icons are made not born

“Sure.” Could Meadow really say she loved her job? She wanted to be able to say that but the truth of the matter was she didn’t care for it as much as she hoped. Yes, she loved the very idea of it but the actuality fell short. Perhaps a part of that had to do with the town, with how little there was that actually went on there. It meant she really didn’t have much to look forward to when it came to what she got to write. More often than not she was stuck with writing human interest pieces- which all told were really not very interesting.

“It isn’t the easiest industry to break into but determination is definitely a big part of it,” the Seelie reasoned though she was by no means trying to be discouraging. It was always nice when people had a passion for something and were determined to accomplish their goals. Not everyone was so lucky to have a passion; not everyone knew what they wanted to do and went for it without hesitation. And yes, everyone who was an adult was aware that their goals might not necessarily be easy to reach but she had a point. At least if someone failed after trying quite? They could say they tried with all their might. “And you keep the attention of the people at the casino well which isn’t always easy when people are there to drink and gamble. So, that is a good indication that you have what it takes.”

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          Gwen nodded, she’d been told worse by people who were closer to her. People always wanted to say they supported the dreams of others but it was rarely the actual case. Not because anyone was mean, just because people worried about her, they worried about anyone important to them and their lives. “We’ll cross our fingers and have to see what comes of it, I guess,” Gwen shrugged.

“Well, I hope that works out for you,” Will replied honestly though she knew it wouldn’t likely be that easy. For the most part if you got into the entertainment industry you had to live close to where the mecca of it was; you had to be close to the company you were signed to; you had to live in cities rather than rural areas. Perhaps in acting it was easier because during your downtime you could be wherever you wanted. But in music? It seemed like it would be harder. But maybe it work out the way she hoped it would. Who was she to shoot that hope down?

“Wait, my brother?” Will blinked a couple of times, turning her head slightly to glance at her friend, eyebrows raised slightly in question. She thought about asking which brother because a few of them had left town for a while. But Dan and Gray had been back for the longest and somehow that didn’t seem to make sense to her either. “You mean Win?” she asked after a moment.

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       Willow was, of course, right, but for the moment Gwen could live in a fantasy land where she didn’t have to leave her siblings. This had been her dream since she was a child but each time it seemed like Gwen could take a big leap towards it she fumbled. Whether it be deciding she needed more life experiences, or now. The demo was done and yet...she hadn’t shown Desmond, she’d kept it to herself, insisting she needed to work on her website.

For the rest of the time, he stayed quiet, just enjoying her song, but he didn’t need to say anything for her to see that he was enjoying it a lot. His head continued to move along with the beat, along with his feet, he had a smile on his lips, and he even tried to sing the chord, but since that was the first time he was listening to it, he didn’t know the song by heart yet. Aside from that, he only spoke once it was done, “I can’t wait for you to show this to everyone else, this is sick!” he said, clearly excited about it. He wasn’t just trying to be nice, his compliments were always genuine, “Seriously, this is going to be a hit, you did an amazing job.”

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        Gwen almost immediately hugged Sol. It was probably too much and she probably should have asked before embracing him but there was a certain validation in other people liking what you did. It was what Gwen had been chasing since she was a child and everyone had clapped for her when she sang. Maybe it was a little silly, maybe she should have been more mature and considered that her liking something should have been enough but Gwen wanted other people to like it, wanted to be told she was good.

“Duly noted. I guess it also wouldn’t be great if someone had allergies.” She picked up the vase for a moment and scanned the room, looking for another possibility, but found none. As a lover of knick knacks and creator of too many pieces the available surface area was slim, and so she returned the vase to its spot on the end table. “Yeah, you might be right about here. Must be the artistic eye - I think it runs in the family.”

Wiping her still-damp hands on her overalls she turned to face Gwen properly. “Everyone’s busy, huh? So I’m the last resort?” The words were accusing but her tone was playful, and she flashed her cousin a smile. “Well, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I was thinking about changing up some of the furniture in room six - something’s been bugging me about the vanity. Maybe it needs to be by the window, I don’t know. Up for some heavy lifting?”

         “A mess of artists to be sure,” Gwen agreed, Leo seemed like he was the one doing the best financially but the man who had made the stock market his bitch was still pretty creative, Gwen had seen him do Drag in the city a few times, though she was not sure how many members of the family had actually done so.

(text): when did we get this close to ask such questions? (text): would willow enjoy you doing this?

who: open where: nightshade b&b

Covered in partially dried clay and only vaguely aware of her surroundings, Kat crossed the room and placed her latest sculpture on and end table between an antique telephone and decorative plate. It was supposed to be a vase, fashioned in the shape of a ceramic milk jug and adorned with various mushrooms and plant life like one she’d seen online - but midway through the project had taken a decidedly surrealist turn, and now resembled a Dali painting with the fungi and flowers melting into odd shapes.

Whatever reason the other person was in her foyer was effectively ignored as Kat stared, brows furrowed, at the trio of items. “Do you think that fits there? It’s not glazed yet. It’ll have more colours when it’s done.” Without waiting for a reply she picked up the vase and strode over to the front desk, placing it on the corner at an angle. “Maybe here instead? I’ve been meaning to put flowers up here. Brighten things up a little.” As if Nightshade needed brightening; although the colours were largely muted there was certainly no lack of them, nor patterns to compliment. 

As her eyes flickered over to the visitor, Kat’s brain seemed to catch up with the present moment. “Sorry - you’re probably not here to play ‘Dream Home Makeover.’ But, yknow… on the off chance you are I’d love a second opinion.”

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            “No, I hate things at desks when you sign in to places,” Gwen said when her cousin looked to her, showing the new angle of the vase that would, eventually, have flowers in it. “You’re exhausted and you’re just trying to deal with your shit and something is in the way? I liked it better where it was before,” she offered to her reasoning. That didn’t really mean Kat was going to listen to her, of course, she could do whatever she wanted with the place but since she’d asked.

           Sneakers sort of dragging as she moved to looked to her cousin with a soft smile. “How are things going for you though?” she asked, pushing some fallen strands of hair away from her face and behind her ear.

“So you agree it’s not old? Glad we established that,” he laughed, the truth was that he didn’t actually mind being called old. Getting old was never something that bothered him, even before he was turned, so if someone thought he was old, he wouldn’t be upset at all, “Can we focus on your music and stop talking about it?” he preferred to ignore any feelings he had, because they were terrifying to him. He didn’t think there was any point of talking about it.

“That doesn’t affect me anymore though, I’m a vampire,” he pointed out, he didn’t need to worry about things that could affect someone’s health, because he wasn’t human, and it wouldn’t affect him the same way that it would affect others, “Absolutely! Sounds like something I would have on my playlist.”

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           Gwen went quiet at his request, presuming that it was not her words that caused him to request her silence so much as it was the music and Sol wanting to pay attention to it. There was a difficulty in exposing herself with it, she normally performed covers, she sang for the enjoyment of other people getting to relive these songs they already knew they liked. Her own things? She had sacrificed what felt like so much of herself to it, to have experiences to write well, to pay for classes so she could sing properly and dance well enough.

             She remained quiet until the entire EP had played it’s way through and then, when the phone went quiet she inhaled deeply, obviously fraught with nerves. “So...other than the first one, what did you think?” she asked him, since he had commented on it when he’d requested she be quiet.

“Got it.” Didn’t take a genius to know why the casino didn’t let customers film inside. That did limit her options, but she wasn’t paying him to give advice on her music career. “Well, if you come a cross any clips of you playing that you want on the website let me know.” Luka was trying to think of ways that her personality could shine through and make an impact on the viewer.

“I won’t take two years.” He quipped quickly. Rarely did he get knocked off the timeline he gave his clients and it was for good reason when it happened. “I can have a rough outline next week. Send it over for some of your notes and depending on the amount of changes, I can give you an estimate when it’ll be finished then.” If she really wanted it as simple as she claimed, creating the website wouldn’t take that long. “What kind of music do you make?”

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         “Maybe I’ll try and have someone help me film some, so the site isn’t totally void of content,” she acknowledged. Maybe she could convince some of her siblings and cousins to help out, maybe her Dad would let her use the dojo, hang up something so she could film in the open space without it specifically appearing like a dojo.

Will was half tempted to point out that she wasn’t looking for a hookup but thought better of it. It would just lead to a whole lot of other questions. Not only had she given up on guys, yes, but she also just didn’t see the point in them for herself personally. Other people were clearly free to do what they wanted and she didn’t judge- though she did hope the people she cared about were smart about it- because everyone had to do what was best for themselves. And she understood that people had a tendency to crave connection and human contact. If that was how it manifested? Who was she to judge? “And you call me negative,” the redhead countered, turning her head slightly to look at her friend, both eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. “Not everyone here is old,” she insisted though perhaps with the vampire in town that perception was slightly skewed. “Besides,” she continued as she glanced back at the road. “Isn’t the ultimate goal to get out of here? I mean, with your music career and everything.”

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       “When I have to, if I can get in good with the right people I can still live here and be with my family, just travel to do the things that are important,” Gwen stated, perhaps a naive outlook. It was hard for the young woman to want to leave the people she loved. Her siblings, her parents, her cousins...she didn’t want to consider living a few months, or worse a few years, without seeing any of them. 

       “Sorry, do you have any more of this in other sizes?” Gwen asked the young woman behind the counter, her fingers holding onto a coat hanger with a white top in a medium. Gwen had gone through the rack and those surrounding it a few times but there had been an extra small on the shelf and the medium she held, but there were no smalls and Gwen wasn’t confident she could fit into an extra small.

         “I know that’s like, the most annoying question because usually not but better safe than sorry, right?” Gwen mused, using her free hand to push back some of her long blonde hair.

LOCATION: APOLLO DAWSON’S APARTMENT.

“Alright, you want to tell me why you were knockin’ on my damn door at two in the morning, or am I goin’ to play personal chef for you?” The forty-three year old begins, not before handing the figure on his couch a steaming mug of tea — extra honey.

Apollo acted as though he was perturbed, even a little frustrated with the person in front of him, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, he was glad that he was woken up from his restless slumber; a horror movie marathon had unsettled him and left him thinking the worst about what could happen to his family, his daughter. If it hadn’t been for the body sitting on his couch, he would have probably spooked himself out by now.

“Well? I don’t have all day — er, night. Whatever.”

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        “At only two in the morning,” Gwen corrected, as though the words he had said were somehow inaccurate in their phrasing when in reality they were entirely accurate. “I was at a party across the street and my car wouldn’t start, figured I’d just come here until the morning, too dark to really take a good look at what’s wrong with it now,” Gwen explained, sat at the counter of her cousins kitchen.

         “I’m not actually bothering you, right?” Gwen asked as it seemed her cousin was not exactly pleased she had shown up on his door this early in the morning. It wasn’t a usual thing for Gwen to do, if she got into a sticky situation she tended to contact her Dad or one of her own older siblings but when she’d seen how relatively close she was to her cousins it seemed smarter to just walk down the road to him. “I can text Dad to come get me but just seemed like a bit of a waste with you being so close by.” 

“I find something very twisted in your logic,” the redhead replied, buckling her own belt and starting the car. With a quick glance to make sure no other cars were moving she pulled out and turned towards the street depending on Gwen to direct her. She was the on in the know about the party, after all. “Most guys don’t like to play second fiddle to literally an entire family,” she reasoned. And for her that was true- her family was always her first priority even to the detriment of herself. She was sure a therapist would have a field day with that but what could she really do? It was how her life had always been. Her parents, her brothers and then when they came along her nieces and nephews had always come first. Hell, her family was the reason she had originally decided to take nursing classes. That’s just how things were. “Okay, now I know you’re getting lost in your imagination,” Will replied, glancing at her friend briefly. “The probability of him thinking of me in any way is ninety-nine point nine percent likely to be a no. The rest is margin of error.” Shaking her head though clearly amused she turned her gaze back to the road. “What about you? Anyone caught your eye? Or just focusing on your career goals?”

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        “It’s a hook up, not marriage,” she pointed out, what random hook up would care about how Willow was with her family? That sort of thing maybe needed to be relevant for a relationship but not for a one night stand. “You’re so negative it’s actually draining,” she added when Willow insisted there was near no possibility of Diego thinking of her as an attractive person he might want for the evening. “Everyone in this town is old, the young hot people all leave,” she insisted, leaning back in the car seat, offering directions to Willow with a simple point of her finger every now and again.

“You’re missing the point,” he countered directly about her form with an exasperated look but this was starting to feel like arguing with a wall, both of them pushing against the other verbally but not getting anywhere. He genuinely didn’t want to fight her and it showed in his stance which he’d been trying to relax, untensing his shoulders even though she wasn’t giving him much reason to drop the defensive posture he was in entirely at least until her next query which was too soft to be called accusatory but definitely fell within those lines. 

August stared at her for a few seconds, intensely light blue eyes catching the light from the nearby concession stand and gleaming more brilliantly, reflecting the sincerity of his next words, spoken slowly and purposefully, “I would never hurt Luka.” He could hear the implication in her question, could see it in her eyes, the way they shifted as they looked at him as if she was already further damning him in her mind. At this point his previous posture had changed entirely, no longer with the boot of his toe dug into the ground and hands no longer raised up in front of him, if she wanted to charge him or swing at him then he was entirely open. 

         “You wouldn’t ever hurt Luka...hmm,” she stated, a repetition of his words with a judgement at the end, stern and unforgiving. Obviously, not knowing Luka well, and certainly not knowing the man before her well, Gwen couldn’t really consider what would be a wise choice in this matter, but she didn’t like the idea of him walking around town either. 

          His posture had...shifted. Not exactly weakened but certainly not strong and ready to go on the attack. “I don’t intend to be anything like you,” Gwen stated firmly, an indicator, she assumed he would understand, that she would, at the very least, not keep attacking him. “But like I said, I have a large family, if word finds it’s way back to me you are lying it won’t just be me coming for you,” Gwen confirmed. If anyone in Wolford knew there was a hunter harming their own she imagined all the families would descend upon him.

(text): is this what you waste your time thinking about ? (text): shouldn’t you be rehearsing ?

“My point is,” the redhead replied, laughing quietly under her breath. “That I wasn’t asking for intimate details about him, his life or his business. I wouldn’t expect you to breach any confidence your boss and you have between each other nor am I interested in those little details.” There was no ill intent in her words, nothing negative meant by it. She wasn’t saying it because she didn’t enjoy getting to know people or anything of the like. She said it because she was never the type to try to pry information about people from others. Anything she could learn about Diego would come from if they ever spoke again- which she wasn’t even sure they would. Which was his choice. She wasn’t going to avoid him but she wasn’t going to try to convince him to chat with her either. “But for the record, I don’t want to make out with him. I barely know him.” Not that knowing someone extremely well was necessary usually to makeout with someone. But it just seemed pertinent to point out.

Rolling her eyes with a slight smile the witch reached out and linked her pinky around her friend’s though she had no intention of admitting anything of the like. “I’ll admit he’s not unattractive- but we both know that can be said for a lot of people in this town, too.” Not that Willow had paid too close attention to Diego’s looks. She had been more surprised by the fact he had spoken to her than anything, especially given the fact she had been there plenty of times and had never heard a word from him before. Not that their conversation went very long or held a lot of depth or anything. “Not that it matters. Like I said- male attention black hole right here so I could be attracted to half the town and it wouldn’t matter.”

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         “That seems like a perfect reason to make out with him,” Gwen stated, not knowing him that well meant that there was no pressure and honestly, since Diego was sort of a shady guy it made more sense that she shouldn’t know him. Plus she agreed he was ‘not unattractive’ which felt like a lot for the woman. “I think you’re being literally so dramatic saying you’re a male attention black hole, you need to just go for it, you know?” Gwen asked, getting into the car with Willow and immediately strapping up her seatbelt so they could head to the party. “What if he thinks you’re cute too?”

She wasn’t wrong. He’d slipped up, made a mistake and failed but honestly he was fine with that. August didn’t perceive faeries as a threat in the same way as werewolves and vampires who were predatory creatures, one with the actual instinct to drain them of their blood and the other prone to uncontrollable fits that left so many either dead or just like them. Like his brother. 

His motions stilled at her next words and he stared hard at her as she went on about her status in this town and questioned him firmly with a demand to know what he was doing there. “Oh, come on!” August groaned back at her, frustration growing and thinking maybe it would just be easier to shut her up for good after all and finish that job he’d started so long ago but there were too many people around and he didn’t really want to, she was just being so damn stubborn, albeit she had a right to be but also could she just not. “Of the two of us I should be the one telling you not to get closer. You kicked me in the back,” he argued, “Which by the way, very bad form to go after someone with their back turned.”

He didn’t think it necessary to say that he also knew karate, not to mention various other forms of self defense training that he’d received since he was five years old. “Think about it, if I wanted to hurt you, I’d have done it already. I’m not here for you. I’m here for my brother, Luka.”

           “I had perfect form,” she responded, aware that he meant moral form and not literal form but still needed to point it out otherwise her father would call her out on not speaking with confidence. “Besides...I know what you are and I don’t really feel like I should have to have an honourable fight with a dishonourable person.”