#444fm

ㅤㅤtonight is like any other. or at least it seems like any other. another night, another murder scene, another calling card, and another weight on her shoulders. the street is dimly lit by the flashing blue lights of her car and her torch, the only lamp post in sight being smashed and out of use, casting her in a general, eerie darkness filled with shadows and small movements. yellow numbered plaques litter the scene, signifying the location from which each piece of bagged and tagged evidence had been retrieved.

ㅤㅤit's quiet and cold, cold enough now that she could see her breath as she knelt by the corpse, latex covered fingers extending to pluck the piece of card that had been stuffed into the open and fresh wound — sliding it into a plastic baggie to deal with later. for the first time in her two years on the job, she's overcome with a strange sense of panic as a jolt courses down her spine, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up as she moved away from the crime scene and towards her car, peeling the gloves off as she did. " it's nothing, maritza... " she mutters to herself in a weak bid to calm her nerves, cold fingers fighting to unlock her phone screen as she huddles in front of the open trunk — hitting the sms button next to ashton's name.

connections pile on top of connections. to avery, it's almost funny how small the world happens to be. how people cross paths in all kinds of ways, to the point where one can't help but feel that it's all FATED. it's a far more romantic sentiment than avery typically ascribes herself to, but in certain cases, she can't help but feel there was a tinge of destiny to it all. like des. it's one of those happy accident kind of moments, where mateo's there getting work done, and she's tagging along for company, only, it ends up being avery and des who are talking the whole time instead of her the two of them. and that's just like, that funny moment where their paths cross, but...

... honestly? she's SUPER THANKFUL for whatever brings the two of them together, because in des? she found someone who was truly her other half in friendship. it came at the right time as things fell to pieces with that girl who never really made it with her ex, and how that was super unfortunate but she didn't need to burn the world down with her and... well. that had sucked. but des was always someone who was like, truly, a girl's girl, the both of them meeting up for drinks and dancing, her grin cracking as the other woman climbs into her car. "wow. you look fucking incredible." there's an airy laugh as her foot presses on the pedal, the both of them zooming into the night.

winter / holiday prompts ( accepting ) + @444fm // dakota & mateo ( still crying blood tears over here okayyyyyy is this a present for me!? 🥺👏🏻 ) [ decorations ] sender and receiver decorate for the holidays together

shit's like. really moving for them. and they've come so far from meeting up and getting started, all of them fresh into something that has become undeniably incredible in the last year and a half. dakota and rue, they move back finally, after everything... and it's like, they kind of have the chance to approach everything as if it were BRAND NEW, and inside? rue's fucking feeling it, isn't she? that maybe... maybe they're actually made it. and maybe, just maybe, they were allowed to feel excited, and celebrate for it, too.

the place they've got not certainly looks it. a far cry from the slice-above-a-flophouse that they'd all lived in during that once upon a time, they've got a condo overlooking the city now. a studio for them, and room for all of them to spread out if need be, the truth was that she loved spending EVERY MOMENT with them, as was evidenced by the way all three of them were hard at work on making the whole place seem like... well. home. it'd been her quiet ask to the both of them, because like, they hadn't really had the chance to do this together before, so couldn't they...? make it their own?

and both of them were just so good at that with her. knowing that she didn't exactly have a family to go back to, that it was the three of them against the world... they all managed to carve out what felt like a pretty awesome slice of christmas for each other, the tree already done, rue handing mateo the star as her arm looped about dakota's waist, pressing a kiss into the latter's cheek. "ok. as the official TALLEST out of all of us, the honour's yours." her expression's all lit up in a grin, pulling from the joint between her fingers that she'll puff, puff, pass as was customary. behind them, the city stretches out, the perfect compliment... and fuck.

@444fm continued from here!

marlene's known lo forever - the same way that all pretty girls in small places do. she's from up the road, the english family that moves here to retire after her father's done in some military role back home. he's settled since into the local council, politics and her mother as a HOMEMAKER. it's all so dreadfully boring, and she latches onto lo as the two of them sizzle with the discontent that teenaged girls seem to forever brim and bubble over with.

they play HIDE AND SEEK within the rooms of the motel, smoke cigarettes outside while dipping their toes into the pool. they talk about how they might one day escape this place, on the night marlene spends over, convincing dolores to do rituals with her beneath the light of the moon, the atmosphere always, forever, dripping hot and drenched to the bone. that's the south, she learns. you're never truly ever comfortable here.

harlen comes later. all limbs, that boy, and he owns them well. they're both with him for that FIRST TATTOO, and laugh as it becomes an obsession. she thinks, this is what family's supposed to be, even when she isn't sure what the future looks like for them all. but does it feel surprising that her sundays still mean that she's dripping on a couch, sipping 7 up from a dripping can? having come with iced coffees that are sweating on the countertop for the both of them now, a heel dangling haphazardly from her foot. "is that weird couple still in 7A? i'm telling you, i saw them on the 8pm news."

"okay so like..." her voice coils and curves, like the smoke that hangs within the air - her gaze flickering over to maddy's own, who sits there FILING HER NAILS, unbothered, or so it seems.

they're like 15 and maddy is the unwitting idol of them all. or maybe that's the point. her PURPOSE. rue catches maddy with that guy at the back of the bowling alley. neither of them talk about it, that anxiety running through her, hot and loud. "a.. are you and nate on a break or something?"