bury me face down

it kills me sometimes, how people die. mateo garcía stringer //benandanti

[benandanti-mateo]

maggie-see‌:

“I’m not going anywhere.” Maggie said, crossing her arms and staring the other person down. “You owe me an explanation. So. Speak. Explain.”

Mateo raised his eyebrows at the girl in front of him, demanding an answer as to why he was buying some yarn and taking pictures of some small sweaters in the store. Perhaps he shouldn’t have looked so sheepish and guilty about what he was doing. He wasn’t robbing the place or anything but he sure as hell looked like he was ready to steal something with how fast he was moving. His friends knew what kind of person he was, but other people might now. “Okay, fine,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I’m learning to knit and I wanted to try and knit a sweater for my cat. She likes to go outside and it’s going to be colder here than the last place we lived.” 

[benandanti-mateo]

claudia-rinaldi‌:

Elvis was singing a classic and it was…horrible. Claudia had been in stitches at first, but by now, she was over it and ready to move on to the next person singing karaoke vaguely related to their costume. “Are you also totally done with this?” she asked the person nearest her.

Mateo was also cringing at the performance that Elvis had been putting on just like Claudia and the rest of the office. Who said it was a good idea to have a holiday office party this early? He wasn’t even sure if this should be called a holiday office party since there were some holiday songs in the mix along with whatever else was on the Top 40. He guessed that some people were just so excited to sing Christmas tunes. “Yeah. Want to get that bottle of champagne and sneak out the back?”

[benandanti-mateo]

tristan-kong‌:

Tristan stepped in to accomodate Mateo’s walling in of the other cats and chuckled at the cute little exchange between the too. “No trouble, it’s fine. I’m just glad I found them safe.” Because while his garage was quite well insulated, the situation could’ve easily gotten ugly. “And no problem. I’ll also try to take a look around my garage before driving out in the future.” He gently handed the cat back to Mateo, after it seemed over trying to hide in the crook of his arms.

“It’s nice to see you again,” he smiled after Masha was safely back in her owner’s arms. “Kind of a pity I have to run off to work again. We never did get a chance to really talk.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and with a slight air of resignation, but the smile didn’t waver as he watched the ongoing exchange between Mateo and his furry friends.

Mateo stroked the cat’s ears and she began to purr happily in his arms. She tucked her face closer into his chest and Mateo laughed a little. Then, he set the cat down as he continued to pack his gear into his bags. He looked over at Tristan and smiled. “It’s nice to see you too. It really has been a while, which is crazy since we’re neighbors,” he said with a laugh. He had been out of town though for a news conference and another story. “Well, since it’s hard for us to spontaneously run into each other, why don’t we meet for coffee one day? Maybe get lunch?” With such a busy schedule, penciling in a date and time to meet seemed like the best way to get to know Tristan. It definitely helped him get to know Caterina and he could even call their relationship a friendship now instead of just an acquaintanceship. “What exactly do you do for work?” Mateo asked, glancing up from his gear.

[benandanti-mateo]

maxinebeauchamp‌:

The woman scrolled through the website yet again. Normally, Halloween was her shit. Maxine would coordinate a costume with Nic and Spence (if they were feeling up for it) way in advance especially since a three person throuple costume was difficult to plan out. “I can’t believe Halloween is less than two weeks way,” she sighed out. It really did sneak up on her this year. “Do you have your costume planned already? Or any idea what you want to do?”

Mateo wasn’t one for Halloween parties. Perhaps that was because nothing good came out of them, at least supernaturally. It was a night that usually led to him being occupied the whole time taking care of false alarms, news stories, and occasionally chasing down a real supernatural threat. He always liked the holiday. He liked the costumes, decorations, and the history behind it, but Halloween was just always a nightmare work wise. Really though, his favorite holiday was Día de los Muertos and he’d celebrate it every year. “I don’t really have any plans for Halloween actually. I’ll probably be working and won’t be able to go out. What about you? Plans? Costumes? Parties?”

[benandanti-mateo]

caterinasingh‌:

Once they were lead over to a table, Caterina seated herself and looked over Mateo, who looked rather dashing in his button up, before grabbing the menu. The woman already knew what she was going to order (she went through the menus beforehand to ensure she could find something she wanted to eat that would not be messy when eating out with people she did not know exceedingly well), but feigned the appearance of reading it over. “They have definitely revamped the menu since before I moved back, so it’s been fun to rediscover the menu.” Especially since so many work functions went to the Lakehouse, it would be unfortunate to have the same food over and over.

“Oh I am doing rather well, though we have been working almost non stop with everything that has been happening in town. I’m guessing it has been the same with you all at the station, correct? How about yourself?” Before the question could be properly answered, a waiter came up to grab their drink orders. She ordered herself a water and a glass of chardonnay to go along with the fish she would be ordering later.

"What are some of the dishes that they used to have?” Mateo asked with a smile. There was still so much to learn about Edgewood. He hoped to learn more about the city from Caterina, along with learning more about herself and how she ended up here. Mateo hadn’t thought about it much before, but now he was wondering about her story since he noticed her accent. “I’ll probably ask the server a few questions, but I’m definitely leaning towards the stuffed shrimp. I’ve always liked seafood. I used to live by the water, so there was never a shortage of seafood,” he said with a light laugh. 

Mateo ordered a glass of water, with a lime not a lemon, but put ordering an alcoholic drink on hold for now until he decided what he wanted to eat. “It has been crazy at the station,” Mateo said, nodding in agreement. “There really hasn’t been a shortage of any stories and luckily that means we aren’t all competing for the same stories. There’s plenty to go around and I’m even taking on a few more stories than usual to make some extra money. And on top of that, I’m thinking of getting back into portrait photography.”

[wiscowrites]

EDGEWOODRP INCORRECT QUOTES [11/ ?? ]

Claudia Rinaldi & Mateo Garcia

[cinematapestry]

The Umbrella Academy (2019-)

[benandanti-mateo]

vpholloway‌:

Frankie was glad that xe had apparently found a new drinking buddy. Knowing people was important for xir mission, needing to scope out new soldiers. But, it was also nice to just meet someone to joke around with like xe had used to do with Dominic. Xe put xir chin in xir hands and smiled. “I know,” xe said cheekily. “I’m just blessed with one of those faces.” Frankie took the card and examined it. Xe was impressed with how smoothly he had revealed his name. The card looked professionally made and was nice in clean. Hm, he was a freelance photographer. That sounded like an interesting job. “This is pretty good, Mateo,” xe said honestly. “I used to have business cards, but the students having my number, even the one to the office, was too much cause for trouble.” 

"It’s a good face. Nice bone structure,” Mateo said with a laugh, although he did completely mean what he said. “Thank you. You can keep that card,” he told xim. “I have plenty of others.” He made a mental note to look up Frankie later on after they went their separate ways. Xe seemed familiar or at least the name did. Frankie wasn’t an all too common name and there were a lot of well known locals within the town. It wasn’t like a city where nearly everyone was anonymous or another one of those larger towns where there were two or three big names and the rest of the citizens were nobodies. This place had a lot of history and names that ran deep. “That’s the reason why you never give students your number. They’ll call you about anything and everything,” he said. “So, did you stop giving your number out? Or did you only limit it to other colleagues and parents of students?”

[benandanti-mateo]

claudia-rinaldi‌:

Claudia sat back in her chair more comfortably as she listened to Mateo. “So what’s your plan with this? Just to cover it, or to find out who’s behind them and try to get an exclusive with them? Would that put them in danger of facing any vandalism charges?” 

"Currently, I’m just covering the basics of the story,” Mateo said with a shrug of his shoulders. “But maybe I’ll start to dig into who’s behind them. We’ll see if I decide to interview them, and if they’ll want to be interviewed, or keep the secret to myself.” He smiled halfway and shrugged his shoulders again. “Then again, it depends on if I actually find them. If I do find them, I could offer to interview them and keep them anonymous. They might like that someone wants to hear what they have to say.”

[benandanti-mateo]

davidelmasri‌:

“You’re right. You never know who might walk through the door so its good to make contacts,” David said with cheeky raise of his brows. His gaze wandered back over to the display case with all the sweets and pastries. “Oh, every single day. When I bake them too, when they’re fresh out of the oven. But then again, I’d take my wage over a slice of cake, anyday,” he explained with a light shrug. He took the business card with much more interest and held it in front of him as he scanned it. “Oh, you came to the right place for stories and tips. With the amount of gossip I hear in here, I could write a tell all book all about Edgewood. Its like a soap opera half the time. The other half sounding more like ghost stories to me, but the former probably peaks your interest more.”

"Are you interested in being a baker or chef?” Mateo asked. He always had an interest in baking, but was not very good at it. He liked cooking and trying new recipes from the internet and other foods from other cultures, but pastries and baking cakes or bread was a whole different beast. Mateo laughed lightly when David pointed out that gossip swirled around like the wind in the coffee shop. “Well, gossip isn’t quite my area, but ghost stories, murders, fires, all that good stuff is in my neighborhood,” he said. “Although, Caterina Singh is definitely the person you should talk to regarding your regular run of the mill gossip.” The kid did have a point. The coffee house could be a good place to get tips or talk to people for more information on strange happenings in the city. 

[benandanti-mateo]

claudia-rinaldi‌:

Claudia took the phone eagerly and started to scroll through, recognizing a few of the images mostly from where she’d seen people take Instagram photos in front of them. “They’re probably just looking for wherever there’s enough space to fit whatever their vision is,” she suggested as she handed the phone back. “I’ve seen a couple before. I just figured they were actually commissioned work or something, to draw people in. Do you have any idea if it’s one person doing all these? Like a local Banksy?”

"Some people don’t seem to mind, but there’s some people that don’t care for it,” Mateo said, knowing that was the norm with people who created street art. “It’s pretty amazing though how they can do it overnight,” he added. “They do it fast and pack in so much color and detail. It’s kind of like looking at a puzzle or an I, Spy book.” He took his phone back and shoved it into his pocket. “Judging by the scale of some of these works, I can’t imagine that it’s just one person. It could be a couple. A lot of the great artists from way back in the day had apprentices and other helpers to finish their pieces. So far, it’s only been one piece at a time, so I wonder if there will be two that show up over night at some point. ”

[benandanti-mateo]

claudia-rinaldi‌:

Claudia’s eyebrows flew up. She was trusted to haul around a lot of equipment some days and she couldn’t imagine the embarrassment that might come with destroying a piece like that. “I should be good on my own,” she assured him with a grateful smile. Vandalism always intrigued Claudia, mostly because she was always convinced there was a deeper meaning than just the regular cryptic messages about where to find what kind of drugs. “Where else? Are they big? That’s more like public art than vandalism, isn’t it?”

"They range from pretty big to really, really big. Mainly it depends on the wall and how big the wall is,” he said, pulling out his phone where he took some pictures of the pieces. “It may be public art to us, but to the owners of the buildings, it’s vandalism. Or at least, for some of them. And then I think it depends on the content too.” He handed over his work phone to Claudia to review some of the pieces. They were large pieces and most of them were very colorful with figures and silhouettes. There wasn’t that much writing, but there were some old looking symbols that Mateo had been researching. “They’re also behind Danny’s Diner, Two Old Crows, ElectRite Power, and Underworld Night Club. None of the locations seem to have any kind of connection to each other.” He shrugged his shoulders. “They’re very nice pieces. I’d hate for the town or the building owners to cover them up.”

[benandanti-mateo]

tristan-kong‌:

@benandanti-mateo

He recognized the furball immediately as he was trying to pull out of the garage on his bike. And thank goodness it was his bike too, but under his car was a cat that very nearly could’ve gotten squished had he taken his car out instead. Yikes.

Kicking the stand back down, Tristan bent over the back and tried get the little creature out, eventually succeeding after much finangling and bribing. Then it was back onto Mateo’s doorstep for him, this time with a lot concern about his neighbour than the last. After a few raps, he sighed with relief when it turned out the owner was actually home. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t have known what to do with the cat otherwise.

“Hey,” he greeted with a half-smile half-wince as he held out the furball craddled in his arms. “I think this one got out last night. Nearly ran into them in the driveway.”

Mateo was inside checking a new lens that came in the mail for his photography camera. He’d hoped to get back into doing some more portrait and street photography like he did when he was younger and in college. Working as a freelance journalist and doing whatever he needed as a Benendanti took a lot of his time and whenever he had a moment free, he slept or read while drinking some tea. But now, he wanted to make and effort to go for a walk at least every evening or every other evening and practice his photography again. 

Mateo was heading out of his home to grab something from his car when he was greeted by his neighbor once more. This time, instead of a package, he had one of Mateo’s cats. “Oh, hey,” he said with a smile. “Oh my God, that Masha.” He shut the door behind him so that none of the other cats try to dart out. “Are you causing trouble again?” he asked the cat. He leaned down to look the cat in the eye, except that the cat avoided eye contact with him and buried its head into Tristan’s arm. Mateo laughed lightly and looked up at Tristan. He reached out to hold the cat. “I’m so sorry about that. I’ll have to look and see how she got out because I have no idea how that could have happened. Thanks for bringing her back.”

[benandanti-mateo]

caterinasingh‌:

@benandanti-mateo​

Ever since the journalists had made the plans to grab dinner together, Cat had been sorting through her wardrobe to find the perfect outfit. The meal wasn’t a date, rather a chance for two minds in a similar field to meet over friendly conversation. However, that didn’t mean she was about to dress completely casually. Cat almost always dressed to impress, regardless of the circumstance. In this circumstance, she was going to dinner with an attractive gentleman. As friends, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t still look stunning.

With the outfit preplanned, getting ready to go out that night was a relatively quick process. After work, all that had to be done was a quick touch up on hair and makeup, change clothes, and pick different accessories. For once, Caterina drove to the restaurant and parked with ample time to spare. So a minute was spent checking her makeup, fixing a smear, and then strolling into the restaurant. Momentarily, Cat admired the scenery. Lake House was the nicest dining establishment in the area, after all. Soon, however, a host approached and asked for a reservation.

Just as the host was getting ready to show Caterina to the table, she saw Mateo walk in. “Ah, Mateo, perfect timing, our table is ready.”

Mateo was excited to meet with Cat and finally have dinner with her. Even though it was something casual between two friends and they weren’t going anywhere particularly fancy, he didn’t want to look too casual or lazy. He searched through his closet for what seemed like forever trying to find something suitable for the evening that wasn’t covered in cat hair. Eventually, he found something that had a little cat hair, but with a quick sweep from a super sticky pet hair roller, it was good as new. 

After he finished picking out the rest of his outfit, he glanced down at his watch to see that he needed to get going. Mateo buttoned his shirt quickly and then started running around to make sure all his cats were taken care of. He then made sure to tell all of them goodbye before heading out the door. He hopped into his car and within a few minutes, he made it over to the restaurant. He checked with the host to see if Caterina was already there only to see that she was just about to walk to the table. “Hey, Caterina,” he said with a smile. “I was worried I was going to be late. Glad I’m not.” He followed the host to the table and thanked them as they handed out the menus. “I will admit that I’ve only been here once or twice and still don’t know everything that’s good. But I’ve heard that they have excellent stuffed shrimp and fish tacos. How are you doing today?”

[benandanti-mateo]

vpholloway‌:

“It’s no problem,” Frankie assured him. Xe knew that many hesitated to make moves like this, whether from fear of getting involved or nervousness of talking to a stranger who might not appreciate the help. Xe appreciated that this person was taking xir interference well, but xe would intercede in problems regardless if something ever excalated. Frankie smiled brightly. “It feels like it’s been forever,” xe joked back, referring to how they hadn’t actually met before. “I’m glad you haven’t forgotten your good friend Frankie.” 

Mateo smiled at xem and laughed lightly. He took a swig of his drink and turned so he could actually face xem. “It really has been forever. It’s almost like I never see you, honestly. But I’m hoping that I can see you more often now,” Mateo said. He was good with going along with anything and in another life, he could probably have been an actor. “I would never forget you, Frankie. You’re unforgettable. You know what I did today? I got some new business cards.” He dug into his wallet and pulled out one to slide over to Frankie, his new friend. “My name wasn’t in as nice of a font before, but I decided to go with a sans serif font. Now it’s much easier to read the name ‘Mateo García.’ What do you think of it?”

[benandanti-mateo]

davidelmasri‌:

“I like to think that I’m good with names. I try anyway. I’ve had very few slip ups over the years- but those few times were very close calls,” David said, his eyes widening at the memory and his anxiety spiking just a tad, but overall he laughed that nagging feeling away. “Oh, making the drinks is definitely the best part. And the cakes too,” he added, with confidence. “So, what do you do then?”

"Being good with names is important. You never know who could be giving you your next job. You know. Networking and all. The thing that all resume websites and career development centers tell you about,” he said with a light laugh. “Right. You cannot forget about the cakes. It must be hard to resist eating a slice of cake everyday.” When David asked him what he did, Mateo pulled out a business card and handed it over to him. “Freelance journalist. Stringer if you like the more casual term. If you have an interesting story or any tips, give me a call,” he said. 

[benandanti-mateo]

claudia-rinaldi‌:

“Oh, that does not sound fun,” Claudia muttered, making a sympathetic face as she settled in at her designated desktop. It was a satellite bureau for a station headquartered in Milwaukee, so there wasn’t much space and she tended to see just about every single person who walked in or out. It was a good way to meet others who might only freelance or work part-time for the station. “Uh, sort of,” she began, well aware that anything she said could easily be overheard by anyone else in the newsroom. “It’s nothing officially set in motion yet.” Aside from herself there were only a couple other reporters who worked out of Edgewood’s office, but she still wanted to keep this idea close to her chest so they wouldn’t take it away from her. They were lovely people, but to advance their career they could be vultures. “I am working on a little piece tomorrow about some new shelters opening up around here, though. So at least I get to hang out with cute puppies all day tomorrow. What were you doing out on the dusty side of town today?”

"It’ll be fine. It could be worse. If it was worse, I’d have to take the camera to a store and they’d have to take everything apart and clean it all,” Mateo said. “That happened once to another camera man I worked with. There was a fire and he used the wrong fire extinguisher. He used one of the ones that’s a powder and it got inside every nook and crevice of the camera. Safe to say he cost the station a lot of money and then got terminated.” Mateo smiled over at Claudia as he listened to her next story that she needed to officially pitch. “Hey, that’s awesome! People are going to love that. They love anything animal related honestly. If you need a photog, let me know,” he added. He leaned against one of the desks. “There was some vandalism at one of the old warehouses in the industrial park of old town Edgewood. A bunch of spray paint and graffiti everywhere. Apparently it’s done by an artist who’s left other pieces in Edgewood in different locations.”