SADIE VALENCIA
Human
Posts: 100
Age:
28
Occupation:
Author
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 1, 2024 17:05:25 GMT
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Post by SADIE VALENCIA on Oct 16, 2022 15:53:12 GMT
Her tongue clamped between her teeth, like she was holding onto her pride and not that ever flapping muscle that seemed determined to screw up her life in a half dozen different ways, Sadie walked straight past the door of Reid’s Pawn Shop. Head up, her fingers caught in a death grip around the strap of her purse, shoulders square and aching with the desire to just stop and turn. Like all it would take was her nose pressed to the glass of the shop door to prove that they’d managed to find Mandy again. She didn’t, wasn’t going to give Darcey the satisfaction of knowing that she hadn’t gotten herself lost for good after he’d shoved her away. If she didn’t try and find out, then it’d be like Schrodinger’s cat and there’d be an equal chance of Mandy being home and safe as there was of her being … not.
The word still gave her that queasy feeling inside. People in her life had ended up the D word before, hell, the house here had practically reeked of it, even though her dad had never actually stepped foot inside of it. She’d been that kid in first grade, announcing at show and tell that her dad was dead – Petty Officer First Class Aldo Valencia had died in service of his country, and they had his medals to show it. It’d been like a badge of honour then, like her dad’s medals, but at times it’d been heavy as an anvil.
Maybe it was better never knowing when the truth and being able to hold onto the chance that you’d see again. It kept some part of them alive at least, instead of them becoming this shroud you wrapped yourself in while you were still alive. Sadie felt her stomach drop as she walked into the grocery store and grabbed a cart. Nope, she was gonna use that to somehow widow-blame Darcey. Had she deserved the way he’d snapped at her – making out like she was some sort of whore he was cheating on his D-word wife with – and pushed her away? Nope. Had that really been about her though? Nope. Didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt though.
Pale eyes scanned the community notice board as she headed for the produce aisle and the fruit that’d end up sitting in the bowl on the kitchen counter until it all went mushy and gross. She always looked, trying to find some sign of the ‘missing persons’ posters that had littered it for years, until like everything else in this town, they were buried under new dramas and glitzy events the Founder’s council filled the calendar with in the hopes that people wouldn’t see that the town had a darker underbelly.
Sadie felt her stomach twist and she shoved a lock of hair behind her ear, frowning as she picked up a mango to squeeze (like she had a clue when they actually ripe and not just fooling you with a splash of pretty colour. Mandy had put Ruby in her head, there was no doubting that. The Reids hadn’t put up posters for vigils or organised community walks, they hadn’t plastered Mandy’s face on every community and message board in the whole town or paid the local dairy to put her photo on the side of their milk cartons until the cops had gently put an end to it. She didn’t even know if the cops were out there looking for Mandy and the dozens of other people whose names were periodically splashed across the front of the newspapers – but probably not. Grown ups ran away all the time right? Kids didn’t though, that was when shit got real dark and scary.
Grocery stores on a Wednesday afternoon, all lit up with neon lights bright enough that you could see every pip on a strawberry – alright, maybe she’d dip some of those in chocolate and consider them a celebration for getting the full first draft of her book in (even if it was untitled for now). A 2am email to her editor with the file attached. A dedication and acknowledgements page attached, even if the title page just had her name and ‘the important bit’s done!’ typed on it. Now there was that breathless wait until it came back, with enough comments on it that an old fashioned editor would’ve run a whole bottle of red ink out on it, and a couple of days of celebration time at least.
Hello champagne – OK, hello a ten dollar bottle of sparkling wine and some cheesecake (she wasn’t J. K. Rowling yet, after all).
Ten minutes later she was dumping half a cart of groceries onto the check out. Maybe driving would’ve been a better idea, now she’d have to haul it back the three blocks to her place. If she had driven she couldn’t have had her masochistic moment of torture, or curse Darcey’s name when she had to haul it the three blocks back to her building by herself. Thank the stars for elevators though.
Gripping the bags, Sadie hustled away from the checkout a couple of minutes later – her bank account a hundred and fifty bucks lighter, her burden about fifty pounds heavier. She shuffled past folks with the sense to drive here and to push their carts outside after, nearly bowling over some steel haired old lady who probably would’ve swung her Cadillac sized purse in retaliation. ”Coming through! Hey … oh my God, sorry!” A swerve past some kids, who probably should’ve been in school and not bolting through the grocery store like it was a playground (when did she end up the one shaking her stick at kids? Jeeze!), and she’d backed up to practically pin someone in the entry way. Bags slid, their handles burning lines in her wrists as she wheeled around. ”If those brats hadn’t …” Played bowling ball with her she wouldn’t have been standing there squinting at the brunette like the photos on those milk cartons hadn’t peeled themselves off and come to life.
They aged them up, they’d aged her up, like somehow beaming what she would maybe look like ten or twenty years in the future would stick with people and turn up eventually. Longer hair, a fuller face, the dark eyes the same, no gaps where the tooth fairy had swept in and maybe a buck had appeared under the pillows – if Ruby’s parents had done that sorta thing. ”Sorry …” Sadie started again, almost turning away. This was all cause of Mandy, her disappearance rattling stuff around in an achy – and yeah, kinda blue – brain. Nope. Nopenopenope. She wasn’t gonna head home wondering maybe. ”Either I’m shitting you or you’re shitting me … are you?” Schrodinger’s cat again – Ruby was here or she wasn’t – only this time she was gonna tear that box open, or jab her bags at it, sending the bottles of wine (one wasn’t gonna get her through the weekend, was it?) clinking together.
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RUBY HERRERA
Werecreature
were-jaguar
Posts: 41
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:44:28 GMT
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Post by RUBY HERRERA on Nov 7, 2022 17:59:20 GMT
 ━ an ache for home; a shelter against storms ━
She’d managed to steer clear of her family, though they tried desperately to find her again, even coming to the motel and apparently asking for her at the front desk. She was grateful for the front desk and how they obviously valued their guests’ privacy, but that would go through the window if her aunts decided to involve the police.
Cory was far harder to be rid of. Her aunts were one thing━they thought they were entitled to Ruby through blood━but Cory… he always claimed he didn’t want anything. Clearly he did, otherwise he wouldn’t keep popping up.
But she had to stay. Those fucking cerdos made it painfully obvious that leaving wouldn’t do Ruby any good. She was stuck. She hated being stuck.
Stuck meant living in this God-awful place for a while. She’d need food if she was staying, and while she wasn’t new to caring for herself, Ruby was new to doing it here. After her life had made a sudden and drastic change.
She was sure they were looking for her now or at least wondering when she’d come back. Was she in the news again? Did they already know? Was her father cursing himself for not being able to get rid of her like he had his wife?
Ruby walked from the motel to the grocery store. Her car was still somewhere, and there was no way the shotty insurance company (the one under her boss’s finger) would send over a rental just because. She still had cash stored in her shoes and bra━more than the “reasonable” amount in her wallet━so she was set for that, at least. She wouldn’t have to ask for handouts from strangers who called themselves her family.
Apparently, just getting into the grocery store would be difficult. She stuck to the edges and attempted to squish through, avoiding whatever chaos was erupting in the entryway, but didn’t manage to get entirely clear of it. Before she was even inside, Ruby’s bubble of personal fucking space was ripped through, causing her to stumble back until the edge of the automatic doors dug into her spine.
Cursing in Spanish under her breath, Ruby began to tremble unwillingly, though she was quick to try to bury the feeling. It was unnecessary and unwanted. Claws grew from her nailbeds, hidden in a closed fist. She stuck them into her palm, feeling the blood fill the well of her hand until she could regain composure. Eventually, the woman turned and stepped back, though her apology was no use to Ruby now.
She was attractive. Round, innocent eyes, large chest, and pretty features, soft and feminine. But she was far too old. She would’ve been worth something maybe a decade ago, but now she was too used, just like the rest of them. Worthless in Ruby’s circles, anyway, making her useless to Ruby.
She planned to move on, giving a curt nod as to accept her apology, but the woman was… staring. There was something familiar about her in a way, the jet-black hair and loud, seemingly filterless mouth, but Ruby had met thousands of people in her life, and she wished to run into none of them here.
Finally, she was free━or so she thought. A moment later, once she’d turned to walk into the store, that voice chirped at her again. Ruby circled back around, though she wasn’t sure what caused her to━if she’d kept walking and pretended not to hear, it would’ve made things a hell of a lot easier. At least she wasn’t pinned to the door any longer.
“Am I… shitting you?” She raised her brows. If the woman wouldn’t finish her question, then Ruby wouldn’t answer it. “Last time I checked, no.” Her upper lip curled slightly, almost snarling without teeth, though it was her version of a sarcastic smile. She kept searching the woman’s face, and she felt something there, almost as if it was a name on the tip of her tongue. There most certainly wasn’t one, though perhaps there was a whole slew of information she’d forgotten from her time in Mystic Falls. Her aunts seemed to think so.
The stranger was old enough to know her, hovering somewhere around Ruby’s age. She was also old enough to turn on a fucking TV and see what’d become of Mystic Falls’ current sensational Missing Child case━if the information had been released to the public yet.
“Am I what?” She grumbled, feeling her fist tighten at her side again, though this time without puncturing the skin. “Trynna get groceries? Because yes. I’m actually in the middle of that.” She wasn’t above telling the stranger to fuck off if she had to, but the constant, suffocating police presence that hovered around her made Ruby act a little more civil━at first, anyway.
SADIE VALENCIA | translation: pigs |
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SADIE VALENCIA
Human
Posts: 100
Age:
28
Occupation:
Author
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 1, 2024 17:05:25 GMT
|
Post by SADIE VALENCIA on Nov 22, 2022 16:50:21 GMT
Memories from when you were a little kid were meant to be muddy. Like most it got bogged down in things you told yourself had happened later. You looked at photos from birthday parties when you were four and thought you remembered them pulling the paper off the princess house they’d spent half the night putting together in the yard, seeing the tiaras sparkling on the heads of men far too burly for them). You swore that the strawberry shortcake your mom made every year hadn’t ever tasted quite as good as the first, but honestly, did you?
Sadie had seen flashes of more as she’d stared at that fresh poster. The two of them sharing a blanket in the square, looking almost close enough to be twins at that age, except one was damn lily white, practically glowing with the sunblock her mom had slathered on her. That was definitely a photo, imprinted on her brain as she’d pinned it up on the board in her room after. She wasn’t going to forget, she’d promised Ruby’s aunts, swearing it with a swipe of a finger across her heart (still holding the blue smudges from the markers she’d used to draw her poster). Memories faded though, like that photo, going soft around the edges until you grew up and moved on.
And then felt shitty about it. The photo had fallen down eventually and she’d tucked away in a photo album. It had made the trip from her mom’s house to her apartment with her, but all those memories, all of that friendship that was had remained packed away while Aud had eventually worked herself into Ruby’s place. Maybe in some corner of her mind Sadie had been able to convince herself that the Sheriff had been right. Ruby and her parents were some place else, living some better life. That was just what you told yourself though, when you wanted to make yourself feel better.
There wasn’t much that made that happen these days though. This town and its shitty half buried secrets guaranteed that - so did British guys who were willing to let her close while they needed a little comfort or a little fun and then shove her aside like somehow she was the curse on their lives. Fuck ‘em all.
She’d refused to look for Mandy in the shop - or for him - but it didn’t stop her wondering. Mandy didn’t deserve a lash of her temper, just because her brother was a total dick (with perfectly acceptable reasons for being one, but still, and neither had Ruby when she fucking ghosted in out of nowhere, like the last couple of decades hadn’t happened. Nu uh.
Most of the time she was all about personal space (and had put her giant purse to use to gain some for herself), but seeing Ruby try and slide past her like she didn’t know her, Sadie had shrunk both of theirs down to nothing. Jostling crowds and automatic doors worked as a pincer, catching them there like a stuffed toy in one of those shitty machines she could never win from. The curse was almost inaudible, soft enough that her high school Spanish didn’t do shit to translate it. Sadie frowned, working herself just a step back, enough for a minute.
The last poster had been one of those age progressed things - what the 5 year old with the pigtails and gappy smile looked like at 30. Close enough for people to pick someone out, supposedly. Close enough that she could’ve been deceiving herself, wanting a happy ending in place of the fucking gut wrenching one that had probably happened. The woman nodded, a polite dismissal that maybe anyone else would’ve taken, but she wasn’t anybody else. She had balls and was willing to swing them when she needed to.
Her mom would’ve hushed her, whispered in that stage whisper that she was being rude, but screw that, Sadie opened her mouth. There were always apologies right? ”What was what I said,” she said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder as the bags started to drag everything down on one side. No. Bullshit. Sadie’s lips curled faintly in response to that barely concealed snarl on the woman’s lips.
She wasn’t leaving though, was she? Those dark eyes were drifting over her face, looking for something. Sadie brightened her grin, tilting her head like she was standing here posing with her Mickey Mouse ears on (after her first trick or treating trip at 3 she hadn’t taken the damn things off for weeks). The grumbled question and sarcastic response, as though you walked into a grocery store for any other reason, had Sadie snorting ”Just strolling in for your frozen pizza and poptarts, like you haven’t freaking been gone for twenty years. Right.”” Her lips pursed faintly, her eyes narrowing down to those pale slits as she dug her heels in. ”They still look like Gemini … although I guess you’re the taller one now … Ruby.” She looked up from the freckles that dotted Ruby’s nose, that roadmap of stars she’d titled as a kid, to meet her eye, waiting for the flicker. Gemini. The twins, like the two of them.
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RUBY HERRERA
Werecreature
were-jaguar
Posts: 41
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:44:28 GMT
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Post by RUBY HERRERA on Dec 4, 2022 17:14:54 GMT
━ an ache for home; a shelter against storms ━
She didn’t really answer the question, or succumb to Ruby’s prickly personality, which was like a big sign saying “LEAVE ME ALONE.” It seemed like a lot of people in this town had fucking listening problems.
“Twenty-five. And I don’t like Pop-Tarts.” Ruby answered bitterly, sure that this bitch had read or seen something and wanted an in-depth retelling of the story━she couldn’t even get the year right. For a second, Ruby wondered if that was ‘cause she was going off memory alone or if she really couldn’t keep her news stories straight. But the former would mean believing this bullshit, and Ruby wasn’t gullible. Gullible bitches died fast.
And it wasn’t like she wanted to be gone for that long, she had no fucking idea she was even missing, but Ruby wasn’t about to come out and say it. Sometimes, she had flashes of memories, of a woman she thought was her mom, but she always wondered whether or not they were real. And, with no way to confirm it, Ruby cast them away━she’d never had time to daydream. She didn’t even do that shit when she was asleep.
Ruby began to turn away, but stopped suddenly, caught by the woman’s words.
She used Ruby’s name like a weapon. Like a knife to jab Ruby with while she cackled, “Ha, I know you! I know everything about you! I know your name; I know your name!” and the fact that people would know her now turned her stomach. Ruby was comfortable with blending in; it was what she liked most about becoming the recruiter.
But it wasn’t so much her name that stopped Ruby.
Gemini.
Dark brows furrowed, trying to place where she’d heard it before and why it sounded so familiar. She wasn’t a Gemini━was she? No, she didn’t think so, though she’d never given any time to that bullshit. But as she turned back and watched the woman look up from her freckles, Ruby remembered when she was seven and one of her dad’s “friends” had thumbed her cheeks and commented on how cute they were. “Ella parece una gringa. Es lindo.” She’d given her dad the same confused look she gave the woman now, and she’d thought of… another girl’s freckles. It wasn’t Sapphire; Ruby hadn’t met her yet.
“I got no clue what you’re saying.” She lied, taking a big step back, perturbed by the brush with something familiar in Mystic Falls. Something before Mexico, even if she couldn’t figure it out. “Can you fuck off now? I got shit to do.” Ruby reiterated, though she was far shakier this time, trembling as she swiped some hair behind her ear and ducked her head, turning to try to escape into the grocery store.
SADIE VALENCIA | no notes. |
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SADIE VALENCIA
Human
Posts: 100
Age:
28
Occupation:
Author
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Nov 1, 2024 17:05:25 GMT
|
Post by SADIE VALENCIA on Dec 26, 2022 20:12:36 GMT
Kid Ruby hadn’t been half as bitter – like any of them had been at that point. It took years for you to build up that sort of attitude, like layers of nacre building up to create a pearl in an oyster. Self-protection from what hurt you. If there was a time when Sadie had felt that, it was now (not that Darcey deserved to know it). She could’ve recoiled, given in to this woman’s insistence she had no idea who she was – although even after twenty five years she still wasn’t believing that shit, photos and memories stuck even when you didn’t really want them to. She wasn’t though. Jab away buddy. Unlike with Darcey’s razor edged words, she wasn’t letting any of this draw blood or thicken that black pearl in her own chest.
Maybe that pearl was what kept her standing there. That or the gut instinct her dad’s team had taught her to trust. That gut had told her one thing about Darcey, and maybe it had steered her wrong there, it was telling her something about maybe-Ruby too, but one failure on its part didn’t mean she wasn’t gonna listen to it. Trusting it would get you further than chickening out every time.
Sadie snorted, hefting the bags she held to poke a finger in Ruby’s direction. ”And that’s where you’re missing out. They’re the bomb.” Especially if you’d woken up at three with an idea in your head that wouldn’t stop biting and by ten you didn’t have the energy to drag yourself out of the apartment to have someone else make you something to fill that whole in the pit of your stomach. A couple of S’mores pop tarts slipped into the toaster and a pot of coffee strong enough to burn through whatever calories you consumed and your stomach lining. The breakfast of champion authors. ”And you’re splitting hairs. You’ve been gone a freaking long time.” Those first handful of years had been marked off, little notches carved into her heart on birthdays that were Ruby-less, or during those summers when they would’ve ended up in the cheap inflatable pool her mom would get set up in the yard. Maybe they had faded over the years, but she probably could’ve still plucked the date she’d found out her best friend had gone out of the back of her head somewhere. Just … not immediately.
The freckles that sprinkled across Ruby’s nose and cheeks, the same way they did Darcey’s skin – what the fuck was wrong with her, she needed to just tear all of that out, burn it out maybe with the booze that would’ve clinked all the way home in her bags – were etched deeper, not changing in all those years. Sadie tossed the observation of them out there like a lure on a fishing rod held by a hungry AF fisherman. She guessed most times they did that they were disappointed, maybe she was gonna be too, but she saw Ruby stop and figured she had a bite.
Holding her breath, her fingers curled around that line, Sadie prepared herself to tug. Her eyes rose from the freckles up to the eyes that were just as dark as them. She stood her ground, even if the bags were beginning to cut into her fingers, leaving the muscles in her arms trembling faintly. Those bottles would smash if the bags hit the floor, but she would land her best friend again before that happened. ”I’m not even gonna pretend to get anything other than gringa out of that, because you know what, without you there, I didn’t really care about passing Spanish.” She hadn’t gotten like an F, but what she had picked up in class had all dribbled out of her ears eventually, leaving her with just the faintest feeling like it hadn’t been translatable to fuck me, you were my best friend!.
There was a touch of sharpness to Sadie’s smile, a stubbornness that always had her mom’s eyes rolling and her hands heading for her short hair like she’d tear it out by the roots. Sadie switched all of her bags to one already aching hand, all the better to point a warning finger. ”That makes two of us for now, although I call a little bullshit on both sides.” Huffing out a little laugh, Sadie dumped her bags altogether and fumbled for her purse. The cards had seemed like a ridiculous touch when she’d first gotten published – like she had to tell everybody published author here, get to know me while I’m still not famous enough to talk to you bitches, but now, crumpled as they were in a pocket of her purse, they were coming in handy.
Taking a step forward, she pressed the card into Ruby’s hand, squeezing her fingers tight around it. ”Hey! Not fucking off yet. You take this and you use it when you’re not trying to pretend like you haven’t got some little voice in your head telling you who I am. You know, I’m still the best friend you could possibly have here. Even if you’ve got shitty taste in breakfasts. Sadie. Call me Ruby, I’m not giving up. Never did.” She grinned, that kid who’d shrugged off her mom’s tight grip to take her first bike down the street on her own and had smacked face first into the curb (the scar was still there under her chin too) shining in it. ”You want to catch up, or even just drink until we’re both too shit faced to care about wherever you were, phone.” Maybe she wouldn’t. You know, maybe she’d got the whole thing wrong, but she wasn’t a damn quitter, even if she had to take time to lick her wounds before she got back out there sometimes.
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RUBY HERRERA
Werecreature
were-jaguar
Posts: 41
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:44:28 GMT
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Post by RUBY HERRERA on Jan 19, 2023 21:20:32 GMT
━ an ache for home; a shelter against storms ━
Keep your head down. Stay alive.
She was trying to do that. It took food to keep surviving, and that’s why she was here━she just didn’t know she’d get accosted by some big-chested, short bitch on the way in.
She never seemed to stop. Like Cory, Sadie didn’t want to leave her alone. Couldn’t take no for an answer. Fuck. She hated this town and all the people in it━including her aunts and uncles and cousins.
The best friend she could possibly have here? Wow, what a fuckin’ treat. How could she ever give up something like that? Seriously, she musta been the luckiest bitch in Mystic Falls.
The trembling only got worse when Sadie touched her. Ruby froze up like a God damn child, just staring down at the chick like she’d jammed a knife in Ruby’s ribs.
Too shitfaced to care about wherever she was. Imagine that━just forgetting. She didn’t think it was possible. This bitch was like a bad commercial, making big claims about everything they could do while… none of it would work. Ruby wasn’t a fucking child anymore, and she wasn’t gullible enough to be charmed by snake oil or a Girls’ Night Out━it was all the same shit to her.
Despite this, her reply came lamely, “Aight.” She muttered, crushing the card in her grip as she stepped away. Unlike with Cory, Ruby didn’t watch Sadie until she was far enough away, but she did feel claustrophobic for the rest of her time in the grocery store. Like a rat caught in a maze, constantly scurrying around as though that would somehow prolong its life.
SADIE VALENCIA | zee end! |
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hope to see you in the discord! 
