#redaches

It always sucks to get Called to a town. Even a tiny one in fuck-all-nowhere Virginia where phones don’t work and Flick’s pretty sure most of the people have never even seen, like, a Starbucks or whatever. In fact these ones might be the worst of all because a small town like this? Chances are people actually know each other, talk to their neighbours and all that shit. It’s not the sense of community Flick has a problem with, that’s fine, but if she’s here then that means something is terribly wrong-wrong enough that not all these neighbours and pta mums and folksy diner owners are going to survive. She feels like a harbinger of death, of doom; the fifth horseman of the apocalypse dressed in platform boots and ripped jeans. 

Best case scenario, there’s something living in the woods she can deal with quickly without any collateral damage. Worst case scenario this whole town is in on something, like that death cult back in Nebraska, and she ends up having to fight people instead of just monsters; not that the difference is always as clear as she’d like. 

She’s in the towns one and only diner, dunking her chips (fries, whatever) into her milkshake and trying to decide if the weird looks the waitress is because she’s in on something, or because she’s just never met anyone goth or Scottish before. A bell above the door jingles and she turns her two-tone gaze to the newcomer. A kid, mid to late teens maybe? Either way he’s a good a place to start as any. Kids are usually always a safer bet than adults-that one time in Nebraska notwithstanding. 

🙶   you   know   this   is   gonna   be   dangerous,   right,   @redaches​   ?   one   wrong   move,   one   wrong   meeting   and   we   could   be   dead   .   .   .   you   understand   ?   🙷      he’s   used   to   this   lifestyle,   to   knowing   the   thread   of   his   fate   isn’t   in   his   hands   ⸺   though   the   hands   it’s   been   in   has   been   merciful   so   far   but   he   wants   to   make   sure   his   friend   knows   what   he’s   agreeing   to.

meme | accepting | @redaches

If there's one thing Charlie knows, it's that Tirin The Skull-Crusher never runs from a fight. It doesn't matter how big or scary the monster is, she'll run towards it with her greataxe held high and a mighty roar bellowing from in between her sharp dragonborth teeth. No, Tirin Skull-Crusher is no coward, and she'll break the bones of anyone who would suggest otherwise.

"I want to position myself at the front of the group, pull out my greataxe, and go into a rage." That's the other thing about Tirin Skull-Crusher, see, is that she might be grumpy and hard edges and big muscles but she's also good and she protects her friends no matter what. Sure she might take more hits in combat by always drawing the fire-but that's what being a tank is all about and besides, Tirin Skull-Crusher will happily take the big hits if it means her friends don't have to. She's good like that, is Tirin, and her friends love her for it.

Charlie thinks that she might not be any of those things. Oh she's grumpy and hard edges, sure, but unlike her dragonborn counterpart she's never figured out how to have the softness underneath too. Instead she just snarls and snaps at people who get too close, and threatens to leave them down in the Maze even though she never, ever would-not really, not in a million years. But nobody knows that because they don't ask and she doesn't know how to show them. Even before this, before the Lucids and the Maze and Speak-As-One, before all of that, she was still one of the weird loner kids on the edge of the school's ecosystem. Tolerated, sure, but more so because she was Bell's friend than because people actually liked her. And she'd been fine with that, really, she had, being the weird angry loner girl was fine because Bells was always there to drag her out of her shell and force her to be kind but now-now-

meme | accepting | @redaches

"Trust me, it wasn't my idea." when it comes to the other members of the club, Charlie is much better at revenge than rescuing. Seeing her friends, or even just her classmates, dead at the hands of the cult hurts in a way she doesn't think she will ever be able to describe. The difference with those situations, of course, is that she has Seed-The-Grudge to lean back on-encouraging her to burn this whole fucking town to the ground, as if Charlie has ever needed any persuading. Living rescue missions are harder, because it means Charlie has to talk to the person she's untying, and sometimes lead them out of the Maze when they can't walk themselves. The whole process is always clumsy and-if Charlie were the type of person to get scared, which she swears she isn't-even more terrifying than usual.

Still, she can't take down Speak-As-One by herself, even with a bit of interdimensional help, which means rescuing idiots like Daph who were too stupid or too slow to run when a Lucid caught them snooping around. Maybe she should be kinder, but Charlie Miller hasn't been generous or forgiving for a long time now. Not since the last time she saw Bells, actually.