in the blue hours of morning . . .

[vaska]

𝚒𝚛𝚊 x 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔
[the average]-[tagged; mavis, maddox, gang]-[placed; outside of town]-[feeling; uncertain]

a girl came bumbling through, possessing a rebellious, 'i dont give a squat' vibe. ira recalled this girl to be mavis. he followed her as she brought about questions, leaning against the open back door as she situated her things. "eh, to my dad he's the town hero. he's really just a plumber who pulls globs of hair out of pipes and doesn't know what the meaning of 'too much' is. " ira joked, in referral to the seating arrangement. "my parents definitely took from my college savings to buy this baby." he sighed, contorting his face into a grimace. the bus-sized van was a soft reminder that his dad would've been on his way to "work" now, (really just getting some bagels and eating them until he got a call that someone needed him). it crossed his mind that everyone's parents must've been up by now, but he didn't dwell on it and carried on as best as he could. right now, ira needed to deprive himself of consciousness for his actions. he would just turn around and walk back home if he thought more about it.

a calamity brought ira's attention to cube, who had just thrown his phone down and kicked it into oblivion. in overhearing his suggestion to smash their phones, ira closed his eyes and took a deep breath. he's right, ira thought. however, something about destroying their phones made it so much more real for him; if something happened to any of them, they would have no means of calling for help. they were going to rely on themselves and each other only - and everyone being virtual strangers or mortal enemies, just seemed like they were starting to making mistake. what if they got lost and didn't know how to get to where they planned to go? would they just drive until they ran out of gas? at a glance, everyone looked to be in agreement of smashing their phones - but hesitant. who could blame them? their entire lives were in these little bricks. that was a lot to throw away. ira took a glance at dolley, seeing if she had any reaction. if I do it without hesitation - would she do it too? he thought about it, biting his nails mindlessly. "yes, she would. ultimately we'll all toss our phones. but if i did it, and didn't need coaxed, would she notice?" ira pulled his phone out of his back pocket, looking it over. "probably not. she tries not to notice me, this won't be any good." tossing his phone to the ground, he kicked it under a wheel of the van. if he just ran over it, there wouldn't be a hesitation. no looking back. bam, run over. sounded easy enough to him.

taking a quick look around, ira saw maddox who was pulling a britney spears with a snake -- a snake? how did ira miss that before? ira straightened up, blinking repeatedly as he tried to understand why anyone would want to take a snake on the road. "who takes a snake to a teenaged getaway?" he glanced at mavis, who didn't seem terribly phased by the reptilian guest. was it poisonous? ira wasn't familiar with snakes, but he fast concluded the poisonous aspect was rediculous. but, what if it gives everyone leptospirosis? ira bit his nails, slowly approaching maddox. maddox wasn't all that much taller than ira, but he held a dominating presence that controlled the entire room when he did anything, from what ira understood in detention. lord, detention sounded sweet right now. just fighting for teacher's rights? yes please. "is this- this is a good snake, right?" he scrunched his nose, looking at it inquisitively. "it's not going to strangle me while i'm driving, is it?" ira asked, trying to chuckle it off like he didn't mean it. he meant it. no snake-related car accidents today, not ever. "and you're sure you can support this while we're on the run?" ira didn't want to seem like some nag, but, he also didn't really want to be chipping in his limited cash to buy live rats for a 'lil slithery friend.

[stranger danger]

✧ DONNA MADISON ✧

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁
( mood - awkward, anxious - tagged - whoever's around - where - outskirts of town - ooc - none )
from her spot in the back of the van, dolley frowns, sitting up slowly. destroy their phones? did they know how much her father paid for that - she stops her internal monologing though. dolley could bet all of her life savings that her father probably has her phone being tracked, and as this dawns on her rage fills her stomach. nevermind. the phone could go. she sets her stuff where she had been previously laying down, standing up and putting on a brave face. time to really let go. she pulls her phone from her belongings, it's golden case shimmering in the sunlight. bye bye, iphone x. hello freedom. dolley takes a few steps and throws it down as hard as she can. "i'm not the strongest of people," she murmurs to herself, eyes roaming the desert terrain. her eyes land on a large stone. "but, that'll do." she picks up the rock, walks back to her phone and drops it. the crack is deafening. she winces but steels herself once more. no more therapy calls. a shaky sigh leaves her mouth.

she looks back up to the other nervous strangers, but at this point, dolley thinks she can't call them strangers, or enemies, or anything else. they're her people now. not family - not yet. "who's next?" she asks, with only a hint of playfulness in her tone.

[ʟᴜᴄɪᴏᴜs]

───────────────────────────────

►maddox's orbs fell upon the incoming teens, his independent nature dominating what he'd prefer to
do. the sight of his ex gave maddox an eerie feeling, one that he prayed to subside within milliseconds,
but of course, with foul things come a foul price. this feeling may plague maddox for the whole escape.
his orbs locked on hers as she took notice of him but quickly re-focused on his scaly friend. a smirk
crawled across his masked lips, she looked darn cute today. his brain was so hyper focused on mavis that
he never caught the sequence of cube ridding his cellular device. maddox couldn't help but let his eyes
wander towards mavis once again. maybe she noticed his interest in her. if anything, knowing mavis, she'd
most likely, carelessly respond with the bird. maddy chuckled before restoring his attention to the group.
maybe it was time for maddy to follow cube's idea and remove his phone as well. but, he also wanted to
listen to his 'sick beats' only to cut out the endless chatter of the rebellious group. screw it. maddy
reached into his pockets and withdrew his fairly cracked iphone 7 and with all his aggression and strength,
the phone was heaved into atmosphere, only to be discovered by some animal that was knocked out by
impact. his heart immediately began to pump with adrenaline, his phone is long gone, never to be seen
again, for him at least. within regaining focus, maddy realized he performed his escape from technology
the same time as dolley. he gazes at her and shrugs 'i know that hurt you more than it did me.' he
chuckles at the sight of her battered phone. cherry was no where to be seen, maddy assumed she retreated
somewhere mid-sleeve in his purple, camo hoody. she must've drew ira's attention as maddy caught his
anxious yet confused expression. it was pleasurable to maddy only because he looked quite ridiculous,
his dumbfounded countenance causing a gentle laugh to escape maddox's lips. as ira steadily approached
the two, maddox gripped his mask with his free hand and slid it down to his chin, allowing for clear
audible words. 'calm down ira' he immediately began, 'cherry is a non-venomus snake, meaning she's
a constrictor. she poses as no threat to you as for you are way too big for her to eat. maddox then came
up with the most sinister idea... he hid his malicious smirk and deeply glared into his friend's wary gaze.
'but sometimes at night.. when she is mischevious, she'll slither right ontop of you and when you least
expect it, lick right in your nose, and crawl in your mouth and come out your ear!' maddy smirked and
hissed playfully as his serpent poked her bijou cranium out from his neck area, flickering her onyx tongue.
maddox then bent down and snatched his heavy bag, lugging it over his shoulder to store in the back of
the van. 'sure can support my babygirl, i ain't leavin her to die from starvation' he concluded as he
placed his bag in it's designated spot, gazing in ira's eyes. his gaze was stern, and his deep pitch fell
naturally mono-toned, signifying that he was deathly serious about what he was saying. 'she is fairly
devoted to me and will mainly be around my neck, lap, or wrist, meaning no she won't get you while
you're driving.' he uttered, chuckling along with his nervous companion, attempting to sympathize
and reassure him. 'she is nocturnal though.. so be aware of that, not gonna lie either, cherry is
quite curious and mischievous.. so i may or may not have lied about the slithering and nose bit.' with
that, he swiftly dismissed the topic with a unconcerned shrug.

Maddox Taylor ► ♂ ► playful>neutral ► outskirts ►ira, dolley, mavis mentioned
───────────────────────────────

[parker;]

fable chase, the nerd

..........tagged;; vivane, cube (mentioned)feeling;; slightly smarter than everyone else location;; outside the van

So the mystery girl was talking to her now, meaning that this either had to be some act meant to harm them in the end, or it was simply some mixture between a dream and a nightmare. Yes, they were in a state of REM at the moment, nothing they did mattered in this world and nothing was real. Well no, in reality everything they saw was simply being processed by a brain on a stick, floating in some goo and deciding whether or not the sky was blue or purple that day (this was an exaggeration, but had some accuracy to it either way). Hold on- they'd been thinking about something else before their odd realization. Ah yes, the mystery girl herself, Vivane. What were they supposed to respond with? Were they okay? With a slight huff Fable lifted her gaze to look at the slightly taller girl, mumbling a quick, "The question you asked me has far too many variables. You haven't told me what your definition of 'okay' is- and that word tends to have a massive fluctuation between definitions- and you haven't asked me what I think is 'okay' at the moment."

They would have gone on, but a sharp crash pulled their attention away from whatever odd encounter they'd just had. Now their gaze was focused on Cube's mauled phone. Their eyes rolled a bit as the others began to rip apart their own devices. Fable pulled out their own, the hesitation and reluctance clear in their eyes. Then something clicked. Quite literally, instead of smashing their phone they simply went back to the van to burrow into one of their bags. And there it was- stuffed in among miscellaneous items- a paperclip. With a sly grin Fable inserted this into a minuscule screw in the phone, turning it until an equally sized chip fell out. Then they could either sell their phone, or reset and change half of the data on it in order to avoid detection. Well, it had been avoided already. Their phone could no longer connect to the internet or text. After tapping a few "block" and "delete" contacts their phone had been returned to the state at which it had been bought.

The newly acclaimed technician lifted their head in a sort of self praise before returning to Vivana and holding out their hand, expecting the phone. Unless, of course, the girl had simply outsmarted the rest of them by leaving a traceable device at home. That probably would have been the smart thing to do, however, Fable wasn't exactly a living calculator. In a sense they were, but they wouldn't be able to calculate coordinates in their head based on a few stars and the generally accepted distance between the earth and the illuminated reference points.

[Pyra Ilver]

❝VIVIANE FROST❞
v ✦ ✧ ✦ female ✦ ✧ ✦ 17 ✦ ✧ ✦ hetero ✦ ✧ ✦ with fable

She just remembered exactly why she didn't do this much. Because people were really annoying, especially people who focused on technicalities. "One can presume that ok is dependant on the view of the individual, that is true. But contextually, the question infers to your feeling and personal experience of the term, therefore negating linguistic fluctuation," two could play at that game. Even though it was exceptionally difficult to maintain a conversation with Viviane, she was quite able to bite back. She wasn't as clever as Fable perhaps, but she was sharp herself.

She watched with mild interest as people around her dropped and cracked phones, excluding Fable who just fiddled with it then held out her hand. Wait, did she want Viviane's phone? That was not going to happen. She pulled the device out of her pocket. She would have left it at home, but she would not give her father the satisfaction of having anything of her left behind. She had even stolen the picture of her and her mother together under the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That was the last time the family had been to Italy together.

She dropped the phone of the floor, and stamped on it. There was crack as the glass shattered, and on the second stamp a sharp snap as the rest of the phone came apart. It wasn't very expensive, just a pay as you go brick phone, but it was still traceable. Viviane had never really been fond of technology anyway. She had no social media, only close family had her number, she found it so invasive and too public to display every every part of her life on a pedestal for strangers. Was it not for her phone she would be practically untraceable. And now that was gone too. It felt freeing, and oh so final.

"There is no point holding onto that which is no longer needed," she said. "And why you decide to keep it should be for its using, not the sentiment." They did not have time for sentiment, they had to go before someone caught on. "We should think about going, it's only going to be so long before the police are called."

[valkyrie,]

♔ --- ❝ ＨＥＲＭＩＯＮＥ ＳＴ． ＣＬＡＩＲＥ ❞

--- eighteen, cisfemale, heterosexual, the queen bee, tagg. river, jericho, the others, mood. pissed

"hold up, we gotta smash our phones?", hermione cried as the others were already murdering their items. her eyes fell on river and his brother, jericho. she walked quickly over to the two and raised an eyebrow, "this is a thousand dollar phone." she mumbled and tossed it on the phone on the ground. the girl grabbed a rock and began slamming it against the surface of the phone. she was heavy-handed so it wasn't that tough. hermione knew the point of the plan, but her phone was her most prized possession. her phone was filled with pictures of her and her family, river and her friends at school. picking up the phone, her expression went to a frown. "might as well toss it down the side of the road.", hermione told river after she got rid of the phone. her brown eyes looked up at him, "what time did you and ira get up here? are you not tired?" she asked with an eyebrow raised. a quick wave went to his brother with a smile. the three were like family, almost. her and jericho were like brother and sister; her and river were a couple, who trusted each other. listening to the others, she saw maddox with a snake; it was a cute snake, according to her. as long as it didn't bit her, she would be okay. her eyes travelled to fable and viviane who were fighting over the meaning of 'okay'. she did understand, you needed to say more that okay in a situation. "so riv, another question, where is our planned stop after this first ride?" the queen asked, curious of what river had sorted out.

[imp.]

ＣＵＢＥ
role the clown tags river, jericho, and hermione

cube was satisfied with how many people followed his idea. he watched the others copy his actions, and then as fable removed the card. that was idiotic; no one wanted a used phone card. he winced as he heard hermione, forcing himself to smile at her. she had completely ignored him. little brat.. the only reason you're here is because you're dating river. he managed to keep his mouth shut. this isn't school, you have no power over anyone. a small giggle was begging to escape, but he covered it was polite small talk. "how are you, hermione?" cube knew the words were fake, but he had learned how to show or hide any emotion he wished. if he didn't want them to know he was sad, they wouldn't know he was sad, and vice versa. hermione though.. she pushed every single one of his buttons. she was obnoxious, loud, inconsiderate, and spoiled. but river must love her for whatever reason he couldn't understand, so he never mentioned it. if he was being hones with himself, he would admit that he was jealous of the close connection with the brothers. he was only friends with jericho.

cube liked the little group that was forming. even though he didn't feel very included, it was still him, hermione, river, and jericho. they seemed to be the ones planning the rest of the trip, and he was glad to have brought up the phones breaking; it'd give him the tiniest bit of reputation he might need while travelling. "it's still pretty early and i know i haven't eaten yet, so we could stop at a restaurant or something?" cube spoke, barely even thinking about his suggestion. he smiled at them, realizing that his dislike for hermione distracted him from how hungry he was. they wouldn't know the real reason behind the expression, and he smiled again. cube wanted to stop, but it was alright for now. he hated his smile, but it helped him feel better. teachers and friends had always told him how nice his smile was, even though none of that mattered to him. it was just a disgusting and addictive habit.

[marbledog]

{ ⊰ ➳ ⊱ mavis peregrine borowski, the robin hood }

gender ;; cisfemale // age ;; seventeen // location ;; outside of brillmore //tags ;; here

...........ira responded with the expected, brillmore wasn’t the kidnapping dad kind of town. it wasn't even interesting enough to have a dad who saves you from a flooded basement bathroom in the day and saves youths from the devil in the night. “what?” maybe it was the drama club in her, but mavis had to heavily shift her weight when responding to ira’s comment. “you had a college fund in the first place??” Mavis ran the line between joke and actual question. she always imagined her hometown as ‘day job or die’ with the only other options were to be lucky enough to be born into a successful business or be to get your grades high enough for a scholarship. but before either of them could continue the snap of cube's phone hitting the ground echoed through the valley. a couple people followed, she followed ira's phone as it got kicked under a tire then up to his rather anxious face asking about maddox's snake. "cherry's the least of our problems." mavis chuckled before walking off, she knew ira would go over to him and she didn't want to make eye contact with her ex.

mavis stood by the side of the van facing the road, low-key snooping on the ringleader, river and some other’s conversation. the first car she’s seen all day drove by, probably taking a scenic route back from skyview. it wasn't till she threw her phone in the road to get run over and then made eye contact with a kid in the backseat that it clicked with mavis that ten teenagers on the side of the road is incredibly suspicious. it was a bit of a miracle that they didn't stop to check that they were okay. she cut into the biggest group so far's conversion "i don't think it matters where we go, just that we go." mavis' words came out as a little more frantic than she intended, the thought of getting caught before they even left was a scary one and one mavis is determined not to face.

[vaska]

𝚒𝚛𝚊 x 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔
[the average]-[tagged; everyone tbh]-[placed; by & in the van]-[feeling; snek is cool,everyone bettr b buckled]

maddox put ira in his place, assuring him that "cherry" wasn't poisonous, nor big enough to do any collateral damage. maddy prodded ira however, claiming that cherry would 'lick right in your nose, and crawl in your mouth and come out your ear'. ira squinted his eyes at his shady comrade, shaking his head. "sure she will," he responded dryly, playing along. "of course, though, i'm used to being around snakes." he mumbled, referencing the majority of high school students. (fable might have also been one of those "snakes" but that was another story) "anyways. now that you've reassured me you can care for our scaly friend," he leaned down, leveling his eyes with cherry. "and that i'm not going to die of asphyxiation,"rising to match maddy's firm gaze with his not-so firm stare, ira continued. "i don't think we'll have too much of a problem." he said, placing his hands on his hips with a grin.

the group started to feel restless, and ira wanted to try and usher things on before a search team reached them all. or before he got cold feet. either way, he unclasped his keys from his belt loop and made his way into a cluster of people. "if everyone's ready, let's all start piling up and blow this pop stand. we can small-talk in the car." ira fumbled with his keys, rubbing his thumb against some old keychains his dad treasured. he pointed towards the van, swooping through the cluster of teens and climbing into the driver's seat. with ac on and the van ready to go, ira folded his hands in his lap and waited for everyone to get seated and buckled.

with everyone piled in, ira drove west. "everyone back there better be buckled!" he scolded, taking a look in the mirror for assurance that everyone was abiding by his requests. ira was a very cautious driver and even prided himself on it. he always drove the proper speed and kept his eyes focused on the road. eliminating any distractions he could, and this was no exception even if he was driving a getaway van. "river, did you want to go anywhere specific or are we going to drive until we're out of gas?" river organized this whole thing, but never said anything more than "head west". at least, that's as much as ira could remember.

[stormi.]

↱R i v e r ⚾ J a m e s↲
________________________________________
--eighteen-the jock-tagged: Hermione, Cube, Jericho, and Ira--

River quickly spotted Hermione and his eyes followed her as she approached
him.He listened to her words and nodded at her comment about the price of her phone. He
knew Hermione would not be a huge fan of the idea that everyone needed to smash their
phones, so he was shocked when she tossed her phone to the ground. The boy's eyes grew
a bit wider as he looked down at the destroyed phone his girlfriend owned, and then
he moved his gaze to his own phone which he was still gripping tightly in his hand. The boy
took a deep breath and also tossed his phone on the ground, stepping on it with all the
strength he had in his foot and rubbing it into the dirt. He removed his foot slowly from off
of the phone, revealing the cracked screen that now had the dirt from his shoe seeping
in the cracks of it. River stood in disbelief for a few moments, shocked that he
had actually gone through with that. This was all becoming a bit too real for him, but he
knew there was no escaping it.

River's eyes slowly moved from looking down at his phone, to looking back at
his girlfriend. He simply shrugged at her comment about being tired before he replied to her
question with a quiet voice, "I've been here awhile. Couldn't sleep much so decided to
get a head start on the day." He took a moment to run his hand through his hair as he
watched Hermione greet his brother and ignore Cube. Normally he would've commented on
it, but he didn't feel like getting into a disagreement with Hermione this early in the morning,
and in front of all these people. Instead he snickered at Cube's politeness towards Hermione,
knowing the words he used weren't sincere, and listened to her second question. He really hadn't
taken the time to figure out where they should go from here, so he was slightly relieved when
Cube suggested something. He shifted his weight onto his other leg and turned his attention
over to Cube,"I'm down for getting food," he told the small group. He was about to say
something else, but his attention jumped over to Ira when he suggested they head out. "We
can figure everything out once we're in the van," he commented, his eyes looking at
Hermione, Jericho, and Cube. After speaking River glanced down at his smashed phone one
last time before extending his hand for Hermione to take so they could head over to the van.

Once everyone was loaded and buckled up in the van, River leaned back in his seat.
He felt the urge to pull out his phone, but the memory of smashing it quickly popped
into his mind. He sighed and lifted his eyes when he heard someone say his name, "Uhh..." he
mumbled, "I say we head west until we run into some food?" he suggested to Ira.
River may have organized this thing, be he absolutely had no real plans. He really hadn't expected
anyone to actually go through with this. He was still pretty much in shock over the fact
everyone had showed up and were just as ready to leave this town as he was.