@all-a-man-has​

Simba was pretty sure he was spending more time in Town Hall than anywhere else these days. Even with the holiday, he was right back in Town Hall, early Christmas morning. A few years ago, this wouldn’t have mattered much to him, considering he didn’t actually celebrate Christmas--but it mattered to him now. He had family in town, his cousin, his father-in-law. Berlioz had still be waffling on what to say to said father(-in-law) and Simba hated leaving the two alone together for any length of time.

But, Lock Adamson had been killed on Christmas Eve.

Lock Adamson, who was a vampire. Lock Adamson, who Simba knew was a vampire and had not told anyone else on the Board yet. Lock Adamson, who he had taught in class, when he was not a vampire. Lock Adamson, who was just eighteen and had a little brother and an older sister and a girlfriend and his whole life ahead of him--

Lock Adamson, who was a vampire.

A few days after Christmas, he was back in the office, brooding over this and vampires in general and the Knights business and the Blackwells and his own disastrous Christmas dinner...it was a lot, all at once, but wasn’t that always how it felt? Despite the whole Berlioz not being his father’s son, they’d had a rather peaceful time since they’d been married.

Honeymoon very, officially, over. 

“C’mon, Bowie, let’s go home,” Simba said, when he looked at the time and realized it would time to start dinner soon. As much as Simba just wanted to stay through and avoid talking to anyone--he didn’t want to do that to Berlioz. So, he gathered his things and headed out, Bowie padding next to him. 

And that’s when he came across someone looking over the flyers in Swynlake. Someone Simba didn’t know. Before he could even think about it, those four little words popped out of his mouth--gut-instinct. 

@sophisticated-thief​

Maximus Jaeger took his job very seriously. And though there had been the occasional slip up, he told himself that as a whole he was improving. He was doing his patrols, he was working to the best of his ability with his partner Shenzi, though he would have greatly preferred working alone. He had had someone to work with once before, and it hadn’t gone well. His personality had grated with the other man in Vienna. It had been incredibly frustrating.

At the moment, he had a decent partner who didn’t seem to want to focus on them buddying up and really getting to know each other yet. Thank god. It would have made him want to scream, honestly. They worked in silence, and occasionally they split up to patrol two different sides of Swynlake. Obviously, that was his favorite part of their patrol. It left him alone to be able to spot any crime, without Shenzi trying to dictate which crime was less essential to go after. In his mind, every crime was essential. The smallest act was an offense to the law that had been put in place. 

An ironic viewpoint really, considering that Maximus himself was breaking the law just by working as a police officer. But he ignored that contradiction as he ignored many others, making his way down main street when he saw it. And really, he saw so many crimes, and prepared himself for all types of eventualities. So when he caught sight of a woman rushing out of the store, he darted forward, taking note of the alarm going off in the store. It was incredibly good timing that led him to this moment, and he felt a rush of adrenaline build in him as he ran toward the woman.

A part of him wanted nothing more than to stretch his shifter legs, but still. He settled for running on two feet, making his way over, and grabbing the woman’s shoulder. When he turned her to face him, he was caught off guard by how...emaciated she looked. Her clothes were just sort of hanging off her skin, he could see her ribs through her shirt....he could see how little she had been able to eat. Max thought about how his boss Rajah Patel had been acting when it came to the man Jacques. He knew that some cops were a little more lax. He knew that this went against everything he usually stood for.

But Maximus couldn’t be the reason that this woman died of starvation. The guilt would eat away at him. The woman had been rambling away explanations at him while he had been thinking this over, and he shook his head, a hesitant smile stretching across his face. “It’s okay. You...you should go. Quickly. I’ll pay your debt with the store owner.” The woman thanked him profusely, even gave him a hug that...admittedly made his heart pound. He had never experienced such gratitude. 

Once the woman was gone, he went inside to repay what she had stolen before stepping back out onto the main street and catching sight of that guy who had helped a girl drink underage. He narrowed his eyes, as the other couldn’t seem to stop staring. Did he want another lecture? Because Maximus would have been incredibly willing. “What do you want?”

@sophisticated-thief

Work had been long and hard, not in the sense she was busy, the exact opposite actually. Judy had spent most of her days doing paperwork. Despite the drug bust, the deaths, and the storm she was stuck doing paperwork all the time. Stuck in the office missing out on the action. Her dream, the dream to save the world, put on a back burner where everyone constantly ignored her pleas for adventure. Instead she was too small, too fragile for the big boys of the office. It was stupid, especially considering that she was just as tough as them, despite her size. She understood how to take advantage of it.

They didn’t though.

Since they couldn’t take advantage of Judy, Judy would do it herself instead. Off the record.

She’d heard about counterfeit money being made, it circulating around more and more considering the recent bump in rent. It had been put on the back burner considering Raj seemed to be busy beyond belief and Copper now had a kid on the way. Anyways, with picking up after the storm Judy highly doubted they would notice her and her little case.

Straight away after work, she went home and changed into jeans and a button down, heading out to Pixie’s. She’d heard that there was a man who often bummed drinks there, and if someone knew about a system work around, she figured there was her place to start.

Entering the bar, she spotted the man sitting alone immediately. A small smirk flitted on her lips as she walked over, sitting next to him casually.

Now that she had solidified her presence in the town at least in some way, and pulled off a small crime, Shego was quite ready to manage a much larger one with one of the wealthier residents of Swynlake. The only problem was her boss was too busy whining about being an evil genius to actually do something even remotely terrible. There was something so ridiculous about it, and it had her out debating the next big caper she would do without him.

As she was making her way down main street, she found herself scanning the crowd. Shego would need someone useful to help her in the next job. As much as she had confidence in her abilities, she needed someone to help her take more in one go, and if possible end up being her fall guy or girl. Maybe it wasn’t the kindest way to treat a partner, but Shego didn’t really want to go to jail for any reason.

Something about the winter was calling to Faline, generally on these cold, bitter days she would curl up on the couch with a novel or a tv show wrapped up in blankets while spending most of the day snoozing away behind the cocoon of warmth she had built for herself. Today, though, something about the crystals clinging to the branches, the icicles hanging from the buildings brought the promise of an adventure. Something about the outdoors made her want to explore it.

While at this point Faline probably knew all the ins and outs of the towns, having explored every part of it she felt necessary, something about the cold made it new, exciting again and so she determined to go out and see the snow blanketed town.

Bundling up in every warm layer she could manage to put on, Faline went outside resembling more of a navy blue marshmallow than a female. She could still move, though these movements were inhibited by the jeans layered with tights underneath and the overly bulky jacket she felt was necessary for the chill. Walking down the street, she meandered unsure where she was really going but knew her feet would guide her. It was beautiful, the frosty town that was sleepy in the cold weather.

After a sufficient amount of time wandering, her feet found her in the forest taking familiar trails around the little place, noting randomly placed snowmen and smiling a bit at the idea that someone had the time to make such a thing. She grinned at all the little things she had never seen with the foliage of the summer and fall, understanding the town better than she had previously. Her mind, on the forest, was not on the path ahead of her and as she walked her eyes were not forward and she walked, full force into a tree. As the breath was pushed out of her lungs, she fell to the slushy forest floor frustrated. What only made it worse was a man walking just a bit up the path who probably had just witnessed it all. “Excellent, Faline.” She groaned to herself, “Way to be an idiot.”

Rapunzel had a relatively slow workday. It was the middle of the week, and the dinner rush wasn’t starting yet. She had divided up her time beforehand with cleaning the counters and serving the two customers that were already there. Her hands were drying out from the soap she was using and she decided that she would take a long oatmeal bath once she got home. 

She was under the counter cleaning the bottom of the bar when she heard the door open and footsteps making their way over to the same counter she was under. It must just be another customer, but she had to get up and attend quickly, in case he got angry and left. She dropped the cloth and the spray bottle onto the ground and quickly stood up. A little too fast, because she had whacked her head on the counter. She felt a sharp pain in her head and she fell back down.

“Ouch!” She said, rubbing her head a little as she got up. She giggled a little as she realized how silly she must look. 

“Were you looking to order anything?”