#sadeckoes

@healiotrope gets a visit from Callie after the hunt...

Her mom and dad were afraid to let her out of their sight after that whole fucked up scene in the forest. Callie knew part of it was because of the fact that someone just died (and it could have been so much worse), but a part of her knew that there was still a lingering thread of distrust for her actions. The cop, the gun, everything about Adam Martin...

But if this whole mess had taught the girl anything, it was that when her mother tried to keep secrets, people would end up dead. That's why she needed some answers. She had to know what was going on in that cult woman's head -- and if they really would have killed Shauna if given the chance.

Callie had no loyalty to the Yellowjackets. In fact, they'd done nothing but cast a massive fucking shadow over her life since day one. But now she felt like she was a part of something, as much as mother dearest had tried to keep her out of it. And that something compelled her to find the hospital where they'd taken the woman she shot, the one with dark hair and doe eyes that shined through her fucked up feathered mask -- Lottie. It was Lottie, right? That's what her dad said. Her mom didn't talk about that woman much at all (and maybe for good reason).

So when she got to the hospital, Callie did her best to convince the resident nurse she was family (who else would call her Lottie, not Charlotte?), hoping the woman in question wouldn't turn her away when she recognized the girl without the gun. Yeah, so she forgot to bring flowers -- she came as soon as she heard. It was believable enough, because she was let through eventually. She stood in the doorway of Lottie's room, terrified of having gotten this far. Callie had no plan, she wasn't even sure what she would get out of this, but she had to try... right?

closed starter for @werechampions (shauna) set after the showdown at the compound

It's been a week and her parents were gunning for gold at the Hardcore Denial Olympics. Never fucking mind that her mom's friends were dressed in purple cult clothes and animal masks from the Hobby Lobby in hell. Callie feels like she's going insane just thinking about it -- she can still feel the recoil of the gun in her hands, still smell the acrid tang of the gunpowder. Were either of her parents ever going to check on their daughter, who saw way more than she should have and understands even less now?

She thought they were making a breakthrough. After the cops thing, and her dad being honest about the baby... But now, it's like her mom and dad were replaced by zombies, except a kind that only can talk about menial bullshit like the weather and furniture sales. So, not much different. Only Callie can see what's taking shape under the peeling paint.

The teen rolls over in bed, sighing dramatically as she scrolls listlessly through TikTok. She doesn't want to be the one to bring it up -- best case scenario, they ignore her. Worst case, they try to therapize her, as if they aren't totally fucked up too. A thump in the kitchen grabs her attention, though, and she plods out of her room to find her mom doing... something.

@thycarnifex gets approached by callie after the compound

The Sadecki family had quite a crash course in pretending things were normal lately, hadn't they? It didn't exactly surprise Callie, as she'd grown up knowing her mother was always hiding things about her past, acting as if she'd gotten over them. As if the ghost of Jackie Taylor wasn't plastered to their walls, as if Google searches didn't tell the girl more about her mother's life than the woman herself ever did.

And then there was this whole Adam situation and Callie had tried her best to get with the pretending. Surely it ran in the family, right? She was still so embarrassed about being used by the cop like that, just when she finally felt like she'd gotten one over on Shauna in their weird little game of trying to get control over things. Maybe that was all Callie wanted -- a sense of control, like her entire existence wasn't being dictated by someone else's trauma. By a cult of traumatized soccer players in their early 40s, whether they realized it or not.

Maybe that's why pretending now that nothing happened back in the woods when Callie finally saw the truth for herself -- if there was even truth to be found in all of the confusion -- was making her itch. Her mom couldn't lie about this anymore, couldn't pretend like it wasn't real and wasn't actively ruining everyone's lives.

"So, are we just not gonna talk about how those women were going to fucking kill you?" Callie blurted out on a quiet afternoon at home, catching Shauna in moment of mundane routine. She looked at her mom with a mixture of hurt and concern widening her eyes and creasing her brows.

@darkconsumed {jeff} and callie are in the car headed to lottie's compound...

Callie's head was swimming as they drove upstate. Her dad had given her the short version of the story, about her mom and everything that had happened. Jackie, her brother... Of course Shauna was never going to open up to her about it. And a heavy gray cloud of swirling emotion had hung over her heart since hearing about it.

But all of that was mixed up in fear and in frustration -- she'd spent years of her life feeling resented, kept at a distance from her mom. And for a while, she told herself that was fine. She'd just put up her own walls to protect herself from the woman who didn't seem to or want to care. Callie had always felt closer with her dad, but even he had been hiding a lot from her. And now there was this whole mess with Adam Martin, and finding out her mom was a murderer. It was just so hard to put her thoughts in order, especially with --

"Oh my god, dad, what even is this music?" It was something old and so not her style. But on a road trip like this, they needed to keep the peace. Maybe take turns at the radio dial. Callie sighed, leaning her arm and head on the passenger window and watching the road around them pass by.