#wp.starter

This was an impressive feat, even for Colby. She'd only been in Chicago a week and had already booked a singing gig. Granted, she was singing in an igloo, to a bunch of people paying more attention to their mittens and hot chocolates, and she'd had to incessantly bother more than one event planner to get added to the list of musicians... but it was worth it. She was allowed four songs, so she chose two covers and two originals. Both her covers were Fleetwood Mac, because she would never love anyone more than Stevie Nicks. And both her originals were about the same ex. But nobody in this igloo had to know that part. She sang the last few lines of Go Your Own Way; you can call it another lonely day - and thanked the igloo for its time. Flying on the high of public performance, she dreamily skipped down the steps of the little stage, and ran completely into someone. "Fuck, shit, sorry!" she said, stepping back to assess the damage. "You good?"

Lina hadn’t been old enough to remember Polish winters by the time the Marek family had packed up and moved to London; she wondered, on occasion, whether they would have prepared her in any capacity for the winters Chicago was home to but she doubted it. At the very least she was relieved that the pains in her leg that winter had brought with it when she was a little girl had long since faded into the past and it was one less thing to worry about when the weather turned. It was, she admitted as she wandered the festival going on in the neighborhood, quite beautiful when she gave herself time to appreciate it— much better than being confined to a studio with little to no proper fresh air for the day. 

She’d requested a rare day off simply to give herself time not to have to think about deadlines or cranky models or organizing plans for sets for her next photoshoot, something she did quite rarely considering her relative newness at the magazine but a much needed break all the same. She fiddled with the settings on the old Yashica camera she’d brought with her for the afternoon— raising the viewfinder to her eye and snapping a handful of photos to test later. 

Green eyes flickered towards the person she’d caught in several of the photos and though she imagined they’d make a perfectly lovely subject— she figured she ought to let them know they had, in fact, been caught on film. “Excuse me!” Lina called, raising a hand in an effort to catch their attention and smiling warmly when that seemed to do the trick. “Not to sound… completely insane when I’m chatting to a stranger but I think I might’ve got you in one of my shots,” she paused to raise the camera as if to demonstrate that she was not, in fact, insane. “Is it alright if I keep it once it’s developed? I’m perfectly happy to consign it to the bin in my dark room but I do tend to ask before I commit to sending a photo to an early grave.”

There was nothing quite as exhilarating as being on a stage. Despite the wintry chill in the air, Alec's cheeks flushed as he left everything he had to give on the stage. His heart still thrummed as though it were trying to keep beat with the music that had long since rang out its final note and he made his way to the bar for his free drink.

He scored a hand through his hair as he slid onto a stool and ordered a whisky for himself. He repeated his order when another bartender swooped by, thinking maybe they'd just forgotten. But apparently it was a lack of communication, because two free drinks landed in front of him, one right after the other. And who was Alec to look inside a horse's mouth? Or whatever that saying was.

He could have been greedy, tossing them back one right after the other and really getting this party started. But perhaps it was the general feeling of community that had him turning to the person seated next to him, sliding the glass over in offering. "You want this? Before you say no, just know I paid real good money for it and it would be bad karma if you did."

Having been to the Snow Frolic every year since it began, Shambles had a near-perfect mental map of all the fire pits and s'mores stations. They changed things around a little bit every year, but never so much that she couldn't expertly get to all of them multiple times without anyone calling her out on it. At the first Snow Frolic, she'd been ten years old, ridiculously wealthy, and had never been hungry a day in her life, so the challenge had just been for fun and the love of chocolate. Now, though, it was getting difficult to pay for both rent and groceries, even with two jobs, and sometimes a girl just had to eat free s'mores for dinner. Lots and lots of free s'mores. This was the first year, though, that she'd ever even considered pocketing some of the supplies. These were for everyone, for families; they were kindly provided by the neighborhood... but she thought of her fridge at home, empty except for ranch dressing and one of Alec's shoes, and surely nobody would miss one little pack of graham crackers, right? But, just as she feared, karma hit immediately when - as soon as the package slipped into her pocket - her eyes met those of another. She froze like a deer in headlights, and awkwardly smiled and waved.

Emira finally cracked and bought a puppy in a fit of loneliness while filming. While she could practically hear people shaming her for shopping over adopting, she had gone for the reputable breeder. Chaos was the runt of the litter but already had so much fire that Emira could barely keep up with him. 

For being only ten weeks old, he had big paws he tripped over constantly, and a need to fetch just about anything. His pedigree was nearly flawless, but he seemed content to attack the Velcro attached to his paws with his little teeth and chase whatever ball she threw. 

Emira sat on a bench while she watched Chaos tire himself out by attempting to chew the snaps on his protective blue puffer coat. “You know, these dogs get some seriously bad rep when this is the worst I’ve ever seen a Rottweiler do,” she commented to the person nearby.