prismagpie

[prismagpie]

giant superstore, 2nd february / @anchoragestarters

"What's the deal with this Zydrate stuff?" It was an abrupt question, probably not what you'd expect to hear from a random passerby in the toiletry aisle. He'd been looking for hair dye, the need to agressively bleach his hair and force it into some bright, garish colour having finally taken over him after a few months of letting his dark roots grow in and eat away at the previously well-maintained blonde. "There was an ad for it on TV. Some miracle happy drug?" he said, with a bitter laugh. The way he'd been feeling lately, Ash was sure he could use that but even he had his limits. There wasn't much he felt like trusting these days. But, God, did he feel like SHIT. He'd barely been keeping up with the news of this murder, his head still swimming with his own grief. There wasn't much room for anything else. His head was crammed fulled but his world was so, so fucking empty. Oof. "You think it even works? Or is it just some weird pharmaceutical scam?"

[prismagpie]

𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙲𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙺 𝚂𝚃𝚁𝙸𝙺𝙴𝚂 …

 happy 27th birthday dearest ASH YOON  ,

come drop your presents & send wishes if you may                             find out more about character birthdays here !

[prismagpie]

That's not a gut feeling, thought Ash. It's common sense. Of course it's bad when someone gets fucking murdered. But thought they would remain; even for Ash, who'd spent the past few months swallowed up in a cloud of grief and hopeless rage, that felt too harsh. It was natural to see something like this happen and be afraid. It was normal. The only issue was that nothing in this forsaken town was ever, ever normal. An empty counter in a convenience store was an odd place to be having a conversation like this but Ash, who typically did not take to busy and crowded places, had started to find that the noise was good for drowning out...well, everything else. These days, his apartment felt so loud as to be practically deafening and, somehow, the only thing that seemed to soften the siren wail of loneliness was the muffled chitter-chatter of the same strangers who had always ignored him. He thought he'd gotten used to it, being by himself, but he'd grown desperate, looking to any conversation, any pasttime, anything at all that could fil the growing void in his chest. Nothing worked. Nobody else was Mindy.

"They'd have to give half a shit first," Ash said, a barely concealed anger coarsing beneath the words as he took a half-assed sip from the can he was holding. An energy drink. Him and caffeine didn't always get along, the headaches were pretty bad, but his sleep schedule had gone to total shit and he passed the point of caring about that kind of thing. There was no use in pretending otherwise, anyway. Anybody who saw him could figure it out; hair disshevelled, the black roots beginning threatening to start drowning out the washed-out bleach blonde, and the telltale dark circles under his eyes. "They never put their resources into anything unless there's a pretty little story to sell alongside it, trust me," he continued. "Somehow, we live in a town where not even death on its own is a good enough story. They got tired of rattling on about ol' Willow the second it started to sound like she wasn't as perfect a victim as they'd thought."

Ash didn't love the cynicsm that had taken hold of him but its talons had grasped him a long, long time ago. They'd only dug deeper over the years and, usually, he'd been able to pry himself free of them just long enough to remain somewhat hopeful about the world, but now they'd sunk so deep as to practically impale him. It had taken him years to just accept that his dad had gone missing and nobody would ever care but, somewhere along the line, he had indeed accepted it. But Mindy's death had undone everything. Once again, it didn't feel like anybody cared. Suddenly, there was another murder and everyone's eyes were on this mystery assailant; it was as though death was little more than a passing trend. A fad. Everyone waiting for the next big gruesome twist. But what about the people who were left behind? What about the ones who died? Would nobody continue to cry for them?

Then, a sigh. Ash finally relented, his shoulders drooping as he forced himself to left go of the anger. This wasn't Aang's fault. He was right to be freaking out. Fuck, at least somebody was freaking out! It was pleasant change, if anything could be said to be pleasant at a time like this. "You're not useless, okay?" he said, speaking sincerely, although he continued to stare at the wall rather than dare make eye contact. "The authorities are the useless ones. Don't blame yourself for their laziness. Trust me, it doesn't help."

@anchoragestarters♡ ˚₊‧⁺ જ⁀➴

who: anyone ( assume connections ! ) where: anywhere ( you can choose the setting! ) when: jan 22 ; here lies mother event starter cap: ( 0 / 4 )

“listen, i know what i saw, and i am telling you—i have this gut feeling it's bad.” aang’s voice wavered on the precipice of panic, a quiver betraying the storm churning inside him. terror clung to him like a second skin, his thoughts spiraling in a frenzy of unease. even after speaking with the police, the knot in his chest only tightened. he couldn’t let it go, couldn’t simply wait and hope for resolution. he was ready to shout it from the rooftops, to make the whole town listen if he had to. reckless, perhaps, but if there was even the slightest chance he could prevent another life from being snuffed out, he would seize it.

“you’re telling me they’ve got multiple witnesses who saw someone suspicious, and they’re not throwing every resource they have into tracking them down?” his words tumbled out in a rush, each one edged with incredulity and a desperate need to make sense of the madness. but even as he said it, he knew the truth: identifying the man was like chasing a ghost through a fog. everything about it was maddeningly elusive, a rush of uncertainty that refused to settle into clarity.

“it just doesn’t sit right with me,” aang continued, his voice climbing, thin and taut. “there’s someone dumping bodies in our bathtub, strangers lurking at the scene of the crime, and people—” he swallowed hard, his throat constricting against the word— “people are dying.”

his breath hitched, and for a moment, he faltered, caught in the grip of his own spiraling despair. “and worst of all,” he choked out, the words trembling as they left him, “i just feel so useless—even telling them what i saw feels like it’s not enough!”

[prismagpie]

It’s reassuring to know that at least some of our dear citizens haven’t grown numb. It was in the interests of remaining at least somewhat civil and not making a huge scene (when countless other scenes were likely already being made in the floors above the cinema) that Ash offered no more in response to this than a very forced, tight-lipped smile. What he really wanted to say was are you fucking kidding me? but, again, he was trying to hold it together and not let the frustration of getting locked out sour his mood too much. The thing was that, for Ash, it wasn't a matter of growing numb. If anything, he was pretty sure there were a lot of of things to which he was desensitised, if the list of things he didn't understand but did not care to learn more about was something to judge. But he'd never been given the chance to just shrug the disappearances off, not when they'd turned his whole life upside down. Was it reassuring? That his dad went missing and nobody gave a shit because he wasn't a picture perfect victim? That the cops placed a sympathetic hand on Ash's shoulder and said there was nothing they could do, all before any of them had lifted a finger to even try? Was that really reassuring?

"Ohhhhh, so that's how this is gonna work, huh?" said Ash, looking deeply, deeply unimpressed (in the way that he did with just about any person in a position of power, whether they recognised that privilege or not), with his arms now locked across his chest. "You guys install some weird shit into our homes and, as soon as it goes wrong, it's out of your hands, not your problem anymore?" Give me a fucking break, though Ash. The same old fucking story. The authorities didn't care about the little guy, he'd learned that the hard way a long, long time ago, and he hadn't really been naive enough to believe this interaction would dissuade him of that belief but, no matter how much time passed, half-hearted apologies would never sit well with Ash. This person wasn't special either; there had likely been plenty of city council members over the years, maybe there were others even now, who believed they were doing the right thing, who didn't want to believe that their complacence was a problem so long as they weren't causing direct harm, but Ash saw it all in much the same light.

Ash sucked in a long breath through his teeth and ran his fingers through the bleached tresses of his fringe. Patience was not something he possessed in particularly plentiful quantities. "Okay, no complaint. A suggestion, then?" he said, head cocked to one side. "In future, or at least before you dump this thing in other neighbourhoods, can you guys make sure it actually works first? Instead of using actual people as guinea pigs?" With a frown, Ash popped another Milk Dud in his mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully. "Just speaking as a concerned citizen, is all."

a subtle nod, a cooing, “yes, a security system.” abraxis knows precisely what clappy is, having championed its investiture alongside the most if not the rest of the anchorage city council. yet despite this, the cool poise of council member number four—abraxis silvanus webb—is all but a thin mask, a veneer of authority concealing the simple truth: they are merely a puppet in an elaborate theater of control, one string among many pulled by those with true power, alister warhol in particular. their silver tongue may sway, their bravado may dazzle, but authority is something they truly lack. abraxis has always understood that their influence is performative, never a force strong enough to carve out meaningful changes.

abraxis sits at this council table not by election but appointment, a fragile seat granted on a whim, liable to be taken away just as easily. at best, their comments are sardonic witticisms, deflections designed to sidestep inquiry. when they hear the other’s candid remarks on death, they let a jocular laugh ripple through the air, responding with a playful toss of words: “it’s reassuring to know that at least some of our dear citizens haven’t grown numb to the disappearances and routine deaths. terrible, indeed.”

for abraxis, however, the morbid has become mundane. death is a cloak they wear reluctantly but intimately—hauntingly familiar since the violent passing of their ex-husband, and more recently, willow cho-iverson. these losses trail them, shadows woven into the very fabric of their being, casting an unseen pall over their finely-crafted smile. the ability to detach, to remain composed, is an unfortunate necessity in their role—a mask that hides how much they’ve grown numb to the ceaseless tragedies around them.

“a complaint?” they jeer, leaning in, offering the other an ear with exaggerated attentiveness as they pull themselves up. with a smooth, punctual smile, they deftly redirect, brushing away the accusation like dust. “apologies, i believe system maintenance is out of my jurisdiction. have you considered contacting your apartment's maintenance crew? i’m sure they can work something out for you,” they say, lips curling into a smirk. the words are casual, breezy, as if clappy’s constant monitoring—its unforgiving gaze—were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

[prismagpie]

Everything had happened far too fast for Ash's eyes to catch up and process any of it...is what could have been said if he had been able to see any of it.

Ash hadn't be able to stop and watch Mei to make sure she'd dodged out of the way in time, too focused on dispatching the next threat following immediately after. There was no wriggle room here, it was act or...he wasn't really sure what would happen if he didn't act but it wasn't a thought he wanted to entertain. Ash swung the sword in a great strong arc, a surprising amount of force and weight behind the action for someone of his stature, and cracked open the skull of his nearest assailant. Their eyesocket seemed to crack and the eyeball popped right out. Ash's efforts were promptly rewarded with another spurting fountain of thick red stuff. It had been distubring the first couple times but now it was just getting stupid, which was the word Ash always used to dismiss things that confused or frightened him. Stupid. Because only an idiot was afraid of stupid things. And it was stupid that, somehow, no matter what he did, he kept getting splattered in the face like he'd stepped into a fountain. Yet this time was actually a little different. It was different because the blood's stream had hit the perfect height to catch Ash straight in the eyes and blind him, at least temporarily, as though fate itself had ordered up some kind of sick karmic retribution for knocking out that eyeball. How do you like it, asshole?

Just about wise enough to know that standing around with his eyes shut would only make him stick out like a sitting duck, Ash ducked down where the groping hands of the scare actors (although he was rapidly losing faith in this assumption) could not reach him and scrambled to the base of the tree. His breath was thin, his pulse throbbing in his throat and his chest rising and falling at a pace known only to rodents. He'd been distracted with a round of furious attempts to rub the blood from his eyes when he finally heard Mei's cry and the subsquent muted sound of an axe hitting flesh.

Flesh. That wasn't right. Everything he'd hit so far had been metallic and not quite right, the squelchiness of the blood almost sort of cartoonish in volume, but he wasn't hearing any of the tell-tale splurting and spluttering. Hurried and frantic, Ash pulled his trembling body back to his feet, the trunk of it used as support. When he finally reached full height and opened his eyes, what he saw was so shocking that he nearly collapsed back into the grass. Mindy. Mindy. With an axe lodged into their chest. Although he wanted to look away, he could not tear his eyes from this horrible sight, not even long enough to see how Mei was reacting to her own actions. Something had gone wrong, something had gone horribly wrong. He watched, blankly, as Mindy said something to Mei, their voice too weak to make any of it out. Yet, even if they had been yelling, Ash wouldn't have heard a word of it, for the shock was too great and overwhelming for him to process a single thing. For now, in these moments, Mindy was alive, it shouldn't have been an issue. They were alive. But the logical part of Ash's brain knew what was coming, that the end was rearing its ugly head around the corner. The scene before him started to twist and distort, rippling as though it had been projected on the clear surface of a pond. That was when Ash finally realised that he was crying.

Ash had never been a well-liked child. To his father, he'd been little more than a conveniently scrawny means to and end. To the other kids at school, he was different, not in a way that they knew how to explain or quantity but still just different enough to make him 'weird'. Adults generally found him exasperating, never really knowing what to do with this hapless kid who could never sit still or listen properly or even just behave like all the other children. All of this, Ash had accepted. Or, at least, he thought he had. It wasn't that he'd never had any friends, because he had done, but, because he was bad at making friends and he was usually considered difficult and had a reputation for acting in odd, annoying ways, he'd gotten pretty used to spending time by himself. A lonely child had become a lonely adult without ever learning the difference, without ever needing to worry about missing out on the alternative because he knew no better. But Mindy had changed that. Suddenly, they were a constant in his life, someone to whom he'd always be able to turn. He'd never confided in anyone about anything before Mindy and yet he'd let down his guard around them, even owning up about his surprisingly long tenure as a thief, a detail he tried to hold close to his heart. When they'd moved into his apartment, that was when he'd finally realised how isolated he'd been, how fucking lonely his small life was. They'd brought with them splashes of colour from which it had been impossible for him to look away and, suddenly, life was just a little more fun. And, because Mindy was something of an oddball themselves, he'd never felt like a weirdo.

And now that would all be gone. It was like he could feel, in real time, that colour draining from the world, the dark winter night sky around them taking on a terrifyingly monochromatic quality. When Mindy spoke his name, he'd moved even before he had time to recognise he was moving, as though acting quickly enough would stop it all. As though it was up to him to pull Mindy out of the dark cloud threatening to swallow them up. But that wasn't how this worked. That wasn't how it fucking worked. Ash took their outstretched hand into his own, his fingers squeezing tight around it. The splatterings of blood caked on his cheeks had been cut up by the streams of his tears, running thin lines through the red. "Thank you, both..." they said, finally. Their lids were closing, sparing Ash from the sight of the light leaving their eyes, but it brought little comfort. And then, suddenly, it was over. They were gone. Ash snatched their body close as it began to fall. No, calling this just a body felt wrong. Twisted. He snatched them, Mindy, and collapsed to his knees. "What the fuck?" Ash muttered, his voice so low it was barely more than a whisper. And then, louder, with enough force for his voice to break, throat strained from the sobs he was already fighting to choke back, he cried out, "What the fuck?!" And there he remained, arm held across his face to block his eyes as the chest-racking sobs finally escaped him. Ash had never been much of a crier, had never really been very good at showing his emotions in front of anyone, but his mind was spent and his body was acting on its own. So, he cried. He cried until his throat began to burn.

It was only when his eyes had run dry that he finally laid Mindy down and yanked the axe from their chest. Ordinarily, he would have avoided touching it, concerned that this would soon become a murder scene, but it was hard to worry about that when Mei's fingerprint were all over the damn thing. He'd only just realised that the crowd of aggressors had thinned away at some point. Had this been what they wanted? To confuse and scare each other into taking each other out? Whatever, it didn't fucking matter. He looked back over his shoulder, axe still in hand, and finally mustered the strength to face Mei. "They're gone," he said, like it wasn't obvious. Like she hadn't seen the whole thing. (But he didn't blame her; he was angry at someone, at something, but he didn't blame Mei.) "Mindy's...dead." / @fragilcline

FROM HER SPOT ON THE GROUND, Mei was sure this would be her last moments. This certainly wasn't how she imagined going out and trust, she had imagined plenty of different ways that it could happen. Never once was it at the hands of scare actors or....whatever these beasts were, as she was beginning to think they truly did walk straight off the pages of a horror novel, but by those who had damned her to a life of torture for their own greed, seeking out revenge and a lesson to be taught after escaping. It was almost ironic that she had been terrified of the wrong villains for the last seven years of her life. (Although, to be quite fair, if she was aware of whatever these creatures were, then they probably would've been added to the list.)

Her free hand gripped onto the frozen grass, unable to find her feet as the situation overwhelmed her to the point where she couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't process any of what was going on in her surroundings. There was blood on Ash, and there was blood on Mindy, and there was blood on the few bodies that were now slumped onto the ground, and she remembered being in situations before where the only thought in her head was there was so much blood, how much blood could a body hold before it ran out, before it dripped dry because this felt like too much too much too much but there was always MORE. And that was always the thing: it always felt like too much, that it had to reach a limit but the limit didn't come and instead she just wished someone would once push her over the edge into finally enough because even if it meant the end, it meant everything had to finally stop, too. That was all she ever wanted, was for everything to stop, finally stop and be done and be over and stopstopstop but even if she was able to finally get one breath in, she was suddenly being pulled back under by the dark waves of riptides of all that was around her. No matter how hard she squeezed her eyes shut or her fingernails dug into her palms, there was still so much pain and so much hurt and so much fear all around her. It was hard to remember if she was on the ground in the middle of Alaska or if she was back in dirty motel rooms but it didn't really matter because either way there was some sort of beings coming to hurt her and there was no way to stop them and that was never really fair because she never did anything but maybe yell at her parents a few too many times or not want to share her belongings with her little sister but she wasn't a bad person so why was she always being punished by being hurt when all she ever wanted was for everything to stop and be nothing because nothing sounded safe and all encompassing and warm and nothing wasn't painful, maybe nothing was even nice, if she could just have nothing because WHY DIDN'T IT EVER STOP.

Mei had never been a fighter; she didn't have a fighting bone in her body. All she knew how to do was wish and wait until someone else helped her all out of it. She didn't really expect that then, though; no, if she was able to have a clear thought in her head it would have been for Ash and Mindy to save themselves and just leave her right where she was to endure whatever was meant to happen to her while one of them able to cut down that stupid skeleton that was still swinging above as if it was gleefully watching the show below it with its empty eye sockets. A cry rang out that Mei was barely able to notice when her arm was grabbed and her entire body pulled up, taking a moment to recognize it had come from her own mouth. Everything was still happening too quickly around her, her understanding practically nonexistent. She never had a weapon in her hand before, never thought she would even be able to use one should she have. It was almost an out of body experience as she was shaken by the grip still on her arm, her other hand swinging the axe blindly with a power surged on by her panic and every bad experience she had previously endured that she never had the opportunity to put an end to. The axe came to a halt when it collided straight into the being who she could only assume was about to cause her demise. // @nvghtcrrors

[prismagpie]

It felt to Ash like time itself had melted into a thick, gloopy, viscous fluid, welled-up in its tracks and making it impossible for him to trudge through it. His hands were shaking, his whole body was trembling, and yet his grip on the sword's hilt did not let up for even a moment. It was as though loosening his hold for even a moment would break the dam and reality would come rushing in at full force to knock him off his feet. We need to stay together! These were the words that filtered into his mind from some distant place and he was fairly certain that the voice carrying them belonged to Mindy. Ash moved as if in a trance, edging backwards away from the half-liquidated remains of his unintentional victim and towards the side of the tree where Mindy and Mei had remained before he'd made a mad dash off on his own. There was a voice, buried somewhere in the very back of his head, begging him to run. Just get out of here and never look back. But, even if wanted to do that (and he mostly certainly did not want to, not when that meant abandoning the other two to whatever this was), he couldn't, not while he was still stunned out of his wits.

The idea that these things weren't part of the game brought him a momentary sense of relief, largely because that would mean that he hadn't just whacked some innocent scare actor and the fact that Mindy had sugggested it meant that they were seeing the same shit as him. The robot skull that had begun to present itself from beneath the oozing flesh was not just some fucked up hallucination. Yet that relief was terribly short-lived indeed. Accepting that these weren't scare actors meant accepting he had no clue who or even what they were. It meant accepting that they might actually be in danger. "What the fuck?" said Ash, his voice having finally returned to him. And then he began to repeat it to himself under his breath, over and over, like it was the only thing he knew how to say. He'd always claimed he wasn't afraid of animatronics and robots and the like, even in spite of the whole being left behind at Peppy's as a kid thing. Getting trapped on a broken down water ride full of them last February had only annoyed him. Now, he wasn't sure he could keep up the act. These things were fucking terrifying. Ash could hear the plastic bones of the skeleton rattling and clatterng in the breeze behind him, as though it were taunting him for having missed it so abysmally.

Ash finally stopped when he had reached the others, his sword held out in front of him. He felt like an idiot. There was no way he didn't look like one, gripping this thing like a little kid playing make believe. But it wasn't fucking make believe, was it? He'd been too dizzy and out of it to pay attention to his surroundings and the stickiness of the blood coating his face was making it difficult for him to look at anything without wincing. Finally, he was broken out of his daze by Mindy yelling for him to watch his left side. Somehow, he'd failed to notice another scare actor sneaking up on him, so close that Ash would have only needed to raise his hand to make contact with them. Instead, he did as he had done before; he swung his sword right at them, letting out a loud, throat-shredding yell as he went.

Only, this time, he'd done it deliberately. The blow was not as strong this time around -- nothing ever works as well on purpose as it does by accident -- but the sword successfully broke a crack in the metallic skull of his target. Another fountain of blood spurted out but Ash ducked out of the way just in time to miss the brunt of it, instead only getting a scalpful of the sticky stuff. Just as before, the flesh seemed to begin oozing and melting off of its frame and the body toppled over, almost crashing into Mei. "Look out, it's gonna crash into you!" Ash snapped, too far and too preoccupied with a third assailant who'd just come up behind him to help her get out of the way. / @fragilcline

MEI COULD FEEL THE EXASPERATION ALREADY LEAVING her mouth in a bit of a huff, slight offense in her voice at the implication that she could possibly be having an issue with the one hobby she had dedicated most of her free time to. "Mindy, I am not reading it wrong-" Regardless, she allowed the fortune teller to rip the scroll from her hands, instead choosing to cross her arms over her chest as one hand took the fake axe in it, holding it against the side of her body as it held a surprising amount of weight to it for a flimsy Halloween prop. The bookworm wasn't entirely happy about being included in the spooky holiday festivities, mostly showing up to the town gathering as a way of getting out of being holed up in an empty RV alone in what she presumed would be a deserted trailer park with nothing but horror movies on practically every channel they managed to receive access to on the tiny television that sat within it. At no point did they have any interest in actually participating in one of the scare zones, sat upon one of the hay bales and reading the book that she excused bringing with her as a prop for the Daria costume she adorned. It was only when Mindy practically dragged her by the wrist did she signup out of obligation, refusing to make another move that could be seen as betrayal, such as ruining their little fun. The hand that wasn't holding the handle of the axe was anxiously tapping her fingers against the army green of her jacket, daring a peek upwards at the skeleton that hung above their heads, almost mocking them from where it swung with every gust of wind. "They can't get in our personal space, right? Isn't that one of the rules, like, they can't get in your face or touch you?" Instead of the incessant tapping, her fingers then found her mouth, teeth biting onto one of her nails, breaking it right down to the nail bed. "I don't really know if I want to play this game, anymore. Did they give us a safe word, so we can stop at any time?" Mei was beginning to think she had gotten herself in way over her head, wishing she had stayed in her place atop on the hay bales where she was pretending to ignore the presence of a certain handyman, even if that was a painful way to spend her evening in a different way. Eyes looked over to Ash when he spoke up to get their attention, jumping when the skeleton suddenly groaned its warning and exclaiming, "I don't want to play anymore!!" There was a hope some sort of attendant would pop out from behind the tree and escort her out, instead, scare actors seemed to swarm around them like a pack of hyenas circling an injured antelope, panic starting at the base of her throat and moving upwards as her heart pounded in her chest. This isn't real. This is pretend. This is all fake. How could she agree to place herself back in the shoes of victim even if it was all for play pretend? She wasn't ready for that. Both hands were now gripping the handle of the axe, knuckles white from squeezing it, even though she was convinced she didn't have a single part of her that had the will to ever swing it. When it came to fight, flight or freeze, she had always fell into the latter two categories. Eyes were darting around in a frenzy until Ash's swing landed with success (if it could be called that), and a scream scorched her throat at the sight of blood. // @nvghtcrrors

[prismagpie]

Ash had barely taken in a single word of the instructions Mei had been reading aloud. He'd never claimed to be a very good listener and he felt too awkward to ask Mei, who didn't know very well, to repeat herself. Instead, he was stalking about, trying to get a good look at every angle of the tree, as though glaring at it would shine a light on some secret vulnerability hidden in plain sight. No such luck. "This thing doesn't look like it has a mic in it," he said, stepping up close to the skeleton. The way it dangled limply, trembling slightly in the wind, was a little offputting in the dim light but plastic was plastic. There was too much plastic involved here for Ash's liking right now. "Maybe the actual rope's super weak?" he mused aloud. "I dunno, I just feel the weapons have to be for this, right? They're all weapons that cut."

He'd been about to say something else, maybe even comment on Mindy's questions about the scare actors, but the sight of movement in the distance stole the words right from him. He was behind the tree, stood opposite Mindy and Mei and facing them both from a distance, so he'd been able to see what they were missing behind their heads. What was that? "Hey, guys, uh---"

He didn't get to finish that sentence, interrupted instead by the wretched sound of a disembodied voice.

"BEEWARE..."

Ash's eyes snapped back up to the skeleton. Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him but he could swear it had come from there. Unconsciously, he tightened his grip on the hilt on the broadsword he'd been weilding in two hands like a baseball bat. Beware of what? he thought, the adrenaline making him a little frantic. Beware of what, you stupid fucking bag of bones? Ash took a step back and looked back over to Mei and Mindy, his eyes immediately catching the sight of the scare actors creeping out from beneath the bushes. He opened his mouth to warn them of what was coming, as they'd still been looking directly at him (or around him?), but he'd taken one more step backward and crashed into a body behind him. Ash bolted forward towards the tree before finally taking a look around himself. Scare actors were stumbling in from every angle. He'd been thinking too hard about what Mindy and Mei had missed to even wonder what was behind him.

They were well and truly surrounded with no means of escape, at least not without potentially getting tangled up in the path of a scare actor too dedicated to their job to let anyone pass. But, if there was one thing Ash really, truly did not like, it was the feeling of being trapped. He'd spent his whole life teaching himself how to escape and run away, and his entire childhood had been defined by the fear of getting caught, whether it was by the owners of the homes he'd robbed or the man sending him into those homes. Suddenly, it was as though he couldn't think straight. Couldn't see straight. He knew this was just a stupid escape room-style game and he knew he shouldn't be scared of things that weren't real but his anxiety didn't care about all that. His anxiety was instead assuring him that he had no clue what these actors would do to him if they caught him, that he could never really be sure that they were to be trusted, that he had no real way of knowing this was safe. You need to get out now, it told him. Just do something.

"No fucking way!" yelled Ash, dodging to the side as a scare actor stumbled passed him. He was gripping the sword so hard now that his knuckles were turning white, his eyes fixed on the skeleton. He was sure this is what he needed the weapons for. Ash lifted the sword up behind his head and then thrust it forward in one great wide swing. And then another. And then another and another until finally, the sword made contact with something. It went squelch! as it did. There was a horrid squidging, cracking sound, like someone smashing open a pumpkin. Ash had winced when the sword landed but, when he opened his eyes, he saw that this weapon, that was supposed to be a useless hunk of plastic, was lodged into the face of the scare actor he'd just dodged.

Blood spurted from their face and splattered across Ash's own, the very physics of it as unreal to Ash as the injury itself. It took all of his strength and willpower to yank the sword free again but even this was only met with a guttural choking trapped in the actor's throat and yet another fountain of blood, much of which was now beginning to drip down Ash's faces, pooling in little droplets at the end of his nose. Yet he'd barely able to register any of it, horribly transfixed instead by the sight of the actor's eyes melting into a hot, oozing, sizzling liquid. He might have sworn, for a moment, that he'd caught a glimpse of something shiny and metallic glittering in the open jaw of the collapsing body. Indeed, the only thing keeping his stomach from bringing the free meal he'd snagged from the witch's brew back up onto the grass was the sneaking suspicious that, whatever these people were, they weren't...human. / @fragilcline

@prismagpie at all hallow's evil, hangman's hill w. ash & mei

"What the fuck does any of this mean?" They had been laboring over the instructions that Mei had read out for the past five or six minutes, eventually turning to the bookworm and insisting, "Give me that. Maybe you're reading it wrong." With the fake scroll in hand, they scanned the legible letters with their eyes, then glared back at the dangling skeleton that was poking fun at them overhead. Fuck this game, they hadn't started and they were already losing. The only thing missing was a huge fucking hourglass in the background, signifying their time running out before the scare actors would be upon them. "How are we supposed to cut a skeleton down with plastic?" Although, the sharp side of Mei's axe against her upper arm did appear to be sharper than the blunt end of a butter knife. "Take a few cracks at it and hope bonking it around like a fucking Whack-a-Mole brings it down?" The annoyance stemmed partially from enmeshing themselves at Mei's side again; when they had signed up on the sheet, they thought themself and Ash would be in for solving a fright night by themselves — only once informed of needing a third party and catching Mei's forlorn gaze in the stack of haybales, they decided that dragging Mei away by the wrist and insisting for her signage would circumvent any stupid heartbroken decisions. "How much time did they say we'd have before these guys start marching in like the 300? I feel like I'm not going to have any room to think when they do —" The rustling in the bushes was chalked off as their imagination; it was bad fucking weather for a Halloween haunt, if you asked them. "It seems like it's smart enough to talk back to us, it's probably got a speaker on it for one of the workers like those escape room things. They'll give us a hint if we have no fucking clue what we're doing for long enough. What's with the weapons if these guys aren't supposed to be able to touch us? Why can't we just claw the tree down with our bare hands?"

[prismagpie]

ANCHORAGE TASK 09 / HALLOWEEN COSTUME

FEATURING…ASH YOON as JIM HAWKINS (treasure planet)

[prismagpie]

"Lucky for some, I guess," said Ash, pulling himself to his feet and brushing his hands together. This was a complaint, made just for the sake of complaining. He didn't really begrudge her anything. To be honest, he hadn't really been expecting a positive response of all things and, because he didn't feel like he'd quite hit a wall with complaining pointlessly just yet, it had thrown him off a little, leaving the same sort of feeling he'd get when he reached the last piece in a pack of candy only to drop it on the floor -- incredibly minor in the grand, or even the middle-sized, scheme things but still pretty damn disappointing. Mostly, he was just a little embarrassed by how that reflected back on him. Ash had never even considered taking it in his stride and getting on with his day, he'd just jumped straight to getting mad. And, so, he let out a sigh and settled on dropping the whole thing. She seemed nice enough, anyway, and probably didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of his grievances.

"How long's this been going on anyway?" Ash asked, the question suddenly coming to him. He'd only just gotten back home, after all, and hadn't spoken with anyone on his way in and out of the apartment complex. In the split moment where he'd realised he'd been locked out, the culprit had come to mind so immediately and so clearly that he knew it needed no verification and he'd never bothered to think about any of the other details in the process. "I mean, it's gotta have been long enough for you to decide a whole damn movie will fill up the time, right?" he said, popping a Milk Dud into his mouth and chewing on it thoughtfully, as though working it between his teeth would also help him work out his own answers. "'Cause it was fine when I left the house but that was at, like, seven AM."

Alone in lieu of the trial that had shifted Chiara's world off its axis, she wasn't quite certain what to do with herself. She remained injured; she would always remain injured, as she was assured repeatedly by every doctor who assessed her case that they would linger on her delicate flesh forever. In truth, this did devastate her: her appearance was half of who she was, as much as most wouldn't like admitting their vanity, she was perfectly aware of it—and honestly? She admired that about herself, how confident she could present in any scenario. Now, though, she'd lost the power in her stance and the gumption in her gut. It was humiliating, to say the least. Which is why she was determined to forget about her misfortunes and immerse herself into something that would help tune the rest of the world to static. She was beyond exhausted; keeping up with life in Anchorage was no easy feat for anyone, but it was particularly grueling for a disabled young woman that had virtually no support system. None by blood, at least.

It's why she found refuge in the cinema—well, that and, of course, being unable to access her apartment all of the sudden. She would go three times a week, even if it was for the same viewing experience as the last. It was an ample distraction, and she would never turn a blind eye to the golden kernels of popcorn that summoned her with their savory stench. While she was awaiting her bucket to be filled, another voice called out to her, and she glanced over her shoulder briefly at the person. "He is a bit of a bastard, isn't he?" she spoke up, mellifluous vocals echoing within the four walls of where they stood at concessions. "Locked me out of my flat, too. At least I'm getting popcorn and a movie out of it."

[prismagpie]

Ash was not a judgemental person, not by any stretch, but he was prone to making snap decisisons about how he felt about people and the decision he made now was perhaps among the quickest he'd ever made; this guy was a dick. It didn't help too much that he was particularly resistant to mockery or having people laugh in his face. (Something, something, past experiences colouring how you go through the world as an adult, blah blah blah; Ash wasn't going to reflect on it.)

"You think I named it that?" asked Ash, as though even the suggestion of it was about the most pathetically insulting thing this guy could have said. And then, using the action as an excuse to step aside and recreate some sense of distance between them both, Ash scoffed aloud; the last thing he wanted was for this guy to read him stepping away as a sign of nerves in the face of intimidation, as opposed to more simplistic, mundane reality that Ash didn't much enjoy being too close to anybody. His reputation for being slippery and wriggling out of any mess into which he stumbled was helped immensely by this one preference. "That's the official name. Where the fuck have you been?" Ash went on, "Y'know how it is, they think that they can just give it a friendly little name and we'll all just forget how fucking sinister the whole thing is."

A pause, and he finally gets over his bruised ego just long enough to process the question he'd actually been asked. "And no, I shouldn't be locked in. 'Cause I got locked out. Goes both ways."

brows furrow, visibly, knitting until there’s a crease on his forehead. ❛ i can see that. ❜ it’s retaliated in a pitch—perfect replica of the other’s tone, irritable──snarky; one of ajax’s talents. particularly fond of provoking strangers.

to be fair, taeyoung isn’t even meant to be smoking in this area of the cinema should he want to get kicked out, but he knows better than to abide by regulations and laws──breaks them, does it anyway. ❛ funny. ❜ he laughs, again, in ash’s face, while he’s letting the small flame of his lighter flicker, igniting the butt of the cigarette.

footsteps tread to close the distance between two until one’s barely at an arm’s length, observing the figure that catches a milk—dud in his mouth with minimal effort──raising an eyebrow and tilting his cranium, feigning innocence behind the nature of words. ❛ and you aren’t meant to be one of them? assuming you’re a resident, giving a nickname to the surveillance system and all. ❜

[prismagpie]

Just his fucking luck. If Ash were to write up a list of all the people he least wanted to see in this moment, the second spot would be reserved and dedicated to each and every last member of the goddamn city council — the first spot would be taken, as it surely went without saying, by none other than Alister Warhol. Ash couldn't claim to be an expert on the ins and outs of local politics but, if pushed to hazard an educated guess, he'd wager that most decisions of that kind had to receive the mayor's approval before they could come to past and, as a result, he found it very easy to lay blame at that same mayor's door. As to the person stood before him right now, Ash would not have been able to name them if asked. Knowing the faces of most of the council from their public appearances (press conferences, town events, whatever else; that there was so much to follow contribued in no small part to Ash's lack of interest in the finer nuances of it all) was one thing but putting names to those faces was a different ask altogether.

If their voice was indeed a blade, then Ash's own stubborness was a thick layer of steel armour; any semblance of intimidation bounced right off his skull, simply because he was too annoyed with his current circumstances to let it sink in. "It's a security system," said Ash, flatly and without affect, his expression very much on of a man deeply unimpressed. Of course they knew it was a security system and of course they knew it was incapable of experiencing death, Ash knew that, but somehow saying shut up, you know what I meant would be a little too bold, even for him. "But, if you really wanna know? Then, no, I think it's pretty terrible when people die. Or, y'know, go missing, even." Somehow, he managed to resist the urge to flash them a pointed look.

It seemed hypocritical to Ash that he should be criticised for wishing death on anyone, living or inanimate, when it was his firm belief that the city of Anchorage and all those responsible for its upkeep were the ones with blood on their hands. He would not accuse the Council, or even the Mayor, of having a direct role in anybody's death but it wasn't like he'd seen them lift a finger to help prevent anything either. That they'd been blowing their budget on faulty security systems that locked people in and out of their apartments while the families of missing people were forced to organise their own fundraising events did little to lessen the bitter taste in Ash's mouth. (Whether he liked it or not, he would always be the son of Anchorage's missing and he would always live with the knowledge that nobody had ever given a shit.)

"Actually, while you're here, I'd like to file a complaint," he said, pulling himself to his feet and brushing himself down, expelling any leftover carpet dust and forgotten fragments of littered popcorn from his jeans. This was, as hard as it might be to believe, Ash doing his best to be polite. "Your Clappy system sucks ass. All the doors just locked on their own. I dunno whose bright idea this whole thing was but could you maybe let 'em know it isn't working? 'Cause I felt safer before."

clappy, the proposed monitoring system, stood as a monument to the inherent fallibility of human ingenuity—a flawed construct riddled with the same vulnerabilities that marred all mechanisms of surveillance. glitches, malfunctions, and the lurking specter of exploitation rendered it a veritable pandora’s box, waiting to unleash its chaos upon the unsuspecting. yet, for abraxis, these imperfections were not mere shortcomings to be corrected; they were the very essence of the system's utility, ripe for manipulation in the labyrinthine game of power that they so expertly played. considering anchorage’s infamously outspoken and unwavering populace, abraxis was under no illusion about the storm that would follow their endorsement of the new monitoring system. the residents of this rugged city, with their fierce independence and deep-seated mistrust of authority, were not easily cowed. any attempt to encroach upon their privacy, to impose regulations that threatened their cherished autonomy, would be met with fierce resistance and unrelenting suspicion. but abraxis, ever the tactician, understood the delicate balance they had to strike—a balance between feigning concern for the community’s well-being and subtly advancing their own covert agenda.

in truth, the council member held little regard for the quotidian concerns of anchorage's citizens. their cries of outrage, their protests, their impassioned debates over the erosion of their privacy were, to abraxis, nothing more than the predictable outpourings of a community clinging to the illusion of control. for abraxis, these reactions were mere variables to be accounted for in the grand equation they had meticulously devised. in the political arena they so masterfully navigated, appearances were paramount, and every move was a calculated step toward a larger, more insidious goal.

when abraxis finally deigned to speak, their voice was a finely sharpened blade, cutting through the air with a playful yet sinister undertone. "interesting choice of words," they remarked, their tone a silky whisper that curled around the listener like a serpent, tightening its grip with every syllable. "do you often wish death upon others?"

[prismagpie]

"You been living under a rock or something?" asked Ash, who had no reason to know, or indeed care (as much as it reflected poorly on his manners), that he was speaking to someone who'd been out of town for much of the year. There was nothing easy about Ash and thus he never eased into anything himself; if there was a way he could dive headfirst into something without much prior consideration, he'd likely do it. That was often the only option, lest he talk himself out of it. This meant he also rarely eased anybody else into anything either. "It's the security system they put in place in the apartments upstairs after someone snuck in here and swapped the movie reel out with some fucked up VHS starring that woman who got murdered last year?" He didn't say Duh! out loud but the exclamation was certainly implied in the way he spoke and the slight shake of his head. It was a weird thing to be saying so flippantly, sure, but that was Anchorage. Whatever.

"So, it's not a who. It's a what," said Ash, shoving the Milk Duds into his jacket pocket and jumping to his feet with a grace he did not always possess. He dusted himself down and shrugged. "And it's down right now I'm locked out my apartment. Which is why I want it to die. You get me?" Even if this guy didn't get Ash, it didn't matter much. He was extremely certain of his own feelings about this. "It's supposed to keep people safe but if keeping people out their homes is safe, they might as well just bulldoze the whole place and evict everyone. It's dumb."

things never stopped happening in anchorage, did they? jonghyeon's return to the harbor town felt a lot like diving headfirst into an angry ocean, which truly wasn't far off from how it felt before, caught in a rip current. to avoid being swept away ( or worse, swept under ), the keyboardist had returned HOME, where he and his band remained for several months. it'd been revitalizing, a sorely needed break from the tireless tumult of this town, even if it didn't include much rest. the band had finally made their return to stage, a long-awaited moment; nothing in the world could make him feel better than doing what he loved the most, with the people whom he loved the most. now that he was back, it was time to catch up with everything... with any luck, the waves wouldn't drag him under again. ease into it, he'd been told. and so ease into it he did. left on his lonesome this afternoon, jonghyeon had found himself at the cinema — movies were effortless distractions, and it beat sitting in an empty living room!

not getting any popcorn was his first mistake. it was a movie that he'd already seen, so thankfully, he knew what he would be missing when he exited the theater to settle the growling of his stomach, which didn't take long at all. satisfied, a few pieces were plopped into his mouth, stilling when a voice called out a few steps to his right. forgive him, if he stared ( he absolutely was ). trying to process the other's sudden declaration, the confusion wrote itself all over his face. “ who's... clappy? ”

[prismagpie]

It had been maybe a month or so since the Clappy system had been rolled out in the Seal Harbor apartment complex but, for the very first time, Ash was realising that this wasn't common knowledge across the whole town. He'd figured that, after those freaks in suits had done their press conference, people might have begun to take notice but there was always so much going on around town, maybe it made sense that stuff slipped through the cracks. The more likely cause for Ash's confusion, however, was the fact that he simply did not speak to enough people to confidently gauge what the average citizen thought about anything. (His group of maybe five friends tops, who mostly did not know each other, didn't exactly make for much of a research pool.) In any case, his confusion had been made very evident by the surprised look on his face and the way he'd sat staring off into the distant nothing before he finally ran through his thoughts enough to come up with a response.

"Ohhhh yeah, you better believe it: ol' Clappy ain't a rumour anymore!" exclaimed Ash, making his very best attempt playing up the mock-dramatics by throwing his arms out beside him. He had considered clapping, just to add to effect, but was (somewhat irrationally) afraid of somehow incurring Clappy's wrath by doing so. "Doesn't work though, " he added, neglecting to elaborate on that fact, whether it be the issue with the lights going out on their own or the fact it was currently malfunctioning so badly that it was locking people in and out of their apartments. "Where do you live? 'Cause there's a rumour they're expanding to the gated community. I do not wish this shit on anyone."

people-watching was something that mireu did best. it’s not evident to the naked eye, of course. observant of other’s behaviors and their remarks; you might think he was into gossip, but he couldn’t care less. regardless, he chose to play pretend like he didn’t know what was transpiring mostly. he has ears, and could hear quite well (no matter how many times he looked like a question mark), and whispers can be heard especially when idiots don’t know how to whisper, making it effortless to eavesdrop. if the community didn’t want their business to be heard, then WHY do they bother saying them aloud? at the end of the day, IT WASN’T HIS PROBLEM, no matter how delightful it was to hear some gossip.

he needed to clear his head at the maiden alley cinema, and what was better than an escapade to a different world, away from reality? a random movie... — well, it’d be a miracle if he finishes a movie without falling asleep first. he had already been distracted by his mind running a marathon (not even a few minutes after buying a ticket), by someone speaking aloud in the middle of the lobby. he turned his head, raising an inquisitive brow. clappy? mireu could only assume it was given the green light. a sudden smirk appeared on his face when they noticed he was munching on milk duds. he approached the individual, merely asking with a slight korean accent making its comeback, “woah, so it’s true?”

[prismagpie]

Despite the fact he'd decided to announce his woes to world, speaking just loud enough for half the lobby to hear him crystal clear, Ash was surprised to get a response. Of course, it was all his very own and he had no right to be shocked by any of it but nobody would accuse him of being an especially rational person at the best of times. Still, whipping his head around to face his one-person audience, he opened his mouth. He had a lot to say, you know. A lot of choice words to share about fucking Clappy. And then, having spotted the kid she had in tow, he closed his mouth again. Although the girl clearly wasn't paying attention, seemingly preoccupied with a deciding what candy to grab (which, as anybody knew, was the kind of sacred all children with any sense took their time making, lest they somehow curse themselves with the sordid fate of eating something that they like just a little bit less than that other thing), he thought better than go off on some heated rant while she was stood right there.

With a sigh, Ash relieved himself of the squat he'd been holding and slumped down onto the rough carpet of the lobby floor. "It's some new security system they've put in place in the apartment complex," he said, and he was secrelty impressed by the ease with which he adopted this more casual tone. (This was, of course, not impressive to anybody else. Ever.) "Been in place since the whole, uh, tape mixup that happened a while back. I think it's malfunctioning 'cause everyone's been locked out." He popped a Milk Dud into his mouth. "Or locked in." Ash had been surprised, at first, to hear that Clappy wasn't common knowledge across town but it made sense, when he thought about it; the whole thing had been rolled out so quick that even the inhabitants of Seal Harbor barely had time to make sense of it before they were burdened with Clappy's presence. "But I don't think we gotta worry about any new animatronics. They refurbished the whole place and still insisted on keeping them around. Either someone's real attached to them as is or they really don't give a shit." Inwardly, he shuddered. His near-lifelong beef with that fucking parrot would live on.

THERE WERE MANY THINGS STELLA LOVED about being an aunt, but her absolutely favorite was probably filling the little girl with as much sugar as could fit in her little body before dropping her right back off to be her parents' problem before she had to deal with the consequences herself. This was why even though the biker had pockets full of candy bought from the gas station (because fuck it if she didn't come prepared to not pay the up-charged prices from the cinema itself), she was still allowing Joelle to smush her face against the glass that showcased the candy. "Joey, you can pick one from there. I don't have a box of Buncha Cruncha in my boot just for the hell of it right now." Her normally loud and commanding voice really only got softer around her niece--or in this case, not to have her smuggled candy taken away. Leaving the girl's side as she could already tell her decision was going to take longer than she had the patience to deal with, her lip curled up in judgement. "What the hell is a Clappy? Don't tell me that stupid arcade has gotten even more of those freaky animatronics. The ones they already got look like they're ready to be put out of their misery permanently. Someone needs to just mercy kill 'em at this point."

[prismagpie]

Perhaps this would have gone a lot more smoothly if Ash were any good at announcing his intentions beforehand, instead of just blanking at the first sign of trouble and dashing off. It could have been due in part to that aforementioned hypervigilance that been instilled from such a young age, but it was largely the reslt of a simple lack of...any communication skills. A quick 'sorry, Mindy, but I need to not be in that tight crowded hallway' would have sufficed quite niceley but, hey, hindsight is twenty-twenty.

"Don't stand next to me while I say it then," is what Ash said instead, sticking his tongue out for good measure. If this had been anybody else in the world, the sheer volume of their voice might have thrown him off, but this was hardly unusual for this pair. "And, besides, you're not even a convicted felon! You're literally whatever the opposite of that is!" He inwardly cringed at his lacklustre wording, knowing full well he'd probably come up with a much sharper comeback an hour after this conversation passed. It wasn't like he wasn't sensitive to that whole situation either. Even if he wasn't very good at showing it, he'd been worried about Mindy the whole time they'd been on trial. And, when that last minute twist occurred and the trio were let off, he'd been so relieved he'd almost cried. (Almost. He wasn't a total baby. And, anyway, it totally doesn't even count if it's just your eyes watering a little and you dab them dry before anything happens. Just so you know.) That is to say, he wasn't trying to suggest they had no reason to be worried about their reputation. Oh, no, this was just another case of Ash offering an unhelpful correction.

Then, he was yanked to his feet. Ash figured he probably should have seen that one coming. "Uh, um, ahem, they're looking because you're yelling at the top of your damn voice!" Ash stammered, sounding quite utterly scandalised by the suggestion this was solely his fault. He pulled himself free from their grasp, careful not to stumble or trip in the Docs he'd refused to tie properly, and blew a breath of air upwards, tussling his fringe in the process. "Y'know, I was going to offer you some of these," he said, giving the box of Milk Duds a good rattle, "But not anymore." And then, suddenly quite convinced that Mindy would likely just snatch them off him if he was too annoying about it, Ash made an awkward show of shoving them into his pocket and brushing himself down. "And anyway, I suck at climbing. I clearly don't have the upper body strength of you and your weird treehugger buddy," he added, a little defensively. Look, Ash could admit when he sucked at stuff. It didn't mean he enjoyed it but he do it without much trouble. "Can't we go do literally anything else?"

Mindy didn't love the idea of the new security system as much as Ash didn't — however, they had been raised through enough bullshit through the Grim Fox to know that security didn't mean surveillance, and had figured out that the cameras in the hallway were different from the motion sensors throughout the actual apartments. ( However, that didn't mean some idiot or creep or both in a box wasn't watching their every move, entirely plausible given that the entire fucking fire squad were now the terrors of Seal Harbor. ) Needless to say, the fortune teller hadn't been in a pleasant mood. The town was neither singing their praises nor welcoming them back with open arms. They expected a pink slip for their job to slip through the mail slot any day now. Sitting in their chair at the Raven House or lying in their bed for the past weeks weeks had been greeted with a dyspeptic stomach from trying to digest the rocks birthed of their own remorse. Why were they pulling Ash into their stupid fucking vortex, like everyone else in their life? Once they were off scot-free, they'd been avowing to themselves to stay as far away from Mei as possible. ( Nadine's whole lifestyle was asking for trouble, it wouldn't make a dime of difference with or without them. )

This internal turmoil was how they found themselves storming after Ash Yoon, calling down the hall, "Hey! You don't get to ditch me as soon as you see me locked out in the hallway!!" Hot on his heels, their dark hair bobbing against their shoulders as Mindy walked after him, they groaned when he stooped into the low crouch of prey hiding from its natural predator. The caliber of their voice was invasive to the entire cinema library, causing everyone to turn around and look at them. "You wanna say that any louder when you're standing next to a CONVICTED FELON?" A disgusted scoff as they recognized all eyes on them, they stooped down in their Demonias to yank their roommate to his feet. "Great, now everyone's looking at us. Thanks, Ash. We'd be better off if we climbed the fire escape and pretended we were stuck in there like the rest of them."

[prismagpie]

"Huh? What?" Ash turns his head, squinting for a moment as he registers who's talking to him. Not one bell rings. Eyes narrowed, he pops a Milk Dud in his mouth and chews on it, irritably. "I didn't watch that stupid ass movie," he says, pointedly, although not even Ash is certain in whose direction this might be pointed. He's not even sure which movie he's insulting. "I just got here. Eating Milk Duds." He lifts the box and rattles it, as though for emphasis. In terms of building an image, a box of candy is probably less effective than a carton of cigarettes but he knows which option tastes better.

"Clappy's the name of the surveillance system they set up in the apartment complex," says Ash, pulling himself to his feet and nodding so as to point upwards with chin, as if signalling to the floors of apartments towering above the cinema itself. "The same surveillance system that's straight up malfunctioning right now. Literally, as we speak." Somehow, it hadn't crossed Ash's mind until this very moment that the rest of the town might have been oblivious to the fate that had befallen the residents of Seal Harbor. Rumour has it that the Council plan to expand the program to the gated communities as well but Ash has a sneaking suspicion it won't travel as far as the Winterwood mansions. Ash lifts the box up and lets another Milk Dud fall into his mouth. He's secretly quite pleased he caught it. "There's people locked in their apartments right now, y'know. Pre—tty wild. "

the cinemas are rarely ever graced with the presence of the mercenary; one only ever wandering into the area whenever boredom has reached a certain, high level. taeyoung yoon is as disconnected from entertainment in the form of films just as much as he is disinterested in the fiction of it──a world he does not tread upon.

it’s a miracle that he’s sat still for the whole duration of the movie, despite its gloomy plot and even duller story telling; the acting was the icing on the cake, not any better but endurable until the end. the moment the yell echoes throughout the lobby is the same moment in which taeyoung steps out, head instantly turned in the direction of the crouched figure of ash.

amusement dances on visage, leaning onto the nearest wall with a sharp gaze that pierces through; miniature red—glazed box sitting in hand, unopened & new; much similar to the packet of sweets in the other’s grasp, only──just cigarettes.

❛ i don’t remember clappy being a character in the movie. ❜ a puff of breath leaves past tiers, bordering on a snicker; digits maneuvering a single cig in—between lips.

[prismagpie]

WHERE: maiden alley cinema WHEN: 21st august WHO: anyone! ( @anchoragestarters ) CAP: fully capped, no longer accepting replies!

If there was one thing that Ash Yoon didn't like (and this should come with the understanding that there were in fact a great many things that he didn't like and he was frequently glad to tell people so but also that this was something he particulated hated), it was the feeling of being watched. Growing up, nothing had been drilled into him by his father with more vigilance than the idea that he needed to avoid suveillance at all cost and now there was this thing in his apartment, just staring at him. Maybe he needed to stop personifying it. Not important. What matters was that he'd returned to the apartment complex with full intentions of marching into his apartment and falling face first into his couch. However, before he could even get to the elevator, he'd overheard chitchat in the hallway about a certain clap-operated surveillance system failing, complete with rumours that a few residents had been locked in their apartments. His response to this news had been a simple, internal, 'fuck this, I'm not dealing with this' and a quick heel turn back out the door.

"Y'know what? Fuck Clappy," said Ash, speaking aloud for all to hear, as he dropped to a low squat in the middle of the cinema's lobby and tore open a box of Milk Duds. Don't ask when or how he got those. (The trick to swiping stuff was to pretend you always had it.) Some might call this an outburst but he was more than happy to have his feelings be known. "I hope Clappy dies."