#swynsnow

In which Gem's past catches up to him...again. [takes place: July 22]

@lady-snow-flower, @miss-holleyshiftwell, @boomer-winche

PAST RELEVANT THREADS: Location Scouting If You Give a Magical Boy a Cookie School’s Out Straw to Sticks to Stone Would You Like to Form an Alliance? Pasts That We Were Never Gonna Change Futures That Were Never Going to Come

[cw -- mentions of child abuse/neglect, car crash, thoughts of death, violence, blood, injuries, burning, pregnancy]

🔥🔥🔥.

SNOW: Tonight was date night. 

And very typical of their date nights, things had gotten derailed and delayed. This time, that dreadful basement ghost had had one of his fits and shut off the power to the entire first floor. Thankfully, Gem had already arrived in his truck. Snow had greeted him with a kiss, followed by an apology— “Do you think you can just pop down really quick to reset the power?” she’d said, though depending on the severity of the basement ghost’s tantrum, he might need to replace a few parts. She was crossing her fingers that it wasn’t the case. She was starving, and it had been such a long day.

So Gem was downstairs. She opened the basement door and poked her head in. “How’s it going? Should I come down there?”

She sometimes tried to reason with the basement ghost if things got especially sticky, or if he tried to throw sparks Gem’s way.

Before she could hear Gem’s response— CRASH!

Snow spun around, her hand flying to her heart in shock. Her eyes widened at what she found– Mal. She hadn’t seen him since the attack at the school. But now he was lying on the floor, having knocked over one of the kitchen chairs on his way in. 

But that made no sense. The door was still firmly shut; the windows were closed. He had phased through the walls but run into the chair—? 

Snow rushed toward him, leaving the question behind. It didn’t matter. Because he was here, and he was crying—looking sick and sweaty and pale. 

“Mal!” She immediately fell to her knees and pulled him in close. Mal didn’t resist. He began to sob against her chest. 

She embraced him, squeezing him and ducking her lips to his hair— he smelled terrible. He hadn’t had a bath in weeks. “Oh sweetie, what’s going on? You’re okay. You’re okay now.”

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I didn’t mean to.” 

“No, I know,” she squeezed him again, frightened that he might slip through her grasp like sand in a fist. Her heart pounded frantically. Then she lifted her head and called— “GEM! GEM, COME HERE!” 

🔥🔥🔥.

[read here]

@lady-snow-flower, @lostinthewoods-kristoff, @mighty-mitte

Kristoff had himself a girl!

Tom had himself a girl!

In his opinion, this only meant that theye should get together and see if their girls got along. It had been a while since Tom had been on a proper double date. He was looking forward to it.

And now, here they all sat in a booth at the Deer, a basket of chips in front of them to split while they waited for their foot. There was a pint of beer in front of Tom that he had already half finished. And he was realizing that he wasn't very good at conversation.

"So, Mitte--where are ya from?"

Sebastian had been the one to bring it up and now Dian couldn’t shake the notion. The Hauntley’s were vampires. The seemed to exist in the light and few spoke out about them. They didn’t kill people in the middle of the night to survive. They had honed their hunger in ways a newborn vampire could only dream of. The neighborhood friendly vampire coven. Dian wasn’t ready to come to the light, he doubted he ever would. But he was ready to be done with monstrous things.

The first step of getting better is admitting you have a problem. His vice was lone joggers from NTO, or women who threw themselves at the mysterious dark stranger. Dian was ready to be clean, expunge the red in his record. Go vegan. The vampire made his trek over to the Inn when his family’s crew wouldn’t be working. So he was alone when the surprise took him. When he reached for the doorknob but physically couldn’t open the door to the Inn.

He hadn’t been invited in.

Dian stood on the front steps for a moment. He contemplated leaving, throwing in the towel and just resorting to more Google searches to find his new self. But he heard light footsteps from inside, the smell of fresh flowers and a sharp scent of decay. Was it... someone like him? That was all it took to work up the courage to knock. He did it without thinking, his only thoughts on what his future could be like with some type of guidance.

So he was let down when the person who answered was definitely not like him.

@lady-snow-flower​

It felt strange, being at a girl friend’s house (or well...house/place of business), getting ready for a bunch of other girls to come over to watch a trashy reality television show. Part of Isa felt like she was back in university. She had friends in Swynlake, of course, but she hadn’t anyone...who was close enough she would get together to watch trashy reality telly.

It was strange. It was nice, too. And a little nerve wrecking. Not that Isa would ever let that show as she went about cutting cheese and meats to set them out on a charcuterie board, a virgin strawberry daquiri in a fancy cup at her side. 

“It is so funny you know Ting-Ting, too,” she was saying. “I mean--honestly, we don’t really know each other that well, but sorcery families.” She waved the knife around to emphasize. “She’s sweet, though.” 

In which Snow and Gem get some good news at the Farmer's Market...[takes place: March 29]

@lady-snow-flower with a guest feature from @it-is-your-destiny

[cw -- pregnancy]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

SNOW: Oh, it was finally feeling like spring!

Yes, it was still slightly chilly, especially in the mornings. But Snow had woken up to bright blue skies and flowers starting to bud. Perfect weather for one of her favorite small town traditions-- the local farmer's market. It was the first weekend, and so she arrived with several tote bags, hoping to fill them up with fresh goodies for herself and the Inn.

Naturally, this was where a fiance came in handy too. She had draped one of those tote bags on Gem's shoulder.

"Oh goat cheese! Oooo, and Eun-jung brought cracker samples this time." Snow eagerly pulled Gem over toward the Moon Market's stall. 

Eun-jung had a bit of a tight smile on her approach, but the woman was much too classy to cause a fuss. "Hello," she said. 

"Can we have some of the samples?"

"Oh yes, of course. Try as much as you want." 

"This one looks amazing-- fig and honey," said Snow and she put a bit of the cheese on a cracker and held it up to Gem. 

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[read here]

@lady-snow-flower​

It was just an ordinary day: another one at the Inn. The sun was high in the sky and without looking at his watch, Gem knew that it would be lunch soon. Though, he was planning on working through it. He had done so the last week, because they were about a week or so behind due to the inclement weather. It irritated him. Not because this was a bad job necessarily, but because he didn’t like getting set behind.

He knew that Snow was the kind of person who liked her schedules and he didn’t want this to reflect badly on his family. This was the first major project he’d ever overseen as foreman. The last thing he needed was for them to get a bad review and his father would purse his lips in that way he did when he was disappointed. (He looked at Gem like that a lot, whether he meant to or not.)

“Gemmy!” 

Gem almost smashed his finger with a hammer.

“Mr. Morey, your mum is here!” Finnley chirped happily from where he’d been sorting nails in the shade.

“I see that,” Gem said from his spot on top of the framework for the sunroom. His mother hadn’t come through the Inn but rounded the side of it, marching straight onto the construction site, though she stayed a safe distance away and waved.

“Which one of you assholes tattled?” he grunted, giving Janet a glare as he hooked his hammer on his belt and made his way towards the ladder.

The woman just shrugged.

Gem knew one of them must’ve said something about him overworking himself, otherwise his mum wouldn’t have shown up.

“Hi, Mrs. Morey!” Finnley greeted her, since he was closest. “Can I help you with that?”

“Thank you,” Mama Morey smiled at Finnley. “I brought enough for everyone. Gemmy, will you be a darling and go let Miss Song know I’ve brought lunch for the Inn? It is such a nice day, do you think she has a picnic table?”

Gem, who had finally got his boots on the ground, nodded. “Yes, Mama. I’ll be right back.”

Sulking into the house, Gem poked around until he found Snow. “My mum is here,” Gem said bluntly, leaning against the doorframe of the room she was in. “She brought lunch and is insisting you and the rest of the staff join us. Also, she needs a picnic table. Please.”  Gem only added the last part because it was his mother asking by proxy.

@lady-snow-flower​

Snow and Gem had been working in comfortable silence for the last hour or so. The library’s circuitry was currently turned off and the only light was streaming in from the lovely, tall windows. Dust motes swirled lazily in the late afternoon sun and Gem was just finishing up the job. He’d already finished rewiring the circuit and now he just had to reattach everything and make sure it was all functioning properly.

He stood on a ladder, fingers tangled in wires while the light fixture sat on a blanket on the ground nearby. Snow was at the desk by the window, doing whatever it was she did at her laptop.

It was peaceful.

And then Gem grabbed the wrong wire. His body jerked as the electricity jolted through him and he pulled back with a laugh.

“Ow, shit.” He shook out his hand with a snort. “Well, the circuit is working,” he joked when Snow looked up. “Huh. Guess I can still get electrocuted, that’s good to know. Wasn’t sure about that.”

@lady-snow-flower​

Gem didn’t know how it happened that he was carrying a tray of soup and a ledger of notes under his arm up to the Empire room in the Hauntley Inn.

The construction from the prom storm was finished. It had finished a few days ago, but Gem had stayed back, helping do some dishes. Which turned into him clearing the dining room, which turned into him being asked to turn down the rooms. Which turned into him saying yes, but he’d have to do it tomorrow--

And, now, here he was, after having been in the kitchens all day--chopping, doing dishes, stirring ingredients in a big pot while Bones yelled out disjointed comments and instructions.

The fruits of his labor splashed a bit over the side of the bowl as he tried to juggle it on the tray while also knocking on the cracked ajar door.

“Miss Song?” he said, keeping his voice quiet as he pushed the door open. “I brought you dinner. And the notes from the day. As per Demi’s instructions.”