Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story
Part Fifty: The Twists & Turns Of Our Lives
The alarm on Mabel Pines' phone stirred the fifteen-year-old girl from her slumber. Rolling over to shut it off, she took note that it was indeed six in the morning already. After a good morning stretch, she opened her bedroom door and walked across the hall. Much to her shock, it appeared that Pacifica had already showered and gotten dressed for the day. "Morning sleepyhead..." the brown-haired girl remarked. "W-What time did you wake up?!" her sister inquired while letting out a yawn. "About five-fifteen. I dunno. I just rolled over and felt well-rested, so I figured why go back to sleep?" Pacifica replied. "Well, I guess it's my turn to get ready..." her sister remarked as she headed towards the restroom at the end of the hallway. Pacifica was about to text Trey when she realized that it was four hours earlier back home. "Damn. Guess I'll have to wait a little longer to talk to him..." she said in a defeated tone as she fell back onto the bed and sighed heavily. She had only been gone from Gravity Falls for a day and she already missed him. "What if he starts talking to somebody else while I'm gone. I mean, he can do a lot better than me. Ugh, what does he even see in me. I'm nothing special. If anything, I've lost anything that did make me stand out from all the other girls. Now, in addition to not being pretty, I'm not even unique anymore. NO! He's not like that. He likes me for me. He said so himself" the teen girl said to herself while falling back onto the bed.
Although anxious at first, the fear and trepidation quickly faded as the tattoo artist started to adorn his skin with ink. Wendy was actually quite impressed by how unfazed her husband was to the entire process and figured it was either his high tolerance to pain or the three glasses of whiskey in his system. It took around an hour and a half, but the piece that would forever adorn the body of Mason Alexander Pines was finally done. Wendy, meanwhile, had gotten a small tattoo behind her left ear of a phoenix. It was discreet enough that unless her hair was pulled up it would be hard to notice; even then the orange, yellow and red colors of it sort of blended into her auburn hairline. Dipper walked over to a full-length mirror and took in the new addition to his body. "Mason... T... That's beautiful... I know they'd love it" Wendy remarked as she tried to reign in her emotions. "I know... It's perfect. Exactly as I pictured it in my mind" he replied. He wanted to hug the tattoo artist, but realized that it may be incredibly painful to do so. Instead, he gave her a generous tip. After carefully putting his shirt back on and ordering a trip home on a ride-share app, the couple exited the shop and took a seat on a bench in front of it. "Are you proud of me?" Dipper asked his lover. "You did way better than I did my first time. So, to answer your question, I am" she said while snuggling up against him in order to warm from the slight chill in the air. "OW!" the brown-haired man yelped in pain; Wendy immediately recoiling as she realized what she had inadvertently done. "SHIT! Sorry dude!" she quickly apologized as their ride home pulled up to the curb.
After showering and getting dressed, Mabel joined her sister downstairs. They heard a knock on the front door and saw Lyle waving through the glass. "Alright! I was afraid you'd still be sleeping like Logan was. He could learn a thing or two from you guys" the racing superstar remarked as he entered the guest house. "Well, we'd hate to keep you waiting when you're taking time out of your week off to teach us..." Mabel responded. "Really, it's no trouble. The more seat time I have, the better focused I can be when it counts. Every opportunity to be behind the wheel is a chance to learn something new that I might be able to use someday down the line. So, in reality, I should be thanking you for giving me an excuse to drive this week instead of lounging by a pool" Lyle said. After waiting on Logan to get ready, the quartet headed off to the racetrack. A large digital sign which read, 'Welcome to America's Home for Racing', greeted them as they drove up to a gate. A simple wave from a security guard granted them entry to the sprawling motorsports complex and after a short drive through a tunnel they arrived at their destination. Among the many things that stood out to the Pines twins was a gigantic video board that displayed a message welcoming them to the facility. "Wow! This is amazing and we haven't even done anything yet..." Pacifica commented as they departed the sport utility vehicle. "We'll go get changed into our suits and meet back here in a few minutes, alright?" Lyle said to the girls as they made their way inside the media center.
A few moments later, they emerged in their racing suits and reconvened by a pair of decommissioned police cars. "Okay, so I'll ask the big question first... Have either of you ever driven a car before? Not a go-kart or ATV or UTV, but the real deal?" he asked the pair of teens. "I... I have..." Pacifica hesitantly said while raising her hand. "WHAT?! When the hell did that happen? Why didn't you tell me?! Where did you go?!" Mabel asked her sister while turning towards her with a look of utter disbelief on her face. The more that the twin sisters grew up, the more they realized that perhaps they didn't know as much about one another as they thought. "I... Look... It was this spring. Remember that party that Hannah was hosting, but you were sick so mom said that I couldn't go alone? I might have taken her car and gone to the party anyway... I didn't come down with whatever you had the next day, by the way... That was a monster hangover" the brunette explained. "I..." her sister began before pausing to gather her thoughts. "I can't believe it. You bitch! I felt bad because I thought I gave you my ick, but instead you were getting black out drunk" she continued in an irate tone. Lyle and Logan both looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. While they wanted to interject and get the day back on track, they weren't sure how to achieve it. Instead, they observed the intense argument in an awkward silence.
"I... I'm sorry. I just... I just needed to get out of the house and forget about things for a while" Pacifica explained. "What could you possibly need to forget about that badly that you would go to some rando's house and get shitfaced beyond belief?" Mabel shot back. "HELLO! FREAK GIRL WITH A FAKE ARM RING A BELL?! Jesus Christ you're so fuckin' thick sometimes!" Pacifica yelled at her sibling. "GIRLS!" Lyle finally shouted. Both teens froze in place and realized the scene they had created. "Sorry Mr. Karson..." both girls sheepishly said in unison. "Use that aggression out on the track. Anyway. Seeing as both of you are relative newcomers to driving, we'll start off with the basics" Lyle continued while pulling out a quarter. "Pacifica, you're heads and Mabel, you're tails. Heads gets into my car and tails will ride with Logan. Everyone cool with that?" the racing superstar asked his guest. They nodded their heads in agreement as they wanted to move past the awkwardness of their argument a few moments prior. The coin was launched into the air and landed on the asphalt below, where it spun for a moment before coming to a rest. Mabel was paired with Lyle, while Pacifica would ride with Logan.
The girls climbed into the driver seats of their respective vehicles and were fastened into place as their heart rates began to pick up. "You got me?" Lyle's' voice asked from Mabel's earbud, which doubled as hearing protection from the loud motor. She shot him a thumbs up in acknowledgement. Likewise, Logan checked his communications with his passenger and soon the two pulled up to the starting line. They would all share a common communications channel, but each instructor could give individual advice to their respective drivers. "Obviously, you know the basics of how to drive a car, but we're gonna start off at absolute zero. Ready?" he asked the girls. "Yup!" Mabel enthusiastically replied. "Alright. First things first. Start the car. Put your foot on the brake pedal and turn the key. Easy enough, right? Now, some cars have a push to start button, but the same process applies to that as well" he instructed them. The vehicles soon rumbled to life and the twins awaited further instructions. "Now, put the car into drive using the gear shift on the steering column. Again, some cars will be different and have them in the center console, but the it's the same concept. Don't lift off the brake until you want to move forward" he said over the radio.
After a few moments, Lyle and Logan gave them the go-ahead to move forward. They made their way to the end of the road, but instead of turning onto the race course, they instead were told to follow it towards the tunnel that led out of the track. "Um... Where exactly are we going?" Pacifica asked as she continued to follow her teacher's instruction. "To the streets, of course..." Logan remarked. "We are teaching you girls how to drive, right? You drive on streets, not racetracks..." Lyle further explained. Mabel and Pacifica both tensed up at the fact that they'd be in live traffic with thousands of other drivers, instead of on an enclosed course as they had expected. Leaving the tunnel and emerging into the bright sunlight of the early morning, Lyle was first to friendly wave to the security guard. Making a left, the girls guided their vehicles along a perimeter road of the speedway. "Be careful not to jam on the brakes all of a sudden. You wanna ease into it" Lyle said to the girls as they both looked down at their feet. While Pacifica had some experience on public roadways, this was a whole new experience for Mabel.
After a full morning of learning to navigate the roads around the sprawling motorsports complex, the quartet stopped at a local fast-food chain for lunch. "I hope I didn't scare you too much out there..." Mabel said to Logan with a chuckle. "Nah, there are way worse people out there than the both of you. I mean, when you almost cut off that car on the interstate, I got a little nervous, but nothing I couldn't handle" he tried to reassure the teen girl. "How'd I do, Lyle? Give it to me straight. Don't sugarcoat it if I sucked..." Pacifica asked her instructor. "Honestly... Not too bad. You were a little punchy on the gas and brakes, I'm sure that will get better the more experience you get" he answered. Walking into the restaurant, they got a few odd looks from the patrons who were enjoying their meals. "I take it that not many people come in here dressed in full racing gear?" Lyle joked with an older man who had just taken a bite of his Cajun filet biscuit. "Not that I've seen..." he replied back with a mouthful of food. The girls took a few minutes to order, as they had never heard of some of the items on the menu. In the end, Pacifica ordered a Cajun Filet Biscuit with fries and a cherry cola she'd never seen before. Mabel, on the other hand, ordered a home-style tender salad with sweet tea. Lyle and Logan were both excited to see what the foreigners thought of the food their region had to offer. "If I had a place like this near me, I'd be the fat twin, hands down..." Pacifica remarked as she practically inhaled the sandwich she ordered. "This tea is so good! How did I live without this in my life?!" Mabel added. "If there's one thing they do great down here, it's definitely the food and drinks..." Lyle commented. After lunch, they would make their way back to the speedway, where the real fun would begin for the Pines sisters.
Author's Note: I intentionally left the tattoo that Dipper got vague so that you could make it whatever you want. I really want to know what you think it is. Originally, I wanted to give him a huge back piece of twin angel wings. One would be purple and the other pink, with meaningful memories tattooed onto each feather. Then I realized how many sessions that would take and decided to go another route. At some point he'll get the Cipher wheel inked on him, as he's gotten the bug anyone who gets a tattoo ends up with. Personally, I have three, but want more in the future. Yes, one of them is Gravity Falls themed for those curious. I took a bit of a break in writing this story for the holidays, but couldn't stay away. I also cleaned up A Shooting Star Falls if you wanna check that one out again. I mostly just cleaned up things and filled in a few plot holes, so nothing major. Onto the story. Dipper took getting ink much better than either Wendy or the tattoo artist had anticipated. Is this the start of Dipper telling his story through artwork on his body or was this a rare, one-off gesture to show his lover that he was a man of his word? Just how bad is Wendy's hangover going to be in the morning? Will she even attempt to go to work? Mabel and Pacifica were thrown into the deep end when it came to driving, but what else do Lyle and Logan have up their sleeves for their teenage guests? Answers to all these questions and more as we continue along this winding road in the next installment of Tales of the Flame and the Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story. Until then, - iKLOT
My Playlist:
"Sleepwalking" - All Time Low (Reminded me of Mabel thinking about Logan)
"Naive" - Kooks
"I Will Follow You Into The Dark" - Death Cab For Cutie (The guitar in this song reminds me of the Gravity Falls soundtrack)
"Dangerous" - Big Data ft. Joywave
"Don't Trust Me" - 3Oh!3
"Bad Blood" - Bastille (What I thought of when the girls were arguing. Especially the line, "I always thought you had my back, how was I to know")
"Believe (Moon Version)" - Bravery
"Cinema (Skrillex Remix)" - Benny Benassi/Gary Go
"When The Lights Come On" - Asking Alexandria
"Be My Escape" - Relient K
"Lover I Don't Have To Love" - Bright Eyes
"So Good (Kayze Remix)" - Halsey