sugar coated

--  was that isabella mendes i saw by the lighthouse today? i heard that the twenty-four year old who has been in nightrest for 6 years and works as a beautician at royal serene has a reputation of being blunt, but also spirited. they reside in lowpoint & people in town usually associate them with nail filing while scrolling aimlessly through her mobile, the sound of popping gum, sudden mischievous cheshire cat grins. let’s hope the killer doesn’t go after them next. [ g, 26, she / her, aest, none ] 

location : back lot of low point apartments 

 “ HEY , “ isabella calls out to the familiar slumping SKELETAL ( slender man ? ) looking figure . “ you’re an asshole , too . “ this isn’t said bitingly , in fact it’s almost said warmly - a greeting to an old acquaintance . isabella pats the spot next to her , on the curb . “ so it’s totally fine if like , i say to you , like . . . everyone crying over all these murders is REALLY bringing my vibe down . you know ? “ she sighs , as if personally affected by any of it ( she isn’t ) . “ tell me something fucked up that i can laugh over . “ isabella is sick of the silence and sad looks between people on the street . LIGHTEN UP , snort some cocaine ! she wants to yell out to all of them . for obvious reasons , she refrains . 

…

even hearing about him on the news, jieun couldn’t stop herself from checking her phone—constantly hoping that she’d see his name lighting up on the screen. that all of this was one big misunderstanding. that he wasn’t actually gone. that she hadn’t lost another person in her life. names piling up, chipping away at whatever strength she had left. hardly managing to wrap her head around theo being gone and now toby. it wasn’t fair. none of this was. 

hearing the knock at the door, the voice, jieun did the one thing she knew how to do. wipe the tears that had once been trailing down her face to stand up and look at herself in the mirror—fixing whatever hair was out of place. acting as if nothing was wrong despite the redness in her eyes. something she was more than willing to pass off as lack of sleep. 

opening up the door, the brunette forced a smile onto her face—happy to see isabella standing there.  “ you better have a lot. if you’re planning on getting me drunk, i want to be blacked out by the end of the night. ”

SHE LOOKS DIFFERENT . isabella sees it as soon as jieun opens the door . she’s been crying . she’s covered it well , but not well enough . not to someone like isabella who KNOWS JIEUN knows how influencers look on social media after crying their eyes out over a breakup with their mayo - boyfriend of the week . 

isabella holds out the bottle of tequila , wordlessly . if it was anyone else , she’d comment on how SHIT jieun looks , or make a snippy comment . but even isabella has her boundaries . rare , and far seeming , but there . 

 “ please , do you not know me at all ? “ she pushes her way into the apartment , taking the bottle of tequila back from jieun . isabella walks confidently to the kitchen , where she yanks open the cupboard she knows holds shot glasses . without a moments pause , she pours two shots for her and jieun . she offers it to the girl , before looking at her properly . to toby , she says silently . but she doesn’t . she never will . it’s too raw , it’s too emotional . it’s too - not - isabella . “ drink . “ she instructs instead , pouring the burning tequila down her own throat . it’s not TOP SHELF ( isabella is still finding anything less than that to be SHIT alcohol ) but it’s the best she could afford right now . she pours two more shots , pushing the second one to jieun again . she downs the second one again , as cleanly as possible - this time with a wince . there’s a long silence . isabella pours yet another round of shots , before meeting jieun square in the eye . no bitchiness , no crudity , nothing . just -  “ he’s dead . “ 

location : jieuns apartment at low point

ISABELLA purchased the strongest liquor she could find as soon as she heard about TOBIAS TUCKER ( isabella always thought that was such an unfortunate name , but nows not the time to fixate on that ) . 

isabella is completely disregarding her own feelings about this . she refuses to think about tobias , or the last time they spoke , or the last ANYTHING . she’s great at displacing emotions . emotions always make her uncomfortable . she gets second hand embarrassment from seeing people cry , or outwardly be sad ( keep that shit away from her ) .

BUT THIS  - for jieun . . . THIS is something isabella can do. 

she knocks .

“ put away the tissues . i have tequila . let me in bitch . “

At first Talon thought she hated the art and felt himself shrink, but then it was made clear why she was uncomfortable. Clearly this girl didn’t enjoy fun and magic, which is unfortunate. “It’s actually a tattoo design that my client requested. She’s one of those… fun loving disney adults,” he said, with a shrug. “Can you explain what’s creepy about Stitch and Cheshire cat? I could get it if it was like…. sexy version of the princesses or something gross like that, but I really don’t get what about this makes you so… bothered.” 

 “ like , aren’t they for children ? “ isabella points out the obvious - noting that she hasn’t sat down and watched disney for probably over a decade . anything that’s a ‘ franchise ‘ icks her. like marvel ? what the fuck are THEY doing ? she looks back at the art and tilts her head . “ your job must suck . whats the fuckiest tattoo you’ve had to design for some loser ? “

Talon took a seat in the coffee shop, with his iced matcha placed in front of him. He let his hand run over the blank paper in front of him while he collected his thoughts. He does a lot of commisioned pieces, but this is his first water color disney tattoo, so he was taking his time as he started to sketch. He didn’t know how long he was working before someone pulled out the chair across from him. 

“ ew “ isabella says , far too loudly , as she looks at the disney drawing . her face is scrunched up , her hands holding her oat milk latte ( 2 pumps of vanilla ) , and her phone ( it’s basically glued to her hand ) . “ are you one of those creepy disney adults ? “ she considers everything that’s happened in nightrest and silently makes a note to herself to let the local authorities know about this grown man and his . . . disney fetish .