neverstudied | DEERINGTON

[She'll be endlessly glad Buzz gave him the heads-up. No one wants a surprise angry Jessie on their hands. She's never had the calmest of temperments. Out of all of her gang of toys, she's consistently the most likely to throw down with very little provocation. This is something different, and knowing it's causing trouble for her loves ones is doing nothing to ease the anger bubbling way.

Fuck Deerington. Fuck it so much.

Still, she feels that warmth through the thread and it gives her some comfort. It tempers some of the anger boiling away.]

This place is a nightmare all the time, Venkman.
It's a literal nightmare dimension.
I don't know have you ever kicked an iguana in the throat?
I think that one tops it for me.

I absolutely do not want to fight a ghost.
Okay I kind of do but that's just the crazy and not something I actually want to do.
You can come over if you like.
If nothing else, Buzz can come save you.

i mean yea its a nightmare but i gotta look on the bright side i guess. probably would never have befriended a living ragdoll if i didnt get tossed into this place

[Venkman admitting that she's one of the bright spots of this dimension in the most roundabout way he can manage, because feelings are difficult.]

i punched a demon-worshipping cultist in the jaw while wearing a blue wizard robe covered in teddy bears

also got in an argument with a possessed coat rack once

do either of those beat iguana-kicking or do i need to dig deeper

i can come by, but first i gotta know where you actually live

i keep picturing that there's like a literal dollhouse somewhere in deerington where you all stay but i feel like that's probably not right

Okay fair.
There IS that.
Likewise.

[Feelings ARE difficult, but she appreciates this a lot.]

...

Yeah you absolutely win in the weirdness competition.
What the hell, Venkman.

408 Prospero .
It's an actual normal-sized house.
That actual human people can fit into.
Because I guess nightmare realms just don't take care of us little people.
But we ended up with a teenager living there anyway so I guess it all worked out.

...Willingly.
We didn't kidnap him or anything.

Edited 2020-03-04 18:54 (UTC)

no one can beat me in the weirdness competition

even if i lose i still have alternate universe versions of me who've experienced even MORE weird shit so i have extra chances to win

i mean hey the fact that you live in a normal-size house means that this dimension basically gave you a mansion. its all about perspective

and i wasnt under the impression that you were in the business of kidnapping teenagers but now that you've denied it im infinitely more suspicious of the possibility than i was before

[There's a significant pause between messages.]

actually im not sure how well you can read sarcasm and shit like that right now so im just gonna clarify i do not in fact think you kidnapped a teen and forced him to live in your house so please do not get indignant about me not taking you at your word. i do

i'll be there soon

[It takes him a little longer than it probably should to reach the toy's house- Venkman's still getting used to the layout of this town, and the two months he spent apart from it haven't helped. But eventually, there's a knock at the door.]

That's a terrifying thought.
MORE Peter Venkmans.
Venkmani?

Maybe we have a Snow White kinds deal where he does all our housework for us.
That's a joke.
He's sixteen, I think he's allergic to cleanliness.
Good news, my sarcasm detectors are still working.

[Because if Deerington had taken away her sarcasm... well, what would be left for her? Tragedy, that's what.

It takes a moment to open the door- mostly because it takes some choice parkour on Jessie's part to get to the door handle to turn it open. Once she does, though, the door will swing open, her dangling from the door handle with a smile that's a little strained at the edges. She's trying she really is. ]

Howdy, welcome to the teen kidnapping house.

theres at least like 6 of me out there in the multiverse, at least that ive met. probably others out there

its the kind of thing that would be existentially terrifying if i cared anymore

[As it is, a mixture of exposure, acclimation and flat-out depression have left him unable to really muster much more than a vague sense of occasional unease at the thought. A sense that his path in life is railroaded to a specific destiny, and free will is just a pipe dream; or that he's more like the film version of himself that he wants to believe.

Venkman arrives, Jessie opens the door, and Venkman holds out a hand- not outright grabbing Jessie from her dangling position, but at least offering her something to hop on to so she doesn't have to go tumbling to the floor.]

Sorry to tell ya, but if this was part of an elaborate plan to kidnap me, you failed the first step. Haven't been a teenager since Woodstock was still new.

That seems like an exessive amount of Venkmans.
And I say that with all the love in the world.

[That's just too many Venkmans. And she's a toy- a 'species' of which there are consistently multiples of themselves. Do you know how many Buzz Lightyears exist? NO ONE DOES.

She will take the offered hand- she doesn't need it, but she's trying her best to not be a spiteful little shit right now. It's taking more effort than she realised. She drops onto the opened hand easily. ]

The music festival or the Snoopy character? Though give the kid we have is a Peter, maybe I'm just collecting Peters now. Like a real specific kidnapper.

oh no believe me i agree. every time i meet another me i wanna punch him in the throat

[If we start including Ghostbusters toys into the list of Venkmans, we'll be here all day trying to count them all.]

The music festival. Summer of '69. Never really considered myself a hippie, but I liked their style.

[And he got high out of his mind there, but that's another story.]

If you start collecting Peters, you'll eventually have to gather up the other versions of me across the multiverse, and we've already covered why that's a bad idea.

[He can be endlessly glad she was in storage for the entirety of the 80s and never experienced a Ghostbuster Toy. ]

I never saw them. The hippies. It was about '64 when I went into storage and I was stuck under a bed up until then, so I missed almost the whole thing.

[Aside from hearing the music Emily played on her record player, anyway. But she doesn't think that counts. ]

Yeesh. You're right. That's a terrible idea. I don't wanna do that. [She'll jerk a thumb to the interior of the house.] Come on in. It's on the coffee table.

Edited 2020-03-10 21:49 (UTC)

[You know, for all they've talked and all Venkman has spilled about himself, he's only heard faint snippets about Jessie's life. He knows about some of her friends, both the ones here and at home. But he doesn't know about Emily. Her time isolated in darkness. Any of it.

He almost asks, and Jessie can see him start to open his mouth to say something, feel the curiosity bubble up through the string- but he hesitates. Leaves the subject for now. Venkman can take a guess and assume that a living toy getting put into storage indefinitely is... probably a difficult subject, and probably not one Jessie wants to field right now. So instead, like most things, he deflects.]

Unless toys can get high, you didn't miss much. At least not from the hippies.

[A gross oversimplification, of course, but who cares.

Venkman follows her gesture, though he doesn't focus on the coffee table at first- his attention is entirely commanded by the rest of the house.]

I almost forgot houses in this dimension can look nice. Everything we owned was covered in dust and slime when we got back, and the place didn't exactly look great before.

[Jessie is consistently guarded about her past. She never likes talking about it- and Deerington has a nasty habit of treading on all her old fears and opening up those bearly-healed wounds. She senses the curiosity through the thread, and almost feels guilty for not talking about it. Almost.]

We can't, no body functions for any of that.

[Living that plastic life. The house is pretty nice- despite her joking, Peter is a good boy and doesn't mess the place up all that much.]

Well, I came to it like this. Woody had been living here alone for a good long time before I showed up. He's... pretty anal so this is mostly him.

[She says that with a lot of affection, despite the anger-fueled barb driving it. She loves her idiot brother a lot.]

Edited (EXCUSE you DW I wasn't done) 2020-03-13 22:31 (UTC)

[Venkman hasn't been here long enough to have even the beginnings of his insecurities and fears exploited, really. Yeah, he's freaked out by things like the red strings, his relationships being public knowledge, but that's surface level shit. He's scared of that all the time, so in the grand scheme of things, its one of the easiest to deal with.

One of these days, this dimension's gonna really dig its teeth into forcing him to confront a decade and a half of unpacked guilt and remorse over ol' Mama Venkman, may she rest in peace, and depending on how bad it gets he might go goddamn catatonic.]

It's a shame.

[petition to get jessie some toy weed]

Y'know, I never really considered what it'd look like for a ragdoll to try to use a broom before, but now I am. You guys have your work cut out for ya, 'specially if your kidnapped teen's "allergic to cleanliness".

[Right, the coffee table. Venkman holds his hand out so Jessie can hop from him to the table surface, and he picks up the belt- gingerly, like he's worried he's going to damage it.

He doesn't say anything yet, but it's hard to disguise the affection seeping through the strings, let alone the very genuine smile on his face.]

[At least when that day inevitably comes, Jessie can be there to help in through it. She's a goddamn expert in dealing with Deerington induced past trauma at this point. She deserves a goddamn certificate in it.

Also please get her toy weed, it would make her life so much less awful.]

Luckily, he ain't too bad. And you'd be surprised what we can do. When the whole world's designed for people, you gotta get creative in just about everything.

[She smiles as he picks up the belt, those feelings coming through loud and clear. They sure help ease her frayed temper plenty.]

Do you like it?

[genuinely debating submitting a request for usable toy weed as a bonus reward. please stop me

Venkman sits down on the nearest couch or chair, still holding the belt up. He has not taken his eyes off the buckle yet, nor has the grin on his face faded for even a second.]

I love it.

[He says it softly- and his voice is usually soft, it's the Garfield effect, but this is barely above a whisper, and he just looks so stupidly happy... probably the happiest Jessie's seen him, uh, ever? In one fell swoop, she's appealed to both Venkman's barely concealed adoration of cowboy aesthetics and his desperate, better-hidden need for proof that the people he cares about actually care about him back, and that he's not just lying to himself every day of his life.

Yeah, it's a little ridiculous for him to get so emotional over a belt buckle, but so is the entire situation of a ragdoll cowgirl gifting him a belt buckle. Who cares if it's ridiculous. It's happening anyway.]

Thank you. Um- [A slight tinge of embarrassment, as Venkman realizes that she can definitely feel the absurd amount of gratitude leaking through the string.] I really- really do appreciate it.

[Give him a minute to remember how words work, Jessie. Even though he obviously knew the belt buckle was here, actually getting it is still a shock to his system. Like some part of him was expecting it to be a lie.]

You're welcome. I figured you could use a little pick me up. Also, I don't break promises.

[Venkman is the best bro there ever could be. Jessie smiles, the happy feeling he's feeding through to her really is making a difference. She almost feels normal. Or as close to normal as she can get to, these days. She'll take it, honestly.

She hops off his hand, landing on the coffee table with the practised ease of someone used to dropping from great heights all the dang time. She grins, nudging it a little closer.]

Go ahead and pick it up. It ain't gonna bite you.

DEERINGTON | Inbox

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text -> action?

yesssss

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drugs mention

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