#para: ruby

where - food area

Wren wrinkled her nose up as she took a sip of lavender liqueur, regretting her choices of cocktail. "I don't recommend this." she grumbled to the girl nearby.

Ruby was his second best friend, right behind David, but sometimes Jefferson wasn't sure she was sane. Well, she was best friend with David and Jefferson, she definitely wasn't sane, but sometimes he questioned more than normally.

"You want to take a very dangerous and mentally unstable weapon to a bar to get inebriated among people who couldn't defend themselves if said weapon decided to take action against them either mentally or physically. With you being the only line of defense between them and me. Just to prove... I don't even know. What is the point you're trying to prove, with this?"

He stared at Ruby in bafflement. He was half amused by the boldness of this idea but also half terrified. He started to feel safe in the farm lately, because it was protected and it was their home base and there weren't many people. Going to the city and to a bar though... that was far from his usual speed. Ruby always liked those kind of things, but Jefferson... well, he had been a partner for it once, but not since Wonderland.

There was a lulling silence as Belle made her way towards the edge of the square. She'd closed the store early in order to make time for her more demanding job. It wasn't the easiest thing, balancing being a normal bookstore owner while also being the super heroine, Catharsis. She rounded another corner and offered a grin as she saw the signature rogue color of The Red Wolf's come into her field of vision.

"Red! I didn't realize you were my partner tonight." There was a sense of familiarity among most of her fellow heroes. After spending time fighting on the same side, you tend to forge a bond - even if everyone's personal lives were majority unknown. One person, two identities. "It's been a few weeks since we've seen each other. How has it been on your end of things?"

Okay. He could do this. Just. Casual. He could be casual. 

It had been fourteen years since he’d lost Snow, on the worst day of his life. If it hadn’t been for Ruby and Jefferson holding him together, if it hadn’t been for the necessity of him taking care of Emma, if it hadn’t been for how much he loved that little girl, he didn’t think he would have survived. But he had to live for Emma, and his best friends had gone so far above and beyond for him. He had loved Jefferson and Ruby as family for his whole life, and they were there by his side every day since his world fell apart. 

But... in the last year or two, something with Jefferson had shifted. He wasn’t sure when, he wasn’t sure why, but something in his feelings had started to change. 

So, here he was, pacing in the hallway outside the living room where Ruby was watching tv, feeling like an idiot. Hell, she could probably hear him or smell, her senses as sensitive as they were. Jefferson was out with Emma and Grace, and it was the perfect opportunity. He could do this. 

David walked into the living room with a false-casual smile and flopped himself down onto the couch next to her. Keep it casual and subtle. “So you’re bi, right?” 

Otto had messed up terribly. He should have known a brief and ominous message would not suffice when he disappeared from Teddy's life for so long. He hadn't done this sort of thing in so long. He didn't even know what to call it, dating, partnering, re-devoting himself to someone.

That was all very nebulous, but what Otto was certain of was that he needed to go above and beyond to please Teddy and make up for his horrid fuss up. Which was what brought him into the scandalous store that purveyed in all manner of objects designed for perversion and titillation. His conviction for forgiveness stilled his nerves despite the increasing embarrassment as he browsed racks of corsets designed for his particular body type.

He was mostly lost of course. He theorized that Teddy, like many of his cohorts in his time, enjoyed the look of the corset. Otto had never even dreamed of applying one to his own body and stared at the garments like they were unsolvable gordian knots. If he had any blood for it there would not be an inch of skin above his shoulders that was not red. He could only hope no one he knew saw him.

Letting out a tired sigh, she shrugged on her jacket and slipped on a pair of flats before making her way out the door. She hated having to wander around aimlessly looking for him, but she loved Phillipe too much to simply leave him outside to get lost.

Walking down the sidewalk, Isobelle tried to remember the last few places she had found him. Maybe he would be at one of his last spots? As she turned a corner, she caught a glimpse of the sheriff and quickly made her way over to her. Maybe she had seen Phillipe.

"Hey, Luna, have you seen an orange and yellow tabby running around? Phillipe escaped again and I can't seem to find him this time."

She made her way down the rows, putting books back where they belonged. As she placed the final one of her stack on the shelf, she turned to go grab another pile. However, she stopped as she caught a brief glimpse of a shadow move past one of the shelves.

Normally, this wouldn't bother her. There were ghosts and, sometimes, students pets would get loose. This however ... something was off. Maybe it was a student? She pulled out her wand and quietly spoke. "Lumos." The glow, at the tip of her wand, lit the area in front of her better than the lighting of the room. She began to walk down the rows of shelves, looking for the source of the shadow.

where - timeless pottery's paint and sip

"Gotta say, I'm jealous of your art skills. Or maybe mine are just shit because I'm on my second glass of wine and I haven't eaten since breakfast."