Tinsley Bell

“I’m pretty sure it’s all the people in here, I should have brought a costume change“, Belle had decided to dress up as the dancing emoji but with a long sleeve dress, she should have worn cotton but it was too cold outside. “Do you want to take off your costume for a second? You can duck in the bathroom and I’ll keep watch, that way no one will notice you taking it off. I’m dressing as something with a jacket next year”.

"It sure is a crowd but that's what you get for throwing a non-exclusive party, I guess." Tins shrugged, feeling quite like a sardine in a tin as she scanned the room. A little smile tugged at her lips once she focussed back on Belle in her costume. "It is nice to see pretty much everyone dressed up for the occasion though and you know, that we're all suffering the same fate." The blonde giggled. Her eyes lit up at the other's offer. "Oh please! Yes! You understand me so well." She already followed the designated signs to the restroom before the other could change her mind. "Honestly, had I known that this party would have an actual system for coats and other belongings, I wouldn't have been afraid to wear layers either. But it was that tiny thought of having to carry everything around and getting spilt on, that told me not to do it. I should've judged Mr. Bailey better. Ohh, I wonder if the stall doors will be mark-free too, or just as daubed as at school - then we could be the first to sign." She teased, looking back at Belle to make sure she was following. 

    “I don’t think you should,” Peter began, as a form of warning—watching as Tink takes one pull of her drink, emptying the glass. As far as he was able to scout, the drinks were mostly the strong stuff (the ones on the tables at least). Laughing when Tink hugged him, Peter shook his head. He absolutely gave himself away. “You know if someone’s taken a picture of us, it’s gonna look so funny.” A stingray hugging a Power Ranger that’ll score some likes on Instagram for sure. “I was gonna go as Judge Dredd,” Peter admitted, looking down at Tink and smiling (inside the helmet, he was, really). “Uhhhh, a cooling gel’s similar to a cooling pad? You’ve seen one of those?” He offered, “Oh, I saw a cooling vest on Amazon! Can you believe it? The kind of stuff people come up with.” He saw a heating-vest, and it was impressive and hilarious at the same time. “Let’s take a pic together before we forget!” It was necessary, a ritual for their memory-catalog book.

Tink shook her head fiercely. "Silly, I would never wish to become the next gossip girl by walking around in my negligee. Although... compared to some 'costumes' I've seen today, people might not even blink an eye over it." She muttered the last part under her breath, not feeling like it was worth pulling more attention to. "Don't we always? Look fun, I mean." It wasn't said in a bored tone. On the contrary, Tink dared to pride herself a little in her online accounts and well, how could she ever bore of her friendship with Peter? "Oh! Or are you really hoping no one - besides me, of course - will know it's you underneath? Makes sense you didn't dress like the other guy then. Your smile would've given you away." She reasoned so with certainty. When he explained the cooling gel to her, the mental image of blue goo smeared on the inside of her costume suddenly seemed silly. "Gotcha. I don't know why I was thinking of chillows. Probably spotted them on the teleshopping channel the other channel. Along with ridiculous sunglasses and a chargeable travel blender that I weirdly felt inclined to buy - can you believe that? Gosh I can never be left alone at home during noon again." Apparently she was a sucker for 'at random' conducted street surveys and a constant repetition of 'how this blender is going to change your life.' Tink wrapped her arms around him from the side (not just to show off the sunshine emblems on her arm, tsk) and closed her eyes while she smiled, expecting a flash to go off. “Say Halloweeeen!”

Silvie stared at Tins for a moment, their brain not transitioning subjects quite as quickly. Why would Tins be asking them about romance? Sil hadn’t had a crush on someone since watching Ninja Turtles and Sailor Moon as a kid, and cartoon crushes certainly couldn’t be counted as romantic “tales”. It didn’t help Sil also didn’t get where the pun was in ‘average Joe’.

“Uh. I don’t know! Am I supposed to have one?” Well, Sil sure would be open to getting a happily ever after rom-com ending, one certainly wasn’t in sight at the moment, “I guess Terence is cute. But I think you’d have more to tell me about Peter.”

Noticing her friend pretty much gaping at her, she slowed down and retraced at least three of her steps. “I’m sorry Sil, I didn’t mean to catch you off guard! But you were talking about average Joe’s and the Taylor Swift’s boyfriends that aren’t named Joe and moving onto her problems… I assumed maybe you wanted to discuss any dates of your own.” Granted, Tins should know that any news about her best friends would have reached her ears by now, but at this moment she was too caught up to consider that perhaps there was nothing left to fish for. Her finger traced invisible circles around the table and her head rested in her palm when she added in an almost melodic tone, “Though I suppose you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Or don’t have one - whatever.” 

Tinsley just about managed to not swoon all up in Silvie’s face once they did start to open up and dropped a familiar name. “Agreed. They’re the type that always has your back, too. Not to mention an inner circle fling is bound to happen to one of us soon! It’d be so romantic, I would definitely root for you! As for Peter, hmm,” The one name that rarely failed to brighten her mood pulled its trick once again. Beaming, she said without giving it much thought, “his hair’s so big because it’s full of secrets and yes, he does steal the green M&Ms if you don’t beat him to it - what else you wanna know?” Wiggling her eyebrows proved she’d only shared that in jest. It’s not that she meant to keep her different worlds apart rather than avoid getting too personal about her best friends behind their backs. But if Sil was truly interested…

    Peter did ask Tink about her costume. He bugged her so much via texts. The only clue he was given was that it’s something unique and he hasn’t seen before. So Tink dressing up as a fairy was out of the question. (He liked the fairy costume she wore when they were little, okay.) “How many layers of.. things are you wearing for this… look?!” Peter asked, in his own Green Power Ranger costume. No one was able to tell that it was him. So far. “Can’t you take it off for a few minutes, get some breather, and then back to partying?” He wondered. Eyeing the free drinks on the long table, he considered his options: a) take off his helmet and have a drink b) get a straw and have that drink c) suffer and be dehydrated for the rest of the event. “Maybe you should’ve attached some cooling gel, Tink.” Oh, shoot. He just gave himself away.

Letting out a soft chuckle, she had to admit she was impressed with Tinsley’s costume. It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise that the other would think a little more out of the box, but the whole thing was genius. It may not have been Marie’s aesthetic, but she could still appreciate genius costumes. “You look amazing though, very clever costume, which means feeling like an oven is totally worthwhile. Looking good isn’t always comfortable, right?” She joked, though those were words she lived by. Half of wardrobe was incredibly uncomfortable - but it looked amazing, which was what was important to her. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you come up with it?” 

Marie's compliments made her feel like she was glowing with pride, rather than sweat for a moment. Her "Thank you so much!" was therefore nothing short of heartfelt. "Honestly it was too short notice to think of a group costume for my friends and I and to order it in time. But the invitation said to come as you are, right? Which reminded me of an old sketch from April I still had lying around and was able to sew together rather quickly this week." Tinsley explained, seemingly skipping some steps but how she went from ideas to evergrowing excitement to actual execution, only ever quite made sense to her. She wanted to return the favour and ask about Marie's outfit but it was oh so much prettier that Tinsley's face fell a little when she told her so. "Gosh, I'm sure all the girls in here envy you though, Marie."

“Well usually the place isn’t packed to the fucking rafters, so.” Lock shrugged, his tone far more bitteresque than he’d been going for - but then again, he hadn’t really been going for anything at all. It wasn’t as if he wanted to cling to Oogie’s place being exclusive, but for years, it had been a sanctuary if nothing else - but now, it was managing to make three of his favourite things (Halloween, overly packed parties, and Oscar’s) nothing short of boring, irritating - somewhere in between, anyway. He glanced sideways towards the person speaking to him, looking her costume up and down, and though it took him longer than he’d like to admit, when what she was finally clicked into place, he couldn’t help but give her a genuinely impressed sort of smile. “When you’re in costume, you have to make sacrifices. You’ve chosen to commit to this - you’re not gonna back out now or risk ruining it just cause of the heat down here, are you?”

To say she knew Lock would be a gross overstatement but since she counted his sister as an acquaintance, it came easy to make a few assumptions. One of them being his connection to the grand man of the evening - albeit he made no effort to hide it. Tins noted his uniform and how he said 'usually', after all. "Pff I wasn't saying the problem is with me but with this place. Of course I'm not going to give up on something I worked so hard on." And of course, she wasn't going to admit her idea was faulty when it came to heat, bathroom breaks or even general mobility. "I was just hoping that maybe you knew of a quick way out to get some fresh air. You know, without the hassle of going through there." The last thing she wanted was to come off as a whine so Tins tried to appear tougher than she was and asked the first thing that came to mind, "Isn't there a side exit to go take a smoke or something where you can take me?"

Blowing out a huge breath of air, Tinsley puffed, “Phew, it is so much warmer here underground than I could’ve imagined.” Granted, her decorated stingray costume wasn’t made of the lightest fabrics either but something about Oogie’s place made her shiver in a feverish way. Fanning herself as best as she could, she raised her glass and said to the person next to her, “I swear if I was able to reach behind me and pour this down my back, I literally would.” The small blonde forgot to laugh with that so it may have not been all too clear to everyone that she was merely joking.

“you don’t think it’s actually haunted, do you?” she loved halloween, at least she thought she did but there were rumors her building was haunted and she wasn’t sure if she believed it. old water heaters and rusted pipes could sound just like ghosts and ghouls after all.

“Hmm, let’s sum up all the facts,” Tins pretended to think it over but it wasn’t her building and it wasn’t her fear so who was she to take it seriously? Turning her back to the doorstep to face Anya, she started counting on her fingers. “You don’t know how or where the occupant before you died, correct? On top of that, there must be a reason why your apartment complex is even cheaper than my voodoo-riddled one. And let’s not forget, you’ve barely claimed the place for yourself so you know, anyone - or anything might feel at home here on this lovely hallows eve.” She started taking strides backwards to the door. Conceited enough to feel confident, the small blonde even dared to add: “Why not go back inside and ask the ghosts what they think?”

*: ･ﾟ∙ * ⁕ TINSLEY BELL EVENT OUTFIT .03

It always seemed innocent conversations about Taylor Swift could quickly turn to philosophical for Silvie. They didn’t love the analogy of superpower, it seemed too haughty to proclaim such a thing about themself. In truth, Sil sometimes wished they could hold onto memories better. Sometime it felt as though people slipped through their fingers too much without getting a real grasp on each one.

But of course, Sil usually saw the best in people and Tins usually held onto grudges or first impressions of people - both waiting to be proved right or wrong, “I don’t think anyone should focus on celebrities as much as their focus on their own lives. I think that’s why it’s fun for people to read tabliods, for some it’s a distraction,” Whereas for Sil, they simply liked knowing things, “When Taylor Swift is having trouble with her boyfriends, it’s nice for the Average Joe to be able to think ‘even celebrities share my problems’.”

There was no use in dwelling. Tins had heard those words many times and even though, she was the expert in putting on a beaming grin to her friend this instant, there was no predicting when the dwelling would resurface. Truth of the matter was that now that Sil had pulled her mind to lighter subjects, the small blonde had practically already pushed any dwelling back into oblivion. “You’re right, we make our own successes!” And failures, but that part never really left Tinsley’s lips, did it? Another grin broke through as she rested her head on Silvie’s shoulder, “Average Joe? Was that another pun, Sil? You’re on a roll today, if so.” 

There was probably nothing they could say that didn’t come across as a valuable piece of wisdom but a little rush that made her blush found Tinsley’s cheeks when she saw the opportunity for “Are we going to be dishing on dates?!” Tins’ problems with boys were probably incomparable to those of Taylor Swift but that didn’t keep her from loving to hear about it from her friends. If only for the laughs and memories, in case it wasn’t a fairytale worthy story. “You know,I bet you’ve got a tale you haven’t told me yet.”

toulouse chuckled and ruffled his supposedly-pumpkiny-hair. “hey, those do kinda smell like pumpkins! or at least, the idea of pumpkins.” toulouse looked at tinsley and nodded in a ‘duh’-like manner. “it’s just smelling my hair, not-” he hesitated, rubbing at his chin, “- i don’t know, waxing my buttcheek in public. i don’t think anyone will me scandalised. c’mon, please?” he insisted, widening his eyes to gain her sympathy. “how will i impress the gents and ladies if i smell like a jack-o-lantern?” 

“Do they? Really? Or do they smell like the spices used in pumpkin pie instead of the actual pumpkin vegetable?” The blonde crossed her arms in front of her chest and giving him one of her infamous ‘are you sure I’m not right?’-looks - a habit grown on her from lecturing boys smaller and way more naive than Toulouse since she’d been three. Especially considering she’d never ever even ordered a pumpkin spice latte before, she was just too proud to admit that and leave any discussion where she didn’t squeeze the last word in.

Tinsley’s eyebrow was quickly raised higher. “Gosh, how is that out of all things even the place your mind went to? But fine, you’ve made a point. This is clearly the lesser weird favour you could ask of me so lean in.” The language of beggers was hard to refuse as was giving her personal opinion, though she wouldn’t deny she would’ve done it just because he made her giggle on the inside. “Well you know, now I kinda wonder how you will impress them if you don’t.”

Tinsley had always been a bit of a whirlwind, but Roxanne found it endearing. She couldn’t help but smile, but her eyes drifted to the paper cut more than the notebook. Roxanne quickly dug through her own bag, finding the bandages she’d learned to carry after being a troop leader with her little group. Once she’d opened the band-aid, she reached out and grabbed Tinsley’s hand, forcing her to let go of the notebook while she covered the paper cut. “Slow down, Tins, ya gonna give me motion sickness with how fast ya spinnin’ out! What’s the idea this time?”

“No, no, wait! This is good stuff-” Tinsley started sputtering in protest, not wanting the focus to be on herself for a change. But there was no arguing with Roxanne - one of the eldest and therefore unanimously voted caretaker of the pixie chicks - so while her friend’s gentle hands took care of her own, Tins slowed down, breathed in and out and realized she didn’t quite want to stop Roxanne. “Thanks, rosebud. Just let me know when the flood stopped.” As if death by a paper cut would be a very embarrassing, but embarrassingly real, way to go. There was only the smallest pout on her face when she peeked down at the boring beige wrap around her finger and added, “Huh, did you run out of the glittery bandaids?” 

The one thing Vinny disliked about the nearing end of the year was the amount of poinsettias. They weren’t even that great of a flower in his opinion, but every year without fail, everyone wanted poinsettias for their holiday celebrations. He grumbled as he unloaded the last of the season’s first truck load, knowing the rest of his year would be filled with the things. “I can’t believe this. It ain’t even Thanksgiving and we’re already gettin’ these things in. Can we have one holiday before moving onto the next?” He nodded at the next person walking by, pointing at them. “You know what I’m saying, right?” / @sunnysidestarters​

“Wait, are you talking... to me?” As Tinsley pulled out one of her earbuds, her small finger pointed at herself the way the guy’s did. Only a little more confused. Once her eye fell on the flowers though, she snatched out her phone before even waiting for a reply. “Oh poinsettias! Those will look perfect on my feed!” The small blonde exclaimed as she angled her camera at the truck. Something about it, however, just wasn’t quite right... She flipped over one of the more sturdy looking flower pots lying around and tried her best to climb on it - wobbly but standing. “There we go. You want in on this, flower guy? I’ll tag ya!” Her hand already waved for him to move in closer for the frame before waving a bit more rapidly, as to not lose her balance.

Nyx let out a dry “Ha!” as Tinsley asserted her ability to stealthily climb through a window. “It’s not that cool. Trust me,” they replied grabbing the last of their things and heading out to the living room. They walked out right in time for Tinsley to drop this bombshell. Nyx’s face became even more serious - if that was possible - and they narrowed their eyes at Tinsley for clarification. Nyx didn’t know what Tinsley was talking about, but non-malicious people or things didn’t break into apartments.

“What’s in your apartment, Tinsley?” Nyx asked, with an admittedly softer, yet still suspicious, tone so as not to scare Tinsley too bad. At the same time, Nyx was wondering if they needed to arm themself.

“Not that cool?! Tell that to all the nerds who love Spiderman or, I don’t know, some other being that can climb the side of a building.” She waved off her own joke to put the issue to rest. She wasn’t going to push on and tell Nyx just how freaking cool they ultimately were. She might not live that one down and would be reminded of it in each and every moment that Nyx searched for a sense of authority over her. After all, today being friends with Nyx was a perceived benefit but tomorrow it may just as well feel stiffening somehow. It depended mainly on which side of the plan they were at, as even Tinsley knew very well their heart was in it every time.

Sauntering through the apartment hall, Tins tried to think of a way to explain what she’d seen and heard without giving away that she had not actually seen it. “Okay, well uh, have you ever seen that scary video of that sloth that comes crawling out of the bushes at night to cross the road? I’m pretty sure it is at least that big. It has to be! But quite a bit faster than a sloth since it made such rapid ticking and banging noises.” Turning in the middle of the hallway, she confirmed once more, “You up for that?”

@sunnysidestarters​

“weird question, but-” toulouse paused and bowed his head forward, “does my hair smell like pumpkin?” he took a step forward for good measure and shook his head so his curls moved around. “i had the kids carve pumpkins all day today and i showered but somehow i feel like i still smell like goddamn pumpkins.”

The blonde's confused 'huh' turned quickly into an "Oh!" Tinsley giggled to herself once she heard the explanation. "For a second there I was afraid you were going to tell me someone poured their pumpkin spice latte over you and that I would've had to correct you those don't actually smell like pumpkins." Eyeing Toulouse's head that still hovered in front of her, made her raise an eyebrow, however. "Do you really want me to smell your hair out here for anyone to see? I mean, pumpkins don't smell that bad, you know. If anyone calls you out on it, why not just tell them that cute story about the kids you just told me!"

“I didn’t buy the different versions, I guess I just keep up with the celebrity drama more. It’s all convoluted, probably fake and made up for popularity or press coverage, but it helps you learn about what kind of people celebrities are,” Sil had never found it difficult to keep up with news. Even if the tabloids were pointless, their mind absorbed information like a sponge.

“Yeah, I get that. And I think that’s a perfectly fine message to take from the song. From the album. Getting over things requires a lot of personal reinvention. Like she say, you have to step into the daylight and let it go,” Silvie shrugged, “I guess I always found it so easy to forget things just as much as I learned them. Forgiveness of other and forgiveness of self can be very powerful.”

“I like to source my hot goss more locally, I guess. But that means we can always catch each other up, of course, which I like better anyways.” Tinsley grinned at her friend, knowing that their company was always... refreshing. She rarely left a conversation with Silvie without new thoughts to think about (and that without the dreadful idea of having to learn something). “Is it just me or did celebrities become like... less important though? There’s just so many of them and it’s all so fleeting? All the new ones come and go in what seems mere months, or years if they’re lucky.” It had to be a generation thing to think of it that way surely, not a personal coming of age thing. Tinsley had always loved falling fast and hard for a certain celebrity until her bedroom wall showed just how invested she was in someone’s personal life. But lately? “I don’t think I know as much as their names anymore, let alone what kind of people they are.”

The blonde grinned as she recognized the lyrics, her little moment of melancholy melting like snow in the sun. “Good one, Sil.” But hearing them talk about how easy it was to forget and forgive, lit a little envious fire within Tins. She wasn’t quite... familiar with letting go. Even if she forgot about something, she could wake in the middle of the night, ruminating about that same thing as if it’d just happened and let it leave her in ruins. “Gosh, I wish you could share that superpower with me some days.”