idk if i'm gonna end up actually doing full outlines or scenes for each prompt, but i've been excited about this one so i'm sharing a preview :3 this is for day four, 'reunion'! hoping i will have the full outline finished and ready to post tomorrow/later today. yeehaw!
this is featuring two ocs i have not talked about in a hot fuckin minute, markus and juno.
cw: mentions/references to a suicide attempt, suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse
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It’s very late one night in September, well after one in the morning, and Markus is alone at his favorite bar downtown. Most of the other patrons have filed out by now, leaving just him and the few other stragglers behind.
He’s sitting at a table in the corner, half asleep with his head on his folded arms. He’s not as drunk as he was earlier, and his buzz has mostly faded. Now, he’s just tired.
God, he needs a fucking cigarette. It’s been a long day, and he’s just glad it’s ending.
Tomorrow, he goes back to court for another round with his ex’s lawyers. Tonight, he sees if he can drink himself to death before he gets there.
Just as he has that thought, he hears someone walking over to his table, heels clicking against the bar’s polished wooden floors. The stranger unceremoniously plops down in the chair across from him.
Immediately, Markus is pissed off, wrinkling his nose in distaste as he lifts his head to tell them to fuck off. The movement sends a dull, throbbing pain through his temples, and he grimaces as he rubs his eyes.
“Oooh, careful there,” the person across from him rasps, in an achingly familiar voice. “Don’t hurt yourself there, Torres.”
He opens his eyes and looks across the table to see-
Him. The man from the bridge, the one who’d dragged him back from the edge and told him to get his shit together.
In the dim lights of the bar, the man looks much more alive now, less like a corpse. His brown skin is no longer sunken and dull, his short white hair neatly trimmed and tied back, his single grey eye sparkling with amusement. Even his clothes look more put together, his sleek black suit and eyepatch out of place in a shitty little dive like this.
Overall, he looks much more presentable than Markus feels right now. Fucking asshole.
“Fancy seeing you here,” the man says, lips pulled into a smirk. “Bit late, though, hm? Thought you had something important tomorrow.”
[Image Description: Three bust drawings of my OCs Asher King, Juno London, and Apollo Presley. Asher, in the upper left corner, has pale skin, pierced ears, and long, straight, dark hair that hangs loosely around her shoulders. Her right eye is normal with a white sclera and dark iris, but her left eye has a black sclera and white iris. Additionally, her left eye has a red symbol instead of a pupil. She has a serious expression on her face and is wearing a dark shirt as she faces forward. Juno, near the bottom right corner, is a thin person with cool-toned brown skin, bags under their eyes, and long, white hair pulled into a ponytail. Juno’s right eye is a very pale grey, while their left eye is solid gold and has bright yellow cracks seeping out from it. They’re wearing a black choker and a dark purple hoodie, facing slightly left as they smirk towards the viewer. Apollo is a lighter-skinned man in the bottom left corner with messy, shaggy red hair and pierced ears. His right eye is a dark blue, while his left eye is solid black with an abstract yellow design of a sun where his pupil should be. He wears a black button-up with swirl designs printed on it. All three characters have their names written next to them in black, as well as a year: Asher’s is 1715, Juno’s is 1899, and Apollo’s is 1984. “VOID-WALKERS” is written in all black and red in the top right corner, and the whole image has a light pink background with lighter stripes across it. End ID.]
Decided to finally draw some of my void-walkers OCs BESIDES Juno, haha!!! I still have to draw Aeneas and [Redacted Bastard Man], but here’s at least the main trio!!! or, as I introduced them when I sent this to one of the servers I’m in, here’s Juno and the bitches.
Taglist (ask to be added or removed!) @wherearetheplants @nicola-writes @skitzo-kero @aaureus @midnight-and-his-melodiverse @approximately20eggs @albatris
It’s finally here! The Juno character study! Not sure if that’s the right word but y’know what that’s what I’m calling it.
Content Warnings: Discussions of domestic violence and abuse in general, discussions of death and murder, mentions of cancer, semi-graphic descriptions of a corpse, vague/implied suicidal ideation, and depictions of a character smoking a cigarette.
Tagging (i don’t have a general taglist so i’m mainly tagging folks who i thought might be interested/have shown interest, but if you want to be tagged in general when i post things like this let me know!!): @wherearetheplants @skitzo-kero @nicola-writes @albatris @emotionalsupportpuma
--
“You’re an asshole. You know that, right?”
Juno looked up from where they'd been sitting beside the pool, bare feet dangling over the edge and into the cold water. A few feet away, lit by the tell-tale glow most undead carried with them, sat a spirit, looking at them with an irritated furrow of her brows.
"What'd I do this time?" they asked, their voice dry and brittle as an old, fraying rope.
Normally, Juno wouldn't respond in public, not where people who couldn't see the spirit might hear. Tonight, however, it was three in the morning and the outdoor pool beside the Lockridge Motel was completely deserted. No one could hear Juno talking to the empty night air.
The spirit scoffed. “So that’s what gets your attention?” she sneered.
“What's your fucking problem?” Juno snapped, glaring at her as their fingers tensed around the cigarette they were holding.
"You've been ignoring me for the past fifteen minutes," the spirit spat, her eyes narrowed in distaste. "I've been trying to talk to you, but you only fucking looked up when I called you an asshole.” There was a brief pause, followed by a scoff. “It's like you don't care."
The spirit was a woman, or at least Juno assumed she was based on her appearance. Like every ghost Juno had encountered, she looked how she likely did at the exact moment of her death, however long ago that was. That was something they never got used to, looking into the eyes of frightened corpses brought to life. Though, in this case, the corpse was more angry than scared.
This spirit had pale skin, with mottled bruises adorning her throat and skinny arms like grotesque flowers. Her short, wavy hair was poorly dyed a bright blonde, with black roots plainly visible, though it was missing several patches as though some of it had been ripped from her scalp, and her almond-shaped, glassy eyes were a deep, muddy brown. She wore a knee-length black dress that was tattered and torn in places, hanging off of her emaciated frame.
All in all, every sign pointed to her having a violent death, which meant this wasn’t going to exactly be a pleasant conversation. Juno felt their defensive anger leave them in one fell swoop, and they instead felt very, very tired.
And when Juno was tired, they defaulted to being a dick, which was exactly what they did next.
"How did you know I just couldn't hear you?” they drawled. “For all you know, I could've had a good reason." Juno lifted one hand and took a drag of their cigarette, their remaining eye looking over the woman sitting a few feet away from them. They weren’t wearing their usual eyepatch tonight, but their hair hung just so to hide the mess of gilded scar tissue on the left side of their face.
As they breathed out a cloud of dark, acrid smoke into the starry night sky, the spirit wrinkled her nose slightly. Juno knew she couldn’t smell it, but they also knew it was hard to break most habits, even after death.
"Bullshit," she said with the faintest of wry smiles on her face, though it was clear she was still unhappy with them. "You're talking to me now. Clearly, you can hear me.” All of the humor drained from her face as quickly as it arrived. “What’s your fucking deal anyway?"
Fair point.
"My bad,” Juno conceded after a moment, offering the spirit a shrug and a half-smile of their own. “Was just thinking a bit. Got a bit lost in thought for a while there. I guess I missed you.”
It wasn’t a complete lie, at least. Juno had been vaguely aware of the spirit’s presence for at least five of the fifteen minutes she claimed to be getting their attention, but they hadn’t realized that she was speaking to them. Like many nights in recent memory, Juno’s focus was lost in the ever-shifting waves of the cosmos.
Only the burning cigarette clutched in calloused fingers kept them grounded on nights like this.
The spirit crossed her arms, tilting her head as she regarded them. Her eyes, ringed with dark circles like the bruises covering the rest of her, narrowed. Juno got the distinct impression they were being appraised like some old piece of junk someone had found in their attic.
Not exactly an incorrect comparison.
“You came out here at three in the morning just to sit by the pool and smoke? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” There was a hint of judgment in her words that Juno might have bristled at, had it come from anyone else.
That was something about spirits that they’d always liked. Most of the time, the dead didn’t have much of a filter, especially the angry ones. Something about dying just made it harder to care about social norms and politeness. It made them a lot easier to understand than the living, in Juno’s opinion.
“I do my best thinking when I’m sleep-deprived and breathing in noxious fumes,” Juno said, clicking their tongue as they winked at the spirit in a playful gesture they clearly weren’t feeling. She stared at them, unimpressed, and they tried their best not to fidget under the intensity of her gaze.
“What’s so-” she started.
“What’s your story?” Juno interrupted before the spirit could finish her sentence. She blinked at them, so surprised at their abruptness that she momentarily forgot to be angry with them, and they rolled their eyes. “I mean, not everyone who dies sticks around. You obviously got the shit knocked out of you before you kicked the bucket--what happened there?”
Maybe on another day, Juno would try to be a little more gentle in their approach. Many ghosts were traumatized by their deaths--at least, they tended to be if they remembered them at all--and even the ones who weren’t usually had some baggage to work through. Because Juno was right; not everyone who dies sticks around after, unless they have some shit to deal with.
Generally, spirits responded better to kindness than cruelty, and Juno had enough experience to know that.
Unfortunately, though, this spirit wasn’t wrong. Juno was an asshole, and it was too late at night to pretend otherwise. It would be a disservice to them both at this point.
The spirit seemed taken aback by the direct question, but she didn’t seem upset by their bluntness. Rather, she paused, evidently considering her words. Juno gave her a moment to think, taking another drag of their cigarette.
Their body had long since passed the point of being affected in any substantial by their smoking habit, but the hot smoke filling their lungs was comforting in a way little else was to them these days. They were drowning themself, one drag at a time, but they never got any closer to death.
“I think it was my boyfriend,” the spirit said finally, a weight to her words that wasn’t there before, her voice achingly soft in the silence around them. “I think my boyfriend killed me.”
Juno blew out the breath of smoke they’d been holding, allowing it to drift listlessly up into the night sky. Then, they turned their head slightly to regard the spirit. She looked lost, anger giving way to the fear and confusion they were more used to with ghosts. They hated it.
“You think?” Juno said, poking and prodding at the open wound presented to them. “What do you remember?” All at once, the anger flooded back into her expression.
“Why are you smoking?” the spirit snapped instead of answering the question. If she was a cat, she’d probably be bristling. “You know you’re gonna get cancer--and it’d be the least you fucking deserve, you dickhead.” Juno snorted.
“Eh, I think I’m a little past that point.” Evidently, the spirit hadn’t picked up on the fact that Juno wasn’t quite human, but they weren’t about to correct her on that front. Instead, they smirked at her, their smile all teeth. “Now, come on, what do you remember? Tell me what’s eating you.”
The spirit stared at them in undisguised disgust. Juno wondered distantly if she was this angry in life, or if this was new. The odds were about fifty-fifty on that front.
“You suck at this,” she told them pointedly. “What kind of bedside manner is that?”
Juno shrugged. “It’s not really a bedside manner,” they said, unable to resist. “More a poolside manner, if we’re being honest here.”
The spirit rolled her eyes. Juno’s smile fell and they held their cigarette up to their lips once more.
“But, no, you’re right,” they said. “I’m not trying to offer you comfort right now--I don’t think either of us really is up for that. But if you tell me what happened, maybe it’ll take a bit of weight off of you. I mean, I’m not really in any place to judge, regardless of how you actually kicked it.”
The spirit hesitated as Juno took another long drag of their cigarette, the little ember at the end flaring orange and lighting up their worn features. Any other time, the silence might’ve been deafening, wearing them down and biting at their heels, but now Juno hardly cared.
Because this was another part Juno was used to, a familiar step in the process. Most spirits were hesitant to talk about their deaths, which they supposed made sense. They didn’t like to talk about theirs either, after all.
For a time, the two were quiet, and Juno let the dark cloud of foul smoke drift upwards from their shriveled lungs. Their cigarette was almost spent by now, but they made no move to put it out or light another one. Instead, they held it between two fingers, staring at it with their empty eye. Absently, they tapped the fingers of their free hand against the concrete beneath them.
After a moment passed, they glanced at the spirit and saw that she wasn’t looking at them now. She was crouching on the ground, her bony hands resting on her knees. Her lifeless eyes stared into the pool.
Juno almost spoke again, hoping to give her a nudge, but she beat them to it and began speaking on her own.
“His name was James,” she said after a long minute, lifting her head to look back at them. “I… I think we were fighting.” She furrowed her brow, sitting up and wrapping her thin arms around her battered middle as she curled in on herself. “It was probably about something stupid--he really seemed to like fighting.”
Juno hummed in understanding, tilting their head slightly. “They usually do, don’t they?” It was the wrong thing to say.
The spirit’s gaze snapped back to theirs, and Juno saw themself reflected in her eyes. Whatever anger had been present on her face before was gone now, replaced by an aching vulnerability they were all too familiar with. Juno turned away and looked down into the pool, not wanting to see painful brown eyes any longer.
Their feet were getting pruney.
Distantly, Juno thought to themself that they should get up and go back inside their shitty motel room, but they ultimately decided against it.
“What do you mean?” the spirit asked softly. Juno’s fingers stilled in their tapping. They didn’t know how to answer that, or if they even should answer.
This wasn’t about them. It was about the ghost next to them.
Her question hung in the air for a long moment.
“Keep talking,” they urged her instead of answering, more gently than they meant to. “What else do you remember? You don’t have to tell me everything, but it helps to get it out.”
For another long moment, the spirit was quiet, peering at them curiously. Even if Juno wasn’t looking at her, they could feel her gaze burning into their skin, a contrast to the frigid chill that clung to her undead form.
When they chanced a quick glance in her direction, they saw something they weren’t expecting: a dawning sort of understanding, followed by a flicker of sympathy.
It made Juno uncomfortable, an itching sensation passing under their skin.
“... What was yours named?” she asked, using the exact tone of someone talking to a frightened child and asking them about the monsters in their closet.
A flare of anger passed through Juno and they gritted their teeth.
“This isn’t fucking about me,” they said, struggling to keep their voice even as they forced the anger down. Now wasn’t the time, and that wasn’t how they handled things. “Now, come on, tell me what else you remember, or I’m getting up and leaving.” It was an empty threat and they knew it, and based on the spirit’s expression as she watched them, she knew it, too.
The spirit moved, coming to sit next to Juno properly. She dipped her long, spectral legs in the pool and let out a soft sigh as she rested her hands on the edge of the pool. Juno knew logically that spirits experienced very limited physical sensation, so they doubted she could feel the water against her skin.
Still, she seemed to be enjoying herself, splashing her feet idly as she peered upwards to the sky. Juno stared at her for a long moment, then they turned their head to follow her gaze.
It was a beautiful night, with only a few swirling wisps of clouds blocking out the vast expanse of stars above them. Even with the light pollution from the city in the near distance and the flickering neon lights of the motel sign behind them, there were able to see dozens upon dozens of twinkling lights.
If Juno were so inclined, they might have tried to say something nice and poetic. Something fitting for the moment they were sharing with the dead stranger beside them.
Luckily for them both, Juno was never one for poetry, to begin with, and they’d long since stopped seeing beauty of any kind in the stars.
“I like the sky,” the spirit said, taking Juno out of their thoughts. “Especially at night. The stars are really pretty.” She smiled a little, turning her head to look at Juno. “Did you know that it takes so long for some stars’ light to reach Earth that, right now, most of the ones we see are probably already dead?”
“I didn't know that," Juno said. They weren't sure how they felt about that fact.
Juno kept their expression neutral, bringing their cigarette to their lips and allowing their eye to fall closed. As they took yet another drag, they mulled over the words. For one small, absurd moment, they wondered if the stars left spirits behind, too. If the light that reached Earth represented nothing more than a ball of fire in an endless void, or if there was more to it.
They breathed out in a huff that sounded almost like a laugh, allowing the smoke to drift upwards. Maybe they really were up a bit too late, if they were musing on the lives and deaths of stars. The last of their anger had left them now, and they let out a soft sigh.
The spirit was quiet for a long moment, so long that Juno wondered briefly if she’d disappeared. When they opened their eye once more and looked her way, however, she was still there. She was looking down now, smile nowhere to be seen as she stared at her hands. Their muted glow glimmered on the surface of the water.
“... I came outside,” she said. “We had a fight, and I wanted to go outside and calm down out here. I was looking at the stars…” Her voice broke towards the end.
Juno stayed quiet, letting her speak. They respectfully averted their eyes and looked down at their cigarette. The tiny ember was truly dying now, and there was barely anything in their hands to smoke anymore.
“James came after me.” The spirit’s voice trembled as she spoke, and perhaps if she still had tear ducts, she might’ve been crying. “He tried to drag me back inside, but I didn’t want to go. I think he grabbed me…” Unconsciously, one of her hands went to her neck, resting against the dark bruises ringing her pale skin.
She fell silent, and Juno decided to let her be for now. There were no words for a situation like this, after all.
The two were quiet for some time, looking out into the night.
“What did you mean?” the spirit asked finally. Juno knew exactly what she was asking, but they looked at her curiously anyway, silently prompting her to elaborate. “When you said that ‘they usually do.’ What did you mean by that?” There was an urgency to her voice now, and Juno knew that they weren’t going to get away from her questioning this time.
A soft sigh escaped them, and they took a long moment to consider their answer. Their shoulders tensed slightly, and they closed their eye again. When they finally spoke, they opened their eye and met the spirit’s dead eyes with a flat expression of their own.
“What I meant,” Juno began, their voice hollow and distant, “is that there are a lot of people like that. Cruel, vicious bastards who move themselves forward by taking others down.” At this point, their cigarette was truly nothing more than a tiny, flickering light in the darkness. They hardly had it in them to care. “However they can do it, really, but they need to control others to keep them down and keep going.”
The spirit was quiet for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet, almost hesitant. “... And they like fighting because-”
Juno turned their eyes away from the spirit, cutting her off before she could finish. "They like to fight because they always win; it's how they stay in control. They wait until you’re at your lowest, then they strike.”
They remembered the sensation of small, gentle hands running through their hair, of chapped lips pressing against their forehead, of a voice like birdsong echoing in their ears.
The tightening of a rope around them.
The memories made them sick to their stomach, and they gritted their teeth again as they took a deep, shaky breath to steady themself.
“And when it’s all said and done,” Juno continued, forcing down the tidal wave of grief inside them, “they make it out to be all your fault, and they say they’re doing you a favor by sticking around and making you better.” Their voice came out sharper than they meant for it to, but they hardly had it in them to give a shit.
Unconsciously, Juno clenched their fingers and crushed what remained of their cigarette, ignoring the sight pain of what was left of the fire burning their skin. The flickering light was snuffed out, leaving the two in darkness. For a long moment, the two sat in silence in the dark, before the spirit spoke once more.
“... You seem to know your shit. You a psychiatrist or something?” The spirit’s voice was cautiously interested, maybe a tad incredulous, and the thought was almost enough to make Juno laugh as they tossed aside their cigarette.
“Nah,” they said, offering her a sardonic grin. “I’ve just been around the block a few times, you could say.”
Another beat of silence passed between them, long and strangely comfortable. Juno always liked this part. They didn’t necessarily enjoy hearing the same sad stories over and over again, but it was almost worth it if it meant they could have quiet, peaceful moments like this.
Their relationships with humans always fell apart, slipping through their fingers like so much sand, but the dead were easy. Even at their worst, the dead were more understanding, and Juno quietly treasured the moments of peace they had occasionally while dealing with them.
Some days, they thought that it made all of this feel more worth it.
“You never answered my question,” the spirit said. Juno glanced her way, but she wasn’t looking at them anymore. Her head was tilted back, and her eyes were facing the stars.
“Hm?”
“You never said what yours was named.” She didn’t turn her head to look at them, but she didn’t have to.
Juno thought about trying to play dumb, but they knew it would be unfair to them both. The spirit had been honest with them, and she deserved honesty in turn.
That didn’t make it easy, though, and Juno snorted humorlessly. The sound was scratchy, and it hurt their throat to make.
“You’re a perceptive one,” they said, turning away to look up at the stars with her. In a strange way, even knowing that most of those stars were likely dead didn’t make the sight any less comforting for Juno. Maybe it even made things more comforting, in a way. “How do you know I’m not just really knowledgeable about how shitty people can be? Maybe I am a fucking psychiatrist.”
The spirit laughed at that, loud and full of delight, though it sounded almost like she was trying not to cry. Juno decided to let her have her privacy in that regard, and they kept their eyes firmly upwards.
“Takes one to know one,” is all she said. “When you… when you were talking about it, I could tell. You understand. You don’t talk like that if you haven’t either studied it or lived it in some way. And, I mean this as nicely as possible, but I don’t think you’ve studied it.”
Juno was quiet. She was right, of course, on both counts.
“What was their name?” the spirit asked, a sudden tinge of desperation to her words. “Please… you don’t have to tell me what happened, I just want to know. I want to know I’m not alone.”
“Her name,” Juno began, then paused. They could feel the spirit’s eyes on them, but they didn’t turn to look at her again. Their remaining eye fluttered shut and they sighed, the weariness of the past century weighing on them in a way they were all too familiar with.
It wasn’t often that Juno was made painfully aware of their own reality, but it was in moments like this that they realized just how truly exhausted they really were, in a way no amount of sleep could fix.
“Her name was Estelle.” It was the most they’d said about her since they last saw her, and they felt the familiar uncomfortable twinge in their heart as they said her name, the word heavy on their tongue. “Her name was Estelle, and she promised she’d give me the world.”
And in a way, she did, but Juno decided not to voice that part. The world Estelle had given them was one they'd never wanted to begin with, and now it was all they had left.
“I’m sorry,” the spirit said. Juno cracked a smile, despite themself, and opened their eye to look at her.
“You’re the one who got murdered,” they said drily, “and you’re apologizing to me?” The spirit’s expression was soft now, gentle in a way it wasn’t before.
“You don’t have to be murdered for things to fucking suck for you,” she pointed out. “Or for someone to come around and ruin your life.” Juno snorted.
“Fair enough,” they conceded. “Guess there’s no shortage of life-ruiners out there, after all.” Juno leaned back on their hands, letting out a quiet sigh.
Silence fell over the pair once more, this time lasting much longer.
“... So, what happens now?” the spirit asked. She looked troubled, but the anger was gone from her expression now. The vulnerability was still plain in her eyes, though for the most part she now just looked curious.
“What do you mean?” Juno asked, tapping their fingers against the concrete once more.
“Is there some kind of… light? Like, a light appears, and I walk into it, and then I’m on the other side?” The spirit held her hands up as she spoke, gesturing vaguely as if to emphasize her point. It was enough to make Juno snort, a smirk tugging at the corners of their mouth.
“Other sides,” Juno corrected, more out of habit than anything.
“What?”
“There are multiple-” Juno caught themself before they could start off on a tangent, chuckling as they shook their head slightly. “Nevermind, it’s not important. The whole afterlife shit’s complicated, and I don’t think I’m really the person you should talk to about all of that.” Truthfully, they understood very little about how this whole thing worked, and everything they did know they only learned through trial and error.
The spirit peered at them curiously for a long moment, tilting her head. They could sense the question in her gaze, but they decided they weren’t going to answer it right now.
“What’s your name?” Juno asked her instead. She looked a little startled.
“Me?” she asked.
“Yeah,” they said, “you.” They gestured with a hand towards her, cracking a sharp grin as they leaned forward again. “I mean, you’ve told me about the guy who fucked you up and took your life from you, but I don’t give a shit about him. His involvement in your story is over now, and I wanna know your name. Who is the beautiful spirit who decided to grace me with her presence tonight?”
The spirit was quiet for a long moment, considering their words. Without their cigarette, Juno felt a bit antsy, but they didn’t say anything. This wasn’t about them, after all.
“Yūna,” she said after a long moment. When Juno looked at her, she was smiling a little more genuinely now. “My name is Yūna.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” Juno said. “Sorry you had to get fucking murdered for it to happen, but you seem pretty cool.”
Yūna laughed at that, more genuinely this time, and their smile softened. There was no way for the dead to truly come back to life, not really, but in that moment she looked more alive than she had the whole conversation.
“For what it’s worth,” she said once she’d calmed down from her laughter, “you’re not so bad either.” She ran a hand through her hair a little self-consciously, as though trying to fix it up. “I’m sorry I called you an asshole and, ah, disturbed you while you were trying to think.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” Juno said, waving a hand in the air. “Wasn’t thinking about anything important anyway. Besides, you’re right--I am an asshole.”
“What were you thinking about?” Yūna asked, the same curious expression as before on her face once again. Juno hesitated, and so she continued. “You don’t have to tell me everything, but I’m just… curious.”
Juno thought about a lot of things, in general. Life. Death. Rebirth. What it all meant, at the end of the day. Whether there really was anything worth looking forward to. If there was a point to their existence. If there was a way for them to end it.
They thought about people, too. Good people, bad people, and everything in-between. Some days, they wondered if they could still consider themself part of that.
Tonight, though, they were thinking about-
“I was thinking about stars, I guess,” they said before they could finish that thought, before they could let the usual wave of existential despair and aching loneliness wash over them. With one hand, they gestured vaguely up at the sky. “I mean, what you said earlier, about how most of ‘em are probably dead already. I was thinking about whether or not stars have any kind of afterlife awaiting them, or if they’re just sad sons of bitches waiting for oblivion to destroy them, with nothing to look forward to on the other side of it all.”
“Wow,” Yūna said with a snort. She looked a bit more hesitant now. “That’s, uh… that’s a bit morbid.” Juno shrugged noncommittally, quietly relieved she didn’t ask after any details.
“I’m kind of a morbid guy,” they told her. “Comes with the territory.” With one hand, they scratched lightly at their wrist, at the black mark forever staining their skin.
“And what territory is that?” Yūna’s tone wasn’t accusatory at all, at most teasing and friendly. Juno decided to lean into that.
“Being the most dead-looking living person you’ll ever meet,” they replied in the same tone. “Trust me, it’s hard looking like a corpse--no offense.”
“None taken.” Yūna quirked a smirk at them for a moment, but soon her expression softened again. She looked at Juno for a long moment, then turned her eyes back to the stars.
“For what it’s worth,” she said softly, “you look pretty alive to me.”
Juno wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so chose not to. Instead, they let her words linger in the air. There was a light breeze now, ruffling Juno’s white hair and chilling their skin ever so slightly.
“Do you mind if I sit here with you for a while longer?” Yūna asked, a bit timidly. “I just… I don’t really know where else to go, and it’s nice to actually talk to someone who can hear me.” The vulnerability that had been thick in her voice before was back now, and Juno was nodding before they could stop themself.
“Make yourself at home,” they told her. “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. And neither are they.” They gestured vaguely up to the stars.
Yūna chuckled. “No, I guess they’re not.”
The rest of the night passed in silence as the two lonely, lost souls sat together, feet dipped in lukewarm water as they watched the sky. Juno didn’t know anything about Yūna, not really, and she certainly didn’t know anything about them, but there was a quiet camaraderie between them now.
It was the closest to living that Juno had felt in a long, long time.
wuh oh gamers! bad news!!! art isn’t working tonight!
however i do have a wip i can offer <3 a thumbnail sketch that got out of hand and the start of the refined sketch on top
[Image Description: A rough sketch of two characters sitting beside a pool, dipping their feet into the water. The character on the left is my OC Juno, shown with their hair down and holding up one hand while resting the other next to them. Their right hand has yet to be sketched in detail, but handwritten text next to it indicates that their hand is meant to be holding a cigarette. They have a smirk on their face as they look towards the right. The character on the right is a translucent woman with short hair and a dress that comes down to her knees, resting her hands on the side of the pool as she smiles at Juno. The sketch is done in green against a dark blue-grey background. End ID.]
not gonna tag folks b/c this is a wip and i don’t know who’d be interested in that ASDFJKL;
💬 and 🖊 + character of your choice bc i love all your blorbos <333
thank you so so much <333 okay so 'tis the night for Juno Thoughts it seems so i will share an excerpt from the Juno Character Study i keep mentioning and then talk a little about their backstory!!!
first, the excerpt:
“You’re an asshole. You know that, right?”
Juno looked up from where they'd been sitting beside the pool, bare feet dangling over the edge and into the cold water. A few feet away, lit by the tell-tale glow most undead carried with them, sat a spirit, looking at them with an irritated furrow of her brows.
"What'd I do this time?" they asked, their voice dry and brittle as an old, frayed rope.
Normally, Juno wouldn't respond in public, not where people who couldn't see the spirit might hear. Tonight, however, it was three in the morning and the outdoor pool beside the Lockridge Motel was completely deserted. No one could hear Juno talking to the empty night air.
The spirit scoffed. “So that’s what gets your attention?” she sneered.
“What's your fucking problem?” Juno said, glaring at her as their fingers tensed around the cigarette they were holding.
"You've been ignoring me for the past fifteen minutes," the spirit spat, her eyes narrowed in distaste. "I've been trying to talk to you, but you only fucking looked up when I called you an asshole.” A brief pause. “It's like you don't care."
AAAAND Juno thoughts <3
So I haven't talked a lot about Juno's backstory because I've been intentionally keeping a lot of details to myself, but one thing I've been thinking a lot about lately is Juno's relationship with Aeneas (though they know her as Estelle).
Going under the cut, but content warning for emotional abuse and manipulative relationships, as well as mentions of violence and eye trauma
Short version: Juno (that's not their original name, but that's the one I'll use here) was born in the late 1800s and lived most of their life in a very small, isolated community somewhere in the western U.S. (still deciding on an actual location). They married a man named Thodore Hopkins when they were 19, and they had four children with him: Harriet, Rose, Irene, and Ambrose.
Then, when Juno was 29, Theodore died. I'm not sure on the exact cause, but it was sudden and tragic and they were left to care for their children on their own. Even with some help from people in the community who were mostly well-meaning, it was overwhelming.
It's at that point that Juno met Estelle, a newcomer to the community.
It also should be noted that, while Juno is a transmasc genderqueer person, at this point in their life they would've been living as a cis woman. I'm gonna keep using they/them for Juno here, but just keep that in mind.
Anyway yeah Juno and Estelle formed a fast friendship, bonding over both being widows (Estelle claimed that her husband died tragically in a house fire, which prompted her to move to a new place). I do think their relationship was romantic on some level as well, but I don't think they ever completely considered each other lovers.
As time went on, Estelle began asking more and more favors of Juno, manipulating them down a dark path. She turned them against the people they knew, isolating them even from their children and the limited family they had in the area. At the same time, she made Juno almost completely dependent on them, positioning herself as the only consistent and steady person in their life.
Eventually, in the spring of 1899, Estelle approached Juno with a proposition. It was clear that the two of them weren't welcome in this community, so she wanted to run away together. She and Juno could run away and be happy together forever, away from everyone who looked down on them <3 She'd just need one more big favor from Juno.
Juno agreed wholeheartedly, as at that point they had nothing left.
Anyway yeah cutting to the point, over the next few months, Juno was coerced into selecting people in their life for the void-walker ritual, though they weren't told all the details in advance. Then, in June, literally days after their birthday and during the total lunar eclipse of June 1899.
The ritual didn't go well, but it was successful. Juno's rebirth as a void-walker was agonizing and left them a shattered, broken thing, and it was only in the aftermath that they truly saw Estelle for who she was: a monster.
As Aeneas cradled them after the ritual was complete, telling them all about the new life they could start together now that they were immortal, Juno decided they'd had enough.
They managed to wrestle Estelle's knife away from her and attacked her, nearly gouging out one of her eyes in the ensuing struggle. Ultimately, Juno did kill Estelle, but at that point, they didn't know how void-walkers as a concept worked, and she didn't stay dead. By the time she was awake again, though, Juno had left.
Juno and Estelle have had a few run-ins since then, but for the most part Juno's done an excellent job of avoiding her. And they'd very much like to keep it that way.
[Image Description: A waist-up drawing of my original character Juno London, a brown-skinned person with long, white hair pulled back into a ponytail. Their left eye is solid gold and has golden cracks reaching out from it, and they have similar gold scars on their right shoulder, right side, and across their throat, as well as golden top surgery scars. additionally, Juno has dark tattoos, notably bands around their wrists and a skull on their right shoulder. Juno has a smile on their face as they hold a middle finger up towards the viewer. The drawing is very darky shaded, though Juno’s golden eye and scars glow to varying degrees. The background is dark with faint stars scattered around, and Juno is outlined in gold. End ID.]
Juno’s on the brain right now I guess <3 Anyway I wanted to draw something to show that their gold bits glow, so here we are <3
Oh most of Juno's playlist has angsty songs,,,, but HMMM I think I will do The Scorpion and the Frog / Trust Me from The Devil's Carnival!
The meaning of this song is pretty literal, though it does use the story of the Scorpion and the Frog as a metaphor. Essentially, the song is about an abusive/unhealthy romantic relationship that ends with the death of one or both parties.
I don't have to stretch pretty far to apply this song to Juno's backstory! I think I've mentioned this before, so without going into too much detail, Juno had a pretty nasty relationship with a woman named Estelle, and she, in fact, is the one who made them into a void-walker.
The whole song vibes a bit with how I imagine Estelle would talk to Juno, and just!!! The vibes are There!! But I do want to highlight one part that, if I made an AMV with this song, would be the scene immediately after Juno is made a void-walker, with them panicking and breaking down as the spell Estelle had over them is broken with the realization that she'd always planned to do this:
So don't cry, crybaby
All dressed in green
How many kisses do you need?
One for your tummy
One for your cheek
One for the devil inside . . .
Of . . . me
i meant to answer this earlier but then i got really distracted and then Spicy Brain happened </3 that's ok tho
ANYWAY okay i've talked a lot about the void-walkers and i have told you much about them but i have never given a concise summary of some of the void-walker characters i have so far so i will do that here <3
Asher King (she/they/it) is a void-walker from the 1700s who lived and died in the golden age of piracy. She's pretty dour and a bit mean-spirited, but ultimately she means well. Also she is just bursting with transfem swag. In modern day, Asher is generally the most confident and, in many ways, the most competent in general of the main trio. I haven't developed them quite as much as the others and I feel a bit bad about it, but they are very important to me!
One thing I've been thinking about with Asher especially is the prospect of her power to temporarily nullify the abilities of other void-walkers. There's a lot of potential there. Though I think her main use of it would be limiting the powers of her friends if said powers are overwhelming (i.e. turning off Juno's mind reading before they have to walk through a crowd of people).
Apollo Presley (he/it) is a void-walker who died and was revived in the 1980s, 1984 specifically, and he's a bit of a funky lad! Very sweet, though. He was probably in his early 20s when he died, and as such he's kind of the baby of the main trio (and also because Juno and Asher both have over 100 years on him). However, I don't say that to infantilize him! Apollo is incredibly headstrong and has a bright, strong spirit. He's an incredibly nice person, but he isn't afraid to stand up for himself or others and isn't the type to back down from a fight, for better or for worse.
This has bitten Apollo in the ass more than once, as he doesn't really have the brawn to back up his smart mouth or headstrong personality. His powers also aren't much of a help most of the time, but he's found ways to make his telekinesis really work for him.
Juno London (they/he/it) is a void-walker who died and was revived in the late 1800s, in June of 1899. They keep their past mysterious for the most part, but they lived out west with their four children before they became a void-walker. What happened afterwards, they don't like to talk about. What Juno WILL talk about, though, is their work as a a ghost hunter, though they'd never use that term. Juno travels around in search of spirits who, for one reason or another, haven't moved on to whatever afterlife awaits them, and they try to talk these spirits through whatever trauma they've experienced, to make the transition either.
However, Juno is far from gentle in their approach most of the time. They're rude, sharp-tongued, and a little crass, and they don't give a shit what anyone thinks of them. A lot of spirits seem to appreciate the fact that Juno rarely sugarcoats anything, though. Their goal isn't to pretend the spirits aren't dead, but to help them come to terms with their new reality.
Perhaps this is because Juno still has yet to fully accept their own new reality, but that's neither here nor there.
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Okay I'll have to talk about Aeneas and the others in another post ASDJFK;L apologies for the length <3
