stuck at a costume party

elliot fletcher & he/him/trans male ‷ watch out , emmett moore has crash-landed into roswell !! they look twenty-eight years old and celebrate their birthday on march eighth . they are from roswell, nm, reside in tripp's trailer park and are currently working as an lgbtq+ youth outreach coordinator & part time clerk @ asteroid belt rink + pin alley. one thing you should know about them is that he spent a year in juvie at fourteen after breaking into the ufo emporium and getting charged with vandalism.

 GAEL  ALREADY  WASN’T  A  HUGE  FAN  of  kids,  let  alone  energized  ones  that  seemed  to  be  going  completely  insane  from  all  the  sugar  their  irresponsible  parents  allowed  them  to  eat  that  evening  alone.  but  he  also  couldn’t  exactly  complain  much  when  it  had  been  his  own  choice  to  be  there  that  night.  “maybe  it  is  time  for  a  new  lore–you  roswell  people  don’t  get  tired  of  milkin’  the  fuck  outta  that  alien  bullshit?”  he  shakes  his  head,  taking  a  large  bite  from  his  treat.  “booze  probably  ain’t  the  best  idea  for  someone’s  who’s  already  got  murder  on  his  mind  from  bein’  bumped  into  all  night,  don’t  ya  think?”  gael  cocks  his  head  to  the  side  before  he  chuckles  lightly.  “nah,  just  messin’  with  ya.  don’t  like  kids,  man.  they  get  on  my  nerves.”

❝ people will never be sick of it . it’s too easy of a gimmick . ❞ and that it was . likely drawing extra tourists to events like these , that were sure only meant for locals . man , there seemed to be hundreds of people here . if emmett had more than mere pennies to his name , he would have joined the other in a bite of camaraderie , but instead sleeves of his costume-less button up are adjusted . ❝ i thought being intoxicated was a good excuse for illegal things ?? don’t you get lesser time or something ?? ❞ something he should know , he thinks . not that he’s intentionally thinking of partaking in any crime tonight . maybe hoping to sneak into a few things for free but that didn’t count , did it ?? ❝ if you decide to go on a child killing rampage , we never had this conversation . ❞ a wink shot in gael’s direction .

Pressing her lips together, Flora gave a thoughtful hum. “I’m not sure, actually,” she admitted after a moment of pondering. Now that she thought about it, she did catch herself at cafés a lot more usually anyways but that didn’t make her enjoy the place any less. Her eyes remained on him when she noticed the squint, her lips curling up in amusement before she gave a nod. “Green…,”she repeated and switched it back, tilting her head as if to double check before she laughed. “Ew! You’re right – I like it anyways, I think it goes with a lot but especially green and orange? That’s dangerous clown territory now that you mention it,” she agreed before letting out a breath, nodding at the coupon. “Do you need help with that?”

there wasn’t much room for hating on the colour orange . not from someone who owned a particularly bright orange beanie . one that , from far away you could mix up with the sight of a traffic cone . but still , emmett’s stance remains the same . totally clown colours . visions of lime greens and neon oranges swirling into scary , clown nightmare fuel . especially this time of year . ❝ they’d make a sweet costume together , though . top tier clown . better than anything you could find at callisto . ❞ gaze flickers back down to the half-crumpled coupon in his palm , missing a chunk from the corner . ❝ yeah , if you could tell me if there are any exclusions on this . not sayin’ im blind , but they made the font only legible to ants . ❞ 

striker couldn’t have been blamed for not immediately recognising emmett — for one , multiple head hits and concussions meant that his memory wasn’t all that great anymore , and the last time he had seen the moore family together was nearly a decade before . the younger male , now , was yet another face that he avoided in his morning dashes back to the cannon trailer , wearing nothing but oversized white briefs after spending the night sleeping beneath a sheet of tarpaulin in the bed of his pickup truck . “ i ain’t got buried nowhere this time , and i got connections at the pony that mean they don’t sling me out on the street anymore . t’was a one-sided fight between and a barbed wire fence back at the ranch . no prizes for guessin’ who came out on top , “ ribbons clung to his shoulders as they traversed the rails , striker’s legs bent at the knees in an attempt to cower his 6′1″ body behind the garments so the owner wouldn’t scream at his barely-clothed form . taking the shirt from emmett ( without complaint , for many of his shirts were women’s fit and barely hemmed the top of his belly button ) he backed against a wall , shielding his bare back from the gaze of the moore , “ that makes two of us , “ 

beady eyes do their best not to look sketchy post - shirt exchange with striker . neither of them could afford to pay the primo couple of dollar price tag attached to the garment . the cashier , luckily , seems to be in an oblivious state . rocking a pair of a few decade old foam headphones that looked to be attached to portable cassette player of sorts . wherever they’d been transported in time , they weren’t looking in males’ direction and that’s all that mattered . ❝ a fence did all that ?? ❞ theres a sort of skeptical look to his gaze . sure by now , at his ripe age , he could maneuver his way around a fence . ❝ you know those things are barbed right ?? ‘s in the name . best not to pick fights with ‘ em . ❞ there’s a glance back over shoulder , giving striker as much privacy as a grown man changing in the middle of a thrift store aisle could get , and to check that the cashier was still preoccupied . the last thing they needed was to be thrown out for petty theft .  ❝ you could probably come up with a cooler story . and if you didn’t change i bet we could spook some of the asshole landry kids at the park . unless you need medical attention . that’s pretty gnarly , dude . ❞

Massoud narrowed their eyes again, not liking the way the other called them boss, not liking Emmett’s attitude in general. But if they fired him… well, that seemed way less fun than actually keeping him around and finding new and interesting ways to make his day awful. If anyone asked, it was because Emmett in general was a shit employee. He knew the effect drugs had, and he knew having those types of people on the work floor… “Depends on how much attention you’re paying,” they said with some annoyance. “Now, what do we do about the other thing,” they said, taking a very obvious wiff.

emmett never particularly excelled at anything . easily lost in the shuffle of his siblings . plagued by extreme middle child syndrome . only ever striving for mediocrity now , but at least he’s consistent . it carries across to his part time gig no doubt , sure tash is coming to pick up on that . they’d have to be blind not to notice . but with the big wig’s breath down his back , hands are a little clammier than usual . pricy prescriptions and the need to feed his beloved pooch were reasons enough that emmett needed this job . not to mention , he couldn’t be the one to run home , begging sparrow for a place to stay in their family trailer all because he lost his job over a puff off a joint . ❝ the other thing , ❞ emmett repeats , still ‘ playing ‘ dumb , ignoring the obvious as fingers fumbled to re-tie the plastic bag . ❝ oh , the racoons ?? or the rats ?? maybe they are giant cats getting in the bins , but i was thinking fornax might sell locks big enough to latch on to the dumpsters . ❞ perhaps maybe , just maybe , his ramblings and ‘ genius ‘ ideas for unwanted critters getting in to trash would be enough to throw him off .

“No, yeah – ‘course,” Kaya returns, slim shoulders jumping in acknowledgement. “Manifesting some good ass-sucking in your romantic future, bestie.”

She makes a show of it: Palms pressing together, rising up to beg high heaven while a solemn expression softens her features. Not that she’s totally certain of Emmett’s actual ass-sucking proclivity, but all is fair in joke’n’jest, or something like that.

“That’s what all the cry-babies say.” Kaya’s elbows sit on the backrest of her seat as she slouches, smug smirk in place, “the stars made me do it! Mercury’s making me cry, I swear!”

the ass-sucking manifestations are appreciated , even in the event that kaya’s sentiments are laced heavy in sarcasm . emmett supposes he could do with all the help he can get , no matter astrological preference , or whatever one was into when it came to ‘ sucking ‘ . for the record , he’ll remind kaya later , he’s not into that . emmett hates to admit , but he’s going to take the rest of her suggestions to heart when it comes to his dating profile . mental note made to research further into the depths of love and astrological signs . ❝ i’m not a crybaby !! ❞  the protest not helping his case  , exactly what someone who was a cry baby would say . ❝ i can’t even remember the last time i shed a tear , so maybe those sign things are faulty . how do you figure the month you were born determines if you’re gonna be moody , or a loner , or whatever , anyway ?? ❞ 

lance: this is why i like you, emmett

lance: you encourage playing hookey - that sounds way better than going to work anyway

lance: you wanna come over and smoke a bowl together?

emmett: i’m not always a genius but when i am, i’m pretty genius

emmett: you just gotta remember back this day when you’re stuck eating sketti-o’s because your check is lacking. it’ll totally be worth it

when it came to vices , moonshine and tennessee whiskey were further up his list than anything of the illicit kind . all that instability — the erratic behaviour , the endless speech , the obsession with bulls — was all self-made ; whether that was a benefit or not was yet to be determined . sarcasm was often lost on the man that experienced little to no socialisation growing up . their moral code was their own , discerned through lived experience , discussed between the three boys that shared the characteristics of an abusive father and an angelic mother . it was easier asking somebody else to venture into the store , for regardless of his empty pockets and his scantily-clad state , his reflection in one of the many mirrors would have been enough to topple him over an edge he was presently unaware of . “ thanks dude , i real appreciate it . ‘s been hard enough tryin’ to get to town without a — “ it was then that emmett’s tone sunk in . “ ah . you’re jus’ foolin’ around with me , ain’t you ?? “

the fleshy coloured hunks of silicone hang in his hand . only now was the recognition of that southern twang , heard echoing through the trailer park on more than one occasion , coming into light . ❝ totally messin’ with you , ❞ emmett lies , dropping the pasties back in the bin they’d been pilfered from . there was no way he was about to admit he’d mistaken striker for one of the junkies he’d shoe away from fucking one another behind the dumpsters at the end of shift at the lanes . ❝ what happened to you anyway ?? look like you kinda got buried alive . you get into a fight at the pony ?? ❞ the distraction is small talk , finally taking a good look at the older man and skirting his way between the aisles and reaching this time for an actual t-shirt , even if it is accidentally women’s fit . ❝ don’t let them see you change into that . i can’t pay for it . ❞

Lance: I need your best hangover cure asap

Lance: I'm supposed to be at work in an hour and my head is bangin' louder than the cars

emmett: i'm in favor of playing hookey