#untilthcyrot // lydia deetz

[chaos--mode]

TAYLOR SWIFT PROMPTS @untilthcyrot asked: what you heard is true. ( lydia for steve )

steve has seen a lot of shit; monsters with petals of teeth for a face, alternate dimensions stuck in the past, the sticky bathroom floor in the now-burned-down starcourt mall bathrooms up close and personal. nothing should take him by surprise anymore. but the thing is that he sort of forgot that the real world had its own set of supernatural shit going on, upside down be damned.

"so you, uh. you talk to dead people, then?"

smooth, steve. real smooth.

[chaos--mode]

Thistle smiles, and it's a sharp, slow thing that stretches across their features. It doesn't mean to be unsettling or off-putting, it's just sort of its natural state. It could live a thousand years in a mortal body and it still wouldn't change its inherent inhumanity.

❝ Well, ❞ it starts, finally putting the book and thread down so that it can focus the entirety of its attention on Lydia. ❝ Many people refer to me as The Entity, but those who know me personally call me Thistle. I prefer the latter. ❞

Head tilts to one side and then the other, allowing the glow of its energy to fade for just a moment. The violet glow of their eyes fades back to natural green before Thistle fronts again.

❝ The best classification you have for what I am is an Eldritch being ; something from beyond The Veil. ❞

❝ I'll start with the first one — what are you if you're not Dawn?? ❞ The entity that seemed to be just below the surface of the girl in front of her, was it something that possessed her from the other side or something there that had always been? She knew that possession typically meant that an entity took over an entire host but she didn't know if this was the same situation. The way this thing inside of Dawn made it sound, they were two special parts that transformed into a completely unique whole.

[alwaysrevvedup]

💕 !

send 💕 or ( ‘HEART’ ) for me to randomly pick one of my mutuals to shower in positivity.

@untilthcyrot I adore Lydia Deetz as a character, and honestly, to see someone take her and write her so well is just the cherry on top. I love this little dynamic that's beginning to unfold with her and Eddie and I love talking with this mun ooc too! It's always very chill and welcoming feeling. Also the black and purple theming of the aesthetics? Yes please. It works so well with so many of the characters she writes on this multimuse. 10 out of 10.

[chaos--mode]

@untilthcyrot embraced the chaos : [text] You okay? ( lydia for steve )

[text : L Deetz🖤 ] me? yeah i'm fine :) [text : L Deetz🖤 ] why does it seem like i'm not fine?

[chaos--mode]

Harmless then, she decides, agreeing with Lydia's experience-backed assessment. He certainly sounds like more of a nuisance than a proper problem. More of a pest. Like bed bugs or roaches.

A part of Dawn is curious, though. Which always ends well, of course, proof of which is punctuated by a fluttery little pulse in the back of her mind. The Entity doesn't sit well, pushing against Dawn's grip on the reins. Their eyes flicker, lilac and silver overlapping before silvery-grey glows around their pupil ( Dawn wins ) .

❝ And how exactly do you summon him? ❞ she asks, lashes fluttering over wide, definitely innocent eyes. ❝ Just so I know what not to do. ❞

❝ He doesn't have a lot of pull when he's not summoned directly — ❞ The only way to summon him being that his name had to be chanted THREE TIMES in a row so that he could come out and play, otherwise, it was all parlor tricks that he had up his sleeve. Nobody in the Deetz home so much as even uttered is name in any capacity, not wanting to tempt the bio-exorcist.

❝ — but he still finds ways of pestering the living. He's harmless when he's eraser-sized. ❞ He enjoyed lurking in the town model Adam had carved, popping up here and there to tempt her to let him out or just annoy her and anyone else to death.

[chaos--mode]

Thistle listens, hands threading through the bindings of the book even as purple-tinted eyes stay focused on Lydia. It listens, calm and patient, humming in acknowledgement at her explanation. It wonders what sort of powers she might truly possess ; the ability to see the dead isn't entirely uncommon among those with ties to The Veil. A medium, perhaps?

There's something to the girl, certainly. Thistle makes a note to see what it can find out about her family, if they have any particular... proclivities in their past, or any history with its ilk.

The question isn't unexpected, even as it interrupts Thistle's wonderings. It's lips slowly curl into a gentle smile.

❝ The answer to that question is somewhat complicated. There's me, and there's Dawn, and then there is... us. The answer to what each of us are is not the same. ❞

❝ I've met ghosts that are TRAPPED HERE. They're the ones who've warned me that death is not all it's cracked up to be. ❞ They hadn't done anything wrong while they were living either. The laws of the afterlife had decided for them that they would remain ghosts for about one hundred years before they were allowed to move on. She didn't mind that idea so much, as long as she got to be with them instead of her actual family that treated her like an afterthought if they even thought of her at all.

Slender dark brows furrowed at the CONTORTED VOICE that seemed to pierce through Dawn's own. Different questions rant through her head and she finally spoke the obvious one. ❝ What are you? ❞ Because it didn't sound human, that was for sure, and she'd spent too long around the paranormal to believe otherwise.

[chaos--mode]

steve nodded, like they were having a normal conversation about the weather and not, like, the state of the afterlife. his currentlife was nothing if not interesting, at the very least.

"right, well. that's good i guess."

he chuckled at lydia's last words. as if he could just choose when he'd... y'know. he'd come too close too many times for comfort, thanks. he'd almost rather not see it coming. less stressful, that way.

but then something else that she'd said caught his attention. "wait, the afterlife has rules?"

❝ I wouldn't say it's for everyone. ❞ There was a thoughtful tilt of her head, looking upwards as she considered what was on her mind and what she knew of the afterlife thus far. For most of her life, she didn't even realize that she was a medium until she had moved into her house and realized that the people who used to live there before they died, well, they were still there. She was the only one who could see them. After that, her eyes opened up and she realized just how much was around her the entire time.

Tongue clicked and she continued, ❝ I think if someone dies and they have unfinished business, they're stuck here until they realize how and when they're supposed to move on. The afterlife has some regulations that it has to follow. So I suppose if you're going to die, make sure all your ducks are in a row first. ❞

[chaos--mode]

"oh," he said, smartly.

steve wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, really. definitely not the secrets to the afterlife, as lydia'd put it. but, like, stuck for a hundred years? talk about yikes.

he didn't really like the sound of that, honestly. sounded kinda scary. like, what was the point if everyone just ended up floating around for a super long time, no matter what?

"is that, like, for everyone? kinda sounds like, uh, that thing where you're just trapped somewhere. you know, instead of going to heaven, or hell or." he waved his hand between them, nonchalant, still trying to think of the word for that thing. he gave up after a second. "whatever."

Lydia had to raise her eyebrow upward. Did he just say that talking to ghosts was kind of cool? It was, actually, but that wasn't the reaction she was expecting from him or anyone else in Hawkins for that matter. To make a genuine comment like that, you actually had to believe that she had been gifted with the ability to communicate with the dead in the first place because he didn't really sound like he was mocking her.

Anyone else might have done that, including her own parents when she made claims of seeing the previous owners of their house trying to scare them with sheets over their heads. Her dad pushed her out of his office and Delia was her usual neurotic self, more worried about dinner than ghosts in designer sheets. They only believed her when it financially benefited them.

❝ If you think they know the secrets to the afterlife they don't, ❞ she replied with a smirk. ❝ They know just as much as you and I do right now, which are theories until we die and find out for ourselves. They're kind of stuck for the next hundred years. It's sort of a . . . I don't know . . . house arrest until they're allowed to move on. ❞

[chaos--mode]

It's not Dawn that looks up from her work after Lydia speaks this time, but The Entity. It crawls up their spine and there's no big fight about it; Dawn concedes, lets herself be quieted, as long as it doesn't mess up her book.

Their eyes tint a pale, faded lilac as The Entity comes to the surface and Dawn sequesters herself in the depths of their mind. It looks up at Lydia, hands still working on the binding even sight-unseen, head cocked to one side and a curious expression on its features.

❝Have you?❞ it asks, voice layered and rumbly and otherworldly. ❝You seem... conflicted on the matter.❞

❝ So I've been told. ❞ The Maitlands had warned her that death was a lot more complicated than it was cracked up to be. Death was supposed to be a final end to life but it wasn't, far from it. Adam and Barabara were stuck in their own prison, meant to live it out for a hundred years, give or take a decade, before they were allowed to completely move on. Given her only way to get out of this life by her own means, something told her that she'd be stuck here as penance for taking her own life.

[chaos--mode]

you would think, at this point, that steve would have figured out how to have a normal conversation. ask about things like, oh i don't know, what you liked to do for fun, or where you were going to college. hell, even something as mundane and boring as your favourite colour.

nope. you talk to dead people, then?

he hadn't meant for the question to be so, like, invasive or whatever. he was just genuinely curious. still felt like an asshole, though. lydia's calm demeanor made steve feel even worse; he probably sounded just like everyone else that bugged her on a near-daily basis.

"that's kinda cool." one hand nervously brushed through his own hair, trying to soothe the fraying nerves at the edges of his sanity. "do they tell you anything cool?"

cool echoed in his head on repeat.

Lydia had tried to keep it a secret for a long time - that she lived in the most haunted house in Hawkins. Unfortunately, her business-oriented parents had other ideas for keeping their house only a home. They wanted to make it a business investment. Word had got out before they had inevitably changed their minds, but not before a few rumors sparked. Naturally, people at school found her easy to pick on. She never let it get to her though, more thickskinned than they gave her credit for.

She had looked Steve up and down, deducing whether or not he had genuinely wanted to know more about the goth girl or if he was just another nosy townsperson looking to harass her. ❝ That's right, on a regular basis, ❞ she said so straightfaced yet there wasn't a way to tell if she was actually kidding or not, feeding into the rumors or trying to suggest they were reality.

[chaos--mode]

Dawn nods as if that's a completely normal thing to say. Really, to her, it is. All things considered at least. After all, normal is only relative, isn't it?

She doesn't even bother looking up from her project, eyes trained on the weave of her hands as she pulls fine thread through the spine of the book she's binding. The paper is thick and yellowed, old parchment stained with years of skin oil and use from everyone that's handled it.

❝I don't think it's all it's cracked up to be, honestly.❞

❝ Sometimes I want to be a ghost, too. ❞ That spoke volumes about what she really felt, of course. It hinted that she thought life would be a lot better if she weren't alive, even if that meant being trapped in the afterlife, the same as the Maitlands.

♡ ───── @chaos--mode liked lydia deetz's starter call ( for dawn ) !

[chaos--mode]

Dawn is familiar with what goes bump in the night. Things from Beyond The Veil. Ghosts and ghouls and other such things.

In her experience, some are harmless. Other? Very much not such. Dawn has had her fair share of encounters with the harmless ones. Those that are less so, too. She greatly prefers the ridiculous ones, harmless and even sometimes a little fun.

❝There're definitely worse ghosts to be haunted by. You see him around a lot?❞

TUMBLR TEXT POSTS PROMPTS PART 2 | "Hey, girl. Plagued by terrifying visions?" ( from dawn for lydia ♡ ) asked by @chaos--mode

❝ They aren't visions as much as they are unfortunate visits by the ghost with the most — so he calls himself. I think he's just a clown in need of serious dental work. ❞ In the off chance that Betelgeuse was lurking in the shadows she really wanted to get that shot in. He really had no sense of boundaries.

[chaos--mode]

[ deleted : L Deetz🖤 ] nothing i'm fine! [ deleted : L Deetz🖤 ] seriously i'm fine, it's nothing :) [ deleted : L Deetz🖤 ] what isn't [ text : L Deetz🖤 ] honestly? it's just been sort of a long & shitty day [ text : L Deetz🖤 ] like work and stuff sorta sucked

@untilthcyrot embraced the chaos : [text] You okay? ( lydia for steve ) ♡ — steve harrington, #1 babysitter.

[text : L Deetz🖤 ] me? yeah i'm fine :) [text : L Deetz🖤 ] why does it seem like i'm not fine?