Realistic or Modern The Kids Aren't Alright | Main

[PenguinFox]

Tallulah let herself be gently pulled along by Sawyer. The blonde's confidence and leadership seemed to be returning which brought a soft smile to the smaller girl's face. She could feel her own anxieties take a backseat. They didn't disappear completely but with their fearless leader returning things felt like they just might be okay, even despite the throbbing pain in her wrist. The brunette was lead to another door which proved to be locked. When the older girl told Lulu to stay put she nodded obediently and watched on patiently. She almost looked like a lost child at a grocery store waiting to be picked up by her parents.

As Sawyer went about opening the door for the two Lulu's good hand reached into her bag and felt around for her camera. She wouldn't be able to properly inspect for damage with the dim light of her headlamp but she would be able to feel any serious damage. She held her breath as her heart raced, fingers tentatively exploring the surface of the device. The crashing of the door perfectly coincided with the discovery of the feeling of a scratch on the screen. She swallowed hard, hoping it wasn't too bad as she held her hand out for Sawyer to take again.

Every step that the taller girl took Lulu followed exactly. Given that the brunette was nearly a foot shorter she probably could've proceeded safely without the added precaution of following Sawyer's tracks, but she was more focused on following her leader's instructions. A cool breeze rolled in through the window and Lulu made note of the possible exit. Hazel gaze then peered into the depths of the darkness exposed by the broken floorboard. Her mind wandered into the mysteries of the house. Evidently the place wanted the intruders out which was disappointing to the petite girl. It was apparent that exploring this place wasn't safe, meaning any and all secrets were going to die with the building. Her only hope was that they could discover something interesting on the way out.

The pair made it to the door that Sawyer said adjoined to the room where Zach and Harper would be only to find a beam had fallen in front of it. Lulu was growing quite weary of ceiling beams and their incessant need to be in the way of everything. This time at least she had a much stronger companion to help move it. The combined strength of the two girls was enough to lift the end of the beam with only the tiniest of whimpers escaping the brunette's lips. With a grunt and a heave the two tossed the old wood aside. The sound of the impact it made with the creaking floorboards was thunderous as it seemed to echo all around the girls. As if in slow motion the wood broke loose and brought half to floor with it, crashing down into the room below. The room became shrouded in dust and instinctively Lulu tightly wrapped her arms around Sawyer's waist. She buried her face into the taller girl's bicep to protect her eyes from debris and her heart skipped a beat in anticipation of losing her footing to the void below. After a few seconds where it became clear the pair wouldn't be taking the express route to the first floor, the brunette surveyed the room. There was a large gaping maw where floor used to be. It started roughly two thirds into the room and went nearly to the far wall, effectively cutting off the ability to get to the window. So much for having an exit. At least the dust cleared faster with the airflow of the room. A shiver wracked through Lulu's body as she let go of Sawyer's form. The Woods girl had already been cold but the open window and teasing of warmth from holding on to her companion only served to make her feel that much colder. She briefly wondered if her lips were paling because of it but shook away the useless thought in favor of turning back to the door.

Sawyer lead the way through the entryway and both girls let out audible sighs of relief at seeing Zach and Harper both alive, maybe not well, but at least alive. They were greeted by a wave a stale air that smelled of dust, mildew, and very faintly; blood. Zach was tending to a wound on Harper's left hamstring. Hazel orbs grew wide in shock but fingers worked deftly. Barely conscious of what she was doing, Lulu dug in her bag for one of the water bottles she had brought then tossed it to Zach. "That should be cleaned out. It's purified water so it will be safe but..." her eyes flicked between the boy, Harper, and her wound. "...it'll probably hurt a lot." the second half of the sentence was quietly squeaked out as if if she said it quieter it would lessen the pain.

Lulu's eyes then wandered over to Sawyer, catching on her matted hair. The blonde had certainly had an...adventurer's sense of style but the younger was almost certain that locks were not like that before they entered. "Sawyer..." the small girl stepped closer to get a better look. "Your head is bleeding..." The brunette's bag slipped off her shoulder and slumped to the ground as she undid the buttons on her overalls straps. "Sit." she commanded, gently pressing on the taller girl's shoulders. Lulu was not accepting anything other than compliance as the stern look that didn't quite suit her face suggested. She pulled out a second water bottle from her bag as the blonde sat. She undid the knot at the hem of her shirt and grasped the excess fabric. She carefully wetted the end of it, doing her best to ignore the cold on her exposed waist, and set about cleaning the blood from Sawyer's hair. "I'm sorry, this might hurt some but we can't let that get infected." she apologized as she dabbed at the cut.

When she was satisfied that Sawyer's wound was clean Lulu retied her shirt but didn't rebutton her overalls straps. In fact she stepped out of them and glanced at the axe the blonde had brought. "We should...probably wrap your head...for safety reasons..." She would almost assuredly look ridiculous with one pant leg cut off of her overalls but it was a necessary sacrifice to be made to ensure her friend's safety. Her mother was going to kill her when she got home... KingofAesir Dazzle lion. @Therest of the scooby gang

 

[Elf_Ruler]

Tatum Browne

As Tatum felt herself be pulled into Hayden, she let the tears fall and soak into his shirt as she let her arms wrap around him. It was as if everything in her was crumbling and broken and she didn’t know if there was any coming from how broken she was. How could she? How could she be whole again when everything that made her whole didn’t want her around? Isa wanted to leave, Nomes was busy and she couldn’t burden her, and the person she thought would love her didn’t. She felt as though she was too far gone to come back to the Tatum she once was.

The way she felt was as if she was a shell of who she once was, a shell of the girl who knew what she wanted and knew her worth. The shell of something she didn’t even recognize and all she could do was put on a mask for those who barely knew her, and then she’d lie to them and herself as if that would make all of her problems go away.

When Hayden pulled her back and wiped away her tear, she remembered everything that made him the boy she had first fallen for. The boy she had first kissed, first dated, was first vulnerable with. Hayden had meant so much and she had given up and she wondered if he had ever felt the same way at any point with her. But he was wrong about one thing, she didn’t deserve the love he thought she did. She wasn’t who she used to be and she didn’t deserve love for being fake not only with herself but with everyone. Why would she deserve love when she couldn’t even love herself anymore?

As she wiped away the tears, “Why do I feel like everything and everyone I touch ends up leaving me? My dad leaves, you left. You left me. Now I’m watching all my friends leave and if they are all leaving then I have to be the problem. I’m the problem Hayden.” The words came out cracked as she spoke. She wasn’t mad at anyone; she was hurt by how things were now. How Max had told her she was a bad friend, how Colby had left her for being not a great friend. If everyone was leaving her and telling her she was wrong, then how could she not be the problem. “He won’t love me. I can see it in his eyes. It’s the same look you once gave me. It’s the same look I get when my mother sees my face and not my fathers.” Sure, Tatum had both her parents but sometimes it felt as if she didn’t have either, “Hayden, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t even be complaining to you. It’s not fair to you. I don’t even deserve your kindness after all the mean things I said. I do want you to know one thing. I didn’t leave you for Zach. I never planned that.”

She had to make sure he knew that she didn’t leave him for another, that she never cheated on him. She had seen a future with Hayden at one point, but now she couldn’t see a future with anyone. Not her friends, not her family, and not even herself. Her future seemed bleak and maybe that was how it was supposed to be. If all she did was hurt and upset people then she didn’t deserve a bright future.

Mention(s): Interaction(s): Dazzle

 

[KingofAesir]

MOOD: Determined

OUTFIT: here

LOCATION: Hawking House

basics

MENTIONS: Idk The Gang


INT: Lulu PenguinFox , Harper Dazzle , Zach lion.

tags

TL;DR Almost killed her friends

tl;dr

Sawyer

I'm Georgia Peachy, believe me.

Their mission to open the door that would lead them to Zach and Harper proved just as perilous as everything else so far had been. The beam that had fallen over the door was heavy and when Sawyer had gotten the thing up on her shoulder, she almost folded under its weight. Luckily, Lulu was there holding off some of the weight or Sawyer definitely would’ve buckled. Once they had thrown the thing off to the side, Sawyer let out a relieved breath all too quickly. Just as the beam hit the floor it rumbled and shook and was suddenly giving way. Before she could even really blink, Lulu had wrapped herself around Sawyer. It took Sawyer by surprise but she didn’t hesitate to use that arm that Lulu’s face wasn’t buried in to pull the other girl closer to her as she stepped further away from the gaping hole that now occupied the space that a floor had once been. Even as Sawyer’s breathing evened out again, her heart pounded thunderously in her chest and she wondered briefly if Lulu could feel it. When the rest of the floor didn’t give way though, Lulu pulled herself away from Sawyer and her thoughts vanished. Now was not the time for freaking out because a girl had hugged her. They were trapped in a collapsing building. Sawyer ran a hand through dusty hair and turned back toward the door. Get it together, Andrews. Her hands pushed open the door and their headlights swept across the room now revealed to them. The room was mostly intact, save for a few spots and Harper and Zach also seemed to be relatively intact. Thank god. Sawyer’s eyebrows, which had been knitted in concern the entire time they were trying to get in this room now relaxed. Her feet moved quickly to Harper’s side and knelt down in front of her, with hands placed squarely on the sides of her best friend's face, Sawyer leaned forward and gave her a relieved kiss on the forehead.

“Oh my god.” Sawyer brushed hair away from the other girl's face so she could examine it closer, turning it this way and that and looking over the rest of her for any wounds other than the obvious leg wound she was sporting. Eventually, her hands came back to rest on Harper's face and she turned her head so that they were making eye contact, “I am so super very glad that you are not dead.” Sawyer’s head craned to look up at the blonde haired boy next to Harper and she stood too give him a hug that was probably a little too tight while Lulu spoke to Harper about cleaning her wound, “You too.” She could feel her eyes stinging, but there was no way she was about to cry in front of them. They would never let her live it down if she did. So, instead of crying she plastered a relieved grin across her face, white teeth glinting in stark contrast to her dirtied face. She didn’t have more than a few moments to appreciate the simple fact that her friends were alive before Lulu was saying something about her head bleeding and trying to get her to sit down. Sawyer couldn’t sit down. No way, she was entirely too riled up to sit down. They needed to move. Like now, before the rest of this place came tumbling down and they were buried with it.

“I’m okay we need to-” But Lulu’s hands were on her shoulders and Sawyer was pretty sure that was the closest thing to a glare that Lulu had ever given anyone so she complied, “Okay, okay, I’m sitting.” Sawyer lowered herself to the floor as carefully as she could, not wanting to strain it with her weight. Her chin lowered itself to her chest as Lulu set to work moving away her tangled mess of hair and cleaning the wound at the base of her skull. Sawyer’s jaw clenched and she hissed a little at the pain, but other than that it went fine because Lulu’s hands were gentle and soft and...she was doing it again. Sawyer shook away her thoughts as Lulu stood, saying something about wrapping the wound. She was just about to ask what they were supposed to wrap it with anyway but Lulu was already cutting off one of the legs of her overalls with Sawyer’s axe. Brown eyes widened as she watched her do it, a small O forming on her face as her mouth dropped open.

“You didn’t have to mess up your clothes.” Sawyer protested as Lulu tied the thing around her head, “We could have waited until we were out, Max has bandages and stuff.” She stood once Lulu had finished and turned to face her, glancing over her bare arms and now one legged overalls. The cold air blowing through the room from the one they had come from made her gasp. She pulled off the denim jacket over her shoulders, leaving her in just a baggy black t-shirt. Sawyer stepped forward and draped the thing over Lulu’s shoulders, “Thank you.” Sawyer smiled at her before turning back to the other two.

“Okay,” Sawyer reached down and began tucking her shirt into the black jeans she was wearing, figuring there was probably better to not get it snagged on something, “Harper, do you think you can hobble if me and Zach help?” She questioned the brunette softly, “We’ve gotta get backed through the way Lulu and I came out into the hallway. There should be a smaller set of stairs all the way in the back, like servants stairs or something. We can get down from there.” Sawyer did her best to recall the floor plans she had looked over in the archives only a few weeks before bringing Harper here the first time.

“This place probably isn’t gonna hold much longer, we’ve gotta hurry.”

code by valen t.

 

[Dede]

Stu

The shock of running into the man, the fish, the legend, had Stu panting his lungs out. Even though it turned out to be just Max, the damage to his state of mind had already been done. Now wherever he turned the darkness held a thousand Toothrots, and Stu shrivelled up into a ball of fear as he latched onto the tail of Max’s shirt.

“We gotta—” Words battled to get out his mouth. “Gotta get out of here, Max... please. I don’t like it here. I think we should find a different way out...”

They were far enough from the entrance that the wiser option might be to go retrieve that light first that Stu had so clumsily dropped. But logic had little jurisdiction in this world of darkness, and every muscle in his body (not that he had many muscles to begin with) was priming for a sprint up the familiar stairs.

Stu had doubled his grip on the older boy’s shirt so that there was no possibility of them getting split up. Not even conjoined twins had their inoperable connection that doomed them to the same fate: walking into certain death in Toothrot’s lair.

“Do you think...” Stu hissed, perpetually out of breath. “Do you think he’s still down here though? He could be, right? Maybe… maybe he heard the noise. The noise we made. Then he came down here. He could be… oh no… He’s down here… isn’t he?”

A spider with a keen sense of literary style dropped at the full stop of his non-sentence onto Max’s back. Stu’s eyes popped out of his face with a covered scream and he backed away violently into darkness, tumbling onto the dusty floor.

Rebounding urgently, he felt the legs of another million imaginary critters crawling up his legs and arms and the nape of his neck, and he sounded the alarm at the top of his lungs.

“MAX!!! … THERE'S A.... MAX.... ON YOUR BACK— THERE’S A... A SPIDER!!!! A SPIDER!!!”

Of course Max showed enormous courage in completely ignoring Stu’s loud warnings. That boy was so heroic, and heroic on so many levels, that not even a great hairy spider creeping up his neck and into his head of hair could distract him from his noble objectives of saving his friends.

Chimney Swift

 

[MePersonally]

Lissy Cardea
Location: At Ashley's movie night, talking to Dustin
Interactions: Qwertycakes , Elf_Ruler , tamarapasek

The first thing Lissys eyes fell on after the short conversation with Dustin was a girl, waving at her. She gave her a smile, nodding at her. She didn't really know what to do, so she left it at that, turning to the smiling boy again. She saw Dustin interact with her sister in the corner of her eyes, while she moved into the room, looking around. There was a boy, on the couch, who seemed to be panicking quite badly, shouting that he didn't want to meet her. Lissy shrugged it off and smiled at him with a friendly face anyway - she knew how he was feeling. It took her a while to notice that Dustin was talking again, but she turned around the second he laughed aout here sister's behavior. The girl's face turned red.
"Yeah she's...", Lissy tried to find the right words, "I'm sorry", was all that came out in the end. It didn't matter though, because that boy, he just shrugged it off. It seemed a little unbelievable to the Cardea twin at first, but he seemed to be genuinely not offended. God knew her sister could be a handful, dismissive, offensive, disrespectful. She had often been associated with that, especially in the past year; so she was relieved that Dustin didn't seem to care.
The stuttered apology that Sissy had left made Lissy smile even more.
"I thought she would...", she mumbled, but it didn't really matter right now. At least that was what she told herself, so she could pretend it wasn't that bad and she didn't feel that empty. Pushing that feeling aside to deal with it later, she focused on what the boy was saying.

"Nah, we're so many girls already", Lissy giggled when Dustin offered her his sister. She was enjoying herself, for the first time in forever, it felt.
"I've already got two sisters. And Mom's pregnant again. Dad's convinced that it's another girl", she babbled along and didn't really think about what she was saying. But that was good, he was good for her. She knew it the moment his eyes lit up and he laughed like a little boy.

Do you like it in Parish?
That was not an easy question to answer. Lissy frowned for a moment, her hand wanderig up to her lower lip, to roll it between her fingers. It was a habit she had inherited from her Mom and it indicated that she was diligently contemplating something.
"I like the change", she finally started, not really knowing what to think about the city, yet.
"All I've seen so far are the school, our way there and well- my home." She shrugged.
When he offered her a city tour, her face lit up. Since she could think, she had always lived in DC, so she had never had to make any new friends. Her best friend had moved up with her, through kindergarden, up until middle school. Leaving her behind had been sad, but not as hard as it should have been- Lissy had burnt all her bridges after what had happened with Mr Tanner it seemed.
"I'd like to see a bit more of the city", she smiled, following Dustin to wherever they were moving, until they suddenly stood in front of a couch, where the panicky boy, Lemon and another girl were sitting. Were those his friends?

"Hi, I'm Lissy", she waved at them awkwardly, answering the not so nicely asked question from another girl "I'm new here... I..." She looked at the boy who had shouted out loud that he didn't want to meet her earlier. She knew that he probably hadn't meant it that way, it had just been a panic reaction. She had been there, too. Crying, shivering on the floor.
"I don't mean to intrude or anything...", she added, specifically talking to the anxious boy. Since Lemon seemed to be okay with her presence, she didn't really think about the other girl's intention much, when she looked at the three of them, "What are your names?"
"I mean, I know your name is Lemon", she smiled, nervously tugging on her sleeves, now, "That's a cool name, by the way. Is it a nickname or did your parents give it to you?"
She forced herself to focus on the blonde girl instead of the brunette, who seemed to have mixed feelings about her and Dustin talking.

 

[Elf_Ruler]

Lemon Pierce

Lemon had followed Oli to the couch trying to make sure she didn’t further upset him or upset Lissy. After all, it was the girls first day here and she had already had someone say they didn’t want to meet her, and that had to be hard. Lemon knew what it was like to be a new person and though she had been young when she moved to Parish it was still difficult in the beginning to make friends. She wanted to be back home when she first moved, back with her friends and not somewhere new. However, Lemon knew her parents had moved away for good reasons and she had come to accept those reasons over the years. Never spoke about it anymore. Her eyes caught sight of a book on Ashley’s table The Princess’ Denial a book that Kat had recommended for her to read. Apparently, it was popular if Ashley had it out at her house. Lemon could only wonder how many others had the same book or had even read the book. Now, Lemon was determined to get a copy of it.

Her attention was turned away for a moment by Lissy, “No, it’s not a nickname. My parents actually named me Lemon. The whole southern belle thing was on their mind back home. But now I’m here.” Lemon gave a smile before her attention was caught by a knock at the door, “Oh, I’ll go get it!” Lemon quickly hopped from the couch and the person at the door shocked her. Someone else who she had never seen before. The girl was breathtaking but also edgy. Did Parish only have attractive girls? Lemon really didn’t know how to respond as she stared at the girl. Her brain was still processing the dark-haired girl standing in front of her.

Eventually her mind came to and she smiled, “Hi, I’m Lemon. Ashley is in the living room please come in. We were just about to start the movie.” Lemon smiled up at the girl. She didn’t know what else to do as she stepped out of the way for her to enter. The girl looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place why so she must just be confused. But still she couldn’t believe that someone that looked like her would come to a movie party. She looked like she belonged at a party, or a rave, or something more adventurous and not a movie night.

Mention(s): Interaction(s): Chimney Swift Qwertycakes tamarapasek MePersonally KingofAesir

 

[Chimney Swift]

MOOD: Overwhelmed


LOCATION: Ashley's House

basics

MENTIONS:
Ashley tamarapasek
Cyrus KingofAesir
Dustin Qwertycakes

INT:
Lemon Elf_Ruler
Lissy MePersonally

tags

TL;DR Oliver is bad at introductions and Cyrus is pretty.

tl;dr

Oliver Dreyfuss

How lonely it is, to be drowning in a place where everyone can swim

Oliver still sat in his typical guarded and awkward position on the edge of the couch, perched cautiously as if ready to bolt off at a moment's notice. Really, nothing was happening that he was particularly afraid of, but this was all new and uncomfortable and there was still a lot happening at once. The lights, people talking, the texture of the couch cushions and the carpet under his feet, his jacket still awkwardly folded over his arm, fingers rapidly tapping his collarbone, people talking. Hundreds of stimuli, unfiltered and unprioritized. Just a mess of sensations.

The new girl came up to the couch on her own, asking everyone's name. Oliver didn't look at her, but nodded slightly at her name and shifted his position on the couch ever so slightly, still not letting his back touch the cushions or his eyes meet anyone else's.

He didn't introduce himself to Lissy right away, waiting for Lemon to go first so he could watch how she did it. Lemon introduced herself with a calm confidence, as if she knew exactly how to do it. Oliver was less certain, but now it was his turn. He turned almost fully around away from Lissy, wringing his hands together and tightly crossing his legs.

"Oliver…" he started off uncertainly, forming the syllables of his own name as if they were almost foreign to him. Lemon gave a brief history behind her name, and Oliver didn't know if he was expected to do the same, but he was so worried about screwing up that he went for it. "Oliver… for no reason. I-- I don't know why. Don't… no idea.. It isn't a nickname and my mother isn't southern." He realized about halfway through that he had no story for his name, but maybe Lissy wouldn't be angry at him for that. Who knew.

The knock on the door startled Oliver into a sharp flinch, his hands covering his ears as if for a clap of thunder. Flinching back suddenly sent a burning jolt through his broken chest, leaving him slightly doubled over and short of breath as Lemon ran off to answer the door.

Lemon came back with another girl, and Oliver visibly shrank back, not entirely pleased with the growing number of new people. But there was something about this girl he couldn't bring himself to look away from, though he couldn't pinpoint what. She was tall… maybe a senior or something. Dark hair and striking features, widely-spaced brown eyes. She wore an unusual ensemble consisting of a cropped shirt and leather and fishnets, like a punk rock singer, or maybe the women who stayed up really late on his street. Oliver didn't realize how unflattering a comparison that was. He had only so many associations with fishnet stockings. One would have to excuse him for bringing that to mind. Anyway, he found her fascinating. He'd never seen her, or anyone like her, so she must be from Hartfield Academy.
Odd.
She didn't at all look like a rich and tidy private school kid.
Maybe she wasn't even in high school anymore, but then why would she want to watch a movie with a bunch of kids? She had to be a Hartfield kid. That was the most sensible conclusion.

Oliver didn't seem to realize he'd been staring over the back of the couch for a good thirty seconds, or perhaps he just didn't know that was weird. Oliver never had a good eye for social expectations. The range of his knowledge was deep but incredibly narrow. Sea turtles, math, English literary conventions, the history facts he picked up in school. Especially sea turtles, and that was about it.
Everything else eluded and confused him, leaving him stranded and unsure.
A terrible feeling, really, to be a person who knew nothing about people.

code by valen t.

 

[Soap]

MOOD: ... whatever.

OUTFIT: here

LOCATION: Vibe Comix

basics

MENTIONS: Tatum, Graham, Elf_Ruler Dazzle


INT: Ivy, Chimney Swift

tags

TL;DR Showing off at the comic store... and then Ivy ruins it.

tl;dr

Genevieve

Everyone's a winner, we're making our fame. Bona fide hustler making my name

How the fuck was Genevieve supposed to apologize when she was being this big of a little trash can?

Not that her plan was to apologize in the first place— she’s just saying, if she did... anything she said would probably be spit out like a backed up garbage disposal because that’s who Ivy truly was on the inside and it quite literally, gave the tiny girl so much anger it felt like her entire chest was about to explode.

This whole comic store would be set on fire and Wyatt would’ve died, then Evie would’ve learned she had superpowers and become such a badass that even Ivy couldn’t get to her.

“Me? Unblock you? No! This is my spot. I’m not leaving.”

Evie shrugged, crossing her arms and setting a death glare towards Ivy, it stood there for a total of... what? Twenty seconds before it softened and Genevieve lifted one leg and set it back down again in some overly subtle attempt to rid herself of the anger that was bubbling inside of her, allowing that to settle for a stomp of her feet as if she was a two year old who didn’t get her way.

“Apologize first. And then, I’ll think about unblocking you, how about that little miss whorefect?”

Y’know, for all things considered... Evie was a pretty simple girl to get along with.

What? She was.

Scout’s honor.

Oh, puh-leeze. As if she’d EVER subject herself to the nightmare of being a girl scout.

code by valen t.

 

[Chimney Swift]

MOOD: Dramatic

LOCATION: The comic book shop

basics

MENTIONS:


INT:
Evie Soap

tags

TL;DR Ivy makes a dubiously genuine but very over-the-top apology.

tl;dr

Ivy Dawkins

I'm gonna make sure I get the last laugh

"Apologize? Ha. Bitch. What is this, church?"
Evie's demand, accentuated by a petulant stomp of her foot, was the most asinine and stupid and utterly unthinkable request Ivy had ever heard. Dumber than weekend detention or community service or teeth pulling.

But she wanted to do it.
Actually.
Really, truly, in the depths of her crusty and dessicated chunk of what used to be a soul, she wanted to do it.

Absolutely no one else in Parish Point was half as fun to share weed pens with, race around town before a beach party with, bully relentlessly on social media... I mean god, she couldn't do that stuff with Stu. And Tatum was on a whole different league. Evie was... there, just as she was. Everything a frenemy ever needed to be. Ivy hated her, and loved her, and loved to hate her.

But she couldn't, like... be eager about it. Ivy was no common hoe.

"So what kinda apology we talking about here?" She lilted, with a cocky tilt of her head. "Grounded? No TV for a week? Handwritten plea for forgiveness? Slap on the wrist? Slap on the ass? Night in the stocks? Marching naked through the streets? Fasting and penance? I'm like, down for anything." She stood at a wide stance, hands neatly in her dress pockets and nodding her head side to side to make her dark curls bounce over her shoulders. "Oooor..." She pretended to think for a moment, breathing out a sigh as if she'd come to a grave and woeful conclusion. "Do you just want me to kneel at your feet," she bent down and did this without a response from the other, now looking up at her with wide and slowly blinking eyes, trying to work up a fake tear "and tell you how very, very sowwy I am that I hurt your feelings and made fun of your family and called you a slutbucket and a Disney Channel reject?" Her hands clasped in front of her and she shook them pitifully, quickly glancing to the side to make sure Wyatt wasn't missing the show. She clicked her tongue at him and narrowed her eyes so he'd pay more attention, then got back to the theatrics. "Because I am, Veev. I'm so so very sorry that I crushed your fragile baby heart under my dirty and sinful shoes."

code by valen t.

 

[Dazzle]

MOOD: Anxious? Sad? Self blame?

OUTFIT: outfit

LOCATION: beach picnic tables

basics

MENTIONS:
@LION (zach)

INT:
Elf_Ruler (tate)

tags

TL;DR Tayden apologizing

tl;dr

Hayden Anderson

you get what you give

Hayden stuttered; but no words came out, he didn’t know what to say. He understood the feeling, all too well. It felt like when him and Tatum broke up. He lost his mom, his dad, and the one girl that he really cared for all within one year. If it wasn’t for his sister, he wasn’t sure he would have been here himself.

Tatum always presented herself as the strongest person in the room, like nothing could ever bother her. Nothing could ever break those walls, but here she was, tears falling from her face, looking more broken than he could have ever imagined. “People…”

Hayden took a deep breath and looked at the ground. “People don’t know how…” How to what Hayden, out with it. “People pick things over the ones they love… Every day, people pick drugs, alcohol, over family and friends who want to be there for them.” Hayden was sure that he wasn’t helping, he wasn’t sure how to help Tatum. He couldn’t make it all better, he couldn’t fix her family, or what he had done to their relationship.

“But-.” He took a deep breath, and looked out on the ocean, watching the waves crash on the sand below. “That doesn’t mean they love us any less.” He sighed out all the air left in his lungs.

Hayden bit the corner of his cheek; he couldn’t pull his eyes away from the crashing waves. The waves were a constant, pulling away from the sand, only to always return. The beach always knew that water would return. “Tate.” There was a gnawing feeling at the pit of his stomach. There was something he wanted to say, but he wasn’t sure if he should. He knew it wouldn’t be fair to Tatum, he couldn’t put more on her shoulders. She didn’t deserve that. “Please.” He starred at the palms of his hands as his fingers intertwined with each other.

“Who said I didn’t love you, then.” He made sure to add on. Hayden treated her unfairly in the later half of their relationship, but he always thought he loved Tatum or would have… “Where would you have gotten such an idea.” Hayden chuckled lightly, elbowing her in the side. Trying to lighten the mood. He hated to see Tatum so broken. It had been so much easier to pretend she was happy.

Though, Hayden knew how she had gotten such an idea, he hadn’t been there. He had turned into a shadow of who he had once been. And he was just now, starting to crawl his way back to who he once was.

“Don’t worry about it Tate.” It had hurt when Tatum left him, but he had been so numb to everything at that point, it was hard for him to realize how hard the breakup had hurt him. Tatum didn’t need to justify herself to him. She didn’t have to explain herself, all Hayden wanted, was Tatum to be happy. He just wished that Zach had been doing a better job than he had.

code by valen t.

 

[lion.]

MOOD: ...

OUTFIT: - max's fit obviously

LOCATION: Hawking House

basics

MENTIONS: Dazzle Chimney Swift Dede KingofAesir PenguinFox @mel0_mang0

INT:

tags

TL;DR

tl;dr

Zachary Lee

I'm so not Daphne, but if I am.. purrrr cat killer

“I’m sorry…” Harper had said out for no reason.

“I hate-” Zach paused, blinking up at her with all of it: the retiring lassitude, the soft anger, and utter and absolute demise, “that word Harper.”

He balked from explanations, releasing his confession on the hunch that it was because they were all ridiculously close to death a few moments earlier.

Zach had kept on crying. The whitewashed walls didn’t help the modulations of the boy’s sobs. He went on like that. Then eventually, he had shut up. Dr.Lee sat at the end of his bed, and with his eyes pointed down, sucked into his cheek and breathed out, “I’m sorry. She’s gone.”

He stilled as if he didn’t want to miss instances of the present, refusing to remember the getup of the rest of his old room, how high the sun was as it climbed on the sill or how many glossy tears cleared down his face like April rain. But today, he was also contemplating something else too.

Sorry.

Him and Tatum had a hard time hiding from that word.

Serpentine-like fingers seized to his own sides as Zach let Harper’s foot go, clenching them inwards into the face of his palms. He had lost the sound of whatever else she had said, but it was none of the consequence for their rescue. As was usually the case, Sawyer Andrews was a survivor. He had seen her on those basketball courts, setting off the opposition with crossing balls between her long flexible legs and working up with a sweat as her fingers spread. With postural adjustments, the ball was in the air and through the net. Lulu followed at her heels. While he had initially expected to say something, a water bottle was tossed to him. Effortlessly, his fingers caught it.

“Thanks Lulu, but kinda late?-” Zach gave a start of a shrug, as he had already bandaged Harper’s leg by then. In that time, Sawyer had gone to pamper Harper with..

with...

Hell, he didn’t know.

He had just unscrewed the water bottle, and downed a large sip when suddenly his oxford blue eyes broadened. The blonde was embracing him. She was lying vertically flat against him and he felt his heart pick up. He considered turning his head and spitting out the water, but instead his throat bobbed with a quick gulp.

“How about it?” He thought out loud, slightly horrified and still unknowing of why he was getting hugged, “You are either possessed by some ghost who has the hots for me or... it’s not Harper that needs to go to the hospital. It’s you.”

Around a quarter of some time later, Sawyer was bandaged up and had expelled the plan of escape. Zach had thought so too, that the whole place would cave in soon and they had to be quick. Combining a hand through his hair, he witnessed Sawyer asking whether she was fine on toppling her weight onto them. To that, Zach rolled his shoulders and remarked, “It’s now or never, Harper Anderson."

code by valen t.

 

[KingofAesir]

MOOD: Snakey 24/7 forever

OUTFIT: outfit

LOCATION: That freshy's house

basics

MENTIONS: Movie bros



INT: Lemon Elf_Ruler , Ashley tamarapasek

tags

TL;DR Beware the bitch in leather, she's a basket case, sorry.

tl;dr

Cyrus

Down in the forest, with the Devil in me.

A bubbly blonde, who Cyrus really just wanted to beguile as soon as she saw her, opened the door. The first thing that Cyrus noticed about her was the way she was struck silent for more than a few moments. That, that was the reaction that made Cyrus dress and act the way she did. Those few moments when people were just, awestruck at the mere sight of her were like a drug to Cyrus. Cyrus didn’t need to be popular, didn’t need to be liked at all really, but she did have a primal need to be the center of attention wherever she may roam. No one put Cyrus Payne could pull off the sheer amount of arrogant smugness that she possessed. So that brief moment of pause in the girl in front of her was enough to make Cyrus’ grin grow even more wide than it already was. Once the other girl had regained her composure, she gave Cyrus a grin that shone much too gleeful for Cyrus to stand. It felt like she had just stared directly into the sun and was now struck blind. Cyrus would go so far as to compare this girl to the actual sun, but she wouldn’t be the best judge of that anyway, she had always preferred the night. The sun introduced herself as Lemon and Cyrus had to hold in the amused laugh bubbling up in her throat. Cyrus liked lemons, the quiet hint of sour tantalizing her pallet was always pleasant. But, this Lemon didn’t seem to have the same bite so Cyrus decided that she liked the sun better, but she’d have to settle for something less fond.

“Well, I don’t think the name quite fits you.” Cyrus grinned as she brushed past Lemon and into the house beyond, stopping only briefly to turn back to the sun and finish her thought, “I think I’ll call you…” She paused, cocking her head at Lemon as she thought. Blonde, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, looked like she just walked straight out of a Disney movie. Cyrus laughed at her own thoughts as she imagined cartoon birds flying around Lemon’s head and settled on a name, “Cinderella. That’s the one.” Cyrus winked at Cinderella and moved to sink into the spot on the couch that Lemon had just vacated moments before. She cast an amused glance at the dark haired boy sitting at the other end of the couch, who had been staring at her for a good long while. He looked a little out of place among the rest of the people occupying the room, and the way he sat perched on the couch like he was ready to get up and run away any minute made Cyrus decide to avoid taunting him...for now.

“Awe, are we doing introductions?” Cyrus shoved herself into the tail end of the conversation she had heard while speaking to Lemon, “Well, my name is Cyrus and I’m just so gosh darn happy to meet you all.” If you paid close enough attention, you could see the impish glint behind her eyes and hear the acidic dripping tone in her voice. Cyrus’ smile was far too wide to be pleasant and she looked more like a grinning wolf than anything else. She turned that wolfish grin on the dark-skinned girl sitting next to her, who seemed occupied staring rather angrily at a curly haired boy and bubbly girl #2, and let her voice come out low and gravely next to her ear.

“Especially you, gorgeous.” Aside from her questionable outfits, there was one other thing that Cyrus liked doing simply because it garnered the best reactions out of people and that was flirting. A well placed wink could do wonders and an amorous word or two could turn any conversation for the better. It also tended to fluster a lot of people and knock them off their balance, which primed them for further enjoyment. So she would flirt and use her fairer assets to her advantage as much as she could.

“I’m going to assume that you’re our illustrious hostess?” It sounded off coming out of Cyrus’ mouth, her subtle twang making the words sound forced and contorted, but Cyrus had never minded. Sometimes a southern accent could be a good thing.

code by valen t.

 

[tamarapasek]

MOOD: Playful

OUTFIT: Same crop top as before
LOCATION: Living Room

basics

MENTIONS:
@Iskolde
@Chimney Swift
@Elf Ruler
INT:
@Qwertycakes
@MePersonally

tags

TL;DR She interacts with the guests

tl;dr

Ashley Park

I've been thinking about you. Wondering if I'm caught up in your head at night.

.


''Oh! That'd explain it for sure,'' Ashley laughed somewhat awkwardly, her eyes slightly apologetic for asking something that could be construed as rude. ''Well, welcome to Parish Bay. Ashley would've proceeded to mention that she had also been a new girl, when her attention was redirected to her friend who had been staring frozen. ''Oli? Are you okay buddy?'' She questioned, leaning forward in a similar manner to him. A twang of guilt hit her stomach. Should she have warned him there might be surprise guests? She leaned over to him, lowering her voice to a whisper. ''If it gets too much, just tell me. You can leave or even go to my room if you just need a moment.'' The girl informed him. Goodness knows she was no expert on what to do, but she didn't want him to have a nervous breakdown.

Was that even helpful? She had no clue what the hell would help. Turtle facts? Talking about how humans are confusing? Crime? Nope that was a her thing. She looked over at him once more, to see that he'd yet to move from his position.With a reluctant sigh, she diverted her focus to the apparent object of his attention. The-holy fuck who was that?

It was the hottest girl she had ever seen in her life. She simultaneously wanted to be her, and Chapter 4 her. Now when it came to boys, Ashley didn't get quite so flustered. They were simpler to read, though they had their own challenges. But that girl? She couldn't help but feel like a little kitten compared to the giant lion which sat beside her.

“Excuse me?” She sputtered out, clearly flustered. ''Pretend that it's just a stupid horny boy.'' her brain told her. The girl clearly wasn't looking for anything serious given their age difference, so what harm could a little flirting do? Besides she couldn't just wait around and go all pouty faced while Dusty moved on to girl after girl. So she'd play Cyrus's little game.

“You assumed correctly” A tiny smirk crossed her face. ''And can I just say that it's so nice to be recognised as the illustrious being you are?'' She teased, a mischievous glint in her eyes. ''Especially from you.''

code by valen t.

 

[Dazzle]

MOOD: my head hurts too much to know

OUTFIT: outfit

LOCATION: Hawking house

basics

MENTIONS:
PenguinFox (lulu)
Dede (stu)

Chimney Swift (max)

INT:
lion. (zach)
KingofAesir (sawyer)

tags

TL;DRthe cavalry has arrived

tl;dr

Harper Anderson

the only ghosts in here are me and you...

Harper didn’t have to ask, she could understand hating a word, words full of empty promises. Promises to get better, promises to be better, to leave the bottle behind, promises to be there. Those words didn’t hold any truth. People just said them to get people to leave them alone. To make others not worry, when everything was hopeless.

She just kept quiet, that was until the cavalry, otherwise known as Sawyer Andrews, arrived. Not even a fallen ceiling could take her down. Sawyer still stood strong, despite it all, despite the bleeding forehead and slow forming bruise around it. Sawyer wasted no time in getting over to them.

Sawyer’s hands felt warm cupped Harper’s cold cheeks. “You won’t get rid of me that easily Andrews’” She let out an exhausted chuckle. “Someone has to make sure you get back alive.” Harper wasn’t much for unwanted affection, but in this moment. She was just glad to have her best friend in her sights. She tilted her head, resting it against Sawyer’s hand. “I am so super glad that you’re not dead.” Harper didn’t want to think about what her life would be like without Sawyer. She was such a comfort and reprieve for Harper.

Harper’s head began pounding again with pain from the release of Sawyer’s pressure as she pulled Zach into an embrace. Harper sighed gently resting her head against the wall behind her. “Probably the latter.” A crooked grin crossed her face as she turned her head to the two blondes to embraced to her left. “What Lee, you haven’t been a victim of Sawyer’s affection before?”

She bent her good knee up at an angle, resting her chin within her hand. She watched as Lulu forced sawyer to be tended to. Smirking ever so slightly at the small girl commanding the tall blonde.

It was different, watching Sawyer with the sophomore girl. She wasn’t sure that she could see them together, but after Kat, Sawyer deserved happiness, and that was all Harper could ever want for Sawyer. If Lulu could bring her that, that’s all that mattered.

Though Sawyer couldn’t see it, Harper knew how quickly the girl could fall for someone, and she could see it in the way Sawyer looked at Lulu, if she hadn’t yet, she was bound to soon.

As soon as it looked like Sawyer could breath again, she turned her attention back to Zach and Harper. “Yea…. I should be able to. I can put some weight on it…” Harper bit her bottom lip as she rested her right hand behind her. She let out a deep breath as she rocked her weight to the right. Her left leg was next to useless, but only gave her real trouble when she put too much weight onto it. “Yea. Now or never.” She rolled her eyes. She bit her bottom lip hard as pushed all her weight forward.

No way was she going to ask Zach for help again, finding her way to her feet she stumbled a bit, falling forward she caught one of Sawyer’s shoulders. Catching herself on Sawyer but not soon enough to avoid putting weight on her left leg. “Fuck!” She gripped onto Sawyer’s shoulder in a reaction to the pain.

“See… Just fine.” She smiled weakly. Her eyebrows pressed together as she eased her breath once more. She looked over at Zach who stood up himself making his way over to Harpers other side. She unwillingly and instinctively wrapped her arms around each blondes shoulders.

“Now or never.” She breathed out quietly.

code by valen t.

 

[Qwertycakes]

MOOD: Jealous

OUTFIT: here

LOCATION: Movie Night @ Ashley's

basics

MENTIONS:
Ashley
tamarapasek

Lemon
Elf_Ruler

Oliver
Chimney Swift

Cyrus
KingofAesir

INT:
Lissy
MePersonally

tags

TL;DR: Dusty has mixed feelings about the new new girl

tl;dr

Dustin Thackery

You'd do better to turn your back on me...

Dustin grinned at Lissy's response to his offer. She delivered her answer in the same gentle and pleasant manner that he couldn't quite get a read on her -- if she might actually be as excited to hang out with him as he with her, or if she was simply accepting the invitation as something to do. But she didn't outright turn him down or seem horrified at the thought of his company, so he considered that a win. His reverie was interrupted, however, by Ashley's sarcastic little jab about his flirting. His blush deepened, rolling his eyes at Ash from a few paces behind Lissy, safely out of her view as she introduced herself to the others.

Dustin plopped down on the other couch nearby, with Lissy soon finding a seat beside him. He made sure to leave enough room for another addition, whom Lemon had just scampered off to greet at the door. When she returned with a raven-haired minx, Dustin's jaw nearly fell to the floor. Not only a very attractive girl, she was also wearing quite the eye-catching outfit; sexy and revealing but really cool at the same time, like some sort of leather-clad rock goddess. It was an ensemble Dustin simply wasn't prepared to see at a wholesome, friendly viewing of a Disney movie. He finally tore his gaze away from her shapely legs as the girl sauntered across the room, nicely giftwrapped in fishnets as they were.

But he found himself immediately peeking back over at the newest girl, who introduced herself as Cyrus, curious to find that she set her sights on Ashley. Dustin didn't like the calculating way she looked at his girl friend -- there was something about her eyes and smile that seemed too cold and conniving to be genuine. Something about her just looked...mean, like an acidic well of contempt was bubbling just below the surface, and it triggered every protective instinct in his brain all at once. But he could only watch in horror as Cyrus sprawled herself across Lemon's spot on the couch and began to ooze her charm all over Ashley. It almost worked on him too; for a moment, he sort of wished he could be on the receiving end of all that charm and charisma. That is, until he was slapped hard back to reality when Ashley began to flirt back.

Here was the amorous attention from Ash that he always wished for, that should be his, if the world was a fair place. And she was bestowing it upon some random girl that looked like she'd give them all wedgies or steal their lunch money if she got bored. Dustin could feel his face heat as he quietly seethed with anger. While he was furious on the inside, outwardly, his facial expression read as utterly crushed, as if Ashley herself rocked up and shot his grandmother in the face right in front of him. Dustin shifted awkwardly in his seat, wiping the scowl off his reddened face and quickly looking away from the flirting pair. Whatever, they could go at it the whole stupid night. He could just enjoy the company of his new friends.

Although now Dustin feared he may have blown any good impression he made on the cute new girl by acting so weird since Cyrus showed up. He often wished he was better at hiding his feelings, and this moment had been no exception. Better yet, Dustin now wished he could turn off his feelings entirely, and stop caring so much about people that he obviously meant nothing to.

"Sooo...are you going to Parish Bay? I haven't seen you around school..." Dustin asked Lissy quietly, but he could barely look at her now. He mainly stared at his shoes, looking defeated, his dark eyes peeking back up at her every once and again. He slouched against the well-worn sofa cushion, wishing he could just slump down further and further until he finally disappeared forever.

code by valen t.

 

[Elf_Ruler]

Tatum Browne

Tatum wiped away the tears from her eyes as she tried to muster up the strength to fell, less awful about everything happening. Hayden was trying and she could sense that he didn’t know how to comfort her, but she didn’t even know how to be comforted. She took care of herself most of the time, so how could expect anyone to take care of her? It made her feel better to know that at least at one point maybe Hayden had loved her just as she had him. They were both young then and still young now. It wasn’t as if they really understood love when they were together and of course Hayden had been having his own struggles and now, well now Tatum was bringing up the past. Maybe, part of her still hurt and maybe part of her wanted that closure of pain that she knew would never come until she learned to accept that love wasn’t something to be controlled. Love was impossible in Parish and right now she felt as if love was nothing but a pointless, empty dream.

Hayden’s nudge caused her to smile a bit, “You’re still dumb sometimes. I didn’t mean to pour my bad couple of days on you. I know you didn’t ask for it and I know I can be…a bit much sometimes.” Her eyes were still swollen, and her nose congested from the tears, “I must look like a mess. I can only imagine what someone would think if the passed by us.” Tatum didn’t need to look perfect with Hayden, he had wanted her before she figured out her hair, before she figured out the right makeup look, before she was known as Tatum Browne to everyone, he had wanted her. So, to her looking like a mess was okay, looking like she had just gone through the worst news, knowing her mascara was running and her face was blotchy, she still was happy to have gotten out her feelings with Hayden.

It took her a moment to think of the words, “I’m glad we can be friends again. You were my friend before we dated, and I missed you after things ended. I know it was my choice, but I always missed us. Our friendship had been so important.” She wasn’t quite ready to tell him more than that, he was one of the few that knew she thought her relationship was falling apart. Everyone else just thought she was stupid for staying with Zach, that she wanted to be in pain and that she didn’t understand the hurt happening to her. She did, but Hayden was the first to know she was staying because she loved Zach and she wanted things to work and she wanted it to work with him. It could be just a dream, but all Tatum wanted was love from someone. She wanted someone to call home and she knew it couldn’t be Hayden, but she had hoped that Zach could be her home. And for a moment he had been, and now she wasn’t sure what or who her home was.

Mention(s): Interaction(s): Dazzle

 

[LittleWolfie]

Beckett Gallo


The life situation that one Beckett Elizabeth Gallo found herself in currently was not exactly ideal by any means. She has been doing alright in Boston between the hostel and picking up some cash in hand jobs but thanks to that nosey PI all of that had come crashing down. Now Beck was homeless in a small town in an abandoned house in the woods having just dried out from getting soaked in a horridious storm her first night here.

But it gets worse because the aforementioned house was apparently falling apart now while some teenage Scooby Doo wannabes ran about the place.

This pretty much seemed to be her cue to bail from this building before she got buried in the damn wreckage, and she had not runaway just to die a couple of months later never to be found again. At seventeen she had barely lived, and definitely not enough to die anywhere close to happy. The second the chaos had begun Beck had started throwing her stuff into her bag and now she was getting the heck out of dodge.

The universe however, seemed to be very against her getting out clean since it threw a pair of boys in her path, one of which was screaming like the world was ending while the other had a big ass spider in his back. Well, she didn't have time for this since the wanna be Scoobys had screw the building so Beck just walked up behind the not screaming kid and flicked the spider off of him. "Jesus H Christ are you just going to scream on the spot while this building crushes you or what kid?" she threw at the other boy, gesturing for him to damn well move!

Interactions: Dede (Stu) Chimney Swift (Max)​

 

[Chimney Swift]

MOOD: All of them. Literally.

LOCATION: The Hawking House -> The French Residence -> The Berkowitz Residence

basics

MENTIONS:
Zach lion.

INT:
Stu Dede
Beck LittleWolfie

tags

TL;DR
Max gets bitten by a spider, mysterious new girl appears, they find a way out, but his friends left him and Stu for dead. Also Zach is an asshole.

tl;dr

Max Berkowitz

How do you run from your own mind?

At long last, Stu agreed to keeping a hand on Max so he'd know his little companion hadn't wandered off and died. He was kind of surprised Stu didn't hold on and walk ahead before. What was Max supposed to do, track him by scent or something? Psychic connection? Stu was brave and resilient and pretty damn smart, Max thought, but... perhaps a tad inconsiderate.

Well, that wasn't anything new, really. Max was more than used to being an oversight. He wasn't really angry about it, but it scared him that Stu would just disappear into the dark like that. He needed him to stick by him long enough to see if there was any way out down here, and if not, find their way back to the stairs. Right now, Stu was all he had, and if he didn't get Stu out alive...

Max really didn't have time for those thoughts right now. They weren't going to die. None of them. Right now, everyone was alive (as far as he knew, and he wouldn't let himself think otherwise.)

The sturdier floor of the basement allowed them to move a little faster and more easily. If only it wasn't too dark for Max to see 2 inches in front of him, this would have been quick and safe. Check for an exit, and if none could be found, find Stu's flashlight and head back up. Max kept mentally repeating to himself that this simple 2-step search was all this was, because to him it was much more than that: it was fucking terrifying. One of the most nerve-wracking, blood-curdling things he'd done in his entire life. And if anything went wrong down here, it would be up to Stu to guide them back out. He was resting his life in the hands of someone else; the thing he swore he'd never allow himself to do. Making someone else protect him.

And so the agonizing journey continued. Each room of the house, as if it were some video game puzzle labyrinth, presented them with a new and ugly obstacle: Matt and his stun gun, the ceiling caving in, the boarded windows, the pitch black basement...

...and the basement decided to throw in an extra one when a burning sting shot into the base of Max's neck, tiny legs scrambling over the collar of his shirt. Fangs. He'd been bit.

No way to know by what. In this house? Probably the one fucking deadly spider that lived this far north. And if he flicked it off, it could land on Stu, so he had to grab it and kill it in his hand; try to identify it when they had light.

Good thinking, Max.

For once.

But in the moment he reached up to snatch the spider from his back, another hand beat him to it, their fingers slipping over his just for a moment. Max went cold. That was much too graceful, fingers too long and precise, to be Stu's hand.

Max instantaneously pivoted around and took a defensive step in front of Stu, unable to be sure who this was. Or if he was even facing the right direction.. In the scrap of vision the darkness spared him, though there was no light to catch it, Max swore he saw a long lock of blonde hair that was too curled and knotted to be Sawyer's.

Someone else was here after all.

Before Max could back away with Stu, his heart racing as he tried to quickly figure out which way to run to get back to the stairs, a beam of light flickered to life, illuminating the mystery figure. A girl, sure enough: older than him, from the looks of her, but probably not by much. Her dirty clothes and weary disheveled appearance... a teen runaway? From her home, or from the law, maybe even Canada. Some kind of vagabond.

But Max wasn't afraid anymore, because if she'd wanted to hurt them, then she had a great opportunity while they were stranded in the dark. Clearly she wasn't the murderous type... at least not yet. And of course she was talking. Max tried to watch her lips to no avail, worry crossing his brow as his free hand strayed up to nervously tug at the collar of Zach's blue jacket. Whatever she was saying, was it important? Was it to him or to Stu? Would Stu know what to say in return?

With apprehension, Max slowly and carefully brought his closed hand to his chest, then to the side of his face. "Sorry. Deaf." Even if she didn't understand, she'd probably get the idea. And hopefully then she'd know why he wasn't responding and wouldn't think he was plotting murder or something.

But Stu seemed to clue into danger. Whatever she said, Max would never know, but it sent Stu bolting off in the other direction, sprinting out of the beam of the girl's flashlight back out into the darkness.

GOD
FUCKING
DAMN IT

This again.

Max cried out through his teeth in frustration, unwilling to lose Stu again, and fled the room after him, back the direction the girl had come from, up another winding set of stairs. This time it was Max who broke one of the steps with his foot and fell forward, but in the same instant Stu fell backwards, and the two collided in the middle of the staircase and ricocheted off the rail into the wall, tumbling painfully back to the floor, only to clamber to their feet and run back up again with the same reckless abandon, tripping and tilting their way up to a small wooden door at the top of the stairs.

A door that smelled of fresh air, and through its cracks spilled faint beams of moonlight.

A door outside, unlocked and loose on the hinges, opening freely back out into the cold damp night air.

They'd made it.

They'd found a way out, both alive and unscathed.

Max felt as though he'd just discovered breathing for the first time, as the weight of mortal peril finally ceased crushing his chest. Back out on the tall grass, overcome with relief, Max barely resisted throwing his arms around Stu and instead gave a shaky and awkward but triumphant high-five. Though this was the end of the nightmare for Stu, it wasn't for Max. He still had to go back for the others, after he led Stu back to the cars to wait for--


--The cars were gone.

Nothing left but tire tracks in the dirt road, a scuffle of footprints leading back from the house.

Well, the others were alive, alright.

Alive, and gone home without them.

Left him and Stu behind with not so much as a note, a way to get home, anything.

They'd left without him, without Stu.

Forgotten.

The fragile relief he'd been offered melted into heartbreak like a snowflake in a frying pan.

His own friends left him behind in a collapsing building. To say that he felt betrayed…

It was more than that. So much more.

Choking down the knot in his throat, unwilling to break down and cry in front of Stu, he took the smaller boy by the hand, offered a weak smile as if to say 'we're safe now,' and began the long walk down the dark dirt road, along the winding tire tracks his friends had left behind.

It was a long walk of a few miles back to Stu's house, both boys exhausted by the time they stopped on the front steps and rang the doorbell. Max waited until the door was answered, giving an apologetic wave to pastor French. Really, he felt terrible bringing his son back late at night covered in dust and dirt and splinters. He must have looked fucking insane. Probably he was going to have to come up with an excuse for Officer Lewis in the morning…

The walk along back to his own house in the quiet, affluent hillside seemed twice as long as the trek from the Hawking House, dragging the weight of his heart at his heels. Suddenly very aware of the feel of Zach's clothing…

His mother came to the door looking much too bright for seeing her son come home after breaking his curfew, emotionally demolished and wearing another boy's clothes, hair speckled with wood splinters, small scratches on his face and tears welling up in his eyes.

"Come on inside. We saved your dinner, if you want it…" A pause that weighed on Max, who knew there was more. What, he wasn't in trouble? No way. "Your father and I have been talking. We're sorry. You've been under all this stress, and I hope you know that we understand that it's normal to be exploring these things at your age--"

Max's heart stopped.

"--did you remember to use protection? Oy, we should've had this talk so much earlier. Go sit on the couch."

Suddenly breaking out of his pain and confusion and realizing what had happened, Max's face ran through the stages of grief but stopped on depression. He broke down sobbing at his own front door.
Fucking Zach.

code by valen t.

 

[Soap]

MOOD: ... whatever.

OUTFIT: here

LOCATION: Vibe Comix

basics

MENTIONS: Tatum, Graham, Elf_Ruler Dazzle


INT: Ivy, Chimney Swift

tags

TL;DR Showing off at the comic store... and then Ivy ruins it.

tl;dr

Genevieve

Everyone's a winner, we're making our fame. Bona fide hustler making my name

Genevieve watched as Ivy knelt to her knees in a mocking stance, ‘pleading’ for her forgiveness— as aggravating as it was, she had to admit it was funny. Evie was a lot of things but her sense of humor was broken, and there was no fixing that no matter how angry one tiny girl might be. “You’d be a really shitty actress, y’know— but the fact that you got on your knees so quickly—“ a quick string of exciting insults was cut off by none other than Wyatt, ah, Wyatt. The boy who was so overly involved in her life tonight— the boy she was going to have to get back at in some cruel way for even speaking the next words that came out of his mouth

“S-S-Shouldn’t y-you be a-apologizing too?”

Ah, fuck.

To be incredibly fair, she could apologize too— but that didn’t mean she wanted to be called out on it. This shit was awkward. But... she didn’t really want to keep going in circles. The more she prolonged this, the harder it was going to be and even though she absolutely despises to say it, the worse it’ll feel.

Evie crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow down at Ivy and let out a sigh.

“Alright. How about we just...”

The brunette avoided her gaze and directed it towards the shelve of plastic protected comics, zeroing in on one that looked fun to read— but more so because this conversation was weird as fuck.

“... Have a line we don’t cross or whatever.”

Genevieve glanced over at Ivy and quickly turned her gaze away at least twice before rolling her eyes and extending a hand.

“Okay?”

Thankfully, the little bitch agreed and Genevieve pulled her up to her feet, Evie swayed awkward for a few seconds before Wyatt caught her eye and gestured towards her pocket.

Oh! He was a little stuttering genius.

“Dude, I got this sick knife. Fucking check it out— don’t flip it though ur gonna like, cut urself or some shit and I don’t want your blood on my stuff.” She slipped her hand into her back pocket and handed it to Ivy, showing off the prism shine of the butterfly knife.

How could she forget the most important part? It was the highlight of her day, thanks to one Tatum Browne.

“Oh shit! Hold on, hold on.” Evie slid off her backpack and started rifling through it. The backpack itself practically screamed ‘property of Evie’ it was dark, covered with patches and pins of various things. Mini skateboards, ultimately small comic panels, well known heroes— and villains, of course. Poison Ivy was a fucking badass.

“Look what Tatum got me— don’t tell anyone though, they’ll flip.”

It wasn’t a fun weed pen, but it was better off— it depended on those things but wasn’t there some type of smell that lingered? She’d be caught in seconds. Although, she had to admit— it was kinda fun sharing her excitement for this kinda shit.

Ivy wasn’t a snitch.

She wasn’t her friend either.

Thank god.

Evie would rather die than consider this psychopath her friend.

“Try it. It’s cotton candy but it doesn’t even taste like cotton candy, why the fuck would they false advertise?” It was still good, though. Don’t get her wrong.

Genevieve just had some trouble admitting to certain things.

and calling certain people her friends were one of those things.

code by valen t.

 

[Chimney Swift]

MOOD: It's a mood alright

LOCATION: The comic book shop

basics

MENTIONS:


INT:
Evie Soap

tags

TL;DR Ivy and Evie meet up to pay off a debt.

tl;dr

Ivy Dawkins

I'm gonna make sure I get the last laugh

Evie's stipulation was an easy "yes." A simple boundary line, and they could go back to pushing each other around behind its parameter. Just like old times. Well, old times as in three days ago. Besides, it was a boundary Ivy wanted in place anyway. She didn't need to hear another private school chick remind her that she'd been unceremoniously un-adopted and booted out of D.C into the wild unknowns of small-town Massachusetts. And really, for the same reasons, Ivy knew it was too far to rip on Evie's fractured family. God, why did she even do that? So fucking low. Absolutely base.

But Ivy wasn't going to just jump at the offer. "You drive a hard bargain, crack baby." She shuffled back on her knees, pouting her lower lip and crossing her arms. "I gotta guard your feelings, huh? Make sure the baby violet doesn't get trampled by this cruel uncaring world." Her sour expression quickly cracked into a devious grin, eyes sparkling and darting side-to-side. "But I guess someone's gotta do it. I'll play by your rules." She let Evie pull her up by the arms, expecting her to just nod and leave or something boring like that, but instead she shot into a burst of excitement and pulled a gift from one of her dumb giant lesbian friends out of her pocket. But damn if that wasn't the coolest knife Ivy had ever fucking seen. She watched the shimmer with raptured interest, but her mouth formed the contradictorily sarcastic "Woowww. So now you can cut your bagels in style. Super cool. I'm jealous. Us poor peasants have to use the borimg grey knives."

But Evie wasn't done showing off her newly acquired trinkets. What, did Ivy miss her birthday? But this new object was intimately familiar to Ivy. "Aww, little baby is growing up!" She cooed in a high whisper, gently running her fingertips over the glittery pen. The kind of vape device that seemed to be marketed for 10 year old girls for some reason. Ivy always wondered why these companies were so shocked at the rates of underage use. Especially when these things came in cotton candy flavor.

"Yeah, lemme try." Ivy had no reservations about vaping THC concentrate in a store. What was Wyatt gonna do about it? She pressed her finger over the button and took a long drag. "What the fuuuuck!! This is so gross. Where do you even find this shit? Because, like, I'm into it." She laughed as she handed it back, clutching at her sides and relishing every second of this stupid hoe's time. Why was Evie so obsessed with her? Damn. It wasn't like Ivy gave half of a fuck about anyone except Hash Browns and Kristen Stewart. She didn't need friends. They disappointed her.

"Your friends give you cool shit, Veev. Let me know if I can rent one out sometime." She smirked, turning her shoulder. "Now get fucked, woodchuck. I've got better places to waste my life."

But as Ivy turned to "leave", her eyes darted back and forth for something to stall with. To buy here a few more minutes of Veev time before they parted ways to their separate schools and boring separated lives. Suddenly, she'd rather do anything than sidle off to go drink cheap vodka behind the Wal-Mart on a Wednesday night. Something, anything, even if it was stupid... no, especially if it was stupid.

Then she spotted it. The perfect excuse.

"Yoooo, check it out!"

The comic store, along the far wall, had one of those mechanical car tracks, where you could pick a miniature car and race it down the little motor-operated course. Ivy launched herself at it with ridiculous levels of excitement for a relatively simple game, rummaging through the selection of vehicles and running their little toy motors to find the one that sounded the smoothest. "I haven't seen one of these in ages." A lie. Ivy had never seen one of these at all. She had no idea how it worked, but she'd just have to bluff it.

"Veeeev? Vivi? GEN!! Get your ass over here! I need a COMPETITOR and I'm not aboutta play with the human gopher!"

Watching Evie roll her eyes and step over to pick a car was a kind of satisfaction that rivaled the material joys she knew. Veev really was her biggest fan, which was so fucking dumb because didn't she have friends? Friends that gave her knives and recreational drugs? But no, Veev would rather fawn after a random shit from Twitter that she claimed to despise. She was totally in love. Gross. So gross.

code by valen t.

 

[Dazzle]

MOOD: Feeling... Better.

OUTFIT: Outfit

LOCATION: Bench across from spooning

basics

MENTIONS:
Soap (Kat)
lion. (Zach)
KingofAesir (Sawyer)

INT:
NA

tags

TL;DR Feeling emotional, exhausted, and wondering why bad things happen to good people. Was Hayden a bad person?

tl;dr

Hayden Anderson

you get what you give

Two weeks had past and finally Hayden felt like some stability was coming back to his life, between his sister’s accident and talking with his ex about their own emotional battles. How come everything always had to happen all at once. It was almost like he had been experiencing his mother’s downfall all over again and reliving his breakup with Tatum once more.

More memories that Hayden had suppressed just kept resurfacing as he walked into the emergency bay of the hospital. He picked at the skin around his nails as he quietly walked up to the front desk to find out what room Harper was in.

The front desk directed Hayden towards one of the sets of curtains, his vision centered in on that single curtain. The rest of the room blurred around him, it was like all he could see was that curtain. He didn’t know what he was going to find, the only thing everyone said was she was ‘fine’, that could of meant anything. His felt like he was walking, moving closer to the curtains, but he still felt so far away.

He wondered if they had bothered to call Luka as he closed in on the curtain. He didn’t expect Luka to have come even if they had called him, but some little part of him hoped to see him behind that curtain. Hoped that maybe some part of Luka still cared about his kids.

As Hayden drew back the curtain, he wasn’t surprised to see that Luka wasn’t there. However, Harper was awake and seemed to be as lively as ever. Harper was arguing with Zach and Sawyer about how she didn’t need to come to the hospital despite her needing six stitches on the back of her calf, and the MRI for the concussion she had received from the fallen ceil. “You must need the hospital if you’re willingly hanging out with Zach of all people.”

“Not like I had a choice in the matter. This is coercion.” She retorted back. Hayden just shook his head smiling, he walked over to his sister without another word, drawing her into a hug that could of lasted eternity. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He whispered.

-----​

After Sawyer brought the two of them home, Hayden helped get Harper up the stairs to her room before he left to pick up her car from the school. Maybe Hayden only had his learner’s permit, but it was fine. He didn’t expect anyone would pull him over, and he was a safe driver and it was late.

His walk left him with his thoughts, which wasn’t a great thing. He realized he wasn’t sure what he would have done if Harper had been more badly injured. What would of happened if he lost her. He wasn’t sure that he could have survived without her. She did so much for him, working, buying groceries, becoming a parent, when their father couldn’t handle it any longer. She gave up sports and activities so that Hayden could live a life like a high schooler, and play on the football team, and hangout with friends.

She took all of the weight onto her shoulders, so he could be a kid. She gave up her childhood, so that Hayden could have one.

----​

Harper stayed out of school for the rest of the week, Hayden brought up the microwave to her room so that she wouldn’t have to go up and down the stairs to get food. Hitching a ride with Sawyer was much easier than his sister, she always was running late, and well, so was Hayden. It worked out pretty well for them, not so much for their teachers when the two of them kept showing up late for homeroom with coffees.

Harper started back to school the following Monday, and everything mostly went back to normal. Hayden went to practices, occasionally hanging back to watch the cheer leader’s practice. Kat had seemed to be warming up to his glowing personality. It gave him something to do after school, now that Harper was able to get around on her own, he was able to avoid home just a bit more once again.

---​

Saturday morning came rather quickly, Hayden got up at five to get out to the gym for a team conditioning workout. No Hayden was not a morning person, but for football, he could force himself out of bed once and a while. Getting to the school at six he spent the next three hours working out with his teammates. Exhausted and covered in sweat, they finished up with a three-mile run around the track. None of this had been Hayden’s idea, if he had a choice in the matter, they wouldn’t have met up till 10 that morning.

Hayden went home and took a shower, having eggs for breakfast. He had made plans with Michael to meet up at the new ice cream shop, or rather the reopening of Spooning. He hated the name of that place, ‘I’m going to spooning with Michael.’ It was just such an odd sentence to say when you were going to hangout with your guy friends.

Hayden took a shower and changed into jeans and a grey sweatshirt before heading out of the house to meet up with Michael. It was 11:30 now, though Hayden wasn’t too sure when the ice cream shop officially opened for the day. He still made his way to town center, figuring Michael would show up eventually. Hayden shot him a text asking if he knew when the shop opened, and Michael know where he would be.
He took a seat on the bench across from the stores and waited, stuck with his own thoughts once again. Hayden really needed to stop being by himself so often.

code by valen t.

MOOD: Cabin fever. Get me out of this place.

OUTFIT: outfit

LOCATION: down the street from Max's

basics

MENTIONS:
KingofAesir (Sawyer)
lion. (Zach)
Chimney Swift (Max)

INT:
NA

tags

TL;DR Waiting for Max, totally bored from being stuck at home.

tl;dr

Harper Anderson

when you wear a mask for so long, you forget who is behind it.

Turns out that going into the Hawking house, had been a much worse idea than Harper originally expected. Never in a million years did she expect the ceiling would fall in and she would end up injured to the point she would need to visit the hospital.

Honestly, what did she really expect. They went there chasing after some deranged man, who probably would have hurt them. None of them had any real weapons, and they had no idea what that man had. What kind of idea had it been for them to take this into their own hands and go after him? They were lucky that he hadn’t been there. Any of them could have ended up worse off than she had, or even dead.

Harper hated being stuck in the house, almost more than she had hated her visit to the hospital. It constantly had her on edge that her father might just come up to check on her. She wasn’t even sure he knew that she was hurt, if he had bothered to check the voicemail when the hospital refused to listen to her pleas to not call him. But she wasn’t 18 yet, they needed to tell him of her status.

Harper stayed home and off of her phone for the first half of the week, most of her time she spent sleeping anyways. Her head was constantly pounding and when it wasn’t, her leg was throbbing.

Though, when Monday came back around, she wasn’t able to stay in the house any longer. She was getting cabin fever, but at least her head was better, and she was off crutches finally. Still not 100%, but she was relatively comfortable or comfortable enough to make it around school.

Chemistry was just as bad as it had been the first class she was partnered with Zach. He was more distracted, but somehow more tolerable. They made plans to meet up at the library Saturday morning to work on their project out of school. Something to do with finding natural elements for survival in the wild. Mr. Zimmerman mentioned a class camping trip that they would go on in the next few weeks. Which Harper was not looking forward to.

----​

As the weekend came Harper had gone a long time without hearing from Max, which at first it hadn’t been the biggest deal because she wasn’t using her phone and was sleeping the days away. But it had gotten weird. She was used to hearing from Max all the time, asking how her day was, making plans to see each other. She missed him, she missed her friends. Sawyer was grounded, not even allowed to see Harper, after promising to not adventure anymore and then almost dying.

Finally she heard from Max, and they made plans to see each other. It turned out that he hadn’t been in contact with anyone lately. And didn’t want to see Sawyer and Zach anytime soon.

Harper could only figure that there was more to Max’s story that he wasn’t telling. Maybe she could get it out of him if they were in person, even if she couldn’t, at least she’d be able to see him.

She was jonesing for a trip to the beach, because of her stitches and concussion she wasn’t supposed to leave the house much. Especially going to a place that was covered in sand, but she couldn’t stay away any longer. She would get her stitches out officially the following Wednesday, but as long as she covered them well, she was sure that she could take a short trip to the beach.

Harper got into her car and drove towards Max’s house. The drive to his house was forever stuck in her mind, she knew the roads well and not just because it was a small town. Years of repetition would do that to you, even a concussion wouldn’t make her forget.

As Harper pulled over about fifty feet down the road from Max’s house, as their plan had been to avoid his parents at all costs. She loved Max, but she didn’t want his parents thinking they were anything more than friends. Of course, Zach had put those thoughts into their head, and Harper was not happy about the joke. Max and her were just friends, and Zach. Harper didn’t want to spend anytime socially with him as it was.

She turned on the radio, sending Max a quick text before she leaned back against her seat waiting for him to show up.

code by valen t.

 

[Elf_Ruler]

Tatum Browne

Tatum had been keeping to herself over the past couple of weeks, her communication with Zach had been limited, maybe due to the fact she didn’t know what to say or do anymore. Sure, she had been texting him but not like she used to, and she had started telling him she was busy even when she wasn’t. She needed time to figure things out and she had gone to his place a few times and had only stayed for a few hours before she would go home. Home. Not a place she wanted to be but after all she had nowhere else to go. Her friends had been busy, so she had just been sitting in the emptiness of her home. That was until Zach had finally suggested a day for them. She had wanted to hang out, but he said he had a plan and she had to pick the day. So, she of course picked a Saturday. But she had no idea what he was planning or what the day would even have in store. It was Zach after all and as much as she loved him, she didn’t expect much from him.

Her mind was wandering as she drove through town towards his house, through the winding roads. The path was one she knew all too well and was used to taking since she had gotten her license. Even before she had it, she had chosen to drive with her permit alone. Not necessarily smart, but her mom couldn’t take her places and she could rely on others to drive her around. Zach’s house had become a safe haven at one point, but now she wasn’t sure. She had once felt welcomed by not only Zach but his father and sister. Something she didn’t have but seeing as she had lessened her time with her boyfriend, she wasn’t sure if she felt that warmth she once did.

Parking the car, she had let Zach know of her arrival, and then made her way to the front porch and opening the door. It didn’t seem like anyone was even in the house, but there were signs for her as she followed the small path of candies laid before her. She followed it and when they stopped, she couldn’t help but laugh a little at the actual surprise Zach had for her, “What is all of this?” Her eyes landing on the boy she loved. The boy that still made her smile even through all the bad, the boy that had her whole heart in the palm of his hand and she didn’t want it any other way. He had done something for them, for her and in that small moment she forgot all of the bad that had happened. All of the bad from her discussion with Hayden, in the moment all she could do was feel nothing but happiness and joy. Something she had longed for.

Mention(s): Interaction(s): lion.

 

[Chimney Swift]

MOOD: Despondent

LOCATION: The Berkowitz Residence

basics

MENTIONS:
Isa r e i
Zach lion.
Lemon Elf_Ruler

INT:
Harper Dazzle




--------don't type anything after this comment--------



[/COMMENT]

tags

TL;DR
Max is high-key depressed.

tl;dr

Max Berkowitz

Fearing that somehow the worst part of me was actually all of me

The next ten days crawled by in slow motion, one blending into the next until it was too difficult to say how much time had passed. A week slipped by, Saturday hit, and Max had hardly noticed.

A week ago, when he finally found out what happened after he got left trapped in a collapsing building with Stu, he'd tried to visit Harper in the hospital a few times. The receptionists weren't allowed to tell him whether or not Harper was even at that hospital at all (disclosing that information was a HIPAA violation.)
The whole time she was there, he wasn't allowed to see her or even know if she was doing alright.
Max knew how much Harper hated hospitals. He'd been there as her friend when...
It made sense that hospitals had become a traumatic place for Harper.
And yet again, just like the Hawking House, he couldn't be there to help.

So he hid away in his room and waited for it to all be over.

Max's room was in a miserable state.
It had always been cluttered, but now it was in complete disarray. Things tossed about and left askew; dim and unkempt, like a dead relative's attic full of things left aside after people scoured away all the valuables. His small collection of plants still did nothing to cheer him up, sitting green and proper in stark contrast to the desolate space around them.
Max's beloved plants were now almost too painful for him to look at.
They were apologies. All of them.
Whenever Isa got angry with him, she'd bring him a new plant. Because she knew he loved them, and he did. Really, he did. He'd always accepted them, quietly and naively filling his space with testaments to his own moral failure.

She shouldn't be apologizing. Not to you.

The things she got angry at him for: those stupid impulsive dangerous situations he repeatedly got himself stuck in for no reason he could ever properly explain. Why should she apologize? She should be angry. Angry at him for needlessly worrying her, time and time again. Causing her all this misery and ostensibly doing nothing in return. Really, what did he ever do for her? Beg her to stick around when she didn't want to? Plead for her safety while selfishly neglecting his own? He was surrounded, literally surrounded, by her thoughtfulness and care. He never returned it, so why was she always the one apologizing?

This is why you got left behind.

Max had gone through the week in a mindless repetition of mechanical necessities: Going to school, staying awake enough to look like he was paying attention even though his bleary shadowed eyes never focused. Then to work, completing his tasks with care but no joy. One shelf after another, straightening and rearranging the books as though they meant nothing to him. It was just movements. Movements that got him through to the end of the shift so he could drag himself home and crawl back into bed. He slept, but never rested, waking up with the same heavy fatigue on his chest that seemed to pin him down, no strength or motivation to do anything other than the most elementary performance of functionality.

They forgot you.
They really don't notice if you aren't there.
They'd prefer it if you weren't there.
They hate you They're tired of you.

Max rolled over to stare blankly at the ceiling, the stillness of the weekend settling over him like a heavy fog. Just what he needed. More empty hours, more time to tunnel deep into analysis of his own failure--

But then, for the first time in several days, he reached over to his bedside table for his phone. Evidently he hadn't missed much, even after his long absence: no notifications or anything dramatic like that. Max mindlessly swiped through how contacts, unsure as to who he was even looking for. He wasn't ready to talk to anyone. It seemed like a tall order to ask that much... but Harper.
Hadn't he meant to check in on her?
After getting turned away from the hospital like 8 times?
Maybe he was worried she didn't want to talk to him. After what happened, obviously Sawyer and Zach and even Lulu were in on the situation. She'd had them for company; she didn't really need him bugging her anyway. Maybe it was better he wasn't allowed to visit.
But now that it was all over, he missed her. Even if he couldn't bring himself to talk to anyone else, Harper was always there to listen.
He started with a simple apology for the silence.
For a brief moment, they were talking like normal... Harper had canceled some plans with Zach, and wanted to hang out with him at the beach instead, and-- wait, really!?
She wanted to see him.

She just wanted to spend time like always. Just... talk. With him. He said yes before he thought about what he'd have to do to be outside like a normal person again.

Shit.
Now he had to hurriedly try to make himself look half alive. Grabbing the only clean shirt and pants that were still in his closet, he rushed through a shower, returning to his room to hunt around for his shoes and a jacket or a sweater or something. They had to be in here somewhere, and it was too cold out for just a simple rose-colored t-shirt.

Max had absolutely no idea why his hand instinctively reached out to grab Zach's blue jacket from where it was folded on his desk, but as he slid it up over his shoulders, he made the grave mistake of looking in the mirror and realized.

Max had never had guy friends.
Ever; not one in his whole life. He had no idea why, but he'd never managed to be close with another boy.
Obviously he and Zach didn't get along, even after years of their dads being best friends and getting forced to spend time together. Actually, that made it way worse.
But even if Zach had never been his pal, in that moment that Zach left him still trapped in the Hawking House, it stung just the same. It just... even if Max didn't know the reason, it seemed to underline how much he felt like an afterthought of the friend group. Over the past two weeks, he had grown more and more unsure about why they let him hang around. Even Lemon, who was really just his own friend because she wanted to be... he never knew where he stood with her. They clashed pretty regularly, but he wasn't able to tell whether she was still angry after the fact. Maybe she was. He never felt like he could ask.

And even if he only had Zach's jacket because he hadn't had been able to face Zach to return it, just for a split moment it made Max feel included. Like he could pretend for a moment that he felt accepted and genuinely liked.

He didn't feel that way. Again, it was one of those things Max would never get to know for sure. There was no way he could ever bring himself to go up and ask someone if they wanted him around. That would just be... selfish? Was that even the right word? Ungrateful, maybe. If they tolerated having him around, that was all he could ask for. If he pushed, he might not even have that. He always felt way closer to the edge of losing his friends than he ever actually was.

But, for some inexplicable reason, Zach's jacket made him feel better.

Running his hand back through his hair and staring back at his reflection almost apologetically, he decided he looked halfway normal. Well, he looked like he hadn't slept or eaten in far too long, but at least he was somewhat presentable.
And Zach's jacket brought out his eyes.

Sometimes his bedroom mirror seemed to taunt him as much as everyone else.

Not giving himself the time to think about it, he ran downstairs, ignoring his parents waving for his attention, and stumbled out the door to look for where Harper had parked her car. Understandably, Harper no longer wanted to be open about hanging out with Max, after Zach had the great idea of saying they were all having a threesome. He hadn't yet been able to convince his family otherwise (it didn't occur to him that wearing Zach's jacket probably didn't help matters.) But when he spotted her parked inconspicuously by the curb, he ran up with a shy half-smile that quickly broke into half joy and half despair.
He hadn't seen a friend in ten days.
"Harper! What's up?" He awkwardly climbed into the passenger seat, his usual clumsy attempts at casual banter seeming all the more shaken and cracked.
Maybe she just wouldn't notice, the fact that they hadn't talked in forever would blow aside, and they could just pretend everything was normal.
Max had never been one to want to let things go.

code by valen t.

 

[Elf_Ruler]

Lemon Pierce

Lemon had enjoyed movie night even though she really hadn’t gotten to watch the movie like she had wanted. She had to dip out early due to her curfew, but she wasn’t mad, honestly the tension that had been in the room was more than enough for her to handle so it was easier for her to go home. Home was a place of peace, where she could mostly be herself minus the one secret, she had kept from her parents but that was okay. She wasn’t lying to them she just hadn’t found the right time to tell them everything, so it wasn’t bad. Her dad was happy to see her home right at curfew and she had given him a weak smile, her body was drained from the day and all she wanted was to eat whatever leftovers her mom had left for her and go to bed. Which was exactly what she had done.

Within the past two weeks Lemon had acquired a beautiful black cat named Ophelia from Katherine and she loved Ophelia so much even though she hadn’t had her new pet for long. Originally her dad had been a little annoyed because of the impromptu purchase of pet supplies but when Kat had delivered Ophelia and the new cat had gotten acquainted in her new house well her dad loved the cat. Besides the cat Lemon had been mostly studying trying to keep her grades up and do well, she knew she would eventually get her tutoring from Kat, but she wasn’t about to rush the girl. It would be rude and as much as Lemon had enjoyed chatting with the brunette over the past couple of weeks, she didn’t want to seem pushy in asking for extra help.

Once everything had been finalized, well mostly finalized Kat was supposed to come to Lemon’s place but when the announcement of Spooning reopening Lemon wanted to go and of course it fell on her tutoring day. In the stroke of luck or maybe the stroke of Kat having a soft spot Lemon got her wish and instead she was going to be studying with Kat at Spooning.

All would have been perfect in the world of Lemon, until she learned who had hurt Oli and now, she was upset and annoyed. How could Kat hang out with someone that hurt a boy so bad he felt the need to have a knife? It was Kat’s decision but the sour taste it had let in her mouth was one she would rather never have. Her mother had even noticed as she came into the kitchen letting her mom make sure her outfit was “appropriate” for her going out. Her mom wiped her hands on the hand towel and made her way over, “What’s wrong cricket?” Lemon sighed at her mother, she couldn’t tell her, “It’s nothing mama. Just worried about my friend.” Her mom gave that soft smile she always gave her, “Sweetheart, your heart is always in the right place. But remember your Pa and I are always here for you when you want to talk.” A kiss was placed on Lemon’s forehead and she was out of the house.

It didn’t take her long to make it into town and find where Spooning was, Parish wasn’t that big, and Lemon knew the town pretty well. She had her books in her bag and she was ready to learn, now all she had to do was wait for Kat. She was nervous and she wished she knew how to calm her nerves.

Mention(s): Soap Interaction(s)

 

[Dede]

Stu

​

It had been two weeks since Stu’s adventures in Hockey House, and he hadn’t quite shut up about it. The excitement was too great to not share with others, and since Oliver and Vered were his only two close friends, they bore head-on the brunt of his loquacity. And since they weren’t deaf like Max, they actually had to hear his every word.

He had gone to the spooky house to find his bag, but instead he had risked death by falling roof, death by tetanus, death by falling down the stairs, death by poisonous spider, death by Toothrot, and death by his dad who was worried sick he came home late since he had to walk all the way. All in all a great day to be a Stu.

For Stu, the most thrilling part of that night was actually the long walk home. This was because he walked in perpetual fear of being attacked by werewolves, and kept himself sane by feasting on all the KitKats he brought for the others, and indulging Max with a mouthful of chocolate in a dozen stories that he couldn’t hear. Of course Stu wasn’t to know. He thought Max was just a very quiet kid who liked to listen but not talk. So he was having to fill all the silence by himself, a task to which he happily obliged.

Today he was off with Ollie still in the quest to find his missing bag. They were at the beach seeking the occasional shade with the sun crisping their scalps. Stu had gotten two ice pops from a street-vendor out of his new allowance, one for himself and one for Ollie. But as he was paying for them his own melted right off the stick and plopped onto the sand. Which was a metaphor for his whole existence really.

They heard the sea growl from the depths, that sounded like Toothrot rolling in his sleep, but actually it was just Stu’s tummy.

“After this we should get some lunch,” he said. “I really fancy some chips--but not at the Sleeping Hedgehog. I reckon we shouldn’t go back there. Not for a while.”

He kicked up a cloud of sand that the wind tossed back right at him, and he spent the next five minutes trying to get sand out of his eyes.

“I think I have enough money for chips. . . and then you should come over to my house. We could watch Star Wars. Or play Minecraft. I want to finish the wall soon, then we can go look for the turtle eggs,” he said.

Chimney Swift lion.