Nocturnal Ness

“I guess I’ll just have to work extra at the gym to make sure I don’t end up with a gut,” he said playfully at the thought of always being privy to Ness’ baking. He had no restraint when it came to sweets. Monkey bread was an absolute favorite, but he tried to keep that under wraps. Last thing he needed was getting some made for him. He’d end up like Mira and skipping dinner altogether. “I don’t need space from my best friend,” he said honestly. “You’re just as important to me, Ness. We might not be blood family, but you’re part of the family I made. As long as I’m not having sex, then I’m all yours,” he said with a cheeky grin.

“Oh ew!” Ness screwed up her face as Wes spoke about having sex, and she waved her hands frantically in front of her face. “Absolutely not, don’t mention anything like that in front of me again. You’re like a brother, it’s wrong.” She laughed, before she then moved closer and wrapped her arms around him again in another hug. This time, it was a little more than their first quick hug, one that she held onto a little longer, a soft smile on her lips. “I missed you, you know.” She spoke, before pulling back, looking up at him. “A lot of us did. You’re a huge part of this island, and our little family. Don’t go getting yourself kidnapped again, all right?”

“That’s simultaneously really fascinating and really disturbing. I do kind of love that no matter what I’m doing it could be offensive or worrying to somebody,” Yona said with a smile. And now she wanted to look up all of these superstitions to try them out and chance fate. Plucking the feather off of Ness’ shoulder, she held it out. “I like it. Here, make a wish, and don’t tell it to me or it won’t come true. Or tell it to me and we’ll see what happens.”

“Oh it’s the worst, isn’t it? As a journalist, I have to overthink everything I write, in case I upset someone, because that’s the last thing I want to do!” Ness replied, speaking frankly to the woman in front of her. As the feather was held in front of her, the woman took a moment to close her eyes and made a wish, before blowing the feather away. “I always was taught that keeping it to yourself was the way to go, or else it might not come true. Same with birthday wishes when you blow out your candles.”

His eyebrows shot up and he looked away from the slowly melting chocolate to look at Ness. “Oh!” He laughed, “I didn’t realize.” He rubbed the back of his head with a smile. “I apologize.” He continued to work on the hot chocolate for another minute more before fishing out a peppermint stick in the shape of a spoon. “Do you like peppermint?” He asked, not wanting to stick it into the drink in case she wasn’t a fan. “Ahh, I love the flower shop. It’s a great place to have nearby. The smell of flowers permeates the area if the wind blows the correct direction.” He wasn’t far away from the shop and every morning when the wind blew in he was greeted with the smell of amazing flowers. Once she made clear on the peppermint he handed over the glass to her with a smile and then poured himself his own and stuck in a peppermint stick. He had made enough for seconds of the drink if they decided they wanted some. 

“We also live in a world that is completely controlled by media.” He said giving her a look. “Should you of all people know this?” Atlas laughed. “Don’t give me anything about the freedom of the press stuff either.” He wiggled his finger at Ness. “I don’t really know either.” He said tilting his head. “Yes I think we owe ourselves a nice good meal for this non sense.” Atlas said standing up and offering Ness his arm. “I really want a soft pretzel and I heard someone was opening a cart down by the beach. Let’s go.” He said with a smile. 

“I don’t know. There’s a ton of superstitions I’ve never heard of from around the world. Keeping up with those sounds like an interesting use of time, but not one I’m well-equipped for,” Yona said, frowning at Ness in mild confusion. “We can say it’s good luck, though. I trust you. But wait… do you remember if the feather should stay on you once you find it, or if you can toss it off?”

“No, me neither. I think if you go all around the world, everything and anything is a superstition.” Ness frowned as she thought about it, trying to remember the specifics of the luck thing but failing miserably. “Let’s take it like a eyelash. It’s good luck, make a wish on it, and blow it away?”

@nocturnal-ness​

“Don’t move, but you’ve got something on your arm, and it looks like a feather,” Yona said, inching closer to Ness get a better look at said feather. She was vaguely worried that this was some kind of weirdly shaped bird and she was going to get surprised instead. But for once, no, this wasn’t a prank, and she really wanted to feather to not be something terrifying. She did amend her statement just in case it came across as offensive. “Unless that’s actually just part of your outfit, in which case… great design.”

Ness paused for a moment as her friend moved closer to her, pointing to something on her arm. She looked down as to where the girl was looking, and smiled softly. “No Yona, it’s not part of my outfit. Isn’t it supposed to be good luck or something like that, if you find a feather on you? Or is that something I’m making up?”

“We don’t advertise ourselves. It’s a – you find us when you need us. I’ve been told we’re like the Room of Requirement.”  He shrugged, lifting one shoulder at the idea. “You just haven’t needed us until now.” He said as he poured some milk into a pot to warm it up. “Ah, so your boss doesn’t like sap. That’s too bad, we all need some happy sappy stuff to feel better about the darkness that can be our world.” He stirred the milk slowly and smiled at Ness. “Easy enough.” He said with a grin as he pulled out the actual chocolate he had and broke it up. He had gotten in the habit of making deeply rich hot chocolate and it took a bit longer….. But it was better in his mind. “So what were you doing over this way in the first place?” he asked as he stirred the melted chocolate for a few more moments.

Atlas had no idea how they even had started talking about this topic in the first place. “No I guess you can’t know for sure.” He said running a hand through his hair. “Well if you think about it…” He started realizing he really should not be going this far on such a dumb topic but he couldn’t stop himself. “Why would other intelligent life bother with us?” He asked with a shrug. “Or they’re like us and don’t have the technology yet.” Atlas laughed and rolled his eyes. “Why are we debating this?” 

Dessa smiled and nodded her head. That was not a bad thing at all. “That’s rather nice.” She could tell the woman had a lot of pride in the newspaper and wondered if it was something she brought to the island or something that had been there for a long time. “Oh wow. Keeping it in the family.” She understood that better than anyone. “Oh is that someone special?” Dessa asked with a frown. She was a celebrity though not a celebrity chef but still. Odessa did her best to not seem put out by the fact she wasn’t a hot topic. “Oh? I have no heard it yet.” She honestly hadn’t done more than try and get everyone to realize the truth about her mother and how things weren’t really as bad as everyone wanted to believe them to be. 

The thought of Ness being anything but an amazing friend still seemed off to Wesley, but he knew how stubborn the woman was. Plus, it wasn’t like he was going to say no to cupcakes. “You know your baking is always welcome in this house,” he said with a light laugh. “I promise we will!” Wesley wanted a chance to dance, goof around, and celebrate with his friends too. He and Raye both just wanted something simple when he got back after everything that had stepped between them before. “I’m happy you’re not living alone. Plus, you know whenever you need someone, you can just call me, right? I’ll show up whenever, wherever. As for Raye and I, we’re good! I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, and she’s picking out a production for the musical.”

“I have to say, my baking is great. My cooking, not so much - but I’m always up for making desserts” Ness grinned, hoping that the cakes went down well with Raye too. She wasn’t sure what flavours Raye really liked, so the mixture of both vanilla and chocolate would hopefully cover all the bases. “I’ll hold you to that.” She replied, turning so that she could rest against the counter behind her, leaning against it. “I know, I know, but I’m doing my best to give you some space. What with Gianna and Raye having missed you whilst you were gone, I didn’t want to throw another hysterical woman at you so soon after coming back.”

“I’m not shouting, Ness,” she protested at an unintentionally heightened volume. The sound of the bottle crashing to the floor made her screw her eyes shut. “Where’s my phone?” Anya mumbled as she searched the couch around her.  She spotted her phone laying on the floor and she reached over to grab it, narrowly avoiding falling onto the floor. “Who do we know who’s generous enough to bring us coffee and breakfast?”

Somehow, Ness moved herself up into a seated position, the world spinning around her as she did so. “My god, how much did she drink.” She groaned, running a hand through her knotted brown locks, trying to get rid of the pounding in her head. “Where’s Theo, he loves us enough to get hangover remedies, right?”

“Naah, it’s fine. Larry likes to talk my head off so you gave me an excuse to finally end the call. So I owe you one actually,” he offered with a soft chuckle. He was touched that she’d extended the offer for him to help her with knowing that there were others in town that could. It was also give them an excuse to hang out which made Eli happy. “Hey, I gotta good for something if you’re gonna keep me around,” he teased with a smirk. “Oh wow, that’s awesome,” Eli commented, at least relieved to know that she wouldn’t be living by herself. The son of Kairos was always over protective of those he cared about, and living alone didn’t do much to ease his worries about his friend. “Oh you have a fantastic property. I can assure you it probably won’t be on the market long. I can send over some guys later this afternoon to get it inspected and appraised and let you know what they come up with before we get any paperwork together. Is there anything that maybe needs work or fixing?”

“Well then, I am happy to have saved you from such a boring phone call.” The woman replied, the smile still on her face. When she was in the presence of Eli, it rarely faltered. “You’re good for more than just your buying and selling capabilities Eli, but I have to say they do come in handy.” She responded in the same mischievous tone, before then nodding along with his words. “I don’t think there’s much that needs to be done to it - I kept it in pretty good shape, and it’s nicely decorated too so that should help the sale, right? No bright colours, clean and tidy. I mean, it’s the exact opposite of Anya’s place, but I’ll change that soon enough.”

“I love that you only missed me for my coffee making abilities. I did live in New York, of course I worked in a coffee shop at one point.” Wolfgang never hid the fact that he had deferred from going to school right away, taking care of his little sister instead of going right away. When Rosina seemed capable of handling herself then he went to school. “I can help you find a husband, though you may not like my choices. Most people I meet end up into me and not the person I’m trying to set up.” Wolf teased once more, nudging her slightly. “Or we could just go to a ‘work meeting’ which really just means getting trashed and sleeping at the Gazette, you know for old time’s sake?” 

“But you can’t know that for sure, can you?” Ness replied, stirring her spoon around in her tea as she looked over at Atlas. She didn’t believe in aliens - she thought that perhaps there was some sort of other life out in the universe in the form of bacteria, but aliens? Absolutely not. “If they existed, wouldn’t we have been visited by now?”

Dessa shook her head. “It has only been a short time.” She said. It was interesting to here that people really made a life on this small island. There was no way she could actually do it. Being here was a nice little work vacation but she couldn’t imagine staying her for forever. There were not enough people to satisfy her needs. “We have a newspaper?” She asked. That would be an interesting find. “What kinds of things do you guys write about?” She questioned smiling at Ness. 

           𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍her sister called her cute and noticing she was a bit away from her grasp. ❛ Ness, with or without any of your niblings in my arms, I can break your fingers, you realize that, don’t you? ❜ Illya was getting calmer in her arms, sucking his tiny fist, and looking at the world around him. She didn’t know how to accept the compliment of being a good mother, but she is trying her best. ❛ I’ll ask him then. ❜ She refers to ask their father on using her power on his grandchildren without taking a risk of hurting them. Although, she doesn’t know how to approach Hypnos. The blonde sat on the sofa, with her son on top of her, resting. ❛ You would do me a good favor. I’m on my edge lately. I think I’ll blast anytime soon. ❜ Illya began to close his eyes and slowly, back to sleep, while Sasha was fighting not to doze off.