#they had a wall with a bunch of sticky notes and stuff with doodles of characters

[drawcupidsbow]

BOBA WITH LOOP! (and also siffrin in doodle form)

[violetbeachpod]

1x01 / twelve oh one

TERESA:

Okay, so–it’s recording. Cool .

Um. It’s Wednesday. It’s been nine days since–eight days, maybe? –well, if you’re listening, at this point, you know what it was–Benji says we’re gonna publish this, but, like, no. That’s–that’s ridiculous. This is for science.

Or our memoirs. Whatever.

We’ve–the seven of us have decided to keep a log. Of what’s been going on.

Um. So. Cool. Name and deets, just in case some more weird memory shit goes down–My name’s Teresa. I’m eighteen. I’m an Aries, I like bowling and shitty pop music, and only mostly ironically. That enough fluff? I’m a freshman at, ah, Lands College, here in town, and. Studying journalism, with a minor in women’s studies, uh–anything else–I feel like this would be a better story if I start showing, rather than telling.

Or, like. Telling stories rather than just reading out my dating profile. Because that’s lame.

My dating profile’s actually–it’s a lot more detailed than that. I’m on, like, seven different sites, and every profile is. Very Different.

(text notification sound)

Anj, stop–stop listening in! You–you–dude, take a nap.

So. Anyway. Here’s what we know.

(long beat)

That was good, right? A good joke? That’s something. Um. Cuz we don’t know very much at all. There’s something there, I swear, like, I rehearsed that bit in the bathroom mirror this morning, and I was thinking, no, I won’t pull that, but–

But. Back to the point.

Y’know how, in movies, people are always like, “Nobody knows except for us?”

That’s so exclusive. So presumptuous. We don’t know if people are lying. We haven’t spoken to every person on the planet–we haven’t even spoken to anyone outside of Maryland. Outside of town. Like. We’ve watched news, but God knows, some of those conspiracies about hypnosis through CNN are real, or whatever. Y’know? Like–those conspiracies are almost exclusively believed in by, like, flat-earthing racists, so, like, they’re probably, definitely super wrong, but–I was making a joke and I’m overthinking it now. Cool.

Anyway. We don’t know who knows. Maybe someone in, like, Caracas, knows? Maybe someone in–you get my point–knows.

Or maybe we’re being Truman Showed. Wouldn’t be the worst theory to have come out of this.

I would–well, I’d hate it, but one time, back in middle school, the public library did these–these movie nights for teenagers, right? And, so, uh, a bunch of us were there, and I was sitting with Angie, cuz she was–she was the only person I knew there, of course, and she was sitting with these kids, like–uh, from the hippie school she had taken in, and–one of them was AJ, I know, and one was Charlotte. but the others, I don’t see anymore.

But anyway, she was, like, starry-eyed at the idea of her life being a TV show without her knowing. At the idea of unintentional stardoms. So maybe she’ll get a kick out of that theory.

Here’s something: I was working on my campaign notes earlier, cuz the group’s meeting tomorrow, should meet tomorrow  and I didn’t really–I didn’t like a few of the potentials, so, whatever. Irrelevant.

I checked the time, and–well. It was twelve oh one. And two minutes later, it was still twelve oh one. And now, it’s still twelve oh one.

I thought maybe my laptop was being bad again? But it said the same on my phone, and on the wall clock.

The app says time is passing. It’s been longer than fifty-nine seconds.

It’s still twelve oh one, though, is the thing. Which isn’t great, all things considered.

But, we’ll catch up on that later.

Here’s the big thing. I went back to the beach last night to see if I could recreate what happened alone, and, uh–at least. I think I did. I don’t remember going, but, uh, Angie says I did, and AJ said that when he was closing at work, he saw me walking towards it. But I didn’t–I didn’t go.

There are sixty-nine–which, yeah, nice, that’s the sex number, whatever–sticky notes on the bathroom mirror, and, like–I can make out letters on some of them them? Individual letters? But not words. And I know that they’re making words, and I know that it’s my handwriting, but my brain just–it goes somewhere else.

And other ones, that I can read, they have dumb stuff. One of them’s just a doodle of David Hyde Pierce with a caption that just says “HELL YEAH. LOOK AT THE MOON WEDNESDAY.”

It’s, like–in fairness to me, or the person I assume to be me, it’s a fairly good David Hyde Pierce. And there’s–there’s a new moon tonight, so–well.

Whatever.

It’s still twelve oh–oop. Nevermind. Twelve oh two now. Nice.

Benji wants me to take off work until this whole thing’s sorted out. Says he’ll still pay me, but, like–being yelled at by awful dudes about trivia that nobody knows is kind of the only constant in my life right now? So I said no. Obviously. Like. It sucks, but it makes me feel normal. Like the beach out by Angie’s place did, before–

Well. Maybe some recollection would be nice, I guess. Just so, like, Danny and company–like, if we end up showing them. Cuz I’m better at sticking to the facts than, say, Robin or Charlotte. So. Yeah.

So. Uh.

Most folks know that she transferred in after a semester at–well, I’m not allowed to say the name of the school in front of her, anymore, and she’s, like, giving me death-eyes out of the bedroom door. But. A certain Ivy League school. This is relevant–

Okay, maybe not, but it’s a nice set up to our establishing shot, which is, of course, her New Year’s party, nine days ago. At her parents’ place. Or, eight days ago, at her parents’ place, I guess. She told us on New Year’s Eve that she was starting at Lands on the fourth, and I offered her a stay in my dorm, cuz I had a single, and, uh, it sucked? But. Whatever.

So I said, “You know, I have a single.” And she said–wait, lemme find my journal–yes, I do write down conversations, Angie.

Alright. She said, “Oh, really, is it on–Bandcamp, Soundcloud, iTunes, MySpace? I didn’t know you–” And I said, “I meant dorm room, dude, you mentioned–MySpace?”

She said, “I still use it.” I laughed, “Of course you do.”

But, anyway. We agreed to live together, but. It was one AM. Robin Cabell dropped by with her new fiancee, said hi, and–well, like, our babysitter’s getting married, to, like, this gorgeous girl from DC, and the high school kids from the hippie school were there, and Benji was there, cuz he’s everywhere, and–

As folks left–Angie started playing Wonderwall around 3AM, so, uh, a little bit before then–it ended up just being the seven of us. Her parents are out of town–as always. Well, not always. But frequently.

They’re mad about–Blarvardgate.

I–I didn’t say it! I said something mildly close alluding to it. Stop texting me!

But. It was just the seven of us there, Angie still playing some terrible 90s song, and–Benji says, “I brought fireworks. Forgot about that til now.” Elaine, uh, Robin’s new fiancee, asked, “They legal?”

Benji said, “It’s New Year’s Day and I’m a–a bit of a town celebrity,” he said, because his podcast gets, like, seventeen downloads per episode.

“You are?” asked Elaine.

He got really proud, real fast, and he said, “Yes, absolutely, and also, I’m at some rich people’s house and it’s New Year’s Day, so, like. We’ll be fine.”

Which, fair.

And that’s about when things blew up?

Ironically, not literally, cuz he went to his truck, and brought out the fireworks, and he was–well. It was New Year’s, he wasn’t sober, so, he tripped, and those things went flying, landing in the water. It was a bad fall, he hit his head on a rock. And Charlotte was laughing, and she was wading right where the waves were breaking, and she fell backwards, so–AJ panicked, and he jumped in after her, cuz she wasn’t coming up.

And AJ came up, holding Char so she could stand, and she was coughing up water, looked like she was about to pass out. I was checking out Benji’s wound, even though, I’m, like,–blood? Not my thing, ever, at all, it’s–it’s weird and red, and Angie was getting up to check on me, and Rob and her fiancee were trying to help out the kids, and–

And the sky went bright purple.

Not, like, when it’s a sunset, and the sky’s kinda magenta? And that’s blending into the night-sky color, but–

Like, highest saturation on photoshop, highest brightness, makes-you-almost vomit cuz your eyes are burning, that bright purple.

And my skin, it felt like it was burning. I smelled salt, felt a breeze, and I tried to close my eyes, to breathe out, but I couldn’t.

And then there was nothing.

And then I woke up on the beach. I could smell salt, I was totally clear-headed–and Benji’s cut? It was gone.

My watch said it was around 4AM. My phone was dead, but–it was the first, still. The sun was rising, in–in normal sky colors.

And I woke up second. Elaine was already up.

She asked me if I saw it too.

I said I that did.

Neither of us needed to clarify what. But we did. Obviously. Because “it” could be, like, anything, like–could be that new reality show that everyone’s super into where eliminations are decided by arm wrestles–it’s, like–it’s got compelling storylines, I swear.

My phone died, Angie, so if you’re trying to communicate, I can’t help you.

Oh! Time’s passing normally now. That’s nice. That’s good.

The plan was to recount the past week’s events, as well as their psychological effect on us. That’s what we agreed on.

So. Time stopped for a little while today. That was weird. That’s important.

I guess–I’m first, so I should talk about my other big experience too.

I was the fourth of us to see something, after it all? It was the third. After work, I was walkin’ to Ramon’s? And as I passed the custard stand, I saw this woman.

She was shorter than me, uh, long sundress on that was way too summery for this weather, but she didn’t seem cold. I offered her my hoodie, cuz I at least had long sleeves, but she didn’t answer. Dark hair, big sunglasses. I’d wager maybe thirty.

She took off her sunglasses, yeah? And the sky flashed purple–the same purple, the same burning feeling all over me–

And then the same nothingness, same smell of salt, same breeze, but–

I was still standing. And we were in this space, this–this purple nothingness, no ground, no sky, no nothing, that’s a double negative, you get what I mean, and–I was still standing–more floating, which was–not as pleasant as you’d expect? But not unpleasant, either. And this woman, she looked at me,  dead in the eyes, and–

And she said–

(beat, uncomfortable)

What did she say?

(laughs)

It’s–it’s in my head, like. Tip of my tongue. I wrote it down, but it’s–it’s another individual letters making out a word I know but can’t–type situation.

But whatever.

What I’m most concerned about is my going to the beach. About the sticky notes. Like, that’s some sci-fi bullshit. Or some horror bullshit. Either or. Probably both.

Again, Truman Showed. Viable theory, here.

Or it has something to do with the Groundhog Day thing. Maybe.

I think what bothers me about this is how easy I’m accepting all this–that, like, I’m fairly sure all this is real. I know it’s–it’s weird. I know that this is sci-fi-esque, but, like–I never saw myself as a protagonist, or–any kind of tagonist, I guess, in those stories. But this–now, I think that I am.

So. Cool.

But why do I think that’s cool? I’m the–I’m the socially-stilted nerdy girl who either dies second or gets really good at guns, and I’m very afraid of guns.

So, therefore? I’m dying second.

Or, or or or, I’m Lois Lane. Charming and tough young journalist, swept off her feet by a charming stranger. Hopefully not a Superman, though, cuz–he’s not my thing. But. Yeah. I can deal with Lois.

I feel like I should know what happens next. Me or Benji, we gotta, we’re the ones who know genre like the backs of our hands. That’s why we’re friends, but–

This isn’t supposed to happen here. Like, I grew up here, and I’m–I wasn’t planning to stay here forever, obviously, but–This town, VB, it’s–it’s comforting in its boringness. Sure, it’s not– the people here are always cycling in-and-out, cuz tourism and school, and all that, but–Violet Beach is a normal-ass town. We don’t have ghost stories, we don’t have cryptids, we–we don’t have lore, or whatever. I don’t think there’s ever been a murder here, for God’s sake.

Okay, well–the hippie school’s headmaster, uh, the rebrander guy, Andrew Corielli, or–his son’s the mayor, right?–Shot that grocer, like, in the sixties. But everyone was a serial killer back then, if I can trust every true crime show ever.

But–my point is. What’s going on is not what happens in this town. What’s going on is what goes on in, like, Roswell, or–or Twin Peaks, or something.

I’m–I don’t have much else to say. That’s a conclusion if there ever was one. So. Uh.

Okay. I’m signing off. Thanks, guys. Hope to see you soon.

[soldrawss]

Shadows, Scars and Salted Lines

HisGrace: You find it ok?

WiseGirl: Yeah and just my luck, it's under the library.

HisGrace: Under?

WiseGirl: Yeah, like, in the basement of the building. Not creepy in the SLIGHTEST.

HisGrace: Really? That seems a little too extra

HisGrace: Like, they're trying too hard with the paranormal aesthetic

WiseGirl: Well, they are the Supernatural Activity Club. So... go big or go home I guess?

HisGrace: I guess, but, you sure you're ok? I can get off my shift early to come with you. I'd feel better about it at least.

HisGrace: What if they're like? A bunch of weirdos that only play pretend Ghostbusters but really just marathon The Shining and The Conjuring all day. The last thing you need is a couple of jerks pulling your chain around.

WiseGirl: I think I can handle a few horror fanatics, but thanks Jase. I'll be fine. I'll call you if I need any backup. PromiseX

HisGrace: Call me regardless. I'll pick you up and we can get pizza or something afterward. My treat~

Annabeth smiled at that and sent a thumbs up emoji before shoving her phone into her jacket pocket. Jason's mother hen worry was sweet, but Annabeth wouldn't dare bring herself to ask for any more help than what he'd already unquestionably given her. Which, after the last few weeks she's had, was a life time's worth.

Playing with the beads on her necklace, Annabeth steeled her nerves and made her way down the dark staircase that was located at the back of the large library. She had spent the better part of her Saturday tearing through the campus hunting for the mysterious paranormal society and as far as almost every person she asked, the club was practically nonexistent. It was only by sheer luck that one of the college's librarians happened upon a conversation she was having with another staff member and was kind enough to point her in the right direction.

And of course, it was located in the basement of one of the oldest buildings on campus. Down a dark and empty staircase leading to who knows where. She had to admit, choice place for a ghost club. Where else could you talk about creepy stuff other than a creepy location? The only things that probably could have beat it were an abandon mental hospital and an actual graveyard.

She'd rather take her chances with the underground library classroom.

But Annabeth has always been a bit wary of the dark. She wasn't afraid of it, per say; she'd long since outgrown her childhood fear of what goes bump in the night. But that didn't mean she couldn't have a fairly healthy respect and mindfulness to it. Of course, she never believed there was anything in the dark to be afraid of in the first place. Annabeth didn't believe in the paranormal.

But she still turned her hallway light on every night. Just in case there was ever a need to have a just in case protocol.

However, the last few weeks had changed her skeptic and rational mindset about the dark. So when she descended the concrete stairs to the bottom floor, she did so with one hand in her pocket with Jason's number on speed dial and the other resting on her furiously pounding heart.

Room B322. Room B322. Room B322. Annabeth muttered the classroom number under her breath like a practiced mantra as she scanned through the dimly lited hallways. Her footsteps echoed throughout the quiet mazelike basement, making every small sound ring deafeningly. The late September cold of underground New York seemed to cling to her skin in cold sweats as the musty, unused air filled her lungs.

Despite her urgency to find the clubroom as soon as she could, she couldn't deny herself the curiosity of the other classrooms that occupied the abandoned space. The ones that weren't locked, were filled with forgotten boxes of outdated textbooks and dusted over classroom supplies. None of the classroom lights worked, their bulbs have long since expired, so Annabeth never lingered long.

Finally, having almost given up twice because of some too close for comfort encounters with some rogue spiders, she spotted a soft yellow light coming from under the door of the last classroom down one of the hallways. As she briskly walked closer to the room, she could hear the faint sound of music playing, followed by some voices and laughs too muffled for her to make out.

It was only once she was right outside the door did she noticed the plated B322 hanging only slightly askew on the door. Annabeth held her breath for a few moments, before digging up whatever courage she had left in her and knocked on the door.

Almost immediately, the muffled voices stopped, and Annabeth forgot to breathe in the few seconds of silence that followed. The thought of running back towards the staircase raced through her mind, and she would have considered following through with the retreat if a strangled voice from behind the door hadn't interrupted her train of thought.

"Um, come in?"

Annabeth didn't wait for a second invitation and turned the old creaking handle.

At first, she was blinded by the sudden shift from darkness to light, but her focus quickly came back as she looked around the room.

And was surprised by what she saw.

Annabeth didn't really know what to expect from a club about ghosts, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she expected something a little more like a Halloween decoration shop.

With spider webs and skeletons and gory horror movie posters hanging on the walls. Some half melted candles strewn about with she didn't know, maybe a Ouija board on the table. A bloody handprint or two on the ceiling, accompanied by a soundtrack filled with evil laughter, thunder claps and bloodcurdling screams in the background?

You know, the spooky works.

She certainly didn't expect to be greeted with plenty of lights, warmth and soothing music. Fairy lights were hung in almost every corner, along with the regular light fixtures above, casting the classroom into multiple soft shades of whites, yellows, and pinks. The room smelled of lavender incense and faint jazz music was playing from somewhere unseen, turning the small classroom into something comfortable and inviting.

Pushed against the left wall was an array of low shelving units, each shelf holding a few dozen trinkets that caught Annabeth's attention. Bottles of different sizes and shapes holding liquid in almost every color imaginable. Multitudes of crystals and rocks were scattered on another, followed by a few more shelves that held some different dried out herbs.

The shelves continued, each holding various baubles and knickknacks until Annabeth's eyes widened to the sight of a large bookshelf that covered the entire expanse of the adjoining wall. It shouldn't have been surprising, they were under a college library after all, but the sheer number of literature crammed into the bookshelves was something awe-inspiring.

To the right of Annabeth was a large whiteboard and a giant map of New York City. A few colorful sticky notes decorated the map in different areas while the whiteboard held various writing passages that made no sense of Annabeth and a few doodles crowded in the bottom corners. There were two couches that formed an L shape pointing towards the whiteboard with a small coffee table in between. A large wooden table sat closest to the wall near Annabeth, with a few opened books and papers scattered on it.

And sitting at the table, were two college students around Annabeth's age, staring at her with the same confusion and awe that Annabeth felt.

"Oh my god is that an actual person or am I pulling a Jackson right now?" The one on the right said, more to himself than to the room in general. The girl next to him smacked him gently on the chest, not taking her multi-colored eyes off of Annabeth.

"Um, hi," the girl started as she smiled and raised an unsure brow at Annabeth. "You lost?"

"I sure hope not. It took me all day to find this place. I now know this campus like the back of my hand," Annabeth tried to joke, but her nervous laughter was met with nothing but blank and curious stares. Annabeth continuing to fiddle with the beads on her necklace out of nervous habit. "This, um, is the Supernatural Activity Club, right?"

The two students looked at each other, sharing what Annabeth could only assume was a swift mental debriefing before turning their attention back towards her.

"Oh, yeah, no, you're at the right place. Sorry, it's just, uh, we don't get very many visitors down here," the girl replied, flipping one of her twin braids over her shoulder. The guy leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head casually.

"More like we don't get any visitors down here. We're not a very well-known club, if you couldn't tell by our location."

"No kidding. I looked for you all over campus," Annabeth sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Your guy's club isn't on any of the official school rosters so no one knew how to help me find you."

This got a surprised look from the girl, but the boy just waved his hand in the air noncommittally.

"Ahhh yeah, we're technically not an actual registered club," the boy said, using his fingers to form quotation marks in the air above his head. "Apparently you gotta pay fees and fill out a bunch of paperwork and we're technically a club that's not up to snuff with the school's regulated code of conduct and professional demeanor, blah blah- OW!"

The boy had continued to use quotations marks around the emphasized words until the girl smacked one of his hands, harder than the first time, by the way the boy snatched his hand back and rubbed it, giving her an offended glare.

"Knock it off with the quotation marks, Leo." She said, ignoring his look of disapproval like a seasoned pro as she kept her focus solely on Annabeth. "How did you find us anyway? Since, you know, we're not on any of the school's registries."

"I found your website while I was searching fo- well, I saw it and I noticed you put a phone number to contact as well as an address, which was the school's address. I thought about calling you, but well, I figured it would just be easier to meet up with you in person instead since I have classes here too." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in the doorway. Having yet to still close the door behind her, Annabeth was just now noticing the difference in temperature between the cozy classroom and the clammy, dark hallway against her back. They must have had a heater somewhere hidden in the room to make such a stark difference. "Anyway, you didn't specifically say which part of the campus you were in, so I had to go around to nearly every department asking for you. It was just my luck that some guy that worked upstairs heard that I was looking for you and told me you were down here in room B322. And uh, here I am."

Annabeth stuck her palms out openly in a humble shrug. The boy, Leo, leaned forward in his chair again and pointed a finger in Annabeth's direction.

"Was it Malcolm? Tall? Skinny? Blond hair that kinda sticks up funny in the back? Looks like he hasn't slept in days and is jacked up on coffee and Lara Bars?" Leo interrogated, acting out each description as he went. Annabeth could barely get out a clever, 'uhhh' before Leo was talking again. "I bet it was Malcolm. The guy apparently keeps secrets about as well as he controls that cowlick of his."

"Leo," the girl warned in a tired way that made it seem like she'd heard 'the Malcolm' rant before, but Leo wasn't apparently done from the way he threw his arms into the air in exasperation.

"I practically wrote his engineering thesis last semester and this is the thanks I get? I mean, he does keep our little secret hideaway away from any curious staff member. And ok sure, he does cover for us when the electricity and heating bills go up when school's in session so we don't get caught or fined," Leo began, listing off the different points on his fingers. To which Annabeth noticed were wrapped in multiple colorful band-aids.

"Leo," the girl warned again, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"And OK YEAH SURE, he did help us put all those protection signals and wardings up around the library where no one could see or get to them accidentally. Which I guess was cool of him. But that doesn't mean he can just give confidential information out all willy nilly like this! What if he told someone important! Like, the college president or campus security?" At that thought, Leo gasped and faced Annabeth with a wide-eyed expression. "You're not campus security, are you?"

"Protection signals?" Annabeth questioned, choosing to focus on that piece of information alone. She rubbed her left shoulder absentmindedly.

"Leo, enough!" The girl said and shoved what looked like a bulky version of a handheld radio half towards him. "Geez, and you think Malcolm is a loud mouth. Just fix the spirit-talkie, before Percy gets back."

Leo took the few pieces of tech that the girl had pushed towards him without debate, but eyed Annabeth suspiciously as he got up from his seat. "Find out if she's an undercover or not. If need be, the safe words are, Nico smells. Then I'll tackle her and you make a run for it." He whispered not at all quietly into the girl's ear before he stood up and walked over to one of the couches, where an assortment of gears and tools were laid out on the coffee table.

The girl rolled her eyes before smiling at Annabeth. "Sorry about him. He likes to watch a bunch of conspiracy theories while he tinkers. He's really a cool guy once he gets to know you. Still as talkative and hyper, but cool. Which reminds me," she said, standing up from her chair and walking over to where Annabeth stood. She held out her hand in greeting and gave Annabeth an award-winning smile.

"I'm Piper McLean. The gear head is Leo Valdez. What can we do for ya?"

Annabeth took Piper's hand and shook it, feeling the tension and apprehension before seep from her body as she fully entered the classroom, shutting the door behind her. Returning the smile, albeit, hers was probably a little more awkward, Annabeth sat in the chair that Leo had previously vacated.

"Annabeth Chase. Nice to meet you." Annabeth watched as Piper walked over to a small mini fridge she hadn't notice before and pull out a can of Arizona Tea.

"You want one?" Piper asked, opening the one in her hand and taking a drink.

"Uh, sure, thank you," Annabeth replied.

"Dr. Pepper for me," Leo called from his little work spot on the couch. Piper leaned back into the fridge and pulled out a water bottle, tossing it to him instead. He caught it effortlessly with one hand and gave her a disapproving look. Piper simply blew him a kiss as she walked back towards Annabeth and handed her the unopened can.

"He's on a caffeine break," Piper supplied, noticing the confused brow Annabeth had shot her as she retook her seat. "A month ago, he was rushed to the ER because of an ulcer in his stomach. It wasn't bad, thank God, but drinking nothing but energy drinks and taking Ibuprofen certainly helped cause it. Since then he's been on a strict, no caffeinated drink diet."

"Which I hate!" Leo called from the couch.

"Which he'll get used to." Piper smiled again sweetly, taking another sip of her tea, cueing Annabeth to do the same. Piper had gotten her the green tea flavored one, which happened to be her favorite, and Annabeth smiled back when Piper had sent her a little wink in return.

"So Annabeth Chase, what brings you to our humble little rebel basement?" Piper asked, crossing her legs while playing with one of her long braids.

Annabeth tapped the side of her can with her nails, making a soft tinging sound as she chewed her bottom lip anxiously. "You guys are a, um, paranormal club, right? Not the kind that just watches horror movies and speculates over fuzzy youtube videos, but like, actually knows something about ghosts and spirits and... and things like that? You're kinda like, real-life ghostbusters, right? At least, that's what your website made your club out to be."

"It better have, I designed it," Piper replied, twirling her braid around her finger. "And I mean, we do have movie night on Thursdays, but those aren't totally restricted to horror. We more often than not just watch Jackie Chan movies and Parks And Rec."

"And anime," Leo called again from the couch.

"And anime," Piper reassured, taking a drink from her tea. "But yeah, you're right. We do know a thing or two about the metaphysical. Well, I don't personally. I'm just the manager of sorts. And what you'd probably picture as ghostbusting isn't exactly what we do."

"It could be if you guys would ever just chill and let me create cooler things than just spirit walkies and EMF detectors. Can you imagine an actual Proton Pack gun? How'd sick that'd be?" Leo exclaimed, leaning over from his spot on the couch excitedly. Piper crumpled up a piece of paper next to her and tossed it at Leo's face with impeccable aim.

"You know exactly why you can't do that so that's enough from the peanut gallery," she responded back. Leo rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her, muttering something along the lines of 'says the manager of sorts,' before sitting back down on the couch. Piper returned the action and rolled her eyes at Annabeth animatedly, making Annabeth smother a chuckle.

"But, like I was saying, yes. We are a paranormal club. Dealing with ghosts is kinda what we do." Piper stopped twirling her braid and straightened her position in her chair, giving Annabeth a quizzical look. "You seem pretty easy going with the whole idea of the paranormal being real. Why is that? Don't tell me you actually want to join, do you?"

Annabeth noticed Leo stopped fidgeting with the talkie in his hand and turn to look at her, expression just as curious as Piper's and Annabeth hoped her cheeks weren't turning pink with embarrassment. Rubbing her left shoulder again, Annabeth looked down at her feet.

"Ahh no! Sorry, that's, that's not what I came here for-" was all Annabeth was able to say before the door beside her opened. A quick and cold breeze swept through the classroom for only a few moments before the door was shut again, but it was enough of a draft to make a cold shiver run up Annabeth's spine.

"Sorry it took me so long to get here. I sorta ran into a little trouble outside the library. And it took me forever to find the peanut butter cookies Hazel likes so much. By the by Pipes, the store didn't have any of that vegan chocolate you like, so I just got you some Kettle BBQ chips. The lady at the register said they're vegan so they'll have to do for now."

Annabeth's attention was immediately caught by the new presence in the room as the young man entered further into the classroom, taking no notice of Annabeth as he talked about a mile a minute. He had dark black hair, disheveled but in a way that was almost slightly fashionable and was carrying a skateboard in one hand and a few grocery bags in the other.

"Did you get the stuff I asked for?" Leo whirled around so that he was backwards on his seat, leaning over the back frame of the couch as he reached for one of the bags the new guy was holding.

"Yes, but Leo- God, stop. Leo!" The guy laughed, pulling the bag Leo was tugging on away as he sat his skateboard down against one of the lower shelving units. "Leo, listen. I got the stuff on the list, but you gotta promise me you won't use any of these items for evil. For example, putting super glue on the toilet seat or duct taping anything, and I mean anything, to anyone, by which I mean specifically Nico. Got it, Leo? I'm trusting you with this privilege."

"Ok, first of all, Nico almost definitely deserved every last inch of that duct tape and I regret nothing," Leo replied, but after noticing that the bags weren't going slack in his favor, put a hand on his chest and looked at the guy with a new found seriousness that Annabeth didn't think he was capable of holding. Even if she has only known him for less than a half hour. "But you have my word that I will only use my power of greatness for good, fearless leader. On my honor, I will not betray your trust. Cross my heart and hope to live a very long and happy life."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll believe it when I see it." The guy rolled his eyes as if he was annoyed, but a second later he was smiling fondly and tossing the bag over to Leo, who caught it easily and began digging through it as he slid back onto the couch. The guy slid his jacket off and folded it over the couch frame, rubbing a hand affectionately through Leo's curly brown hair as he passed, and began walking towards where Piper and Annabeth sat.

"Anyway Pipes, I hope you like the chips. They look pretty good, but if you don't like them I can always go back and-" The guy paused, finally noticing Annabeth and greeting her with the same wide-eyed curiosity as Leo and Piper had before. Annabeth couldn't help but stare right back at him just as curiously and noticed that she couldn't seem to look away from his startling green eyes.

For a second, it almost seemed like he was looking through her, too intense to just be looking at her but instead looking somewhere deeper than what was physical. The moment only seem to last for a second, even though it felt longer to Annabeth before he seemingly snapped back to reality and gave her the same fond smile he had just given Leo.

"Oh, uh, hey there," he smiled crookedly, handing Piper the other grocery bags. As soon as Piper took it, he crossed his arms and leaned against the back of her chair, only breaking eye contact with Annabeth to give Piper a little nudge to the back. "Aww, Pipes, I didn't know you had any friends outside the SAC. We wouldn't have pressured you to join if we'd known you wouldn't have been so lonely without us."

"Oh please. You guys don't know about my other friends because I don't want you to. I don't need your weirdness spreading any farther than it already has. And you know I only joined cause you and Leo can't be left alone together without something breaking or catching fire." Piper answered, digging through the bags and pulling out the BBQ chips.

"Lies and slander! You can't prove that those incidents were because of us! And even if they were, it only happened like, four times. Complete coincidence!" Leo voiced, a piece of jerky hanging from his mouth that he must have fished from the bag when Annabeth wasn't looking.

"Five if you include the time at the aquarium with the big squid," the guy added helpfully, smothering a grin behind a hand when Piper shot him an annoyed look.

"Oh, yeah, I definitely count the squid. Nevermind Beauty Queen, five times. And you can't prove a single one," Leo called back thoughtfully, earning him a laugh from the black haired kid as Piper ignored them expertly, turning her attention back to Annabeth.

"Anyway, Annabeth, this is Percy, our dorky club President. Percy this is Annabeth Chase." Percy stopped laughing and with a lingering grin, held out a hand towards Annabeth when Piper made the introductions.

"Nice to meet you Annabeth. I'm the SAC's dorky club president, Percy Jackson." Piper rolled her eyes at that, but his smile was infectious, and Annabeth couldn't help but smile back as she shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you too Per- you're bleeding."

Percy's smile fell just as Annabeth stopped shaking his hand, and pointed to her own forehead, a little above her eyebrow. "You're bleeding, right here," Annabeth remarked, surprised by the sudden red that dripped into view under the wave of black. Piper turned to look at Percy just as a little trickle of blood, that was once unnoticeably hidden under his black bangs, crept down the side of his face.

Percy rubbed his cheek with the heel of his hand and pulled it away to inspect it. The only response he made towards the blood was an unsurprised 'huh' before he wiped his hand on his jeans.

"Oh my God, I seriously can't leave you alone for a second, can I?" Piper asked, sounding more mildly annoyed than actually worried as she got up and walked to one of the cubbies in the shelving units and pulled out a large first aid box. She walked back over and placed in on the table between Percy and Annabeth and began searching through it with practiced ease. Like this wasn't the first time Percy's walked into the clubroom bleeding. "What did you do this time."

"Uh, would you believe me if I told you nothing?" Percy answered back in a nonchalant tone, sitting in the chair Piper once occupied. Rummaging through his back jean pocket, he fished out a simple hair clip with a small flower on it and pulled his bangs back, clipping them into place and out of the way of his cut forehead. "Actually don't answer that. The truth is, I don't really know what happened."

Piper brought out some tissue wipes, Neosporin, and a box of colorful band-aids. Catching the half empty water bottle Leo had thrown back at her, Annabeth was silently impressed by how in sync they were despite their lack of communication, she wet some of the wipes and began cleaning the side of Percy's face. "I was coming back from the store when I noticed this sorta, presence, I guess you'd call it, outside the library. I was gonna ignore it, cause I've seen spirits hang out there before cause they're attached to someone inside the library but they can't cross the boundaries cause of the wardings Hazel put up."

Annabeth remembered Leo mention something about protective warding earlier, but when she turned towards Leo to get some further info about what that was, all he did was mouth the name Malcolm at her. He then made a disgusted face, rolling his eyes and then turning his attention back on to the role of duct tape he was using.

"They're confused, but usually perfectly harmless, so I just let them be. But this presence, I don't Pipes, there was something about this-sssst ow! Little warning next time, that stings."

"Sorry," Piper smiled like she wasn't sorry in the slightest as she continued to spread Neosporin on the cleaned cut on Percy's forehead. It wasn't huge, but it looked a little too deep for Percy to have not noticed till Annabeth pointed it out. "Continue."

"Something felt off about this presence, Piper. Like, I don't know how to explain it. It didn't feel like a usual spirit. It just felt... wrong. Heavy. Dark." Percy tried to supply, rubbing the back his neck in exhaustion.

"Didn't Hazel say she put up all kinds of sigils to ward off anything and everything supernatural? What if it wasn't a spirit at all but something else?" Piper asked, putting the Neosporin away and grabbing the box of band-aids.

"Whatever it was, it wasn't happy about being warded against the building, but I couldn't just leave it lurking outside with that much negative energy. Someone could have gotten hurt or it could have attracted something worse. So I tried talking to it." Percy sighed, opening Piper's bag of BBQ chips and popping one in his mouth. "Operative word is tried. Turns out- give me one of the blue band-aids- he liked me even less than the building. He went right through me. Power blasted me so hard he knocked me back down the front steps. I must have cut my forehead sometime during then."

Piper finished putting on one of the bigger band-aids on Percy's forehead, a sweet baby blue color, before putting the supplies back in the first aid box and returning it to its respective cubbies. "You and I are gonna have a discussion about this later, Percy, cause you know how I feel about you putting yourself in positions like these without backup."

Percy raised a confused brow, pulling the flower pin out of his hair and letting his bangs fall wildly over his forehead again. Tosseling them just a bit so that they fell just above those piercing green eyes. "Aww but you love lecturing me. Why hold off what I'll ignore later when I can ignore it now."

Piper crossed her arms pointedly, cocking her hips to the side in annoyance. "I don't know if you've forgotten, stupid, but we kinda have a guest here who's not used to the whole paranormal stuff, and I think you may have just pushed her into the deep end before we could teach her how to swim first, if you know what I mean."

Percy must have forgotten by the way he whirled his attention back onto Annabeth, and his expression turned to something of a kicked puppy when he noticed just how hard Annabeth was gripping her now empty tea can. An embarrassed flush of pink shown on his cheeks and the tips of his ears as he ran a hand through his black hair.

"Oh, uh, geez, I'm sorry, I thought you knew. You're just, here at the SAC so I thought you, well, I assumed you knew about uuhhhh... that we, ummm," Percy floundered, trading glances between Annabeth and Piper nervously. "You probably think I'm just messing around, huh?"

Annabeth had expected the club she had searched all day for to be nothing more than a lazy excuse for a Ghostbusters fan club. She had hoped that maybe they had just a little bit of info, just a little something extra that could help her where Wikipedia had failed her. She prayed that, at least, something would point her in the right direction in solving her problem.

The last thing she expected was the answer to all her hopes and prayers, in the form of a dorky college kid, with a kind smile and wild green eyes.

"You... you can see ghosts? Like, actual, real, dead spirit ghosts?" She practically whispered, letting go of the tea can with one of her hands and resting it on her left shoulder. "Like, Jennifer Love-Hewitt level, see ghosts."

"I think he's more of an Amy Allen myself," Leo called unhelpfully from the couch, followed by the sound of a smack and an undignified "OW-WAH!" that Annabeth didn't see.

Percy just stared back at her, brow furrowed and green eyes intense enough to probably set Annabeth on fire if he really wanted to. "You believe me? Just like that?" He asked, and Annabeth's grip tightened on her shoulder.

"I have to. That's the whole reason why I'm here." Annabeth replied, and she could feel all eyes rest on her with caution. Taking a shaky breath and ignoring the silent buzzing come from her phone in her jacket pocket, Annabeth admitted what she so desperately wanted to deny for the past few weeks.

"I think there's something bad haunting my apartment. And I think you're the best chance I got at getting rid of it."

[btsreactionsandtexts]

BTS Single Parent AU

kookies-and-myrok asked: Hello, sweets! I love your writing and I'm not just saying that Lol i always get excited when you post smt, anyways do you write parent au's? If you do can I get a BTS reaction about what they would be like as a single parent? If not then its okay! Keep up the great work 💜

This doesn’t necessarily work as a reaction, but I can do a little like... bullet drabble or whatever on this. Either way, very doable. - Admin Dayna

Seokjin

There’s like... this anime called Amaama to Inazuma (a.k.a. Sweetness and Lightning) which is basically about a single father who raises his daughter to the best of his abilities but he can’t cook as well as his wife (who passed away). I see Single Parent!Jin being like that... except in Jin’s case he can actually throw down in a kitchen

Lots of love and affection

Smothers his baby girl with kisses before dropping her off to daycare and after picking her up

The daycare moms thirst after him bOI

His cookies sold out the fastest at the school bakery

Partially because Daycare Moms are trying to give him the succ

Mainly because his cookies are bomb asf

He got hoes

Reads/sings his daughter to sleep at night religiously

Chocolate covered Strawberries while they watch cartoons together

Shed a single tear in the beginning of Finding Nemo evRYTIM

Was literally floating on air for like a month because his daughter told him he was the “handsomest appa”

Tries really hard to scold his baby girl

Can’t look her in the face when he does it because she’s too damn cute

Puppy Dog Eyes work every once in a while tbh

Will cAUSE A FUCKING SCENE IF HE EVER HEARD SOMEONE WAS BULLYING HIS CHILD

Dad jokes, fucking duh.

Yoongi

Picture this: Yoongi is chilling, right? Lounging on the sofa, watching some psychological mystery film or whatever emo shit he watches. His face is pretty indifferent. He’s unbothered asf. His right arm is covered in scribbles and squiggles. His 7 year old son is currently surrounded by markers, casually doodling on his dad’s arm.

Lets his son choose whatever toys he wants

If his baby boy wants a nerf gun, he’ll get a nerf gun.

If his baby boy wants a fucking bubblegum pink barbie jeep atv, he’s getting a fucking bubblegum pink barbie jeep atv.

Also lets his kid wear whatever he wants

Supports the creative and imaginative endeavors of his child

Does not support coloRING ON THE WALL YOU LIL DEMON BABY

Sometimes stares at his child and thinks “whose mans is this?”

Also looks at his child and thinks “that’s the love of my life”.

One time considered redecorating his closet just so that he can hang a bunch of mirrors on the wall so that whenever his child does something stupid, he can sit him in that closet and close the door so that he can look at his reflection and reevaluate his 7 years long life.

All in all he’s a super supportive daddio.

He’s not like the other dads.

He’s a Cool Dad™

Hoseok

Sitcom dad.

Literally Phil Dunphy from Modern Family.

Tell his kids a lot of stories about his “glory days”

His preteen daughter is like... hella embarrassed by him, but is highkey just as dorky as he is

Still got the juice

Can be super stern when need be

His kids knows that if they have an issue they can always talk to him about it

Has the warmest hugs when the days been rough

Shares both maternal and fraternal instincts 

Can flawlessly switch between motherly and fatherly traits

Tries to make inside jokes with his children

It never works.

“Stop trying to make fetch happen, Hobi. It’s not going to happen”

The best hype man tbh

“YOU SEE THE KID IN THE WHITE SHIRT? THAT’S MINE. I MADE HIM”

Namjoon

You know that cliche where it’s like... the mom leaves the kids alone with the father for a day. And the dad is like “don’t worry honey, I got this” but then the second the mom leaves, there’s toys everywhere, the kids are running around naked, the water he was boiling is on fire, shit has literally hit the fan, the groUND HAS ACTUALLY SPLIT OPEN INTO THE FIERY PITS OF HELL - but he last minute manages to get everything together and in order before the mom comes and finds out? 

That’s Namjoon.

Except like... 24/7 without the mom

Super fast dad reflexes

Also kinda annoying dad noises?

Really good at tutoring the kids with school work and stuff

He taught them majority of their math and science formulas by turning them into catchy songs

Has given up trying to be the cool dad yEARS ago

He’s just not about that life

It’s okay though because his kid’s friends thinks he’s cool

Makes sure his children are WOKE ASF

Tries to enforce bedtime

Keeps them up at night by playing games and/or watching movies together

Lets them go out whenever they want as long as they keep in touch often

Lets his kids make mistakes and learn from them instead of sheltering them from harms way

Motivational Speeches that are actually motivational

God awful happy dances

Hangs his kids A+ test papers on the fridge

“If you show me you got straight A’s at the end of the semester, you can absolutely get your nose pierced” (he says to his 14 year old daughter).

Jimin

Everyone knows that one person who has that really young but super hot mom or dad. Like, they’re lowkey popular and often have friends over because their friends kinda just want to be around their good looking parent.

Stacy’s Mom got it going on

Except it’s like... idk... Park Jae Sun’s Appa got it going on...

Whatever you get what I mean.

He’s a Dilf

Lets his kid invite his friends over whenever they want to

Doesn’t realize that his child’s friends are high key checking him out

Constantly checking up on them to see how they’re doing

“Are you guys okay?”

“Is the house too cold?”

“Would you like something to eat/drink?”

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

“Don’t be afraid to ask”

A little overbearing if I’m going to be honest

May even shelter his child a little too much

Good morning texts and sticky note reminders around the house

Makes sure his child has food for school everyday, never missing a beat

Proud Dad always

His son is bigger than him

Has to look up at him in order to look his son in the eye to properly reprimand or lecture him

Gets pissed whenever he isn’t taken seriously when giving scoldings

Feels really bad whenever he punishes his kids, and makes up for it with like ice cream or something

Babies make his little mochi heart flutter

Taehyung

He’s the epitome of husband/daddy material. I think Taehyung would make a great dad. He’s the perfect balance of literally all the others.

Which one is the parent and which one is the kid?

Knows how to get down to the level of a child, and properly play with them

Inside jokes with his kids

They say goodbye with aegyo

Openly tells each other they love one another

Likes to squish his baby’s cheeks and blow raspberries on their tummy

Loves the satisfying feeling that follows finally putting a crying baby to sleep

Watches his baby’s tummy rise and fall as they breathe

Hysterically laughs at his child’s laughter

His box smile is strong, and can literally be found in all of his kids.

Also has like, three dogs, but the more the merrier, right?

Isn’t too hard on his kids, but isn’t lenient on them either

Is a healthy medium between strict and easy going

Enforces a proper education but also lets them know that school isn’t the only way to a successful and happy lifestyle

Plays pretend with his children on the weekend

Always ends up in a too small princess dress with ribbons in his hair

Jungkook

You know those kids who are extremely close to their parents to the point where it’s like... and outsider watches the way they talk to their parents and finds it their causality with each other borderline disrespectful? You know those kids who can like... curse around their parents and talks to their parents like it’s another one of their friends and their parent talks back to them just as casually? 

That’s the type of dad Jungkook is.

Plays video games with his kids whenever their schedules allow them some free time together

Him and his kids have a group chat together where they share memes and ugly selfies but also like... keep up to date with school events and whatnot

Follows each other on Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram

Not the best with giving advice, but his kids know that he’s a shoulder they can cry on

Offers to help them with homework, but ends up just as confused 

They all live off snacks and the neighborhood ahjumma had to start cooking actual meals for them

His kids actually care and asks their dad’s opinion on stuff about like... hair or clothing or something

He picks up on his kids habits and his kids pick up on his

they look like a bunch of bunnies tbh

They all have their own rooms, but Jungkook and his kids always manage to fall asleep dog piled on the living room sofa

[violetbeachpod]

TRANSCRIPT: 1x01 - Twelve Oh One

Hey, folks! Bee here. Y’all reached out to me about transcripts awhile back, and, hey, since the season’s over, I’m gonna start posting them! As a person with attention issues, I super get the need for transcripts, and I’m sorry for not delivering on them sooner.

I’m also reediting episodes right now, so. Those corrections will be posted about as they happen. Anyway. Here we go. Episode one, which you can listen to here, if you so please.

TERESA: 

Okay, so--it’s recording. Cool .

Um. It’s Wednesday. It’s been nine days since--eight days, maybe? --well, if you’re listening, at this point, you know what it was--Benji says we’re gonna publish this, but, like, no. That’s--that’s ridiculous. This is for science.

Or our memoirs. Whatever.

We’ve--the seven of us have decided to keep a log. Of what’s been going on.

Um. So. Cool. Name and deets, just in case some more weird memory shit goes down--My name’s Teresa. I’m eighteen. I’m an Aries, I like bowling and shitty pop music, and only mostly ironically. That enough fluff? I’m a freshman at, ah, Lands College, here in town, and. Studying journalism, with a minor in women’s studies, uh--anything else--I feel like this would be a better story if I start showing, rather than telling.

Or, like. Telling stories rather than just reading out my dating profile. Because that’s lame.

My dating profile’s actually--it’s a lot more detailed than that. I’m on, like, seven different sites, and every profile is. Very Different.

(text notification sound)

[lean away from mic]

Anj, stop--stop listening in! You--you--dude, take a nap.

[and we’re back]

So. Anyway. Here’s what we know.

[long beat]

That was good, right? A good joke? That’s something. Um. Cuz we don’t know very much at all. There’s something there, I swear, like, I rehearsed that bit in the bathroom mirror this morning, and I was thinking, no, I won’t pull that, but--

But. Back to the point.

Y’know how, in movies, people are always like, “Nobody knows except for us?”

That’s so exclusive. So presumptuous. We don’t know if people are lying. We haven’t spoken to every person on the planet--we haven’t even spoken to anyone outside of Maryland. Outside of town. Like. We’ve watched news, but God knows, some of those conspiracies about hypnosis through CNN are real, or whatever. Y’know? Like--those conspiracies are almost exclusively believed in by, like, flat-earthing racists, so, like, they’re probably, definitely super wrong, but--I was making a joke and I’m overthinking it now. Cool.

Anyway. We don’t know who knows. Maybe someone in, like, Caracas, knows? Maybe someone in--you get my point--knows.

Or maybe we’re being Truman Showed. Wouldn’t be the worst theory to have come out of this.

I would--well, I’d hate it, but one time, back in middle school, the public library did these--these movie nights for teenagers, right? And, so, uh, a bunch of us were there, and I was sitting with Angie, cuz she was--she was the only person I knew there, of course, and she was sitting with these kids, like--uh, from the hippie school she had taken in, and--one of them was AJ, I know, and one was Charlotte. but the others, I don’t see anymore.

But anyway, she was, like, starry-eyed at the idea of her life being a TV show without her knowing. At the idea of unintentional stardoms. So maybe she’ll get a kick out of that theory.

Here’s something: I was working on my campaign notes earlier, cuz the group’s meeting tomorrow, should meet tomorrow  and I didn’t really--I didn’t like a few of the potentials, so, whatever. Irrelevant.

I checked the time, and--well. It was twelve oh one. And two minutes later, it was still twelve oh one. And now, it’s still twelve oh one.

I thought maybe my laptop was being bad again? But it said the same on my phone, and on the wall clock.

The app says time is passing. It’s been longer than fifty-nine seconds.

It’s still twelve oh one, though, is the thing. Which isn’t great, all things considered.

But, we’ll catch up on that later.

Here’s the big thing. I went back to the beach last night to see if I could recreate what happened alone, and, uh--at least. I think I did. I don’t remember going, but, uh, Angie says I did, and AJ said that when he was closing at work, he saw me walking towards it. But I didn’t--I didn’t go.

There are sixty-nine--which, yeah, nice, that’s the sex number, whatever--sticky notes on the bathroom mirror, and, like--I can make out letters on some of them them? Individual letters? But not words. And I know that they’re making words, and I know that it’s my handwriting, but my brain just--it goes somewhere else.

And other ones, that I can read, they have dumb stuff. One of them’s just a doodle of David Hyde Pierce with a caption that just says “HELL YEAH. LOOK AT THE MOON WEDNESDAY.”

It’s, like--in fairness to me, or the person I assume to be me, it’s a fairly good David Hyde Pierce. And there’s--there’s a new moon tonight, so--well.

Whatever.

It’s still twelve oh--oop. Nevermind. Twelve oh two now. Nice.

Benji wants me to take off work until this whole thing’s sorted out. Says he’ll still pay me, but, like--being yelled at by awful dudes about trivia that nobody knows is kind of the only constant in my life right now? So I said no. Obviously. Like. It sucks, but it makes me feel normal. Like the beach out by Angie’s place did, before--

Well. Maybe some recollection would be nice, I guess. Just so, like, Danny and company--like, if we end up showing them. Cuz I’m better at sticking to the facts than, say, Robin or Charlotte. So. Yeah.

So. Uh.

Most folks know that she transferred in after a semester at--well, I’m not allowed to say the name of the school in front of her, anymore, and she’s, like, giving me death-eyes out of the bedroom door. But. A certain Ivy League school. This is relevant--

Okay, maybe not, but it’s a nice set up to our establishing shot, which is, of course, her New Year’s party, nine days ago. At her parents’ place. Or, eight days ago, at her parents’ place, I guess. She told us on New Year’s Eve that she was starting at Lands on the fourth, and I offered her a stay in my dorm, cuz I had a single, and, uh, it sucked? But. Whatever.

So I said, “You know, I have a single.” And she said--wait, lemme find my journal--yes, I do write down conversations, Angie.

Alright. She said, “Oh, really, is it on--Bandcamp, Soundcloud, iTunes, MySpace? I didn’t know you--” And I said, “I meant dorm room, dude, you mentioned--MySpace?”

She said, “I still use it.” I laughed, “Of course you do.”

But, anyway. We agreed to live together, but. It was one AM. Robin Cabell dropped by with her new fiancee, said hi, and--well, like, our babysitter’s getting married, to, like, this gorgeous girl from DC, and the high school kids from the hippie school were there, and Benji was there, cuz he’s everywhere, and--

As folks left--Angie started playing Wonderwall around 3AM, so, uh, a little bit before then--it ended up just being the seven of us. Her parents are out of town--as always. Well, not always. But frequently.

They’re mad about--Blarvardgate.

I--I didn’t say it! I said something mildly close alluding to it. Stop texting me!

But. It was just the seven of us there, Angie still playing some terrible 90s song, and--Benji says, “I brought fireworks. Forgot about that til now.” Elaine, uh, Robin’s new fiancee, asked, “They legal?”

Benji said, “It’s New Year’s Day and I’m a--a bit of a town celebrity,” he said, because his podcast gets, like, seventeen downloads per episode.

“You are?” asked Elaine.

He got really proud, real fast, and he said, “Yes, absolutely, and also, I’m at some rich people’s house and it’s New Year’s Day, so, like. We’ll be fine.”

Which, fair.

And that’s about when things blew up?

Ironically, not literally, cuz he went to his truck, and brought out the fireworks, and he was--well. It was New Year’s, he wasn’t sober, so, he tripped, and those things went flying, landing in the water. It was a bad fall, he hit his head on a rock. And Charlotte was laughing, and she was wading right where the waves were breaking, and she fell backwards, so--AJ panicked, and he jumped in after her, cuz she wasn’t coming up.

And AJ came up, holding Char so she could stand, and she was coughing up water, looked like she was about to pass out. I was checking out Benji’s wound, even though, I’m, like,--blood? Not my thing, ever, at all, it’s--it’s weird and red, and Angie was getting up to check on me, and Rob and her fiancee were trying to help out the kids, and--

And the sky went bright purple.

Not, like, when it’s a sunset, and the sky’s kinda magenta? And that’s blending into the night-sky color, but--

Like, highest saturation on photoshop, highest brightness, makes-you-almost vomit cuz your eyes are burning, that bright purple.

And my skin, it felt like it was burning. I smelled salt, felt a breeze, and I tried to close my eyes, to breathe out, but I couldn’t.

And then there was nothing.

And then I woke up on the beach. I could smell salt, I was totally clear-headed--and Benji’s cut? It was gone.

My watch said it was around 4AM. My phone was dead, but--it was the first, still. The sun was rising, in--in normal sky colors.

And I woke up second. Elaine was already up.

She asked me if I saw it too.

I said I that did.

Neither of us needed to clarify what. But we did. Obviously. Because “it” could be, like, anything, like--could be that new reality show that everyone’s super into where eliminations are decided by arm wrestles--it’s, like--it’s got compelling storylines, I swear.

My phone died, Angie, so if you’re trying to communicate, I can’t help you.

Oh! Time’s passing normally now. That’s nice. That’s good.

The plan was to recount the past week’s events, as well as their psychological effect on us. That’s what we agreed on.

So. Time stopped for a little while today. That was weird. That’s important.

I guess--I’m first, so I should talk about my other big experience too.

I was the fourth of us to see something, after it all? It was the third. After work, I was walkin’ to Ramon’s? And as I passed the custard stand, I saw this woman.

She was shorter than me, uh, long sundress on that was way too summery for this weather, but she didn’t seem cold. I offered her my hoodie, cuz I at least had long sleeves, but she didn’t answer. Dark hair, big sunglasses. I’d wager maybe thirty.

She took off her sunglasses, yeah? And the sky flashed purple--the same purple, the same burning feeling all over me--

And then the same nothingness, same smell of salt, same breeze, but--

I was still standing. And we were in this space, this--this purple nothingness, no ground, no sky, no nothing, that’s a double negative, you get what I mean, and--I was still standing--more floating, which was--not as pleasant as you’d expect? But not unpleasant, either. And this woman, she looked at me,  dead in the eyes, and--

And she said--

[beat, uncomfortable]

What did she say?

[laughs]

It’s--it’s in my head, like. Tip of my tongue. I wrote it down, but it’s--it’s another individual letters making out a word I know but can’t--type situation.

But whatever.

What I’m most concerned about is my going to the beach. About the sticky notes. Like, that’s some sci-fi bullshit. Or some horror bullshit. Either or. Probably both.

Again, Truman Showed. Viable theory, here.

Or it has something to do with the Groundhog Day thing. Maybe.

I think what bothers me about this is how easy I’m accepting all this--that, like, I’m fairly sure all this is real. I know it’s--it’s weird. I know that this is sci-fi-esque, but, like--I never saw myself as a protagonist, or--any kind of tagonist, I guess, in those stories. But this--now, I think that I am.

So. Cool.

But why do I think that’s cool? I’m the--I’m the socially-stilted nerdy girl who either dies second or gets really good at guns, and I’m very afraid of guns.

So, therefore? I’m dying second.

Or, or or or, I’m Lois Lane. Charming and tough young journalist, swept off her feet by a charming stranger. Hopefully not a Superman, though, cuz--he’s not my thing. But. Yeah. I can deal with Lois.

I feel like I should know what happens next. Me or Benji, we gotta, we’re the ones who know genre like the backs of our hands. That’s why we’re friends, but--

This isn’t supposed to happen here. Like, I grew up here, and I’m--I wasn’t planning to stay here forever, obviously, but--This town, VB, it’s--it’s comforting in its boringness. Sure, it’s not-- the people here are always cycling in-and-out, cuz tourism and school, and all that, but--Violet Beach is a normal-ass town. We don’t have ghost stories, we don’t have cryptids, we--we don’t have lore, or whatever. I don’t think there’s ever been a murder here, for God’s sake.

Okay, well--the hippie school’s headmaster, uh, the rebrander guy, Andrew Corielli, or--his son’s the mayor, right?--Shot that grocer, like, in the sixties. But everyone was a serial killer back then, if I can trust every true crime show ever.

But--my point is. What’s going on is not what happens in this town. What’s going on is what goes on in, like, Roswell, or--or Twin Peaks, or something.

I’m--I don’t have much else to say. That’s a conclusion if there ever was one. So. Uh.

Okay. I’m signing off. Thanks, guys. Hope to see you soon.