* Alas.

[thetragedies]

( 001 ).   hi, i’m alex🔪, 30+, she/her.   ( 002 ).   welcome to #thetragedies : a semi-selective and slow roleplay blog for several original & canon characters based in paramount+'s school spirits. ( 003 ).   my inbox is always open and memes never expire, send something today! ( 004 ).   like i said above, i am slow. this is with ic responses and many times with ooc too. i do my best but i'm a mom with a full-time job and i appreciate your patience more than you know. ( 005 ).   blogroll : @wallyclarkmemorial, @criticalfai1ure, @madcaptainsilvo.

est. april 2025    —    dash only.    sideblog.    affl. ocs with splitrivers & promdeath.

muse list : will york ; jacky haas ; casper ‘caz’ gaskin ; izzy crane ; fern phillips ; everett martin ; dave nears.

[thetragedies]

okay fine. what if i added fern.

[thetragedies]

fern phillips, dies in the gym in 1979. big into the roller disco craze.

[thetragedies]

okay fine. what if i added fern.

[thetragedies]

i need someone to pick up elliot so i can kill izzy in the autoshop with him.

[salt-gifs]

[splitrivers]

sydney stands across from will and feels small. not in stance, but age. how many times have they gone through these motions ? for will to be scared, to admit it to her, to reach out for a steady hand even if it ended up leading him in the wrong direction, is so familiar that she could laugh. relief and irony: the familiar rope that had tied their lives together now tightened around their necks.

mr. martin's name strikes her like a hot brand. for a moment, she's got someone else to direct her bitterness toward, and unlike will, he's undeserving of a polite filter. "mr. martin doesn't know shit about you. he's as lost as any of us. he's just stupid enough to try and lead other people through it. he's a fucking con artist."

takes one to know one, doesn't it ? both just a pair of actors in new roles, acting like they have any footing. will pivots his approach, goes off-script, and sydney isn't quick enough to maneuver around it. rule number one in the afterlife is to not fuck around about each other's family. where they were, what they were doing, what you could've done with them or for them. the unexpected mention of rebecca and jenny sends her tripping over herself. no joke to break her fall.

"do you think we're supposed to be here ?" he's right ; she's no bible-thumper. but there's no way this could be the way things go. die before your prime and spend hundreds of years trapped in high school. this couldn't be what people prayed for. "i get it, i could really suck, but i don't think i deserve to be stuck in split river forever !" but with will, didn't it even out ? some cosmic, karmic balance : be stuck, but be stuck together. "and you," don't deserve it, period. but the thought catches on its way up her throat like a sick realization.

"i love you too." like reflex, like the obvious, the response comes without pause. that one thing hasn't changed. "that's why it's worth finding out, isn't it ? even when i did kind of hate you, i kept putting myself through it because it meant i could find an answer for us. for you. but if i keep trying to do this shit alone, i'm gonna hit a point where i don't know if i'm going to make it out."

[thetragedies]

“ i don't know where we're supposed to be, i don't think anyone would've ever guessed we get this. ” but that isn't the point and he knows it. if he'd've spent time thinking about it, he would've put his bet that the afterlife was more akin to what the ancient greeks believed than anything else. but split river was no elysium, although that does spark a wayward thought of the river styx. he shakes his head to keep himself on track. “ i don't know that anyone sucks enough to get cast in eternal high school, especially not you. ”

will heaves a sigh. “ i think... i think we're supposed to be happy, whatever that means. and if you aren't, then... ” a shrug. if sydney isn't happy, how could will say he was? ( he couldn't, not really ). he lifts an arm to wipe at his tear-stained cheeks a final time, leaning forward on his knees. the eerie red glow of their scar mocks him the second his fingers alight back on yorick.

“ i don't know how you do it, ” he whispers because speaking any louder would make his resolve splinter. “ you're the strongest person i know and i'm so… even after all this time, i'm starstruck you chose me. ” clambering to his feet, will holds a hand out for sydney to take. “ and, above all else, you deserve to be happy. ” if he doesn't do it now, he never will, so he leads sydney to cross the stage to the edge of the hole in the stage that took their lives.

when you're way up high and you look below at the world you left and the things you know, little more than a glance is enough to show you just how small you are.

[yearnstarved]

THE SIMPLE QUESTION sends Simon plunging into the worst moment of his life just a few weeks ago. The aftershock of grieving Maddie still rumbles in his marrow. Grieving a family he never knew paled in comparison to the person who's stuck by him for eight years. "Hey, man..." He starts off slow, considering the conversation he accidentally overheard.

Nobody wants to confront the hard decision they have to make. What makes decisions difficult is knowing what is right and what feels safe. "I had to watch Maddie make the decision to go back into the scars to save you guys. I held her in that boiler room and felt the warmth leave her body. That was me giving her up." His voice falls apart at the end.

"I let her go to face an eternity in this purgatory if her plan didn't pan out. And I knew that. I knew that..." He crosses his arms over his chest. He hasnt been afforded the chance to think, let alone talk, about that night. "If she's the only reason each morning feels easier to greet and worth waking up to, you should do whatever it takes to help her."

[thetragedies]

will frowns because he knows simon is right, but it's not what he wants to hear. he wants simon to admit it would be a fucking nightmare of a decision because never seeing your best friend again is literally a fate worse than death. having died with his, will would consider himself a scholar on the subject.

“ i mean, you still would've been able to see her in your little ghost pockets if she did end up dying. at least until you had to graduate, ” he tries not to let the bitterness of being robbed of a graduation shine through because that's so totally not the point to this line of questioning. “ but then it would be a matter of her finding her door to move on and i doubt she'd even pretend to look for it while you were still haunting the halls. ” lips twist in an uncertainty. it gets real fuzzy when the fact of the matter is simon and maddie weren't on the same side at the same time. “ sydney... she's always been there. with me, for me, leading the charge, and like, i've gone into my scar alone. i've even gone in with her, even though i nearly chickened out. but to keep... ” he trails off, pounding a fist into his open palm, “ t'keep fighting through literal hell for something that might not have her on the other side is... it's terrifying, you know? ”

there's a pause, then, where he comes to another realization of their similarities. will shifts, lifting a hand to the other boy's shoulder, “ watching her die while i was helpless to do anything about it... ” he gets it. “ i'm sorry you're still stuck apart. ”

[sorevivals]

OPEN STARTER: ADDY, 'SC.HOOL SPIRITS' AU

She's sat not far from the spot she died, back against the wall of the school, fiddling with the zippers of her backpack. Since coming back, since seeing that other place, she's generally kept to herself. In a bit of disbelief that everyone else could just act so...unbothered. Not knowing that her specific experience wasn't universal. And yet it still prods at her, hence the lingering around the location of her death.

Addy doesn't look up to see who is connected to the pair of feet that stopped in front of her, only assumes she knows what they want, "I said I'm not joining your stupid group," she says, half mumbling.

[thetragedies]

“ ew, mr. martin's pity party? no, ” don't get him wrong, will has joined in on ghost group when the occasion called. mostly when he needs a reality check, or around homecoming to help wally as a trade-off for the linebacker coming to a show. but that doesn't mean he likes it. “ someone said you were in theatre? i wanna talk sydney into expanding beyond our repertoire of two-man shows and thought it'd be cool if you'd maybe throw your hat in the ring for a few parts. with enough of us, we might even be able to talk mina into a proper lighting setup. better than their lame-o support group, it could be our own little spooky theatre troupe. ”

[splitrivers]

she wasn't always this way, unrelenting. a yellowjacket who couldn't stop after just one sting, who went in again and again until her target had long since retreated. someone that hurt everyone else in ways that were, frankly, disproportionate to the threat posed. maybe the thing in her that was kind, meek, curious, had been wrung out of her back in the 60s and buried with her corpse. in a graveyard somewhere, safely out of reach of whatever the fuck was happening at this school. good riddance. it wouldn't have changed a thing. if she dug in harder, stung fiercer, maybe she could still claw her way out. " i don't have to be a bitch about anything, " she laughs, a low bark of a sound. " you have your . . . style, and i have mine. hating men is just part of my charm. " the question brings her a half-second's pause. at least he has the balls to ask. by the sheen gathering in his eyes, she figures that's a big deal for him. she humors it as much as anything else that's come out of his mouth, with a roll of her eyes and flick of sucker stick between her fingers. " don't flatter yourselves. you aren't exactly changing the world through your one-acts. when you're around for as long as i have, bad art still passes the time. " like a concession, she throws him a bone. " is your plan to just do that forever ? perform for the same six people until the sun blows up or one of you finally crosses over ? "

[thetragedies]

will huffs a laugh, finally breaking the tether that held her gaze and blinking rapidly. he's been fighting revelations like this for days, years, barely any better than the marching band! it isn't sweeney todd or into the woods, but it's still the same damn thing day in and day out. he should take more offense to her calling it bad — art, expression... even if it wasn't someone's cup of tea, it could hardly ever be considered bad, in his opinion. art is art and he and sydney pour whatever is left of their souls into every one of their afterlife performances. sure, it will never be the same passion they held when they were busy throwing together spring awakening, but those versions of themselves still had their entire lives ahead of them, scripted to the very last exeunt stage left.

if only they'd known their entire lives would last a mere matter of weeks.

“ is high school about changing the world? or just muddling through until you can escape into it. ” he dances around her question the same way he's done any time mr. martin had him cornered. something deep inside him resonates like a cavern with sydney's echoing voice branding him a coward ( not that he thinks she'd ever actually call him that, not to his face ). then again, the only way to escape this eternal high school would be to cross over. find his door and be free. maybe. unless it wasn't. “ what about you? d'you really think ghosts anonymous is the way of it? for someone so... ” he gestures vaguely at all of her, “ you, you really put a lot of stock in one of the few authoritative voices stuck here with us. ”

[yearnstarved]

SIMON DIDN'T BELONG. Not as a statement of self-degradation, but as a fact unique to this situation. Even at his default state, he stuck out like an interruption to the flow of how things were here. Decades of everybody settling into their grooves like screws being stripped over time. Specifically in this moment, he wished he could be anywhere but having this conversation. "A duo of weirdos, yeah. Don't know what that's like." He clicked his tongue in sarcasm.

He mentally checked out first and his foot was already turning towards the direction that'd carry him away from here. The two syllables that made up of Maddie's name stopped him before he even shifted his weight. "She is. You could say I do a really shitty job of listening to her sometimes and she'd agree. There's a difference between the things I can't do for her because we've had a veil between us for the past month, and the things I can't do for her because I wouldn't want to," he explained."

"There's nothing I wouldn't do for her and there's everything that's keeping me from doing those things for her right now."

[thetragedies]

oh. oh. will's interest piques as he realizes simon is the exact person he should be talking to, right now. simon and maddie might not be as wildly codependent as he and sydney are, but it sounds like it could be one of those things that's close enough. and, hey, it's not like will spent too much time with maddie in the first place. for all he knows, they're exactly as much as he and sydney are. ( all the worse for wally if that's the case ).

will shifts as simon breaks it down, latching on to this shared notion of ride-or-die for their partners in crime. “ if she had died when all this shit started, and you had to let her go so she could cross over, could you? ” nothing like free-falling straight to the point, is there. “ like, if you knew she was staying for you, would you be able to overcome the… the… i dunno, ” he waves a hand in the air between them trying to find another way to say what he means. he doesn't want to call it selfishness or cowardice, even though it's both and frustration furrows his brow. “ how're you supposed to just… give her up? ”

[thetragedies]

@yearnstarved / simon said : “ Hey, man. Didn't mean to overhear your conversation between you and your... Sydney. I was just passing by. ”

will's arms are crossed, tucked tightly against his chest in a way just shy of hugging himself. empty gaze looks up at the interruption to a monologue of thoughts running rampant in the theatre of his mind and he can't help the scowl that settles across his facade. “ yeah, well… keep it to yourself, alright? ” his vitriol sounds forced, his movements stiff – it's as if he'd been forced into center stage sans script or blocking and had to put on the performance of his life without direction. “ everyone else already thinks we're weird enough, i'd… they don't need any more fuel for the fire. ”

he sniffs, looking off to the middle distance again. everything was wrong, still, since he'd broken down to sydney at the threshold of their scar. simon being here, discovering more shit, wasn't exactly making things better. “ maddie is like, your best friend, right? is there – ” will hesitates, gaze darting back to simon as he hugs himself a little tighter, “ is there anything you wouldn't, couldn't, do? for her? ”

[thetragedies]

will is rattling the bars of his cage, begging to be let out. i should let him.

[thetragedies]

okay but, what if i kill izzy in the auto shop bc we All know how much i love a shared scar... 👀

[thetragedies]

once again spiralling over how Monumental it was for will to watch romeo+juliet in middle school.

[splitrivers]

nothing gets past will. it's a brutal, timeless truth. when she'd skipped an entire page of the script freshman year while she attempted to perform with the flu, he met her in lockstep to lead them back to the plot. the countless instances when she'd tried to slip in directorial edits, costume changes, inflections that she swore would reveal meaningful subtext in their shows — he knew all of her tricks. why would this one be any different ?

she couldn't even die without will's involvement.

" i have to tell you because you never seemed to give a shit. " rather, he hadn't pushed past her weak excuses, her insistence, her stubbornness, to be the will she'd known her entire life, all the way up to the end. " and what do you know about what comes after ? you don't care enough to do anything but make objections ! " the question hits her harder than expected, had she gone insane ? the one person who'd dared to see her vision in the past, who'd humored her enough to even just listen before shooting her down, had finally drawn a line in the sand.

" why are they here, then ? " she swings rolling pin like she's brandishing a sword, gesturing to the bloody illumination seeping from beneath false floorboards. " for fun ? to trick us ? " irritation reaches a boiling point, and she reaches with a free hand to push yorick out of the way and replace herself in his sightline. " why don't you care enough to try ? why do i have to do this by myself ? "

[thetragedies]

i don't know, i don't know, i don't know! he wants to scream it from the rooftop as fern skates figure eights around him, but instead he turns tired eyes on sydney as directed.

“ ... like i don't give a shit... ” he mutters, watching the way her lips turn downward with a scowl of his own. fine, she wants the truth? she wants him to spell it out? fine.

“ i'm scared, ” he admits in a small voice. “ i'm scared that you'll find your door and i never will or, that if i do, whatever's behind it won't have you there. you've always been there, sydney, and i am letting you down every single day. mr. martin says… ” there's another scoff there, hidden behind a hitched breath. he tries a new angle, already seeing the way his name is gonna make her bug out. “ and jenny's supposed to graduate this year. that means mom — ” nope, he chokes on his words. this one hurts about as much as letting sydney down.

will digs his heels into a new tactic altogether, then. “ why are you so willing to leave? i know being dead sucks, but doesn't the not knowing what's next suck more? i know you're no tess, but like. what happens if it is a trick? what happens if there's nothing? ” he draws a shaky breath, quiet again, “ i've never wanted to make you feel like you're in this alone. maybe... maybe it'd be easier if i could make you hate me first or something, but i'm here, now, because i fucking love you, alright? ” a hand rises to grip at his shirt, over his heart. “ you're more a key than a stupid, plastic skull. ”

[splitrivers]

it's rarely rhonda's instinct to seek advice. a lifetime ago, she'd heeded it hungrily — how to take a drag from a cigarette, how to set her curls just right, how to find a poetic voice. in death, matters like that are . . . fruitless. what's the benefit of reinvention when everything resets ? chop all of your hair off or give yourself a tattoo or jump off the roof, and nothing changes. everyone you know, more or less, will be everyone you'll ever know. so when she's opted into facilitating a makeover, where does that leave her ? she plays it her coolest. slinks into the cafeteria. leans back against metal counters as jacky has her way with the supply of snacks. " so the whole unisex thing, it was bigger in your time than it was in mine. " rhonda was lucky if she could sneak out of the house in a pair of pants, much less anything truly androgynous. " what exactly does that entail ? "

@thetragedies is getting a bunch of starters and replies bc we're getting the band back together !

[thetragedies]

jacky's playing tetris with a lunch tray and her munchie fodder, humming along to the faint sounds of what's my age again? as it drifts up from the headphones perched around her neck. hazy gaze sharpens with rhonda's attention on her, and she tilts her head in contemplation.

jacky's wardrobe was mostly thrifted because there wasn't a chance she'd have been caught dead in the hand-me-downs that came from either of her sisters' closets. her parents hardly gave her lunch money, let alone took her shopping for something brand new and, most importantly, in her style, so she had to do what she could not to be dressed in pastels or ( here, she shudders ) skirts. she turns to rhonda, looking her over, increasingly thankful the late-90s weren't nearly as constricting.

“ mostly comfort, i think. ” she picks up her tray, deciding she had more than enough to sustain this wave of not-quite-hunger, and leads rhonda to a nearby table. “ and like, fuck being mainstream, you know? my oldest sister was super girly and, like, all prep, all the time. even my other sister could be coerced into the odd maxi skirt when pressed. ” jacky shrugs, “ the second my mom gave up trying to force me into dresses, i never looked back. ”

[thetragedies]

actually, i think jacky's key has to be her discman and, when she gets it back at the end of s1, it's as if an invisible tension melts and she is so relieved to have it in her hands again.

i think over the course of the years, she's definitely made copies of other people's cd players, mp3 players, and ipods, but there's something so security blanket abt it being hers.