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Scar loved the sewer. Ok, so at first that sounded a bit strange, he’d grant you that. But REALLY, when you thought about it they really were a MARVELOUS place. Cool in the summer and just above freezing in the winter, full of treasures and only the occasional unpleasant find(generally dead rodents), and most of all, PRIVATE.
Scar was generally a pretty extroverted person, but at times a budding magical conman required a quiet place to practice his slight of hand, create new and improved wares, and simply relax. But mostly cackle evilly to himself as he planned the greatest cons of all time(or at least that Hermitville had ever seen).
That was what he had been doing when a disaster, or a blessing depending on who you asked, appeared. Well, they didn’t appear. They came sloshing through the water from the most recent rain(amateurs), chattering quietly to themselves. Scar ducked into his Grotto, hastily swinging the piece of plywood he had dragged down with the help of Cub back into place. He wanted to make friends, but he also didn’t want to end up in trouble. Moving to a new town meant a new audience for his tricks and scams, but it also meant potential for enemies. Which he would like to avoid, at least for now.
Thankfully the duo didn’t see the plywood as out of the ordinary, and continued on their way, giggling about what they were going to do to some other kid named Etho. Scar pitied this Etho, it sounded like they were going to be woken from their nap quite rudely. Oh well. Not his problem. It was probably a one time thing, and he needed to get back to working on his crystals anyway. They had VERY specific needs if they were to grow correctly.
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The kids were back. They came from almost directly above this time, dropping through the grate that Scar himself had loosened, once again with Cub, as soon as he had realized what a great place the sewers would be. But now these kids had found it. That made him nervous. Sure it was on a public street a few doors down from his house and another dozen yards away from his little Magic Grotto, but they were still FAR too close to him.
This time he nicked behind the plywood a bit more quickly, but he left a little gap on the side. He wanted to get a look at them, see whether they looked nice or not. Their words had sounded a big malicious, but their tone had been light so he was unsure.
When they eventually came into view he froze, breathing light as their heads swung about the tunnel. For a moment he almost seemed to lock eyes with the lead one, a shorter boy in a red sweater. As his head swung to speak to his companion Scar’s breath hitched briefly, but instead of pointing at the plywood the sweatered kid(it was SUMMER, how was he not roasting?!) directed his equally short companions attention to a shelf which protruded above the water, just to the side of where they were walking.
“We could probably walk over there Bdubs. Keep dry a bit.” He commented, to which the even SHORTER kid(Bdubs he supposed) huffed angrily. “You should have told me that earlier Grian! My shoes are already soaked, what’s the point?!” Grian dissolved into a fit of giggles at the others indignation, hopping on to the shelf himself.
He pranced along it, tiny shoes squeaking, before leaping off heading almost directly at his companion, splashing Bdubs with water. Even though it was only runoff from the roads, the other sceeched as though doused in lava, immediately lunging for Grian who took off down the ledge cackling, Bdubs splashing angrily along behind him. And Scar could breathe again.
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Scar…..wasn’t sure what to make of this. He had plopped through the grate, scampered to his Grotto(which looked far more magical now that the crystals had grown and shone brightly in the lights Cub had helped him wire), and found it…..disturbed. The plywood had been in its proper place, but when he pulled it aside the lights had been shining(he KNEW he had turned them off before leaving) and there were small, wet footprints on the floor.
Nothing had been taken, he had bustled about checking immediately, but the idea that ANYONE had been in here besides him and Cub made him nervous. Now that everything he had spent the past month of summer building was tarnished. Not literally, it was all unharmed, but the sense of secrecy and safety was gone. He wasn’t a wondrous magician making charms and potions anymore, he was just a 10 year old kid surrounded by bits of trash and lab lit crystals.
As he was standing confused in his Grotto, Scar came to a realization. The footprints continued on out of the Grotto. He could follow the culprit! Seizing his magnifying glass, luck and stealth crystals, he set out. They followed the same path Grian and Bdubs had taken the day before, right along the ledge. Eventually they reached an intersection and he was left questioning, before spotting the same little footprints on the opposite side of the pipe, on another ledge.
Squishing through the water himself Scar continued his pursuit, until the ledge, and footprints, ended. Their had been a reverse set at some point which disappeared below a grate, but their destination and turning point was not evident. He was left questioning, eyes roving the tunnel as he searched for……something.
Finally, his eyes caught on a something. What seemed to be a loose point in the wall, cracks fragmenting the stone and different colors of rock Or, perhaps, several bits of concrete and other rocks used to conceal a hole, serving the same purpose as his plywood. Sloshing across the tunnel Scar pulled at the topmost one, finding that it did in fact slide out, revealing another space behind. Smiling, he got to work.
His labor was rewarded after only a few minutes, some sort of dark chasm revealed as Scar surveyed the site, wiping dust from his fingers before attempting entry. It was a tight squeeze but he made it, tumbling through into a nook similar to his own. Much….cruder if he had to say do however.
Sure the owner had brought a few pillows and a music box down, but the walls remained the standard concrete without and real accents. The lighting too was harsher, and Scar personally thought it could do with some crystals at the very least. After a moment’s consideration, he left his green luck crystal sitting on the central pillow of the nestlike structure before beating a hasty retreat, filling the rocks up behind him.
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When Scar returned the next day, exhausted after taking care of his flowers, there was a surprise waiting for him. Well, two surprises. A pillow and a note. He examined the note first, reading it aloud. “Your secret base looked cold. Thank you for the crystal, I hope the pillow is good in your base. Signed….G.” That was a big of a funny name, but who was he to judge? Turning to the pillow, he recognized it as one of the ones from the nest he had seen in the other nook. No, secret base. That sounded WAY cooler!
Scar thought about the mysterious ‘G’ quite a bit over the next few days. While trimming his bonsai trees, watering his flowers and running from the bees which Cub SWEARS are friendly, he thought about the pillow, and the note, and how to respond. Finally, after much deliberation and some teasing from Cub, he settled down to draft his reply.
It wasn’t much really, scratched on a stickynote in chunky letters, but it was readable by more than a teacher accustomed to the scribbling of amateurs, and that in itself was an achievement. The note read: ‘Thank you for the pillow, it is very soft. I thought you would want a night vision crystal, for seeing in the dark.’ Scar, in an attempt to sign it in a mysterious manner, ended it with SGT(Scar Good-Times), attached a Scar Certified night vision crystal, and headed off to drop it in the nest of the other secret base.
But when he arrived, he found the stones disturbed. A feeling of alarm growing in his stomach, he palmed a stealth crystal and slunk up to the entrance to G’s base. When he poked his head in he recoiled before steeling his nerves and inserting himself again. “Hey! Get away from G’s stuff!” As he spoke, the figure which had been fiddling with something spun to face him before….laughing?
“Stop laughing! G’s nice and I won’t let you take their secret base things!” He tried again, louder this time. “Who are you?!” Came the bemused response, confusing Scar further. “I’m G’s friend! Who are YOU?” Aha! Now he had them, they’d be forced to admit their guilt!
He did not, in fact, have them. Fully turning to face him, the kid who Scar was recognizing as Grian from days earlier laughed again. “I’m G! Or Grian, really. I guess you’re SGT?” To which Scar responded with a “…..yeah. Scar Good-Times. I, uh, brought you a crystal.” The others attention immediately snapped to his hand, and Grian remarked “Cool! It can go with the other one!”, gesturing to the luck crystal in pride of place on a shelf.
Scar gasped, horribly offended. “That is my Lucky Lucky Luck magic crystal! You’re meant to carry it, not frame it! It can’t be lucky from there!” Grian laughed again. He did that a lot. But, unlike other kids, he didn’t laugh at Scar before smashing the crystal. He smiled, and slipped it into his pocket. “How lucky is this thing exactly?” he inquired.
“It’s very lucky. The best I’ve ever made.” Scar informed Grian, quite seriously. “So…..do you think it will be lucky enough to keep Bdubs from killing us when we drop water balloons on his head?”
Scar liked the sound of that. Not just the pranking of Bdubs who was SURE to give a great reaction from what he had seen of him, but the ‘us’. The collective. Him and Grian, off to commit horrible crimes together. Yeah, he liked that. But first……
“If you REALLY want to pull this off, we’ll need to go back to my Magic Grotto. I have Stealth crystals, Health crystals, Distraction crystals……”
As he listed off the various crystal supplies he could fill his pockets with, Grian continued to giggle. He might have SAID he didn’t need the magic, but he was already out the door, heading for the Magic Grotto.
(As if turned out, none of the magic crystals Scar had kitted them out with were of any use. They were only halfway up the tree when Grian knocked down a beehive. Scar had experience fleeing the ‘friendly’ bugs, but his new friends did not, so the remainder of the afternoon was spent getting Grian and Bdubs patched up and talking.
It was a good day.)