wild child

Phoebe’s excitement only adds to the smile on his lips and he chuckles, leaning over to wrap her up into a hug. “To be honest, neither can I, but here we are,” he shrugs once they’ve pulled away. Some of the coffee in her hands leaks out onto them but Christian doesn’t mind. Half of his wardrobe ends up with coffee stains. As much as he hates it, it is quite difficult to multitask holding a camera and drinking coffee at the same time…why he still tries it, he does not know. “Really? God who else is here?” His brow raises, thinking back to any mutual friends they might have. Not any off the top of his head that would be here of all places. But crazier things have happened. “Anyway, you’re obviously out getting coffee, are you on a break of some sort? I’ve just come from the Leathen Times, I work there now, which…I’m sure you’re not surprised about,” he chuckles, rubbing the back of his head. “Do you live here now? I thought I remembered you saying something about this place a long time ago, but I can’t recall…so much of our kind talk about Lethe, I just never got around to checking it out for myself until now.” Christian looks her over, offering up his hand to carry something. “I can help, if you want. I have another forty minutes until I have to be back. And you know, it gives us the excuse to catch up for a while.” 

It had been too long since she last saw Christian, and in fact she had thought about reaching out to him and seeing which part of the world he was in. Maybe they could have worked together again for a few months. But then word got to her of Mariposa and she knew she had to come back. All other thoughts dropped from her mind and she could think of nothing but her family. So, it was really surprising that she kept running into people from her past here. “I guess maybe I summoned you with my mind, I was thinking of us working together again.” She grinned at him and hugged him tightly before letting him go, though she itched to hug him again. “Do you remember me telling you about my ex, David? He’s here. And Steve is here too.” Part of her wondered if this was some elaborate dream with everyone showing up and if she was really asleep or knocked out somewhere else. “Uh yeah, I was grabbing some coffee for my cousin and I. She’s back at the inn and we needed a little pick me up.” She looked down at the coffees and the bag of sweets before looking back up at Christian. “I grew up here as a child after my parents died.” He knew the story of her aunt raising her, but it had been a while since she told him. “My aunt... she’s not doing well. She’s really sick. So I came back... to help with everything.. and to help with the end.” She swallowed hard and looked down at the ground, trying not to cry and ruin the moment. At his offer, she nodded and offered him the tray of coffees.

He couldn’t help but laugh a little when she called him by his stage name. He was so used to being called Eli Yates by a certain group of people, but he’d always been just Steve for those closest to him and when they called him Eli it was a bit strange. “I’m not a rock star” he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. Jasper Flynn was a famous enough band to have their music featured in big films and hit TV shows, as well as being able to fill stadiums and large concert venues, but even then Steve didn’t think of himself as a star. Kurt Cobain had been a star. Johnny Cash had been a star. Michael Jackson had been a star. He was nothing compared to legendary musicians of that caliber. “Yeah, I knew my brother was here. That was half the reason I decided to come, actually. But no, he’s been here since… April or May, I think?”. Steve set his carton cup aside and got up from the bench to hug his old friend. Man, it was good to see another familiar face in this town.

Phoebe had never once called Steve Eli, not even when he first started to adopt the stage name. But it was a nice little way to tease him, to show him that she had been tracking the course of his career. Phoebe was proud of him, he had managed to make his band into something big, something people loved everywhere in the world. “You are so a rock star, don’t even try to fight me on that one. Your songs are on the radio, you sell out your venues, and I heard one of your songs in a movie.” She was so proud of him for his career taking off, his band members and him had to be proud of what they were doing. And she was sure that Jasper would have been ecstatic for them too. “Were you just wanting to run into him?” Phoebe asked, unaware that there was some murky drama with the brothers under the surface. “How long are you staying? I’m sure you got to go on a tour soon or something. But if you ever need a groupie photographer let me know. For free of course.” She lifted her camera before sweeping him up in a tight hug. “God, I missed you Steve.”

Date: Sunday, November 22nd, 2020 Time: 10:42 am Location: Irving Plaza

@phoeberigby​

He hadn’t gotten recognized yet but wearing sunglasses when he went out had already become a bit of a habit. A silly as it seemed, it did help from time to time to maintain a sense of normalcy, of anonymity. He got a coffee to go at a quaint café shop at the corner of his new house and then began wandering around town, starting to get acquainted by it. He reached the town square and found a bench to sit down and keep drinking his coffee. He felt himself grow a little tense as he spotted a young woman with a camera. So much for peace and quiet, he thought, as he’d had more than a few past encounters with paparazzi that refused to stop stalking him and his bandmates. His initial anxiety soon vanished as he recognized the face of the person behind the lens. “No way” he muttered, a smile quickly spreading across his lips. “Pheebs?” he called to her.

Phoebe knew she couldn’t do her usual job, there were no travel magazines she could submit photographs of Lethe to. So, to make some money here she was doing assignments for the newspaper when they needed it, and she was being hired to do portraits for anyone who needed a photographer. It was how she found herself in the town square earlier that afternoon. A couple in town had found her card and called her to rent her out to take some engagement photos for them. She had just parted ways with them, but had decided to stick around in the square a little longer and see if there were any photos she could get behind herself. See if there were any creative projects she could work on for just herself. The money was important though. Though she was staying for free at the inn, she was wanting to give as much money as she could to help with the costs of Mariposa’s treatment. While she was facing Steve she didn’t actually notice him sitting on the bench. Just past him there was a little girl playing with some leaves and the shadows were hitting her wonderfully. She was so focused on the little girl and getting the shot she didn’t even notice someone staring at her until someone called out to her. Sitting up with at start, she glanced around until she spotted him on the bench. “No fucking way. Steve?” She asked, laughing and making her way over to him. “Well, I’ll be damned, it’s the bona fide rock star Eli Yates.” She giggled, teasing him with his stage name that she never called him by. “Did you know Christian is here? Did you come with him?” Were the two brothers traveling together once more? “Come here, it’s been too long!” Phoebe had missed him and had tracked his career, but it had been too long since she saw him and swept him up into an excited hug.

Date: November 22nd, 2020 Location: Downtown Lethe Time: 12:37pm Status: Closed @phoeberigby​

He’s on his lunch break grabbing a sandwich when he sees an all too familiar coming out of a coffee shop just up the way. At first she doesn’t notice him staring at her, and well, he is far enough away that he can easily blend in the with the crowd. But he stands there, a bit dumbfounded, as he seems to be running into many people from his past in this town. Shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to him, since most of the folks he knew weren’t human, like him. But Phoebe Rigby…God it’s been a while since he’s seen her. Years maybe, but he can’t remember. They check in every once and a while, but of course Christian’s never good with keeping it up. “Phoebe!” He calls, sticking his hand out to wave it in the air above his head. “Hey,” he chuckles, both closing the distance once she’s spotted him. “What are you doing here? Crazy how I keep running into people here,” the nymph says with a smile, leaning forward to hug his friend. “How have you been?” 

Phoebe’s mind was all wrapped up in everything that was happening with her aunt. Morgan was worried, Phoebe could see it in her face every day when she saw her walking the halls of the inn. They needed something to pick them up, they had a visit later that evening with Mariposa and both of the girls were on edge and nervous about how it would go. Heading to one of Morgan’s favorite places, Phoebe splurged on coffee, donuts, cake, and other baked sweets. Heading out of the coffee shop, she shuffled the cups and the bag full of sweets on her arms when she heard her name shouted on the sidewalk. Stopping in her tracks, she looks up to see a face she never expected to see strutting towards her and waving. Christian Yates. When was the last time she saw him? Was it France? No... it was somewhere else. How many years had it been? Phoebe let out a squeal and rushed towards him, coffee sloshing over her hand a little but she didn’t care. “Oh my god! Christian!” She couldn’t keep the grin off her lips as she leaned into his hug, trying her best to hug him back without spilling hot coffee all over him. “Oh my god! I can’t believe you are here!” He was right, it was crazy to run into him of all places. “I keep running into ghosts of the past too.” She laughed, still not believing that he really was here. It’d been too long since she last saw him, though they kept in touch by phone calls and letters sometimes between the physical visits. 

Phoebe’s arrival is a weight off her shoulders, and she forgets how much her cousin has that power until she’s back. A cousin, but more a sister than anything, closer than any of their other cousins by a great degree, and Morgan nods her head at the question, mute for a moment, and then the words tumble out. “Right now. They came earlier than I thought, I’m not sure why, maybe this is her lunch time?” Her own is a little closer to the afternoon, she still considered eleven to be a late breakfast, and she doesn’t normally care about the distinction, but she’s worried. Worried enough that Phoebe grabbing her hands makes her flinch in surprise before she follows her instructions, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. Between this and planning for the Halloween party, Morgan has a headache, and she’s relieved that Phoebe can take charge in bits and pieces. “I said hi? No, I definitely said hi, and then they took her into the other room to get settled in and let me know what to expect, or what I should be optimistic about and what I should let go,” she babbles, to avoid what they’ve told her, and she takes a breath, squeezing Phoebe’s hands hard. “She might not remember too much of us, and we’re not supposed to prod her? Just… go with what she offers us. Are you going to be okay for this?” She asks, sudden concern in her voice, realizing that in all of her cousin comforting her, she hasn’t returned the favor very well.

Their childhoods were at different times, but Mariposa still raised both of them as her own daughters. Phoebe was young enough when she arrived at Mariposa’s door that she had more memories of her as her mother than of her own parents. They were the ones who had seemed like distant relatives. And Morgan only was engrained in her life as her little sister, not her baby cousin. “It could be, and they want to keep a little bit of routine to keep her calm, I bet.” Phoebe mused as she glanced towards the room where Mariposa waited for them. Her own insides were churning with anxiety and everything else, but on the outside she struggled to remain clam and be the strong shoulder for Morgan. She was the one who was freaking out in a very external way and Phoebe had to help her, to calm her down. Squeezing her hands in a tender movement, she kept Morgan close, feeling a large urge to just sweep her in for a hug. She had this odd feeling to try and wake herself from this nightmare. Mariposa might not remember them? Phoebe felt a stab of anxiety twist into her heart. Could she handle the woman who raised her not to even recognize her? Morgan pulled her out of her thoughts and she blinked away the suspiciously wet feeling eyes. No, she wouldn’t cry. She had to remain strong. “Okay... she might not remember us.” She tried to collect her thoughts and did her best to not have her voice waver. “It’s alright, we will take what we get. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine.” But who was she really trying to convince? 

“Toi aussi” he said in return, content to see she seemed okay, not different from the Phoebe he knew. It had been quite a few years since they last saw each other so it was foolish to think she hadn’t changed in that time. That was the thing about them, after all; she was ever changing and exploring, and he was more static and relied on the safe, the known. “Mon boulot” the nymph explained, recalling that his work at the kindergarten had just been an intership at the time of Phoebe’s departure. Now it was a steady job. “Ils m'ont proposé un poste stable à la maternelle. Et ma famille aussi. Ma mère habite ici maintenant. Mon oncle, ma cousine, mon neveu; ils ont tous déménagé ici”. The Sturmer clan now resided in Lethe much to his contentment. Hearing about her ill aunt made his smile falter and vanish completely, giving way to a concerned look. “I’m sorry to hear about your aunt… Is there anything I can do?”. There probably wasn’t much a nymph could do to change a situation of that magnitude,but offering his support was the least he could do. “Thanks” he grinned, proud to be fluent in another language after nearly a decade of practice “It’s certainly come in handy to know English”. German, Arabic and French could only get him so far in a world that had decided English would so widely spoken.

Phoebe smiled, though she still felt surprised on the inside to see him here. She had never thought he would have quickly abandoned the town like she had, but never in a million years had the nymph thought that he would have stayed here the whole time either. When she rushed back here for Morgan and her aunt, it never crossed her mind that she could run into her ex here. David was sure to be gone a long time ago. Here he was though, right before her in the flesh and blood. “Vous devez avoir vraiment aimé votre travail alors.” She smiled, knowing that he had liked what he was doing when she left, but clearly he had enjoyed it more than anything else to keep him here this long. “Your family is here?” The last time she had seen his mother was years ago in Germany when they visited her. It was both nice and sad to hear him speak English, they had bonded over French and grew close over their shared language. “Did your family move here because you told them about Lethe?” Phoebe had never met his other family members, but she couldn’t think of what had caused them all to move here like this. The smile, the happy and sincere one at seeing David once more quickly melted from her features and she shook her head. “No... it’s bad, David. They can’t... they can’t really do anything.” She felt so defeated, and she was sure that Morgan did as well. He was proud of his new language, and she could see why - it was a pretty impressive feat. “Well, I’m glad for you David. It’s really good!” 

Date: October 20, 2020 Time: 11:10am Location: Oddities Inn

@phoeberigby​

Phoebe might have been her cousin on paper, but their youth had been spent more like sisters than not under the watchful eye of Morgan’s mother. It was the reason she didn’t flinch when the bell announced a visitor to the inn, and why she offered a half-smile to her cousin. “They brought her here earlier, they thought it would be nice for her to spend an afternoon with us,” she explained quietly, loading up a tray with tea that she didn’t even like for a mother that might not even remember that she loved it. The inn was suspiciously quiet, like the people inside knew something tentative was happening in the den. “Do you need a second? Do I look alright? She’s not going to care, but…” Morgan huffed, frustrated by her inability to articulate the troublesome feelings in her chest. She set the tray down with a smack, rubbing her face. “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry, I probably should have spent more time explaining things on the phone.” They had met for lunch during the parade, before all the madness of it had struck, and again the other week, discussing Mariposa and her illness, and the fact that the care facility she brought her to was easing her into normalcy as best they could. Phoebe was a part of that normalcy, at least in Morgan’s book. “Its lunch so maybe only an hour. They have someone with her, I can’t remember if its a doctor or what, but they are there in case she gets… antsy I guess? We’ve got this. Its just lunch.”

Morgan had never felt like a cousin to Phoebe, she always had seen the younger woman as more of a sister to her. This was only further helped by the fact that Mariposa, Morgan’s mother pretty much raised Phoebe as a daughter herself. So when Morgan was born, Phoebe had always made sure to spend a lot of time in Lethe raising the little girl who was like a sister to her. She hadn’t thought she would have seen Morgan so soon though from the last time, but the bad news of Mariposa was what called her back to Lethe. She held a brown paper bag full of some groceries she picked up that morning as she entered the inn. “She’s here right now?” Phoebe asked and glanced around the main lobby area. But, it was the frantic tone of Morgan that made her turn back to the younger woman. “Hey, Mo, you need to breathe. It’s going to be okay.” She smiled softly, setting the bag down and walking over to take her hands in her own and squeezed them. This was a lot for Phoebe to walk into, she hadn’t expected the call from Morgan to let her know that Mariposa was sick, really sick. Mariposa should have had more decades, maybe even centuries under her belt. It was a lot for both of them to see their mother like this. “Take a breath, we can do this, okay? Have you seen her yet? It’s good someone is with her to help us. Is she doing okay today?” 

David loved parades. He loved the colors, the excitement, the general sense of merriment from the people. The nymph was aware that not everyone was that pleased that Councilwoman Sarkissian had arranged for the event but he wasn’t one of them. Whatever political statement was being made with the event wasn’t what was on his mind when he showed up at Irving Plaza that day, he’d just shown up to have a good time.

After the parade he made his way to the food stalls, looking for hamburgers or hot dogs. It puzzled him to hear someone speak to him in French but he was quick to recognize why. Phoebe. David turned to face her, a smile quickly making its way to his lips. “Evie. Ça fait longtemps qu'on ne s'est pas vu” he said as he tentatively approached her. David was both delighted and thrown off to see her here, to be honest. After seeing her get on a plane he wasn’t sure he’d see the fleeting traveler again. “Quelle belle surprise. Que fais-tu ici?” he asked, still using that language that had helped them bond almost a decade ago. Back when they met in France he didn’t know a word of English and she didn’t know German, but having French in common made it possible for them to communicate then. “And I learned English now, you know” he said with a proud smile.

Lethe was probably the closest thing the world traveler had to a home. Boston hadn’t been her home because she lived there for such a short time and barely remembered most of her time there. Her parents had both died when she was still quite young. So, when Mariposa took her out to Lethe, it became a home to her, just like Mariposa had become a mother to her. All during the years and decades of Phoebe’s travels, she always came back to Lethe between destinations as a sort of home base. Still, it had been 8 years since she was last here and it was strange to be back. 

It was second nature for Phoebe to speak French when she swore she saw David. They hadn’t had another language between them that they both spoke fluently. Granted, it was much easier speaking French when they were in France for a while too. During their time together he had taught her some German and she taught him some English. Evie. God, it was good to hear him say that. No one else had called her that and she was suddenly struck by how much she had missed it. “Cela fait longtemps. Vous avez l'air bien cependant.” She smiled at him. Phoebe wasn’t flirting, she was just speaking the truth. He did look good - he looked happy. “Je pourrais te dire la même chose. Qu'est-ce que tu fais encore ici?” Phoebe drew closer to him through the crowd now that she did know it was him. But she still couldn’t wrap her mind around seeing him here again. “Ma tante, Mariposa, elle est vraiment malade alors je suis revenu.” She explained while her smile faltered for a moment. But, hearing him speak English brought a smile back to her lips. “You did!” She gasped excitedly. “Congrats, that’s amazing!” 

Phoebe had arrived earlier that morning, coming in on a red-eye flight from Bali. It all seemed really quick, was it really only a few days ago that she got contacted by Morgan and told of her aunt? It wasn’t even something she questioned when she dropped everything to fly back to Lethe to be there for her aunt. The woman had raised her after Phoebe’s own parents death and she was like a second mother to her. It had been a whirlwind of an affair, coming back and moving into a room at the Inn, going to visit Mariposa with Morgan, and then coming to this parade the town was throwing. Seeing Morgan have her own friends to scatter off with was fine for the air nymph, she needed some time alone to wrap her head around her new situation. Phoebe had only traveled based on the whims of her own heart, never for a real emergency based on someone else like this. 

She was standing at one of the food booths, buying a caramel apple when she saw a familiar head of hair walk by. It couldn’t be.... David couldn’t still be here in Lethe. That had been years ago and while he had been the one to see her off on her flight, Phoebe never imagined that he would actually still be here. No, it had to be someone else. That was what she told herself as she followed him through the crowd. She had to prove to herself that it wasn’t him. “Est-ce vraiment toi, David?” Phoebe called when she finally got close enough.