Howdy!

Howdy! I'm Concept-ler. I like to play the banjo, fish, knit, and a bunch of other stuff! Don't be afraid to say hi, I don't bite. Most folks say I'm pretty laid back, so there's that.

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler gave a soft snort, rolling his eyes. Sure, they would have a lot of fun catching fish that possibly didn’t exist in this area.

He imagined them coming back to camp with a huge haul of all kinds of fish, and having an impromptu fish fry.

“Oh, don’t snort at me,” he huffed, giving another, slightly rougher elbow jab. “If there ain’t no gars, we can always catch some other fish. Like, uhhh....” he thought for a moment, trying to remember other fish that exist, “you know. We’ll just catch fish, alright?”

He swung his legs off the edge of the bunk. “You gonna unpack or what?”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

“If it doesn’t taste good, why do you want to eat it?” Scutt-ler smiled a little bit. “Do they even live around here?”

He’d only fished a handful of times in his life, and mostly for little bass. He wasn’t even sure he knew what an alligator gar was.

“I’ve never tried to eat one before, folks just say they taste bad. I want to try to eat one and see if they were right.”

He looked up at the slats holding the top bunk’s mattress. “I dunno if they live here. Probably.” He elbowed Scutt-ler softly. “We’re gonna have a lot of fun, you know? It won’t be so bad.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

He couldn’t fathom bringing all of this stuff to camp just for two weeks. He’d managed to cram everything he needed into just two bags, his backpack and a duffel bag. He’d also planned on just removing the clothes from the bag when he needed it… but more power to the Concept-ler for doing his thing.

He sat there loosely hugging his backpack, swinging his legs, and watching his friend throw things around.

“I guess I’ll just put my banjo with Sadie.” He placed the banjo carefully under the bed alongside the bag containing the cinderblock. The rest of his things were crammed into a duffel bag alongside his clothes.

He plopped down on the bottom bed next to Scutt-ler. “What should we do first? I want to go fish an alligator gar out of the water. And then we could make a campfire! We could try and eat the alligator gar!”

He frowned. “I mean, they don’t taste any good but we could try.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler looked up at the boy peering down at him. “Oh, yeah, sure.” If Sadie really did have lucky powers, he’d surely be needing it. Though he really doubted that a cinder block could be lucky.

“Alright.” He climbed back down the ladder and began to unpack his bag. He threw some clothes up into the top bunk, planning to jam them down into the crevasses between the mattress and the bed frame.

“Now I just gotta figure out where I’m gonna put my banjo.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler said nothing. He’d hoped his friend would claim the top; he was a little uncertain whether or not he’d fall out of the top bunk.

He sat down on the bottom bunk, putting his backpack on his lap. He was still hesistant to unpack, as they hadn’t told anyone they were here yet.So he just sat there listening to Concept-ler shuffling around.

Concept-ler considered how he was going to get a cinderblock up onto the top bunk. He hopped up the ladder and looked around to find there was no room for it up on the top bunk.

“Can I put Sadie under your bunk?” he asked as he peeked over the edge of the top bunk.

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

“W-well… I guess I can’t argue with that.”

Still, he was plagued with the thought of finding a spider in the cabin. Or in his bed. Or on him.

He would just have to wait until the thought cleared his mind.

He tossed the glove back into the bag. “We’d better pick a bunk and start unpacking.”

He walked down the row of bunks, searching for the absolute perfect one to settle down on. He reached the final bunk, examined it, and nodded. “This is the one! I claim top bunk.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

“You’re going to PICK THEM UP?” Scutt-ler made a disgusted face. “What if you get bitten? What if it’s poisonous? Do they have antivenom here?”

“That’s what I brought this for!” Concept-ler exclaimed. He dove into the same bag that contained Sadie and tried to pry a green, rubber dishwashing glove that had gotten caught underneath the cinderblock. He gave one final, hard tug. The glove broke free and he fell directly onto his behind.

He held the glove up. “See? I’m prepared.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

“Y-yeah,” Scutt-ler said, a weary smile on his face. “If you ignore all the bugs that might be in there. And the other people. Especially the other people.”

He grabbed his backpack straps tightly.

Concept-ler hmmed and looked over at Scutt-ler, a little bit of worry showing on his face. “You think you’ll be ok with your anxiety and stuff?” he asked. “And I can take care of any spiders that we see. I’ll just pick ‘em up and throw ‘em outside!”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler kept walking at a normal pace, watching his friend run off. He was suddenly glad that his lucky charm was just a yellow piece of cloth and not an entire cinder block.

Eventually he caught up to Concept-ler and stared up at the cabin. This was it, this is where he’d be staying for the next few weeks. With several other people. And no space where he could be completely alone. Oh boy…

Concept-ler rushed up to the cabin and looked around. The trees surrounded it in just the most perfect, homey way. He stepped onto the porch and heard a few of the wooden planks creak under his feet. 

“It’s perfect,” he said, one hand resting on a support beam for the porch roof. “Ain’t it?” he asked, turning his head towards the approaching Scutt-ler. 

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

“It probably has a number on it somewhere,” he said, trying to pull his arm out of his friend’s grasp. “What did you bring that is so heavy? Besides Sadie.”

“Well, I figure if I’d have brought less of everything, Sadie wouldn’t be so heavy.”

They continued down the row. Concept-ler let go of his friend’s hand and kicked a few rocks out of boredom.

“That’s it!” he said, pointing at the last cabin in the row. It was marked with a white 1 written onto a post holding up the porch roof. “Thank the lord, I could of developed some kinda spine damage from this bag,” he said, before making a beeline for the cabin.

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

But Scutt-ler was also not one to argue. “O-okay,” he stammered, as his arm was grabbed. He made a mental note to absolutely blame Concept-ler for anything that went wrong in the next hour or so.

Concept-ler grinned and began walking up the row of cabins, wandering close enough to squint at the numbers marking each cabin.

“You’d think cabin 1 would be the first cabin in the row, right?” he remarked. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought so many clothes. My back is dying.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler immediately thought of a scenario where the two boys were caught in their cabin by a staff member, and getting in trouble. That’s anxiety for you.

“I don’t know… do we need to tell someone we’re here first?”

“Ahh pffft, we’ll be fine. What’re they gonna do, kick us out?,” Concept-ler insisted. “Besides, all this stuff is killing my back.”

He grabbed Scutt-ler’s arm once again and headed in the direction of the cabins. He turned to him as they walked, and said, “If someone gets mad you can just blame it on me.”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler wondered briefly if his friend needed glasses. He wasn’t feeling up to fighting, so he just followed along.

It was, in fact, a sign directing them to the main office (<<< THAT WAY) and the cabins (THAT WAY>>>). Yes, they actually said “THAT WAY”. What a goofy place.

“Yep. That there’s a sign,” Concept-ler said, squinting up at it. “Why’d they capitalize all the letters for ‘THAT WAY’? Seems a little on the excessive side,” he remarked. “You wanna head to our cabin?”

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

“I think you need to find a slightly smaller good luck charm,” Scutt-ler mumbled. He looked around briefly, only seeing trees and a small building. “Do we need to check in somewhere?”

“You just don’t understand Sadie,” Concept-ler grumbled. He glanced around for any signs or markings, squinting into the distance.

“Is that a sign?” he asked, pointing slightly to the right. “We should go look at that.” He grabbed Scutt-ler’s arm with his free hand and began to head over to (what he hoped) was a sign.

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler sighed. “Why did you bring Sunny to camp? Of course I can’t carry that…” He motioned to his noodly arms.

Concept-ler scoffed. “You never get her name right,” he said, as he zipped the bag back up and hoisted it up on his shoulder. “Her name is Sadie, thank you very much. She’s lucky. Like car dice. Or a horseshoe. That’s why I need her.”

He took a moment to look around, trying to locate their cabin. 

“Do you have any idea where cabin 1 is?” He asked Scutt-ler, a little lost.

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler said nothing, but took the bag. It immediately slipped out of his hands, back onto the ground with a thump. He frowned.

“Oh my god, what is in that?”

“Oh no, you dropped it!” Concept-ler exclaimed as he dashed to the dropped bag. He unzipped it in record time, before hoisting a large cinder block out of the bag. It was a little bit old, a little bit dirty, and had a sunflower painted on the top of it.

He set it on the ground and crouched beside it, turning it over to examine it for cracks or damage.

“Thank goodness, she’s just fine,” he commented, wiping nonexistent sweat from his brow.

[concept-ler]

scutt-ler

Scutt-ler braced himself to exit the van that he’d become somewhat comfortable in, slipped out of his seat, and onto the ground.

“I guess,” he mumbled. He knew he wasn’t the strongest in the world (far from it, actually), but maybe there was a smaller bag he could carry.

Concept-ler hummed a vaguely familiar, upbeat tune as he began to slowly pull the heavy bag out of the back of the van. He tapped a foot and occasionally whistled out pieces of the tune.

He didn’t quite hear Scutt-ler’s mumble. “What did you say?” he shouted as he struggled with the bag. 

With one final grunt of effort, he managed to lift the bag and prepared to shove it into Scutt-ler’s hands.