i'm not looking to be found

"I like it," Gigi promised him. The lilt of her voice was light and airy as she glanced around the inside of the other man's truck. The car might not have been the type of vehicle she would've chosen for herself, but it had potential. "I mean she might need a light sprucing," or a deep clean, "And maybe a bit of a feminine touch, but we love reliable," She assured him, trying not to glance in the back seat where he'd just tossed a pile of pamphlets, haphazardly. Don't ask him if you can organize it for him, she warned herself as she took his hand and let him help her up into the passenger seat.

"I take it you're not the one bedazzling?" She teased, shooting up a raised brow as she pressed her lips together, mulling over his questions. "In terms of music or where to go eat? With music, do you happen to have anything from No Doubt? While in terms of food, maybe Tatlı or the Boathouse, unless you're thinking of somewhere else?"

"No," he agreed. "I don't have the skills, I'm afraid. These masterpieces--" He gestured at the many, many shiny objects covering his truck's interior. "--are all Rose's handiwork. My sister," he added, realizing he hadn't told her the girl's name before.

"No doubt I do. It's just irresponsible to drive without 'em." Keeping one hand--and his eyes--on the wheel, Will pulled a binder of CDs out of the middle compartment. Because, yes, the truck was old enough to still have a CD player--and it only worked when he tapped it with his knuckles three times, causing the machinery inside to whir back to life. He handed the binder, which included No Doubt, to Gigi. "The Boathouse it is then," he agreed, turning the truck in that direction. "I've been wanting to go there." Technically, this was true of every place in town. His goal was to visit at least every establishment once before the end of the year.

She could feel the slight dip in his mood just as she could feel how desperately he was working to maintain a carefree attitude, to not think about all the many things that were going wrong in this town when, for at least this moment, they could enjoy what was going right. "I'll miss you," she confessed. Then, less she sound too sappy, added, "It would hardly be appropriate to pass dirty notes to anyone else in those god forsaken meetings. Now what shall I do to pass the time?"

Ayza waited for him to finish donning the necessary diving gear. Once she felt confident he was ready to follow, she removed all of her own clothing apart from her bra, and walked into the water. The moment her feet touched the waves, scales began to appear over her legs, and soon enough, she was wading in the shallow water with a dark, shimmering tail beating the surface behind her. The siren reached for Vivek's hand, tugging him into the ocean, reflecting silently that it had been a very long time since she'd dragged a man into the water for peaceful purposes.

"Yeah?" He asked quietly as his hands found their way back to her waist. "I guess you'll just have to text me dirty messages instead under the table," Vik added under his breath. A grin itching to break once more as he watched her try to cheer him up, catching the dip in his own demeanor without him giving the slightest inclination of such with words.

He watched her strip down layer by layer, sliding his scuba mask on at the last moment before he began to wade in himself, not putting the tank onto his back until she was grabbing his hand and guiding him under. But once the goggles and mouthpiece were on and he finished adjusting the equipment, much to her chagrin, he wove his hand back into hers and let her begin to lead him deeper into the depths of the sound.

When she agreed to his plan, Ewan clapped his hands together definitively and nodded. "That's the spirit. You know what they say: with enough memory foam, anything is possible. Let's go raid a mattress store."

She patted the other woman's hand as they walked arm-in-arm. "I think so," she agreed. Whether it would turn out to be a wise alliance--especially as far as the townsfolk's belongings were concerned--only time would tell, but Ayza found herself actually looking forward to finding out.

"Good. I'm glad," Leyla beamed, all too grateful for her newfound friend.

The last time Amita had seen this many people crowded into the same area, there'd been a man on a stand with a rope around his neck at the center of it all. It was a celebration in its own way, but certainly not in the way the people around her were celebrating now. She did not know what Pride this festival referred to, but there were people all around with bright colors and flags held high everywhere. Her old teachings, her old way of life, would have told her Pride was something to let go of, that it was only a fleeting feeling that might get in the way of true nirvana-- but now, well, perhaps people just needed something to be proud about. She could understand that, had come to understand that her old views were for a time that had long passed. She was trying to living in the present, something she'd struggled to do every time she'd come down out of her mountains.

Now, while she'd called Appalachia her home for a long two centuries, she was still unused to its people and properties. Lunar Cove was a cozy seaside town last she saw it, and when she'd returned no more than a year ago (though what was one year in a life of over two-thousand more?) it had grown to the sprawling community it was now, big enough for an entire parade of people to march through its streets-- which were now paved with something Amita had learned was called "asphalt".

Curiously, she watched this parade from afar, content to simply observe. Soon enough, though, she leaned to whoever was next to her and asked, "What exactly is this LGBTQ, then? And what is the addition symbol doing at the end of it? What are we adding?"

As a proud part of the B in the acronym, this was not Will's first pride, but he could hardly consider himself an expert. He was just glad to be out in the town and doing something--and most importantly, that his sister who spent most of her time either ignoring him entirely or locked up in her room talking to no one at all, had agreed to come out and was enthusiastically waving beside him as the parade went by.

Will extended his hand to the woman. "I'm Will," he introduced himself. "It's good to meet you."

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I offered to adjust your app settings."

One mention of Yasin's profession at the counter was rounding to an hour-long inspection of a stranger's phone. "And, uh, you may want to start password protecting your photos." Cat pics, exam cheat sheets, nudes, selfies, PINs...over the years, Yasin had seen it all!

"What did you mean then?" he asked, sipping his whiskey and raising an eyebrow over the top of his glass, clearly not sorry at all that he'd hijacked the man's time simply because he couldn't be bothered to figure out how to turn off cap's lock or ask why the face ID feature never seemed to recognize his face. "Password protect my photos," he repeated like the younger man was speaking another language. "What the bloody hell does that mean?"

"I'll drink to that," Aaliyah agreed, returning the toast and savoring the liquor in her glass. She'd drink to just about anything, though, really. Even if booze sometimes tasted wrong, even if she knew it would take far longer to dull her senses like it used to, sometimes, she liked to make a valiant effort. Or she'd pretend. After all, it tended to work in her favor more often than not. Everything that Aaliyah did was so carefully crafted and considered to make the most of this persona she put out into the world.

Smirking, Aaliyah didn't think that Ayza would. If there was one thing the fae before her appeared to never lack, it was confidence. Aaliyah certainly could understand that. She'd worked hard to be this person. She wondered if Ayza had done the same. "Scandalous," she murmured. "I should let you know, I don't show off to just everyone, and some of my things are special. But I suppose I can show off a bit. A painting or two that went missing over the years that no one can seem to keep track of anymore. A bust that they swear is in an art museum but, and this stays between us, is actually just a very convincing fake."

That last confession certainly drew her interest. There was a certain thrill in seeing something others were not allowed--the allure of the unattainable, the White Whale, so to speak, and the exclusive. It was also just plain amusing to know that the so called experts of taste and art were being fooled. Ayza raised an eyebrow. "Well then what's stopping us?" She hopped off the bar and secured her purse over her shoulder. "No time like the present." She gestured toward the front door of the karaoke bar. "Lead the way, Darling."

"Maybe, but I don't know. I think the universe has a part to play, however small a part. Or at least luck does, but then again, it would be kind of hard not to believe in luck as a pixie, huh?" She admitted with a small shrug, smiling brightly over at the siren. "Though, of course, I don't think you can rely solely on karma either. I think you still need to take matters into your own hands, but I also think energies, good or bad, find their way to one another, I suppose?"

"Sounds like we're a lot a like that way, hm? Like two great friends in the making, I think, maybe?"

She patted the other woman's hand as they walked arm-in-arm. "I think so," she agreed. Whether it would turn out to be a wise alliance--especially as far as the townsfolk's belongings were concerned--only time would tell, but Ayza found herself actually looking forward to finding out.

"In this town, six months is either five years or five days. I'm assuming for you it feels like the former, hmm?" Rivkah watched him start filling out the forms, leaning against the countertop and resting her chin in one hand. "So what brings you two to Lunar Cove? Figured some things out about ourselves, have we?" Most often when someone was new to Lunar Cove, it was because of that precisely-- or they were here looking for someone, but considering he was here filling out papers for library cards and not down at Town Hall sorting through records, she was assuming the former as well.

At the question, a million different answers went through her head. She pursed her lips for a moment before deciding on the one she felt was the most true. "Escape," she said. "Even growing up here, in what most would call a 'magical' place, there was always the need to be somewhere else for a little bit. And, of course, leaving wasn't really an option, not at that age." She nodded towards the two teenagers. "Reading helped. That and I was a rather voracious teenager. I wanted to consume all the knowledge I could, but that was definitely more of a me thing than a universal teenager thing."

Once he'd handed over the paperwork, Will dedicated his full and undivided attention to Rivkah, listening as she told her side of things. It was as different a life from his own as he could possibly imagine: growing up in a place where magic was common and unquestioned, waiting for your powers to come like you waited for the day you got your driver's license. "Did you ever do it?" he asked curiously. "Leave? I know humans can't, not without forgetting everything, but--" He let the question fade away, not sure if it was considered rude to ask someone their species.

Kamran nodded all the same. "Yeah. She was kind of that. But...a chain YouTube comment. We don't really do those anymore, huh? I think maybe Gen Z is too savvy, but at the same time, they...it's like they've never read a book before in their lives. Sorry." He grimaced, but he had come upon enough song and movie reviews from internet randos to realize the modern world was utterly incapable of intelligent criticism of any kind. "Oh! Hell yeah. What was, like, your masterpiece? Can I ask?" He flashed an overly earnest smile.

Kamran rocked a bit on his heels. "Well, he's magic. He can turn the volume up and down. Kick in the reverb. All kinds of things really. He's really tech-y," he offered. Diet Pepsi wiggled back and forth, accepting his well-earned accolades. "Huh? Oh! Yeah. Yeah. Shit. Sorry! I don't want to waste your valuable time. Uh...hold on. Lemme...." He scooped his guitar into his hands, fumbling a bit in a panic, before lapsing seamlessly into the middle of "Through the Fire and Flames," if only to prove he could play and fret overhand. "On a cold winter morning, in the time before the light. In flames of death's eternal reign, we ride towards the fight."

Ayza had been all too prepared to torment the boy for the rest of the afternoon, amused by his seeming nervousness. But his unexpected enthusiasm for her 'masterpiece' of malicious chain emails endeared him to her with surprising efficiency. With relish, she began to explain about a very old and very successful email chain that included the legend of a siren, a dire warning of impending death-by-drowning, and the the natural remedy of sending her money for protection. All worded very carefully, or course, since the fae could not lie.

When she'd finished recounting her scheme, Ayza turned her attention back to the reptile. "Impressive. Whatever your musical abilities, at the very least, I'll be happy to hire Diet Pepsi." The siren resumed her seat at one of the currently empty (and clean) booths, though she knew that in just a few hours, it would be filled once again with overly loud customers and sticky, spilled drinks. She tapped her black boots in time to the music, impressed despite her earlier reservations. "Alright," she said finally, raising a hand to signal that he should stop playing. "I don't hate it. Very well. You can have a half hour set on...let's see...Saturday evenings? Nine?"