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WHO: Tina Belcher and you
WHERE: Various places throughout the Porter cities, except for Jeopardy
WHEN: Early January
WHAT: Two more of Tina's closest friends have disappeared, so she's a mixture of Sadsack and Angry and might get into a bit of trouble in the meantime.
WARNINGS: TEENAGE ANGST and being sad over lost friends

1. Maurtia Falls #001

Home is a difficult place to be right now, now that Angus has disappeared. He'd been around the entire time Tina had been, and she's always taken for granted that he's just going to be there. So she's going to alternate between being mopey, doing things like lying on the couch and groaning, and trying to keep busy by stress-cooking and cleaning. At least the household will be clean and well-fed?

2. Mischief - Porter city of your choice

Tina's still hanging around with Team Skull, as much as she tries to disentangle from them and remind herself she's not suited for gang life. Perhaps that will change, though, if this place keeps throwing crap at her. After Iris and Ango's departures, Tina can be found stalking around some of the Porter cities, Skull cap and bandana to obscure her identity, being egged on by a small group of grunts in various bits of teenage mischief- like pushing over trash cans or using rotten produce or soda to make sticky messes.

3. Horse/mischief cleanup - Porter city of your choice

Other times, Tina feels bad about whatever trouble she's causing and tries to overcompensate by taking out her beloved Jake, a placid piebald miniature pony, and visiting the Porter cities. He'll sometimes don a unicorn costume, complete with colorful chalk in his mane. Or else she can be found picking up trash, even if it wasn't her specific fault, with a frenzied energy that's unlike her.

4. Wildcard

Or anywhere else? Hit me up on Plurk at

shurimon or Discord at Yedong#9491 to talk ideas.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ice cream. Ice cream is good all year, even if adults insist you're not supposed to have it during winter. Feels like a waste, really, specially when it won't melt on you so easily.

He's enjoying himself some, Dog held on a leash, when he notices a...pony? A unicorn?? No- definitely a pony, with a fake horn, accompanied by a familiar face. So Adam approaches.

"Is that your horse?"

The pony doesn't shy away from the dog at all; indeed, his body language remains relaxed, almost bored. Tina smiles and nods in reply to the question.

"This is Jake. He likes it when I dress him up like a unicorn. ... I think."

Dog stares up at the pony, big beady black eyes watching the creature and taking in his chances of ever being intimidating toward it. It is much bigger than a cat, or a horned bunny, and he hasn’t had much luck in those cases either.

Adam smiles and approaches Jake, looking at the bright colors of his mane, “Can I pet him?”

"Go for it. He's really gentle," Tina says, the affection and pride in her voice obvious. "He's training to be a therapy horse, so he's hard to rattle. He loves getting attention."

Adam's smile widens, and he reaches over to pet the horse's mane. "Hey, boy."

He vaguely remembers seeing Tina with more horses, a good few months back, when the fairies were around. "Are you just taking him for a walk?"

"His name is Jake." Tina smiles, but then her expression turns a bit more serious at his question.

"Yeah, I... needed to get some fresh air, I guess. There's been... quite a lot of stuff happening lately. Some of my closest friends went home, too. Or wherever they go when the Porter takes them out of this world. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes, like I need to get away, no matter where."

Adam looks at her, smile fading as soon as she mentions her friends leaving. “I’m sorry.” Offered quite honestly.

“Where would you want to go, though?”

"Thank you."

Tina sighs and looks around at the streets.

"I don't know. Anywhere that's not Maurtia Falls, since that's where I live. But then again, it doesn't make much of a difference when I see reminders of those people everywhere I go. Even at home." She wrings her hands a little. "I guess I'm... part of me is looking for something or someone I can help. That's why I take my horse with me, because he makes other people happy. And maybe if I help other people feel good, it will help me feel good."

Adam listens quietly as she speaks, unsure how to comfort her, but knowing he wants to. He hasn't had anyone that's disappeared and left this world (as far as he knows, which is, unfortunately, an incorrect assessment from the boy), so he doesn't really know what there is to say.

He looks at Jake and thinks, petting the side of the horse's neck idly. "I think you're doing a good job. Making other people happy is a good thing. Not everyone can do that."

Jake whickers softly in pleasure at the touch, swishing his tail.

"I'd like to hope so, so thanks," Tina replies. "I'm not sure it's going to fix how I feel, but it's better than some of the stuff I HAVE been doing. Getting angry at the world and doing... ... stupid things."

She catches herself before she admits having joined a gang, because even months on, she's still having mixed feelings about that.

Oh, Adam knows a thing or two about being angry at the world. While his experience is mostly based on rapidly gaining knowledge of both truthful and entirely made up paranoid theories about what's wrong with the world, aided by magical influences a bit too strong for any normal child to handle, it probably serves him enough to relate.

"What kind of stupid things?" He has to ask.

"Letting kids at school talk me into doing... well, vandalism," Tina admits, wringing her hands. "You know, knocking over trash cans and spraypainting buildings and stuff. While it's satisfying as I do it... I don't feel very good afterward."

Adam blinks, and gives Tina a once-over. Hard to imagine her doing anything that could be considered rebellious... although the things she said don’t sound that bad. But, then again, he almost destroyed the whole world, so maybe his perspective on What can be qualified as acting out is a little warped.

“Maybe you need to find something else then. I’m sure there's other things you can do that can help you feel better.”

Tina notices the once-over, and she can probably guess why- she's always such a good person who keeps her nose clean, being a destructive brat is strange.

"I've had exercise suggested to me," she admits. "Kickboxing. Or just beating a punching bag. Or, hey, maybe I should get back into capoeria. I'm not used to being angry, at least not this angry, so... finding an outlet that actually works for me has been hard."

Exercise sounds like the sort of things parents would get their kids to do if they acted out a lot. He doesn't know why he knows that, but he gets the feeling that's what happens. Talking it out would probably be better...

"Those sound fun." So much is true, at least. "Maybe you can do other things, too. Something you really want."

He thinks... "My mum gets sweets when I'm feeling sad, sometimes. One of the friends I live with makes cocoa, or we go out for ice cream. Those are nice too."

Tina nods, reaching over to pat Jake.

"At first I did try to do those things," she replies. "And I spent time with horses, and with my guardian's dogs. They made me feel nice, but didn't make the anger go away, not for very long. And when someone else I like vanishes... it just pisses me off all over again, and I'm back to square one."

Adam continues to listen attentively, idly petting the pony's mane as Tina talks. These sorts of things don't have simple answers, he doesn't think, but he's bound to keep looking for some. Maybe it's just his age.

"Have you tried just... Talking about it?" It wouldn't be his first suggestion. Talking rarely sounds like it might do much, until you do it and are surprised over how much better you feel. He may not have the best communication skills himself, but he's also eleven. " About how you feel and why."

"I have, but... maybe not enough," Tina muses. "I've been to the school counselor before, but not lately. That's one of the things that kept me going before, and I'm not sure why I stopped... maybe part of me wants to believe I didn't need it any more."

“Maybe you could try again.” Again, not that he really knows how that works. “I bet there are other people who’ve done the same, though. When they’ve had friends go back home too.”

He looks at Jake, gently moving his hand to pet over the pony’s head. He kind of wishes he had treats to give him. And, just like that, he does. Adam pulls an apple from his coat pocket and holds it to Jake's mouth. "Is this alright?"

Jake's attention perks up at the apple, and he touches the surface all over with his lips before taking a cronch out of it.

"Aww, he says thank you," Tina replies. "Apples are one of his favorite things." She then sighs, looking out at the distance at nothing. "They've helped me before. When I've had people leave... now it seems like it happens so often, there's no point. But that seems like a pretty grim thing to say, too. And that wouldn't make counseling totally pointless."

Adam smiles as Jake eats the apple, continuing to pet his mane with his free hand.

"Maybe you could do something with your friends." That isn't, apparently, mildly harmless vandalism. "Something fun. Might get your mind off it."

But he thinks about it a bit more. "Or maybe you could...make something about your friends that aren't here anymore. Like a story, or a drawing or something."

"I do like to write," Tina admits. "I've kept a diary since I was little, and that gets all of my feelings poured into it. As for spending time with friends... I don't wanna say it feels like all of them are gone, because it's not true. Maybe I need to step back and take a good look at what I have and focus on that, instead of what I don't have."

Adam nods, smiling faintly. At least she seems to be moving onto more positive notes, which is nice.

"Maybe you could write about your friends. Like an adventure. Or just how they were. And other people who knew them can do something too."

"I have done that before," Tina admits a little sheepishly. "Not for a while, though. Sometimes I find it hard to live inside a fantasy when there's... well, everything like this going on around me."

Adam nods faintly. "Yeah."

With the apple gone, he goes back to petting Jake's mane. "Reading superhero stories got kinda boring. Monster ones, too. Stops being fun when it's all just...normal."

3 in Nonah

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