#Rachel Bower

[redvellz]

This person did NOT play lis💀

Literally all the antagonists are misogynistic men having control over women like how David try’s to control Chloe or how Mr. Jefferson and Nathan rips away Kate’s Agency or like how Warren is kinda to obsessed with max and the relationship between frank and Rachel

Misogyny is one of the main points of the game

This isn’t a silly game where a girl gets powers and reunites with her childhood best friend

This game has wayyyy darker themes

This game trying to speak out real world problems that needs to be told

(I also might start posting on Twitter when I’m back on my vacation)



[lifeisstrangearchive]

Chloe's Room (episode 3)

[maxthesillyy]

thinking about how they gloss over how bad it was for rachel to be in a ‘relationship’ with frank. and.

on one hand i can understand how the game about Max and Chloe is gonna ignore a few things about Rachel. but on the other hand literally all they had to do was have Max make a comment about it.

[lifeisstrange-incorrectquotes]

Said I'd do one of these for every 100 followers, and guess who just reached 1600! :)

Presenting: Life Is Strange: Before the Storm meets AO3!

Credit for screenshots below the cut

In Order: @/inquizies, Santosx07 (YouTube), @/life-is-trange-but-i-am-more, Life Is Strange Wiki, GodisaGeek.com, Life Is Strange Fans, Steam Community, @/computergamephoto, @/nikkinikums, @/strangeionius

Tags from @/dear-ao3 and @/ao3screenshots

[whatsjulietslastname]

Hello do you think Chloe reacted so fast and so intensely when Frank started threatening Max with his knife because the last time someone threatened her friend with one of those it was Damon with Rachel and she ended up in the hospital goodbye

[tangent101]

Have we gotten Rachel wrong this whole time?

There are plenty of theories about Rachel Amber in the LiS community. Some folks like to think of her as a manipulator who only was out for herself. We have others who think she was deep in love with Chloe and would never cheat on her and everything she did was to get her and Chloe out of Arcadia Bay. It seems like everyone looks at Rachel and sees something new. But… what if we were all wrong? What if Rachel was something else… someone who tried avoiding conflict by talking to people and agreeing with them… and thus everyone saw her as they wanted to see her?

There is actually some evidence toward this in the game. First, Chloe herself points this out, though in a way that is perhaps less than flattering: "She blended like a chameleon. Clearly more than I knew… or wanted to know…." People take this as to Rachel was able to see what makes a person tick and just become the person that someone else wanted… but we can see several people who had a rather negative view of Rachel. So what is it about those people that had a negative viewpoint of Rachel?

First, we have David Madsen, who detested Rachel and saw her as a bad influence and a criminal. He was investigating Rachel and had photographs he felt were of her being a drug mule. Next, we had a truck driver who talked about Rachel really wanting to get out of town. And of course there is Mark Jefferson who also had a… twisted view of Rachel, though it also seems Rachel was so enthralled by Jefferson that she may have been sleeping with him (and both Stella and Victoria seem to be interested in what's going on in Jefferson's pants as well, though I'm not sure why, he's not that charming).

The truth is that Rachel was something other than a manipulative gold-digger or the like. She were a teenage girl who disliked conflict and was adept at listening to people and when talking to them would agree with them? I mean, consider her two breakup letters, one to Frank and one to Chloe? Rachel so wanted to avoid conflict that she left a letter to Frank because he scared her. She did not want a fight. She wanted out. So she left… with a note basically giving her reasons and essentially ending things. (Frank thankfully accepted that.)

Chloe also got a letter. Honestly… given it was all crumpled up, I half-wonder if Chloe had read it while high one time and crumpled it up and forgot about it afterward. But we have a very important line here: I don't want you to hate me. I don't want you to hate me. That's a very interesting thing to say. There is no deliberate malice, this is someone who has found someone else who just rings all those bells but wants to keep the friend aspect. She still wants the laughter, the moments of sharing a glance and both having the same thought, the things she envisions friends do… but to walk away from the sensual intimacy.

Remember what Victoria Chase said to Max in the Dark Room, that she was just a teenage girl? That's Rachel. Rachel Amber was not a seductress or a narcissist or a monster. She was a teenage girl who was avoiding conflict in her life, but in doing so ended up in a shallow grave in a junkyard. Because quiet girls don't make history… they end up used, abused, and discarded. They end up on the rooftops willing to throw themselves to their deaths because no one would listen to them. They end up abandoned because they were not good enough, because they ultimately were not willing to stand up to those who would use them.

Max, before Chloe reentered her life, was one of those quiet girls who ends up used and discarded. The reason folks keep seeing Rachel in Max is because Rachel stayed quiet and let people make up their own minds about her. And they saw in her what they wanted.

Or at least, it's one way to interpret Rachel Amber.

[angel8kisses]

Life is Strange Themed Playlists 🌪️

Nathan Prescott📸 Rachel Amber❤️‍🔥

Chloe Price🦋 Frank Bowers🍂

Damon Merrick🗡️ The Vortex Club💊

making a kate marsh, max caufield and veronica chase playlist soon! 😋

[chloe-caulfield94]

Max at Chloe's funeral

Max stood over her best friend’s coffin. Or was it her former best friend’s coffin? She wasn’t sure.

On one hand, the last time she saw Chloe had been five years prior, in the rear windscreen of her parents’ car. As Max drove away, Chloe was standing over her father’s coffin, almost in the exact same spot Max now stood. The last time Max communicated with Chloe had been four years ago, when she responded to a text from Chloe. Chloe asked Max not to ignore her phone calls and to pick up her phone from time to time. Max responded by saying she had been really busy, but she would totally call her later. She never did.

On the other hand, while Max had made new friends in Seattle – Kristen and Fernando, both of whom she liked and trusted - she had never developed with anyone a bond similar in depth and intensity to the one she had had with Chloe. It was only after Chloe had been murdered that Max realized Chloe had been like a family member to her. Like a sister.

As other mourners began to walk away, Max continued her silent watch over Chloe’s earthly remains, imagining the five years she could’ve spent with her best friend. The five years she had stolen from herself.

When Max saw Chloe’s bloodied corpse on Monday she didn’t recognize her. Only when the school security officer David Madsen started lamenting over his daughter’s lifeless body, repeating her name over and over, Max realized it was her best friend lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

Chloe’s short messy hair, dyed neon blue, was so unlike her old, long and straight blonde hair. During the wake, when Chloe’s body was displayed in an open coffin, she was much more recognizable to Max. She was dressed in a black pantsuit provided by the funeral home, almost identical to the one she wore during her father’s funeral, only slightly longer, to account for her growth in the meantime. Her hair, while still short and blue, was neatly combed behind her ears. Her hodgepodge of cheap jewellery was gone. Her tattoo was completely covered by the pantsuit’s long sleeve.

During the wake, Max heard other mourners say that Chloe looked “finally at peace”. She didn’t understand why they thought Chloe couldn't have been at peace in life. And the way Max saw it, while Chloe’s face, even paler than usual, was completely still, it conveyed anything but peace. Max was painfully aware that beneath Chloe’s black pantsuit was a hole in her breast, its edges held together by a thick thread, covering an entrance to a tunnel burrowed in Chloe’s flesh by a piece of metal which stopped her heart forever.

As Max was standing over her best friend’s coffin, not ready to let Chloe out of her sight as she had done five years prior, a blue butterfly flew in and sat on the wooden box.

And then Max remembered. She heard a voice. Chloe’s voice. She sounded differently. Not like a child anymore. But Max would recognize Chloe’s voice no matter how many years passed in the meantime. The older Chloe’s voice said all the things Max had ever wanted to hear. And all the things Max didn’t even know she wanted to hear, but deep down desperately needed to. Sweet, wise and heartfelt words of her long-lost best friend uplifted her heart.

“Every great artist gets rejected before they get accepted. So you have to enter a photo”.

“Stop being so goddamn humble. You’re like the smartest, most talented person I’ve ever known”.

“Once you get over yourself, you’re going to make the world bow”.

“You are! You just have to stop being afraid”.

“You’re kind and caring. Nobody could have a better best friend. Nobody!”

“You need to accept how awesome you are”.

“Stop beating yourself up, okay?”

“It’s time to start moving forward in time”.

“You’re Maxine Caulfield ... and you’re amazing!”

Max also remembered her own words, the ones she would’ve said during a week that never was, all in acknowledgment of how much Chloe meant to her.

“As long as we’re together, I don’t feel afraid”.

“As long as you’re there with me”.

“I always wanted my life to be special, an adventure. But not without you!”

“Your life has changed mine”.

And then she remembered things other than words. Handholding. Hugs. Longing stares. Kisses. Max discovered, to her great but oh so pleasant surprise, that while her love for Chloe was familial, it wasn’t like a love between sisters. It was like a love between spouses.

Max smiled wide remembering all of that. And then the butterfly flew away and she remembered something else. A kiss in pouring rain followed by a gunshot and a pool of blood. Smile immediately disappeared from Max’s face. She felt her heart stop for a moment. Then it started pounding furiously. It pounded so fast Max thought it would escape out of her chest. Her limbs became heavy and ice-cold.

“I … killed her?” – she asked in her thoughts.

“I killed her”- she answered her own question, muttering under her breath.

“I killed her!” – she screamed at the top of her lungs, having fallen to her knees.

The other mourners turned to Max. Joyce and David rushed to her. Joyce placed her hand on Max’s shoulder. Max’s body shook as she cried bitter tears. “I killed her, I killed her, I killed her” – she repeated.

“Oh, Max. it’s not your fault” – Joyce tried reassuring her. “Chloe … she was troubled. She ran in bad company. There was nothing you could’ve done to help her. She … She chose to remain angry”.

“She chose to remain angry” – Joyce’s words echoed both in Max’s ears and in her memory. She felt fury rise inside of her. Anger at herself and at everyone else in the town that had failed and killed her best friend.

“Fuck that. Fuck. That” – Max thought. She wiped her tears and slowly stood up. She turned to Chloe’s mother and said calmly: ”You know what, Joyce? I think I now understand why Chloe was always a daddy’s, not mommy’s girl”.

Joyce was taken aback. She took her hand off Max’s shoulder. “What? Max, what do you …”

“So when are you going to take down all of Chloe’s pictures from the walls? You hid away all of William’s pictures two years after his death. So in two years’ time they are going to be reunited in the closet, right? Father and daughter together at last. Just like they’ve been already reunited here in this cemetery plot”.

David intervened: “Max, you have no right to talk to Joyce like that …”

Max turned to David and asked him, in a raised voice, almost shouting: “What kind of a man hits his own child? I’ll tell you! No man at all!”

David opened his mouth to defend himself, but said nothing, apparently finding nothing to say in his defence. Max jabbed him in the chest with her index finger. Repeatedly. Hard.

Max screamed: “I’m pushing you! I just keep pushing you! Do something about it! Do what you always do when teenage girls push you!”

David’s face turned red. Not out of anger. Out of shame.

Max turned to walk away. And then she saw Frank Bowers standing on the sidelines. Fury rose inside of her. She pointed him with her finger and shouted: “What the fuck is he doing here? Why isn’t he in jail with Jefferson and Nathan? He’s the one who supplied them with date rape drugs!”

Frank looked around hesitantly, unsure if he should start running away or not.

Looking at David, Max shouted: “Hey David! This scumbag, who you were somehow unable to apprehend even though he often parked his drug van in the parking lot of the school you claim to provide security for, sold Nathan the drugs he used to roofie your daughter! You failed to protect her in life. How about saving the last shreds of your masculine pride and avenging her?!”

Frank tried disarming the situation the only way he knew how. With lies and threats: “This brat doesn’t know what she’s talking about! She’s probably high as a kite. Listen, girlie. I don’t know you. So I suggest you stop falsely accusing me, or you and I are going to have a serious talk …”

Max almost ran at him. She pushed him with both hands, making him stagger for a moment. Pompidou remained calmly seated on the ground. He did not stand in his owner’s defence, perfectly aware that Frank deserved every bit of what he was now receiving.

Max screamed at Frank: “But I thought you loved brats! Your entire life revolves around schoolchildren! You peddle your drugs to them! You exploit them as accomplices to your crimes, to do things you are too cowardly to do yourself! And some of them you even fuck, like Rachel!”

“I don’t know you. Get the hell away from me!”

“But I know you! Did you go to Rachel’s funeral as well? You know you killed her, right? You sold Nathan the drugs that he used to murder her. You know what he did to her? Have you seen the pictures he took of her? How he groped her? All of that is because of you!”

A grimace of rage appeared on Frank’s face. Without thinking, he instinctively reached into his pocket to retrieve his switchblade. Before he did, Max pushed him again, making him stagger.

“Stop that, you brat!”

“Or what? You’re going to put a knife to my throat, like you did yesterday at the beach? Chloe wrestled your knife away from you. If one girl beat you, I’m fairly confident I could kick your ass too!”

“You’re crazy! We never met before! And your friend Chloe …”

“She owed you money, I know. So you threatened to cut her! What a big, strong man you are! But when push came to shove, she beat you. She always did. Even when you had a gun and she was empty-handed. Always! Because you’re a weak parasite preying on kids. And she was strong. Stronger than you! You know how much time I spent replaying things so that you would come out of our little talk alive and unharmed? I really shouldn’t have. When violent armed thugs assault teenage girls, teenage girls have the right to defend themselves. But I didn’t do it for you. I did it for her. Because she was gentle and kind and I didn’t want her having to live with hurting you, even if it was just a scratch to the leg”.

Frank was still furious, but he didn’t reach for his switchblade a second time.

“You’re making shit up! Nothing of what you said ever happened!”

“Yes it did!” Max turned to David once more. He was holding Joyce in his arms, who was sobbing. Max shouted: “David, this piece of shit threatened your daughter with a knife. He called her a whore, over and over again. You want proof? Go through the text messages on Chloe’s phone. Mister genius drug lord over here sent death threats from his own phone number. David, if Frank is not arrested by cops by the end of the day, you have no right to call yourself a man, you hear me?”

David let Joyce go and started walking towards Frank. Frank sprinted away. Pompidou hesitated for a while, looking curiously at Max, but then he followed his owner.

Kate approached Max. She placed her hands on Max’s shoulders. With a sincere smile on her gentle face, she said: “Max, I am so, so sorry about Chloe. We’re here for you. It’s okay to feel hurt”.

Max wanted to thank Kate for her kind words. But before she did, something caused her anger to rise again. She and Kate were approached by Victoria, who said: “Kate is right, Max. If you need any help, just let us know. I …”

“Why are you here?” – asked Max coldly.

“Oh, I knew Chloe. One time she gave me a pep talk when I was afraid to go out on stage. She told me everything I needed to hear then. Ultimately I didn’t perform that night, but that’s another matter, involving Rachel, and I don’t want to speak ill of …”

“No, I mean why weren’t you expelled from Blackwell?”

“What? Max I was … misled. I didn’t know …”

“You led an intense campaign of cyberbullying against a fellow student. I’d say that warrants expulsion. Oh, right. Your parents are too rich for you to experience the consequences of your actions”. Max turned to Kate and said: “Kate, you do realize she knew you were roofied by Nathan, right? The campaign of hate she unleashed against you would be evil in its own right even if she thought you genuinely got drunk. Because Victoria has no right to judge you or anyone else. But she knew Nathan drugged you. She witnessed something that any rational person would consider to be a date rape in progress. A girl was drugged and removed from the party by a boy. And not only she let that happen, she laughed, recorded it and then lied about it to the world”.

Victoria was indignant: “I didn’t know about that, Max. I thought that was just a stupid prank by Nathan. I couldn’t possibly have known …”

“You knew, Victoria. You knew about ‘the good shit Nathan hooked Kate up with’. Why even lie? Kate would forgive you even if you told her the truth. If you know you will be forgiven, why hide your crime? At this point, aren’t you lying mostly to yourself? And explain one thing to me. Yesterday at the pool, when I told you what Nathan did to Kate, you didn’t believe me. But when I said you might be next, it’s like a switch flipped in your brain. You almost immediately believed my warning. Isn’t that a double standard? When it was about Kate, you were willing to give Nathan the benefit of the doubt that even though he did to Kate exactly what date rapists do to their victims, he was actually taking her to get help after an innocent prank. But when your safety was on the line … Then you weren’t willing to take any risks. Then you immediately assumed the worst about him”.

“You’re delusional! We didn’t talk yesterday at all!”

Kate interjected: “It’s okay, Max. I forgive her. Let’s not get angry over the past”.

“Forgive her for the both of us, then. Because I don’t. I won’t”.

Max turned to walk away but once again the sight of one of the mourners fuelled her anger. At that point, she wanted to feel angry. Anger staved off guilt. She approached the pastor. She remembered him from before her move to Seattle. The Prices and the Caulfields went to church together on Sundays. One of his sermons now rang loudly in Max’s head. It was about the people living on the edges of Arcadia Bay’s society. Homeless, runaway teenagers, drug addicts. He preached standard Calvinist filth. How the destitute and the sick deserved their lot in life for being sinners and how the youths who disobey their parents and use drugs have only themselves to blame when they inevitably turn up dead. To his credit, the pastor had at least one tiny shred of decency left and he didn’t repeat that sermon at Chloe’s funeral. Max asked him: “Reverend, what do you call a person whose blood washes away the crimes of unrepentant sinners?”

“Oh, Max. Don’t worry. By his blood, the sins of your friend are forgiven. She’s with him in heaven now”.

“No, you are wrong. By her blood you all were spared”.

Max left the cemetery. Warren ran after her.

“Woah, Max! That was … badass! I didn’t know you like that!”

Max kept walking. Warren walked next to her.

“Warren, are you blind? A beautiful, cool, strong-willed girl is into you. Why are you ignoring her?”

“You mean you’re into me, Max?”

“No, Warren. I obviously mean Brooke. There was a girl like that who was into me. I fucked it up. Don’t repeat my mistakes”.

“Oh … I know about Brooke. I just … you know, kind of benched her until the situation with you is resolved”.

“Wow. You are a player after all, Warren”.

He smiled. But Max had more to add.

“And I didn’t mean that as a compliment”.

He stopped smiling and fell behind.

Continue reading: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56245288/chapters/142889017

[thingsasbarcodes]

Life is Strange: Before the Storm - Episode 1: Awake

[dalekofchaos]

If Chloe was the villain of Life Is Strange

I remember games like Silent Hill, Portal and Bully where your friend or trusted figure turns out to be the villain and I can't help but wonder what Life Is Strange would look like if Chloe Price was the villain. So this is an au I put together about said scenario.

My way of doing this is to turn Chloe into a possessive Yandere that uses their nostalgic friendship to use Max to do what she wants. Max's journey from the beginning of the game is to build the confidence that she does get throughout the game we know and love, only this time she acknowledges the friendship with Chloe is toxic and can walk away. We'd also see characters like Kate, Warren, and Joyce telling Max that there is something off about Chloe.

But to change it so Chloe is the actual killer, Chloe finds Rachel’s crumbled up letter and acts irrationally, broken hearted and this leads her in killing Rachel in a jealous rage. Chloe later finds out Rachel was involved with Nathan, Frank and Jefferson and pledges to kill them all. Then one day, Max comes back and tells Chloe about the storm and her powers. Chloe is gonna get her revenge and she’ll have Max to herself(in a very yandere way)

She’ll first kill Frank because he threatens Max, when we go to interrogate Frank as we do in canon. Chloe antagonizes Frank to the point where Frank pulls a knife on Max and then Chloe shoots Frank. Then get back at Nathan for trying to daterape her, as Max goes to the party, Chloe goes back to the dorm and when Nathan is in his dorm room, Chloe doses Nathan and then gives Nathan an overdose of pills.

Since Jefferson isn't the killer, at worse he's just a pervert who preys on teenage girls. They found the dark room where he develops his pervy pictures. Nothing more, nothing less. He uses the everyday hero contest as a means to collect new subjects and had plans for Max. Chloe found the perfect scapegoat and the perfect excuse to kill the man Rachel wrote about.

As they are getting to find Jefferson. Chloe suddenly vanishes and leaves Max to Jefferson’s mercy as Max acts like the bait, and then bam, Chloe shoots him from behind and Max faints due to seeing someone die in front of her. While Max is still out, Chloe takes her to the dark room.

Max is relieved to see Chloe, but sees that she’s tied up. Chloe explains everything. She saw an opportunity to get back at everyone who has turned her life into shit. Rachel for cheating on her and the men she cheated on her with and Max’s doomsday gave Chloe an out on all the debt, the abuse from David and how Joyce ruined their lives. Chloe and Max can start fresh without Arcadia Bay. "I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted Arcadia to turn to glass, and you gave me the perfect way to bring my dream to reality" Max is horrified with everything she’s hearing, asks what about her friends and Chloe uncaringly says “I just can’t let anyone but me be in your life, sorry Max but they’re going down with the storm, no tea dates or going ape for you, shakah brah. Funny thing, when I saw how you lived a life at Blackwell without contacting me, I just couldn't take it. I persuaded your precious Kate to go to that Vortex party, I just couldn't believe she would go viral….if only you let her jump. And Warren, I wanted him dead since that phone call about "Going Ape", but the storm will take care of that, you are mine Max” and Max calls her a monster and throws back all the gaslighting and abuse she’s thrown her way and all Chloe can say is “you’ll forgive me after the storm is over, don’t worry, no matter what you’re mine Max,” Then Max has had enough. and has a very Todd like callout. "Chloe, just stop. You are all the things that's wrong with you. You chose to be bitter, insecure and jealous about Rachel. It isn't William's death, or the abuse, David or Joyce, the drugs or the debt. It's you. You chose to be this way. You chose to manipulate me with our past and abuse me if you didn't get your way. You chose to kill Rachel and you became a monster and I'd rather die than continue being your friend. I should've done this when you blew up at me about taking Kate's phone call, but I am done with you, fuck you Chloe."

Chloe did not like that one bit. She angrily takes out her gun and prepares to kill Max.

She's stopped when David arrives.

Chloe knew he’d be there and hides and when David opens the door, Chloe blows his head off. Max has a choice.

Stay in this very abusive relationship and hope she can make her better after the storm glasses Arcadia Bay or rewind and help David stop Chloe.

Stay.

Max tells Chloe everything she wants to hear. That she's sorry that she didn't contact Chloe all those years, that she's right about everything and that she needs Chloe and as much as she needs Max. Chloe puts the gun down and hugs Max, but tells her "don't you dare think of standing up to me like that again, but it's okay. We're going to leave this ugliness all behind and start all over, it will be just like when we were kids, but better. I'll be better Max, I promise" They drive off to the Lighthouse just to watch the destruction of Arcadia Bay.

Chloe looks on the destruction with satisfaction and wonder, while Max looks horrified. Chloe kisses Max in the chaos of the storm. "Now you're all mine Max"

They drive off. Max looking uncertain with a tinge of fear in her eyes while Chloe has so much in store for their new lives.

Rewind

David subdues or kills Chloe and Max goes to the diner.

Max tells Warren everything. He believes her and he's proud he stood up to Chloe and survived that awful relationship. Max kisses him for being the real person who stood by her side and she's sorry she didn't see it sooner.

Max doesn't know what she should do about the storm and Warren advises Max to use the picture they took, and have the two of them make it to the lighthouse while David arrests Chloe.

But during the nightmare, it isn't Max who's trying to convince Max her choices were bad, it's Chloe.

She berates Max and tells her what a bad friend she was to her. Gaslights her and uses their memories as a means to manipulate her(yeah the memory lane bit is not a happy thing, it's nostalgia meant to control Max) but outcomes Kate and Warren to bring Max out of this cycle of abuse and for the last time, Max rejects Chloe.

So Max goes back in time and instead of just letting Nathan kill Chloe, she warns Nathan not to go into the girls bathroom and leaves the evidence for David about Rachel's death and David is the one waiting for her in the girl's bathroom to apprehend Chloe. Max also leaves a trail of bread crumbs leading to the arrests of Nathan, Jefferson and Frank.

Max is sad of what Chloe became, but she's free and she's moved on with her life and it ends with a montage of Max having a teadate with Kate and Going Ape with Warren

[arcadiabaytornado]

Thoughts on Frank Bowers? Do you think he groomed Rachel since they were together when she was underage? Do you think Rachel actually loved him or was just using him for drugs/money for Chloe and herself?

I do think grooming was involved just from the way he interacts with Chloe during Before The Storm. While I don't think Frank was grooming Chloe sexually, he was using the promise of cash and the weight of debts to put her in dangerous situations that a grown man shouldn't be putting teenagers in. While we don't get a chance to see him interact with Rachel more than giving her eyes at the junkyard, the fact that he has a track record of convincing teenage girls to do stuff for him doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling in regards to Rachel and Frank's relationship.

Though honestly, regardless if Frank was grooming Rachel or if their relationship was more a "spur of the moment" thing, it's still inappropriate for a fifteen-year-old to be with a twenty-eight-year-old, no matter how you look at it. And even if we're giving an insanely good faith reading toward Frank and assume that they didn't get together until she was eighteen, that still means he was waiting for an underage girl to be legal so he could make a move on her. For my own sanity, I'm hoping that I don't need to explain why that's weird.

More Undercut

As for Rachel, I do think she cared about Frank, and that's the tragedy of it all. She gave him her Mother's bracelet, and if you picked certain choices in Before The Storm, that means she took the "promise we'll leave" bracelet from Chloe and gave it to someone else. That isn't a small deal. That's something you do when you care a lot. Plus, Chloe's anger comes from seeing the stuff in the RV and knowing Rachel cared about Frank enough for it to be a betrayal.

Maybe Rachel did manipulate Frank slightly by seeing him as someone who could take her to LA, but I think two things can be true at once. I tend to believe that Rachel thought Frank's was convenient to a certain level while also caring about him.

That care is a big part of the reason why Rachel is so tragic. She never got old and wise enough to figure out that her "relationships" with Frank and Mark were messed up. She died in that youthful mindset of "Well, I'm mature for my age," instead of having the chance to wake up in a cold sweat in her thirties as she realize how fucked up everything was. So I do think Rachel cared about Frank, but I say that with a heavy heart because she never got the chance to look back and see disgust instead of passion.

[blackwell-academys-airdrop]

Rachel: Why don't you ever use turn signals? Frank: It's nobody's business where I'm going.

[lifeisstrangearchive]

Investigation: Frank Bowers and Rachel Amber

[maxthesillyy]

thinking about. i dont know how to phrase this really but. chloe and frank.

like. when Chloe killed Frank i (, personally,) feel like her guilt from it was less because she killed Frank, and More because she Killed Someone (and their dog).

but!!! thats not to say she didnt feel guilty for killing Frank. because she definitely did. because on some level. despite everything. despite all of his shitty behavior. a part of her still cared for him. that tiny 15-17ish year old part in her still cared for him.

because that 15-17ish year old with intense abandonment issues in her only had. a small handful of people in her life that actually cared for her, and when THOSE few people aren’t even doing the best job at it— it’s no shit that Chloe’s standards for Good Friends are going to be Immensely dropped.

and so. it’s kind of like what happened with Rachel, but WAY less intense. when she found someone who didn’t hate her, and was willing to hang around her—after so so long of people hating her and not wanting to be around her— it makes sense that part of her would kinda latch onto them a little bit.

and so, even after all of the shit she’s learned he did— even when Frank starts to hate her— even when he threatens Max and her’s lives— part of her keeps remembering him as one of the few guys who stuck around when no one else did.

it’s just that. no matter how bad the person— if you’ve known someone for years, and they were one of the only nice people to you in a town where theres like. four people that are nice to you— it’s gonna hurt if you kill them. even if it was self defense. even if it was entirely their own fault— even if you two aren’t on even remotely good terms anymore.

ESPECIALLY for such a sentimental person like Chloe. taking that in consideration it makes me wonder. maybe she didn’t feel bad for killing Frank. maybe she felt bad for killing the person Frank used to be to her. but maybe she realized that That Frank already died long ago.

but yeah. im mentally ill. take everything i said with a grain of salt considering it is 12:07 AM.

[rainboq]

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!

[whatsjulietslastname]

Actually, Rachel was being groomed no matter if she was 18, no matter if she ‘knew what she was doing’, no matter if she was ‘manipulating Frank’, no matter if he ‘waited until she was an adult’, because he had power over her being her dealer and way older than her and also what she saw as her key to leave Arcadia Bay (we all know that was what she wanted the most at time). Also, a grown ass man waiting for you to be an adult until he can jump you doesn’t make the relationship okay, it’s just even weirder. Same goes to Jefferson btw but I think it’s useless to precise it at this point. Hope that helps! :)

(Please stop hating on Rachel I’m tired)