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[ a starter for @survibers !!! ]

Percy could feel the dying grip of summer as she walked through the chilled forest that evening. The sun was just barely starting to dip below the horizon, the last tendrils of light shooting rays of pink and white through the clouds. When she was living in New York, she had forgotten what it was like to be so close to nature. To feel like you could reach out and touch the sky if you wanted. It was something she had missed when she was buried in the canyons of skyscrapers in Manhattan. She wrapped a hand around a tree and swung herself around it to face back towards Dhruv, reaching out to take the joint from him as she stumbled slightly over her feet. She was already a little stoned, which was perfect for taking in all the regal beauty of nature. Or, at least, it was something to give Percy the buzz she needed to relax from her usual slightly manic energy. She found it tended to lead to her steamrolling over other people.

For the people who were able to keep up with her, however, the company was always good; she supposed she was lucky that her good looks and charm let her get away with being a little annoying. She held the joint to her lips and took a deep drag. "Thanks for coming out here with me," she said. "It's always nice to have someone around for these little walks." And nice to get far away from that mall, she thought, though she didn't want to say it. Her eyes couldn't help but glance towards the scar on his cheek as she handed the smoldering joint back to Dhruv. As the light buzz set back in she felt a bright grin slide easily across her features. "It's crazy how quiet it is out here. I forgot how nice it was."

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[ a starter for @copperxxgalileo ]

Okay, so maybe Percy had drank a little bit too much, but it wasn't like she had meant to. It was just, like, one of those nights, and after sheepishly admitting she couldn't drive herself home, she let the bartender at the club call home for her. Thankfully, it was Copper who picked up instead of their dads, who would have certainly made this whole thing a lot more painful and embarrassing than Percy could take in her tequila-soaked state.

When Copper arrived, she was standing outside with her heels in her hand and a distressed look on her face. "I think I'm out of the scrubby things that I use to take off my makeup. I can't go to bed with all this on my face!" she complained. She flung an arm over his shoulders. "I need to go home and raid dad's bathroom, stat."

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[ a starter for @rebelsrebels ]

Percy was lying across Lucy's couch like a haphazard Rodin—her legs were kicked up over the back and her head was half off the cushion. She was tossing a ball up in the air and catching it, the annoying *thwack* of the ball mimicking the snapping of her gum between her teeth. Percy was lost in her thoughts for a long while, even though she'd told Lucy she wanted to come over and "brainstorm." Percy caught the ball and stopped for a moment, her brow furrowing as something came to her.

"I've been here for so long," she said. "I've been home for so much longer than I planned to be home." She sighed. "I never wanted to be the person who comes back *home*."

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Franz Kafka, the metamorphosis / Jane Austen

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Fletcher rolled their eyes at Mingyu's response, already regretting trying to start some sort of conversation with him. Most of the people who worked at Starstrike got on Fletch's nerves merely because of the association between them at work, but Mingyu seemed to be the worst culprit of them all. Fletcher leaned against the counter on both elbows, considering slamming their head down against the glass in the hopes of feeling something other than the mind-numbing boredom that was the norm at the bowling alley. Fletcher had thought it would be fun, but they forgot when they applied: they fucking hated bowling.

"I don't know how the hell she has fun here," Fletch replied. They stood back up straight and stretched their arms up over their head in the hopes of popping their shoulders and getting some relief for the stiffness in their back. They had worked for the past four days and they still had two days to go before they finally got the relief of three days off, but Fletch was seriously starting to doubt if they were going to make it through. It wasn't like they had any other options, though, and after losing all the savings they had accumulated over the years, Fletch was stuck trying to build it back up so they could get out of this shitty town. "I hate bowling," Fletch replied, fixing Mingyu with a look for a moment. "With or without the smelly shoes."

"Huh?" Mingyu responded, taking a moment to realize he was being spoken to. Perhaps it was because he wasn't used to Fletch voluntarily engaging with him, or because he had been too busy trying to plan what he was going to do once his workday ended. It was one way to try and pass the time without going insane, as every shift at the bowling alley truly felt like a lifetime. He had grown numb to the screeching of children, the sounds of pins being knocked over and the loud cheering of people hitting a strike. While working at a bowling alley had once sounded like a dream job, it had turned out to be quite the opposite and it took all of his mental power to stay positive about the occupation.

"Why would you possibly want to go home? We only have-" He glanced at the clock with a hopeful smile, which then quickly faded. "Four hours to go." A groan of frustration escaped him as he ran a hand through his hair, messing it up in the process. "I doubt it," He then added, answering their question as he also looked at their co-worker. "She looks like she's having more fun over there." It was one thing to sit around with nothing to do as your job, but he still felt trapped inside the dimly lit alley, completely isolated from the rest of the world by all the chaos around them. "You think we could get away with stealing a lane and playing a few rounds? Shoes are overrated. I don't know why people need to wear them anyway. Just put up a sign to stay off the floors. Like those 'stay off the grass' ones. The stupid ones."

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Fletcher never expected to see anyone they actually knew when they moved to a new place. It was bizarre, feeling the twinge of nostalgia for a place they had once called home and they wondered if staying power in their life was meant for people, not places. It was a shock in the moment, this shift in their thinking, but they pushed it aside for the moment and instead tried to remember that not everything needed to be dissected and analyzed down to the molecules. Fletcher easily accepted the hug with one arm, the other arm still carrying a basket of groceries, and she rubbed Copper's back once, warm and friendly, before pulling back to look at him once. There was something about him that seemed different, sadder, somehow. She couldn't quite place her finger on it. Fletch was good at reading people, at knowing what they were going to say before they said it, though there was no way they were going to be able guess what Copper would say about Deacon. "I think this is the last place I expected to find anyone," Fletch replied, glancing around at the small grocery store and thinking how peculiar this town already was. It seemed like there was a convergence of some kind here, some overlapping of energies that had made it so Fletch was stuck here, but also made it so that Fletch ran into one of the few real friends they had ever made. "What brings you here?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

Copper was at the deli part of the grocery store, looking at the various cheeses - Copper liked cheese. The problem was that they were all out of imported provolone, and he was trying to decide if he wanted to settle for the blah domestic kind of if he wanted to try to find it somewhere else. While Copper wasn't a food snob by any means, he was a bit of a cheese connoisseur, especially provolone because his Italian father had talked often about how only authentic Italian provolone was worth eating. And the truth was that Copper saw his point. So he was looking into the cheese display trying to make his decision when he saw the reflection in the glass of someone approaching. That looks like Fletch, Copper thought, though he didn't really think it was; what would they be doing in Shrike Heights? He remembered meeting them at the bar, at how easily she worked into their group, like it had been meant to be. And then suddenly she was gone, though Copper had always pegged her as a bit of a rolling stone. He'd missed his friend, but he hadn't taken it personally. But still, Copper had known them back in Seattle, so why would they be here now? The deli worker watched Copper, clearly perplexed by why he was staring so hard at the glass, but Copper didn't care because holy shit, it was Fletch. Turning around, he looked at them and beamed. "Hey!" he exclaimed, genuinely glad to see her. "What are you doing here?" This was the last place he had expected to see his friend, and he wasn't even thinking about the fact that he'd have to tell her about Deacon. Right now he was still just feeling shock at their presence. "I think this is the last place I expected to find you," Copper stated, hugging them.

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Jane O. Wayne // Kate Jacobs

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[ @enshrikes // @copperxxgalileo ]

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— Ocean Vuong, Because It’s Summer

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"God, I hope so," Grace replied, still pouting into her PB&J. She took another bite. She had spent the last year deciding wholeheartedly to throw herself into life, feet first. This was one of many experiences she had promised herself, but it wasn't magic like she hoped it would be. In fact, it was kind of hard to find capital-M Magic in Shrike Heights, especially in the face of the killers. Grace had been trying and trying, but she was starting to realize that the things she wanted, what she lamented missing out on through high school...that was just life. And it wasn't going to fix what she felt was missing. She didn't know what would, but she was going to keep trying different things until something, anything, filled the hole. Grace crossed her legs compactly, kicking her leg lightly. "I gotta ask," she said, pursing her lips. "Do you feel like it's been too quiet lately?" She dropped her voice low. "I'm kind of afraid of saying it and jinxing everything."

Jo had never necessarily been a motherly person, she'd never wanted kids of her own, or anything, but somehow she did have a habit of taking people under her wing - more in a way where she was the cool, queer aunt then a mom, though. With Grace, she hadn't liked watching her walk home all by herself, so had tried offering her rides if it was raining, or just someone to walk with if it wasn't. She took the sandwich - she had forgotten lunch, so it was actually perfect timing, really. "Wow. Well.." She wasn't actually sure what to say - she definitely hadn't been getting kissed by girls at college parties when she was nineteen, she'd been more one to stay in her dorm, writing sad, gay poetry at that age. "Maybe now you'll be able to tell next time, right?"

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Richard siken / dave eggers

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— Carol Rifka Brunt in Tell The Wolves I'm Home

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i'm a simple girl: i see sunlight on the water, i find god

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Jack Gilbert, from Collected Poems; "Waking at Night"

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"Don't be ridiculous, I packed you a sandwich, too," Maya replied, reaching into her massive work tote to pull out a brown paper bag. "Just in case." Maya was the kind of person to plan their day out to a T first thing in the morning, and as she heard the forecast on the 6 a.m. news, she already made this plan to get Mac to come out to the park with her. So, obviously, Maya had to make sure she had prepared for the chance that Mac wouldn't have packed their lunch today. Just like in the rest of her life, every eventuality was planned for.

Maya reached a hand out to gesture for Mac to follow her. "Come on, let's get while the gettin's good," she said easily. Maya was the kind of person to reach out first, to make sure that her friendships remained rock solid. She cared for people deeply, and she gave that kindness away for free. When she found someone whose company she really enjoyed, she always made sure to get as much of it as possible, wildflowers pressed between the pages of her life.

Mac had been working more at Dick's than usual lately. They were saving up for some new parts for their car and as much as she loved the boys back at the auto shop it was much easier for them to pick up an extra shift or two at the mall. It seemed everyone was always giving up shifts and Mac didn't mind the steady pace that working at Dick's provided. While they still had to interact with people it wasn't nearly as intimate as they did back at the auto shop where everyone knew their name.

Mac had just finished up ringing out a string of customers when an all too familiar face popped into their line. The butterflies that once formed when seeing Maya had subsided quite a bit knowing that she was nothing more than a friend in the end but there was still some excitement to be felt getting invited out anywhere. "I can take a break whenever, I'm due for one," Mac admitted. "But I didn't pack a lunch today I was going to pick something up from the food court," they went on. As nice as going to the park sounded eating felt just as important to Mac.

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love is something you must bite into

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Percy had missed this about living in New York. It took so long to get to any outdoors at all, and it was frustrating for someone like her, who had grown up with the forests and mountains around her. So, since coming back to Shrike Heights, Percy had taken it upon herself to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible, and usually roping in at least one of her brothers to come with her. This time, it was Galen, which she was glad for; ever since coming back, it felt like the two of them were ships in the night, and Percy had been meaning to change that. She slung her arm easily around his shoulders.

"Oh, ye of little faith," she said, shoving him once. Percy was notoriously late to just about everything, but the big, underlined conclusion to that was that she did, indeed, show up, even if it was an hour late. She started towards the trailhead across the small parking area, pulling on the straps of her backpack to tighten it against her shoulders. "How's the new place?" she asked, starting with gusto up the steep hill that started off the trail.

open to: @lcvemeforever location: shrike heights forest trail date & time: may, early morning

Galen pulled up to the trailhead early that morning, and the empty lot told him he'd arrived before his sister. He stepped out of the car and surveyed the area, breathing in the fresh air of the forest. He loved mornings like this – late spring, when the ground had fully thawed but hadn't yet warmed enough that the afternoons became overbearing. Percy's suggestion after one of their morning brunches that they go out for a hike that weekend had been an inspired one, he thought as he grabbed his backpack from the backseat of his car.

Sliding off his shoes, he decided to walk the outskirts of the lot barefoot, the cool earth grounding him – pun only partly intended. He'd taken to meditation during his treatment, and he'd become particularly fond of walking meditations over the years. He was just barely in the zone when he heard the sound of a car pulling up nearby, and he opened eyes to his sister's Jeep. "And here I was thinking you were standing me up," he teased, making his way over. He wasted no time moving in for a hug, grateful to see his sister again.