#ch:sm

[torimetaxas]

@steffiisms​

Tori draped her arm onto the tabletop at Nightshade, full on trying to make this go somewhere. She had not quite gotten the message that Steffi might not be quite as interested in her anymore after seeing the state of her house that one time. Blissfully unaware, she started speaking like absolutely nothing was uncomfortable. “Hey. Always glad to see you here. I mean, especially when you look like that. Anyone else keeping you company right about now?”

[larkfox]

@steffiisms​

Lark flipped the hair out of her eyes, more annoyed by the little things than usual. From the comfort(?) of her own apartment, she had just shown the cleaned-up version of her video recording of what had happened at the Masquerade to Steffi, and did not really know what to do next. The video quality was not amazing, as she had recorded it on a GoPro that she had needed to hastily adjust position on to film Zeus and the other gods doing their thing, but it wasn’t inscrutable. “So that was it. Getting the sound synched up and with decent quality took way too long.” She was avoiding mentioning that this was basically a snuff film, and that she had noticeably winced when Weston had been killed. “What do you think we should we do with this now? Send it to someone? I’m a little wary of just posting it online given the, you know, content.”

[larkfox]

@steffiisms​​

Lark was doing... better than she had been in January, but she still felt like a gigantic piece of crap. She already knew that she was when it came to her romantic life, but to have it impact everyone else around her? It still had not quite sunk in, but she was getting the impression that she needed to do more than just say the words ‘I’m sorry’ and have everything go back to normal. Which was probably why she had been avoiding anywhere that Steffi might be. She had spotted the other woman from afar a couple of times (or at least someone who looked like her), but had been fortunate enough to avoid her (former?) best friend until the moment she accidentally crashed into her.

“Oh crud, I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m sorry that I-” For someone who prided herself on her voice, she had essentially lost hers. Lark had not been prepared to see Steffi whatsoever until she was ready. “Uhhh.” 

[larkfox]

@steffiisms​

“I don’t know what you still don’t understand about this,” Lark grumbled, knocking her hip into Steffi’s. They had not stopped bickering about the topic for days at this point and talking in circles. For the occasion, she had paired her camera with an acceptably nice over the shoulder handbag so that she looked passably formal while still practical. “The cameras serve multiple purposes. If I vanish, then it will be caught on camera and then that would provide some actual clues for the stupid police or the public to use. Or it’s a deterrent to keep from getting kidnapped. Because what kind of moron goes after someone with a camera that can catch them? What else do I need to explain?” 

[larkfox]

@steffiisms​

Lark rocked up to Steffi’s front door, and instinctively tried to open the door without unlocking it. Well, that didn’t work. She wasn’t sure why that would have worked anyway, in hindsight. Humming to herself, she unlocked the door, and pulled it open. Not particularly concerned about whether or not her friend was actually home, she made a beeline for the dining table. Oh, hey, Steffi was here alone after all. Perfect, she wouldn’t have to wait around to discuss this. Making herself comfortable in one of the chairs, she started off the conversation without any warning. “So! I finally tried that ketchup that we saw at the grocery store, I wasn’t sure if I was allergic to one of the ingredients or hated the recipe. To figure that out, I brought over the ketchup! You got anything good to put this on?” Lark pulled the ketchup bottle out of her purse casually.

[larkfox]

Fresh Perspectives // Solo

Takes place directly after Lark’s fight with Steffi making flash drives.

Mentions of Steffi Müller, Ivy Molotov, and Caroline Larsen

All Lark could bring herself to do at first was cry- break down and loudly scream into a pillow crying. She had no idea how long that took, but eventually, she settled down for long enough to eject the burned flash drive, and pull out her laptop and type up what she could remember from their fight. At first, she made the decision to write all of this down out of pettiness- to be able to construct a better argument when she inevitably ended up facing off against Steffi again. There was no doubt in her mind going into this when she started off that Ivy was literally the worst, and a friendship homewrecker to the worst degree. That it was unhealthy for Steffi to keep sleeping around with people that were such a terrible match. That if Steffi had just tried to have a normal relationship with someone actually compatible and decent, then everything would be all right.

Of course Steffi was cruel and callous, but... What if Steffi was right?

The idea was so completely novel, that it almost made Lark drop her laptop on the floor.

Luckily, she caught it just in time, and immediately set to looking over the words again. Lark backspaced a handful of times, and tried to reword them in a way that made herself look better. But that made her feel awful, so she undid the action, and sighed each time.

Lark filled in the gaps of what was not said during a fast, spur of the moment argument, and took notes. Well, maybe Ivy and Steffi had actually been friends for at least a few years and it was entirely possible that Steffi might have given Ivy permission to teleport in unannounced. If you didn’t need a key... It had felt lowkey special to be able to just pop into her friend’s apartment unannounced knowing that it was accepted. Maybe Lark’s boundaries were different than Steffi’s, weird as that was.

And maybe Caroline had broken up with Steffi first. If a woman like that that had broken up with Lark after... how long had those two even been together? Not that long. Did anybody really like being broken up with and then having that dragged out as some sort of moral failing?

Worse than Steffi being right... What if Lark had been wrong?

Lark shut her laptop, and went to go take a shower. She felt like a mess, and needed to think about some stuff. She had a lot to think over. Maybe Steffi had been right about some things, but Lark seriously had some trouble wrapping her head around the idea of sleeping around with terrible people. Or wanting annoying friends without boundaries or a personality beyond ‘chaos’ and ‘party.’ Was that unfair to Ivy? Maybe.

Sticking her face into the shower water was the most rewarding feeling in the world. She forgot about everything stressful for some beautifully unquantifiable time.

The one thing Lark was unwilling to budge on was that Steffi was unbelievably mean to her. Maybe she had been a little wrong about some things, but not all of these potential epiphanies were necessarily right.

Nope. She would bend on the break-up being a bad thing to mention and the friendship with Ivy not being totally a throwaway friend. But that was it. Steffi should definitely have told her about the teleporting in unannounced thing. Lark wasn’t going to budge on that.

Maybe all of her thoughts would muddle up on the argument later, but Lark had still saved the document. She wouldn’t delete what she had written just yet. There was so much to think about. But Lark wasn’t ready to apologize. She needed much longer than usual to dwell on everything. Maybe she'd dye her hair. Come up with some wild new cause to distract herself with. Anything but this.

[chloevara]

@hcpefuliving​

Chloe held up a sad-looking piece of material with a broken strap coming out of it. Her expression looked almost as sad, as she was clearly trying not to cry. What was it about her footwear that was just taking a beating this month? "My flip flop broke, and I didn’t bring my bag that has emergency repair things in it,” said, feeling very simultaneously silly and miserable for even having to broach the topic to the nice woman that she vaguely recognized. “Do you have any tape? A safety pin? Chewing gum that’s preferably unchewed? I don’t want to be a bother or anything, but it’s a long walk from home. Or a place that sells shoes, for that matter.” 

[chloevara]

SOPHIE MCKENZIE BIDS $200 on CHLOE VARA

“Oh, thank you so much! I hope that whatever the results, your planned event goes really well.”