Devils Roast

“Oh at the village I did lots of healing and now I heal people who ask or my creature friends.” Jane explained. “Though I don’t do as much as I did at the village.” There was lots of healing to be done at the village. Traceless was very different. “What’s a vet?” She asked curiously. She hadn’t heard that word before. “The animals are my friends so I just try to be nice.” Jane took Elaine’s words into consideration. “Oh I didn’t know that. I don’t get sick though. The villagers used to give me berries that make most people sick all the time.”

Elaine slowly nodded her head, a flower falling a bit into her eyes as she did so. “Makes sense.... But I’m glad you’re not having to do it all the time. I can only imagine how exhausting it had to be having to do that all the time.” she rolled over so she was now laying on her stomach and looking up at Jane. “A vet?” she asked letting a little huff of a laugh, “A vet is a person who is -- basically like a doctor to animals. They take care of them, heal them, make sure they’re okay.” she smiled faintly before looking back at Jane, hiding the anger that was about to flush her face at the mention of the villagers.... Elaine was a sweet fae, a kind person, but people taking advantage of someone as sweet as Jane made her blood boil. “True -- but be careful okay? I don’t want you feeling sick or anything.”

“I mean I also have like four parents so it worked out. They were only a little outnumbered.” HJ added, a helpful fact for the situation. Eight kids to four adults was a little easier than eight to two. “They have a life where they live and important jobs to do. We do like tons of visits and that’s dope enough for me. I used to do a lot of traveling so I’m totally used to it.”

Elaine’s eyebrows shot up at the mention of four parents. She had of course seen that over the years but she had rarely had many conversations about such a subject. “How do you like that?” she asked head slowly tilting to one side. “What do your parents do?” Elaine asked, her voice filled with curiosity and wonder.

“Unless someone has verifiably old journals that they would be willing to share, I am not sure that is such a good idea. I’d hate to share my own journals with anyone,” Lark said with a shudder. She hadn’t kept up her journaling consistently, but she had some old writings of interest. Unfortunately, they were not old enough for what she was looking for or of the right perspective. It was difficult to find these sources and know that they were good. Such was the joy of having a passion. “I don’t have a lot of experience with fae libraries, so I am apprehensive about that. It’s difficult to get access to any libraries, really, outside of online services. I’ll find something. So… switch research. Don’t want to talk about that, then?”

Aurora lifted her shoulder in a shrug. She didn’t write a diary, but the little bit she did write was not -- secretive enough to warrant fear of someone reading her writings. She didn’t totally understand the want of it, of writing ones thoughts down onto paper where others could read one day... But maybe that was because of how she was trained. Secrets were meant to be taken to the grave not ever shared. But she slowly nodded her head. “I still say chat with the one librarian in town -- though, I guess there could be another in the town but she’s the only one I met.” Aurora sighed deeply for a moment and then spoke. “I could talk about the switch, but there’s not much to talk about other than what we all seem to know -- so there’s nothing new. I’ve only found that this seems to be a rather rare instance of power display -- most everyone I’ve talked to has never seen anything similar to this.”

It came as a relief when Aurora handed over her phone, evidently not concerned that he might be some sort of creep. He put in his name and phone number and passed the phone back over to her, relaxing somewhat now that this phone number business was taken care of. “Yeah? Well - I wouldn’t say you have to come see it, but - you’re certainly welcome to.” He was happy to have provided her with an idea on something she could do in town though, and pleased to have met someone who seemed interested in theater. “Professionally? Erm, not too much - there’ve been a few small projects, and I was in an off West End production of Fiddler on the Roof for a while, and then Billy Elliot - not as Billy, of course.” It was a relatively short list, but then - it wasn’t really as though he’d been out of school long enough to have a whole lot more under his belt. 

She would have to do a quick background check when she had a free moment at home before she messaged this man for the first time outside of this conversation. It was just a safety thing -- something she couldn’t stop herself from doing, nor would she really want to stop herself. Aurora instead gave him a little smile. “Well, then, yes, I’d love to come and see it.” she clarified. She missed that part of the world -- the hustle and bustle of everything. Traceless was, in her opinion, to quiet and she wanted that to change. “Good plays though.” she said simply giving him a smirk. “Either way though, don’t downplay yourself. I know I’m one of the many who would be interested in seeing it either way.”

“Whoa, hey - sorry, I didn’t mean to freak ya out,” Mike apologized, feeling a little bad about the comment after seeing how shook up it Aurora seemed by the prospect. “Honestly? No idea - I know a few people who were lookin’ into things, but none of ‘em have answers, far as I know.” Mike wasn’t too concerned about this - he figured that either someone would figure it out eventually, or it would just become one of those things that never got figured out, which was probably fine too. “Definitely the weirdest thing I’ve seen happen ‘round here though, and I’ve been workin’ here for years. Visitin’ even longer.”

Aurora shook her head, curled brown hair bouncing around her face and falling into little waves as she let out a long sigh. “You’re fine. Really.” she said waving her hand to dismiss the comments, dismiss the thoughts into the ether. “Oh? Are there more people looking into it? Do you know who? I would love to chat with them and see if we have any of the same thoughts or ideas of how this could have come to pass.” she sucked in a long breath after speaking and glanced from Mike to the world around her for a moment. “So that was the craziest thing you’ve ever seen happen?” she mused letting out a long hum and slowly nodding her head.

SASHA HIDES HERSELF from people for far too long by now, it used to be part of her job, and now she feels lost. Trying to re-encounter herself, after being disowned by her own family. ❛ I see. Anyone here is judged by what they truly are? ❜ She asked her hesitantly.

Daniel offered an awkward smile and a tiny wave when Sofia looked up, not really sure what else to do. He wouldn’t say that he’d quite been looking in her direction long enough to be staring, but there was no way for her to know that - only that when she’d looked, there he’d been. He started to look away again so that she could go about her own business, only to turn back in surprise when he realized she was making her way on over. Maybe he hadn’t upset her quite as much as he’d thought the last time they had spoken? That was possible - it wasn’t as if he’d been able to determine how any of what he’d said might have been upsetting, after all. Or maybe she was still upset and was coming over to tell him off? He wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t the greeting he got. 

“Oh! Erm - I just wanted to say hello and see how you’re doing,” he answered, a little startled by how differently Sofia was behaving today in comparison to the last time they’d met. Should he apologize for how things went the last time? It seemed like a good idea, except that suddenly he couldn’t tell at all if Sofia was upset with him after all. It was probably well worth it nonetheless - it was always better to over-apologize than under-apologize, as far as he was concerned. “I also wanted to apologize, about last time we spoke - I’m not sure if I said something to upset you, but if I did - that wasn’t my intent at all.” He wanted to promise he wouldn’t do it again, but he also was lacking even the faintest idea of what he might have said that had led to a reaction like the one he’d gotten. 

.

Sofia raised a single eyebrow, head slowly tilting to one side as Daniel seemed to almost squirm, or maybe he was just feeling awkward and that’s how her mind was reading the movement. Either way, it was amusing her. Her lips wrapped around the straw as she eyeballed him, as he said that he just wanted to see how she was, Sofia almost scoffed. Why did this --- random man want to know how she was doing? No one ever just wanted to chat if they didn’t know the person. So clearly he wanted something. What that something was, she had no idea, but --- Her brow furrowed and she almost reared back at his words.

“Last time we spoke?” she asked, okay so clearly Chloe must have talked to this random human when they switched bodies. Shit. She had no idea what this person thought of her, or knew of her…. Though from his smell, she figured he wasn’t a supernatural creature. And she really doubted that Chloe would have told someone her secret. She let the question hang in the air, let him have a moment to try to explain himself….. She really didn’t want to fuck with this poor man’s mind if he didn’t know about supernatural and she slipped up and told him something he shouldn’t know.

“Very clever and it shows they have learned at least a few things under my tutelage. I cannot blame them for that.” Ayla chuckled. “The orphanage is very structured but there is flexibility as there has to be when it comes to children.” She peered in the direction Aurora pointed and nodded. “Ah yes, that would be them. I appreciate the offer but I will fetch them in time. Besides I have a few tricks up my sleeve to repay them for their trickery.” She winked.

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“Are you teaching them lots of things about being clever and tricky?” she asked rather curiously. She always liked to hear about kids learning to be clever, clever kids could lead to good detectives, or…. Good spies. She shoved the thoughts out of her head though and just smiled at Alya. “Oh? How are you going to trick them?” Aurora asked cocking her head to one side as the woman winked at her.  “And do you need help?”

“Oh he secretly loves head pets.” Jane said, moving closer so Aurora could pet Igneous’ head. “He says you can pet him.” She added. He was such a grumpy cat but he really was affectionate when he wanted to be. “He also said as long as you promise not to man handle him but I don’t know what that means. If it’s mean, ignore him.” Sometimes Jane wished she better understood the world and the words that came with it. “Oh, I mean the villagers used to say I was a bad fae so I haven’t had a lot of people tell me I was good. Thank you.” She beamed. “I do lots of healing and talking to my animal friends. That’s the only magic I really have.” She added. “I’m Jane! Sometimes I forget you’re supposed to introduce yourself to people. I haven’t had a name very long and it’s kinda confusing.”

The last thing David wanted to do was give Sofia a drink she didn’t like.  Or worse, Sofia not liking it but pretending she did.  He smiled again at her response, nodding as he wrote her order on her cup.  "That’s so sad,“ he answered genuinely.  He didn’t know what he’d do if caffeine didn’t work on him.  Probably never be awake, he supposed.  "At least you can taste it, though, right?” David asked.  "I mean like, food doesn’t taste like dirt to you?“  That was a Twilight thing, so probably not.

Atticus shoved the first thing he could reach, into his book as a bookmark.  In this case, a receipt from his pocket.  "Coming right up,“ he responded, sitting up and stretching slightly from his cramped position.  He paused as his twin shoved a piece of paper towards him.  He looked at his sister’s expectant expression, and the paper, which seemed to be fairly worn.  Elaine must have kept this with her, maybe constantly examined it?  How did he not know about it, then?  Atticus took the paper from her, and peered at it.  "Uh.  Nothing?  Are you pranking me right now?”  He folded it up and handed it back to her.  "I’ll be honest, I think you’re running out of ideas.“  He tuned into her thoughts automatically, getting up to make her a drink.  Atticus paused.  "What are you repeating?”

“I’m not one hundred percent sure everything that Millie can do, but I recommend her based on what I know of her. She can certainly help better on that front than I can. I can…clean and bake and… maybe some other things, but it’s not the same,” Chloe said, wishing that she hadn’t talked so much about herself after saying that. “Do you want to tell me more about that while we check out? I think we have everything we need to make the potion now. Or- well- If you don’t like talking about werewolf things, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable ever.”

Lark nodded. “Yes, that’s the one! He’s not always on the council, but so many of the other vampires around here just love adore him. Is it his hair or something? Are they trying to elect based on how handsome or wealthy he is? I can’t really figure it out,” Lark said, chuffed to be back on target with that part of the conversation… Well, at least temporarily. The bird was still really worth looking out for. “That’s okay, I don’t know if birds wait for you to be their expertise. It’s nice to see them, and- is it coming this way? I don’t know what it’s doing out here at night, but this can’t be a good sign.”

Having missed Elaine’s transformation entirely, Steffi frowned when she saw who it was - and more to the point, when she realized how close by Elaine was. How had she gotten so close without her noticing? It must have had something to do with Elaine’s abilities, she decided. Whether the woman had transformed into a red panda to escape notice or somehow controlled plants for much the same purpose, all Steffi was certain of was that it couldn’t possibly have been her own personal failure to notice someone a reasonable distance away. She watched as Elaine brushed dirt from her clothing, eyes narrowing further still at the movement and at the woman’s assertion.

“I most certainly am not,” she assured Elaine, wrinkling her nose at the prospect. Or rather, at the prospect of admitting that the prospect of eating actually seemed somewhat appealing. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure how long Elaine had been around, so she couldn’t claim that she had just been quickly passing by. She refrained from coming up with a new explanation, mainly because she didn’t need to explain herself to anyone. “While I have you though - “ Steffi reached into her bag, pulling out an envelope and handing it over “ - here’s your dry cleaning invoice, for the clothing you dirtied during the… incident. You don’t need to pay me back this instant, of course, but within the next week would be ideal.” 

Did Steffi need to invoice Elaine for the clothes she’d needed to get cleaned? Absolutely not. She had more than enough money, which was why she’d only billed the woman for clothing that she felt had been treated in ways that exceeded expected wear and tear. 

Elaine let a playful grin curl her lips, she normally reveled in being a bit mysterious, aloof, someone most people couldn’t read at first glance. But there was no reason to do that with Steffi, especially not anymore. The other woman had been her for a while, had seen more than anyone ever should have -- and besides. Steffi was infinitely more ‘aloof’ than she would ever be. Not that Elaine minded one bit. She’d leave that brooding, boring, annoying, demeanor to the woman in front of her form now on. At least -- while the two were together. She assumed occasionally she’d slip back into her bit quieter aloof ways, but with Steffi… she found it more fun to annoy her now.

“Oh come on Steffi.” Elaine said, rolling her green eyes. “You know you miss the flavor of real food and not just blood.” she halted brushing her clothes off and walked in a slow half circle around Steffi. She wasn’t trying to size her up or anything, though she assumed the vampire might think that….No Elaine just couldn’t remain still right now. She had too much energy surging through her veins. She took the bill and raised a single eyebrow as she slipped it open. “You’re ridiculous.” She laughed but folded it and stuffed it in her back pocket. 

Elaine flexed her arms out, feeling her muscles pulling with every little movement, stretching them until she felt the pleasant pain that told her she had exercised the muscle a bit more. “You must have the most ridiculously high dry cleaning bill if you thought that that blouse I wore for half a night when I went on a walk was dirty.” She shrugged, she had the money to pay for this, and honestly. She really didn’t care, she just wanted to point out how petty this whole thing was.

Elaine glared at the page when she walked back into her place only to see that there was a short reply in response to her questions. She guessed she should be happy she got any reply but she wanted to know more. At least from the sounds of it -- whoever was threatening her, sending her these letters, didn't seem to agree with the idea of the dome.

So, that sort of eliminated Ethan from her list of suspects. She still didn't like him, not one bit, but... she didn't think it was him as much anymore.

“Oh you haven’t heard? Stealing money clips from rich fucks who have fifty more back home is punishable by dome now.” Fritz was leaving out the parts where they threatened to beat Ethan to a pulp when he confronted them, but that detail didn’t seem like it was important to the story. It was surprising to them that this is how Dominic was finding out about them being locked away, they were sure he would have already had all the details on the matter since there was usually a lot of talk amongst packs and bars. 

Everyone wanting to break them out clearly weren’t thinking about the consequences of their actions, even Fritz wouldn’t let themselves out. They weren’t going to say that out loud though, if a rando wanted to go out of their way to become a accomplice to their crimes, who were they to stop them from indulging. “That old bag of a vampire from the council, royal pain in the ass Ethan himself put me here. Don’t think whatever you got in that bag is gonna work unless it can fuck up magic.” 

Dominic furrowed his brow, he had somehow missed this drama. Work had been a bit crazy the past couple days so he guessed it wouldn’t have been unheard of for him to miss something. But to miss something like this? He huffed and shook his head eyes still darting over the dome as he tried to figure out if there was a way into the dome. “Which asshole did this?” he muttered though he had an idea based on what they said. Ethan was the most obvious suspect in his mind and as Fritz continued to talk he nodded. “Right so Ethan of course.” He grumbled. “Fuckin ass.” he sighed shaking his head and poking the dome with a shifted claw. 

“I had been told there was a trapped werewolf, they hadn’t mentioned dome trapped.” Dom ran a hand through his hair and let out a long sigh. Having known that information from the beginning would have had him bringing other things, other people. He didn’t think he could break Fritz out of the dome... though it couldn’t hurt to try he guessed. “I’m assuming you’ve tried digging your way out?” he asked eyebrow raising.

( open starter )

This could not be happening. Millie knew that she had messed up the moment her adrenaline had worn off and she shifted back into wolf form. Now there was a video circulating around the internet, exposing her shifting into a wolf and tackling the man that had her sister at gunpoint. This had never happened to her before. Even though being a wolf was not something she was great at, Millie had never shifted outside of a full moon before. Instinct had kicked in and now she was paying the price. At least she hadn’t mortally wounded the man as well. That was a consolation prize if any. It didn’t mean that things would be easy from now on. 

The pack was angry and there was only so much that Uncle Jake could do to protect her from the backlash. Even her mother was aiming for her removal from the pack. So far, nothing serious had come from it and that was something that Millie was happy for. The last thing she wanted to do was find a new pack before the full moon that would take her after what she had done. The most she could do was pack her things and head for the only place she thought she could turn to: Spurlos. She had checked into the inn that operated in town and found herself nursing a chai tea in the coffee shop as the regrets continued to swirl within her.

Dom walked into the cafe and yawned, he had just woken up from a long shift the night before and was exhausted still. All he wanted to do was curl back up and go to sleep, but he had work he needed to get to in an hour. So he needed to wake the hell up. The smell of coffee surrounded him, slowly stirring his mind into a more wakeful state as he made his way in deeper to the cafe. He ordered himself a espresso and a drink with wolfsblane in it. While he waited for his drinks he leaned against the wall and spotted a familiar face nursing a drink.