Ron sat on the dock of the old lake, if you could call it that. Mom was always trying to convince Dad that the old swimming pond was a mosquito nest, and that Dad should find a way to fill it in. But Dad was way too lazy for all of that. His days doing much more than laboring on the tractor were behind him. It was mostly Ron's cousins and a few of the Mexicans that worked the hard part of the farm during the summer time. With Dad's supervision of course.

"Wanna swim?" Bradford asked. "Or, I know! I Know! We can go fishing!" he said, eyes wide with possibility, but also discomfort over which one to choose.

Ron smiled.  "Lets fish first and then we can go swimming."  Ron had his own reel, a birthday gift from his Grandma a few years ago, and his dad kept some of his own older ones in the garage which Bradford could use.  Ron doubted that the pond had any fish in it anyway, having never caught one himself, but putting a fishing line in the water always made for a fine afternoon.  If they were really lucky, they might catch a frog and then he and Ron could put it into a Mason jar and use it to scare Mom.

They'd tried to scare Dawn with one once but, although she was scared of most other things, she didn't seem afraid of frogs.  In fact, she'd been the one to dump it out of its jar and then she'd stuck it into her pocket and carried it to Mom herself.  Of course, Mom had jumped and screamed when she saw it.  She always did at small critters.

Bradford rubbed his eyes, shielding them from the bright sun.

"Good idea" He agreed, and then with more excitement.

"We can catch a fish and then swim like fish!"

He opened the tackle box.

Ron looked at the reel that his Grandma gave him. It's thin, whispy surface glistened in the hot sun. Many a fish had been caught with this rod. There was no reason to assume that today would be any different. After all, Bradford and him and done quite a job a few weeks back, grabbing a good share of porgy fish before the sun went down and Mom's voice could be heard calling and echoing out in the open plains to come home.

OOC: Ron gets +2 to the upcoming fishing roll


"Blood worms then?" Bradford asked, excited by the idea of using the nasty buggers to catch some fish.

Ron nodded and his smile widened as well at the prospect as well.  "Yeah!"  He looked around to see if anyone else was coming.  It was unlikely, but sometimes other kids came by as well to hang out and fish or to swim.  If enough kids showed up, they might be able to get a decent game of Army Man or War together.

[OOC:  Sorry, missed this one!  Did you want me to make a roll to fish?  And if so, what would you like me to roll?]

As Bradford hooked the bloodworm onto the end of the fishing Rod, Ron took a quick glance around. At the far end of the dock, he saw Billy Clemens and Joshua Taub setting up their own fishing spot.

It wasn't that Ron didn't have good interactions with Billy and Joshua. It was just that sometimes you could never predict if Billy was going to use any moment to make something a competition. And since they were both best friends, when Billy got to being mean or angry or competitive, Joshua was right behind him all of the way.

This far out in the country, finding kids to play with was hard on free days. If you made a trip out to the lake to go fishing, that was likely the only destination you could reach all day. Unless there was a barbecue or a wedding or some special occasion, the farms around Ron were sufficiently far enough away to make each venture out to play an excursion in and of itself.

Still, the lake was as good a place as any to meet up with kids accidentally, and this deck, known for catching good star fish, was one of the more popular ones.

OOC: Not yet. I'll let you know when. No worries. This is just a memory thread.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 18:06, Sat 10 Sept 2016.

Ron waved towards Billy and Joshua, being sure to make it a brief wave of acknowledgement and greeting, rather than a call for the other two boys to join them.  Ron felt like making this a relaxing day.  He'd finished all of his chores early and had even made a few bucks spreading straw on Mr. Shannon's land to protect that new grass he'd just put in.

Working for Mr. Shannon was usually easy work.  You did a little bit of work, but spent most of the time listening to Mr. Shannon tell stories about his service in World War 2.  His wife would even bring out a pitcher of iced tea and put it on the table under the shade umbrella in his back yard.  Mr. Shannon had been an officer on a ship in the Pacific Ocean and told really good stories about fighting the Japanese.  He called them "Japs", but when Ron had been re-telling one of the stories, his Mom had scolded him for saying it, so he only said it when she wasn't around.

Dad was actually out working, having found a few days work fixing a bulldozer at one of the construction sites in town and Mom had shooed him out of the house for making a mess while she and Dawn were cleaning and dusting.  He'd puttered around in the yard for a while until Bradford had showed up wanting to go fishing.  They'd invited Dawn, but she'd been "busy" helping Mom clean.  Which mostly seemed to involve following Mom around and making small messes that Mom had to add to her cleaning so far as Ron could tell.

So, while Army Man or War would be a fun way to spend the rest of the day, with Billy and Joshua around it would become a lot more competitive than Ron would have cared for today.  All of this went through Ron's head as he hooked his own bloodworm and cast his line into the pond.

Joshua smiled an oily smile back at Ron from across the dock. It reminded Ron of the time that Joshua and Billy had played 'hit cars with pine cones.' Somehow, Ron got the sense that his Mom really didn't care for Joshua and didn't want Ron hanging out with the boy.

"Oh. Those two." Bradford said in a tone that seemed to indicate displeasure.

"Ron, we gotta catch a good fish today. I think we can catch some of the trout that Mr. Shannon says looked like the fish the Japs ate." He placed the bloodworm on the hook and cast his own line out.

"If you could catch anything today...I mean anything, what would it be?" Bradford asked, tugging at the line.

OOC: Ron Rolls Dexterity + Animal Ken + equipment (2)

Ron thought for a moment before remembering one of the many magazines that his Dad had stacked up next to the recliner.  He thought it was called "Salt Water Sportsman" or something like that and one of them had shown a man standing next to a big fish with a long, sharp nose.  "I'd like to catch a Marlin, I guess.  It's a big fish that lives in the ocean, and it's got a long nose like a swordfish.  I guess a swordfish would be pretty neat too."

[OOC:  Today: Ron King rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((10(+9),1,2,7,5,8)).]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:59, Wed 14 Sept 2016.

Bradford nodded as Ron cast the line out just like he had seen in the fishing magazine. Then, there was a 'plunk' sound, followed by what felt like a bite of some kind. Ron gently tugged on the line, only to feel more resistance. At first, he thought it must be a really big fish.

But then, he felt that familiar tug, followed by the rod bending far--way to far. With no movement at all, this clearly meant the worst had happened---a snag.

"Looks like you hit a snag." Bradford said, thinking the same thing. "I'll get it."

He started to wade out into the water, knees deep into it, hands fishing around for Ron's line. He grabbed a hold of it and started to pull slowly, just like Ron had done a dozen times before so that the line didn't snap.

Ron could see the end of his fishing line release and felt the weight of the snag go away. He looked up and saw what it was:

A bottle.

Bradford was holding a clear bottle. And something was inside. He uncorked it, pulling out a piece of paper. Then Bradford's large eyes grew even more magnified behind his large glasses.

"It's a message..." he said in a slow voice that sounded worried. He waded back towards Ron and handed over the note, which was written on a large piece of paper.

Ron felt a shiver down his spine and glared at Bradford for a moment, thinking maybe that he was playing a trick on him.  Seeing that Bradford looked worried, he dismissed that thought.  While he definitely wasn't stupid, Ron wasn't always a quick thinker, so he pondered the note for a few moments.  He glared again, but this time in the direction of Joshua and Billy.  "It's probably just those jerks playing some stupid prank on us, Bradford.  Don't worry about it."  Still, he folded the note up and put it into his pants pocket, the same one that he kept his pocket knife in.

"Wathcha got there!?" Joshua Taub asked, having snuck up on the dock behind both Ron and Bradford.

"I seen ya' foldin' somethin' up!" Josh announced.

"Yeah, he was foldin' something up Joshua. I saw him do it." Billy added, helpfully.

Ron scowled again and turned to the other two boys.  "None o' your business."  Ron's comment was directed at both boys.  "It was just a cool bottle that the line brought up."  Ron's original thought that the message was some sort of trick the other two boys were playing didn't jive with their questions, so there had to be another answer about where the message had come from, but Ron couldn't think of anything.

"Lemme see!" Joshua said and he advanced, cutting the distance rather quickly. His arms were extended, clearly meaning to shove them inside Ron's clothes, get at the letter.

Billy began to shout out directions to Joshua, aiding his friend.

"It's in his left pocket!"