when we were young, we used to get so close to it.

[nightmarist]

Who: Residents of St. Monmouth & OPEN to visitors
When: Throughout April
Where: St. Monmouth in Kauto R2
What: Various suspicious happenings over at the dream farm.
Warnings: Look to the subject headers.
Notes: This is a mingle/catch-all log. Start your own threads! Tag around!

[The rapid growth of St. Monmouth came to a screeching halt toward the end of March, not long after Declan's brownstone appeared, nestled against the back wall of the main house. New items still appear every once in a while, but for the most part, the number of animals and odd plants and magical phenomena remains steady. Manageable. Residents can finally begin to learn their way around without worrying about running into a mysterious new hallway or a waterfall that wasn't there yesterday.

Otherwise, farm operations continue as usual. The refrigerator continues to restock itself with Nino's pizza. The liquor bottles continue to refill themselves. Candy still grows on trees. And St. Monmouth continues to provide locals with fresh produce and steak and eggs and milk even though very little actual farming goes on around here and no one has ever slaughtered one of the animals.]


( APRIL FOOL'S NOTE: Everyone's closets are now filled with holographic versions of their clothing. But don't worry, their real clothes will be back on April 2. Though they can keep the holographic clothes, too, if they're into that sort of thing. )

Comments

Adam Parrish

[unaffluent]

[ Kitchen ]

[ Adam's actually gotten tired of the pizza after a while. He's not great at cooking either so he's been bringing home noodles on his way home from work and so he's settled at the table in his usual way: eating and reading random science articles on his TAB. Though, now he's not really reading Science articles so much as researching how to build plumbing and power for his tiny house.

That part's probably going to be a pain but he'll figure it out by the time it's necessary. For once, he has headphones in his ears and he's listening to the discography of Guns N' Roses which can probably be heard if you come close enough.

At least it's not the troll-y music that Ronan and Noah always listened to. ]

[ Adam's Bedroom ]

[ Adam's been in his bedroom more than Ronan's, even when he's with Ronan or Andyr. He's at least not been avoiding coming home since the end of March. So it's rather easy to find him when he's not at work or out somewhere on the grounds.

If one does wander into the room when he's alone, he's probably playing some classic rock from his bedside table and studying from a stack of books. You might walk in on one of the few lucky times that he's managed to fall asleep. It's all a matter of timing. ]

[ Out somewhere near the edge of the grounds ]

[ At some point, Adam started gathering supplies to build a tiny house on one of the far ends of the property. As he reiterated to Ronan he's not trying to get away from him or mostly anyone. But there's a negative energy and feeling that remains for him sometimes at St. Monmouth and everyone complains about him working so much but sometimes he works just to get away from the heaviness he feels.

So, the compromise was a place without heaviness, a place where he also could siphon people a little more so he wasn't overwhelmed that way either. It's also a place that resolidifies his ability to be independent. He's building it, he's paying for it. Ronan isn't making it, Adam Parrish is.

So, depending on how far into April you come by it, the little plot is a mess of supplies, half built walls and the like. Adam's particularly stuck on how to run the power and plumbing. He hasn't yet thought of how to afford all the furniture since most of his savings and the money he's still making is being thrown into the supplies to build the place. ]

[ Wildcard ]

[ While Adam will still be working at the auto shop quite a bit, he's going to be working less there and more at the place where he's started building his tiny house. He's probably not telling anyone in advance of doing it aside from Ronan but you can stumble across the construction. ]

CLOSED TO RONAN

[unaffluent]

[ Adam waits at least a week after the explosion with Declan and everything before he's alone with Ronan and brings this up. He knows he'll probably talk to Andyr about it but Andyr is more likely to instantly understand why Adam is doing what he's doing and comprehend it on a level that it's probably going to take Ronan months to understand.

Because Ronan has a habit of making everything about him and Adam's at least prepared for that.

So, tangled up together in Adam's bed, he nudges his face into the crook of Ronan's neck, nuzzling him. ]

I'm planning on building something on the grounds.

Closed to Andyr

[unaffluent]

[Adam yawns as he stretches around his bed, hooking his leg over Andyr's hip to draw him closer to himself. His hand brushing through his hair affectionately. He likes being close to Andyr. He feels safe with Ronan but there's different types of safe. There's things Andyr understands that Ronan can't and vice versa.]

I'm building a tiny house away from the main building.

somewhere out there.

[amplifyings]

[ It was typical for Adam to spend more hours than were needed at his workplace, but lately Blue's seen less and less of the boy than usual -- she'd given up the habit of showing up at the garage at random when it became boring after the third or fourth week in a row, and their encounters had become not much more than brief exchanges as they passed by one another in the hallway.

And it's after the third or fourth day of that routine that Blue ventures out in search of Adam, coming across the half completed tiny house some time late in the evening. ]

This is where you've been, huh? [ She shields her eyes with both of hands, trying to avoid the glare of the sun that's still hanging low in the sky. ]

w-w-wild card!!

[shadowblends]

[Much to Kurt's dismay, each time he's gone to the auto shop, it's either been just as Adam has left or on a day that he's not working. By the third and final time, he's a little disheartened and decides that if he's going to bring Adam the spaetzle he's promised him, it's going to have to be during one of his trips to St. Monmouth with other snacks.

So, after popping Adam a quick text over the TAB and receiving information of his whereabouts, he'd set out to the property - first to drop off his usual couple bags of assorted homemade snacks then, with tupperware in hand, he decides to take advantage of that teleporting to get him to where Adam resides quicker.

The cobalt-tinted mutant happens to catch Adam during a possible break and with a bright grin on his face, he rushes to meet his friend, free hand lifting in a wave.] Adam! [he calls, absently wondering why the other male is working on a home away from his home, so to speak.]

Ronan Lynch

[nightmarist]

april fool's day

[There's really only one person who can possibly be responsible for the holographic fashion prank on this day, which also happens to be a certain Lynch's favorite holiday. Ronan himself isn't spared, going about his day in an outfit similar to all the others in its iridescent glory. Only he doesn't act as if anything is unusual at all about what he's wearing. It's almost as if he doesn't notice.

His day is largely spent in the garage, where he's making an exception to Declan's new rule and furiously dreaming five identical new cars which happen to match everyone's new clothes. But when he takes a break from dreaming hideous rainbow monstrosities, he can be found wandering the house and the grounds, admiring everyone in their new clothes and enduring related abuses.]

the boxing gym

[Training is a daily activity for Ronan, but since he's been forced to cut down on his dreaming, he ends up spending even more time in the gym than usual. Some days are better than others. If it's a good day, he's graceful and steady and his swings are nothing more than exercise and practice. But good days are rare. More often than not, his sessions in the gym are full of self-abuse. His rage has to go somewhere, and he directs it at the punching bag until his hands ache and he can't hold a fist any longer. He loses himself in this internal fight, punching and punching until each hit draws cries of frustrated pain from him. He stops only when his body forces him or someone else notices enough to intervene.]

the rooftop courtyard

[As more and more residents have arrived at St. Monmouth, Ronan has only grown increasingly withdrawn. He isn't entirely avoidant. He shows up at mealtimes. He acknowledges someone's presence if they're in the room. But for the most part, when no one has any particular need for him, he disappears to his various hiding spots around the property. Not to dream, not so much anymore, since he's meant to be conserving his strength. But the isolation feels necessary. Or rather, he doesn't know how to be with people anymore. He's become a problem to solve, rather than a person, and it's a feeling he loathes. So now he's sprawled out beneath the tree on the rooftop, cradling a bottle of whiskey against his chest and staring up at the night sky between the branches. As long as he's up here, no one has to think about him.]

wildcard

( Start a thread! )

Courtyard rooftop

[heisenbitch]

[ Jesse has been looking for Ronan. He's looked in the places Ronan can normally be found, he's looked in places where Ronan told Jesse he'd find him, he's looked everywhere. He's noticed how much more withdrawn Ronan has become. It worries him, deeply. Jesse can't help  worrying when he hasn't seen Ronan for a while. He knows Ronan already lives with his mind caught in a dark place, and he knows that place has only grown darker in recent weeks.

When he trudges up the courtyard rooftop steps, it's with sinking feeling that he expects to find it as empty as the night sky. His heart does a leap of relief when he sees Ronan lying there. Followed immediately by a surge of concern.

He thinks Ronan is dreaming at first. He approaches quietly but quickly, his steps only slowing when he realises Ronan isn't paralytic from dreaming so much as near paralytic from drinking.

When he reaches Ronan's side, Jesse wordlessly crouches and settles down on his ass beside him. Drawing his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms loosely around them, Jesse turns his head to look down at Ronan's face, then turns his face up to look at the stars. ]

Reminds me of the New Mexico desert at night. The stars, I mean.

Wildcard! /rolls this over here

[dreamkid]

[ It's been a little while since Declan's and Ronan's fight--or misunderstanding, whatever one chooses to call it--and since then Matthew has been very careful to let the subject lie very still. It's obvious he knows something happened, but he doesn't want to stir it up again. So. Well.

He's focusing on more pleasant things instead, as per usual, and leaving the complicated ones to smarter and wiser people. One of those pleasant things is the Irish bouzouki he found under his dreamed up bed in Declan's place. It's so much like the one he used to play, the one his dad gave him, that at first he was confused, wondering how in the world (multiple worlds?) it even got here. As he lifted it from the case and traced his fingers over the impossibly smooth, impossibly lustrous wood, he realized Ronan must have dreamed it, obviously.

A few minutes later, he had the instrument tuned and was plucking out a little song. He went over it a few times before he got the song right all the way through, and by then he was laughing and full of too much joy to contain himself.

So now he's carrying the instrument around St. Monmouth, looking for Ronan, wanting to let his brother know that he found it. He wanders around fruitlessly for a bit but is undeterred, pulling out his TAB with his free hand and shooting Ronan a text: hey where ru?

It's worth a shot. Ronan's been especially difficult to find lately... ]

the boxing gym

[son_of_a_dreamer]

[Declan hasn't been to an actual boxing gym in a long time. Sure, he goes to his regular gym with the endless rows of treadmills and step machines, trainers and eye candy, but the only boxing he's done for a while has been with people's faces, and only when he absolutely has to.

Truth be told, he misses it. It's one of the few things Niall taught him that didn't feel like it had strings attached, though looking back on it now, he supposes their father had to figure self defense would have to be an ongoing thing for the Lynch family. Either way, time spent boxing was always good, in the way that knowing he has control of a situation makes him feel, while letting loose and just having at it.

Declan should have figured from the start that there would be a boxing gym here and that Ronan would spend a lot of time there on his own, especially now. He's been trying not to crowd his brother while somehow still managing to keep track of him. It's the Declan way, always concerned, just with a lot less hostility than back home. He'd like to keep it that way.

So when he's headed to the gym, he isn't exactly expecting to see Ronan, but Declan is hoping he'll show up anyway. What he sees there is Ronan relentlessly beating the shit out of the punching bag and sounding like he could use a break. He doesn't approach, not completely. He'd rather not end up with a broken nose again, so he calls out from the entrance]

I really want to know who you're imagining when you're punching that thing.

[deconstruct]

[ andyr took one look at his closet this morning and decided he was going to spend the day in the boxers he went to sleep in, and this is how he wanders upon ronan, still in the sharky decorated boxer briefs from this morning, and a ratty blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape. looking a lot like a seven year old in the body of a grown ass man, but whatever, this is hardly a new spectacle.

what is new is ronan's shiny, shiny ass in jeggings that are way too tight to be safe for the eyes of children. someone hide ellie and matthew. additionally, there are the new holographic lambos hanging out in the garage he happens upon his weirdo boyfriend in, and andyr spends a good long minute glancing from one peculiarity to the other, and back again. ]

They match your butt. [ a beat ] Jesse's gonna be pissed if Ellie sees your holograph bulge, you know.

April Fool's Day

[disentombs]

[April Fool's Day once again.

Ronan's favorite holiday.

The day Gansey had to be extremely careful around the other teen. Ronan's pranks every other time during the year were bad enough but he was notorious for his April Fool's Day pranks.

He woke up from a couple of hours of sleep, rolling over to check his phone and realizing the date, he forces himself to alertness, looking around his room. He would have heard Ronan come into his room. He should be okay for now.

Gansey slides out of bed and pads over to his closet, opening the door to pick out something to wear for the day. A furiously bit out "Ronan" is all the reaction out of him for now. Because all of his clothes are now holographic, Gansey simply picks a hoodie and shorts to put on with his topsiders before stomping off to find Ronan.

There's 3 sharp raps on Ronan's bedroom door.]

Boxing gym

[morethan084]

[Daisy had heard about this place having a gym, and while she was spending the weekend here just to relax and hang out, Daisy had been a bit more strict about her workout routine. Which meant not missing any days anymore. Somehow, despite the amount of people that seem to live here, Daisy wasn't expecting anyone else to be in there.

Approaching the room, Daisy came to a stop near the door and watched Ronan for about a minute before finally announcing herself.]

Guess I'm not the only one who had this idea.

Day after the kiss--library

[disentombs]

[It's a beautiful day outside, sunlight filtering in through the windows of the library. He's sitting on a windowsill, back to the view of the rest of the grounds of St. Monmouth, chewing a mint leaf and flipping through his notebook.

He'd already been working on a way to fight off the demon before he forbid Ronan from using his own life as a sacrifice the day before. His resolve to find a solution that doesn't require that has doubled down. It's his responsibility to prove to Ronan that they never needed that option anyway.

Besides, he'd already resolved himself to ridding Ronan of the demon the second he pressed his lips to Blue's. Funny how that worked. He'd indulged himself all day yesterday with thoughts about the kiss and how exactly it had come about. If that exact scenario had been run by him a thousand times, he's not sure he could have predicted the outcome. He's not at all upset about it though, wondering if he'll be able to do it again, wondering if it was just a one-time thing.

For now though, his brow is furrowed in concentration as he makes a few marks in his notebook.]

Wildcard!

[disentombs]

[Even though he's seen Ronan since That Day, he's wondering if Ronan is having a delayed reaction to it all, now avoiding Gansey. It's been a couple of days since he last saw his friend.

Gansey has a brief tug of war within himself as to whether he should go find Ronan or leave him alone, but in the end, he needs to make sure he didn't do anything wrong, and so he spends the greater part of the day searching for Ronan.

He's nowhere to be found in any of the indoor rooms...

And so he goes into an area he hasn't really gotten a chance to explore yet--the sun room area. He opens the door and the bright sunlight is dulled through the ceiling panels, but lends to the nature of the room, green plants arcing over the empty space. And in the corner of the room near some flowers is a pile...of pillows and blankets, not at all unlike the ones around the more, well, interior areas of St. Monmouth.]

Ronan?

Anne Boleyn (the 9thish and on!)

[ensorceler]

[ Despite the usual lure of a cityscape, Anne can ask anyone to show her around there, and she's not interested in spending her stipend on goodies without time to consider her options. That includes the consideration of permanent residences. She's seen strange technology and modern apartments before, but if she has the choice then she would rather live in something like the country. Something to remind her, however...minutely of home. Though Anne isn't very intrigued at the idea of working on a farm, she does like the farmlands she visits, still keeping to her formal dress for the time being. What greets her upon weary arrival is something beautiful, but certainly not home.

Striking greenery like this ought not to be taken for granted, nor should the unique architecture she witnesses in the few structures she comes across throughout the day's trek. The normally disillusioned lady finds enough in some of the flora and fauna to send a tremor of awe through her at unpredictable moments. The small things are often what garner her near childlike fascination. It's silly to wish for a pen and paper on which to draw when she must remind herself that she isn't here to play, but many of the sights are too inspiring to ignore. This isn't the only residence she's glanced at (for ideas and nothing more), but it is one of the prettiest. A circle of flowers nearby especially draws her in, though one must be wary enough to remain outside of it. Thomas Boleyn raised no fool; she recognizes a fairy ring from enough stories in her childhood.

Now if only she could find a maze or even a church then Anne might temporarily forget where she is and feign everything to be normal. For a time. ...Instead she may just have to settle for finding some fruit to pick from a tree, unafraid to climb up to the lowest branch if she must. Her boots aren't that flimsy. Surely whoever owns the land wouldn't miss only one piece of fruit? If they do, she has her charm for back-up, able to find ways to summon it even in the most trying of times. ]

[heisenbitch]

♬... Fallacies, fallacies... ♬

[ Jesse sings this to himself a little breathlessly, while finishing mucking out one of the horse's stables.

If there's anything Jesse likes most about Monmouth, it's the animals: their quiet calm, their unassuming presence, the way they want for nothing other than to be fed and nurtured and cared for. There's something incredibly healing about being around animals. Maybe that's something Jesse needs more than he realises. He's been tending to the animals for a few hours now, raking out the stables and filling their water troughs with fresh water, and tossing hay over fences in between pouring buckets of oats into feed bags and feed troughs.

He's dressed in sloppy clothes and grimy black rubber boots that come up to his knees, his brows sweaty and his hands a little filthy from the dirty work. Strands of hay hang off his shirt, and he smells of perspiration and horse stables and hard work. His head is shaved to a close buzzcut, and though there are dark bags hanging a little haggard under his eyes, he looks, for once, content. Being around these animals and working the land is therapeutic in ways Jesse can't quite explain.

Stepping out of the stable with the rake clutched in his hand, he swings the heavy metal door shut with a low metallic  creak in its hinges. Stamping his feet and then venturing out into the afternoon sun, he pipes up way louder (and way off-key) to himself, singing like there's no one listening, because he thinks no one is listening: ]

♬... The windy wind is blowing and the bed springs creek their tune, My cup is overflowing, shooting putty at the moon....! ♬

[ A cow nearby lows in agreement while sleepily chewing on grass by the fence. Jesse looks over at her and, acting a bit stupid and carefree, he replies to her: ]

A guitar solo? Nahhhh. That was more Badger's thing, yo.

[ The cow lows at him again.

Jesse shrugs in concession and lifts the rake so he's holding it like a guitar, and he belts out the chorus of Fallacies, accompanied with a theatrical air guitar solo using the rake, making stupid, whiny electric guitar shredding noises along with it like an immature moron.

His stupidity is probably echoing down the valley and into the forest. ]

[nightmarist]

( Continued from here. )

[She hardly needs to curtsy to him. He's not a king in this world. Whereas she, apparently, is a queen. Ronan blinks once at the name Anne Boleyn but otherwise does a decent job of hiding his surprise. She still has her head. He won't spoil the ending for her.]

Ronan Lynch.

[And she's one of the only strangers he's encountered here who haven't come looking for him specifically by name. Since he isn't the bowing type, he continues looming over her like the giant-sized hooligan that he is.]

Hardly a gentleman. Is it "Lady Anne" or "Your Majesty"?

[brochtuarach]

[ Jamie, being one of the few people at St Monmouth who actually does farm work, is certainly not dressed for the occasion of meeting someone like Anne Boleyn. So it's probably a good thing he doesn't know who she is - yet. As it is, he's astride a beautiful bay courser, his breeks stained with dirt, linen shirt clinging to his broad chest, no coat or stock in sight. His red hair is pulled back from his face, but a few tendrils have escaped, gray at the roots, and fall into his eyes as he leans down to murmur something in Gaelic to the animal.

When he spots a young woman apparently attempting to climb a tree, he brings the horse to a stop, curious. ]

Pardon my sayin' so, lass, [ -he says in that thick Scottish brogue that's sent more than a few ladies swooning- ] but you're like to ruin that fine dress if ye continue that adventure.

Blue Sargent

[amplifyings]

( i. inside )

[ It's not that Blue doesn't appreciate the wardrobe that Ronan's dreamt up for her (she was actually quite pleased with the hologram version of it that had appeared on the first day of April. She's even still wearing one of the monstrosities Ronan had left for her.), it's just that she Literally Can't keep from altering it in some way. Ripping up pieces and sewing them on to others, combining styles and cuts that didn't match, prints and colors clashing, but somehow Blue made it work in her day-to-day fashion.

Lately, Blue's also picked up the habit of acquiring pieces of clothing that went lying around St. Monmouth too long -- so if you happen to find any of your own things shredded to pieces, she apologizes. (But, she'll tell you that it's no one fault but your own.)

Today, she's got what looks to be enough clothes for two full wardrobes -- and in all different states of cut to pieces, sewn together, and ripped apart -- spread across the table, along with a rather elaborate sewing kit and is creating a third, entirely different wardrobe from them.

(Yes, she knows that this would have been a thousand times easier with a sewing machine, but there's something Blue finds oddly calming about the direct repetition that comes with doing the act by hand.) ]

( ii. outside )

[ Blue enjoys wandering around the grounds of St. Monmouth for more than just to clear her mind, there's still so much of it that's left undiscovered by her and while Ronan isn't dreaming up new things at the same rate as he'd once been, she still feels like she'll never have explored it all. -- and, in truth, Blue finds an odd sort of comfort in that.

It's the soft sound of rushing water that leads Blue deeper into the woods that she's been before, ducking underneath low hanging tree branches and navigating her way through patches of dense foliage -- which managed to be a mixture of completely organic and absolutely fantastical all at the same time. -- until she comes across the source of the sound. A collection of small waterfalls that dumped into shallow pools of clear blue water.

Carefully placed steps eventually lead her down to the very edge of one of the pools where she takes a seat, dropping her legs into the water and kicking them idly, watching the fish darting between her swinging legs where they could -- and sometimes getting momentarily halted by the fabric of her dress. ]

( iii. inside )

[ Blue feels as though she's been perusing through every last book on every last shelf since she'd woken up that morning, only pausing enough to retrieve a bottle of juice, or a cup of yogurt from the kitchen -- and since this morning she had gone through 3 bottles of juice and 4 cups of yogurt, which are left on top of the desk with the fruit still remaining untouched at the very bottom.

Despite the fact that she never eats it, she still insists that it's there. It's silly, but it reminds her of home.

Currently, she's got neither a bottle of juice, nor a cup of yogurt in her hands, but instead an entire armful of books. Poorly stacked, blocking half of her vision and with one sharp corner stabbing her right in the center of her chest. Probably the third pile that she's carried down the staircase to an ever-growing pile in the center of the room. ]

( iv. wildcard )

[ anything you want, anywhere you want! let's do the damn thang! ]

i. inside

[son_of_a_dreamer]

[Despite having his own separate house on the St. Monmouth property, Declan does spend a good amount of time at the main house. He's not fond of solitude and with Matthew running around everywhere, Declan would rather be here. There are certain places he avoids, but the boxing gym is a place he's often drawn to and he probably has left an item of clothing there from time to time.

He's looking for Matthew when he passes through the room Blue is sitting in and he stops when he sees all the clothing piled up on the table, wondering just what in the hell she's doing]

Hey. [On closer inspection, he's pretty sure he recognizes some of it] Is that my tie?

Wildcard

[unaffluent]

[ It's far too early when Adam wakes up and wanders into the kitchen. He's scratching his forehead and then he notices the smell of something burning.

And then he sees Blue. ]

What... are you doing?

[ Is Blue cooking? Why is she cooking? maybe she should just stick to yogurt. ]

Wildcard!

[disentombs]

[It's been an odd day.

He went to Ronan's room earlier to stop him from being able to make the ultimate sacrifice. He went in, bracing himself, knowing it would likely take a while to get into Ronan's good graces again.

He'd gotten roughed up a bit, sure he bruised bony prominences of his shoulder blades, and has a sore spot on the back of his head.

But he'd kissed his best friend at the end of it all.

Gansey has been running the events through his mind in a loop over and over since it happened earlier and simultaneously, he wonders how they ended up like that and yet feeling as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

The consequences were likely a bit messier than when they were in their little bubble together.

He takes a silent deep breath as he knocks on Blue's bedroom door.]

Ronan

[disentombs]

[After this brief conversation with Adam, Gansey knows he has no other choice. He can't focus on helping Ronan when he's so terrified of losing his best friend at a moment's notice to something as selfish and foolhardy as sacrificing himself (his own situation notwithstanding--that one was on the table for a while, no matter what Ronan or Adam says. It was inevitable).

Gansey steels himself. He knows what he has to do. He knows he's going to be on Ronan's shitlist. He doesn't care. As long as Ronan doesn't do something as stupid as kill himself for others.

His heartbeat is pounding in his ears when he knocks on Ronan's door.]

[nightmarist]

[Ronan's sprawled out on his bed. Not asleep, because he's too wound up for that, but doing his best to attempt relaxation. His hand still aches from beating on Declan and his back's all knotted with tension. His headphones hang around his neck, blasting dubstep at too high a volume, but it's easy enough for Ronan to hear the knock over the noise of them. He calls out dully:]

It's open.

Closed to Jesse and Declan

[dreamkid]

[ the morning after this thread! ]


[ There's no need for an alarm in this place. Matthew wakes up the same way he has every morning, an easy, slow tumble from nothing to wakefulness brought on by the soft creep of light through his window. He blinks his eyes open slowly, stretches, and rolls away from the wall and out of bed, untangling himself from the blankets as he goes.

After a quick trip to the bathroom he makes his way towards the kitchen, through the living room, combing his fingers through wild bedhead curls. And then he stops, hand still stuck in his hair.

Huh. Well, that's weird. Jesse is in Declan's house, asleep in his chair, his head rolled onto one shoulder in a way that does not look like it's going to feel good when he wakes up. Matthew stares at him for a good fifteen seconds, head tilted, pondering the situation. Declan told him to be careful around Jesse, yes. But Declan must've let him in, because Matthew doesn't remember doing it, so... okay. With an unnecessary one-shouldered shrug, he continues on to the kitchen, thoroughly unbothered, maybe even a little pleased.

Once there he tugs open the door to the fridge, and gently pulls out the small basket of brown eggs he collected and set aside yesterday for just this purpose. Placing the basket on the counter, he next goes to grab a frying pan, and-- wait, where are the frying pans? He spends a minute rooting around in the kitchen, checking various pantry doors, until he finds himself a suitable pan and then, pan in hand, impulsively decides to pop his head back in the living room to check on Jesse. Maybe he's making too much noise? ]

[heisenbitch]

[ The sound of cupboards being rummaged around in, pots and pans clanging together and being moved about, definitely stirs Jesse out of sleep. Jesse's eyes droopily open, then snap open wide in confusion at his surroundings for a a split second. Shit. He fell asleep in Declan's house. He didn't mean to fall asleep, but he did. Surely for only a little while, though, right? Surely... ]

Ah... Jesus...

[ Groaned under his breath as he delicately sits up, neck aching like absolute hell from sleeping with it on an angle. He lifts a hand up to his neck and winces as he grips the back of it with a rub and gently tries to stretch it the other way. And that's when his bleary eyes land on a familiar face peering at him from the kitchen doorway.

Uhh. Well. This is kinda awkward. ]

Oh. Hey, Matthew. 'Sup, yo? ...Man, what time is it?

[ Trying to sound casual, while he stretches his neck with a suppressed grimace of discomfort. ]

closed to ronan; declan; matthew

[heisenbitch]

☲ closed to Ronan | rooftop courtyard

[ Stretching out his hand, Jesse's cigarette trembles a little between his shaky fingers as he taps ash off the end. Seated near the edge of the roof, his knees are drawn up to his chest, his other arm propped on top of them. He's been up here a long while; the last dregs of daylight was still sprawling across Monmouth when Jesse had let himself out onto the rooftop courtyard. Darkness, save for the canopy of stars in the sky, blankets everything now. Despite all the secluded places he could go to escape his room that's full of reminders of Ellie, all the places he could escape to in attempt to push this Anne woman out of his mind, something about being up here on the roof feels most secluded of all.

He takes another drag of his cigarette. There's no real escapism in the nicotine he's been chain-smoking - no blissed out rush, no blurred and numbed out thoughts, no euphoria. What he'd do for a bowl right now. Just a little taste to take the edge off, to dull the parts of his mind that are racing over and over.

He exhales smoke into the air and plucks up his nearly empty bottle of beer for a swig, and turns his head when he hears something or someone over by the stairs that lead up onto the rooftop. Seeing a familiar tall and looming figure in the shadows, Jesse's shoulders sag a little in relief at realising it's Ronan, and he turns his head away to finally take a swig of beer. Quietly, as he sets the bottle down beside him: ]

Hey, man.

☲ closed to Declan | gardens outside Monmouth

[ Daylight blares down on Jesse while he sits on the steps of the patio that lead down into the gardens surrounding the Monmouth building. He's barely slept, really; his room feels so… empty without Ellie around. With her skateboard in the corner, her messy stack of comic books that he bought her by the bed, video games that he'd been playing with her left untouched by the console, the unfinished paint job in his room, getting rid of old graffiti, her clothes strewn in a pile on the floor and hanging in his closet.

He knows enough about the kind of world Ellie comes from to know she's returned to a terrible place. A wretched, despairing place, with no hope and no future and psychotic cannibals, and god only knows what else. The thought that that amazing, damaged little girl has wound up back in that kind of world…

And then, there's this whole situation with that Medieval woman, Anne. That photograph she had shown him, with the little boy, and how the three of them had looked like a family.

Cigarette dangling between his fingers, Jesse drops his head forward and tiredly closes his eyes, stretching his neck to the left and to the right, trying to work out the aching tension knotted up in his back and his shoulders. He's a wreck, really. A strung out wreck. All the worrying he's been doing about Ronan on top of all this, and how much he misses home, how much he misses Mr. White, how guilty he still feels about leaving Mr. White behind back in Albuquerque…

He opens his eyes and lifts his head when he realises footsteps are approaching him across the grass. Declan approaching from his little place across the garden. ]

☲ closed to Matthew | text » Jesse's room

Yo Matty
You around?

[son_of_a_dreamer]

[It's been a week or so since Declan has seen Jesse and it's all been entirely on purpose. He's not one for avoiding most people, but when he wants to, he's pretty much a pro at it.

So he's managed to avoid Jesse after his whole drunken situation, even though he's spent a good amount of time at St. Monmouth. Not today, though.

Today he walks from his house, over toward the garden. It's been a place of comfort for him- a place that reminds him of his mother. He knows that's why the garden is there, because Ronan felt the same way. Declan hasn't ever really needed a place of familiarity or comfort, but lately he's definitely been feeling the need.

He's thinking about home while he's crossing over to the garden, not noticing Jesse until he gets up close. When Declan does notice him, he stops and slowly starts backing away, does a quick about face, ready to dart the hell out of there. That's when the look on Jesse's face really registers and he stops once again. It's a hell of a lot more than sadness. It's the kind of desperate ache that he know she was feeling before, and Jesse stuck around.

He lets out a long sigh, then turns around and heads back over, walking with more confidence as he approaches]

Do you have another one of those?

[He asks, nodding his head toward Jesse's cigarette]