Salvador "Tory" Castellano // He/Him // Mentions: Macy (dir), Garbo, Hikaru, Darla (ind)

Tory couldn’t imagine why he’d woken up so early. But now, unfortunately, he couldn’t get back to sleep. It could possibly have to do with the fact that Macy was in the same room, just a few feet away from him. But no, it probably had more to do with the slight draft and distorted noise of the fifth-worst motel Tory had stayed in since joining this group. Whatever the reason, he was awake now, and there was no fixing that. He checked his phone clock several times in agitation, but gave up when he found only a minute had passed. Well, his whole sleep schedule was shot now. He was going to be tired earlier, which meant he’d have to go to sleep earlier, which meant he’d be awake earlier yet again tomorrow morning.

Despite the earliness of the hour, Tory couldn’t help glancing sideways at Macy. Was he still asleep? Of course he was, nobody should be awake right now - except maybe Hikaru, he seemed the type. Still, Tory almost wished Macy would wake up, just to give him someone to talk to. And, at the same time, he absolutely did not want Macy to wake up, because then he would have to talk to him. Sighing slightly, Tory swung his legs out from under the covers to retrieve his laptop from his bag. He had plenty of time, so he might as well go through the footage from the other day. As spooky and thrilling as the premise of monster hunters exploring haunted places was, the footage looked more like home video of four idiots making stupid faces at the camera. Tory found a clip of Macy laughing at something clever Tory had said, and rewound it a couple of times. He found himself ridiculously pleased with his silly joke, and might have convinced himself he was stand-up comedian material if he hadn’t realized Macy might wake up any minute. It would look pretty weird, Tory sitting there with his laptop rewinding the video over and over. He hurriedly fast-forwarded, and glanced over to see if Macy was awake yet. Hadn’t he just done that two minutes ago?

Tory got around to something especially unhinged Garvin had decided to do that day, and put his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. He hadn’t had many friends last as long as Garvin and him, and not a single one of them had made such a collection of bad life choices. Frankly, this whole group had the potential for disaster, and as a spectator with a camera Tory was more than happy to let them run free. Well, within reason. Someone had to be the reasonable one here - and it was definitely Hikaru. But Tory was willing to be the backup. He did have an unfortunate tendency to get dragged into these things against his will. He didn’t want anything to do with drama, or overreactions, or rivalries. I mean, besides Darla, but that was different. She was the worst kind of person he had ever had the misfortune to meet. What was he supposed to do, pretend to like her, be nice to her? That one was on her, since she’d clearly started the whole thing. Tory also didn’t want anything to do with romantic drama and rom-com subplots. He did have a slight crush right now - he was working on it - but he had, as far as he could tell, concealed it masterfully. Though that was a lot harder when the group forced the two to share a room. Is he up yet? Tory glanced over for a third time and cursed himself. Stop doing that, you’re a grown man.

Finally Tory’s actual wake-up time rolled around. He got up out of bed as quietly as he could and tucked his laptop away. Now things felt a little more regular. He had the same routine every morning, and today wasn’t about to be any different. It was make the bed, get dressed in the bathroom, brush his teeth, wash his face, comb his hair, and gather what he needed for the day. He went through the motions like he was on autopilot, and stared lazily into the mirror as he dragged a comb through his hair. He wasn’t sure exactly what Hikaru had planned for the day, but with this sort of job it hardly seemed to matter. One day he’d want some sort of job with a real schedule and deadlines. But he liked this for now. He would have stuck around for Garvin and Macy, if for nothing else. Hikaru was a very interesting person, and Tory had considered doing a sort of character study with the footage he’d collected. Darla, of course, could just as soon leave, but he guessed she was sticking around, so he would just keep ignoring her. He was glad to be with the group for now, though he knew eventually they’d get tired of looking for so-called “spooks” and would have to move on. But it was nice having a real friend group for once.

Tory’s stomach growled, reminding him that he needed to eat breakfast. At first travelling had really thrown him off in regards to eating. Back home, it was easy enough to cook himself up something edible and make a pot of coffee. It wasn’t so easy when he was motel-hopping. He’d spent a lot of his life eating like a money-deprived college student, but he wasn’t about to let things go any more downhill than that. He’d be damned if he couldn’t make room for an entire bag full of fruit, nuts, granola, canned fish, crackers, and a dozen other things. Along with his travel bags and surprisingly heavy camera equipment, it was clear that packing light had never been an option for him. He didn’t let other people carry his bags, and he did not let anyone else have any of his large amount of food.

He wasn’t going to share, but today he was feeling a bit more sociable. A bit daring, maybe from the wild high of watching a video of Maxi laughing five times in a row. Almost crazy enough to - suggest they all go get breakfast together. This was about as far as he was willing to go out of his comfort zone, though. Putting in a real effort was going too far. All he did was text the group chat, “Breakfast?” Hopefully they would figure out what that meant. He heard Maxi’s phone buzz as the text was sent, and looked at him pensively for a few moments, trying to decide whether to wake him up or not. He opened the nightstand drawer and withdrew a cigarette pack and a lighter, pulling one out and lighting it, filling the air with the delightful aroma of nicotine.

Darla Keys | She/Her| Mentions: Garvin, Hikaru, Salvador, Maxi (ind.)

Darla was still blissfully asleep for a while. She needed it. Dealing the ragtag group she had found herself in was a headache on the best of days, and absolute nightmare on the worst. In her opnion, it was a miracle nobody had murdered each other at this point. Now that would make for a good macabre story.

Her sleep was immediately disrupted by a loud buzzing from her phone, and she slowly got up. Ah. A group chat message. She was half expecting Hikaru to have some tedious plan for the day, or Garvin sending out some total bullshit prank or something. She didn't even give Maxi a thought, whoops. She was pleasantly surprised though. Not becuase it was from Tory- she couldn't stand him on a good day- because it was about breakfast. Hell yeah she could eat.

It didn't take long for Garvin to respond though and her face immediately fell. Hell yeah she could eat, but as a group? Was her sanity really worth some pancakes or eggs or whatever?
...
Probably not, but she was hungry.

She shot back a quick text to the group and got up to get dressed.

Give me five minutes

They should know by now five meant at least twenty. She was already headed towards the bathroom in her room, trying to run a hand through her long unruly hair with a scowl. She didn't know her mother- but she knew for a fact it was that woman's fault she had this mess of curls and despised it. It took for five minutes alone to try and tame them before she gave up and pulled her hair into a high ponytail.

It took her no time at all, in her opinion, to pick out something to wear. Usually she went out of her way to get something nice for the camera on, but as far as she knew they weren't filming today or until later, and she was already in a pissy mood from the text waking her up. Correction- From Tory's text waking her up. Even better.

She pulled some jeans on and a flannel, before pausing. She couldn't look that... well. Like that. Disheleved and like she grew up on a damn farm or something, even if it was closer to the what her upbringing had actually been like. Her hair was already a wreck. She scoffed, quickly switching her outfit just a little- it wouldn't take long at all. She ended up settling for a croptop with the flannel thrown over in instead. Still More casual looking, but clearly not too casual. And of course she had her charm bracelet from her dad. He was sappy like that.

She made sure to put all of her belongings back in her bag. She had a feeling they were getting out of here as soon as possiblle based on how the others had reacted to the less than stellar motel. Bunch of whiners.

Salvador "Tory" Castellano // He/Him // Mentions: Macy (dir), Garbo, Hikaru, Darla (ind)

Almost as soon as Tory sent his text, Macy jerked awake from the sound of his phone buzzing. Tory couldn’t help grinning mischievously, his cigarette clamped between his teeth. He wanted to laugh at Macy’s disgruntled expression and his hair sticking up in various directions. “Morning, sunshine,” Tory greeted dryly, taking his cigarette out his mouth and blowing a puff of smoke that drifted in Macy’s general direction. Tory felt strangely delighted that Macy was finally awake, and even more delighted to be the first thing he had to contend with upon waking. But he knew better than to push his luck before Macy had prepared himself for the day. Tory was very much a morning person. Macy, as it turned out, was not. Lesson well learned. So Tory just watched quietly as Macy trudged off to the bathroom.

Trying to find something to occupy himself with, Tory rearranged some of his things by his bed. Unfortunately, this was about the tenth time he’d done that in two days, and there really wasn’t much to improve upon. He glanced over at Macy’s things. Frankly, Macy was tidy enough himself, and nothing was in disarray. But Tory generally had his own idea about where things should go, and he took the opportunity to hop off the bed and readjust the layout of all of Macy’s things. He figured it all made a lot more sense the way he laid them out. It was a nice gesture, right? He loved reorganizing people’s things without their permission. Surely Macy would appreciate it. Tory did it with all his friends. He was constantly cleaning up after Garbo, though by now he had kind of given up on him. Even when Tory lived with his family, he used to tidy up after them. Tory wasn’t good at too many things, but he was definitely good at this. He stepped back to admire his handiwork and glanced behind him to make sure Macy hadn’t seen. It was a surprise. Like a gift.

Tory returned to his bed and sat down, and a moment later his phone buzzed. He saw that Garbo had text back, and let out a quiet scoff. He immediately texted back: “Like hell I am. Get your own food.” Even if Tory was polite in the first place, he definitely wouldn’t have been to Hammerhead. They were friends, which meant they were far beyond being nice to each other. With nothing to do until Macy came out of the bathroom, Tory scrolled through his phone, looking for a breakfast place. Finally Macy emerged, looking significantly more awake. “Looking especially good this morning, Mace,” Tory said casually, setting his phone down and leaning back on one arm. He was in the middle of congratulating himself on his coolness when it occurred to him that maybe that was a weird thing to say. It’s only awkward if you make it awkward. Anyway, why couldn’t a guy compliment another guy without it being weird? Why couldn’t a non-heterosexual guy compliment another non-heterosexual guy?

Tory took a dangerously long drag on his cigarette, looking at an art piece on the wall which had suddenly become intensely interesting to him. “So-” he started, but he cut himself off as he saw Macy headed for him. He raised a brow as Macy settled down on the foot of Tory’s bed. He tried to simultaneously shift towards and away from Macy, and wound up not moving at all. Macy began talking, biting his lip as he did. He’s so cute. Like a little chipmunk. “Uh,” he said in response to Macy’s question, then gathered himself and continued, “Yeah, first option, of course. Garv did reply, technically. Trying to weasel a free meal out of me.” He laughed slightly at this. Something occurred to him, and he added in the most casual voice he could muster, “Suppose we could just go without them if nobody responds soon.”

No sooner had he said that than his phone buzzed again. He checked and saw Darla’s text, and mentally let out a few choice curse words. The last thing he wanted was to go to breakfast with just Darla and Macy. He couldn’t have thought of a more awkward situation if he’d tried. “Looks like Darla’s in,” Tory told Macy in a lackluster voice. He glanced at the two text responses and shook his head. “I knew I shouldn’t have started this.” It had been a few minutes since his text, and nothing had gone even remotely wrong. But making very boring plans with four people was already too complicated for Tory. “Maybe we should just go get them?” Tory suggested to Macy, who naturally always knew what had to be done in any situation. He waited only for some agreement from Macy before hefting himself out of bed, flattening his hair with his hand to look more presentable before he went outside. “I’ll just grab my shoes and wallet. And maybe the camera - you never know. That means I should bring the whole camera bag. And a hat, just in case. And the small backpack, I guess. Do you think I should bring a water bottle?”

Finally Tory had gathered the many items he had deemed necessary for this small excursion, and slipped his shoes on at the door. He fetched his pepper spray, which was not for any normal self-defense purposes, but rather a safety mechanism in the event that Hikaru’s dogs turned on everyone and tried to rip them to shreds. Tory may have had to deal with their presence, as he seemed to be the only one who realized they were giant predators, but he was definitely not forfeiting his safety. And he wasn’t stepping foot in that motel room with them. He couldn’t for the life of him understand how people could own hundred-pound carnivores with razor-sharp teeth and never give it a second thought. It was like having a lion in your house and just walking around like there wasn’t a lion in your house.

This anti-dog train of thought carried Tory right out the door, but eventually his thoughts turned to more pleasant things. It would be nice to have breakfast with Macy. To sit at a table with Macy, and look at menus with Macy, and see what Macy ordered. Oh yes, and everyone else. Obviously. “How’s this place look?” Tory asked. He kept his distance from Macy and awkwardly held out his phone at an angle so Mace could see it. He had found a health eatery which looked like it probably served cauliflower pizza that tasted like cardboard. When Tory got the chance to pick where they went to eat, he always went for the healthiest option. Which, in several instances, hadn’t necessarily been the best-tasting option. Normally he wouldn’t have bothered asking anyone for approval, but he did want Macy to like it. Macy was the kind of person who just knew things. “They do juices,” Tory added, like this was a big selling point. They were approaching the door to Salt and Hikaru’s room, and Tory slowed down and knocked lightly on the door as he spoke to Macy.