it wasn't often that juno ended up in town. while some seemed to come and go from colony house near-daily, juno tended to stay in a small circle around the house. some of it was leftover paranoia from their first few days in town, when even the slightest dip in light levels would send them scrambling back towards the shelter of the old mansion, but it had grown into a kind of habit of its own. something to fix was as good an excuse as any.
in an effort to meet more people, and to extend the goodwill between colony house and the town, juno had offered up their mechanical services to anyone who wanted them. backpack of tools slung over their shoulder, they arrived at the first place they'd been told needed someone to lend a hand.
𝗋𝖾𝖿𝗅𝖾𝖼𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗂𝗇 𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗐𝗇 eyes is the talisman. it hangs from the colony home . . . it’s like the smear of a lambs blood protecting god’s creation. she thinks : i didn’t ask for this burden , why do you punish me as if i did ? index finger slides down the coarse rock. ❛❛ is this our god now ? ❜❜ there’s a tingling sensation in her cadence ; it’s a joke and she can only hope it comes across as such.
juno pauses, their steps slowing to a halt as they take in the other's words. it's something they've thought about a decent amount, though it would be something hard to avoid thinking about in circumstances like these: is there a higher power? enough people seem to think ( at least at first ) that this might be hell that it's hard to avoid the subject.
" i dunno, " they reply, more thoughtfully than they intended. " i guess it depends on how you define 'god'. if we rely on it and put our faith in it, then maybe, yeah. but only in as much as we give it those things. " juno shrugs. " i don't really mind either way so long as it keeps working... "
the second daylight starts creeping in and it is once again declared safe to leave, aaron gets out of colony house and heads out to the brundle. it's most likely empty so early in the morning, a piece of desolate safe haven, which he longs for today. he's been doing better, though, with people—whether it's necessity or a part of him that he never knew existed before, aaron's been a lot more .... involved when it came to meeting others, talking to them; just a few months ago he was busy wallowing in loneliness and letting texts and phone calls go unanswered and now he feels like the king of small talk. all talk, actually.
still—he revels in the quiet. he passes a few people on his way out but says nothing, which probably doesn't even register with them, still too tired to even realize the day's begun. when he lies down in the grass, it's just the water, the grass, the wind ... and inevitably, at some point, footsteps.
" — good morning, " he looks up at them from the ground, offers a quick wave with his free hand, the other trapped, arm bent underneath him to pillow his head. " still ice cold, if you were hoping for a dip, " he points at the water. " unless you're into that. "
juno had been a deep sleeper at home — it had been a joke in their family, 'you could do contruction right by their head and they wouldn't even notice', their dad had said once. it only took six months in this place to break a twenty-year habit, to have juno tossing and turning as restlessly as someone plagued by insomnia. at least here there was good reason to stay up at night.
juno finally had given up on falling asleep and set out for a walk as soon as the sun had risen. they needed to move, stretch their limbs, let the warmth of the sun on their skin remind them that they were still here, and more than anything, to wake themself up.
a mug of tea was craddled between their hands, and they hadn't expected to find anyone on their walk while the rest of the house woke up and started the day, but as they emerged from the reeds and wild grasses toward the brundle, they spotted a figure — aaron.
" oh, hey, " they replied, raising their mug as a kind of wave. they sat down on the ground a few feet away from him, legs crossed. at his words, juno glanced towards the water. they let out a little laugh. " i dunno, i'm sort of chilly this morning anyways; but it would probably wake me up. "
brigette lundy-paine. nonbinary. they / them. ⸻ i saw juno pasternak around colony house, you know? the twenty—eight year old that was driving from toronto, canada when they saw the tree on the road. juno has been here for six months and I think they were a bike mechanic before they got stuck in the town. with the way things are now, they are now struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy and seek a way out without losing themselves or dying. lets hope you at least survive the night.
current occupation bike + small electronics mechanic, handyman
INSP characters and media. ⸻
frances halladay from frances ha / enid coleslaw from ghost world / james leer from wonder boys / eve from god help the girl / my solo exchange diary 1 + 2 by nagata kabi / lelaina pierce from reality bites
BIOGRAPHY your character's background. ⸻
juno’s parents separated when they were just a baby, and juno ended up with their dad. though born in guelph, fairly soon after their parents broke up them and their dad moved back to toronto, where their paternal grandparents lived. juno spent their childhood between their dad’s house and their grandparents’ house, with the occasional holiday spent at their mom’s, until eventually those dried up too.
they were a strong but frustrating student throughout public and high school, which is to say that they read a ton and could write an excellent essay, but struggled chronically with deadlines, skipped and were late to a lot of class, and nearly failed math almost every year. that juno graduated as an ‘ontario scholar’ is a testament to understanding teachers willing to take months-late work and give make up assignments.
right out of high school they entered college for illustration, sure they wanted art to be their career. college was a disaster; without the constant external prodding of well-meaning teachers, left to their own devices and living away from home, deadlines became completely overwhelming and they dropped out within their first semester. they couldn’t handle the pressure, the self-direction, and most of all, taking care of themselves. they’d always thought of themselves as self-sufficient but once they actually had to do everything for themselves as well as attend classes, they simply couldn’t keep up.
they spent two weeks in hospital after they dropped out due to mental health issues, a stay that refocused their attention: stay healthy enough to stay out of the hospital.
once they were back home and had settled back in, they got a job at the bike shop a few blocks away, starting as a junior mechanic to fill the days and get them out of the house. it was around this time that they started seriously considering and exploring their gender identity. perhaps it was that they were the only ‘female’ mechanic, and that this contrast was brought up to them in a way that it hadn’t been ever before, or maybe it was having a kind of independence without the stressors of school, but whatever the cause the result was the same; many deep, internal questions about their sense of self.
after a year and a bit of working at the bike store, juno decided they’d give university a try. maybe it was college that had been the problem. all the programs in college were so specific, university was more general, you could explore and figure yourself out. so they enrolled in an english literature program.
university went slightly better than college had, but once again as soon as the external stress of school was on them they stopped being able to take care of themself. it was just too much. and so, after six months, they dropped out again. back to the bike shop.
one year turned into two, and then three, and then they’d spent four years living in their bedroom at their dad’s house, even after their little brother had moved out, working the same job. juno liked their job, but still — there had to be more out there. so they started saving up, bought a junker car ( a 1990s volkswagen rabbit ) and decided they would road trip across the united states. they’d never been to the states before, but it seemed like a place full of wide-open possibilities. so, they set off.
they drove through new york and into pennsylvania, and then they saw the tree. the story from there is fairly well-known to everyone. the circling, the attempts to get out. at first they had just pulled over, sure they’d gotten too high before setting out for the day’s drive, resolved to sleep it off. and then there was someone banging on the window and telling them to get out before sunset, to get inside.
they were luckier than most; when they came, they came with most of their stuff. clothing, cds, books, nice but not so useful. their toolkit, now that had value here. they’d attempted to get away from their job, but it seemed that was the best thing they had to offer. bikes are more like clocks than like cars, so juno wasn’t any good at engine repair, but small electronics, the bikes that had made it into the town, and any general handyman-type jobs, those they could handle.
TRIVIA extra character information.
because their parents were teenagers when they were born, they are named after their parents' favourite music ( juno for juno, their mom's favourite band, and elliott for elliott smith, their dad's favourite artist )
juno was diagnosed with adhd in college, and was medicated for it until they entered the town.
similarly, they had been undergoing low-dose hrt, which they ran out of after a time in the town.
some of the books in juno's car at the time they entered the town are: the wind up bird chronicle, franny and zooey, tell me i'm worthless, paul takes the form of a mortal girl, high fidelity, and please don't kill the freshmen.
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