times, he eventually found his new home. "Adam, I'm home! I even brought some cake." Howard said aloud figuring his friend would hear him and respond, but nothing happened. He gently placed the box on the kitchen table as he looked around the house, seeing no sign of Adam, until he reached his office minutes later. "Jesus Christ..."

Adam was passed out, lifeless on the floor surrounded by dozens of pages as well as a small pool of blood near his right hand. Confused and scared, Howard rushed over to Adam and lifted him up, sprinting over to the living room and placing him on the couch. He then gave Adam another look over. Noticing the hand wound, he grabbed some gauze from the bathroom drawer and wrapped his hand to stop the bleeding. It wasn't a serious amount, but it still worried the young man. This had only been the second time he had seen Adam bleed ever. The first was when he accidentally cut his hand on a broken glass cup, but this was different. It was too deep to be on accident. Howard decided after making sure Adam was still breathing to check the office for clues. Near the puddle of blood was a small, glass knife as well as the papers from before he saw. As he looked closer, he saw they had words he could barely make out because of how frantically they were written. The ones that worried him the most were the only sentences he could make out on any of the pages. They were written dozens if not hundreds of times and on multiple pages, each one more messy then the last, like a deranged madman had wrote them.

You left her. You left her. You left her....
It's your fault. It's your fault. It's your fault...
Coward. Coward. Coward. Coward...

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Needless to say, Howard was in a state of shock. He didn't know what to do about Adam. He'd always been so in control, so stable that seeing him this weak was kind of disturbing for Howard. But, Adam had saved Howard's life, and now Howard had to do the same. So he gathered his composure and after making sure Adam wasn't getting any worse, ran out of the house and into town, to look for help.

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When Howard returned to the downtown, he ran into the first place he saw on instinct. Inside was a well dressed woman and a man with a beard behind the counter. He was exhausted from the running and took a few deep breathes, looking around the room as he did so. After the second breath however, he noticed the card in the woman's hand and recognized it as Adam's.

"Look..." Howard spat through another pant, trying to get his words out. "I know you just met him, but Adam needs help and I don't... I don't know this magic stuff and he's out cold but..." the pressure was mounting on Howard as he struggled to get each word out, rubbing his face to help himself concentrate. "He looks stable, but I don't know how long that will last, so please. Someone in this town has to be able to help."

(This is really sucky, but I've been suffering from extreme writer's block lately (and I can't write that well anyways), so, be warned.)

Kris Metzger

Kris nodded, gesturing towards the cash register. "You could pre-buy next week's order, sure. It'd come out to a total of... Eh, I dunno. Probably about thirty bucks with this week and next week's orders combined, assumin' you got the same stuff and all like usual. Might throw in a bologna sample from a recipe I've been tinkering with next week, if it's done in time. Lemme get you all rung up, and we can get you out of here and I can get Sweepy back from Miss Deroove, who has undoubtedly caught him by now and is probably spoilin' him rotten." Kris replied, moving to the register and punching various keys, with Little man shadowing him and impatiently glancing between Kris's calves and the door.

Just as he was about to read the actual total ($27.85) to Euphemia, Howard burst into the shop, stuttering something about magic and Adam being stable. Piecing together what he could, Kris pointed towards Howard with his right hand as he pulled the receipt with his left. "Son, I've no doubt we could find someone or some thing out there able to help that Adam fellow, but you've gotta calm down a bit. Gonna give yourself a heart attack, runnin' like a man possessed and all. Now, did you see any kind of chalk circle on the floor, or empty flasks, or anything alchemical like that? If this is just an experiment gone wrong I might be able to whip somethin' up, but otherwise we're gonna need a witch." Kris said calmly, walking back to Euphemia and handing her the receipt. On the floor, Little man began tugging at Kris's pants, trying to pull him towards the door but doing little other than shaking his pants leg.

In the bakery, Sweepy rested calmly in Lifaria's arms. She wasn't telling him to do anything, but for some reason seemed to be rewarding him and praising him anyway. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sweepy merely leaned back and gave out the occasional contented croak. Normally, by this point, his "brother", Little man, would have come dragging Kris to him and ratting him out, ending his little adventure before he actually got anywhere, but this time it seemed that either Kris and Little man didn't notice he was gone, or Kris was busy helping the lady who came in every week. Never mind any of that, though. Sweepy was getting cake, in spite of the fact that he didn't have any real way of eating or ingesting said cake.

Euphemia looked at Kris watching his lips move all the while hearing the pieces not the whole of what he was saying.. She was more caught up in his resemblance to George it was quite remarkable. Twenty seven and eighty five, it was more than the Fair price. She waited for him to continue when suddenly a blond haired man entered the shop. He was clearly an acquaintance of Adam.

"I know little of magic, just a strong enough head to keep away from it."

She exclaimed in a frightened stance. It seemed almost unreal, just seeing a man she believed was dead was a amazing to say the least, but now to discover that same man could die now. To find him only to loss him was an anomaly Euphemia was all to filmier with. Looking at the boy, she felt something twinge inside her soul. "I can drive you," she offered, pointing to her car parked outside. "I dare say it will be much faster then running."

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Everything seemed to be moving so fast for Howard, but he slowed himself down and took some more deep breathes as per the man's advice. With each breathe his heart rate seemed to decrease more and more until he was finally calm enough to speak. "I don't think this was an experiment. Adam would have told me if it was. He was trying to see something.." Howard paced for a moment trying to remember everything he could about the area and state he found Adam in. "There was some blood and this book on his desk. The page it was turned to said something about divination, but I'm not sure what that is. And then there were these notes..." Howard had only spoke for a few moments until the woman in the shop interrupted him and offered to help him, claiming to know something about magic. Not having time to check the validity of what she was saying, Howard shook his head in confirmation as she pointed to her car outside.

"Thank you so much. And sir, if you find anyone who can help. Send them to the house. The address should be on the card he gave you." and with that he followed the woman to her car and the two drove back to the house. As the pulled into the driveway, Howard quickly left the car and entered the faded yellow home he shared with his long time friend, assuming the woman would follow him. He maneuvered through the kitchen and entered the living room, the seemingly cursed undead still lifeless on the couch where Howard had left him. "He's still alive. I can tell that much, but he won't wake up. It's like a coma or something. I found him in his office, if you need to check that out." Howard said in a solemn tone, motioning towards Adam's office as he looked over his friend once again, hoping this woman could help.

Euphemia, walked into the house feeling like it had been ages since she moved (apologies didn't realize anyone posted.) into the small yellow house. It was quaint, and a part of her didn't want to intrude but the sun was still high in the sky and she really did need to get out of it. As she entered the room, she saw Adam and her heart sank a little. The first thought in her mid was "how" the second, well to be perfectly frank her mind was still trying to get around the How. Even after see him in the shop moments before, the how was important, the man she knew all those years ago he wouldn't... could he have... known about this world they were currently in. The occult everything, she hadn't at the time in fact it was a sin for her to even think of anything that she now views as normal.

"I um..." she stammered not sure what to say. Feeling like a lifetime was passing before her eyes, she thought back to the first time she met him, in the little storefront her husband owned.

"My God, he's such a foolish man." she mused moving to the sofa.