heartbeat

it’s not like elliot to ever run out of herbs, he’s always been prepared. however, the past week or so had taken him by surprise, and with the two cruise ships in town brought so much more tourists than he thought there would be. pike place market was a nightmare for the locals, and a little bit for him as he had to make sure none went missing while they were visiting. and all of this, of course, lead to a lack of sleep. which he’s used to. and he can function well enough. but it doesn’t mean he likes it.

so there he finds himself, inside of a good friends’ business in need of stocking back up because he’d gotten too busy. he offers a warm smile and a nod to the outgoing before it softens and he chortles at what she says.

“ yes, especially when they think they are entitled to everything. ” he lets out a long sigh, shoulders relaxing a bit. “ exhausted, as you just said. but well. i’ll be glad when the ships are gone. ”

Medea couldn’t help but shake her head fondly at the mage before her. “You overwork yourself, Elliot dear. Soon I may have to count you among the undead if you continue to go around looking like that.” The sorceress was perhaps being a bit hypocritical, but then again Elliot was arguably much busier than she was--and even more so as of late. “Or perhaps a hot date with the undead is exactly what you’re in need of, hmm? When was the last time we got you out on the town?”

“But of course! The customer is always right. I’d love to have a drink with whoever coined that term...” 

“Hopefully business is going well, at least? Even I’ve had my hands kept busy lately, but luckily I had the foresight to prepare. I’ve got the usual ready in the back, anything else I can add to that for you?”

BETWEEN CLASSES, WORKING, & TRYING TO BE A SEMI “NORMAL” COLLEGE STUDENT, sunny was exhausted. the lycan was on a mission, pink hair swaying as she walked down the busy street, hands in pockets and a bad case of rbf. it wasn’t an uncommon occurance for sunny to get bumped into, she was under five feet tall, but that didn’t mean she was a fan, so when a body connected with her own, she was ready to tear them a new one until …

“well aren’t you the cutest fucking thing,” sunny swore allowed, squatting down to better see the pitbull, who panted and tilted their head. the dog’s barrel shaped body was covered in a knit sweater, keeping her warm in the chill february breeze. putting her hand out, sunny let the pup smell her, wondering if she could tell she was different. it took a moment before sunny remembered the dog — SIGGY — had an owner, who looked down at her with shaded eyes. 

“it’s quite alright,” she hesitated, not overly fond of supernaturals she didn’t know ( not to mention this guy smells … ? off? ), “if i’m being honest, i would die for this baby so she can definitely mug me, if that’s what she wants.”

✴

Seif could feel the tension in his shoulders and the hard set of his jaw release as he watched the stranger graciously accept Siggy’s attention. Now that he was paying more attention to his surroundings, he noted with amusement that his companion had made fast friends with a lycan. He supposed she had always been a little too trusting, even with the humans she had every reason to distrust. That, and she had become accustomed to being absolutely spoiled. Perhaps he had made her a little too soft, but it wasn’t exactly as though he needed a guard dog. No one was breaking in to his house and making it out alive.

The stranger seemed to be eyeing him carefully, and he wondered for a moment if it was the ghoulishness attached to the dog that might be more off-putting than being nearly barreled over.  “Be careful what you wish for--once you give in to her you simply can’t stop. You are legally required to give her everything she wants, as far as she’s concerned. Made me sign a contract and everything.”  

time:    6:03pm status:    open location:    lobby  opera  house

“I  assume  you’re  here  to  support  the  house?”  the  woman  speaks  boldly.  the  nature  of  esme  was  known  to  all  those  around  her.  a  brow  sticks  up  as  her  eyes  narrow  at  the  stranger  in  the  victorian  styled  lobby.  eyes  draw  up  and  down  at  the  figure.  the  tone  hangs  from  her  mouth  with  the  question,  her  red  fingernails  tighten  around  her  clutch  and  brows  furrow.  esme  had  been  the  queen  of  downtown  since  her  empire  grew  in  the  early  80’s.  a  smirk  forms  on  her  lips  (  the  only  action  that  ever  indicated  esme  was  up  to  no  good.  )  her  hand  pushes  out  for  the  ticket  of  the  other.  "hmm.“  she  looks  down  towards  the  ticket  which  seemed  to  have  had  been  placed  in  their  hand.  her  eyes  flicker  to  the  stranger  as  the  smile  forms  ”well  thank  you.  I  see  you  won  great  seats.“  

more often than not, the vampire is found in bars and clubs all cross seattle. tonight, he sits awaiting his target to frequent the place he knows is the most likely to catch them at. he likes to watch them. study them before he follows them out. it doesn’t take long for them to show up with a group of friends, ready to drink the day of work away. however, it seems tonight someone has his eyes on him. he can feel a gaze aimed toward him, and so he sighs and turns around, casting a dark and disapproving look upon whoever it was.

“ you have been staring for quite some time. would it not be better to be forthright and tell me what you need from me ? ” he says, almost sounding impatient.

“You’ll have to forgive me--it’s not every day I catch you out in the wild like this. I had to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me.” The sorceress balanced the stem of her wine glass between her fingers, cupping the glass as she took the seat across from her friend with a generous gulp. “What’s the occasion...hot date? I had no idea you cleaned up so well,” she teased with a smirk, eyebrow raised in amusement. 

Rodin hummed a cheery tune to himself as he mixed himself a drink, the music filtering through the bar having long since been drowned out by the chatter and bickering at the counter. The demon heard a glass breaking in the distance and he found himself wondering if he’d be playing security tonight. It had been a few weeks since he had last had the pleasure of breaking up a squabble and his hands were itching to knock some skulls together. However, he couldn’t help but grow weary of tensions that clouded the atmosphere of his establishment over the past year. Usually he could watch the energy in the underground ebb and flow like the tide, bringing busier seasons as well as their dry spells. Something felt different this time. Plenty ignored it -- particularly the young and arrogant -- but many who had been around long enough to know better prepared themselves for when the other shoe would drop. As for Rodin? He was happy to pop a squat in the center of the action, bloodbath or not. After all, turmoil always had been his greatest selling point.

The glass looked small, delicate even in his hand as he whisked it away, sauntering down the bar and approaching the quieter outskirts of the counter. He look a healthy swig before leaning forward to be heard over the commotion, stirring straw between his teeth.

time:  7:08PM status:  open location:  his  motorcycle  shop

he  enjoyed  the  view  at  the  waterfront  (  even  in  the  winter  time  )  fabian  managed  to  hold  the  shop  on  his  own  for  the  day.  his  employees  enjoyed  a  day  of  leasure  at  minimal  expense  -  it  was  just  his  luck  that  he  ran  into  the  familiar  face  at  a  coffee  shop,  which  leada  nice  walk  down  the  waterfront  and  a  quick  return  to  close  shop.  gently  placing  the  keys  on  the  front  desk  his  focus  on  the  keypad  to  lock  down  the  shop.  his  eyes  focus  on  the  figure  for  a  moment  before  he  allows  a  soft  sigh.  "the  security  of  this  place  could  run  me  dry.  .  .  If  i  didn’t  have  my  lucky  immortal  trust  fund.“  he  cracks  a  joke.  he  understood  the  risk  of  living  in  a  city  with  such  tensions  however  it  had  far  too  much  to  offer  him.  "you’re  being  safe  right?”  he  opens  the  statement  with  a  question  to  show  concern  for  the  other.  "just  be  careful.“  

.

Medea couldn’t help the soft scoff of a laugh that followed his joke. Many of the immortals in the city weren’t exactly hard up for cash, and Fabian was no different. While his business was certainly more costly to maintain than hers by a long shot, she was sure the “nest egg” the lycan was resting upon was plenty generous. “I suppose it helps when that trust fund is a few centuries old,” she added loftily, though her jibes felt softer, less serrated in his presence these days.

“About as safe as a woman can be these days, I suppose.” While the damsel schtick was meant to be more playful than anything, the building tensions in the city very much lingered in the back of her mind. To be of human blood in such a place was bad enough, though usually the biggest of her concerns came with being underestimated--mistaken for defenseless. Her thorny past made her particularly aware of any presence that lingered just a little too long in her peripherals, and she couldn’t deny that the continued  suspicion surrounding last year’s murder had made her increasingly paranoid. Medea’s home usually felt rather safe, about as isolated away in her waterfront neighborhood as one could get so close to the city, but even she wasn’t immune to a bit of unease now and again.

“Even with every protective ward I could possibly conjure up, I’m not exactly the most intimidating creature you’ll ever see. Perhaps I ought to get myself a Luna, hmm?”

“Alright, alright, love--I think you got it all!” Seif crouched down, chuckling to himself as Siggy licked her cup clean. He swiped a stray glob of puppaccino off of the pitbull’s sweater off with his thumb, allowing her to lap it up before rising to toss the cup in the bin.  Puppaccinos and sweaters. She probably owned more knit clothing than he did, the spoiled thing. Though he supposed his earnings had to go towards something other than recreation projects and home maintenance. He began wrapping her leash around his hand once more, pushing his sunglasses up his nose to protect his eyes from the winter sun. The ghoul turned to grab his own beverage off the small outdoor table when Siggy’s wagging tail began pounding against the side of his leg, giving him the briefest of moments before she was bounding up to the next stranger that crossed her path.

“No -- Siggy, down. I’m so sorry, she--she’s trying to swindle you for a puppaccino. She’s friendly, I swear...” Seif wasn’t sure how anyone could think otherwise with her dopey grin and tongue lolling out of her mouth. However, he had come across a few supernaturals even that weren’t overly fond of the breed (or dogs in general) so he could never be too sure. The last thing he needed was to narrowly miss shredding some asshole and ruin their new coffee route--the owner had become quite fond of the little miss.

date: TBD. location: craft/home decor store time: late afternoon status: open starter (½)

“You know, I’ve never really understood the need to overflow everything with a bunch of Valentine’s Day decorations. Or why people think adding more to what they already have is going to make it look any less like clutter.” He receives a glare or two from the other patrons of the craft store, and Carmine grins back at them (cheery, but vaguely threatening all the same) before they look quickly away. Despite what he says, however, there’s an decoration balanced between his fingers, rucksack lazily thrown over his shoulder— he isn’t sure about the bauble yet, but the cafe should be festive for the winter. Though perhaps not with red and pink. That was too much. “We’ve been in this store looking at things for not five minutes and you have glitter in your hair. Nice.”

.

“Valentine’s Day is a capitalist plague,” Medea droned, rolling her eyes at the display of candy-red decor in front of her. “Why should you need an excuse to get something nice for someone? At least the candy is cheap after, I guess...”

However, she couldn’t deny that the holiday, despite her environmentalist agenda against excessive plastic packaging and how jaded she felt about the concept of romance, did tend to pique her customers’ interests. And who was she but another cog in the wheel--another small business owner looking to keep her pockets lined and her establishment relevant. She often tried to at least purchase decorations that she could reuse, but after a while the shop (much like herself) needed a facelift. Glitter hadn’t exactly been on her shopping list. The mage smoothed a hand through her hair, hoping the offensive material wouldn’t follow her home.

“Excellent. Now I’ll be finding this shit for weeks.”

The sorceress delicately placed several bundles of herbs into a paper bag. It was nearing closing time, but with how slow the day had been she didn’t mind lingering a bit longer if it meant closing a sale. The chime of the bell signaled the entrance of another customer, pulling her attention away from the task at hand. Medea couldn’t help but grin at the familiar face, finishing her other customer’s transaction with the slightest bit more haste. She waved them off, waiting until they had exited the store to address her fellow mage with an exaggerated sigh.

Hi friends! I’m Tonie (she/her) and I play Medea, Seif, and Rodin. I recently finished grad school and have been working to flex my creative muscles more and spend more time writing with you all! Presently I work nearly full-time in bridal sales so I may be a bit busy during the day but I can be reached pretty easily through dms and will try to get back as soon as I get a free moment! check out the rest of my intro below: