Arcadia is Burning
Summary:
With her life in cinders following her parents' bitter divorce, Rachel finds herself torn away from the sun and surf of Long Beach and dragged into the rainy forests of Oregon; dumped by her dad in a little town called Arcadia Bay in the ass end of nowhere to attend a boarding school named Blackwell Academy. Confused and hurt by her sudden exile, Rachel turns to The Vortex Club, run by the cream of the school, and theatre to keep herself busy. Embedding herself with the eldest son of town's preeminent family, Nathan Prescott, in the process.
At least one girl, a local firebrand struggling with the sudden death of her father, Chloe Price, seems to promise a reprieve from the constant boredom as she drinks her way from party to party, skipping class and getting in fights. She just needs to find a way to get her to notice her.
But not all in Arcadia Bay is as it seems. A trusted friend today could be your worst nightmare tomorrow, memories are long, and there's not much of anything but forest and the ocean for miles in every direction. There's nowhere to run from her problems, precious little to distract her, and trying to keep them under control will only cause them to build and build... Until they consume her.
Preview:
Embers flicker in the air around her.
Tiny pinpricks of winking incandescence floating in place.
Her hands reach out but the lights dance away from her touch.
Will o’ the wisps slipping between her fingers and flowing around her arms.
She reaches for purchase.
To grasp and hold.
Rachel falls.
Tumbling into an ocean of lights below.
Warm and cold, young and old, blue and gold.
She falls into the space between their indifferent glow.
The lights show her no truth.
They give her no empathy.
They exist in their multitudes but none react to her.
Tumbling through their spaces, she reaches out for them again.
Desperately trying to touch their glow and feel their warmth.
A blue light shimmers as she draws near, dancing agonizingly close to her touch.
She flails forward, trying to touch it, her fingers managing the barest graze.
Warmth fills her as she holds it tight.
An agonizing, burning hotness as they float away again and she falls below the cluster.
With nothing but the fire in her veins and the blue glow in her hands.
The air turns to flame as they tumble.
Art by the ever delightful @patchodraws!
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Don’t give me soulmates, give me ‘I’ll find you in every universe not because we are meant to be, but because I chose you over everyone else’. Give me ‘we were never supposed to meet, but I will never love anyone more than you’. Give me ‘the universe didn’t tell us we were destined to be lovers, but I decided to love you anyway’
There’s something inherently more romantic about choosing someone on purpose than just loving them because that’s what is supposed to happen
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I have to single handedly thank you for reminding me of Tad's existence I adore your take on him and I think I'm going to suck up every drop of content of him and Stan with a silly staw
Not to be a helpless sap but the amount of positive feedback and engagement has genuinely made me incredibly happy and sometimes even distressed (in a good way!) I can't thank each and every single one of you enough for the support and simple engagement you've given me! I don't have the words in my broken vocabulary to properly convey the happiness I feel whenever I see people enjoy my silly art and create their own things because of it. This is the first time I've gotten fanart and asks about stuff I make and honestly it's such a motivator! Thank you! Thank you all so so much for sticking around for a while! I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I enjoy making it!
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