#people only talk abt her accomplishments bc if you ask anyone who knew her about her as a person you'd get a very awkward 'ummmmm'

[grandcovenant]

i know everyone wants the legendary stalker to be cool but i'm obsessed with the fact that besides being like, badass or whatever, the only things we know about her is that she a) liked fancy wine, and b) was rude to a kid. PLEASE if we ever see her let her be the most competent stalker of all time AND a disaster as a person. just unpleasant vibes all around.

[floorbed]

7 19 23 35 40 52 69 for The Jester and The Crimegirl

thank you so much bee omg i loved the questions u made sm!!! time for Them. this is super super long im sorry njdkkfkrenkjr

7. which party member do they understand the least?

for pen it is probably alba if he had to pick anyone? just because he can do Crazy Shit Sometimes. but pen still feels like he understands him v well!!

for agni its probably elvira! she is from a place she knows next to nothing about besides what elvira’s explained or what she’s learned from school, she is 100+ years old, yeah! while agni doesnt like fully Understand her she still thinks she’s really cool!! it was rlly nice of her to try and comfort her when she initially found out abt Rei Time. and also knitted her a pretty holster that was so nice of her!!

19. what haunts them? what doesn’t?

pen’s is home. so mf much he genuinely loves his party a lot and has gotten really attached but also like he misses home so bad it hurts. he felt like he was an intrinsic part of something that he fit perfectly and was never gonna have to give up, and he got to be w everyone he cared about all day. he’s haunted by mikolai’s wedding lol. he’s also haunted by The Shit That Went Down Pertaining To His Exile, His Subsequent Exile, Making the Pact,  Dying, Making The Pact Pt 2, The Thing He Had To Do After He Made The Pact, And Then Also Dying Again. he’s haunted by holding ori dead in his arms and bringing her back using power he now understands was from a Not That Great Place. he barely knew her then but he still thought about it all the time, and now he thinks abt it even more lol! he just is not used to life being. Like This. at all. he was a vvvvvv spoiled kid. (some nobility complex part of him is haunted by lydia! stupid jester!) 

he’s not haunted by everyone he’s been a bitch to lol, unless he vocally apologized for it later nfjnf. he’s not haunted by vargas. uh

agni is not haunted by most things and That’s On her super healthy coping mechanism! she tries to not think about her personal life with that much weight, she tries to keep it abstract in her head? but also there are some things she can’t help but get Unnamed Bad Feeling from instinctively. rei. w how last session fucking turned out lol, watching seras collapse in the doorway Will Def Become One. Moms Time, both for individual reasons. sometimes, not being accomplished, but that also filters into Moms Time. everything else tho she kind of just vibes through. 

23. how do they feel about nicknames, titles, or labels that have been given to them? how do they feel about their name?

pens Official Title is penance the jester, court jester of tarbyen (and he makes sure no one forgets it lol.) everyone he grew up around had official titles so it made him feel realllyyy good abt himself that he had one too! (he likes that the party’s nicknamed him pen tho, he thinks its sweet >:) ) his Name name is camil, but only his mom n mikolai called him that, so he thinks its very like..... informal, and he likes being a Formal Title Boy, but also it makes him go all soft bc the two ppl he loved most called him that!! conflicting feelings. 

agni’s had her nickname since she was really young i think, one of those like, you’re in fantasy kindergarten and learning how to spell and your first name is rlly long, so u employ a nickname very early Kind Of Moments. her full name is agnodice and she likes it well enough! it feels very kind of like. stiff and formal to her tho. she thinks agni suits her better!

35. which party member do they worry for?

pen worries for All Of Them. he tries to follow juni when he’s having one of his (as pen puts it) “freak out moments” bc he’s scared someday it’s going to be something that really hurts him, and he wants to be there to help if it does. pen has fully accidentally triggered ori before, and he feels really bad about it, especially since her triggers literally Set Her On Fire. so you know. he tries to be really careful with his words around her, especially since the incident a couple sessions ago. also, he is Very Concerned abt all of her past stuff with the mahne that he’s recently learned abt, especially putting together all the past knowledge she’s given him abt the river and what to do in a pact and Where Exactly She Got That Info From. he’s grateful she’s not in any of that anymore, though, whatever the mahne is exactly. alba’s impulsivity worries pen n he wants to make sure alba doesnt accidentally Put Himself In A Situation accidentally w that someday. 

agni worries for theodosia, just because she seems to know a lot about the fucked up illness time thats going on and it seems to rlly effect her and she knows it cld be coming from prior past experience? she also worries for cyrus because of the whole you know. his family’s shop and home being burned to the ground Situation, even though theyve since recovered it couldnt have been good for him. worries for kai, also, because he is Small Baby Boy. but worries as in like. does so in her agni way and it may not come across as such?

40. do they enjoy poetry?

pen loves poetry he heard a lot of epics at home!! the stories were Less fun when it was about like, war and bloodshed and stuff, but he loved them when they were all pretty n flowery or like romantic 🥺

agni likes hearing poetry recited, especially when it has a specific repetitive syllable pattern she can get lost in!

52. from whom do they seek validation?

pen simply be like [wants validation from nobility noises]. its his Complexes. thats why being @ ravenloft rn is so... bad for him lol bc hes getting like all the positive attention from important people hes wanted for his entire life, oops. hes literally living out a dream being asked to dance with someone so important!! he also seeks validation a lot from like powerpful women bc of growing up with his mom and how much he looked up to her and cared about her, which manifests itself a lot w wanting attention from ori and jenny (and previously w lady wachter lol) and also the lady of delights. 

growing up agni sought validation from her mothers n instructors, now (while she still wants momsvalidation) she looks for validation mostly from herself, which is kind of bad bc she never feels fully satiated w her work n accomplishments! 

69. how would they describe their party members?

for pen: ori feels like an older sister to him, hes too scared to express as much, but yeah! she is warm (he means figuratively but also lol) and Kind and Competent and Smart and above all, Safe. he defintely feels like, the safest with her than anyone else he’s encountered in his life, both i mean in the physical protection sense but moreso the emotional sense! yeah. juni is.,, complicated. at first pen was uhhh scared of him bc of the whole Sorcerer Thing, but after all of them talked abt it at jenny’s, that feeling passed and he was more just concerned for him than anything. he is Powerful and Pretty and even though he’s been thru a lot of things pen himself cant even comprehend juni’s still Soft and Understanding and pen really admires that about him! alba is Also Complicated, for different reasons. pen thinks he is Reckless and Impulsive but also Smart in his own little scheme way, and pen really appreciates him as like a constant in his life? like yeah, he is scary and concerning sometimes but he’s always Predictably as such and while pen doesn’t see alba as all that loyal in general pen is kind of blind to that stuff when it comes to ppl in relation to him, so he’s just glad he’s met someone that wants to stick with him.

for agni: cyrus is so nice to her!! he feels like a capital f Friend in her head and so far like. she’s only had one of those before so thats really cool!! he helps her out a lot and she tries to do what she can to be there for him too! it was nice of him to teach her abt Beach Swimming. theo is really cool and agni loves seeing her in her element doing Medicine Stuff she thinks she is really smart w that kind of thing and rlly respects her practice, agni’s also very interested in her magic!! she thinks dendy is small little lizard guy who sings silly songs. greatly appreciates him. she wld follow kai blindly into terrible plans because she wants to make sure this cool teen is alright , is thankful to know he can turn into a bear at will and she didnt do that on accident that one time! amadeus is confusing and hard to keep track of in her head, but at the end of the day she thinks he’s very caring and just looking out for people. adaeze is really fun to hang out with and she is both concerned and greatly impressed w her just straight up downing one of fer’s Fucked Up And Evil Potions no questions asked, bc thats something even Agni’s too scared to do. thinks her sword is very interesting in terms of the arcane, wants to see what happens w all that! elvira is super different from anyone agni’s been around but she thinks she’s an amazing artist and would love to see her home bc she talks about it so vividly!! 

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

Hey,pal! I loved your hc ' s about Luke! And reading your last answered ask about him reminded me of something. You pointed out how the Hermes cabin was disrespected. Then, my mind went back to one of your Silena asks. Especially, how people said that she could've betrayed the camp because her cabin was being disrespected. However, the disrespect wasn't more than obnoxious most of times, IMO. And that's talking about the rest of the campers. Like, let's take the flag game. There's no bullshit...

…Like “-The cabin 10 losers are yours! -No,they’re yours!” In the Flag Game. The Aphrodite children rarely participate because they usually don’t want to. Besides, Silena and her siblings seem to have quite an easy time shutting down those people. It’s not like she felt hopeless(except when Beckendorf died, but that’s not the issue here). Unlike the cabin 11,where they put the “undesirable kids”,and people didn’t trust them.

hey dude! thanks, i’m glad! i’m having fun thinking abt these :D

yep! most of the disrespect that the aphrodite cabin receives is from the other campers and their stereotype of aphrodite (partly due to rick’s ability to fall into stereotypes when it comes to feminism)

i mean i’m glad that rick moved away from that in hoo, in that aphrodite talks abt her origins and how her son was the one who founded the Great Roman Empire™ or whatever

but he still fell into other stereotypes regarding aphrodite’s children still, so it’s not that much of an accomplishment. and the only reason he detailed aphrodite’s origins is in order to further piper’s character arc (and foil her more with one-dimensional drew) so… not to mention, the rest of her cabin remains p stereotypically aphrodite-like

but anyway, i agree. it’s more obnoxious than anything. hc that they knew what thier mom was abt, so it really didn’t matter what others thought of them, bc the only opinions that mattered were their own. they knew they were powerful in their own right, and if the camp didn’t want them to participate in capture the flag bc they’re always being misunderstood, then fuck ‘em.

and hey, guess what, you can still take what aphrodite is goddess of and turn those tropes on their head. like there’s a post going around abt wing-eyeliner so sharp it literally can cut ppl, using stilettos as weapons bc have you seen those heels? can’t remember if this was part of the post, but blood-red nails like claws dripping with real blood

i think esp when it comes to love–bc love is so much more than just romantic or sexual. there’s so much to be said abt the many facets of love, and some love between two ppl we don’t even have a name for, but it’s so profound and beautiful

like where’s that aphrodite, huh? love and beauty, love is beauty. beauty simultaneously spending hrs on your makeup, hair, and clothes and not giving a single shit. love being someone who loves you regardless of whether you’re the former or latter person.

and then the badass aspects, like stated above

this is kinda going off on a tanget, but ugly and beauty are socialized standards. bc of this, it’s my belief that anyone is beautiful when they smile, when they’re truly happy, when they’re doing/talking/thinking abt something they truly enjoy, smth they’re passionate abt ya know?

/tangent

so yeah, i think the fact that chb put undetermined kids into the hermes cabin spoke to how not only other demigods, but also how the gods, feel abt hermes as a god and while i kinda feel bad for hermes, talking abt just how shitty he was as a father makes me feel way less bad so

now i think some could make the argument that bc hermes is the patron god of travelers, it “made sense” i guess that they’d throw the undetermined kids in his cabin, bc they’re…traveling i guess??? but that argument is flimsy at best. chb is supposed to be their home (or home away from home if they only go during the summer), so they’re not traveling. they’ve found out their demigods, they could at least get some recognition of who their godly parent actually is

his powers are really, so very subtle, so it’s difficult to see how powerful he could truly be without the right context. part of me feels it’s almost by design, bc a lot of his powers can be used for illegal activity, and you don’t really want to be noticed. maybe by other criminals, and by an alias, but certainly not by your true name and the cops, ya know???

but it still communicates how everyone thinks of hermes, whether or not it’s on purpose. we’ve had not indication that hermes really cares abt that, but we’ve also not interacted with hermes a whole lot in the series, except for when we’re talking abt luke so

i think some of his skills are lost in other gods, too. take for example athena who is, as we all know, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. her children are intelligent, good at planning, and battle. hermes invented the internet. do you know what kind of genius it takes to do that? but it’s masked, covered up bc athena is the patron goddess of wisdom, of things like genius and intelligence.

hermes is a v “jack of all trades” kind of god, so gods who are more powerful in certain aspects that he can manifest in his children–charisma (apollo), cunning (athena)–are obscured by the more specialized god or goddess.

and while being the master of one or two things is beneficial, there are also benefits to being a jack of all trades, esp in the right context. they could become chameleons–fitting in where they need to be, and getting out before the going gets too rough, or they’re asked to do something beyond their skill set. which, again, usually lends itself to more…shall we say less legal activity

now that’s not always the case of course. those skills can be applied in more legal settings. but i’ve been watching a lot of spy/crime/espionage shows since i was like 10, so i like that kind of stuff. i’ve also been binging person of interest on netflix, so that’s on the brain as well. it probs doesn’t help that hermes is also known as the god of thieves so

as always, thanks for sending these in!!! hope to talk/discuss more soon ^_^

FEED ME SEYMOUR

[zacayas]

no real regrets

first fic im writing abt olaya since me and ana gave up on zm

maya hooks up with ollie at a frat party and zm ends. apart of the um d&n au bc i can.

honestly this is just a (kinda) drunk!maya fic for ana

word count: 3327

When Maya walked into Delta Nu Gamma - the first frat house she happened upon throwing party - and up the front steps, planning on ignoring the toll person and heading straight inside when a voice caught her off guard. “Maya Hart?” Stopping in her tracks, she looked over only to have to crane her neck up to meet the eyes of some tall mousy haired kid.

Was she supposed to know him? He looked somewhat familiar.

He must’ve caught on to the fact that he wasn’t registering to her because he supplied an answer. “Oliver Grayson.” Oh, now she remembers. AHS pride and joy, the golden boy. He was always the talk of the school, you couldn’t walk into their old high school on a Monday without hearing about his accomplishments during the Friday before. Even people from her old crowd would talk about him, plenty of them thought he was good looking. Something, it seems, that hasn’t changed.

“Ah, yes, The Golden Boy,” he gave her a sheepish smile at the comment.

Unfortunately because Oliver stopped her, Toll Boy noticed her, asking for the $10 entry fee. “Nah, it’s cool Goose, I got it.” Then he moved around ‘Goose’ placing a hand on Maya’s lower back, guiding her to the drinks. “Finally decided to join the party scene?” He raised an eyebrow, pouring her a cup of whatever it was that Delta bought, handing it over to her before getting his own.

“Who says I’m just joining.” He gave her a look which in return just made her shrug.

He’s right, this is her first time in the “party scene” since starting college - something that surprised everyone, Maya Hart going to college - but sometimes you just need to let loose and tonight was one of those nights. Things weren’t exactly paradise at the moment for her, school was as hard as she assumed it’d be (even if she’s only here to study art) and things with her and Zac have hit some sort of wall. She figured it would happen at some point, deep down, but after all the shit they went through in high school she just ignored the possibility of it ever really happening.

It was getting harder recently. She still loved him, he was special to her in a way no one else would be, but she wasn’t sure if she was still in love with him.

Thinking about all that put a weight on her chest she didn’t want to deal with. That’s how she ended up at Delta.

“Didn’t know you went here,” Maya said instead, ignoring her train of thought.

“I can definitely say the same.” That wasn’t surprising, no one expected her to go to college. “I figured you’d stay in New York,” her eyebrows frowned together, “I always thought NYC was like, artist heaven or something.” He continued, bringing his cup to his lips.

“How do you know I’m an artist?” her eyes narrowing, her cup weighing in her hand. Ever since that one fateful high school party where she cheated on Zac, drinking hasn’t really been something she did. And than when she and Zac went public she stopped drinking all together - she was serious about her relationship with him, her stunt at the winter formal wasn’t her only way of proving it. Now that she wanted to let loose, actually have the taste of alcohol burn the back of her throat, she felt awkward about it. It’s only been a couple of years but it’s felt like a lifetime.

“We were in the same art class for four years,” he didn’t even seemed bothered by the fact that she had no idea.

She brought her cup to her lips, taking a giant swig before commenting. It took her a second to regain her baring, the taste feeling foreign. Oliver didn’t make a comment. “Really?”

He nodded, letting out a chuckle, “Yeah. Weirdly enough, it wasn’t hard noticing when you shared a class with Maya Hart or her Band of Misfits.” He smirked at her letting her know exactly what it was that he was implying.

Her response as to roll her eyes.

Maya was surprised that she stuck around Oliver this long, knowing that she didn’t exactly come to this house to socialize with anyone. Though their session of catching up was cut short as someone came up to them, saying they needed people to play some beer game. It didn’t take a lot of convincing for Maya to make her way over to the table, the night quickly becoming a blur after that. She remembers the game, remembers doing shots with Ollie and some randoms, but after that it’s pretty much non-existent until she’s sitting on the couch with Oliver, being forced to drink water and eat bread.

“My buzz is going away,” she would say in between sips and bites.

“That’s sort of the point.” She narrows her eyes at him again but doesn’t say anything.

“What time is it?” Oliver pulls out his phone to tell her it’s just after 3. She watched as he got a couple of text messages that remind her that she probably has texts from Zac. All that makes her want to do is grab the nearest bottle of alcohol and chug it down. Instead she reluctantly just munched down on bread. Another twenty or thirty minutes went by, the alcohol pretty much gone from her system. She and Ollie stayed sitting on the couch, kind of talking kind of not. For someone she's never really talked to, she had no problem sitting with him now. They sort of had the same sense of humor.

Though she always sort of knew that, she vaguely remembers going back and forth when it came to ragging on their old history teacher. Vaguely.

She wasn’t sure how it happened, who leaned forward first, but before she knew it, they were sitting on that couch making out. It’s been awhile since she’s kissed someone that could keep up with her. Don’t get her wrong, she enjoyed kissing Zac, but the boy wasn’t exactly the most experienced. Oliver knew what he was doing, with a lot more than just kissing.

At some point they headed up stairs, clothes got discarded. Maya didn’t really feel the guilt until the next morning when she woke with Oliver’s arm draped around her waist. She moved his arm off her, not really caring about being careful, and started collecting her clothes. “Where you going?” Oliver’s groggily voice asked, making her look up at him as she pulled a leg through her pants.

“Home,” Maya replied. pulling on her shirt. She looked at her phone to check the time and saw her notifications have been blown up by Zac. “Jesus.” His name glaring up at her, making her stomach turn. She knows after this there is no way they were going to last. She fucked this up.

It’s been fucked up for a long time.

Maya was correct about her and Zac not lasting. At first she avoided talking to him for the first two days, not sure what she would say and not really wanting to deal with the matter. By day three she finally answered his FaceTime just to tell him that she fucked up, fucked some guy. Just as blunt as she could make, no point in sugar coating it. At first he was quiet, just staring at her through the phone before he went off. She didn’t blame him. This is the second time this has happened - the first going as far as she did - and she was completely sober when she made the choice to sleep with Oliver.

He yelled at her about how he shouldn’t be surprised that she was sleeping around, that he couldn’t believe he forgave her after the first time. Couldn’t believe he allowed himself to fall in love with her.

It made her cringe, but she took it all. She was aware that after this, there would no long be “Maya and Zac”, hell, there would be no Zac in her life ever again. She didn’t eve care to correct him about the fact that she was sleeping around. Up until she met Oliver, she had been completely faithful to Zac. But she had no energy to or felt any need to say otherwise. Let him hate her, God knows she deserved it.

She didn’t go to another party since than, concentrating on her studies and spending most of her time alone at a coffee shop just off campus. She hadn’t seen Oliver since that night and, though it was a great night, she was thankful for it. Truthfully she wasn’t sure what she’d do if she saw him and what she needed more than anything was to just concentrate on herself. It’s the one thing that she and her mom agreed on after she called her up pending the breakup with Zac.

Dating Zac did help her grow some, got her to want to college and not be as much as a misfit as she once was. But she wasn’t sure who she was by herself and now that she was single that’s what she needed to figure out.

A month or two passed before she ran into Oliver Grayson again. She was at her usual spot in the coffee shop when his voice grabbed her attention. It was a moment of vague remembrance, but when she looked up and saw his mousy brown hair she knew why it sounded familiar. He was standing there with some people who didn’t register at all to her, smiling and chatting it up. It almost made her want to draw him, but she pushed the urge away, returning to writing the essay due in two days time.

Her ears seem to have a mind of their own however, picking up small parts of his conversation.

“Matthews, I’m telling you, no one fucking cares.” The words came from one of his friends, “Ow, what the hell.”

“Don’t talk to Riley that way,” Oliver said, “Unlike us, she’s a pure soul. We must keep it in tack. It’s our only redeeming quality.”

A feminine laugh followed, “That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said Ollie.”

“No. I’m sure I’ve said stupider things.” At that moment, Maya looked up again to see Oliver smiling down at a brunette in jeans and a flower blouse. She just got a side view of her face but Maya could tell she was attractive. Definitely Maya’s type, if she was looking for someone to pick up.

Just at that moment however, Oliver looked in her direction and caught her eye. Of course, she thought, letting out a sigh. Without so much as a second thought, he made his way over to her, sitting in the vacant chair across from her.

“I don’t remember inviting you to sit down,” she commented, looking at him over his laptop screen.

He shrugged, “I had a feeling I wasn’t gonna get one.”

“So why did you sit down?”

He shrugged again, “I decided to invite myself,” he reached over and picked up her notebook, scanning over the notes she took. “I always enjoyed the work of Caroline Woolard.”

“You know of Caroline Woolard?” She took her book back, raising an eyebrow.

“Kind of, Mom has a couple of her pieces,” he smiled at her, “Anyways! He got up, scooting the chair in, “there’s gonna be another party at Delta if you want to stop by this weekend, if not...” he took her pen and her notebook back again and wrote down his number. “Put it to good use. I have World studies every Wednesday and the professor is the worst.” He gave her a wink and went back to his group of friends, dropping an arm around the only girl there.

She put the number in her phone, though she wasn’t sure why, but never did text Oliver. Not until a good month later. Midterms were coming up and she was starting to stress out and needed some sort of way to get relief. It’s how at 2 am on a Thursday night that she texted him asking if he was free - her roommate having gone home for the weekend, thank God. It didn’t take long for her to convince him to come over, clothes being discarded almost as soon as he walked through her dorm door.

The booty calls sort of became a routine thing. They never really got personal, he’d show up at her dorm - occasionally she’d show up at the frat house - she’d get the release she’d need and that was it. It worked and Maya didn’t feel like she was going against the whole “finding herself” thing she agreed to do.

That was until another month went by and a lot of the students went home for Thanksgiving break. Somehow during that small four day weekend, instead of the usual hit it and quite it, they ended up actually spending time together. Somehow, well Maya was getting dressed he convinced her to go get pizza with him for some sort of attempt at Thanksgiving. They ended up in some hole in the wall that Oliver swore was the best pizza around.

“I know why I didn’t go home,” (they both sort of knew why) Maya said, pizza in hand, “But why didn’t you?”

“Since the divorce they’re pretty much people you want to avoid,” Oliver took a sip of his Coke, “Don’t get me wrong, love ‘em to death, but I’d rather not have to watch the screaming match of a decade happen well I try to peacefully eat mash potatoes.”

The conversation moved on from the serious topic quickly, Oliver bringing up some stories about high school. He’d mention events that were sort of caused by her old Band of Misfits, laughing at her attempts to defend their antics. They both knew that was a lost cause, there was nothing really that could justified.

“Listen, I had no part in that one okay. Johnson decided to let the fireworks off during the dance all on his own.” The mention of their freshman dance were the gym caught fire bringing a smirk to her face.

“You guys were honestly insane.” She nodded, her smirk growing. “And of course you’re proud of that.” He rolled his eyes.

“What about you? Didn’t you ever do anything ‘crazy’ during high school?”

“Never lite a gym on fire if that’s what you’re asking.” She gave him a look, “I once went with a bunch of people to a cabin and went skinny dipping with a couple of girls?”

“That’s weak.”

He mocked an offended look. “Not all of us can have crazy life styles Maya!” He threw his hands in the air, shaking his head.

She let out a small laugh, but truthfully she wasn’t sure if that’s what she call what she had in high school. It could get crazy she supposed, but the rumors were crazier than anything she ever really did back than. They sat in silence for a couple minutes before Oliver opened his mouth again, “Actually, I was convinced to spend the night in an old abandoned asylum that was said to be haunted. If you ask my buddy Trae, that was the craziest thing I’ve done.”

Maya shook her head, “Why would you spend the night in a haunted asylum.”

“Said to be haunted,” he corrected. She narrowed  her eyes. “It was nearing Halloween and my girlfriend at the time suggested it. Everyone but Trae thought it was a splendid idea.”

“Trae seems like the rational one.”

“He was.”

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. “So... did the place turn out to be haunted.”

Oliver shrugged, “We thought we saw a figure or two but there was nothing really to prove it. Not sure if I really believe we saw anything or if it was just our minds playing tricks on us.”

“Are you saying you don’t believe in ghosts?”

“Nah, I believe in ghosts, I just don’t think we saw anything that night.” The rest of the night was them talking about possible experiences they’ve had - Maya lived in a shitty part of New York were more than one person has died around her neighborhood, all the kids living their knew a couple of the areas were bound to be haunted. From their they talked about memories in high school, things that are going on in their lives now, almost anything and everything.

It’s been a long while before Maya got this deep with anyone.

She didn’t share much about her personal life, but she was sharing more than she had in a long time.

They were at the coffee shop, Maya actually letting Oliver sit with her as she stuffed, when some randoms came around. “Hey Ollie.” Maya continued to work, but she couldn’t ignore the sweet tone of voice that said his name. She didn’t even have to look up to know Oliver was smiling at whoever spoke.

“Hey Riles.” From her peripheral she could see that he leaned back in his chair. “What’s up?”

“We’re stoppin’ in to get coffee dumbass.” A new voice said. “Ow. Jeez Riley.” Oliver laughed.

“Oh! Okay. Riley, Jones, this Maya.” At this point she looked up, giving the two new comers a forced smile, “Maya. Riley - she went to high school with us - and Jones, her boyfriend.”

Riley sent her a bright smile, one that went from ear to ear and Maya wondered if it hurt, smiling that wide. “Hi! Yeah, I remember you. Didn’t you date Zac?” Maya recoiled at his name. She tried not to give her ex much thought, the guilt of everything that happened still kind of there.

“Um. Yeah.”

Riley’s smile didn’t falter, “I used to date his younger brother,” Maya nodded, looking at Oliver for some sort of social queue on what she was supposed to do. She didn’t do well with small talk and she never really cared to learn how.

“I don’t think she cares Matthews,” Jones said, quietly but enough for everyone to hear.

Oliver let out another laugh, shaking his head. “We still on for Friday?” That caused Maya to raise and eyebrow, curious about what they were going to do Friday.

“Yup!” Again Riley looked over at Maya again before turning attention back to Ollie. “Is Maya coming?”

Oliver opened his mouth, shut it, gave Maya a thoughtful look before shaking his head. “I haven’t asked her yet.” Riley let out a small hum but didn’t say much after that. Soon enough her name got called for her coffee and they were out of their hair.

As if nothing interrupted them, Oliver went back to his work, highlighting things here, jotting down notes there. All Maya did was stare at him with narrowed eyes. About 30 seconds passed before she decided to ask, “What’s going on Friday?”

“A bunch of us are taking a trip up to Universal Studios,” he replied, not even looking up.

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” He turned a page in his book, “I’ve been meaning to ask you but usually I’m preoccupied with other things when we’re together.” 

She leaned forward, disregarding her current work, “And how long have you been planning this trip?”

He shrugged, “A couple days? Maybe?” He looked up at her, “Would you be interested in going?” There was something in his voice that caught her off guard, worry maybe. Outside of studying together at the cafe and that one Thanksgiving dinner, they don’t really do anything together outside having sex. Maybe he thinks she wouldn’t want to go.

“Depends.” He raised an eyebrow, “Are you paying for me?” He let out a laugh.

“Yeah.”

“Than I’d be interested.” He smiled at her but didn’t say anything else about it, returning to his work.