HEY, i think i just saw GRAHAM COOPER walking down the strip. stop by to catch up and you’ll learn the THIRTY FOUR YEAR OLD is working as the OWNER OF THE DEADLY POSSESSIONS HAUNTED MUSEUM and lives in SOLSTICE APARTMENTS. given they are PERSONABLE but BLUNT, it’s likely that they ARE NOT a vampire. on the flipside, rumor has it that HE FLED NEW MEXICO AFTER A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE THIRD KIND and it keeps them looking over their shoulder. i bet you can find them tearing up the dance floor to SK8R BOI by AVRIL LAVIGNE and you’ll know why they’re called THE SELL-OUT. ☾ .⭒˚ rahul kohli. male + he/they. fluid + taurus.
There's not many people in New Mexico. There are even fewer people in the small town of Truth or Consequences. But in that small town, there is a natural history museum. This is where Graham grew up - his parents both working as conservationists and teachers at the small institution. He was surrounded with the beauty of the desert and the big skies from a young age, but the expanse also told him there was more out there for him than just this small town.
College brought him out of Truth or Consequences. Finding middling success in his business classes, Graham found himself surrounding himself with more and more eccentric people. Shamans, poets, and mediums became his friend group, and they would spend days out in the desert looking at the skies. With a small group of ragtag individuals, Graham would drive around the state with a video camera, recording everything from readings to performances to mysteries in the sky. It was this final thing that would change his life - or perhaps start it anew.
Graham had always been industrious. He worked several jobs on campus and more or less funded his friends' escapades, all the while sending small amounts home to support his parents. But he knew his friend group could do more, be bigger. He proposed an idea to them: a reality show, that he would shoot and edit himself. Initially, the group was amenable to the idea. Yara, a poet, was particularly thrilled she would have a built-in audience for her performances, whereas Phil (a self-proclaimed "medium between this earth and another galaxies away) was much more reticent about having his exploits on film.
Graduation came and went, and the group started their final summer together before scattering to the winds. Graham had written home and, along with all of his savings, was proud to borrow a little money from his parents in order to buy a home down the street from his parents in Truth or Consequences. Yara was moving to New York, and Phil would be relocating to Roswell. Other members of their friends would be scattered to the various winds. And so they drifted apart.
Graham worked many years at the same museum that his parents worked at, and the Coopers became locally famous as the museum family. It was a nice, simple life - his parents teaching and maintaining exhibits while he worked the gift shop and ticketing. Years passed until he got a call from Phil - he wanted the gang back together, and perhaps Graham could bring his video camera.
With a sense of nostalgia and adventure, Graham drove the hours to meet Phil in Roswell, thrilled to see that Yara had also flown in from New York. Phil seemed to have spiraled all these years out - he was haggard and sickly. But nevertheless, the three palled around, recounting old adventures and catching up with each other. Then Phil told them the true meaning of the request: he wanted to show them something he had "summoned from a galaxy far away." With a healthy sense of fun and skepticism, Yara and Graham piled into Phil's car and they drove deep into the desert, Graham's camera in the back seat.
Graham doesn't talk about what he saw that day. The next time his parents heard from him was weeks later, when he arrived back in Truth or Consequences to finalize the sale of his home. He couldn't tell them why, but he needed out of New Mexico as fast as he could. He packed a few things in the back of his car and drove north until an empty gas tank forced him to stop.
His camera was left in the desert, and Yara hasn't been heard from since.
Graham's car eventually stopped in Las Vegas. For a few weeks, he lived in a hotel on the strip, until an opportunity arose to purchase a dream: the Deadly Possessions Haunted Museum and continue his parents' legacy. With that stability - and a business project at hand - Graham has found his stride again, and his industrious mind is cranking again. He has assembled another small cohort of misfits and oddballs, and the call of business is alive and well.
He might even buy another video camera soon.





















