c a r n a g e

Closed starter for @silasmaric​

Time: 9PM | Location: Ballroom

Of course she had heard of her old time friend coming to town, the one she had helped during the Prohibition. He helped keep her safe (okay, that was an overstatement, she could keep her damn self safe) and she kept his establishment from crumbling from rot and mold. They went back, oh, a century. 

Charlie wasn’t huge on keeping track of the goings-on in town, but since returning this last time she tried to be more in-the-know, because it seemed she and Grey would be here for awhile. It had been over six months since Silas had come to Lethe, according to town records, and she had only seen him a handful of times. She was determined to change that tonight.

She left the arm of her lover, dodging the eyes of a dark-eyed ex, and scampered to the ivory-skinned Silas Maric. Despite vampires having keen senses of hearing and smell, she tapped his shoulder lightly, pretending to be a stranger. “Guess who?” she asked, smiling. When he turned around, she enveloped the taller in a tight hug. “My dear, how tall you’ve grown!” she joked, stepping back in her black heels as her red, silky dress kissed her ankles. “You owe me a date,” Charlie complained dramatically, and grabbed his wrist to pull him along. She waved at the person he was talking to and dragged him outside into the crisp, spring air. 

“I usually pay people twice as much as I asked back in the day, you know that?” she giggled, dragging the sleeve of his jacket with her towards the gardens. “I think you owe me an adventure, wouldn’t you say? Grey would rather sit on a cold hard bench than run in a haunted maze with his one and only soulmate!”

Silas turned around at the tap, slightly perplexed until his eyes landed on Charlie Engel. That had an easy smile spreading over his face almost instantly. “Do I now?” he asked playfully, following her through the room with a light laugh. Charlie was one of the few people in the world that Silas genuinely liked, though he hadn’t gotten to see her much since being in town. This was a good opportunity, though, with Violet off with Ivy Sloane doing god knew what and Bex off somewhere. 

“That sounds like Grey. He’s as dull as his name,” Silas joked, grinning at Charlie mischievously. He liked Grey too, actually, at least alright. Grey was a little too uptight for Silas’s taste and he knew the other man was a little distrusting of him but they got along well. “I would love to go on an adventure with you, Charlie,” he told her sagely, winking playfully. “You know how I yearn for those adventures in life and this maze is a great one.”

He picked up his pace to get into the maze and looked around. “If I get lost, it’s on your conscience,” he teased.

The longer Violet stood there the more she realized that maybe she had been wrong about how he may have viewed her. She assumed their brief interaction once upon a time was just that. Brief. Unmemorable. However she had been completely wrong and as a result, the witch felt her cheeks get warm and she was certain she was getting red at his comment. “ Oh. Do you not get girls running to you for safety often?” She asked, completely unaware of his own dubious history. 

“ Well I mean, it all could have been some ruse to come home with you. It wasn’t but I wouldn't’ put it past someone to pull that stunt to hook up with someone” She rambled before slipping out that he still had an effect on her. “ You know, cause you’re cute” Violet let slip out before biting at her bottom lip again, realizing she shouldn’t have done that. She had to be more aloof when it came to people and put that wall back up that she had built when she was back home and trying to defend her sanity to other people. “Wouldn’t you get in trouble for after hours bar-tending?” She asked, finally able to keep her cool, but not exactly saying no to him. “ Yeah, I’m still here. Not for their lack of trying though” She replied trying not play off how serious the situation had been. Her and Mike had nearly lost their lives but where here and safe in Lethe, but it had been an ordeal. “ What brings you here?

Silas gave a short bark of a laugh. “Believe it or not, I do not.” She probably had no idea just how much he was not the knight in shining armor type. He still found himself wishing that Bex could have heard that; she would have been amused by it. 

He stopped and looked at her, the corner of his mouth twitching into a small smile. “Cute, huh?” He remembered, suddenly, what had been so interesting about this girl. It was the fact that she seemed so innocent, but she had clearly been through the mill. She was hunted and haunted and he was certain she had secrets, but she had a light amongst all of the darkness. It was a mystery to him how that was even possible. “I really don’t give a shit,” he told her bluntly with a shrug and a smile. “But it’s just you and it’s just while I finish closing up so how bad can it be?” He watched her for a moment, almost studying her. “I came with my sister. Needed a change of scenery.” It was an oversimplification in multiple ways but he wasn’t one to tell her everything after just running into her again. Sure they had spent a night together that had been enjoyable in such a way that even the word enjoyable felt like he was cheating the experience, but trust wasn’t an easy thing for Silas to give after so many years.

Bex should have known better and suspected Silas to pull this on her, but the shifter had assumed wrong as soon as the water hit her. “ Seriously?” She replied dropping the trash bag onto the floor. While others had the habit of seeing the darker side of Silas, the side many would deem scary, this was not the Silas she knew. Bex knew the one standing in front of her trying to start some shit that made her happy she always saw him as a brother figure and not an enemy. “ You are such a dick. Only a fool would spray a bear in the face, knowing she doesn’t have a weapon to fire back” Bex replied looking around for something to get him back

Silas laughed and put the hose back. “I’ve known you too long to be afraid of you, bear or not.” He threw a devilish grin towards her, eyes glinting. “You were scarier when you were in diapers.” He wasn’t kidding either; babies were completely foreign to Silas, like a different species and definitely not a safe one at that. They pooped, they peed, they peed on you, they spat food out, they bit, and you weren’t supposed to do anything to retaliate. That being said, he had no doubt that she actually would do something to get him back now. It just wasn’t as scary as facing an infant.

Violet tried not to let it show, but she felt herself deflate when she realized he didn’t remember her. She hadn’t expected some sort of pleased expression from him, considering they had been a  one night stand, but in her quest to be ignored by the general public she didn’t realize being invisible finally had it’s drawbacks. The witch ran a hand through her hair, feeling embarrassed by her errors of assumption. “No, of course not. That’s so dumb, it’s a big world. Of course I-” Violet began to ramble before instantly stopping as soon as his own statement had changed. 

She had been completely wrong. He did recognize her and now her face was red. She wasn’t sure how to feel. She didn’t realize how much she had wanted him to know her till it appeared like he hadn’t, but now that Violet was mistaken she didn’t know what to do with this change. “ Yeah- that was me….You did remember? “ She replied biting at her bottom lip unsure what else to say to him now that she was in front nof him again. “ I never really thanked you enough for that night. “

Silas felt half of his mouth twitch into a minute smile of amusement. “Yeah, I do.” He slid his hands into the pockets, thumbs hooked on the outsides still. “It was pretty memorable,” he added honestly, unsure of how often a girl had dragged him home for the reason of blending in. His eyes traced the movement of her biting her lip unconsciously.

“Don’t worry about it. It was hardly a problem or like it didn’t work out for me,” he teased her lightly, eyes glinting mischievously. “If you want to come inside, I could give you a drink while I close up.” Probably against the rules but he had never had much regard for the rules. “Glad to see you survived by the way,” he told her, opening the back door and nodding his head for her to go on inside if she wanted to.

Where: Lethe City Hall  When: January 3, 2020

Comedy, as they said, was all in the timing. So were unexpected visits. It wasn’t like that “council” Quinn had mentioned had a website, an email, a phone number. Hell, he’d have settled for a fax. Wasn’t that he was nervous, exactly. Not exactly. J.T., he’d always had plenty of imagination - but he couldn’t picture Lethe, or the people who’d be waiting there. From what Quinn said, this town was touchy, and different. Touchy, as in, you had to go through some sort of interview to be left alone to do your business. Different, as in the kind of different that should be able to help him out with his little problem, hey? That’s what he’d heard. And that’s all he needed. A quick fix. Then he’d be on his way.

First, though - City Hall. That’s what he’d been told, so. He’d do it right, no fuss, no trouble. The walk in from the nearest Greyhound stop had been long, and, honestly, a little too reminiscent of that hike that started all this in the first place. Tall, looming trees, a fogged up blue-grey sky. After that stroll down Memory Lane, the sight of a bizarrely average town was almost welcome. Almost. Kind of eerie, in its own way. Too normal, right. A normal square. A normal hall. A normal receptionist who smiled in a thoroughly normal way, and had him take a very normal number, so he could wait in a totally normal foyer. For what he had to assume, by the general atmosphere of sour exhaustion, was a painfully normal amount of time. A while, that is. A long while. Made longer by that… funny tension, to the air. Wasn’t just him. The whole place was off, somehow. People talking too low, too tight. A character sketch of nerves, rubbed the wrong way. Whoever, whatever, was waiting past that desk couldn’t be so bad. Could it?

J.T. sighed, eyeing his phone’s last nine percent of battery. Should probably save that. For finding someplace to stay, tonight. Podcast off, earbuds stowed, he started circling back around the hall. Again. For what felt like… he’d lost track. Pack hanging heavy over his shoulder, J.T. paced, turned. Paused, then pushed himself just, just barely, into the eyeshot of somebody who didn’t look as lost as he was. Or as entirely in a rush as those run-haggard secretaries. “Ah - hey, there. Sorry to bother you,” he started, with a short wave. “Don’t suppose you’ve got a sec to spare for helping out a… tourist?” Yeah, sure. A tourist. 

Silas wasn’t sure what he was doing at City Hall. If he were to stop and be honest with himself, it was probably curiosity. Trust wasn’t a strong suit of Silas’s, it never had been, and so if he had stopped to think about why he was here he probably would have figured out that he was watching the most ‘important’ people in the town.

He turned to survey the stranger. Tourist, he said. Was tourist the right word? Was he moving here? Had he simply wandered in? Was he visiting? Or was he straight out lying? Or was he genuinely a tourist, curious about the town and the idea of so many supernatural citizens living in peace and harmony? That was a laugh in and of itself though. Was anyone really at peace here? It had been chaos since he and Bex had arrived, or so it felt.

“Suppose I do,” he said slowly, eyeing the man. “With what exactly?”

Location: Outside of CHURCH Date: 2-9-2021

Since the move to Lethe, Violet wasn’t as worried about being on her own anymore. She found herself looking over her shoulder less even though she was often still dealing with the stress from the previous ordeal. Despite all of that, she liked to walk home when she’d get off of work. Lethe was safer and for once the witch could enjoy simple things like staring at the stars and the quiet calm her life was offering at that moment. She knew to not take it for granted cause it could all unravel at any moment. 

Violet had a tendency to take short cuts, just so she didn’t make her brother worry too much for taking a long time to get home, but as she turned the corner to cut through the alley behind CHURCH, Violet realized she might not be getting home early. She had only known him for one night but he had an impact on her. She just didn’t know what to do now that she had seen him again. There was no mistaking who it was and on one hand she could just turn around and walk away, but Violet was at times prone to doing the more risky answer to a problem. “ Uh- hi. “ She replied awkwardly as she shifted back and forth from foot to foot. Maybe this was a bad idea., maybe they had been a one night stand for a good reason, but Violet didn’t know how to walk away. “It’s you. Small world”

@silasmaric​

Silas carried the trash from the club into the alley and tossed it into the dumpster with ease. He paused as he recognized the sound of footsteps and turned slowly, his eyes falling on a young woman who looked vaguely familiar, but most people did at his age. Her words were enough to let him know that she knew him from somewhere and he furrowed his brows, taking a few steps closer to her. “I don’t think I remem...” His words trailed off when he got closer when he recognized the look of someone who had seen far more than their share.

He nodded slowly. “Wait, no, that’s right. You have a brother, and I hid you during a party.” he pressed his lips together firmly in an attempt to remember, snapping his fingers slightly. “Violet,” he said finally. “Am I right?” It was hard not to be proud of himself for remembering. He had lived a long life, many lifetimes in fact, and faces had blended together. It was rare that he could remember someone within a minute or two.

Closing time was typically quiet, empty, boring. Working with Bex made it slightly less boring, though to truly be entertained he had to do something actively. But when you were as old as he was, you learn to make your own fun or you learn to be okay with the silence.

Silas watched her as she came to get the trash behind the bar and lifted the hose at the sink, spraying her with a blast of water as his jaw dropped in mock innocence. “Oops. That was so- Such an accident,” he said, even as he shot her again and laughter filled the bar.