#phqstarter

Beck pulled their sweater’s sleeves further over their cold fingers. The constant wind pulling at every part of them. Sure, they had seen winters in New York too, but something about Pleasance’s vibe made them scowl. It must be the fact that they didn’t want to be here. 

When a few months ago someone had told him that he needed to pack his stuff and hide in a small Ohio town, Beck had been sad and frustrated. Now he just laughed. Of all places.

He leaned back against the wall, often on watch outside of Dutch’s, doing Bishan’s dirty work. He looked at the poster next to him, and gestured to the first person who passed the bar. “You voting for this one?” He asked, pointing at Jesse’s handsome face.

Bez looked out over the lake, notebook in hand, eyes slightly widened. A new clue, a new hint: it could all be coming from there. Their face shot up. “Wait, don’t come closer, please!” 

Jax was feeling weird, odd even, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but all of it was wrong and right at the same time. She shook her body, trying to wake up, but it didn’t work. She couldn’t, she was in a daze, in a haze, completely lost to herself. 

Ajita was running a one-person protest. She had made a huge board on a whim, gotten her mom to drive her into town, prepared a bag with coffee and some lunch, and was chanting: “Not another failure no, the institute has got to go!” She wasn’t the right person to be making slogans, but she had decided to do this as quickly as possible, and that meant she had written down whatever had come into her brain the night before. But it was true: the institute had got to go, because she was certain this fuck up was their fault.

She yelled at the first police officer that told her to leave. “I have a right to protest, it says in city rules that only if my protest is over a hundred people, I have to get a permit, I know the rules, I’m not in anyone’s way.” 

Rhys was walking through the main street with a small card filled with water bottles.

Because his faucet was having a black water problem - he still turned it on every hour to check - and Jesse said he would solve it.

But Rhys needed to drink. Water for Coffee, for tea, for noodles, for other things.

He was hoarding water. 

Apocalypse style.

Bishan flipped the closed sign back on, stepped outside, and slammed the establishment closed with a grunt. He was so done with all of this. So very done. “Fucking water,” he growled. He was so close to getting one of the joints from his pocket and lighting one. But his business was out of business for the day - and however fucking longer - and he was having so serious issues with using bottled water for the dishes at Dutch’s. 

“What?!” he said to the first person passing him. “Need anything, place’s closed. You’d have more chance washing shit in the lake, or drinking from the lake even.” 

Bez yawned, they hadn’t closed a single eye since the day before, and they were certain their sleeping hadn’t been great, or at least not up to standards, and the whole night they had calls about the water. The dark water.

It needed to be solved. 

They stared at the glass in front of them.

It had to be solved.

It may be fucking cold out, but Captain Edris wasn't the sort of woman that let cold weather keep her from ice-cream. Having worked an early shift - quiet as it always was given the small town, she decided that she was going to treat herself. She built herself a sundae full of sprinkles more than ice cream, but also continued to try and carry three small dishes of dog-friendly ice-cream complete with dog treats as a garnish.