psych.

And the result is in…

MAJOR MONTGOMERY, YOU HAVE WON A WINE AND WHISKEY TASTER!

     MUSIC filled the air the moment Milo stepped down from his bus. Quizzically, he turned his head from side-to-side, before fixing his gaze on a marching band — the source. It was l o u d coming around the corner; almost d e a f e n i n g in its wake. You couldn’t miss it. Furthermore, the roar of people finally penetrated his tired ears. He had only just woken up since the last stop, and his world was ringing. It was unavoidable. To the nearest nameless face, he mused, “Don’ know what’s goin’ on, but I doubt it’s for me, huh?”

Major was not one to miss out on anything festive going on around his small town, and he was naturally part of the marching band, too. Well, not officially, but he’d been following them around for a little bit. Not because he was really into it, but because it was a slow time of day all around and beat sitting around at the stall. Then that bus arrived and man, he almost felt sorry for the people stepping off it. “Oh no man, it totally was. They were waitin’ around but decided to just move on, I guess,” he joked as a man from the bus addressed him, “Nah, it’s the fourth, y’know? Don’t got a calendar on you?”

Jules would have gladly kept strolling past the little pop-up tent. Nothing caught her eye and she didn’t quite believe in psychics nor the extramundane. “Excuse me, did you –did you just say happy freedom?” Independence Day or Fourth of July was the common nicknames for the day. A warm smile shaped her lips at his words.  “Please inform your friends on the other side, they’re wrong.” Her feet ached. Who wore heels to every and any event? Juliana Woods, unfortunately. “I’m in need of a fainting couch. Or any seat for at least the next five minutes.” She decided to claim a chair across from the other. “What is it you do? Read palms, sell snake oils, and dreams to naive buyers?” There wasn’t an edge to her tone, just earnest curiosity. 

“Yeah, happy freedom,” he repeated with a chuckle, which grew as she told him that his old pals from the other world were wrong. Clearly joking, he countered with “I’ll tell ‘em. And try not to get a hex put on you.” Honestly, Major didn’t mind it when people didn’t believe in his spiritual gig. It was hard to accept that there was a whole other realm out there, so he was content to just spread the word and let people listen if they wanted to. That was what his whole brewing sidekick was for, making money off the skeptics in town, too.

“Yeah, feel free to join,” he told her, although that didn’t seem to matter much as Jules had already seated herself. “Not that big on palm readin’ myself, but my Ma’s quite the reader. Palms, tea leaves and all that. I'm just connected through the good old brain, and the ball over there.” He nodded to the crystal ball, sitting there beautifully in the sunlight. “Got some other kinda spirits out back too. You want some?”

“Happy fourth.” Sophie said softly, stopping in her track to look over at the man. She didn’t want to bother, she wasn't in the mood for anything at all, but curiosity picked in, and brown hues focused on the crystal ball. Spirits? Maybe her parents were calling from the other side, telling her Jude was going to die Jude. She’d choke him for sure. “What are they saying?” 

Didn’t take any clairvoyance to gauge that Sophie Daniels’ was not among the highest, but he wanted to help her out anyhow. This was an easy read, anyway, that was for goddamn sure. “They’re sayin’ to keep hangin’ in there,” he said softly, smiling kindly at her. Noticing her eyes settling on the crystal ball, he nodded at it, “You got anythin’ special on your mind you want to ask about? Might be able to pick up on somethin’.”

“Happy freedom?” That’s it, the States were officially weird. One day a year people wore, ate, created, and vomited the flag of their country. Though he understands the importance of independence days, it was still overly patriotic– One of the many stereotypes Derek found to be true about this country. “The spirits are telling you that I need an ear to listen to?” Derek’s scrunched his nose in disbelief at that statement, “What sort of spirits are we talking about, mate? Are you magical or something?” Though, he probably could take him up on his offer to have someone listen to him. Lord knew he needed a friend, or an ear, in his life. 

Major nodded emphatically as Derek questioned the spirits, “Well, I prefer the term ‘gifted’, but they don’t call me Magic Maje for nothin’.” Honestly, no one really called him that, but it had a nice ring to it. Wasn’t really any magic involved in his dealings with the other realm, either. He liked to leave that to his sister, too much risk involved for his liking. “You’re a real long way away from home, and someone out there’s reachin’ out to me to let you know that you’re doin’ better for yourself out here than you think.”

Declan would never say hes a believer. He doesn’t believe in god, ghosts, spirits, ghouls. So when he saw the homemade sign and saw the man standing there part of him screamed to go the other way. But he was just trying to walk through the park and this is the quickest path. But he couldn’t just walk past, he knew this guy was just doing his job. He internally groaned before answering “hey man, happy 4th. The Spirits hey? What else are they saying?” He couldn’t help the little teasing voice. And despite not believing part of him was missing his mom and wanted to see what this guy had to say.

Major hadn’t particularly expected the guy to bite, considering how annoyed he’d looked at being addressed at all. Yet there he was, and he might as well give it his all. “They’re sayin’ they’ve been tryin’ to reach you for a while,” he paused a moment, listening with his mind’s eye or ear, or whatever, “They want to thank you for finally listenin’ in, so that’s a good start for you, my man. Want me to tell you they’re thrilled about those happy circumstances, too.”

     lana was in her living room when she heard pebbles on her window. the young woman got up from her couch, action that took more effort every passing week, and hurried over to the door. “hey !!” she greeted her cousin as soon as she stepped out the door. the weather was almost unbearable. she had a hard time with the heat over the summer every year, and being pregnant just made it worse. “is it somewhere with a.c ? please tell me it is !” the blonde said, grabbing her purse and locking the door. “anyway, let’s go get some food, please.”

Major flashed a bright smile as she appeared at the door, “There she is! Really startin’ to show and all.” Still had a pretty hard time grasping that little Lana was going to be a mom. Not that weirder things hadn’t happened, but it was still taking some getting used to. “The AC better be workin’, ain’t too pleasant for the rest of us either. But I can suffer for Sawyer today, saw some of those pancake stacks on the Gram and they got a whole mood goin’.”

The voice caught Josh by surprise and he glanced around quite quickly. As he spotted Major, realising he was the one who had spoken, a very gentle laugh escaped him. “Yeah…?” he found himself responding, despite usually ignoring anything to do with physics. “You sure the spirits are telling you that or is it the fact I’m already kinda drunk and pretty miserable?” Thank God someone was very kindly babysitting Riley tonight for him. Unfortunately, his meeting with Ainsley in the park was beginning to play on his mind a little too much. He’d chosen alcohol as a way to hopefully forget it again.

Major shook his head at Josh, raising a beer bottle to him. “Nah, it’s definitely the spirits," he said with a grin, followed by a healthy sip of the liquid Spiritual Healing he prided himself on producing. “You want one? I got plenty to go around. Won’t even bother you with the other dimension if you don’t want it.” He knew how Josh felt about all of that stuff, but liked the guy anyhow. Wasn’t his fault he didn’t understand the gift, not many people did. “First one’s free of charge, too, so long as you’ll maybe come lend a hand for the August batch.”

Elijah was happily minding his own business. It was fourth of July weekend. Hotdogs were aplenty. Freedom? Sexy. Barbecues? Open door policies. Grandmas across the nation were offering any Elijah who wandered into their sights some of their signature potato salad. Everything was dandy. That was, until walked past that set up.

The first thing Elijah saw was the sign. Spiritual counselling. Then, his eyes landed on the crystal ball. He tuned in just in time to hear the other man’s voice, alarm already painted plainly on his face. 

“Oh, hell no. You got that psychic shit?” He combed his eyes over the guy quickly, like he was a bomb that was about to go off and Elijah had been tasked with the responsibility of disarming it. “If my Dida’s calling, tell her I’m not home. Christ. What are they saying about me?” 

“Well, step right on up and see,” Major replied, arms thrown out in a welcoming gesture. He knew that moving the crystal ball right to the forefront was a great idea, as much as Ma said they weren’t that kind of mystics. Whatever. Didn’t matter to him, so long as it grabbed some attention. This guy was radiating energy so much anyhow, so enquiring with the ball wasn’t even going to be necessary.

“Right, I’ll tell ‘er that,” he said with a soft, friendly chuckle, amused at the panic all over the poor man’s face. Then he grimaced, shaking his head at Elijah, “Oof, she’s real persistent though, wants to know why you’re so dead set on avoidin’ her. I’m sensin’ that you should be more focused on movin’ forward right now, unstick yourself from woes of the past.”

The poke caused Friedrich to mutter some German, but luckily for Major he did open his eyes. Rather slowly, clerly still half asleep, but at least the blue eyes were looking at him now. And that was all he got – just the stare of the blue eyes. Friedr just kept staring at him and finally opened his mouth. “What?”

“Y’alright?” he repeated, still looking the guy over. At least he was somewhat conscious, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t suffered some kinda heatstroke or something like it. Could be a possession case, even, seemed like he was speaking in tongues and all that. Better to be certain now than sorry later. “What year is it? What’s the best kinda sausage?”

With pride season coming to an end, Seb was already looking for the next thing to force his boss to celebrate. Technically it was good for business, but mainly it allowed him to piss around all the more. That was what he cared about. So time to deck the bar in red, white and blue and if his boss said no then he wasn’t a true American they liked to pretend they were. A voice caught his attention and Seb grinned at the other man. “Now if I make a bet about myself, is that against the rules? Because it’s me I always make a complete tit of myself. Who you betting on, mate?”

Major chuckled at Seb's admission that he would be betting against himself. That probably should have been against the rules, but... “Nah, I’ll allow it,” he said, the laugh subsiding as he took a sip from his beer. He didn’t remember much of the bartender’s escapades at the last few Fourths... but then, he had not exactly been a reliable witness either. Good times all around. “Don’t know, I might be puttin’ my money on you too,” he teased with a grin, “Could also be the sausage guy. He’s a strange one for damn sure, wouldn’t be surprised. Excited no matter the outcome, though. Nothin’ beats fireworks and a fireball.”

Major was standing outside his cousin’s house, throwing pebbles at her window to catch her attention. Could have just knocked on the door, but this was a whole thing. Used to work much better... largely because hitting only ground floor windows just didn’t have that same drama to it. “Lana,” he called to her, “Come out here, we goin’ down to that brunch thing.”

“Sup, happy freedom, my friend,” Major greeted when someone passed his little set-up. Ma had managed to leave him in charge of the business at all the most uneventful times of day, and he was honestly bored out of his mind, alone with his crystal ball. And he’d had a few samples of the good stuff already, so he was feeling far too talkative to just lone it out. “The spirits are tellin’ me you’re in dire need of a listenin’ ear, and I got two of ‘em.”

Apparently, there was a party to plan. Damn it, why didn’t he hear about this sooner? If he had, he would probably go overboard and try to bring Justin Timberlake to perform. After all, JT was a ‘close friend’ of his – if only you consider being in the same parties in Ibiza as friendship. Even though he wasn’t in charge, his lips pursed together, as a sign of Miles thinking of some ideas. If there was one thing Miles was good at other than his job, it was ability to throw a good party. He was visionary, just like his personal Jesus Kanye West. “As long as there is enough booze to get drunk on, it’ll be fine. Alcohol is the key of a good party.” Coke too but of course he wasn’t going to say that to a random stranger.

“No need to worry ‘bout that, pretty sure I got enough stashed away to put all of Beaumont to sleep if it comes to that,” he said with a chuckle, gleefully exaggerating. Of course, he knew that more than a few Beaumontians weren’t too keen on going anywhere near his creations, but on the bright side, that meant more for everybody else. “You just let me know if you feel like lendin’ a hand, don’t want y’all newcomers to feel like it’s... too local or somethin’.”