Chapter 4 – Paint and Pranks
"Hey, I see another one!" Phil pointed at the ground before picking up a beetle, holding it between his fingers.
"Ooh, that one looks crunchy!" Lil swooned hungrily as her eyes laid on the insect Phil had in his grasp.
"Oh dog, please don't-" Dylan begged, recoiling in growing disgust as he knew what Phil was going to do, his plea fell to silence however as the male twin popped the beetle in his mouth like a cherry and chewed, causing very faint but audible crunching noises as the bug was reduced to pieces in Phil's mouth before he swallowed. The sight alone made Dylan groan sickly before putting a paw over his own mouth once again before rushing off to find somewhere to toss his cookies.
"Oh boy..." Chuckie could only say with sympathy as he watched Dylan run off. If there was one thing that Chuckie would never understand about the twins, it was their habit of seeing insects as edibles.
"Wow..." Chuckie then heard an unfamiliar voice, making him turn back to the twins to see a pup with dots of paint on her fur and a pink bandanna around her neck (And strangely, a blue tongue) appear behind Phil and Lil in multiple directions as if observing them feasting on the bugs.
"So infant-like and gross and… imaginative… I must paint this!" The pup with the bandanna said in awe before rushing over to a part of the wall that surrounded the backyard, where a large piece of canvas paper hung as she shoved her front paws into cans of paint and began to swing her front legs in front of her, leaving streaks of paint that were slowly forming the shape of the twins' bodies.
"Wow!" Chuckie said in awe as he watched the painter pup at work, making her temporarily stop to face him.
"Indeed impressive, isn't it? Real life is the perfect thing that connects with my vision. My vision becoming a painting is like a memory you can look at forever!" The pup said to the orange-haired infant.
"I mean… When me and Tommy paint, we just throw it at the wall." Chuckie said, not really understanding what the pup was talking about.
"Well, that is one way to paint. But the splash from the throw and the risk of a misfire can jeopardise your vision." The pup explained before gesturing Chuckie to follow her as she lead him to another blank piece of paper before gently pushing a can of paint over to him. "Paint whatever your heart says to you! Let your mind come out onto the canvas!"
Meanwhile, Tommy was exploring the rest of the Dalmatian household, taking Dil along with him as he stopped in the living room to take a break. He decided to look out the window to see if anything was going on outside when he noticed something… or rather someone at the doorway of the house he and the other babies had come from.
"Alright babies, where have you wandered off to now? You better show yourselves or you're in big trouble!" A girl in yellow ponytail hair and a purple dress called out, looking around for any sign of the infants.
Tommy gasped in horror before quickly getting down away from the window to avoid being spotted.
"Oi, what's the blunder, bruv?" One of the trio of pups with the golden numbered chains appeared behind Tommy, smirking at him as he was joined by his two brothers.
"Blunder? Doesn't that turn stuff into juice?" Tommy asked, missing the point of what the asked.
"He means "what's the problem"." The pup with the "2" chain reiterated for Tommy.
"Yucky, bad!" Dil pointed at the window, answering the trio's question as the three looked through to see the girl walking around the street, still on the search for the babies.
"Who's that?" The pup with the "1" chain asked.
"That's Angelica. My cousin and… she's not very nice." Tommy replied, hesitating a little with his response.
"How "not nice" are we talking?" The "3" chain pup retorted with a question of his own as Tommy put a finger to his lips in thought.
"Well… There was the time when Angelica broked my clown lamp and nearly got my friends in trouble. And there was the time we were all going inside Chuckie when he swallowed a watamelon seed and Angelica was planting the seed to make Chuckie asplode… Though that was just a dream Chuckie had. Or the time when Angelica told us we could get sucked down the drain. And the time where-"
"Okay okay, I think we get it." One of the trio intervened, having heard enough of what Tommy had to say.
"And she did all that to him and his friends who are babies… Sheesh, we'd never do anything like that, let alone prank Dorothy." The "2" chain pup whispered to the pup with the "3" chain.
"Well, if she's so mean to you, why don't you get even with her?" The "1" chain pup asked.
"We can't, she's bigger than us and she'll squish us like bugs!" Tommy explained in slight panic. The Trio glanced at each other before looking back at Tommy.
"Human baby, what's your name again?" The "1" chain pup asked.
"Tommy?" Tommy replied, curious on why they were interviewing him as the pup with the "2" chain walked up to him and wrapped a foreleg around him.
"Well Tommy, we are the Dimitri Trio. And you don't know it yet, but we're the reason you're going to have a lot of fun today." The pup now known as Dimitri 2 explained.
"Mhm. I think it's time we taught our new tiny friend here a thing called "Pranks"." Dimitri 3 agreed.
"Planks? We're going to be pirates and make Angelica walk the plank?" Tommy asked, making Dimitri 1 roll his eyes.
"No. Pranks." Dimitri 2 stated.
"Okay. You see that cup of water?" Dimitri 1 pointed at a table which rested a cup filled with water like he said.
"Yeah?" Tommy replied.
"Push it off the table." Dimitri 2 instructed.
"Why?" Tommy asked to which Dimitri 3 responded with "You'll see", a cheeky smirk on his face as he and his two others looked down to see Deepak in a meditative state just by the table. Tommy climbed up onto the table top with the help of a nearby chair and picked up the cup before gulping down the water before finally letting it go as it fell to the floor and clattered, just missing Deepak.
"Okay, Dimmytree, I did it! I did the plank!" Tommy said as he climbed back down.
"Bruv, are you for real? That wasn't a prank! You were meant to push the cup so that it spills on Deepak!" Dimitri 2 said with disbelief as he looked down at the empty cup on the floor.
"But I didn't wanna make a mess!" Tommy protested, which made Dimitri 1 facepalm.
"Oh brother..." Dimitri 3 groaned before walking over to Tommy. "Okay, I got a better idea, come on." The triplets lead Tommy upstairs to a bedroom with a window as they opened said window and looked down to find Angelica at their house's side walk as the three shared another mischievous grin before Dimitri 2 brought a bucket full of water to the open window.
"Okay, now this is how you pull a prank, Tommy!" Dimitri 1 announced before the three turned the bucket over as it's contents flooded out of the bucket, a faint splash would be heard seconds later followed by a scream which Tommy recognised the voice of as he rushed over to the open window and looked.
"I SWEAR TO BOB, WHOEVER DID THAT IS GOING TO GET IT!" Angelica screamed in rage as she was now completely soaked, growling before storming off.
"Oh no! Now she's really mad!" Tommy said with concern, now deeply afraid that Angelica was going to find out who was responsible for drenching her and give them what for.
"That's the whole point! You prank others and watch their reaction to it!" Dimitri 2 said between chuckles as the trio couldn't stop laughing from the result of their little scheme.
"But what if Angelica finds out that you did it?" Tommy asked. Dimitri 3 approached Tommy and patted his back with a front paw.
"Who says that she'll ever find out? Who else knows other than us? She never knows, we never get in trouble! No need to worry about it!" Dimitri 3 explained before he and the other two lead Tommy elsewhere to train him with more pranks.
Back at the garden, Chuckie was slowly stroking a paint covered finger along the canvas he was provided with. The painting he was working on was of himself, Phil and Lil and Tommy with a superhero cape fighting monsters and clowns. The painter pup (whom introduced herself to Chuckie as "Da Vinci") who had been teaching Chuckie had just finished her portrait of the twins as she looked over at Chuckie's painting.
"Wow… Chuckie, that looks amazing! Is the one with the cape your friend in the blue shirt?" Da Vinci asked as she looked at Chuckie's work in awe.
"Yeah! That's my bestest friend, Tommy Pickles! Defender of ruth, crustice and american cheese!" Chuckie answered, feeling quite proud of his own portrait so far.
"Dimitri, for the love of dog!" Dylan's voice suddenly rang out as suddenly, the Dimitri Trio and Tommy were riding out into the backyard on top of a vacuum cleaner like a chariot. All four of them laughing whilst Dylan held onto the cleaner's nozzle to try and make them stop, neither of them seemed to be aware that they were rushing straight towards Chuckie and Da Vinci.
"LOOK OUT!" Da Vinci yelled in panic before tackling Chuckie out of harm's way just in time before the vacuum cleaner collided with Chuckie's painting.
A large black cloud of dust exploded from the vacuum cleaner, making coughing noises come from Dylan and Tommy, the Dimitri Trio meanwhile just continued to chuckle.
"Tommy?" Dil who was with Dorothy said with slight worry before the baby question fled the cloud of dust, still coughing which made Dil and Dorothy laugh with relief.
"Ohhh… I swear, when I get my paws on those pups, they're in so much trouble." Dylan said with frustration growing in his tone as the dust cloud dissipated, revealing the state of Chuckie's painting, which was now completely coated in black.
"Are you okay, Chuckie?" Tommy asked as he and Da Vinci helped him up.
"Am I okay? Am I okay?!" Chuckie asked before exploding into a rant. "First, I nearly get squished by the vakyoo cleander, then my painting gets all dusted up and now everything I seed is all fuzzy!" As soon as Chuckie finished his rant, he suddenly recoiled as if realising something. He felt around his face and gasped in horror.
"Ahh! My glasses are gone! SOMEBODY HELP ME, I CAN'T SEE!" Chuckie ran around in hysteria before stopping. "...Well I can see a little." Chuckie rephrased as he analysed his surroundings. Everything he saw including Tommy and the pups were just blurry blobs in his eyes.
"Wait. Why can't Chuckie see?" Dizzy pondered.
"He can't see without his glasses! They must've come off when he was pushed out of the way! We gots to find them, you guys!" Tommy was quick to answer, urging the others to help him find Chuckie's missing glasses, feeling responsible for Chuckie losing them in the first place.
"So what is this again?" Dimitri 1 asked as he looked down at a pair of purple framed square glasses. He and his two brothers had retreated to the basement to evade Dylan's wrath and had picked up Chuckie's glasses on the way.
"I dunno. I think Dawkins once said that some humans need them to see or something." Dimitri 2 responded.
"Then… wouldn't Tommy's friend need them? What if something happens to him?" Dimitri 3 pointed out, being the only one who had a slimmer of concern for Chuckie's safety.
"Relax, he's got Tommy, Dylan and Dolly to look out for him. We'll give 'em back when Dylan's chilled out." Dimitri 1 brushed off Dimitri 3's small worries before picking up the pair of glasses and after looking at them briefly, decided to try them on.
As a result, Dimitri 1's vision through the glasses became blurry, making him stagger in place causing him to slur out a woozy "Woah, trippy." before falling onto the floor.
"Hey, let me try that!" Dimitri 2 took the glasses off of the still dizzy Dimitri 1 and put them on, receiving the same result as he too mumbled incomprehensibly and teetered before collapsing, only he giggled a little. It was now Dimitri 3's turn to try the glasses and as you'd expect, the blurry vision caused him to fall over…
*Crack*
...right onto his own face. The faint but audible sound of cracking glass was enough to snap the trio out of their dizzy state as they looked down at the pair of glasses, one of the lenses now cracked.
"...Uh oh." was all Dimitri 3 could mumble as he and the other two knew very well they were now in for it.
"Hey! Ya mind keeping it down in here, ya dig?!" Diesel suddenly popped out from the dirt ground between them, seemingly having been woken up from a nap before disappearing back down from under the ground. Seconds later, the basement door from upstairs creaked open, making the Trio's spines freeze in terror as they knew why.
"They're down there?" Tommy's voice could be heard asking.
"Where else would they be? They always go down here when they know that Dylan is mad at them." Dolly's voice was then heard responding to Tommy's question.
"I told you we should've picked a better hiding spot!" Dimitri 2 whispered in frustration at Dimitri 3.
"Just shush and work with me here!" Dimitri 3 hissed back as soon enough, Dylan joined by Dolly, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil, Da Vinci and Spike reached the bottom of the basement stairs, Dylan and Da Vinci of the group giving the Trio unamused stares.
"Heyyyy Dylan, what's the haps?" Dimitri 1 greeted the group, trying to sound as casual as possible.
"Cut the innocent act, Dimitris. Where's Chuckie's glasses?" Dylan immediately interrogated, his tone making it clear how serious he was.
"Glasses? Err, what do you mean? We don't even know what glasses are!" Dimitri 2 quickly responded, pulling off an innocent smile to try and further convince them.
"You're the reason Chuckie's glasses came off and I know you can't get through one second without a prank so I know that you took them!" Dylan scolded.
"Yeah! I thought pulling planks was s'posed to be fun, but it's just mean! And taking Chuckie's glasses was mean as well!" Tommy quickly came to Dylan's.
"I-It is fun! Some just can't take a joke! I swear we didn't take them!" Dimitri 3 defended, adding an innocent grin in a last ditch attempt to save face.
"They tried them on and broke them!" Diesel popped up from the dirt again behind the Trio, who's grins fell to a wide-eyed grimace as all that came out of their mouth was a hesitant "Uhhhhh..."
"What?!" Tommy said in shock as he rushed past the trio and found the pair of glasses behind them before handing them to Chuckie who put them back on. The cracks on one of the lenses being clearly visible.
"Not again..." Chuckie groaned disappointedly as Dylan turned to the Dimitri Trio with a glare on his face.
"Ohhhh!" Dallas suddenly appeared behind Spike.
"You are so!" Destiny then appeared as well.
"B-B-B-Busted!" Deja Vu was the last to appear behind Spike, their taunting outcry directed at the Dimitri Trio who knew all too well they were going to face one heck of a punishment for not only being a bad influence to Tommy but also damaging Chuckie's glasses. Fortunately, for the latter, the cracks were small so he could still see through them.
"There you are!" An elderly voice suddenly got everyone's attention as they all turned to see Tommy's grandfather Lou coming downstairs. Seems like he had been the only one who had noticed that the babies had vanished as he came down and picked Tommy up.
"Sheesh, you sprouts just can never stay in one place, can ya? You got the Pickles' spirit of adventure! And to think you were making friends with some of our neighbours!" Grandpa Lou complimented as he looked down at Dylan and some of his siblings whilst Tommy smiled at him.
"Now let's get you all home before Stu and Didi get in a frit about where you are." Lou said as he turned around but stopped as he looked up to see a certain female Dalmatian staring back with a stunned face to which Lou responded with an astonished look of his own.
"L-Lou?!"
"Delilah?"
A/N: Shout-out to MichaelLovesDalmatianStreet for the idea for this chapter.
