scarlettrhodes-rp

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

Phillip was the only person that could get Declan to laugh, and even that took a bit of time. Both men were slow to open up, and so it took time for either to be comfortable enough to start to joke with the other. Eventually, they both discovered that they had dark senses of humor, and Declan’s tended to lean towards gallows humor. Under both of their dark senses of humor was a sense of superiority that showed up in their jokes sometimes. They both enjoyed jokes that made fun of things that everyone liked, and there was a small part of Declan that was aware that the reason he liked the jokes was that he enjoyed knowing that he was better than all of those other people. Those other people were so stupid for liking that thing, and Phillip and he were clever enough to see through that thing. 

That wasn’t the entirety of their jokes though. Declan wasn’t entirely sure how it started, but they had an ongoing joke that they were both dating. They had been joking about it so long that it had complicated implications that made the joke even more funny. It had to be the longest running joke of all of Declan’s life, and it seemed only to get funnier as they got older. They had even started joking about marrying each other if they got old and couldn’t find anyone. There were even personalities within the joke that made Declan laugh. Phillip was the grumpy boyfriend who only liked Declan, and Declan was the over the top boyfriend that was constantly jealous about nothing. 

Despite the fact that Declan clearly had the ability to make jokes with people, he couldn’t seem to find anyone else funny. Most of the time he found people’s sense of humor too simple. They’d laugh at things that were stupid, circumstantial, or worse potty humor. Other people bored him, and this was made worse when people tried to create a false sense of closeness with him by thinking that they could joke with him. If he didn’t find them interesting enough to listen to most of the time, what made them think that they’d be able to make him laugh when humor required an understanding of the audience? 

Somehow, Scarlett crashed right through all of his usual walls. He still couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that was different about Scarlett. She was more clever than most people that he knew. She knew how to juxtapose dark topics with odd phrasing to make the dark thing seem normal somehow. She knew how to use her face to make him feel like he was in on something that other people weren’t, and then she dropped jokes that Declan didn’t see coming. Scarlett’s mind had this strange way that it put ideas together in a way that Declan could have never thought of. 

The way that she looked at him as they both heard Sterling and Luna was a great example of that. She could have simply laughed at the sound, but instead she paused and turned to him and they both stared at each other for a second. The perfect timing of all of that made the realization of what was happening even funnier, and Declan had a hard time controlling his laughter as he rushed into the room and found a dresser to lean on to find some sort of support as he laughed so hard that his stomach hurt. She then made him laugh even harder as she responded to Declan’s realization that it was likely his best friend above the both of them. Somehow the way she slapped her own thighs made the situation seem even funnier to Declan who began to rub his face as he snickered. Over time, his laughter slowed down until he was finally able to answer her question with some ideas. 

“Yeah, giant ants. I’ve heard it’s spectacularly terrible, so I think you’ll be right that it’ll be so bad that it’s good.” Declan added with a warm smile as his cheeks ached from the laughter from before. 

He nodded as she suggested changing into pajamas before they got started. He wanted to get out of the stuffy shirt that he was wearing, and he was looking forward to getting into something more comfortable. While she was in the bathroom, he grabbed a green t-shirt and a pair of grey sweat pants which he changed into after taking off his shoes and socks. Once he was done (which didn’t take any time at all) he called to Scarlett in the bathroom, “I’m done.” The grey sweatpants hung low on his waist as he began to make rum and cokes in the Styrofoam cups, so they didn’t have to mix drinks the more drunk that they got. He tried not to think about the feeling in his chest at the thought of Scarlett being so close to him on the other side of the door, and he focused on trying to get comfortable. 

Once she came out, Declan began to connect the laptop to the television, and then once that was set up he grabbed two jack and cokes and offered them to her. “Do you want to drink a little before we get started?” Once Scarlett agreed, Declan sat down on the bed opposite of her as much as possible before drinking half of his glass. “I doubt this is what you had planned for when you got here. What were you thinking you were going to be doing once you got down here?”

Scarlett moved further up the bed, resting her back against the headboard and placing a pillow over her lap while she watched Declan connect his laptop to the T.V. before grabbing two drinks and walking up to her offering one to her as he sat down next to her and asked her whether she wanted to drink before starting the movie to which the woman nodded and smiled as she grabbed one of the glasses and took a sip. When had been the last time she had done something like this? Watch a movie with company and drink while talking so casually to get to know each other? Scarlett’s brain couldn’t pull out any memories from her brain, she knew she had done things like this with Nicholas (whom had been the only person allowed to be around the woman for quite a few years) yet, her brain couldn’t pull out any of those memories. She remembered certain things like their first date and how he asked permission to hold her hand while the walked down the street as he wanted to make sure she was comfortable with it but what once was the memory of a romantic gesture now was seen as the beginning of manipulation planned so far ahead that the redhead wouldn’t even see it as such, not even after the first time she felt that striking pain on her face that later on became so familiar it no longer shocked her.

The dates, the heartfelt conversations when Nick poured out his heart for her to see as he voiced all his concerns regarding his fear or losing her and why he got jealous so easily when he saw her with another main as he lied and told her some story on how an ex-girlfriend hurt him so badly he had to work his way on trusting and knowing that Scarlett wouldn’t hurt him like that, the grip of his hand around her waist that became tighter whenever they were in public and someone walked over to them to make conversation and which only indicated her that Nicholas didn’t want her to talk much or get out of his sight when someone tried to take her away for too long. There were so many details of the relationship that took Scarlett Rhodes a long time to see them as they were; abuse and manipulation at its finest level. Slight panic crawled under her skin as her mind began to drift away while looking down at the drink, “How do you know he’s not doing the same thing?” A voice said in the back of her head, “How do you know you can trust this one this time? How is he any different?” It asked over and over, fear crawling up further almost reaching her chest as mentally she began to fight back her own thoughts but soon Declan spoke again, pulling her back to reality and forcing her to move her eyes away from the drink and to his face.

“I doubt this is what you had planned for when you got here. What were you thinking you were going to be doing once you got down here?” He asked softly, his eyes dark and warm as a small smile reached his eyes causing wrinkles to show on his skin.

Looking into those eyes, Scarlett felt something in her chest a warm and peace that he transmitted and sending a signal to her brain that everything was going to be okay even if there was no way of proving it at the moment; something in Declan’s eyes eased her mind and eventually made the voice in her head go away. It had only passed a couple of second since he made his question so she smiled softly and brought the glass up to her lips to take a sip before she began to speak, “I actually don’t know what I was thinking.” She said with a small laugh as she shook her head a little bit as her arm rested down on her pillow, “I knew there was going to be drinking because Calliope, I’ve only recently met her and we have a lot to know about the other but I could tell that.” She said with a chuckle, “I thought I was probably going to relax and see around but I didn’t exactly have anything really planned other than waiting to see what happened once we got here, and well… this, I probably couldn’t have seen this one coming not like this. I mean us drinking and talking casually planning on seeing a terrible movie while our roommates AND your best friend have loud sex in the other room… yeah, not really foreseeable.” She said laughing a little more, “It surely makes a good story to tell in the future though.” She said laughing still before taking another sip of her drink.

“What about you? What are your expectations or wishes for this trip? Other than hearing your best friend have sex, that must be really high in your list.” She said jokingly and laughed softly again.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

What weird thing did you do in your teenage years?

I’ve always been a fan of true crime and unsolved cases, so I love watching documentaries or shows about that sort of things… many people think it’s weird and creepy. And I still do it.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

A lot of people who get into abusive relationships have to learn how to spot red flags in relationships. Do you ever fear that the people that you are interested in might have red flags that you're ignoring due to rose colored glasses that make red flags look like normal flags? How do you fight off this fear if you do? If not, how do you know that you're not falling into the same trap?

I do, of course I do. I used to have this gut feeling with Nicholas and I was always pushing it away because I thought I was being paranoid or looking too much into things and… turns out I was right. However, I don’t fully trust my instincts yet, it’s hard to differentiate when it’s your mind making up things and when it’s not and sometimes It’s almost impossible. It’s not a perfect formula to this, I think. I can only hope that I never have to go through the same thing again but you never know… there are manipulative people everywhere, there are abusive people everywhere and grooming is such a slow process most of the time you don’t even know it’s happening until months, even years later after it starts. However, I do think next time as soon as I get that feeling again, I’ll distance myself from that as quickly as possible.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

Do you have a five-year plan? If so, what do you want to achieve professionally and personally? If not, what's one goal that you would at least like to accomplish in your lifetime?

I do not have a five-year plan if I’m honest. Though planning might be a good thing to do for organization and motivation purposes, I also think it’s a bit… pointless because nothing will ever turn out exactly as you think it will, life is constantly changing every single second leads you to something or somewhere different something you haven’t even thought of before. As far as goal, I just hope in five years I have my life back fully, you know? Perhaps, find the drive and an actual purpose to be useful to people as a lawyer in this area, uhmm… and friends, I want to find new friends and make amends with those I pushed away for so long because of Nick.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

What's one thing about Declan that draws you to her/him? Why do you think you're attracted to that?

Can I mention two? I know that’s like cheating but there are I think two things that I really like about him. Number one his laugh, he has this loud contagious laugh, he lets it be free whenever he does laugh around me and it’s quite precious. Number two, his honesty. He doesn’t try to manipulate me; he doesn’t try to protect me by softening up his words or avoiding a subject; he sees me and somehow, he knows I can handle honesty however raw and harsh it might be. At least that’s how it feels so far.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

What's something you wish people knew about you? If nothing- what's something people wrongly assume about you?

I wish my family would actually believe that I’m okay. Like I want them to truly know that despite what I went through I’m not fragile or at the verge of breaking down. If anything, right now, at this very moment of my life, I’ve never felt stronger.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

A Scarlan Moodboard Part I.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

Rubbing salt in the wound was certainly not above Declan, and in fact he tended to enjoy doing so. Declan felt that most of the people around him were incompetent, and when Declan wounded them, he knew they deserved it. If they did their job well enough he wouldn’t have had the chance to wound them. Simply wounding them wasn’t enough to teach them though. The medical profession was not a place where you could just make a mistake. Mistakes could kill someone. Declan had a job to make sure that the person learned their lesson right there. Therefore not only was rubbing in the salt enjoyable in that he got to get back at the person for their incompetence, but it also was necessary to prevent weak people from getting further into the field. 

However, he was certainly above beating a dead horse. There was a huge difference between salt in a wound and a dead horse. Salt in a wound would create a scar, but it wasn’t fatal and the person could do something with that knowledge. Beating a dead horse was only about making the person who beat the horse better. He wasn’t going to invest the energy to beat a horse, and teasing Scarlett about what she said felt like beating a horse rather than rubbing the salt in the wound. 

A part of him worried a little, though, that Scarlett might think that the smile as she covered her cheeks was teasing rather than finding the action enchanting. Everything about how her nose scrunched up, how her cheeks pushed in towards her nose as she covered them, how her eyes closed, and how the redness from her cheeks spread down her cheeks to her exposed chest was charming, and she wasn’t even trying. She was just genuinely responding to the embarrassment. 

But, of course, when Declan felt any degree of happiness, his brain chimed in with the ‘hot take’ that Scarlett was embarrassed at the thought of him thinking that she might want to have sex with him, because she was embarrassed that he’d think he ever had a chance with her. The thought made Declan’s stomach drop, but he quickly pushed it aside, reminding himself that it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter, because he wasn’t stupid enough to think a woman like him could even be interested in him. He knew he belonged among the monsters rather than with the beauties. 

He watched as she pulled the key from her skirt, but then suddenly he paused as a loud moan echoed in the hall. Declan turned to the sound only to realize that he was pretty sure he knew that was Sterling. His face twisted in horror as he realized he was going to have to look at the bed that Sterling had sex on. Then, right above them he heard another muffled moan, and then the sound of a name. Declan’s hearing was stronger than most since his brain was constantly in danger mode, and after a moment, realized exactly what name that was. He pulled his lips into his mouth in an effort to control himself. 

An effort that he lost as Scarlett turned to him with wide eyes. He tried to fight it, but a second later he began to laugh so hard that his stomach began to hurt as he rushed into her room. He placed his suitcase and the bottles down as he laughed before placing one of his hands on the dresser and the other on his stomach.

“This… has to be one of the weirdest and funniest nights of my life.” Scarlett giggled. 

“You’re telling me! My roommate has stolen my room to have sex, and I am almost absolutely sure my best friend is above us!” He began to laugh even harder as he realized that it had been forever since Phillip had sex. Whoever he was with, most likely Dr. Whitlock, was likely experiencing all of the pent up frustration Phillip had over the years, and somehow that was even funnier to him. 

As Scarlett continued to laugh, she asked, “I uhmm… I guess we can watch something? If there’s anything in English or with subtitles. Though can we actually hear anything with all the moaning around us?” She began to wipe at her tears before beginning to take off her shoes. 

It took a moment for Declan to compose himself, and finally he was able to think about what he wanted to do. “Well… we have tacos… and… I might have my laptop with a hotspot. We could watch Netflix if that would work better for you? Or… I know! I’m stealing an idea from a great show. But….what if we drank the rest of this rum and made fun of a bad show or movie? I suggest this movie about giant ants called Them.”

After leaving Nicholas it had taken a little bit of time for Scarlett to be able to genuinely laugh about something, the first few months of being in her parents’ home in D.C. while trying to process the past seven years of her life, Scarlett walked around the home like a small mouse trying to go unnoticed because, even though she was surrounded by people who truly loved her and cared for her, she couldn’t help but feel like a complete stranger in a home she always knew she could go back to if things didn’t go as planned. The redhead walked around the house and towards the kitchen, listening to her youngest sister rush through the town house and gathering her belongings to go off to school, throwing a couple of jokes as she had breakfast in an attempt to make her big sister laugh and Scarlett did it every time but every time it felt like a disgusting lie… like one of the lies she had told over and over in order to protect Nicholas and keep people from knowing what was happening behind closed doors.

Eventually as she received the proper therapy, Scarlett started taking back the control of her own life, her emotions and how she perceived things. Smiling became again a true habit the more time she got to spend with her family as they allowed her to heal as much as they could being the overprotective family that they were. Even her laughter became genuine with time as she allowed herself to enjoy things in life but it had never been as loud as the first time she laughed with Declan Sarmiento during the night of the shooting. That type of uncontrollable laugh that made her stomach hurt and her eyes fill up with tears was something so rare, so precious that made her chest swell with joy and its warmth spread across her torso before reaching every corner of each one of her limbs.

The woman watched him as his teeth showing and reaching his eyes, making the wrinkles around his eyes more noticeable as the skin folded while he continued to laugh. “you’re telling me! My roommate has stolen my room to have sex, and I am almost absolutely sure my best friend is above us!” He said making her laugh a bit more placing a hand over her stomach while the other one slapped against the top of her own thigh as she laughed harder., she was convinced that now their laughter was heard loudly above the moans and sex noises of the couple who were enjoying their intimacy.

“I mean that’s… yeah. You won, FOR SURE.” She said laughing a bit again before she started removing her shoes and wipe the tears of laughter that had come out from her eyes and asked what they were going to do next. With time, her laughter started to slow down becoming soft chuckles and then giggles until finally it came to a stop as she needed to allow her lungs to breath properly but a grin remained on her lips as she watched Declan trying to compose himself as well before finally speaking.

“Well… we have tacos… and… I might have my laptop with a hotspot. We could watch Netflix if that would work better for you? Or… I know! I’m stealing an idea from a great show.” He said as she leaned back on her chair and smiled again, excited for whatever idea popped in his mind. “But…. what if we drank the rest of this rum and made fun of a bad show or movie? I suggest this movie about giant ants called Them.” He said smiling widely at her.

“I… giant ants?” She asked and laughed again, softly this time, “I actually love the idea. Two drunks roasting a bad movie… though who knows, maybe it’s so bad we’ll like it.” She said with a chuckle before standing up. “Alright,” She said letting out a happy sigh, “I’m going to change my clothes, that’ll give you time to change if you want to. If you do just knock on the bathroom door when you’re ready.” She said softly, smiling at him before she walked over her suitcase to get a pair of plaid black pajama shorts and a black t-shirt before walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind her and leaning against it for a second smiling to herself as she thought about how the night was going so far. There alone as she began to remove her party outfit, Scarlett knew that she liked Declan Sarmiento, perhaps more than he would even notice, yet as quickly as the thought came she shook it away not wanting to worry her mind with such things as part of it thought there was no way Declan liked her more than just a friend… even part of her always thought that he was simply being nice to her because for some random reason he didn’t completely hate her or disliked her like it happened with other people at Rosewood. After changing her clothes, the woman took second to look in the mirror, placing a strand of red hair behind her ear before taking off her jewelry and finally coming out from the bathroom as Declan said he was ready.

“Alright, I’m ready for some giant ant’s ridiculous movie.” She said with a grin as she placed her jewelry over the a table and sat down on the bed waiting for the man to grab his laptop and join her.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

High school was supposed to be the years that people discovered their independence and who they were at the core of their being. Declan tried to imagine what that might have looked like for him, but it was hard to imagine his life without Zacharias. He remembered that he had liked singing with his father, that he had done well in school, and that he had liked making his mother smile. None of that really told him what he might have been like in high school. Would he have taken Spanish in high school as an easy way out, or would his curiosity have gotten the better of him causing him to pick up something different like Chinese or Arabic? If he didn’t have all the scars that he had, would he have charmed girls? Would he have been a musician if that had been encouraged? 

He tried to remember anything that he learned during high school to see if his memory was as good as Scarlett’s. Not many details came up at first. Then vaguely like a haze he remembered a necklace that Nana had been wearing when she came to the farm. It had seemed important to her. It had two letters on it. What had they been? He had been so young that the memory was vague at best. He remembered more what her face was like than the clothes that she had been wearing. What happened to that necklace? That moment wasn’t the time to think about that. He wasn’t trying to dig that pain up. 

He wanted to enjoy his time with Scarlett. Turning his attention from himself, he focused on Scarlett only to find her nose scrunching a little. She then admitted, “White people can be very stupid. I wish I could apologize in the name of all of them,” which made him snicker a little. 

“You know if all Americans were like you, people like you wouldn’t feel the need to apologize.” He shook his head a bit, “It’s always the people that aren’t the problem that are the ones apologizing.” He turned to the drinks and began to mix their drinks quietly. As he did so, he noticed Scarlett starting to move around empty bottles and generally cleaning off the bar. He wasn’t going to say anything, because it might have been something for Scarlett to do with her hands. 

But then Scarlett chuckled before admitting, “I know there are people who will clean this up but I can at least well a little.” 

He shrugged before pushing her the drink, “I’m sure they appreciate it. I hope it’s not too strong. Buen provecho.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, thank you-eh I mean…” 

The sight of Scarlett pausing and thinking made Declan grin behind his own glass as he waited for her to remember what she was thinking of. Somehow her trying hard to struggle with his native language made Declan’s chest bloom with warmth. He kept all the details about himself close to his chest since he didn’t like people being close to him, but Scarlett made him want to tell her more just to see how she responded to each piece that he offered her. Finally, she remembered how to thank him, and he nodded, “Yeah, you got it. Lawyer brain strikes again.” He chuckled before sipping on his drink. 

Compliments always made Declan feel weird, so he pretended not to hear it and turned to Scarlett who pointed out Calliope Jackson. Declan knew nothing about the woman other than that he had watched her take so many shots of vodka that he was sure that she should have been on the ground peeing on herself, but instead she was up on the bar wiggling with what he thought was one of the cardiology residents. Though, he couldn’t really be sure. Neither really mattered enough to Declan to remember them. 

He considered pointing out to Scarlett that he had briefly seen Calliope with a white powder, but he wasn’t sure how close the two were. Also, Declan wasn’t a snitch. “Well probably her age yes, but also probably that she’s three sheets to the wind and could not care if her body is tired.” 

He turned to smile at her, but as he did so Scarlett asked him if he wanted to go to the room with her. For a moment, Declan froze and blinked trying to figure out what was happening. Women usually had to be much more drunk than Scarlett seemed to be to choose to sleep with him. He wouldn’t put it past Scarlett to sleep with people randomly as she could do whatever made her happy (though the chances felt pretty low considering what he knew about her), but he also felt like she would have been more graceful than that. He raised an eyebrow at first wondering where she was going with that. 

Then her face turned blood red, and he knew immediately what she had actually meant. He began to laugh loudly as he began to grab food around them while Scarlett explained what she had meant. He grabbed a large bag of chips, a plate of leftover tacos, a bottle of coke, and a bottle of rum before turning to her. The way Scarlett’s nose scrunched up and her eyes squinted as she giggled made Declan’s chest fill with warmth, and his head filled with words that he knew he couldn’t actually say. He quickly forced that thought down and focused on what she said.  He laughed for a second before finally forcing himself to talk through his laughter, “Don’t worry. I didn’t actually think you were trying to sleep with me.” You’re way too sober for that, “You’re not an idiot, but you are really cute when you’re flustered. Come on, Scarlett.” He laughed as he began to head towards where he knew her room was. As he walked, he joked, “Though, there might be something in this alcohol if Sterling thought it was a good idea to anger me.” 

As they walked through the hall, Declan noticed his suitcase, and he rolled his eyes. He turned to Scarlett and offered her the bottles of rum and coke before picking up his suitcase and following her to her room. “So what’s the plan now that we’re here?”

“Oh my god.” Scarlett said in a preoccupied tone as she continued to laugh a bit and placed her hands over her cheeks, feeling how hot her skin felt under her hands; she mentally cursed at herself, for a moment hating how pale her skin was because she was sure her entire face looked red at this point out of the embarrassment. The redhead chuckled again as she watched Declan laugh a bit more before he reassured her that he never thought she wanted to sleep with him, but something told her he was simply being too kind to spare her from feeling more embarrassed.

“You’re not an idiot, but you are really cute when you’re flustered.” He said and suddenly she couldn’t hear anything else as her mind focused in his last sentence, he truly thought she was cute; not that Scarlett believed she was unpleasant to look at but there was something about his smile and the way his eyes shined a little bit while he began to walk with her that made something in her chest swell. Compliments like that for Scarlett meant that she either had paid a price for it or she would at some point, as Nick had made this a habit to the point the woman didn’t believe compliments people genuinely gave away for free; she carried around proof of this with her every day, such as her dilated iris which would never be the same thanks to a painful hit she received after Nick threw his phone at her face with full force once, damaging her eyesight forever. “You look cute, like squid for Finding Nemo.” He told her once after apologizing for what he had done.

Yet, Declan didn’t hurt her, he didn’t ask for anything in return neither he waited for her to say anything before he moved onto the next subject as he joked about the alcohol being altered explaining why Sterling was dumb enough to make him angry and expect to be fine afterwards. A small laugh escaped her lips again and she shook her head as the entered the Villa and walked towards where their bedrooms were, spotting a suitcase outside of his room, Scarlett arched an eyebrow before turning to look at Declan who rolled his eyes before handing her the things, he was carrying to be able to walk over his door and gather his belongings.

“So what’s the plan now that we’re here?” He asked and she looked at her hands before chuckling as she realized she needed to pull her key out of her skirt.

“Now, I need to open the door.” She said with a small laugh before setting the bottles down to free one of her hands and be able to reach inside the small pocket in her skirt to pull out her key while carrying some of the things with her other arm, as she was trying to open the door a loud moan was heard across the hall which caused her eyes to grow wider before she looked over to the room she knew Sterling and Lune were, her jaw dropped as a loud groan followed before she heard a loud noise coming from the floor above them, muffled distant moans were heard causing her to purse her lips together before she slowly moved her chin down as she looked from the ceiling back to her door and then to Declan’s face; there was a couple of seconds of silence before the two suddenly burst into laughter before stumbling as the door suddenly opened pulling her inside but she managed to not fall.

Her laughter grew louder at the whole situation as she stood up straight again and walked further into the bedroom, leaving the stuff on a table before she sat down on a chair holding her stomach with one hand as she covered her mouth with the other one, trying to control herself. “This… has to be one of the weirdest and funniest nights of my life.” She said laughing still as she shook her head and looked at the man. “I uhmm… I guess we can watch something? If there’s anything in English or with subtitles. Though can we actually hear anything with all the moaning around us?” She chuckled wiping the corner of her eyes as she teared up a bit from how hard she was laughing, before she removed her shoes.

“What do you want to do?” She asked as she looked at him and chuckled again.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

calliopejackson​:

Life Blood II Open Starter

The moment Calliope found out that the hospital was going to send her along with a group of friends to a hotel in Tulum, Mexico for vacation, she began to meticulously plan a large party for the first night they were there. Together with Sterling Ides, one of the hospitals play boys, Calliope began to put together the ‘perfect’ party in her head. She wanted everyone in the group to have at least one night where they forgot everything that had happened to them before. She wanted them to forget Seattle for at least one night.

So the first day that they arrived, Calliope and Sterling allowed everyone to get unpacked, and then they rushed off the group to entertain themselves. Finally, with everyone out of the hotel they began to set up everything. They filled a bar with all the alcohol that they could buy with the money that they had. Then they both put together a playlist of songs that mixed old and new as perfectly as they could. Calliope then went about decorating the place with fairy lights and other decorations that were romantic but also inspired a partying mood. At the same time, Sterling began to arrange all of the food in a way that made it most easy to get access to. He also put out several bottles of water in case someone got sick. Calliope then put several rolls of trash bags around the hotel in case someone needed to throw up.

Finally, everything was ready, and Calliope decided to get dressed for the party. She wanted something that would blow Megan’s mind, and so it had taken her a couple of hours before leaving her home to find the perfect outfits to choose. Now, she knew she had made the right choice.

Once people began to flow in, Calliope and Sterling made sure that everyone that was willing had to do at least one shot which Sterling then shook them with before they were allowed in. Calliope then made sure that everyone that was drinking got at least three shots in them before she began to move on to other people.

Now that everyone was properly drunk, Calliope was about six shots in, and she was ready to start having a good time. She had a bit of marijuana in her system, so it wouldn’t be too long before she finally got drunk. Over the head, Calliope began to hear Brendon Urie’s beautiful voice begin to sing, “What a beautiful wedding..”

Loudly, Calliope began to sing, “What a beautiful wedding”, says a bridesmaid to a waiter, “And, yes, but what a shame, What a shame the poor groom’s bride is a WHORE!”

As dark as it sounded, the shooting hadn’t brought back nightmares or bad memories like most people had to deal with after the night of March 24th. It was a dark event, that couldn’t be denied, Scarlett felt for the victims how had suffered at the hands of the gunmen that attacked the hospital, she felt for the families who had to be told about their relatives not surviving the extensive injures they suffered during that night and if it were a way that she could somehow go back and time and prevent all the pain she would do it, but the woman knew better than wishing and thinking about what ifs. Instead, Scarlett felt like she had taken back something that was taken away from her during the eight years she spent with Nicholas. Over the past month, the redhead’s confidence grew back little by little, each day she was unconsciously getting rid of the mental prison she had been in for a long time. She had getting more assertive at work as she started calling the shots when she felt like she needed to do so, she was creating bonds with the people she worked with and even made a new friendship with Calliope Jackson as the two women had been hanging out together grabbing lunch and even drinks every now and then.

Happiness on her own was something that not too long ago felt too distance for the woman but was now finally reaching as her fingertips began to grasp it again.

At the party, Scarlett had been talking to the woman whom she was sharing room with as well as never denying any shots or drinks that the ball of energy that Calliope Jackson was sent her way, and even dancing. After a while, the lawyer decided to get another drink, fingers ran over the variety of bottles at the table before finally she picked a bottle of beer and turned around as she leaned against the bar counter, “I guess she got what she wanted. Everyone is very drunk at this point. So great.” Scarlett said to herself and she laughed softly while watching everyone act up under the influence of alcohol before her eyes stopped at the sight of Declan Sarmiento staring at a plant as he talked to Jackson Wright; her head tilted to the side light as she watched him for a few seconds, the smile on her face grew a little bigger before a word escaped her lips, “Cute.” She said before she shifted her eyes towards the dancefloor just in time to catch Calliope Jackson jumping as she sang at the top of her lungs. The redhead couldn’t help but grin a bit before taking her drink and another one to give to Calliope before walking up to her.

“What a beautiful wedding… What a beautiful wedding, says a bridesmaid to a waiter, And, yes, but what a shame, What a shame the poor groom’s bride is a WHORE!” The radiologist sang and Scarlett chuckled a bit.

“I chime in with a Haven't you people ever heard of closing the goddamn door?” Scarlett sang and laughed softly before offering the drink to Calliope, as she began to dance around with the woman. “I think you’ve reached your goal. I’m pretty sure everyone is at least a bit drunk here.”

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

“Good, I’ll stay tuned.” Scarlett quickly retorted with a smile that only turned up one side of her lips before she laughed just as hard as Declan had been. There was no way that anyone else could be so giddy while talking about murder and be so adorable at the same time. Only Scarlett’s little wiggle of her eyebrows could make Declan’s chest warm after she volunteered to help him kill someone. Only the way Scarlett bit her own lip could make Declan’s stomach flop the way it did. Never had Declan thought that someone threatening murder could be attractive, but somehow Scarlett made it seem like the most attractive thing someone had ever done around him. 

Over the speaker, Declan began to hear the sound of a male singer crooning in Spanish, and for a moment Declan was transported back to his childhood. In the yard of his family home in Santiago, Declan’s father, Claudio sang, “En una montaña oscura adonde no habita gente, En una montaña oscura adonde no habita gente de una puñalá me matan si yo volviera a quererte. de una puñalá me matan si yo volviera a quererte.” (On a dark mountain x2, where no people live x2,  they’d kill me with a dagger x2,  If I loved you again.) The political science teacher seemed to love the folk songs of Chile even if they were a bit dark to sing around a child. Declan was too young to realize the gravity of what the lyrics meant, and so he’d sing along with his father as they put away the toys in the yard before it was time for dinner. His father often used that time to ask Declan about his life away from his mother’s ears, so if Declan had any male problems, he had the chance to say something. That day Declan didn’t have much to say, like most days, and so his father convinced him to sing along with him. 

He was sure those little moments were what inspired Declan to get into music in his free time. He didn’t want to do it professionally. He was very good at what he did professionally. Music was simply a way for Declan to get out his feelings without actually having to own up to those feelings. He could create a song out of the pain, and then toss it away telling himself that he had dealt with the emotions. It wasn’t the best way to deal with his pain, but deep down he knew it was better than his other choice in a ‘coping mechanism’ as a therapist once told him. 

At that moment at the bar, Declan knew that most people were already gone (not that he knew most of their names nor did he care to find out their names), so the stakes of singing were rather low. To add to that he had the benefit of the man crooning above, and the woman somewhere on the dance floor to help cover up the sound of his own singing. Plus, he wasn’t exactly sober, and he was likely slightly past the tipsy point. The song wasn’t the best song in the world, but Declan felt like singing. So he joined in with the woman allowing himself a singular moment of release from the shell that he put around himself. 

Whatever reaction Declan had expected from Scarlett was not the one that he saw from the corner of his eyes. First her eyes grew the size of Chilean Tree Mallow flowers as if she were shocked that Declan could fluently speak Spanish which made Declan flinch to think that his last name and appearance didn’t make it obvious. However, she made up for his insecurity as her smile grew so big that it looked like it might completely take over her face. Somehow, his silly choice to sing in public had made her happy, and Declan would have continued to sing forever to see her smile like that. 

However, as he sang, he suddenly saw Sterling starting to run off with Scarlett’s roommate which quickly caused Declan to stop. He wanted to stop the both of them, but he also was way too tipsy to be able to stand up that quickly to stop them. Plus he had the flower in his lap which he was not going to sacrifice for Sterling. The plant hadn’t asked Sterling Ides to be the most annoying and selfish human on the planet Earth. He cursed them and then huffed before turning to Scarlett almost expecting her to be irritated. 

Instead, Scarlett chuckled and then covered her mouth then laughed even harder. It was sweet of her to suggest that they were going to take Luna’s room, but Declan knew Sterling was too self-centered to take a second to consider Declan. He didn’t even have any hope that he was getting his pajamas from his own room. He groaned before Scarlett shocked him by insisting on letting him sleep in her room. There was a couch in the main room (albeit a really small one). Her insisting on him sleeping on the couch in the main room wouldn’t have made Declan think any less of her. In fact, he would have completely understood. A man being alone with her in a room was a good enough reason to not offer, yet she easily offered it up without even thinking about it. 

Had he done something to earn that? Did she think he was trustworthy? Did she think any different of him than everyone else? Just the thought that he mattered even the smallest bit to her made Declan’s heart race in his rib cage. He blushed a bit at the thought too before he stammered out, “Thank… thank you. I appreciate it.” 

He wouldn’t agree with her about it being good for them, because there had to be a better way to handle that. However, he wasn’t going to argue with her. It wasn’t important enough for him to fight her about. Instead, he decided to fight her about the pouting thing. “I wasn’t pouting. Just… expressing distress which that idiot can’t seem to not cause.” He wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but either way he laughed. 

With that, he moved the plant to the side and patted it a little before carefully standing. He expected himself to stumble a bit, but his time on the floor apparently had sobered him up a bit- which deeply disappointed him. He grabbed his beer from the floor, chugged the rest of it, and then threw the bottle into the right trash can before following Scarlett to the bar. 

Watching Scarlett attempt to speak Spanish made Declan smile a little. Her accent wasn’t great, but at least she understood what the word meant. “Yes, it means breathe. You got a good memory if you remember something from high school.” Not that Declan would have any idea what high school was like since he missed it entirely. “The singer was saying that he was tired of rushing things, and that he wanted to…” Declan rubbed his neck, “breathe in her neck slowly. I do speak Spanish. I was raised in Chile until I was seven, and Spanish was…” It took a moment for Declan to realize that what he said sounded like his mother was dead, and so he quickly added, “is my mother’s only language to this day. She really struggles with English which makes sense since we had to immigrate here when she was nearly thirty. Well… not immigrate… more take refuge, but close enough to America apparently.”

Once at the bar, Declan began to scan the bottles considering what to do next. He thought about drinking another beer, but at that point for him beer was more like juice than alcohol. If Scarlett wanted him to get drunk, that wasn’t going to work. Frankly, the only thing he could see getting him actually drunk would be drinking half of a large bottle of vodka. Obviously, that was not an option if he didn’t want everyone at his workplace to know he was a raging alcoholic. Most people didn’t like shots of vodka, and he also didn’t want to give Scarlett alcohol poisoning. He scanned the shelves before pointing at a rum that he knew to be rather strong. “How about rum and coke or long island iced teas? Do you like either of those?” He walked around the bar and grabbed the ingredients for at least a rum and coke which was what Declan was going to drink. If Scarlett asked for a long island iced tea, he also grabbed those ingredients. He then mixed a normal version of Scarlett’s drink, and then made a really strong version of his drink with barely any coke before he slid it over to Scarlett. “I hope it’s not too strong. Buen provecho.”

“You got a good memory if you remember something from high school.” Declan mentioned and Scarlett smiled proudly, nodding as she walked with him before he started translating the song for her. “The singer was saying that he was tired of rushing things, and that he wanted to…” Declan said pausing as he rubbed his neck and Scarlett arched an eyebrow as she saw him hesitate for a second before he continued, “breathe in her neck slowly.” He added and she chuckled before looking ahead as she listened to him talk about his background, how he was born and raised in South America before he paused again for a few seconds to adjust his words a bit as the spoke of his mother, “is my mother’s only language to this day. She really struggles with English which makes sense since we had to immigrate here when she was nearly thirty. Well… not immigrate… more take refuge, but close enough to America apparently.”

His last phrase made Scarlett’s nose wrinkle a little bit as she was reminded how white privilege people in America were with people who they thought and decided didn’t belong in the country simply because they were born somewhere else; racism and any sort of discrimination had been something Scarlett had been aware of since she was a little kid not because she suffered from it but because her father tried so hard to support the abolition of such disgusting conducts during his politic career and there for his children became advocates in the matter, calling out people they knew and even friends when they saw them acting up on it. “White people can be very stupid. I wish I could apologize in name of all of them.” She said with a shake of her head before taking a small breath as they reached the bar.

Green eyes followed his as he took a look at all the bottles that were lined up in front of them, taking a moment to really look around before finally offering the redhead some options, “How about rum and coke or long island iced teas? Do you like either of those?” He asked.

“Yeah, rum and coke would be great actually.” Scarlett said as she smiled widely, nodding her head before running her fingers over some bottles that she noticed where empty, the woman then decided to separate them from the ones that still had some alcohol in it before throwing the empty ones into a trash can and getting back to Declan. “I know there are people who will clean this up but I can at least well a little.” She said with a small chuckle just as he passed her drink and smiled, making the corners of her own lips to curl up in a small grin as she noticed the way he smiled at her and couldn’t help but wonder how many people were lucky enough to see that side of him.

“I hope it’s not too strong. Buen provecho.” He said.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, thank you-eh I mean…” She said pausing for a second as she tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes a little bit while trying to remember, letting out a small embarrassed laugh in the way before finally the light bulb over her head lit up. “Gracias? Yeah? I have to have a good memory with all the things you have to learn and remember as a lawyer.” She said with a smile before bringing the glass up to her lips and took a sip. “Oh, this is really good.” She added before taking another sip, the noise of the music and people laughing as they danced made her look back to the dancefloor. Noticing Calliope dancing with her girlfriend, “How… does she have that much energy?” She said with a chuckle, shaking her head a little bit.

“She’s twenty-six, of course. She has all the energy in the world.” She said turning to look at Declan for a second before grinning again. “Do you want to go the room?” She asked, paused at the very exact moment where her question would be misinterpreted and as soon as she realized what she had just said her eyes widened and her cheeks colored with a crimson shade while she shook her head and brought one of her hands up to wave it in front of her. “No, no, no. I-... uhmm,” She said laughing nervously as she brought her hand to her hair and combed her hair with her fingers as she felt her face getting hotter, “I meant because I’m a little tired and It would be nice just to go eat and drink and relax… for the rest of the night… I-I am an idiot.” She said with a small laugh as she ran a hand over her face, unable to keep herself from laughing at the awkward moment she had just created due to the alcohol in her system.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

Declan held no hope that his family would contact him after the shooting. The fight between Claudia and Declan was enough to put a rift between his mother and step father that seemed irrevocable for both parties. Claudia made it clear that she never wanted to see him, and his step father and mother’s silence was enough to let Declan know that they felt the same way. Not that Declan wanted to stay around. His mother had insisted on Declan trying to be the innocent little boy that he had been before, and Declan didn’t even remember what that was like enough to pretend. Nor was he willing to pretend even if he remembered. He had a leash on him long enough on the farm. He was unwilling to allow his family to do that to him again. The only two people in his family who had wanted anything to do with Declan were his two full blood sisters. Teresa was now in the dirt, and he was sure that as always Violeta was too busy to be bothered by Declan. 

Instead, he woke up the next morning with a flood of texts and calls from Violeta. It took several hours to get her to calm down enough that Declan felt that he could explain everything was okay. Apparently, it struck a nerve with her, and it reminded her of when he was kidnapped. Declan in his usual factual manner reminded her that he was alive, that he was free, and that the shooting had nothing to do with him. In her typically motherly way, she asked how awful it must have been, and Declan quickly pointed out that nothing could compare to his past. Of course, instead of laughing with him, she fell silent. After that, Violeta mentioned meeting up, but Declan immediately shut down that idea. Of course, he used that she lived across the continent in Washington D.C. Under the excuse, though, was that Declan hated having to talk to Violeta. Every time they talked it seemed that Violeta left their conversation feeling disappointed by something that Declan said. It was painful disappointing her. It was better to keep a distance. 

He also used that he was going down to Tulum as an excuse. 

A choice that was increasingly proving to be a great idea. Scarlett’s rich little giggle was purely enough for Declan to be glad he went. Then she complimented him, causing his cheeks to feel hot. Normally, he assumed people complimenting him was their way to try to gain favor with him, because he believed that no one could possibly ever think that he was attractive. Scarlett had yet to lie to him, and she didn’t have a reason to compliment him other than out of her own desire to do so. He was sure she was being nice just to be nice though, because he was certain that someone as beautiful could not look at him in any way other than as a friend. “Thank you.” He mumbled nervously before he turned to the plant. “Your office clothing is nice too though.” He admitted quietly.  

This kind of looks like a group of college kids during spring break.” Scarlett pointed out with a laugh that made the whole room seem warmer to Declan. Instead of turning to the people at the party, he turned his attention to her as she laughed. She was like the beautiful girls in all those stupid happy films. He could imagine a montage of her in the sun holding her hands out to stop the person filming her, of her sitting in a chair on the beach waving a fan in her face attempting to hide all those little freckles that dotted her cheeks, and of her with her legs pulled up to her side while she held a book completely unaware of the camera. 

He blinked as she asked about his roommate before rolling his eyes. Sterling Ides had to be the most annoying person in the whole group aside from maybe Calliope Jackson. He sighed and waved to the bar before realizing that Phillip wasn’t there. “I… the bastard! Where did he go?” Declan asked and tilted his head to the right. He reached for the beer near him and sipped it. “We were supposed to share a room, but…” Declan sighed as he contemplated how much was too much to tell Scarlett. Phillip had a right to his private life, and Declan was his best friend. It wasn’t good to spread rumors. “Dr. Whitlock apparently requested to share a room for whatever the reason. Then I got stuck with…” He groaned before running a hand down his face. “Mr. Ides… who…. It’s illegal to say what I want to say.” He fell silent as Scarlett mentioned Luna letting him sleep on the couch, but quickly began to laugh loudly as Scarlett joked about helping him murder Sterling. Somehow the thought that she was willing to murder with him felt romantic. Though, he pushed the thought away knowing that she was joking.

 “If I consider it, I’ll absolutely find you.” 

It was then that over the speakers someone began to sing in Spanish, and across the bar Declan heard someone singing along in perfect Spanish. Her accent was different than his, but Declan knew she was a native speaker by how fluidly she kept along with the song., “Des-pa-cit… Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito, deja que te diga cosas al oído para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo…” Declan began to sing, but then suddenly stopped. “Wait… no… no, no, no… what is he doing?!” Declan called as he waved towards the dancefloor as Sterling took Luna’s hand and began to run off with her. “That fucker!” Declan growled.

That brilliant loud laugh of his began to echo even over the music around them, or at least his laugh was all that the woman could hear as she looked at him and laughed with him about the joke, she had made of helping him get away with murder.  “If I consider it, I’ll absolutely find you.” He spoke.

“Good, I’ll stay tuned.” She said with another laugh as she shook her head and shifted to look back towards the dancefloor, noticing how some people were already missing; Josephine and Benjamin had gone off on a walk to the beach a while ago, Riley and her boyfriend were drinking in the other side of the room, laughing at something as his arms wrapped around her waist showing how in love, he was with her, Calliope had run off with her girlfriend not too long ago. Slowly but surely each couple that attended the trip slowly disappeared, but what was interesting was seeing the new items that were forming… whatever they were; Esmeralda and Declan’s best friend had disappeared a long time ago but Scarlett didn’t want to assume anything as it was not her business, however she couldn’t help but notice as her roommate and Sterling Ides began to dance, getting closer and closer each time. However, as she heard Declan’s voice again, this time singing in Spanish her head immediately turned to him as big eyes looked back at him while he sang softly, the smile on her face growing more and more until her teeth showed; he had a nice voice and even though she had known the man only for a little while she had heard enough to at least think singing in front of people wasn’t exactly something he did often. But then as his face changed and his eyes focused on something specific, the redhead looked in the direction only to spot Luna this time facing Sterling and clearly flirting with the man.

“Oh…” She said softly as her eyes widened a bit before she saw as the two held hands and headed inside the Villa.

“That fucker!” Declan growled as Scarlett turned to look at him again, the woman pursed her lips together trying to suppress a laugh but failed as she chuckled and immediately placed her fingers over her lips and chuckled a bit more.

“I mean… maybe they are taking our room?” She said softly, laughing a little bit as leaned back on her chair and shook her head. “But if they are not, well that solves it. You get to at least have a night when you know you won’t murder someone. You can sleep in our room since Luna… well, might be somewhere else.” She said with a small grin and shrugged her shoulders, “It’s a party with a shit ton of alcohol, far away from home in an exotic beach… I mean… good for them?” She said letting out a soft laugh. “Come on, less pouting more drinking.” She said with a smile as she stood up and straightened her skirt before looking at him and waving her hand motioning to get up and walk with her before she started making her way towards the bar.

“So you know Spanish? I mean, I couldn’t understand a single word you said but I could get what it was… actually I think… Re… respirar? Is it?” She asked, “Means to breathe right? I took a few Spanish classes in high school but that was it.” She said with a small laugh as they finally reached the bar and she started looking around trying to decide what to get next. “What do you want?” She asked looking back at Declan with a small smile.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

Scarlett Rhode’s Appreacition Post.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

Zane Cooper had to be the best boss for Declan personally. Declan certainly believed that.  He knew that a lot of the hospital staff were trying to encourage each other to talk about the brutal shooting in the hospital. This meant that Declan was worried that he was going to be pressured to seek therapy of some sort.  However, when Declan told Zane that he was fine, the man didn’t press the topic with Declan. Zane told him that if that changed that he could go to Zane, but other than that Declan was allowed to go back to work as if he hadn’t faced a bomb or tried to help another man out of what seemed to be a PTSD flashback.

While most of the staff of Rosewood were white middle class people who had lived their lives being lucky enough to never come in contact with crime, Declan was the child of a father who had been politically persecuted and the victim of kidnapping and torture. He had grown up in Chile where guns were a common thing to find in the home, and gun violence wasn’t something that surprised anyone. He didn’t say this to anyone at the hospital knowing that trauma was trauma, but for Declan the shooting felt more like an interesting Wednesday than something traumatizing.

More important to Declan was that his best friend had recently lost an ex-girlfriend to an aggressive cancer that took her way too young. He hadn’t liked the woman that much, but he didn’t hate her enough to wish something like that on her. Worse for Declan though was the effect it had on Phillip. Phillip never cried, but that night he had. Declan did all that he could to help his friend, but there were no words that healed that kind of wound. Instead, Declan tried to remind his friend that he wasn’t alone.

He wanted his friend to not stay too long in the depression stage of grief which meant that Declan twisted Phillip’s arm a bit to get him to go to Mexico with him. Phillip didn’t drink, but Declan felt that getting out on a beach and doing things outside the hospital might help the man feel a little better. It wouldn’t heal the wound obviously, but he hoped it’d make it easier for him.

The plan was for Declan to hang out with Phillip at the party, but Declan got distracted by someone offering cigarettes. Then he couldn’t find Phillip, so he went to find a plant to hang out with the beer that he had.  There in the corner he found the beautiful yellow flower that he decided to dote over. 

Normally, if someone would have spoken to Declan, he would have turned to them with a sharp glare, and if it had been any other laugh he might have snapped at them to remind them who they were laughing at. It wasn’t any other laugh though. It was the laugh that frankly Declan could not stop thinking about. At lunch, he sat with Phillip and listened to the man talk about what was going on with his job, but in the silence Declan could only wonder what Scarlett was doing. At home, he strummed his guitar rhyming Rhodes with different things while trying to numb himself enough to remember he was being stupid. During the weekend, he went fishing with Phillip, and Declan couldn’t help but wonder how Scarlett would handle that.

Why couldn’t he get that smile out of his head?

So, of course, Declan didn’t snap at her. Instead, he turned to her carefully trying not to show how happy he was that she had come to talk to him. Though, any concerns were quickly lost in the sea of emotions that welled up in him as he saw the way her skirt split on the side exposing her thicker thighs. That was not what he had thought they would be, but somehow it was better than what he had thought. Her curves swelled and fell in all the perfect places, and for a moment Declan couldn’t think of anything to say. That was until she leaned over him, and he smelled juniper berries on her.

He leaned back trying to take a deep breath of control before shrugging. “Most of the time. Though, sometimes I look for birds instead.” He wrung his hands in his lap before muttering nervously, “You look… really nice tonight.”

For the past month Scarlett had received call after call from her parents and siblings checking up on her to see how she was managing the aftermath of the shooting, the event that had been broadcasted in every major and small news outlet portrayed properly the devastation that it left behind; there had been many people injured, over a dozen families affected by the loss of their relative who couldn’t survive the injured caused by the group of gun men that disrupted the peace of Rosewood General Hospital that day. There were many people staff members, visitors and patients that had to deal with post traumatic stress disorder, paranoia and nightmares of what they had seen and lived through and the redhead felt deeply for those who were still grieving from it but she couldn’t pretend that she was just as traumatized as them. Despite killing a man, herself and being attacked by him, Scarlett slept peacefully every single night knowing that she had done the right thing, knowing that she had stood up for herself and another innocent woman who only tried to protect a patient.

“So, you’re okay? You’re not… like maybe you need to see your therapist?” Her little sister asked over a weekend she traveled to spent it with her oldest sister in Seattle.

“I…” Scarlett said taking a small breath as she glanced over the big window that gave them the most beautiful of Lake Washington as they sat at a restaurant, “First of all, I talk to my therapist often… it’s… you don’t necessarily need to be traumatized to take care of your mental health.” She said smiling softly at the high school girl, “It’s like getting your yearly regular checkup. But… I’m not… I don’t think you guys don’t understand this and that’s fine. I don’t think it’s something easy to understand when you haven’t gone through yourself but,” She said softly thinking for a second about the conversation she had with Declan on the night of the shooting as he helped her get home, she remembered dark eyes looking back at her and for once when someone looked at her, she wasn’t seen as a victim… he saw her as a fighter and that, even when he didn’t even know what he did, that made her stronger. “Max, I’m not broken. I was… I surely was but I’m better now… see, I can’t speak for everyone but, sometimes difficult things don’t make you weaker or less resilient; in fact, they can make you stronger, suddenly that helps you be less scared of the darkness of the world. Was it terrible? Yes, but I’m okay. I’m alive, and that’s all that matters.” She said reaching out to take her sister’s hand.

Scarlett Rhodes no longer saw herself as a victim of abuse, she was no longer afraid of the bad things that could happen (even though she did not wish to go through more terrible things in her life) because she knew she was strong enough to survive it. Whatever the future ahead of her was, she knew she would go through it and the confidence she had in herself now was priceless. The lawyer watched him as he leaned back and took a deep breathe before shrugging, “Most of the time. Though, sometimes I look for birds instead.” He said and she couldn’t help but laugh a bit as she found some sort of fascination with the mannerisms of the man, “You look… really nice tonight.” He said, this time she noticed the nervousness in his voice which caused her to smile warmly before looking down at her as she leaned back against her chair, pulling on the skirt to straighten it before looking back at the man.

“Thank you, it’s a nice change from office clothing I guess.” She said with a light chuckle, before her lips curled up in a small grin, “You look very nice too, if I may say.” She said grinning a bit more before glancing over at the dancefloor as the noise of Calliope, Sterling and the Kwon siblings causing trouble as they handed shots around was heard above the music. “This kind of looks like a group of college kids during spring break.” She said with a laugh as she watched them for a moment and then shook her head a bit before she turned her attention back to Declan.

“How’s the living situation with your roommate? I saw your face when you realized you had Sterling as your roommate.” She said with a small chuckle, “I thought you were going to share with Doctor Nash. What happened there?” She asked before looking around trying to find Phillip but he was no where to be found, the woman arched her eyebrow a bit before looking back at Declan. “I think I can talk Luna into letting you sleep on the couch in our room if you feel like you’ll be close to committing a felony. Or I could help you get away with it, rumor has it, I’m quite good at that.” She said jokingly.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

declansarmiento​:

Reckless II Open Starter

Phillip Nash had never ever been as much of a pain in the ass as he had been the past couple of weeks. The moment Declan heard that the hospital was sending people to Mexico to recover from the shooting he knew he was going to go. He didn’t care about anything other than that he was going to be able to be in a country where he could use his mother tongue. He wanted to have a little while not having to translate his thoughts into another language. At this point, it wasn’t difficult, and most of the time it was instinctual. However, there was something special about talking in the same language that he thought in.

He assumed that Phillip would jump at the chance to hang out with Declan, but instead he ended up finding out that Phillip had turned down his invitation. It took Declan twisting his arm to finally get Phillip to agree to go along with him. Declan promised that he wouldn’t make Phillip be alone, and he told Phillip that he’d go to all those ruins with him if he wanted to.

When they got to the island though, Dr. Whitlock separated the living situation, and Declan found out that he was going to have to share a room with the most annoying human being on the planet- Sterling Ides. It took all the strength in Declan’s body not to strangle Sterling as the man insisted on trying to talk to Declan while he unpacked, and as quickly as he could Declan ran off with Phillip.

When he returned, he found the best gift that the annoying man could have given him- an open bar. Declan immediately found the bar where he began to pass out drinks to people without talking much to them. He also began to toss back drinks before grabbing a beer. Once sufficiently drunk, Declan began to roam the room. For a while, he pushed around people.

That was until he saw it.

The thing he wanted most of all.

There in the corner was a plant. Declan walked over to it before sitting beside it as he stared at it. After a moment, he finally mentally pinpointed what kind of flower it was and blurted out, “You’re a Yellow Walking Iris! The pretender!” He ran his finger over the petal before admitting, “Though, a very nice pretender.”

As dark as it sounded, the shooting hadn’t brought back nightmares or bad memories like most people had to deal with after the night of March 24th. It was a dark event, that couldn’t be denied, Scarlett felt for the victims how had suffered at the hands of the gunmen that attacked the hospital, she felt for the families who had to be told about their relatives not surviving the extensive injures they suffered during that night and if it were a way that she could some how go back and time and prevent all the pain she would do it, but the woman knew better than wishing and thinking about what ifs. Instead, Scarlett felt like she had taken back something that was taken away from her during the eight years she spent with Nicholas. Over the past month, the redhead’s confidence grew back little by little, each day she was unconsciously getting rid of the mental prison she had been in for a long time. She had getting more assertive at work as she started calling the shots when she felt like she needed to do so, she was creating bonds with the people she worked with and even made a new friendship with Calliope Jackson as the two women had been hanging out together grabbing lunch and even drinks every now and then.

Happiness on her own was something that not too long ago felt too distance for the woman but was now finally reaching as her fingertips began to grasp it again.

At the party, Scarlett had been talking to the woman whom she was sharing room with as well as never denying any shots or drinks that the ball of energy that Calliope Jackson was sent her way, and even dancing with both Luna and Calliope. After a while, the lawyer decided to get another drink, fingers ran over the variety of bottles at the table before finally she picked a bottle of beer and turned around as she leaned against the bar counter, “I guess she got what she wanted. Everyone is very drunk at this point. So great.” Scarlett said to herself and she laughed softly while watching everyone act up under the influence of alcohol before her eyes stopped at the sight of Declan Buchanan staring at a plant; her head tilted to the side light as she watched him for a few seconds, the smile on her face grew a little bigger before a word escaped her lips, “Cute.” She said before she started walking towards where he was.

“You’re a Yellow Walking Iris! The pretender!” He said as he ran his finger over the petal before admitting, “Though, a very nice pretender.” He said and Scarlett couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her mouth before she even got the chance to say hello to the man.

“You’re talking to a plant, why am I not finding this strange?” She said with a small grin before she sat down and instinctively crossed her legs making the opening of her skirt show off her leg even more and for once she wasn’t even aware of the fact, even if she was, she probably still wouldn’t care. “It is very pretty; I have to admit that.” She said running her index finger gently against the soft petal of the plant, “Is this what you do at parties? You drink and sit in a corner talking to pretty plants?” She said with a laugh.

[scarlettrhodes-rp]

Scarlett’s Outfit for The Beach Party.