Fandom Fire Station, Friday

[designateddadfriend]

Travis was tuning up the fire engine today, listening to the Pride broadcast and wondering if he should be ready for a string of calls from squirrels who'd glued themselves to pine cones.

Look. If squirrels were going to act like tiny furry humans, he was going to be ready for them to have very silly tiny furry human problems, okay?

Fandom Fire Station
WHY ARE YOU EVEN USING SUPER GLUE ON
A PINE CONE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The fire station was open.

Comments

[special_rabbit]

Amaya could probably think of at least five different answers to that question on the board there, but she wasn't here for that. She was here because she had a rather large box brimming with pike pole heads because she had had a lot to not think about this past week, and she was bringing them into the station hoping to make something out of at least some of them.

"Well," she announced, looking for a place where she might be able to dramatically deposit said box on a surface somewhere, "I think we may have a few places to start on that pike pole of yours, Travis."

Hello, and welcome to the latest instalment of I Mentioned Some Tool To Amaya Blackstone Once and Now It's Become a THING.

[designateddadfriend]

"Really?" Travis spotted the box and let out a chuckle. "So we do. Looks like you had fun with it."

He was going to end up with a really weird roof-breaking tool, wasn't he.

[special_rabbit]

Not too weird! Unless, well, that was what he wanted, in which case, Amaya was clearly here for it.

She shrugged a little. "Turns out," she said, "I really like pike poles. Honestly, they've got two of my favorite things in a weapon: spikes and hooks."

Which were really just spikes but a bit more curvy, if you looked at it a certain way.

"So you've got options, and this is all even without me having seen one proper yet."

[designateddadfriend]

"Tool," Travis said, "not weapon. Though . . . I guess most tools can double as weapons when they need to. Axes, chainsaws. . . . You could definitely bludgeon someone with the jaws of life if you really had to."

He was getting off track.

[special_rabbit]

"I'm of the opinion," said Amaya, clearly about to drop a hot take that would shock and surprise everyone, "that anything worthwhile can double as a weapon, but, with that in mind, I'll make sure the edges lean more on the side of blunt than sharp, if you feel more comfortable having it be a little less up to interpretation."

[designateddadfriend]

"It'd be nice to know I'm not too likely to accidentally maim my team or a bystander," Travis said cheerfully. (He would realize later than presuming she was being hyperbolic was probably an error around here.) "Here, let me grab what we've already got and we can compare it to what you have there."

[I COULD HAVE SWORN I ALREADY POSTED THIS]

[special_rabbit]

And Amaya's mouth opening with a possible comment about that accidental maiming might have brought him around to realizing the error in that presumption sooner, but she seemed to have thought better of it and just nodded instead.

"It'll be good, too," she said, "to get to see how the rest of one works out, what with the weight and the balance and all that. Pictures on the internet can only do so much."

[stykera]

Travis was his friend and Stark had more cupcakes than he could easily consume left at the end of class so it only seemed reasonable to bring some over to someone who might appreciate a few.

"Hello?"

[designateddadfriend]

"Stark!" Travis greeted him with a broad smile. "Hey. What brings you by?"

[stykera]

"I thought you might like some cupcakes? I have a lot left from class this morning. And they're all safe to eat."

Stark was not a monster and would never inflict fish or medication cupcakes on someone else.

[designateddadfriend]

"Ooo!" Travis was definitely happy to have some cupcakes, yes. "I guess sometimes student-made cupcakes aren't very good, huh?"

[stykera]

"Summer's in my class," Stark said. That explained enough, right?

"And I keep ending up with ingredients I didn't plan for. There are pink lemonade, and there are pink Starburst ones."

[designateddadfriend]

"Ah," Travis said, nodding. "She of the crazy jello concoctions. I understand." He came over to take a look at the cupcakes. (And to stand closer to Stark himself.) "I'm sensing a bit of a theme here."

[stykera]

Stark, who was often oblivious, just nodded. "Summer requested pink this week. We've done this and white, orange, and yellow so far."

No purple and no blue at this time.

[designateddadfriend]

"Working your way to the whole rainbow?" Travis asked.

[stykera]

"Not all of it," Stark said. "Maybe by the end of the summer? Or we could do rainbow ones. I'm not sure."

Imagine the horrible ingredients that might appear in a rainbow box!

"I just thought colors would be something different this time. Do you have any suggestions?"

Fire engine red cupcakes could be a thing!

[designateddadfriend]

"Well, it's Pride month and I'm gay, so I feel like requesting a rainbow would be obligatory. But I've also always been partial to blue."

Sorry, Stark.

[stykera]

"Blue," Stark said with a sad little smile, "is my favorite color. We could do both. Maybe I can look for rainbow recipes for next weekend."

To go with whatever rainbow jello Summer came up with.

[flamesburned]

Liz was meeting Steven later that afternoon but she felt bad that she hadn’t been stopping by the fire station, so she got a box of donuts from the bakery and stopped by.

“Um, hi…” she said, trying to not feel awkward since it had been a while since she had last stopped by, even though she was looking at least a bit better than when she had seen Travis at the picnic.

[designateddadfriend]

"Liz!" Travis greeted. "Hey, how've you been?"

[flamesburned]

Liz nodded, “a bit better than I have been,” she told him, even though she had thrown up in Summer’s class that morning but she felt that Travis wouldn’t want to know that, “last week was a bit rough but I think the worst of it is over now,” she told him.