andyacostas

[andyacostas]

Andy: nah i was just asking bc it seemed kinda random Andy: ken's boring anyway so Andy: are you sure we wouldn't get in trouble for this? @darcyxanthonyx

Darcy: uh

Darcy: cuz I found him abandoned on the beach and I thought it would be fun

Darcy: no hard feelings towards Ken, ofc

@andyacostas

[andyacostas]

Andy: oh my god so THAT'S why there's a new chip in the back Andy: i'm not mad i just thought i was losing my mind Andy: fuck yeah dude sign me up Andy: maybe save some of ur money and get a basic deck to start though bc it's GONNA snap while ur still learning Andy: accidentally?? @mackonestevie

stevie 📲 andy

Stevie: Ok so I've been lowkey practicing on your skateboard when you're away please dont kill me Stevie: But I think I saved enough money to buy my own if you're interested in being my Board Guru?? Stevie: I just wish skateboards had baskets like bikes but I def gotta give mine back. Kind of accidentally stole it 😬

@andyacostas

[andyacostas]

Andy: uh Andy: why a ken doll? @darcyxanthonyx

Darcy 📲 anyone

Darcy: got some discount fireworks from the Fourth of July

Darcy: wanna tie a Ken doll to a rocket with me?

@aurorabaystarter

[andyacostas]

"Pattern. Okay. Pattern. Dude, I should've watched more Youtube video essays on these before I did this."

That insinuated that Andy had watched any aforementioned video essays, which she hadn't, but she was sure as fuck kicking herself for it now. There had to be some strangely specific channel that did deep dives into escape room strategy.

"Uh, were there any weird series of numbers anywhere? Colors? Is something off with those books, or is that just me?"

@ford-tamblyn

Ford in a room like this felt so much like a nightmare at first but the guy spent most of his free time alone and trying to not let his brain turn to mush. A childhood of being left to do his own things, coupled with teenage years smoking a lot of pot , then his twenties spent in mind numbing reality tv. He had to try to keep his mind fresh on some level. “ no it’s fine ” Ford replied trying to diffuse the tension as he tried to figure out what to do. Unfortunately for all his inner monologuing; he was stumped. “ I just - fuck okay wait. Obviously there’s a pattern but what pattern “ @andyacostas

[andyacostas]

"How do you know all this stuff? I know a lot about, like, plants and the earth and stuff, but the ocean is like, totally outta my wheelhouse."

It probably had something to do with the fact that Andy hadn't even seen the ocean until two years ago, and it still kind of scared her.

@lucydriscoll

"Right?!" At least someone around here appreciated Lucy's unbridled meta thoughts on life.

"Assuming, as far as we know, they're only sentient enough to understand we're just strange looking fish with 'hunter eyes' staring up at them." That occasionally gets in the water with them to provide food.

— @andyacostas

[andyacostas]

"I promise that I don't, and I wouldn't even if I did." Politeness and an overwhelming opposition to confrontation meant that it would take something catastrophic happening for Andy to walk away from a date. But she consciously forced herself to relax her shoulders and center herself. Noah seemed like a nice guy, and she'd be doing a disservice to both of them if she didn't at least try to relax and have fun.

"Yes," she agreed, a little too quickly. "Yeah, yes. Drinks, please."

She bit her tongue to keep herself from muttering a relieved, quiet 'thank you' when he changed the subject and let her off the hook from taking the compliments. She didn't much know how to handle those either.

"Uh, a Tom Collins, I think? I didn't actually drink at all before, like, two years ago, so my tolerance is still kinda shit, but those are good if I don't want a beer. You?"

"Aw. Well, I probably would've been right beside you. I can't dance unless I'm drunk, and even then I'm either doing, like, a weird robot or the Carlton with no in between."

She blushed a little and scuffed her shoes against the linoleum floor. "God, is it that easy to clock? I was actually homeschooled, yeah. Well, only 'til middle school, but my parents kinda kept a tight leash. I didn't even hear a lot of secular music growing up, so you can imagine how they felt about a school dance."

@noah-atwood

“I mean, I hope not, but if you wanted to, you could,” Noah starts to laugh, trying to not be too outwardly amused by Andy’s back pedal. He is also trying to smother his own feeling of awkwardness he pulled up to the surface. 

Noah shrugs, as if to physically roll the odd tension off his shoulders. “It’s alright, I haven’t either, if it makes you feel any better. But we should definitely hit up the drink station.” And he is on it, pausing for a moment to wonder if he should take Andy’s hand or if that would make it more awkward by being too much, so he settles on a quick ‘follow me’ to lead her through spurts of people conversing and dancing. 

“It’s, uh, I don’t know. Not conventional? It’s different, and fun, and I do like it a lot. And, distraction from the compliments, but what’s your drink of choice?” 

“My grandparents took so many photos when they saw me dressed up. I definitely still felt pretty awkward then too, but I was sitting alone on the bleachers.”

All because he had chosen to stay away from the partiers, and that meant he gave even Priya a lot of space that night. “But why didn’t they let you go to prom? It’s like one of those rites of passage as a teenager leaving high school, or something. Wait, were you homeschooled?”

@andyacostas

[andyacostas]

"Whoa. That's, like, super deep."

Not a trace of irony or sarcasm colored Andy's tone as she looked up and pondered what it must feel like, to just drift around like that all day.

"Yeah, we probably freak them the fuck out too, huh? Like, they probably think that none of our parts are in the right places. And, like, what are these sounds we make?"

@lucydriscoll

Lucy leans as far back as she could to follow the ray swimming over her head, trying not to topple back off the bench. "I think we're the aliens. They've been here longer than us." The blonde ponders. "What do they think when they see us?"

"Weird creatures walking on two legs staring up at them."

— @andyacostas

[andyacostas]

Andy forced herself to do a breathing exercise — four seconds in, hold for seven, eight out — before she shook out her arms and nodded. At least her heart wasn't beating quite as fast now, and she could feel herself stepping a couple steps back from an anxiety attack.

"You're right, that's my bad. I think I'm realizing that I'm not great with enclosed spaces." She told herself not to start revisiting her relationship to elevators right at that second. There was plenty of time for that particular spiral later.

"Okay, yeah. Yeah, that sounds right. Is there anything that, like, really doesn't look like it should be here?"

@lucasbang

Usually Lucas was too engrossed in work that he didn't find the time to do things like participate in an escape room but here he was. He could feel the panic wanting to set in but he had to remain calm.

"Hey, no need to yell! Let's just calm down." He knew that if they went down that route, they wouldn't get anywhere and time would run out for sure. His eyes glanced over everything, looking towards the symbols, he wondered if their was something that could help.

"Maybe backtracking a bit would help. I'm sure there's something here that will help us figure out the meaning." He looked through one of the books around, trying to see if something would correlate.

[andyacostas]

What do they most like to do in bed?

"—sleep...?"

[andyacostas]

Do they believe in God?

"Woof. Loaded question. Short answer is...it's complicated? Long answer... I grew up really Catholic. Like, really, really Catholic, and that doesn't just go away overnight, right. But I'm also, like...a woman in STEM or whatever, so objectively I know it's all bullshit. And that belief in all of that can make people say and do really fucked up things.

But then sometimes, it's like...I don't know. Sometimes I look at a tiny little bulb and I watch it grow into something, and I can tell you exactly how it happens. Light, water, whatever. But then it becomes something so beautiful that I think the only thing that could pull that off is God. Maybe not the one that my parents raised me to believe in, but still. It's something other than just light and water."

[andyacostas]

Where have they always wanted to travel?

"Aw, man. Everywhere. Anywhere outside of the country, honestly, because I've never been anywhere, not even Mexico or Canada. If I just had to pick one, though, it'd probably be New Zealand. It just feels so opposite to anywhere I've ever been, you know? Plus I wanna go to their little hobbit village from Lord of the Rings and feel like I'm really tall."

[andyacostas]

"No, dude, I totally get it," Andy affirmed as she watched the stingray float by with wide eyes.

"Sea creatures are insane. They literally look like aliens and you're telling me that we live on the same planet as them? They're literally in that ocean that's right next to my apartment? It's kinda like," she mimed an explosion over her head. "Whoa."

@lucydriscoll

Starter: Open @aurorabaystarter (Feel free to assume connections!) Where: Aquatica

Lucy sits on a bench in the middle of the shark tunnel, looking directly up a large stingray that shared the tank gently swim over her. Delighted, she looks like a kid in a candy store watching the cartilaginous fish mosey on by.

"Look how massive it is!" She turns to her company beside her, palms clasping together im the midst of her glee. "Okay, okay, I promise we can keep moving on now. I just wanted to see the Stingray go over one more time."

[andyacostas]

"I'm sorry!" Andy yelled back at an even higher volume.

Her hands tangled in her hair and she looked down at the symbols again. This was an escape room, literally designed to be accessible to children. They could figure this out.

"Latin is, like, our regular alphabet right? So it's not that. But...Greek? Could be ancient Greek or something. Is there, like, a chart somewhere so we can decode this?"

She abandoned the table and started scouring the room before her eyes landed on a poster of the alphabet on the wall, like one might find in a classroom. On the table below was a UV flashlight. "Oh! Oh!" She picked it up and clicked it on, aiming at the poster to reveal the corresponding letters. "Look! Okay, help me. Describe the letters to me."

@madiiscn

"Oh my god! Will you stop yelling at me!" Madison, ironically, yelled at the other. She supposed if she had the ability to accept any wrongdoing, she wouldn't have blamed Andy for getting frustrated. She hadn't exactly been a helpful companion.

With an aggravated sigh, she stormed over to the symbols, using every brain cell she had to study them indepth.

"I think they're, like, Latin or something. Do you know Latin? I think that one is an S."

@andyacostas

[andyacostas]

Andy felt all of the frantic energy sap out of her body, only to be replaced by a numbing sense of dread and pre-guilt, if there was such a thing.

"Dude, literally why would you say that to me. Don't you know that my guilty conscience is, like, unparalleled?"

Unfortunately, it also still worked wonders on her productivity, because she felt the fear-infused energy work its way into her legs until they were moving to look for more clues.

She just barely caught the piece of glass tossed her way and boggled it almost comically before it settled in her hands. "Place it below the symbols..." she muttered to herself, with the hint of a question at the end. Still, she dutifully put it down and gaped when numbers, indeed, were revealed.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting something. 4-7-9-2-4. Is there, like, a padlock somewhere?"

@vi-tamblyn

"listen, all I'm saying is that you're going to be the reason the doors get sealed for the rest of time and we'll be the latest victims of mr. jenkins." vi stated with a playful demenor as she continued to rummage around the room for clues. "you were the one who said you'd handle that one and I put my full trust in you as a fellow escapee but now, we're just going to be another headline in cityton, USA. and when the ghost hunter's ask, I'm fully throwing you under the bus."

just then, an idea popped into her head when her eyes landed on a seemingly unimportant flyer for a therapist. "rethink, rework, reflect..." the words quiet yet soon flung a light switch in her brain. "that's it!" her hands, adorned with chipping paint on her nails, sprung for a (very fake) piece of glass and tossed it over to andy. "place it below the symbols and see if numbers appear!"

[andyacostas]

Andy could only take Drew's proximity for so long before she groaned and pressed a hand to his face to push him back.

She resisted the urge to bury her own in her hands in an attempt to physically do away with the feeling of being intensely perceived. If she messed anything up, she'd have to find Cricket to help fix it, and the last thing she wanted was her face being touched even more.

"No, dude," she grumbled, adding an exasperated internal 'duh.' "I agreed to let Cricket help me get ready and I didn't realize that meant that she was gonna do...all this. There are products on my face I've literally never heard of before."

"Do I look dumb? Be honest with me."

@drewohara

for: @andyacostas

where: prom

They were practically nose to nose with how close Drew was to Andy's face.

At least, he thought it was Andy's face. It still looked like Andy's, but if somebody had covered it in paint and glitter and done something to her eyes that made him hyper-aware of just how blue they were beneath the overhead neon lights.

"Dude...have your eyelashes always been this fucking long?"

(Have her eyes always been that blue?)

[andyacostas]

"Okay, you're right. Backtrack."

Andy paused and reminded herself to take a deep breath, and then to apologize for her behavior when they'd finally made it out of this room one way or the other. When she felt her heart rate decrease just a little, she set to work turning over everything within arm's reach.

"Anything in there?" she asked, as she picked up a vase and examined the bottom.

@hollandbrights

Going to an escape room was something that Holland had always wanted to do. She didn't have a big group of friends to go with though and it was still something she didn't know she'd like too. She really had no idea what she was supposed to do in one and was not great at puzzles. Still it was something she wanted to try. "I have no idea what we're supposed to do either," the red head looked around the room again, trying to find anything. "I think... maybe we should backtrack." She picked up a book again and started flipping through it for clues.

[andyacostas]

❤️ + drew!

@drewohara