Dialtown Oneshots

Norm takes his adopted children fishing!

oughhhhhhhh I'm sad lemme have one thing on this putrid earth

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Norm parked his truck and opened the doors for everyone to get out. He shoved four people into his little pickup truck, not including himself, and he was gonna have a good time with them, come hell or high water. He parked at a nice lake outside of Dialtown, as he didn't want Randy anywhere near the swan-infested pond in town. He pulled the tackle box and folding chairs out of the bed while everyone filed out. Mingus was the first to start complaining, unsurprisingly.

"Ugh, why's it so muddy? We couldn't have just gone to a nicer area?"

"This was the only area 'round here that ain't that godforsaken park, so we just gotta work wit' what we got."

Norm started setting up folding chairs, which Karen hopped out and started helping him with. She was in a mood where she didn't want to talk or be touched, so she was just gonna set up a chair and paint while everyone else went fishing. Once their little site was set up, Norm got his good poles out and showed everyone how to thread it properly. As Oliver waited for his bait, Norm dug through his tackle box and handed Oliver a little bag of plastic bobbers.

" 'cause I don't wanna know what a worm with a phone head looks like, we're just gon' use fake lures. You gotta make sure nothin' happens to these, 'cause they were expensive."

"Don't worry, sir, we won't lose them!"

As Norm finished helping Oliver cast his line, Randy's line broke. The cowboy sighed and reassured Randy as he helped him with a new line.

So far, it was 50/50 of people enjoying themselves. Karen was enjoying the general quietness of nature and her odd horse drawings. Occasionally she'd show them to Norm, who would give her constructive criticism when needed, but mainly encouraged her. Oliver enjoyed fishing. He'd excitedly show Norm and Randy the fish he caught before letting it go back into the lake. None of them wanted to keep what they caught.

On the other hand, Randy was terrified of his line breaking again because he didn't wanna be a bother. It didn't matter how much reassurance he got, he didn't want Norm to 'waste more money' on him. Mingus was annoyed that she wasn't catching anything. After showing Karen how to raise the snout on a horse drawing, Norm went over to her and gently placed a hand on the mayor's shoulder.

"Here, lemme show you how yer s'posed t' do it."

Standing behind Mingus and gently holding her arms, he showed her the motion of how to cast her line without accidentally catching a hook on Randy's jacket. Then, he moved his chair to sit next to her as they waited for a bite. Whenever Mingus started getting frustrated, Norm reminded her that things like this take time, and you need to wait. It's honestly surprising how patient he was with her, given their past. He was like the mentor she never had. When she eventually did get a bite, she reeled it in and showed him. Her catch was a little bluegill. It was the happiest she had been in a while. She and Norm bent down by the pond, and he showed her how to gently unhook the fish from the line and let it go back into the water without harming it.

After a lot of unhooking Randy from lines, Norm yapping about the fish they caught, horse doodles from Karen, and horror movie fun facts (courtesy of Oliver), the gang packed up their fishing gear and set off to return home. It was an exciting day, and everyone was ready to relax.

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do NOT take any of this as shipping or I will not be a happy camper 

anyways erm follow my ao3 account 4 better stories and more frequent updates :3