[ Sometimes, you’re trying to text a friend. Sometimes that friend’s name is “Susie”, with an S. And sometimes you accidentally text a not-friend who is under your phone contacts by “Shape”. Which also stars with an S.
And you never get a text back, but sometimes you do get a response of a sort. Like this one.
He shows up a short while after the misfire, out in the middle of the snow on Mount Ormond, by the visitors’ information board. Anyone can tell he’s there because the mountain is eerily quiet. The usual low howling of the icy winds, the cracking and breaking and falling of icicles, the distant cawing of crows… it’s all missing. All signs of life and the passing of time just goes completely dead silent. Even here, the presence of the purest evil is acknowledged by everything.
And he watches. Stares. Does nothing and says nothing, but he’s there, as though waiting for an answer. ]
[ it takes julie a while to discover they have a guest, mostly because the lack of a response meant she assumed susie was busy and went about her own business. it's hours later when she's trudging through the snow with a bottle of gin and a pack of cigarettes she managed to liberate from a house in haddinfield, when she pauses. ]
[ something's wrong here. in a way that's familiar, but not enough so for her to place it. ]
[ weirdly, she doesn't even notice michael straight away. only when she turns on the spot a little way away from the notice board, a niggling feeling that she's missed something important, that's when she spots him. her very sensible response being to shriek out of surprise and throw the pack of cigarettes at him. ]
[ and then she bursts into laughter when that adrenaline hits. ]
[ a little relieved he doesn't ask why not ormond, even if she did give a good excuse for trekking to autohaven. julie appreciates that about talking to eddie, he doesn't really pry. some of the other survivors ask so many questions like they should get to look at her life story or whatever just because she's not some twisted up monstrosity on the outside. pisses her off. ]
[ anyway. ]
[ getting through the fog is easy enough at this point, at least it is when it comes to travelling between the realms (and to the campfire.) there's other stuff out there, she knows, but julie's never tried venturing out that far. the thought gets choked away every time it starts to form. but getting to autohaven is quick and easy, takes maybe ten minutes even at a normal pace, so she stops first to grab her walkman and a couple things before setting off. a bottle of water because sometimes she gets the worst cottonmouth and a couple bags of chips they raided from the rpd vending machines. mask on and knife in hand, that's when she feels comfortable enough to leave. ]
[ it's no surprise she gets there first. it's chilly, but it doesn't compare to the cold of ormond, and julie's careful and quiet about making her way through to the office. she brought a sleeping bag too, just for something soft to sit on, and plops it down by a wall and herself soon after. knees pulled up, one foot tapping along to her music while she waits. ]
[ maybe he would have asked why not ormond if his stash was more than just enough for two. maybe he would have asked why not ormond, if he'd actually said more than five words collectively to the threegion outside of being chased around and stabbed in realm after realm. it doesn't cross his mind to ask, though, because he just assumes they're on the same page - it's much easier to get away with not having to share if you remove yourself from the places you're most likely to be found. for julie, that's ormond. for eddie, it's camp. sneaking away to autohaven just makes the most sense.
it takes a couple minutes to get the timing right. to find a moment where no one's paying him any attention, where everyone's focused on something or someone else for long enough that he can slink away unnoticed, but he manages fairly easy. when it comes to navigating through the fog, though, he's still kind of green. getting the hang of it will come with time and experience, but until then, it's a mildly unsettling trip to say the least, but he finds his way with little trouble.
it's still creepy though. being here now, presumably alone (save for julie), is somehow more unsettling than it is when he gets dragged here with three other survivors knowing someone is hunting them. eddie tries not to think about it too much as he slinks through the yard, headed for the office. julie said the wraith probably wouldn't care about them being here, but he's still cautious.
eddie hears the very faint and distant, tinny sound of music, too quiet to be recognizable or familiar, but it pulls him in the right direction, and when he steps into the office doorway (more like swings into it, one hand gripping at the door frame), he hangs out there for a few seconds. with julie sitting on the floor, he has to look down at her, and he smiles a little lopsidedly. ]
Shit, am I late? [ he's pretty sure he's not, but she looks like she's been here for a couple minutes already at the very least, and even if his twenty minutes have been up, he doesn't really seem that genuinely concerned about it. eddie pushes away from the door frame, the thing chains holding his jacket cuff somewhat together swinging a bit loosely with the motion of his arm. he wanders in, casual but still alert, and eventually takes a seat next to julie, back against the wall. he stretches his legs out, turns his head to look at her, and doesn't seem to care if she can hear him or not. ] Wheeler's got - goddamn eagle eyes or something, I swear. Took me a minute to get out of there without anyone noticing.
[ the dulcet tones of kurt cobain's screaming and distorted guitar get a little louder when julie pushes the headphones off her head to hang around her neck when eddie speaks, only catches the tail end of what he says as she hurriedly pulls her walkman out of her pocket to stop the tape, but it's enough that it makes her huff a small laugh from behind her mask. ]
I thought twenty minutes was ambitious for a new guy, but I didn't want to rain on your parade.
[ instinctively, her hand comes to the edge of her mask as she talks, moving on autopilot because she only hangs out like this with friends, right? why would she cover her face. the hesitation is brief, but noticeable, she freezes for a second because she does her best to make sure survivors never see her without her mask on. hell, only a couple of killers outside of legion have seen her face either. ]
[ but it would be weird as hell if she just kept it on this whole time, and she sure as hell can't smoke with it on, so it's gotta go. ]
Don't scream, okay? [ the joke's for herself more than anything, and she takes a small breath before she actually pushes the mask up and off her head. brown eyes and bleach blonde hair, there's julie. ]
[ she can hear the entity in the back of her head, it's... angry, but also disappointed. she hasn't been doing her best in trials lately. she and frank are usually the reliable ones, even if the survivors get out it's usually still a good showing. enough to keep it sated until the next trial. this is probably gonna be a bad meeting. they're all bad meetings. ]
[ julie, when quentin arrives, is sitting on the floor just outside the stall, just in a tank top and her mask. her hoodie and jacket are on the ground next to her, hood and shoulder of said hoodie soaked in blood, as is julie's hair turned red from blonde mostly on the top left part. she's tried to clean up, but there's not really much she can do until she's sent back to ormond. ]
You know, that's something I've never wanted to think about. Thanks.
[ Quentin's noticed but mostly because the universe has decided to put him in her path be on the receiving ends of texts. While also being in the trial when she does it. Could be a funny coincidence but he's more of a believer in higher powers kind of guy.
Like this is an utterly dangerous move and he's probably getting impaled in 2 minutes by a giant spider claw for it but whatever. ]
You're welcome. I personally think we should think about how monsters shit more often.
[ Flashing a toothy smile at her. He crouches next to her, crunching pieces beneath his soles and by dropping a kit on the floor. He's rolling his jacket sleeves up to his elbows while doing a quick damage assessment with the current visuals. Ouch. He reaches a hand towards her head then pulls it back in a hesitation, looking at her eyes- ...her mask's eyes with a raised eyebrow like he's unsure if she's going to slice his wrist for doing it. Blue eyes briefly then go darting around the floor for the knife. Is it in the jacket?
He shrugs then and goes in there with all the practice of someone that's taken care of a thousand head wounds by now. ]
Do you bring the drinks in with you or pre-game the trial? 'Cause this is an elementary school.
[ julie's hand twitches for the knife under her jacket when quentin gets down there with her, but she stops herself. susie would be pissed if she killed her little boyfriend for trying to help, even if it confuses the fuck out of her. he's so relentlessly nice it kind of drives her insane. ]
What? You never found a flask in the teacher's desk?
[ it's confusing, she would've assumed she'd sober up coming here, but she doesn't remember being drunk before a trial before. maybe the entity doesn't like to help out that way. or maybe she's just unlucky. ]
[ after a few moments contemplation of her miserable situation, julie looks up suddenly and smack's quentin's hand away. ]
[ when it happened to chrissy, late at night in the middle of his living room - it was awful. it was more than awful, but there aren't many words that properly explain or encompass the sheer horrific terror eddie felt when he watched a teenage girl get pinned to his ceiling by some unknown force, her bones twisting and snapping in unnatural directions, eyes pulled into her skull.
when it happened to patrick, out in the middle of lover's lake - when he watched some kid he barely knew rise up out of the water like some kind of god, eyes wide and frightened by something no one could see - eddie was more prepared. but it didn't feel any different, watching someone's limbs crack and their body contort. the familiarity, or lack thereof in his and patrick's case, changed nothing. it did not lessen the trauma, the terror. the guilt.
eventually, they were able to give it a name - vecna's curse. a childish label, stolen from a fantasy game, but not a name that was unfitting for the ailment or the person responsible for it. eventually, they came up with a plan to fight it, to end it. end him, and when eddie lay bleeding out in the middle of some phantom copy of his own street, he thought maybe they'd done it. maybe they'd beat him. maybe he was dying, but maybe no one else would have to, and that seemed worth it.
the fog seemed like an unfair trade for sacrificing his life. finding some of his friends here felt like a blessing and a curse at the same time, comforting and nauseating, depending on the hour, but if there's anything that helped him keep his shit at least somewhat together, it was the lack of anything vecna. no vine hivemind, no clocks, no fucking demon bats. crows and a whole bunch of twisted psychopaths, sure - but no vecna.
and then it happened to leon. in the middle of a trial, pursued by what appeared to be a tiny girl, the air crackling with static - it happened again, almost exactly the same way. no warning, none of the same signs, but the lifting, the snapping bones, the heavy thud of a body hitting the ground - it was all too close, too familiar.
eddie survived that trial, somehow. but that's how it goes, doesn't it - chrissy, patrick. they both died in front of him, like he was meant to witness them. like he was meant to be punished for - something. fred died in the middle of the street right behind eddie's house, for christ's sake. and max - eddie doesn't want to think about max. he doesn't want to know.
the anxiety is still festering when he makes it back to the campfire. it builds in his chest, starts to make him feel like he's suffocating. starts to make him feel a little crazy, honestly, to have to sit here and listen and watch while everyone else acts like nothing happened. like people getting folded up like paper cranes is just an every day occurrence - and maybe it is, maybe eddie shouldn't be as messed up about it as he is, but - it turns out trauma doesn't work that way. most of them weren't even there in the trial, so he can't fault them for being able to relax, but it feels isolating.
he goes for a walk. gets up and murmurs something about being right back to no one in particular, and wanders off into the woods to get some space, some air, some distance. eddie's gotten better at navigating through the fog, but this time, he doesn't really think about anything. no place in mind, but eventually the air starts to feel a little crisper, colder, and the ground underneath his sneakers starts to crunch a little differently.
when he comes back to himself, he's surrounded by white. snow, a disabled ski lift creaking quietly above his head as a biting breeze blows through. eddie blinks. he's been to ormond before, but never outside of a trial. never uninvited, and there's a reason for it - he might be cool with julie, but there's at least one of threegion that has made it clear they're not really a fan of him, and no telling how the others feel, but eddie could probably guess that they're not as nice ("nice") as julie.
but it seems quiet, and that's enough to tempt eddie forward. he shoves his hands into his jacket pockets and heads toward the lodge, jaw clenched loosely. inside, he's cautious. he takes his hands out of his pockets, takes quiet, wary steps and swivels his head as he looks around. he's never really taken the time before to take anything in inside, rushed by adrenaline and the need to survive, but he takes a second now. notes the mural on the wall that he's somehow never noticed before, the ski rack. the silence should be unsettling, but for eddie - something tight begins to unwind his chest very slowly.
satisfied that he's not about to be ambushed, eddie practically collapses onto the couch near the fireplace. he hunches forward a little, rests his elbows on his knees, and drops his face into his hands, fingers pushing up into his fringe just slightly. he exhales, long and heavy, breathing out the words more than speaking them clearly. ]
Oh, Jesus Christ...
gets out my pipe and reading glasses we're in for a long night kids
[ on the scale of 'having a bad time' to 'ptsd meltdown', julie's not really having a comparably bad time to eddie, but that's not to say she hasn't been having a bad time. there's a noticeable dip in the general mood since susie left — all three of them feeling abandoned in one way or another — and julie herself has gone from guilt, to hurt, and settled right into anger in the interim. ]
[ one could say it was noticeable in her trials, but there's maybe four survivors tops who could probably tell. rarely could julie ever be convinced to let someone escape, but she'd let someone have a second chance if the circumstances were right. (usually if they fucked up comically enough.) ]
[ funnily enough, julie's the one who's really fastidious about not having survivors in their space, and if they are here invited then not longer than necessary. anything to stop them feeling welcome, like they can just waltz in whenever they want. it's important to keep that line in the sand between them so they don't run the risk of going soft, so the survivors don't start feeling like they can take liberties. so when julie senses someone on their turf it pushes her from stewing on her anger to deciding this idiot is gonna get it. grabs her mask and a knife and comes out from her room ready to kill. ]
Whoever's here, you better have a real good reason for-- [ speaking of going soft, she stops dead when she comes out on the landing and sees a familiar mess of curls on the couch downstairs. ] ... Eddie?
[ that's... concerning. for starters it's really not like him to just turn up in a killer's realm unannounced, right? he's smarter than that. she pushes the mask up on top of her head and rushes down the stairs, something's wrong here. ]
What happened?
i sat down with the goal to make this short and still failed
[ the sound of julie's voice registers before the familiarity in it does and eddie reacts on instinct and impulse. the second he's alerted to someone else in the building - the second he picks up the sound of a footstep, his hands drop and he reaches for and snatches up an empty beer bottle from near his foot by the neck, standing and turning and smashing the end of it against the brick around the fireplace in one quick motion. eddie's not naive enough to think he has any chance against a killer on their own turf, but he's also not jaded enough to not put up some kind of fight even in the face of shitty odds.
it clicks for him, as he stands there on the bottom floor with his arm extended toward the landing and a broken bottle in his hand, staring up at a mask he's maybe a little too familiar with, that he knows the voice behind it. or that was behind it. julie takes off her mask, and once eddie's confirmed that it's her, he immediately relaxes, arm dropping, bottle falling out of his hand. maybe it says something about him that he's so quick to let his guard down, knowing that it's her, but that's - something for him to think about later. or never. probably never.
eddie sits back down, this time on the arm of the couch. he brings an unsteady hand back up to his face, presses his thumb and two of his fingers against his eyelids and pulls inward until he's pinching the bridge of his nose. on the one hand, he's relieved that it's just julie. on the other hand, he doesn't like that he's been caught partway into - what? an anxious meltdown? on his third mutant hand, needed for this point - being at the campfire and trying to keep his shit together felt worse than this, so.
he drops his hand, lips pressed into a tight line, eyes still squeezed closed. eddie doesn't answer julie for a moment, has only really barely registered that she's come down the stairs just by the sound of it, but he turns his head away slightly. after a beat, he lifts the same hand he drops and waves it kind of vaguely, like he's brushing something off. he shakes his head, opens his eyes, takes another second to inhale. ]
I, ah - it's. [ he exhales, tries not to think about the sound of breaking bones. how the fuck does anyone get used to that shit? why does it keep happening right in front of him? when is he gonna catch a goddamn break? eddie swallows around a strangled note of frustration and shakes his head again. he still hasn't looked at julie directly now that she's taken off her mask. ] It's nothing, man. I just - I don't know, I needed to get outta there and I guess I just - [ quieter, more to himself: ] What the fuck?
[ he looks at julie, finally, and he just looks all kinds of roughed up, both physically - there's still blood on his shirt from his trial, though most of it is not his - and mentally. with zero context, he pleads: ]
What is she? Jesus Christ, give me a goddamn break already—
Well if we were back in Ormond I'd invite you over to "study." By which I mean "make out without our parents knowing." So I'm thinking something along those lines?
[ eddie's mouth opens in semi-mock offense when julie steals the cigarette's from him, looking at her with mild disbelief. he's the one who came out here - by himself! - to snoop around for shit to bring back to camp (sure, mostly for himself, but if he'd found anything he thought could be useful for someone else, he wouldn't have hesitated to bring whatever back for them), and she's claiming a finder's fee? for what? finding him, when he specifically said she could and should wait by the gates if she was insisting on coming to get him?
eddie scoffs, reaching for the cigarettes. ]
Finder's fee my ass, Jules, you didn't—
[ but julie freezes instead of jerking her hand away the way eddie was expecting her too, and that's enough to make him pause too, eyebrows furrowing when julie practically ignores him and spins around. it has not slipped eddie's mind that they're not exactly safe from the nightmare monstrosity that apparently lives here, but it's been pretty quiet, and from the handful of times eddie's had to face that thing, he's learned that it doesn't really come quietly.
also in his few encounters, eddie has been fortunate in that he hasn't seen it in its... festive form, so when he catches a very very brief glimpse of white in the distance, shifting behind some trees and brush, he mistakes it for something far less harmful. ]
It's - that's a snowman. Someone's - probably just fucking around.
[ but julie's got her knife out, and if he knows anything about julie - which is admittedly, not very much and not as much as he would like to know - it's that she doesn't spook easily, and she's not stupid. the way she backs up toward him, broadening herself to act like a shield between eddie and whatever it is she thinks she saw, it's enough to convince eddie that maybe she knows better.
eddie shoves the disposable camera in his back pocket and curls his hand in the bend of julie's elbow, pulling her along with him as he starts to move, backing away from the scattering of cars toward some fences close by. ]
[ aside from the slight movements of her head as she tries to figure out where the dredge went, she stands rigid on the spot, like a cat that's spotted something it really doesn't like. she doesn't move initially when he pulls on her arm, only when she thinks she sees it moving in the house does she turn toward him and start to move in the direction of the gate. ]
If it comes for us you better run your ass out of here. [ julie is generally firm in the things she says, serious and unwavering when she needs to be, but stern isn't a tone she takes often. ] I'm faster than both of you, I'll be fine.
[ never mind they're talking about a malevolent manifestation of rage and fear that has a much tighter link with the entity than her and also can teleport, though without a ton of lockers littered around the place julie doubts it can do much in that regard. she just knows she's not leaving eddie to that thing if she can do something about it, even if 'something' happens to be occupying its attention by dying horribly. ]
[ she's just... not going to think about what it means that she finds herself so often worried about this guy. ]
[A girl date. Corey can’t believe this. It’s never happened before. Sure he’s tried asking girls out, but the attempts never really went anywhere. They’d either say yes and then ghost, actually make the plans with him but not show up, straight up laugh in his face, ignore him entirely… Corey Cunningham, always the butt of the joke no matter what tactics he tried.
Then there were the times he couldn’t even get the words out to bother asking in the first place. Just fumbled and said forget about it. After being rejected so much the spirit gets beaten down. There’s no point in trying anymore. So he stopped.
But now he has a date. An actual one. He made sure it was clarified. Just in case. She asked him out and he’s still reeling from that. The week was so odd after that. Imagine - having something to look forward to for once. Sure he saw her at the garage every day but he’ll get to see her outside of work too. Friday. 8pm. How crazy.
To say he’s nervous would be an understatement. But then again - he’s always nervous. Or at the very least a bit on the anxious side. It’s his default setting nowadays. Can’t be helped. The closer Friday gets the more his anxiety spikes. But it’s not all crippling fear for once? It’s… excitement? That’s different. Not used to that feeling at all.
He said he’d pick her up. No problem. It’s a chilly evening out there, so he pulls his leather jacket on over his sweater before leaving the house. Was Joan upset? Absolutely. Joan’s always upset. But Ronald had his back. He’s a good guy like that. Just let the kid go out for once. He’ll be alright. Have fun, Corey. Corey just mouths his thanks, looking sheepish about it, and runs his hand through his hair. Messy is best he’s found. Oh, and he pockets his glasses. For some reason he doesn’t seem to need them much as of late, but bringing them along isn’t a bad idea. Always prep for the worst case scenario.
He shoots Julie a text letting her know he’s on his way, putting his phone away before any response comes back. And he takes a moment to breathe before revving up his bike and heading out.
For a Friday night, Haddonfield sure seems quiet. The roads anyway. This place just keeps getting stranger and stranger the longer he stays. One day he’ll leave. He keeps telling himself that. His mind wanders - but not too much, being safe is important - on the ride over. And that makes the time go by faster.
Before he knows it he’s standing outside her place and knocking. 8pm on the dot. Super prompt. That’s him.
[ originally julie just spoke to corey because he was one of the only people in this whole fucking town who was any kind of nice or helpful to her, because apparently nobody cares if you move to haddonfield unless you're a couple looking to settle down, maybe start a family. a few people actively gave her shit for moving here on her own, even. or they did until one of them got a black eye and a bloody nose. ]
[ there's something about him that fascinates her though, keeps her interested enough at least to keep her attention until it's time to move on and finally see her friends again. every now and then when someone shoots a shitty comment at one of them at work, or when she sees him at a bar, something that sits under the surface that she desperately wants to dig her fingers into. ]
[ also, he's cute. she's allowed to be a bit shallow. ]
[ she hasn't been on a date since, well. since frank. (who promptly made fun of her in the group chat, but it's fine. susie was helpful.) doesn't really have clothes for it, but it's fine. she has a nice enough shirt, and after deliberation she puts on some eyeliner. smiles when she gets that text and comes out to meet him. ]
Hey. [ she's pulling on her leather jacket as she comes over to his bike. ] Fancy seeing you here.
[ I could go with an elaborate set up but you know I'm doing this 100% because it's funny, so really, it's Valentine's Day, that's all you need to know. And that's why Julie gets this text at like 5am. ]
( julie and frank would both make excellent vessels for a deadite, just so everyone knows. )
fuck i miss our movie nights you think if i put in a request for a vcr and tv and consistent electricity to the big boss upstairs and we're good boys and girls for the rest of the ???? year???? we'll get something under the tree for xmas
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a texting thread but also not
And you never get a text back, but sometimes you do get a response of a sort. Like this one.
He shows up a short while after the misfire, out in the middle of the snow on Mount Ormond, by the visitors’ information board. Anyone can tell he’s there because the mountain is eerily quiet. The usual low howling of the icy winds, the cracking and breaking and falling of icicles, the distant cawing of crows… it’s all missing. All signs of life and the passing of time just goes completely dead silent. Even here, the presence of the purest evil is acknowledged by everything.
And he watches. Stares. Does nothing and says nothing, but he’s there, as though waiting for an answer. ]
michael that wasn't an invite!!!
[ something's wrong here. in a way that's familiar, but not enough so for her to place it. ]
[ weirdly, she doesn't even notice michael straight away. only when she turns on the spot a little way away from the notice board, a niggling feeling that she's missed something important, that's when she spots him. her very sensible response being to shriek out of surprise and throw the pack of cigarettes at him. ]
[ and then she bursts into laughter when that adrenaline hits. ]
What the fuck? What are you doing here?
@dnds
See you then.
[ a little relieved he doesn't ask why not ormond, even if she did give a good excuse for trekking to autohaven. julie appreciates that about talking to eddie, he doesn't really pry. some of the other survivors ask so many questions like they should get to look at her life story or whatever just because she's not some twisted up monstrosity on the outside. pisses her off. ]
[ anyway. ]
[ getting through the fog is easy enough at this point, at least it is when it comes to travelling between the realms (and to the campfire.) there's other stuff out there, she knows, but julie's never tried venturing out that far. the thought gets choked away every time it starts to form. but getting to autohaven is quick and easy, takes maybe ten minutes even at a normal pace, so she stops first to grab her walkman and a couple things before setting off. a bottle of water because sometimes she gets the worst cottonmouth and a couple bags of chips they raided from the rpd vending machines. mask on and knife in hand, that's when she feels comfortable enough to leave. ]
[ it's no surprise she gets there first. it's chilly, but it doesn't compare to the cold of ormond, and julie's careful and quiet about making her way through to the office. she brought a sleeping bag too, just for something soft to sit on, and plops it down by a wall and herself soon after. knees pulled up, one foot tapping along to her music while she waits. ]
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it takes a couple minutes to get the timing right. to find a moment where no one's paying him any attention, where everyone's focused on something or someone else for long enough that he can slink away unnoticed, but he manages fairly easy. when it comes to navigating through the fog, though, he's still kind of green. getting the hang of it will come with time and experience, but until then, it's a mildly unsettling trip to say the least, but he finds his way with little trouble.
it's still creepy though. being here now, presumably alone (save for julie), is somehow more unsettling than it is when he gets dragged here with three other survivors knowing someone is hunting them. eddie tries not to think about it too much as he slinks through the yard, headed for the office. julie said the wraith probably wouldn't care about them being here, but he's still cautious.
eddie hears the very faint and distant, tinny sound of music, too quiet to be recognizable or familiar, but it pulls him in the right direction, and when he steps into the office doorway (more like swings into it, one hand gripping at the door frame), he hangs out there for a few seconds. with julie sitting on the floor, he has to look down at her, and he smiles a little lopsidedly. ]
Shit, am I late? [ he's pretty sure he's not, but she looks like she's been here for a couple minutes already at the very least, and even if his twenty minutes have been up, he doesn't really seem that genuinely concerned about it. eddie pushes away from the door frame, the thing chains holding his jacket cuff somewhat together swinging a bit loosely with the motion of his arm. he wanders in, casual but still alert, and eventually takes a seat next to julie, back against the wall. he stretches his legs out, turns his head to look at her, and doesn't seem to care if she can hear him or not. ] Wheeler's got - goddamn eagle eyes or something, I swear. Took me a minute to get out of there without anyone noticing.
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I thought twenty minutes was ambitious for a new guy, but I didn't want to rain on your parade.
[ instinctively, her hand comes to the edge of her mask as she talks, moving on autopilot because she only hangs out like this with friends, right? why would she cover her face. the hesitation is brief, but noticeable, she freezes for a second because she does her best to make sure survivors never see her without her mask on. hell, only a couple of killers outside of legion have seen her face either. ]
[ but it would be weird as hell if she just kept it on this whole time, and she
sure as hell can't smoke with it on, so it's gotta go. ]
Don't scream, okay? [ the joke's for herself more than anything, and she takes a small breath before she actually pushes the mask up and off her head. brown eyes and bleach blonde hair, there's julie. ]
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@micronap
[ she can hear the entity in the back of her head, it's... angry, but also disappointed. she hasn't been doing her best in trials lately. she and frank are usually the reliable ones, even if the survivors get out it's usually still a good showing. enough to keep it sated until the next trial. this is probably gonna be a bad meeting. they're all bad meetings. ]
[ julie, when quentin arrives, is sitting on the floor just outside the stall, just in a tank top and her mask. her hoodie and jacket are on the ground next to her, hood and shoulder of said hoodie soaked in blood, as is julie's hair turned red from blonde mostly on the top left part. she's tried to clean up, but there's not really much she can do until she's sent back to ormond. ]
You know, that's something I've never wanted to think about. Thanks.
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Like this is an utterly dangerous move and he's probably getting impaled in 2 minutes by a giant spider claw for it but whatever. ]
You're welcome. I personally think we should think about how monsters shit more often.
[ Flashing a toothy smile at her. He crouches next to her, crunching pieces beneath his soles and by dropping a kit on the floor. He's rolling his jacket sleeves up to his elbows while doing a quick damage assessment with the current visuals. Ouch. He reaches a hand towards her head then pulls it back in a hesitation, looking at her eyes- ...her mask's eyes with a raised eyebrow like he's unsure if she's going to slice his wrist for doing it. Blue eyes briefly then go darting around the floor for the knife. Is it in the jacket?
He shrugs then and goes in there with all the practice of someone that's taken care of a thousand head wounds by now. ]
Do you bring the drinks in with you or pre-game the trial? 'Cause this is an elementary school.
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What? You never found a flask in the teacher's desk?
[ it's confusing, she would've assumed she'd sober up coming here, but she doesn't remember being drunk before a trial before. maybe the entity doesn't like to help out that way. or maybe she's just unlucky. ]
[ after a few moments contemplation of her miserable situation, julie looks up suddenly and smack's quentin's hand away. ]
Why are you helping me? Get the fuck out.
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@photocard
I wouldn't flatter yourself. I'll hold a conversation with most of the survivors even when I text them by accident.
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What do you have their numbers for if you're only talking to them when it's an accident? Or is that just your cover story?
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You got any better ideas?
[ please have a better idea ]
ty for binning captcha
[ Sorry, no better idea, babe. ]
sry not sry this is long for no reason
when it happened to patrick, out in the middle of lover's lake - when he watched some kid he barely knew rise up out of the water like some kind of god, eyes wide and frightened by something no one could see - eddie was more prepared. but it didn't feel any different, watching someone's limbs crack and their body contort. the familiarity, or lack thereof in his and patrick's case, changed nothing. it did not lessen the trauma, the terror. the guilt.
eventually, they were able to give it a name - vecna's curse. a childish label, stolen from a fantasy game, but not a name that was unfitting for the ailment or the person responsible for it. eventually, they came up with a plan to fight it, to end it. end him, and when eddie lay bleeding out in the middle of some phantom copy of his own street, he thought maybe they'd done it. maybe they'd beat him. maybe he was dying, but maybe no one else would have to, and that seemed worth it.
the fog seemed like an unfair trade for sacrificing his life. finding some of his friends here felt like a blessing and a curse at the same time, comforting and nauseating, depending on the hour, but if there's anything that helped him keep his shit at least somewhat together, it was the lack of anything vecna. no vine hivemind, no clocks, no fucking demon bats. crows and a whole bunch of twisted psychopaths, sure - but no vecna.
and then it happened to leon. in the middle of a trial, pursued by what appeared to be a tiny girl, the air crackling with static - it happened again, almost exactly the same way. no warning, none of the same signs, but the lifting, the snapping bones, the heavy thud of a body hitting the ground - it was all too close, too familiar.
eddie survived that trial, somehow. but that's how it goes, doesn't it - chrissy, patrick. they both died in front of him, like he was meant to witness them. like he was meant to be punished for - something. fred died in the middle of the street right behind eddie's house, for christ's sake. and max - eddie doesn't want to think about max. he doesn't want to know.
the anxiety is still festering when he makes it back to the campfire. it builds in his chest, starts to make him feel like he's suffocating. starts to make him feel a little crazy, honestly, to have to sit here and listen and watch while everyone else acts like nothing happened. like people getting folded up like paper cranes is just an every day occurrence - and maybe it is, maybe eddie shouldn't be as messed up about it as he is, but - it turns out trauma doesn't work that way. most of them weren't even there in the trial, so he can't fault them for being able to relax, but it feels isolating.
he goes for a walk. gets up and murmurs something about being right back to no one in particular, and wanders off into the woods to get some space, some air, some distance. eddie's gotten better at navigating through the fog, but this time, he doesn't really think about anything. no place in mind, but eventually the air starts to feel a little crisper, colder, and the ground underneath his sneakers starts to crunch a little differently.
when he comes back to himself, he's surrounded by white. snow, a disabled ski lift creaking quietly above his head as a biting breeze blows through. eddie blinks. he's been to ormond before, but never outside of a trial. never uninvited, and there's a reason for it - he might be cool with julie, but there's at least one of threegion that has made it clear they're not really a fan of him, and no telling how the others feel, but eddie could probably guess that they're not as nice ("nice") as julie.
but it seems quiet, and that's enough to tempt eddie forward. he shoves his hands into his jacket pockets and heads toward the lodge, jaw clenched loosely. inside, he's cautious. he takes his hands out of his pockets, takes quiet, wary steps and swivels his head as he looks around. he's never really taken the time before to take anything in inside, rushed by adrenaline and the need to survive, but he takes a second now. notes the mural on the wall that he's somehow never noticed before, the ski rack. the silence should be unsettling, but for eddie - something tight begins to unwind his chest very slowly.
satisfied that he's not about to be ambushed, eddie practically collapses onto the couch near the fireplace. he hunches forward a little, rests his elbows on his knees, and drops his face into his hands, fingers pushing up into his fringe just slightly. he exhales, long and heavy, breathing out the words more than speaking them clearly. ]
Oh, Jesus Christ...
gets out my pipe and reading glasses we're in for a long night kids
[ one could say it was noticeable in her trials, but there's maybe four survivors tops who could probably tell. rarely could julie ever be convinced to let someone escape, but she'd let someone have a second chance if the circumstances were right. (usually if they fucked up comically enough.) ]
[ funnily enough, julie's the one who's really fastidious about not having survivors in their space, and if they are here invited then not longer than necessary. anything to stop them feeling welcome, like they can just waltz in whenever they want. it's important to keep that line in the sand between them so they don't run the risk of going soft, so the survivors don't start feeling like they can take liberties. so when julie senses someone on their turf it pushes her from stewing on her anger to deciding this idiot is gonna get it. grabs her mask and a knife and comes out from her room ready to kill. ]
Whoever's here, you better have a real good reason for-- [ speaking of going soft, she stops dead when she comes out on the landing and sees a familiar mess of curls on the couch downstairs. ] ... Eddie?
[ that's... concerning. for starters it's really not like him to just turn up in a killer's realm unannounced, right? he's smarter than that. she pushes the mask up on top of her head and rushes down the stairs, something's wrong here. ]
What happened?
i sat down with the goal to make this short and still failed
it clicks for him, as he stands there on the bottom floor with his arm extended toward the landing and a broken bottle in his hand, staring up at a mask he's maybe a little too familiar with, that he knows the voice behind it. or that was behind it. julie takes off her mask, and once eddie's confirmed that it's her, he immediately relaxes, arm dropping, bottle falling out of his hand. maybe it says something about him that he's so quick to let his guard down, knowing that it's her, but that's - something for him to think about later. or never. probably never.
eddie sits back down, this time on the arm of the couch. he brings an unsteady hand back up to his face, presses his thumb and two of his fingers against his eyelids and pulls inward until he's pinching the bridge of his nose. on the one hand, he's relieved that it's just julie. on the other hand, he doesn't like that he's been caught partway into - what? an anxious meltdown? on his third mutant hand, needed for this point - being at the campfire and trying to keep his shit together felt worse than this, so.
he drops his hand, lips pressed into a tight line, eyes still squeezed closed. eddie doesn't answer julie for a moment, has only really barely registered that she's come down the stairs just by the sound of it, but he turns his head away slightly. after a beat, he lifts the same hand he drops and waves it kind of vaguely, like he's brushing something off. he shakes his head, opens his eyes, takes another second to inhale. ]
I, ah - it's. [ he exhales, tries not to think about the sound of breaking bones. how the fuck does anyone get used to that shit? why does it keep happening right in front of him? when is he gonna catch a goddamn break? eddie swallows around a strangled note of frustration and shakes his head again. he still hasn't looked at julie directly now that she's taken off her mask. ] It's nothing, man. I just - I don't know, I needed to get outta there and I guess I just - [ quieter, more to himself: ] What the fuck?
[ he looks at julie, finally, and he just looks all kinds of roughed up, both physically - there's still blood on his shirt from his trial, though most of it is not his - and mentally. with zero context, he pleads: ]
What is she? Jesus Christ, give me a goddamn break already—
https://i.imgur.com/PwAm5mS.png
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not that long enough? one day. ONE DAY i'll make some goddamn sense
no you won't
how the fuck has it been two weeks
don't lie to me like that
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"actually contractually obliged to love it actually" why
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Well if we were back in Ormond I'd invite you over to "study."
By which I mean "make out without our parents knowing."
So I'm thinking something along those lines?
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You're inviting me over to make out???
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[ eddie's mouth opens in semi-mock offense when julie steals the cigarette's from him, looking at her with mild disbelief. he's the one who came out here - by himself! - to snoop around for shit to bring back to camp (sure, mostly for himself, but if he'd found anything he thought could be useful for someone else, he wouldn't have hesitated to bring whatever back for them), and she's claiming a finder's fee? for what? finding him, when he specifically said she could and should wait by the gates if she was insisting on coming to get him?
eddie scoffs, reaching for the cigarettes. ]
Finder's fee my ass, Jules, you didn't—
[ but julie freezes instead of jerking her hand away the way eddie was expecting her too, and that's enough to make him pause too, eyebrows furrowing when julie practically ignores him and spins around. it has not slipped eddie's mind that they're not exactly safe from the nightmare monstrosity that apparently lives here, but it's been pretty quiet, and from the handful of times eddie's had to face that thing, he's learned that it doesn't really come quietly.
also in his few encounters, eddie has been fortunate in that he hasn't seen it in its... festive form, so when he catches a very very brief glimpse of white in the distance, shifting behind some trees and brush, he mistakes it for something far less harmful. ]
It's - that's a snowman. Someone's - probably just fucking around.
[ but julie's got her knife out, and if he knows anything about julie - which is admittedly, not very much and not as much as he would like to know - it's that she doesn't spook easily, and she's not stupid. the way she backs up toward him, broadening herself to act like a shield between eddie and whatever it is she thinks she saw, it's enough to convince eddie that maybe she knows better.
eddie shoves the disposable camera in his back pocket and curls his hand in the bend of julie's elbow, pulling her along with him as he starts to move, backing away from the scattering of cars toward some fences close by. ]
C'mon. Not without you.
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If it comes for us you better run your ass out of here. [ julie is generally firm in the things she says, serious and unwavering when she needs to be, but stern isn't a tone she takes often. ] I'm faster than both of you, I'll be fine.
[ never mind they're talking about a malevolent manifestation of rage and fear that has a much tighter link with the entity than her and also can teleport, though without a ton of lockers littered around the place julie doubts it can do much in that regard. she just knows she's not leaving eddie to that thing if she can do something about it, even if 'something' happens to be occupying its attention by dying horribly. ]
[ she's just... not going to think about what it means that she finds herself so often worried about this guy. ]
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nobody should do themselves??? removing my fingers
eddie says no to masturbation
rip
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a girl date.
Then there were the times he couldn’t even get the words out to bother asking in the first place. Just fumbled and said forget about it. After being rejected so much the spirit gets beaten down. There’s no point in trying anymore. So he stopped.
But now he has a date. An actual one. He made sure it was clarified. Just in case. She asked him out and he’s still reeling from that. The week was so odd after that. Imagine - having something to look forward to for once. Sure he saw her at the garage every day but he’ll get to see her outside of work too. Friday. 8pm. How crazy.
To say he’s nervous would be an understatement. But then again - he’s always nervous. Or at the very least a bit on the anxious side. It’s his default setting nowadays. Can’t be helped. The closer Friday gets the more his anxiety spikes. But it’s not all crippling fear for once? It’s… excitement? That’s different. Not used to that feeling at all.
He said he’d pick her up. No problem. It’s a chilly evening out there, so he pulls his leather jacket on over his sweater before leaving the house. Was Joan upset? Absolutely. Joan’s always upset. But Ronald had his back. He’s a good guy like that. Just let the kid go out for once. He’ll be alright. Have fun, Corey. Corey just mouths his thanks, looking sheepish about it, and runs his hand through his hair. Messy is best he’s found. Oh, and he pockets his glasses. For some reason he doesn’t seem to need them much as of late, but bringing them along isn’t a bad idea. Always prep for the worst case scenario.
He shoots Julie a text letting her know he’s on his way, putting his phone away before any response comes back. And he takes a moment to breathe before revving up his bike and heading out.
For a Friday night, Haddonfield sure seems quiet. The roads anyway. This place just keeps getting stranger and stranger the longer he stays. One day he’ll leave. He keeps telling himself that. His mind wanders - but not too much, being safe is important - on the ride over. And that makes the time go by faster.
Before he knows it he’s standing outside her place and knocking. 8pm on the dot. Super prompt. That’s him.
God he better not fuck this up.]
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[ there's something about him that fascinates her though, keeps her interested enough at least to keep her attention until it's time to move on and finally see her friends again. every now and then when someone shoots a shitty comment at one of them at work, or when she sees him at a bar, something that sits under the surface that she desperately wants to dig her fingers into. ]
[ also, he's cute. she's allowed to be a bit shallow. ]
[ she hasn't been on a date since, well. since frank. (who promptly made fun of her in the group chat, but it's fine. susie was helpful.) doesn't really have clothes for it, but it's fine. she has a nice enough shirt, and after deliberation she puts on some eyeliner. smiles when she gets that text and comes out to meet him. ]
Hey. [ she's pulling on her leather jacket as she comes over to his bike. ] Fancy seeing you here.
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finally get to use the appropriate icons yes yes yes
🥰
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i genuinely thought i replied to this omg
totally okay!
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Hey, babe, got a little something for you.
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[ she's half asleep, turns over in bed like frank's gonna be there but obviously he's not if he's texting her, and squints at her phone. ]
What is it?
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@kneecapped
Sounds like if Sam Raimi directed a Steve Martin movie.
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fuck i miss our movie nights
you think if i put in a request for a vcr and tv and consistent electricity to the big boss upstairs and we're good boys and girls for the rest of the ???? year???? we'll get something under the tree for xmas
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