dewyjuli

[dewyjuli]

"Oh my god, what century are you from?" she asked snidely at the missy remark. Not even her mother hit her with the 'listen here missy'. That's how she knew these people were just embarrassingly old school, to put it lightly. It was almost laughable how dimwitted these locals could be. "I wouldn't expect someone who is technologically illiterate to understand how important proper phone reception and internet connection is. Leaving you all so out of the loop. What, you just believe the unchecked information that you're fed?"

Granted, it wasn't like Juliana was using her own phone for anything deeper than posting thirst traps for strangers around the world, but that could be just as important to society as anything else! "Trust me, you haven't seen beautiful. I bet you haven't even left this town in your entire life to even know any better. Because if you had the guts to leave this little town of nothing, you would realize there is absolutely nothing special about a farming town."

Yes, starting out teasing might have not been the best idea, Carlota would normally fully acknowledge that. But the leap of the woman felt so sudden and fast and so far from what Carlota would have deemed deserved.

Not to mention that she was absolutely biased towards the valley and the people here too, the place that gave her a home when the only one she had cast her out, so hearing such immediate dismissal and criticism just kicked her fight mode right in.

"Hold your horses, missy. Yeah, we might not have service most places, but the food here is insanely good, you clearly haven't tried anything if you say otherwise, the people are nice and who even needs the internet? Just because you are tied to whatever device you have, doesn't mean anyone else here wants to and maybe if you'd put it away for more than five minutes, you could find the beauty in this place."

[dewyjuli]

A day at the beach was probably the next best place for Juliana to find some peace besides taking the trip over to the spa on Ginger Island. Everything else about this was just...off. Too quaint, too homey, nothing like the big city where everything was handed to her. Here she had to work for her desires, and sometimes the work wasn't worth it. There was no instant gratification. But laying out in the sun with the sounds of the waves to keep her company was satisfying enough.

Today she had a neighbor nearby, also enjoying the day, minding her own business, leaving Juliana to hers. It was nice to not be bothered. But that silence was quickly changed when Seline spoke up, turning to her and offering one of the strawberries she had been enjoying. If it was anything else Juliana probably would have promptly refused. But the sweet allure of the strawberries was irresistible. "Sure, I'd love one." she replied, sitting up properly and inspecting what was left. "How fresh are these?"

WHERE: the beach WITH: juliana @dewyjuli

Seline sits on the beach, sand between her cherry red painted toes, eating unrinsed strawberries directly out of the package. She's lost in her thoughts, probably getting either a tan or a wicked sunburn, and doesn't pay much mind to the person next to her. Fingers dripping with red juice, Seline sighs and puts her hand on her chin, wistfully looking out at the ocean. Her nose wrinkles in displeasure at the smell of it, but the bag of collected sea glass beside her made it worthwhile.

Feeling the stickiness transfer over to her face, Seline cringes. "For Yoba's sake," Seline mutters, wiping her hands on her shirt. She looks around and notices, for the first time, the person sitting a few feet away from her. "Oh! How rude of me." Seline looks down at her package of strawberries and frowns at the last one, squished and . . . maybe half rotten? It was hard to tell, sometimes.

She holds the box out to them. "Did you want one?"

[dewyjuli]

"Yeah, actually. You did hit a nerve." she grumbled. This place was less than enjoyable for her so there was no appeal to enjoy the sights as she put it. "I'm just asking out of curiosity, is all. Making the trip here isn't all that worth it, I'll tell you that now. You're probably better off back on Ginger Island. At least there's a resort, the spa, I would much rather be getting pampered right now if I was in your position." At the thought, Juliana began to daydream of a massage, getting a facial, and a mani-pedi, the whole package. With a longing sigh she checked out her nails, dirty and a little chipped, the most atrocious they've ever looked. "Do you know how long its been since I've had my nails done? I feel like they'll never recover."

"Hit a nerve, did I? No need to get your knickers in a twist," Taeng continued the Great British Fake Off with a teasing wink. She was really getting into character now. "I've not come to the valley for my vacation, though it is a charming getaway in its own, very different right. I'm off the boat from Ginger Island, enjoying the different sights of the region and whatnot. What's the need to double me, pray tell?"

[dewyjuli]

"This isn't funny you know! This is serious shit!" She whined as she heard Elias chuckle, amused by her frustrations. Before she could bring herself to start a rant about the town and her hatred for it and the so called 'charm' of it, she made sure to reel it in. As much as she didn't want to be here or to be working at the general store, she couldn't lose the job by running her mouth to her employer. It sucked but it was the lesser of two evils when it came to working in this place. If she had to garden or work on a farm, it was all over. "Does nobody complain about how...old school this place is? I mean, you have to admit it's like living in the stone age most of the time. Don't you feel like you're missing out on things?"

it had been a while since elias had gotten the time to properly ride his his horse, and caballo loved the water. that's where they found themselves right now, trotting on the beach when they see juliana sounding distressed they stop their pace and elias hops off and takes the reins of the horse and starts walking towards the person. "alright?" he says, laughing a little at the phone. "yeah, service is shit. always has been." it's the first time that he's seen the other woman outside of the general store. having her as a new hire was nice, even though he thought that she might not have liked working for him or at the store, but hey! at least maude gets a day off every once in a while now.

[dewyjuli]

Juliana had no reason to distrust the explanation she was given. In all honesty she was so relaxed she would have accepted any answer she was given. Unless she had claimed she loved it here and always wished she could live here. That would have been a stretch. "I hope you're trying to convince her to get out of here as soon as possible. I'm sure in a place this small you could never get around without seeing someone's face after a divorce. Why even stick around?" Juliana would be long gone if she were in that woman's shoes.

"My reasons, honestly, it's like a death sentence for the crime of living my life. Imagine, enjoying yourself so much that your own family has to clip your wings and bring you down!" It was a betrayal of the highest degree and she wasn't afraid to admit it. She had a feeling this woman would sympathize, unlike some of the people here. "I'm Juliana by the way. It's a pleasure to meet someone else having as rough a time as I am around here."

danica could have started crying at finally finding a kindred spirit in this yoba forsaken town. she was so up to her ears in 'small town charm this, small town charm that...' it was killing her. "it is incredibly frustrating. i must have pulled multiple muscles just trying to get a single news article to load," she lamented. "i'm staying with my aunt who's lived here her entire life. she needed some support after her terrible divorce, and who am i to deny a loved one in need? what on earth are you doing here?" danica was lying straight through her teeth about her reason for being here, but there was no need for her to bear any truths to a stranger.

[dewyjuli]

"Well it took you long enough to get here!" Juliana chirped in clear annoyance as Maude tried to slip into the general store, trying to get by without being noticed no doubt. Juliana had been on her own in this dingy little store waiting for anyone to come help her figure out what she should be doing. Of course, it had to be Maude but as annoying as it was, at least she knew what she was doing. "Do you have any idea how demanding these people are? Looking for all kind of stupid things. And then some guy showed up with boxes and expected me to know what to do with them!" She didn't know and she didn't care to know in all honesty. "You would think you would come on time with big heavy boxes showing up, what took you so long?"

( @dewyjuli ) Great. After burning her toast and stubbing her toe on the way to work, Maude didn't want to see or talk to a single person, but especially not Juliana. She made no effort to hide her grumbly hurrumph when she walked into the store and saw her parents' new little angel behind the counter, nor did she bother saying hello. If she was going to bear this shift, then she would need a minute to herself before the inevitable bullshit started.

[dewyjuli]

Jeez, why did the question sound like Juliana was completely pathetic? Like she was something to be pitied as she wandered along the shore. Juliana didn't want a local to see her as something lesser (though she refused to acknowledge the irony of her finding all of them lesser beings compared to her) but what she wanted to do was complain. Tell this woman, no, I'm not doing okay. I'm in the middle of nowhere with no signal, no friends and completely out of my element. But saying that was weak and embarrassing.

So instead of that, Juliana ran her fingers through her hair and scoffed. "I'm fine. I'm just baffled by the state of this place. What do people even do around here? I've never experienced a place so...lifeless."

There were a lot of moments where she was alone with her thoughts now that she was no longer making content. She found herself most often on the beach, staring out over the water, wondering how she'd gotten here. Her eyes were still red and puffy from her morning cry and her pockets had tissues in them just in case it started again but she had made it outside.

Honey stood in the water, digging her toes into the sand until the water receded and came back again. She watched the stranger holding her phone up, wandering around for service, and disturbing a pack of seagulls that squawked away from her. She waited a few cycle of the waves before pulling herself from the wet sand and moving closer to the stranger. "You doing okay?"

[dewyjuli]

"Ha ha, very funny." Juliana snapped back as the woman started to tease her about a secret spot to get decent signal. As if she would be gullible enough to believe that. In Juliana's defensive perspective and reluctancy to give anyone from here the benefit of the doubt, it seemed as though everyone was out to get her. How ironic that she was here to learn some manners and how to 'grow up' and yet the people here were taunting her just like this.

"You think you're being cute? Because trust me, I already know that this town doesn't have anything to offer and I'm not holding my breath for some secret oasis with decent food, decent people and internet. If I'm battling it out, it's to make sure I can get the hell out of here before the year ends."

It wasn't an unseen sign, really. Even those who wanted to come out here to have a social media detox or wanted to get away from the fast life of the city usually got to a point where they just wanted some kind of signal or connection but couldn't find it so Carlota wasn't that surprised by the sight of the woman.

She couldn't quite tell what made her decide to say what she did, but her voice was teasing at least. Hopefully. "We've got a secret, hidden way to access signal. Gotta battle it out for it and prove your worth, show the town you deserve it. Only selected few gets the chance to, though."

[dewyjuli]

Juliana's eyes glanced to the side as she felt the presence nearby and the voice speak up. For a moment, she assumed that she was being made fun of. The accent and the choice of words, to her, came across as condescending. So her eyes narrowed as she turned to look at the woman who may have been mocking her, keeping her guard up. "Right, you came for a vacation all the way out here? What could possibly make you decide a little farming town is the place to be?" This definitely wasn't Juliana's first choice, it wouldn't have even been her last choice if she was given the option, so for someone to come here, willingly, that seemed outrageous.

Taeng's floor length sundress billowed behind her as she arrived via boat to the breezy beach, one hand clutching the straw hat on her head and the other a decidedly whimsical basket. Summer was just far enough around the corner that the beach wasn't too crowded, but she still planted herself right next to someone with their cell phone stretched to the sky. "Oh, it's positively reprehensible, isn't it?" She decided at the last second to greet the stranger with a British accent. "I haven't been able to keep up with news from home ever since I started my vacation. I hope no emergency has befallen my family."

[dewyjuli]

The reply, while not exactly what she wanted to hear, did bring Juliana a sense of relief. At least she wasn't the only one here losing her mind over this. But she still let out a frustrated groan at the confirmation that their chances of connecting to the outside world were slim to none. "There's got to be something! I've never seen anything like this. These people don't know what they're missing." Juliana slipped her phone into her bag, figuring it was no use at this point.

"At least you understand what a pain this is. What brings you all the way out here in the middle of nowhere then? Cause it couldn't possibly be from your own free will."

"by the skin of their teeth," danica chimed in. "you'll have to start detoxing from being connected to the internet right away. the only place to get a morsel of signal is the library, and even that is a bit sketchy at times. trust me, i've tried everything." despite danica doing her best to avoid seeing her name flash across the screen from scrolling through all platforms of social media, even she couldn't stand being cut off in such an inconvenient way.

[dewyjuli]

Status: open to all ! Location: The Beach Time: Midday

One hand held a cigarette, dangling at her side while the other held one of the latest cell phones on the market. The phone was held up as high up as her arm could reach, desperately trying to find any kind of signal to no avail. After taking so many pictures on such a nice day out by the water and having absolutely no way of sharing them online, it was one of the most tragic things about being sent here and it was getting more and more frustrating as the days passed.

"This is ridiculous!" Juliana groaned as her extended arm dropped down back to her side in defeat. "Seriously, how does anyone survive out here like this?"

[dewyjuli]

Is it that sweet? I guess so.

( bruna marquezine, 28, cis woman, she/her ) ☼ i know it’s a small town, but i run into JULIANA CARVALHO every time i go to GINGER ISLAND. it’s like they practically live there and not PELICAN TOWN for ONE MONTH. it must be because they’re SNOBBY and CONFIDENT. come to think of it, that’s probably why they’re a GENERAL STORE EMPLOYEE too. but i did hear they want to LEAVE THE VALLEY AND RETURN TO HER OLD LAVISH LIFESTYLE, and sometimes they like to DRAW. rumor has it they also like STRAWBERRIES, but dislike DIRT. what do you think?

bio & headcanons | wanted connections | tasks | open starters

[dewyjuli]

BRUNA MARQUEZINE photographed by Agata Serge

[dewyjuli]

BRUNA MARQUEZINE via galafr's tiktok