#sluething

plotted starter for @sluething​

“I know, B… I know.” She sounds defeated when she says it, exhaling hard and fast against the tension in her ribs that has her strung up in her seat like a corset. Betty’s hand is on her knee and Veronica stares at it. It’s better to stare at that than the wide, soft gaze of Betty Cooper’s eyes, peering into her glossy and concerned with a thousand questions Veronica hasn’t been ready to answer. She’s a regular Hitchcock, Blonde – Betty Cooper. The kind that looks innocent and knows too much, the kind that shows the world a reflection of how terrible it can be because of the way reds and blacks and blues stain against her so boldly. That’s always been the thing that struck Veronica most about her. And now, it feels like some kind of weapon, wielded against her. People often said Hitchcock’s blondes were chosen that way because they unraveled the audience. Betty Cooper unravelled her.

It’s the most off her game Veronica Lodge has ever felt. Despite everything – with everything – she’s never once felt so much like the ground is shaking, prepared to collapse beneath every pointed click of her heels the way it feels now. Not her father’s arrest, not her move to Riverdale, not any of it. But now –

“It was Nick,” she starts to explain, still not entirely able to look Betty in the eyes. “Nick St. Claire. He came to town and something happened.” She realzies she’s a Hitchcock of her own, framing this story in the way that it slides out best and feels safest, instead of ripping out the grim reality as it sits, somewhere inside of her rotting her body from somewhere inside her ribs. She’s always been rotten just a little. It’s always leaked out.

Veronica tugs her knee away from Betty’s heavy hand on it. She hates to even do it but it feels better. Safer. Like maybe she won’t be able to rot anything else.

       Riverdale may not be the most highly sought town for any vampire, but Klaus found the quaint burrow to his liking ; for the time being, as it were. With a high casualty count, the cause from its own mortal occupants, he was sure that a few more bodies to pile up wouldn’t exactly raise eyebrows towards the clandestine world of the supernatural. He never stayed in one place for too long, anyway –– always on the move, following any leads to find the ingredients to break his curse. That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy himself from time to time. Being an immortal vampire in the modern world was a gift, he had decided. The world was his oyster ; the cities his playground. He refused to deny who he was in order to stay tethered to a world that never wanted him in the first place.

As the vampire stalked the darkened alleys of the town one night, he set his eyes on a brunette that looked far too delicious to ignore. She appeared to be waiting for someone, making her easy pickings in his opinion. Having a little fun with his flair for the dramatics, he remained concealed in the shadows as he worked the air around them to produce a thick fog to slowly roll into the alley. The air grew chilly, setting the scene of any clichéd horror film. The sound of rustling, of disembodied breaths could be heard without any sight of the mysterious figure who watched the young brunette.

I am attempting to family tree. It's...not going great. My mom's side of the tree? No problems. I know more about her side so I can confirm the names are accurate (up to a point at least). My dad's side? Oysh.

I've been able to do quite a bit of tracing for his mom's side of things. Blazier is a pretty unique last name, and someone else actually did a lot of the work for me already. Tracing the Blazier line back generations, it's insane. Even the Gliddon/Oakes (Gliddon was my paternal great-grandma's maiden name and Oakes became her last name after Blazier). But I don't know how/why my great-grandma remarried an Oakes. I had heard once that my great-grandpa Blazier had died, and that she had remarried an Oakes. But when I went on findagrave.com, it showed he died in 1966, which meant he died when my dad was 10, and he had no memory of him, only ever knew Grandpa Oakes. So...I'm confused there.

But it gets worse. My paternal grandfather also had a step-dad. His biological dad died when he was really young. I've tried asking my dad for info and all he knows is that grandpa was born "somewhere in Missouri", but he didn't know where. And that when grandpa's mom remarried, they moved to DeKalb. But I don't know if that means he moved from Missouri to DeKalb, or if he was already in Illinois and moved one town to a neighboring town. One family tree website I'm on has his (my grandpa's) dad listed as being born in Tennessee in 1911, but that he DIED in 1944 in Jerome Idaho, leaving behind a wife (Margaret) and one son (Joseph Charles). No mention of my grandpa or his mom. BUT, another family tree website, says he was born in 1902 in Richmond Virginia, and died 1938 in Belvedere IL. At least in the same state I'm in and closer to DeKalb, so would make moving after his death make sense.

My mom really doesn't know much about my grandpa's life/family. All she remembers is what my dad already told me, and that my dad's second or third cousin is Barbara Hale, the 1950s actress. She said she remembers grandpa mentioning once that Barbara Hale once came to a family reunion thing, wearing a fur coat and looking so very out of place. She also said she remembers grandpa saying his grandma was full-blood Cherokee and that he called her Gram.

That. Is. It. That's all I've got for my dad's side of the family. I try looking his dad up for birth certificates or death certificates or obituaries, and can't find a single thing. I don't know which person to believe as HIS father, so I can't find anything about great-grandpa either.

inbox things: @sluething​ sent [ smile ] for your muse to smile at mine from across the room

Never in her life has Veronica Lodge felt like a loser. Never until tonight. Even as she thinks the thought she can hear her father’s voice in her head; Mija, there are no winners and losers. Only people too afraid to play the game. Life, by the words and teachings of Hiram Lodge is a game. No matter how far away he is now, behind bars and far out of Riverdale. No matter how jaded Veronica feels, in a new town with new people and her mother trying to get herself afloat, his words still have impact -- or at least they used to. Because Hiram Lodge is a man. A man who takes and takes, does everything he wants without true consequences, plays the game for as long as he chooses. Veronica isn’t that. Veronica is a woman, a woman who society would claw to pieces were she to step one patent leather heel in the wrong place. She. may be a trendsetter, a rule-breaker, a show stopper, but in life, she’s a woman. In Riverdale, she’s a girl. And at Riverdale High School’s spring fling she’s a loser. That’s the only word for it there is. 

Because across the room, Jughead Jones dances with Betty Cooper in his arms. And he’s won.

He doesn’t have to even know there was a game. He doesn’t have to know that Veronica had thought of every single solitary strategic way she could slip in and snake Betty right out from under his poorly kept finger nails. He doesn’t have to know that she could ruin him backwards, sideways, upside down, and with one hand in her mother’s purse. All he knows, with his blissfully unaware, stupidly satisfied face sticking out from under a hat that has no place in a formal setting, is that he has Betty Cooper. And whether he knows it or not, he’s won. 

Veronica hates even thinking it. She hates lying her head against Archie Andrews’s strapping chest muscles and taking them for granted. She hates holding his hand and looking into his warm smile and knowing that a thousand girls deserve it more. But she needs to be held by someone tonight. And she’ll deal with her own cruelty toward Archie when she can bear it. She can only face one of her own evil deeds at a time, and for tonight, she’ll have to face the cardinal sin she feels like she’s committing, by treating Betty Cooper like she’s something to be won. 

FRIENDS.   childhood friends  /  work friends  /  family friends  /  recently friends /  turning antagonistic  /  turning into something romantic  / stable  / falling apart  /  friendship of need  / friendship of circumstance  /   pen - pals or internet friends  /  coworkers  /  partners  /  other  

ROMANCE.   childhood sweethearts  / newly entered /  soulmates  /  skinny love  / unrequited from my muses side  /  unrequited from your muses side  /  friends with benefits  /  awkward /  fading  /  turning  toxic  /  toxic  and  destructive  /  other  :   this ?

FAMILIAL BOND.   sibling bond  / older sibling figure to your muse  /  younger sibling figure to your muse  /  parental figure to your muse  /  parental figure to your muse  /  guardian figure  /  legal  guardian  / other 

ENEMIES.   dangerous to themselves  /  dangerous to others  /  unpredictable  /  passionate  /  rivals  /  petty  /  developing into a sexual tension  /  developing into a romantic tension  / based off family matters /  based of circumstance  /  based of professional matters  / based of misunderstandings or lies /  other

I will find you.