macwalsh

[macwalsh]

who: open starter!  what: ma(c)gician where: the game room 

Mackenzie always felt out of place at this sort of thing, despite being surrounded by his closest friends. The Hollys were the sort of people who would certainly turn up their noses at him on a regular day, particularly Danny and David, but played nice when everyone was watching. He’d never understood the upper crusters of Cherry, and somehow understood them even less now that he was involved with Harvey. How they could have all the resources in the world at their fingertips, and still deprive their children of like... decent parenting was a mystery to him. Especially when Leo had done everything he could to make Mac’s childhood a happy one, despite how hard he had to work, despite how little they had for most of it. 

It’s all this that has led Mac to pouring something a little stronger in his drinks every year since he was fifteen, not too much, but just enough to get through the evening. This year he was particularly heavy handed, needing something to relax him enough to keep his mouth shut around Harvard II. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold back the rage that bubbled in his stomach every time he saw the man lately. 

“Is this your card?” he asks, cursing under his breath when the person across from him indicates that it isn’t, “Okay, okay- wait. Let me search my brain... Jedi shit... eight of clubs?” 

[macwalsh]

closed starter for @roryjackson​

Mackenzie always felt a little bit out of place at parties like this. Lux materializing at his side was usually enough to take that fear away, or at least push it down a little bit. The feeling was stronger this year, but he couldn’t be sure if that was due to his former friend’s absence or his newfound attachment to Cherry’s Golden Boy. It was hard not to dwell on it when there was such a perfect scene playing in front of him, Elaine and Harvey’s picture being snapped in front of the Christmas tree. Her mother was beaming, surely longing for the day the two would finally reconcile. Mac was waiting too, though the possibility brought him nothing but dread.

Rory’s voice fades back in beside him and it’s like he’s woken from a trance, cheeks flush from the possibility that his friend had caught him staring at Harvey for just a little too long. “Shit-sorry... I was totally in space for a second there. What were you saying?” 

[macwalsh]

closed starter for @freeserburnn​

So maybe Mackenzie had, had a little too much to drink. He wasn’t stumbling drunk by any means, but there was more alcohol in his system than was customary for a party with parents. He was the kind of tipsy that led to a competitive streak and an offensive amount of energy, almost always directed at Miss Freyja Freese. There was a reason Leo hid the board games at his own Christmas bash... legend has it they were still finding game pieces from the Hungry, Hungry Hippo Incident of ‘83 all over the living room. “Ha! You landed on my hotel, again. Pay up,” he chuckles in glee as he taps his finger against the Monopoly board, causing the little buildings and game pieces to shuffle around, “Hey- that’s kind of a good beat. Listen!” 

[macwalsh]

harvardiii​:

@macwalsh​

Harvey Hates Holidays! That’s the long and short of it: they’re simple facts and figures. Harvey Hates Holidays. 

It wasn’t always like that: he could remember a time when Christmas being right around the corner was the most exciting thing he could wrap his head around. He’d wake up early to get to Elaine’s for presents. He’d spend the morning mingling with a family that wasn’t his own, and then hurry his way back home to spend time with his own Mom and Dad. He was seven years old the first time he got to scurry down the street to the Archer’s - he was seventeen the last time he did it. Somewhere in between though, after his Mom died, and his Dad got remarried… Harvey sort of just started to resent it all. Where was the holly jolly? Where was the room to be merry when he was so god damn miserable?  Now though, as he was wandering around the familiar Holly halls with a cup of spiked (don’t tell the parents!) eggnog in one hand, and a poorly wrapped, measly little excuse for a gift in the other, he had the strange, nagging little feeling in the back of his head: what if this Christmas was different? “You busy?” It was easy enough to find Mac, with his back hugged against a wall. The room was fairly quiet considering the party, but his words were still soft enough that Harvey thought he might have to repeat them.  “Thought we could hang outside for a sec, or something.” Harvey shrugged, a smile creeping over his lips - though he didn’t dare pull Mac’s gaze any further than his peripherals.

 “Get some air?” 

🎸

Mackenzie loved the holidays. Well, he loved his and Leo’s version of them anyway. The Holly’s Party wasn’t piled high on the list of things he looked forward to during the holiday season, but it always seemed to make Leo happy. After all, his uncle remembered a time when the Walshes weren’t social pariahs- when they were invited to events like this one more than once a year. He remembers the mix of nerves and delight on his uncle the first time they’d been invited, and the spring in his step every year since. So Mac comes to make him happy, even if his Rudolph tie sort of feels like it’s choking him. 

He’s had his fair share of spiked egg nog and he’s buzzing from the inside, enjoying the feeling and the decorations. And then Harvey appears, like an angel or something, illuminated by the twinkle and glow of the Christmas lights behind him. It’s enough to make Mac’s fingers ache from not being able to reach out, though the feeling is becoming more familiar the longer they continue this thing. 

“Yeah, sure,” his smile is as warm as he feels as they make their way outside, and it’s not until they stop that he spots the present in Harvey’s hand, “You know they have a table for those right? You don’t have to carry it around all night. Who’d you get anyway?” 

[macwalsh]

FULL NAME: Mackenzie Leonardo Walsh  NICKNAMES: Mac, Mackie, Ken (Ew), Kenzie  DATE OF BIRTH: February 14th, 1965 ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius JOB: Cashier at Blossom Records MAJOR: Music Production  SEXUALITY: Bisexual  BIRTH ORDER: Oldest  PETS: Garfield the Cat  CHARACTER INSPIRATION:  AESTHETICS: Spending hours getting lost in a record store, laying on the floor listening to your favorite songs, waking up early just to watch the sunrise, messy morning hair, the smell of fresh coffee at three in the afternoon, the sound of someone tuning a guitar, smiling at someone as you pass each other, secrets whispered under a blanket of stars, fresh guitar picks, standing outside of someone’s window with a boombox over your head, chewing on the end of your pencil

TW: Cult activity, child abandonment, mentioned homophobia 

Laura Walsh has been “searching for herself” for as long as anyone can remember. One week she was killing herself for a spot on the cheerleading squad and the next she was under the bleachers with the burnouts. It was enough to give anyone whiplash, especially her older brother. Leo Walsh had always been her best friend and protector, but as the older they grew the less he understood her. He’d found his niche early, figured out exactly who he was before the clock struck twelve on his tenth birthday- and poor little Laura had always trailed close behind trying and failing to make something stick. So when something finally did... he just wished he could have been happy for her. 

It all started with a boy, the way things always did when it came to Laura. A shiny new boyfriend who was into all the sorts of things pastors warned about on the nightly news. Leo had rolled his eyes at his parents’ concerns at first, blown off the notion that their new interests could be anything darker than they were on the surface. Laura was happier than he’d seen her in years and this guy had stuck around longer than a month- it was a win in his book until it wasn’t. 

At sixteen Laura and David disappeared in the middle of the night, leaving only a half-finished note and a phone number on a torn piece of newspaper behind for Leo. He called and called and searched and searched to no avail, not until two years later when the couple showed up on Laura and Leo’s parents’ doorstep eight months pregnant. By then, the Walsh family had become social outcasts in the eyes of Cherry’s residents- a lack of savings, dwindling business at Mackenzie Sr.’s pharmacy and a hope that their daughter would return to them the only thing keeping them in town. The family’s presence was met with whispers wherever they went, of their daughter and the cult she’d ran off with and their son and who he chose to go to bed with at night. 

They’d slammed the door in her face, the way they’d done to Leo a year before when they’d discovered his sexuality. So of course she’d found her way to her brother’s new apartment, and of course he’d welcomed Laura and David in with open arms and excitement for the new baby.

David didn’t hang around long enough to witness the birth of his son, and Laura followed behind just three days after returning from the hospital. Baby Mackenzie was left in Leo’s spare bedroom and Laura was gone without a trace, without even a note this time.

Giving Mackenzie up had never even crossed twenty-two year old Leo’s mind, and from then on the boy was raised as his own. Laura stopped in every now and then, when the guilt ate her up at night or she needed to borrow a couple bucks or a roof over her head. There were always presents for birthdays that had passed months before and promises that she couldn’t keep. And then she settled down, a few towns over with a banker husband and two beautiful children- finally finding her niche in playing the part of a shiny housewife. It was then that the visits dwindled and stopped, her first born fading into the background of the picture.

Laura and David have given nothing to Mackenzie but his looks and a deep fear of abandonment, one that keeps him clinging to people like Lux Lewis far longer than he should. It’s what sent his little feet flying towards Leo’s bedroom in the middle of the night growing up, what shocks him awake now with his hands reaching out- “are you still there?

Mackenzie wouldn’t trade his upbringing for the world. He grew up smothered in love by aspiring rockstars, who would prop him up on their shoulders at concerts and taught him how to play instruments and gel his hair.  

And still, he can’t help but flinch at the looks thrown his way by locals who remember his mother, whispered rumors that his real father was a cult leader or that his conception was the work of the devil. There were rejected playdates when parents found out who he was and crying over an uneaten birthday cake for a party no one showed up to and the insistence that something deep inside of him was somehow wrong from the day he was born. 

Maybe that’s the reason he stuck himself so close to the gang when Lux invited him in, and why he still feels like he owes them everything.

EXTRAS: 

Mac is a HUGE Star Wars nerd

Guitar is his main instrument, but he knows how to play piano, drums, and bass as well 

Mac moved out of Leo’s house and into an apartment with Alice shortly after Libby moved in

[macwalsh]

F•R•I•E•N•D•S (1994-2004)

[macwalsh]

[macwalsh]

[macwalsh]

SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED (2004) dir. Raja Gosnell