03.2023 | WELCOME BACK! Hello friends old and new! I'm so excited to welcome you all back to SITW! I've made some changes to the plot and added the ability to play supernatural charcaters! So come and check it out! I can't wait to jump back into this little town with all of you!
A strange history surrounds the town, it is a place where mysterious and supernatural things have been known to happen. The reputation of the town reguarly draws in visitors and newcomers alike. While some residents avidly believe in the supernatural, others are far more skeptical. What do you believe?
West liked hanging out at the auto shop for a few reasons:
Firstly, and most importantly, it wasn't home or school or anywhere else he was expected to be. Nor was it somewhere either of his siblings frequented. With the parties and other family events, the young man felt smothered some of the time. All of the time. It wasn't so much of a problem when his father was away, but now that he was back in town, probably forever, West was debating whether it was his turn to travel.
Secondly, he liked talking to Seung about his bike. Or any bikes. Or to her in general. Admittedly he didn't know that much about motorcycles except what he had taught himself. Unfortunately, he wasn't very handy either. Shop class had been useful for sure but matters much beyond that he usually deferred to someone on Youtube or the actual mechanics in town. When he'd first got his Harley-Davidson 2014 Breakout years ago, he'd soaked up anything and the older of the Royce siblings had told him. She was a mentor of sorts.
Thirdly, there was Mikey. He and the squirt hadn't been friends growing up, nor really in high school. But after the sports shit that outed him, West had a lot of respect for the guy. They'd talked cryptids and music, but West wouldn't call them friends. Not to mention the moment Mikey left town, he had thought for sure that was the last he'd ever hear of the guy.
He sat back on the couch in the shop, mostly there just to be anywhere but home. West alternated between looking at his phone and bothering either of the mechanics. "Mikey, yo, you got a new podcast soon?"
It was maybe a bit unprofessional how often the siblings let West just be in the garage. Seung found herself glad of the company to have West around. Not that it was so obvious. She knew that she could come across as harsh even when she was being earnest. She wore her hair up in the shop and her mechanics clothing didn’t leave many frills to soften the sort default glare on her face. She felt West had gotten to know her enough to know she didn’t actually mean to look like an angry robot…most of the time. It was a little weird having a mentor relationship with West if only because originally she had bonded with Mikey in a similar way. Mikey hadn’t actually kept up with bikes though. She was sort of glad he didn't. He seemed to like the thrill more than the bikes themselves and that was…worrying. She was idly working on something or other, while keeping an ear on the other two.
Mikey was shuffling about some invoices and some new employee paperwork. He had sort of finished a while ago but he was beginning to like their three way hang outs. His eyes glanced up to West from where he was pretending to work and shrugged with a coy smile. “Oh….there might be something in the works…”
Actually the weird shit in the forest was going to make for a great show. He wanted to get some interviews but it wasn’t so easy to track folks down for an interview after they went through that. That and these days he preferred to stay on the plausible deniability side of the supernatural. “I should have way more time to work on it once we get another mechanic in here. “
He added with a teasing laugh “But if I take less hours you’ll have one less person to bug.~”
West really hadn’t been sure about West at first. He had eased back into Sweetwater like a person trying to walk into a icy cold pool without jumping in. Mikey still had a lot of trust issues with the more native residents of Sweetwater…or maybe people in general. Still he was nice enough to Gia and that counted for something. It helped that West didn’t drag up the old rumors too much.
last edited Dec 5, 2023 7:43:22 GMT by Seung Royce
Post by West Vanderson on Dec 5, 2023 19:52:19 GMT
West excelled at being unprofessional. Honestly, he didn't think it was a bad thing. He was careful not to be too much in the way. Usually. Comfortable with her or not, one good look from Seung could send him slinking back to the lobby with the amount of respect he had for the woman. He'd never had a cool big sister, but she was probably the closest he would get. Plus he rather liked the look of mechanics garb and grease on her.
"Aw, that's all you got for me? Seung, your brother's being a tease again," he said, playfully tattling on him with a smile. "That career in radio isn't gonna broadcast itself," he added. He might not always agree with the other man's taste in music, but he liked his personality, especially on the air and it seemed to him Mikey could handle the local radio station or even a larger one. He waved aside Mikey's excuse. "Seung and I get along great. I think she likes me better than you," he said firmly. That wasn't entirely true, but he knew she had been pretty upset with Mikey. West didn't know the details of why the guy came back, but he knew his sister had left to talk to him beforehand.
"What are you studying in school these days anyway?" West was fast approaching a point where he would have to declare something. He still had no idea what he wanted to do with his upcoming Saturday, let alone the rest of his life.
Seung’s mouth twitched into a smile. It was nice if nothing else to have this friendly atmosphere. West felt a bit like their own Switzerland. Having him there prevented either of them from getting too tense and devolving into an argument. Their relationship was…a lot more peaceful than it used to be. They both had a lot of other things to focus on and keeping the shop going required a lot of co-operation. Mikey snorted “The radio thing is just for fun…” Or at least that was what he thought about it originally. It had been a way to connect to other cavers, then it was a way to talk about the sort of spooky gossip unique to this town. Now…well now he was getting a little too close to the truth of the stranger things in town. He still intended to report something on the hounds. There would be questions while he couldn’t give the whole truth, he could give enough to satisfy. Enough that most people wouldn’t dig deeper. The question of school caused a sigh “ Geology at the moment. I think about switching pretty much every semester though…” He shot west another teasing jab “Are you even going to school right now?” He hadn’t caught the guy on campus lately which wasn’t so unusual but he knew west didn’t love attending classes. Mikey had fought tooth and nail to go to college but that hadn’t been because he had some grand scheme for his life. At the time it had just been a ticket out of Sweetwater. Now that he dad was gone everything was different. Since he had come back one by one the things he had hated about Sweetwater had become smaller. He had found a lot of reasons to stay too. Like Brooks, Ferris, the grand mystery of just how much strange stuff might actually be here.
Post by West Vanderson on Dec 17, 2023 9:52:45 GMT
"What a very politically correct answer," he observed. Not that he didn't do plenty of things just for fun. Though he imagined getting high was a bit different. "I think you'd make a good radio host."
He made a sound of disgust. Geology? What was Mikey gonna do with a degree in rocks? Certainly nothing with cars or probably anything in Sweetwater at least. Of course, if he managed to find something out of town again, West wouldn't blame him. Sometimes the blonde dreamed about leaving home often but Sweetwater was the only place he had ever known. What would he do anywhere else that he couldn't do here?
"My parents are paying for tuition, so technically?" He was still coasting through an undeclared major, more than a few classes behind. In his second year and he didn't have enough credits to be considered a sophomore. He shrugged and slid down on the couch. "Don't really know what I wanna do," he mused, a bit lost internally for a moment at the serious question. But then he perked up and pushed himself up on the couch, leaning over the arm toward Mikey. "Yo, speaking of future life plans, I got some really nice weed if you wanna share a joint later?" He'd tried one a few days ago and while he'd crashed a bit hard at the end and slept through classes, it had been a really easy ride. One he would rather share and it had been a while since he mentioned such a thing with Mikey, though he knew the guy had dabbled before.