analogthis | open rp/inbox

[Either oblivious to the fact he's looking at her through the vanity mirror or just unphased by it, she starts changing out of her casual clothes to put the dress on as she talks. It's different from changing in the hospital, anyway... In that she has underwear and a bra on already.]

I was born here and grew up here. My family only moved to Seattle five years ago. I came back for the photography program here. But how don't I act like them? I'm not sure what that even means...

You're just different. I don't know. It's not like it's a bad thing—

( nathan goes from looking at lisa, hefting up her pot to admire her leaves in the setting sun, to looking up at max half-naked in the mirror... and he drops lisa.

in his defense, he'd neither meant to shatter the plant nor see a hot chick in a state of undress. but, a crime is still a crime, and lisa is now a victim. )

Fuck. Fuck.

[She quickly turns to look at him with the dress halfway up her arms, surprised by both the noise and his sudden cursing. Pulling the dress the rest of the way on, she hurries over to him, checking the damage.]

Her pot's broken but she may still be okay. [May. She'd probably be in better hands with her mom because Max is a very newbie plant momma. She looks back at Nathan with a friendly smile.] I'll buy another pot for her and move her there tonight. And... [She lowers her voice and leans in with a hand next to her mouth like she's making sure Lisa can't hear her.] If it makes you feel any better, I've killed like six plants since I started highschool.

[Lisa might be the first one dead since she started at Blackwell now, but still.]

( max is being strangely chill about him murdering her plant. he's mentally braced for impact, but nothing ever lands. she doesn't mention how he's a disgrace to the family name, or how dropping this plant pot is indicative of being a bad photographer - neither of which much logical sense, really, but he's stopped questioning the things important adults say to him.

he squints. )

You mean you're not gonna just, you know... ( he whistles and draws a spiral in the air with his hand, which must be the universal sign for time travel. )

Do you want me to? Then do I just not tell you what happened? The hospital was kind of a scare... I was thinking I should probably take it easy unless it's a life or death situation...

[Technically this could count as a life or death situation. Lisa's life. But it's really not that big of a deal to her. Yes, she names her plants, and does silly things with them in order to break the tension and get Nathan to smile, but... In the end, it's still just a plant.

Anyway, picking out a new pot with Nathan for her to move her to might be kind of fun?]

Fuck if I know. They're your powers, babe.

( but, if it were him, he'd be rewinding constantly. he'd rewind until his nose bled, and more. he'd fix every damn thing in the world, if he only could.

since max isn't nearly as wasteful with her powers as he'd be, nathan squats down to pick up the big hunks of broken porcelain. he still feels like shit about it, but max's even temper is helping to delay what may very well be an impending crash-out. )

[They are her powers, and she's certainly used them for frivolous things before. She's used them to her own advantage, to get information from people, to endear herself to them. She's used it when she's broken things, too. Which she does plenty. She's kind of clumsy and she knows it.

But it feels a little weird, now that she's in a relationship, to use it to just smooth every bump. She's not sure if that would actually be good for them, or if it would be better for them to work through certain things together. Isn't that supposed to help strengthen a relationship?

She picks up her small desk trash bin and brings it over for them to put the broken pieces into, then she kneels down to his side and presses a kiss to his cheek.]

"Babe" is cute. [Definitely better than Sugar Baby.] I just want to do what's best for us. And since we're together now, you should get a say in that. It's not all about me.

( another strange pang inside of him, the idea of being consulted in matter of what's good for him. it's not like his parents give him a choice. he was asked to move here; saying no wasn't an option. and now with jefferson, all of his question have wrong answers. maybe he's not being given a choice there, either.

he frowns.

max is a really weird chick. )

'K, whatever. Then... I guess we're going to the plant pot store.

( the store that sells plant pots and nothing else, that one that most definitely exists.

he stands once he tosses away the large shards. with the smaller ones, he'd be here all day if he went after those. they can have someone come in and sweep it up later, maybe. )

You look hot in that dress by the way.

[To be fair, the "Max is weird" knowledge is fairly well known at this school, even if lately it has been leaning a little more toward "weird but cool." And her giving him a say in how they handle their relationship probably should not be the thing qualifying her as weird. No, what's weird about Max is that she pats one of Lisa's droopy leaves and speaks to her.]

Don't worry, we'll be back with a new home for you, and you'll be just fine.

[Absolutely not a promise she can keep, but hey. Lisa's a plant. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.

She stands back up from her kneeling position and wipes any possible Lisa-dirt clinging to the dress.]

Uh huh. Thank you. And do you mean that or are you just trying to get it off of me so you can see me in my underwear again?

[She teases him jovially, though there's a pink to her cheeks from the compliment. And yes, that could be a reference to just a second ago or it could be a reference to the night she was high and lost her virginity. Who's to say?

Max grabs her usual bag with her journal, camera, pencils, phone, et. al, and pulls it on over her head and shoulder.]

( well, yes, talking to plants is also weird, but it's not the kind of weird that makes nathan reflect on his life up to now. seeing max baby talk a lump of leaves just makes him think that she's this nice naturally, that he'd be considerate even if he weren't around. it's dumb and dorky, but it's authentic. at least he thinks it's authentic. )

Uh, both. Obviously both.

( especially now that she's voiced the second option. he doesn't have to feel weird about adding that image to his mental photo album [right beside the picture of their first night together, and the image of her in his clothing]. she's the one who brought it up first.

but dinner first, then they can talk about getting his head under her dress.

once she's ready, he leaves first and he holds the door open for her. isn't it strange how liking a person makes you want to do things for them? )

...Was the photography program worth moving back to this place?

[She can't even be mad about his answer of "both," because honestly there's a self-confidence boost in the fact that the guy she's sweet on and who's sweet to her also finds her hot. And that the guy she had her first experience with is going to give her another eventually, this one that she'll be able to hold onto better than the one she was high for.

Dinner first. And procuring a pot for Lisa to give her even a fighting chance at survival. Max isn't the best plant mama but she does always try her best at it.

His chivalrous move of holding the door open for her gets him a playful curtsy, since she's already wearing the dress, she might as well.]

Well, it's admittedly pretty small, I guess. But I was so excited about it when I got accepted. And Chloe was a big contributing factor.

[Even if she'd been too scared to contact Chloe again after the way she'd just left her texts on read the year after she left. Once she'd arrived back in Arcadia Bay, she just kept putting it off. The same way she'd always put off talking to Chloe on the phone. It was terrible, but she'd never known what to say, and instead of agonizing over it, it had been easier to just focus on her life in Seattle. Chloe was always braver and more outgoing than she was, she'd easily convinced herself that she'd be surrounded with new friends once she started at Blackwell. Not thinking for a second about how everything might have changed her.

She'll probably have to hold onto that guilt forever now, considering everything. But she did manage to save her. More than once now, really. What with Frank and the stupid train.]

And what self-proclaimed photography nerd wouldn't be happy about getting to study under Mr. Jefferson?

[Surely Nathan's with her on that, considering he's apparently closer to Mr. Jefferson than she'd realized before snooping in his phone. He's got his contact information and everything!]

( he's been at this for long enough, he thinks, that a name alone shouldn't make him flinch. he hears victoria wax poetic about their dreamy photography teacher all the time, and his photographs are plastered all over campus. for those reasons alone, it's pretty shitty that his face chooses to frown when max brings him up. he didn't authorize that. it's like even his face is trying to fuck him over.

he recovers quickly. )

Yeah, Vic says you're a total fangirl.

( nathan had been one, too. he feels like he was more subtle about it, but jefferson must've noticed his desperation pretty fast. it didn't take long to end up at his side.

in some ways, it's still a dream.

if anyone in bustling through the girls' dorm catches sight of max and nathan all dressed to the nines like they're going to homecoming, they all do the right thing and choose not to mention this strange new couple aloud. at least not while they're still in earshot. )

I liked his stuff. ( he says it abruptly, picking up the conversation before it has a chance to die off. ) When it was time to bring on new adjuct and Jefferson was an option, I made sure he got in. My dad's on the board and all. He made it happen.

Edited (forgot a word 🤪) 2026-03-23 21:55 (UTC)

[Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that Max misses that falter in Nathan's expression at Mark Jefferson's name, time (heh) will only tell.

She scoffs incredulously at his words, though. Remember when she said she didn't shit-talk? Well, surprise, she does, just only about the people who are also mean to her.]

Victoria is one to talk. She's teacher's pet in the worst way! At least I keep my fangirling to my journal...

[Just from the walk through the dorms and campus to parking lot, Max is sure their being together is seen and noticed, and will effectively become part of the hot gossip and rumor mill of Blackwell Academy, probably only within the hour. This place works fast like that.

It's fine. Max's most important person knows already, and she doesn't even go to this school. Warren might learn that Max lied when ditching him, so she may have to do some damage control there. Ugh, she does hope this doesn't hurt him too much, poor guy. To be fair, she had planned to tell him tonight about Nathan. For whatever that's worth.

Abruptly, Nathan is talking about Jefferson again so Max's thoughts focus back in on him, guilt easing for the moment.]

Okay, that's kind of cool. I mean, scary that your dad has that kind of power, but it also means you're part of the reason I'm here. [Kinda strange how "liked" was past tense, though. Or she's making too much out of that. It wouldn't be the first time.] Do you not still like his stuff now that he's here?

( is this social suicide? he's watched mean girls with victoria enough times to think this might be. vic's already offered him a lifeline, 'blink twice if u need help'.

but maybe it's cool in a rebellious sort of way. shaking things up, breaking the rules by crossing over to publicly hang out with the resident hipster dork. to her credit, it's not like anyone genuinely has anything bad to say about max. unlike him, her reputation around the school is that she might be too kind.

meanwhile, nathan's latest rumor involves guns, drugs, and impending jail time. )

I mean, yeah. He's the fucking best. No one does it like Jefferson. ( which, strangely, still holds true. he doesn't think he'd be in this deep if he wasn't enamored by this proximity to raw talent. it's not just that jefferson is famous: it's that he's earned it. everyone knows his name because he's good at what he does, not just because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. )

It's just that... there's this thing. Or there was. Like, a long-ass time ago.

( should he be saying anything? obviously not, but max willl think it's weird that he doesn't have a bad thing to say about the guy. that'd be more suspicious... right?

he waits until they're in the parking lot, further away from potential ears, then adds: )

But you seriously can't tell anyone. I mean it.

Edited 2026-03-24 00:56 (UTC)

[It may hurt Max's standing with her peers a little, in all honesty. Dating the rich kid bully. But she just doesn't care that much what anyone thinks beyond her closest friends. Anyone who cares enough about her will trust her when she tells them that Nathan really isn't as bad as they say, that he's sweet to her.

God, they're going to be calling them Romeo and Juliet now, aren't they? Max can practically hear it already. Nevermind that there's already a girl actually named Juliet at their school.

...Or maybe it will be Sandy and Danny. Okay and now she's thinking about Nathan in a leather jacket. That's kind of hot.

It's somehow a bit of a relief to know the "liked (past tense)" was just her imagination. Means Nathan's less likely to tease her about liking his stuff so much. Come to think of it, Nathan's photos sometimes have hints of some of Jefferson's work in them. Not really a surprise then that he gets inspiration from him. Also: what photography student here doesn't?

They make it to the parking lot and the sun is only just peeking behind the trees now on its way down. They might be out a little late if they have to stop by "the plant pot store" (Do you mean Walmart, Nathan? Or is he gonna take her to some fancy home goods store?) before or after dinner, but it's Saturday so it's not that big of a deal.

Her eyebrows raise at his hint of something juicy. Max is nosy. Of course she's intrigued. She leans in closer to him, mimes locking her lips with a key.]

Totally mum. You got it. Now what's the thing?

...You know, just for that, I'm not telling you shit, Nancy Drew.

( zipping and locking the lips with an imaginary key is where he draws the line, apparently.

he unlocks the driver's side door to his truck and hops in. strange how is his boring car has become the backdrop to so much of their drama. )

[She groans as she goes to the passenger side to open and climb in it.]

Are you cereal? Why?

[She is so not helping her case if Nathan's issue here is her dorkiness.

Or is it her nosiness? Just because she's nosy doesn't mean she goes around telling everyone about the things she found out. She hasn't told a soul about Dana's pregnancy scare, or about Victoria's sexts with Zachary. On the other hand, she did blab to Principal Wells about Nathan's gun. And to Chloe about some of the things in Nathan's phone. But she had good reasons for that.]

I already told you my biggest secret. Seems a little unfair.

Cereal?? God, you are so 2008, Caulfield. ( the black eyed peas walked so nathan prescott could run. ) It's like you never got off MySpace.

( but, weird girl vocabulary aside, he thinks he wants to tell her. it's not his secret to tell, unlike hers. he considers saying as much, but maybe nathan is overdue some trash-talking. jefferson wrecked his room and ordered him to play spy [all over max's virginity of all things], and now nathan gossips. both crimes are equal in proportion. )

Fine, okay, but I'm serious about not telling people. Not even Vic knows this shit.

( rather than start the truck and get on the road, he turns to face her. better to make this brief. )

It's just... you know Jefferson's been teaching at Blackwell since, like, forever. Like a decade at this point, probably. But a while ago, back when I was in middle school, he got in trouble. Like, serious shit. He was gonna get fired for something fucked up.

So, they were gonna let him go. And my dad was just gonna let him get the axe. What does he care, you know? He likes the guy and all, but it's not like he gives a fuck about art. Blackwell brings in money, but he's just... a teacher. He's replacable. Or so my dad thought, anyways.

But, I dunno, I thought Jefferson was cool, I guess. I liked his pictures. I thought he was the only cool thing in this shithole town... So I begged my dad to let him stay. And he did.

( ... )

I mean, I don't know if that's really why. It's not like my dad listens to me any other time. Chances are he had a change of heart for another reason. Like his shareholders threw a bitch fit over Arcadia Bay losing its only claim to fame.

( but it's a nice thought, that his dad might give a fuck about his opinion. )

Edited 2026-03-24 02:42 (UTC)

Nah, 2008 is too modern for me. I've always said I was a girl out of her own time.

[She's teasing, somehow both herself and Nathan in one shot. But after all, he is still dating her dorky ass.

...Not even Victoria? Wow. Okay, well that does make her feel special. Even if it's not his own secret, it's one he's still kept from Victoria but is telling Max.

Her brows furrow somewhat as she listens to him, slightly angled in his direction too.

A few different things go through her mind during his speaking. The first of which is of course "what the hell fucked up thing did Mark Jefferson do to get himself fired?" That's definitely something she wants to look further into.

The second thought is a lingering on what Nathan was like during middle school. Would they have hated each other back then if they'd met? Chloe had said he was a little different even at sixteen...

And then the third thing is how much she really dislikes Sean Prescott. Tinged with some surprise, because for the few months that Max has known him, Nathan has always acted like he had his father's ear, that he owned the school, the town, had all this power and control because he was his father's son. Maybe that's more an image he projects than anything? That would explain the way he spoke to himself in the bathroom mirror, before he accidentally shot Chloe.]

...but you never heard what it was he was being accused of? I wonder if they have a file on that somewhere... It would help to know the exact year it happened.

[Not beating those Nancy Drew allegations, Max Caulfield.]

Anyway, I did hear a secret about you today. Want to know what I learned?

[The way she says it with a smile and flirty head tilt, this clearly can't be anything that bad.]

( what had jefferson done? according to the records, nothing. nothing ever happened that day, and no one can say otherwise.

as an apprentice, nathan learned that jefferson had been "sloppy," which is almost diminutive in its understatement. same jefferson, just without million dollars worth of designer drugs at his disposal and a decade of experience under his belt.

it's a miracle that girl got away. )

You get that this is major old news, right? It was probably something normal. Couldn't have been that bad if they let him stay... He probably hooked up with a student and some old, crusty teacher got jealous.

( which, given some of their classmates, isn't that hard to believe.)

Yeah? You hear that I'm dating a hipster who says 'cereal' unironically? 'Cuz that one's true.

[It strikes her as odd that Nathan backpedals the way he does. He doesn't sound panicked about it or anything, but it's just strange that he went from saying "serious shit, fucked up" to "probably something normal" within the space of maybe a minute. But maybe he'd just been trying to embellish to impress her with his knowledge of this? And then regretted embellishing? Still.

Max also wrinkles her nose at the idea that him hooking up with a student would qualify to Nathan as "something normal." Eighteen year old student or not, that's still majorly shitty in Max's eyes. At least wait until the girl has graduated.

...What had that text to Nathan been again? "Stick to the script"? She wishes she'd gotten a picture or had been able to write it down.

She's considering asking him if he thinks he might still be sleeping with students, but... Then he reminds her she was about to say something else.

Max feigns a gasp.] No, I hadn't heard that one! I better get to spreading that rumor immediately.

[She smiles, and lightly bumps his shoulder with her own.]

I heard that you were in a play. The Tempest. Chloe dished about it.

( max looks like she's about to ask something. way to go, nathan. he knows max is a regular sherlock holmes; naturally, she's going to want to know everything he can about this. it's like walking a tight rope, saying enough to sound natural without immediately giving everything away. it's why he never talks about jefferson with victoria. she brings him up, and he keeps it vague. it's for her own protection.

so why is he telling max anything? because that's what boyfriends do?

it's both fortunate and something of a nightmare when max changes the subject. he feels his face burn, but the humiliation of that night is far enough in the past that it's little more than an embarrassing memory. it doesn't hurt as much as it used to. looking back on it now, he doesn't feel the shame of failure that he once did.

but he still likes to pretend it never happened. )

Christ, of course she did. ( he wants to bury his head in his hands, but he settles for turning away from her and starting the car. ) She's one to talk. She was in that shitshow too.

( chloe hadn't been much better than he had, but she didn't have nearly as much riding it on it. the 'fate of the prescott name,' or whatever. their poor firm must've lost so many shareholders because some 16-year-old couldn't hold his own in a school play.)

[Nathan probably wishes he had some rewind powers of his own now that he's shared that info with Max. Yep, she's definitely not going to give up on learning more about that. But she might bide her time a little.

His face turning red is cute, and she's sort of enjoying getting to tease him in a way that's good-natured. But she also doesn't want to be outright mean to him.]

Oh, yes. And Dana dished about that to us last night.

[Seriously, Rachel must have been playing with superpowers of her own to get Chloe on that stage with like, no time to prepare.]

Don't be too embarrassed, though. I like getting to learn more about you, and what you did before I got here. I prefer the touchable Nathan to the untouchable one, you know?

Dana's a b— ( so accustomed to shit talking, he stops himself a bit too late to fully recover from recklessly insulting one of max's favorite people. ) —butt.

( which is nearly as rude as calling her a bitch, but he didn't have anything tamer immediately on deck.

after all the chit-chat, he finally gets them on the road to the diner, and he only speeds sometimes. usually he'd treat traffic laws like mere suggestion, but he's got someone else to look out for now. )

None of that stuff matters, anyway. We were dumb kids.

( some dumber than others, like how victoria allegedly managed to drugs herself on opening night. do sedatives grow on fucking trees in arcadia bay? those things are everywhere. )

All we are is who we are right now.

( so he doesn't have to be on the hook for any of his bad deeds— )

[Rude or not, "butt" actually makes Max laugh. She would have been pissed if he'd gone through with "bitch," and she is aware that's what he was heading toward. But the fact he redirects is a relief and that he redirects himself to butt of all things is, frankly, hilarious. It's possibly the most childish insult he could have landed on, and it makes him sound almost endearingly petulant? Grumpy, instead of aggressive.

Anyway, she's not expecting him to rework every bad habit overnight. And she wouldn't expect him to change anything he doesn't want to change, anyway. Shit-talking is fairly harmless when the people aren't around to hear them. (But she still would have been pissed at the use of "bitch.")]

You're right. The past is the past. [Which, considering that's coming from a time-traveler, is saying something. She isn't sure what it's saying. But it's saying something.] What's important is going forward.

[She gives him a soft look he may or may not be able to see while he's driving. And as used as she's getting to being in a car with Chloe driving like a bat out of hell, she's also appreciative that he's doing relatively well at not getting them in a wreck.]

I do like who you are right now.

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