Kitchen Sink

the dark's not taking prisoners tonight.

[chasethepeterson]

hvlfgxds

Blue didn’t move right away, then nodded and rounded the back of the cabin. A minute later, she had joined him on the roof. “Here,” she said, making a show of very calmly handing him the lighter. “See? You can trust me. I’m not trying to kill people all the time.” Once he took the lighter, she sat down, leaning back on her hands and angling her face toward the sky. “So what’s up? You sit on this roof a lot?”

Chase watched her, then turned and moved towards the center of the roof so it’d be easier to get pushed off. He took the lighter and pressed his lips together, then offered what could be interpreted as almost a smile. “Yeah, well.” He exhaled a laugh and shrugged, looking down at her. “Uh, yeah, I guess. Almost all the time, actually, when the weather’s nice.”

[chasethepeterson]

hvlfgxds

She gave a grin that was filled with teeth. “Haven’t decided.” Then she paused, and put her hands on her hips. “Why don’t I come up there and hand it to you? Zero risk of getting a lighter in your eye, though you’ll have to trust that I won’t shove you off the roof.”

If the teeth set him on edge, the words practically gave him goosebumps. Did he appease her to avoid death or deny her to do so? Did he care? “Zero risk? You sure you’re not going to just shove it in once you’re up here?” He almost laughed. Now he was giving her ideas. “There’s a ladder in the back if you want, and stairs inside if you don’t.” Maybe if he let it happen this way it wouldn’t hurt as much as if he gave her time.

[chasethepeterson]

hvlfgxds

Blue initially thought the lighter was being tossed at her, and her nostrils flared in annoyance. But when she heard Chase’s voice, her expression became more guarded as she looked up at him. “I can’t promise this won’t accidentally hit you in the eye” she said, tossing the lighter up and catching it in her hands again. “Is it worth the risk?”

Chase almost crouched and hid when he realized who he’d just called out to, but pressed his lips together and just stood, looking down at her. He shrugged. “Uhh, how big’s the risk? Like how accidental is this going to be?”

[chasethepeterson]

Chase almost fell off the roof of his cabin as he lurched forward to grab the lighter that had slipped from his grasp. He kept his footing but lost the lighter and sighed, but saw someone walking below. “Hey!” He called down to get their attention. “Any chance you could toss that up here?”

[chasethepeterson]

goldveineds

Cyrus laughed too. “Um, both, actually,” He confirmed Chase’s suspicions. “My mind’s a gutter but, I’m only high off of some pills I swiped from someone’s bag in the Arena,” He widened his eyes, realizing he made a mistake in their little card game. “Oh, okay… So, do you have any sixes, my good sir?” He smiled and re-situated how he was sitting so he was more comfortable.

He continued to laugh. “Wait, so you don’t even know what you’re on? You could be high off of fuckin’ anything from caffeine pills to Viagra.” He nodded and handed over a card before reaching out to take from the pile, then pulled his hand back. “Wait, shit, no. Okay, wait. You ask, then if the person has it, you take, and if they don’t you draw,” he said this mostly to himself, then nodded. “Got any Jacks?”

[goldveineds-blog]

“Sometimes people make such stupid things illegal,” Cyrus muttered as he took a sip of beer before pulling another card from the deck. “Prostitution’s illegal and that doesn’t make any sense to me. My beer used to be illegal, and even pinball was illegal for a few decades, did you know that? They said it was gambling and stole money from children…” Rearranging his cards in his hand, Cyrus frowned and sighed, soon adding: “You’re going to win again, because I still don’t have any cards to give you that you asked for. Do I keep drawing until I get one? I haven’t played Go-Fish in forever.”

[chasethepeterson]

Chase stared at Cyrus over his cards and took a moment before he shook his head, laughing. “Man, amen to half the shit you just said, but are you on something? Or is that just how your mind works?” He chuckled before shaking his head. “Draw one card, then ask me for one.”

[chasethepeterson]

demixgxds

“Sort of, not really, I’m sort of just writing,” Ashton replied and a slight shrug. Ashton took out her other earbud, pausing her music, and putting her headphones around her neck. “What are you doing out here?”

He gave a bit of a shrug. “Writing’s cool, even if you’re only sort of doing it.” He paused his music when she did but didn’t pull out his other earbud. “Uh,” In reality, he was planning on texting Maverick to come out to the fields with him so that they could smoke together, but for some reason, since he’s alone, he feels weird about voicing that to Ashton. “Just walking. My brother takes walks out here all the time, and I realized I hadn’t in a while. Wanted to remember what it was like.”

[demixgxds-blog]

Ashton is out sitting by the strawberry fields, writing in a notebook while listening to music. When she sees a pair of shoes, she jumps. She looks up at the owner of the shoes pulling out an earbud. “Jesus, you scared me.”

[chasethepeterson]

Chase pulled out his own earbud when Ashton pulled out hers, blinked at her, and shook his head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to.” He’s not sure if he should keep walking or keep her company, not having intended to run into another person, but not upset about the fact that he did. “Are you working on something?”

[chasethepeterson]

demixgxds

“That’s digusting, Chase,” she replied. 

He laughed again, pressing a hand to his chest. “It is.”

[chasethepeterson]

demixgxds

“Not really? So it tastes like it a little?”

Chase laughed a bit and shrugged, then squinted. “Whoa, doesn’t... Doesn’t everything taste like vomit, actually? But, like, pre-vomit? Because vomit is just the stuff you already ate.”

[chasethepeterson]

demixgxds

 “Sounds like someone threw up in your popcorn,” Keaton replied. 

Chase laughed, a bit unevenly. “Doesn’t taste like it. Not really.”

[demixgxds-blog]

“What the hell is that?”

[chasethepeterson]

Chase blinks slowly, then hears everything Keaton says a second too late. “Uh, popcorn? With pretzels and M&M’s. Maybe some skittles? It’s like... Better trail mix.” He nods and takes a handful and puts it into his mouth.

[chasethepeterson]

ichorvcined

Caspar was happy and eager to read about astrology and having his brother there to hear it and be interested in it too only made it that much better. He grinned too and nodded as well as he began to flip through the book he held to the correct page. After a moment, Cas found the page and cleared his throat and then begin reading. “…A Taurus born on April 23rd has a brilliant and original mind. They are joyous, irrepressible individuals who have the gift of making other people happy. Variety, not constancy, is what makes their lives worth living. Because they have singular likes and dislikes, April 23rd people are particular about their relationships. They have a wide variety of friends, but few really know them. In love, they gravitate to someone who shares their love of fun and spontaneity,” He said and then looked over at Chase. “Does that sound like you?” Caspar asked.

Chase nodded slowly as he listened to Caspar describe how he should be, or how he was, he wasn’t sure. He squinted a bit, and then nodded again. “I’d say so, I think. I mean, I hate when things are the same all the time, and all my friends are pretty different, but I only ever have one or two best friends.” He nodded again. “Yeah. Do you know any of this stuff by heart? Yours, probably, right?”

[chasethepeterson]

rosie-castro

She snorts, immediately understanding. Brushing past him in the hallway, she heads towards the stairs up to the loft. “C’mon then, I’ll grab some chips or something for you.”

Chase perks up at the mention of chips and nods, following Rosie up the stairs, again much too slowly.

[mavericklane]

l e g e n d

[chasethepeterson]

mavericklane

The first loud pop (or blast, as Maverick preferred) rang through the air followed by a few successive ones that filled the darkening sky with a cascade of sparks and colors. The tall demigod loped in no exact direction, though he gravitated in the direction of his cabin, seeing as he grew more anxious the longer he was in the borders due to his mind constantly wandering back to the items he left in his room. His mind temporarily wandered toward pricing and other things to do with his own return that the figure barreling toward him didn’t alarm him at first.  That was atleast until they didn’t stop even at the sight of fireworks and they were coming right for him.  Now he was no stranger to a fight at all, he was quite used to it, but as he noticed the familiar figure his smirk only grew into a grin as he shifted his pacing to move toward the running chase.

However, there was no joking yells or atleast nothing that responded to his “Run, Forrest, Run.” that he’d shouted to the other man.  In fact, the weird desperation in Chase’s sprint actually earned a raised eyebrow from the brunette, brows only furrowing when Chase doubled over in front of him, surprised the other seemed winded so quickly and even more so by the sheer question in his voice, however it was the odd gloss that seemed to be in Chase’s eyes that actually evoked fear for the briefest of moments from Maverick.  It had been rare, if ever, he could say he saw Chase get quite emotional, but that was also in part to the fact Maverick couldn’t really handle his friends being upset and as much as he seemed to shrug off anything remotely serious, it was all part of a longer plan to always keep his audience and friends amused and distracted, whether he was conning them or genuine.

“I… wh…” He covered the falter with a cough, as he was completely confused by Chase’s reaction, “ Whoa.. did you get lazy while I was gone or something? We’ve outrun mall cops further distances than that without breaking a sweat.”  Maverick remarked, playful as ever though he only barely managed to mask his trepidation, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost… that or you are about to profess your love… which we’ve been over this before, dude…” He trailed off with a chuckle, though his smirk died slightly as he noticed there was still that odd haunted expression on Chase’s face, “Okay, fine, I give.  I hate saying it, but, seriously, what’s up with you?”

Chase ached. Every part of him hurt. Each breath in burned, he could feel his hands digging into his legs ten times more than usual, and with his head hanging, his temples thudded with each heartbeat. He wasn’t in bad shape at all, but the short run felt like one of the longest journeys he’d ever been on. The taunting made it worse, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the voice that he hadn’t heard in a year or the familiar way in which it was said that made each word cut through him and make his chest even tighter.

He didn’t say anything or move at all for a long while. After a moment, he decided that the words themselves had an effect on him, not just the way they were said or who had said them. Of course the person who knew him best would be the one to know how to make him feel most insecure. When was the last time Chase had outrun the police? Probably with his dead ex-girlfriend or his not-so-dead best friend. Ex best friend? He hadn’t decided yet; he was too busy getting roasted by him to make a choice about anything. He had to focus on not choking up and not crying, then could respond, then could decide, then could do anything but be emotional over whatever the fuck was happening.

After a few breaths, Chase stood up straight, jaw clenched. He looked at Maverick for only a moment before having to look away. “What’s up with me!?” He started the response slowly but was yelling by the last word, not understanding the question. “What’s up with me!?” He repeated, looking back at Maverick as he screamed at him. “Where the fuck were you for, I dunno, the past fucking year!? After being fucking stabbed? And y’know, dying!? A fucking postcard would’ve been nice? Some sort of reminder that, y’know, y’weren’t fucking dead!?”

[rosie-castro]

Rosie enters the Hermes cabin, a soccer ball under one arm and her hair tied back off her face. There’s a bounce in her step that makes it clear she’s in a good mood. She’s too preoccupied with the granola bar she just found in her pocket to notice the other person until she looks up, and she swallows quickly before grinning at them. “Howdy there, stranger. You been re-unclaimed? Being a wifi parasite? Up to some shenanigans?”

[chasethepeterson]

Chase turns his head to look at Rosie so slowly that he’s almost forgotten what she asked when he goes to answer. “Hanging out with your brother,” he doesn’t specify which one, or why he isn’t with them anymore, and instead just stares at the granola bar in Rosie’s hand.

[chasethepeterson]

{text} hey chay, do you know what happened to the coffeemaker?

chase: lmaoo why don’t you ask jesse

chase: i swear it’s actually his fault this time, not just me blaming other people for suspicious activity