#darkerthrills

[scondstar]

this time with commentary to further try and gaslight convince star to try and stay with him and make this work. (and you know he'd do anything for her but the bf murder mention was just mean.)

   ݁⋆⭒˚.⋆ are you star's type? ݁ ⋆⭒˚.⋆

TO BE FAIR i also think david killed her last partner ... would you believe me if i told you our girl has established a horrible pattern of jumping from one violent man to the next? that she is but a passenger in the cycle of abuse, colour blind to red flags and fully unaware of what it is about her own behavior that makes this keep happening...? star has a lot to self reflect on ... so david best hope she cuts that shit out right now 🫵

in all seriousness ... i do think there's something really tragic to the fact that david never stops being star's kinda guy. the problem isn't that she stops loving him, it's that she starts hating herself when she's with him, and that's a lot harder to fix. the time when things are good though ... she loves his laugh, and the way that he commands a room. she loves how much care and effort he puts into curating things, not just for himself, but for all of them. she loves the calluses on his hands, and the look he gets when he's thinking too hard about something. she could listen to him talk for hours; she could sit in silence with him for hours. and god, she likes when he's CRAZY too. star isn't a saint ... she laughs when he messes with people on the boardwalk. she also gets a thrill out of holding his hand, and feeling like she's the reason he's behaving. she likes that she's "different" and special ... she likes that she feels safe with him.

and baby, things really were good, weren't they? you know, some people go their whole lives without a love like this, but we had a real good run, you and me ...

putting the og down here for posterity too 🤭

[scondstar]

@darkerthrills: [ FERRIS WHEEL ] for david to join star on the ferris wheel.

FUNNEL CAKE AND COTTON CANDY WERE HARDLY FILLING, BUT AROUND HERE THEY MIGHT AS WELL HAVE BEEN THE FOOD OF THE GODS. both were consumed in droves by kids who rolled their eyes at a potential future where too much ice-cream was a problem, and star guessed she wasn't all that different. raw sugar melted over her tongue, and all she tasted was a sickly-sweet kind of rot that that shook her teeth and curled her stomach. the line inched forward though, and she kept taking pinches of it anyway ── after all, it wasn't going to kill her.

things weren't too crowed in an off-season. during the queue the only thing she'd had to listen to was the girl behind her complaining about how unfair it was that her parents had only given her $200 dollars for her collage applications and the distant noise of old chicano rock blaring through the speakers. all that considered, star wasn't surprised to see david's familiar hand grab onto the doorframe of the gondola as it came to stop. like with so many things, she may not have known how he managed it, but that didn't mean she'd put it passed him, and it all went too quickly anyway; she was already sitting down by the time she really knew what was happening.

the sea-worn metal groaned beneath her, paint-chipped and dry to the touch. say what you would about david too, but in that moment star was a lot more indignant toward the man running the ride then she was at him. there was some half-hearted attempt made to tell the young hoodlum that he couldn't do that ── cut in line, push his way on, pull on the capsule like that when it was on the train. by the time he started to falter under david's stare ( a predictably quick turn of events ) star noted that whatever happened to her didn't seem to be anywhere on the list of things that could get him fired. disgust gripped her; all she got for the way she glared at him was a kind of ' what do you want me to do? ' sneer as the ride started to move.

then, without missing a beat, she turned it all on the ghoul sitting across from her.

          " ... AREN'T YOU BANNED FROM THE BOARDWALK? " she asked. it was a dull question that she already knew the answer to, and right now star was honestly hoping that fixating on things that didn't matter would piss him off, at least a little bit. for a girl who could smile like the sun ( a habit he'd fostered in her, oddly enough ) it was sobering to be reminded of just how limp she could make herself. star realized that he'd caught her off-guard like this, so she reached into her gut to pull out anger, joy, guilt, and sorrow ── she slit their throats and laid their bloated corpses at his feet with the ruthless anarchy of a housecat.

there was a damned good reason why she'd been icing him out lately, and the fact was that having him turn up like this did nothing to inspire grace in her. star's braids fell over her shoulder when she turned her attention to the sea of people getting smaller and smaller beneath them ── families, kids, and young couples trying to get lucky. anyone who'd been in santa carla for long enough could've played their scenes on a loop, and it occurred to star for the first time that she'd been stuck in this one before with david, too.

[bottomshelfheroes]

“Life is suffering. It is hard. The world is cursed. But still, you find reasons to keep living.” | for Michael

Hes sat on that aged sofa in their hideaway, hands resting atop his thighs where they nearly grip at his jeans. Maybe its the fact he had come there so late; maybe its because even when he tries to sleep, he sees his face more than peaceful nights anymore. It hurts to even sleep on his side anymore, and maybe he just needed this.

"-Does it get better then? Are the reasons always gonna be there? What if they just..."

[bottomshelfheroes]

“Smooth. Very smooth. You definitely know how to make a good first impression.” | for Sara

A hand shifts from the camera in her grasp to rub at the back of her neck, smile rising on her features as the polariod is held towards the blonde. Sure, shes taken plenty of pictures of the concert with her own personal camera, but this? Theres more or a nostalgia to it, and shes a bit proud of how it turned out.

"I try my best - if yall need a photographer for anything, im available."

[bottomshelfheroes]

“We each need to find our own inspiration. Sometimes it’s not easy” | for Lizzie

"-I tend to find mine in the things i like. Music to sing, comics to make bracelets off of...but yea, it can be hard sometimes."

A pause is stolen as her gaze finally flickers up from the copy of the recent release of THE PUNISHER #1 in her hands to him, the curious tilt of her head bringing a slight shift to blonde tresses.

"Whats your inspiration? Sex, drugs and rock n roll?"

[scondstar]

@darkerthrills said ... i hear you lying about me

IT OCCURED TO STAR THAT WHENEVER YOU SAW VENGENCE IN MOVIES, IT OFTEN TOOK IT'S TIME. the way people liked to imagine it, it was a thing that carved itself from a series of intricate plans, same way a river builds a canyon, and whether the camera was poised to capture every sickening moment or merely the inevitable end, the result was the same. star definitely wouldn't put something like that past david ── he was stubborn enough, clever enough, and more then capable. it was just that for all that potential, machiavellian scheming didn't seem to make it very far past his first fuse, and she could feel the raw, searing heat of it moving down the wick when he sat next to her.

overtop of the bar, neon lights flickered through a series of colours that illuminated his alabaster sheen. star wasn't surprised that she hadn't heard him coming, only that he'd managed to hear her. there was a song blaring over the speakers that she could barely make out; it was saying ' we had to get out before the magic got away ' when she abruptly let go of the other man's hands.

          " ACTUALLY, WE WEREN'T TALKING ABOUT YOU AT ALL, " she said. technically speaking, star wasn't even lying ── the problem was that she was three drinks in with a lifelong habit of sounding a lot harsher than she meant to sometimes, and she heard it too. it sounded far too close to ' fuck off ' for comfort.

she probably shouldn't have glanced back at billy either, but god, he was sweet. he had these forest green eyes and an understandable deer-in-head-lights kinda stare when he looked between the two of them. star tried to put her hand on david's arm. " how are you, baby? "

[scondstar]

@darkerthrills said ... are you happy? is it better? is it worse?

THE LAST GOLDEN CHORDS WERE LEFT TO ECHO THROUGH AN EMPTY HOME, and star was nothing if not attentive when she watched david play. he had told her more than once that she lit up when she sang, and despite her coyness on the matter, that was one compliment that passed over well-trodden ground, and she had no issues swallowing it. right now, she had her head on her knees and a pleasant ache inside her heart that was born from burgeoning wish for him to see that too.

david really was beautiful. maybe not in that ' weak-in-the-knees ' way ( though when he spoke, that was something else entirely ) but like one of those alabaster angels you saw in gardens and graveyards. always the centerpiece, never the side-show, and overtime she wondered if his skin would get that polished sheen from where she touched him, from where love rubbed off, little-by-little, overtime.

          " AM I HAPPY? " star sounded like it might've been the dumbest question she'd ever heard; unfortunately, she smiled like the answer was yes. then she peeled herself off the edge of the cold stone floor to better creep behind him, with one arm laying claim to his shoulders while the other made a shameless grab for the notebook sprawled out in front. she still wasn't all that good with the guitar, but she had been learning, and she did know her way around a music sheet in her own way. star hummed through his notes until she found the part she wanted. " this one here ── play that again the first way. "