WHERE: The Beach WHEN: {backdated} end of Feb; evening WHAT: No one is wallowing; but there's alcohol and some chit chat. AKA, Nissa can be nice. STATUS: Complete VIEW WARNINGS: Swears, allusions to past trauma/abuse
Spreading herself out in Lily’s home was all well and good, it definitely let her relax and heal up from the week of hell she’d had before slotting herself into Summerview, but it wasn’t exactly the excitement she was used to.
She wasn’t yet in the mood to deal with other people, questions or whispers or whatever else might come in a place like this, so she’d stopped by the liquor store and opted to walk the beach instead. It wasn’t crowded, a few hours after dusk when Nissa could be assed hauling herself out of the plush room she had, cigarette dangling from her lips while her boots sunk in the sand as she went.
So long as she didn’t go too close to the water and duck up her boots, she’d worry about sand later. Although she did get about a mile down the beach before she decided fuck it, shrugged off her jacket and sat down, snapping the cap off her bottle of vodka and knocking back a healthy swallow of Russian water.
She wasn’t the only one who had thought about sitting in the sand and drinking. Following the full moon when she’d woken with her legs tangled in those of another wolf whom she then went to breakfast with, she’d been in a particularly sullen mood. She hadn’t really wanted to get to know other werewolves, her desire to just be left alone and associate with non-wolves was pretty solid as a concept in her mind. Of course, Sam had to be different. A real gentleman he’d averted his eyes when they’d woken up together and gone to get her clothes. Real classy behaviour, the kind she wasn’t used to. The men she’d known had always treated women’s bodies like they were entitled to look and touch and though she had always been swift to slap an unwanted hand away or punch a lecher in the jaw, not needing to had been a surprise.
And was one of the reasons she was sitting on the sand with a bottle of whiskey between her thighs. No one could ever accuse her of being healthy in her coping mechanisms.
Her attention was drawn away from the bottle when she heard and smelt someone else approaching, a slightly acrid scent carried on the breeze, followed by moss and lichen and she turned her head to see someone not too far away plopping herself down on the beach, bottle lifted to her lips.
“This part of the beach is taken for mopin’” she called, though not necessarily aggressively. “If you’re lookin’ for somewhere to be alone and miserable you oughta move down a lil further.”
Dropping the bottle just slightly, Nissa glanced over, her eyebrow raised, seriously?
"What do I have to mope about? I'm the best company to keep." Was there anywhere on this island city to just sit down without being on top of someone? She was starting to get a feel for why Lily was here, or at least why she was staying. And that was all well and good.
But this Malcontent shit had already gotten Nissa rolling her eyes, if the bad guys thought they were good guys, and the good guys thought they were good guys, where the fuck were the actual bad guys? Not to mention her methods had been questioned and she was contemplating murdering something to put in that shitbags bed to prove there was no such thing as 'good' guys.
"And it's a free beach, so get fucked." So no, she wasn't moping, but she sure as shit was not leaving for some--- A twist of her head, a little inspection and... "What are you anyway? Some depressive sea-fairy?"
Bree snorted, "I've got no qualms with sharin' space, but there are a few people here who are awful mopey and wanna just sit and stare into the sea to contemplate their miserable existence." She took a pull of her whiskey and turned her head again, taking in the other woman. The breeze caused her scent to drift in the werewolf's direction and there was something slightly acrid about it, burned her nose and she rubbed it slightly. She'd never smelt that before, the undertone of magic and something else that was utterly unfamiliar.
"Just makin' sure you didn't wanna be alone. 'Cause that's not happening and all." She chuckled around another pull of whiskey. "I'll take depressive sea-fairy."
At least she wasn't a total Debbie Downer. Nissa wasn't entirely certain how this place worked when people went missing, she'd hate to need to drown blondie just for some peace and then get whatever police force there was in this place up her ass. God, that'd be a mood killer.
"Just as well nothing about my existence is miserable, huh?" Nissa grinned along the beach, letting just a little of her glamour shimmer away to show part of her form, the sheen of her skin, the black and gold of her eyes, before it slotted back into her human appearance like a ripple ending at the edge of a lake.
"There's no where around here to be alone." Other than her area in Lily's house, and she didn't mind too much being around Lily. But apparently Lily's little one was coming by soon, and Nissa wanted to at least let Lily get him settled before she poked at whatever little thing he was.
"I like sea-fairy's, their bones are crunchy." Nissa hid her smirk in a swig from her bottle, letting that just hang there to see how much the blond squirmed.
"For sure," Bree agreed, eyes sharpening as the woman's features shifted slightly, her whole skin tone and eye colour changing. But it was quick as a flash and it left Bree wondering if she'd imagined it, though she was quite sure she hadn't. "You're rare then," she added after a moment, "since I'm pretty sure everyone's got at least a lil' bit of misery they gotta wallow in every now and then."
She glanced skyward, and then out at the water. "You can say that again, small town like this there's people everywhere." And Jayati was so good at giving her space, but the rest of the town was so full of people she struggled sometimes to find peace and focus. Honestly, it was a good thing, if Carter ever came here looking for her there were enough people to run interference while she fled.
Her eyebrow lifted and she turned her head sharply to look at the other woman, unsure if she was being serious or not so, in response, she deadpanned, "Ain't never tried 'em, so I wouldn't know."
"Oh please, you have a potentially finite length of time on the planet," in some cases, in others it wasn't quite the case, and in hers it was entirely possible she'd outlive the planet. In the right circumstances. "Why waste time being so damn depressive and miserable?" She didn't understand that at all. If shit couldn't be changed, deal with it. If it could? Change it.
She loathed the idea of wallowing for any reason.
"Nosy people." And to an extent they probably weren't bad. Not in the sense of it, just damn annoying, far too friendly or plain stupid. She couldn't see any of them being useful in the long run, so she wasn't utterly sure what the hell Lily was going to get out of this place other than problems. Not that it was a big deal, there were ways of dealing with that.
"Few people have. Apparently it's frowned on these days." Lots of things were frowned on. "I do hope I'm not interrupting your wallowing?" Not that it mattered if she were, Nissa was bored, and blondie was offering a distraction that didn't include maiming someone or fucking. So it was progress she guessed.
Bree lifted a hand and waved her fingers, some people preferred to wallow a little. She'd stop eventually but she was busy being so damn bitter about what had happened and how the last time she'd run into Carter she'd felt so fucking powerless that running away had seemed like an impossible feat.
"Man, the folk here are so fuckin' nosy," she agreed. "No one's interested in lettin' anyone have secrets, just 'cause they've spent too many years in an intimate little community." Thankfully she was largely left alone but it felt like everyone was up in each others' business and she didn't know how she felt about that. If she didn't need the protection this city provided she didn't think she'd stay. But since Carter was still out there and Bree wasn't entirely sure that she would stand her ground and wouldn't end up somehow going back to him. Everything always got a little foggy when he was around, a throwback she was sure to how intensely she'd loved him once. How much he'd messed with her head.
Ugh.
She tipped her head back and took a longer than before swallow of the whiskey, feeling it burning down her throat.
"Nah, you're good. I used up my allocated wallowin' allowance for the month a couple days ago." She tipped her head, "And... I'd figure that eating people would be frowned on. Even if they're depressing sea-fairies. Which, for the record, I'm not."
It really wasn't going to work well with Nissa if people kept pushing to get into her shit, because she wasn't good at that, wasn't down with people knowing too much -and personally anything they weren't directly involved in was too much -she'd never told Lily about why she detested witches, and she'd undoubtedly never been closer to anyone than she was with Lily.
"That's going to get old fast." Nissa had a dark tone to her voice, almost a warning to the universe not to test her. This little community was just far too friendly for her liking just yet. Even with the state of those 'malcontents', they were too flourish and fancy -calling themselves good guys.
"It's good you keep track, you'll get fined around here if you use up too much." At least it felt that way. "Besides, I hate wallowers." She really did, to the point she'd likely empty her bottle and use it as a weapon. "Darn, there goes my next threat, guess I can't eat you if you irritate me. And least not in that way."
Bree nodded her head in agreement. Getting prodded and poked for information would get old fast. There were a fair few folk here who were judgemental as fuck, too, and not shy about airing what they felt. She wasn't so sure that she thought that was the best way to go about things, the few confrontations she'd seen on the network and the like made her feel ill at ease. She figured she could just stay far away from all that nonsense and focus on herself, pulling her shit together and then maybe one day she could just fuck off and travel again. Carter couldn't catch up with what he couldn't find.
She snorted. "Mmhm, I think you get fined if you get caught wallowin' outside of the allocated times, too. Or if you offer up an opinion that ain't really all that in line with the masses. Some bullshit going on right now, I'll tell you." She lifted the bottle to her lips again and took a liberal swig, feeling the alcohol burn down her throat even though it wasn't affecting her. She missed being able to get drunk.
Coughing because she'd sort of inhaled her mouthful at Nissa's comment, Bree shifted to face the woman properly. "Remind me not to irritate you," she added. "Not sure sure I'd taste all that good anyway."
"Oh fucking right? Like honestly? They are so far up their own asses I'm surprised they aren't muffled." She was still getting over her conversation with little mister 'good guy', and that was taking her a while, because what even. She'd get over it, that was what the bottle of alcohol was for, she was intending to sit here and stew for a while, bitch in her head and get it out before returning to Lily's and possibly breaking something that wasn't expensive and then sleeping all night unless Lily felt like having some fun.
But hearing someone else share the sentiment meant she didn't need to hold it all in. "I mean, I get having your own opinion, but when it's just stupid then keep it to your fucking self." One day, she'd smack someone just for saying something dumb. She'd literally smack their head right off their shoulders.
Twisting a little towards the blond, Nissa shrugged, "I'll cross-stitch it into something for you." Likely a corpse, and likely badly, since Nissa could not stitch. "Oh, I'll be you taste just fine. But I promise not to test that, unless it's entirely consensual." Nissa threw in a wink while she took another drink, starting to feel like she'd like this girl.
“And if they’re trying to win people over to their point of view being that obnoxious about it isn’t gonna help,” she agreed, taking another swing of her drink before she got up and walked a little closer, plopping back down into the sand only a little way away from the woman.
She snorted, “Not the biggest fan of home crafts,” she admitted. “My temper tends to lend to shit gettin’ broke real fast.” She choked - again - on her whiskey as a wink was thrown along with a comment that was undeniably salacious and she just cleared her throat and killed her head to the side, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She put her bottle in the sand and twisted it from side to side, wedging it into the sand so it didn’t tip over and she twisted, holding out a hand. “Bree.”
Obnoxiousness never helped, and Nissa wholly agreed there. She'd sooner drown herself than think she were a 'good guy' regardless of the cause. The girl closing some of the distance at least let Nissa pin down her race -werewolf, made sense now at least- and Nissa stretched out on the sand, relaxing a little given the warmth of flowing alcohol and the indication that the girl wasn't a threat, at least not right now.
She could see the moment the comment landed, and while she appreciated the reaction, Nissa opted not to push too much too quickly. She wasn't exactly hard up for some company, and she didn't need to make a big deal, but she'd remember that the reaction wasn't exactly a dismissal. "Nissa," she took the hand with a lazy stretch, fingers catching on Bree's wrist to stroke as she withdrew -she wasn't pushing, but it wasn't like she had a personality transplant.
"It's good to know there are like minded folk here." At least some people were sensible and she could complain loudly at her later if needed. "Have you been safely ensconced in this loving environment for long?" And there was disdain just dripping from her tone there.
Bree watched Nissa’s fingers brush along the inside of her wrist as she withdrew and the werewolf shifted on the sand, bottle between her legs being lifted once more to take a healthy swig. She shrugged her shoulders, wondering how best to phrase the reasons for her arrival in Summerview. She wasn’t sure that ‘safely ensconced’ as an accurate description and so far her experience had been hardly completely loving. Not all aggression and discomfort but there had been a fair bit of it and Bree wasn’t around for that.
She’d met precious few people, too, the folk she worked with - that she barely talked to - and then Callum. Then there was Sam, the wolf she’d ended up fighting with during the full moon and she wasn’t sure how that had ended up with them curled in a clearing together. She had no idea how she felt about that.
“Ain’t so sure that’s the right way of describin’ the circumstances that got me here,” she shared, “the other sanctuary city I’d been at was… compromised.” Carter had sniffed her out much more quickly than she hoped. Her hand lifted to curl around the pendant that hummed with powerful magic. It was only supposed to hide her from him and the people associated with him. She had no desire to test it, though. “But to answer your question I’ve been here for couple months? Ain’t so sure I’m up with the kumbaya feel of the place though.”
It felt like there was a story there, one that she could, potentially, capitalise on later down the line. Some people got rather iffy when you straight up offered to clean up after them -in a very permanent way. Nissa hadn't really done that sort of thing since she met Lily, mostly because she didn't need to pick up any little off side amusements while with the succubus. But now it seemed Lily was playing a long game and Nissa would need to find some distractions so she didn't get overly frustrated with these people and stab someone.
Possibly someone not meant to be stabbed.
"Lordy tell me about it. I think they're a circle jerk away from having a cuddle pile, and then I will really just vomit everywhere." She'd find those who were more prone to her side of things eventually, but if the malcontents were the gist of it, she might still want to vomit if this was their agenda. "One thing that the humans don't suck at is the room to ignore each other." She'd never met a human who wanted to talk feelings after all.
Bree laughed, the sound bright and it surprised her. She hadn't laughed in what felt like forever. She decided then that she liked this Nissa person, despite not knowing what species she was or if she needed to be careful around her. "You can say that again, fuck that noise. I'd sooner stab my eyes out than get involved in some fucking cuddle pile." Though, waking up with her legs tangled with someone else's had felt nicer than it had any right to.
She glanced at Nissa's bottle, then at her own, and held hers out in offering. Whiskey was a drink meant to be shared, after all. "Just warn me when you're gonna hurl, I ain't so good with puke. I'll just make sure someone else trips in it."
The burst of laughter just assured Nissa that yes, Bree was her sort of person -not too fussed with Nissa's moments of crudeness. It wasn't like she'd hit 300 and still be sweet and innocent, then again, Nissa had never really been innocent. Or sweet, for the most part. "Oh, if I hurl, everyone will be aware." She wasn't sure if it was just a magic thing, or a Nissa thing, but it tended to be poignant if she did reach that stage. "It takes a lot to get me there," Nissa accepted the whisky, holding out her own vodka in offering. "And a plague usually follows."
It'd been a long time since she'd spread a decent plague too.
"Although if anything is going to push it, and I have lived through the fucking hippy uprising, it's gonna be this place and their bullshit." If some people didn't stop with all the self-congratulating bullshit she'd puke on them. "I'm not saying I need a war, I just need people to take the happy down a few notches." Like way down.
"A plague?" Bree asked, swigging the vodka before Nissa had a chance to tell her just how she spread a plague. "Guessin' that's not coincidental." It was on the tip of her tongue just to ask but she hated it when people did that to her, so she wasn't about to inflict that kind of blunt question on someone else. She put the bottle back in the sand, screwing it on the spot to make a little dip for it so that it didn't fall, turning to face Nissa properly.
Her eyebrow lifted and she shrugged. "Yeah, I mean, this place is somethin' else." She wouldn't be here if she didn't need it, and that rankled her somewhat. "Been sheltered in this place for too long, ain't got any idea what's outside in the world."
Nissa never claimed to be a mind reader, but she was good at reading people, and the question that came with Bree's surprise at her plagues comment -it wasn't exactly a common occurrence after all. "My magic, it's dark." Which was at least a hint towards what she was, although not commonly discussed, and Nissa wouldn't just outright declare herself an unseelie, she didn't care who knew what kind of fae she was -her ears were usually hidden, and she'd dropped the glamour a few times already, it was exhausting to maintain all the time, but so many people were so damn fussy about her fucking appearance. "Uncontrolled outbursts aren't good for the population at large."
She still wasn't convinced that one of her kind weren't behind the black death.
Bree's admission, and her full shift towards Nissa, made things a little more personal, like the girl was aching for someone that wasn't these fuckwits with their obnoxious ideas and their methods of pushing their opinions on people, so fucking careful of everything. It was smothering, and Nissa had been there barely a week. "It's chaos, it's always been chaos. But it's fun." More lively, more dangerous, so much more to do. "You know this place isn't a prison, right? You can go outside? Atlantic City isn't the most lively of places, but it's something."
Although... "I mean, I can always show you my favourite places, if you want."
Bree nodded, clearly curious about Nissa's magic but she knew that it wasn't maybe the time to press. Could be a conversation for another day. She was quiet as Nissa spoke, turning her head to look out at the water and the waves gently lapping at the sand.
Chaos wasn't fun, but she supposed that was because the chaos she had experienced wasn't the fun kind of chaos, it was the bad kind. The running for your life from a pack that chased you across the country kind.
"I know," she said, "but I-" she took her whiskey back and took a few long swallows before she spoke again, not looking at Nissa. "Ain't felt safe enough to head outta here on my own." She tipped her head, watching the woman out of the corner of her eye. "You been here long enough to have favourite places in AC? I- that's impressive. If you don't mind sharin', I'd be happy to go."
There was something about Bree, something under the surface, lurking just below. It wasn't obvious, and Nissa couldn't figure what it was. Safety seemed like something the girl was seeking, never mind acceptance or protection, but safe. Which, in certain circumstances, Nissa could see the appeal. In a way, Nissa sought safety, but she just burnt her way through danger to get there. That wasn't an option for everyone.
"I'm older than I look, I've been around Atlantic City before." It was a little older, sure, and maybe some of her old haunts were gone, but she was sure she could find something just as exciting. "I don't mind taking you into the city, showing you a good time."
She hemmed about promising protection and safety, because if she were honest, her brand of entertainment, it might not be exceptionally safe. She could say that she'd make sure nothing hurt Bree, but then, it might be a bit dark. "Company is always better anyway, a little companionship to have fun with." Drinking buddies, someone to post bail, a get away driver.
Bree had no trouble with travelling, with seeing new things, but the overwhelming concern that Carter might turn up, that the charm might not work, that something might go wrong and she'd end up going right back to him as she did the first time paralysed her. She didn't want to think about what it would be like if he got hold of her again, the thought made her skin crawl with disgust, then a lingering anger that pulled at her stomach and she just took another few long swallows from the bottle.
"Sounds like a plan to me," she said, wiping the back of her mouth with her other hand and looking at Nissa. "You let me know when you wanna get outta here."
For once, the smile on Nissa's face wasn't just as dark and sinister, more open and a little honest, even with the smirky edge to it. "You got a cell? Gimme your number." It was easier all things told, her arm would be fully healed in a day or so, she could afford to go out and have some fun, maybe help the blond loosen up and enjoy herself.
If she was stuck in here for too long there'd likely be a break in the psyche after all, Nissa was just being a good person. That was all.