don't forget me

Ralph shook his head back and forth. "You gotta jump while it's hot! If ya delay, someone else ain't gonna, and they'll beat ya to the goddamn punch. That's the American way!" He sighed. "I just wanna get famous and fast. I'm real tired of workin' in the morgue, ya feel me? Don't get me wrong or nuttin'! It's swell. The job is swell, but...I've been doin' variations of it for a long time." He knit his brow, crossing his arms. "I thought about bein' a dancer or singer maybe, but I ain't allowed to do karaoke. My name is on the sign and everything." He grimaced.

"Hey! The 90s were a good decade! I was in Reno for a some of 'em. And also Little Rock. You know there's an actual goddamn rock too? Ain't that something? It's got a plaque and shit." He put his hands on his hips. "I mean, you wanna go find an adventure? I'm game. I went explorin' that big hole under the hotel a while back, and it just led to the basement. Wasn't even a treasure or nothing."

She shrugged when he mentioned the magic in town because what the fuck else was she going to do? She definitely didn't want to talk about that.

She listened to his thoughts on trending and success and she had to admit, there was an element of truth. Maybe a nugget, if she squinted. "I definitely get being sick of working in a morgue, but I think there's still some planning in trying to get something to go viral. At least, if you go viral for the right reasons, like with quality content."

Her eyebrow arched. "Why aren't you allowed to do karaoke?" She shook her head, clearing out the cobwebs a little bit. "I would be up for an adventure, but it has to be here."

Trauma wasn't his path in the medical field, and that seemed to be the bulk of what the local hospital saw. Devrim consulted when necessary, but he'd seen the chaos filled halls less and less lately. It didn't surprise him, though, to run into a familiar face from that circle at a coffee shop. "They only let you free long enough to dose up on caffeine?"

"Who is to say solid ground is stable anymore," he scoffed, "There could be a earthquake for all we know." Disaster after disaster, that's all they ever seemed to face. "I wouldn't be surprised, would you?"

She arched a brow at his cynicism, but found she couldn't exactly refute it. Her well of optimism was limited to begin with and, right now, it was exhausted. "I wouldn't be surprised, just disappointed." Yeah, it was a joke, kind of it, but it was sincere. She looked around the space. "Is there anything I can do to help? I just want to feel not useless."

Pursing up his lips, Ralph gave a shrug. "I dunno where the chat is, to be honest, pal. Everyone always just says that. I guess they're all at home. It's...like...like a telethon? You know where you call in? Bein' in the chat is like callin' in." This metaphor came with complete sincerity, inane as it was.

Ralph allowed his face to fall, and in that moment, he hit the file size limit on his phone. The recording stopped, leaving him to grunt and fiddle with it now to no avail, driving his finger into the screen a few times. "Well, it's over...God damn it. But hey...my sister didn't film it neither. It was 1952, and we didn't even have a camera or nothing." He grimaced.

Ralph blew a raspberry. "If that's what you want. But personally, I think life happens in the moments ya didn't expect. We're doin' life here."

Honestly, she couldn't imagine in this day and age waiting more than a couple of days for something she ordered to pan out.

She was completely distracted from trying to recall living in the two-week shipping dystopia when he admitted to knowing basically nothing about how a chat worked. Her eyebrows furrowed.

"I guess. Kind of. Maybe you should figure out the ins and outs of this before you try to make a legit go of it," she suggested. "I think you have to advertise it, get people to subscribe to your channel, and then start streaming and opening up a chat. Order of operations, you know? I'm admittedly not the best source of information because my job is a lot more traditional than internet streaming."

It was 1952, he said. That explained a lot. In Lunar Cove, it also surprised her exactly zero. She should've known -- another supernatural creature. And here she stood, a mere mortal. The disappointment was swift and sharp, as always.

"Ah, well. I think the intervening decades have probably changed some things, if not all the things. Mine was in the '90s and still wasn't filmed, so there's that." She laughed and shook her head. "I guess that's one way to explain what we're doing here. Another way to explain it would be a little off the rails."

'Closed until further notice'

Fingertips brushed over the sign with a heavy sigh. It had been a few days after the incident, almost a week really if he had been actually paying attention, but he hadn't been. Passage of time had been hard to keep track of in between hospital visits and not having somewhere to work anymore. Usually one to follow a schedule, now he had little to nothing to occupy majority of his day. While, yes, he should focus on his injury, this place had been a place of great comfort and the destruction of it cut far too deep that he liked to claim.

Of course it was nothing compared to the loss of a life. He had not known Kitty well, but from what he had seen of the girl in and out of the fight, was that she was brave. He wished he could be too. But instead all Jonah could do was pull up his rain boots and clock in for a shift of heavy repairs. Until of course he heard footsteps. "We're closed," he called out, not bothering to even look, "If you're here for a tour, I suggest you take a swim in the ocean."

She'd caught up on notes at work, which weren't something she was typically very behind on any way, and then wandered. It didn't seem wise, but she didn't want to be home with Jake, either. Not after the whole injection thing.

But there was also the rest of it, the death and injury and destruction she'd either witnessed or been in the same room as while she was trapped, unconscious, underwater. She wasn't about to try to explain the psychology of ending up at the aquarium, but she didn't want a tour.

"Oh," she said when Jonah's words reached her. "I wasn't, I was just.... well. I don't know. I'm not going to go for a swim, though. Maybe something on solid ground."

Ralphie nodded along. "Mhm. Mhm. That's why it's live? Like from New York, it's Saturday night." He grinned, but after a beat, his features fell. "Yeah. I got a kid sister. I ain't seen her in a long time. She pranked me once or twice growin' up, though, sure. Your sister ever prank you?"

Ralphie used his free hand to clutch his heart. "Ah! The Empire State. Place o' my heart. You got it right, so you win a prize. The prize is..." He dropped the phone again. "What's a good prize for this kind of shit?"

She scowled, not mad but.... something. "Are there viewers in a chat here? I mean, that doesn't change the fact it isn't my birthday, but I'm curious."

It took some thought, but yes, there were light pranks in their house. Frankie could admit, probably not to him or on camera, the uneven power dynamics that came out later sort of soured that spirit. But as children? Sure. "I'm sorry you haven't seen her if you want to," she said, a little quiet and totally serious. "But yeah, of course they pranked me. They just didn't film it."

By now, nothing was going to surprise her so she settled in with a chuckle. "I don't know. Um, I get to go on with my day and you'll stop recording me and move on to someone else?"

While trying to put two pieces together Jacob smashed his finger. Instinctively he mumbled, "Fuck" before habitually wincing in preparation for a swat for swearing. Something about being home took him back to a time when things were different in both good ways and bad.

"Google.." He shook his head. "Youtube university, Frankie. Youtube university." It was a wonder what you could learn for free on the internet. More than you could want to know, he thought. "I heard doctors use google at work. Is that true?"

She rolled her eyes at him swearing and then wince. She'd always been less likely to swear at home, though, so she couldn't relate to the parental retaliation for it.

"Whatever. Use whatever you want that will keep you from injuring yourself." She pressed her lips together. "I use a sort of work Google. It's a program called Up to Date and it provides information that comes from studies, not from RandomUser863 or whoever."

"Between you and me, it usually is. I don't even think it's about the presents. There was this basket raffle where bids just got ludicrously expensive, and...." He cut himself up, giving a weak shrug. "Thick skin is good to have around here, but that was still pretty screwed up. You didn't deserve to get pounced at. Whatever the motives. I'm sorry it happened."

Looking over his shoulder, JC seemed to scan the road for a moment before turning back. "Right. Your brother. He means well. I know him from the Council meetings." He flashed a smile. "In any case, it's not really my business...seeing as wolves weren't involved. I'm Júlio César Carvalho. Second in the pack. But I might have given Jake a pep talk about looking out for his own. So I'm sorry too if I led him toward it, you know? But you shouldn't have been begrudged for playing the game fair and square. I'm just glad you're all right. That inn is a little bit of...cursed ground in that regard."

"An enormous expense is also a lot, so I can see how those two things combine and increase tension."

A fleeting smile prefaced her verbal acceptance. "Thank you for saying so. I appreciate it."

She waved a hand, dismissing the idea it wasn't his business even as she acknowledged the meeting. "It's nice to meet you, Júlio César. I think Jake has always had that in the back of his mind, when it comes to me at least, so I don't know if you did anything beyond validating that." She tipped her head. "I guess I don't know much about the history of the inn."

She didn't love shopping the way some people do, though, so there was that. Coming out without any kind of a plan wasn't a great idea.

All she could do when startled by a stranger about a prank was blink and try to calm her racing heart back to normal. She laughed, but it was definitely an uncomfortable one. And, instead of following any kind of direction she barely caught, she glanced over at him instead.

"Nothing has happened to me yet other than you scaring the shit out of me," she said. She smirked. "I guess we said that word twice then. Might have to figure out how to bleep. So... what is this? Start at the start."

Ralph blew a raspberry. "Censor? I hardly know 'er!" He threw back his head and let out a hearty laugh. "I'm an influencer now. You're the lucky guest on my new...streaming show." He dropped the phone to his side, as though he didn't want his viewers to hear. "I don't really know what streamin' is, to be honest. It's like when they beam the TV right into your home. Like cable, ya feel me?" He sighed. "But I'm tryna break into show biz. Everyone tells me that's what cool cats do now; they have show biz on their mobile devices. So I'm prankin' people and shit. But pranks just seem to be bein' a little shit now. There ain't even punchlines. Gimme a whoopee cushion any day."

Ralph brought the phone back up to film, lapsing again into his video persona. "Who should we prank next? Tell me in the chat. Oh! We do live questions on the street too. In honor of Mason. Name a state capital, and you can't say 'S.'"

Even with all her powers of logic and deduction, she understood very little of what happened over the next few seconds. All she could do was laugh. "Streaming is unedited content. So if you're doing that now, anyone who is watching is listening and looking at your pants. But pranking is mostly being a little shit. Do you have siblings?"

She rolled her eyes as he brought the phone back up. "A state capital that doesn't use the letter S?" She thought for only a moment, her nimble memory pulling up something utterly useless to her in her daily life. "Albany."

“So did you have a fun new years?” Safiye asked as she sat across from  Frankie with a drink in her hand. Taking another sip from her drink and she looked at the other woman. “Do anything fun? Or should I say anyone?” Asking curiously, she raised an eyebrow at her. “If it’s too weird considering everything… you don’t have to answer.” Considering they had slept together in the past she wasn’t sure if it was awkward to ask or not.  “Anyways, want another drink?” Offering as she waved over the waiter. 

She shook her head before Safiye could even dismiss the possibility of an answer. She understood how it could be awkward, but for her it just... wasn't. She could compartmentalize well enough. "Another drink would be good. How was your new years?"

Merely observing the Sexy Santa was one of the best decisions she'd made all year. As she watched the bathroom's other occupant trying to rid themselves of paint, she realized not participating might have been a close second in terms of good choices.

"I don't mind," she replied mildly to the request. "You did pretty well, honestly, but there's one spot here I can try to get if you're okay with that. My only real question is how you got this on in the first place because the coverage is impressive."

"Ah, thank you," they said, bowing their head with a little meekness to accept the help, and handed off the damp handkerchief they'd been working with. They tried not to feel self-conscious at the green paint, but it was impossible. "Um, a lot of practice," she admitted with a nervous laugh. "And youtube tutorials. It's fun, putting on a costume, but I'm afraid it'll wreck havoc on my skin if I do it for every party we have." They glanced back at her. "You weren't in the competition?"

As the other laughed a little, it made Frankie smile. There was something sweet enough about the interaction. The costume was bold. The person in front of her may have been bold in some circumstances, but this one wasn't one of those.

"It might, depending on what it's made from. I was an observer only. I didn't have time to conceive or execute a costume quite like these. Work is a little too demanding right now."

Time ticked forward at a rate Jacob could barely keep up with. Days turned to weeks, and despite living together he barely saw Frankie. The town's white elephant party was a welcomed reunion, until it wasn't. He'd rectified the situation as best he could, Jacob thought. It wasn't easy to navigate his place in their community now that he sat on the council. His words had weight in a way he wasn't used to. An ability and a burden he was learning but struggling to wield. The specifics of such he kept close to chest.

While he, instead, chose to focus on the moment. It wasn't every day he was back at their parents place. Their dad asleep in the recliner, audibly snoring, while a game played. Jake half watched it while he attempted to put together a desk their dad bought. It only had about a million pieces and missing directions. "Did someone take the instructions out of the box?" He spoke aloud but to himself, as he still tried to figure out what step one could be.

But their dad, maybe because he was getting older or maybe because he didn't sleep until everyone was under the same roof again, utilized the time to take a nap more often than not. It wasn't exactly quality time.

"You can heal a person without knowing how, but you need instructions to build a desk?" She asked dryly, all teasing for sure. It had been a little fun to watch him struggle, but she didn't want to do it all afternoon. "Do you need help? Google?"

"Someone's going to slip. I know I'm good on ice, but this is deadly." JC murmured under his breath, standing at the start of a terribly under-salted section of sidewalk. It glistened in the rays of sun poking through a still-gray sky, and he clenched his jaw a bit as he regarded the challenge of having to try to cross it. "Oh, careful, it's..." He spoke up when someone approached, but upon recognizing Frankie, he gave a soft sigh. "Oh, uh, hey...Yeah, it's, uh, slick. I might walk in the street," he admitted. After a beat, the werewolf spoke up again. "I also...look, we don't know each other that well, but I'm sorry for how much went off at the Magnolia Inn. That party tends to go in a weird direction every year, and I hope you're...all right. And not too shaken up by any of it. That's all. I know your...uh, Jake. From the Council?"

And so it was as JC stopped her, on her way to a post-work coffee that wasn't hospital coffee, so she could drive home safely.

"Oh. Thanks," she acknowledged, side stepping where he'd indicated and heading for the road. But he spoke more and she sighed. "Yeah it was the first time I've been. It was a lot," she agreed. "But I have at least a little bit of a thick skin. And I'll try to talk to Bri, because it seemed like all that was more than just me stealing a gift." She flashed a smile and redoubled her grip on the bag, always hating the moment people knew her brother but realized she was substantially less gifted.

"Yeah, Jake. My brother," she clarified. Not that she wasn't proud of him or didn't love him. She hoped her voice said nothing less. "My protective brother with a little bit of a hot head sometimes. I think he might've made the situation worse. I don't think I can get him to apologize for it, though. What's your name?"

With Ernie's successful Twitch career, his memory of Mason, and the "social medias" evidently being so important to young, cool cats living in the modern era, Ralphie had decided that he really needed to forge a name for himself in cyberspace. For the past few days, he had been watching videos on the Tic-tac to really get into the headspace for influencing before taking to Lunar Cove's streets with his mobile telephone device.

While he had figured out how to film a video using the rear-facing camera, he was not actually live when he ran up to the first poor soul to happen past. "Woah! Got you! You've been pranked. Say 'hi' to the folks at home," he flashed a grin, cocking his head to one side and striking a bit of a pose. "Most prankers kinda just do mean shit, ya dig it? Wait, can I say that word 'on stream?' Tell me in the chat." He seemed to just be repeating phrases. "So, has it happened yet? The prank, I mean."

She didn't love shopping the way some people do, though, so there was that. Coming out without any kind of a plan wasn't a great idea.

All she could do when startled by a stranger about a prank was blink and try to calm her racing heart back to normal. She laughed, but it was definitely an uncomfortable one. And, instead of following any kind of direction she barely caught, she glanced over at him instead.

"Nothing has happened to me yet other than you scaring the shit out of me," she said. She smirked. "I guess we said that word twice then. Might have to figure out how to bleep. So... what is this? Start at the start."

≽·≼

Kaye was hurriedly scrubbing a rogue speck of green costume paint that had somehow clung to their temple, despite how meticulously they'd guarded against it. The rest of the furry costume was carefully packed away, and they'd changed into a sleek white suit for the remainder of the festivities. They thought they'd gotten the last of it when they noticed a small triangle on the back of their neck and began scrubbing it off at an awkward over-the-shoulder angle. They pulled off to the side when they saw someone else approach the sinks, and said apologetically, "Excuse me, do you mind, um. Do you see any spots of paint on my back? I'm trying to get them all, but it's... proving difficult without a second mirror."

Merely observing the Sexy Santa was one of the best decisions she'd made all year. As she watched the bathroom's other occupant trying to rid themselves of paint, she realized not participating might have been a close second in terms of good choices.

"I don't mind," she replied mildly to the request. "You did pretty well, honestly, but there's one spot here I can try to get if you're okay with that. My only real question is how you got this on in the first place because the coverage is impressive."

She shrugged. "It's a nice fantasy at least. And I catch tiny glimpses of it sometimes." She tilted her head. "I'm okay, thanks. I think I'm going to aim for actual sleep. But thank you. And whatever is fine with you... I hope it gets better after your fifth."

With a nod, Jonah gave her a smile, "Good. Glad. You've definitely taken the better approach. But yeah, I hope so too." Sleep would find him eventually, he was sure, but till then he needed something to keep him moving. "I'll get going then, yeah? Leave you with some quiet before you head back inside."