JUNKYARD RAT.

Max [5.20pm]: When we met in the woods and we thought Jimmy wanted to kill me you said that I was an asshole and I deserved hell but that I didn't deserve to die or get hurt like that and you told me that we were gonna stick together so nobody like that could come after me

Max [5.21pm]: And someone like that is out here now and he's not just coming after the asshole who deserves hell. he's torturing people like ruby kane and levi james.

Max [5.21pm]: and you can't tell me you don't believe he's going to be at a schoolwide anonymous event and you can't tell me levi james isn't the spitting image of ollie perkins and you can't tell me you don't care that there's still someone missing and someone dead sydney wurm and you can't tell me you're not worried about who's gonna be next

Max [5.21pm]: this isn't your big mean city with too many faces for you to care if one of them dies sid spending your free time hiding in your room doesn't stop you from noticing and thinking about these people

[...]

Max [4.44pm]: you can use headphones and drink all our alcohol i dont care i don't want it anymore i just want someone half-sentient to be there on the off chance that he catches something out of the corner of his eye sid please.

Max [4.45pm]: It's not safe Lydia's not safe and Simon's not safe and Ruby's not safe and Jimmy and Gabe and Sarah aren't safe and I'm not safe and you're not safe and I want you nearby this time.

Max [4.44pm]: He's going to pull something tonight. I need someone on watch duty from the outside while I keep eyes peeled on the interior.

Max [4.42pm]: Studio Ghibli.

Max [4.42pm]: You can have it if you watch on the roof of the dance tonight.

Sid [4.43pm]: studio juggalo yea

Max [4.35pm]: ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯

Max [4.35pm]: Much appreciated sidley

Max [4.35pm]: But ???? you're not seriously just gonna rot in that room all night to the muffled sound of music from the ball and the steady hum of your own loneliness

Sid [4.40pm]: ya lol bein honest i was jus bein nice so i culd ask to borrow ya laptop 2n. kinda wanna get hi n watch 1 a those studio gerbils flicks

Sid [4.41pm]: *studio gibbles

Sid [4.41pm]: **studio gidlies

Sid [4.42pm]: studio jiggly

Sid [4.33pm]: yo, culdnt get hrs so ill b on campus 2n. so fyi if things get wierd w/jim n u domt wana do somthing i can play 3rd weel. ps dont sweat the crown shit. lyd ashers [...] (1/2)

:’)  ♡❤♡  !!!

Sid originally joined the camping club to learn more tips for surviving outdoors as a homeless person, and since the school used to make every student join a minimum of three clubs, he went with the gardening club and subsequently the science club because he figured they would all overlap and it would be the least work, but the side effect of all of this was Sid finding out he has a bit of a passion for environmental science and nature. He tries to stay away from botany because it’s awkward getting too close to Cypress Bronte, but the camping club supervisor said that he’s the best birder in the school, and Sid was kinda like ‘yo shit I’ve never had a talent before maybe I should look into this,’ so he started focusing on the ornithology units of his environmental clubs.

Sid’s favorite birds are STARLINGS. They’re basically raccoon-birds that nobody likes because they rummage through garbage. People chase them away from bird feeders because they’re considered trashier and less pretty than cardinals or hummingbirds, etc. (They also have crazy eyes and Sid relates.) But more importantly he’s fascinated by their murmurations. Starlings are wicked loyal and Sid has this kind of deep-seated fixation on family and companionship so it makes sense that he would be obsessed with the ugly dumpster birds who stick together no matter what.

Since Max has been spending more time with Creeper investigations (which he doesn’t help out with anymore since one of them got his sketchy friend arrested) and with Jimmy (Sid still doesn’t understand the deal with that and he’s not ready to ask yet), he’s had more free time to himself. And since he’s still too inhibited to actually spend time with his roommate like he pretended he was going to, he spent more time out of the dorm Simon’s been sulking in and went out on more walks in the campus woods with the camping club’s copy of Sibley’s Guide To Birds. He just sits in a tree and reads it until the sun sets, and then tries to identify nocturnal birds on his walk back inside.

Sid has two free periods (because his therapist said he’s not really well emotionally enough to take too many classes and want him to take school slow; this boy is literally not going to graduate high school until he’s like 20 please help him) and usually spends that time sitting at the last library computer in the very corner where nobody can see what he’s doing, and he does all of his homework (which he’s somewhat embarrassed about doing in public because he’s a 17-year-old sophomore and feels stupid) and then when he’s finished he usually moves on to stalking Lydia’s cute Instagram and trying not to smile too pathetically, but he’s weening himself off of that by looking up videos of STARLING MURMURATIONS instead.

He just sits there watching videos with cheesy Pachelbel’s Canon tracks in the background for an hour straight. It’s equal parts wholesome and bizarre.

And this is a long wall of text with no images so let’s end with a gif of a starling murmuration:

Sydney Wurm smells like the frumpy military jacket he wears every single day– like fresh blunts and scraps of burnt DIY rolling paper, and black coffee and booze stains, and stolen McDonald’s food packed in the pockets between shifts, and corn chips and Lucky Strikes from midnight 7-eleven runs, and the decrepit stray cat he feeds by the alley dumpster between his job and the Slev, and wet grass and weedkiller and just a dash of half-assed bonfire from the last late night they spent drinking stolen Blue Moon in the clearing in the woods, and off-brand out-of-season peppermint febreeze and the breath mints he carries because he’s more self-conscious than he wants to admit. 

Maxine Bronte knows it’s him long before he opens his rude, rude mouth. It’s a STRANGE RELIEF. He’s not even reacting to…. it. It normalizes everything for a moment; long enough for her to close her eyes as stubborn-tight as she can and pull the pillow over her head in childish protest, grumbling with her face squished into the mattress.

                                         “ worst. human. ever. ”

The playfulness is sweet for a moment. But she’s more pessimistic than she wants to admit. It takes approximately nine seconds for her to grasp the weight of the situation: that she was in so much trouble that her scumbag of a worst-frienemy was worried enough to put aside the last fight they had and display enough human compassion to visit her in the hospital.

She’ll give one weak effort not to believe it.

                         “ do you NEED SOMETHING here, Skid? ” 

Nice. She’s still, somehow, in good humor. Sid’s gonna go ahead and take that as a green light to BOUNCE THE BED EVEN MORE.

        ❛  true that!  ❜ 

It’s kind of terrifying, how much ENDURANCE this bird-boned chipmunk-sized bobble-headed Polly Pocket actually has. You’ll stand over her beaten body and think she’s shaking in fear, but nine times out of ten, you’ll see she’s just shaking from laughter. 

She looks weak right now. Maybe she is, in manic mind and bruised body. But she still has her humor and she still has her attitude, so he knows she still has her willpower. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s worried.

 ❛ nah,  man.  i  came  to  ask  if,     uh-- y’know.  if  you  did.   ❜

It’s hard to make eye contact when he asks. Anytime their relationship gets to this level of heaviness, they’re usually the ones causing it for each other, not trying to support the other through it. Their dynamic works better that way. 

(Jesus, can she just fucking heal already so they can go back to breaking each other?)

“I’m fine.” An obvious lie, but Ruby wasn’t in the mood to talk about what had happened. Her back was shredded, there were large cut on her left calf, but worst of all was the large cut down her right cheek. It was covered with a large bandage, but she was sure it would scar. “Please, can we just… Talk about something else?”

❛ h e l l   y e a h   we  can.    did  you  hear  that  ben  affleck’s    batman  movie  might  be  cancelled?    that’s  good  news.  still  want  your  mom    to  play  Catwoman  or  Batwoman  someday    but  she  deserves  better  than  that  shitshow. ❜

God bless Ruby for not wanting to talk about it. Holy hell knows he didn’t didn’t know how to talk about it. Being able to score some points for his conscience by offering to talk about it without having to talk about it? Fucking mint. Of course, not talking about it wasn’t going to stop him from stressing about it.

Ruby had no way of knowing how important he was to him, given the nature of their interactions. But when Sid’s only closer friends were just about as estranged and flippant, she played a big part in his thoughts. 

But apparently she doesn’t occupy enough of his thoughts for him to realize that she probably doesn’t care about his incredibly bitter Batman geekery.

❛ or  we  can  talk  about.  uh.    i  heard  the  student  body    actually  bullied  that  one    math  teacher  hard  enough    for  him  to  crack  &  start    taking  online  penmanship    lessons.  which  is  kinda    h i l a r i o u s. ❜

GABE was sitting on a tall point of the gardens. Students and staff could be seen chilling out there, and he… well, he was judging everyone, as if it was his DIVINE obligation to do so, AND GODDAMN, IT REALLY WAS! He aimed with his slingshot –the only thing related to a bow, that he could get his hands on in this school– to people’s head. A happy couple here, a chatty teacher with some students over there, a bully stealing someone’s lunch and a couple making out behind a bush.

“If you could ANNIHILATE anybody in this school… who would it be?”

Not like he needed some kind of second opinion, he had been thrown into a hellhole full of sinners. This was the undeserved punishment given by the corrupted system. He was down here. He was FALLEN ANGEL, a black CUPID, and he had to act up to the title. 

 ❛ ME.  take  me  out.  i’m  over  all  ’a  this  mortal  coil  nonsense.     ts’not  working  out  for  me.  i’ll  take  my  buddy  max  out  with     me  so  she  can’t  have  the  satisfaction  of  outliving  me.  and     i’ll  waste  whoever  crushed  the  little  rat  in  the  basement  with     a  mouse  trap.  'cus  what  the  fuck.  he  wasn’t  hurtin'  anybody.  ❜

This should have been funnier. It was usually funny. But given the CLIMATE of the school after current events, joking about assassinations was a little too black, even for Sid.

(You know a kid’s pretty fucked up when Sid Wurm wants him to lighten up.)

❛ nah,  but  no  one  at  this  school’s  really  a  bother. ‘side from that    one  prettyboy  janitor  who  always  looks  like  he’s  judging  me.    but  in  hindsight  that’s...  uh,  prob’ly  on  me  for  stealing  that     ketchup-covered  snow  cap  outta  the  garbage  that  one  time.  ❜

So, how long can she pretend to sleep before she loses whatever’s left of her mind?

If you answered, A) not much longer, she’s antsy enough on a good day, you’re correct. But that’s not going to stop her. She’s been thinking about too many things since being admitted— about the things left in her room, about the things The Creeper took from her, about when He’s coming back for her, about when He’s coming back for her, about who He is, about who she is, about how she’s getting out of this one, about how she’s getting everybody else out of this one, about how to stop what’s been started, about how to restart what’s been stopped. She hasn’t had the time to think about how she should act in front of courteous visitors.

So she’s cutting that part out of her to-do list altogether. It’s easier to put off social interaction until after she remembers how to socialize. She’s been “resting” through every visitor’s stay thus far, kept her eyes closed every time the doctors explained to friends and acquaintances that shes ‘reasonably exhausted’ given what she’s been through. But when her heart rate speeds up every time she hears footsteps in the hall closing in on her doorway, and she fears for her life at the wonder of who is coming into her room, her paranoia demands she sits up for a second, to look around and see if that SCALPEL is still in her arm’s reach, lest her next visitor be her reaper.

Max takes stock and confirms that, yes, if anyone comes too close with a pillow or handcuffs or what-have-you, she will have the reflex available to grab that blade and stab them in the neck. But she’s worried that she may not have the element of surprise on her side anymore, if whoever just walked into the room saw or heard her shifting in the bed. She faces the window and hopes that her feigned calm breathing and shaking closed eyelids don’t betray the act she’s trying to keep up.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE. LAZY MARY’S STILL SNOOZING. MOVE ALONG TO THE NEXT EXHIBIT. PLENTY OTHER TRAUMATIZED LOSERS TO VISIT BEFORE THE BUS TAKES YOU BACK TO PLATH. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY. SEE YA WOULDN’T WANNA BE YA.

    She  is  so  d r a m a t i c.

    Granted, it’s beyond justified this time. Granted, she deserves nothing but rest right now. Granted, he’s been worried sick about her, the way a comic book villain gets worried when the even more evil guy is about to kill his arch nemesis, and that’s why he’s here. He needs her rested and back on her feet as soon as possible. And he knows her well enough to now she’s not ‘RESTING’ when she’s on her back playing possum.

    Sid takes a seat at the foot of her bed, and lets out the long, exaggerated, feminine sigh he always uses when he’s mocking her. Eyes roll when she doesn’t bite. She has to know she’s not fooling the king of fake-sleeping, right? He rocks his ass while it’s sunk into the mattress, shakes her whole bed as disrespectfully as possible.

  ❛ there’s  no  way  your  PARANOID  ASS  slept  a  wink        since  you  ’been  here.  sit  the  fuck  up,  Tiny  Terror.   ❜

“We need to all come together as a community right now. And start a search team. I would be happy to head one and I hope other professors will be willing to do the same. We will stick together in groups, and we can find ways to communicate. We have to find them.”

     ❛ i’m  pretty  sure  that’s  how  you  egg  this  guy  on,  Mizz. H.          probably...  NOT  a  good  idea  to  risk  ‘breaking  the  rules’  when          the  psycho’s  just  waiting  to  make  an   e x a m p l e   outta  someone.  ❜

“ i’d really like to believe you, pal, but the amount of body parts    that  people got from  the creeper really blows  a hole in your    concept. whoever this  f r e a k  is, we need to to get Max and    Sarah  and  everyone  else  back  before we start getting their    body parts in neatly wrapped packages. ”

Grey wasn’t good with stressful situations, no matter how hard he pretended to be unflappable, and the fact that someone had kidnapped – and possibly murdered – his best friend and the girl that he had an undeniable crush on wasn’t exactly putting him in a great state of mind. He felt utterly useless. It wasn’t something he was unfamiliar with, but at the moment it felt even shittier than usual.

“ the fuck do you think it is, man? a coffee enema? ”

    ❛ call  it  fuckin’  FEAR  TACTICS.  the  more  freaked         you  are,  the  more  they  can  milk  ya  for.  you  ain’t         gonna  go  through  the  security  to  hit  a  school  for         troubled  rich  kids  if  you’re  not  gonna  siphon  them         for  all  they’re  worth.  that’s  why  you  pick  someone         from  every  fuckin’  social  circle  at  this  school,  to         make  it  personal  for  everyone.  you  keep  it  on  the         ANONYMOUS  to  drive  em  all  nuts  on  paranoia.         you  snatch  grown  fuckin’  men  &  chop  up  a  body         or  two  to  let'm  know  you’re  hard  and   p s y c h o.  

        ...but  something  tells  me         i  don’t  gotta  explain  this  to  Y O U,  do  i  ??  ❜ 

That thing he did where named two out of Sid’s three favorite people who were kidnapped and then put that morbid image in Sid’s head? Yeah, that was the least helpful thing to do to someone who was trying to stay calm. But it was a quick way to make some’s gut twist, and Sid had an ugly hunch that that was the goal here.

“We’re all stuck here, we might as well make the best of the time that we’ve got here. Lets play truth or dare, give me your best.”

❛    ......here’s  a  TRUTH :  ❜