shoshanna-hart

[shoshanna-hart]

@jcksonfields

#feat. jackson #muse #// this gives me them vibes lmao

[shoshanna-hart]

Get cat food. That was the last item on Shosh's to-do list - and arguably the most important, if you ask Sushi. After securing the food, she wandered around the aisles looking at cat toys for Sushi and Ryan Reynolds. Just then, she saw a familiar shape dashing excitedly though the shop, pulling another familiar shape behind him. Laughing, she followed Scooter and JD until they stopped at the front of the store. "What is it, boy?" Shoshanna asked excitedly, as if she were speaking to Lassie. "Did you finally find your dad's dignity?" She gasped. "Or no! Maybe his last braincell?"

Who: JD and open Where: Pet Haven When: A Saturday afternoon, January 2024

After getting Scooter's annual round of shots, JD figured he bring his favorite boy on over to Pet Haven to pick out a new toy and also to pick up some more dog food. After hopping out of the car, JD brought Scooter inside and turned to him, "okay, let's see what toys we can get for you buddy." He said, leading the dog down the aisle filled with stuffed toys, rubber chew toys, animal hides chew sticks, and more. Allowing Scooter to sniff around and pick something out, JD pulled out his phone, aiming to take a photo of the goldendoodle. Just as he was about to snap the photo, the dog pulled him down the aisle and towards the front of the store. Holding on to the leash, JD let Scooter pull him, to an area in front, close to the windows. Finally getting the dog to stop and calm down, JD laughed, "geez, what the hell is going on out there?" He asked to the person next to him, who seemed to be looking out the window too.

#{ thread || jackson }

[shoshanna-hart]

Shoshanna was having a twine emergency. Now that may seem like an oxymoron to some people - what kind of emergency can twine be involved in? - but it was a real problem for Shosh. After using the last of her spool on the previous customer, she went to the back to grab a refill only to find that there was no more. So Shosh closed up shop for a bit to run down to the Farmer's Market, desperate for twine. She searched up and down the aisles, perusing kiosks and booths for something she could use. Just as she rounded a corner, she watched a paper towel pyramid topple onto someone. Shosh tried her best not to laugh, thinking of how embarrassed she had been when the same thing happened to her, and rushed over to help. "Tash!" She said, finally recognizing the victim of the Great Paper Towel War of 2024. "I should've known it was you." Laughing lightly, Shosh began to collect some of the rolls herself. "Don't worry, this happened to me, like, last week. Honestly?" Shosh looked around before whispering conspiratorially, "I think they have hidden cameras somewhere just to watch us all make fools of ourselves."

Who: Tasha and Open

Where: Farmer's Market

When: a Saturday afternoon, sometime January 2024

Tasha had slept over Bryan's house the night before and since it was now Saturday and she had the day off, she wanted to check out the Farmer's market to grab things to make for dinner, before heading back to her own apartment downtown. Grabbing a cart from the front, she walked up and down the aisles, looking to see if anything would pique her interest. As she got to the section where she needed to grab some toilet paper, she stood in front of a display of paper towels. She always wondered they they stacked them the way they did and always made it difficult for the customer to either reach them or take one without ruining the display. Pausing before picking one up, she knew as soon as she grabbed it, the others would come tumbling down. "Shit," she mumbled under her breath, trying to catch all them as a cascade of paper towels rained down around her. "Why does this always happen?" She asked to no one in particular, as she couldn't help but start laughing at the sheer insanity of it all.

#{ thread || tash }

[shoshanna-hart]

Ah, yep, winter can be deceiving up here. From inside, it's peaceful and beautiful...but then you really start thinking of the logistics and you're like, oh shiitake. I think what makes the New York winters so different is the population! Even if it snowed this much down there, there would be enough foot traffic to melt the snow off the sidewalks and such. In Merrock, the population is much smaller - thank god - and the snow is disturbed much less. I still love it, though. I would take a Merrock winter over a New York winter any day. Wait, little booties? That's adorable. I'm assuming Ginger is a dog? Because as much as my cat Sushi loves me, I'm not getting anywhere near her with booties.

I'm no stranger to winter, we've always had them in New York with the snow falling but this is the first winter where I'm more concerned looking out my office window that I'm not going to be able to get back to my house. Guess when I though about settling down in a nice quiet small town in Maine, the winters didn't really cross my mind, just the cute photos I've seen online for years where I could have a little less craziness than the city. On the plus side, Ginger gets to now wear adorable outfits and coats outside with little booties that she absolute hates and has been glaring at me from her little couch for over an hour now. That's how my evening is going at least as I watch the snow fall out my window with a nice glass of mulled wine. Now tell me I just have officially settled into town and I've heard talks of a gala? Is this a normal thing because if so I think I'm gonna love it here. @merrock

#{ thread || serena }

[shoshanna-hart]

Shoshanna nodded at Harley's question, watching Maa Maa's face remain stone still as he translated the joke to her. She couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her chest when Harley mimicked his grandma. The joke was terrible, sure, she knew that. The much funnier part was Maa Maa's reaction, or lack thereof. "Oh god," Shosh signed back, trying her best to smother her laugh like a kid in a classroom, "I'd kill to know what made her laugh, it must've been hilarious." Shosh turned back to her onions, done with chopping them and now moving onto the actual caramelization part. Thankfully, cooking was one of Shoshanna's strong suits - she didn't want to disappoint Maa Maa. If she had put her in charge of desserts, it would have been over. "Is there anything she wants me to do while these are going?" Shosh asked, knowing that caramelizing onions could take a long time and didn't require too much observation.

One of the challenges of cooking with his maa maa was that they couldn't rely on writing everything out the way they often did. Instead they had to work with her basic English, his intermediate Cantonese, and how much of an obstacle his artificial hearing was to such a tonal language. It made him appreciate how much English relied on the rhythm of words more than nuanced pitches. Even if they had to keep repeating or clarifying their words to each other, they were slowly moving along in a conversation about his work when he suddenly heard English. Process of elimination said that was Shoshanna's voice so he looked over at her. "Onions?" He signed in response to her joke before translating it for maa maa. Without her serious expression changing at all, Maa Maa replied in Cantonese. "She says 'that's funny'" Harley explained, mimicking his grandmother's expression and what he imagined her tone would sound like in English. Once Maa Maa had turned around, Harley quietly signed. "I've known her my whole life and I've seen her laugh twice."

#{ thread || harley }

[shoshanna-hart]

SHOSHANNA HART @ ROYAL GALA 2024

attending the Royal Gala with - surprise, surprise - @beck-hartman. beck got to pick the color scheme this time, under threat of death if he put them in orange.

#merrockfashion #closet

[shoshanna-hart]

Maybe if it were someone else, they wouldn't have caught the younger woman's flinch. But Shosh being Shosh, of course she caught it. She had made similar movements over the years, was still trying to break the habit herself. Shosh moved closer, sinking down to the ground beside her. Close enough to talk and pass cookies back and forth, but far enough away to not be a threat.

Nodding in response to both her thanks and her explanation, she took out a cookie for herself. Sorry, Beck. She'd have to pick up some more before she left. Shoshanna was quiet for a minute, munching on the sweet. It really was delicious. "Looks like it's gonna be one of those things that takes more than a cookie to process through."

Shosh let that linger in the air for a minute. The last thing she wanted to do was pressure Kenna into talking about something before she was ready. "So," she said, crossing her legs at the ankle, "Are you staying here?" Shoshanna hooked a thumb over her shoulder, gesturing vaguely at the building behind them.

Kenna had known for a long time that people couldn't be trusted. Humans were inherently flawed, after all. But this...this was far beyond that. Someone she had once considered a friend was the reason that her family had been ripped to shreds. The reason her dad was so overprotective, the reason he freaked out if she stayed out too late. The reason she was fearful of every person that approached her at the wrong moment. He was the reason she slept with a stun gun by her bed and the reason she kept a nightlight on at all hours of the night. That was a tough pill to swallow. And she'd swallowed a lot of pills over the years.

She flinched when Shoshanna came around the corner, looking at the other woman with a tear-soaked face that she'd otherwise never show publicly. Kenna Sanchez was not a crier, especially not in front of people. But there was no point in hiding now; she didn't have the energy to bother.

She choked back tears and nodded as she accepted the cookie, taking a bite. It was good, real good. Not enough to erase her suffering, but good. "Thanks," she sniffled, quickly wiping tears away with the back of her hand. "Sorry, I...uh...got some news. Still p-processing it."

#{ thread || kenna } #trauma tw

[shoshanna-hart]

Head thrown back, Shosh laughed. "Just gotta be less embarrassing than some children. I can do that...I think." Thanking Livvy for her help with the block, she couldn't help but watch in borderline awe as the older woman seamlessly mounted Breezy. It came so naturally to her, as if the horse was just an extension of herself. And Shosh supposed that in some ways, it was. Letting out a noise of excitement, she looked down at the saddle blanket. "Molly," she read aloud. "These blankets are so cute! Also, I somehow ended up on a foal watch live on TikTok the other day. They named the baby Molly, then I found out that the horse that delivered her - her name was Maggie - wasn't her biological mom. I didn't know horses could do surrogacy as well!" Shosh might have rambled a little bit, but it was pretty cool. Kicking her Molly's sides a bit, Shosh spurred her on and made a few circles to get the feel of the reigns again. "Okay, I think I'm ready. Lead the way."

If you weren't falling off now and then, you weren't doing it right. Or… maybe that was just what Livvy told herself to feel better about the times that she had fumbled her way right out of her saddle. What had mattered most was the fact that she had picked herself up and gotten on the horse's back again, though. "Don't worry, you forget that I work with little kids every day -- I doubt you could be the most embarrassing," she teased, a small smirk touching her lips. Although those little kids weren't normally going out on trails with her, and to be fair, they did have a pretty good handle on what they were doing, most of the time. Standing nearby to help Shoshanna out as she used the block to mount, she gave her calf a reassuring pat before heading back towards her horse, slipping her foot in the stirrup and hoisting herself up with ease, tucking the other foot into place. "This," she buried her fingers in her mare's mane, "is Breezy. She's my go-to whenever I'm riding here, we've got a nice little bond now," she smiled at the idea, and gestured towards Shoshanna's horse, "and yours has her name stitched on her saddle blanket. They all just got new ones this fall."

#{ thread || livvy }

[shoshanna-hart]

Shosh had found some time in her day to sneak up to Gull's Landing. Beck hadn't shut up about the baked goods since he left, and try as she might, she just couldn't replicate them. Poor Beck, he had tried every attempt with a smile on his face, despite the fact that most of them tasted more like charcoal than chocolate. So like the good girlfriend she was, Shosh was going to commit cookie fraud. And like the good boyfriend he was, Beck would pretend he believed her.

Just as she was leaving the familiar B&B with her loot, she heard the unmistakable sound of someone crying. Or rather, trying not to. Shoshanna paused in her step, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Part of her was nosy and wanted to see what was happening, part of her was sympathetic and wanted to offer comfort, and the other part wanted to leave her be and not intrude. Ultimately, the sympathetic part won out.

Just as she was turning the corner, the crying turned to a curse. Shoshanna momentarily reconsidered her approach, but it was too late - the other woman would have heard her steps by now. "Uh..." she mumbled before reaching into her bag and pulling something out. "Want a cookie?"

Who: Kenna+ OPEN (0/4)

Where: Gull's Landing

When: January 4, 2024

Trigger Warning: Nothing explicit in the starter itself, but it does hint at her mom's killer and her questioning his motives.

"It's trending on Twitter? Or...X. God." Kenna didn't like crying. She'd made an effort to avoid it for as long as she could remember, but this...this was a cry-worthy occasion. It wasn't that she wasn't happy they'd found....no, it's not that. It's who they found. She had avoided putting her trust in anyone for years and now she knew she was right to be that way, because clearly you couldn't trust anyone. Of course you can't. Because you just might be risking your life.

"D-did they say—did they say why he..." she choked back another round of sobs, slumping against the side of the building. She could hear beachgoers on the opposite side of the bed and breakfast, laughter and joyful chatter all around, but she couldn't even bring herself to go watch, lest she have a public breakdown and end up on the news herself. Like the wacko lady on the plane a few months ago. That motherfucker back there is not real. No, THIS is not real. It can't be...

"I—I gotta go," she gulped as she hung up the phone, leaving her abuela probably even more concerned. That poor woman worried enough as it is and Kenna again shutting down was probably not helping. But she couldn't think to do anything differently. As soon as the line went dead, she let it all out. "FUCK!"

#// hi!! i know you replied to my starter ages ago but i really wanted to hop on this if that's okay <3 #{ thread || kenna }

[shoshanna-hart]

@beck-hartman

#merrocksocial #insta #feat. beck #dont look too hard at the manip okay it was 5 am when i made it

[shoshanna-hart]

Shoshanna could feel herself relaxing more and more by the second, especially with the warm welcome and affection from Maa Maa. She wasn't sure what grandmas were supposed to smell like, but Maa Maa always smelled like a kind of indescribable warmth. Like what she imagined coming home would be like. Shosh was eternally grateful for the family she found in the Hartmans and Huas, allowing her to have the most normal childhood she could have.

"Caramelizing the onions, got it." Mock saluting, Shosh turned and began the first step - cutting the onions. She listened to Harley and Maa talk back and forth for a bit before her eyes began to burn and water. Facing the other two, Shosh took the opportunity to go full Beck. "I just," she sniffled, "I just missed you so much, Maa Maa!" Wiping the tears away, she kept up the charade as she waited for Harley to translate.

Despite having both of his parents, an amazing brother, and a sizeable extended family, Harley was well acquainted with the concept of "found family". It was a very well known concept in LGBTQ spaces, but it also translated to his friend growing up in foster care and not having any family that wasn't 'found'. While his relationship with his own parents was a little bit rocky, he could at least appreciate that they tried their best. This was also evidenced in how easily they opened their home to Shoshanna.

He could tell how excited the redhead was to see his maa maa as soon as she entered the house. One her shoes were off, he wasted no time leading her to the kitchen and watching the reunion between her and his grandma. May Hua was not much of a hugger, at least not according to Harley's dad, but she had always made an exception for the grandchildren (including, and maybe especially, Shosh).

May understood the question, and responded back in Chinese. "將洋蔥焦化" She instructed, looking at Harley to translate. Knowing the recipe gave him the context to confidently interpret the words to Shoshanna. "She wants you to caramelize the onions. Which I guess means I'm in charge of cutting up the chicken? 我切雞肉?" He asked, although he didn't like speaking in Cantonese because he knew his accent was hard to understand. It made him feel bad, but he couldn't understand the pronunciation the same way he understood English and French. If he could go back in time and take learning his grandma's language seriously, he would have learned how to speak it before he lost his hearing completely. To go from having no Deaf accent in English to the most American-meets-Deaf accent in Cantonese was not an easy switch for him. "係" She confirmed, nodding her head to make her 'yes' more clear to him.

#// maa maa making an exception to hug shosh is so sweet im gonna cry #{ thread || harley }

[shoshanna-hart]

"Just for me? These things could be weapons of mass destruction in the wrong hands. Luckily, I'm a good witch." Shosh replied, wiping ice off her backside. "They need to make trainers, like they do for rollerblades or bikes or...other things." She laughed along with him, then thanked him again for his help. "Ah, yeah, Livvy is a good teacher. She helped me get back on the horse quite literally a few months ago." She hadn't realized how much she had missed riding until she was back in the saddle. "Maybe a few more laps, just promise you won't make fun of me for looking like a baby...gazelle." Shosh ended up speaking and spelling out gazelle, unsure of the sign for it.

"Maybe they should start putting a warning on ice skates, just for you." Elliot signed with a grin on his face, making sure to keep his hand steady as she pulled herself up and off the ice. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it once you're back on the ice for a bit." At her question, a small laugh made its way from Elliot and he shrugged his shoulders playfully. "Just good like that. No but really, I'm okay at ice skating but I wasn't this decent at it until Livvy gave me a crash course earlier." Grinning as he recalled her putting him through practice on the ice. "She taught me a decent amount and thankfully it stuck." He paused for a moment and nodded towards the rink. "You wanna keep going? If so, I can skate along side of you- I'll be prepared to catch you if need be." He offered, not minding one bit if she wanted to keep skating.

#{ thread || elliot }

[shoshanna-hart]

"Okay, okay, cruel and unusual punishment, got it." Shosh said, laughing at her friend before giving her a hug in hopes of knocking that whine out of her voice. "Oooh, dates? How's that going?" She wiggled her eyebrows and shimmied her shoulders. As she mentioned her siblings, Shosh gave a sympathetic nod. Though she didn't have any of her own, she knew what it was like to have to rebuild those connections with loved ones. "0.02?" she wiped an imaginary tear away, "I'm so proud."

Shosh was pretty much like a little sister to her and in a world with a lot of older siblings it was nice to pass that baton on to the other, even if she was an adopted Browning sibling at this point; "You definitely do, because the amount of time that was spent apart was brutal and illegal" whining like a kid without presents on Christmas; "You know I have been going pretty alright, just been working and going on a few dates here and there as well as working on connecting with my siblings and what not" just adulting stuff really; "You know for a fact that I was in the 0.02% of listeners, I didn't crack the 0.01% but I did really well"

#{ thread || summer }

[shoshanna-hart]

Her face was flushed bright red - whether from the weather, the laughter, or the look in Beck's eyes, she was unsure. Probably the combination of all three, not that it truly mattered. Once she finally caught her breath, Shoshanna returned his grin. "Oh, you know, only when there's a hot blonde to sweep me off my feet." Leaning back on her elbows and crossed her skates at the ankle as if they were on the beach instead of an ice rink, she couldn't resist the urge to tease him again. "I mean, I didn't think Jamie was your type, but..." She shrugged a bit, glancing over at him with her smile barely contained.

A sucker. That's what Beck Hartman was for Shoshanna Hart. The pout could get him everytime, and he didn't question it as she reached her hands out for his. Any chance to touch her, that was the rule. However, the collison with the ice was there before he could even think of the word balance, and laughter mingling with her own followed. "Hi," he murmured, gaze catching her intoxicatingly playful one, offering a flirtacious, "come here often?" Her 'warning' caused his grin to widen. "It's that blind trust in...the ice. But if I get hurt, I get a sexy nurse, don't I?" Even if said nurse might be the reason for his injury.

#{ thread || beck }

[shoshanna-hart]

"Daffodil," Shoshanna cursed, "I knew my clumsiness would betray me one day. I just never thought I would go viral because of it." She shook her head as if greatly disappointed before accepting his help up. "Thank you," Shosh grimaced as she stood. "Oh man, you'd think - since it's ice - it would help prevent any bruising, but that's definitely gonna leave a mark." Letting out a little laugh as he placated her pride, she replied, "Ah, but I don't think I ever properly learned in the first place, so not sure how much I'd remember."

"Saw it, took a picture, submitted it to the Merrock Times. They thought it was funny enough that they're forwarding it to the New York Post, the Times... Washington Post, I think you might be in trouble," he shrugged dramatically, before breaking into a grin and shaking his head. "Nah, you're good," skating over in her direction, he came to a stop next to her and held out a hand to help her up, knowing that sitting on the ice with a cold butt was going to turn into a regret eventually; always did. "It can be tough if you're not used to it, took me an hour to remember how to stop, I swear."

#{ thread || darrius }

[shoshanna-hart]

SHOSHANNA HART @ NYE 2023

attending the new year's eve party at mirage speakeasy with @beck-hartman. probably won't want to look at them when the clock hits midnight.

#merrockfashion #closet

[shoshanna-hart]

Blowing a few stray strands of hair out of her face, Shosh couldn't help but smile up at Jamie. "Thank you!" She said, righteously indignant. "And if we learned anything from Isaac Newton, it's not to challenge gravity. That's, like, the sixth law of physics or something!" It definitely wasn't, but it should be. "If we were meant to be going against gravity, we would have developed wings. But alas," she wiggled her skated feet, "we got these instead." Rolling her eyes, she accepted Jamie's hand and pulled herself up. "Thank you. Well, I hope you got some joy out of my lack of coordination."

Jamie was a decent skater. That was when he was maybe thirteen and every birthday party his classmates had were either mini golf, go-karting or ice skating. So considering that was over two decades ago, he was understandably out of practice. As his balance wasn't the best either, he nearly toppled over a few moments after Shosh, only saved by holding his arms out to save himself. "It should be called challenging gravity," he said, managing to move closer to her and holding his hand out to help her up.

#{ thread || jamie }