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The Flamingo Fandango was an interesting little joint.
Located in the northwestern suburban area of San Diego, the place was a small café/club hybrid that offered a unique experience to its patrons. Run by flamingos of Spanish descent, the establishment catered to the middle-class residents of northern San Diego, and was one of the most popular attractions in the region. It ran as a coffee cafe from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM, upon where it closed for three hours, only to reopen at 5:00 as an adult-centered night club, which stayed open until the wee hours of the morning.
Species of all types frequently came to the place, both night and day. The food was good, the employees were all kind and cordial, and it also provided a great atmosphere for friends to hang out with each other. The free Wi-Fi and classic arcade games in the back room certainly didn't hurt that atmosphere either. Plus, it was within walking distance of most every neighborhood in the north-northwest part of the city.
It was why a certain group of four friends chose here as one of their favorite fellowship places almost every week. Unfortunately for two of them, their other companions seemed to be running late...
”Where the fuck are those two?” Came the deadpan and bitter tone of Jason Sweetwater, better known locally as “Sweet.” The small horned lizard was currently on his third cup of spiced coffee in the last thirty minutes, but the caffeinated beverages seemed to be having no visible effects on him, aside from a barely noticeable twitching of the eye.
Across from him at the four seat booth was the crocodile friend and roommate of Sweet; Michael Cole. The croc was massive in size and stature, dwarfing Sweet by a full foot and a half in height, and having the body of bodybuilder. One would think at first glance that Cole was some dumb jock, but they couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, all they would have to do to discover said truth would be to glance at the notebook he was currently writing in.
"Maybe they got stuck in traffic, Sweet. Traffic's always bad this early in the morning." Cole replied, not looking up from his notebook as he continued to write in it.
Sweet just scoffed as he continued on a tangent; "Why would they drive here? It's a ten minute walk from their place, which is ten minutes sooner than our place!"
"I don't know." Cole said as he looked up at his friend, "Adam probably couldn't get Jack out of the bed. You know how lazy that coyote is."
"Too lazy, if you ask me."
"This coming from the guy who once neglected to wash his clothes for almost an entire month, and didn't do it until the smell got bad enough to warrant my uncle threatening to throw you out?" Cole chuckled as he teased his friend, savoring the less than pleased reaction that graced Sweet's face after he said it.
”Oh, fuck off with that. You know what I mean.” The lizard grumbled as he took another big sip of coffee.
”It’s not really a big deal, Sweet.” Cole assured him, calmly tapping his pencil onto the restaurant’s table, “They probably are just running late. This has happened before.”
”Yeah, but by half a damn hour? Even for Jack, that’s pushing it.”
”Well, I don’t know!” Cole started up in a mocking tone of exaggeration, “Maybe they got into a fight! Maybe Jack had a fling with a girl last night! Maybe Adam discovered a wormhole in his closet and is now sailing through space and time on an epic journey to WOH G64!”
Sweet’s eyebrow raised in both confusion and annoyance at Cole’s joking outburst, mainly at the last sentence of it. Cole quickly cleared his throat as he followed it up.
”Sorry. Still got physics on my mind.” He said as he tapped his notebook, which was filled with mathematic equations large enough to be misinterpreted as runes of some strange language.
“Right.” Sweet said as he looked at the notebook, a slight idea forming in his head of his own. Cole had a second pencil stashed between the spirals that held the book together, and it was almost like a taunt to the lizard.
Despite the two being best friends and roommates, the duo had many differences. Sweet was an artist at heart, and in fact it was one of the few things he actually did excel at. He would often paint pictures in his head of everything he saw, from simple stills to complete fantasies based on what he was seeing.
Cole, on the other hand, was an engineer, who despite being out of college for four years now and a proud holder of a master’s degree, still constantly looked for new subjects to teach himself. His current interest was physics, specifically, those relating to space and time.
As the croc returned to his equation practice, Sweet slowly swiped the extra pencil from the spirals. Twisting it around in his left hand, he then asked Cole, “Mind if I borrow a sheet, Mike?”
Cole flipped forwards a couple pages in his notebook, coming to some blank pages. He then proceeded to tear out a page for the lizard and hand it to him, “You only get one though, so make it count.”
”Oh, don’t worry.” Sweet chuckled as he spun the page around and prepared to get to work on a picture, “I could make this work on a sticky note. Besides, we probably got time to kill. You don’t have to work today, right?”
”Nope. Sydney and Horace got the auto shop covered today. Horace said I could take a day or two off, which I’m glad for.” Cole responsed.
“Well, then we’ve all the time in the fucking world to wait for Adam and Jack.”
As Sweet was talking, Cole’s phone began to ring. The croc put down his pencil and retrieved the device, chuckling as he read the caller ID and answered it, “Well. Speak of the Devil...hey, Adam...where you guys at?”
Sweet glanced at his friend, but otherwise focused on his drawing, which had already been given the basic outlines of a figure from the fast fingers of the horned lizard. Cole, meanwhile, continued to speak with Adam over the phone.
”Uh-huh...yeah, we’ve been here. Been here a while actually...uh-huh...uh-huh...and is he okay? ...oh, that’s good...oh, it’s no problem...alright, well, tell Jack that we send our regards, and that Sweet called him a dumbass. Alright, ciao.”
As soon as Cole hung up, Sweet questioned him, “So, where are they, and what did Jack do to warrant me calling him a dumbass...aside from him being his usual idiot self?”
Cole put his phone away, a massive grin forming as a hardy laugh briefly escaped his maw, “Jack saw a woman on the sidewalk and decided to pinch her butt. Then, the girl’s husband showed up and, needless to say, put him in his place. So, Adam’s taking him to the hospital. Asked if he could take a raincheck for today.”
Sweet couldn’t help but chuckle himself as he referred to the idiocy of his coyote friend, “Dumbass. Keep it in your pants next time.”
“Asking Jack to do that? That’s like asking you to wear clothes after eight.”
“Exactly. Neither is ever gonna happen.” Sweet affirmed, now filling in details into his rather comedic drawing, while Cole went back to writing down symbols into his equations. “So, whatcha wanna do then? We’ve got nothing else planned for today, right?”
”Nope.” Cole confirmed, “Sydney’s got work till 6 and then she’s got her brother over, and he’s always a handful...”
”And Veronica’s visiting her parents in Italy, so, I’ve pretty much got all the time in the world until she gets back. So, I’m open to suggestions.”
“Well...” Cole started, finishing up one last equation, and then shutting his notebook, “...we unfortunately missed GeekFest last week.”
Sweet’s response was bitterly sarcastic, “Oh, yes. Because I would have loved to have spent $50 on parking, just to walk around for a few hours and watch a couple thousand nerds in semi-good cosplays argue over which fantasy novel is the definition of the genre, or which anime hero reigns supreme.”
“You still would’ve gone for the merchandise.” Cole retorted.
”That’s true,” Sweet admitted, “but only for the merchandise. And maybe a picture with an actor I like.”
“Well, regardless, we missed it. So that leaves usual recreational activities. Like going to the beach...”
”Too hot and I don’t feel like seeing twelve different guys in speedos.”
”...going to a museum...”
”So you can explain the history of the steam engine to me for the four billionth time? No thank you...”
”...there’s the zoo...”
”It’s bad enough that we’ve made a recreational activity out of our feral relatives. Plus, we always get that one creepy tour guide halfway through.”
Cole shrugged with an annoyed expression of his own, irritated at Sweet’s refusals, “Well, there’s going to a movie. That’s about it, honestly, aside from going out to eat or going home and playing video games in our underwear.”
Sweet looked up from his near finished drawing, humming as he thought for a moment, “Hmm...I could go for a movie...what’s playing?”
”Anubis: Armageddon, Lance Sprinter 2049, and I think Dismemberment in the Stamboul Train just came out too.”
Sweet weighed the options in his head, before he responded with, “Well, we saw Lance Sprinter last month and it was meh...”
”I actually thought it was pretty good.” Cole interrupted.
”Regardless, we’ve seen it. How bout Anubis? The first two were okay but I heard this one was actually funny.”
“Crossing the Armageddon plotline over with the Planet Stonefist comic was an interesting move.” Cole smiled as a bit of his inner nerd shined through, “I want to see how well they execute it.”
”Plus you’ve got Sobek and Set back. That’ll be interesting...”
”Oh, totally.” Cole said as one of the flamingo waitresses brought the duo their check, to which Cole took out his wallet to pay, “You wanna go to the theater down the road, or the big theater at the mall downtown?”
“Downtown. We don’t have to see the movie right away, and we can check out some of the new shops there.” Sweet said as he looked over his sketch, adding a few extra details to it.
”We’ll have to head home and grab my truck then.” The croc said as he laid a $10 and a $20 bill down on the table. He then glanced over at the picture Sweet had been sketching for the past few minutes, “What exactly are you drawing, man?”
”Oh, just my own little ode to your physics nonsense.” Sweet chuckled as he made a few more minor marks and set the pencil down. He then slid the writing utensil and the page over to Cole, uttering, “Finished. Alright, let’s go.”
Sweet stood up and headed for the Flamingo Fandango’s exit. Cole raised an eyebrow as the lizard left, and then glanced upon the drawing. He couldn’t help but let out an amused chuckle as he grabbed the items, along with his notebook, and followed Sweet out.
The drawing was of their friend Adam, albeit in a cartoony form. The poor bird had discovered a wormhole in his open closet, and was about to get sucked through. It was a minor sketch and not even near the best the horned lizard had done, but it was still a glimpse into the unchanging humor of Jason Sweetwater.
This was a quick little ficlet I wrote a couple months ago to practice writing non-humiliation with some of my characters. A bit brief and corny, but I like it all the same. :)
Located in the northwestern suburban area of San Diego, the place was a small café/club hybrid that offered a unique experience to its patrons. Run by flamingos of Spanish descent, the establishment catered to the middle-class residents of northern San Diego, and was one of the most popular attractions in the region. It ran as a coffee cafe from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM, upon where it closed for three hours, only to reopen at 5:00 as an adult-centered night club, which stayed open until the wee hours of the morning.
Species of all types frequently came to the place, both night and day. The food was good, the employees were all kind and cordial, and it also provided a great atmosphere for friends to hang out with each other. The free Wi-Fi and classic arcade games in the back room certainly didn't hurt that atmosphere either. Plus, it was within walking distance of most every neighborhood in the north-northwest part of the city.
It was why a certain group of four friends chose here as one of their favorite fellowship places almost every week. Unfortunately for two of them, their other companions seemed to be running late...
”Where the fuck are those two?” Came the deadpan and bitter tone of Jason Sweetwater, better known locally as “Sweet.” The small horned lizard was currently on his third cup of spiced coffee in the last thirty minutes, but the caffeinated beverages seemed to be having no visible effects on him, aside from a barely noticeable twitching of the eye.
Across from him at the four seat booth was the crocodile friend and roommate of Sweet; Michael Cole. The croc was massive in size and stature, dwarfing Sweet by a full foot and a half in height, and having the body of bodybuilder. One would think at first glance that Cole was some dumb jock, but they couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, all they would have to do to discover said truth would be to glance at the notebook he was currently writing in.
"Maybe they got stuck in traffic, Sweet. Traffic's always bad this early in the morning." Cole replied, not looking up from his notebook as he continued to write in it.
Sweet just scoffed as he continued on a tangent; "Why would they drive here? It's a ten minute walk from their place, which is ten minutes sooner than our place!"
"I don't know." Cole said as he looked up at his friend, "Adam probably couldn't get Jack out of the bed. You know how lazy that coyote is."
"Too lazy, if you ask me."
"This coming from the guy who once neglected to wash his clothes for almost an entire month, and didn't do it until the smell got bad enough to warrant my uncle threatening to throw you out?" Cole chuckled as he teased his friend, savoring the less than pleased reaction that graced Sweet's face after he said it.
”Oh, fuck off with that. You know what I mean.” The lizard grumbled as he took another big sip of coffee.
”It’s not really a big deal, Sweet.” Cole assured him, calmly tapping his pencil onto the restaurant’s table, “They probably are just running late. This has happened before.”
”Yeah, but by half a damn hour? Even for Jack, that’s pushing it.”
”Well, I don’t know!” Cole started up in a mocking tone of exaggeration, “Maybe they got into a fight! Maybe Jack had a fling with a girl last night! Maybe Adam discovered a wormhole in his closet and is now sailing through space and time on an epic journey to WOH G64!”
Sweet’s eyebrow raised in both confusion and annoyance at Cole’s joking outburst, mainly at the last sentence of it. Cole quickly cleared his throat as he followed it up.
”Sorry. Still got physics on my mind.” He said as he tapped his notebook, which was filled with mathematic equations large enough to be misinterpreted as runes of some strange language.
“Right.” Sweet said as he looked at the notebook, a slight idea forming in his head of his own. Cole had a second pencil stashed between the spirals that held the book together, and it was almost like a taunt to the lizard.
Despite the two being best friends and roommates, the duo had many differences. Sweet was an artist at heart, and in fact it was one of the few things he actually did excel at. He would often paint pictures in his head of everything he saw, from simple stills to complete fantasies based on what he was seeing.
Cole, on the other hand, was an engineer, who despite being out of college for four years now and a proud holder of a master’s degree, still constantly looked for new subjects to teach himself. His current interest was physics, specifically, those relating to space and time.
As the croc returned to his equation practice, Sweet slowly swiped the extra pencil from the spirals. Twisting it around in his left hand, he then asked Cole, “Mind if I borrow a sheet, Mike?”
Cole flipped forwards a couple pages in his notebook, coming to some blank pages. He then proceeded to tear out a page for the lizard and hand it to him, “You only get one though, so make it count.”
”Oh, don’t worry.” Sweet chuckled as he spun the page around and prepared to get to work on a picture, “I could make this work on a sticky note. Besides, we probably got time to kill. You don’t have to work today, right?”
”Nope. Sydney and Horace got the auto shop covered today. Horace said I could take a day or two off, which I’m glad for.” Cole responsed.
“Well, then we’ve all the time in the fucking world to wait for Adam and Jack.”
As Sweet was talking, Cole’s phone began to ring. The croc put down his pencil and retrieved the device, chuckling as he read the caller ID and answered it, “Well. Speak of the Devil...hey, Adam...where you guys at?”
Sweet glanced at his friend, but otherwise focused on his drawing, which had already been given the basic outlines of a figure from the fast fingers of the horned lizard. Cole, meanwhile, continued to speak with Adam over the phone.
”Uh-huh...yeah, we’ve been here. Been here a while actually...uh-huh...uh-huh...and is he okay? ...oh, that’s good...oh, it’s no problem...alright, well, tell Jack that we send our regards, and that Sweet called him a dumbass. Alright, ciao.”
As soon as Cole hung up, Sweet questioned him, “So, where are they, and what did Jack do to warrant me calling him a dumbass...aside from him being his usual idiot self?”
Cole put his phone away, a massive grin forming as a hardy laugh briefly escaped his maw, “Jack saw a woman on the sidewalk and decided to pinch her butt. Then, the girl’s husband showed up and, needless to say, put him in his place. So, Adam’s taking him to the hospital. Asked if he could take a raincheck for today.”
Sweet couldn’t help but chuckle himself as he referred to the idiocy of his coyote friend, “Dumbass. Keep it in your pants next time.”
“Asking Jack to do that? That’s like asking you to wear clothes after eight.”
“Exactly. Neither is ever gonna happen.” Sweet affirmed, now filling in details into his rather comedic drawing, while Cole went back to writing down symbols into his equations. “So, whatcha wanna do then? We’ve got nothing else planned for today, right?”
”Nope.” Cole confirmed, “Sydney’s got work till 6 and then she’s got her brother over, and he’s always a handful...”
”And Veronica’s visiting her parents in Italy, so, I’ve pretty much got all the time in the world until she gets back. So, I’m open to suggestions.”
“Well...” Cole started, finishing up one last equation, and then shutting his notebook, “...we unfortunately missed GeekFest last week.”
Sweet’s response was bitterly sarcastic, “Oh, yes. Because I would have loved to have spent $50 on parking, just to walk around for a few hours and watch a couple thousand nerds in semi-good cosplays argue over which fantasy novel is the definition of the genre, or which anime hero reigns supreme.”
“You still would’ve gone for the merchandise.” Cole retorted.
”That’s true,” Sweet admitted, “but only for the merchandise. And maybe a picture with an actor I like.”
“Well, regardless, we missed it. So that leaves usual recreational activities. Like going to the beach...”
”Too hot and I don’t feel like seeing twelve different guys in speedos.”
”...going to a museum...”
”So you can explain the history of the steam engine to me for the four billionth time? No thank you...”
”...there’s the zoo...”
”It’s bad enough that we’ve made a recreational activity out of our feral relatives. Plus, we always get that one creepy tour guide halfway through.”
Cole shrugged with an annoyed expression of his own, irritated at Sweet’s refusals, “Well, there’s going to a movie. That’s about it, honestly, aside from going out to eat or going home and playing video games in our underwear.”
Sweet looked up from his near finished drawing, humming as he thought for a moment, “Hmm...I could go for a movie...what’s playing?”
”Anubis: Armageddon, Lance Sprinter 2049, and I think Dismemberment in the Stamboul Train just came out too.”
Sweet weighed the options in his head, before he responded with, “Well, we saw Lance Sprinter last month and it was meh...”
”I actually thought it was pretty good.” Cole interrupted.
”Regardless, we’ve seen it. How bout Anubis? The first two were okay but I heard this one was actually funny.”
“Crossing the Armageddon plotline over with the Planet Stonefist comic was an interesting move.” Cole smiled as a bit of his inner nerd shined through, “I want to see how well they execute it.”
”Plus you’ve got Sobek and Set back. That’ll be interesting...”
”Oh, totally.” Cole said as one of the flamingo waitresses brought the duo their check, to which Cole took out his wallet to pay, “You wanna go to the theater down the road, or the big theater at the mall downtown?”
“Downtown. We don’t have to see the movie right away, and we can check out some of the new shops there.” Sweet said as he looked over his sketch, adding a few extra details to it.
”We’ll have to head home and grab my truck then.” The croc said as he laid a $10 and a $20 bill down on the table. He then glanced over at the picture Sweet had been sketching for the past few minutes, “What exactly are you drawing, man?”
”Oh, just my own little ode to your physics nonsense.” Sweet chuckled as he made a few more minor marks and set the pencil down. He then slid the writing utensil and the page over to Cole, uttering, “Finished. Alright, let’s go.”
Sweet stood up and headed for the Flamingo Fandango’s exit. Cole raised an eyebrow as the lizard left, and then glanced upon the drawing. He couldn’t help but let out an amused chuckle as he grabbed the items, along with his notebook, and followed Sweet out.
The drawing was of their friend Adam, albeit in a cartoony form. The poor bird had discovered a wormhole in his open closet, and was about to get sucked through. It was a minor sketch and not even near the best the horned lizard had done, but it was still a glimpse into the unchanging humor of Jason Sweetwater.
This was a quick little ficlet I wrote a couple months ago to practice writing non-humiliation with some of my characters. A bit brief and corny, but I like it all the same. :)
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