forum Yesterday Upon The Stair // yes it's the same name fite me // Mature oxo

Started October 15, 2019 by @croccin-champagne

tune

Tango Arden has been plagued by ghosts since she was a kid. No, not figurative ghosts. Actual, literal ghosts. Growing up with an ability like hers, in a world where the supernatural isn't supposed to exist, she's learned to keep everything under wraps. She's perfected the art of coming up with excuses when she's accidentally caught mumbling to a ghost on the subway, or when she's caught somewhere she shouldn't be while on an errand for a spirit. And with her father's job in the Air Force, whenever someone catches on, she doesn't have to wait long before she's in a completely different state, country, or continent.

Except this time, she finds herself back in a town she's been to before. Blightburn, Ireland. A small-ish town nestled in a valley surrounded by lush rolling hills and mountains, gorgeous natural scenery as far as the eye can see. And it's the one place Tango vowed to never, under any circumstances, return. Anywhere else in the world would have been preferable. Because none of those places have the boy who's heart she broke unwittingly, the one person she's ever wanted to stay for.

And now, she's back, in a place she loved but couldn't stay in, and things aren't quite right.

Ghosts aren't supposed to be scared.

But the ghosts in Blightburn are terrified of something. And when another kid goes missing, the third in two months, Tango realizes that whatever it is, it's bad. Very, very bad, and she may be the only one who can help stop it.

1. No OP characters, or I will yeet your ass outta here before you can say 'this bitch empty'. I can't stand invincible characters, man. Mary/Gary Sues/Stues are a hard nope from yours truly as well.

2. Proper grammar, punctuation, and capitalization, please. I can get making a few mistakes, when you're tired, or English ain't your first language(It's mine, and even I have my issues), but if it's too common a thing, it irks the hell outta me. Call me a bitch, but hey.

3. Slurs, homophobia, transphobia, rascism, sexism, anything that ends in -ism and that harms or promotes the harm of other people will not be tolerated. See my first threat. However! For plot devices, it might be considered, if you talk to me about it first.

4. Detailed-ish responses, please. Think three or more sentences. To keep it going.

5. Please, be on fairly often. Vacations, school, and jobs are all things I can get, but I'd like for this to have a regular pace!

6. Rated Spicey for just that, Spicey things. Whether it be mature topics, smexy things, or, gasp, blood, this is the only warning I'll remember to give.

7. Please keep the plot going! It's really hard for me to be invested in a roleplay if the other person reacts more than acts, and I'm excited about this premise and would love to keep it going as long as I can.

8. I have the full right to add and edit this list. I also have the right to boot you if you're causing too many problems.

Edit: School is always kicking my ass, so just a heads up, I don't respond much at school and am more active on the weekends than any other times, but I do make my appearances lmao

Spot's yours!

Absolutely, shoot! I realize I may have left some clarifying things out, definitely, so I'll actually be adding to my specifications real quick lmao

yiisss. Alright I’ll be waiting. Lol thanks for editing it.

Alright, there's the things I can think of, rules and time-wise. What was your plot question my dude?

Alright! So i was wondering is the guy she fell in love with one of the kidnapping victims or does he help her find them? And how would they bond after th whole breakup thing?

Oh boy, that's a fun one. So no, he was not one of the kidnapping victims, and yes, he does help her

So there wasn't….actually a breakup, is the thing, because the idea I was thinking of was that they never really were dating. Instead, things happened, and they were definitely pining after each other. But then Tango's secret was leaked, and she lives by her 'once it's out, so are you' rule for herself. She didn't want to, and was actually even considering staying and seeing if it would turn out as bad as she was used to it being, but then her dad was assigned to be stationed elsewhere, and she had to leave anyway. That's kind of a detailed loose idea, if you've got anything you want to suggest or add let me know!

oooo ok! So I assume we’re doing straight. Aannmmmd is there a template?

There is! I’ll pull it up in a sec

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Sexuality:
Appearance:
Clothing/Style:
Personality:
Backstory(opt):
Likes:
Dislikes:
Fears:
A theme song, if you can:
Other:

Name: Tango Arden
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Sexuality: She has absolutely no clue, and is honestly a bit preoccupied with other things to really put much thought into it.
Appearance: Choppily cut dark red hair to a little below her shoulders, that blazes like a fire in direct sunlight. Occasionally has a streak or two of color, current is a white chunk in the front, on the right side of her face. Tanned skin and covered in various scars.(Gains a few more during the rp.) Looks like she had both ears pierced at one point, but her left earring was literally yanked from her ear. 5’4 and some mix between muscular and curvy, leaning more on the muscled side. Her eyes are a strange and unnerving sort of yellow/green, almost like a cat. Speaking of cats, when light is shined on her eyes in the dark, they do the same reflective thing, sort of evidence that she can see really well in the dark. Keeps her nails painted black, and the polish is somehow always chipped, no matter what.
Clothing/Style: A pair of military grade black combat boots that have definitely seen the world, and swaps between frayed jean shorts and black skinny jeans. Wears an older looking leather bomber jacket with a couple Air Force patches on the sleeves. Prefers tank tops in solid colors, mainly black, which admittedly can make her look even eerier. Never takes off the chain around her neck with her mother’s dog tags on them. Can also be found in her school uniform, though when worn, the outfit usually looks sloppily tossed on, with the shirt only half tucked at the tie undone.
Personality: Can honestly seem scary as hell if you don’t know her, and she’s not making an effort to appear friendly and welcoming. Always watching literally everything, more so than any teenage girl should. She’s got an eidetic memory, and an incredible memory with faces and names, so she can remember everything. Every ghost, every person she’s met. She learned sign young, to keep from being seen as crazy when communicating with spirits in public, so she has a habit of what basically looks like muttering in sign, with her hands down at her sides. Analytical. She can pick apart every move and person she’s fighting with, when she does get into fights, and then use the training she’s had against them with sometimes scary results. Quick thinking, especially on her feet, and resourceful. Kinda…morally grey? Like, she’s obviously got morals, but it's usually hard to tell what is and isn’t pushing it or off limits when it comes to her sense of right and wrong.
Backstory(opt): A bit of it’s obvious, but I’m still fleshing her out.
Likes: Music, being helpful, pulling off a last minute and hasty plan, her cat, the small gang of ghosts that stick around her, Doritos, anything carbonated.
Dislikes: Vegetables, being alone(as in, no ghosts or people), more than one pillow, sleep.
Fears: Letting down the people she cares about, not being able to help someone, being killed by a ghost(they can touch and harm her), making a ghost, and small spaces.
A theme song, if you can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV6pvII1eFU
Other: She doesn’t smile a whole lot, and there’s a reason for that. Most of her smiles don’t quite reach her eyes unless she’s genuinely happy or amused, and it looks creepy. On that note, she’s got this…smile she does, and the best way to describe it is how her guidance counselor did when she was fifteen. ‘Baby eating’. It was mostly a joke, but it’s not too far off, looks wise…

Name: Avril Ulf Qhuinn
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Straight
Appearance: Floppy brown hair that frames a tanned, thick face. His facial features are set and large. His nose is mushroom-like, and his jaw mottled, but he doesn’t look too bad. Always smiling. Has a thick Irish accent, naturally. Large and tall, exercises often thanks to the many chores he’s given.
Clothing/Style: Comfortable clothes that are loose and comfortable, mostly because he can’t find many that fit without tearing it unintentionally. Oops, right?
Personality: A big fluffball of energy. He always bobs in place if he’s not doing anything with himself which always ends up him getting more work from his father, which he honestly doesn’t mind that much. He can never stay on one topic of discussion. A distracted boi. He’s the type when in a roadtrip to just point out wildlife and excitedly explain everything about that animal.
Backstory(opt): meh
Likes: Likes reading, listening to music, lifting heavy things, working out. Also food is nice.
Dislikes: The dark, being low in energy, having no food, tight spaces.
Fears: Being kidnapped. With the rising kidnapping rates you can only imagine.
A theme song, if you can: (later)
Other: hrr

Auhfatge I absolutely adore him so much. If you want me to start, I can get one up later, most likely after school

Thank uwu I wanted something opposite so it’d be more interesting lol

Hey take your time

((I realized a hot sec too late that one of Tango's ghost friends is named Emmy lmao. Imma change that up for the sake of keeping from confusing you))

Blightburn.

It really was a beautiful place. Out of everywhere she'd been, all the gorgeous sights and places she'd seen, Blightburn was her favorite. View-wise. And….maybe when considering everything else, too. Or it had been, before she had to leave. Before things went wrong and before she could fix them, that runner's instinct took over and her dad was assigned to Tokyo. Before she left behind the one person who had ever managed to make a place feel like home as well.

The town itself was fairly rustic in appearance, cobblestone roads and shingled roofs, and old street lamps that looked like they could still be gas-lit. And Tango Arden, in all her military-brat, hard-to-really-describe glory, somehow stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe it was the way she carried herself, or the way her hands never stopped moving at her sides, twisting like she was signing to herself, or even just her scars when they were visible. Whatever it was, it drew attention. And so it was no surprise that word of her arrival traveled fast throughout the living, as soon as she drove into town in her dad's old jeep.

"Groceries first, and then the house." She muttered as she climbed out of the jeep in front of the little grocery mart, her hands moving to sign the same thing at her sides. Movement out of the corner of her eye made her glance to the side, and her shoulders slumped slightly in relief. Rei. Her longest standing companion out of both the dead and the living, Rei was a ghost. A ghost with a particular resemblance to the little girl from the Ring, which hadn't, oddly enough, ever really bothered Tango. It probably helped that they had met when the seer was young, and had absolutely no clue what a horror movie even was.

Avril was sitting outside on his cabin porch this fine misty morning, that had slowly burned away to a cool afternoon with the sun gazing down upon them. He sipped upon a drink delicately with his large legs bunched up under him and bobbing alightly as he looked out into his yard. He had been stationed here since people had started going missing, almost 24/7, just taking small breaks to get food and water and use the restroom. His father still had him do things as well, but he found a way to do it outside. He looked slowly up and down the street, setting down his lager and curling his fingers up together. Avril hadn’t really been his bouncy, excitable self lately, which worried many of the villagepeople living around. He usually visited everyone and made their day by doing things for them. But now he was their sentry, silently watching over everything with his bobbing legs and arms as they flexed restlessly on his thighs.

He had heard the rumors of a new girl in town, but that was just a new person to watch. While her name did sound familiar, he refused to acknowledge it until she herself approached him. Advir had a lot of things on his mind, after all.

Advir sunned himself as he looked around, his dark hair shining a bronze-gold color. He couldn’t help but enjoy himself slightly in the nicer weather.

Grocery shopping was quick. It helped that the mart itself hadn't changed much at all in a year and a half, and that it was relatively empty. Rei was a big help avoiding those few people that were in there. I really don't think I'm ready to get into that. Tango thought, climbing back into the jeep as Rei made herself comfortable in the passenger seat. Hinata better hurry his ass up though. She knew, on some level, that she couldn't avoid the inevitable, that eventually she was going to have to actually talk to people. She just….didn't want to think about that yet. Or Advir.

Maybe he had left. Maybe he had gotten out of Blightburn and moved or left to take on the world, and she wouldn't have to see him or talk to him. Wouldn't have to worry about the anxiety crawling in her gut. With her luck though….

And as Fate would have it, her luck wasn't going too well at all that day. "Why can't he get this fucking lump of metal fixed up or something!" Tango huffed, exasperation lacing her voice as the jeep stuttered to a stop halfway down a street she really didn't want to be on. Advir had lived down this street, and just the memories enough were making her wish she wasn't here.

"He says that it's fine." Rei signed at her, a sound like TV static coming from the void of her mouth. She was laughing, and that wasn't really helping Tango's situation at all. "Yeah, I know. Fucking-how am I supposed to get the jeep to the house now?" Even as she spoke, Tango was slipping off her jacket and hopping out of the finicky vehicle, a bandana in hand to keep her hair back. "Let's hope I can push the damn thing." More TV static, earning an eyeroll as the seer made her way around to the back of the jeep, starting off. An inch or two at a time was slow, but something, at least.

It had been about thirty minutes of silence since the eighteen year old had set his lager down. Well, until he heard voices and a faint creaking of a car. He perked up a little from his usual vigil and turned his head down the other end of the street, squinting and picking out a black car slowly rolling over to him. Such a strange way to drive a car, Advir decided, but still watched it. It had been another five minutes when he noticed that someone was pushing it.

Ah, I’d better help, then. He hopped up and left his drink behind for his dad to finish as he went investigating with the car situation. Though slight apprehensiveness crawled over him, until he noticed a flushed, slightly familiar girl pushing the car along.

“Hello, there?” He called curiously as he paused next to the Jeep, purposefully not looking at the woman pushing it to investigate the car itself.

Tango had swapped between grumbling to herself and to Rei the entire time she'd been pushing the jeep, the ghost sitting up on top and occasionally signing encouragements while laughing at Tango. She had gotten bored a few times, slipping off to go screw around, but always returned. "The ice cream is more like soup now, for sure." She commented to her spectral friend, just before a voice reached her ears.

Sweating despite the cooler air and glowering without even realizing it, Tango looked like a mess. Her hair was all over the place even with her bandana keeping it back, and the bags under her eyes stood out, dark against the odd color of the eyes themselves. Creepy, almost, if one was being honest. She looked sort of creepy, and a mess at the same time.

"Hello." She said, too focused on pushing the vehicle to look up at the person speaking. "Nice weather, huh? Never fails to clear your lungs." Her eyes flickered up to the top of the car, blinking once as she realized Rei wasn't there anymore. And as she looked around for her friend, she finally caught sight of the boy she'd been speaking to, entirely unaware of the ghost flitting around him excitedly as he inspected her dad's car. Advir.

Advir looked like his usual fluffy, absolutely cuddly self, even if his profile was facing the other. His hair came down in curly, frizzy sprigs that hugged his ears and chin. Despite still having that mottled, large jaw, it seemed to have slimmed up and his cheeks rose slightly since Tango had seen him last.

“Mm, too right. Here, how about you take a breather and I can jump start this for you?” His father had old sorts of cars imported from America. Apparently Fords were like, really good cars or something like that. He never followed what his father said, so he might be wrong. He moved closer to her, ready to push the Jeep much faster than she was at this very moment.

He looks exactly the same and entirely different at the same time. It took Tango a moment to answer, just a beat too long, before she was speaking in that slightly emotionless tone of voice as she kept pushing. "What's in it for you. Seems a bit out of the way and troublesome." Rei let out a long suffering sigh, her breath puffing against Advir's ear like a strangely cold but small gust of wind as she passed.

Tango had always been like that. So emotionless in her expressing of things that something like concern about being a bother came off as wariness and borderline paranoia. Maybe it was a mix of wariness too. She had every right to be wary, considering what trusting people too much had gotten her in return before.

“Ah, unless you want to keep pushing this car to your destination, I think I should be allowed to help.” He moved after her very slowly as to not go too fast for her half an inch an hour rate. “But I mean if you want to stay around when times are dangerous, that’s fine too.” If she knew him well, he wouldn’t let her go without helping, especially with the danger with kidnapping. And he wasn’t about to allow a friend, distant or not, go by herself.

But Tango was prideful and always worked for just herself, assuming that everyone needed something in return. Advir had taught her different… when they were younger. Now it was obvious she was back to that stone-cold soldier.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were assuming I couldn’t defend myself.” Tango said simply, removing her eyes from her old…friend, and returning them to the car she was pushing. “And I think we both, not to mention Ryan McAvoy as well, know how untrue that is.”

Ryan McAvoy, the boy who’d decided she would be a good target, and very quickly learned how wrong that assumption was when she shattered his hand and broke his nose.

“Don’t feel obligated to help. It’s slow, but I’ll be fine. Chances are, you’re too busy to screw around with the crazy kid anyway.”

“Well, perhaps maybe one person, but many?” He shouldered her aside and took control of the pushing, which albeit went faster with his and her combined strength. He wasn’t doubting her ability to defend herself, but rather her stamina. She was clearly exhausted from pushing the car, and might be able to fend off one person with a knife, but definitely not a group. Which was probably how people were getting kidnapped, and he wasn’t about to let her become one of those victims. He’d never forgive himself after that.

“I feel like I have all the time in the world,” He then answered wistfully.

Stamina was, in fact, something she was running out of. Tango was well aware of the exhaustion creeping in, already in need of sleep she'd been lacking over the past week. The car thing was just a tipping point. But Tango was used to running on empty, well after the point where she should have burnt out. Pushing herself too hard was second nature. "That's so painfully wishful. You sound like a love ballad I heard on Britain's top one hundred." The words, while not quite nice and paired with that emotionless expression, almost carried a certain undertone of something like fondness.

“Mmm…” Advir just smiled to himself. He liked Tango’s little teases, always playing with him and his emotions. While most probably didn’t like it, he quite did. The way she gave him her slight, begrudging smiles and her sly comments, just seemed to add up to a feeling of delight. Of course Advir would never be able to explain this to anyone, but it was just about his more favorable things with the woman.