ashleyoneill

[ashleyoneill]

alex miller.

status.  open where & when.  harvest festival, early evening.

Alex would have much preferred to stay home and deal with the chaos that she managed to create within the four walls of what used to be Brenna’s guest bedroom instead of galavanting through Westerly’s annual fall festival, however, the aforementioned blonde simply would not take no for an answer and all but dragged the brunette to the festival against her own wishes.  While Alex didn’t necessarily make the most graceful exit from Westerly, she hoped that she would at least be able to ease herself back into its reality, but that was clearly not going to be the case as Brenna practically threw her to the wolves of Rhode Island.

Admittedly, being in her hometown was a bit more nostalgic than she would have anticipated and she can’t help but reminisce on her adolescence as made her way through the corn maze and passes by the pumpkin carving contest.  She barely notices the occasional passerby that does a visible double take because isn’t that the Miller girl?  And what is she doing here?  It should come as no surprise that her father has kept his diagnosis relatively private; only telling those most important to him.  Funnily enough, Alex didn’t even make the cut considering it was his receptionist who broke the news to her over the phone.  What a mess her life had become in such a short amount of time.

She was wandering through the pumpkin patch when she stumbled and lost her footing momentarily and practically fell into the person in front of her.  It wasn’t that she was clumsy, but there aren’t many pumpkin patches in New York and the cement sidewalks are much steadier than this.  “Oh, fuck ––” she exclaims as she catches herself on the other person’s arm in attempt to steady herself.

-

His arms are crossed and his legs are planted firmly at his spot just beside the pumpkin that—and he swears he isn’t being discriminatory—a little less perfect than the others. The pumpkin is small but not quite wilting, either, as if it just hasn't received enough water, or sun, or attention to fully grow into its features. He’s read somewhere that talking to plants can actually help them grow—and he does precisely that, in the vain hopes that maybe, just maybe, Ash can help it become the beautiful pumpkin he knows it can become. 

And so Ash begins speaking to the pumpkin, all niceties and platitudes and how are yous. It’s easy enough to mistake him as talking to himself, but everyone is distracted with their phones or companions for them to be truly distracted. Ash is on minute three of talking to the pumpkin—not quite growing yet, he’s afraid—when a woman suddenly loses their footing and scrambles for the nearest solid figure they can find. 

“Fuck—” He mirrors her reaction, the curse word slipping past his lips before he can help it. Ash successfully blocks the momentum before they fall together into the patch, planting his feet just enough to hold them steady. Glancing back to the woman, and then to the pumpkin, he asks, “So, you okay there?” He’s not exactly sure whether he’s referring to the other or to the little pumpkin, who has escaped the struggle, and is virtually unharmed. 

[ashleyoneill]

brenna moore.

OPEN — westerly fall festival, saturday night. 

Two very drunk, barely twenty-one year old girls have been crowding the makeshift karaoke stage all night. It had started off funny enough and Brenna had gotten a bit of a kick out of it, the ghost of nostalgia coming with it. Not that she had ever exactly been a Karaoke Queen, but she remembers getting dragged up on the same stage by her friends in her twenties to belt out an off-key rendition of Wannabe by the Spice Girls or Baby One More Time. But when the girls gear up for their fifth song in a row, she can’t help but cringe just a little. “Christ, you’d think you’d be losin’ their voices by now,” she comments to the person next to her, nose scrunching as she glances back at the girls. “I’ve heard fighting barn cats that sound better than them.” 

-

Truth be told, Ash can barely hold a tune himself, and that’s without the excuse of alcohol. He likes imagining that he sounds better drunk, but he’s certainly not testing that theory in a sea of strangers. “Oh, c’mon, at least give them gold stars for trying,” Ash says with a lopsided grin, tapping his hand against the table in accordance to the beat. As the women transition from Britney Spears to Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway—it seems they’ve moved to Y2K now—his taps become slower, easing into the song’s melancholy. “Strange to think that these songs are older than they are,” and by extension he is significantly older than they are, having heard these songs when he was a child himself. “And if it’s any consolation, they’re almost in tune now—” 

— I spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly!!!!! 

“Well, seems like I spoke too soon.” 

[ashleyoneill]

rebekah dunne​.

CLOSED / @sharedsmokes​ LOCATION: Harvest Festival

In the most unlikely sense, Rebekah has found a friend in the young man who spends his days managing the Bed & Breakfast down the street from her home. She passes it every day on her walk back from the beach, and has never given it much thought until striking up a conversation with Ash while he was outside working on something one morning — and now, she has simply built visits to the place into her schedule. It’s a little jarring to see him in the wild and outside of their shared connection, since Rebekah is all about routines and attending the Harvest Festival certainly goes beyond the realm of her usual daily tasks. But she’s there to humor her brother and she doesn’t completely mind when she sees some of the wayward friends she’s made over the last few years — even if she has to force herself to go say hello. Smiling slightly, Rebekah makes her way to the man, gliding across the road to him like she’s walking on water instead of pavement before stopping short where he stands. “Pumpkin spice fudge,” she presents a box to Ash with no greetings or niceties, simply beginning their interaction as she always does — by announcing the small gift she’s brought him and subsequently holding it out for him to take. Though it isn’t an interesting looking rock from the shore or some taffy from Sweet Tooth this time, the sentiment is the same. “I thought you might like to try some.”

-

He can never resist a good festival. Westerly is far from a sleepy town in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere, but it does not offer as much excitement as he’s used to. Some days are livelier than others, however, and a festival of this size is enough to abate his some of his restlessness. Today is all about indulgence for him, or at least, indulgence as far as his meager earnings can afford.

He’s internally debating on how to stretch his last ten dollars when Rebekah—he can recognize that stride anywhere—promptly hands him a box of pumpkin spice fudge in lieu of a greeting. “Oh?” Ash begins with a curve of his brow, feigning surprise, even as gift-giving has unwittingly become their primary mode of communication. “You know, you just saved me a couple of bucks. I can cross sickly sweet dessert off my list now.” It isn’t taffy, but he estimates the sugar content in this gift would amount to the same figure. “So, have you taken a look around yet?” He remarks, eyes moving back and forth from the box he’s begun to open to the pavement where he walks, head careening to signal her to follow him. “There's that corn maze everyone’s talking about, but my sense of direction is, er, kersplat.” 

[ashleyoneill]

introducing ASHLEY “ASH” O’NEILL, thirty-two, manager of the white whale bed and breakfast. misquamicut resident. details under the cut. 

LONG STORY SHORT — trigger warnings: parental deaths, gambling, substance abuse. 

born in carson city, nv as the younger of two children. all the members of his family (rather staunch irish catholics) have always led small lives, and it’s expected that ashley would follow the same path. 

his mom died of a stroke when he was three, so his only real memory of a parent was through his father. his dad worked odd jobs around town and earned himself a fairly good reputation, though most days was spent at the family diner that’s been in their family for ages. 

while ashley was learning the trade of their family diner, his older brother garrett was already in a fancy schmancy high school making connections and intent on studying medicine. 

ashley didn’t have much ambition — or did not particularly care to have one. a great deal of his teenage years was spent indulging himself in petty crime, just narrowly avoiding prison time with his father’s help. 

an attempt at rehabilitation was made with his brother’s encouragement, and he moved to new york for college (while his brother went to medical school). but he fell into old paths, and found a vice befit his recklessness but disproportionate to his money and life skills — gambling. 

he dropped out of college sophomore year, but kept the illusion so his dad would keep sending money to him. that move effectively bankrupts their family, and by the time his father had seen through his web of deceit, his father had already sold off their lot and diner. 

they didn’t have much of a relationship after that. ash went back to school and finished up the rest of his degree, but none of his jobs quite stuck. he gambled, viciously, and drank just as hard. he lost as many times as he’d won, and those paltry amounts were just enough to tide him over the big apple for a couple of years. 

the news of his father’s death on the other side of the coast wracked him more than he cares to admit — and that was enough to send him down the straight and narrow for a second time. this time, he jet set off to westerly, a small rhode island city where his brother now practices medicine and lives with his wife and kids. 

he’s been managing the bed and breakfast since the start of the year, but some days are quieter than others. in that idle time, he thinks of all the ways he could leave again. there’s no telling where his restlessness takes him, but he’s determined to battle it out. 

PERSONALITY & HEADCANONS

Area Man Nostalgic For Time When Ads Targeting Him Not As Sad

cat dad, and a little more introverted than he cares to admit. 

big ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ energy most days. please bug him all you like while he sits idly at the local B&B. 

while ashley reveres his brother and is grateful for his support, i imagine his brother (just imagine a hot rich NPC doctor idk) never really warmed up to him and had always looked to him as a child. if your char has been around westerly a while, it’s likely they’ve heard his brother shit talking him over the past decade. 

QUICK STATS

zodiac: scorpio ☉ gemini ☽ libra ↑

mbti: istp (the virtuoso)

6′3″ and bi bi bi

character pegs: jimmy mcgill (better call saul), roman roy (succession), luke crain (the haunting of hill house), johnny lawrence (cobra kai), mark grayson (invincible), jamie tyrone (long day's journey into night), abel except cain just kinda kept him alive out of spite 

[ashleyoneill]

Kaveh Akbar, "Famous Americans and Why They Were Wrong" from Pilgrim Bell

[ashleyoneill]

WILL POULTER as Bobby Jones in Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? 1.01