SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

“Oh good,” Marceline spoke as the woman assured her she was okay. Marci looked around at the scattered papers, a few being taken by the wind as she scurried to catch them. She summoned a few vines from her hands to catch them before they went too far. Walking back with the ones she caught, she tried to straighten them as best she could on her knee when she approached. “Oh honey, if you only knew the things i’ve gone and tripped on over the years. I’m surprised this town hasn’t labeled me a walking hazzard,” she teased, trying to bring a smile to the woman’s face to cheer her up. Bending down she tried to assemble the rest of what papers she could to lend a hand. “Can’t say i’ve seen you around, although I have been out of town a while. Are you new?” Marci asked curiously, unable to help herself. 

Aurora’s attention snapped to the vines that appeared and snatched up the papers -- she had seen many powers over the years but... it still always threw her off seeing something like that for the first time. A small smile slid over her face as Marceline handed them back to her. “Thank you so much.” she said clutching the papers for a moment before shoving them into the folder and then back into her bag. “Well, see now, I need to know what the most ridiculous thing you tripped over was.” Brown eyes danced over the smaller woman with a tiny smile. Slowly she stood back up and nodded her head now that the papers were all back in their bag and organized -- ish. “Yes, I just got into town a couple weeks ago. Still sort of learning the lay of the land.”

Luke nodded when he heard she was fine, looking back in the direction of the harasser to make sure he was gone before adjusting his body to face the woman. He considered her offer for a moment as his breath caught up with him, not that it was much exertion to rough up the idiot, but calming his temper down was his first priority. “Not really used to getting thanks, but how could I say no?” he offered with a light smile, rubbing the back of his head a bit before following her to the bar. His eyebrow quirked up in curiosity when she ordered a Black Russian, not hearing that drink order in quite some time, honestly since he’d left Europe. “Interesting choice,” he smirked before moving his attention to the bartender, “I’ll just have a Jack and Coke, thanks.” When she mentioned the station his mind, previously occupied with his own temper triggered his memory, “Oh yea, you’re right. FBI right?”

Aurora stood still as she watched him contemplate the offer but a small smile tugged on her lip. “Do people not normally say thanks when you do something to protect them from bullies?” she asked slowly tilting her head before they moved to the bar. “I enjoy vodka, always, and its never to late for any form of coffee.” Honestly, Aurora rarely ever slept if she was honest, she was always up working on something and tonight would be no different in the long run. For now she’d enjoy talking to this man and her drink then -- at some point she’d end up back home working. “Mmmhm” she said slowly nodding her head, “Yes, Came here looking for one of my charges; work wants me to do some other things here before I head back.”

“Right. Well simple terms is the thing that makes the power go was not working, but now it is. The part replaced wasn’t that expensive so it would all add up to one hundred and fifty euros.” Alek’s offer to fix anything else for Ava really only had to do with avoiding going back home right now, she would much rather tinker with peoples simple machine problems instead of going back there. Especially since machines didn’t talk back to her and cause more problems than she needed right now. Following Ava’s line of sight to the pool did deter her want to fix whatever it was, but a hot tub didn’t sound like it would be too much of a problem. All she would have to do was give the pool a wide berth. Maybe not making any eye contact with it would help to. “If you insist on paying for it I won’t stop you, in all honesty I just want more projects to work on since I genuinely enjoy them.” The issue thankfully sounded like she was not going to need to be near the water, which was a good start. “It could most likely be the pump, I can’t be too sure unless I get a hand on it though. As soon as I touch it I can tell you exactly what the problem is and fix it. Mind directing to the hot tub?”

Daniel nodded, relaxing a little as Aurora explained the situation in a little more detail. He still hated the idea of a demigod being missing of course, but it sounded like the situation was at least different from what he’d initially feared. “Makes sense - if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know, yeah?” Not that he expected there was any thing he really could do, but he would’ve felt awful if he hadn’t at least offered. “Oh! Erm - I was rehearsing for an audition, yeah. I got a little sidetracked though,” he admitted sheepishly. Pirouettes weren’t exactly a key feature in the choreography for the show that was coming up, but when it was just him and the stage he had a bit of a habit of dancing however suited his mood best before getting into the specifics of what he was supposed to be working on. “We’ll be putting on a production of Hairspray. Or, well, the theatre will be. I s'pose I haven’t been cast, just yet.” It would come as quite a shock if he didn’t get some sort of role in the show, but it seemed rather cocky to say something like that.

“Do you need me to spell it for you? L….. O…. I think there’s another O in there somewhere…” Her brow furrowed adorably for a moment before she gave up on spelling the word with a shrug. “You know what I mean. The point is… You need to be more chill. You showed up here and you looked like you had… Had a stick up your butt.” Kass frowned, looking towards Aurora, part of her fully connecting the dots that Aurora was still here on the Isle. “You’re pulling a me, aren’t you?” She chuckled then, beginning to fully giggle. “A me….. Mario!”

“Okay, but even if it’s not your jurisdiction, don’t you care or anything?” Trafficking was not a happy topic, to Yona’s recollection, so her expression fell a little. She did not really know anything about that in relation to Icaria, though. If it was different than the resolved kidnappings… Maybe she did not want to ask too many questions from this particular authority figure. If she got in trouble out of this somehow, she did not want it to be for asking suspicious questions. Aurora seemed to have some strange priorities and opinions that were either really guarded or remarkably ambivalent. Yona thought that was both very cool and very weird. “Aw, man. Would have been cool if you did know. But nah, my dad doesn’t have any secret animal-talking powers that I know about. I can’t even talk to ghosts, though. Which is a good thing. You can’t talk to ghosts or animals, I’m guessing?” In the short time that Yona had known her brother, she had decided that nothing good could come from being able to interact with ghosts. They sounded super intrusive. Her friend Bel seemed to have a better handle on ghost-talk, though.

“When you’ve lived here long enough, you come to recognise every face on the island. Also, y’know, the crystal sorta’ blaring out your need for something settling right now.’” Sam replied with a shrug, and she watched as the crystal was taken away from her, a rather good thing. It didn’t bode well to be in the possession of a crystal that didn’t want you. “Not that often, honestly. I tend to not care either, but I couldn’t really ignore it.”

“Oh. okay.” Chloe wrinkled her brow, not sure if she was really allowed to make mistakes or if Ava was just being nice. Like, sure, technically she could do whatever she wanted because life was like that, but Chloe tried to respect the rules of society and manners. But then she reconsidered, thinking that nobody could become a kinder person without having to change. She would permit this. “I don’t, uhm, know if that’s too much to unpack right now, if I’m honest. Everything I’ve mentioned, and, uh, insecurity about the future and my place in it. Which… that was a lot fewer words than I expected to need, actually, but that’s the, you know, tip of the iceberg.” Chloe supposed there was a lot to delve into, but she had a burst of relief for being able to come up with a concise explanation for what the problem was. The future! She was scared of what was going to happen there! Oh, she was so relieved. “Sure. I can’t promise that I will be terrifically hungry, but it sounds like you do need food, and I will probably need some eventually. Did you have anywhere in mind?”

“Don’t be silly.” Ness waved him off, a smile on her face which showed that she really didn’t mind that he didn’t know that she was the editor. “I don’t tend to tell many people what I do, perhaps I think that they won’t like me as much? Won’t talk to me? I don’t know, journalist and all that.” She spoke with a shrug, before then nodding. “Mhm, yes, I do.” She spoke. The smile stayed on her face as the topic went to the flower shop, and she nodded. “i can imagine! I love having a vase in the office, let alone having the scent flowing all the way down in the air, it must be really lovely.” As the glass was handed over to her, Ness brought the hot chocolate up to her lips and she took a small sip, surprising herself that it wasn’t too hot, and was actually at a drinkable temperature. “Wow! This is amazing Kai!”

“Bet we’d get a lot of weird responses if we put out an ad for this or something.” Tori was really glad that she had a particularly affectionate ferret because Sue was having the time of her life being touched and playing with a stranger. She would have been jealous… except she wasn’t really a jealous person, and was sure that there was enough room in Sue’s life to give her attention later. It would be interesting to see how much this wore out Sue, though. “Then it shouldn’t be that difficult a decision. As long as you don’t bring home whatever you think is too many ferrets. The little panda ones are so funny, but I’m glad I don’t have one because I’d probably just laugh at mine and hurt its feelings.”

“Hey, as long as you change it back at some point, do what you want with their hair. It’d be hilarious to see Sasha’s reaction.” Jack laughed, picturing it already, his Russian paramour steaming because her daughter and son had blue and green hair respectively. “I’m not sure on him yet, but his name is Peter. He’s still a trainee so we’ll see how he goes. He’s still new.” Jack shrugged, before his phone was then in his hand, and Jasmine was cooing over the pictures of his children. “They’re like weeds, I don’t think they’ll ever stop going. Almost five months now, it’s ridiculous. How time goes so fast.” he spoke, before slipping his phone in his pocket. At the wiggling of her finger, Jack groaned and dropped his head back, gently nudging his leg out to kick her in the ankle - very softly of course. “We’re just settling into being parents, let’s not make it even more complicated.”

Yona rolled her eyes and winked, playing along. “I have no doubts that you’d take good care of me. However, keeping me out of your chair will be the problem if my luck continues on like this. Try not to get too sick of me.” The worst part of the situation was having to sit still. She had a decent tolerance for pain, but she did not enjoy the process of getting her wound cleaned. “Vote? I’d also vote for you if you were up for something.” Tapping her foot in place to keep from fidgeting elsewhere, she tried to be good for a friend. “Don’t worry- As an expert klutz, I’ll find a way to make this worse without trying. Want me to brainstorm how?”

“Yes! That sounds amazing!” Florence nodded, really already hyped up for this Dionysus sisters party, even though it was only a mere idea at this moment in time. She watched as the number was written onto the napkin, and she took it into her hand. “How did you leave your phone at home?! I don’t go anywhere without mine.” She grinned, before tapping the number in and leaving a dropped call on Eve’s phone. “There, when you get home, save my number, and put me in your favourites.”