Sera D'Onofrio (toomuch4you) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-04-14 22:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | #october 2017, sera |
Who: Noah and Sera
When: Tuesday, October 17, late afternoon
Where: the park
Noah had set off from Moxie’s to walk off some of the food he had eaten while there. The past day and a half was giving him a better idea of what was around town, though he hadn't gotten everywhere yet. Which was more than he expected upon arrival, if he were being honest, since he had been to some towns small enough where everything possible to see was covered in less than a day. He wandered a bit aimlessly, spotting a park in the distance and heading toward it.
The wind buffeted against him as he entered a park, walking along the paved path. He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jacket and started thumbing out a message to Magnus to tell him about running into someone who knew Daniel at the diner. Normally he was pretty good at texting and walking at the same time, but since he hadn't noticed that many other people in the park, he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. He was about to hit the send button when he absently glanced up--and saw that he was about to collide with someone else and drew up short. “Oh! Shit. Sorry,” he said apologetically.
It was strange not to have cheerleading practice for a second day in a row, although Sera knew they’d be back at it tomorrow. She’d found herself at a loss for the afternoon, unsure what to do with her time. She’d shopped for an hour or so after school with Hayley, but then Hayley’d had a serious PMS attack and had decided to go home. Sera had hit another store and then decided to grab a hot chocolate to go from Moxie’s and head for the park. Sure, it was chilly, but she rarely got the chance to do anything after school but cheerleading practice, so there it was.
She was strolling along, styrofoam cup in one hand and her phone in the other, texting a comment to Jules about a movie they both wanted to see, when she nearly ran into someone. Or maybe the other person nearly ran into her; it would be hard to say. At first her inner bitch wanted to lash out at him for almost knocking her over--whether it was his fault or not-- when she got a good look at him and smiled instead because he was hot. Hot and older, which was just the kind of trouble she was craving. “It could’ve been a bad collision,” she said, brandishing her half-full cup of hot chocolate. “I’d hate to end up wearing this.” Her tone was playful, showing that she wasn’t really mad.
Surprise bled away, though Noah’s shoulders held tense until the girl--young woman? he wasn't entirely sure which applied--smiled and didn't seem to be completely pissed at him. It felt like his fault for not paying more attention. He relaxed and smiled back at her, matching his tone to hers to keep the mood light. “It's good we narrowly avoided that crisis. It would have been a shame to ruin both whatever chance I had for a good first impression and your outfit in one fell swoop.” Preoccupied with his iPhone wasn't an inaccurate summation of Noah when left to his own devices, but he usually tried to be better if there were other people around.
Sera quickly finished her text and put the phone away, willing to focus all her attention on him. An attractive guy had that effect on her. “The outfit? Yeah, I’d be annoyed.” She shrugged one shoulder delicately as if she might not be all that annoyed about it. “But your first impression is pretty good, honestly.” She grinned at him and tipped her cup toward him in a faux-toast. “I’m Sera. Who’re you? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
Noah half-expected the girl to be on her way after he apologized, but instead she turned her full attention onto him. Slipping his phone into his pocket, he focused on her for the moment. “You might want to set the bar higher, if me nearly colliding with you still meets good, although it's admittedly working in my favor, ” he teased a little, his smile widening. “I’m Noah. You probably wouldn’t have seen me since I only got here a couple days ago. You’re from here?”
Sera didn’t want to explain to him that the impression was good because he was hot. High school boys were much more likely to fall for that blatant nonsense. Actual men weren’t quite as easy. “Nice to meet you, Noah,” she said. “Yes, born and raised.” She had to wonder if he had any idea of the kind of town this was, but she’d never show her hand by actually asking. “What brings you to town?” she asked, because that was a fair enough question.
Despite putting some effort into his appearance, Noah tended to not think about it too much except under specific circumstances, so he could be a bit oblivious. “My friend wanted to look into the disappearance of this guy he knows. I’m helping him a little with that, plus we wanted to look into some of the weird rumors that get around about this place.” Growing up there, Noah assumed Sera might have some idea about to what he was referring, but added anyway, “Ghosts, monsters, that sort of thing.”
“A lot of people seem to disappear around here,” Sera said. She wasn’t telling him anything he wouldn’t already know if he’d done any poking around or seen the news. She was always outwardly nonchalant about the strangeness of Point Pleasant, but she always secretly wondered about what really went on there. It was possible she knew more about it than she would have otherwise since witchcraft ran in her family… but she wasn’t going to share that. “Also, the cemetery’s creepy. Have you guys seen it yet?”
“Yeah, I noticed that. It seems kind of crazy, given the town’s size.” Noah had grown up with plenty of things to worry about, though mystery disappearances didn’t happen to be one of them. “And not yet, though it’s on my list of places to go to, since they’re always a pretty good bet that people’ll claim to have seen something weird there. Do the disappearances ever freak you out a little?” Noah couldn’t help but ask, since Sera seemed rather chill about it.
Sera sipped from her cup, thinking about his question. “I think I must be used to it,” she said finally. “Or maybe it’s just that nobody close to me has disappeared.” She lived a privileged life but at least she could acknowledge that. There’d been times when she’d slipped out at night-- mostly for a booty call with Cam Malone, who lived nearby-- but she wasn’t concerned about anything happening to her in Overlook Estates. “I always wonder what else happens that doesn’t get reported in the news.”
“That’s good, at least. No one you know disappearing, I mean. The need for inurement maybe not so much,” Noah said, though he understood it as a coping mechanism. “I’ve come across quite a few rumors online when I was researching, but they could just be that. Is there anything about the cemetery you find creepy, by the way? Other than the obvious,” he said. One of the other B&B guests had talked about moving angel statues, of which Noah was still skeptical.
“It’s the whole ambience,” Sera said, gesturing with one hand. “I mean, when it’s foggy, there’s this whole horror movie thing going on. Something else you should check out is the Fallow. It’s just outside of town… I think it used to be a farm a long time ago.” And she could verify that it was creepy, given she’d lost her virginity there the year before. That had been a mistake, but hey. Live and learn.
Noah nodded. “Yeah, I think we got some of that vibe on Sunday night when we drove in. Thought we might’ve taken a wrong turn and ended up in Silent Hill instead,” he said jokingly. He made a mental note of the Fallow, since aside from staying caught up on a couple writing projects, he had plenty of free time while they were here. “Let me guess… it was some kind of murder farm?” At least, murder seemed to factor into a lot of creepy stories. “Is checking out creepy places what you like to do for fun around here?”
“I don’t blame anyone for thinking they made a wrong turn when they get to this town,” Sera said, smiling. She’d lived here all her life, but she knew that interesting and horrifying things went on here. Her brother was a witch, of all things-- not that she went around spreading that kind of news to anyone. “Far as I know, it wasn’t a murder farm… but it could have been.” It was fun to try to creep out newbies to town sometimes. She shrugged to his last question. “I do a lot of things for fun. Usually I’m too busy with my social life to be a creepy place investigator.”
Noah expected Point Pleasant would end up being another small town on the list of places he and Magnus had been that happened to have rumors of hauntings and a bloody past. It was too early to make the call officially, but they’d been doing this for years and never turned up anything real, so why would this be any different? He grinned from her emphasis, unable to quite stop himself. “I’ll have to keep an eye out for what weird things lurk in this former farm, since being a creepy place investigator is kinda my thing and I don’t know if we’ll be here long enough for me to build up enough of a social life to keep me from it,” he said lightly.
Hot guy who probably wouldn’t be staying in town. That was unfortunate. “Well, maybe we’ll see each other around,” Sera said. “You can tell me if you find anything. I love a good story.” She smiled and tipped her nearly empty cup to him. “It was nice to meet you, Noah.” She was getting chilly, and she decided she might stop by the jewelry store before going home.
“It was nice meeting you as well. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for you,” Noah said, giving her a friendly smile. The odds of them seeing each other again was probably pretty good, given the size of Point Pleasant. Or at least better than they’d be in a larger city. “And keep track of any good stories. See you around, Sera.” Then with a wave, he continued on his way.