#v: small town weirdos

[feminaferitas]

@healiotrope is at the stump, doing something dangerous in front of Jackie Taylor.

"Lottie, what--"

Jackie didn't often stay late at the compound. In fact, she practically never stayed overnight, and often left before the darkest hours of the night just to make sure she could see the roads headed back into town. But with Natalie's frankly surprising arrival, she had lingered on the grounds as she counseled Lottie about proper practices moving forward. Natalie wasn't trapped here, no one was.

And even if signs of the wilderness had been brought into its landscape, the Yellowjackets weren't trapped in their past.

That didn't mean the past couldn't resurface though. Lottie had taken some private time and went to pay a visit to her psychiatrist -- all nobly intended. Jackie wouldn't pry. In her line of work, it was good to be practical and skeptical, but she had no reason to outright distrust Lottie. So when she stumbled onto the woman kneeling at a tree stump -- a natural fixture of the woodland area, only familiar in the sense that yes, there were trees fucking everywhere, even where they were stranded -- Jackie wasn't deeply concerned. Until she saw the flash of a knife.

"Holy shit, what are you doing?"

[feminaferitas]

"A twenty-five year anniversary is nothing to scoff at," Misty shrugged with a toss of her blonde, bouncy hair. "Plenty of people still care, even if the rest of us are telling them to just move on. These types come out of the woodwork every few years hoping they'll finally be the ones to break the case."

Still, the fact that Jessica had approached several members of the team with varying degrees of an aggressive offer... there had to be some other angle. This was more than just a case of wanting to break the official story. While she'd never confirm it (like they all promised), if Misty had to wager, she would guess that most of the actual truth could be pieced together from all the wild speculation and unofficial accounts that had been published. Of course, what stuck in their craws was the fact that the survivors still held all the power -- they held the knowledge they wanted to hear, whether or not they'd actually listen.

"I've seen plenty of obsessives on the citizen detective forums. In fact, moderators of certain subsites I'm keeping tabs on have banned the topic entirely, isn't that fun?" The idea amused her deeply, hiding behind her AfricanGrey alias. "But you're right, there's definitely something strange about this woman. She thinks she's investigating us, but she's got something else coming."

If someone accused Misty of treating this like a game... they wouldn't be entirely wrong. She may have owned a bird, but she always had a catlike sensibility about her, playing with her prey. The blonde was less concerned than the others -- like dealing with illness, you just had to target and treat the symptoms. Even if her teammates weren't aware she was doing so.

"Talked to them? Not exactly. I mean, I've kept tabs on everyone -- even you, of course -- but it just hasn't felt like the right time... Taissa is so busy with her campaign, Van's not even in the state anymore... Oh! But Natalie did show up at my house with a shotgun. That was actually pretty exciting, even if this Roberts woman wasn't bothering her while she was in rehab," she rambled, a pleasant smile sitting across her lips as she spoke. "I'm not surprised you haven't kept in touch, but being back home... you haven't even crossed paths with anyone accidentally? Or am I just lucky?"

the yellowjackets themselves are almost gone from audrey's mind.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎they were before the crash too.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎the memories of soccer remain at a distance,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she's learned better than to linger‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎(almost,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎it's almost what she's learned and yet here she is standing in misty quigley's home trying to fight the feeling the simmers just under her skin screaming to scratch the itch).‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she's quick to flash a smile over her shoulder,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎brown eyes usually warm turn slowly to dilated iris.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎as much as their shouldn't be:‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎there is fear.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎it's not fear of the blonde herself,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎no,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎it's the quick glances of a teenager she sees from the corner of her eyes,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎as if the misty she once knew is still somewhere hanging on and waiting.

she drops her bag gently,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎and lips pull into a thin line...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎waiting with adverted gaze‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎(avoiding the bird himself)‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎and only giving a smile as he says goodbye.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎the child in her wants to laugh:‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎because if she were asked years ago where she pictured misty quigley,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she could paint this picture with a million words and get nearly every detail right.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎although maybe she'd pick a cat over a bird...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎so close.

" i don't get it,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎i don't get why she cares so much. "‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎her voice is just a train of thought,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎lost as her gaze seems to drift off.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎the topic pulls her in,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎put her in a place where every joke or smile that threatens to pull on her features at the state of her grown self.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎" maybe she's just obsessive.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎maybe she's just a crazy fan...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎i don't know though. "

the shake of her head and the furrow of her brow ages her,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎worry ages her‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎(and she wonders,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎whenever she catches herself in the mirror looking this frustrated,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she wonders how she looked back with the combination of dust settling in the cracks of her skin under the warm yet dim light of the fire).‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎" no,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎no i haven't talked to anyone. "‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎which is funny,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she thinks,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎considering how close she still lives to everyone.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎to leave wiskayok would be to abandon audrey evans,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎are the other girls the same?‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎" why?‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎have you? "

[ironwoodwizard]

Name: Ian D’Arcy

Age: 240 (looks to be late 20’s-early 30’s)

Birthday: October 13, 1783

Gender: male

Sexuality: bisexual

Race: vampire

Appearance: dark loosely curly hair, brown eyes that turn a fathomless black if you look directly at them for too long, pale and too-smooth skin, sharp porcelain-white fangs, tall and lanky form. Greatly resembles his father, but he has his mother’s smile.

FC: young Johnny Depp

Personality: very…odd. Eccentric. Highly intelligent and intuitive, but he doesn’t lord it over others unless he finds it too amusing not to (usually does it to those who insist that they know everything, or especially heinous charlatans). Known as the town weirdo, and he relishes in it in a mostly subtle way. Absolutely a theater kid. Quick-witted goth dude with a heart of gold that he playfully insists is cold and black. Has a background in psychology and criminology and continuously studies it as a hobby. Low-key anarchist. Hates being stuck in boring meetings, and his patience for people only goes so far in settings where he’s forced to sit still(this developed after he was turned; as a mortal, he was well known for his patience in court).

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Powers/Abilities: telekinesis (up to 100 lbs without much effort, but he can lift more if he really pushes himself; the more he lifts, the more it drains him. Heaviest thing he’s lifted/moved was a 300-ish-pound bookshelf that nearly fell on him, and he blacked out afterward.) Fanged bite/exsanguination. Healing factor (drinking blood helps him quickly heal wounds that aren’t caused by holy water or blessed weapons. Burns from sunlight or rushing water heal slowly.) Flight (sort of. His telekinesis allows him to make himself levitate for short periods of time or glide short distances.) Prophecy (when he was a mortal, he often had dreams where glimpses of future events flashed before him. He could not make sense of them unless hypnotized. As a vampire, the visions are much less erratic, and he has learned how to induce them instead of waiting for them to come.) Spiderclimb (he can walk on walls, ceilings, and inverted surfaces as if gravity has no effect on him.) Excellent poker face. Hypnotic gaze (making direct deliberate eye contact with someone for a moment too long puts them under his thrall, though he cannot command a thrall to do anything that they wouldn’t normally be able to do. He often wears dark sunglasses to avoid doing this on accident.) Shapeshifting (he can turn into a bat or a black cat, and is resistant to sunlight in cat form.) Excellent deductive reasoning skills.

Flaws/Weaknesses: Sunlight sensitivity (daylight burns him unless his skin is fully covered, and he has limited day vision), running water (burns him), holy water (burns him), blessed weapons (burn him and do lasting damage), elder wood stake through his heart (paralyzes him until it is removed. If he’s decapitated by a blessed weapon while in this state, he dies. If the stake is blessed, he dies instantly.)

Nationality: English, American

Languages: English, Latin

Style: usually Regency or Victorian gothic inspired, though he dresses more casually when at home and not expecting guests. A lot of black and white with dark jewel-toned accents. Takes great care in his appearance when he knows he’s going to be dealing with people.

Profession: Antique/Curio Shop Owner (current), Lorekeeper (aka Dungeon Master/Game Master. He’s one of the few regulars who show up to run tables at the tavern’s monthly D&D nights), Freelance Detective (former, when he was still mortal, and for a short time after he immigrated to America.), Magistrate (original, while he was still mortal. He wanted to do more to help his village, so he began sleuthing, using his position to gain as much information on various crimes as possible.)

Family: Maeve D’Arcy (née Watson, mother, deceased), Arno D’Arcy (father, deceased), Caolán D’arcy ( pronounced Keelan, younger brother, disappeared, presumed deceased), Robyn D’Arcy (triplet sister, alive, vampire), Sadie D’Arcy (triplet sister, alive, vampire)

Backstory: Born to descendants of French nobles and Scots-Irish merchants in October of 1783, Ian was the second in a set of fraternal triplets. He was brought up in a small but well off village not far from London, taught by the best tutors his father could afford, and groomed from a young age to become a proper magistrate and courtly gentleman. His sisters were educated in much the same manner, set to enter into high society in the same year that he first took his apprenticeship; they were seventeen at the time. A little over a decade later, Ian officially became a magistrate and heard his first case. The case seemed rather simple; a traveling man had been accused of stealing sheep from a local farmer under the cover of darkness for a little over a week, and several witnesses testified that they’d seen him lurking around that farm at or around dusk. The defendant rather adamantly pleaded not guilty, stating that he’d only been watching the farm because he’d seen some strange entity sneak in on his first night in town, and he wanted to see if he could catch it for a reward. Something about the case didn’t sit right with Ian. He knew in his heart that the man was innocent, but he had just as much proof that claim as the rest of the town had of his guilt. Siding with his gut, he announced that they would take a two day recess so that he could investigate the matter further, much to the townsfolk’s disdain. To placate them and protect the defendant, he had him temporarily locked up before asking the farmer to give him a private tour of his farm. The investigation yielded few clues, aside from two sets of boot print tracks and a trace amount of dried blood on the fence, but the most intriguing detail came later that night. Another sheep was stolen, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the traveler could not have been the thief after all. Ian declared him innocent and set him free, though he publicly resolved to find out who the mutton thief truly was. The case took months to solve, as the thief was extremely elusive, and Ian and his two colleagues had other cases to hear in the meantime, most disturbing of which was the murder of the traveler, who was found a week later, mauled and drained of blood. Ian couldn’t help feeling responsible, but that only strengthened his resolve. He was determined to find and prosecute the culprit of this heinous crime once and for all. In the meantime, more livestock were stolen, and when they were moved inside locked barns for the night, people started to go missing. Bodies were discovered in bushes and ditches, mauled and drained, just like the traveler had been. With the fifth body, there was a note written in elegant script with what was most likely the last remaining drops of her blood:

‘You should have left the sheep out for me. Now I’ve developed a taste for daughters instead.’

All of the victims aside from the traveler had indeed been young women, which made the killing spree all the more disturbing, but also triggered something in Ian’s mind. He’d read many Eastern European tomes on the occult in his youth, having had a fascination with morbidity, and recalled several creatures that feasted on blood under cover of night. Vampires. They were dealing with a vampire, though what kind he did not precisely know. He doubted that it was a strigoi, as they were spirits and couldn’t leave boot prints or write. More research was in order. In the meantime, he conferred with the other two magistrates, and they declared a curfew. Citizens must be locked indoors from half an hour before sundown to half an hour after sunrise. The townsfolk readily complied, terrified of losing more young ladies to this horror of the night. Ian, meanwhile, through himself into researching various vampire legends from around the world, and determined his foe to be a Nosferatu, a bloodthirsty humanoid creature native to Romania that was vulnerable to sunlight and capable of turning humans into vampires. All a victim had to do was drink its blood after having been bitten themselves, but most never survived long enough unless the Nosferatu wanted them to. A human turned by Nosferatu would then become an immortal Draconian vampire, retaining their youth and beauty for as long as they retained their humanity, but never able to bask in heaven’s light again. Running water was also a bane to them, eroding their skin as if it were sandstone, and a stake crafted of elder wood could immobilize them if driven through the heart with enough force.

Filled with renewed determination and youthful hubris, Ian set out to hunt down the dastardly beast, commissioning the local arbalista to make him a crossbow that could launch a wooden stake. Thankfully, the man was an experimental sort, always up for a grand challenge; he had a prototype ready in no time. Ian whittled stakes from elder wood in his free time while he waited, unaware that his sister Robyn had already been turned by the beast and was urging Sadie and young Caolán to pursue its gifts as well.

Sadie was eager to comply, having grown bored of her wealthy but snobbish husband, but Caolán was hesitant. He was only eighteen, after all, and just made his debut in society. He wasn’t ready to give up on life as he knew it when his life had only just begun. Robyn didn’t let up. She and Caolán argued back and forth for weeks until he suddenly disappeared without a trace. The night beforehand, Ian was plagued with nightmarish visions that he couldn’t make sense of, but stayed with him throughout the following day. Hoping to ease her brother’s pain, a newly turned Sadie briefly hypnotized him, making the visions slower and much clearer. He saw a familiar door, and a pale, shaking hand grasping the knob. It was locked. The owner of the hand pounded on the door, screaming for help in a voice that he recognized as Caolán’s, but was not let in. It had grown dark. There was a jolt has he was yanked backwards, a clawed hand wrapping around his throat as another gripped his torso and dragged him away. Fighting. Kicking. Screaming. It was one hell of a struggle, but it was all in vain. Ian could do nothing but watch through Caolán’s eyes as the Nosferatu pinned him up against a tree, the rough bark scraping at his back as he stared up at its grinning, horrifying, hauntingly beautiful, gaunt face. It said something that Ian couldn’t quite make out before lunging forward to dig its sharp teeth into the young man’s throat. Caolán’s scream was cut off as Ian’s vision faded, and the magistrate fainted from the stress.

By the time he woke up, night had already fallen again. He’d been too late to save his little brother. Heartbroken and frustrated, he set out anyway, crossbow in hand and rage festering in his vengeful heart. He was hellbent on killing the vampire, even if it was the last thing he’d do. Ian stalked the streets by the light of the full moon, hypervigilant and itching to pull the trigger. He quickly became aware that he was being followed, and began taking sharp turns through alleys and around buildings in an effort to throw off his stalker, or perhaps get a glimpse of them. No luck. He quickened his pace. So did they. Stalking became chasing as he began to run, sprinting for the woods, only to run headlong into Robyn just after making it past the tree line. He demanded to know why she was there instead of safe at home. She didn’t answer. Neither did Sadie after she revealed herself, and Ian came to the horrifying conclusion that they had been turned, luring him out there to meet the same fate as his poor little brother. Eyes widening in fear and pain, he turned to run again just as the Nosferatu slammed into him, knocking him to the ground easily. The rest of that night was a blur. A sharp pain in his neck. The pull of the trigger. Blood. So much blood. And a hunger for life that had to be sated then and there.

When he awoke the next morning in a basement that had been outfitted to be a temporary bedroom, his sisters explained everything. Robyn had been attacked by the Nosferatu the night before the curfew was set in place and enthralled by it to convince her siblings and the family members of the other two magistrates to let it turn them. If they did not comply, they would be slaughtered. Under its influence, Robyn started with Sadie and Caolán, though she had no idea what had happened to the latter after she’d locked him out of the house. Ian was the last remaining member of his family who needed to be turned before they could get to the other magistrates, but he’d managed to incapacitate the Nosferatu in the process, breaking its hold on his sisters, and somehow knew to drink its blood to save himself from death. Ian remarked that he’d done his research. The vampiric triplets then resolved to try and resume their normal lives while they searched for their little brother, whom they presumed to be dead in the woods somewhere. He was never found. Ian was able to remain in his post of magistrate for another decade and a half before rumors began to spread about his ageless appearance, skillful avoidance of daylight, and peculiar change in demeanor. By the early 1830’s, he and his sisters were forced to either leave town or be executed as witches. They parted ways afterwards, with Ian departing for America, Robyn fleeing to Switzerland to meet with a brilliant doctor she’d been writing to, and Sadie traveling to Venice with her husband, whom she’d turned shortly after the Nosferatu was dealt with.

They’ve all kept in touch throughout the centuries. Ian used his vampiric abilities to become elected as a magistrate in Richmond after reaching Virginia, managing to keep a low profile while judging cases fairly and helping with the Underground Railroad. The Civil War made things far more complicated. It was tragic, for sure, and he hated not being able to aid those in need, but the scent of blood hung thick in the air, maddening him. He found it difficult to keep control of his feeding habits, and was forced to flee up north to Canada in hopes of finding peace. After the war was over, it took him over a century to feel comfortable setting foot in America again, and he never stayed in one place for too long, studying psychology and collecting books and knickknacks as he went a long to keep himself occupied. The 1980’s brought him to Texas, one of the few states he’d never been to before, where he found the small, oddly idyllic and peaceful town of Morningstar. It was there that he finally settled down and made a life for himself, encouraged by the welcome attitude of its residents, a quarter of which were supernatural in nature. He opened up a curio shop to display and sell some of the antiques he’d collected, and often offered his services as a pro bono private investigator for those who could not afford to hire one. He also developed a love of board games and table top role playing games, as they allowed him to further explore his sense of whimsy.

[alwaysmoncheri]

𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

summary: in which best friends, y/n henderson and steve harrington get caught up in their feelings while paranormal activities occur in the small town of hawkins, indiana

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞

I - the vanishing of will byers 1.9k

II - the search 2.1k

III - the weirdo on maple street 2k

IV - the house party 2.1k

V - the body 2.4k

VI - pictures 1k

VII - the woods 2.4k

VIII - don’t turn off the lights 1.7k

IX - monster hunting 2.5k

X - the kiddie pool 2.7k

XI - let’s kill this son of a bitch 4.1k

XII - happy holidays 2.7k

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐨

XIII - mad max 3k

XIV - new kids on the block 2.4k

XV - halloween night 4.6k

XVI - tension 1.9k

XVII - episodes 2.3k

XVIII - the cellar 2.3k

XIX - sexual electricity 3.1k

XX - the junkyard 3.3k

XXI - hawkins lab 2.3k

XXII - the spy 1.8k

XXIII - together again 3.4k

XXIV - the fight 2.6k

XXV - tunnels 3.1k

XXVI - the snow ball 3k

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

XXVII - scoops ahoy 3.3k

XXVIII - suzie, do you copy? 2.7k

XXIX - the code 2.4k

XXX - evil russians 2.6k

XXXI - the air ducts 2.1k

XXXII - child endangerment 2.4k

XXXIII - booby traps 2.8k

XXXIV - the gate 2.4k

XXXV - caught 2.9k

XXXVI - drugged 2.1k

XXXVII - escaping evil russians 101 2.8k

XXXVIII - interrogate me 3.6k

XXXIX - the bite 2.4k

XL - the mind flayer 2.1k

XLI - scoops troop 3k

XLII - the battle of starcourt 4.5k

XLIII - new beginnings 2.7k

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫

XLIV - the pep rally 5.4k

XLV - the nightmares 5k

XLVI - the game 2.5k

more tba!

alwaysmoncheri © ─ all rights reserved. please do not repost/translate/copy any of my work.

[urlocalnonbinarybastardwrites]

Hcs for greasers with a GN!goth s/o who moved to town, and everyone, both greasers and socials are afraid of them, because everyone thinks they’re a “witch”

<twinning with @sadie-bug345 btw go check out her blog it’s amazinggggg here’s the link to her hc for this>

Ponyboy Curtis

-he was definitely afraid of you at first, and he 10/10 believed you could actually brew potions but also secretly thought you were cool and interesting

-he was SUPER intimidated by you

-but one day got enough courage to approach you when you were reading under a tree and found out that you were pretty chill and not yk a witch (he does ask tho, just it case)

-Y’all hit off and you showed him some of your music which he actually liked!

-eventually you guys started dating n stuff which was only surprising to those who didn’t know Pony that well

-you go on library/reading + music dates a lot

-Not a lot of Socs mess with him now that he’s always with his witch

-Fr no Socs mess with him he has such a scary dog privilege with you

-matching bandanas + belts

Johnny Cade

-he’s so in love with alt people honestly

-didn’t believe you were a witch and knew weirdos get a bad rap

-he wasn’t scared of you because he thought you were a witch, He was just scared to actually go up and talk to you

-he kind of always admired you from afar cuz yall had a similar vibe and you went to the lot a lot (hehe)

-One day after a long pep talk in the mirror he got the courage to go up and talk to you

-you guys really got along and started dating!

-when you first chatted he admired one of your best rings and you just gave it to him

-(he hasn’t taken it off since istg)

-you did his eyeliner one time and it looked SOOOO GOOD

-10/10 he does matching rings n belts and sometimes small makeup with you

-you guys are v cute together and honestly make so much sense, you’re also his scary dog privledge

Sodapop Curtis

-he saw you and was like ohhhh that’s why they call them a witch

-honestly surprised he liked you bc you aren’t usually his type but opposites attract yk

-he finds your style exotic and so different from his own it opens up his world

-you meet buying snacks at his gas station and he does his usual charming boy personality, suprised when you don’t respond to his flirtation and roll your eyes

-after lots of him flirting and you rejecting (more playfully over time) he finally manages to get you on a date with him

-you guys actually hit it off rlly well

-you guys are like golden retriever x black cat and compliment eachother soooo well

-tbh people saw it coming because yk opposites attract

-he tries to copy ur makeup one time and it did NOT end well 😭💅

-yall turn heads fr

Darry Curtis

-he didn’t necessarily wary of you because of the rumors, he’s just a traditionalist and not rlly used to seeing different people

-so when you come into town you rock his world

-one day your walking along just minding your own business when he grabs your arm and is like “wait” as if he isn’t stopping you from literally moving

-“so uh, what with the, uh, getup?”

“Idk man I just like to dress this way….”

-you guys start talking and actually become good friends

-after a few months he asks you out

-you guys are a pretty stable couple, and ponyboy definitely thinks of you as his rlly cool older sister

-I think yall are the most surprising

-he’s the most likely to change his wardrobe to match yours, def goes all out. Like not tooo far but he changes all his outfits to be vaguely goth

Dallas Winston

-was he a little (a lot) scared of you because of the rumors? Hell yes. Was he going to show that? Hell no.

-probs approached you on a dare or some shit 💀

-made a rude remark or joke so you slapped him and he was kinda surprised such a quiet thing could leave his face that red

-he was kinda in love with that ngl and loved your spunk

-he bothered you everyday after that

-back and fourth after much banter (enemies to lovers energy)

-he managed to actually get you to go on a date with him

-POWER COUPLE FR

-people are SO scared when they see yall walking down the streets yall are sooo intimidating together fr

-matching belts and rings

Two Bit Matthews

-you guys probs met in the back of the classroom

-he made some joke like “Damn, how’d you get out of your coffin this mornin’?!

-to which you responded with an eye roll and a chuckle

-you guys actually end up cracking jokes the whole period and laughing a little too loud

-he finally asks you out and you say yes

-you guys go out and make fun of Socs together and have a grand time

-you guys kind of started dating a bit immaturely, but you actually get to something that’s a lot more mature and have really deep conversations, you kind of ground him, and he kind of bring the humor out of you a bit

-he def takes advantage of the fact people are scared of you and you both jumpscare people and just have so much fun

-best Halloween couple fs

-overall pretty solid

-matching shirts

Steve Randle

-he probably heard the rumors and thought they were stupid and he was the least phased by your look

-I mean don’t get me wrong he liked it but he wasn’t gonna tell you that right away

-you don’t like eachother at first but after you start talking you start to appreciate eachother

-he asks you out and you say yes

-you guys are sooo cute n iconic

-you sometimes play music out loud when he fixes cars and just vibe together

-the EGO boost he gets from your compliments on his style

-he wears matching rings and shirts with you

[feminaferitas]

Callie was hesitant to sit with her mother, afraid of what might come next. She also felt increasingly uncomfortable with every brush of the jersey fabric against her skin, needing to get out of this relic of her mother's past, as if Jackie's vengeful ghost might actually start to haunt her more than the echoes of her already haunted the Sadecki family home.

But she did, because there was nowhere else she could go -- if she went to her room, her mom could just follow. And this was another rare instance of actually, maybe getting something out of the older woman that wasn't just a brush off and a "you're not ready for that". Against her better judgement, Callie sat next to Shauna and bowed her head in shame as her mother touched her back gently as if she hadn't desecrated something sacred that she didn't understand.

"You're right... I'm sorry, it was so stupid," she admitted, her words thick with emotion. Callie rubbed carelessly at her eyes, smearing the already hazy 'dead girl' makeup she'd done to complete the look. But her mom's admission was almost too much for her to process at once. She turned her head to look over, her own eyes wide and glistening, wondering if she really heard correctly that her own mother kind of didn't really want to love her.

"All I ever wanted... I just wanted to feel like maybe I wasn't some regret or mistake, living in your shadow," Callie hiccupped, a few tears shaking loose and rolling down her face. "I thought -- I thought this was your uniform and yeah, maybe... maybe I was a little mad. All my life I've lived in the shadow of your trauma. The daughter of a Yellowjacket, like some sort of... living dead girl. I didn't know this was Jackie's b-but... I hate that it took this happening for you to actually notice me."

I'm sorry. Callie barely tolerates Shauna, forty-some years and lifetimes more experiences written off with a scoff, eyeroll, and toss of her hair that is so painfully Jackie. Needless to say, Shauna was beginning to think 'sorry' wasn't in her daughter's vocabulary. At a loss for words, Shauna stammers, "I-It's--"

But it's not okay. It's irreparable. Callie took the last remaining untainted memory Shauna had of Jackie, and quite literally rubbed dirt in it. She lets out a deep sigh, a sigh that's sat inside her for twenty-five years, and sits on the step that Callie stands on. Patting the step, she says, "Sit with me."

She rests her hand on Callie's back, her fingers scratching up into Callie's neck and hair as she smiles sadly.

"I know you didn't know whose it was, but it's still a shi-- A bad thing to do. I had years of memories attached to that uniform before all of the bad. And now... Now it's gone." She let out a soft huff. "But you're right. I've... I've held you at arms length, and it's not fair. The truth is, I'm scared, honey. In a way that will never go away. Scared that if I love you, or your dad, something will happen to you guys. I know, that's silly, but it's something I can't help, and you can't either, and I'm so sorry."

[stranger-fanfiction-n-things]

season one of "stand by me"

diana sinclair lived a perfectly normal life. all she needed was her loving family, two best friends and a pair of ballet shoes. but when the mysterious disappearance of will byers shakes the small town of hawkins, diana finds her perfectly normal life turning upside down.

prologue

chapter one: the vanishing of will byers

part ii part iii part iv

chapter two: the weirdo on maple street

part ii part iii part iv part v

chapter three: holly, jolly

part ii part iii part iv part v

chapter four: the body

part ii part iii

chapter five: the flea and the acrobat

part ii part iii part iv

chapter six: the monster

part ii part iii part iv

chapter seven: the bathtub

part ii part iii

chapter eight: the upside down

set between season one + two

coming soon...

extras:

meet diana sinclair hawkins high questionnaire 1983

seasons of “stand by me”

[pondslime]

Do you think that what Bo said about him and his brothers ending up in foster care was also a lie? I've seen some who think he wasn't lying about that but I don't think the timing and the codependency him and his brothers have adds up to them being separated for a bit, ya know? Sorry for bombarding you with a question but ugh there's just so much untouched lore potential I wanna screeeeeam

*cracking knuckles* oh baby u just opened the floodgates I am about to be SO fckn annoying

so personally, I very much believe that bo's spinning an ENTIRE crock of shit during that conversation w/carly and wade

something that I think we all need to highlight more is that the baby idiot himself has SUCH a flair for the dramatic. our favorite caveman is a chronic theater kid. like, okay acting 101? okay thespian? okay daytime soap OPERA??? the scene he sets for this fuckmurdermayhem is just...................SO grotesque and dramatic and entirely UNNECESSARY LMAO

he's a weirdo who has sequestered himself in a town full of corpses and u just KNOW the gaps between the wax nonsense are LONG and BORING and he's ANTSY

the whole time he's chasing carly thru town he's just. blissed out. goin hehehehehhehehehehe be vewwy vewwwy quiet!! we're huntin' wabbits!!! elmer fudd-mode FULLY engaged

he GRINS before he's shot by a fckin crossbow?????????? BABY???? WHAT ARE U DOING??????

he is truly on some other shit!! convinced his bargain bin broadway play will go off without a hitch and he will somehow??? be getting a standing ovation for his foolishness????

sighing DREAMILY

this is the most fun he's had in possibly months, and he's living la vida loca. he's that one tiktok of all the kids performing summer loving in the denny's. this is his golden globes. his bafta (big ass fucking truck absurdity). his academy award winning performance, starring his raging boner & very little foresight!!!!

I think there might be LIL grains of truth to his story, ofc. the best lies have small kernels of truth to them, and bo's lies seem to work the best when he adds those in (mentioning that he's close to the deceased to incur pity/getting nick to agree to follow him to a second location by mentioning that they might have gone up to the house)

but I do believe that most of it is complete bullshit lmao

there is absolutely no way in hell that those boys EVER got separated. to me!!! at least!! nope. they were in that miserable little house together the whole time. vincent and bo's interactions together speak to years of sibling tension and growing resentment. lester's inclusion in all of this w/his role of like. the ferryman to the fckin UNDERWORLD that is ambrose. is so v a marker of his attachment to his older brothers

they're all inextricably linked!!!!!!

bo 100% killed victor tho. u do not mime shooting urself in the head when discussing ur dad's death if u did not shoot him point blank range w/a smile on ur face. u simply do not. not entirely sure if he killed trudy. feel like that might've been vincent/a group job. or. pet theory. she DID just die of natural causes. or. other pet theory. she was actively participating/aware of the first couple murders. we'll never know but. huh

I also REALLY don't buy the "trudy got a cyst in her brain" stuff. I've played around w/it in a couple fics, but I v much think the probablity of it being a complete fabrication? oh 99.9%. most definitely. talking about ur mom getting strapped to the bed & screaming loud enough for the whole town to hear? hsdfjhfdsjhsdf BOY GOODBYE.

like????? that's SUCH a deranged thing to tell someone u just met. and it v much seems like smthn he tossed out to purposefully unnerve them. he didn't have to say that, but he DID. bc he loves the cat and mouse game. that's why he creeps on them @ the campsite. he's so deeply abnormal

it's all this weird sad little story that's designed to make u uncomfortable. also. sidenote......................in this version of the scene that he's set, he's the mourning parishioner sadly recounting a tale of woe that he's notably detached to. who is he in relation to the story he weaves? nobody. just an observer.

if life could be a fckin dream boseph!!!

BTW. he does this in the original script, but it's somehow EVEN weirder.

he is. and I CANNOT stress this enough. roleplaying as a kid in the neighborhood that trudy liked and would spoil.

???????????????????????????????????????????

babygirl is truly going thru it!!!!!! babygirl this is EMBARRASSING!!!!!! ur MOMMY ISSUES!!!!!!!!!!! BABYGIRL!!!!!!!!! they are SHOWING!!!!! they are STAPLED to ur forehead!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

he's so ABNORMAL!!!!!!! I need to make out w/him!!!!!!!! RN!!!!!!!!!!!

vincent waiting 2 hear what dumbass alternate reality bo has cooked up for this batch of tourists:

I always talk about how dumb bo is. and I mean every word of it. I really do. but I do think he's got a couple braincells.

I v much feel like he's v much a creature of habit. he's been doing this shebang for years n years and he knows how it goes. he gets his fuckin n suckin and vincent gets his wax sculptures. bada bing bada boom. showtime baby.

his "plan" is v much as solid as a plastic bag drifting thru the wind, wanting to start again. he is fr hinging this whole thing on a series of events, that, should they not happen, he has no alternative for. and he is so weird and so strange and cannot deviate from his script LEST he get pissymad and ruin everything. he's so dumb. I'm so v in love w/him.

TL; DR!!

I wrote this for my peabrain video essay script and it's all the above bullshit nonsense. but more coherent:

& an unrelated bit. bc it's still my favorite bit of the script & the only part I recorded a voice clip for sfjdhdfjshdfs

[feminaferitas]

@scatcrccio gets a call from Shauna the day after Halloween

Yes, maybe Shauna was still rattled from seeing her daughter in Jackie's uniform last night. But no matter how pleasant their resulting conversation had actually been, it didn't change the fact that Callie had been getting high on ecstasy on Halloween at a dance club. And yes, Shauna had also been out at that club with Adam, but that was way beside the point.

After giving her daughter an earnest talk about the consequences of trying to blackmail her about the... cheating, Shauna resolved to do the responsible, motherly thing. Which, in her messed up life, meant calling one of the least responsible, but frankly quite consistent people she knew for intel. Preventative measures, she told herself.

"C'mon... pick up..." Shauna stood at the kitchen sink, looking out into the sunshine beyond the window to see if there were any pests in the garden. Then the line clicked. She perked up, if only in a sort of formal manner -- Nat Scatorccio wasn't exactly a girl-talk kind of friend.

"Hey, Natalie... Hope I'm not disturbing anything. Good Halloween?" A nervous laugh, and the smallest of small talk before launching into her ulterior motive. "I have a question that I think someone of your... local networking abilities would have an answer for."

[feminaferitas]

Of all the girls on the team, Jackie had probably spoken with Van the least. The redhead had been the antithesis of the class queen's energy and attitude, and after Jackie had tried to leave Van to die save Shauna from hurting herself, it was hard to share space with her for long before it would devolve into friction. And after Van was attacked... point was, they weren't exactly what anyone would consider chummy.

So when Jackie appeared to her former teammates twenty-five years later, she wasn't sure what to say. With the others, she was usually able to leverage their relationship to give herself some sort of edge in the conversation. She wasn't a fucking spirit guide or something, or just an internal manifestation of their guilt. At the end of the day, Jackie was still a part of them all and always would be, as they knelt down before their team captain and pulled her flesh apart like a dark communion at the altar of her demise.

Despite the fact that her teammates were still alive, seeing what constituted as "living" to them was always a bit of a shock, at first. Van looked tired, worn, sitting on this couch in a room that looked like an attic. How much of Van had left the wilderness? How much of the wilderness had left her? Her scars looked faded with time, and the bottle of pills on her counter didn't look like the self-medicating tendencies of Natalie. Finally, Jackie hummed in her throat.

"Well, it's not Wiskayok, huh?" She gestured around to the posters and paraphernalia on the walls, shelves, and all around. "Guess this stuff is considered retro now, isn't it?"

[Starter for @feminaferitas]

V. Palmer. 

Vanessa Palmer. Van Palmer. Van. 

The V. Palmer on her prescription bottle of pills was for her and Van couldn’t stop staring at it. She shared those initials with her mother, a woman that Van actively avoided thinking about, and now here she was, taking prescription medication with a V. Palmer on the label just like she used to. Back then, Van’s mother had used some bullshit excuse about an old injury playing up that needed the pain relief, and eventually mixing the opioids with booze had been what killed her in the end. Van had always known it would, and getting the call hadn’t been a surprise. 

Van sighed and shook the pill bottle, debating whether she wanted to take them or not. She’d not taken any since she’d been given the prescription a couple of months ago, but as the cancer had begun to eat its way deeper through Van’s body, the pain had increased to an almost unmanageable level. Even then, Van was doubled up in pain over her kitchen counter after closing the store, using her hips and her elbow to keep herself from falling all the way down to the floor. 

Still, Van felt doubt creeping into the edges of her thoughts and she turned the bottle over to read the potential side effects. 

Nausea. Check.

Vomiting. Sometimes. 

Rapid heart rate. Yep. 

Migraines. Increasing in regularity. 

Constipation. You have to eat for that. 

Loss of appetite. Very much so. 

Dizziness. The pain was worse. 

Drowsiness. All the time. 

Lowered libido. Not relevant. 

Hallucinations. Maybe tripping balls was a better option to the bone deep pain she was already feeling. 

Addiction. Van knew she wasn’t going to live long enough for it to matter. 

With a tired, defeated and pained groan, Van twisted the lid off the pill bottle and shook two capsules onto the countertop before putting the lid back and putting the orange bottle aside. It took another moment of deliberating and talking herself into it before she was able to put the little pills into her mouth and stick her face under the faucet to gulp water and force the medicine down her throat. 

Van wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to start working, so she forced herself to straighten up and walk over to her sofa, sinking down into the plush surface to wait and see what came next.

[prpfz]

😼hi !! idk how well this emoji will work bc im on my laptop but !! im 22, they/them and i mostly do oc x canon or oc x oc !! currently i am very interested in oc x oc, especially f/f !! i do double up in anything i do if that's your speed and i don't have any specific plot in mind atm bc i'm writing this off like two doses of nyquil and a migraine but ! im mostly interested in something small town, maybe with themes of southern gothic. i write basically exclusively poc characters and i know its wild to have to mention but if you do not like that !! dont contact me <3 id also like anything horror themed, esp to do with haunted houses and cursed families !! my fandoms currently for oc/cc are: - the hunger games (finnick odair/my oc, i play anyone) -stranger things (mike wheeler is preferred and i play anyone but lucas is my special baby) -house of the dragon/game of thrones (anyone, honestly, and i play anyone but my best are aemond and rhaenyra) -gen v/the boys (my preference is jordan li! and i do write anyone with a special fondness for sam) -the secret history (i prefer camilla for f/f! i do not write henmilla because i.. dont want to) i write canon/canon as well but i am very picky about the ships <3 so feel free to approach me but i cannot promise a yes. i am comfortable with any themes but i do enjoy dark ones and do not care for smut. i have a special fondness for morally grey and grotesque characters so bring me your weirdos ! you can contact me on discord @. carnivorelambchop im currently shadowbanned but dont be scared to reach out ! if i have ghosted you before i am SO sorry, i unfortunately do have memory problems so i do unintentionally do that at times so it is up to your discretion if you would like to dm me <3 i am ghost friendly so if you have ghosted dont be scared !

carnivorelambchop

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

I don’t care about his haters I want to hear about buggy’s qualities 😭😭😭

i let this one sit in my inbox for a while because your phrasing kept making me laugh. i hope you don’t mind the delayed response.

buggy’s qualities! (note i did not specify good qualities or bad qualities.) let’s get into them.

already established in that post:

greedy (obviously)

selfish (obviously)

two-faced (very obviously)

loyal (limited applications)

self-preserving (a strong instinct)

untrustworthy (almost comically obviously so)

trusting (to the point of naïveté)

an interesting, contradictory lineup. what else is there to buggy?

he has very romantic notions of piracy.

despite saying the only thing that matters to him is treasure & the acquisition thereof, the way he acts says otherwise. he parties at the drop of a hat (improving crew morale). when his crew, thinking he’s dead, has moved on, even going so far as to adopt a new captain and flag (after… how long have they been apart, exactly? weeks? days?), he rescues them, no questions asked. he weeps to hear how badly he was missed after his arrest, how proud his crew was to hear of his involvement at the paramount war, and he returns both sentiments instantly. the captain-crew bond means something to him. (small wonder why.)

he turns up his nose at crocodile’s deeply unromantic “piracy is a business” mindset—buggy doesn’t care about building capital, he wants to find the one piece! who needs a five-year plan when you can just find the biggest, best treasure that ever existed right now?!

oh, hey, related to that:

he’s impulsive.

why make a plan when you can just do things?! who needs to learn anything from these soft-hearted pirates—buggy’s got a treasure map and a devil fruit worth more money than he’s ever seen in his life! he’s gonna head out on his own ASAP! that should be no problem at all… for this pre-teen… on the grand line. mm hm.

he wants to get back on the grand line and find the one piece—or captain john’s treasure—or any other treasure he finds a map for, really. how? well, he’ll follow the map, obviously! …and when that leads him into danger?

he can be inattentive.

more specifically, he gets fixated on his goal—treasure, killing luffy, silently panicking, yelling at shanks, whatever—to the point that he somehow misses everything else going on around him. does not notice shanks walking up behind him—twice. does not notice smoker or his officers surrounding his men until it’s too late. walks into a cave that’s actively being mined because he thinks treasure might be there. walks into a well-appointed navy garrison because he thinks treasure might be there!

he doesn’t notice he’s standing next to whitebeard—you know, the nearly twenty-two foot tall man—until he hears the guy call him by an insulting name.

buggy makes rash decisions and has a short temper—a dangerous combination.

he hears insults where none are intended, and lashes out violently—maybe lethally?—and sometimes when insults are intended, he doesn’t bother to wonder who’s offered the insult until after he’s fired one back. at which point he may wilt like a daisy, if the person he’s insulted turns out to be, say, whitebeard.

(why yes, i do think that moment is hysterical. not least because i suspect whitebeard cannot remember buggy’s name, and calls him red-nose because that’s all he does remember about him.)

but even at his most weak-kneed, fawn response, pathetic little guy, we have to keep in mind:

he’s charismatic and inspirational.

and i’m not just talking about the impel down guys! his original crew were just as impressed by him—though maybe impressed and terrified in equal measure?—at the start of the orange town arc. they were confident in his victory over these three weirdos to the point of cockiness, just laughing when zoro cut buggy down. they’re really shaken when luffy, after a few minutes of devil fruit v devil fruit combat, totally curb-stomps buggy. they prefer to believe he’s just not taking the fight seriously yet.

they’re fully convinced of his strength, cleverness, and power!

…now i’m not saying their impression of him is based in reality.

buggy’s an excellent bullshitter.

but it’s not enough to just tell a good lie, you also have to be convincing about it. (usopp, early on, is more entertaining than convincing—a good liar of a different flavor. storyteller, not self-promoter.) and while there are plenty of characters who can see through buggy’s act (to name a few: alvida, galdino, luffy (sometimes), most of luffy’s crew, most of the named characters who broke out of impel down…), there are plenty who can’t.

buggy’s “who am i?!”/“captain buggy!” chanting with his crew is not super original, maybe, but it sure gets his men pumped up. his “let’s go after the one piece!” rant in ch 1082 doesn’t impress crocodile or mihawk, but when he airs it to cross guild as a whole it sets things in motion such that the two of them can’t do shit to stop it.

…and that’s buggy as i see him, more or less! let me know if you think i’ve forgotten something! i certainly may have, or i may have lumped the trait you’re thinking of in under one of these other headings, but you won’t know unless you ask.

[singukieee]

'24 A R C H I V E

—of fics I've read or been reading. this archive is being constantly updated!

[back to NAVIGATION]

♡ : works I'm following closely

☆ : my ultimate favourites (mostly finished)

① : oneshots

Might as well be drunk in love

ceo!bts x reader

In which your friend thought it would be funny to give you a love potion, and in which seven CEOs accidentally drank it.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Bangtan Host Club ♡

host!bts x reader

Tired of your boring mundane life? Become an exclusive member of The Bangtan Host Club™ today and let 7 charming men help you out.

Strange

idol!bts x businesswoman!reader (jin focus)

You and Jin grew up in an orphanage together. With no parents or family to take care of you, you both looked after each other. But it all changed when he was eventually adopted by a loving family, leaving you all alone. What happens when you're now a grown, successful adult working with him and his six boyfriends?

American Mate ♡

hybrid!idol!bts x human!reader

The Hybrid K-pop group BTS is on tour in America; of course, things don't start out the way they should, but after an encounter with Y/n, things change but will everyone follow Fate?

To Love, To Heal

bts x fem!reader | neighbor au

You’ve thought you’d healed from the pain. The feeling of insecurity, the pain of knowing you’ve given you’re all for it to all blow up in your face, making you the fool. After the antagonizing heartbreak from your ex- husband, you’ve found it hard to open up to anyone since. It’s been years since the breakup, and you’ve thought you’ve moved on and in a way you completely did. You may not harbor any feelings for your ex-husband anymore, but you’ve found that your heart isn’t as open as you initially thought- especially when seven kind and handsome men are striving for your love and affection next door.

House of Addams

bts x private investigator!reader

Private investigator!reader is hired to look into the deaths, disappearances, and disturbances in the small town of Farrow's End, where she meets a gang of weirdos that help her along the way while she vehemently denies her attraction to all seven of them.

My Strange Addiction

idol!bts x idol!reader

In which bts find themselves completely and utterly infatuated with one of the members of hybe’s newest girl group, le sserafim, developing a strange and unhealthy addiction to their junior

Strawberry Princess ♡

hybrid!bts x hybrid!reader

When a certain hybrid starts to appear whenever Jungkook is at the gym, an immediate pull is felt between the two and their eventual friendship soon is spread to the rest of his pack.

CH 1 | CH 2 | CH 3 | CH 4 | CH 5 | CH 6 | CH 7 | CH 8 | CH 9 | CH 10 | CH 11

Neighbors

influencer!bts x animator!oc

A story where a girl who is barely present in social media doesn't know that her new neighbors are famous online stars.

Green ♡

rabbit hybrid!single dad!jungkook x fox hybrid!author!reader

In which you got set up on a blind date with jk, but you didn't know he came as a package. Even tho it started with a misunderstanding, it might be a start for something beautiful.

CHANTAJE ♡

ceo!bts x actress!reader

Being under the watchful eye of the media and your fans, your managers are in desperate need of regaining back your popularity after other influencers who hate you cause mayhem to your life. what best way to do so by having you pretend to be in a relationship with the popular 7 who are known to be intensely wealthy and stoic? will you be able to regain their trust or will they go with their promise of damaging your reputation even more?

Penny for your Ghosts ♡

hybrid!bts x hybrid!reader | ghost hunter au

The world is haunted. There's ghosts, so many in fact that sometimes it feels like they're taking over the living. Incidents are on the rise, ghost related injuries and deaths are getting worse and more common, fear is taking place in hearts of those still here.

And the only ones who are born with the gift, with the ability to see, hear and fight this epidemic, are hybrids. Between the countless agencies and corporations ran by humans exploiting hybrids' gifts for profit, you desperately try to apply your gifts and end up at a small shunned hybrid ran agency fighting to help people and gain respect.

Change My Mind

idol!bts x makeup artist!reader | soulmate au

As a make-up artist, you were expected to glamorize your clients with brushes and products that cost a week-worth of food, not to befriend them outside of work, let alone have them save you from dates yet here you are five years later as one of their closest confidants. Being a stylist of the world's biggest boyband is no easy feat, someone is doing flips, someone can't stay still and one's asleep but its fine, you can work around their chaos but what you can't do is accept the fact that they're your soulmates.

Dragonheart

dragon!bts x knightess!reader

The Gong-li Empire has been on the peak of its power for a little over a millenium, and there was a very simple reason for that - dragonkind. When the first emperor of the Li Dynasty struck a deal with a witch that would allow him to bind dragons to the crown and force them into obedience, it was the beginning of its reign of terror and the end of freedom for creatures as old as nature itself.

Now, a woman hoping to change everything enters the ranks of the elite dragon rider unit among the imperial army and meets seven men that not only change her life, but help her change the fate of the whole world.

Moonchild ♡

werewolf!bts x reader

Working at a coffee shop that only opened in the late hours of the night was the most exciting thing about your life, really. You never had that many friends, your love life was nonexistent, and you just couldn’t explain the feeling of not belonging that chased you no matter where you tried to find your place. It was when seven very handsome strangers came into your life that weird things started happening around you and within you. Could they be the ones to fill in what’s been missing? Or would getting involved with them and their world put you in danger?

['21 ARCHIVE]

['22 ARCHIVE]

['23 ARCHIVE]

[stuckincoolsville]

7/23/24: what's my name?

i absolutely hate these things. 

intros, blogs; it's all stupid, really. it's not even worth the effort of capitalizing, let alone proper grammar. 

who's gonna read this? who's gonna care about some random weirdo teenager moving to some random weirdo town? in OHIO, of all places. the meme is writing itself and dying as we speak.

but my therapist says this will help me. somehow. he says we don't meet enough, so he has no way of knowing how i'm truly doing or feeling. starting a little blog will, supposedly, help me get my feelings out.

i feel it's just another way for him to keep tabs on me, but whatever.

don't worry, i'm not dumb enough to reveal my actual name. just call me V. 

i recently graduated from a high school in New York. yes, i lived near bodegas. yes, i'd rather attend NYU, or a CUNY, or anywhere else besides Coolsville Community College. yes, i walk wherever and whenever i fucking want. yes, i miss the bagels. and the pizza. and the water.

so, that being said, what am i doing in Coolsville, Ohio? 

moving into the house i inherited from my mom. who i have not seen since i was...twelve? yeah, about twelve. i still have this vague memory of watching her pack up her car with all her stuff. her mouth, pressed closed. how she kept refusing to look at me, at my dad. and then walking back in the rain so she can get in her car and drive out of our lives.

yeah, that's rather grim...but it's also relevant. 

surprisingly, she's not the main reason i'm in therapy at the moment. well, not because she left. children are abandoned by parents all the time. most divorces are the result of a parent walking out on a family. i'm not special because i'm another statistic.

i'm in therapy 'cause of the other thing.

anyway, the relevance of this is that i haven't seen my mom in six years. no one seemed to know where she went. it was like she literally dropped off the face of the earth. and yet, a few months ago, my dad and i got a visit from a lawyer. my mother's lawyer.

he said my mother died of a tragic...accident (spoilers: i don't think it was an accident), and that the ownership of the house she lived in recently transferred to me. a house in Coolsville, OH.

if this was last year, i would have slammed the door closed in the man's face. or had my friend Johnny do a prank call and scam the guy out of his money. or maybe had Marcy

...

i think you get the idea.

but this year...it was like the guy handed me the solution to all my problems on a silver platter. after everything that had happened this year, all i wanted was to disappear. to go to a place where no one knew my name or who i was. 

you'd think that'd be easy in New York, a city of several million people on its own. but when you've gone through what i've gone through, when your picture has been published in enough NYC newspapers or blogs or anything with readership, it becomes difficult to be invisible again. 

i had to argue about it with my dad, but it was weak on his part. i think everything was starting to strain on him too.

so with a few bags packed and a rather emotional goodbye with dad & the few friends i have left, i hopped in my car and headed for Ohio.

took me a little bit to find this place. Coolsville is pretty obscure, even by most small town standards. if you can get past the sense of dread you get from Toledo—with all its emptiness and boarded up houses & buildings—you're already on the right track. 

go past the long highway. head east, towards where the trees gather most. down that long, long road that seems to be an entrance to another realm. towards the faint sound of rushing water flowing from a place you can't see yet. and suddenly, you're there. in a town stuck in time, struggling to embrace modernity as we understand it. a place that is just outside the border of the area considered to be part of Appalachia. 

it's like i walked right into the 1960s...or maybe early '70s. every house is painted in bright colors, the grass never seems to brown; and the flowers are always in bloom. and all the people seemed to dress like they go thrifting on the regular, their clothes are so...retro? vintage? any of those words work? and they always seem to have a smile on their faces. typical welcoming committee, wholesome small town edition, i suppose.

i was a bit wary at first. still am. but it's been a couple weeks since i moved in. no one's asked the questions i've expected yet. no mob is calling for my blasphemous head. everything and everyone i speak to actually exists, which is a relief. so things are okay. 

for now.

no idea what the future holds, but i recently registered for classes at the community college here. it's much more affordable than the schools in NY, even for a newcomer like me. (guess enrollment must be pretty low over here.) no friends, but the few neighbors i've met seem friendly. there seem to still be teens my age over here, so that gives me some comfort. the house my mome left me is already paid for and has all the furniture and appliances i need. i just need to pay for utilities and maintain the house.

that's why i got the job at the bookstore. it's pretty cool, run by this weird old lady who likes to cackle and rant about the new age occult scene. says my generation doesn't know how to properly communicate with the Old Ones, and that will lead to our ultimate downfall. 

things like that. 

she has a lot of weird takes, now that i think about it, but i'm not gonna argue logic and reason with the crazy lady signing my paychecks.

not much else to say at the moment. i mean, there's more but. this was just supposed to be an intro. i don't wanna vomit out everything in my head. not yet. 

(Dr. Dimaggio, if you're seeing this, you already know. so there's really no point anyway.)

so i guess i'll be signing off. i'll update this when something happens or if there's something i wanna get off my chest.

later.

signed,

V.D.

[keepthisholykiss]

everyone is sharing their life changing/impactful text they read in highschool and many people are (rightfully) including shakespeare but my life changing shakespeare experiences were before high school and I want to yell in the void about them so

when I was a small six year old weirdo there was a traveling shakespeare education program. they came to the under funded schools that didn't have towns with theatre. at six years old I sat in my multipurpose room to watch some college kids perform for this troupe and it was there i saw a woman playing hamlet and my entire course of life immediately changed. I was OBSESSED i did NOT fully grasp it but i didn't care I knew it was the most important thing in the world to me. when i close my eyes i can still see some of the scenes it was so wonderful.

this same company came to my schools every year until i hit high school. i watched macbeth, midsummer, julius caeser, henry v, and so many others. when i was ten my grandpa started taking me to library book sales to buy 10 cent copies of paperbacks and one day i found a complete works of shakespeare that made my eyes wide and i begged him to spend the 5 or 7 or whatever dollars for it. i sat up in my room every night reading scenes i didn't fully grasp and when i was 12 i walked into a drama class for the first time and my teacher made us read the duel scene from romeo and juliet, a play i somehow hadn't read or watched yet, and i went home that night and devoured it. i completed the canon at god knows what age and then i did again and again because it was the thing that made me the most excited about art and reading. i didn't have the desire or god knows the access to ever act or join clubs or anything. just one drama class with a retiring english teacher who hated english class. so i only ever read plays and kept them to myself.

a whole lot of things happened in my life that made me have to stop paying attention to writing and reading and enjoying theatre but i found it again when i turned 23 and it literally saved me from the world i had been sucked down into against my will. it brought me my own identity and my now wife and my masters studies and soon my phd studies. and it wasn't something i experienced in high school or college even but it was a seed planted that grew into some of my most favorite parts of my childhood and the only bright moments for me throughout life. anyway i think art and theatre and books that impact us at any age or time are good and important and im glad we can have that experience.

[ojacksonscohen]

Hellooo! I saw your post about getting out of a book slump and reading loads this year. I was wondering if you could share a list of your favourite ones this year!

I seriously love all your content you post and wish you nothing but the best!

ahhh this is the nicest message!!! thank you sm. i realized after i started writing this list it was long so i tried to organize it a bit! if you have any questions about any of them hit me up 😈 non-fiction - i heard you paint houses, charles brandt (been obsessed with the mob since i was little, absolute weirdo child) - jews don’t count, david baddiel - bad blood, john carreyrou - kitchen confidential, anthony bourdain

poetry / playscripts - bright dead things, ada limon - dancing in odessa, ilya kaminsky - anecdotal evidence, wendy cope - postcolonial love poem, natalie diaz - cock, mike bartlett (play) on its own, a fairly weak script that’s core concept is “is bisexuality real?” HOWEVER i got my hands on the audio version of the 2009 production with andrew scott, ben whishaw and katherine parkinson and it is absolutely marvelous!!! totally elevates the writing imo - cat on a hot tin roof, tennessee williams (play) - fleabag, the scriptures, phoebe waller-bridge (script)

graphic novels i don’t really read a lot of graphic novels but while trying to break my slump i wanted to be more open to different types of fiction! most of these are short series (5 volumes or less!) - maus I & II, art spiegelman (read in the first half of the year when it became a banned book. devastating and beautiful) - the book tour, andi watson - the delicacy, james albon - the me you love in the dark, skottie young

fiction ok this is long but i wanted to give you my (brief) thoughts on each one!!! the bright lands, john fram (horror) a quarterback goes missing and his brother, shamed out of their small town ten years ago for being gay, returns to find him. this one is hands down the best book i’ve read this year & been chasing the high of reading it since i finished!!! and OKAY i understand that maybe doesn’t sound exciting but trust me it’s a fucking banger and so worth all the football talk, please read it!!!! - thin air, michelle paver (horror, ghosts!) michelle paver is my no 1 arctic ghost queen!!! imo not as good as dark matter, but still so so good. - the last house on needless street, catriona ward (horror) batshit insane, go into this as blind as possible, but be warned it’s v trigger heavy. If you have any q about them i will try to answer as non spoilery as possible. - the hacienda, isabel canas (horror, ghosts!) feels very ‘rebecca’ in the beginning but swiftly moves into it’s own realm of magical realism and the sexual tension between beatriz and the priest that helps her....oof. the ending made me cry. - the last thing to burn, will dean (horror, psychological thriller) big fan of will’s tuva series but his stand alones have been hit and miss (didn’t care for first born) but this one was suffocating, i devoured it in a day. - the count of monte cristo, alexandre dumas (classic, adventure) i read the three musketeers last year and enjoyed it, but absolutely adored the count! dumas has a compelling voice that makes reading 1200 pages fly by - the daughter of doctor moreau, silvia moreno-garcia (science fiction, retelling) much more science fiction-y then i usually go for but i ended up enjoying it more than i thought! - dracula, bram stoker (classic, horror) i mean we all read it this year right! jon x mina 4ever - dubliners, james joyce (classic, short stories) can’t say i enjoyed all the stories in this collection, (my faves were araby, eveline, a little cloud, clay and the dead) but i listened to it via audio read by andrew scott…. absolutely stunnin - small things like these, claire keegan (historical fiction, novella) a sweet christmas time book about ireland's infamous magdalene laundries. ends on a very uplifting note!!

would love to hear what your favourites have been!!! love giving and receiving book recs so pls 🙏