little soldier boy

your body told me in a dream that it's never been afraid of anything.

[128oz]

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I just wish I had someone to say “I’m home” to

[jakelcng-blog]

rose & kings.

Well, Rose did have a tendency to get back into bad habits. Sometimes it was a thing or sometimes it was a person, but she guessed it was both. She didn’t really expect herself to get back into bed with Kings, (but she kinda did- who said business and pleasure shouldn’t mix?) but the thrill of having a successful delivery was enough to spur up old habits.  What can she say, she liked money. And she liked how easy it was this time.

“Same old? I learned some new tricks.” She smirked lightly, nodding in agreement. “But yeah, next week sounds good. I’ll text you the list.” She assured. Business as usual, and she was glad it was easy to step back into that role as well. But then the door clicked…

If this was a movie, this would be some dramatic scene filled with fighting. Someone would get punched, maybe it was her. Instead, she was staring at Jake, wondering why the hell he was here until Kings spoke. Fuck. She internally groaned and turned her head to look at Kings with a I’m going to kill you look on her face. Sure, scaling the ferris wheel with him did feel fun (despite the earthquake) and maybe if they talked things out things would get better but now was the worst time. “I didn’t know you had another roommate.” She lied, for she knew of the third but not who. “Uh- yeah, sure.” Goddammit.”It’s fine, I was just leaving.” 

“Oh. Hey.”

Jake was used to surprises in the apartment, given his current roommate situation. This, though. This was karma for not asking Kings if he wanted McDonalds on his way home. There was literally no other explanation for this situation, other than maybe the Creator punishing him for...something. Speeding, probably.

Jake tried not to fixate on the hand at the small of Rose’s back. Was his roommate’s sex life any of his business? No. Was Rose’s? Extra spicy hell no. Jake turned to look at Kings, expression converging at a point between murderous and constipated. It was probably unfair to expect his roommate to know about a non-relationship Jake never told him about. And it wasn’t like Jake had any sort of claim over Rose; they had mutually agreed in that ferris wheel that they had grown apart. But like, yikes. That didn’t mean he was ready to walk in on her with Kingsley, of all people. 

“Yeaaaaaaah. That’s...yeah. Small world, ain’t it?” Jake felt a sudden and keen sense of empathy with Drake—he’d never been much for the man, but he suddenly understood the need to whine out romantic disappointment through the medium of song. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, stepping away from the door. “Didn’t know you two, uh, knew each other. Don’t let lil ol’ me...interrupt?” He shot the pair a jaunty thumbs up, decidedly not grimacing. Of course, Jake’s luck being what it was, the two of them were right in his path. “Yeah.”

[jakelcng-blog]

cat.

time: around 11:30pm place: cloud nine status: open

Y’know, some days Cat was simply blown away that such a good people watching place, along with an amazing atmosphere for photography, remained open 24/7. Night owls like himself needed somewhere to go that wasn’t a dingy dive like the Leprechaun, and the staff at Flo’s V8 generally got irritated with him after the third hour of nursing a chicken sandwich. Cloud Nine, however, introduced the perfect opportunity: watch people in a high stress environment, all night long, while being able to hide in the shadows of the arcade undetected. Some of his best material had come from watching teenagers fighting over their last tokens, and inevitably, the fight ended up far away from it’s original topic and into whether or not Johnny from really had told Stephanie from school that Bobby had a crush on her – because if so, then Bobby should pick the game because of the emotional distress from that today. 

However, Cat wasn’t really that interested in the lives of teenagers and children. Or at least, not about whatever people they were crushing on or when they had band practice. Rather, it was easier for him to spot if Other Mother had picked any of them off. Right now, he suspected it was only Coraline, which still unnerving, was much better than her looking at bigger goals of more than one person at a time. While the crowd at Cloud Nine dwindled as curfews were called and the weary looked for rest, Cat had come out of his corner and onto a bar stool at the snack bar. 

Ordering a small plate of onion rings, playing with his food slightly as he ate and thinking over if he should leave and find a spot somewhere closer to the center of town, he heard someone pull up into the stool next to him. When they didn’t order anything after a few minutes, he looked at them out of his peripherals, “They close for orders in five.” he said, already trying to place their face.

For the most part, Cloud Nine had a very predictable customer base. Mostly pre-teens and teenagers, maybe some drunk young adults on the weekends. There was a cute old couple that liked to come in on Sunday mornings, and the homeless guy that Jake sometimes had to shoo off of the back porch. (If he gave the dude a plate of food, well, his manager was none the wiser.) Point being, it was odd to see a deviant face from the norm. Especially when its owner spent the better part of the evening watching the crowd, never touching the machines or meeting up with anyone. Jake kept an eye on the man as he, ah, play-tested the pinball machines. Truth be told, he probably should have reported the guy to security for loitering, but that was more trouble than it was worth.

Eventually, Jake made his way to the snack bar for his end-of-shift treat. The kitchen gave him their leftovers when they closed, the fried food an ideal treat to tide him over as he made his rounds wiping the machines. Notably, Loner Loiterer was still there, but Jake figured he’d let snack bar staff deal with the guy. The snack bar was their dominion.

Jake looked at the other man strangely upon being addressed. “Yeah, I...know?” Jake hadn’t quite meant to intone the words as a question, but like...maybe this was a sign. If arcade visitors couldn’t even discern him as an employee of the place despite the ugly shirt he had to wear as a uniform, then he probably wasn’t working as hard as he should be. He’d save the story for Alice later. She’d get a kick out of it. “Not to be rude but, like, are you waiting for someone or something? You’ve been here all night, dude. Like, at this rate you’re gonna end up staying here longer than me, and I’m getting paid to be here.”

[jakelcng-blog]

cedric.

date: june 15th status: open location: game booths

The sickening smell of cotton candies and deep fried everything hung heavy in the air, only amplified by the crowds of people in attendance. Cedric kept those fools and their food from his mind, and pitched another ball at the small tower of bottles propped up in the nearest game booth. He’d watched those around him fail, fall for obvious tricks in the game, but not him. He had nothing in him that could fail, especially not tonight.

He looked again up at the giant stuffed swan hanging from a hook above his head. He’d win this symbol of love for Belle even if he had to stay at this booth the whole night. Maurice’s disappearance was a terrible thing, Cedric knew a thing or two about missing fathers, but, he couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass him by. He’d already won a stuffed bear, a blue dog that barked when its paw is pressed, a lava lamp, and a goldfish. These prizes sat in a pile at his feet, a hoard of treasures for his princess.

Cedric wound up his arm for the last shot toward winning this swan when the bottle tower beside his blasted apart. He turned, and watched the swan as it was stolen into the arms of this fool beside him. The scrawny, scarecrow of a kid working the booth only turned to Cedric with a shrug. “Fair is fair.”

Fair is fair, right. “Hey!” he said, abandoning that pile of treasures to trail after this thief. “What does a guy have to do around here to get a swan for his grieving lady?”

Honestly, Jake hadn’t really been expecting to win a prize at the bottle-throwing booth. He’d already lost plenty that night, in everything except for pounds (he was a slut for fried food, okay? Sue him). But he had a few extra tickets, he needed to win something stupid and ugly to give his sister, and the bottle game seemed less rigged than the basketball game. Fuck the basketball game, bro.

Still, there was a genuine sense of surprise when he pitched the ball, other hand preoccupied with some adventurous fried something, and it collided square with the tower, the stack clattering to the ground loudly. Jake didn’t exactly lack belief in his throwing ability, but it wasn’t like he had been doing super hot that night. When the attendant asked him which prize he wanted, he sort of just gestured vaguely, which the kid interpreted as the gaudy goose-looking thing that hung above the guy next to him.

Jake took it into his arms and looked deeply into its beady eyes. It was ugly and unwieldy; in short, a perfect gift.

Prize in hands, Jake turned to head off. Maybe he’d get a funnel cake, he mused. Or, they had a booth that was selling dorito-crusted corn dogs. Those were intriguing. But before he could come to a decision, he was interrupted by...someone. “Oh shit,” Jake said, reflexively. “This is a swan?” He reconsidered the ugly thing in his arms. What was the difference between a swan and a goose, anyway? He turned back to the dude who approached him. Ugh, there was something about his tone that sorta bugged Jake. “Ya git gud, bro,” he said, shrugging. Never mind that Jake had failed to win things all night. He was the one with the goose-swan.

[jakelcng-blog]

rose.

“What?” She glanced up at him gaping at her, realizing that, yeah, this was definitely weird. In fact, it was the most obvious thing she had done to reveal her alter ego but if she could scale down the support beam, she could help get everyone off the ride safely. Wow, a modern day superhero. Six year old Rose would be so proud of her right now. 

“Don’t uh- panic, I guess.” She shrugged and dropped her leg to the next gondola over, hooking her leg against the support beam next to it. She wouldn’t be able to climb down to the next one, since people were in it, so as the ride shook and vibrated, Rose shifted her body and began climbing to the side in order to get to the center. This was incredibly stupid, and if she squinted she thought she saw Belle and Rigby doing the same. Perhaps she shouldn’t have lifted her hand to wave, but the moment happened too quickly that before she knew it, she had lost her grip and started falling.

Great. I’m going to die and the last thing I said to the guy I like was that shit happens. She had gotten used to not screaming out in situations like this, but Rose was so certain that this was it… until she felt herself being yanked up. Part of her hoped Jake hadn’t let her die, even after the stupid stuff she had just said to him but no, she saved herself. Or her belt did. “I’m okay!” She shouted out, frustrated at herself but also relived. Falling off the ferris wheel would be a shitty way to die.

Grabbing onto the ledge, Rose unhooked her belt from the door hook of the gondola she caught herself on and started climbing down, eyes scanning up to Jake. He looked so good right now, she almost forgot the earth was shaking and that was the whole reason she was doing this stupidly dangerous thing anyways. Shaking her head to snap out of it, Rose climbed down, her foot hitting solid-ish ground. “Are you okay?” She shouted out, eyes widening and her breath shaky from the adrenalin rush.

Jake didn’t laugh when Rose told him not to panic, but it was a close thing. He sent a mental fuck you to literally everyone who told him he didn’t have any sense of subtlety—here he was, with the perfect opportunity to show off in front of Rose, and he wasn’t. Because secrets. He could keep those. Ha. See? Jake was responsible as fuck. 

It was simultaneously comforting and stressful to see Rigby and Belle’s distant figures also scaling the wheel. Comforting in that it was nice to know he and Rose weren’t the only people batshit crazy enough to scale an unsecured structure in the middle of an earthquake. Stressful in that he and Rose weren’t the only people batshit crazy enough to scale an unsecured structure in the middle of an earthquake. Internal Gramps was shrieking.

Internal Jake started shrieking when Rose slipped from the wheel. Jake started to calculate how he could drop, grab her, and grab onto the wheel, but the moment ended before he could take action—with Rose’s belt snagging on a gondola further down, thankfully. Jake let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. Damn. Planned or not, homegirl could save herself. Again—wow. 

He scrambled down the beam at full speed to follow her, throwing subtlety to the wind. “I feel like I should be asking you that,” he yelled down at the girl, grunting as he jumped to a more central beam, “Are you—whoa—good? You scared me there!”

[jakelcng-blog]

marley.

"No, not dumb!” Marley insisted. Jake was not allowed to be self-deprecating; not when Marley loved him so much that she refused to see his flaws as anything but a quirk, another silly part of him to cherish. He was much more fun when he was being arrogant, partly because Marley often agreed whenever he boasted of his greatness. Yes, Jake, you’re the best! How could you not be the best rapper in town, you’re so talented, I know you are. “I actually like the idea of this being my millionth Hermosa festival. I’ve been here for years! I knew you since the day I was born, and you used to see me in my diapers and make fun of me because I was too little to run as fast as you.”

It was a nice fantasy, one she’d continue to play in her head for many nights to come. She followed Jake’s whoosh with a boom of her own, grinning so wide that it hurt. No, really, it actually hurt; Marley raised a hand to her cheek to try to shrink her smile when Jake made a show of bowing, because her face would split into two if he kept this up.

“Stop it,” she scolded. Impulsively, Marley plucked the plushie out of his hand and hugged it tight to her chest. “I change my terms. I’ll let you ride the ferris wheel with me if I get to keep Mini Jake here.”

Jake laughed. “Of course, of course,” he agreed. Marley’s earnestness was infectious; some days, it seemed like she believed in Jake more than he believed in himself. His smile only stretched as she spun the history that could have been. “Issok. You definitely made up for it in hide and seek,” he said, fully confident in her skill. His smile took a teasing edge as he continued. “Oh, and you can’t forget the time I made you wash your hands after you held hands with a boy.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Iconic. Vine—no, twitter-level shit.”

It was a cute fantasy, sticky-sweet with indulgence and childish nostalgia. The thought was nice to imagine—a youth where he didn’t push everyone away for the sake of his training, where he was a good brother and a present friend, active in the lives of the people he cared about. Maybe it was for the best Marley was a recent transplant. It would have sucked to lose her friendship, and it wasn’t like he could tell her about the Dragon. No, what they had now was enough, Jake thought.

He almost complained when Marley grabbed the plushie from his arms—mid-bow, jeez! Was chivalry dead?—but melted at the sight of the girl hugging the ugly thing to her chest. Well. Hayley would have killed him if he tried to pawn it off on her as a birthday gift anyway. At least this way, it’d go to an appreciative home. “Damn girl, you drive a hard bargain,” he said. “Is the delight of my company not enough for you?” 

[cocaiinan]

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We dreamt like martyrs, I never thought I was bold enough. You pushed me farther and I take the blame for both of us…

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[jakelcng-blog]

rose.

She didn’t know what to say, and somehow Jake’s silence was worse. He always had something funny to say, but she supposed she wasn’t entitled to that anymore. Even if she wanted something to cut the tension, it was thick in the air like the humidity. She was so desperate to become a proper huntsgirl for so long that she forgot about just Rose. This entire life she’s made for herself by taking what she could, but Jake was never an option.

He was the one person who was not supposed to get hurt, and if she had to get punished to keep him protected then so be it. It was her fault, she knew she owed him some kind of explanation but shit happens was his language, something she figured he’d understand. “I mean- I dunno. We’re both way too busy.” She shrugged, cheeks blushing bright because she was busy as hell, but even when she was still training she made time for him before. Things were supposed to be easier, but yet here they were.

It was shitty that they couldn’t just have what they wanted. God did Rose want so many things, but who was she to decide when was the right time for it?

Then the Earth started shaking.

In another world, some loser would be writing about how when Jake and Rose got together, it made the world shake. But they were on a metal death trap, at least 50 feet in the air, and the metal death trap was rumbling beneath them. “What is that?” She furrowed her eyebrows, Kryptos and Konos’s voices soon explaining just what was going on.

If this ferris wheel flew to the ocean, they’d all be dead. “You’re not the only one.” Rose unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her legs up over the bar. “Come on, we’ll climb down.” God why was she his knight and shining armor? What a weird situation, and it was only going to get weirder. “Get unbuckled and just follow my lead.” 

Maybe it wasn’t the most conspicuous way to hide her crazy Huntsgirl skills, but it was going to save their asses.

“Um.” Jake watched as Rose declared her plan of action. “Uh—” He watched as she unbuckled and stood, gondola still unsteady. “I—” She pulled herself over the bar, and holy shit, Batman. She was actually gonna climb down the ferris wheel. 

Man, if the situation didn’t warrant it completely inappropriate, Jake would ask her to fucking marry him right then and there. They’d have their wedding on the side of a granite cliff in a national park. It would be at sunset in the fall. Incredible. She was amazing. Maybe a little crazy, but he was a little crazy too. Crazy enough, at least, to unbuckle his own seatbelt and lean over the gondola’s edge.

“Holy shit,” he said, voice breathy. The climb itself didn’t look too difficult—they just had to scale the spoke connecting their cab to the center, where they could then climb down the support. Jake had done more extreme climbs as the Dragon, and Rose seemed to be a practiced climber, holding herself with good technique. Wow. She was so cool.

A concern pressed its way into his mind in the shape of Gramps’ voice, wondering if it was too conspicuous for him to show he had the skill to do this, but Jake pushed it aside. If he made it look like Rose was leading, then he could play his ability off as a side effect of doing parkour or something. Besides, he wasn’t gonna pass up the opportunity to climb a ferris wheel with Rose. This was progress, right? Shared experiences and stuff? 

“Well,” he said, swinging a leg over the edge, “aight, I guess.” He inclined his head at her. “Lead the way.”

[jakelcng-blog]

alice.

Certain people’s energies were infectious, a lightning sensation that swayed your body one inch at a time. From Alice’s perspective, Jake stood among those ranks - always ready with a quick quip or light smile to make the tedious work hours go faster. She had never intended to take her job seriously, but with him around, it was made all the more easy. “Shit. Is your aim really that bad?” Those booths were con-artists in themselves. Kind of a stroke of genius. And hey, if the suckers were stupid enough… “Aw, I’m not sure you wanna do that.” Alice teased, screwing her face into a teasing grin, “I am beating you in our skee-ball tournament…”

Call time-wasting a way to undermine capitalism.

“Nitty gritty stuff.” She responded, tone serious but smile betraying an inner glee. It did feel a little odd to be talking to Jake about this kind of shit. When she thought of murder, his face wasn’t the first that came to mind. But everyone had an opinion that deserved to be heard, right? “How do you feel about the carnivals dedication tonight? Respectful? Tacky?” Alice lowered her voice. “Dangerous?”

“Ugh, I know they’re rigged,” Jake said, definitely not pouting, “but like...” Did he have a reasonable excuse? Not really. ”Look, I’m sorry I have enough faith in humanity to actually hope for genuine tests of skill. Maybe I wanna take the blue pill on this one, y’know? I’m just out here for a good time.” 

He also certainly didn’t pout at the mention of their current skee-ball standings. Ten points. Alice was winning, yes, but by ten fucking points. “You might be beating me now, but wait until next shift,” Jake promised, any real weight cut by the teasing note to his voice. “I got a new trick shot. It’s gonna be sweet!” ...if it worked. The last attempt arguably landed them in their current standings. But that was beside the point. 

As Alice continued, Jake felt a brow creep up his face. “Whoa, hang on there, Buzzfeed. Dangerous? I mean, questionable, sure—I think it’s well-intentioned, personally, but I could see it sorta coming across as insensitive. But what could make this—” he punctuated his point by flailing his arms, “—dangerous, or whatever?” Sure, he had his personal hypotheses to his own question, but he actually had a vested professional interest in Alice’s answer. It was well-known that the girl fancied herself a mystery-solver. If she knew anything about Maurice’s disappearance, it warranted a certain level of consideration.

[jakelcng-blog]

marley.

She was happy to see Jake, who made her feel so comfortable that she could act as silly as she often felt. It helped that he was goofier than even she was. It helped that Jake’s laugh made her feel warm and accepted, even when she called the swings a warftrap (courtesy of her sisters and their prank-filled English lessons). He had a gift, whether he knew it or not, of making people feel like they were at home around him. And for a girl who had left her entire home behind, it was a welcome feeling.

“This is my first Hermosa festival,” Marley reminded him, a small part of her thrilled that Jake thought she had lived in Hermosa for much longer. What would that be like! She would save that daydream for later, to imagine how her life might have twisted and turned if she had been born here.

For now, she focused her full attention on Jake and his grin, often so wide that it brightened his entire face. “You’re going to ride with me, aren’t you?!” Marley held up her fist as she’d learned from Jake himself. “It’ll be way more fun with you.”

"Oh, wait, duh. I’m dumb.” It had genuinely slipped his mind that Marley was a relatively recent transplant to Hermosa. She was such a bright fixture in the community—and in Jake’s life—that it was easy to blur the present into the past, to amend the annals of history as if they were a tale in a storybook. Or maybe it just meant that everyone in Hermosa was just so weird that Marley’s personal brand of oddness didn’t stand out. Only the Creator knew, probably.

At the sight of Marley’s outstretched fist, Jake all but laughed in delight. If he needed a reminder that Marley was a newcomer, there it was. Most of the gaps in the girl’s cultural knowledge were silly little things, the kind of mistakes that all ESLs had to deal with as they adapted to the flaming shitshow that was spoken English. Not knowing how to fist bump, however, was an unforgivable faux pas that Jake took immense pride in having rectified. He met her knuckles with his own, punctuating the contact with a whooshing noise. 

"Oh shit,” he said, feigning awe, “an opportunity to ride the ferris wheel with the Marley Young? Only a real dumbass could turn that down.” His grin was crooked as he continued. “And I know we established I’m dumb and all, but I’m not stupid. I would be honored to ride the ferris wheel with you.” He swept into a dramatic bow, effect somewhat mitigated by the plushie in his hand. “M’lady.”

[ruinedchildhood]

[jakelcng-blog]

alice.

DATE & TIME: June 15th LOCATION: The Ferris Wheel STATUS: Open

The wheel went up and down. The twister spun from side to side. The mirrors lied. People lost at games they knew were rigged. It was the way the carnival had always been, how life had always been. But call it instinct or delusion, but Alice could taste something distinct about tonight, a bitterness on the edge of her tongue. Or maybe you’re just hungry, a doubtful voice interjected, ruining her thought process. 

Maybe that was true. But food could come later - for now, she had work to do.

Work and play. For Alice, they were one and the same - driven by passion and a longing, nay hunger, to know. Tonight wasn’t about the big picture stuff. Tonight was about the people - how they saw Hermosa, how Maurice’s disappearance had effected them. Withdrawing her phone from her pocket, she set it to record, eyes gleaming as she moved to stop the first person in her path.“Hey! Think you could spare a couple of minutes to answer a few questions?”

There was something in the air at this year’s carnival. Maybe it was the mania of people being whirled around on the new rides. Maybe it was the underlying knowledge of the oddities lying beneath the normalcy. Maybe it was the incoming indigestion from eating double-deep-fried bacon-wrapped beer-battered...whatever. Still, neither weird vibes nor indigestion were going to stop Jake from having a good time and eating all the deep-fried crap he could get his hands on. He’d worry about the consequences tomorrow. Such were the joys of adulthood independence.

Running into Alice had been surprising, but not altogether unwelcome. Questions? Normally Jake would be wary, but as long as their topic stayed on the carnival—or, knowing his coworker, Maurice’s disappearance—then it was probably a safe conversation. “For you, Alice? Maybe.” Jake grinned, waggling his eyebrows. “If you can beat me at some of these carnival games...”

He couldn’t keep the joke. Jake chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, no. I already spent like fifteen dollars losing at the damn things. Wassup, girl?”

[jakelcng-blog]

rose.

What did I do?

What a loaded question. What was she supposed to say? Sorry, my uncle hates your guts or sorry I ignored you for four years, I’m probably in a cult and need a way out! or sorry I flaked on you, I kill people and don’t want you to get hurt! How was she supposed to articulate any of that when she was a grown adult, she even had her own apartment (the Huntsman did not need to know about that). She couldn’t use any excuses, but she sure as hell knew she needed to think of one.

She couldn’t say sorry, I was crazy about you but the Huntsman beat the shit out of me. 

That would raise too many questions.

Finally, she gave him the respect of looking at him, a clearly pained look on her face that she shook away. He didn’t need to worry about her. “Nothing, Jake.” She sighed, sinking low into her seat. Suddenly surveillance didn’t seem that important anymore. This was a conversation in the making, wasn’t? “We just- we just grew apart.” Sure, Rose. Lie to the poor kid, make him hate you and hopefully no one else needs to get hurt. That was her goal anyways, but she was always a little too over indulgent. It was probably why she went crazy in college (or as crazy as someone like her would go). Jake was the one thing she never took.

Everything else though, that was fair game.

He was always so stupidly obvious with his crush on her, it was kind of cute. It took her time to see him like that, but by the time anything was going to happen, the Huntsman found out. She used college as an excuse, but there he was with her. She could’ve indulged herself then, she wanted to, but he deserved better. He was the one person who didn’t need to get hurt because of her.

Everyone else? Well, the Huntsman didn’t care. 

“Shit happens, you know?” She could’ve punched herself.

“Oh.” Jake had to swallow the lump in his throat. What was he supposed to say to that? Even Jake didn’t have a one-liner at the ready for the naked truth. Wasn’t it convenient that they started to grow apart when the Huntsclan grew into a major force? Shit happens, indeed. 

And...wow. This was all his fault, wasn’t it? Of course they’d grown apart. He’d grown apart from nearly everyone during that time in his life, prioritizing being the Dragon over being Jake. Sure, he could have indulged himself in college, when he managed to attain a modicum of independence and Rose finally, finally seemed to be interested. But she deserved better. She was the one person who didn’t need to get hurt because of him.

Everyone else? Well, the dragon came first.

But how the hell was he supposed to explain that to Rose? Jake stared out the side of the car forlornly. In any other situation, this would be romantic—a dream. Now? He could only think about how difficult it might be to scale the side of the ferris wheel without being conspicuous. 

But the universe took pity on him. Or maybe it just really hated him. Either way, Jake was interrupted from his thoughts by a sudden shaking. “Shit,” he cursed, with feeling, as he stabilized himself against the railing. An earthquake? In the middle of Maine? This was some kind of god-tier fuckery. “The hell?”

The earth settled. The sentinels’ dulcet tones crooned out of God-knows-where. The Creator’s asshole, maybe. Wherever they were, their message was clear—there was an emergency happening, and Jake was hanging in the middle of the air. He exhaled sharply. “Dude. Not that this isn’t, like, great, y’know, um, catching up and stuff, but I gotta get out of here.”

[jakelcng-blog]

rey.

DATE: june 15 STATUS: open LOCATION: the hurricane twister

“I don’t know how anyone can get on this thing!” Rey exclaims, “It’s practically a death trap!” She looks at the way the tracks rattle and shake with every twist and turn a cart takes, and grimaces. Taking a sip of her oversized drink, Rey watches as people shriek with equal joy and terror, and she considers her options. 

She could just stand there and watch the people as they had fun, or she could be the one having fun herself. She feels the plastic of the wristband she’d bought in place of tickets, giving her unlimited access to any ride there, digging into her wrist and she lets go for a second, and allows herself to move into the line with only a sly smile on her face. 

“I take it back, it looks fun. Come on, let’s go together!” 

Ostensibly, the Hurricane Twister was named for its twists and turns. Jake, however, feels like it is a more apt description of what would happen if you put a normal structure through a hurricane. And then a twister. In short, it’s a ride right up his alley.

Having successfully completed his quest to attain the most ridiculous fried food on sale in the festival, he's finally able to turn his attention to the coolest deathtrap in the carnival, half-eaten bacon-wrapped deep fried pickle in hand. He’s standing by the ride’s queue, unsuccessfully trying to cajole someone to ride the Hurricane Twister with him. And then he sees Rey. Nice.

As Rey speaks, Jake mentally prepares himself to drag her on the ride. But she slides into line instead, and his face smiles in a mirror of the expression on hers. “She’s down, lessgo!” he exclaims, moving in behind her. “I’ve been bugging people to ride this with me. But ‘nooo,’ they say, ‘it’s a deathtrap.’ Well, what’s life without a little risk, y’know?”

[coeur-de-coeur]

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this song bleeds perfection

[jakelcng-blog]

🍺 are u the american dragon (ask and thy shall deliver or whatever)

“whaaaaat? i fuckin wish, dude. i can tell you what i am though. hit it—”

A hip hop beat begins to pump through the air. Where is the sound even coming from? Why does it sound like the mid-2000′s are back?

“now listen,” Jake ad-libs. An impending sense of dread settles. It’s too late to back out. The song has begun. 

“i may not be the amdrag, but sit down and you’ll see—

i don’t gotta be him when i’m a dope emcee

‘cause from the ‘j’ to the ‘a’ to the ‘k’ to the ‘e’

i’m the mack daddy dragon of the nyc, ya heard?”

He cackles. “american dragon? nah. mack daddy dragon’s where it’s at. that’s my rap name, bro.”