polarisricki-a

[polarisricki-a]

texts | spice girls 🤪

SAGE: Or... we watch Insidious.

GINGER: You want me to do what now

[polarisricki-a]

text | len & molly.

MOLLY: Boys are just people, and all people are lucky if they get to be in your presence

MOLLY: Sweet, salty, or both?

MOLLY: I am doing excellent, now that things are back to normal. But I would be even more excellent if there weren't boys making you nervous.

LEONARD: Therein lies my problem: I cannot talk to people.

LEONARD: Salty, please.

LEONARD: My sexuality never seems unfortunate until moments like this. However, I am glad that you are doing better! I was worried about you.

[polarisricki-a]

texts | irene & pandora.

PANDORA: You had me at 'I bought a projector'.

PANDORA: Was it like one of those home renovation shows but on a smaller scale? Did you have a very heated discussion about marble countertops and then need to make a tough call about your in-home office/second attic/tomato harvesting room due to unforeseen water damage?

IRENE: ...You know what, I need to redo my renovation now. It was very chill and now I feel like it shouldn't have been!

IRENE: Come over and argue with me about dumb stuff that I won't care about in two days!

[polarisricki-a]

TEXTS || JILLY + SABINE

JILLY: No, I've never really gone out much other than to class and the dorms.

JILLY: I don't think I could dream this up.

JILLY: There are so many books I want to read.

SABINE: Well, now you have time to read them all!

SABINE: ...Maybe not all of them. I'm not sure even witches live that long.

SABINE: But you can read as many as your heart desires!

[polarisricki-a]

texts | gatsby & haley.

HALEY: asdhkhdfgglgf i was just thinking about u, whatta coinky dink

HALEY: yes i’m doing fab tbh, it’d be even more fab if i knew ppl were getting my after curse sry fruit baskets but 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 it’s cHILL WE R CHILL

HALEY: how are u

AGATHA: How did you send them? If you left them in front of people's doors, they were almost definitely stolen.

AGATHA: I'm fine.

AGATHA: Were you hurt at all?

[polarisricki-a]

polarisashley​:

@polarisricki​

Rae has been rallying for Carmen to reserve her her own table at Galatea on Saturday mornings for years, to no avail. Today is a prime example as to why she deserves it; every table is full, and she’s standing there with her coffee and muffin, book tucked under her arm, with nowhere to go. (Pouting at Carmen only got her a smack on the butt and a go make a friend, Idiot.) 

She has friends. But she also likes a quiet Saturday morning at Galatea, which isn’t a crime.

Someone shifts out of Rae’s line of sight and she can see an empty table, now, but as she gets closer, she can see it’s because someone else has stolen the chairs for their own party. It’s then that Rae finds a table with one occupant, and in a rare force of determination, approaches them.

“Hi, excuse me—I’m sorry to bother you.” Clumsily, she shifts both the muffin and the coffee to one hand, the other coming to rest on the vacant chair. “Is anyone sitting here, or do you mind if I steal this?” 

11,106. That’s the exactly number of days that Marinette has been trapped in the timeline. Days that her parents have spent without their daughter; days that her family have spent searching for her; days that her girlfriend has wondered where she is. 

...Probably, anyway. Marinette can’t know for sure, because she isn’t there.

Nadia’s busy today, which means Marinette is on her own. A handful of crumpled bills and an apologetic look were all Marinette got on the way out, so she abandons the idea of a search buddy or studying in a silent environment and makes her way to the closest coffee shop she can find. Usually, she’s careful not to step foot onto Polaris grounds, but she’s a little moody today and just wants a fucking macchiato.

Straw caught between her lips, she flips the page in her latest dead-end book, only to freeze at the sound of that voice.

That voice.

She almost doesn’t want to look up. She doesn’t want to tempt fate and look, only to lay eyes on a completely different person. But it’s impossible—- no one else in the world could speak like that. The same tone that used to wake her up in the mornings, a slight pitch away from the laughter that she used to muffle with her lips. She would know that voice in her darkest dreams, just as she’d know the red of those lips and the arch of her brow. She spent countless nights tracing her thumb over those features, whispering confessions under thin blankets. So when she looks up, she already fucking knows.

It doesn’t stop her heart from pounding painfully against her ribcage, as if it can shoot out of its confinement and place itself back in the hands of the one who’s always taken such good care of it. Rae. The name almost leaves her lips, but she makes sure that it doesn’t. —-This isn’t Rae. Not her Rae. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“—-Yeah.” She pulls herself out of it, shaking her head slightly. “Sorry, I— yeah.” She scratches at her head and tries to get her breathing under control. Fuck you, Nadia, she thinks. It’s a daily thought, but it’s rarely as malicious as she feels now. Fuck you so much. Clearing her throat, she smiles and nods at the girl. She must look insane. She feels insane. “Go for it.”

[polarisricki-a]

texts | glenn & carmen.

CARMEN: I think you can likely blame 12 on your bad coffee experience, and the remainder can at least be better coped with.

CARMEN: ... Yes, Glenn. I will make you a slushy coffee with enough sugar to drive you in an early grave, but only because you're cute.

GLENN: ...You may be correct in that. But, as the old proverb goes, “If there’s a price for rotten judgement, I guess I’ve already won that.”

GLENN: You’re pretty cute, too 👉🏻👈🏻

[polarisricki-a]

TEXTS || JILLY + SABINE

JILLY: This library is straight out of a book. I can't believe how huge it is.

SABINE. It’s marvelous, isn’t it? I love it there so much!!!

SABINE: Some of the books even read themselves to you, if you ask nicely!

SABINE: Have you never seen it before?

[polarisricki-a]

texts | verena & emmy.

EMMY: 👏🏻👌🏻😇

EMMY: 🆄❓

VERENA: I’m glad, babe. And I’m... feeling odd.

VERENA: His royal dipshit, Thomas Baker, Betelgeuse, has been avoiding the dorm like the plague, which means there are no birds or stupid boys singing every morning. Also, no one knocking on my door to tell me the dumb things his bones have shown him. I hated it when it was happening, but now... I don’t know. Might kill someone just to feel something.

[polarisricki-a]

texts | spice girls 🤪

SAGE: Insidious.

SAGE: Or the Conjuring.

GINGER: i guessed insidious, i know you so well 🤍

GINGER: the hard part is figuring out how to make costumes out of movies i have never seen. i’ll do it though 😤

[polarisricki-a]

texts | laurel & ophelia

LAUREL: Well, someone needs to pay for this, clearly, and it's not you, so if the only name you're giving me is Daphne...

LAUREL: Wait, wait. I feel like we should have opened with this.

LAUREL: Are you okay? Which hospital?

OPHELIA: it was just

OPHELIA: a misunderstanding??? a mess??? all of the above ✨

OPHELIA: i got upsetti spaghetti and almost brought a building down and daphne was like, “hey, could you chill, you’re going to hurt yourself” and i was like, “but who’s going to stop me?? you??” ...and she did 💛

OPHELIA: the magic hospital they send all of their lost causes to. i was here briefly before coming to polaris, but i haven’t been in years. can confidently say i do not miss it 😌

[polarisricki-a]

texts | christian & sheridan.

SHERIDAN: It's the best one, I said what I said. I MIGHT budge if you say Lion King.

CHRISTIAN: Lion King 2, definitely. The soundtrack ALONE puts it above the rest.

[polarisricki-a]

text | lysandra & matty.

LYSANDRA: I'd sacrifice anyone before I let myself get killed, so it's definitely not something you should take personally.

MATHIEU: i know this and i love you

[polarisricki-a]

texts | ophelia & river.

River: oh my godddd I told you it's okay! you literally couldn't control yourself

River: I didn't get hurt. at all. I was lucky

River: I hate to admit that when I read 'bad week' I thought of something else

Ophelia: okay but have you considered: i almost made a building fall on your head, that is cause for concern!! but i'm glad you didn't get hurt 🥺

Ophelia: what'd you think of 👀

[polarisricki-a]

texts | christian & river.

River: I'm free. You can come over. We can bang and hang tbh

River: I'm sorry your week sucked so much

River: but what if I want you to say something about it in the morning?

Christian: You're the best person at this school

Christian: I can do that, too

[polarisricki-a]

polarisashley​:

Miss DeLaurentis.

Professor Nix isn’t universally liked, but she quickly became Eloise’s favorite teacher; Eloise has a habit of running head first into people who are most likely to hate her, kill them with kindness and hope she gets her way, but Aurorette eventually came to represent something much more to her than another personal validation. Eloise has never had much of a parental figure–at least not one who didn’t wish her dead or wish to weaponize her–and while Professor Nix does not scream warm and loving, her special brand of tough love gives Eloise just enough. Of all of Polaris, Professor Nix is her safe space, whether she likes it or not. 

But tonight, Eloise knows she can’t handle any kind of tough it up truth. And, more than anything, she feels fragile and embarrassed, terrified that if the professor sees her–really sees her–then she’ll come to find that Eloise is no longer worth her time. Deserved, but a painful thought nevertheless. 

Quickly, she swipes a thumb across both cheek bones as the light gives her no place to hide. Eloise stands, hands wringing anxiously in front of her uncharacteristically, betraying. “It’s harder to see the stars with the lights on,” she shrugs, avoiding the root of the question. 

She’s fighting her natural inclination to spill (too much, she’s too much)–and instead turns to lean back against a wall, pinning her hands behind her, as though that would help her keep her mouth shut. Eloise wets her lips and resolutely does not look at Professor Nix, which continues to not help her case. 

“Who were you hoping to find?” It occurs to her that Professor Nix might be up here for a similar reason, but Eloise knows better than to assume. Wary, she adds: “Do I need to leave?”

It’s harder to see the stars with the lights on.

Aura looks straight at Eloise, even as the young woman does her best not to look at her. They exist boldly on two sides of the same spectrum: fire and darkness; the overabundance of light and the horrifying absence thereof. Aura has lived her entire life in this unforgiving darkness, because there is something easy about it. Easy to let the shadows swallow her whole and let the world pass by in its exhausting happiness.

Eloise has always been one of those people: the exhaustingly happy. If not happy, then bright. She’s always been the antithesis of what Aura is. Accidentally destructive, eager to please, incredibly friendly, and so damn transparent. She’s never been like this. Clouded and quiet, nervous but contained. She lurks in the same darkness that Aura personifies. Aura would worry, she would, except—-

It’s harder to see the stars with the lights on.

She knows that better than anyone.

“So it is.” With a quiet hum, her minions turn the lights back out. “I was searching for you.” She may not be the best at socialization — though that is no mistake — but she knows well enough when comfort is needed more than brutality. ( Some might argue that comfort is always preferred over brutality. ) She walks past Eloise to find a seat, lowering herself into a chair and relaxing into it. She turns her eyes up to the ceiling, gaze latching onto the countless stars littering the sky above her. It feels so far away, as if she’s staring at the night sky and not a flimsy imitation. If she were more sentimental, she’d say that she feels close to the stars.

But she’s never been the sentimental type. Stars may be powerful, but what lies above her is nothing more than an empty stand-in.

Cynicism burning away any trace of magic and wonder, she turns her gaze back to Eloise. “You are free to sit back down. If you felt comfortable going anywhere else, I don’t imagine you would be here.”

[polarisricki-a]

polarisleigh​:

Lady Varga.

She hasn’t been called that in ages. Because up until that moment, she’d been the queen. Your Highness. Mrs. Baker.

Beth does her best not to flinch, but it’s like he’s struck her. You can keep the room. Immediately she shakes her head, because she doesn’t want the constant reminder of what they once were. Of what Beth thought they could have been.

I’m staying with my father.

“You’re going back,” it’s not a question, but it hits her with wondering all the same. She doesn’t know why she had assumed that when he left, he’d come back to her. But that’s what makes it cyclical– they left Hungary, shouldn’t that mean that someday they go back? She suddenly can’t wrap her head around it. He’s going back to marry someone else.

“Does your sister know?” Beth asks, because she’s fully aware of the other person who will be absolutely devastated by this news. “So you’re just– you’re just leaving Polaris?”

“There’s no need to concern my sister with this.” Thomas’s motivation has always been to take care of his sister. From the day they were born — with her popping out of the womb a solid twelve minutes before him — his only thought and inclination had been to give her the world that they came into together. Everything in his life has always revolved around making Lenora happy and keeping her safe. At some point in the last few weeks, it hit him that she’d never asked for any of it. And, as he seems destined to do, he only succeeds in pushing away those he loves by doing what they’ve never wanted.

So he is giving Lenora her space. Protecting her from afar and all that.

Leaving Polaris—— is he doing that? Permanently, that is? He hasn’t thought about that.

Realizing this conversation won’t be one of brevity, Thomas sighs and takes a seat at the desk in the room, gesturing for Elisabeth to sit on the bed across from him. “I don’t know. But our annulled marriage means that someone has to get married now. And if it isn’t me...” Then it will have to be Lenora. Another reason why he doesn’t tell her any of this. She won’t care for his chivalrous bullshit, as he imagines she would call it, and she certainly won’t like knowing that their father considered calling on her again. Irme and Lenora do much better when they each pretend the other doesn’t exist.

Thomas shrugs. “Going back to Szeged means that I keep you and Lenora from being thrown into marriages you don’t want. If you do remarry, then—” He’ll be devastated. “—I will not interfere. As long as that is what you desire and not what someone is forcing you to do. Once I’m sure neither you nor Lenora will be negatively affected by any of my father’s decisions...” He shrugs again, unsure how the rest of this will play out.

He didn’t exactly plan the trip to Hungary. All he knew was that Beth wanted him gone, and the only thing he wanted was to make her happy. So he’d done that. Everything else is just... the aftermath.