set fire to the roses on my grave.

we can all just be tragic or lucky, beneath the faded stars.   » an independent and highly selective far cry five original character. content and themes associated with this character include : religious zealotry, heavy drug addiction, death, cult enthusiasts and recovery. vex. 21+. private. mutuals only. 

a rare moment of lucidity. it’s not the demon’s darkened eyes looking down at the woman standing before him, but micah’s own. where was he? how had he gotten here?

what did you do along the way?

he doesn’t like being the one in control.

his eyes move from her to the paper in her outstretched hands. it’s a good sketch, though the darkness surrounding him is almost unsettling. is that how people saw him? could they see the shadow engulfing him like a hug from a friend?

your only friend.

"it’s good.” he finally finds his voice again though he’s unsure of what else to say. the uncertainty shakes in his voice. uncertainty of her - of himself.

don’t worry, micah. i’m still here. go back to sleep.

like a flipped switch, micah is pulled back into the abyss of his own mind - isolated and comfortable once again. no thoughts, no feelings, no worries. just quiet.

“it’s really good.” the waver in his voice is gone; a confident smirk tugs at his lips. he holds his hands out for the paper. “may i?”

another soul to corrupt, perhaps?

“oh, um, sure!” 

she hands it over, a small smile spread across her face. she reaches up and brushes a tendril of hair behind her ear, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. a sudden onset bout of nerves. 

aurora is not usually shy - but the compliment towards her work had thrown her off balance a little bit. a deep breath in, and a slow exhale out, and she was back on top, had a hold of herself and was ready to socialize.

clutching the sketchbook to her chest, she glances up at the taller individual, standing a little ways above her. raising a hand to shield her eyes from the incoming rays of sunlight, she watches as his eyes narrow, when he takes the moment in time to thoroughly examine the piece.

she’d drawn it on a whim, and was rather pleased with it. but she’s not used to other people seeing her work, but when the opportunity presented itself, she just felt like she had to give it to him. 

maybe it would help him fulfill something that was inside of him, like a struggle that was going through the inner workings of the mind.

“it’s not my usual style,” 

she says - aurora does draw individuals more often than not, but the shading is a new technique she’d learned recently watching some art videos on the internet. to attend art school would be a dream waste, as she wasn’t really into the whole idea of ‘conventional’ art.

anse had volunteered to come over and school her about horses before she made her purchase, and for that, she was grateful. he was bringing over one of the ones from a local ranch, so she could get used to the gentle beasts. a little trial and error before she made a step that she couldn't take back.

sitting on the porch swing, she finishes off the final bits of buttered toast, sipping from a water bottle that was left outside. she grimaces, it's warm, and she's got half a mind to spit it out, but she straightens up and swallows the liquid just in time to see a truck and trailer pulling up in her driveway. 

hands in the back pockets of her jeans, she lifts herself from the swing and starts over towards where the visitor has parked, a bright smile spread across her lips when she notices the animal in the back.

"she's a beauty," aurora says, holding a hand above her eyes to shield them from the incoming rays of sunshine that threaten to blind her. sunglasses should have been an option this morning, but she'll be damned if she was going to run back inside and tear her room apart to find them. 

anse is exiting the truck now, and she reaches over to give him a gentle hug, a silent thanks for helping her out in this situation. he was always willing to listen, and when she went to see him at that last rodeo, where he had a pretty damn good time, she might add, her desire to own a mare of her own was something she was unable to stop from blossoming in her brain.

they made their way to the back of the trailer where the horse was unloaded, and aurora, a bit too eager, went instantly up towards the animal, holding a hand out to let the gentle giant sniff them. she knew as much, but was still lacking in knowledge towards horses. 

if there was going to be a few on the ranch, she would have to learn how to handle him. and if anse couldn't teach her, she was shit out of luck, considering he literally held onto broncos for dear life for a living.

kori : aurora is a crystals girl at heart ( go figure, right ). she sparks up a collection and visits various shops, but her favorite is kori’s place, because she leaves little handwritten notes with the crystal’s uses. she’s spent quite a few bucks at the small space, and frequents it often. she brings her baked goods, listens to her stories of things that go bump in the night. as a result, rori purchases protection charms for herself and scarlett. every little bit helps.

sienna : the girl is willing to make friends with everyone she meets, including a slightly broody young girl who sits across from her in group therapy. she can see the pain in her eyes and wants to do anything she can to help. she invites her out for coffee. they become friends. rori draws her a portrait of her younger sister to help her cope with the loss of life. she hopes that sienna is on the path to recovery, much like she herself managed to get on at some point.

( the bliss, faith and scarlett’s destruction of it all. )

since moving to hope county, the henbane has become her second home. the lush greenery, fields of flowers and just..

aurora sighs just thinking about it. takes a bite of the end of her pencil, clutched between clenched teeth as she tries to paint the picture first in her head, and then onto parchment.

there's something about it that calls to her, sings a melody that enraptures, anticipation settling inside her bones for the next time she's near it. the bliss. how it takes apart something she long thought was left to rot on the inside and nourishes it. her freedom. her desire to live. the weight of everything baring responsibility perishes under the weight of what she's meant to feel, turns in on itself and is left to fester.

she walks through the fields of flowers, slowly. taking it in inch by inch, letting the bliss take control of her mind, overwhelm her with sensations she would have believed to be mythical in origin had she not experienced them for herself. 

a vision in white sprouts before her. it's faith. she's here and she's not, hallucination brought on by the effects of the chemicals surging within her system. her favored friend. faith has taken aurora under her wing, guided her to a path of acceptance and light, showed her the way.

and yet if scarlett has her way, it will all be reduced to ash, burned to cinders and aurora yanked out of whatever waking dream she is in and tossed into the cold waters of reality. the thought turns her stomach.

tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth, she settles into the chair at the kitchen table, hair dipping down to fall in front of her face as she reaches for a pencil. for what feels like hours, she writes her thoughts onto the page, and it goes a little something like this.

dear mama,

things have been more tough i could have imagined without you an' daddy here. scarlett's doing a good job, but she's distant. i don't know if she regrets takin' me on as a charge or if this is her way of being - she seems to have shifted in personality and i don't understand it.

but mama...i'm struggling. most days i'm barely treading water, trying to hold my head above the surface and not submerge into the depths of despair. it hurts. everything hurts. i just want things to go back to normal. i want to be a family again. i want to prove that i'm not just some....lost soul.

i've joined up with a....well let's just call 'em a group of idealistic individuals. i thought that this would do some good, keep scarlett safe, but i don't think it's having the effect i quite thought it would. things are harsher around here, she's just...she's angry, mama. and i don't know how to deal with it. how to harbor the blowback that sets upon this house. sometimes i wonder if she'd burn up into nothing more than just ashes with all that rage inside of her.

and me....well...

aurora stops and thinks for a moment, before divulging further in the letter. this is a tell-all of sorts, and since her mother is dead, she can't judge her for what she's about to reveal, now can she?

i've...indulged, mama. somethin' called the bliss. it's heaven. that's the only way i can describe it. it makes me feel free, more so than i ever have. and i've made friends! faith has accepted me into the fold, brought me into her world so to speak. while things with scarlett are tenuous at best, i feel at peace with the knowledge that i have someone in my corner.

before she knows it, the sound of a jeep is pulling up in the driveway. she scatters to gather the pages of her written word and tucks them inside a shoebox in her closet. 

aurora is not used to people that don’t talk around her, but micah is the exception. she sees something in him, a desire that is brimming just underneath the surface. something she saw reflected in her own past, he wants out. out of this world, out of a certain situation? that she doesn’t know.

but then all of a sudden things change, and he’s not himself, not exactly, but something altogether different. there is a dark aura that situates itself around him. it plagues her minds with thoughts of despair. 

and she wants nothing more than to be able to rid him of these dark mind-controlling thoughts. she saved herself with the help of others. maybe he needs a support system. that much she can do.

she has a series of scars on her legs - mostly from cuts and scrapes that she’s gotten while hiking through the wilderness. aurora refuses to wear pants ( it’s shorts or bust in her mind. ) and her legs tend to get scraped up when she goes on a few of the more interesting trails behind their house.

just shy of her twelfth birthday, aurora stepped on a nail that got left behind during construction of their “she-shed”, as their father called it. it was a place for the girls to hang out and stay out of trouble in, and she was on crutches for two weeks after having to get a shot to stop infection.

rori will strike up a conversation with just about anyone. she is kind and friendly to a fault, sometimes so much that it gets her into trouble, especially considering her southern heritage and the way she constantly speaks her mind. she’s had to have been dragged away from quite a few situations before she got smacked in the mouth. scarlett is usually the one wrangling her baby sister.

aurora curses more than one would expect from someone as sweet and innocent looking as she is. sometimes she can’t find the right words to explain her situation and a well placed expletive just hits right. there’s nothing better than screaming out a string of curse words for a very specific form of stress relief. fuck shit mother bitch. it just works.

JUSTICE.

breathing in and out, inhaling tobacco and exhaling the smoke, she has music playing in her ears - soft sounds of some band her sister turned her onto. she likes these early morning times, when the sun is just settling into it's space above the world and light is beginning to illuminate everything around her.

while rori isn't the best of artists, she is capable of doing small things, and landscapes are something she's found kinship with over the past few years.

sometimes she incorporates people she sees along the way, working them into the background of the shot. today it's a male, hands pushed into his pockets as he walks down the street, pacing ever so slightly back and forth. part of her is curious as to whatever his deal is. she does not approach, not just yet.

turning to a new page, she sketches something - feeling as if there is a darkness surrounding this stranger. she can't tell why, but she sees something lingering in the space above him, clinging to his back like a monkey he didn't ask for. tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear, she rips it from the book when finished and leaves her things behind as she rushes towards him, braids bouncing in the wind behind her.

"dude?"