εχτrα ιηfσrmατιση⸻νιsαgε ⸻mυsε ⸻αεsτhετιc ⸻ριητεrεsτ ⸻ cσηηεcτισηs

Again, Cleo wasn’t really good at this – feeling something for someone. The last thing she wanted was to create a sob story for themselves and yet, so many people she had cared about had just up and left them. It was something that the drummer had yet to really grasp and what scared her more than anything was losing the woman in front of them. Especially considering they had never felt like this before. Always like stone, it was around Tex that they turned to mush. For the first time, they liked that. Her face had flushed at the mention of their ego, trying their hardest not to just let all the thoughts in their head just come out. “Oh shush, we both know you’re gonna look killer. Wherever we go, breaking everyone’s hearts in the room.” You might as well just take mine, why don’t ya she thought, realizing what the words meant. “I can’t have anybody stealing my favorite person on me, now can I?”

   “my goal is to be a killer not look killer -- when they look at me they are afraid.” she teased, tex finally turned to face cleo, laying on her stomach on her bed she propped her chin up. for a long moment she just stared at cleo enjoying that she got to do it at all but knowing it won’t be forever she finally tore her eyes away. “i’m your favorite? here i thought i was second to your crew.” wiggling her brows in the slightest, “it would take a lot to take me away from you. i tend to stick close to those i like.”

Letting one’s guard down is a scary thing, Cleo had learned. It had been years since the wolf had been even remotely bothered to her walls down, allowing someone a one-way ticket to their heart. “Dawww, my ego can’t take it.” They laughed, pretending as if they had been wounded. Hearing someone, scratch that - Tex her special made her heart do acrobatics in her chest, so perhaps she needed that support. The reminder that it was still beating. As she mentioned offering a price, they let out a laugh. “Hmmmm, I think a high price seems reasonable. Know your worth, gorgeous.” She winked. They definitely felt a little bit differently about calling Tex gorgeous than they used to. At first, it had all been in good fun. As time passed, however, it had been a lot different. “Oh yes, being me back to life and make me look fabulous while doing it. We love to see it.” It made Cleo happy to know that Tex was enjoying her time with her protector, even if they had been a bit suspicious about his abilities. They had the same focus so they were around each other frequently, but the wolf wouldn’t allow just anyone to protect Tex. While she had yet to meet their ward, Scarlet, Cleo hoped their interaction would be a positive one. “He’s cool, I just know he got into a bit of a scuffle with Zara. I think he’s okay though. As long as he’s taking his job seriously.”

 tex secretly found herself wanting cleo to have a large ego, the other should. she was was amazing to tex, someone like that should be full of themselves and feel as large as the world. “no one could blame you if you had a big ego.” stating with a shrug, the words heavier than the ones she typically said. although her gaze avoided the girl, fiddling with the accessories she was going to wear. lightly rubbing her chin with the mention of her worth, “i think i’ll have to look up the price of body parts and do the math for actual value and add in a few points for actual looks... hey you know you could right now as a making you look fabulous although so far you’ve looked great in everything i’ve seen you in so it’s just like -- adding sprinkles to a cupcake you know?” turning with the words she wiggled her fingers in cleos direction. 

For Tex || @delladona​

Alena had been at home, tired of course from the day, but did she ever really stop working? no, but she should. It was getting close to the end of the week, and Friday was her girls night day. With her friend Tex, well more like sisters. The first person to have come into her life, that was also like her. She wasn’t worried that she had given Tex a copy of her key to her place, because she would see her often. When the door opened, Alena smiled. “Tex!” she stated with a smile as she walked towards the other. “Friday has arrived!” she chuckled as she motioned to give the other a hug.

  since seventeen she realized lennox would be apart of her life. between her foster mother to the surrounding species and alena. the banshee she first met, it was hard to describe the feeling of recognizing your own kind but the closest thing is the rush of coming down a roller coaster hill or the sudden force of a wave. you suddenly know. twilight cheesy. “ally.” she responded all but jumping at the woman like the first time, arms wrapped tight around her. “seriously, it feels like it’s been eighty four years - i brought smores cookies.”

“Alright. Duly noted!”, Cade only replied, the sound of his voice making it pretty clear that he didn’t think he somehow needed that kind of advice though. Once he had something in mind, it was almost impossible to convince him otherwise and that clearly was the case right now as well. He just wasn’t entirely sure what the other thought about an attitude like that, especially when he heard her next comment. “Why be more original if I was only stating the truth..?”, he asked with a shrug, “Not everybody has to be talking nonstop…”

   tex gave him a long stare, praying she didn’t walk into anything as she did. cade was going to be a tough cookie, in the nicest way to put it. she would help him as she promised, a teacher or two should be around to answer his questions but in the mean time she wanted to see if there was anything more than the layer of darkness. “well you can state ‘the truth’ but in an artistic way. i feel like you’d be great at dark poetry. and that’s certainly right, i could imagine if the quiet place became real and no one could shut up.”

Nur shook her head. “No, not fully. I mean, I’ve been looking at some stuff online but nothing has really caught my eyes.” The magician admitted. Nur raised her brows. “Would you want to help. I mean, I can show you what I’m looking at and go from there, if you’d like!” Nur explained. “It’s okay if uh, that’s too much.” The magician told her with a small smile. 

“oh no no, no one said anything, my dear. I just don’t want you to think that you have to hang out with me during your free time. I just like to make sure you’re good a few times a week.” She chuckled. “You know that.” 

The brunette chuckled and shook her head. “I do tend to ask a lot of questions…” She sighed. “I just really want to make sure the students are fine in and out of the classroom, Tex.” Nur smiled and let out a small laugh. “Alright, let’s see. I’m really craving sushi.” She stated. 

  she could understand nurs take, of course tex easily could love anything but at the same time to spend money on - keep within her home she was far more picky. sentimental value though could win over her taste for aesthetic.  the following words made her brows pop up, a smile twisting onto the banshees lips. “oh i would be so down to help, i’ve got plenty of time on my hands. you know we could make a trip to some big mall, i think there’s one like an hour away and i’m sure a uhaul isn’t that much? they have really good things at antique stores too!” her words came out faster than her brain could process them. tex easily could waste a day decor looking. 

   “and you know i one hundred percent know they appreciate your attentiveness. have you thought about becoming an HR person for the student body? you could do justice for the position now there’s multiple species attending.”

Cleo was usually as confident as one could get. Too cool for school. Someone who knew their own power when they walked into a room. Wherever they went, people stopped and stared and it wasn’t always for reasons for them to be proud of. Hell, Cleo didn’t know what else they really had to be proud of outside of the band. And now, looking at the woman across from them.. something told her that this girl had the power to ruin their life. Call her a simp, call them every cliche name in the book. There was something different about her and what would have usually been a sign to run, the drummer felt a sense of.. acceptance wash over them. Fate had already come and passed them by. “What, does that make me special then? Cause I like hearing your ideas and you haven’t made me pay a single cent.” She winked, trying their hardest not to crack. 

“Or who knows? Maybe I’m her, back from the dead. She’s too much of a boss, that death can’t even take her.” They mused, watching the other’s movements with a gentle smile clinging to their features. It may have been unnatural, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. Perhaps that should have been something else that startled them, but considering that the smile didn’t go away, it clearly didn’t. Suddenly, she was mentioning Luke and they were pulled back to reality. “Oh, Luke? I met the dude. Asked around to see who got ya’.” Why did they say that? It was clear by the look in her eyes that they wanted to slap their hand directly over their mouth the moment the words slipped out. “I mean- uh- you’re the best. You can’t just have anyone. He’s gotta be good.” Needless to say after Zara’s scathing review, Cleo would be watching him closely. 

    “of course it does.” she muttered softly, far too embarrassed to admit it loudly in her usual tone. tex attempted to push any nerves that floated up, it wasn’t really a butterflies in the stomach feeling but a calmness after a storm. whatever they experienced before meeting was simply ‘done’ as quickly as a hurricane leaves or earthquake ends. it terrified tex to think about to hard. “i’m still trying to think of a good price to charge people!” she finally said loud enough. stepping around the corner in the new outside she plopped into a chair in the corner, eyeing cleo as she spoke about luke. “zombie chick on me hands? does this mean i get to bring your heart back to life? -- really?” her brows perked a bit at the words, why did it make her happy to know cleo asked about her?  “it  took a bit for someone to pair me up, i’m not sure how it works. i mean i met luke before actually, we have picnics in the green and we asked him to join in.”

x

“Okay, Robin Hood sounds way cooler. Should’ve gone with that first,” Luke pointed out, sending her a grin when she tried to imagine him wearing that kind of hat. He did some poses for her. “I think I could pull off a Robin look. I think green could be my color. We can get me a bow too.” No one give that man a bow, seriously. Tex tried to give him some reassurance on intelligence but he just huffed. “Thanks, I guess. But I’m only here cause our pack council agreed with whatever deal the school made. Not here to get all A’s and gold stars.” Luke rolled his eyes but gave a laugh.

  “see you just need to expand your imagination when it comes to costumes. don’t think tights like ballet, think tights for running and jumping and escaping the sheriff!” she teased, hands flying about in the slightest to add dramatics. luke made her feel like she was 12 again, 12 and in a world of pure ignorance to larger pictures. “so you’re in a real pack? i hope you don’t mind me stating but, honestly anything you can tell me about werewolves would be super dope. i know there’s just a bunch of theory filled books for the most part still in the library.”

“You think I didn’t tell them?”, Cade asked with a frown. Even if she barely even knew him, it still should have been long enough to notice that he wasn’t exactly someone to hold back with his opinion. The second he’d been told that he was supposed to get a guardian, he had walked to the headmistresses office. The only reason he’d agreed to even meet a potential guardian was that he hoped it’d buy him some time to get out of this again somehow. Probably not the attitude that everyone liked, and it seemed like this was the case with Tex as well, but he didn’t really give a damn. Hearing her question though, it seemed like once again she had somehow lost her mind. Modern Victorian? Seriously?! “You’re already talking more than enough for two people, don’t you think?!”, he only countered with a shrug.

  “i didn’t say you didn’t do it i was simply giving advice.” their fate was to be at the top of a whirlpool? never to really dive deep now escape the spin. tex could finding good about anyone, she had an idea about cade but they’d only just met. he could prove her far wrong. the following words earned a bit of a dull look in his direction, “i thought you’d be more original with your remarks.”

The suggestion made him furrow his brow in uncertainty. “So you want me to run around, acting like I wanna be a kid forever?” Luke laughed. “Not sure how convincing that’ll be, but okay. A party is definitely on the table. We’ll blow every other one out of the water.” They could think of crazy ass ideas that could actually work and actually be fun. “Please. I’m not even remotely close to being as smart as Bruce Wayne either,” Luke then added with a scoff. 

  “well that’s kind of awesome right? i mean at least if you aren’t crazy but doing it... for good deeds. and we would be way more like the adult versions. oh you know we could also be like robin hood - have to see the pointy hat with a feather look on you though first.” her finger rubbing her chin with the thought, giving him a look as if she was imagining it. “hey bruce wayne was smart but also had a lot of money that helped him out and you’re in school right? you could be just as smart as him.”

In her human life, it was rather well-known that Kateri was, well, a nerd. Instead of focusing on distractions, other students, etc. her attention was always on the teacher and the study material. Life at Acadia was no different. If anything, her ability to hone in on what she was studying had been magnified. She was deep in her thoughts as she exited class. So deep in fact that the sudden appearance of the strange girl actually startled her. Jumping back a bit, the werewolf cleared her throat. “Tall dude, loves sports? That’s… That’s like half of the male-identifying population here,” she said with a slight chuckle. “I think I know who you’re talking about, but honestly, I wasn’t paying attention. I’m sorry. I don’t know where your man is, love.” 

  “oh you would totally be surprised that it’s less than twenty-five percent. the dudes here are wild in their ... aesthetics to say the least. honestly i’m pretty sure i met jack the ripper.” she lowered her voice a little, afraid the magician could make an appearance with the mere mention of him. a slow sigh passed from her, assuming luke got distracted with something. “oh not my man, just my guardian. i’m dying to get out of here and i don’t want... him to not do his job or whatever it is. do you know if guardians even get paid? maybe i should be tipping this guy.”

  tex sipped away at the water she managed to remember to bring, the girl was waiting for luke to leave one of his classes so they could go to town. she imagined people would be judge-y towards the two if tex was wandering often without a guardian and luke well, wasn’t guarding. she did think cleo would enjoy it but... before the thoughts finished the doors flung open from the class. plenty of wolves seemed to trickle out but none with the familiar jock-vibes radiating off of them. pushing up her sunglasses to lay in her hair tex ran up to one of the last lingering students. “’cuse me but is luke in this class? tall dude - loves sports.”

“Didn’t say that I wanted some guardian, did I?!”, Cade countered with the shrug, somehow feeling like he was trapped in some kind of time loop. He had already had the same discussion with the headmistress as well after all and still wasn’t convinced that he actually needed one. And he doubted that he’d change his mind any time soon. “Doesn’t mean that this applies to all of them but…”, trailing off he shrugged. He hadn’t really met any of the royals except for Civan either after all and what he had just said certainly didn’t apply to him. “The whole concept is just bullshit…”

  “i think you should be a lot more vocal about your take on things to the people who assign guardians and wards.. i mean if you really feel those things regardless, they should know. if they don’t already.” tex responded easily, he might not have said he wanted one but the point being was the words he spoke so freely were incredibly inconsiderate for the guardians. perhaps they didn’t even want to guard someone - they just wanted the education. people did what they have to, he spoke like a moroi royal. “out of curiosity -- did you adapt your black aesthetic into your words? i mean short and moody responses; over all dark attitude. you’re very modern Victorian man.  which i state with great love for historical things.”