Light of May ::: an original roleplay

Who: Trent and Melia.
Where: The lake.
When: Late morning.

It wasn’t exactly ideal weather for hanging out by the lake but Trent hadn’t come here to enjoy himself. Even with the chill and damp in the air he had come here to think, to get away from it all, take time and be by himself. As much as he loved his family, as much as he loved Venus, there were times when he couldn’t be around anyone and this was one of those times. Distance was what he needed, quiet and space. The lake was the perfect place for that.

So here he was, his feet wet after he had pulled his boots and socks off in order to perch himself on a low rock and let his lower legs dangle in the water. The legs of his jeans had been rolled up but as he watched the water ripple with the breeze he let out a sigh. This wasn’t helping. Kyle and Lotti were still trapped inside the school, they still had no idea what was going on, Venus was still essentially blind. Frustration gnawed at the edges of his concentration with sharp teeth and as he raked his hands through his hair he realised this wasn’t going to work. Something about just sitting there was keeping him from clearing his mind, even with the crisp fresh air and the quiet natural sounds of the wildlife and flora all around him.

Trent shrugged out of his jacket. Reaching up he tugged his t-shirt off over his head. The cool air bit at his skin and immediately he felt a little better. Briefly he felt the familiar rush inside that he had long ago come to associate with a change and he had to quell that, quiet and subdue it, putting it to bed so that he could retain his human form. The wolf side of him was thrown, confused and disappointed, but maybe he would shift and run for a while after he was done. That would help. That always helped.

When he was done his clothes were folded on top of the rock upon which he had been perched, his jacket draped safely over the top just in case the threat in the air followed through and rain started to fall while he was in the water. The lake was like ice around him as he went in, it stole his breath momentarily and for a human there would have been a very real danger of catching something, a bone-deep chill at the very least. Not a werewolf. They were hardier than that.

The real shock came when he waded out deep enough that he could dunk himself under the water completely. Walking in the water had been shocking enough but this was something else entirely, almost painful but in an exhilarating and refreshing way that he was immediately grateful for and appreciative of. When he breached the water again he took in a deep lungful of air and felt lighter for it. Some of those troubles that been weighing on him up on shore had been lifted. It didn’t matter to Trent that they would return soon, all that mattered was that he was able to escape them, if only for a little while.

Who: Charlene and Melia
Where: Redleaf Lake
When: Evening

( Nixie was definitely gone. )

Who: James and OPEN! One or many! (expect a lot of these from me, I’ve got a lot of characters to cover -_-)
Where: Partytown USA riverbank below what was once the Broadway bridge
When: Noonish

One minute James had been walking with Aiden at her side, and then she had blinked. Just fucking blinked. When she opened her eyes, she was in an awkward position on her side, and the world was one of pain. For one terrible second she thought she was back in that horrible place, chained up in some closet, but the pain was enough to center her in the here and now. She felt like she was in a bath tub filled to the brim with cold water and broken glass. Groaning, she managed to roll onto her back. She was looking up at… well, she wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It was like something out of a movie. It took her several moments to determine that she was looking up at what had once been part of a bridge. It looked like Godzilla had karate chopped it in half. This thought was weird enough to bring about a bit more awareness.

Awareness was one thing, but she was still not precisely coherent as she tried to sit up. She realized that she was sitting half in the river, and half on the rocky shore. When she tried to move her left arm, she hissed in pain. She gingerly pushed herself up using her right arm, and assessed the damage. Her left wrist was looking particularly mangled, and her arm was most definitely dislocated. She had landed on it. When? How had that happened? She’d had trouble with her shoulders ever since the abduction, and was no stranger to having to pop them back into place. She did this now without thinking, and let out a dreadful scream at the white hot flash of pain. It was enough to knock her down to her back again. Everything hurt. She hurt so bad she didn’t want to breathe. This fresh batch of pain brought her round a little more. Other people were screaming. The air was full of dust and smoke, so thick it felt like she was choking on it. Looking down at herself, she was covered in dust and blood. The words William Ballard House: Proud Sponsor of Preternaturals for Peace could still be made out on her tattered T-shirt.

That did it. Something bad had happened – whether the bridge had collapsed or had been blown up, or any other host of ideas, she wasn’t exactly sure. And it didn’t really matter. Something bad had happened, and Aiden had been walking next to her when it happened. She scrambled clumsily to her feet, the world spinning around her as she did. Her head was pounding, and she felt like she might fall right back down. She looked around for any sign of Aiden, but didn’t see him. She screamed again. “Aiden! Where are you?!”

Who: Dylan and those lovely mermaid ladies
Where: In the river, obvs
When: Afternoon

Dylan yawned and stretched, rolling his shoulders before settling down onto his rock again, his arms behind his head. Although his eyes were nowhere near as delicate and squishable as mortal eyeballs, he'd covered them with a pair of eye shields he'd found next to a sleeping fisherman further down river.

He'd been exploring the tributaries of the river for a couple of days now, hoping to find something interesting, something that might make him want to set foot on land and look for those Supernatural Creatures he'd heard about. They couldn't be that hard to miss.

For a couple of days he'd turned up nothing of note, and then he'd come across this little stretch of water. There was a sunken boat which he'd explored and found inhabited; things had been cleaned and rearranged, and some of the objects had been put together as if someone had made a collection out of them. He'd also found a sort of...handmade cave filled with human trinkets, so clearly someone was making use of these waters.

But who were they, and more importantly, what were they? Merfolk? Ondines? Kelpies? There was nothing he could do but wait around to see who/what showed up, so after indulging in a little local cuisine Dylan found a rock to perch on; whatever they were, they couldn't be gone all that long.

Dylan idly swished his fin in the water and licked his tongue across his teeth. Something was stuck. He pulled one arm from under his head and picked up a shard of bone he'd been keeping as a makeshift toothpick.

Those stringy bits were a real pain in the tail.

Who: Bella, Gabby, Alex, Harley, and – DUN DUN DUN – those crazy mermaids.
When: Afternoon
Where: Riverfest, Kiseswa River/aboard the Hermia (for a while, anyway)

Of all the things that could be said of Matthew Twight, one thing could never be denied: he was a good sport. He raced his sailboat, the Hermia every year, and always let his children tag along, and invite whoever they wanted. This year, when Bella said she’d like to invite all her friends to ride along, he’d been all for it. And when she’d made shirts for everyone on board proclaiming I’m on a boat and registered them as Team T-Pain, he’d laughed like the good natured man he was. Bella could not have loved her father more.

Things were a little crowded though. Too many hands on deck. When her father had suggested that Bella simply hang back with her friends and enjoy the ride, she’d obliged him with a kiss on the cheek. She was heading over to them just as the horn signaled the start, and squealed with glee. “Here we go!”

Who: Charlene, Cloelia, Melia and Nixie (probably a shouting NPC too)
Where: Nursing Home - the river
When: Twilight-ish

( There's no telling where we'll go. )

Who: Alejandro and Melia
When: Late afternoon
Where: The lake!
What: Awesomeness. Probably.


( Probably one of the only times I can have a PONY! cut tag and be even remotely close to accurate. )

Who: Cloelia and Melia
When: Late afternoon
Where: Redleaf Lake
What: I don't even know.


Though Melia was thoroughly enjoying her time in the lake she'd appropriated since coming to Scarlet Oak in the first place, she was a creature of the ocean at heart and couldn't stay in such a comparatively small body of water forever. So she'd left for a little while, frolicking her way through the big lakes out to the sea, where she'd wreaked merry havok sinking ships and alternatively terrorizing and charming various small fishing vessels to venture in her path. It was great fun, but after a while she found herself missing the town of humans and other assorted fascinating species that she'd left behind. With a wake of boat wreckage behind her, she made her way back through the lake system until she'd returned to Scarlet Oak.

She was pleased to see no one else had moved in and taken her lake space while she was gone, and she took some time to refamiliarize herself with the place. Her stash of human clothing was untouched, and humans had obviously gone swimming in the lake while she was away because there, shining with a lovely silver glint in the dirt at the bottom of the lake, was a pair of pretty earrings, two inches long and made up of little silver balls dangling at the ends of silver chains. She'd made herself some pretties while out at sea; bits of shell strung on clear fishing filament, shiny things she'd stolen from her boat wreckage and adorned herself with. Bits of ribbon and pretty shells were strung in her hair, bangles on her wrists, and to top it off, she stuck the earrings in her ears, unmindful of the brief pain as the studs pushed through the half-healed (and entirely homemade) holes in her ears.

Thus adorned, she pulled herself up onto a wide, flat rock at the edge of the lake. It was warm from the sun and a perfect place to nap. Reclining, she turned her face up to the light to bask.

Who: Corentin and Melia
When: Early afternoon.
Where: Redleaf Lake.

( Deer don't make for nearly as good conversation as dolphins. )

Who: Melia and Squid
When: Evening
Where: Redleaf Lake

After such excitement her first two days in town, Melia was almost surprised (and a little disappointed) to have an ordinary day. But then, as she hadn't gone searching in town, she supposed she couldn't really complain. Obviously that was where all the interesting (and delicious) humans and other creatures were; she decided to have a bit of dinner and then head in.

The temptation to go snack on one of the dead humans weighted down at the bottom of the lake was strong, but they were delicacies and she wanted to make them last. No telling when she'd get another one from Kitty. So she took off for the far end of the lake instead, rocketing after a large school of trout. Catching a few was no hard task even without using her voice, and she slowly drifted back towards the center, deepest part of the lake, trout in each hand as she swam and snacked at the same time.

Who: Alejandro and Melia
When: Before dawn
Where: Redleaf Lake

Melia was thrilled - two humans to eat and that only on her first day! Though she knew she had to be careful, because too many missing humans and the human authorities would perhaps start to look, and this town already seemed interesting, so she didn't want to leave. Which meant she'd have to curtail her human-hunting in the vicinity, at least for a little while. She didn't really mind the swim to farther hunting grounds - variety was good for her, and it wasn't really all that long a trip. She enjoyed the exercise.

Speaking of exercise, she was busy exploring the dimensions of her new temporary home. The lake was large and deep, which suited her needs, with rich beds of kelp along the bottom, interesting rock formations to explore, and plenty of fish to sustain herself. She'd just breakfasted on the arm of the woman she'd killed and stowed the rest, along with the body of the man she'd acquired yesterday, securely on the bottom of the lake. She looked up (and up) at the dark barrier that separated her from air, just taking on a hint of silver as the dawn grew closer. In a fit of whimsy, she took off with powerful strokes of her tail, rocketing up towards the surface until she broke it, head, shoulders, tail, and more. Arching gracefully at the height of her leap, she fell headfirst back down and dove back into the water with only the tiniest of splashes.

( And Bird-Men )

Who: Melia and Open
When: Evening, dusk-dark
Where: Near Sunny's Diner

Melia wasn't sure what had driven her to leave the ocean and travel so far inland; she'd become distracted by river travel, the new cuisine that was offered, and had decided to see where it would take her. As it happened, there was a wonderfully sized lake only about a day's travel or so from the sea - it was deep and wide, with plenty of fish and! joy of joys! a river that led into a human dwelling! Delighted with her find, Melia decided to stay for a while. It was just the sort of retreat she'd toyed with finding.

She swam down the river carefully into the human dwelling - what were they called again? Towns? Villages? Stupid names changed every time Melia was near enough to care - and waited in the water until a pair of humans wandered close. They were holding hands, a male and a female, and the female appeared to be about Melia's size. It was easy to compel them to come within reach; singing all the while, Melia snapped the female's neck with a hard wrench and, once she didn't have to compel them both any longer, sent the male on his way with no memory of the evening.

She stripped the woman's body of clothes and shoes, leaving them carefully on a rock on the shore to keep try, and dragged the woman's body back out to the lake, where she dove to the bottom and weighted it with rocks and kelp. That would provide her a delicious meal for the next few days. Swimming back to her chosen landing spot, Melia climbed out and dried herself as best she could. A bit of concentration and a second later she wore legs; she dressed in the dead woman's garment (it was a flimsy thing, knee length and pale yellow with a single strap around the neck that left most of the back and shoulders bare) and the strange shoes, flat and foamy bottoms held on by a single rubber strap that apparently went between the big toe and the one beside it. She wrung her hair dry, shaking it a little for the air to get in, then set out for the human town and whatever curiosities lay within.