that's how you know!

     for all the stomping all over his fragile heart aj does, she never feels prepared for when he actually reacts to it. so often he breezes through her critical and disproving words that she almost doesn’t notice the way his shoulders deflate and he seems to recoil like a kicked puppy. his expression is pitiful and she instantly feels injected with guilt just looking at him. she’s been too hash, she knows that. though she believes that she’s right, that almost none of these gadgets is likely to do anything if they’re being advertised to the everyday person and not specifically people who really know about the supernatural and ghosts, it doesn’t mean nothing is worth considering. she exhales and turns away for a moment, but she’s watching again as he pulls the voice recorder off the shelf. it’s not super expensive, that’s the first thing she notes as she glances at the price. at first she’s still unsure about it, but hearing his enthusiasm come back for a brief moment has her looking like she may consider it, not that she thinks kody’s noticed at all. 

     “kody…” she doesn’t like seeing him so defeated. he’s the cheeriest of the whole group, the one that keeps them positive and amused in the face of some really freaky crap. there’s no pride in crushing his spirit. “well, we came here to get ghost hunting stuff… so let’s get this. i really think we need to go back to the cemetery at night still, anyway and maybe it’ll help us get something concrete.” she tells him as she pulls the voice recorder off the shelf and holds it in her hand, hoping it’ll ease him a little. 

     thinking back to the crossbow, a cheeky smile forms on her lips. “i know something we can look at you’ll think is cool.” she takes a hold of his sleeve and leads him through the store, the voice recorder in her other hand. she’s planning to pay for half, because she thinks it’s ridiculous for him not to spend most of his money on himself and not scooby gang endeavours, as much as he loves what they do. as they get to the aisle full of hunting weapons, she stops him in front of the glass case, pointing up at them in all different types of colours and materials. “don’t tell me you don’t think it’d be kinda sick to have one… use wooden arrows, take down i don’t know, vampires or something? i’ve thought about them since dyl told us they existed, though i have no idea when we’ll see one.” she nudged him, imagining it in an almost childish way. “i’m guessing they’re not as easy to use as they look, but god, do i wanna try.” 

          never once has kody pretended to be hurt in front of aj to get his way, but it’s a little amusing how easily she’s giving in during one of the few times he actually appears upset. he’s never going to use that to his advantage now that he knows the magic little mood switch that brings aj over to his side -- it’s almost like compulsion, something he’s heard myths about other vampires using but never even considered trying to practice and perfect... because to him it’s wrong, and something he’d never want to use on his friends. kody perks up slightly when she insists that they take home the recorder, and he turns to her, nodding a little. “that’s a good idea.” kody says, slowly returning to his normal self as a pondering smile returns to his face. “we could leave it there overnight! the witches could find some kinda hot spot for spirit-like energy, and we can drop it there and come back to it in the morning to see if anything happens? probably better than us all camping overnight there -- that would be super creepy!” 

immediately intrigued, kody follows behind her closely as she leads them to what she claims he’ll think is cool. without having to see it, he already thinks it’s going to be awesome, considering aj is quite the influence on him. if she thinks something is cool, he’s definitely going to agree. however, when they approach the wall of hunting equipment, he does feel a little uneasy. there’s more than one item on the wall that could take him out in two seconds, which is something he hasn’t been thinking too hard about until right now. being immortal isn’t necessarily something he loves, but viewing a large range of weapons that could kill him on display in bridgemead is definitely a lot worse than thinking about the curse of immortality. she directs his attention to the bow and arrow set, which is a little less unnerving at first. 

At the sudden shout, Dylan whipped his head in Kody’s direction so fiercely that his neck cracked.  “Ow”, he laughed once he realized that Kody wasn’t in any immediate harm, hand moving up to massage the back of his neck as he moved his head from side to side.  Apparently you needed to move slowly after looking down at a desk for the better part of an hour.  “I’m down, what do you want to do?”  The continued and lingering feeling of not being able to make any connections even though he felt like they were right there in front of his face was frustrating.  A distraction was welcome, that was for sure.  “I won’t either, the last thing we want is AJ’s wrath”, he joked, knowing full well that they wouldn’t be told off for taking a break.  He hoped.  “I won’t let you go cookoo bananas, don’t worry man.”  Dylan’s eyes scanned around the room, looking for something ordinary that they could turn into a distraction.  “Wanna play garbage can basketball, or were you thinking of something more lit?”

     despite the consideration aj is making around the potential positives around buying a gun, she isn’t exactly lining up to do just that. it’s a big decision and right she has enchanted objects to keep her safe, plus the crucifix that currently sits underneath her button-up. it sits against her chest, in the space between her breasts and exists as a reassurance that she’s not entirely unprotected from this wicked world, despite how unfortunately human she is. 

     it’s these thoughts that are on her mind as she travels down one of the hunting section without thought, drawn by the sight of bows and arrows. a tiny part of her hopes for it, so she’s filled with something like excitement when she comes across their selection of crossbows, sitting up on a higher shelf that has to be unlocked because some of the prices push two thousand. as much as aj wants one, it’s definitely a commitment to purchase, considering the fact that she’d then have to train with it and probably constantly buy a supply of wooden arrows. her gaze remains wistful until she hears kody pipe up and then she’s weaving through to get to him, appearing beside him and grimacing at the sight of their paranormal hunting gadget selection. 

     now that she’s looking at the boobuddybear, she understands it even less. “i see that.” she replies calmly, studying it for a moment. it looks just like a stuffed bear, nothing more. she hasn’t exactly looked up the thing since he mentioned it, as strange as it sounded. mostly, she’s completely skeptical about all of it and doing this to be nice. “it looks ridiculous. you get that right? and i really doubt this bear is gonna get us anything of note. it’s a stuffed animal. we have witches! they do spells and things that we actually know will work. you know i don’t usually like skepticisim, but this is where i’ve gotta draw the line.” she states, though she can’t look away from the thing. something about the eyes have her completely drawn in. “if you wanna blow your money, go ahead, but i’m betting on it being a waste.”

        the cheery smile occupying his face as he shows off the boobuddybear he’s been hyping up for the past few days quickly vanishes as aj stomps all over the idea. kody doesn’t appear necessarily hurt by her comments, but his expression takes on a rather blank one as he listens to her disapproval. “well i’m not gonna get it if you’re gonna be all extra judgy about it.” he mumbles, eyes scanning the rest of the wall to see what else could possibly be useful. there’s several emf readers, which he assumes aj will also reject, considering the witches on their team. it almost seems as though any item on this wall could be replaced by one of scooby gang members powers. kody kind of considers that to be beneficial, but he doesn’t exactly know how to communicate that to aj without it being obvious that he himself harnesses powers that could benefit the team. he knows that if they were constantly using him for his supersonic hearing, or incredible speed during investigations he might feel a little uncomfortable or even overworked being a human microphone or mode of transportation. the other members must know that they aren’t just valuable for the powers they possess, but kody can’t help but want to make sure.

       “okay, what about this?” he says while pulling a voice recorder off the shelf and flipping it over to inspect the back of the packaging. “scottish ghostclub girl has one of these. it picks up all the super low frequency sounds that we can’t hear, so you set it up when you’re trying to communicate with ghosts and play it back later to see if they responded!” the moment he’s said this, he’s pretty sure aj is going to once again say that the witches on their team can do exactly what this voice recorder can, and he sighs, shaking his head. they’ve been here for five minutes, and already kody is regretting coming here. it’s not often that he’s worried about looking silly in front of aj -- in fact he usually never cares when she answers a question of his with a rather sarcastic and teasing tone, but right now... all of a sudden, his body visibly shrinks, looking rather defeated and a little embarrassed too. “nevermind.” he starts, putting it back up on the shelf. “maybe you’re right. all of this stuff is probably useless.” 

kendall can’t help the smirk that creeps onto her features when kody is detailing his future. growing up in bridgemead, it wasn’t rare for people to seek more than what their town has to offer them. she just wasn’t one of those people. not right now, at least. she never faulted herself for not having any big plans because she way she saw it - her family needed her. her father needed her, and audrey needed her to stick around, to never give up on finding her. “you know - and i know this may seem sacrilegious, i’ve never been to disney. either the world or the land,” she pauses, taking her eyes off the road momentarily to meet his gaze. “and before you say it, i know your love is solely for disney world. it’s just something we never got around to, i think.” she continues to drum her fingers against the steering wheel idly before turning onto kody’s street. “what kind of theme would your rollercoaster have? would it be like… based off of one of the og disney movies?” 

arabella was amused at the mere suggestion of using her powers to fix the ice cream machine “you do know that’s not how magic works, right?” her eyebrows arched a little “besides, i like to think i’m more a wicked witch” she teased with a devilish grin. the redhead held up a snort while kody asked the very important question: was the machine broken? unsurprisingly, the answer was yes. arabella immediately made an annoyed face but was startled by kody shaking her around, the redhead couldn’t help but feel a little surprised by how strong kody was. “it literally never works!!” she grabbed his hands firmly to stop him and stared right into his eyes. “listen up buddy, i’m the captain now, so here’s what’s gonna happen” although the whole situation was ridiculous arabella was doing her best to keep a straight face “”we’re gonna get the fries and all the non-frozen goodies we can get from here, then we’ll go to the store, we’ll get m&ms, oreos, kit-kats and all the yummy stuff you put in a mcflurry, and finally, we’ll go to karma café and use my employee discount to get a shit ton of ice cream. we’re having homemade mcflurries today, capisci?”

         well no, he doesn’t know that’s not how magic works. the range of kody’s knowledge on magic extends to pretty much harry potter, and wizards of waverly place, and according to those universes, he thinks fixing the machine could be plausible. he doesn’t want to be a bother and ask how exactly magic works, so instead he’ll just make little jokes here and there and wait to be corrected, or until the answers come up naturally. 

                          DAKOTA ‘ kody ’ PIERCE, a character study.  “just because i cannot see it, doesn’t mean i cannot believe it.” -- jack skellington

all high school was to kendall was seven hours of mandatory torture where she spent most of her time reading, having lunch on the bleachers, or hiding in her guidance counselors office. her mother passed the summer before school started, and kendall’s excitement for the next four years were gone with her. her fingertips drum idly to the song playing, nirvana’s cover of molly’s lips. she offers a halfhearted smile when kody gets in, a quickly glancing back at the school before shifting into reverse and pulling out of the parking lot. “it’s a little weird,” she admits, fingers aimlessly switching ahead a few songs on her playlist. “i didn’t do much in high school other than… attend. i think that one class we had together is the only one i remember liking.” kody was probably the only classmate kendall ever humored with conversation, to be honest. “good thing you won’t have to. what’s the next step? bridgemead college?”

STATUS: closed LOCATION: town square TAGGING:@kickasskody​

after a long ass day of unproductive investigation with the rest of the gang, a sugar pick me up was in order, this time it was arabella and kody’s turn to run to the nearet mcd’s for some necessary ice cream and fries. the redhead scrunched up her nose as they entered the restaurant, it smelled like sweaty kids and plastic, they took their place in line to order, right behind a lady and her two daughters. “you got everyone’s order?” she asked her friend without taking her eyes off the colorful screen displaying the menu, then lowering her voice to a whisper “i swear to god if the freaking ice cream machine is broken again, i will hex someone”.

      “yup, right here!” kody cheerfully confirms, holding up the notes app on his phone to showcase the list he’d comprised. there’s an order for him on there too, though he doesn’t need it. it’s important for him to keep up appearances, and for kody to go to mcdonalds and not order a smorgasbord of unhealthy items would probably be a like a giant neon sign alerting the others that something is up with him. he’ll suffer through eating it all, pretend he’s just as delighted to be scarfing down a box of twenty piece mcnuggets and an oreo mcflurry as he was almost a year ago. if the color gray were a flavor, that’s what everything tasted like now. insipid, off-putting, simply just bad, and no matter what he tries, it all tastes the same. gone are the cravings for an oversized chipotle burrito, or his dad’s homemade lasagne -- and worst of all, it almost brings tears to his eyes when he thinks about the fact that he’ll never get to experience the joy of a disneyworld churro ever again. because now, all he craves now is the blood pumping beneath someones skin. 

     though aj has thought about kody like a little brother ever since high school, she’s feeling like the killjoy mother she never had sitting in the drivers seat of her car right now while he runs over to the entrance of the store. she glowers at him as she gets out of the car and keeps that unenthused energy as she marches past him, into the glaring fluorescent lighting and the uncomfortably high saturation of camo print over towards where she sees the counter. she’s not the type of person who cowers in any situation, not visibly, but she’s definitely not comfortable with displays of big, macho straight man bullshit. she’s still a woman underneath her bravado. one of her brows lifts curiously as she looks around, but it’s only the two of them in there and a very bored looking older man at the counter. 

     reaching for kody’s hand, she tries to pry it away from her arm. “when did you develop such a damn iron grip? will you relax?” she whispers loudly and then her expression becomes one of annoyance as she watches him have a crisis. “well, we’re not gun purchasers, but it’s not like in the world we found out we’re living in it’s the worst idea…” aj makes a face and then quickly follows up that statement. “i just wanna be clear that i am very morally against them, but if a handgun might protect me from some weird monster, i’m not against buying one.” still, they’re not there for guns, so she just elbows kody in the side and then nods her head to the back of the store. “let’s just walk long here, find your stupid aisle and not talk to anyone.” the guy at the counter has definitely noticed how weird they’re being, but to his credit, he just looks back down at the magazine he’s reading. “where’s this ghost stuff?”

         the iron grip she’s mentioned is entirely an accident, and he quickly releases her from his grasp, staring at the spot his hand had once been on her arm for a moment before mumbling an apology. it’s more than a few times a day that he forgets the abilities that come with his vampirism, and right now, it’s the super strength. 

he doesn’t really know why guns freak him out so much. other than the fact that they commit horrible atrocities every day, anyway. it’s not like he can be physically hurt by one, so what does he really have to fear? perhaps it’s because while he can’t be hurt -- everyone he loves could be. and even with aj’s comment about the world they live in, one comprised of supernaturals, he still doesn’t think it’s such a good idea that they purchase one. it’s not that he wouldn’t trust aj with a gun in her hand ( if anyone were to be the one packing, he’d expect it to be their leader ), but he can’t help but be paranoid that something would go horribly wrong, and one of them would get hurt. that would only lead to more devastation if he were there, he thinks. 

LOCATION: Brenner’s Camping, Hunting and Fishing, Parking Lot TAGS: @kickasskody​

     it’s not a surprise to aj that this place hasn’t exactly slapped ghost hunting equipment onto their name, probably in order to not lose naturally skeptical clientele. sure, there are probably regular customers who believe in big foot, aliens and the like, but ghosts aren’t necessarily the same. the whole usually being not corporeal thing seems to be a big deal for one. plus, ghost hunting is a thankless hobby. it’s not god damn ghost busters. they aren’t about to catch it in a trap, apparently much to kody’s dismay, since he’s the one sitting to her currently trying to convince her to go in. they’ve already driven for twenty minutes out of town, so she kind of can’t say no at this point without it all being a big fat waste of time, but she’s definitely feeling like a fool letting him get her to even go this far. “what does this place have? like a row of a few expensive gadgets that won’t work? kody, come on.” she reasons, though her baby blue convertible sits firmly in park. 

     again she glances at the sign, the white light flashing around green letters. she can’t help but stare as she continues, stubborn as ever. “we’re not camping, hunting or fishing. we won’t fit in.” 

           kody is both visibly and vocally excited as they’re pulling into the parking lot, mentioning over and over that he’s brought two months of saved allowance to buy them something nice. considering he doesn’t need to eat, the money is mostly just burning a hole in his pocket, waiting to be spent on something extra special. this feels like that occasion, so he’s mildly flexing the two hundred dollars he’s pretty sure aj is going to talk him out of spending by the end of their trip. he’s halfway out of the car when he hears aj’s second snarky comment of the trip, and he sticks his head back inside to answer her. “i have to disagree,” he starts, giving her a mischievous look. “i think we’re hunting. ghost huntin’.” he clarifies with a thick southern accent, his lips curling into a big goofy smile as he shuts the door and dashes over towards the door to hold it open for aj. 

            with them both there, she doesn’t understand why they don’t search it a little more, especially when everyone seemed to be on edge with what had happened. if they could say it was done, then no one else would have to search it and at least then she would be contributing something. it’s clear to her that he’s distracted by something and as she keeps her gaze on him, biting down on her bottom lip while she waits. jordana didn’t know him well enough to say anything, or that was the way she felt and there was still something about him that made her a little uncomfortable. the smell around him made her nose tingle but she wasn’t in tune with her wolf side enough to try and figure out what it meant. it’s a smell mixed with other things, smells she can’t pinpoint but it’s definitely there. it wasn’t a familiar smell, not like it was with dylan so she knew she was going to need to keep her guard up around him. maybe there would be a time when she could ask dylan if he could smell the same thing seeing as his nose was just as good as her own. 

     “this ghost has only killed one person, as far as we know. we might offend it by asking it to stop killing people. or we might give it inspiration. do you see what i mean when i say we don’t know what we’re doing yet?” were ghosts especially susceptible to being extremely stubborn? somehow aj can imagine it, the kind of ghost who takes ‘hey, don’t murder anyone else, please’ as a challenge to do more damage. right now they’re just trying to figure out what happened to ava’s grandfather, beyond the heart attack that took him to a marginally earlier grave. “though, if any of us would be most likely to somehow push a ghost to murder…” she doesn’t finish her sentence, just smiles. 

     “boobudy, blowbuddy…” she’s not sure that amazon rates their gadgets specifically on a scale of how well they work in regards to the very real, intense bridgemead phenomena. in fact, she’s pretty sure most ghost hunting gear are just scams packaged up by ghost hunting tv show hosts. surprisingly, though, despite all his ridiculous mutterings about ghost hunting equipment, he does make a good point. the witches take on a lot between the two of them… and it is only the two of them. so, arabella’s swinging around a pendulum and blair is feeling things out as best she can, neither of them can do it all for them. everyone has to shoulder some of the weight, even if it would help if their powers could just solve everything. she supposes this is the point of having a whole team to turn to. “it’s a little hard not to rely on them, but that’ll stop for a little while after this outing, hopefully. we should have enough to go off that we can start researching.” 

     at the question of whether or not they’ve found anything, aj shakes her head and exhales, shoulders shrugging with some disappointment. “nothing big yet, ‘cept apparently some sort of blood vial, but don’t freak out just yet. it could be nothing. i doubt there will be anything bigger than that, but…” she glances over her shoulder, seeing the people he’s talking about. “they’re not mourning, i think they’re having an argument.” she tells him, though  he’s again, unfortunately making a good point. “might be time to round everyone up and get them back to the library, though i doubt everyone will stick around the library with us.”

         aj tells him not to freak out about the vial of blood because it could just be nothing -- but that’s not the reason why he’s freaking out. his eyes go wide the second the word blood is spoken, and he quickly has to focus all of his energy into not appearing drastically uncomfortable at the mention of it. he can appear a little weary, as he’s mentioned more than once over the past ten months that he has a serious aversion to blood, but he doesn’t want her to be too worried about his reaction. he manages to allow the wide eyes to transform into a look of excitement, but on the inside, he’s freaking out about how he’s going to react once the blood vial is shown off to the group back at the library. he’s already coming up with his excuse, and he’ll be practicing it over and over in his head until the moment it becomes necessary to use.

his brows furrow when she adds that she doesn’t think everyone will be joining them back at the library. he’s pretty sure he knows what she means, hinting about the pair of unbelievers in their group. he smiles a little, bumping aj with his elbow in a reassuring sort of way. “hey, i’m sure kenny’s gonna come around eventually! and jordana too -- it’s only a matter of time before she has to accept what she really is.” he says, lowering his voice for the latter half of his sentence, afraid she could be nearby and hear him talking about her. he’s close enough with the rest of the crew where he feels as though he could get himself out of it if he was caught gossiping... but he’s not so sure about jordana. “until that happens, we’ve got a couple witches, a werewolf, one seriously smart cookie, a fearless leader, and for moral support: me!” it’s not like he can say much else about himself anyway, because what else would he say? a vampire who doesn’t really know what he’s doing yet? “and suuuure, maybe we haven’t really solved anything yet, but i’ve got a good feelings about this time!” he’s practically bouncing up and down, excited to get back to the library and hypothesize.  

HE’S AS INNOCENT AS A PUPPY AND SHE just smacked him in the nose for offering cuddles. she knows he didn’t do anything wrong, but just the idea that he knew she didn’t want to do the reading had her on edge. of course, if anyone was going to do some weird mojo-mind reading trick, it was going to be her. maybe that’s why it had her so shaken. she mimics his movement and drops her eyes to her feet. she’s sure her cheeks are changing colour with the embarrassment flooding her system. ❝ sorry, i wasn’t trying to— ❞ blair bites down her lip. this is probably was drove him away in the first place. her paranoid delusions that she was going to ruin everything by not being careful. ( but could they really be called delusions when it’d already happened once? )

the tone is so cheeky and she knows that he’s kidding around, she didn’t even has to see his face to know that but still… her eyes immediately snap to him. and she knows it’s not her magic, she knows it looks different than when she was real intuitions & visions, but she can just see kody, as he is now, standing amongst flames, being engulfed and swallowed by the heat. and then just gone. she’s gasping for air like the flames were real and the smoke filled her lungs. she steps forward, practically lunging at kody, and grabs hold of his sleeve. ❝ don’t say that. ❞ she looks up at him through watery eyes. it’s a joke, she’s trying to tell herself. he’s not in danger. she sucks in a breath and steps  back from him, wrapping her arms around herself. ❝ i mean, not while there’s something out there maybe killing people, ❞ she adds, trying to cover for herself.

          once again, it feels as though he’s slipped up and said the wrong thing. this time, he was only trying to be funny, but kody has never seen blair so frantic before. his gaze shifts back up to her the moment he hears her heavy breathing, and he frowns, confused. did she already start the reading? has she figured him out yet? is that why she’s acting so strange? he’s starting to think that she has the second she snags his sleeve. he’s tempted to step back, petrified for the words that are about to escape her lips -- but the anxious look in his eyes subsides the moment she speaks and he realizes that she just didn’t like his joke. she must’ve really disliked it though, considering the glossy look over her eyes that kody can’t help but notice. shaking his head, he reaches out and places a gentle hand on her shoulder.

HOW COULD HE ACT LIKE THAT? LIKE THERE wasn’t a gap between them that felt stifling? like it was nothing that he stopped coming by the cafe, that he started avoid her, that within a matter of weeks it felt like everything was different? she wanted the hot & cold to stop, but that’S dakota pierce, isn’t it? he doesn’t act outwardly different but you can feel when it isn’t the same. she pauses and turns around to face him.

❝ what? ❞ it feels for a second like he’d just reached in and read her thoughts like a book. ❝ w-why wouldn’t i do a reading? ❞ she blinks a few times. arabella. that’s right, the other is out there doing what she can, blair should be trying harder. her arms come up again, wrapping around her, protecting her, guarding her. ❝ i won’t overwork myself. ❞ she rolls her eyes at herself for feeling even the slightest bit upset at kody for suggesting she not do the reading. ❝ it’s basically the only thing i’m good at. if i don’t do the reading then i basically did nothing here… ❞ she wants to feel like she contributes something at least. she isn’t going to set anyone at ease with just her presence like kody. she needs to bring something to the table, even if it is something she doesn’t really want to do.

        the tone of her voice is enough for him to realize that he’s said the wrong thing, but the look on her face once she turns around to face him makes him feel much worse. there’s suddenly a rock in the pit of his stomach, and he takes a hesitant step back, holding up his hands in submission. sure, he was trying to stop her from using her magic, but he didn’t realize that even the mere sweet suggestion that she not push herself would bother her like this. a part of kody wants to argue with her, find a way to make her see that this is not the only thing she’s good at -- but just as his lips part to say so, he’s reminded of what could happen if he gets too close to people. now he’s picturing the blood -- and blair covered in blood, and fuck, now he’s hungry. he quickly looks away from her, eyes darting to the patchy grass beneath his sneakers, partially because he’s embarrassed, and partially because he has no idea what the hell he looks like when he’s got blood on the brain.