Light of May ::: an original roleplay

WHO | Harper and Josh, Lady Vi & Crayola (NPCs)
WHERE | U of M hospital → Bits and Bytes
WHEN | Evening

( I really need a hug. )

Who: Drina and Marco
When: Evening
Where: The Court

( Feeling like a field trip? )

Who: Maia and Sammy
When: Morning
Where: Maia’s House

( Hello, you... )

Who: Cheyenne and Sammy
When: Late Night
Where: Around and inside Chey’s house

( She couldn’t remember this route leading to a neighborhood, but to be fair, she hadn’t actually been paying attention. )

Who: Arwen, Desi and Emilia
Where: Sandwich shop near Hope Fellowship Church
When: Lunch

( Still, Emilia would feel bad if Desi knew something about her that Arwen did not. )

Who: Tessa and Brendan
When: Early afternoon
Where: The local greenhouse


( A secret pearl inside the heart of us. )

WHO | Quinn & Chase
WHERE | The park
WHEN | Early afternoon

( No, she was going to discipline herself to keep away and find something to distract her. )

Who: Jason and Anastasia.
Where: The streets of Scarlet Oak.
When: Late night.

There were some tricks that were so much easier to pull off with more of the pack present but this sort of thing required some degree of discretion, just enough finesse and quiet to keep people from looking your way until it was absolutely too late. In the time he had been active in the circuit Jason knew the kinds of tricks that would keep him from turning heads -- at least those that would cause a fuss and make noise he would much rather avoid, the sort that would draw attention and bring the whole thing crashing down around his ears -- and so he always took the lead on things like this and only ever brought one person with him. Maybe two if he thought that was absolutely necessary.

Anastasia had joined the pack after he had but she had been with them a long time by now, longer than the others, and as difficult as it was for Jason to bond with anyone the girl to his side had managed to form one with him anyway. She didn’t cower when he snapped, she called him on his bullshit, and she could stand up for herself. Bernhard through and through. Devon would have been proud of her. She knew how to keep her head down and she could watch his back for him while he worked.

“Put these on,” he had said to her as he’d drawn the gloves from his back pocket, “just in case.” After donning his own gloves the tool had come out next, the long thin shaft narrow enough to slot down the inside of a car’s door and pop the lock. That was the easy part. It was what came next that would take time and care. Getting the bloody thing started without drawing too much attention was always the tricky part of stealing a car.

Halfway through sliding the tool down the narrow gap between the panel and the window Jason paused, turning his head to look at Ana, keeping his body language casual, as though he belonged there next to the car he was intending to steal. “You want to have a go?” he asked her, just a hint of a smile on his face. No time like the present to learn, right?

Who: Castel and Camilla.
Where: Castel’s apartment.
When: Morning.

When Camilla had opted to stay the night she had received not a single word of complaint from him, Castel had been only too happy to make her comfortable right down to offering her one of his simple shirts in which to sleep. The night before they had shared a glass of wine, a fine vintage -- not that he would drink anything less than the best -- that he had sampled several years before and developed a fondness for. Noctis had remained by the window on a perch keeping to himself, letting the two witches talk and spend time together. Castel would thank the bird for his discretion at another time, not that the raven didn’t already know, on some level, that he was grateful for the show of respect. If any creature was going to pick up on such things it would be his familiar.

It was still early when Castel felt the bed shift, the mattress dipping just enough to tell him that Camilla was pressing her hands down into it in order to rise. From where he lay he could hear the quiet brush of bare feet across hardwood floors as she made her way to another part of the apartment. The bathroom, most likely. Castel twisted under the sheets just in time to see the door click closed behind her as she ventured inside and he smiled quietly to himself, moving to sit up, lifting one hand to rub the lingering sleep from his eyes.

For years they had been separated and yet it still felt so natural for the two of them to share a bed. That did not surprise Castel, someone who was so convinced that he and Camilla were meant to be together. Fate and destiny were such small words, such simple terms for what they shared. The bond that they had went beyond such common terms and he had always thought as much, increasingly so in recent years.

Rising from the bed he raked his fingers back through his dark hair and moved quietly from the bedroom, leaving the door open so Camilla would know where he had gone when she returned. Castel usually left his apartment and headed to one of the town’s better establishments for breakfast but his kitchen was well stocked enough that he could make an exception on this morning. Camilla, he thought, might prefer to stay in this morning, and so he would happily indulge her.

Who: Trent and August.
Where: The Summers’ home.
When: Around midday.

Though he was no longer their Alpha there was no wolf in the Summers Pack, especially those within the core family, the one after which it was named, that would not follow the commands of Martin Summers. There were no exceptions, not even the current leaders, and it was for that reason that Trent had heeded his father’s words and made plans to head to the home where he and his siblings had all grown up in order to speak with his brother. August would be there too, it was possible he had already arrived, Trent knew, as he walked down the path headed for the house at the heart of their territory. Their father was right about this meeting, the older of the twins knew, it made sense for them to get together, the pair of them, and discuss what was to be done about Lotti and Kyle and any others who had been trapped in the high school and might still be suffering from whatever they had experienced within its walls.

For his part Trent was still riled that anything had happened to his siblings at all. Protectiveness ran in their blood, it was a shared family trait, and it was natural for wolves to want to keep their own safe but for Trent it was always going to be fiercest, that instinct, when his family was involved. Venus too, obviously, and he had not yet taken the time to face the question of who would come first if he ever had to make a choice. That was a dilemma he was not yet prepared to give the time of day no matter how important it might end up being. Whatever the answered was it would bring trouble and pain and not just for him. Trent wasn’t ready to face that. Not yet.

Reaching the door he didn’t pause to knock but instead let himself in. Their mother was cooking something, he could smell it in the kitchen from the front of the house, and unbidden his stomach started to growl. Her cooking always had that effect, he had noticed it a long time ago, and he couldn’t help the small smile that came to his face when he heard her voice from the back of the house, greeting him and not even for a second confusing him with his brother. Pulling the light scarf from around his neck and shrugging off his jacket he hung them on the rack inside the door and caught himself looking for his brother’s coat as he did so.

Who: Carter and Kammie.
Where: A diner in town.
When: A little after midday, early afternoon.

There were very few indulgences in Carter’s life, as was the case with most Bennetts, as the case had been for all those who bore the name as far back as everyone could remember. No alcohol, a decent diet, rigorous exercise, and a lifetime commitment to the hunt. Carter had embraced that early on and always respected it but it was his mother who had taught him when he was young that the odd treat was far from bad. If anything it was good to indulge a little every now and then. For him, personally, it had always been particular foods that he allowed himself once in a while and kept his distance from at all other times in order to keep his diet and therefore his health and lifestyle on track.

Since coming to America Carter had learned that there was very little that could beat a good cheeseburger. It was maybe once every couple of months that he allowed himself to have one, if not less, and so when the time came to visit a diner and treat himself a little it made it all the more worthwhile. Absence really did make the heart fonder and as he sat in the diner with the plate in front of him he felt strangely younger in that moment than he had in several months. Carter didn’t know what it was, whether it was the food itself or the remembrance of a memory from years ago when his mother had first taught him the lesson, but the feeling lingered as he worked his way patiently and steadily through the burger and the fries that had come on the side of them.

"Everything okay over here?" the waitress asked as she paused by the side of his table, looking a little hesitant almost as if she expected him to pick up on something wrong after her realisation upon his arrival that he wasn't American.

"Great," he said to her with a polite smile, watching her relax and return the expression, "thank you." With a dip of her head in a nod and the smile still on her face she continued on her way to the kitchen.

It would be several months before he ate like this again. After this meal he would go back to the sorts of foods that kept a body healthy and in fighting form, subconsciously monitoring his intake of fats and sugars and all the things that could slow a hunter down in one way or another. Something like this, a rare treat as it was, ought to be savoured. Sometimes it really was the little things that meant the most and in a life as hazardous and violent as Carter’s that was certainly the case.

Who: Sam and Farren.
Where: A grocery store.
When: Mid-afternoon.

If it had been up to him Sam wouldn’t have gone along on the trip to the store. As it was for such a through-and-through Omega as Sam nothing at all was up to him, not in his mind. Choices and decisions were things more dominant people made, his place in the world was to do as he was told and even if something was presented to him as a question it was still interpreted in his mind as a command. When Farren had mentioned the store and him going along Sam had taken it as an order for him to accompany her and so he had nodded his head quietly and meekly and followed her lead as an Omega was meant to do.

There was a part of Sam that had hoped he might feel a little better if he got out of the house and away from the tight pressing feeling of being watched. He was wrong. All the way across the parking lot and into the store itself he had felt that weight on him that made him feel like there were eyes on him and even when they had a cart and were making their way slowly and steadily around the place, navigating the aisles aimlessly and with no real order in mind he couldn’t help but look around to find that keen gaze. The fact that he couldn’t see anyone watching him and couldn’t smell anyone either didn’t help him to relax in the least and he was so distracted by his nervous search for an unknown threat that he bumped into the edge of the cart because he wasn’t watching where he was going.

Sam tensed further then and flinched back, hearing the items in the cart jostle and rattle. Farren was one of those in the pack around whom he still wasn’t sure how to behave and Sam felt his throat dry up even as he tried to apologise. “I-I’m sorry.” It wasn’t even that he was embarrassed, that was never the case for him, it was always more fear-driven, much closer to shame than anything else.

Who: Mason and Kiley.
Where: Starbucks to start with.
When: Late afternoon.

No one who knew Mason Normandin could accuse him of being a hopeless romantic, certainly not on the surface where the whole world could see him and judge him for his words and behaviours. As much as any other member of his family he had a reputation to uphold and Mason did his part with that as much as any other Normandin, perhaps more so in his opinion, but there were times when that image meant very little to him. As he pulled his car to the curb and let the engine die he knew this was one of those times, when the opinions of the rest of the world meant absolutely nothing and all that mattered was the thoughts and feelings of one other person.

Kiley was due to finish work any minute now.

This was the point where Mason always debated whether or not to go inside or just to wait out by the car. Without even realising he had stepped out of the vehicle and onto the sidewalk and now he stood by the car with his keys in his hand not entirely sure of what to do with himself. Go in and wait for her to finish while her coworkers all stared at him and whispered their little rumours amongst themselves where they thought he couldn’t hear them? Or wait out here for her to step out and avoid the whole thing but perhaps seem nonchalant to those same people inside?

Before he could decide exactly which option to go for -- not to mention whether or not he actually cared one bit about what those inside thought of him or their relationship -- the very person he was waiting for stepped out of the door and into the cool October air. Mason felt the smile cross his face instantly and he strode forward to meet her. “Hey, you,” he said, still smiling. “I was just about to come inside.”

Who: Nora and Zoie
Where: UofM hospital
When: Morning

( 'Morning, Nora. How's tricks?' )