gorysortofstory | Open Post the Sequel

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Open Post the Sequel

how to play.

1. Drop a comment with one or more of your muses. It can be empty if you want me to make a scenario, or you can toss one at me. If you want to just give me a prompt (a word, song, lyric, picture, phrase, anything), I can riff off that too.
2. In the subject line, you can specify any of my muses you might want to play with, or you can ask me to pick someone.
3. just rp with me. if something jives really well, maybe we can continue it in another one of these later, sort of like a super casual verse. if it doesn't, it doesn't.

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You can't trust anyone in this town, that's what Spencer's learned. Everyone has secrets, even your own family -- especially them, sometimes.

Jason has been one of those secrets. And honestly? She doesn't always trust him either. Sure, he's her brother but Melissa is her sister and that doesn't change anything.

Everyone has an agenda. A plot of their own.

But still, she can get the empty feeling. Even with her parents around she often feels alone. Which is why she shakes her head.

"I don't mind at all."

It's not smart to trust anyone in Rosewood.

Jason doesn't either, and he wouldn't blame her for not always trusting him. The people he used to hang out with, they've all been suspected of killing his sister. They made that stupid, terrible club.

He's lived with that slip of paper for a year that still haunts him, because there's still questions surrounding what happened to Ali and why.

Jason moves up to walk beside her, sliding his hands into his pockets. It's a quiet walk at first, before he glances her way. "...can I ask you a question? Are you close to your father?"

He could say our father, but Jason doesn't look at him that way. There's still so much anger there, but that doesn't mean he's not curious.

Spencer tenses at his question, unsure of what to say. Her parents feel like strangers she lives with these days. They all have so many secrets and lies, herself included. Levels of trust are at an all time low and she's not sure they'll ever be the same after.

The problem with Rosewood is you can't really trust anyone.

Not even yourself.

"We used to be. Before I knew how much he was hiding."

"Yeah. The whole hiding thing kind of puts a damper on the relationship," Jason agrees quietly as he slides his hands into his pockets while they walk. "How can you be close to someone you can't trust?"

He breathes in the air like that will somehow clear out the crowded feeling in his chest. It doesn't really work but nothing does.

"I'm sorry, for the record. Much as I've been angry at him, I'm sorry that he kept so many secrets because it ended up coming between the two of you."

And he's not close with his parents at all. It's the opposite for him, and he knows how difficult, how lonely that feeling is.

"It's not your fault. You weren't the one lying to me."

But Spencer can't talk. She keeps secrets all the time, lies to her parents because she has to. If they knew about A, about everything -- it's too risky. They can't ever know.

Secrets drive wedges between people, it makes things hard, but the problem is everyone in Rosewood has secrets. Even the good guys. Especially them, sometimes. Spencer's not even sure they are the good guys, anymore. Maybe they deserve everything they're getting.

She brings a hand up to tuck his hair behind her ear. She remembers when she wondered if her father could of been the one to kill Alli, to cover up his secret. It's hard to go back.

"He has no one to blame but himself."

"No, but it's still not fair to you and that's what I'm sorry about."

Spencer's his sister, and even if that's something they only recently found out about, Jason wants her to be okay. He wants good things for her. Jason already let down one sister, and he doesn't want to do the same to her.

She deserved better than that, than a father lying to her for so long about so much.

God, he really hates this town sometimes. There's just no escaping it. Jason's already tried.

"I was never close to either of my parents. That was more Ali's thing or at least she was better at getting their love."

It's not like his parents really knew Ali. No one did.

"Ali was good at that," She says quietly, looking down at the ground for a moment. "Getting people to love her."

It's not said critically, not really. It was hard not to love Ali, even when she was at her worst (and her worst was pretty bad) -- Spencer knew that better than almost anyone.

She has a feeling Jason knows that too. It has to be hard for him, still not knowing what happened that night. So many unanswered questions.

Just like Ali would of wanted.

"Yeah, she was. And she used it to her advantage," Jason says remembering how she could manipulate his parents by virtue of being the child they really loved.

She'd create collages, give them something, and then they'd forgive her and give her what she wanted. Jason could never manage that, and he'd always be high during-- well, he was high or drunk.

And his parents would obviously hate him in turn. Now more than ever, he knows they wish it was him that had died instead.

"She wouldn't want any of this to end."

"Of course not. She'd prefer we dedicated the rest of our lives dedicated to solving the mysterious death of Ali Delaurentes."

It's said with a mixture of bitterness and affection. Things always came so easy for Ali -- like she barely had to put much effort into things at all. Everyone loved her.

It's never been that easy for Spencer, she's always had to work a lot harder for the things she wanted. Had to earn them herself.

Jason smirks at that despite the fact it's not amusing at all. It's something he's been afraid of secretly that it would never end, that he'd never be able to put it to rest.

"Sounds like Ali. You really did know her well," he says, and then shakes his head. "As well as anyone can know her, I guess."

He continues walking silently before he looks over at her, at this girl who is his sister. Jason didn't know for so long, and now he does and it means something to him. "I really don't want this to go on for the rest of my life, the rest of your life, Spencer."

"She was one of my best friends." But sometimes it doesn't feel like she knew Ali at all.

She doesn't think anyone really knew Ali.

At his words, she nods a little. "It feels like it's going to though. There's no stop. Every time we think we've found the end of things -- there's always more."

She remembers when they caught Mona, how it seemed like everything would be finally over.

So much for that.

The four of them were always so close but not. "And she knew all the secrets we didn't," he comments lightly, shaking his head. He knows Ali didn't like him very much, but did her best friends really mean so little to her too? Was it always all a game to her to gain power, to survive, to get money?

Jason doesn't really know.

"I know," he says softly. There's something heavy in the words. "There's no laying it to rest. For all the times I've tried to move forward and even left. I can't."

Not with all these questions, and he has no idea how much danger Spencer's in all the time.

"She did. Ali always seemed to know how to find out any information she could -- probably because it gave her more power." Ali had never been beyond blackmail after all -- not by a long shot. Spencer wonders sometimes though what started her on that route, was it always just a power thing or did something else start it?

They may never know.

"I don't think any of can."

How can she when whoever did it, whoever killed Ali -- they're constantly going after her and her friends too.

"Yeah, she did," Jason says, and he got high so often to try to avoid it, their family, their parents. There were reasons Ali wanted to have so much power, reasons she felt so powerless in their own home like he did.

The secrets, the mystery of it all is going to drive them to the breaking point. There's just no stopping it, not even for Spencer. It'd be nice to be able to help one sister at least.

"No, I don't think so either." It's a low admittance, one he doesn't want to make but does. "I know I'm not the best at this, Spencer, and we haven't even known we were siblings for most of our lives, but it means something to me. And I want to help where I can, okay? I already lost one sister. I don't really want to lose.... you too."

In a way, Spencer's lost a sister too -- not in the same sort of way, not even close, but still. Melissa barely talks to her anymore and when she does -- well it's never kind. She's long decided Spencer's the enemy -- because two of her boyfriends kissed her (Spencer is to blame even though they were both older men who came onto her. Funny, how that works). Her parents were always Team Melissa.

It hasn't left her with a lot of family to rely on.

Which is why his offer arches a little. She doesn't want to lose Jason either -- but if she told him the reality of what was going on, the extent of how bad things really were. It makes him a target.

Which is why the smile she gives him is more sad than anything else.

"I don't want to lose you either -- I've never had a brother before."

Of course, what they don't know now is that Jason is already a target whether he knows anything or not, but he wouldn't blame Spencer for not mentioning it. There's a lot going on, and he can tell the way they need to seek answers goes deep even if he doesn't know the why or that it's linked to so much present danger for her and for the other girls who were Ali's best friends.

Jason smiles a bit at what she says, and there's an ache, a sadness in it too if only because he catches it on her face.

"Well, now you do," he informs her as they make it back around on their walk, and they're in front of her house this time. "And that's not going to change. Not if I have anything to say about it."

In Rosewood you're either a target or a suspect. That seems to be the options. There's no in-between, no innocent bystanders. Nothing. In a world covered in shades of grey sometimes it feels starkly black and white.

"Good." And this time the smile is almost genuine -- or as close to a real smile as she gets anymore, anyway. "Because I wasn't planning on giving you up."

She refuses to let A take everything from her.

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