asher

    after a long few hours spent listening to her mother yap about her new concern, Casey was more than ready to escape her presence. it was a common occurrence – will herself to sit through the minutes that dragged on like days, order a coffee or two while she’s at it, ESCAPE – and one she was happy to have seen ended for the week. the town’s latest events had been keeping her parents preoccupied. first to see Matthew vanish into thin air and now, to join in on the buzz of Hawkin’s mother’s club about whatever news plagued them. luckily for her, to tune out of the talk was a far easier feat than one might expect.

    the cool air that greeted her at the door was welcoming. one hand clutching a paper bag and another around a coffee cup, she’d become preoccupied with taking a sip to realise that another’s path had been stepped into. the cardboard cup almost slipped from her hand. hasty steps taken back, her head shook in apology. 

    “ SORRY, wasn’t watching where i was going. ” she gestured to a small splatter of coffee on the pavement. “ lucky it only landed there. ”

      the news hit the station hard, as to be expected given the circumstances. an officer was murdered, not just any officer, spencer. he had leads that no one wanted to listen to, most of the station had laughed them off, figuring it to just be a superstition but now everything had changed. asher was reeling through a variety of emotions; guilt, grief, regret, all were there. if he was able to just go back in time a month, even a week, taken spencer more seriously, maybe he wouldn’t have ventured into the night alone, MAYBE he would still be alive. but the news, while weighing heavily on the man, had also managed to motivate him in doing MORE. 

    checking out every last lead, tracing every last inch of the forest, he wouldn’t allow himself a moment’s rest until the mystery of HAWKIN’S was solved. But that meant, he needed to up his caffeine intake, more so than usual and the watered down jugs at the station weren’t going to cut it. so, stepping out of his car, he shivered at the sudden icy wind that struck his face, shaking off the feeling. “ since when did hakwins become the north pole? ” he cursed to himself, paying little attention as he adjusted his jacket and started on the path toward the coffee shop resulting in crashing straight into a woman. 

∞ - “How can I trust you?”

Priya’s eyes were cast downward until he spoke about there being more leads. Her eyes snapped up to Asher as he spoke about where they were going to look. “What kind of leads?” She asked. But it wasn’t until he spoke about the lab that she really get interested, to the point of being obvious. “The lab?” She asked, her eyes widening slightly. “You think the lab had something to do with this? What coincidence?” Had they discovered something about the lab that Priya didn’t know? What if they got closer to figuring out what happened to her and who she was? 

" Not a ton of promising ones." Asher assured her, not wanting to risk getting her hopes up too high, in case the trails only led to more disappointment or WORSE. “Yes, we’ve noticed it’s been quite active as of late, something it hasn’t been in years, at least not aside from the occasional lights for maintenance or protocol, I’m assuming. This, now is giving me a bad vibe. I don’t know much about the place, but when the storm does pass, I’m going to find a way inside and see what they know.” At this point, Asher was not only desperate but convinced they knew something and simply making a phone call wouldn’t cut it, he wanted to have a conversation, face to face. “ Do you know anything?” He asked once he caught onto her facial expressions. 

Priya didn’t like that the man called her out on not being okay. Yes, it was obvious that none of the Helms would be okay but out of them all, Priya would hide it the best. She always hid her emotions in fear of letting them out and not knowing what might happen. Her eyes fell a little lower when he mentioned that she looked like she was about to have a breakdown. She was trying her hardest to hold back her tears and as she looked up at the officer, her eyes were on the brink of tears, with a blink a tear would fall down her cheek. “I want to believe you.” Priya admitted. “It just doesn’t make sense.” She said to him. “None of it does.” She glanced down. “I mean, do you have any working theories that even remotely make sense?”

Maybe Asher had been too forward in his approach, but with everything, and now the storm thrown into the midst, it was impossible not to be harsh and upfront at times he didn’t mean to. He wanted to show empathy and reach out to the family in a kinder way, but to him, that wasn’t the job. “ Words are little to go off, I get it. There’s been a couple new leads, we’re hoping to check the outskirts of town once the storm passes,” or at least, Asher was, most of the others on the force had started to sway away and work on other cases. “Even get her foot on the inside of the lab, but we’re hoping that’s just a creepy coincidence.” He shrugged, “Not any good ones.” 

“Who the hell turned off the lights?”

maybe going home was the better option, yet driving in such a weather was not the best idea either. but he was a good driver, and especially careful as he barely could see the road in front of him, snow falling in amount he had never seen before. however what he did see, as he drove through town, was someone walking under the awful weather, definitely not dressed for the occasion. timothy had to do something about it, and so he pulled over, sliding down the window to call out “ hey! do you need a ride home or somewhere?” 

Priya heard about the search parties and partners just like everyone else. She couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful that with that many people out looking for Matthew they might find him. But the impending feeling of doubt and fear of finding Matthew dead or almost to that point completely took over her. Priya had been looking for the entire week and nothing. Absolutely nothing. Priya tried to steady herself and contain her emotions like she always did but they were starting to get the best of her. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath. Breathe. She thought to herself. Priya felt her bottom lip quiver as she held back a sob. She sniffled and looked down as a tear fought to come out. “I’m fine.” She said quickly as she sniffled when she heard someone approaching.

Few clues, and lesser leads, left the station clueless, working day in and day out on the case, endless stake outs, everything they possibly could. It was frustrating, especially in a town like this. There was bound to be SOMETHING, but still they were struggling to even find the smallest of hints. Had they missed something? It was IMPOSSIBLE that a kid at the age would manage to runaway without leaving a trail or showing up in a nearby town, unless he found himself eaten by a coyote, but there were no dead bodies, so that was out of the possibilities. But still, Asher had yet to give up hope, something in his gut convincing him not to. So, as he paced back and forth, watching the parties go out and search for the missing boy or ANYTHING at this point, he caught sight of one of the sisters and decided against better judgement to check in. “I don’t think anyone would buy you being fine, even if you didn’t look like you were about to have a breakdown...or even expect it. It’s okay to not be fine, but he’ll show up, he will. I know it doesn’t help much, but we’re doing everything we can, working around the clock, we’ll find him.” This, he was certain of but in what state, he couldn’t be sure but that wasn’t something to worry Priya with now. 

    “—listen.” billie began after bringing her bottle down from her lips. “i’ve had a hard enough day as it is. and i’m definitely not one to be entertained by your incoherence. so you definitely do not want to mess with me today.”

“Do you even have a jitter territory?” Catherine knew she didn’t. Her caffeine tolerance was sky-high due to all the double she worked with only coffee to get her through. Now she was used to a lack of sleep. “Guess we can’t expect somebody to walk through the crowd with a sign saying I did it, now can we?”

"Oh, definitely but not with coffee but the few times I've given energy drinks a go, I discovered what the jitters really was all about. Not a great time for me.” He admitted with a chuckle, “So, from then on, I religiously stick to coffee.” And with a nod, he couldn’t help but crack a smile in amusement. “Now if the job was that easy, there would be absolutely  no fun to it, not that a missing kid is fun but it is certainly exciting, to say the least.” 

“Yeah, I guess. It all depends on how you look at it.” Madeline wasn’t sure how to react to the investigator even being there, on duty no less, but the fact that he was there meant something more than met the eye was going on. “Make certain it remains that way?” She repeated his words, not forgoing the professional air that surrounded the tone that he exhausted. “Well, Hawkins has always been a pretty safe town, so I’d chalk that up to you and the rest of the police department.”

With a single nod in agreement, Asher’s attention averted away from the crowd and eyes flickered over to the younger girl as she spoke. “True.” He finally voiced, breaking the silence. “There’s a kid missing,” he spat out bluntly, his tone harsher than he’d intended but he had dealt with a few too many questions that evening. “With no leads, that always calls for high security, even if it’s just a case of him running away for a couple of days, we have to keep on alert and at the ready.” He was used to cases like this, even more so, in busier towns. “Unfortunately even the safest towns can have times like this, so again, we’re hoping it’s nothing more.” But Asher always tended to assume the worst, and his mind was already running with theories of what might’ve happened. 

The Upside Down: Does your muse believe in things such as aliens, alternate dimensions, etc.? If so, please elaborate.

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Hideaway: What's your muses drink of choice?

“Good, so it’s not the caffeine jitters,” she teased. Catherine turned, gaze scanning the crowd for a moment before looking back in his direction. “You seen anything?”

"Not yet, at least. This is only my third cup of the day, not even close to reaching jitter territory." he chuckled. "Nothing interesting, if I'm honest." Asher grimaced, he hated how dull the crowd was, how almost everything so far was predictable. 

if anyone in town deserved to know what had happened, it was bea, she thought. she’d lived here her entire life, and knew just about everyone. she just wanted to tell frankie the truth, and have it not hurt the poor kid, to ease his mind for the first time since the batshit news had broken. her father had made a particularly distasteful joke upon walking into the house last night, and she could hear her brother crying until damn near sunrise. clamping her teeth down onto her bottom lip and running a hand through deep brown hair, bea looked at asher, her eyes pleading. as much as she hated to admit it, she knew there was nothing he could really do or say at this point. it was a mystery. “can i grab you a coffee or something? you look like you’ve been up for the past three days,” she half-laughed, “we can even put some vodka in it.” she teased. alcohol was always the solution for bea and her family, and the hint of seriousness in her joke was apparent, but she nudged him playfully in the hope of him either accepting or ignoring her offer. 

having just finished up a case in the city, asher had rolled into town late in the afternoon the day prior, so he’d expected a days rest before diving back into action or just a simple patrolling of the streets. but the constant questions, the look of desperation in the eyes of the civilians took its toll on the officer. as much as he wish he had all the answers, this was one of the times, not even a joke would work in easing minds. “what kind of po po would i be if i turned down the offer of a fresh cup of coffee?” he forced a small chuckle, grimacing as he caught a glimpse of the coffee that he’d had for the past hour or so in his own cup, it had lost its taste a good thirty minutes ago. “though i may have to pass on the vodka, unfortunately, but if you find me once i’m off duty, i’ll definitely have a VERY different response to that suggestion.” a small smile managed to slip onto his features, seeing no reason to continue standing around in a single position when it was making no progress. 

Zach originally hadn’t planned on patrolling through the fair, but after thinking things over and hearing statements from people who knew Matthew, the event seemed like a place that the boy would quite probably show up at if he had just runaway, so it was worth a shot. Spotting Asher up ahead he leaned in with a grin, knowing he had been to distracted to hear him coming. “Find anything interesting Ash?”

Nearly missing his cup as the other officer approached him unexpectedly, Asher let out a loud series of curses. “For fucks’ sake, have you lost your mind, Zach?” he retorted, an obvious toying in his voice. He was frankly happy to see another officer, especially one he knew he’d be able to crack a couple jokes around without adding to the tension. “Almost, then you showed up, so now I’m back to being bored as fuck.” He cracked, stifling a small laugh as he finished off the last of his coffee. “What about you?” 

It was a shocking news that came in that morning, enough to worry Andrei. Although she wanted to hear nothing about him anymore, he just had to make the call, he had to make sure Mia was okay. Thankfully she was, but ever since then, the idea that anything could happen to her now was frightening. And while he usually never went to those sort events, he had to go, if only to make sure not such a disappearance happen again, although he was not on duty anymore. He’d barely just reached the place when he spotted Asher. Even though they weren’t the closest coworkers, his feet just lead him over. “So what do you think of that disappearance?”

In the position Asher was in, most high end cases he worked required him to go out of town, most of which he wasn't allowed to talk openly about. So, it was a bit odd to suddenly have a case thrown at him that was the talk of the town, even if it wasn’t necessarily surprising. It was a small town, little happened,it was to be expected. Halting his browse, eyes settled on Andrei with a small nod as he approached, only to shrug nonchalantly at the question. " I don’t know what to think, usually cases with young teens are because they get bored, but the family is very certain that’s not the case here, yet it’s impossible to know what goes on inside his head when they’re not around...so, really my guess is as good as yours. I’m just hoping they’re wrong in this case.” He stated sternly, words genuine. It would be much better for everyone if it was just a tale of a kid needing a break from a small town, but for Asher, he was secretly hoping there’d be more.