#chatzy: thea

[honeysmokedham]

TIMING: August 3rd, 2023 PARTIES: Nora @honeysmokedham & Thea @notstinky LOCATION: The Crypt of Annalise Bellowmore SUMMARY: Thea decides Nora NEEDS to have a clean crypt and she's going to make it happen. Nora's just trying to be okay. CONTENT WARNINGS: None!

The thing about chapels was that they didn’t have a doorbell. Thea felt wrong inviting herself inside, but she justified it by thinking of the chapel as an apartment lobby and Nora’s apartment was just down a very narrow set of stairs. She dragged her clothing rack down the stairs, tucking the stack of hangers under one arm and her broom under the other. The bow she had put on the rack so the present appeared more dressed up, had fallen off in the chapel somewhere. It was too late to go back for it. “Nora?” She called out. “Nora? Is that…is someone crying?” It was probably some recording Nora had to add to the atmosphere but Thea had to admit, the crypt had great acoustics. Why wasn’t Nora hosting karaoke nights down here? 

Nora was more paint than human, bear, whatever she was supposed to identify as, at this point. Her crypt has steadily been growing into a collection of stolen art supplies, and now, after her return from the mines, she had thrown herself into the art of creation. The only time such an act was more valuable than its sister, destruction, was when her brush touched canvas and the world stopped to exist. The world didn’t stop existing. The clattering sound of metal on stone steps brought Nora to an attention that not even the crying Munch doll could have. “Thea?” She had invited the other over, but Nora wasn’t used to people accepting invites to her crypt. This was her first official visitor. Nora extracted herself from her place in front of the canvas and moved through the empty space to the door. Babadook following close on her heels. “I told you not to buy anything.” It was a poor thanks for a gift that was so thoughtful. “Thanks.” Nora helped, tried to help with the rack and getting it into the main part of the crypt since Thea had her hands full. “Welcome to my crypt.” It was really one large room, everything in view once you got to the main area. “This is Babadook,” Nora nodded a chin to her dog. “Then Munch is the one crying, over there.” She pointed. “He’s a sad clown. I think its his thing to cry.”

Thea wanted to be polite. She didn’t say that Nora’s crypt-house smelled like dirt, dust, mold and paint— like the wet rotting corpse of an artist had crawled into the stone. She didn’t say the cobwebs were unsightly or that she didn’t exactly think it was safe for Nora’s horrifying cosplay dog to be in a space with snakes and spiders. As she did with everything else in her life, Thea focused on the positives. It was cool down here despite the summer heat and all the spiders must have been fun to watch crawl around. It was a unique place to live and, certainly, very Nora. “Hello, Babadook— we met last time, actually. I’m happy to see him in his costume again.” When the rack was settled, Thea busied herself with setting the hangers up for Nora to use, hoping that her clothes would get out of the pile on the ground and somewhere clean. She thought about the scene from Mary Poppins during ‘A Spoonful Of Sugar’ where Julie Andrews snaps and all the clothes and mess goes back into place. When she snapped, the best she got was a spider shifting on one of its many hairy legs on a web that was a little too close to her face. Thea wasn’t even going to say anything about the floating clown doll, that was, in fact, the source of the crying. 

“Were you painting, Nora?” Thea asked, picking up her broom. She had a lot of work to do— the crypt was more dirt than stone. And she wasn’t going to ask about the floating clown doll. “I am a little confused about what you do with the paint smells.” She was not confused, one sniff to the air told her exactly what Nora did with the paint smells. She was not going to ask about the crying, floating clown doll. “It’s not entirely healthy to breathe them in all the time.” She was not going to ask about the doll. “I also wonder about what you do with food… do you have a fridge or…” She wasn’t going to do it. She wasn’t going to— “How are you doing that?” She pointed at the floating clown doll, asking. “Is it on strings? Does it have a speaker? It’s moving like it’s actually floating. Is it magnets? It’s magnets, isn’t it?” 

"Oh right." Last time. Nora knew there had been a last time. Because it had been the first time Thea and she had hung out. It had been the start of their friendship, and the day that Thea had become damned for her association with Nora. Because last time was before Debbie. Last time had been before the phantom memory of the pressure it took to plunge her knife into Debbie's skull haunted her hand. Nora blinked, at the realization that last time had been a lifetime ago. Suddenly a new guilt was weighing her down. Why hadn't she been checking on Thea. Why hadn't she been apologizing to the girl who hadn't even wanted to break into a supermarket that day? Why was she letting that same innocent Thea, come into her crypt and clean it. Because Nora had already proven that she was a black hole, taking and taking, and Thea had already proven that she was better. Nora stood there, a statue as she tried to find the words. How've you've been since Debbie? Are you okay? Are we okay? Please don't clean. Please just be here as my friend. 

But words had never been her friend, and each imagined sentence never made it past the lump in her throat. 

And Thea was talking. Wonderful, kind, thoughtful Thea didn't question the black hole consuming everything she was giving without returning anything. Thea didn't stop and ask why she was carrying the conversation along with the burden of friendship. Nora swallowed back the lump in her throat and forced he voice to croak out a "Yeah.' She had been painting. It was a self-portrait of crystals consuming Nora's body, a successor to Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son. Because just like Goya, a madness overtook her in this art. An escape from the truth. 

"I don't have any ventilation." Nora kept forcing the words past the lump, begging it to disappear back inside her. Let her deal with it later. Let Thea be free from this extra burden. "No. Maybe I should get a fan." But wouldn't the fan only flow it around the crypt? It wasn't like the paint fumes would escape. "I don't have a fridge. I don't normally eat here." Then Thea was pointing at Munch, who was still sobbing. The crying clown doll was perfect for him. How Sofie hadn't noticed that there was a ghost in there was beyond her. "It's possessed. We talked about it. You can touch him if you want, but he'll punch you." 

Microplumes of dust flew up under Thea’s rocking broom. Her gaze was fixed on the magnetic clown doll. Possessed, Nora kept saying, as if it was a state of being that made sense for a doll. Thea was possessed, in the metaphorical— the only way that word could be used and mean something. Grief possessed her, memories haunted her, her body was hollowed out like the sort of fake rock her father put their spare set of keys in, thinking no one would ever look inside. Sometimes, even Thea lost that rock in the sea of real ones. She’d have to pick each of them up and shaking, waiting until she heard a ratting. No one had stopped shaking Thea. Thea was possessed, the doll was just a trick of science. Thea approached the doll. 

Thea was always a curious person, as a child, if a question struck her in the night, she couldn’t sleep until it was answered. The world was a massive, horrifying jumble of mysteries and questions; if she understood it just a little, just enough, nothing was scary anymore. Everything became normal. She ran her hands along the side, hoping she’d feel the magnetic pull on her bracelet and be down with her questions. Nothing. She tried underneath. Nothing. She tried on top. Nothing. Behind. Nothing. Thea poked it. The doll’s hand snapped out and punched her in the nose and Thea stumbled back; it wasn’t that the doll was a particularly heavy hitter, it was some mixture of confusion, fear, and the embarrassment of being punched by a floating clown doll. When she spun, regaining her footing, she opened her eyes to find Nora’s self-portrait. Thea shrieked; fear pulsed off of her in heavy waves. 

Thea snapped her hands over her mouth. “Sorry, it, um…” She swallowed, lowering her hands. “It’s a very visceral painting. It, um, for a moment…I really thought that was you. It felt like you were really…” Thea’s gaze dropped to it. “….consumed by crystals.” She turned to the doll, still floating, still a clown. “H-how did you program it to punch me? How did…” Thea turned around again. “Nora, this…” she gestured around. “…isn’t normal, is it?”  

It was weird seeing Thea come into her home with the intent of cleaning it. As if it was something Nora should want. It made Nora examine her living space with new eyes. There had been a joy in the reclamation of herself, and space, with the lack of care. A direct pull into doing the opposite of everything she’d been told to do her whole life. Keep herself clean. Keep herself presentable. Become approachable. Now her personal hygiene, the state of her home, everything about her had become a rebellious statement against that. But Thea cared. Thea cared enough to bring a broom and a clothing rack and clean up a place she’d never considered worth cleaning before. 

Luckily Thea became distracted by Munch. With Thea bothering the doll instead of sweeping, Nora got to forget the uncomfortable feeling that came with watching the back and forth of the broom. As if the broom was more than just a broom, but what the broom stood for was something she couldn’t put her finger on. Nora blinked once. Twice. Three times as Thea moved her hand around Munch until Munch punched her. Right in the nose. “Brutal.” Nora mumbled. “Munch stop, she’s a fucking guest. You can’t just go around fucking punching people.” The ghost was shouting, the ghost was in a temper. Munch was always in a temper. Nora suspected his temper was how he became a ghost in the first place. 

Thea was screaming and Nora was feasting. A tasty little snack. A treat for Nora. She walked over to stand next to Thea, tilting her head at her unfinished portrait and trying to imagine how Thea saw it. “Are you sure it wasn’t being punched by a ghost that scared you?” Nora questioned, but Thea still didn’t believe in ghosts. “I didn’t program Munch to do anything.” The sad clown ghost had flown off to a different part of the crypt to cry, and Nora kept staring at the self-portrait parsing through what Thea had said about it. The crystals had consumed her. “It was me.” Nora agreed finally. It was still the me she wanted to be. “You know those weird crystals that sprouted all around town?” Nora gestured to one that had popped up in her crypt. A large space was left around it. “If you touch it, that’s what happens. You receive the “blessing” and you become a crystal.”

The world spun and Thea stood unmoving— left-behind. The first time she saw the grainy footage of her bones shattering and fusing together into the hulking frame of a wolf monster, she’d felt much of the same. It wasn’t a new feeling then; every time a ‘bad day’ turned to days and even opening her curtains felt like too much of a chore, time stretched to swallow her. It wasn’t a new feeling now. The only thing that tethered her to reality was Nora, whose contorted face in the painting knotted Thea’s stomach with concern. Nora was hard to read and her painted face was no different; it was the words that Thea clung to. There was no blessing in the world that involved the transformation of the body into other: not a wolf, not a crystal. Thea knew that Nora didn’t adhere to the conventions of normal like she did, nor did Nora seem to find comfort in the idea, but she did understand transformation. “Did it hurt?” She asked, turning to face Nora. “When I…” Thea gulped. She glanced over at Munch, the magnetic programmable clown doll that was not possessed, because ghosts didn’t exist. Her nose throbbed. She glanced around her: all the dust and cobwebs and gray stonework. Finally, she looked back at the painting and into the crystals that couldn’t have literally consumed Nora, because crystals didn’t do that. Well, if they were going to talk nonsense, what did it matter? 

“When I transform, my bones snap and my skin stretches and—I don’t really remember it much, mostly I just feel it after, everything hurts and sometimes I just lay down for a few hours waiting for my legs to feel like legs again but—it’s like…” Thea swallowed, searching Nora’s impassive face for understanding. “It feels wrong. When I wake up… My body feels wrong. It feels like something bad happened to me and everything feels wrong. I don’t feel like me anymore, it feels like someone else crawled inside and shook everything up. And just when I start to feel like me again, it happens all over.” Thea pointed at the painting; her grip tightened on the broom’s handle. “W-was that how it felt for you?” 

A pause in time to consider the question. Did it hurt? “Yes.” Physically Nora had thought she was dying. She had ripped flesh off her face to reveal crystal underneath. Her body had torn in new ways as the crystals popped through her flesh. It had been brutal and drawn out. Answering the question, did it hurt, wasn’t what it took time to consider. What Nora considered was it didn’t hurt enough to stop. If her mind would remain her own she would touch the crystals everyday for the rest of her life to become that, become her, the portrait on her easel. Or maybe the real pain was emotional. Being given the gift of your dreams with a burden attached to it, too heavy to accept. A carrot dangled in front of her face by a master who wanted a different beast. “It hurt.” Could three words encompass the experience? Could they tie the turmoil up in a nice bow, and offer it as a shared experience? Were words that powerful?

Nora might have gotten lost there, in her own thoughts, had she not offered a shocking new turn of conversation. When I transform. The hair raised along Nora’s arms at the confession. Thea was a shifter? There had always been something animalistic about her scent, but Nora had ignored it. Part of Thea’s job, or something. She was sensitive about her smell, there had never been a reason to ask, but the picture was coming into focus. “You’re a shifter.” There was nothing in Nora’s voice. No judgment. No acceptance. Just the plain neutrality that her monotone always offered. “When the crystals transformed me it was long. I felt like I was dying.” Or had that only been the banshee’s lie that put the thought in her head? “When I turn into a bear, it’s a moment. My body breaks and remakes. Then I’m me again. As a bear.” Nora blinked as she digested the words Thea had offered. “You don’t-” She paused, trying to make sure she had this right. “You make it sound like you don’t remember when you’re shifted? What do you change to?”

“Shifter?” Thea felt the word in her mouth, the weight of each syllable and the curve of her tongue around the sounds. The word was new for her; she assumed--if she was going to assume she was anything--that she was a werewolf. It made sense to her, based on the grainy footage of her sleepwalking camera. Like most things regarding her issue, she didn’t really think about it. “I’m not a shifter,” she swallowed, scratching her forehead, leaving behind pink streaks across her skin. “I’m not a--I’m me. I’m not anything. I’m just me. I’m a normal girl. I’m a normal girl with a little problem.” The broom trembled in her grip, her fingers tight against the plastic rod. “B-bear?” Thea blinked. “Bear?” She asked again, as if the answer could change. She wasn’t a bear, her grainy recorded body was too slim and her mouth too dog-like. She knew there were big cats, like Felix, and now bears? Why had she gotten a wolf? The broom snapped in her hands. “D-do you eat people? Does the bear eat people?” 

The conversation about crystals seemed far off. She didn’t know what crystals had to do with Nora--what they had to do with the bear. She wanted to ask how different each had felt; if the crystals hurt but made her whole again or if it was just the bear that did that. Thea couldn’t get anything out but a series of hiccups and gasps. “I don’t remember,” she croaked. “Only a little. Sometimes. But I know…I know because…” Her trembling body didn’t care for the breathing exercises she attempted to employ; in, out, hold, in, out, none of it mattered. Her throat tightened. “...hair between my teeth and blood under my nails and I feel full. Inside. I feel full.” Thea sucked in a quivering breath. “It happens with the moon. I don’t know what it is. I’m normal, I’m a normal girl. It just--with the moon.”

With each stuttering word, and trembling finger Thea seemed to crumble. A shell of anxiety and emotion. Fear radiated off her friend, mixing with denial and apprehension. The broom snapped. A similar sound to her bones, their bones during shifting. Nora blinked at Thea, puzzling through the fractured broken sentences that had yet to shift into something complete. They lay wounded and open between the two of them while Nora waited for their transformation to complete. With each additional statement from Thea a form began to shape and Nora began to understand. Compassion, love or something of the like bloomed over Nora as she saw her friend painted in a new light before her. A girl alone and scared in a world that no longer made sense. A story she thought might be familiar to many of the werewolves she’d met, but they would have to know other werewolves to know it was familiar. With each panicked and hurt word, Nora felt herself become calmer and more resolved. How could she be angry about crystals and the mines in the face of her friend’s turmoil?

Nora stepped forward to her friend who just confessed to have eaten people. To her friend who didn’t want to be stinky. To her friend that had come over to clean Nora’s place because she wanted to. To her friend that had once told her she would die on the hill that nothing is a lost cause. Nora’s hand reached out, gently placing it on Thea’s arm. “You’re just Thea.” Nora confirmed. Because what else did you tell your friend who could turn into a wolf and ate people, but couldn’t remember it. “Normal can be different things. Normal can be turning into a bear or a wolf. Normal can be what we make it.” When Nora had been alone, she wished there had been someone else like her. Someone who ate fear and turned into a bear and could show her what her normal was supposed to be. Nora wasn’t a wolf, but she could make sure her friend knew she wasn’t alone. “You can be normal and the wolf. Just like I’m normal and the bear. We’re just us. You know?”

Thea whimpered, the sound caught in her throat and left a watery sob. Tears stung at the edges of her red eyes and when Nora touched her, the dam broke and they rained down her face. All her life she had wanted to be normal. She was too poor to be like the other girls in her school, her shoes had holes in them and her clothes came down from her older cousins. She was too smart to be average in class, which hadn’t felt like a curse until every hand she raised threw a series of daggers into her back and whispers burning her ears. She liked girls too much to join in on conversations about boy bands and movie star heartthrobs. No matter what she did, she was different. She was born different. Normal could be what they made it; Nora made it sound easy and Thea wanted to believe her. “C-can I hug you?” She sniffled. The second the affirmative left Nora’s lips, Thea threw her arms around her friend and held her tightly. 

She breathed in her scent of dust and mold; felt the scratchy fabric of her clothes with dubious laundry schedule; and felt more at home holding Nora than she’d felt under any roof. “You’re a good friend,” Thea whispered into her hair. “I’m sorry I tried to clean your crypt; it’s just you and I like you and I don’t want to clean you up and turn you into something else.” She’d only been trying to take care of her a little but truly, through the fog of her lies, she’d been hoping to make Nora a little more normal and she was sorry for that. “We’re just us,” she repeated, “we’re just us.”

They were a bear and a wolf and somewhere behind them a floating crying clown doll that was definitely possessed, and that was okay. That could be normal. It was only the two of them and their life and it was normal. 

[wilshirehq]

And you thought the Wallace kids were bad - just wait until you meet their parents. The air in the dining room pf the Wallace manor is tense to say the least. With the Wallace parents suddenly amongst the living again, it only makes since that the family would come together for an all too extravagant meal. How will the evening pan out? Will everyone survive? Will tears be shed and hearts be broken? Stay tuned to find out what happens in the next episode of Wilshire's Gone to Hell.

below is a chatzy log for a dinner involving the wallace family, including their resurrected parents! please be sure you read the trigger warning list before continuing, as there are some heavy topics discussed. if you are afraid you can’t get through it, message the main and we’ll give you the main details!! 

as always, please like this post once you’ve read it!!

TRIGGER WARNINGS: violence, abortion mention, death ( including the death of a child ), mention of blood and gore, car accident, child abuse mention, neglect mention.

Parents

As she watched their children and their...partners, Elizabeth barely kept her disgust hidden behind the carefully crafted mask of politeness, poised as ever with on hand delicately placed over her husband's. She'd already made mention her disappointment in her children - namely their partners and the abominations they called children - several times over, and couldn't help but find a certain satisfaction in their reactions. Elias, on the other hand, did nothing to hide his disdain for the filth that had filled into their presence. It was bad enough that one of their own had allowed herself to become one of those abominations - the thought that she'd had the audacity to breed, or that their sons had thought to further sully their bloodline with mixed shadowhunters, or that Leonard had taken a warlock as his partner - disgusting. Still, he'd yet to pay much mind to any of the women - instead focusing his attention on Leonard himself.

[ This is simply to set the scene. The dinner has been going on for about half an hour now, with no clear end in sight. Both Wallace parents have been berating their children, albeit in different ways. Elizabeth - the mother - is focusing her spite on Elena, Nora, Lilian, Thea, and the children. Elias - the father - is more focused on Leonard, and anyone that attempts to stand up for him in any way. ]

Jeremiah

Jeremiah casts yet another concerned glance to his fiance, gaze flicking between her and his parents. He'd known a dinner with the Wallace elders would end in disaster, all he could do now was damage control. He wasn't doing it successfully. " Mother. Father. " he starts through gritted teeth, trying to drag the attention off of the others. " Nora and I have an announcement to make . " Is this the best time? Likely not, but with any luck, it may just improve the mood. " My beautiful fiance is pregnant ... with triplets . "

Leonard

Leo could already see that the dinner wasn't going as planned (he knew trusting their parents' promises of having it going smoothly was a mistake but at least they could act like nothing was wrong, he had hoped) but there was no turning back now. Casting a glance at Lily who was seemingly tense as well, his attention was caught by his eldest brother who started to speak, the hope that he'd be able to put an end to the tension building in the shadowhunter. The announcement was a surprise, but unlike everything else about the dinner, was a pleasant one. A smile (surprisingly a genuine one) spread across his face, Leo looked at his brother, leaning back in his seat. "What delightful news," he said cheerfully, a grin taking the smile's place as his gaze drifted towards Jeremiah. "I see someone wasted no time. Congratulations to the both of you."

( Status of Nora: Tense, avoiding the gaze of the parents and casting a smile at the other pleasant faces around the table. Status of Elena: Quiet, holding Quill's hand through the whole time and hoping not to be seen. )

Thea

Thea had been on edge since she'd heard her parents were alive at all, and the idea of having to face them was not something she'd been looking forward to - especially not with her kids around. Yet here she was, casting glances between her siblings and her kids and really anywhere that didn't have her looking at her parents. Every dig her mother had made thus far had pushed her just a little further, and she could already feel the ache in her bones as the tiger lurking inside practically begged to be let out. Her brother's sudden announcement, however, was enough to send a momentary wave of calm through her as a grin spread across her lips. "I'll second that - congrats on joining the multiples club!"

( Lily - very clearly unhappy, has a spell up around the kids so they don't hear the awful things their grandparents are saying about them. Really wants to stab Elizabeth with a fork. Poppy & Quinton - honestly pretty okay thanks to Lily's spell and the tasty food, plus there's a baby and there's Lukas. Pretty good atm 💗 )

Amalie

Amalie had been keeping quiet, knowing that the family dinners always were awkward and painful each year. The years passing by didn't make it any easier. It was like pulling teeth. She normally did keep her quiet, one because she wanted to stay out of the mess that was the arguments that always ensued, and two because she wasn't exactly the best socially in the family. But when she heard the news from her eldest brother, she smiled and rose her head from her mobile. "Congrats you two. I'm so excited for you both" she beams.

Parents

Elizabeth remained silent for several moments after her eldest's revelation, expression shifting from shock to disgust to something akin to anger. When she finally does speak, her voice is cold and low, eyes flicking between his son and his so-called fiancée. "Unfortunate. And how far along are you, exactly?" It takes nearly all her will not to say anything further, though she couldn't help but grin as her husband seemed even more irate at the idea than she.

Elias slammed his wine glass down hard enough that the stem cracked, though it didn't quite break fully, jaw clenched as he turned his attention from their demon-blooded son to their eldest, fixing him with an icy glare. "Excuse me? You mean to tell us that you and your little half-fish mutt intend to further drag our name through the mud?Is there even a single one of you that deserves to carry the Wallace name? No, no I don't think there is. You're just a bunch of idiots, useless freaks who can't even uphold your duty."

Jeremiah

Jeremiah tenses, eyes narrowed and jaw set as he glares at his parents. " Her name is Nora and she's worth more than either of you could ever be . It's not unfortunate mother , it's a blessing . " It's a struggle not to raise his voice, one that he ultimately ends up losing as he rounds on his father. It's odd. For so many years he'd been terrified of uttering a single word against his parents. " How dare you , " he spits. " Tell me , who upheld the Wallace name for the past eighteen years whilst you were rotting in graves that frankly , you should've stayed in ? Do you think any of us care ? This isn't about you ! This isn't about either of you and fuck what you think. These useless freaks ? Quill just married his best friend . Thea has raised the most beautiful children on her own . Amalie is one of the smartest shadowhunters in the institute. And Leo ? Leo might just become the next Head of our Institute . They did it all , with no thanks to either of you . Go and crawl back to your graves , we were fine without you before , we'll be perfect without you now . "

Leonard

Not many things in this world can manage to make the demon-blooded shadowhunter flinch, but as soon as he heard the glass slam and crack on the table he did, eyes darting towards the man, the so called father of the family. His words making his blood start to boil in his veins, Leo could feel the anger in him rise; his eldest brother, Jeremiah, was probably one of the best thing that had ever happened to this mess of a family. That bastard had no right to insult him like that. "Cut the crap will you? Your existence itself is enough to ruin the family name. Those children will meet a fate brighter than the one you provided for all of us combined. Don't act like we both don't know Jeremiah had always been a better father than you, even when he had no children on the way." Leo said, in between hissing and glaring daggers at Elias. He had nothing to say to their venomous snake of a mother, and even if he did, he'd stop right away as Nora began to speak.

"These are my children," Nora began, voice shaky as her gaze was locked on the table for a moment before she raised it to look at the other 'mother', eyes slightly glassy and breath hitched. "...and his." She continued, gaze flickering to Jerry before she swallowed, hand coming to rest on her quite small but apparent to the eye baby bump protectively, the motherly instincts in her kicking in. "You have no right to talk about them like that, grandparents or not. Please don't let things get unpleasant." She said, trying to keep her voice steady but she was quite hurt by their words and especially under Elizabeth's glare, something else just kicked in; fear. And that made her wrap her arm around her belly tighter, sinking in her chair.

(Elena: Starting to get scared, clutching Quill's hand tight and caressing his arm, hoping to keep him calm.)

Thea

The growl that slipped past Thea's lips was unintentional, a response to the cracking glass and raised voices. Bright blue eyes are suddenly a golden yellow - fight or flight mode is kicking in and the werecat's not the sort to flee, not when her family is involved. Her touch is gentle as she reaches out to rest a hand on the arm of the woman beside her in an attempt to offer reassurance, gaze locked on her parents. She had nothing to say, not this time - her brothers seemed to be handling it beautifully, but it was clear from her posture, the way she'd shifted closer to Nora, that she was ready for the fight that she felt was inevitable. Jeremiah or Leo, Elizabeth or Elias - she wasn't sure who'd swing first, but she could see the look in her mothers eyes - a look she knew all too well - that said she wasn't done prodding.

( Lily is shifting her spell, trying to work in a protection charm and move it to include Lukas and Nora and Elena. She's barely keeping herself from saying anything. Poppy and Quinton, while not really able to hear what's going on, can feel and smell their mother's unease - they're eyes are the same golden color that Thea's are and they are trying to sink under the table. )

Amalie

The fight kicking off, Amalie felt her own anger building as she heard the frankly disgusting words towards everyone, especially Nora. She was sick of all of this, sick of the fighting, sick of being treated like a lesser. She stood up abruptly and glared at their parents, hands clenched to fists by her side. "How can you be so disgustingly rude and thoughtless. I'm sick and tired of you acting like we're all dirt on your shoes. You're both nothing but a pair of snobby, stuck-up bastards who have done nothing to help us ever. You think we're just going to take it after all these years? No! I'm not standing here and letting you do this again. Fuck you!!"

She walked over to Nora, putting her arm around her sister in law to be {nora} and urging her to come with her before glancing over to Elena, Lukas, and the Kids, "come on, let's get out of here"

Parents

"And who was it, pray tell, that brought us back? Better yet - who put us in those graves? Certainly not you, dearest Jeremiah. No, as a matter of fact the answer to both questions is one and the same - would anyone care to take a guess?" Elizabeth's voice was filled with something between venom and the lilt of a song, a laugh spilling out as she once again turned her attention to Nora. "You know, it's not too late to terminate the pregnancy - save yourself the trouble this family brings. After all, who's to say your offspring wouldn't turn out just like their uncle. And you, dear sweet Amalie," she muses, a wild glint in her eyes as she calls out to her youngest, turning to study her for a moment before continuing. "Tell me, what were we meant to do for you from the grave? The grave your brother put us in, all those years ago? Should we've followed you around, two ghosts like lost puppies who could do little more than bark? No, I must say we had no desire to watch you each grew into such disappointments. Besides, you had you're fantastic older brother there to look after you, didn't you? Sad that your half brother didn't have that luxury."

Elias knew better than to speak over his wife - for all she was on his side he knew her anger could snap to him just as quickly as any other - and as such he waited for her to reach a pause before speaking again, standing as he studied each of his children. "'Upheld the Wallace name'? We paved a path to greatness for you and yet each and every one of you squandered it away as if we'd done nothing. Alexander, to my understanding, wasn't even here until just this last year - yet here he is, likely one of the brightest of you but married to that half-breed girl. Leonard wasted whatever little potential he had left after becoming a murderous bastard by shacking up with some half-demon bitch and what, raising an infant just like her and a grown man? And tell me where were you, Jeremiah, when your sister ran out and got herself turned? Tell me what sort of father figure would let that happen - had she been raised by her actual father she would've had the skill needed to avoid such a fate. And can you tell me, did any of you even know Alexandra bore these children before this year? because the vast majority of people I've spoken with said it had come as a surprise when two six year olds suddenly turned up following her around. And Amilie, full of so much potential that has undoubtably been wasted after being raised by your foolish brothers, such a pity and I'm honestly sorry." He paused then, lifting his glass to his lips before continuing. "And don't even get me started on you, Jeremiah. Foolish Jeremiah, always trailing after your brother and cleaning up his messes. Tell me, did you cover for our murder too?"

Jeremiah

Jeremiah flinches, fists clenched and wisps of smoke slowly rising from his skin as he stands. He needs to calm down, his angel blood and it's ability he'd kept from his siblings, and now wasn't the time to reveal it. " Hey - don't talk to them like that . " He snaps, stepping around the table, closer to their father. " You want to go on about how we're the disappointments in the family ? Well I guess we got it from our parents . " At the mention of their murder he stills, casting an anxious glance at the others before shaking his head. " Would you like to know something Father ? I did . I covered it . And if he didn't kill you , I would've ; And I would've burned every shred of your precious legacy to the ground . You want to talk about your deaths ? fine . Let's talk about how you got there . Let's talk about everything you did to your oh so precious sons that made them hate you enough to want your heads on spikes . "

Leonard

As soon as the 'father' mentioned the murder, Leo felt as if his blood turned ice, a breath hitching and being stuck in his throat. No wonder if Lily felt it as well, it was evident in her eyes as he turned to look at her that she felt it all and had it not been for the somewhat mustered up stability in her eyes, he would've already been attacking one of them, if not both. He had never been one for stability. Slowly, his gaze turned towards Elias again, fire burning in those eyes as Jeremiah stood up, the smoke rising from him concerning and confusing him for a moment. But before he could focus further, his eldest brother's words wiping the small strike of worry from his face, bringing out the courage to speak again. "Let's call it a humble gift from me to my siblings and well, rest of the shadow world." He said, giving a pause as he heard Quill trying to begin with something to say, out of confusion. "Not now, brother -- yes, I did it all. That was for a reason, just like you are here today for one." Leo's lips formed into a sly smirk as he stood up from his chair, unlike Jeremiah, quite calmly. "See, father, the people we've collected around us; Jeremiah's fiance, Quill's wife, Thea's brilliant children," he began to say, unlikely words to be heard from the shadowhunter. He had never showed sympathy for that girl his youngest brother married and ever since Thea was turned, their relationship was clearly strained but right now he was looking at each one of them with such genuine flame in his eyes, which finally landed on Lily. "and my lovely partner." He finished off, taking a breath before the flame was replaced with one of hate, gaze returned to the father as he opened his hands to the sides. "We've found our seperate ways all the while remaining as one, strained or not. While you two were rotting under seven feet. May I ask -- how was hell? I reckon it must be quite hot at this time of the year?" He taunted, grin spreading before he turned towards the rest of the table, pointing a finger around. "And yes, yes - yes I did. I killed them. With my bare hands. At 16. Ah, these mighty bastards, I ripped them apart as a young boy. You all should be thanking me. Had it not been for me you all would end up corrupted in one way or another, like they did to me." At the end of his sentence, the unstability in him was clear than ever, eyes flashing golden for a second before his fist landed on the table. "I murdered them. I did. It was the best fucking thing I did for this family."

(Nora stood up the moment Jerry did, standing right next to him as she refuses to stay if he's leaving, though since he remained so did she; hurt by the parents words and fearing the safety of her babies Elena is on the brink of tears, holding onto Quill's arm tighter as she casts glances at her parabatai; the tension scaring her quite a lot.)

Thea

Something in Thea snapped as her mother suggested Nora get an abortion, yet she still managed to bide her time as her brothers spoke. Somehow she wasn't shocked to learn it was Leo who had killed them, or even that they'd had some secret half sibling. She is surprised when Leo speaks up for them all - she loves her brother, really, but she's never known him to be the sort to be soft on his family. She's out of her seat as her older brothers finish, her voice low and dangerous as she finally speaks after remaining quiet for most of the evening. "Say one more word - a single vile thing about them - and you'll find out just how easy it is to meet my fate, dad." She grimaces as claws break through her fingertips, though the look simply shifts into a snarl as she sees her mother moving. Her control is waning, and she knows her kids have picked up on her displeasure - knows there's now two tiger cubs curled together under the table trying to hide - which only has her more on edge. "You keep going on and on about our failures, but what of your own? Because as I recall it was you who started my on my path to who I am now. The neglect. All the training. The way you'd go after Leo, and then Jeremiah when he'd stand up for him. You abused us - do you really think anything you say now could turn us against each other, after everything you've done that pushed us together?" Her carefully crafted American accent is gone, leaving her resembling her family even more than ever. "This? All of this? If anyone's to blame its you. You created us, and you have no right to belittle us for your shortcomings as parents. Jeremiah and Nora will make wonderful parents, and their babies will be beautiful. Elena makes Quill happy and is an absolutely amazing woman. My kids? I was too afraid I'd be like you to raise them myself, but in the few months I've had them they've brightened my life so, so much that I can't imagine another day without them. Lily, Lukas, and Rain have changed Leo so much that he's almost bearable to be around," there's a slight teasing tone as she casts a quick glance at her brother, but it's gone again as soon as her attention is back on their mother. "And for the last goddamn time - My. Name. Is. Amalthea."

( Lily is livid, plus Leo's anger is flowing through her, but she's doing her best to bottle it up and keep herself even. Still she's shifting her spell, she's got a nice safe little bubble that she's subtly urging Elena, Quill, Lukas, and the kids into, and she's trying to urge Amilie and Nora as well but she can only do so much.

Poppy and Quinton are curled up on the floor under the table, just outside the bubble - meaning they can hear everything now. Q is wrapped around Poppy in a protective manner and softly growling in the direction of his grandparents. )

Amalie

It had all reached a boiling point, insults being thrown around, tempers flaring quite literally, Amalie had had enough of it all. She shook her head and stepped back, fingers raking through her long brown locks as she stepped back, stressed and angry. "No. I have had enough. I'm leaving. If anyone wants to join me, then i won't blame you" she cast a fierce glare at her waste of space parents and stormed outside, slamming the door behind her.

She practically sped down the street, her mind a tumultuous mess. She was completely in her own head, buzzing with anger... That was until she was crossing the road, unaware of her surroundings until she heard a loud lorry horn accompanied by said lorry hurtling toward her. Before she could even react, it hit... everything went black

Parents

Elias moved first, though watching them from the outside he and Elizabeth moved perfectly in sync - as if they'd planned and choreographed everything beforehand. As he darted for Leo, brandishing a knife seemingly out of nowhere, Elizabeth made her move against Nora - a matching blade in her hand.

She managed to slice the woman across the slight swell of her belly, though not as deeply as she would've liked, Thea leaping into action and knocking the resurrected shadowhunter away and putting herself between them. Elizabeth, enraged at the fact that she'd failed to take down her target, turned her blade first towards Thea and then towards the tiny orange blur that had launched itself at her from under the table. Between the cub and Thea, Elizabeth was kept preoccupied for several moments - up until she tossed the cub down and focused her attention on her daughter.

At the same time Elias' fist met Leo's jaw, the latter managing to land several hits before the elder had lifted him by his shirt and thrown him backwards into a mirror, landing a swift hit to Lily's gut when she tried to get between them, leaving her both breathless and bleeding from the blade still in his hand, before continuing his pursuit of his son - determined to erase the mistake he and his wife had created all those years ago.

Jeremiah

He's frozen as it happens, close enough to watch the blade slice through his fiance's stomach, but too far to stop his mother's attack. Jeremiah moves to Nora instantly, pulling the half mer into his chest as he presses his hands to her bump, a lump in his throat as he checks her over. His panic recedes slightly as he examines it , " it's just a flesh wound . Just a flesh wound , you're okay , we're okay . " The assurance is more to himself than anyone else and it isn't until he catches the glint of a blade from the corner of his eye that he forces himself away from her. The panic gives way to fury and Jeremiah feels himself igniting, lunging towards his father and grabbing the arm wielding the blade with his own, covered in flame. He feels the flesh as it sizzles and burns beneath his grip, and twists behind his father, blade falling from his grip as the patriarch screams.

Leonard

Nora was too late to see the woman approaching her fast with a knife in her hand but luckily, Thea wasn’t. In fact, the werecat was just in time to push Elizabeth out of the way, leaving her only with a cut down her chest and belly, which would be healed completely without a scar if it was treated within a few hours by an iratze. But in shock, panic and instant fear the half mer let out a scream, her knees giving in just when Jeremiah arrived at her side to hold her and check her slight baby bump. It was a blur as Nora began to cry, too shocked to even move, but she heard him telling that they were okay which was enough to keep her from passing out — yet. As soon as her fiance left her side she sunk onto the floor against the wall, hands clutching her belly as she cried uncontrollably.

On the other side of the room, things weren’t any brighter. Just having been thrown into a large mirror, Leo took a moment to recover, dark demon ichor dripping from every single cut on his body, clothes ripped everywhere. But the moment he saw (and felt) Lily getting hurt, he was trying to get on his feet to help her, only to be pinned down again by their father. Growling, he tried to fight him off, the blade too close to his face for a moment before suddenly the struggle relieved a bit and that was when he realized his brother had came to his rescue. Jeremiah, his confidant, his savior — as always was there for him, keeping him safe from the merciless hands of their father. Though now he was actually able to overpower their father, the flame is confusing but nevertheless an advantage, one he’d question later. Now was time to move. With a burst of power Leo lunched forward, toppling down the elder shadowhunter. With no weapon, Leo’s best bet was his own hands. He had ripped them apart bare handed at 16. He could do it again. And with the little bit of magic that he had tapped into with the help of his demon bloof and Lily, his fingertips buzzed and dug into the man’s chest until he was clutching his heart and he eventually pulled it oyt, forcefully ripping it out as he fell backwards. Panting, he looked at his older brother, the still heart still in his blood covered hand, not realizing that in the other side of the room the struggle hadn’t stopped yet.

Thea

Thea let out something akin to a roar as the cub hit the ground with a thud and a whimper, her shoulder driving into the woman's ribs and propelling her into the wall, claws digging into her in spite of the blade she'd lodged into Thea's side. The werecat was angry, wounded, and above all her children were in danger - any thoughts of controlling herself were long gone as she tore into the woman who bore her. She's barely aware when Quill moves up to join her, her twin joining in her fight and disarming the woman. By the time Thea dropped her the light was gone from her eyes and the were was a mess, panting as she tried to catch her breath - which caught in her throat the moment she heard it. Poppy was whimpering, the girl still in tiger form as she nudged her brother and tried to wake him, crying for her mother. In an instant Thea was there at her childrens' side pulling the limp cub into her arms just as he whimpered and shuddered and shifted back, eyes glossy and empty. The sound that tore itself from her lips wasn't human, the woman clinging to her son's broken form as she sobbed and begged him to wake up - begged for someone to help her, to bring him back. She couldn't do this, she couldn't lose him when she'd just gotten them back...and yet he was gone. Poppy had shifted back and nestled herself against her mother, sobbing in a much quieter way as she clenched her eyes shut.

Lily, who had finally caught her breath and been on her way to Leo when she'd heard the woman's anguish, had tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around herself. She managed to tear her gaze away and make her way to her partner's side, one delicate hand reaching for his as she let her wards down. The danger was gone, but the pain....the pain would never go away.

[quietnorthernwind]

💐, if you don't mind!

flowers for the mun.💐 - Answer all of these!

🌺 - How much do you draw on personal experiences when roleplaying?

Somewhat, I suppose? Some ideas are from what I saw or heard, or what I read. But not a lot. I’m not exactly any of my characters nor do I share their lives.

🍀 - How much do you think you have achieved with your blog?

I had no goals when I started? I just enjoy roleplaying, and that’s what I do here.

🌼 - Do you think you could ever stop roleplaying now?

Someday, I’m sure I will. You grow out of things eventually. But that day is nowhere near. I find a lot of comfort in roleplaying, in the community, in the mere act of writing. 

🌻 - What do you do between replies? @wolfofromania asked this as well!

I have a life? UH, but really, I just listen to a lot of music, write some things for myself and watch a lot of shows and series. Lately, I’ve been playing the piano a lot, and I’m thinking of getting another instrument!

🌸 - Have you ever been in a group? Would you do it again?

OH BOI. I’ve been part of Chatzy groups, discourd groups, closed rp rings, what not. And as much of a bonus that having a steady group has, I would never ever go back to that. It’s always been dramatic, traumatic, painful and I don’t think the pluses outweigh the bad I’m afraid.

🌹  - Have you met true friends through roleplaying?

Yes! Plenty! Some of my best friends I met through rp. There’s my baby boo Chase, who isn’t on Tumblr, but I adore him and I met him through rp. Then there’s my boo Tanya, Thea my sweetie, and I’m getting really close to the dumbdumb Nuri and a bunch of others! 

🍄 - What’s one bad habit you know you have in writing? 

The three dots!! I use them so much, but I love them too??? I’m also hella dramatic, my grammar isn’t the best, I’m sometimes too much?? Honestly, I could go on and on about all my issues.

🍁 - How do you want to explore your muse further? Is there a wishlist?

I’d lovelovelove more AUs. If I could, my blogs would be exclusively AUs. You know that quote, your characters are like geods? To know them truly you have to break them. And honestly, same.You can find what I want by just throwing wishlist in the search bar on my blog, wink wink.

[thegreekshq-blog]

« ° THREAD ROULETTE RESULTS !!

« ° hey lovely members !! here’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, i will reveal the group results of our very own thread roulette !! first of all, since we had an uneven amount of characters we had to make groups of three people instead of two. that means we have a total of nine groups. we would like to encourage everyone who’s part of the same group to interact with each other. so, for example, if jacob, charlie and lucas were part of the same group, i ( admin fie ) would try to set up a two threads for jacob, one with charlie and one with lucas !! i could even hit both sien and ryan up at the same time and we could try to plot a chatzy with all three of our characters. as you can see, the possibilities are endless !! if anything is unclear, don’t be afraid to hit us up if you have any questions. now without further ado, you can find the groups underneath the cut !! we hope you have a great time plotting and writing these threads and we can’t wait to read them. xxx

group one: jace patterson, noah park & lexi kim meet at the campus movie night.

group two: sara ballio, nessie kang & reece kweon meet at the local night club.

group three: olivia mitchell, finley lincoln & chloe fawn meet at the local karaoke bar.

group four: asa gray flores, juniper mae jenkins & jacob kingston meet at the student protest on campus.

group five: thea sinclaire, mani mistry & maya tandel meet at the local starbucks/cafe.

group six: juliet chambers, kieran rush & charlie cornelissen meet at the charity bake sale on campus.

group seven: diana kingston, lena bakker & lucas wolcott meet at the local walking/biking trail.

group eight: james hensen, andie vega & abbey ronson meet at the campus bookstore.

group nine: kelcie tiller, parker ellis & matthew levitt meet at the local football stadion.

disclaimer: these groups and locations were all randomized. keep in mind that you don’t have to keep your characters at the set location throughout the thread; you can always start at the given place and continue it somewhere else. with that being said, HAVE FUN with our mini event, darlings !!

[starcityhq]

EVENT 001 — ANNUAL UNITY FESTIVAL — PLOT DROP

The mayor, a fat, arrogant man, takes the stage, a number of the VIPS who were at his dinner on stage with him. The elegant stone fire pit in the center of the stage has a table next to it stacked high with old capes, cowls, figurines of superheroes and other memorabilia from the time before the ban, ready to burn. 

He moves to the microphone, a grin on his features, and the crowd falls silent as he’s about to speak—

And with a thump, the power goes out. All the street lights, all the traffic lights, the stage lights, everything, goes out. Everyone, too shocked to say anything, falls even more silent. Nothing is happening. No one is moving. No one is breathing.

It’s when the lights come back on that all hell breaks loose as bullets are sprayed into the crowd, the mayor falling to the stage, dead before he hits the ground.

As the festival descends into chaos, no one even notices that the memorabilia is gone.

Under the cut, you’ll find OOC information for every character who was at the masquerade! If your character isn’t listed below, please, send a message to the main so we can fix it! The character groupings don’t mean that you have to have a chatzy or that you have to interact only with people in your group, but instead, it’s a guideline for where your characters are in the aftermath of this plot drop! Feel free to continue threads from before the drop, but remember that any threads taking place during this plot drop should be at least started by MIDNIGHT, EST tomorrow, APRIL 12TH. After that, you can feel free to continue threads, but refrain from starting any new threads. 

SELINA KYLE, DANIELLE MORENO, JOKER, HARLEEN QUINZEL, LEONARD SNART, STEVE ROGERS

As soon as the blackout happens, SELINA knows that this is her chance. DANI picks up on this as well, and both of them manage to get away with all of the memorabilia, with some help from LEONARD. On their way out of the festival, however, they run into JOKER and HARLEY, who are waiting for DANI to give them what they asked for. Selina begrudgingly hands over some of the memorabilia she had stolen, if only to get JOKER out of her hair. SELINA and LEONARD take half of the memorabilia to her safe house, while JOKER and HARLEY take the other half after paying DANI.On his way back onto the stage JOKER runs into STEVE. 

HARRY OSBORN, TONY STARK, JAMES RHODES, JUBILATION LEE, MALLORY BRICKMAN, PEPPER POTTS, ADRIAN VEIDT, GARFIELD LOGAN

For the VIPS on the stage, as soon as the shooting starts, they’re immediately ushered off the stage. HARRY and JUBILATION are taken directly towards OSCORP, the tower only a couple of blocks away from the festival. TONY and PEPPER are pushed towards a squad car, but pull away, going into the crowd to search for their friends, immediately running into JAMES.  GARFIELD is separated from his adoptive parents, and ADRIAN offers to help find them.

BRUCE WAYNE, DAMIAN WAYNE, DICK GRAYSON, JAMES GORDON, HARVEY DENT, JASON TODD, TIM DRAKE, BARBARA GORDON

When HARVEY sees that the mayor is on the ground, he drops to his knees, pressing both hands over the bullet wound in his chest to try and stop the bleeding. JIM gets on his radio and immediately starts directing officers to evacuate the festival and get medical personnel on stage to help. BRUCE offers his handkerchief to help stop the bleeding while his kids and partners gravitate towards him. He directs DAMIAN and DICK to go look for the missing memorabilia while asking BARBARA and JASON to try and patch into the streetlight system and figure out how the lights suddenly shut off. TIM and BRUCE immediately start looking for clues, trying to piece the situation together.

CLINT BARTON, KATE BISHOP, CONNOR HAWKE, OLIVER QUEEN, ROY HARPER, DINAH LANCE, THEA QUEEN

JASON immediately tackles ROY when the shooting starts before running up to the stage. Before ROY has time to react, CONNOR is dragging him towards a nearby building. OLIVER and DINAH are already climbing up the side of the building, where CLINT and KATE are already on the roof. After butting heads with CLINT for a moment, OLIVER takes the lead, directing CLINT and KATE to the building across the festival while sending CONNOR, THEA and DINAH down towards the crowd to help evacuate people from the street, leaving OLIVER and ROY on top of the building just in time for OLIVER to get hit—and hand ROY his bow.

(TIME-DISPLACED) HANK MCCOY, BART ALLEN, CONNER KENT, KYLE RAYNER, ARTEMIS CROCK, CASSANDRA SANDSMARK, KORIAND’R, ROSE WILSON, RACHEL ROTH

Before anything starts, ROSE sees it happening in a precognitive flash. She immediately reaches her hands out to both BART and HANK, ordering them to get down, pushing them both to the ground. People in front of them both fall, dead from gunshot wounds. CONNER immediately comes over to help BART up, while KYLE, RACHEL, AND KORIAND’R start ushering the people around them away. ARTEMIS and CASSANDRA start looking around for the people who are shooting, but ROSE drags them away from the scene, seeing nothing but trouble ahead.

FLASH THOMPSON, WADE WILSON, GWEN STACY, KAREN PAGE, MJ WATSON, BILLY BATSON, PETER PARKER

When the shooting starts, GWEN immediately goes to MJ. FLASH and MJ were together, and  the three of them manage to move about the crowd. WADE notices PETER off to the side, and grabs him by the arm to go with the others. KAREN, realizing that BILLY is alone, does what she thinks she has to do—not knowing that he’s perfectly capable of caring for himself—and pulls him towards the small group of people shifting out of the way, guiding FLASH over as well. The eight of them duck into an alleyway and wait for everything to quiet down.

ALEXANDER POWER, JACK POWER, SAM WILSON, KATIE POWER, ANDREW PULASKI, JAMES GORDON JR., LUCUS TRENT, CAITLIN SNOW, FELICITY SMOAK

SAM and ANDREW immediately go into work mode when the shooting starts. SAM starts guiding his drone to scan for any suspicious figures above them while ANDREW starts guiding people to safety. ALEX looks for DICK for a moment before giving up, instead finding KATIE and JACK and following ANDREW to safety. LUCUS stands by to help ANDREW, rounding up JAMES, CAITLIN, and FELICITY, all of them ducking into a nearby store and waiting for things to die down.

BUCKY BARNES, BOBBI MORSE, NATASHA ROMANOVA, ORORO MONROE, PEGGY CARTER, BARRY ALLEN, CHARLIE ROSE DUBOIS

BUCKY and NATASHA are together during the blackout, and immediately know that they’ll need to act fast once the lights are back up. They, along with BOBBI, ORORO, PEGGY, BARRY, and CHARLIE start guiding civilians away from the festival.

(TIME DISPLACED) BOBBY DRAKE, FOGGY NELSON, LOGAN HOWLETT, MATT MURDOCK, (CURRENT TIME) JEAN GREY, LAURA KINNEY, CLARK KENT, JON KENT, KARA DANVERS, SHIERA HALL, ROSEMARY ATKINSON

BOBBY acts without thinking when the shooting starts, immediately putting up a wall of ice and watching a number of bullets slam into it. MATT tackles FOGGY to the ground when the bullets slam into the ice, not realizing that the bullets that he heard coming towards them were stopped for a moment. JEAN immediately starts dragging BOBBY away from the ice wall, not wanting him to be associated with the use of his powers, while LOGAN and LAURA follow closely behind. MATT starts running towards the building where he heard shots coming from, immediately slamming his shoulder into the door to push through and run up the stairs to where he can hear someone disassembling a gun. CLARK, SHIERA, KARA and JON start to fly towards the opposite side and fan out, looking for shooters in the top floors of that building. ROSEMARY catches up with JEAN, BOBBY, LOGAN and LAURA, and the five of them realize that people are watching them—having noticed BOBBY put up the ice wall—and must decide what to do next.

FRANK CASTLE, JAMIE MADROX, JULIAN KELLER, LEOPOLD ZOLA, LESTER BENJAMIN POINDEXTER, EMMA FROST, FELICIA HARDY, YELENA BELOVA, CHATO SANTANA, EDWARD NYGMA, GRANT WILSON, MICK RORY, OSWALD COBBLEPOT, ENIGMA, ISABELLA FLYNN, KOMAND’R, LISA SNART, SARA LANCE, MICKEY IVANOV, ALEKSANDRA NOVIKOV, VALENTINA VEDRAN, Pamela isley

VALENTINA’S vision starts again, this time from the point of view of the same spot she’s currently standing in. She manages to duck out in time, grabbing YELENA’S arm on the way The two follow behind FELICIA, KOMAND’R, and CHATO— all of them making it to an allyway that was being used as a hideout by PAMELA, OSWALD, EDWARD, ENIGMA and ISABELLA. FRANK remained unfazed, his eyes searched the crowds for any sign as to who could have caused this. GRANT, utterly bored by what’s going on, runs into LESTER, EMMA, and LEOPOLD, all of whom are watching from that same alleyway with the same disinterest. MICK runs into LISA and SARA and the three of them leave to look for LEONARD. MICKEY, JAMIE, JULIAN and ALEKSANDRA all take cover in one of the vendors’ stalls, waiting for everything to end.

(TIME DISPLACED) SCOTT SUMMERS, TOMMY SHEPHERD, (CURRENT TIME) WARREN WORTHINGTON, (TIME-DISPLACED) WARREN WORTHINGTON, ANNA MARIE, REMY LEBEAU, LORNA DANE, (TIME-DISPLACED) JEAN GREY, WANDA MAXIMOFF, HOWARD REYES, LEORA MORETTI, MARNIE BOND

(TIME DISPLACED) SCOTT and (TIME-DISPLACED) WARREN hear the gunshots go off and immediately look for (TIME-DISPLACED) JEAN and HANK. Unable to find HANK, they meet up with (CURRENT TIME) WARREN, ANNA MARIE, WANDA, and REMY , who quickly decide they need to make a hasty exit before one of the time-displaced gets hurt in the wrong timeline. HOWARD looks for NORA running into TOMMY. Both of them see LEORA and LORNA held at gunpoint by an unidentified assailant and decide to help.

AMERICA CHAVEZ, MEGAN GWYNN, JAY GARRICK, JOHN CONSTANTINE, ARTEMIS OF BANA-MIGHDALL, IRIS WEST, JESSICA CRUZ, LOIS LANE, NORA FRIES, ZATANNA ZATARA,

AMERICA, MEGAN and ARTEMIS OF BANA-MIGHDALL were all participating in small talk by the bar when their smiles fell. ZATANNA quickly realized this had been the blackout Valentina had mentioned and managed to move LOIS, NORA, JESSICA and IRIS away from the side stage before the shooting began. When the first shot was heard JOHN’S cigarette fell and he ran, bumping into JAY along the way.

[newnormalhq-blog]

With this you can officially start your plot drop threads! 

What we did with each of these groups is make sure that every single member has something unique to bring to the team and that their powers/abilities are suitable for the task that has been given to them. These teams were not assembled by the government or anyone in power, but by the superheroes themselves. Each leader either knows of these people or found them by word of mouth. Speaking of the team leaders, they can call the shots when it comes to tricky situations, however they absolutely must take the advice of their fellow teammates and be prepared to risk themselves first and protect the rest of the team. Because everyone had such little time to prepare for the invasion, it is completely normal for some tension in the team, especially when it comes to who is going to lead. A lot of these characters are not used to being in teams, and you are all free to explore that aspect and see how it will affect the overall gameplay. 

Since there are quite a few teams, it wouldn’t be unnatural for many of them to cross paths and help each other and work together. The tasks cannot be switched, however, and every team has to focus on theirs first and foremost. Particularly with TEAM I, the members should be solely focused on fighting the Dominators and not rescuing civilians. Team VIII has one task only: to deactivate the bomb, which means they should not engage in combat with the Dominators unless they absolutely must (which is up to the players whether or not it will happen). The teams that are extracting the aliens and rescuing civilians have a lot more freedom in terms of what they can do, so you are free to use your creativity and work on ideas together.

Since this should be an action-packed plot drop, it is only natural that a lot of the characters will get injured, some more, others less, just make sure for it to be realistic and suitable for the occasion. Another thing worth mentioning is that no one should engage in god-modding -- we know it can be very easy to do this in situations like this, but communication is key so make sure to always run your plots and ideas with your fellow teammates. You are free to do the threads on the dashboard or in Chatzy rooms, just make sure to post the transcripts on the dash so we can all read them and be caught up with the events on what is happening. Make sure to read the plot drop post once again if you’ve forgotten anything, and finally, if you guys have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to ask us! We will be doing at least one more post on how the plot is progressing throughout the week, so stay tuned for that.

Have fun everyone, we can’t wait to see how this plot drop develops and what you do with each of your teams!

                                              You will find the teams down below!!

TEAM I  - TASK: Alien extraction 

Rick Flag (Team Leader)

Daisy Johnson

Leah Taylor

Susan Storm

Dinah Lance

Billy Kaplan

TEAM II - TASK: Alien extraction and civilian rescue

Bruce Wayne (Team Leader)

Roy Harper

Tim Drake

Selina Kyle

Harley Quinn

Jack Power

Alex Power

TEAM III - TASK: Alien extraction and civilian rescue

Kara Danvers (Team Leader)

Mon-El

Jean Gray

Johnny Storm

Helena Wayne

Jade Nguyen

TEAM IV - TASK: Spaceship assessment and overrun

Alex Danvers (Team Leader)

Winn Schott

Cassie Lang

Zatanna Zatara

Zachary Zatara

Tommy Shepherd

Anna Marie

TEAM V - TASK: Alien extraction and TEAM IV defense

Steve Rogers (Team Leader)

Young Scott Summers

Matt Murdock

Jessica Jones

Patsy Walker

Jason Todd

TEAM VI - TASK: Alien extraction and evacuation of Star City Hospital and Precinct

Scott Summers (Team Leader)

Patty Spivot

Maggie Sawyer

Kate Bishop

Wally west

Bucky Barnes

Adrian Veidt

TEAM VII - TASK: Alien extraction and evacuation of schools and public buildings

Barry Allen (Team Leader)

Jon Kent

Thea Queen

Clint Barton

Peter Parker

Peggy Carter

n514A

TEAM VIII - TASK: Locating the atomic bomb and deactivation

Tony Stark (Team Leader)

Clark Kent

Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost

Illyana Rasputin

Cassie Sandsmark

Czarean Mahoe

America Chavez

TEAM IX - TASK: Travel back in time to 1951 in Redmond, Oregon to capture a Dominator and question them.

(Information: This is of course inspired by the crossover episode on Legends of Tomorrow when Nate, Amaya and Mick travel back in time to the first time when the Dominators arrived on Earth back in 1951. Thanks to SHIELD, the team was equipped with a ship that can take them back into the past, similar to the one on the show. Their task is to capture a single Dominator and learn more about their race as well as find out how and if they can stop the destruction of all powered species on Earth.)

Barbara Gordon (Team Leader)

Remy Lebeau

Damian Wayne

Koriand’r

Charlie Gage-Radcliffe

Lorna Dane

TEAM X - TASK: Escape the alternate universe artificially created by the Dominators

(Information: This one might be tricky to understand if you haven’t watched the CW crossover episodes, however we will try to explain it best we can. This team was supposed to extract aliens, however they started to get defeated and were cornered. Instead of killing them, the Dominators abducted them and brought them inside their spaceship in a chamber where no one can find them (Team IV whose task is to overrun the spaceship is not aware that they have been abducted therefore they aren’t searching for them). The team has been put under a chemically induced coma which uses every person’s memories, desires and hopes to create an alternate universe, a perfect reality of sorts, where anything is possible. If they stay long enough in this false reality, their minds will slowly forget about the real world and they will not be able to escape. In order to wake up, at least one of the characters has to become aware that something is not right and try to alert the others. This can be in the sense of seeing something strange, remembering a memory from the real world that feels like a dream, anything at all. If you have not seen the episode of Arrow where this happens, we highly suggest watching it, or at least checking out some of the videos like this one. In order to leave the alternate reality, the team will have to fight their greatest fears which can manifest in different people, whether they are former or current foes, loved ones they’ve lost etc. Also, there is no team leader here. Whoever realizes something is not right about the situation will automatically become the leader of the group, but we are giving you guys full permission to plot that out together.)

Sara Lance

Megan Gwynn

Wanda Maximoff

Bruce Banner

Ruth Aldine

Kate Kane

TEAM XI - TASK: ALIEN EXTRACTION

(Information: Unlike the other alien extraction teams, team xi is going to provide help to every other team that might need it as well. They will communicate with the other teams via earpieces that will allow them to come up with strategics together. This group will not be fixed in one particular area, but they will have the freedom to move around and offer themselves as backup where needed, especially if a team has been cornered or is suffering from injuries. What this will mean OOC is that the characters in this team can plot with every other character, not just these five. You are still required to do at least one thread together as a team, but the goal of this team’s mission is more flexible than the rest, which also gives you a lot more freedom when it comes to plotting.)

Jackson Grey (Team Leader)

Kitty Pryde

Gabriel Summers

Sam Alexander

Artemis Crock

[honeysmokedham]

TIMING: 5/13 3:13 am

PARTIES: Cass @magmahearts, Nora @honeysmokedham, Ren @ironheartedfae, Thea @notstinky, & Van @vanoincidence

LOCATION: a normal supermarket

SUMMARY: Cass and Nora want a late-night snack. Ren is following Cass, and Thea is dragged with Nora. Van just lost track of time in the bathroom. They're all surprised to find each other in a closed store.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Sibling Death TW (vaguely mentioned).

Cass was hungry. Like, starving. She’d run out of food in the cave a while ago, and while Jonas did still owe her a couple meals, she was trying to save those for special occasions. Plus, it was, like, late. Bakeries probably weren’t open this late, on account of humans closing everything up when it got dark. Which was stupid, by the way! Life didn’t stop when the moon came out! 

But… in this case, things being closed was kind of a good thing. If the supermarket was closed, no one could stop Cass from going inside and taking what she needed. The door was easy enough to get through — her lockpicking YouTube playlist hadn’t really helped her out much yet, but lava could melt a lock easily enough and that accomplished the same goal, didn’t it? So, here she was. In front of shelves and shelves of food, pushing along a buggy that she was definitely planning on leaving with because fuck the big chain supermarket and its big corporation money. She just had to decide which flavor of Pop Tart sounded most tempting. And also, if she had time for it, what a Pop Tart was. 

There was a sound to her left, too loud to fit into the otherwise silent supermarket. Cass tilted her head, looking towards it. “Hello? Is somebody there? Do you know what hot fudge tastes like?”

—

Fate was a concept that was often talked about in Fae circles. A driving force that controlled all things. It was supposed to be on their side as one of the fair folk. But Ren wasn’t a normal nymph. She despised the heathen ways of those who cast her aside, knowing full well her job was to bring them down. To find as many as she could and slay them. She just had to hope that their fate wasn’t as strong as her faith. A blessing was what she called it when the other nymph had crossed her path. She felt that strange swirling tug, and followed it until she found the girl it was coming from. Then she followed the girl for four days. 

Getting as much information as she could without ever being caught. She was strange. Most people in this town were. But this “Cass” might have been the most so. Each night was a toss up, between stealing things and going out with an odd colorful uniform on, taking down ‘criminals’ who were doing the same damn thing as her. Not to mention she had managed to get several “thank you’s” from the strangers she forced her will upon. Disgusting. These monsters truly would stoop so low as to pretend to help someone just to bind them into… menial… things… Admittedly Ren wasn’t too sure what exactly the oread had done to the people. She had to keep distance between them. Her skills as hiding in all forms was the only good thing being an entomid had ever done for her, but it took a lot of energy to do so. 

Energy she just didn’t have after a few days of not really eating. 

Which was why the store was so interesting. Normally Ren wouldn’t have followed her in. She would have taken note of the burned lock, of the timing of when the other nymph went in and out, and left well enough alone. But her own stomach was growling. And maybe stealing wasn’t such a sin when you took it from one who had already stolen… right? The nymph found a perch atop one of the aisles and watched from the safety of her natural camouflage. For a second, she thought she’d been made, that she was going to either have to do this right now, or abandon the chase for a few days to lose the heat. But no– No, there was someone else in here too. 

—

“Don’t panic.” Nora parked Thea next to the back entrance of the Supermarket. “I do this all the time.” Nora rummaged in her pockets. Some uneaten ham, a snake, a couple of crushed drawings she’d been meaning to throw away. She handed each item to Thea as she kept searching in her jacket. Finally, she stumbled across the shining items. Her lock picks. Nora felt bad about all the clothes that Thea had lost in the attack. To make it up to her, she was going to help her get free food. The door opened with a click. Nora took back all her items, shoving them back into her pocket. “Come on.” Nora pushed in through the back room. Rows upon rows of storage were back here. That wasn’t where they needed to be. Nora led them through the heavy double doors that separated them in the back room to the store front. “What do you like to eat?” Nora was instantly making a Beeline towards the deli. A scent in the air caused her to pause. Nora lifted her nose, taking two sniffs of the air. “Do you smell that?” Nora turned to Thea. In a louder voice she called out, “Hey, is anyone there?” 

—

Being told not to panic was a one way ticket to panicking. That was Anxiety 101. “I thought when you said we’d do something fun you meant, like, bowling,” Thea whined. For a moment, she was holding a snake—why did Nora have a snake in her pocket—and then she wasn’t holding a snake anymore. “I think you should throw that ham out,” Thea said as she walked in after Nora. “How long has that been in your pockets? That doesn’t seem sa—“ As Nora went on, Thea paused to sniff the air. Mostly, she still got the lingering aroma of Nora’s ham mixed with all the other ham. “I don’t know about smells but I think a ghost is asking us about hot fudge.” Thea was sure she’d heard that right. “Hello? Ghost? Hot fudge is just chocolate! But it’s gooey!” Thea stepped forward, moving ahead of Nora as they navigated. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “But like, it tastes kinda different from chocolate? It’s hard to describe! But–“ Fate spared the empty grocery store from Thea’s rambled explanation as her body crashed into another when she turned the corner of an aisle. Thea fell back, flat on her butt as she stared up at the ‘ghost’. 

—

Van hadn’t meant to lose track of time. She’d gotten a notification on her phone– a timed event from one of her mobile games, and poof, time was a concept no longer followed. The fight music that blared through her head phones covered all traces of closing discussions among the employees, and because it was still bright in the restroom, she was none the wiser. Van finally managed to beat the final mini boss, and as she leaned against the wall just next to the paper towel dispenser, she realized that maybe now was the time to leave before the employees thought she was doing something nefarious, or thought she had really bad IBS. She resumed the music she’d been playing prior, and grabbed her bag off of the hook hanging near the door with the few groceries she’d purchased before pulling it open. The entire store was dark, save for the few lights that were on in random patterns across the ceiling. “What the…” Van checked the time on her phone and cursed under her breath. She’d spent an hour past closing in the bathroom. How the hell had she managed that? She rushed towards the exit, but stopped just short of the door. A group of girls, all of which seemingly surprised at one another’s existence, blocked her way to the exit. “Who?!” Van hadn’t realized she was yelling, her music loud in her ears, and she quickly shoved her headset down so that it was hanging around her neck. “Do you guys work here? Sorry, I didn’t mean to–” But none of them were wearing the ugly t-shirts that employees wore. “Um..” She looked between them, eyebrows pulling together. 

—

"Cass?" Nora popped out from behind Thea, staring at the girl on fire, in the flesh, holding a box of poptarts.

It’d be impossible not to recognize her, even after five years. Her name escaped Van until it popped into her head as soon as she spoke “…Nora?” 

“Chocolate can be gooey? Why would you —” Cass was cut off as someone ran into her, the sound of her name causing her brow to furrow. “Nora?”

Someone else said her name, Nora turned around coming face to face with someone she hadn’t seen for five years. “Van?”

“Thea!” Thea smiled, then instantly frowned. “Oh, sorry, I thought we were just saying names.” She paused. “Wait, did you say Cass?”

Still looking at Van, a little dazed and confused, Nora pointed at Thea. “That’s Thea.”

“Thea?” Cass repeated, turning to the girl with Nora. “Fanfic Thea? Hi, Thea!”

“Hi, Cass,” Thea waved from her spot on the ground. “Cass is the best fanfic author ever,” she explained to the others. “Hi, Van. Your name is a type of car.” 

“Fanfic?” Van stared at Thea, then at Cass, “you both write fanf---“ Her gaze shifted back to Thea. “It’s short for Vanessa.” 

—

Ren’s head whipped around, barely fast enough to keep up. From one extra voice to a whole chorus, what were they multiplying? This was very quickly becoming too much, and the nymph was about to hightail it up into the rafters of the building until a familiar voice cut through the rest. “No…ra?” Whispered. Barely audible. But enough to derail Ren’s whole plan. Quietly, she peered over the edge of the aisle, watching with bright wide eyes as the others talked. Apparently they all knew each other too. Well that just made things even more complicated. Ugh. 

—

Never in Nora’s twenty years of existence had she been in a supposedly closed store filled with people from her past. It had been one year since her last contact with Cass, and five since she’d met Van. Two strangers, both she’d met in New York, just happened to be here at the same time? Nora started to look around for cameras. Instead she spotted another familiar insectoid face poking out between a flamingo lawn decoration and a fake beach chair. That was hard to forget. “Ren?” Nora blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. “What’s everyone shopping for?” She finally asked, at a complete loss for what else to say. She would have asked what they were all doing there, but to be honest, she just assumed they were all five finger shopping.

—

Thea stood up, brushing herself off. It seemed like everyone knew each other, at least a little, and mostly tethered by Nora’s captivating personality and enigmatic life. Thea felt proud her stinky buddy was so popular and then, a little jealous. She had exactly one friend and it was Nora. Maybe Cass but the horror of her fanfiction had been haunting Thea’s thoughts--she classified everything as either a ‘green’ or ‘blue’ apron activity. Breaking into a store was definitely ‘blue apron’ of them. “Okay, so there’s Van--short for Vanessa and not like the car.” She pointed at Van. “There’s Cass.” She pointed at Cass. “Me, Thea.” She pointed at herself. “Nora.” She pointed at Nora. “And….Ren?” Thea’s finger jutted out into the darkness. All she saw were chairs, gnomes and flamingos. Maybe Nora was acquainted with one of the gnomes? Probably the one that looked like it was peeing. “I just want to say that I disapprove of stealing,” she said, turning back to the others. “But, um, if you were going to steal…Poptarts are a good choice. Van, what were you stealing in the bathroom? Soap? That’s not very efficient thievery; you could just get a whole bottle from the aisles.” 

—

A flood of emotions rushed over Cass as Nora’s presence registered. She’d never run into someone who’d left her after the fact, never come face to face with one of the many people who’d realized she wasn’t worth keeping around. Usually, when people left, they made it a point to stay gone. A strange sense of fear washed over her, because there were other people here, too. People like Thea, who seemed cool, and this ‘Van’ person whose name was a car that was short for Vanessa. What if Nora told them what a problem Cass was? She’d lose her shot at making friends before she got it at all. A familiar feeling stirred in her stomach then, the flutter like butterflies that meant another fae was nearby. But… she didn’t think it was Van or Thea, and she knew it wasn’t Nora. So… “Who’s Ren?” She didn’t see anyone in the darkness, and she had very good night vision, but she could feel them there all the same. Looking back to the others, she blinked. “I can’t buy them,” she pointed out. “The store is closed. I have to steal them. There’s no one at the register.” She looked back at the shelf, surveying the Pop Tarts. “How do you pop them?” Then, to Van, “The soap is a few aisles over. I can show you, if you need some. They have one that smells like lavender.” 

—

Van felt severely out of place. They all knew each other, and the only person she knew was Nora. Though, the word knew held way too much weight for a run in that entailed a spilled frappe and an instagram handle. She anxiously flattened the strap of her bag down on her shoulder and tugged the sack closer to her stomach. “I’m not— I wasn’t buy— stealing soap.” Did she need soap? She didn’t think so. Besides, it was too late for that. The store was closed. That didn’t seem to matter to the rest of them. “I was playing a game. Didn’t realize the store closed.” Van was thoroughly flustered now. Why was this happening? At the mention of somebody named Ren, Van followed Thea’s gaze towards the gnomes, then it snapped back to Cass as she spoke. “You could have come when it wasn’t closed…?” There wasn’t much use in arguing her point and she knew that. Really, Van held no moral high ground. She didn’t care if people stole or not, but it was weird that multiple people who hadn’t planned to run into each other, had done just that, and by stealing no less. When Cass mentioned the soap, Van let out a groan. “I don’t need— Ugh.” 

—

Amongst the soaps, a scene worthy of a soap opera was beginning to unfold. Not only had Ren been spied, she’d been named. In front of the fae. Dammit all to hell. Rough fingers dragged themselves down Ren’s face as a sigh slipped through her lips. Was it better to hide? Or use this as some sort of… in? If Nora knew the oread, perhaps she could… vouch for Ren. And Cass could lead her to others. Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe this could work. The entomid stood and began to make her way around. Trying to pay attention to the conversations going on an aisle over. Even unintentionally, the bug was pretty stealthy. Made her way next to Nora seemingly without alerting any of the others. 

This close to another fae though… it was starting to mess with Ren. A fluttered mess of emotions welling up inside her chest. If she didn’t stay focused, her mind drifted back to a few weeks ago. To the man whose life slid away beneath Ren’s knives. To the way he looked at her with utter betrayal. The nymph shook her head. Threw the thoughts away and turned to the gaggle of girls. “You should not be stealing, dangerous.” 

— 

Nora was greeted with the smell of sulfur and loneliness mixed in with just a touch of smoke. Guilt washed over her. That was Cass's fear scent. Nora averted her eyes to the ground. If Cass was in town they were going to have to talk. Nora's tongue played with her lip ring, rolling it around. Cass knew her identity. What if it wasn't safe? What if it was time to g-. Nora knocked herself out of those thoughts, bringing herself back into the conversation of Van's soap failures. "You've got pockets, Van. Just fill them with soap." Nora was surprised Thea wasn't on it already. Thea probably used more soap than everyone in this town combined. Nora swallowed, looking back at Cass, trying to catch her eye. "Pop Tarts are good, Cass." She said. She tried to add a smile to her words. It came out as the micro smile, the only expression her face ever seemed to manage. "You pop them in a microwave." How did you get your words about poptarts to ask the question 'Are you going to turn me in?' 

Nora had been ready to explain who Ren was. She really was. Except Ren was coming forward, proclaiming their activity to be dangerous. "No its not." Nora basically scoffed. Nora looked between these people she knew. Van. Cass. Thea. Then she pointed a finger at the humanoid insect. "That's Ren," Nora explained. "Ren, check it, there are art supplies on aisle 12. You could draw a rainbow." 

— 

Thea didn’t know what was going on, but she rarely did so her confusion didn’t bother her. Except that her body reacted the way it often did in strange situations; her heart thumped wildly and her hands grew clammier as the seconds ticked by. “You could have just gone to a store that’s open, Cass,” she said. She tried to sound scolding but her anxiety won out and so she mostly sounded meek. She perked up. “I have money though! I think if we just leave it here, it’ll be like we didn’t steal at all!” Thea pulled out a crumbled green bill from her pocket. She couldn’t tell how much it was; American money was terrible. It was all the same color and she could never tell it apart. As Ren approached, Thea spun quickly. The positive: she could now see that her bill was a twenty. The negative: her sudden turn had made her rip it in two. “Um,” she stuttered, “I-I think it’s still valid. We, um… We can still go ‘shopping’! Just, uh, don’t take anything more than twenty dollars.” She wiped her sweaty hands against her jeans. “It’s nice to meet all of you.” Thea smiled. “Oh! Actually, I also need more soap…” She looked over to Van. “Um, so maybe we can go that way? Or are we watching Ren draw a rainbow? I’m not sure how theft works, honestly. This is my first time.” 

—

Nora was talking to her, was calling her by name in a way that was confusing. She’d left. Why was she using soft tones now? Why was she doing her version of a smile? She’d already decided Cass wasn’t worth it. Maybe it was pity; some attempt to pretend that Cass was less… her than she was, to give her a chance to befriend the other girls. A kind gesture, like one you might make for a particularly pathetic stray. Did it make it more pathetic that Cass wouldn’t argue? That she was so lonely she’d take friendship built on pity rather than no friendship at all? “I don’t have a microwave,” she mumbled, glancing up as another figure joined the party. That feeling in her stomach got stronger, and while the nymphs back home had always referred to it as a lovely, beautiful thing, it felt more like nausea to Cass these days. Nora knew she was bad to be around, and fae were always the first to figure it out. There was no way Van or Thea would want to be her friend with two people around to tell them not to. “I don’t think any stores are open this late,” she told Thea. “I think they’re all closed. I checked a different one.” Only to see how good the locks were, but the lack of discomfort meant that the statement still wasn’t technically a lie. Looking to the ripped bill in Thea’s hand, she shook her head. “We can’t get anything for twenty dollars. Van needs soap. Soap is expensive if it smells good, and I don’t want Van to smell bad.” She looked to Van with a reassuring smile. “You don’t smell bad right now.” Then, back to Thea. “We’re only stealing from rich guys. They make, like, Tony Stark money. We’re stealing from Tony Stark.”

—

There was a verbal volleyball match happening all around Ren, and there was no way she was going to keep up. She didn’t know what popped tarts were, nor microwaves or Tony Stark. Hell, Ren didn’t even know what volleyball was to know what a volleyball match might be. It was all  nonsense. The kind of things people got to talk about. But that wasn’t her. She wasn’t a person, she was a monster and a hunter. The wide unnerving stare lingered on each of the girls, but longest on Cass. Who she was supposed to be making a… good impression on now. Her eyes darted around, looking at the expressions that ranged from positively bubbly with that Theeah, Vanne looked maybe confused or uncomfortable? Nora was the same impassive mask she’d worn back when she’d intruded on Ren’s… area… And Cass. Without a lot of examples to go off of, the nymph picked the girl with the strangely colored hair. Light and dark at the same time. Like Darya’s graying hair, but more… controlled. Intentional. And evenly distributed. The mirror was not perfect. It was never going to be, but Ren tried to smile. Hoping that was the appropriate response to whatever was actually being said to her. 

—  

Ren’s sudden appearance put Van even further on edge. How the hell had she hidden so well? This was too much. She had to work the next day. Maybe not until the afternoon, but still. She had chores. The house wouldn’t clean itself. She tried to speak, but the words didn’t come out. They died in her throat as the others began to ping pong their own comments at one another.. Van watched as Thea’s twenty dollar bill ripped in half. At her comment, Van rolled her eyes.  “I don’t need soap. I have tons of soap at home.” She did, didn’t she? Probably. Her grandma was a couponer, which meant there were things in bulk, and it had only been a year or so after she left, which meant Van hadn’t managed to go through everything that she had purchased. Which probably meant there was soap at home. As Cass explained that she had checked a different store, she bit her tongue. There was a 24/7 gas station that she could have gone to to get poptarts, but she had a point. Stealing from a grocery store chain didn’t really harm anyone, not when the corporation already made so much money. She remembered the original store that had stood in this same place. They had free cookies on Wednesdays. The chain didn’t offer such a thing. Instead, they charged way too much for just about everything. 

The silence that came from the newcomer made Van shift her weight from one foot to the other as a means to further distance herself. Why was she just staring? Why did it look like she had ripped one and was waiting for it to hit the rest of them? “This is all very cool– the breaking in, the poptarts, whatever the hell you’re doing–” Van motioned towards Ren, “but I need to go now.” She knew that the store had no real security system. It was constantly broken and the employees often were very cavalier about it. Just before she’d gone to the bathroom, she heard somebody talking about how they stole several loaves of bread. But still, being who she was, Van didn’t feel like getting caught at the scene of the crime. “So I’m going to go.” She wasted no time in moving around them towards the door, but let out a shriek as another individual appeared. This one, however, brandished a knife. What kind, Van had no fucking clue. Just next to the door were pallets of soda, all of which exploded, spraying not only Van, but the newcomer too.

—

There was something incredibly exciting about your first solo hunt. For years now, Debbie had heard her mother talk about it, had pestered stories out of her father and her aunt about what their first solo hunts had been like. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy hunting with her parents — it was fine. But it felt like a safety net she’d outgrown, like something she shouldn’t need anymore. She was a warden, and she was built for this. She was built to rid the world of monsters, to make her parents proud. It was the only thing she’d ever really wanted.

So, when her mother put an iron knife in her hand and told her tonight was the night, the excitement was unparalleled. She wasn’t given much guidance; she didn’t need it. Wicked’s Rest was full of sneaky fae, and Debbie wanted to take out a big one. Not a silly pixie or an unimportant gnome, but something real. Something that would make her father’s eyes sparkle and her mother’s smile genuine, something she could tell her little brother about with pride, something that would make her first solo hunt a good story to tell.

The nymph she spotted breaking into a grocery store seemed like a pretty good bet.

It wasn’t even subtle about its intentions. It burned the lock away with something that looked like magma. Oread, her mind supplied. She’d have to watch out for that. As she snuck behind the stupid nymph, she noticed something… weird. There were more people here. All girls, all about her age. Another nymph, though Debbie couldn’t tell what kind. Three more who weren’t fae, but were awfully cavalier about the whole ‘breaking and entering’ thing. Debbie moved in quietly, but she wasn’t expecting the girl who’d come out of the bathroom to try to leave. She wasn’t expecting her to see her.

She wasn’t expecting the soda to explode, either.

If three of the five girls were supernatural, it probably stood to reason that the other two were, too. They were all monsters. Which meant Debbie’s first solo hunt had just gotten a lot more exciting. How proud would her mother be when she heard that Debbie had killed five monsters in one night? Two terrible nymphs, whatever the soda exploder was, and whatever kind of monsters the two who had entered together might be. Finally, after nineteen years of being ‘not ready’ and second best, she’d prove her worth. Finally. 

She didn’t offer them a word — why would she? You didn’t talk to a wasp’s nest before spraying it down with insect killer, didn’t strike up a conversation with the trash before you placed it in the dumpster. These weren’t people. They were monsters. And Debbie was a monster hunter. She was going to be a very good one.

She launched herself forward, going for the closest girl with the knife out. Iron did well against fae, but a sharp knife could help you out against just about anything. Debbie knew that.

—

Van didn’t have time to process the way that the cans of soda exploded. She didn’t have time to process the gleam in the girl’s eyes, or the way she held her knife at the ready. Van hadn’t ever seen anybody hold a knife except for in cooking shows, but this looked different. It didn’t seem like she was getting ready to chop garlic. Instead, it looked like something out of a Scream movie. 

The girl lunged and Van let out another scream. She felt the cold point of the knife against her side and then a burning sensation as it sliced across towards her navel. Van stumbled backwards, her feet finding every possible obstacle. She went crashing down onto her elbows– there was no saving herself from the spill, but she had inadvertently missed the swing of the girl’s knife as it struck out once more. Too panicked to process the situation, whatever happenings typically followed Van around went entirely stagnant. 

—

Thea scrambled after the noise, dropping her bottles of soap and detergent. “Van?” she called out. “Van? Van, are ok–“ Thea rounded the aisles coming to a stop at the front of the store. “Debbie?” Thea stared at the girl; it was the same brown hair and brown eyes that she remembered. Her lips pulled up into a bright smile. She wouldn’t call herself friends with Debbie, that’d be too presumptuous. But in her back pocket, inside of her phone, was a mostly emoji based text chain and the message to go out for dinner at Denny’s that Thea didn’t have the courage to press send on yet. They’d met the way most people do: just out somewhere when it was a little too late for either of them but they were too old now to admit they missed having curfews. At least, it’d felt that way for Thea, who liked Debbie because she wasn’t afraid to try things and to admit when something made her excited. Debbie was honest and Thea was… smelling metal. Her eyes darted to Van on the floor then to the knife Debbie held, dripping blood on to the ground. What did it say about her that her first instinct was to go grab a mop to clean it up? “Debbie?” 

Whatever friendship Thea felt, she didn’t think Debbie shared it. She thought she felt a little hesitation in her as she lunged into the space that separated them; her hand was out and her fingers tightly clasped around her knife’s handle but she’d only slashed Thea’s side open instead of stabbing her. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but Thea thought that felt like something. She dove down to the ground, sliding across the floor and tearing up her knees and elbows as she went—her days playing volleyball finally proved useful for something. “Help!” She called out to her new allies. “Person with knife!” Debbie didn’t deserve a name right now. 

— 

Nora had wandered off, still in a daze over the odd occurrence of finding people she’d known throughout her life here. In White Crest. In a supermarket she was breaking into. Nora never made it to the deli, a commission was happening. Nora heard it, then the scent of fresh blood, just heavy enough for her to smell it. Nora paused, her heart starting to pound. Blood splattering her. It was warm. The head rolling. Thea was shouting for help. Nora pulled herself out of the memory and ran towards her screaming friend. She would not stand there this time. She was the big bad of the story. No one she liked would get hurt. 

The hunter held a knife, but Nora had one too. Nora started moving her hands around her pockets. Snake. Wallet. Sketchbook. Munch. Another Snake. A bat? What the fuck had a ba- Oh fuck it. Nora was wasting time. Why did she keep so much junk in her pockets? Nora summoned an illusion, a lion leaping at the hunter, growing and coming to a stop in front of Thea as she shucked off her jacket. Too many little buddies were in the pockets to risk bringing them into this scuffle. “Don’t touch them!” Nora shouted, her feet took off under her. She was running in. She wished she had the knife… Oh that’s right, she’d put it in the front pocket of her overalls. Nora pulled it out as she ran near. 

— 

The sound of her own name startled Debbie, just a little. So did the realization that she knew one of the monsters. Was that Thea? The same Thea who sent her emojis in their text chain, the one who was an acquaintance but not yet a friend? For a moment, Debbie faltered. But only for a moment. She couldn’t let herself be distracted by the fact that monsters sometimes tried to trick you by wearing friendly faces. A real warden wouldn’t care about that. And as of tonight, Debbie was a real warden.

So she came in with the knife, slashing at Thea just to get her out of the way. If she injured each of the girls at least a little bit, it would even the playing field. They outnumbered her, so she had to outclass them. It was the only way she could make this hunt a successful one, the only way to ensure she’d go home with five kills under her belt instead of just the one she’d come here for. 

(It never crossed Debbie’s mind, of course, that she might not go home at all. She was the good guy. The good guys always won.)

Before she could move in on Thea again, footsteps were approaching. Debbie turned just in time to see a lion — a fucking lion! — leaping towards her. Yelling, she scrambled back. Another girl was yelling at her not to touch the others, and the lion was standing over Thea. There was a tug in her gut, a familiar feeling; one of the nymphs was coming towards her.

—

Cass didn’t have much time to think, but she never really did. Everything was happening so quickly now. Van was on the floor and bleeding, and Thea had a slash in her side, and apparently Nora had snuck a lion in without her realizing it which was, frankly, super impressive. But the girl with the knife (why was there a girl with a knife?) wasn’t backing up or running away, which meant the best thing to do was to get the knife away from her. Cass thought she might be able to use the commotion to sneak up behind the girl, but somehow, Debbie saw her coming. She turned with a snarl, and the look in her eyes was enough to make Cass falter. Fear, sure, but that was probably from the lion. More than that, though… There was disgust. Like she was looking at something awful, something terrible. Cass took a step back.

Her hesitation, however brief, was immediately used against her. Debbie, who had come here with every intention of killing Cass from the beginning, leaped at the nymph with an angry cry. It must have been her fault. Some fae trickery. Cass let out a startled grunt, scrambling backwards a bit more, but she was a little too slow for someone who’d had decades of training. Fast enough to avoid a fatal wound, maybe, but not fast enough to keep that knife from burying itself into her side. And the knife hurt. It burned in a way nothing ever had before, like her insides were on fire. She’d never been stabbed with iron before, nor did she know that that was what was happening now; all she knew was the blinding, dizzying pain of it. 

Without thinking, Cass shoved Debbie off of her, hands heating up with magma unintentionally. It burned a twin holes in Debbie’s shirt at her shoulders, burned the skin underneath. Debbie let out a sharp scream, stumbling back. 

The nymph was injured now, at least; maybe she would just make quick work of the rest of them before going back to deal with it. The second nymph was nearby, and she whirled towards it, knife out. If nothing else, she’d kill those two. That was her job.

—

The second nymph watched as the commotion stirred up. Things quickly spiraled out of control, and most of the other girls were hurt or bleeding. Something clicked in Ren’s head the moment she saw the girl with the knife. This ‘Debbie’ was a hunter. She had to be. And by the way she was looking at Cass and Ren with a hungry glare, she was most likely a warden. Bile boiled in the entomid’s stomach, a sickening wave of nausea shook her to the core. This was her hunt. Her wayinto the greater fae community. If she could just tell Debbie that then maybe the hunter would understand. Maybe she’d back off and not hurt the others. 

But Ren knew better. Hunters didn’t wait and talk things out. Even though this “Debbie” couldn’t have been much older than herself, the nymph knew exactly what would happen. If Debbie was a warden, she would know Ren for what she was. For what, apparently, everyone in this little circle was. A monster. The young hunter would dispose of the entomid for having the gaul to try and deceive her with trickery. 

It’s what Ren would have done in her shoes. 

For far too long Ren was stock still. Just watching everything unfold in that horrible slow motion way things tended to pan out when you were in shock. Cass shoved the warden, who then whirled around to brandish the knife at whoever was closest. At Nora. Debbie lunged and slashed and the shirt Nora had on was no real competition to a blade like that. It wasn’t just the blood that made Ren see red. 

Nora was perhaps the first person Ren’s age that she’d ever had a pleasant conversation with. Even if it did start because the girl had trespassed into the nymph’s little outside oasis. A spark of indignation flared up and she sprang at the warden. Butterfly knives swirled around her gloved hands until they found their home, hilt held, blade dug deep. Stabbing first, thinking second. 

—

Debbie hadn’t expected the second nymph to jump into action. The knife was a blur as it came for her side. It dug itself deep and Debbie let out a vicious scream before grabbing the nymph’s wrist, realigning her feet so that she could use the momentum to throw the monster onto her back. The knife released at the movement and Debbie grunted, vision red. This creature– this monster, they would pay. With the plan to use the monster’s own knife against her, Debbie quickly knocked it out of the nymph’s hand, clumsily twisting it around so that she could drive it into her stomach. “Enjoy the iron.” Debbie seethed, planning to pull and drive the knife again, but something shattered against her back, causing her to falter. She whipped her head around, releasing the knife to see the first one she’d come across standing a few feet away. 

– 

It took Van a moment to finally get to her feet. The cut at her side hurt. She’d never been sliced and diced before. Well, the diced part never happened. Thankfully. So much had happened in the time that the girl– Debbie, with the knife attacked her. Thea had been next, and she was currently to the side bleeding. Cass was hurt, too, and there was the smell of burning flesh. Where the hell had that come from? The illusion of whatever Nora had created went missed by Van entirely, because her gaze landed on Ren who was on her back. Debbie was standing over her. Debbie was standing over her. With a knife. Ren was going to die. It would be her fault. She had to do something. She had to do something. Van watched as Debbie stabbed Ren and Van struggled to scream, horrified by what she was witnessing. Without much thinking, Van grabbed the closest object to her. It was a ceramic garden gnome. It would have to do. She didn’t have much else to use– and launched it forward, watching as it shattered across Debbie’s back. The warden turned around, a vicious expression peeling across her features. Shit.  

–

“Hey!” Thea wobbled up to her feet, swaying from one side to the other. Her stomach felt like she’d laid down on a sticky grill; blood spilled easily between her fingers as she tried to hold her skin together. Thea wasn’t a fighter, she could hardly argue with people when they were wrong. She watched Cass jump in like a hero and Ren protecting Nora and Van throwing a gnome; she couldn’t be so bold. Thea didn’t know how to fight, Thea didn’t even want to fight. Mostly when she looked at Debbie she still saw the last string of emojis they sent each other. Which, ironically, did include a knife. Maybe Debbie had been trying to say something and Thea was too stupid to decipher it. In the end, it didn’t matter. Debbie was here and the rest of them were bleeding. “This isn’t nice, Debbie!” Thea ran out in front of Van, who recently earned Debbie’s ire, and spread her arms out like she was trying to block a wave; as wide as they went and an impossible task anyway. Thankfully, Debbie wasn’t the ocean. Debbie was just a girl. As she neared, rushing toward them with reckless abandon, Thea whipped her hand across the air. The sting of palm against cheek rang out in the store, cutting across the din of aching bodies and squeaking shoes. You couldn’t slap a body of water but you could slap Debbie, who really hadn’t been expecting it. Neither had Thea, for that matter, she’d never slapped anything before. Debbie stumbled back. 

—

Pain seared up Nora’s arm. As the knife slashed open a cut through Nora’s shirt she stopped moving, staring down at her own warm blood now coating her. It was weird. Someone hurt her? She’d been warned it was going to happen one day. The shock and pain caused the lion illusion to dissipate from its place in front of Thea. Nora only vaguely registered the commotion still happening around her. Ren stepping in to divert the attention off of Nora only to get rewarded with a stab from Debbie. Her brain was still stalling as the gears worked over time to try and parse it all. Nora was coming to understand that she needed to learn how to react. A garden gnome sailing through the sky did something to Nora. She needed to act. Nora watched it crash into Debbie, throwing the hunter off balance. Nora watched Debbie charge towards Van, only for Thea, scared crying Thea, to stand up for Van and… and slap Debbie? If Thea could be daring, so could Nora. 

Nora was on her feet again, blood dripping down her arm splattering against the tile as she dove at Debbie. They landed in a sprawl together, Nora on top of the hunter. “Never touch my friends again.” The words snarled out of Nora, no regard for what they meant. Could she call everyone here a friend? An instagram friend, a friend she’d ran away from, and then two she’d met recently. But there she was, clutching the knife Metzli had given her ready to defend them with her life. Debbie opened her mouth about to say something, Nora didn’t give her the chance. Without thinking, without letting those gears turn in her little mind Nora rammed the knife through Debbie’s mouth and into her skull. 

This was a front seat show to something new for Nora. Fear radiated from Debbie as she struggled to say final words. They were distorted, Nora starred in fascination as her mouth worked to talk with a knife in it. “I just wanted them… to be proud…” Nora opened her mouth to say something. Something witty that would make everyone like her and let them laugh about this moment later. She never got the chance. Pain became the only thought in her head as Debbie used her last throes of life to stab a blade she’d pulled from god’s knew where into Nora’s side. Nora grunted, thrusting her own farther up in response, anything to get the pain to stop. It was a front row seat to Debbie’s death. 

The death of a girl their age who looked like she could have been one of them, a misfit stealing some food. In another world, Nora could imagine Debbie was one of them. In another world, Nora could imagine her breaking into the grocery store as just another hungry kid. There would have been no fighting. They would have talked about pop-tarts and Van’s soap-stealing problem. In that other world, she would have probably laughed and smiled. That’s what girls their age did, right? Nora didn’t know because they weren’t from that world. They were from this one. The one where Debbie was dying in front of her. Her fear dissipated along with the life in her eyes. Debbie was no more, just an empty husk against Nora’s knife. But for Nora? There was no more idling. No more remembering the blood covering her. Now there was only knowledge that she could protect the people in her life. Nora fell to the ground next to Debbie's now corpse, ripping Debbie’s knife out and tossing it away from them. “I don’t think we should do this again.”

–

There were too many of them. Debbie had been so sure that she had this, so sure that she was good enough to take on the whole lot of them. It was what she’d been training for all her life, what she was supposed to do. Her bedtime stories had always been those of terrible monsters and the brave hunters who fought them, prevailing against impossible odds time and time again. And that was supposed to be her. That was supposed to be how the story went. The good guys won, the monsters died, the world was safer for it.

But that wasn’t how things were going now. That wasn’t the direction this story was headed.

Something shattered against her back and, when she turned towards the monster that had thrown it, Thea stepped in to assist it. Didn’t Thea understand? Didn’t she see what was happening here? Maybe it wasn’t her fault that she was a monster, but she should at least know enough to know that Debbie was doing what was right by stopping her and the others. The only way a monster could redeem itself was to die. Didn’t Thea want that redemption? Didn’t all of them? 

Evidently not. Thea hit her with a slap that was more shocking than it was painful, sending Debbie stumbling backwards and into the other girl, the one with the lion. The lion was gone now, but the girl remained. The girl’s rage remained. She dove forward, knocking a disoriented Debbie to the floor. Debbie managed a desperate stab in the girl’s direction before they hit the ground together, but not much more.

Her knife slid out of her reach, and the angry girl with her sharp knife was on her, and all Debbie could think about were the stupid eggs. The way her mother had stopped her just before she’d left the house for the night, had cupped her face with her hand as she slid an extra iron blade into her pocket and reminded her that she needed her to pick up a carton of eggs on the way home for breakfast in the morning.

Who was going to bring the eggs now? Who was going to help her brother with his homework, or walk the dog at lunchtime? Who would slay the monsters, keep the world safe, make it better? 

It wouldn’t be Debbie. She realized it just a moment before the angry girl’s sharp knife carved her world into one of white hot pain and nothing else. There was a faint sense of confusion in her eyes as she looked up at her murderers, of disbelief. She was the good guy. She was supposed to be the good guy. What kind of story ended with the monsters killing the hero? What kind of…

She managed to gurgle out a final sentence, one of quiet confession and loud fear. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to go home, wanted to remember the eggs, wanted to have Denny’s for lunch tomorrow. She wanted so many stupid things, and this was what she got. 

Hadn’t she deserved a better story?

[honeysmokedham]

TIMING: 5/7/2023 2:39 am PARTIES: Nora @honeysmokedham & Thea @notstinky LOCATION: Thea’s Apartment / Gallow’s Grove SUMMARY: Nora drags Thea into her attempt to understand the world. They come face to face with a ghoul.  CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A

The outside of stinky girl’s apartment was not as stenchy as Nora had led the poor girl to believe online. In fact, if it wasn’t for the sounds of her faintly crying from her upstairs home, Nora was willing to keep the joke going. This is why you should never meet who you troll online. They turn out to be human. Humans turn out to be fragile. She didn’t even feel like scaring the poor girl. Nora was still seething from her online argument with Emilio. Whatever good points he had made, and Nora was logically aware he had made them, she wanted to ignore them. She wanted to keep them in her little boxes of the world where she was the big bad terror around every street and nothing would ever harm her. This would just be further proof of this tonight. At least she’d won the argument, proven by her getting in the last word. Plus she would take this girl with her and maybe the stench of the undead would convince her she wasn’t actually smelly so she could stop crying. 

“Hurry up.” Nora called up from the street. In the dead of the night, Stinky’s neighbors were probably sleeping. Nora hoped the sound of her yell would wake them up. She hoped her bitter mood would infect every single one of them. Nora shoved her hands in her overall pockets, calling over Babadook. She’d brought her dog with her when she didn’t think she’d actually meet Stinky. Now that she had to convince Stinky the supernatural was real, she was glad she had her giant tentacle dog. “We have a long walk. We need to find where the dead hang out.” Nora was shouting all of this from the street. “I’m told they like graveyards, but I’ve never seen one in my graveyard. We’ll have to check others.” 

Thea didn’t know why being called stinky got to her; she blamed it on the repeated lack of sleep. Night shifts weren’t a good look on a morning person and Thea was a chronic early riser. It was something about the weight of it all, she guessed. After work, exhausted and demoralized, she slumped into the shower and worked at her skin until it was all red. She needed to get the blood off, the scents, the feelings of the day. She set the faucet to as hot as it went and stood there for hours, robbing herself of the precious sleep she so desperately needed. She did it to be clean. She did it to be good. She was always sure that if she could wake up clean, the day would be kind. In the end though, she was just stinky. Thea tended to believe people when they told her things, it was the obedient child in her; the one her father sheltered from the world with his fear of it. Thea wiped her face, patted down her flushed cheeks with cold water and put on as many layers as she could manage before she was out the door and into the street, walking like an extremely thick penguin. 

“Sorry,” Thea sniffled. “I was worried I would be so stinky that I…” Why was she bothering to explain? She shook the jacket she has brought out for the stranger; it was one of her favorites, an old bomber jacket someone who found her in the woods after a transformation gave her. She always thought it smelt permanently like chocolate; the woman who gave it to her was a baker. But mostly, it radiates a kindness that Thea hoped to copy. “I have the jacket,” she said, wiggling it as she couldn’t move her arms. “Oh.” Thea looked finally at the dog. “I like your dog’s cosplay.” And that was what she assumed it was, because what else could it have been? She didn’t know if it was exactly ethical to put all that makeup on a dog though. “I guess if I was undead I would hangout at a graveyard. I mean, it’s kinda cliché but I don’t think I would want to be a subversive zombie. I think there’s one close by.” 

Now that Stinky was standing next to her, covered in layer upon layer of clothing, all Nora could smell was an overwhelming cloud of citrus and honey. It was pleasant, actually. Not at all the stench she imagined coming from someone so worried about being stinky. Nora took a second sniff of the air just to make sure. The scent reminded her of lazy spring nights sitting with her fathers, drinking tea in the sitting room while the raido played soft music, the fire place crackled, and the only noise was the clattering of the china and the turning of pages. Nora blinked. What an unexpected memory. She brought her focus back to the conversation. The jacket being proffered was a nice bomber, a lingering scent of choclate radiated from it. Why did Stinky think she was stinky? So far everything smelled good. Nora accepted the jacket with a nod, swishing it on her shoulders. 

“That’s not cosplay. That’s just what he looks like.” Babadook let out one of his mornful yowls, the kind that sounded like a child crying. This had to be the first time in real conversation Nora heard someone use the word subversive. She actually stood and stared at Thea for a moment, before pulling out her phone to open google maps. “This one?” Nora asked, pointing at the spot located Gallows Grove. It was close. Stinky had been right. It was close. “Perfect. Lets go.” Nora turned the pointed direction and took off, her combat boots slapping the ground, a beat for her warpath. “Why do you think you’re stinky?” Nora asked as they walked. It was killing her. She had to know. 

“But he has tentacles,” Thea said plainly, as though that would explain it. He also sounded horrifying, but if the person had smell-screen technology she was sure there was some voice box she could have for her dog. It was possible. Probably. Hopefully? She waddled behind the stranger and their dog. “Oh,” Thea’s voice cracked. The question was simple and the answer should have been too; she was worried about her scent because she often came home smelling horribly after a shift. Her werewolfism had blessed her with scent astuteness; she didn’t need to do the whole armpit sniff test. But, as Thea thought about it, looking up at the twinkling stars and the inky blackness of the night, she realized the answer was even more simple than that. “I want people to like me,” she confessed in a small voice, her several layers of shirts, sweaters and jackets crinkling as she moved. “I don’t want to inconvenience anyone; no one likes an inconvenience. You show up smelling bad once and they think ‘that’s the girl that smells’. And that’s all they think. And I don’t want them to think that.” She waddled some more, staring out at the road. “I think I pride myself on how clean I am, how simple, how–um–unburdensome. If that’s a word. I want people to think of me like that. Like the girl who smelt good because she was.” Thea shook her head. “I bet it’s silly; I’m having a strangely emotional night. Um, thank you for being honest about how much I stink though. It just means I can fix it! A-and then I'll be…” Thea’s voice trailed off as tears welled up in her eyes. “How much further?” She sniffled. 

Aw shit. Nora had picked up a sad stray. Worst of all, it was a stray she could relate to. After that argument with Emilio she wasn’t looking for some kind of bonding friendship that left the readers with warm hearts and warm feelings. Nora wanted cold spite. She wanted fear. Now she was watching this girl waddle next to her, -were those tears in her eyes?- tears in her eyes and leaking of emotions. “You don’t stink.” Nora mumbled, a hand reaching out to rub Babadook’s head. “You smell fine. I was just messing with you. It’s the internet and I’m a giant troll. My bad.” God she hated apologizing, but the guilt of watching Stinky traveling through the world like that was heavier then letting go of her dumb joke. Now she was also going to need to stop thinking of Stinky as Stinky. “What’s your name?” Nora asked, directing them around the corner. “I’m Nora.” The girl felt harmless enough. If she was going to believe she was stinky based on some stranger on the internet, then hopefully she didn’t have enough crayons in her box to put together who Nora was.

Nora stopped as the first sight of Gallow’s Grove came upon them. “We’re here.” Babadook started running, eager to explor the grave. Much like how she wasn’t worried bout herself, Nora wasn’t worried about her dog’s exploration. “Do you think non-subversive zombies will be covered in rotting flesh, or perfectly preserved like vampires?” Nora asked, she made sure to step on all the loudest spots she could. Crunching leaves, snapping twigs. If there was something undead haunting this spot, she wanted it to come to them. “Maybe we can dig up a fresh grave for bait.” 

“You lied to me?” Thea stopped in her tracks, nearly toppling over from the weight of her ridiculous clothing choice. And it did feel ridiculous now and then some. Stupid. Naïve. How could she just believe that someone on the internet had the technology to smell her through a screen and then from all the way down her street? Her shoulders were fixed in place by the pulling of her multiple shirts so she couldn’t slump as much as her heart desired. She was stupid, she’d always been so stupid. There was no textbook she could study for how to navigate the world, nothing that told her that people would lie just because they could. “I’m Thea,” she swallowed. “I really thought I was…God, I’m so stupid.” She’d cried about this! Granted she cried about most things but this felt personal, somehow. She really has respected Nora for having the gumption to tell her she was stinky. Her head hung low as she continued to waddle. “I wanted to be an astronaut,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. “It sounds stupid now, I bet it sounds extra stupid when you think about this. What kind of astronaut would believe someone could smell them through the internet? I’m so…” Thea sniffled. Her head throbbed and at once, the lack of sleep coiled around her body. She wanted to go home and be haunted by this exchange for the next five years, at least.  

Thea didn’t want to be as loud as possible; it was the same thought process behind not wanting to be stinky. Unfortunately, she couldn’t really control how she moved in her stupid, stupid outfit. “Well if they’re undead then probably they have rotting flesh, because dead things usually do. I’m not sure how vampires stay preserved, if they exist. Maybe it’s like a sous vide?” Thea looked up, if there were zombies here, they definitely weren’t the welcoming sort. “Um.” Thea kicked the ground. “And it’s nice to meet you, Nora. I forgot to say that earlier. Um, even if you’re 

a liar, I guess.” Thea had meant that last part to come off like a joke but some bitterness lingered around her words. 

There were many things Nora was good at. Art. Pranks. Jokes. Surviving in the wilderness for years on end. Making strangers pee themselves with fright. Emotions weren’t one of those things. Emotions were hard things that she liked to ignore. Having emotions might as well be a sin. But over the course of this night, she’d seen emotional outbreaks from three people. Two of them felt like direct consequences of her actions. Who knew knowing people would be so complicated? “You’re not stupid,” Nora mumbled, her monotone voice as serious as ever. “You fell for my joke. I’m an excellent prankster. People believe me all the time.” This girl wore her heart on her multi-layered sleeve. Confessions of not wanting to be a burden, reveal of a childhood dream. Soon Nora would know Thea’s social security number, and at this point, Nora didn’t want it. Nora felt bad for the over-covered girl who had shown her kindness by giving her a jacket on a cold night after Nora had walked there specifically to bully her. Fuck. Nora was a monster. She wasn’t supposed to feel bad about doing monstrous things. “It's not stupid to be an astronaut. You could probably still be one.” At least Nora hoped so. For Thea’s sake. 

Yet Thea was still there. Not walking off after Nora's treacherous joke. Still talking about the zombies they were going to find while acting like she didn't believe in the supernatural. 'Um, even if you’re a liar, I guess.' The line stung like a slap to the face. Nora's stony expression didn't portray it thankfully. One of those tiny mental boxes Nora used to shove all her emotions aside and pretend she was an infallible monster of immortality sprung open. Memories of her fathers yelling at her. 'You can't keep pushing everyone out of your life Nora! It's okay to be different. It's not okay to take what you're feeling out on those around you.' Thea. Emilio. The countless others she'd been bullying online. Was this just her form of acting out? No. She didn't want to be this self-aware.  Nora shoved the box deep inside her. A sound coming from their left helped. Nora's eyes shot in that direction. A dark figure was there. Something that looked like a gargoyle but less stone. "Hey!" Nora shouted into the space between them. "Are you undead?" 

Thea didn’t know Nora very well, but she could tell that an attempt at comforting her was being made. Her stomach twisted with guilt. Stupid, stupid. Why had she opened her dumb mouth? Now she was making this person perform emotional labor for her. Thea opened her mouth to apologize and then shut it. “I really couldn’t,” Thea said. “Be an astronaut. Not anymore.” If she ever could in the first place. She didn’t know much about being a werewolf, but she assumed that flying up in a rocket and looking at the big moon in all its bright and beautiful glory would mean she’d be permanently wolfed out. Not exactly a great thing to be in space. “Thank you, though. I get what you’re trying to do and I appreciate it.” Thea smiled, though she couldn’t be sure how visible it was under the darkness and the high collar of one of her several jackets. “You were really kind to let me come with you and to tell me the truth.” Even though it came after a devastating bullying attempt. Thea preferred the positives, her life was already full of the opposite. 

Thea’s attention snapped away with Nora’s. “Hi!” Thea tried to wave, she looked more like a vibrating blob. Thea did, thanks to a certain unnameable incident in the heart of Toronto’s downtown, have enhanced senses. She hadn’t gotten the hang of them; the smelling she understood, that was all sniff-sniff. She’d been sniffing since she was a baby. The hearing was hit or miss; she often forgot she could hear more than the average person and mostly chose to drown out the world with music anyway. The night vision, however, was something she didn’t know had improved at all. She assumed Nora saw it too and Nora didn’t seem so alarmed so Thea wasn’t either. “That’s really good makeup!” She grinned. “You look really scary! How are you perched on the gravestone like that? That looks like it hurts.” The actor, as Thea assumed they were, crawled forward in the dark, muscular limbs with spiky hide stretching out from a gray body that melded with the night. 

There was Thea’s heartbeat, rapid in her chest in a constant thump-thump. Then, there was Nora's heartbeat, a more normal rhythm. “Oh.” Thea turned to Nora. “I think this is actually an undead.” Her heart pumped faster. She didn’t have time to process the logic of it. All she knew was that there were two heartbeats and three bodies. Thea might have been stupid, but she could do math. 

It was a little ominous. The mention of not being able to be an astronaut, not anymore. What could that possibly mean? Did she wear contacts? Nora thought she remembered something about fast pilots needing 20/20 vision to fly, was it the same for being a silly man in space? There wasn't any time to delve into that. Nora was selfishly thankful for that. She'd been a participant in more than enough emotional conversations for the night. Nora was thankful for the new figure in the night. It was something tangible to focus on that didn't involve those fluttering sensations that lived in your chest.

Nora listened to Thea's make-up praise. Thea was truly set on believing the undead weren't real, wasn't she? Babadook appeared near them, letting out a mournful howl. Probably a warning to them. Nora waved the dog away. This had been what they were looking for. This wasn't the time to turn back. Fear, the taste of citrus, and disappointment drifted off of Thea as she turned to Nora. “I think this is actually an undead.” Nora's mouth opened, and the words stood on the tip of her tongue ready to come out. 'Yeah, I told you we were looking for the undead.' They never got the chance to come out. Instead, Nora felt a hard body slam against them. 

The undead, probably not a zombie, had ran head-first into them. Nora stumbled, catching herself and pushing away the creature. "Chill dude, we just want to be your friend," Nora mumbled. "You don't gotta be rude about it." Nora looked at Thea to see how she was handling all of them. To her dismay, Nora was met with the sight of the creature's mouth biting into Thea's arm. “Don’t bite her.” Nora raised a combat boot clad foot and shoved it into the creature. “Be fuckin’ normal.” If that old fucking man turned out to be right, again, Nora was going to be pissed. 

The creature (Thea’s ignorance could only go so far) was biting into her arm. Well, her jacket. One of several jackets over several sweaters over several shirts. She was sweating underneath it and shook her arm violently. “I think you’re making it mad!” Thea looked at the creature. “Um. He? She? Sorry, what pronouns do you prefer? I don’t want to be rude.” The creature snarled, muffled by the many layers that adorned Thea. Its sharp, jagged teeth seemed to be stuck between the threads. Thea shook her arm some more. “I think it wants to eat me!” More shaking. It raised its claws and slashed into her layers, ripping them open and sending tufts of fabric into the air. “Help!” She fell over from the force, wiggling on the ground. “Nora! I only have so many shirts!” 

Fuck. This was not how this was supposed to go. Nora shold have considered that of course bringing a human with her would distract the undead with thoughts of food instead of friendship. Thea was tumbling in the ground, a mass of layers and slashing. Nora had to do something. Nora wasn’t much of a fighter, you never needed to fight someone if you scared them. Nora took a deep breath, visualizing her bones as being super tough and super strong. If her illusions worked like that, maybe she’d get super strength like that too. Launching forward, Nora wound back her leg and kicked into the creature like a soccer player trying to score the winning goal. The creature unlatched its mouth. Between Thea’s struggling and the creature’s surprise of being kicked, it reared back ready. It looked like it was ready to attack again. Right as Nora tensed, ready to dodge, it stumbled. The damn thing had tripped on a loose stone. It toppled against a broken headstone, brains splattering everywhere. “Sick.” Nora offered a hand to Thea. “That was fuckin’ cool. We should do that again.” Pause. “Do you think its dead? Again?”

Somewhere between the slashing and her own screaming, Thea had slipped out from under a few layers, giving her just enough mobility to scramble to her feet. She stared at the remains of the creature whose pronouns she never knew, because it hadn’t answered her and it definitely couldn’t with its jaw split in three. To say it still had a head would be generous. It had a pile of goop. “Um.” Thea blinked. “Is this murder?” She turned to Nora. Did Nora care? Would she care? Should she care? Thea went through all the question words: why, how, when, where. “Well,” she said, “it’s not moving so…” Thea kicked it, noting that it seemed more goopy than usual, as if it was turning into sludge. Had it always been this way? “I’m…” Thea sniffed the air. “No…” Thea sniffed it more furiously. “I’m stinky!” She pointed at herself. “Like for real this time! I smell like sweat!” Thea slumped into herself, careful to keep her pits down. “I guess…murder was...kinda…cool?” 

Adrenaline pumped through Nora. That was the coolest shit she’d done in a while. Plus, Thea looked unharmed. It was a shame about all her clothes. Nora made a mental note to steal some. “Can’t be murder, it was already dead. That’s part of being undead, right?” Nora tossed her phone towards Thea. “Quick take a picture of it with me before it disappears.” Nora crouched down, posing with a peace sign with the corpse quickly becoming goop. Unfortunately, Thea was back on her stinky crusade. “If you’re stinky then I’m wretched.” The last time Nora had taken a shower was a week ago, after the blood. The blood it had been so warm. Her brain froze for just a second before restarting. She needed to get over that. She’d just watched an undead die in front of her. “You’re fine. People are allowed to sweat when they do things.” Nora cracked a smile when Thea said murder was cool. It was just a small one. Just the tiniest break in her generally expressionless face. “That’s the spirit, Thea! We’ll become serial murderers.” 

Thea relaxed as Nora said it wasn’t murder: she’d eaten people, killing something that was already dead didn’t seem like it was a lot worse. If the undead were real, which, for this moment, Thea needed it to be for the sake of her sanity. She could not be liable for murders when she wasn’t wolfed out, that was an actual crime. As Nora’s phone flew through the air, Thea caught it with only the smallest of fumbles; she was proud. “Okay! Yeah! Peace sign! You can totally post this on Instagram hashtag goop.” Thea, a generation Z child, was adept at taking photos. She took several, just in case the first one was bad. Some with flash, some without. Nora had asked for a photo, but Thea was treating it like a photoshoot. She liked to think she was getting all the good angles, whatever the good angles were.  

“And thanks, I was worried about…” Thea held the phone out for Nora to take back. Then, she sniffed the air. All this time she had been worried about the scents on her that she wasn’t sniffing at the scents that were right in front of her all along. Nora smelled like fresh dirt, the beginnings of a garden; body odor, the natural scent of a body; and like someone tried to cover it all up with…fabric softener? Thea sniffed again. No, Febreeze. And what was the scent trying to claw out from under the sweat? Deodorant? It wasn’t very strong. Thea broke out into a wide grin. “You stink!” She laughed brightly, bursting with a strange sort of happiness. “You stink! You actually stink! Just like me!” Thea jumped in her spot. “Omg, stink buddies.” She paused again. “Well, no, I don’t want to be a murderer…” Technically she already was, and even though she felt like she could tell Nora that, she didn’t want to. “But I will take being a stink buddy! And it is kinda cool how…” Thea turned back to their goop-friend. “How…sludge-y it is? I wonder what the science behind this is. I know bodies get kinda goop’ed when they decompose but..” It was like several stages of decomposition all at once, if she had to guess. Eventually, it’d just be nothing. “Thanks for this, Nora.” She smiled again. 

Hashtag goop? Nora was internally groaning. She would never get an Instagram. This was going in her ‘Cool Shit and Fond Memories.’ folder. Nora got to her feet after she felt like enough photos were taken, taking her phone back from Thea. Nora watched as Thea came to the realization that Nora was stinky as well. Nora was actually damned sure she smelled worse. Thea had the advantage of a shower an hour before this encounter. The girl seemed positively filled with joy to know there was someone in this world just as stinky as her. It filled part of the hole in her chest that felt guilt about bullying her online. Now they were stinky buddies, and the fear that had permeated around Thea was completely gone and replaced only by her smile. The warmth in her chest at the moment made this whole night worth it. 

“Don’t know anything about the science,” Nora admitted, standing next to Thea as they watched the body go through the rapid stages of decomposition. “I know if you kill a vampire they get dusted.” “Thanks for this, Nora.” Was this friendship? An uncomplicated friendship with someone her age who didn’t want to use her for her wealth and fame? A stinky buddy. “Hey smile.” Nora stepped closer holding up her phone, pointed at the two of them. “Hashtag Stinky Buddies.” 

Thea hadn’t been in a photo together with someone since she ate her best friends. For a moment, she didn’t know what to do. Did she smile? Did she shoot a peace sign? Did she flip the camera off? No, that one was too mean. Unless Nora was doing it too, then she would also do it. She looked at Nora; Nora was not doing it. Thea turned her gaze back to the phone camera. Once upon a time, she used to be camera shy; she cried before school picture days and demanded her friends crop her out of their photos. The fear still lingered inside of her, as if there was something rancid deep down that the camera would pick up and display for everyone to see. But she knew what to do now. “Hashtag stinky buddies!” She grinned wide and threw her arms around Nora, pulling her into a quick, surprise hug. It would last only as long as it took to snap the photo, which was just seconds, but Thea would remember it for a lot longer than that.

This was the night she’d accepted her stink, debatably killed a creature and made a friend. She wouldn’t forget it; nights like these didn’t happen all the time. And, for once, despite it all, she felt normal again. She could be a girl who took photos, who made friends, and who went out to new places and had wonderful, goopy experiences.