Marks to Match
Soulmate Pairs / Marks:
Jimmy and Tango: Phoenixes on back/shoulders
Cub and Scar: Vex wing on back of left hand
Pearl and Gem: A sun and a moon on the cheek
Joel and Lizzie: Flowered vines up the left arm
Etho and Cleo: Big ol scar across the face
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Ranchers:
“I can’t believe Joel actually convinced you to do this,” Etho sighed, tipping back a glass of lemonade like it was a shot. Gem just laughed, more focused on Impulse, Skizz, Pearl, and Grian playing chicken in the shallow end of the pool.
“Joel offered me a chance to see my girlfriend in a swimsuit. What was I supposed to do, say no?” Gem taunted, keeping her gaze fixed on Pearl, “KICK HIS ASS BABE!”
“We both know Pearl is so desperately in love with you, you could see her in less than a swimsuit whenever and wherever you wanted to there has to be another reason,” He insisted.
“The man wanted to hold a pool party so he could show off in front of his girlfriend… or maybe so he wanted a chance to see Lizzie show off, either way, who was I to deny him the simple joy of throwing a pool party?” Gem asked.
“Fine, don’t tell me, I’ll talk to Joel about it.” Etho sighed, pivoting on his heel and walking back inside. Despite being the one to ‘host’ the party, Joel was still sitting on the stairs, just watching the front door, waiting for more people. “Anyone left aside from Jimmy and Lizzie?” Etho asked.
“Cleo, Scar, Bdubs, and Tango. Tango’s car broke down so the trio of terror is giving him a ride, considering that Tango lives halfway across town, I think they’re gonna be a bit late.” Joel explained with a half hearted shrug.
“Once Jimmy and Lizzie get here you can go outside with everyone else. Cleo has a house key,” Etho noted.
“Why am I not surprised?” Joel teased.
“I trust Cleo with my life, that and she’s my soulmate, it was an easy choice.” Etho shrugged calmly. Joel would have tried to sneak in another jab at the older teen, but when someone knocked on the door he was practically running towards it, which drew an amused chuckle out of Etho.
“Lizzy! Jimmy! Glad to have you both!” He smiled.
“Happy to be here,” Joel led Lizzy and Jimmy out back to the pool but Etho lingered inside for a bit. He could lock the door again and go join the fun, but Bdubs said that they were only a few minutes out so he just decided to wait.
“Timmy! Get over here! You’re next!” Grian declared as soon as the blonde stepped outside. The former standing on the side of the pool dripping wet while Pearl laughed at him.
“Someone’s bitter he lost,” Pearl remarked as Skizz set her down next to the pool, “Thank you Skizz.” The man gave her a quick thumbs up before tackling an unaware Impulse back into the water. Pearl just laughed at them, walking over to Gem and giving her a peck on the cheek before taking the green solo cup from her hand and taking a swig of it.
Jimmy was too busy laughing at them to remember Joel was standing behind him, and the shorter man was more than happy to take his chance, shoving Jimmy into the pool. Even Lizzy laughed at the disgruntled squawk Jimmy let out as he crashed into the water. Luckily with all the commotion that Impulse and Skizz were causing the choppy water was soft enough to break his fall. Once he processed what happened he was swimming back to the surface glaring at Joel.
“At least let me take my shirt off you prick!” Jimmy balled up his sopping wet shirt and threw it at Joel’s head. Oddly enough he was able to smack him straight in the face, which got a surprised laugh out of both Lizzy and Grian.
“Yo Jimmy, is that a tattoo?” Skizz was holding Impulse under the water when he asked the question, but Impulse didn’t seem too bothered by being submerged.
“Oh this?” Jimmy asked, pointing to the feathers that stretched over his shoulders, “No this is actually my mark,” Jimmy spun around, showing the blue eyed man the fire bird that stretched its wings across Jimmy’s back.
“Dude, that is so sick! You’re so lucky!” Skizz gushed, only to be flipped by Impulse pushing him out of the water and tossing him into the air. When he saw how hard Skizz hit the water Jimmy was glad the Taylor’s had a deep pool.
“Sorry we’re late everyone!” Tango sighed as he stepped through the back door, turning all eyes to him and the group following behind him, “But I brought stuff to make s’mores so I hope that makes up for it.”
“Of course Tango brought supplies to play with fire again,” Impulse teased, deflecting Skizz who was trying to push him underwater yet again. Tango laughed at the taunt as he set the s’mores making supplies on the table.
“Oh you wanna go, Impulse?” Tango taunted, pulling off his leather jacket and laying it on the back of the chair. Jimmy didn’t know Tango as well as he knew Impulse and Skizz, but with how the man jumped into the water to help Skizz tackle Impulse he got a feeling he would like him…
Or maybe that was the fact that Tango had climbed up onto Impulse’s shoulders, and his entire back was exposed to him, the phoenix stretched out across his back and all.
“Oh my god Tango!” Jimmy shouted without even thinking, distracting Tango for just long enough that Impulse could flip him backwards off of his shoulders. Tango didn’t seem to react much, just swimming back to the surface to look at Jimmy once again.
“Yeah?” He asked eagerly.
“I think we’re soulmates!” Jimmy spun around to show Tango his matching phoenix, and the man practically squealed in delight over seeing it. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this!” Jimmy gushed eagerly.
“I can’t either! This is amazing!” The two wrapped each other in tight hugs as Gem turned to Joel suspiciously.
“Is that why you wanted to do this?” She asked.
“Are you kidding? I’ve never seen Tango’s bare back before!” Joel pointed out, “I had no idea that this would happen.”
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Convex:
There were many different ways people hid their soulmate symbols. Some had it easy like Tango and his soulmate, who could just wear t-shirts and have their whole marks covered, but people like Cub needed to be more inventive.
His symbol was on the back of his left hand, and while he could have chosen the fingerless glove approach like his best friend Scar did, Cub was from a rich family, and he knew that someone would try to fake a matching soulmark with him just for the money (it had happened to his own mother after all) so he couldn’t even let people know where his mark was; which was why he covered it with concealer.
Turns out though, if he had just been a bit smarter, he would have never needed to hide it in the first place.
“Ough,” Scar groaned as Cub dabbed at the burn with rubbing alcohol. Cub just sighed at his friend’s stupidity.
“Scar, what were you thinking!” Cub scolded.
“I didn’t know the hot plate was on!” He protested.
“The bright red light didn’t indicate that?” Cub turned Scar’s hand over on his own. “You’ve gotta take off you glove so I can make sure there are no other burns.” Scar nodded obediently and took off the glove…
And below it was a blue pixie-like creature.
“Cub, are you alright?” He asked worriedly.
“Give me a sec,” Cub walked over to the sink silently, turning it on and immediately trying to wash off the concealer on his hand. Once it was well enough gone and his hand was red from all the scrubbing he turned the sink off and turned back to Scar.
No surprise, the symbols were a match.
“Oh!” Scar gasped dumbfoundedly.
“Oh indeed my friend… now let me check that burn.”