[Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

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The-J-Man
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[Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

(As some of you may know: I live in Texas with three dogs. I decided to do a fan-fic based on them…with Bino as the main character)


Texas Blues.

Chapter 1: Clear Blue Skies

Bino takes a normal stroll around the neighborhood to clear his head and gets his thoughts in order about what he was going to do next, but he is stopped when he almost collides with a “For Sale” sign. The sign was placed in front of a house that had been vacant for a while and had been shown to many people already, yet no one wanted it because it was so close to an old abandoned house.

Bino circles around the sign by stepping into the street and decides to make his way back to the club, but he is again stopped by the sound of a truck engine approaching his location. He looks down the street and catches sight of a very large, dark blue, Pick-up Truck that made its way down to the vacant house’s drive way. In the back of the truck were many pieces of furniture and trunks full of belongings.

It was then that Bino noticed that the “For Sale” sign in front of the vacant house had been replaced by a sign that read:

“SOLD”

Bino watches as the dark blue truck pulls into the driveway and he is soon joined by Rex and Fox, who were following the truck out of curiosity.

“Hey Bino,” Rex waves to his friend. “Did you hear that this house was sold yesterday?”

“No, I didn’t. Have you two been keeping this from me?”

Fox rolls his eyes. “We figured you’d know since you were leader of the club, it’s your responsibility to be on top of these things you know...”

“…I’ve been busy...with Duchess.”

Fox rolls his eyes again, but he catches sight of something that he had never seen before. Fox taps Bino’s shoulder and points down to the Truck’s license plate, specifically where it was from:

“TEXAS.”

All three dogs hear the gears of the truck grind into park and then hear the driver’s door, which was facing away from them, open. Bino, Rex, and Fox see the drivers’ feet step down from the cab; he had a pair of black sneakers and worn jeans on. They see the man step slowly over to the front of the truck until he revealed himself by the front bumper.

He was a short man with white skin that was slightly tanned from being in the sun, but most of it was covered by a red collared shirt. He had a short beard that ran across the edge of his jaw and stopped at the hinges, just short of the sideburns; his hair looked light brown, but when the sun hit it, it turned to a golden color; and he had a friendly grin on his face.

He inhales deeply and exhales, he was exhausted from his long drive. The man then notices the three dogs watching him, so he waves at them with a smile as he walks towards the bed of his truck. He opens the bed and unhooks several bungee cords that held his cargo in place.

Bino summons Rex and Fox into a huddle so that they could talk about this new neighbor.

“Okay guys, who wants to be the first to go meet this guy?” Bino asks

Fox protests. “What? That’s your job, Bino.”

“What he said…”

Bino cringes at the fact that Fox was right, but he knew that he had no choice in the matter. He walks over to the man who was
lifting several cardboard boxes.

“Um…sir…?”

No answer. The man was making quite a bit of noise by moving all his stuff around and couldn’t hear Bino.

“…SIR!?”

“GAH!” The man springs up from his crouched position and almost causes a stack of boxes to topple over, but he catches them
before they fall. The man speaks to Bino with a slight southern accent. “Whoa there little guy, you scared me.”

“Yeah…um…Me and my friends are here to welcome you to the neighborhood and help you move in if possible.”

“Oh that’s okay, me and the girls have it covered.”

Bino gets confused, he didn’t see anyone with him. “Wait…what girls? You mean you have kids?”

The man taps the back window and shouts through the glass, causing several things to move in the seats. “Are you three gonna sleep all day, or come help me!?”

The back door of the truck opens on Bino’s side to reveal three dogs, all of them female. They each reveal themselves one after the other as they climb down from the truck’s high cab:

The first dog looked to be a mix between a Terrier and a Jack Russell, but she was only two thirds the height of Bino; she had a brindle patterned coat of short and soft fur that would easily blend in with dirt, short and squared ears, brown eyes, and a very big smile on her face. She turned toward the three dogs with her hands folded in front of her and said a familiar sentence to them:

“Hi I’m 'Brownie'.”

The next dog that exited the back seat bench was a Chocolate Labrador that was very old and a little over-weight. She had several spots of grey fur on her hands, snout, and near the spot of white fur on her chest. She reached back underneath her seat and grabbed a wooden cane that she used to walk over to the group of three dogs. She spoke in an accent that you would expect a cranky grandmother to have:

“Hello children, you can call me ‘Grandma Cocoa’.”

The last dog to exit the back of the truck made Bino’s jaw drop, almost to the ground.

This dog was a beautiful Border collie mixed breed that had a unique fur pattern. In addition to the regular black and white Collie pattern, she had several small black spots dotting her white fur and a bit of tan fur around her Mane. She seemed to be quite energetic, even though she just woke up from her long trip. She smiled brightly at her new surroundings and caught sight of the three dogs that came to greet her. She walked over to Bino, who was standing in the middle of them. She grabbed ahold of his hand with both her hands and shook it in a firm handshake. Once she released her grip, she spoke to him in a slight southern accent:

“Hi there, my name’s ‘Penelope’. What’s yours?”

Bino stammers for a few seconds while trying not to look stupid. “I-I’m-I’m Bino”

Penelope giggles at Bino’s nervousness. She rubs his head hard and messes his fur up a bit. “Aw, you’re cute…”

The moment is then interrupted by the owner of the three girls. He walks over to Bino and shakes his still-outstretched hand.

“My name is ‘John’.” It’s nice to know that people are already making us feel welcome. The man turns back around and assigns tasks to the three girls:

He points to the small terrier, who was still sporting her big smile. “Ok Brownie, you go move the small boxes in.”

“…Hi I’m Brownie.” She does as she as told without another word, and with the same smile on her face.

The man rolls his eyes, turns to the old Labrador, and hands her a small wicker broom. “Cocoa, you go sweep up so that we can move the furniture in.”

Grandma Cocoa takes the broom and hands her cane to her owner in return, but she offers him a warning before going into the house: “You’d better not break that young man.”

John groans at Cocoa’s comment before turning towards Penelope. “Penelope, you can help me with taking the furniture apart and then putting it back together inside.”

Penelope goes back to the backseat of the truck and lifts the seat up like a folding chair, revealing a wide array of tools including: A cordless power drill, a dremil tool, a hand saw, a socket wrench set, a pair of jumper-cables, a first-aid kit, and even a sledge-hammer.

“Let’s see-let’s see…bit driver…bit driver. Where are you…? AHA!”

Penelope takes out the socket wrench set and opens it to reveal a special screwdriver that had interchangeable magnetic heads, like drill-bits. She makes sure that every tool is in place before closing the toolbox and walking over to Bino for a quick word.

“We’re all good here, I hope to see you again Bino.”

Penelope looks at Bino’s face and giggles to herself before turning back around, like he was doing something funny. She climbs up into the bed of the truck and starts disassembling the furniture that would not fit through the front door of the house with her owner.

Bino just keeps staring forward in awe of the girl he just met. Both Rex and Fox look at each other after observing Bino’s reaction to the Border collie. Fox smirks and taps Bino on the shoulder, trying to get him to stop staring.
“Bino, are you okay?”

It takes a minute for Bino to gather his senses “She’s…she’s…”

Bino is then interrupted when he gets a call on a cellphone Duchess had given him earlier. She had said that she would call if she needed him and told him not to use the phone for anything else. He pulls the phone out of his collar and flips it open to answer it, the least bit excited that she was going to take him out on a date.

“Hello…?”

“Bino, would you came back here and deal with Bruno; she’s sleeping in my room again.”

“Ok…I’ll be right there.”

It takes a minute for Duchess to hang up, probably because she was waiting for Bino to call her “Duchie-poo” again.

Bino’s emotions are clashing with each other while he stands there absent-minded, but he is quickly brought to his senses by Rex:

“Hey boss…your cheeks are burning.”

Bino immediately covers his cheeks. “No they aren’t! I-I’ve…I gotta go!”

Bino takes off running down the sidewalk, leaving Rex and Fox behind. They both shrug at each other.
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Saturn381
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Saturn381 »

Great job, J-Man!
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deep winter
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by deep winter »

Keep up the good work this might just become a fanfiction classic. To be honest when i saw the title i was half expexting a lacy but these characters are intresting none the less :D
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

deep winter wrote:Keep up the good work this might just become a fanfiction classic. To be honest when i saw the title i was half expexting a lacy but these characters are intresting none the less :D
actually TEXAS BLUES is in reference to the fact that this is meant to be a sad story... :cry:
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

(CURSE my knack for writing fast!)

Chapter 2 : Scattered Clouds

Bino sits down on the side of Duchess’s bed after he had gotten into a big debacle with Bruno, so he had a few scrapes and Bruises, nothing too bad. The entire time he tried to get Bruno to move, he couldn’t stop hearing Duchess insult him over and over again in his mind:

“Come on wimp, put you back into it and push that bear off my bed!”

For a while, Bino thought the insults were just a method of getting him motivated to work harder and he did it because he loved her; but now he was questioning his life choices, especially with this new girl down the street. He couldn’t stop thinking about her face.

“…She called me ‘cute’.”

Duchess comes back into the room and takes a seat in front of mirror attached to her dresser. She proceeds in grooming herself with the same blank expression she always had, not a care in the world, she didn’t even seem to notice Bino was sitting on her bed.

“um……Duchess-*”

“Oh, Bino you’re still here, good. I’m going to need you to be…not ugly…three months from now, there’s another dog-show coming up and I just entered us.”

“Yeah, but Duchess-*”

“And make sure you don’t wear that collar your already wearing, I hate green.”

Bino looks at his collar in the mirror and sees nothing wrong with it. “But I like green.”

“Not anymore.” Duchess grabs a red collar from a rack and throws it into Bino’s lap. “The judges would like to see red because it draws their attention.”

Bino looks in a nearby mirror hung on the back of a closet door and holds the red collar up over his green one to see how it looked.

The hated the color red, he hated how the collar clashes with his eyes, but he hated the fact that he was being forced to wear it by his ‘Girlfriend’ the most.

He clenches the red collar in his hand and turns around “What if I don’t want to…?”

Duchess stops brushing her hair and turns around on her chair to face Bino. “Excuse me?”

Bino remembers all the times he was forced to wear some goofy costume because Duchess wanted him to, it was humiliating but he never said a word because he thought he was making Duchess happy. “You…You heard me, I don’t want to wear it!”

Duchess gets a little agitated. “Hey, if you want to keep being MY boyfriend, you will do as I say with no questions asked, got it pencil-neck?” Duchess turns back around and starts brushing her hair again

Bino couldn’t take it. He clutched the heavy metal fastener of the red collar and reared back. He tossed the collar forward into Duchess’s mirror, forming a spider-web crack. Duchess looked at Bino’s refection in a piece of her broken mirror. She furrowed her brow, raised her head up, and shouted one word in anger:

“BORIS!”

The next thing Bino knew, he was being kicked out of Duchess’s front door by a very large dog with an ID tag in the shape of an atomic caution sign. He soared through the air after being literally KICKED out and landed on his butt at the bottom of the stairs the led up to Duchess’s house.

“Ouch!” Bino turns around and shakes his fist at the house when he sees Duchess watching from her window, she was just enjoying the show. “YOUR EMPTIER THAN YOUR TROPHIES!”

Bino gets up and cringes because his backside stung from being kicked and then landing on it. He starts walking home while holding back tears.

“Owwwwwwwww…”

=============================================

A little bit later:

Bino had made it home and the first thing he did was lay face-down on the living room couch. He has not moved for the last thirty minutes. He was in a state of emotional turmoil and his butt still stung, so he couldn’t sit right even if he wanted to.

Maxwell pokes his head around the corner and steps over beside Bino. “Hey Bino, why so glum?”

Bino replies in a very gruff tone that was mostly muffled because he had his face buried in between the couch cushions. “Leave me alone…”

Max continues with his sarcastic questions. “Oh come on, what happened this time?”

Bino turns his head to the side so that he was facing Max. Now that his voice wasn’t muffled, Max could hear the anger in his voice. “MAX…I said leave me alone…”

Max could tell that he should let this sleeping dog lie, so he goes back to his room without another word.

Bino’s butt finally stops hurting and he sits upright. He goes over his thoughts and starts organizing them to make sense. The whole time he was being used, Duchess had been taking advantage of his Naivety, but no more. Bino gets up from the couch and heads outside. He jogs all the way down to the house at the end of the street, where those three girls moved in yesterday.
Bino walks up to the front door and knocks on it, where he waits for a few moments before the old Black dog he met yesterday opened the door.

"Hello…? Oh, your that gentleman we met yesterday, What brings you here, child?”

“I um…just wanted to come visit and get to know you better…um Grandma Cocoa right?”

“Yes, come on in, we can talk over lunch.”

Bino enters the home while Cocoa slowly made her way over to the kitchen to just make a quick bologna sandwich for her guest. She walks bock over to the living room and hands the sandwich to Bino, who takes it in the most polite manner he can.

“Thanks, so…where’s the other girls, Penelope and Brownie?”

“She and Brownie went to the store with Dad to get some supplies.”

“Oh…okay. Listen I wanted to invite you all to join the Good ol’ Dog’s Club. The club house is down the street or you can call me and let me know.” Bino takes out a piece of paper from his collar and hands it to Cocoa, it has his contact info and the address for the club on it.

“alright... is there anything else you need young man?”

“Yeah...I wanted to know your guys’ story.”

It takes Cocoa a moment to reply to Bino’s question. “What’s to tell? All three of us are rescues. Dad took us in without a second thought, and we've been with him ever since.”

Bino is shocked when he hears that word: “Rescue”.

The word echoes and rattles around in Bino’s head until it fits in with the rest of his thoughts. “Wait…your ALL...rescues?”

“That’s right young man…”

“You…?”

“I lived most of my life on the street. Fighting for my next meal one day, and then running from the cops the next.”

“Brownie…?”

“Poor child was abandoned because she was deaf.”

Bino was almost afraid to ask Cocoa about the next person on his mental list: “…P-…Penelope…?

“She was the first one Dad took in, she was just a pup when she was taken off the street and put in a shelter, that’s where Dad found her. She's lived with Dad the longest.”

Bino was still having trouble believing that his crush was a…Rescue. “Wow…that’s…sad.”

Cocoa uses her cane to get up off the couch she and Bino were sitting on and starts stretching herself out, cracking a few of her joints in the process. Bino watches the old dog and can’t help but feel sorry for her, he pictures how hard it must have been for an old lady to survive on the street. Bino looks down at his knees and speaks his mind:

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you, an old lady on the street.”

...…*WHAM!* Cocoa hit the top of Bino’s head with her cane.

“OW! Why did you do that?…HOW did you do that?!”

“Young man I don’ need your sympathy, I learned how to fight at a very young age and I still know how to bring the RAIN O' PAIN! don’t you look down on me because I’m OLD!”

“Okay-Okay, point taken, you can put the cane down. Just…let me know if any of you want to join the club.”

Bino leaves the house with a goose-egg on his head and a new respect for old women, but that Collie was still on his mind
deep winter
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by deep winter »

ohh thats gatta hurt
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Maybe one of these days, those hits on Bino's head will actually make him nicer.
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

just so everyone knows. this Fan-Fic will be updating IRREGULARLY
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Chapter 3 : Partly cloudy

Bino waits at his house by the phone, waiting for a call from one of the three dogs in the house down the street. Usually, he was doing some demeaning task for Duchess at this time, but no more.

“I’ll wait all day if I have to; I’m not letting this opportunity slip by me.”

Just then, Bino’s prayers had been answered and the phone next to him rings. He jumps over and grabs ahold of the phone.

“HELLO!?”

Bino hears the familiar voice of Penelope on the other end of the line. “Whoa there jumpy, tone it down a bit. I’m calling about this invitation you left with Grandma Cocoa. I gotta tell you, she was not interested in this club from the start, but…”

“‘But’…?”

“I think I’ll join, just cause you asked us nicely. I’ll be over at the clubhouse in about an hour so that I can check it out with you.”

“Ah, ok I’ll see you there in an hour.”

Bino hangs up the phone and jumps into the air several times in celebration of his cunning plan actually working for once. Maxwell takes notice of Bino’s good mood and decides to ruin it like he usually does.

He watches Bino waltz over to the front door while he was humming a part of a song “Hey Bino, going for a flea bath?”

Bino turns around from the other side of the doorway when he had heard Maxwell; he points to him with both of his hands and says with a friendly smile and tone of voice:

“Shaddup.” *SLAM*

Max is surprised to see Bino was not agitated like he usually is. “That was really weird…he must be in some kind of trouble.”

Bino runs as fast as he could towards the nearby shop, but once he turns the first corner, he accidentally runs into Duchess as she was getting out of her limousine, of course she looked less than pleased.

“Beano, what are you doing here?”

“My name is Bino, and where I am is my business. I’ll have you know that I’m on my way to meet a GIRL.”

Duchess is offended by Bino’s comment, causing Boris to back up a few steps. “WHAT?!”

“You heard me! I met another girl…and she’s Prettier than you too!”

Duchess is stunned that Bino had the nerve to say that to her. She was offended beyond all reason, and she didn’t know how to deal with it.

“Boris…get back in the limo…I’m going back home.” The large dog does as he is told and joins Duchess in the back of her
limousine, they speed off while Bino sticks his tongue out at the car, watching it leave.

Bino then makes his way to the store and finds what he was originally looking for; a blank piece of card-stock. It only cost Bino a quarter, yet it was going to be worth a lot more to him once he was done with it.

Bino heads straight home with the card and starts working on it with a few pens and markers to make a card for Penelope, but he soon realizes that he has no artistic talent whatsoever, so he goes back to the store and picks up another blank card and then heads over to Joey’s house.

Bino knocks on the door and Joey answers, but he is very confused when he sees Bino standing there with a blank card in his hands.

“I need your help; I will give you five dollars to make a card for me to give to a girl.”

“…Make it ten”

“Fine, just hurry, I need this done in less than thirty minutes. Can you do that?”

“No problem, just leave it to me.”

=================================================

Twenty minutes later:

Bino runs as fast as he can towards the GODC clubhouse with the card joey made for him in his hand, he was in such a rush that he didn’t even think to open the card and look at it. He eventually makes it to the front door of the clubhouse, where he sees Penelope looking in through the door window. He waves at her and grabs her attention with the card in his hand.

“Oh hey…Bino…right?”

“Yep, it looks like were both five minutes early.”

“I call it being ‘Fashionably early’.” Penelope’s attention is then drawn to the card in Bino’s hand. “Hey what’s that?”

“Oh-uh, it’s a surprise for later, after I show you around the club. You are a new member after all.”

“Oh alright, I can wait.”

“Okay, let’s get this tour started!”

Bino proceeds in showing Penelope around the clubhouse, shows her the neighboring houses, introduces her to some other members, and finally explains the schedule for the club’s meetings. The whole tour took two hours to complete, so both Penelope and Bino take a seat at one of the tables in seats across from each other to catch their breath. They take fife minutes and Bino almost felt compelled to take a nap in the uncomfortable chair, but he is woken up by Penelope.

“So, Bino…that card from earlier.”

“Oh yeah.” Bino takes out the card and hands it over to Penelope. “It-its…um…I hope you like it…”

Penelope flips open the card and reads the neat handwriting left to right. She gets to the last line and then looks back up at Bino with a smile on her face. She stands up from her chair, walks around the circular table and grabs ahold of Bino’s wrist, pulling him away.

“C’mon lover-boy, let’s go get lunch at your place.”

“Guh...uh...Okay.”

Penelope tosses the card aside so that the words inside of it were now visible:

“Dear, Penelope

This is Bino’s brother ‘Joey’ writing; Bino really seems to like you and he wants to take you out on a date, but I know for a fact that he is horrible at this kind of thing, so you may have to help him out. Give him a chance and I’m sure you’ll grow to like him too.

Sincerely; mostly Bino.”


======================================================

A little later, at Bino’s house:

Bino talks with Penelope as they approach his house. “So what breed are you? I can tell you got the border collie, but there’s something else mixed in there…”

“Oh, I’m a Border collie/Papillion Mix”

“Wait…a Border collie…and a Papillion......what?”

“Yep, the strength and speed of a Collie mixed with the lively energy of a Papillion, I’m the whole package.”

Bino politely holds his front door open for Penelope and lets her inside. She looks around at the pictures on the walls and sees Bino with his owner and a cat.

“Hey, who are they?”

“Oh that’s Dad and Maxwell.”

Max peeks his head around the corner. “Did you call me-…uh, hello.”

Penelope smiles and goes over to shake Max’s hand with her iron grip. “Oh hi, you must be Maxwell!” She shakes Max’s hand up and down.

“Er…nice grip…and you can just call me ‘Max’.”

Penelope then feels something vibrating in her silver collar, a cellphone next to a gold tag in the shape of an arrow pointing up. She pulls the phone out of her collar pocket and flips it open to answer it.

“Hello…oh, hi dad…yeah I’ll be right there.” She closes her cellphone and turns towards Bino

“Sorry, but I gotta go help Dad move in the last of the furniture.” She runs off down towards the end of the street.

Max walks over to Bino and stands right next to him.

“Your new Girlfriend’s…uh…Exotic.”

“She’s from Texas. She’s nice, cute, and she hasn’t insulted me once…”

“Um, Bino?……You’re drooling.”
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

I feel so happy knowing that I'm not the only one that hates that stanky ***** Duchess! Nice job!
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

By now I'm sure you guys have noticed the chapter titles. The titles are displaying the current weather in this fan-fic so they will be Recurring
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

If dryideabat was here, he would go bananas over the titles. He's a meteorology major.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Buster »

that's got me wondering when it's going to wind up saying something like 'Tornado Warning'
Most important thing I've learned from D&D?
No matter how tempting it may be, as a DM I can't both present a problem and solve it.
Every time a DMPC or NPC fixes something a payer couldn't i'm diminishing and undermining that player's contribution.
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Buster wrote:that's got me wondering when it's going to wind up saying something like 'Tornado Warning'
i've lived in Tornado alley all my life, yet i have never seen a tornado touch the ground.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

(this is the last chapter i had prepared to post, so you will have to wait for the rest)

Chapter 4 : Overcast

The next day:

Bino got a call from Penelope to meet her down at the club so he heads down the GODC, taking his time to walk for once. He opens the door of the club and finds that it is filled with dozens of Dog couples that looked stuffy to say the least. They all looked to be from owners of High-income. Bino then remembers that the club had been rented for the Dog-show contestants to practice in.

Bino looked at all the couples and he could tell which ones were there for fun and which ones were there for money, because the couples that entered for fun had looks on their faces, like they already knew that they were going to lose.

He then feels someone grab his wrist, it was Penelope.

“Oh, hey.”

“Bino’s what’s going on, what’s with all the Pure-Breed’s?”

“I forgot that they rented the club-house from me for the next two months so that they could use it to practice for this Dog-show.”

The commotion from all the dogs in the club picks up from a dull roar to a loud crowd, so Bino motions for Penelope to walk outside with him so that they could hear each other.

“I called because I needed your help to find Brownie, but she already found her way home, sorry for the false alarm.”

“Brownie is the one who’s always smiling and says the same thing over and over again, right?”

“Yeah that’s right.”

“You know there’s another Dog in this neighborhood who behaves the same way?”

Penelope gives Bino a puzzled look. “…No, that’s not possible.”

“Why not?”

“Because that would mean there are two of them…” Penelope grabs Bino by the shoulders and shakes him back and forth. “...and that would mean the END OF THE WORLD!”

Bino pulls Penelope’s hands off his shoulders. “Now come on, that wouldn’t happen.”

Penelope hears the commotion from the crowd of show-dogs had died down, so she walks back inside with Bino’s wrist still in her hand. “So I also wanted to ask you something about this Dog-show.”

“What i--…” Bino catches sight of Duchess in the crowd. “Oh-no.”

“What is it?”

“We need to hide…my 'Ex' is here.”

Penelope follows Bino towards the stacked tables that were moved for the Show-dogs. They hide behind the tables and chairs while Bino peeks over the edge to get a look at Duchess. He sees that she was with another Dog he had seen before, a Pure-bred Border collie named ‘Karo’. The last time he saw that collie was with one of Duchess’s rivals, so he guesses that she won him over.

“Bino, what’s the big deal, she’s just a soft show-dog.”

“One, she always has this huge bodyguard with her. Two, I hate her guts. Three, she has more influence in the neighborhood than me. And four, she would have someone obliterate you if she knew you were my new Girlfriend.”

Penelope peeks over the table she was hiding behind and gets a look at Duchess, she then looks back at Bino. “What did she do to you? I can tell that it must have been bad.”

“She used me like a puppet just to get awards, and lied about loving me.”

Penelope looks at Bino’s sad face for a few seconds before saying anything. “Well, how would you like to get her back?”

“What are you talking about?”

Penelope takes out a pamphlet for the Dog-show that was in three months. “This show is allowing Mixed-Breed’s to compete with and/or against the Pure-breeds because they wanted to shake things up this year. That’s what I wanted to ask you about. I think we should enter.”

“Us, do you really think we could beat her?”

“Of course we can, now come on, I want to go meet our competition.”

“What…didn’t you hear me when I explained why we were hiding?”

“I already entered our names, she can’t touch me directly or indirectly or else she’s banned from competition.”

Bino is astounded by Penelope’s planning. “You’re just as much an evil genius as I am.”

“Yep, now come on hon, I want to face this problem head-on.”

Bino and Penelope walk over to Duchess and Karo. It didn’t take Duchess long to notice Bino’s presence. She turn towards him and Penelope with an agitated look on her face. “Oh hello Bino, you’ve met Karo before.”

Karo smiles and glares at the couple before him. He speaks in a deep voice that you would expect a stuffy rich man to have
“Hello…Peasants.”

Penelope raises an eyebrow, not in confusion, but to give Karo an unsettling glare. “Nice manners. So, you’re ‘Duchess’.”

Duchess only blinks in response.

“Bino tells me that you hurt him deeply when you lied about loving him.”

“I didn’t lie, love is just a tool that we show-dogs use to charm our way to the top pedestal and have a blue ribbon handed to us.”

Penelope gives Duchess and Karo a disgusted look. “Are every single one of you show-dogs a Spawn of Purgatory?”

Karo replies, not showing any kind of offense. “Aw…you wound me.”

Duchess leans in towards Bino with an angry look. “Honestly Bino, how could you leave me and fall for this…this…-”

Karo and Duchess both finish the sentence at the same time:

“Street-Trash!” “Street-Trash!”

*WHAM!* *WHAM!*

“OW!” “OW!”

“Watch your mouths!” Grandma Cocoa hit both Duchess and Karo's heads with her cane.

Bino almost starts laughing, but he is stopped when he remembers that he hadn’t seen Grandma Cocoa in the club earlier.

“Grandma Cocoa? That was awesome, but…what are you doing here?”

“I was just passing through to get to the salon because their having a half-off deal.”

“But, how did you know to hit Duchess and Karo when you did?”

“Young man, I know when I am needed…”

Cocoa grabs the handle of her cane and puts her weight back on it.

Duchess and Karo soon find reason enough to leave the scene with throbbing bumps on the top of their heads.

“Now if you will excuse me children, I’m going to get a thirty-dollar Mani-Pedi.” Cocoa slowly walks off with an excited look on her face, and leaves the club through the front door.

=============================================================

A few minutes later:

Bino went over to Penelope’s house just to relax for a bit and get away from the drama Maxwell brings him whenever he steps into his own house. He looks over to Penelope, who was looking at grey clouds through the living room window. He walks over to where she is standing and looks up at the clouds with her, but he then notices that she has a worried look on her face

“Hey watch'ya looking at?”

“Oh…it’s nothing. just those clouds"

Bino sees the clouds continue to stir and swell above. And then his attention is Drawn to Penelope’s owner, who was rolling a suitcase into his basement, this suitcase had a piece of masking tape on it as a label marked: “Instruments”

"Hey Penelope, i got the stuff you needed for the show."

To be Continued...
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Liking this a lot so far! You know what this needs though? Since it has the title "Texas" in it? A rodeo. And somebody flying into the mud.

But seriously, GREAT job!
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Housepets! version of my first Dog PENELOPE:
yes she really does look like this:
yes she really does look like this:
20150510_191225.jpg (148.5 KiB) Viewed 29101 times
Last edited by The-J-Man on Sun May 10, 2015 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Buster »

Amazee Dayzee wrote:Liking this a lot so far! You know what this needs though? Since it has the title "Texas" in it? A rodeo. And somebody flying into the mud.

But seriously, GREAT job!
i get the feeling Bailey would be the first to volunteer.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

I definitely could see Bailey though I wanna see somebody else land in mud. *coughcoughcoughKevincoughcoughcough*

Anyway like I said before, nice picture of Penelope!
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Amazee Dayzee wrote:I definitely could see Bailey though I wanna see somebody else land in mud. *coughcoughcoughKevincoughcoughcough*

Anyway like I said before, nice picture of Penelope!
i Live in good ol' San Antonio. We don't have many Rodeo's at all and the ones we do get are hardly popular. But one thing everyone in the city enjoys:

A WEEK OF "FIESTA"

So I wouldn't bet on there being a rodeo in this story...but don't worry, there's lots of other cultural stuff to share. The only downside of living in an old, cultural city like San Antonio, Is that there is a LOT of strays and abandoned pets out here, I'll be touching on issues like that as well
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Yeah that was really stereotypical of me to say that actually.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Chapter 5 : Overcast

Bino sees Penelope run over to the Suitcase her owner was carrying towards the basement stairs. The bag was labeled
“Instruments”, so Bino could guess what was inside. John opens the opens the suitcase and takes out strange-looking instruments, each with their own individual cases. He lists their names out loud as he inspects them and crosses them off his mental list:

“Let’s see…Violin, Guitar, maracas, Snare drum, Trumpet, and Flute. That’s everything.”

Bino looks at all the strange instruments that he had never seen before. “Hey...um…what are all those instruments?”

“Oh, sorry Bino, you can call me 'John' from now on if you like. As for these instruments; I collected these as a hobby while I still lived in Texas…each one is special to me.”

“You can play all of these?”

“Heavens no, I just play the acoustic guitar. I keep all the others for sentimental reasons and allow other people to use them if needed.”

“Well that’s pretty cool I guess.”

Penelope shakes one of the maracas for a second and then turns back around towards Bino. “Yeah, Dad’s going to be playing music at the Dog-show with a bunch of other musicians.”

“Since when does there need to be music at a dog-show?”

John replies to Bino’s question “It’s because there’s a dance competition in the judging events. You’ve been to a dog show before?”

“Yeah…I used to compete with my Ex-girlfriend, but not anymore.”

“Why not? You made it seem like you were competing in the upcoming show...” John pulls out the acoustic guitar and a pick. He sits down on a chair and starts striking a few chords to test the scale and adjust the strings.

“Oh I am still competing, but not with my Ex…”

Penelope walks over towards Bino and he grabs ahold of her hand, subconsciously letting her know that he was about to break the news to her owner.

John keeps his eyes on his hands while he plays his guitar and speaks at the same time “Oh yeah…who with?”

Penelope smiles and answers her owner’s question. “He’s going with me Daddy!”

*PAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*

John’s eyes shot wide open and at the same time, he broke a guitar string. He stands up and asks Penelope one question:

“You and Bino are together!?”

“That’s right Daddy, me and Bino are competing in the Dog-show together. Bino’s ex is competing in the same show, so me and him are gonna show her up.”

“Wait...was your Ex’s name ‘Duchess’?”

Bino raises an eyebrow. “How did you know…?”

“I met a cute dog named ‘Sasha’ who told me all about how this one dog 'Duchess' was dating another dog before that Pure-Bred Border collie she was with. Sasha also mentioned that she dated Bino before as well.”

Penelope Gives Bino a puzzled look. “How many Ex’s do you have?”

“Just two, but me and Sasha broke up on good terms. Duchess is the one had me kicked out of her house.”

“Okay…so we don’t need to worry about Sasha in the competition.”

“Nope, but she and Kevin may have a chance at winning though…”

John puts his guitar down and leans the neck against his chair. “So let me get this straight; you two are planning on winning against Duchess and/or catching her doing under-handed work in order to get her banned from competition for life?”

“Yeah that’s about right.” Bino replies in a calm manner.

“Well, just let me know if you need any help…I’ll let you practice in here whenever you need.”

Penelope and Bino look at each other after John had left and they just shrugged at each other. “I guess that means that he’ll leave us alone when he sees us together…?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a safe bet…”

Penelope looks over at Bino and Smiles. “GAK!” She grabs the back of his collar and starts dragging him off towards her room

“Come on Bino, I feel like snuggling now that daddy knows we’re together

“Okay-Okay!”

====================================================

The next day, at Duchess’s house:

Duchess sits in front of the mirror Bino had broken before. She was just staring at it and replaying the hateful event in her mind. Karo than walks into the room and takes a seat on her bed.

“You know Duchess dear, you can always get that mirror replaced.”

“No, I’ll leave it for now. It fuels my rage.”

“Alright, whatever.” Karo lies back on the bed, not showing any kind of concern for Duchess’s vendetta against Bino. “How
about we snuggle for a minute…just as a team-building exercise?”

Duchess takes a deep breath and walks over to her bed. She lays right next to Karo, but she does not look particularly interested in his offer. “You know Karo…I was thinking about that girl Bino was with and…”

“let me guess; you want me to do something about her?”

“Oh Karo, you always know just what to say to me. Can you do it for me?”

“Well it may take a little money and some clever planning, but I think I can manage the country girl. Heh –heh, ill make sure the next three months are going to be very difficult for her.”

“What are thinking of doing, Karo honey?”

“Oh I don’t know. A little flirting, another bit of sabotage, maybe even a few anonymous threats against her; it’s Nothing I’m not used to doing for Colleen.”

“Oh yeah Colleen…what happened to her?”

“Oh I dumped her when she got caught bribing one of the judges from last year’s competition, she went up against this other dog and she knew she had no chance against her, so she foolishly tried to pay off a judge, only to be ratted out by the same judge the very next day. She was banned from competition for life.”

Both Duchess and Karo look at each other with silent looks of concern, but their expression soon change and they both start laughing at Colleen’s misfortune.

“Ha ha ha…you know, come to think of it; that might have been a good idea if she had chosen the right judge to bribe…”

“You sure you want to take that risk?”

“Hmmm…no, I'll keep that plan in reserve if I need it later, I’ll just consider it a ‘last-resort’ option.”

“Speaking of ‘last-resort options’; what are you planning to do about Bino?”

“Oh I’m not worried about him. that Pencil-neck will break easier than…well…a pencil-neck.”

“You don’t want me to try and keep him on his heels in the meantime?”

“No, me and Boris will take care of Bino, you just take care of Penelope.”

“Yes, but I might wait until next month to give them a false sense of Security.”

“That sounds like a good idea actually

============================================

The Next week, at John’s house:

Penelope holds a piece of paper and paces back and forth in front of Bino, who is seated in the middle of the living room couch.

“Okay, so there are three parts to this Dog-show: The introductory array of questions, a Talent contest, and then a dance competition at the end”

Penelope hand Bino the list of events and he nods to show that he understands what each of them means

“Each couple will be judged and given a certain amount of points in each of the three stages. At the end, all the given points will be added up. They may hold a second dance as a tie breaker so we will have to prepare a second, but totally different,
performance.”

“Makes sense…they really turned this dog-show into a competitive sport didn’t they?”

“Yep; and this competition’s going to drag out for several hours, so im gonna help you work on your body.”

“What do you mean, ‘Work on my body’?”

“It means I’m gonna help you start WORKING OUT!”

:shock: Bino’s eyes shrink to the size of the period at the end of this sentence. <--
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

What's the matter Bino? I thought you wanted to be muscular like your older brother! Good job on this part!
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by deep winter »

I can only guess he will be sore by the end of day one. Chances of winning high.
Nice work BTW
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Chapter 6 : Heavy Thunderstorms

The next day:

Bino pants and wheezes while he runs alongside Penelope in his new exercise regimen. He fights to keep up and not fall flat on his face, but he can feel his muscles burning already. He stops and sits down on the curb to catch his breath.

“I don’t think I can go another mile…I need a break.”

Penelope raises an eyebrow and rolls her eyes. “Seriously, you only ran two miles.”

“TWO MILES?! That’s the farthest I’ve ever ran without a good reason!”

Bino succumbs to his exhaustion and falls flat onto the grass behind him. He just looks up at the darkening clouds and watches them stir for a few seconds.

Penelope also looks up at the clouds with a slightly worried expression and she catches sight of something shiny falling from the clouds. Both Bino and Penelope watch as a single raindrop falls right onto Bino’s head.

Penelope grabs Bino by the collar and lifts him up onto his feet. “Come on Bino, we need to get back to my house before it starts raining!”

“Alright-alright, I'm coming!”

“I have some stuff back at the house that we can use to exercise anyway.”

========================================

Back at John’s house:

Penelope digs through a chest in the back of the room and finally finds what she was looking for, a pair of dumbbells that her Dad used to use, but he never used them anymore. Both dumbbells have the number “20” printed on the side to show how much they weighed

“Here Bino, let’s try a simple exercise with these. My dad used to use these before he played guitar, but he won’t miss them now.” Penelope then shows Bino a simple exercise with the dumbbells. She holds her arms straight at her sides with the weights in her hands, and then lifts her arms up until they reached a 90 degree angle.

“Think you can handle that?”

“Sure, give ‘em here.” Penelope hands both dumbbells to Bino, and his arms immediately drop to his sides from the unexpected weight. “Oh, they’re a little heavier than I thought.”

*Rummmmble*

Penelope and Bino both hear a soft rumble coming from outside the nearby window, the sound of a distant thunderstorm heading their way. Bino then sees that Penelope had a distressed look on her face as she walks over to the window and looks at the falling rain.

“Hey is everything okay Penelope? You look worried about something.”

“Oh-um-yeah…I'm just…worried that the power might go out.”

“Oh don’t worry, it takes more than a little darkness to scare me…GRRRR!” Bino continues to try and lift his arms up at an angle like Penelope had showed him, but he was just short of achieving a 90 degree angle. “Oh come on!”

Penelope couldn’t help but snicker at Bino’s straining and then sees her owner pass by with a jacket and an umbrella. “Heeeey, looking good Bino. Making good use of those old weights I see?”

Penelope looks away from the window and gives John a smile. “Yeah, I didn’t want them to go to waste.”

“Well you two stay safe tonight; I checked the weather and there’s going to be a huge storm coming through shortly, so no playing outside in the mud. Penelope…”

Bino snickers as he watches Penelope give her Dad an angry glare

“See you guys later. Brownie and Cocoa are going to be helping me set up some of my equipment and then we’ll just get a room at a hotel until the storm blows over.”

Bino gives John a confused look. “Why get a hotel room? It's just a little rain.”

John answers Bino just before he leaves. “I take personal safety very seriously. Once you’ve seen the kind of storms we got in Texas, then you can question my methods.”

*Click*

Penelope motions for Bino to keep going with his exercise while she keeps an eye on the weather outside. The rain was getting worse, but the sounds of thunder had stopped for the time being.

==================================================

An hour later:

Penelope assembles the parts to a bench weight and tells Bino to lay down on top of a mat she had laid out for him. “Okay Bino, just take the bar and lift it as high as you can. If you feel that your arms are gonna give out, just tell me and I’ll help you. There’s no shame in being spotted.”

Bino holds the bar up over his chest and mentally prepares himself for the exercise. “Right…no shame…” Bino inhales deeply and begins to lift the bar. “Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaah…! I did it, I lifted the bar!” He then looks over to Penelope to see that she is holding what looks like a metal disk with a hole in the middle.

“Um, Bino…I didn’t put any weights on the bar yet…”

“Aww…”

==========================================================

After a few hours:

Bino hangs up the phone after telling his dad that he would be sleeping over with Penelope until the storm blew over. He looks over into the living room to see that Penelope was still looking out the window with the same worried look on her face.

“Um…Penelope…you alright?”

Penelope snaps her head around to show a look of embarrassment. “Oh…yeah I'm fine.” She then motions over to the couch. “I put out some blankets for you to sleep with.”

“Thanks…I really need some sleep. I just hope that storm stays quiet.”

“Me too…”

Bino climbs onto the couch as Penelope walks over to her room and arranges the blankets so that he can get into a comfortable position. Bino then sees Penelope climb onto the couch and rests her head against Bino’s shoulder. She drapes a blanket over herself and nuzzles Bino's shouler.

“Bino, your muscles may be noodles, but you’re the bravest dog I’ve ever met.”

Bino smiles as he watches Penelope’s eyes close and feels her drift into a deep sleep. Soon, both dogs are in a deep sleep with the relaxing sound of rain pattering against the window. Both of them hugging each other tightly

=============================================

Later that night:

*KRAKOOOOOOOOM!*

Bino snaps awake to the sound of lighting and thunder pounding away outside. He looks outside the window to see that the sky was black and the rain was pounding. The lighting and thunder crash loudly and keep him from falling back asleep, but he then notices that something else was different:

Penelope was Gone.

Bino searches around the living room and checks Penelope’s room to see if she was there, but there wasn’t a soul to speak of. It was then that Bino heard the sound of crying coming from the living room. Bino follows the sound to the source in a dark corner of the room.

It was Penelope; she was sitting with her knees up against her chest, her hands pressed over her ears to block out noise, and she was crying softly. She feels Bino’s presence and looks up at him with a scared expression and tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Penelope, why are you crying? You have a bad dream?”

*Sniff* No, it's--”

*KRAKOOOM!*

Penelope presses her hands tighter over her ears and lets out a few fearful sobs in response to the crack of lightning. Bino then pieces it all together and realizes the reason for his girlfriend’s strange behavior: Penelope is deathly afraid of lightning.

Bino kneels down to Penelope and outstretches his arms for a hug. She throws herself into him and squeezes him tightly, not wanting to let go. “Why didn’t you tell me you were afraid of lightning?”

“Because-*Sniff*-what kind of dog wants a girlfriend who’s afraid of-*Sniff*-a little thunder?”

Bino smiles and picks Penelope up onto her feet. “You’re still perfect to me. Come on, we’ll sleep together.”

*Sniff* Bino…you really are the bravest dog I’ve ever met. *Sniff*

Penelope takes her hands off her ears, but she still winces and lets out a few sobs with each crack of lightning she heard. She then climbed back onto the couch with Bino and leaned her head against his chest, she was listening to his heart. To Penelope; the sound of Bino’s heart-beat helped to drown out the sound of the storm and the constant rhythm eventually lulled her to sleep.

Bino sees Penelope fall asleep and he drapes the blanket over her shoulders. The knowledge that he LESSENED someone’s pain for once, gave him a warm and fuzzy feeling that helped him to fall back asleep.
Last edited by The-J-Man on Fri May 15, 2015 1:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by deep winter »

Aww how cute.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

How romantic is that!? I think we found another pairing to rival Delmino! (sorry Mickey)
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Buster »

yeah, but Peno and/or Binelope sound odd, so we'll need something other than a name combination to use as a shipping name... hmmm...
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Buster wrote:yeah, but Peno and/or Binelope sound odd...
i was actually thinking of the name "Pino" for Penelope/Bino
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Pino sounds really good indeed!
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Saturn381 »

Nice update, J-Man.
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Chapter 7 : Clear skies

Bino finally wakes up from a long night of rain and romantic drama. He finds Penelope with her head still on his chest, fast asleep. He looks over at the clock and sees that it was nearly 9 o’clock, so he nudges Penelope’s ear in an attempt to gently wake her up. Penelope just twitches in response to the feeling of something touching her ear.

Bino whispers into Penelope’s ear: “Hey…it's time to wake up. I need to get home…” Bino still gets no response from her.

Just then, the front door of the house bursts open and Brownie, John, and Cocoa walk in. They all catch sight of Penelope and Bino and start tip-toeing towards their rooms, but brownie accidentally knocks a small pen to the ground. The soft sound instantly wakes Penelope up from her deep sleep and causes her to sit right up, but she also drives a fist into Bino’s stomach as a reflex…

“OOF! AAUUGGGHHH!”

Penelope covers her mouth in a concerned expression as Bino clutches his stomach and tries to refill his lungs with groans of pain.

“Bino, I'm sorry! Are you okay?!”

“UUUUGgghhhh…I lack air…” Bino falls off his seat and lies on the carpeted floor.

Penelope looks up just in time to see John, Brownie, and Cocoa all leave the room. She gets off the couch and kneels down by Bino to make sure that he was alright.

“I'm sorry Bino, it was just a reflex”

Bino speaks in a raspy voice “Yeah…a violent one. Don’t worry, I’ve been through worse.”

“You have?”

Bino’s voice starts to return to its original tone. “uh huh, I once fell off a banister and ended up in the hospital.”

“Sounds painful to me.”

“You have no idea what I’ve been through…” Bino finally fills his lungs back up with air and stands up “You know…speaking of which, I still don’t know anything about your past.”

Penelope’s ears droop and her eyes widen in fright. “Um…it's not something I like to talk about Bino.”

“Okay, ill tell you what; Ill tell you all about my past if you tell me about yours.”

Penelope hesitates and hopes that some crazy event of fate will save her from this scenario, but nothing happens. “Okay.”

“Great, come on, lets go talk at the mall. No-one ever pays attention to other people there.”

Bino grabs onto Penelope’s wrist and leads her out the front door, but not before leaving a note behind telling John where they had gone.

================================================

A couple hours later, at the mall:

Bino and Penelope sit at a circular table while Bino tells his entire story to Penelope. She thought it was so funny that she couldn’t help but laugh at Bino’s tales of misfortune. Bino wanted to look sulky, but Penelope’s laughter was making him laugh at his own mistakes too.

“Okay-Okay, it wasn’t that funny.”

“Yes it was, I can’t believe you actually did that with the wolves.”

“Yep, well that’s my story, it's your turn…”

Penelope’s eyes shrink to the size of dots again. “Uhh…well…-*”

“It's okay, take your time. No-one else is listening in here. At least tell me why you’re afraid of lightning”

Penelope starts sweating as she begins to recall her past, but it was visibly making her freak out. Bino had to interrupt her before she had a psychotic break. “HEY…! Are you okay…?”

“I-I'm sorry Bino, it's just…really painful to talk about.”

“I could see that. I think you might need some help with that before it becomes a problem in the future.”

Bino then feels someone tap his shoulder. He turns around to see Tarot standing there. “I was waiting for you to say that.”

“*Sigh*…I should’ve known.”

Penelope raises an eyebrow. “Bino who’s this?”

“Penelope, this is Tarot. She’s a really good Psychic that lives in Babylon Gardens. She just came over because she thinks she can help you with your memories. If you don’t wan-*”

Penelope Raises a hand and stops Bino in the middle of his sentence. “Bino, I'm from the middle of Texas. I’ve seen all kinds of Witchcraft and Hoodoo; I’m willing to try it with her.”

Tarot smiles and hands Bino a card with a time written on it. “Great, be at my house at that time and I’ll help out your Girlfriend.”

===============================================

An hour later, at Tarot’s house:

Penelope Lies down on a reclined couch as Tarot taps images on a clear tablet. Penelope looks really nervous, but manages to calm herself when she feels Bino hold into her hand. “I’ll be right here.”

Penelope smiles at Bino and then sees Tarot lower the tablet she was working with.

“Okay Penelope. What’s going to happen is that you will experience your life all over again while I monitor you with the CrystalTab here.”

Penelope tightens her grip on Bino’s hand. “…let’s get this over with.”

Tarot then leans over Penelope with widened eyes. “Okay…look into my eyes…are you ready?”

Penelope Stares into Tarot’s glowing eyes with a look of deep interest. “Yes…”

“123SLEEP!”

Penelope’s head instantly rests back against the couch with her eyes closed, she was successfully hypnotized. Tarot picks up the crystal tablet and pulls up an image of a long, moving, tunnel. “Penelope, can you hear me?”

Penelope opens her mouth and speaks while she was asleep. “Yes, I can hear you…”

“Good, I need you to go all the way back to your first memories. Focus your mind and find them, ill help with the rest.” Tarot works a few buttons on the tablet and eventually, an image comes up on the screen of Penelope’s memories from her point of view. Bino walks over behind Tarot and watches the events unfold.

===========================================

In Penelope’s memories:

Penelope awakens in the back of an alley to the sound of passing sirens. She noticed that she was a lot shorter than she remembered, so she looks at her reflection in a nearby puddle of water, she was a very young version of herself. Penelope looks over her body and sees that she has several patches of mud on her. She then hears Tarot’s voice in her head again:

“Penelope, I know that this is weird, but just play out the events as accurately as you can remember them. This is all about confronting your fears by re-living them, not avoiding them.”

“Okay…I remember all of this like it was yesterday.”

Penelope crosses her arms around her chest for warmth and she walks out of the alleyway to the sight of many old and abandoned buildings. Some used to be grand theaters, and some used to be apartments. Now all of these vacant buildings were home to the homeless and abandoned pets that just needed a shelter. Penelope walks over past a few alleys and was given a few piercing glares by a few homeless pets, but she did the right thing and ignored them as she made her way over to a nearby dumpster.

“Dumpster diving…not the next Olympic sport.”

Bino watches as Penelope fishes through the disgusting dumpster and couldn’t help but gag at the sight of the nasty contents. She eventually finds herself a freshly thrown-out burger on top of all the bags and she eats it on the spot, not wanting to let the other Pets see it. Just then, a pair of headlights ignites and illuminates the entire alleyway. It was a Garbage truck that was blocking the entire dead-end alleyway. Penelope tries to get out of the dumpster in a hurry, but finds herself sinking further into the bags of trash.

“Oh dagnabbit, I forgot about this part.”

Penelope feels the dumpster being lifted into the air and then she slides down. She manages to grab ahold of the edge of the hatch that led to the garbage truck’s powerful compacter. She manages to pull herself up, but she finds herself reeling backwards on a narrow ledge at a height that would cause her serious injury. Penelope is then surprised to feel herself being grabbed and then hoisted up by the scruff of her neck by one of the Garbage truck Loaders that noticed her in time.

“Hey there little girl…” The man walks over to the truck window to speak to the driver. He knocks on the glass and motions for the driver to lower the window. “Hey Mac, we got a straggler!”

The driver lowers the window, but still looks at something else in his passenger seat. “Another stray dog, Henry? Kick it to the curb!”

“But Mac look, she’s just a puppy…”

The driver finally takes a look at Penelope’s cute face and his heart instantly starts melting. thought he looked to hate every second of it.

“Gaaaaaaah, alright. If it’ll ease your conscience, I’ll take her to the shelter we always pass by on the route back. Just promise me that this is your last good deed of the day, and then get on the back of the truck."

The man holding Penelope hands her over to the driver while she was shivering from fear. The driver seats Penelope in the passenger seat and fastens her seatbelt for the ride to the shelter.

“Okay little girl, just relax and the ride will be short. Your going to a better place...”

"A better place?"

"Yep, a place where dogs like you are cleaned up and taken care of, maybe even adopted by a nice family. You'll make lots of friends there."

To be continued...
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Marvelous job on this!
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

Chapter 8: Heavy thunderstorms

Penelope twitches as Tarot observes her living out her memories on her tablet with Bino watching over her shoulder and holding Penelope’s hand at the same time.

=======================================

Back in Penelope’s mind:

The very young Penelope rides in the passenger seat of the garbage truck that was currently taking her to a local shelter nearby. She counts every passing sign and reads every word to try and get an idea of where she was, but she had never been to this part of town before. She remembers ad plays out every detail of the events that were currently unfolding in front of her.

Penelope speaks to Tarot in her head while watching what was happening in front of her. “If I remember this part correctly, things are about to get really bad for me.”

“I know it's painful, but you just cant stray from the path. Whatever you try to do to avoid what’s going to happen, it's not going to work. Just go with it and face your fears.”

“Oh alright.”

Soon, the driver of the truck presses firmly on the brake pedal and the entire garbage truck kicks forward with a sudden stop. He applies the parking brake and picks Penelope up by the scruff of her neck again. “Okay little girl, I'm just gonna hand you over to the nice lady in charge of this place, and you won’t ever see me again.”

All Penelope can bring herself to do in response is nod at the man.

“Good, now don’t make this any harder than it need to be.”

The man opens his door and makes his way past a large chain-link fence and passes through a large gate that led to a large open property with several small sections dedicated to holding different kinds of dogs instead of having their own separate kennels. The enclosed spaces for the pets already inside them were overcrowded and smelled of wet fur.

Penelope finally works up the courage to talk to the man carrying her. “I don’t like it here, it smells.”

“I don’t care, as long as it gets you out of my hair.” She then feels herself being lifted higher and notices a woman standing in front of her. “Here ma’am, just take her so I can get back to earning my paycheck.”

The woman grabs Penelope and holds her underneath her arms, it felt a lot more comfortable than being held by the scruff of her neck. Penelope watches as the man leaves and then turns her attention to the woman holding her “Ummmm…hi?”

“Hi there little girl, my name is ‘Haley’. What’s yours?"

“M-my name’s ‘Penelope’.”

“Well it's nice to meet you. Let me show you around your new home.”

The woman starts walking around the property and shows Penelope all of the different sections that were separated by rusty chain-link fences. She shows her the place where she can walk around, where she can play, where to eat and drink, and finally she takes Penelope to one of the giant cages meant to hold many dogs inside. All of the cages made of chain-link fence were placed directly next to each other in a long row at the back of the property. Each cage was halfway covered by sheets of steel and had bunk-beds placed underneath the covered sections

Penelope is carried down to the end of the line of cages and the woman stops at the last one. This cage looked considerably newer or less used than the one next to it, and there were no pets inside it.

“This place is reserved for pets your age. Don’t worry, you’ll have lots of neighbors to talk to during your stay. There are bunk-beds at the back of the covered section and you can always ask for a book from one of the care-takers. Now come on, in you go…”

Penelope shakes as she is placed on the ground and pushed gently inside the giant cage. The woman closes the gate and locks it with an industrial-grade padlock, there was no way that Penelope was going to break that lock, let alone unlock it. Penelope takes in the surroundings and ventures over to the bunk-beds at the back. “Oh well, it's not so bad…yet.” She picks one of the beds out and lies down on it, it was surprisingly comfortable, probably because it hadn’t been used as much as the others.

Penelope soon gets down from the bed and walks over to the fence that separated her from the pets next to her, but she was surprised when a large black dog appeared from the shadows and grabbed at the fence right in front of Penelope. He is soon joined by three other dogs, one white, one brown, and one white with black spots. The black dog, who was the largest of the four, spoke to Penelope.

“Hey newbie, what’s your name?”

“P-Penelope”

“Penelope? That’s a weird name…”

“I know, but people say that it suits me.”

“Well I can’t argue with that. The name fits you anyway. Is this your first time in a shelter?”

“Yeah…”

“Oh man, just keep yourself out of trouble kid. Your likely to be adopted the soonest and then you’ll be free from this terrible place.”

“Actually, this place isn’t that bad from what I saw.”

“It's not the place itself, it's just the repetition of everything each day…and then there’s the rain. We get storms a lot in this area. Don’t let this place get to you and you’ll make it out just fine.”

The four dogs disband from the fence and return to their business and conversations, but the black dog turned around and slid his back down the fence to a sitting position. “Just find something to look forward to kid, and focus on that when you’re feeling down. I’ll make sure noting bad happens to ya…”

===============================================

Two days later:

Tarot had “fast forwarded” through Penelope’s memories to the next significant event; though to Penelope, time had passed normally.

Penelope runs over to the front of her cage when she sees Haley leading a man towards the cages to find one he wanted to adopt. She walks down with the man until he gets near Penelope’s cage. She couldn’t help but brighten up at the possibility of being adopted. All of a sudden, she hears the voice of the black dog warning her about something: “Hey Penelope, hide under one of the beds!”

“What, why?”

“Trust me, I know that guy over there. He’s a bad dude and I can’t let him take you. Now get under one of the beds and stay there until he leaves.”

Penelope wanted to dismiss what the black dog had said, but she gets convinced when the man’s arms come into view. They were covered with bite-marks and scratches from pets fighting against him. She instantly slides under her bed and waits for the man to leave. She hears the man talking to Haley, but she cannot make out what they are saying. After a few minutes of Haley tapping on Penelope’s cage and calling her name, the man loses his patience and leaves empty-handed.

The black dog breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay kid, you can come out now.”

Penelope crawls out from under the bed with a distressed look on her face. “Why didn’t you want that man to adopt me?”

“Because I know who he is. Every year he comes to this place to get a puppy while playing innocent. He takes them and trains them to fight against other dogs for money. I wouldn’t wish that fate on my worst enemy.”

“Wow…I don’t know what to say…thank you…”

“My name’s Duke…”

“Thanks Duke.”

================================================

two weeks later:

Over the last couple of weeks, a slew of thunder storms hit the shelter and the pets inside were forced to stay in the covered sections of their cages, but some of the pets aren’t adept in sharing their personal space, so a lot of fights occur. Penelope couldn’t help but watch with the knowledge that she could go insane if she wasn’t adopted soon.

Duke watches the fights in the mud too but on this day, his attention was drawn to the sound of Penelope crying in her bed. He walks over to the fence separating him from Penelope and looks up to the top bunk-bed she was lying in.

“Penelope…? Kid, are you crying?”

“…I cant take it anymore-*Sniff*-the lighting keeping me up at night-*Sniff*-The people fighting all the time-*Sniff*-the hiding from the bad people-*”

“Hey…! Remember what I told you; Stay focused on the positive or this place will drive you insane…like that crazy cat with the eye-patch that was transferred a few days ago.”

It takes nearly ten minutes, but Penelope wills herself to stop crying. Unfortunately, the sound of rolling thunder and the cracks of flashing lighting start up again.

Penelope tries to block the noise out. The vibration from the thunder, the rain impacting with the metal roof, the bright flashes of lighting, and the sound of pets shouting at each other for space; it was all just too much to ignore.

Penelope wishes that she could block the noise out and go to sleep, but all she can do is…cry…

===================================

Outside Penelope's mind:

Bino and Tarot watch what Penelope was seeing on Tarot's tablet, but she get distracted by the feeling of something dripping on her shoulder. Tarot was so focused on what she was doing that she didnt notice that Bino was sniffing and tearing up behind her.

Tarot pulls out a tissue from her collar. "Tissue?"

Bino takes it and blows his nose. "Thanks"

To be continued...
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Very emotional chapter! I like how you have made this come out!
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trekkie
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by trekkie »

Very well done. I love your chapter titles.
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.” - Thomas Sowell

“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.” Phyllis Diller
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

hello people who are reading this fan fic, i just wanted to let you know that i am going to be spacing these next few updates out much father than i have before. it will be inconsistant, but the minimum will be a week between updates, the same goes for my other active fan-fics
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

That is OK with us! Just as long as you keep on writing them, we can wait!
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The-J-Man
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by The-J-Man »

FINALLY! after a full week of drawing and trying to perfect a brindle coat pattern...I give you, BROWNIE:
20150607_121656.jpg
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Saturn381
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Re: [Fan-Fic] Housepets! : TEXAS BLUES

Post by Saturn381 »

Great job, J-Man! Brownie looks so cute!
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