CaliforniaState

OBLIVION

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The air of melancholy was starting to fill Ivy with dread. It normally took a lot for her mood to be dampened in any sort of sense, but the overflowing sentiment shared by her peers of not wanting to be there was starting to weigh on her. It wasn’t as if she were forcing them to stay or needed them to come. She’s almost positive that she might have felt more relieved if it was just her or just her and Hanna. Her sardonic line of thinking was quickly batted away by her years of forged mental constitution. She was a fighter and a doer, she had been up against worse circumstances than this before. Just not quite as intimate, though most of the people present she barely had a connection with. Maybe that’s why it was making it harder for her to perceive, the parasocial aspect of it all. Betwixt that and the attempt to retrieve from her mind what she planted in the capsule herself, there was a heavy look of consternation on her face that wouldn’t easily be confused for the ick one shows when downing a shot of hard liquor with no chaser. Just as she surmised no one else really knew what they had stuffed in the capsule either and why should they? Most of them were running away from somewhere they didn’t want to be. Giving a second thought to another social tradition was just another attempt to get them to immerse themselves in a spirit that they no longer had. Ivy placed the empty glass on the tray of the server awaiting another, ”I think I’ll have an order of spinach dip too if you don’t mind” the cadence of her speech lagging behind more than normal. ”I think I’m going to go to the ladies room and freshen up. Don’t all talk at once while I’m gone.” said slightly sarcastically. Her heels clicked on the floor with every step until she ducked into the hallway where the restrooms resides. The walls were decorated with sleeves of cover art for CD’s ranging in year and genre, which gave it a unique aesthetic. On the adjacent wall that was thinner were posters and schedules for the upcoming and past shows and events. She counted all the albums she was alive for and one’s she listened to in HS just before entering. There were 4 stalls and graffiti sporadically tagged around the walls, stalls, and mirrors. Even with it’s ratty appearance the bathroom still managed to be sickeningly clean. Probably should have been assumed with the bathroom cleaning log signed off after every half hour. She looked at herself in the mirror, gripping the sides of the sink. Her eyes closed as she breathed rhythmically. The water shoot from the spout after passing a hand under where she cupped some water and splashed her face. From her bag she retrieved a handkerchief and blotted her skin dry so she can reapply more of her foundation and make up. ”Well Ivy, you did the best you can do and that’s all you could ask. The sooner we open that heap of scrap open the sooner we can forget this ever happened…and get incoherently wasted with Hanna banana.” Just then a spark went off in her head, the thing she threw into the capsule was a haphazardly forced picture of the 6 of them at the senior barbecue where everyone signed their yearbooks and teachers said their farewells. Ritman High, class of 2017 xoxo written on the back. ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

█ #1.01 WAY DOWN WE GO grown up — danny brown hilton suites ▸ p. johnson's interacting with: @Prisk@Kuro@TGM@nodogs@Mao Mao ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

Persona: Yokohama Midnights

Uh

Fear and Loathing in Gotham City: a One-Shot Crime Adventure

Would be interested

OBLIVION

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“Ugh I know, totaaaal slut, I’m just the worst” Ivy retorted tilting her head up with her eyes rolling to the top. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Hanna’s response to forgetting what she placed in the time capsule rang true for her too. She more or less racked her brain in those brief seconds to recall any sliver of information that would guide her back to high school. Her appearance remained ever the stoic figure. Perhaps it would come to her once she got around the table, but Hanna’s gaze remained transfixed and locked on holding eye contact with her. Ivy’s skin began to feel hot, did she know? Of course, she knew, they practically lived together at one point and that doesn’t just go away with age. Just stop looking at her she thought or would breaking contact just incriminate her more? Her inner dialogue was screaming all the way up to her eyes. Jack finally chimed in giving her an escape and pivot she needed, “Always the rebel, does that make me the brain and Hanna, Molly Ringwald? Probably better off not picking the basket case here. I’m sure the contraband you snuck in there is still good to use when we crack it open” another sip from her drink left the watered down taste of ice mixed with a hint of gin. Her eyebrows cocked up hearing the cute token Anni left in the capsule. ”That’s great Anni, let’s hope past you was kind to future y—“ her reaction cut short to the sweet sentiment by the sour response of CJ. “They were going to throw it out anyway. It does matter CJ, sometimes reminders aren’t always so painful. And you know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Did you not put anything in it?” Ivory raised her glass eyeing the waiter for a refill. ”I can’t have too many if I’m going to drive us over to the field to crack open this bad boy.” ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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OBLIVION

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Her little speech sent a shiver down her spine and sent her skin into tiny bumps. For once she started to feel a bit more comfortable in her skin today. Her crutch being Hanna surely helped her find her confidence too. A small smile crept it’s way onto her face, while the questions began to pile up on what to do and how they would deal with rush hour. “Thank you Hanna and again thank you to everyone who showed up, I know it wasn’t easy” her gaze catching Anni’s, “That’s right it doesn’t exist anymore, thank you for pointing that out.” Another sip of her drink to pace the night. “To answer Hanna and Lucas I was thinking as kind of a night cap or the focal point of our reunion was to pry open the time capsule from our year!” Ivy had paused for dramatic applause, but knowing the crew before her it would just be a squeal from Hanna marveling at the idea and the rest of the room filled with petty groans. Either way she pressed on, “I’ve saved us all the torment of having to dig it up really. Besides, the construction company basically said I can take it or they can chuck it in favor of a new turf field with the new mascot and everything on it” a short sigh, “It’s in my car for whenever we decided to pop the proverbial bottle. If everyone’s fine with it we can do it on the field, but let’s just wait till this place fills up a bit more before we head out?” In her head she was about to suggest what would have been an opportune icebreaker for the evening initially, “So! Does anyone remember what they put in the capsule? Or maybe you can guess who put what inside?” Ivy turned to CJ at the bar and raised her glass once more, only to notice she had followed suite and was right beside her. “Oh! You move fast, I didn’t even hear you or the burger coming. Glad you could join us” she turned back to the circle the crowd was now in, “I think Hanna left her burn book in there personally. Isn’t that right honey?” ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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OBLIVION

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Ivy didn’t need to be psychic to know she was casually unraveling by the amount of social cues she was meeting with awkward pleasantries. Was anyone else hot in the bar or was it just her, because the sweat was pouring out of her pits. The drinks were doing nothing to keep her cool either. The look and lip given to her by the dynamic duo of CJ and Jack immediately made her regret her choice of words. “Not the best choice of words I know, you can see I’m not as good at this as I would have been in high-school” her head cocked in response, “I meant in general, how have you guys been since we were all here last? You don’t have to lie either I know life fucking sucks.” Ivy was surprised she let herself slip, but maybe she would seem more human that way. “I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean, I’m just coming off perfunctory at this point. I just know the air needed to be cut with all the tension here and I needed to runaway from those breadsticks”. Ivy went to motion her almost finished Tom Collins when Hanna rallied the herd and more or less did the hard work for her. Had Hanna not been there this would have been a disaster, more so than it already was. They all congregated to the tables and Ivy took Jack’s fake toast and made it real. “Listen, I’m not good at speeches as much as I led you all on to believe. Let’s just have a toast to us and the magpies before the meteor wiped us out. A chapter we can hopefully have closure with.” ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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OBLIVION

I don’t see any of you sluts using the Yearbook header on the sheets tab yet

OBLIVION

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Hanna was right, it was painful obvious that Ivy still hadn’t found her footing just yet, but as the night went on she would be able to use that brain to pivot to a tune she could carry. Muscle memory you know? Drinks would loosen her tongue and inhibitions, especially with the decadent flex of rounds on Hanna, but it would slow her wits. Something, she needed about her if this reunion was going to go any other way but south. Unfortunately for Ivy it didn’t seem like it was heading anywhere else, with Anni chiming in. The way she made herself diminutive in the face of the other girls in her circle prodded memories awake from an earlier time with Hanna. -Sometime during Ritman High- “'Sup, babe, you wanna hear a lil' something-something?” Hanna could barely hold it together with a stupid grin on her face. The question was perhaps the most rhetorical statement that she had ever cared to utter. Before Ivy could even take a breath, let alone answer or react, Hanna fired up the firing range: “Anni got booted from the squad yesterday. I mean, it was apparently totally brutal how it went down, at least according to Madeleine Peterson -- you know, Natalie Miller's little dog on a leash. Anyway, so, Stephanie Adams and Jennifer Cooper straight up tell Anni--” Hanna took a step closer to Ivy and lowered her voice a bit. “--that she's this total loser freak and they'd never let her on even if she was prettier than Natalie, or something like that, at least. And then, someone, like, throws something at Anni, a ball or something.” Hanna sort of chuckled and cringed at the same time. The scenario sounded hilarious, but she felt sorry for Anni. “I mean, holy shit, I didn't realize it was that bad with Anni -- I mean, is it? Do you talk with her at all?” Hanna asked. Ivy took one last look over in the mirror, attached to her locker before closing it. She immediately jumped in her skin to see a wide grinned Hanna, “Jesus Hanna!” That devious face could have only meant one thing, which almost always meant she had the latest pound of gossip at 7:15 am, it was almost inhuman. Before she could even say, “Even if I say no you’re gonna tell me anyways”, Hanna went straight into it. It took a second for her brain to start up and contend with the speed of Hanna’s tongue. Ivy would have been lying if she hadn’t grown to live for the gossip despite doing her best to discourage the source of it through her actions. Ivy was saddened for Anni, disappointed in the girls involved, and revolted that words so harmful could be said let alone tack on with a ball to the face. Ivy pressed her back to the locker, hugging her books as she looked up and sighed in defeat. Hanna’s chuckle was the only thing that made her feel better. “Honestly, not as much as I should. I mean look at me honey, drowning in everything I had planned, have planned, and have yet to plan. And this administration does nothing in the way to help” her eyes darted to the side to meets Hanna’s gaze. In that moment she had a brilliant idea with the same expression Hanna had given her, “I didn’t realize it was that bad, but why don’t I hold an anti-bullying seminar/campaign? And I can try to get closer to Anni that way? You could come, that is if you wanted to be caught dead being an ally.” Hanna leaned in against the lockers, modestly sliding over next to Ivory, resting her head against the gal's shoulder and listening to the qualms signing from that soft voice. “Oh Ivy League, you are too pure and beautiful to have to worry about these things.” Hanna spun right up again but with a less hectic tone, more mellow in its speed. “But, of course, I'll help. Anything for you, babe, but I'm not sure if it'll work on these bitches that did this,” she continued and exited their little moment by the lockers, now standing in front of Ivy. “I mean, they really don't give a shit about anything, especially things like that. They just need to be beat-the-fuck-up, plain and simple, but nobody is going to do that.” Hanna shifted her position to Ivy's other side and leaned in against the lockers again, but with a hand's distance between them. “For the sake of doing, something, you should do the campaign AND talk to Anni privately, just to let her know that she has an ally that isn't just I WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND I'M HERE TO HELP YOU,” Hanna blurted out and did tiny robot movements with her arms, chuckling at her own silliness in the process. “Anyway, I'm late for English. Cya latah, Poison.” Hanna said, playing on the name of the Batman villain 'Poison Ivy'. Ivy was a bit disappointed in herself that she failed to follow up and keep ties with Anni, maybe then she would have been less lonely in HS. This is why she came back to Delton though, to make up for the mistakes from her younger days. Another ghost of her ghosting days appeared in the shape of Lucas, some one who could have contended to be as close to her as Hanna, but fell through the cracks. Not just him, but CJ and someone she never expected to see in Jack. Though their conversation seemed one sided at the bar with CJ all but physically torturing Jack. “Hey Jack, CJ, how are you two holding up?” The balancing act of social interactions as the host was going to make an acrobat of her yet. ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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OBLIVION

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She couldn’t help but detect there was something familiar under the spritz and puffs of perfume that made up most of Hanna’s scent nowadays before her arms loosened and the two pulled away. Noticing the whimsy of it all pry at her emotions made the always empathic Ivory begin to tear as well. Her eyes grew glossy and she could feel her hands clench ensuring she didn’t also cry and annoy the rest of their peers even more. And then she started and once you got the girl started there was no telling when she would stop or how her lungs even contained that much oxygen in short supply. While Ivory didn’t command the most presence on social media platforms, she wasn’t a stranger to them. Not of her own volition of course, but the need to bring awareness to the problems that she found important at a local and federal level. So I guess you can say it was also of her own will despite it being framed as work. Her posts to sign petitions, and call your local government rep, and volunteer events were rather a far cry from the gossip and podcasts that Hanna was dishing out or being hosted on. Ivory would also be lying if she didn’t indulge in her high school besties social status from time to time, but only a lurker at that. Her fake friends did enough commenting for her. “Oh no you’re fine, I get it but I guess in a different setting. You know how it is with work and the affluent geriatrics still dictating policy. I have more Twitter fingers than anything else nowadays.” There was some slight dejection in her reply, sad that the two of them had fallen out of touch and made her wonder if they would be able to resuscitate their bond or if she would fade out. “I do, I mostly just watch whoever’s on just chatting, but I do like Hasanabi. There’s a lot of those jacuzzi streams now.” Normally for any white girl to point out how nice Ivy’s hair was followed by immediately touching it or asking to touch it resulted in a micro aggression physical response. However, growing up, the two of them had plenty of sleep overs where they did all sorts of cosmopolitan styling of hair. It had been a minute so she did tense up for a split second. She guessed the bartender wasn’t lying. She sliced from topic to topic with ease, something Ivy was kinda jealous of. Although the prospect of being showered in luxury gifts ranging from clothes to perfumes to make up did make her smile. Again, in high school they shared almost everything being similar in size. It was a gift back then, but Ivy is a little more curvy than when she was in high school. Plus, she only really bought herself clothes as a treat during special occasions. It wasn’t that she didn’t have money, but more so that she never really needed clothes outside of her formal work wear. “I think a girls night would be just what you and I both need” it was then that Ivy realized just how lonely she was, masked behind hours of work she used to distract herself. Ivy didn’t get much in the way of a response to much of Hanna’s rant, knowing that they would catch up on their own time. “Uhmmm your guess is as good as mine, I think this is as much of a round of guess who as it’s going to get. So much for being the class president” she reached a hand back to cup her glass before bringing it to her lips and taking a sip that led into a gulp. At least Hanna was doing the lions share of the work that Ivy was too sober and nervous to do. Working with out of touch conservatives seemed a million times easier than this. “Anni! Hi, thank you for making it out tonight and accepting my invitation. I’m sure you and the others hesitated accepting and not sending it to your spam folder. I know I can be a lot sometimes, but I’m really glad you’re hear and excited to know how you’ve been. You look great, if everyone else could see you now” oh god, now she was the one babbling, maybe the hug spread Hanna’s bug to her or maybe it was just her nerves, either way she stopped herself. ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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OBLIVION

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“Are you sure my hair looks okay? I don’t know maybe I just need to touch up in the bathroom really quick before they get here. You think I have time? I have time right?” Ivy exhaled in a last minute self conscious frenzy. Her fingers twirled one of her many rungs of curly hair that extended well past her shoulder. The one thing that gave Ivy away when she was stressed, was her emphatic need to be touching or fiddling with something. And what seemed like a conversation to herself was more of her just talking at the bartender. He knew not where this new found camaraderie came from, for her it was the countless days she vented at him while planning the whole thing. “Your hair looks fine for the 12th time, your lucky I don’t double your tab—“ Before he could finish, she jumped up in excitement. “They’re here!” She shouted at him, not actually certain that anyone had arrived. Though the sound of a motorcycle and various other engines sputtering out gave her inclination to believe her assumption. Ivy straightened herself up from the bar, breathed into a cupped hand and then sniffed the air, teased her hair a few more times and cleared her throat. Silhouette’s of figures scattered about like shadows jumping from a flame. They just lingered there, making Ivy wonder if they just chose to ignore her detailed directions. It wasn’t much later that the first familiar face popped in. Hanna Whittle. The race to see who’s lips coiled up into a smile first was on. It was a photo finish, quickly interrupted by Hanna practically engulfing and tackling Ivy into the the bar stand. All the warmth and memories rushed back into her persons despite being out of touch for years now. Processing the moment, her arms worked their way up the small of her back into a deep embrace. “I would say you’re suffocating me, but I don’t mind at the moment. How are you? You look great as always.” ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔

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