dark necessities

naomi shrugs, not really having an answer for julian.  “   i dunno. you know how secretive blair can be about her life. i’m assuming well since she hasn’t wrecked havoc on us in a while. truthfully, i think she’s over it. honestly, i don’t blame her. sometimes i’m like ‘ maybe we should pull the plug ’ but then daniel shows up with some intriguing shit and we’re roped back in. that’s the charm of it all, i guess.  ”

“  sac–– who?!  ”  naomi cocks her head to the side and gives julian a very confused look. that word was totally out of her vocabulary.  “  hey siri, define…  ”  she looks over at him, signaling him to repeat the word that she has no idea how to pronounce. once he does, she waits for the little robot lady on her phone to define the new word to her. once she does, naomi makes a content face before setting her phone down.  “  sacrilegious. funny word. thanks julian.  ”  she completely butchers the pronunciation but continues their previous conversation.  “   dan is too busy being dan. he doesn’t have time for little ‘ol me. blair, on the other hand…  ”  she still doesn’t know where she lies with that girl, but she does know that she’s still intimidated by her like she was in high school.

lana forces her eyes to shut, because if she didn’t then the conversation would be ruined by the sight of her rolling her eyes. edgar allen poe, god ––––– does he have to be so pretentious? she leans on the chair’s armrest and scratches the top of her head before finally meeting julian’s gaze again, nodding along with the timeline of events. “well, he can’t be that smart of a serial killer,” she feigns soft laughter, shrugging at her own statement. “right? i mean, he got caught but a couple of random college kids.” and yet, julian has a point. it never made sense to lana how he managed to fool so many people for so many years and then this group of self-proclaimed ghost hunters come along and blow his cover. a group dumb enough to fall for every lie lana sends their way. it just doesn’t seem realistic.

“  so funny story…  ”    if everyone in the group had a dime for every time naomi castillo started off her stories like that  ––– they’d  probably have enough to pay off her credit card and all the parking tickets she owes. regardless, the brunette continues the story,  not waiting for the other person to reply or indicate that they’re listening.  “  i’ve never had pumpkin flavored anything. like… ever.  don’t know why and didn’t question it until about four days ago. so i’m dong my regular target run when i see that starbucks brought the pumpkin spice latte out earlier this year and people were going crazy.  so, me being me, i decide that this has been talked about for so long and overhyped that i have to try it. i get in line and order, like any normal person would and wait for my order. it finally comes out and i’m super excited to try it ––– right? okay, so like this is where the story gets funny.  ”  she turns to face the person, leaning against the edge of her desk,  “  i take a sip and it’s not bad, so i keep drinking… then my throat starts to feel icky and i begin to get all itchy. i chop this up to me never having this before and my body kinda just…. not vibing with it…. but then these symptoms get worse and then all of the sudden BOOM i pass out and am rushed to the hospital. turns out i’m like, super allergic to pumpkin concentrate. isn’t that like, so funny?  ”

“doc?” lana shakes her head, eyebrows pull together. she was playing dumb–– she’s obviously heard of their documentary, it’s what put her father back in prison after all those years. but it’s just that; she’s only ever heard about it. she can’t bring herself to watch it. knowing her father was responsible for hurting a bunch of people is enough, she doesn’t need to see it. as julian begins, lana lowers her head and focuses on his every word. until finally he gets to the part she wants to hear. “yeah… you’d have to be a real idiot, huh?” she fakes a chuckle at her own joke, which technically wasn’t a joke. you would have to be a real idiot. “so… this serial killer, mayer willis. he attacked them, right? how the hell did they get away? sorry for the overload of questions, this is kind of confusing. i thought the mysterbusters busted ghosts not serial killers.”

she shrugs in response, not wanting to expand any further on her choice of words. and luckily she doesn’t have to, julian was already speaking up again before she had the chance. just like the feeling she has with julian, lana doesn’t think naomi is capable of hiding a juicy secret. she knows naomi better than she knows any of the other mysterybusters so far, and the only bad thing she believes naomi to do is cry about being called a bitch by the infamous blair maxwell. who lana hears is quite the shit stirrer herself. personally, she wont mind any drama within the group as long as she’s not involved. that’s not to say she’ll never cause any, she’ll need some sort of entertainment to keep from dying of boredom. there’s probably a better possibility of that than dying at the hands of a ghost, who they’re so desperate to find evidence of. lana’s eyebrows raise at julian’s comment about ashley, feigning surprise. she has yet to meet ashley but she’s well aware of her reputation, so of course she’ll know her when she sees her. when julian grabs a chair next to her, hands retract from the keyboard and she leans in the opposite direction, a bit of a disapproving expression etched on her face while she watches him take a seat. just the way he sits manages to irritates the hell out of lana, and yet she doesn’t protest his company. “yes,” she answers, the corner of her mouth curving into a smirk. it’s an answer, he can figure out to which question later because she’s ready to move on. talking about herself for too long is dangerous, even more so with a person who’s job title is literally researcher. “anyway, enough about me. i want to know about what i’m getting myself into. so, tell me… what’s the worst thing that’s happened to these guys?” lana hopes this is a way to get him talking about mayer without actually having to ask.

she pretends to be typing something on one of her keyboards, but really she’s listening intently as julian speaks of verena. lana has been mentally taking notes of all the members she’s met thus far, trying to find out their weaknesses and insecurities early on. just in case. god forbid one of them found out who her dad is and she needed some of her own form of blackmail. and unfortunately for julian, he was easy to read. “mmm,” she hums at the information given to her. however, that’s not at all what she’s interested in. his body language, that she sees from a reflection in one of the screens left blank, is what she’s more focused on. maybe he was unable to stand still because she wasn’t the best person to hold a conversation with. or maybe his awkward back and forth was because of the girl he agreed to join a ghost hunting group for, when he didn’t even believe in such a thing. at least, that’s the impression she got after watching a couple of youtube videos–––– julian thought the paranormal to be impossible, and it’s only further established when he asks a follow up question. lana isn’t entirely sure she believes in it either, but she knows nothing is impossible. “sure, i have a few of those. but in my experience, we won’t be seeing many orbs. probably just the standard behind your back gossip and accidental slip of secrets. so, i’d be careful if i were you, julian.” she’s not trying to scare him by any means, it’s a sincere warning. although, she does find it difficult to suspect him of hiding something worse than a serial killer father.

so, she was right. this is julian. hm, well, he’s not what she was expecting. lana sits up straighter in her chair, eyes falling to his feet and then back up to meet his again. “i guess you could call it babysitting,” she finishes off the comment with a small shrug. sure, the twins needed to be fed and put to sleep now and then, but they basically took care of themselves. it makes sense considering who their mother is. and suddenly, just the simple thought of noah and ava brings the slightest of smiles to her face. lana doesn’t mean for it to happen, she’s grown fond of the two kids. and she hated admitting this but naomi isn’t half bad either. even if she wasn’t in this to find out about her dad, she’d probably somehow gravitate towards them, as if the universe wanted them to meet for a reason or whatever fate nonsense her grandma loves to drone on and on about. it’s much too early to be dropping her guard around julian, therefore to hide any sign that she’s capable of positive emotions she quickly turns in her chair, facing the screens again. “and how did you end up with this dream job?” lana asks him, in a dry and sarcastic tone.

lana had been babysitting for naomi castillo for about two weeks now. and after a little, light manipulation, she was able to convince the older girl to score her a job with the mysterybusters. despite the whole thing being a very public web show, the agreement was her job would be completely behind the scenes. this way she’d be able to hide behind her computer and mind her business while digging deeper into her dad’s past. she arrived at the headquarters bright and early and daniel, being the enthusiastic person he is, happily led her to the work space she’d been assigned. after settling into her corner, she heard footsteps approaching from behind. spinning in her chair, lana took a good look at who it was. he didn’t look too familiar, which meant she didn’t recognize him from any of the mysterybuster clips she’d previously watched on youtube. however, she did her background checks on all the members, needing to know everything about them before stepping foot in this place. and she’s nothing if not thorough. this must be julian vega–––– the new addition to the research team. “lana,” is all she says to him. but truthfully, it’s much better than introducing herself with hi i’m mayer willis’ daughter, nice to meet you.    (  @julicnsv​  )

                                            backdated –––––– @julicnsv​

KIMBERLY WAS STARTING TO RECONSIDER HER STANCE ON TINDER. given how often she shot the idea down, one would think she’d found an alternative solution to her loneliness problem. not that it was a problem. aside from a hookup or two, she didn’t desire any more company than she was already getting. but god forbid one of the idiot girls she’d finessed into liking her actually believed that. so… here she was: kicking rocks as she walked out of a movie theater with julian vega. people milled around them, chatting in loud and nasally voices as they discussed the #patients film.

kimberly was quiet, tongue idly tracing the line of her bottom lip as she considered what to say. kimi would start talking about the cinematography and the bravery of the mysterybusters and her sympathies for their experiences. kimi would hang off of his arm and smile up at him with a light gleam in her eyes, showing off enough cleavage to ensure he took her home tonight and fulfilled the only thing she really wanted from this date.

but fuck if it wasn’t exhausting being kimi.

“––––––that movie was such bullshit.” her tone was blunt and almost dismissive, hands stuffed into her back pockets as they walked. she had virtually nothing to lose by being herself here, aside from maybe a bit of street cred. unassuming, saccharine kimi park, talking shit about the biggest movie of the year? no way. “the acting wasn’t good enough to sell the story. i don’t even think they tried.”

it had been a good few months since the last date julian had. if he was being honest with himself, there wasn’t much motivation coming from him to get out into the dating scene–julian was rather happy on his own. but when ashley cohen ( a girl normally too wrapped up in her own reflection to see anything outside herself ) slipped into his direct messages for the first time since high school, she sparked his interest. rather, the girl she spoke so highly about, kimberly park, sparked his interest. despite his general distaste in ashely and the majority of her friends, julian took a risk, and agreed.

he should’ve known better, though. for the first half of the night, their basic pizza dinner and walk to the theater, julian felt like he was talking to a wall. a pretty one, certainly prettier than any wall he’d met in the past month of going to u of w. but there was nothing different about the girl than that of ashley–pretty, with nothing inside. he was thankful when the lights in the theater went dark and he didn’t have to keep up with the dull conversation anymore.