they called you a hero i bet, they called me much worse

mae•ve 24, new to town, ready to start all over, and yes this is my natural hair color. open to friendships, fun new opportunities, and jobs i've never done before. i like watching cringe compilations on youtube, getting sucked into documentaries that would generally be of no interest to me, and people-watching.

[maevehaywood]

Text: Maeve

Jeremy: I seriously doubt you could ever be.

Maeve: I can be. But I try not to.

[maevehaywood]

Text: Maeve

Jeremy: It was nice to meet you, by the way. Like go out and physically meet you.

Maeve: Hopefully it wasn't disappointing.

[maevehaywood]

Text: Maeve

Jeremy: Yeah, me too. I smelled bad.

Jeremy: Not that you needed to know that.

Jeremy: But, I guess I felt the need to share.

Maeve: No worries. We were all stinky.

[maevehaywood]

Text: Maeve

Jeremy: Hey, ice cream buddy. Hopefully you're doing okay and the electricity back on is making life easier for you.

Maeve: Hey. I'm definitely feeling better with power back on. You?

[maevehaywood]

davinaw:

Now I just have to wonder what’s going to happen next. Unfortunately, I can’t be so optimistic like my brother. I just am waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I wonder if anyone in town has a great dane that likes snacking and solving mysteries. I’d love to be Daphne in a real life Scooby Doo gang.

Actually, I take that back. I don’t want to be that closely involved.

[maevehaywood]

davinaw:

I know the feeling. I was so happy to wash my clothes. I was terrified they were going to start attracting flies.

I hate how gross it is that I have to agree. 

[davinaw]

I did enjoy the time away from stupid people on the internet, but I’m very pleased to have electricity back. Being away from social media that long makes you really not miss it at all. I do need new books now, after I start making a paycheck again.

[maevehaywood]

I’m so glad to have electricity. I feel like a person again.

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

He probably should not have mentioned the witches. If this had been anything remotely close to a date he was sure he wouldn’t have been requested for another. But, this wasn’t a date, and he really did want to be friends with Maeve. Still, probably not a good way to make friends. He wasn’t the best with that type of thing, though, but he knew he would just try his best and move past it or something. It was the only thing he could think to do in the moment.

“Oh, um, yeah I doubt I can summon anyone or anything. I mean, I’m not Harry Potter or anything,” he said, his laugh a bit forced. “I don’t remember much now…I was young when my family died but I do know that both sides were bad….like…the women were prosecuted but they weren’t innocent either. A lot of people were hurt because of the whole war on each other they seemed to declare. What they needed was a good mediator.” He reached out and rubbed the back of her hand in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. “It could’ve been a prank,” he said, as he looked at her. “On the festival night…just a really elaborate prank.”

“If you were Harry Potter and you didn’t introduce yourself as such, I’d totally get it. Wouldn’t want muggles climbing all over you asking for autographs. I totally love your work, by the way. Great job defeating You-Know-Who.” Maeve could tell jokes sometimes, but it was especially easy when she was scared or uncomfortable. It broke up some of the anxiety and worry she was so prone to in times of discomfort. 

When Jeremy touched the back of her hand to comfort her, she could almost feel her eyes bugging up out of her head in a cartoonish manner. Knowing that she was being ridiculous, she smiled and nodded. “Yeah. I know. But that doesn’t seem like something that officials and high up people would pull. I mean, kids and old people saw that. That’s traumatizing enough for us so what do you think it did to them? If the town is behind all that, they’re going to have a lot to explain to state and country officials.”

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

“There are young people,” he started, shrugging his shoulders as he ate his ice cream contentedly. “But, I guess like most medical fields they think age means experience and experience means expertise but I think the younger ones are the ones who are more likely to try new things. They don’t get set in their ways or think they are always right.” He got to the cone part of his ice cream, his favorite part, and took a bite. Jeremy chewed carefully. 

“Not that it will matter much if the witches come back,” he said, raising his eyebrows at her. “If you believe in all of that. I was raised with the legends and myths or whatever. I never knew what side of history I was actually on. Both are horrific if you really look back into the history and don’t just eat what the fine and upstanding officials of the town force feed you.” He sighed. “My dad…my real dad…he was a historian. He was a professor at the university that’s like forty minutes from here. He was really into this stuff. But then when I was adopted it became very…different. The stories were not so historically accurate.”

“Right. Like, you’re up to date on the newest teachings and studies and you don’t have to go back to completely relearn something. That makes total sense.” Maeve nodded enthusiastically, grabbing a napkin from the dispenser on the table and cleaning off her hand. “You’re not static. You’re open to being dynamic which probably makes you a better choice in the long run because you’re not afraid to try new stuff when the tried and true methods don’t work. That’s awesome.”

Maeve’s stomach dropped when he mentioned the witches. She was genuinely scared of that outcome. Maybe the witches weren’t the scary fairy tale versions or the kind from horror movies and games, but some unknown kind that could lead to even more disarray and tragedy. “I...I never really believed in witches. I mean, I’m a little bit of a scaredy cat so I thought about it but I didn’t ever think I would really have to worry about anything like that. Now I’m here and I thought I was just moving into town like any other and it turns out that I’m living in the horror movie version of Hocus Pocus with no celebrity cameos.” She frowned. “What did the historically accurate version say? Can you tell me without like...summoning them? Are they like You-Know-Who?”

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

He nodded his head, understanding where she was coming from. “No, I get it. I look back and wonder where my life went…but I’m not that old, not really. Some still consider me a baby. Which does make it harder on me. But I deal with it.” The boy smiled softly. He hadn’t been through much in his life, except the death of his parents and sister, but that had been when he was much younger. His older life had been a lot of school. His adopted parents had supported him the entire time, which he was thankful for, and he had siblings he adored.

Before he could answer her questions, she started to answer them with her own answers. He just smiled at her as he licked his ice cream cone. He liked her bubbly disposition. It made things fun and he knew he needed some fun in his life. “That’s awesome. Finishing school, I mean. Not that the other stuff isn’t good, too.” He shrugged his shoulders as he finished his first scoop. “I’m an occupational therapist. I special in pediatrics but I will take adults as well. The kids don’t mind that I have a baby face but their parents worry. Like I’m not old enough to hold the degree I have. I could’ve been a genius for all they know.” Jeremy winked at her. “It’s a lot of work but very rewarding.”

“You’re practically a senior citizen. Over the hill.” She shook her head. He didn’t really have too much of a baby face - she would have clocked him at a solid 25 when she first saw him and she knew now that it wasn’t too far off. That was a small victory in her book, being able to almost accurately guess his age. Something small but still something she’d done mostly right. 

“I don’t know. I don’t get why people would care that you’re young. Like, in your line of work I thought most people were young. I’d only expect an old man if you were a psychologist or like...an angry apartment complex maintenance man. Not that I’m speaking from experience,” Maeve said, giving him a look that said that she was definitely speaking from experience. “As long as you love what you do, I don’t think it matters if people think you’re too young. Just keep making dollars and loving life,” she advised, going back to her now-melting ice cream cone.

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

He chuckled and shook his head. It wasn’t like she knew anything about him, not really, but did he really look like he could be nineteen? Maybe so. But he wasn’t mad about it. It was kind of cool. “Nope,” he said, a grin on his lips. “Still a millennial. I’m twenty-six. If I was nineteen I’d be in college now and that’s six years I would prefer not to repeat.” He wondered if she thought he had his masters degree or if she just thought it took him six years to finish his degree. Not that it mattered whatsoever. College wasn’t a race. 

He licked at his cone and stared out of the window for a moment before focusing his gaze on the girl in front of him. This wasn’t a date and he truly meant that it was just a friendly outing. She was pretty, of course, but getting to know people was more important than anything else. He liked building relationships and having people he could rely on and that could rely on him. “Anything,” he told her, a grin on his lips. “I can tell you what I do, if you think that’s a good topic to start with, or we can just discuss things we like.”

“Ooh, you’re older than me. I’m only twenty-four. It’s a weird age. I’m too old to feel like a young adult and too old to feel like thirty is a long ways away. It’s like, a quarter-life crisis.” She made a face. Being young and 24 felt like a lie to her - she’d already been through a relationship that had lasted a little over eight years, a marriage, a divorce...it was all stuff that was supposed to be for people older than her. But Maeve hadn’t been ready to settle down when she’d been swept off of her feet and had given in because she didn’t want to be alone and she’d thought that love would grow with time. That had been a mistake.

After a moment, she nodded. “Yeah, let’s start with basics. What do you do? Do you like it? Are you good at it?” she asked teasingly. “I’m a manager at a store in the mall. I used to be a sales associate back in Richmond, but they let me move up when I transferred locations. More importantly I go to school, though. I’m like two semesters away from finishing up my degree to be a dental hygienist and then I might go on to try and be a dental assistant, but I have to put in the time first, you know? Anyways. What do you do?”

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

“I doubt I could pull off romance, if my track record has anything to do with it at least, so you’re not alone. Comedy for sure. Horror is…it depends on the horror. Nothing too been there done that. I don’t think I’d like to be in that.” Jeremy tended to just go with what people talked about. He was easy to talk to because he could rattle off a conversation about any topic. It was partially why he had made the debate team. However, his propensity for not arguing was the reason he hardly ever actually debated. 

Jeremy ordered a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of chocolate strawberry. He added some crushed oreos on top of it. The man took the ice cream cone and waited for her to take the picture, a small smile on his face. Who was this girl and why was she adorable? Not fair. Once she was done, Jeremy handed the ice cream cone back to her. “Was I in the shot? I like to think I’m very instagram worthy,” he said, a teasing smile on his face. He led them to some tables in teh corner and sat down at one of them.

Maeve took the photo and nodded at him with a smile. “You were, but you’re a little blurry. I put the focus on the cones.” She took her treat back and sat down with him. “I’m not like, huge on instagram, but sometimes you don’t want to pass a shot up. I like to scroll more than I actually post, just so I’m up to date on everything. I’m a chronic facebooker though. And twitter. I’m awful. I’m just like everyone else in our generation. Assuming you’re in the same generation as I am and you’re not like, 19. If so I am so sorry.”

Deciding to stop rambling, she cleaned the melting ice cream off of the side of the cone before she started nibbling at it. She was usually a licker, but it felt weird to just be licking an ice cream cone while she sat across from a guy she was just meeting for the first time while they hung out as friends with no pretenses. It was so unfamiliar to Maeve that she almost wondered if she was missing some sort of protocol or something. “So. What should we talk about?”

[maevehaywood]

About Maeve

Basic Information

Full Name: Maeve Imogen Haywood

Nickname(s): n/a

Age: 24

Date of Birth: November 1st

Hometown: RIchmond, VA

Current Location: Granier, VA

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/her

Orientation: Straight

Occupation: Retail management/student at the community college

Living Arrangements: Apartment

Language(s) Spoken: English

Accent: Southern

Physical Appearance

Hair Colour: Red

Eye Colour: Green

Height: 5′3″

Weight: 120 lbs.

Tattoos: None.

Piercings: Ears, bellybutton

Clothing Style: Cute trendy / ex 1, ex 2, ex 3

Health

Physical Ailments: n/a

Allergies: Shellfish

Sleeping Habits: Generally sleeps between 6 and 9 hours a night

Eating Habits: Not as well as she should

Exercise Habits: Some yoga/pilates/zumba.

Emotional Stability: 6/10

Sociability: She prefers to have people around.

Body Temperature: Average

Alcohol Use: Recreational

Drug Use: None

Personality

Label: The Sidekick

Positive Traits: trustworthy, friendly, caring

Negative Traits: oversensitive, emotional, fickle

Goals/Desires: start over, find real happiness, have a happy adult life

Fears: being alone forever

Hobbies: going into wikipedia spirals, watching movies

Favorites

Weather: fall

Color: turquoise

Beverage: sweet tea

Food: sweets

Animal: otters

Family

Father: Michael Haywood, 45

Mother: Jennifer Haywood, 45

Sibling(s): Siobhan Haywood - 25, Kilian Haywood - 21

Extra

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

MBTI: ESFP

Enneagram: The Peacemaker

Temperament: Choleric

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Moral Alignment: Lawful Good

Primary Vice: Envy

Primary Virtue: Patience

Element: Water

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

“I was going to say new meat but that sounded like I thought you were either edible or just a sex object and I think neither…so new blood just slipped out. Maybe I should say…new personality? New friend?” The boy shrugged. “I promise I’m not a vampire contrary to what my pale exterior might suggest.” He nodded his head when she told him how she got here. It wasn’t like it was a strange reason to move to Granier. Rent wasn’t expensive and it was a pretty nice town, if a little weird considering it’s history, but over all a decent place to live. If you ignore the little display that had happened at the festival.

Jeremy wasn’t too worried about the witch. He was a good person, he worked with kids for crying out loud, and he happened to be very into donating his time when he could. Maybe he felt guilty for surviving but that wasn’t a crime or anything. Most people would if they were in his shoes. “Oh, yeah. I was always asked to join the choir but I don’t think my voice is meant to sing hymns in front of anyone. Don’t tell anyone but I usually just move my lips and pretend. As long as it’s felt in my heart, right?” He grinned at her and opened the door to the ice cream parlor. Jeremy waved at the teen who was working, a girl he had helped with her leg last year after a track accident, and got in line. “So, how many scoops and what flavors?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

“As someone paler than you, I wasn’t too concerned. I’d win if there was a vampire resemblance contest.” She shrugged. “I look like I belong in a horror film. I couldn’t pull off romance. Maybe comedy, but definitely like sci-fi, horror, weird subgenres within those.” Maeve wasn’t sure how she got to discussing her potential as an actress (she was definitely not an actress), but sometimes words just came to her and she said them and then everyone ended up confused and when that was the case she usually just...well, went with it.

She looked at the flavors from behind the glass, her lips pursed as she thought. “You order first. I don’t know what I want yet.” After he ordered, Maeve decided to just go with the first two flavors that had caught her eye. “I just want a little scoop of the chocolate banana and then mostly vanilla on top. With the tiniest bit of sprinkles. Please,” she requested, smiling when she got it back and handing over money for it. “Wait, will you hold both cones for a second?” she asked. “This would be a cute instagram picture.”

[maevehaywood]

TEXT TO MAEVE.

Z: You don't have a choice, Maeve.

Z: Not unless you want us to air your dirty laundry.

Maeve: What's the game?

[maevehaywood]

[UNKNOWN]: DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME? -- Z.

No, but thank you for asking.

[maevehaywood]

jer-w:

“Hand scooped. As much as I love soft serve, hand scooped is the way to go.” He sent her a grin as he gestured in the direction they were going. “I’m glad you agreed to come. I know it has to be a bit disconcerting to start over in a new town. I went away for college for quite some time and that was hard enough. And at least there I was in a dorm for the start. I don’t make friends that easily, though, so that was kind of tough.” Jeremy chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “Whatever brings you to Granier to start over, I, for one, am glad. We can always use a bit of new blood to liven things up around here.”

Granier was a sleepy town and when he had decided to open his practice in his hometown, everyone had been against it. But Jeremy had always followed his own path and did what he wanted. Now he had clients coming in from the surrounding areas. The cool part was he had only been working for two years. “My dad is the town’s pastor…I mean, my adopted dad. It’s kind of…weird being adopted into a family that goes to church all the time when, before, we only went every now and then.”

“New blood is such a creepy expression. Why do you need my blood? Can’t my blood just stay where it’s at until it’s absolutely needed?” She headed in the direction he’d pointed her in, continuing to talk as they walked together toward the ice cream parlor. “I honestly got here by looking at ads for apartments. I started searching like, 300 miles from home and then narrowed it all down based on price. It worked out pretty well. I mean there’s the whole weird town announcement thing that happened, but other than that this seems like a nice place.”

It was a nice place. She wasn’t lying. She didn’t necessarily love that there was apparently some deity that wanted to make her hang for her sins, but she couldn’t think of too many that she’d committed. Divorce, if that counted. Saying unkind words. Nothing stuck out that she could really think of, but the idea was daunting. Maeve didn’t particularly like sharing that she was a divorcee at 24, so that news getting out wouldn’t really do her any favors. It wasn’t life changing, though, so as long as it was a metaphorical hanging and not a literal hanging, she was fairly certain she would survive. Avoiding mentioning the question of what he meant by before just because it felt too heavy for ice cream, she grinned. “That’s gotta be good and bad. You’re in a holy home but also you have to get up early for church every week.”