Light of May ::: an original roleplay

Who: Harrison.
Where: The Court; his new apartment.
When: October 10th 2009. Evening.

Making a mental note to himself to send a text to his mother, at least, as soon as he had everything urgent squared away Harrison shrugged the big bag back onto his shoulder properly and used his heel to kick the door shut behind him, hearing the jamb catch with a resounding click. Glancing back over his shoulder he saw the lock and the chain he could slide across if needs be, all things his mother would want to know about because she had always been a worrier, constantly checking up on him or asking this or that about his welfare or state of being, whether it be at college or while he was on the road travelling to what might very well end up being his new permanent residence. For now it was long-term enough that he had thought it responsible -- and therefore the right choice -- to secure an apartment and actually have a lease and a rent agreement with a landlord instead of a grumpy questionable guy behind a desk in an office at the end of a row of rooms that had likely seen all kinds of unseemly activities over the years.

The smell was better here, if nothing else. Okay it was a little stuffy, it needed airing out, but he could get started on that tomorrow when he didn’t have boxes and bags littered all over the place and an excited kind of energy that went hand in hand with being in a new place with so much to learn and discover.

Reminding himself to thank his parents once again for ensuring the apartment had the basics in terms of furniture like a couch and a bed he dumped the bag from his shoulder down onto the latter and drew his cell phone from his pocket so he could send that message. Lighting up the screen of his phone Harrison saw the emails and IMs waiting there from the site and a few forums he was a member of, queries and suggestions and challenges to theories. The usual. When he’d told his readers he was up and moving to Scarlet Oak, at least for the foreseeable future, they’d sent him a veritable flood of requests and ideas, things he should look into firsthand now that he was going to be on the ground and right in the thick of it.

( Harrison didn’t know where to start. )

Who: Zach and Tori
When: Morning
Where: Zach’s Apartment

( Routine was still something that she handled with ease. )

Who: Savvy and Roxy
Where: Bits and Bytes
When: Afternoon

( Her computer was possessed! )

Who: Nick and Jenny
When: Early Evening
Where: UoM Hospital

( Compliance was easy for her to feign when she knew she had no intention of actually doing what she was told. )

Who: Fluffy and Jackson
When: Night time
Where: Random street in Scarlet Oak

Oh, what a night. It was her twenty-second birthday and Fluffy had done pretty much everything to celebrate that she could think of. Along with Nicci (of course) and some other choice people she had gone to see a concert, bar hopping after, ended up at some dude's house and/or drug den and then...it had all become a bit hazy. Which wasn't surprising, considering who she was as a person.

Tunnel vision in full force Fluffy wandered aimlessly, unsure whereabouts she was wandering exactly. All the colors around her were fascinating, shiny to the point of blurring at the edges of her vision and if she was honest, Fluffy wasn't sure that there weren't faeries about. Actual faeries, too. Tiny, flighty, giggling and sprinkling shiny dust around. Fluffy giggled as she attempted to locate them, rotating in one spot. "I know you're out there!" She said, amused. "Come out!"

Truth was, Fluffy was standing on a random street mistaking the many streetlights, business lights and cars for faeries and light sprinkles and things that by rights did not exist in a sober world. It also did not help that eventually, she had moved to stand in the middle of the street, twirling with her arms wide open. The road was devoid of cars now, but would it always? Fluffy did not consider it. She didn't consider most things.

Who: Teddy and Raphael.
Where: Raphael’s auto shop.
When: Early afternoon.

Talk about drawing the short straw. If you made a list of all the things Teddy Beaufort did not want to do on any particular day this task would have come out right near the top every single time, no doubt about it. Even as he drove the vehicle with all its excess gear removed and the strange knocking noise creating a soundtrack to the journey he couldn’t stop thinking about how little he wanted to be doing this. It wasn’t a long trip to the shop but that was beside the point, it was the principle of the thing he objected to and all he could think of was the computers he had left running in his room and how much he would rather be there with them. Computers were so much easier to deal with.

Granted an engine was a kind of machine in and of itself, Teddy had managed to jump one in the past with a surprising amount of success but they weren’t circuits and wiring like a computer or a phone or some other electronic device, they were all about combustion and fuel. They didn’t speak to him the way technology did. Out here with only his cell phone in his pocket and his laptop in his bag he felt out of his element, stranded, cut off from his comfort zone.

Teddy hated it.

Pulling up in front of the shop he cut the engine which died with that same ticking knocking noise that had made them think it probably needed attention in the first place and huffed out a sigh, trying not to grumble to himself under his breath as he made his way towards the open doors to the place, not even needing to glance at his wristwatch to know what time it was. Instead he communicated silently with the phone tucked safely in his pocket, using its clock and his connection with it. A simple unconscious act that made the wearing of a watch moot but it was all about keeping up appearances.

“Hello?” he called when he got to one of the openings to the workshop area, wondering if maybe he shouldn’t go around to the office. Teddy leaned back and looked down the length of the building to try and see the door to one, thoroughly unaware to the fact that someone had appeared in answer of his call until he turned his gaze back into the workshop, at which point he immediately started physically. “Jeez--sorry.” Teddy cleared his throat. “Do you work here?” Probably a stupid question but sometimes stupid questions just had to be asked.

for some Emyli & Bianca shenanigans

WHO | Katia and Lazarus
WHERE | Streets of Scarlet Oak
WHEN | Night
NOTES | Any dialogue in italics is spoken in Russian.


( Katia was in a mood and she wanted nothing more than to destroy whatever crossed her path. )

Who: Treat and Tanith
When: Late night
Where: Treat's house

( Somehow, and without the faintest idea how it had happened, Tanith had ended up sleeping in Treat's bed. )

WHO: Julian & Jani
WHERE: Coffee shop
WHEN: Morning

Pack loyalties demanded that he be at home right now, trying to see what could be done for members of the Summers Pack that had just gotten out of the high school, as well as trying to provide what assistance he could to those that hadn't been inside but were suffering from exhaustion from fretting during the ordeal. But Julian couldn't. He knew that Trent was coming to have a meeting with August about what to do with the pack. And while, realistically, Sasha would have been just as accepted had they taken the time to mature before making their decision and had she not been every bit as venomous as a human being as she was a snake, Julian's imaginary slights were real to him. It didn't help that no one had ever sat him down and explained it to him...not that he would listen to it now. Not that he would have listened then. At any rate, here he was sitting in a coffee shop, ignoring the texts requesting his location from his mother. In his defense, he'd responded to the first one by telling her he had to study. He'd ignored any subsequent messages. He was waiting for her to give up and make one of his sisters text him for his location instead. He couldn't deny them.

( Keep your hands off my coffee. )

Who: Arwen Alice and Doran (NPC)
When: Evening
Where: Doran’s house

( It's always the quiet ones. )

Who: Emilia and Nysa
Where: Nysa's office
When: Just before midnight

( 'Wake up, giraffe, that really can't be comfortable.' )

Who: Linnea, Kajsa and Satu (NPCs)
Where: Psychiatric ward at UofM
When: Early afternoon

( 'I agree to this and Satu comes home today?' )

Who: Star and OPEN
Where: The park
When: Mid-afternoon

The smart thing to do following what had happened at the high school and it's direct tie-in to the fae (even though they had not hurt anyone) would probably have been to pop over to the Fair Realm for a bit of a stay until everything settled down.

The smart thing to do if one decided to stay in this mortal realm was probably to stay inside or at least to act somewhat... normal. Or mortal-esque. Star could have done that. She could have worn something a little less attention-grabbing. She could have gone and hung out at Venus or Willow's apartment, or dropped in to have a chat with Allegra since she had yet to do that. She could have done a lot of things. But this was Star, and Star had a problem with thinking through her actions before she actually, well, acted on them. So if she wanted to go to the park then she was going to go to the park.

The smart thing to do while at the park would have been to watch the birds or children playing and not do anything. That was the smart thing to do. That was not, however, the Star thing to do. Instead of just sitting there, enjoying a peaceful day and soaking it up, Star had an idea. And it was a really, really good idea. Everyone had been so mopey and down lately because of what happened at the school that the deserved something a little different and interesting. She had seen the mortal children doing it all of the time with their tubs of chalk or sidewalk paint, and she had decided to make sidewalk art of her own. Sadly, Star was lacking chalk. She was able to glamour up a convincing looking piece of it and a nearby tub that had the label "Crayola" printed on its yellow paper in blocky green letters. Everyone seemed to use Crayola. Star had no idea why since they all looked pretty much the same, but it was a concession to normality that she was actually taking the time to make.

Now, had anyone been looking closely then they would have seen that the piece of chalk Star was dragging over the sidewalk never actually got any smaller, nor did it change color despite the variety of colors that was pouring out onto the cement. Star had decided that a scene of the night sky would be just perfect, complete with shooting stars. And, well, of course the shooting stars had to move and what good were the stars if they did not twinkle? Oh, yes, and there had to be a few quickly moving specks to represent all those silly satellites they had circling around up there. She was making art and it had to be perfect.

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


( A secret pearl inside the heart of us. )

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

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