" this place feels like it came right out of a storybook . it's like , you imagine a room , and it just appears . like the staircases in harry potter . " she tore strips of her straw wrapper , and suddenly feeling guilty , piling them together to make them easy to clean up . " i love this place . new year , new me . i can be british , irish , swedish . there are a million accents i can try . "
leah let out a laugh. she loved the new insight to the place she had grown used to. she stopped seeing the whimsy in it after her first week but magadalena's outlook on it brought a smile to her face. "and who do you want to be the most?" she asked, before realizing that was way too philosophical, even for her. "accent wise, at least. i think it's probably okay if you don't know who you want to be just yet, it's not like i even know that myself," she rambled on.
eyebrows knit, confused — hands wrenching each other with the anxiety creeping in, zodiac pawing at him like you need to unclench, dude. damn it ada and robin. leaving him to go do god knows what ( kiss in the bathroom? they don't want to think about the implications of all that – ) and leaving him, here, alone. wallowing in his own sandpit of anxiety and weird heat flashes. the sounds are all kind of mixing together and bryce feels topsy turvey. “uh – ” feels a bit weird, looking at her mouth like a freeeeeakkkkkkkkkkk. “kind of?” he hopes to god that makes sense to what she's asking. “i didn't realize there was .. a lot of lore?” no longer fidgeting hands as he's signing and speaking - he's still confused, but mostly because there is a lot. his head hurts.
their anxiety was so strong, leah could have probably bottled it and sold it to someone on the black market. that's how the black market worked, right? leah felt sympathy for him. moving across the world because your school couldn't keep things together? it's something she couldn't have thought of in her worst nightmares. hell, she wouldn't be comfortable either if she wasn't in the place she spent most friday nights. "there's not a ton, i guess, but more than i remember when i started here," she said. leah's years of attending big business presentations meetings gave her a crude understanding of asl. as a kid she hated having to go to her father's presentations in the states, but in this moment, she was grateful for it. "was there any like cool fun facts at your school back home?" oh my gosh, she really fuckin' hated small talk.
hues took in the atmosphere and to say he wasn't impressed was an understatement. suppose it was a bit of a culture shock, growing up in chicago and spending his university years in new york city. he wondered how long it would take to memorize the faces of bath. his attention flickered to leah as she spoke, but it wasn't attentive. scattered, as he moved to swirl the glass of his own drink. 〝 loving? 〞bash echoed with a stifled chuckle leaving his lips. 〝suffocating, more like. think i had better luck with my breathing capability with the mold. 〞he liked to pride himself on not being bothered by change. hell, he'd like to say he was unaffected by absolutely anything that crossed his path. still, his natural cynicism seethed through every word. fuck this place. but to be fair, he was just as broody and standoffish in new york as well.
leah had spent a few years at palladian for a while, though she knew'd she attend the university much longer than she'd actually been there. she couldn't even imagine the stress the langston students must have been going through. "aren't loving and suffocating synomous anyways?" she said with an only slightly forced laugh. she took a sip of the drink in front of her, scrunching up her nose at the taste. she'd never let it go to waste, but it certainly wasn't her taste. "was the mold all that bad?" she asked, genuinely curious. "i know bad enough to bring you guys here, but, was it bad enough to like," she trailed off, trying to think of the best word. "i guess like effect you?"
"i feel like i've learned more fun facts about palladin in the last week or so than i did when i applied, or even my own orientation," she laughed as she sipped from the drink in front of her. the waiter had brought her the drink long before she started the conversation, someone had sent it to her. she couldn't really tell what it was but it certainly didn't taste enough like juice for her. "have you been surviving this week? it feels like a shit show, but a loving one."
── ( daniella perkins. twenty three. cis female. she/her. ) thank god you’re here, man - have you seen LEAH TATUM anywhere? i totally lost them after their rendition of flowers in your hair by the lumineers last night. no? they’re like, aye - high and go to PALLADIAN - i think they’re a JUNIOR studying BIOLOGY AND WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES? but who knows, these days. all i know is that they’re QUIET AND RASH and a LEO . last night they kept going on and on about how they won MOST LIKELY TO SPILL VODKA ON A SPECIAL EDITION COMIC last year, which is cool and whatever, but i just wouldn’t expect it out of them, considering they’re so, like, PROMISCUOUS AND GENUINE, you know? anyways - i’m going to check down by the courtyard, i think that’s where they like to hang. text me if you see them, okay? bye!
full name: leah pearl tatum
gender: cis woman
pronouns: she/her
sexuality: bisexual
age: twenty three
date of birth: august 1st
zodiac sign: leo sun, cancer moon, scorpio rising
leah is the middle of the three tatum daughters, and none of the tatum daughters have ever lived a typical day to be so honest
daddy tatum opened a beverage company in college after convincing himself and his roommate that his closet wine was the best thing they’ve ever tasted and somehow closet wine transformed into soda/pop (whatever u call it), juices, sports drinks, etc etc etc and they are probably like the leading beverage company !!!! leah for sure went to drink conferences as a kid and her dad would always warn her to like every single drink she tasted in public and then she could talk shit later
mommy tatum had an organic, all natural, chemical free, all those other buzz words for sad beige parents, baby necessity company. they covered all the bases - sad beige clothing, sad beige furniture, sad beige chemical free diapers, sad beige bottles, sad beige formula … do you get the point? mommy tatum is SAD and BEIGE!!!!!
so the tatums had money growing but of course with mommy tatum in charge, things were very much for the aesthetic and not the love </3 jk, she loved her kids … well at least two of them so sorry miss leah you are the damned middle child but it’s okay because her dad loved her more than anything but oh no!!!! dad is always working and never home so she’s stuck with mommy and OH NO!!!!!!! mom hires a nanny to take care of all three kids but lets be honest its mostly leah
both of her sisters were forced into doing all of these wonderful things - her older sister was a star ballerina and put into fashion design seminars the second she showed an interest in clothing, her younger sister was absolutely gorgeous so she got put into modeling and once her little sister got really popular in the modeling realm, mommy tatum was always the one to go with her and so the oldest sister and leah were fending for themselves but leah???? had nothing :-)
ok Nothing is not true,,,, she had the cute kid from across the street and one day leah got locked out of her house and was just sitting on her front lawn waiting for literally Anyone to come home when Cute Kid was like hey ???? are you okay??? and leah just broke down and cried and said no and Cute Kid was like ok come hang out with me and so they hung out together at Cute Kids house and read comics and watched star wars bc that was all Cute Kid had and over time they just started doing it so often???? and eventually both of their parents thought maybe they were dating and leah and cute kid were like nooo,,,,maybe??? so instead of like going on a date leah was like the only way i’ll know if we’re meant to be is if we smash so they did and cute kid was like should we date i think i may love you and leah heard the love and instantly freaked out and left and texted them later that night and said hey thanks for taking my v card but lets be friends :-)
one thing leah discovered during all of that though? random hookups are so fun and whimsical !!! she can feel good, get called hot, and never have to see the people again but also… shes fucking insane and convinces herself she loves hookups but then once they leave and leah is alone, she sobs and sobs bc she’s “unlovable” but like shes not!!!! she just doesnt believe it </3
she can sleep with anybody and everybody but this girl is actually so scared of the world, including her own shadow like if you try to make small talk to her she will panic and probably fake an asthma attack or smth instead??? especially if she doesn’t know u in like any capacity,,,, she’s better if there’s a mutual friend bc she can turn the topic onto them instead of her
leah is convinced she’s only good for sex hence why her majors are biology and women’s & gender studies bc her sad lil brain convinced her that this was the key to figuring out why she is only good for sex and not for love !!!
she is this perfect mixture of like wild party girl bc she knows parties lead to the best sex but this horribly introverted anxious girl too bc she doesn’t know how to say hi? she just knows how to wear tight pants and a low cut shirt and that makes people say hi to her first and of course if she’s got her party shirts on, she knows they’re not saying hi to form a friendship they’re just saying hi bc she’s there
don’t worry, there’s more to come… eventually !!
wanted connections
cute kid across the street could be a fun lil connection to have here???
obviously with who she is,,,,, hook ups <33
maybe there's like a superfan of daddy tatum's drinks and they want to be friends with leah to get like exclusive intel?
maybe her sisters if anyone wants to bring them?
alternatively,,,, sisterly figures since hers aren't here!!!
people she's hooked up with more than once and it's like the other person so clearly likes leah and wants a relationship and leah is like man they must love that thing i do
i think it'd be so funny if she has like an academic rival bc leah knows at the end of the day she's inheriting her dad's business, she's just in college for funsies
oh shit leah desperately wants to appease her parents and they think she sleeps around too much so maybe like a fake relationship thing?
a popular person who has no fear who drags leah into situations she would much rather not be in (like parties but maybe this person is like you are leaving this party with me, no one else, you are here to make Friends)
maybe her first year at school leah was like im turning a new leaf im finding LOVE and she did but they broke up for whatever reason and leah is still convinced that that person is the love of her life???
and literally anything else you may or may not have an idea for !!!
