Realistic or Modern BEING HUMAN

[IG42]

Tannur - At Work
When Silver showed herself Tannur felt a little relieved even though the first thing she did was torment him for the hell of it. "We're just about to close for the day then we can get food." Rolling his eyes at her gracious offer of assistance he decided to go with it just to get her off him. "Yeah sure go right ahead." He said listlessly, keep it up and he might be able to train her to actually be helpful more easily.

As the customer paid Tannur was surprised that she was asking Silver for her name, he'd had some people try to hit on him and he'd made a few passes himself but naturally Silver's casual skinship had always shut them down in short order. Maybe the woman was just into other ladies, not that that would end any better for either of them. "She's called the bane of my existence, it's shocking how accurate it is." He deadpanned before Silver properly introduced herself making the customer freak out and stare at him intently before declaring that she was in fact Morgana, yet another of their missing compatriots.

After a moment of shock Tannur held up a hand and gestured for them both to stay where they were, quickly dashing off to the stock room he stuck his head in and called out to another employee. "Heyfamilyemergencygottagocanyouclosethanksbye!" Snagging a lightly worn jacket he had picked up he hurriedly grabbed a bag of crisps and ran them through the till before shoving them at Silver and pushing both her and Morgana out of the store, once they were outside he finally took a breath. "Right now we won't have any interruptions." He said as he led them a short distance away. "Damn two in one day, anyway we're surviving I suppose, you're certainly looking more vibrant than you used to. Silver managed to fall on top of Raijin earlier and I managed to get the number for his tellofone or however you say it."

WillfulWren koala

 

[QizPizza]

Rai sat on the floor with his finished bowl of noodles beside him, watching Lisa play with her food. The excursion to the grocery store was less that optimal. It was surprising how many frugal humans existed in this city, but at least they managed to get some decent vegetables, meat, and fruit. That, and some more snacks. Junk food wasn't exactly Rai's style, given how unhealthy they were. However, when he found a great deal on Greek yogurt and trail mix he had casually thrown them in with all the other food stuffs. The redhead was proud of himself for scoring twenty cups of yogurt and six pounds of trail mix. His breakfast was set for the next week or so.

"This really isn't half-bad Rai. I'm almost impressed honestly. I never saw you cook in Aether."

The redhead smiled. He could've made better, but someone already made off with all the eggs, so he wasn't able to make any noodles by hand. It was a shame, but instant noodles will suffice for now. He would have to save them for a later date. "My thanks to that half-compliment. I lived alone for hundreds of years. I picked up many skills in that time, including cooking. To be honest, I never cook when I'm around you because you always have your servants to do all the cooking. Their cooking is much better than mine. Aside from cooking, I can also sew, do some basic metal working, and perform some carpentry."

Rai finally decided to pick up his bowl and walk over to the sink and wash it. When the artificial soup base was cleaned off of the plastic bowl and the plastic chopsticks, Rai turned back towards Lisa. He took a fresh orange an began to peel it as he spoke. "But now for business. I met Tannur and Silver today at the park. They looked a bit different, but there was no mistaking Silver's...interesting personality. They don't know about you, but they know about me. Assuming that they are who they say they are, I gave Tannur the number to the apartment's payphone. What's our next move, my 'brilliant queen'?"

Rai Kaminari​

Physical Status: Filled
Emotional/Mental Status: Appreciative
Location: Rai & Lisa's Apartment
Interacting With: Avari (Lisa)
Mentioned:​

 

[WillfulWren]

Silver Ferae, the deli - Outside - IG42 koala
"Morgana?" For a moment Silver just looked shellshocked, then she practically tackled the other female in a tight hug. "You have no idea how difficult it's been here, having to live with this idiot!" She started to complain, before she was roughly shoved out of the deli by Tannur.She went to bite him, but snatched the proffered crisps instead with a shrug as she opened the packet and started eating. Of course, she still had one hand clinging to Margo's sleeve as if she was scared the woman would disappear if Silver stopped touching her.

"So, we found Raijin because I fell on him, and Morgana recognised me. Ya know what that means, idiot?" She grinned, looking incredibly smug - a cat that had got the cream. "The bane of your existence found our teammates! I'm the best! That means I choose where we get dinner tonight!"

 

[Avari]

LISA + RAI'S FLAT
Late Evening
​

As Rai chatted about his favorite topic - himself - Lisa sat quietly and enjoyed what remained of her noodles, content it seemed simply to listen. It made it easier to ignore the headache. Her brow furrowed a little when he mentioned he had given the phone number of their apartment to the others, and she chewed thoughtfully for a moment. Finally, the others had turned up - and not only that, they were in the same city! It was good to know that the portal's exit point was not entirely random; as it stacked the cards in her favor quite comfortably. Not that it was them she was waiting for. Truthfully, it was taking a quite considerable amount of willpower not to let a smug smirk spread over her face.

"What's our next move, my 'brilliant queen'?"

"If you have the energy for sarcasm, you have the energy to wash the plates." Lisa said without missing a beat as she placed her now-empty bowl on the table and promptly leaned back and finally allowed her exhausted body to properly rest as she closed her eyes.

"You need to get back in contact with our mutual friends. Find out where they live, and how to get in touch quickly if the needs arise." She began, her tone factual. "Do not mention me - but if you must bring me up in conversation, than I am simply your ignorant Human flatmate. I shall leave the rest to your intuition."

As Lisa talked, the TV's newscast seemed to be reaching its conclusion. A pretty blonde woman in a very tight dress was standing in front of a display of the UK - pointing to various towns and provinces and explaining what weather could be expected over the next few days.

"-and it looks like the heat wave will continue for the next week at least! Expect clear skies and temperatures of up to 30 degrees tomorrow in London and the south west!"

Lisa raised a hand and pinched her nose for a moment. "-and tell me straight away if Silver is acting strangely."

She paused for a moment, and then opened an eye. "...stranger than usual."


---

INTERACTION: QizPizza

 

[QizPizza]

"You need to get back in contact with our mutual friends. Find out where they live, and how to get in touch quickly if the needs arise. Do not mention me - but if you must bring me up in conversation, than I am simply your ignorant Human flatmate. I shall leave the rest to your intuition...and tell me straight away if Silver is acting strangely...stranger than usual."

Rai walked back over to the table and took the bowl to scrub it clean. He didn't mind the menial tasks given to him. Decades of isolation in the mountains training and meditating forced one to take care of themselves after all. Saying that he was a bit of a hermit in his younger years was an understatement, especially after he became a god. However, it taught him how all these useful as a human, though not many skills managing people. To him, Lisa seems to be the opposite...in a way. She's good with the masses unlike him, but when it comes to dealing with individuals, she takes a more...apathetic route. Not saying that it wasn't efficient as a queen, but as a human, it seems counter productive.

"Of course. But you must remember, there is no possible way that 'Queen of Darkness' would lower herself to live in such lowly accommodations with such an abrasive creature such as myself." Rai dried his hands on a towel and went over to switch the television's channel. The news was over anyways. Rai returned to his spot on the floor just as a cooking show was starting. He looked over to the clock and then back at Lisa. "Do you wish to sleep? It's only 8:31, but I'll gladly turn off the television if you want to rest."

Rai Kaminari​

Physical Status: Filled
Emotional/Mental Status: Appreciative
Location: Rai & Lisa's Apartment
Interacting With: Avari (Lisa)
Mentioned:​

 

[Avari]

LISA SPARROW/LUCREZIA

"Of course. But you must remember, there is no possible way that 'Queen of Darkness' would lower herself to live in such lowly accommodations with such an abrasive creature such as myself."

Lisa didn't answer, but the shadow of a scowl passed over her lips before her expression softened again.

Rai was one of her more long-lived companions, but even he had been born long after the initial rise of the Shadow Queen. Her closer followers - usually in moments of unneeded familiarity - had pried into her past; and she would simply wave it off - Or occasionally offer a few amusing fabrications if that would not sate their curiosity.
Truth was a burden she could not trust others to hold.

"Do you wish to sleep? It's only 8:31, but I'll gladly turn off the television if you want to rest."

Did she look that tired?

As if to answer who own question, a yawn escaped her lips. She wouldn't sleep yet - the pain made it impossible, but she could spend a few more hours doing research in her room before attempting some approximation of rest

"I... suppose an early night would not do any harm...let me know how things go tomorrow."

INTERACTION: QizPizza

END OF DAY​

 

[Avari]

BEING HUMAN:
BRAVE NEW WORLD
PART TWO

SUNDAY 29TH JULY

Current Cast
Avari - Lucrezia/Lisa Sparrow + Hannah Miller
WillfulWren - Silver + Marcus
QizPizza - Rai
IG42 - Tannur
koala - Elena + Morgana
LoneSniper87 - Ana


Despite the forecast of another hot summer's day, a dark and powerful storm has begun over the city of London. The downpour is heavy, and seems to be getting worse every hour - with occasional ominous claps of thunder. Every news channel is currently interviewing baffled experts who can't explain where the storm has come from, and even stranger - it seems to be focused over only London.

There is an ominous feel in the air.

By 9PM this upcoming evening, streets are beginning to flood. ​

 

[koala]

Elena "Rose" Benoit
Outfit: PJs
Date: Sunday 07/29/2018
Location: Home
Mentions: Arryn, Roland, Ana
Interacting: -

6:50 AM
Blonde locks were sprayed around her head like a crown as Elena tossed and turned in her bed. There was a growing pain in her head that became harder to ignore with each passing second, yet she somehow managed to steal a few more minutes of rest. While her body ached as if she'd been hit by a bus, there was no stopping the thoughts that began to popcorn in her head. The first was, What the hell did I drink last night?, as she slowly sat up. Her hair was a tangled mess that appeared shorter and longer in all the wrong places. She ran a few fingers through in an attempt to comb the mane down, but her immediate reaction was to wince in pain.

"Oh gosh..." The female mumbled as she placed her face into her hands. She hadn't even drank that much yet she behaved as any light weight would. However, it probably didn't help much that she was extra willing to forget her emotions at the time so maybe that played a part in her drunkenness. Whatever the case, she was extremely disappointed in herself and prayed she hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. The only thing she could really recall were the last few minutes before falling asleep. She'd thanked Arryn for tucking her in and... cried? No... Elena thought as she got to her feet and walked towards the window. There was no way she would've cried in front of someone.

After opening the window, the young blonde peered outside and noticed the luminous cloud above. According to the report the day before, it was supposed to be bright and sunny. However, she should've known it would've been the exact opposite. The news had been very deceiving lately for whatever insane reason. Elena never really understood that side of things. She preferred living in the now instead of keeping up with whatever was going on around her. It made her a bit ignorant at times but at least she wasn't as stressed as most people she knew.

Elena began walking towards her connected to her American-styled bathroom When she flickered on the light, the strangest thing flickered from the corner of her eyes. She didn't get a good look at it but it almost seemed like a shimmering, golden butterfly. The image had disappeared as quickly as she'd processed it though, so she assumed it was just her adjusting to the light. "Strange..." Elena commented as she bent down to splash water onto her face. When she glanced up, she saw that she was wearing her pajamas. To be completely honest, she didn't remember ever changing but that wouldn't have been a surprise.

For a few moments she simply sat on the edge of her tub, contemplating on whether or not she'd go back to sleep. She had to go to open the shop for the other part-timers in a few hours though so going back to sleep might make her wake up late. The thought process went back and forth until she finally decided to just get up and grab some tea. It was probably the better option anyways. She'd recalled Roland saying he'd drop by in the morning to pick up Ana and it would've been rude for Elena to not greet and apologize to him. Wait... Was it Sunday or Monday morning? Elena waved the question away, concluding it didn’t really matter either way since she was an early bird.

Quietly, the twenty-one year old peeked out her door and tip-toed her way over to the small kitchen. She filled a pot of water and sat it on the stove top before she began to hump and old French tune, unmindful of the brewing storm.

 

[LoneSniper87]

Anastasia Kochenkov
Elena's Home
koala

Ana had spent the night on the roof. After last night she needed to get away, and she knew nobody would think to look there. Besides, staring up at the stars always calmed her. She didn't bother to think about coming back down, she rarely did at times like this. When she woke up, she was rather sore, but at the same time refreshed as she hopped down onto the back porch, much to Elena's surprise. She opened the door and slipped in, still dressed like last night. "Morning, El, I can call you El, right?" She said, moving past her to grab a water bottle. "Feel better? I assume not because you seemed smashed last night."

 

[MagicPenguin]

Arryn Bennett
Home

Ruff! ....Ruff, Ruff! Grrrrr....Ruff!

Arryn opened his eyes from a deep, restful sleep at the barking noise somewhere down and to his left. There was a slight, sharp pain in his thumb and a tugging sensation at his arm on the same side. He was laying face down in his bed wearing the same clothes from his adventure last night and the arm in question had fallen over the side sometime during his sleep so that it lay hanging toward the floor. The brown haired youth looked down to see what the noise and the tugging was about and found the golden retriever pup pulling roughly, desperately at his arm as if it were one of the chew toys he and the gang had gotten for him yesterday at the pet shop. "Hey there, tough guy," he managed to croak out. His victim now unmistakably awake, the dog ceased his pulling and growling. He gave one more happy bark and started licking at his hand instead of biting it. Groggily, Arryn pulled his arm away from the pup's ministrations and sat up on the bed, swinging his legs down to the floor. He looked over at the digital alarm clock on the bedstand. According to the insidious device's harsh, blinking lights, it was 5:34 AM. Only about 4 minutes later than he would've woken up for work on a week day. Well, that was no surprise. Even back on Aether, no matter how late he went to sleep--and it HAD been late when he laid down; 1 AM, to be exact--Arryn always woke with the rising sun. It was a habit ingrained into him from years of early mornings getting the forge ready for a day of work. It was just one of the numerous habits he'd picked up from Hogan's upbringing, another of his departed foster father's little gifts.

Yawning, Arryn made his way out to the common room and looked out the window, the pup trailing his every step. It was bright and sunny. If that weather kept up all day, it was going to be a hot one, he guessed. Arryn next started to make his way to the kitchen to see what was in the fridge for breakfast, but, just as he started to turn the corner into the hallway leading there, the pup barked roughly and darted in the opposite direction, toward the front door. He jumped up on his two back legs and scratched at the bottom of it insistently with his raised forepaws, whining and looking back at Arryn with his big brown eyes all the while.

Ah, Arryn thought. That's why he woke me the way he did. He has to pee. Not for the first time since finding him, Arryn reflected on how clever and well-disciplined the dog was. He puzzled at why anyone would have gotten rid of such a well-behaved animal. Instead of simply going anywhere in the house, as most stray dogs likely would, he'd woken Arryn up for a walk so he could do it outside. Clearly, even as young as the puppy was, someone had already gone to the trouble of housebreaking him, which made its abandonment all the more perplexing to the former blacksmith's mind. Well, it was a beautiful day for a walk outside anyway, he figured. Arryn grabbed the leash from the kitchen table where he'd left it after their trip to the store yesterday. He also picked up a few plastic bags to carry with him, just in case. He attached the leash to the dog's collar, retrieved his socks and shoes from near the front door, and then the two were on their way for an early morning stroll.

Arryn spoke absently to himself and to the pup as they walked down the empty street. The sun was only just coming up, so very few people were out and about to hear him at this hour. "You know," he told the dog, "we really need to figure out what we're going to do with you. You're well-behaved, but you cost a lot of money. Do you know how much all those fancy toys and shampoos and foods we got you yesterday cost me?" The pup stopped next to a nearby tree and looked back at him in response to his question, then lolled his head to the side quizzically, tongue hanging out of his mouth lazily. He lifted his leg and relieved himself on the tree. Arryn rolled his eyes and sighed in resignation. "Well, anyway, if you're going to be around for much longer, I'll have to think of a name. I can't just keep calling you 'pup' or 'boy.' Any thoughts?" Unconcerned with Arryn's monologue, the pup licked himself and then started moving forward again, sniffing periodically at the ground as he did. "Guess not," Arryn said. "Well... How about I call you Hogan for now?" Not the most creative name, but he'd been thinking of the old dwarf earlier and it was all that came to mind at the moment. It would have to do. "Right," he told the apparently uncaring golden retriever as it pooped on the sidewalk. "Hogan it is, then." Arryn pulled one of the plastic bags he got from the kitchen inside out, put his hand on the inside of it, picked up the poop with the bag-covered hand and pulled it back outward so his hand was free of the bag and the feces were safely inside of it.

Arryn walked with little Hogan for a few blocks more, cleaning up after the dog as necessary while they walked. The motions became mechanical and automatic and his thoughts began to drift back to the events of the night before. After Roland and Marcus had left, Arryn had tried, as gently as possible, to lower Rose into her bed so she could sleep off the booze as she so clearly needed to. She first insisted on changing into her pajamas--much to Arryn's red-faced embarrassment as he tried to turn around and look at her as little as possible--and then he helped her plop down onto her big mattress. He tucked her in and got a small, mumbled "thanks," in return. He sat with her a while before her eyes closed and her breathing began to steady. He was sure she was asleep and began to rise quietly and walk out of the room when she suddenly started bawling out of no where. He asked her what was wrong--something at the bar, something Roland or he or the other Aetherians had done, something her two friends said to her, something about the night's performance?--but couldn't get a straight answer out of her, so he just sat there with her while she got it all out of her system. Eventually, her wracking sobs lessened and she gradually began to quiet. When she finally fell asleep, for real this time, he softly made his way out the door and back home to his own bed. Now, he wondered again what had gotten into her last night. He thought worriedly about perhaps giving her a phone call later to see how she was doing and try asking again what the tears were about, but then thought better of it. The way her head was probably feeling today, a ringing phone was the last thing she'd want to hear. Perhaps it was best if he gave her her space for now. She'd tell him what was bothering her if and when she was ready to. Yes, he decided firmly, for now, space to let her sort it out was best.

As he considered, he and Hogan came upon a park with a small softball field and some benches for lounging. No one was there yet except for a few early morning joggers. "Why don't we go sit and enjoy that beautiful rising sun while we can, eh little guy?" Hogan barked excitedly and tried to run ahead until the leash tugged him back, then pulled at it some more in his efforts to run and play in the grass. Arryn himself looked forward to sitting on one of those benches, enjoying the bright blue sky and the early morning heat and the soft bree-

Thunder pealed in the distance.

Startled, Arryn looked in the direction the boom had come from. He saw nothing but the idyllic blue sky he'd been looking at ever since he woke up, but a few seconds later, he heard it again: a huge boom, loud enough to nearly split his eardrums. This time it was accompanied by fat raindrops falling on his head and bare arms. Arryn was flummoxed. He looked again for any sign of clouds or lightning, but still saw none. Despite that, the raindrops came heavier now, drenching him. In the span of five seconds, the weather had gone from beautiful to wretched.

Hogan, at least, seemed not to care; in fact, if anything, he pulled harder at his leash to get to the field in the park. He barked excitedly at the booms of thunder and jumped up and down trying to catch the raindrops in his mouth before they could land on the floor to sizzle on the still-hot pavement. When puddles rapidly began forming, he rolled back and forth through them, splashing the water about, his eyes shining with mischievous joy and his tongue flying every which way. Through all the puppy's innocent joy, Arryn stood staring dumbfounded at the sky. The blue expanse was now turning gray and ominous and almost sickly. The clouds, all but absent a moment before, grew and grew until they were angry gray splotches covering the sky as far as the eye could see. They covered the sky until the area beneath them became as dark as if the sun had never risen at all. The gentle morning breeze from before became a roaring tempest, strong enough to shake sign posts where they stood and nearly force Arryn himself clear off of his feet.

The shouts of alarmed joggers in the park, as taken off-guard by the sudden downpour as he was, shocked Arryn back to action. "Sorry, little Hogan, but the park will have to wait. We need to get out of this, and fast." Hogan resisted the tugging at his leash, pulling again toward the park, but when it became clear that it was either walk with Arryn where he was going or be dragged, the pup relented sulkily and went with him. In seconds, the two were running at full speed through razor winds and beating rains down the streets they'd walked peacefully just minutes before. The pup's earlier disappointment was all but forgotten as he ran at Arryn's side, seeming to think it was a race between the two of them and happy to rise to the occasion. As the two ran headlong down the street, Arryn's legs and his lungs nearly exploding with the effort, he noticed something shimmer golden on the edges of his vision. Thinking he must've been imagining it, he turned to see what it could have been, slowing his breakneck pace only just enough to get a good look at what might have caused the shimmer. Behind him, just where he'd run a second before, he saw what looked like a golden butterfly fluttering carelessly in the raindrops. He stared at it long enough to reassure himself it was actually there, a tiny winged creature shining so golden that it was almost glowing in the artificial darkness created by the rainclouds. He'd never seen a butterfly that color and, while he was no expert, he was pretty sure butterflies didn't usually fly around during thunderstorms. Curious, but with no time to puzzle it out in the midst of the downpour, he turned back around and resumed his earlier speed toward the apartment, redirecting all of his attention back to his and Hogan's mad dash.

The shimmering golden butterfly was gone from his thoughts by the time Arryn and Hogan made it to the front door of the apartment, each soaked to the bone and completely out of breath. When they barged in hastily to get themselves out of the rain, they found Daniel sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee and reading a newspaper. He looked at the pair dripping water in the hallway distastefully before walking calmly to the hall closet and rummaging through it for something. "Don't you let that dog walk on our good carpets like that, Arryn," he exclaimed tightly as he searched. "It's bad enough he does it when he's dry." Arryn kept a firm hand on the leash so that Hogan could not pull free and get into the carpeted common room. When Daniel came out he was carrying two towels, which he promptly handed to Arryn so he could dry himself and Hogan. He spoke to Daniel as he rubbed himself down. "This rain is insane," he said to the werewolf with no small amount of exasperation in his voice. "It's clear as a bell one minute and the next it's like we're in the middle of a hurricane on Overtide Isle. I've never seen anything like this, Daniel! I'm tempted to think this is the work of the Mad Queen, the way the weather just changed out of no where like that."

"Yes," the werewolf responded, "most troubling. The newspaper says it was supposed to be hot and clear today. This is going to make getting to my job this morning much harder. Even so, there's no need for you to be so superstitious about it. The weather can change at the drop of a hat without magic, boy, trust me. No one can truly predict what it'll do. I doubt Lucrezia had anything to do with this." He sounded confident, but Arryn wondered if the soldier actually believed that as firmly as he wanted the blacksmith to think. When he finished drying himself, Arryn moved onto Hogan with the other towel. The dog didn't appreciate it; he shook and writhed and whined, trying to pull free of Arryn's iron grip to no avail. When they were both as dry as they could get, Arryn removed Hogan's leash and let him wander where he wanted; as it happened, he went straight to the carpets that Daniel said he didn't want him to walk on, as if he knew it would annoy the young-faced old-timer.

Daniel winced, but purposely ignored the pup. He handed Arryn a second cup of coffee as the shaggy-haired young man stepped into the kitchen. Arryn took a sip of it to be polite and held back a grimace. He knew from their time together on Aether that Roland loved coffee whenever he could get his hands on it, but Arryn could not imagine how the prince could stomach the stuff. It tasted way too bitter for his liking. He set the cup aside. "I was thinking about picking up some breakfast for us while I was out, but..." he gestured to the raging storm out the window "...that happened."

"That's alright," Daniel said. "We'll make do with what we've got." He opened the cupboard hopefully only to find three rows of empty shelves. "...somehow."

"Right," Arryn said doubtfully, ignoring the sudden pang of hunger in his belly. "Well, I'm going to go shower and change into something dry."

"I'll probably be gone by the time you get out. This job should take all morning. A woman has a dog who's afraid to go down the stairs and won't leave the second floor, so she called me. Can you believe that?"

What Arryn couldn't believe was that anyone had enough money to pay a man to teach their dog to walk down the stairs. "No, I can't," he said simply instead of voicing that thought. "Be careful out there, Daniel. I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was like a hurricane."

Daniel grunted his assent and returned to his paper and his own coffee, showing Arryn his back. "Make sure that dog doesn't eat the couch cushions while I'm out, will you?"

"Hogan's never done anything like that before. You should know better than anyone how well-behaved he is compared to most dogs."

Daniel turned to look at him again and raised his eyebrow sharply. "Hogan?"

Suddenly embarrassed, Arryn shifted his gaze away from the werewolf's and said defensively, "Yeah, Hogan. We have to call him something, don't we? Why not that?"

Daniel sighed, shaking his head ruefully and returning once again to his paper. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, my boy. You've named him, so the writing's on the wall. We're keeping it."

Arryn scoffed. "It doesn't mean we're keeping him. I just need something to call him, that's all. I'm taking him to the shelter the second I get a chance."

"Uh-huh," Daniel said dismissively as he read his paper. "Sure you are." The sound of a dog's squeaking chew toy could be heard from the common room. Instead of responding, Arryn rolled his eyes at the werewolf's back, hurried off to his room to gather dry clothing and then ran into the bathroom. As Daniel promised, when Arryn was out of the shower and into something nice and dry, the old man had already gone off to his job. He was alone with little Hogan. The blacksmith hoped Daniel would be alright out there in that mess. From what he could see in the window, the storm only seemed to be getting worse.

So, it was a rainy Sunday and Arryn had done all the household chores yesterday. What should he do now, he asked himself? He thought about what might still need done around the flat, but nothing came to mind. Well, nothing that I could do in the middle of a thunderstorm like this, anyway, he thought to himself as he remembered the sight of the empty cupboards in the kitchen. If he was at home, on Aether, what would he be doing this early in the morning, he wondered? Sweeping the workshop floor? Cleaning out the forge and then lighting the fires? Sharpening the knives? Checking the previous day's work for flaws? There was always something to do in Hogan's Forge, every morning. ...No, he decided sadly after some thought, he wouldn't be doing any of that, not since Roland had all but forced him to leave the forge and join the army to fight for the Light. Instead, he'd probably be preparing to fight some sort of life or death battle for the fate of the world. Weapons training or military drills or some such thing. It wasn't that he resented Roland for any of that--after all, he had promised himself he'd protect what mattered to him after Hogan's death, and fighting was the best way, whether he liked it or not. He hated doing it, hated giving up his life in the forge for a life at war, but do all of that he would for the good of himself, his friends, and the world. Even so, he could not help but to long passionately for that quaint, safe little workshop of his youth that dwelt now only in his most precious memories, away from all the blood and death and fighting.

Thinking of nothing better he could be doing, Arryn sighed and picked up a random book from Daniel's ever-growing collection. He sat down on the couch by a small table with a lamp. He turned the lamp on and flipped to the first page, absently noting that Hogan was drifting off peacefully on his little bed in the room's corner.

 

[WillfulWren]

Silver Ferae, Home, - IG42
Silver had not had a very peaceful night.

She had attempted to sleep on the sofa bed that was 'hers', but it felt so lonely she ended up crawling into Tannur's bed instead. Now, technically she wasn't allowed to do this, for some stupid reasons that she never even bothered to remember (It wasn't 'proper' apparently). She just felt she had to stay close to him, as there was an unsettling feeling of wrongness in the air. The hairs on the back of her neck kept standing up and she felt like an attack was imminent. It made her tense And uneasy. And if Tannur was so intent on sleeping the night away, it was her job to protect him! So, when a creaking floorboard disturbed her, she started patrolling the small apartment, looking for the source. It didn't take long, as their flat was truly tiny, and there was nothing to find, as the rather old building was just settling, so she sat at the end of the bed, all senses alert for anything that could be classified as dangerous.

She had heard someone say that there were monsters prone to hiding under people's beds, and that thought unsettled her greatly - in this weak form, how was she supposed to protect her stupid half-elf friend if a monster tried to eat him? She couldn't! And Lucrezia would be mad if Silver allowed him to get eaten...

She had considered leaving the house to go find Morgana or Raijin, but they would think she was incapable of handling a little monster on her own... They would think she was weak. And that was not allowed.

At three a.m of her not-so-silent vigil, she stood on the countertop to reach where Tannur had hidden the food, and had a nice snack that would probably mean they couldn't eat for a few days, before deciding to check for monsters under the bed.

And that's when she saw the butterfly. It flew past her amidst golden sparkles and she scrambled after it eagerly. It sparkled, and the way it moved was so enticing she just had to chase it and catch it - but then she hit her head on the bed, waking up Tannur, who was obviously less than pleased. Before going back to sleep, he chucked a pillow at her head. When she finally considered him to be no longer a hindrance to her mission and looked around for the butterfly... It was gone.
Damn it.

And that's how she ended up falling asleep on the floor, half under Tannur's bed and hugging a pillow at about half past three in the morning, only to wake up at six to the sound of her arch nemesis attacking the building. She scrambled up onto the bed, poking Tannur's face like a cat when it's owner is asleep at feeding time.
"Tannur!" She whined. "It's raining!"

She would gladly face down an army of monsters while he slept, but rain?
No way.

 

[Avari]

THE SHARD
9AM​

Kaysen's theme


The weather seemed to be worsening by the moment, and the lobby of the Shard was oddly empty. Even in the early morning, the place would be a hive of bustling activity with businessmen charging around shouting down their phones and harried looking stuff running after them with clipboards.

The storm seemed to have caught everyone by surprise, and many employees had awoken to find that the underground was already flooding and were being forced to make alternative travel arrangements.

Which was why Sarah - who was nothing more than a glorified temp - had found herself reporting directly to Mr Kaysen. Usually, a low-level employee like her wouldn’t get within a hundred yards of someone like him, much less have a chance to actually speak to him. The man was practically a celebrity around here, even if she wasn’t entirely sure what it was he did exactly. He worked for some odd government department or something, but he was still her boss - albeit a bit indirectly- but he had been on the news! Wait until she told her mum about this!

The man in question was sitting - straight backed - on one of the arm chairs situated by the glass wall, and seemed to be watching the rain pound against it with a curious expression on his face. He was incredibly handsome with the sort of dress sense one would expect to see in a ballroom back in the 1940s. His hair was silvery grey, and his eyes were a bright, piecing blue.



Sarah took a deep breath and advanced towards him, a heavy folder tucked under her arm. Her heels clacked on the stone floor as she walked.

“S-sorry to interrupt you Mr Kaysen - I have the report you requested from the Research Department.”

Kaysen looked over at her, and offered her a huge smile as he held out a gloved hand to take the folder.

“Ah! Thank you so much, miss...?”

She felt herself go red as she handed over the file. She noticed he was wearing gloves. “Cooper, sir. Sarah Cooper.”

“Thank you Sarah, I do appreciate you doing this for me. It seems we’re a little...short staffed today.” He chuckled, as he turned his attention back to the rain, trickling down the glass. Even inside, the sound of the wind and pounding water was quite clear.

“Oh! It’s no trouble!” She gushed, and then suddenly felt the need to ask a question in a moment of uncharacteristic bravery. “You’ve been down here for quite some time...do you like watching the rain?”

“I do! But today... I’m watching for something else,” he said after a moment of contemplation, but his tone was still friendly, which she was relieved by. "Have you ever seen a two-year-old tottering around a garden? There might be poison ivy, or rose bushes, or something else - like a spade or a pair of hedge trimmers laying on the lawn. The child doesn't really care - he just wants to play with all those brightly colored things he sees. Because to him, the world is a safe place."

"Because of... us?" Sarah wondered.

"Absolutely!" Kaysen nodded, looking pleased at her response. "But you can see that he's in danger. You know you should do something. You might want to run out and clear away all those dangerous tools just in case he tries to play with them and ends up cutting himself - or cut back all those sharp, spiky plants so they can't hurt him. But you know you shouldn't, because if you do that then he will grow up thinking the world can never hurt him, or he might go the other way and think that everything is dangerous and never stray from your side."

"So..." Sarah began, looking thoughtful. "You...watch it happen?"

"Absolutely." He replied. "If he does get a rash from the ivy - you can treat it. If he does end up cutting himself - you can bandage it, in the reasonably sure knowledge that he'll never make that same mistake again."

There was another crack of thunder somewhere in the distance.

"Is that what we are?" Sarah asked. "Children?"

"That's what we all are," He replied, as his smile faded a little. "To them."

"who are they?"

"The ones outside the garden."

Sarah stood there for a moment, contemplating what he had said.

"Thank you again for the folder, Sarah." He said finally, when she failed to say anthing.

“O-oh! I see! Well uh...let me know if you need anything!” Sarah managed to stammer (God, what was wrong with her?) after a long pause, and he acknowledged her with a wave.

“I will. Be safe on the way home later, alright? I fear this storm may get worse."

As the girl (awkwardly) trotted off, Kaysen flicked open the folder that had been marked CONFIDENTIAL in bright red font. There were over a hundred pages inside, but they were all blank - saved the first.

PROJECT IS APPROVED​

Kaysen’s smile widened, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his phone.

 

[MagicPenguin]

Arryn Bennett
Home

The booming sound of thunder outside of the common room window competed with the sound of the blowing fan right next to Arryn's ear as he unsuccessfully tried to stay focused on the book in front of him. Despite the rain, it was still somehow as hot as a typical Summer day; the humidity added by the water in the air only seemed to make the heat worse, even inside the apartment. At some point, though he was used to extreme heat from working in a forge, even Arryn hadn't been able to stand the discomfort anymore, so he grabbed the small fan he kept in his room to keep him cool at night and placed it next to the lamp on the table beside him where he was reading. That had been hours ago now. All morning, Arryn had alternated between reading to trying to play his flute to vainly searching for hidden food somewhere in the kitchen to re-doing chores he'd already done yesterday just because he needed to do SOMETHING to occupy himself; he wasn't used to being idle. Already, he'd washed the sinks, washed what few dishes there were to wash, cleaned the toilet, and vacuumed the common room, though none of it needed any doing at all. He'd even spent some time just staring at the light bulb in the lamp, trying to puzzle out how it worked. The thing had no fire in it--in fact, it never went near anything even remotely LIKE fire--but it still not only gave off light, it was hot to the touch. How could something get hot and bright without going near fire? He could only think of a few ways--friction or touching something else that was hot, for example--but none of them made any sense for the light bulb as far as he could see. And what the heck was that small buzzing noise the lights sometimes made when you turned them on? Everyone kept assuring him this world's technology wasn't fueled by magic, but, with all the crazy, varied, unimaginable things some of it could do, he often just couldn't understand how it could be anything else. In any case, at this point he was so bored he almost wished he and Daniel had gotten a TV when they had the chance. They'd decided they didn't need to waste the money on one since they never had such a thing on Aether and neither of them were home often enough to get any use out of one anyway. When they made that decision, they certainly hadn't counted on days like this. Arryn's stomach grumbled again, interrupting his reading and musing. He'd been trying his best to endure the hunger pangs, but the last time he ate was last night at the bar and the time before that some cereal in the morning. The hunger was becoming increasingly difficult to manage as the day wore on. With a despairing groan, he marked his place in the book he was reading and shuffled weakly back into the kitchen to search yet again for something to eat, though he already knew what the result of his search would be.

The digital clock on the oven blinked up at him as he walked inside. 11:48 AM, it said. Almost six hours he'd been cooped up in this place with nothing to do and no food to eat. Arryn sighed. Daniel would probably be home soon, if he somehow managed to make it through the storm in a timely manner. What would he think when he came home and found Arryn starving because he wasn't able to find a way to feed himself? Just the thought of it filled him with shame and caused his cheeks to flush. No matter what the body he was in looked like, Arryn thought a little indignantly, he wasn't some child who couldn't take care of himself without Daniel or Rose looking over his shoulder. He was the best blacksmith on Aether! He was the one who had re-discovered the secrets of forging magical weapons like Shadowsbane and Mah'alleinir! He counseled princes and queens in matters of warfare right alongside their generals; he single-handedly battled some of the deadliest creatures the Shadow Queen's armies could throw at him; he stood before the worst, most terrifying magics known the continent over, wielded by some of the most ancient and terrible arcanists ever to live, and laughed in their putrid, stinking faces as they threw lightning bolts and fireballs straight at him to no effect whatsoever! If he could do all that, he could certainly do something as simple as feeding himself! Yeah! He WOULD feed himself!

New determination filling him, the blacksmith opened the fridge again to find a half-empty carton of milk and some bottled water. For what felt like the millionth time today, he dimly remembered placing a half-eaten sandwich he'd ordered on his way home from work in there sometime last week and tried desperately to recall what happened to it, as though remembering would somehow cause it to magically re-appear in the refrigerator where he'd last seen it. Whether he ate it himself without remembering or Daniel had snagged it instead, he did not know. All he knew was that it was not there now. The fridge was empty. The cupboards were empty. There was nothing edible anywhere in the apartment. As if in response to that thought, Arryn heard the rhythmic sound of crunching and looked down to find Hogan feasting from his little red bowl. While chewing, he looked up at Arryn with his big brown puppy eyes. The motion of his chewing mouth almost made it seem as thought the dog was laughing at him. "Yeah, yeah, you have food and I don't. Rub it in, why don't you?" The pup only cocked his head quizzically as if puzzled and then returned his attention to the bowl before him. Frustrated, Arryn felt his momentary burst of determination begin to leave him again.

Though he'd been trying to avoid the inevitable truth all morning, it seemed there was no choice now but to accept it. If he wanted to eat, he was going to have to go out there into that wretched thunderstorm and find some food himself. He looked out the window again. There was very little he could imagine that looked less inviting than what lay waiting for him out there. It was the middle of the day, but it was nearly pitch black underneath the deep, gray stormclouds. The thunder and lightning came at regular, booming, flashing intervals and raindrops pattered unyieldingly on the window glass with the intensity of machine gun fire. Besides the occasional car with its headlights on, he hardly saw anyone on the road, walking or driving. As Arryn looked out at the mess, the inexorability of what he would have to do began to settle in on him. There was no escaping it. He was hot, bored, and hungry and now he was going to have to suffer through a trip outside in THAT. Could things get any worse? Unbidden, a voice began to sing song lyrics in the back of his mind, the same funny little Aetherian tavern tune that had been running through his head on and off nearly every day for the last month:

I'm soak n' wet and getting wetter still
The rain is pouring, well's began to fill...
the water's at me chin; I'm not sure I can swim
Coz I'm down at the bottom of the well

Humming unconsciously, Arryn started pawing through the four drawers below the kitchen counter without really thinking about what he was doing. He wasn't sure why he did it; he knew there was no food in any of them. Perhaps just a way to put off the unavoidable trip out into the deluge just a little bit longer. Two of the drawers were empty and he found cheap plastic tableware in the third, just as he knew he would. In the last, which he and Daniel had been using to keep miscellaneous items that they didn't know what else to do with, he found all kinds of assorted junk. Pens and paper, a canopener, sticky notes, scissors, a screwdriver, a stapler, a pile full of unopened junk mail; the list was endless. Arryn wasn't even sure where most of it had come from. Where had either he or Daniel gone that they might have gotten their hands on a stapler? He sighed and was just about to head to his room to get a hoodie and his umbrella--little good it would do him out there--when something in the pile of junk mail caught his eye. He ceased his dejected humming and curiously pulled out the small, colorful, trifold pamphlet with "Joe's Pizza and Italian Cuisine" written across the front in big red letters. He remembered the night they got this. It was the night before they went to the Government Registration Office to create their Earth identities and Rose had come over to help them figure out how they were going to do it. She'd pulled out her phone, which he'd still only thought of as a map-box at the time, and spoke into it, asking it for a pizza. Arryn was momentarily confused before he remembered he'd spoken into something similar the day he'd arrived on Earth in order to let Rose know they needed help getting out of the Police Station. He put two and two together and realized the tiny black box, though it looked quite different from the one he'd used, must be what they called a "phone" as well as a handheld map device. He knew then that Rose was actually talking to someone other than the box itself, but he still couldn't help but feel skeptical that anyone would really bring food as she'd requested. He was pleasantly surprised when someone actually showed up at their front door with a pizza about 30 minutes later, which the man had given to them in exchange for cash, as well as that tiny little pamphlet which the delivery man said they could keep for free. He later compared the whole process to a summoning ritual without the chalk circles or the bloody animal corpses usually necessary for such things and had been calmly reassured once again that the phone was not magic of any kind. Like with the light bulb, Arryn just could not see how it could be anything else. How could you communicate so quickly with someone leagues away, even summon them to you within minutes, by any means other than magic? It was just inconceivable to him. Even after Rose had convinced him and Daniel to get mobile phones of their own--at great cost to both, he might add--he still was not completely convinced it was not fueled by magic unknown to him.

Inconceivable as it all was, though, this Earth summoning ritual might actually be the answer to all his problems right now, he thought with exhilaration. Pamphlet in hand, he ran to his room, where he kept his mobile phone on the floor plugged in right next to where his sledge hammer leaned against the wall when he was not out and about. He did not handle it as warily as when he first obtained it, but he still held it somewhat lightly, as though it were a snake that might bite him if he were not too careful. Even now, he still was not completely convinced the device wasn't magical and, among the commonfolk back on Aether, there was a saying about magic: that using it was like wielding a sword with no hilt. Even the most well understood magics were potentially just as harmful to their practitioners as they were effective for their intended purposes. Some might think his stubborn cautiousness silly in the face of all the constant reassurance from almost everyone that phones were not magic, but he was not taking any unnecessary chances, especially after one of his older coworkers at the construction site told him mobile phones could probably cause cancer, maybe.

Carefully, he poked at the phone's screen until he managed to bring up the keypad with all the numbers. He dialed the number for Joe's Pizza just as it was printed in the pamphlet. When he placed the device slowly, cautiously his ear, he was greeted with the periodic beeping that let him know he had dialed correctly. He did not need to wait long before someone picked up.

"Hello, Joe's Pizza and Italian Cuisine! How can I help you today," chirped a female voice cheerfully in his ear.

"Um. Yes. Hello. I'd like you to bring me some pizza, please."

"Righto, one pizza for delivery. Any toppings?"

Suddenly confident, Arryn gave the usual order he got during his lunch break from that pizza place near his work site. "Yes, can I have it with sausage, pepperoni, and extra cheese, please?"

"You got it. That'll be 20 pounds even. Address?"

He gave her his apartment's address.

"Okay! Should be about 30 to 45 minutes, but we're a bit busy today with the weather, so it might take a bit longer than usual. Anything else I can get for you today?"

"No, just the pizza. Thank you, miss."

"No problem! Thanks for calling and you have a wonderful day, sir!" click

Arryn took the phone from his ear and stared at its dimming screen in wide-eyed wonder. He couldn't believe it, but the summoning ritual had actually worked! He had found a way to get food without going out into the storm!

Grinning madly, he placed the phone back on its charger before heading back out to the common room. He plopped himself back on the couch in the common room to wait and started thumbing Hogan's flute, which he'd left on the lamp table next to his book. He still felt the hunger pangs tearing relentlessly at his insides, but they were a lot easier to endure now that he knew for certain they'd soon be alleviated. He proudly brought the flute to his lips and carefully started to play the notes of the first thing that came to mind, a more upbeat tune than "I'm Down at the Bottom of the Well" to fit his more triumphant mood. "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" was one of the most requested songs in Alcamoth's taverns; people deep in their cups loved to sing along and bang their mugs on the table merrily in rhythm with the tune. It had been one of Hogan's favorites too, whenever he and the old dwarf went out for a night. He played it slowly at first, haltingly so he could remember how it went. He lost track of the time as he played it again, somewhat faster, and then a third time, almost perfectly but not quite. By the fourth repetition, he'd remembered how it went and played it as well as any average Alcamoth bard could.



Amused at his success and laughing to himself as he remembered the song's humorous lyrics, he played it a few more times before he realized the doorbell was ringing and little Hogan was barking up a storm at the sudden loud noise. Arryn must've been fiddling with the flute for longer than he realized; had thirty minutes really passed already? He grabbed his wallet and pulled out a twenty pound note and a five pound note, then made his way to the door. When he opened it, he was greeted by a poor boy, maybe seventeen, wearing a raincoat with a heavy poncho on over top. Despite all that precaution, he was still soaked to the bone and dripping from every part of him.

"Pizza delivery," he greeted Arryn grimly. The blacksmith could hardly hear the kid over the overpowering sound of wind, rain, and thunder behind him.

Arryn winced at the sight of the poor guy. "Tough weather, huh?"

"Yeah, real tough," the boy said, unamused. "You want your pizza or not? Twenty pounds."

Arryn traded the 25 pounds in his hand for the hot box in the sodden teenager's. The boy's formerly dead, solemn stare came alive when Arryn handed him the extra five. "For you. For coming," Arryn said. "It's the least I could do since you fought your way through...all that...to get this to me so fast."

"Thanks, man. Much appreciated. Enjoy your pizza." With that, the skinny teen was back off down the front steps out into the pseudo-hurricane with a small bounce in his gait that a smiling Arryn doubted had been there on the way up.

As Arryn sat at the kitchen table about fifteen minutes later happily enjoying his second slice of pizza, he wondered absently where Daniel had gotten to. He couldn't wait to see the look on the old werewolf's face when he walked in and found a hot slice of pizza waiting for him. He had said his job would only take him the morning. Arryn hoped a little worriedly that he had not gotten into any trouble out in that storm.

 

[Avari]

LISA SPARROW​

Lisa awoke with a murmur, rolled over and promptly fell off the battered sofa.
"Ugh." She managed to groan. She blinked. The shrill sound of ringing was coming from...somewhere. She was in the living room, on the floor.

Things did not add up. She had definetly retired to her room last night - she remembered spending a quiet hour researching ancient human prophecies.

Not that she could add them up for a moment. She had a skull shattering headache and her mouth was drier than a piece of stale bread. Her entire body ached, as if she had been in a fight. Every bone felt like it had been broken and reset several times over, and her skin felt like it was burning.

"Ugh." She said again. Then coughed. Something wet escaped in the process, and she glanced down to see a small patch of blood - her blood - now rapidly sinking into the beige carpet.

Oh, wonderful.

She took stock. It was daytime. She could hear the sound of rain hammering against the windows. No Rai - he must have left already. She was still wearing her night clothes - a pair of dark blue track bottoms and baggy shirt with some sort of yellow cartoon mouse on it. She noticed blood had stained her top as well.

The ringing was still banging around her head.

Lisa clambered slowly to her feet. That hurt a lot. She swayed, dizzy. Swaying hurt too. She hobbled slowly into her bedroom - taking a moment to fumble with the numbers on the padlock. The ringing was murderously loud in here, and she glanced down to her bedside cabinet, where a metal clock was blaring incessantly, and was vibrating so aggressively it was moving around on the tabletop. She winced and promptly slammed her hand down on the alarm clock's handle, stopping the blaring ringing. She glanced at the clock's face.

2PM?

Her alarm clock had been ringing for almost 4 hours without waking her. Even giving she was in the other room, that was good going.

"Marvelous." She sighed and starting dragging off her clothes.

As she hopped through the lounge, removing her bottoms, she saw a plate on the table. Her breakfast - a bowl of oats - sat untouched. A two-thirds full cup of tea beside it.

She stopped hopping, because that really hurt. She vaguely remembered waking up this morning now. She had said goodbye to Rai, made breakfast and then...?

Passed out?

She went to the bathroom, turned on the shower, threw her clothes in the laundry basket and made a mental note to put them in the washing machine before Rai came home, and turned to look at herself in the mirror.

The hot rush of the shower was already beginning to steam the edges of the mirror over the sink. Lisa saw her pale face staring back at her.

Her chin was covered in blood, that had become dry and crusty. Her usually perfect pearl white complexion was red and blotchy.

The eyes of her reflection, glared back at her accusingly, as if it was her fault.

And then, as if on cue, she felt a tight knot rising from her chest. She dashed for the toilet, and made it just in time as she began to choke and retch - the smell of blood and stomach acid filling her nostrils as she violently threw up.

A few, painful moments later - with tears streaming down her face, and hugging the toilet as if her life depended on it - Lisa drew a few haggard breaths and weakly climbed to her feet. She staggered over to the sink and span on the cold tap, quickly filling her mouth with water and spitting it out.

She glanced back at her reflection, taking a few more hungry gulps of air.

And a pair of watery yellow eyes with cat like pupils greeted her, before shimmering and shifting back to her more human blue, her skin also - returned to a more familiar white.

"Not yet." She ordered herself.

She couldn't die yet.

 

[koala]

Elena "Rose" Benoit
Outfit: PJs > Rainy
Date: Sunday 07/29/2018
Location: Home > Work > Library
Mentions: -
Interacting: Ana

7:30 AM
Elena was pouring the boiling hot water into a clean mug, mixing in the dried tea leaves that turned the liquid a dark color. Grabbing herself a piece of bread that she had toasted just enough to where it wasn't burned, she sat herself down and began consuming her simple breakfast. She was just about to take a sip of her piping hot tea when a loud thump form outside caused her to jump slightly. Alarmed, Elena's eyes whipped towards the back porch where she saw Ana standing.

"Morning. Yes, El is fine." Elena responded, smiling weakly as her heart rate slowed. Normally, she wouldn't have been so surprised by her flatmates sudden appearances, but she was extra sensitive that morning. Her head was pounding and she could still taste alcohol in the back of her throat. It wasn't like her to get so hammered, but at least she was with friends instead of strangers when it happened.

"Kind of, but I can't mope about it. I have to open up the shop today for the other part-timers." The blonde sighed as she continued to gingerly sip at her tea. It didn't take long for there to only be a few dark drops left at the bottom of her cup. Without any more words, she went over to the sink and cleaned her dishes.

8:30 AM
She'd taken the bus that morning since the weather wasn't too cheery. Her black rain boots splashed against the little puddles that were beginning to form, threatening to ruin the outfit she didn't really care for. Instead of shorts or a dress, Elena opted for dark denim and a striped shirt for comfort. She finished off her look with a yellow raincoat and tied her hair up in a simply ponytail. There was no point in putting much effort into her attire since she'd likely get showered on anyways.

As she walked, the sound of rain pattered against her opaque umbrella. Rain was always soothing for her and she was somewhat glad it wasn't sunny out. The blaring rays would've made her head hurt even more and there probably would've been more people crowding the streets. Of course, crowds of people were unavoidable in Camden Town, even if London were magically hit by a hurricane.

"I'm sorry," Elena apologized as she approached two figures standing next to the book store, one of them bouncing from side to side. "I woke up a bit later than expected." After unlocking the door and allowing her fellow coworkers in, she went over to the register and made sure everything was called for. Once it hit 9 o'clock, she parted ways and decided she'd head over to the nearby cafe, grab a drink, then make her way to the library and work on some writing, both musical and fictional.

4:00 PM
"Miss? Miss? Excuse me, Miss?"

Elena mumbled awake, red marks lining the right side of her face as she lifted herself from a cluster of notebooks and drool drying on the corners of her lips. She blinked her eyes a few times and squinted at the blurred figure in front of her before realizing her glasses must've fallen off. Reaching for what looked like her second pair of eyes, she put them on and sighed as everything was clear again.

"Yes?" Elena half-yawned, half-said as she wiped her mouth with the edge of her sleeve.

"The rain's gotten worse so we're closing down early before everyone's stranded." The man explained as he pointed towards the window.

Following his finger, Elena's eyes widened slightly. It was pouring and the saying "It's raining cats and dogs" did the current weather no justice. The woman could barely see a foot away from the window as rain fell onto the earth like rocks. Once she'd processed the scene, she nodded and began gathering her things. After storing her books and laptop away, Elena began to follow the group of people shuffling their way out of the building.

 

[IG42]

Tannur - Not sleeping
As a street rat turned notorious thief Tannur had learned long ago how to spring awake at a moments notice and also to grab sleep where possible and had been looking forward to a good rest for his day off. So while he had learned to tolerate Silver's tendency to end up in the same bed as him out necessity being woken by her thumping about at the dead of night was particularly irksome, thankfully she seemed to get the message and left him alone for a few more hours until she poked him awake while complaining about the rain. "Urrrrghhh...Silver it's just rain, it can't hurt you in here." Rolling over he tried to get back to sleep but even he couldn't do it while being relentlessly prodded, finally sitting up he glared at Silver. "Well what am I supposed to do about it? You want me to try and punch a rain cloud?"

Getting out of bed he wandered off in search of breakfast only to find it gone. "Oh...so you ate already." He said in a monotone while stomping off to the bathroom. Locking himself in he silently removed a panel by the shower unit and pulled out a tin of soup, he had quickly realised any attempt to store food conventionally was futile with Silver around and while she hated the rain she concept of deliberately getting oneself wet was one she was simply incapable of processing and frankly Tannur doubted she even acknowledged that the bewildering device existed which made it the last place she would ever look. He also wasn't sure if she had mastered the tin opener yet which had taken him a while to work out himself.

While heating the soup in a pan he looked out the window and realised the rain was so heavy he could barely see where the next building over was and the gap there was so narrow it was one of the few places in the city not filled with those cars that kept haring about with such a racket. "What in the worlds?" He murmured with a frown, he trusted the "weather forecast" even less than the natives that had first mentioned it but he should have at least seen some sign that a storm this strong was coming in. "Silver how long has it been raining like this?"

WillfulWren

 

[MagicPenguin]

Arryn Bennett
Home -> running through the streets of London

After his third slice of pizza, Arryn contentedly retired back to the couch in the common room to try reading more of his book from earlier. Before he got three more pages in, his full belly, in combination with the intense, rhythmic pattering of rain on the window, pulled him into a deep, relaxing sleep. His dreams were full of slow days in Hogan's Forge, the sound of hammer on metal, the sensation of heat on his face from the fire, and the rich, proud sound of Hogan's boistrous laughter as he watched over his eager young apprentice.

The peaceful dream ended all too quickly. Arryn awoke some time later to the wet sensation of a different Hogan's tongue on his face. When he opened his eyes, the little pup was standing on top of his chest while he lay on his back on the couch. The book he fell asleep reading lay on the floor a short distance away, fallen over at some point during his nap. Even now that he was awake, the pup didn't cease his relentless face-licking, nor did he step down from his perch atop Arryn's ribcage. "Alright, alright, I'm up, I'm up," he said somewhat irritably. He picked the small creature up with both hands and placed him gently on the floor beside the couch. He sat up and wiped at his face with a shirt sleeve; in addition to dog slobber, a small trail of drool had gathered at the corner of his jaw as he slept.

Arryn's first stop was the bathroom, in the hallway between the kitchen and the front door, where he relieved himself before rinsing his face with water and drying it thoroughly. The cold water quickly shocked him back to full wakefulness. As he walked out, refreshed, Hogan whined at him from his sitting position over at the front door, once more scratching at the bottom of it urgently with his front paw. Arryn sighed. The dog had to pee again. The sound of rain beating on the windows hadn't relented at all while he slept. If anything, it had gotten worse. He did not relish the idea of putting himself out in that anymore than he did earlier, before he ordered the pizza, but he couldn't avoid it now. Nature called, and Hogan longed to answer it.

He first ran to his room and grabbed a heavy hooded sweatshirt. He slipped his keys, phone, and wallet in his pants pockets and grabbed his umbrella last. He went next to the kitchen to grab Hogan's leash; the pup had not moved from his place by the front door. As he took the leash, Arryn noted the time on the oven's digital clock: 6:32 PM. He'd slept longer than he realized. He supposed he needed it after all the hours he worked on the construction site during the work week. More importantly, though, Daniel still wasn't back from his job that morning. He said that he would be back sometime in the afternoon, but, to Arryn's knowledge, had never returned. Arryn fished his phone out of his pocket and poked at it until Daniel's contact info popped up, one of only three people whose number he'd saved. He tried to give his roommate a call. It rang, but no one picked up. He was about to try again when he felt a tug at his pants and looked down to see Hogan nipping at his heels. Pursing his lips worriedly, he put the phone back in his pocket. He'd just have to try again later.

Troubled, Arryn leashed Hogan, put on his heavy workboots, and made for the front door. Thunder boomed threateningly from outside and lightning flashed ominously through the window, exacerbating the already somewhat uneasy feeling in Arryn's gut from Daniel's longer-than-expected absence. The blacksmith briefly contemplated returning to his room to grab mah'alleinir in its sledgehammer form, just in case something happened. He quickly discarded the idea, however. He was taking the dog for a five minute walk, not going out to fight a battle. Look at me, a grown man afraid of a little thunder and lightning, jumping at my own shadow. Daniel can take care of himself; I'm sure he's fine. Probably just stopped at the library. That's all it is. With a wry shake of his head, Arryn turned all the flat lights out, drowning his home in darkness before leading Hogan quickly down the stairs and out the building's front doors, leash in one hand and umbrella in the other.

As if in counterpoint to Arryn's unease, Hogan was just as excited as before to be back out in the rain. He barked happily, jumping nearly to Arryn's waist and catching water in his mouth. He splashed in every puddle he encountered, rolling through them playfully. They'd been outside less than a minute, but everything below Arryn's upper chest was already drenched. His head and neck, huddled beneath hood and umbrella, were the only dry body parts he still possessed. His pants and hoodie clung wetly to his body and his socks squished uncomfortably inside his waterlogged boots. The pounding sound of raindrops on the umbrella he was holding was so furious that, if he hadn't known any better, he might have thought he was standing under a waterfall rather than in the middle of the street in front of his house on a rainy day.

Arryn would have been amused at Hogan's water play normally, but all he wanted now was to get back inside and into something dry. The pup hadn't yet so much as lifted its leg yet, nor sniffed at anything to look for an unclaimed spot to do his business. Impatiently, Arryn wondered if he even had to actually pee or if it had just been a clever excuse to come out and play in the rain. He had no doubt the little golden retriever was smart enough to do such a thing. "Hogan, if you're not going to do anything," he yelled at the top of his lungs to be heard over wind and water and thunder, "then we're just going to go back inside! Hurry up already!" He didn't really expect the dog to understand him. He was just venting his mounting frustration, making his marked displeasure known to the little animal.

In response to Arryn's shout, the puppy began to direct his excited, playful antics at him rather than all the water around him. He nipped at his boots and pant legs and jumped in puddles with the intent to splash him, which he managed to do quite successfully. Frustration giving way to anger, Arryn shook his leg brusquely where Hogan was trying to nip him. Rather than dissuade the pup, this only seemed to egg him on further. He darted in to nip and quickly out when Arryn shook his booted foot at him, barking happily, thinking it was all a grand game.

"Argh! I think I'm beginning to see why you were abandoned after all, you little fleabag," Arryn said angrily. "C'mon, we're going back inside. Damn the clean carpets, they aren't worth standing in this. I'll just clean up whatever you do inside." Daniel would kill him for it, and then the pup when he was done, but Arryn had had enough of this weather.

Arryn yanked the leash harshly as he about-faced and turned back to the apartment and was surprised when he felt no resistance to the sudden pull. Instead of trying to get away from Arryn's tug, Hogan ran with it until he was in front of Arryn again. He took another playful bite out of his lower leg before leaping back once more and running behind Arryn again in a circular trajectory. Before Arryn knew it, Hogan bit at him from behind again and then once more circled around to his front, wrapping the leash in his hand once around both Arryn's legs as a result of his motion.

Arryn realized too late what was about to happen. He tried to disentangle his legs from the leash while the dog continued to run around and around him, wrapping his legs a second and third time. The only thing Arryn's efforts to free himself accomplished now was to somehow make the situation even worse. All it took was a particularly strong wind tugging at the umbrella in his other hand and Arryn was hauled from his feet and to the ground, unable to maintain his precarious balance on his wrapped, immobile legs. His hands cartwheeled wildly as he went down, dropping the umbrella to fly away in the wind, only to come to a stop at the last second on the sidewalk in front of him to prevent his head from smashing into the ground with a great deal of force as he landed face first in a puddle with a momentous splash. His face was spared the worst of the impact, but his hands stung fiercely from skidding against the concrete and he could feel the fat lip he was going to have as a result of what little impact his face did endure.

"Urgh..." Groaning, Arryn lifted his hands to eye level to see the bloody scrapes on his wet palms, the source of the stinging he felt. His forearms would have been the same if not for his long sleeves. It occurred to him then that he was staring at two wounded palms when one hand should have been holding a leash. He moved his legs experimentally to find them completely unhindered. Putting these things together, his eyes widened with realization at the same time he heard a dwindling barking noise from somewhere down the street.

"Hogan!" he yelled as he surged to his feet in a flurry of soaked cloth and limbs. He looked wildly all around him. He could hardly see more than a few feet in front of him in any direction. The storm clouds made everything darker than it should be and the massive quantity of falling rain served to make everything at a distance even harder to discern on top of that. The only guide he had as to where his dog had gone was the sound of barking somewhere down the street. Desperately, blindly, Arryn ran toward the sound, uncaring of how soaked he was becoming without the protection of his long-gone umbrella. When he finally caught the sight of Hogan again at the intersection at the end of the block, the dog gave him another happy bark and stood waiting for him to approach. His tongue was hanging out and his tail wagging wildly. He was clearly still having a ball, thinking the chase was just a fun game between himself and his caretaker. Arryn slowly, very slowly, approached closer and closer, breathing quiet, soothing words in Hogan's direction, pleading with the puppy to stay right where he was. When he was just within arm's reach of the dog's leash, he made a quick, sudden, snake-like grab for it. Hogan was faster, though. He barked playfully again before dancing back outside Arryn's reach. He darted backward, heedless of what was behind him, even when that happened to be the middle of the street at an intersection with a car rapidly approaching the light.

As the car hurdled toward the puppy, it came close enough that Hogan's body was completely illuminated by the lights of its rapidly closing front bumper. Arryn's breath caught in his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut reflexively, thinking the worst was about to occur, when he heard the skidding sound from the driver suddenly slamming his breaks. When he opened his eyes again thinking to find Hogan's dead body underneath the car's front tires, he saw only the retreating form of his dog's unharmed backside, leash trailing behind. The former blacksmith let out the breath he hadn't been able to choke out a second before. Relief warred with terror for the pup as well as a red rage at his careless antics. The stupid dog just rushed ahead, doing whatever he wanted, thinking everything was a game and everything would always go his way no matter how much danger he was in! I should've named the damn thing Roland!

Ignoring the expletives the driver of the car was shouting at him, Arryn raced desperately down the street after his wayward puppy, who ran barking madly through the torrential rain, sparing his human not even a casual backward glance as he pranced ahead.

"Damn you, Hogan, get back here! When I catch you, I'll skin your hide for a rug you mangy son of a mutt!"

 

[WillfulWren]

Silver Ferae, home --> Street - IG42 MagicPenguin
Ruby eyes widened, as she stared at her half-elf friend in shock and amazement. "You can punch a raincloud? Really?! Show me, show me!"

Of course, her silly request was ignored - not that she minded, she was used to such treatment - and she just curled up in the warm spot he had left in the bed, yawning after her eventful night of monster hunting and butterfly chasing.

"I'll go get some more food!" She yelled, hearing his comment on the state of their cupboards. Maybe she wouldn't have volunteered, but she was starting to get hungry too, her stomach growling. So, she got dressed in her normal outfit, completely unsuited to this weather, and slipped out the front door while he was busy in the bathroom. She'd show him, she could be useful and get some food!!

Several hours later, she was soaked to the bone and miserable, but stubbornly refusing to go back home. She had to get some food, or they'd starve! But she had neglected to bring any money with her, and Tannur would complain at her in that disapproving way of she brought back baby birds. She had checked in on the nest, and through some kind of pity (or the influence of her animal instincts fading as she stayed human) she had constructed a little roof over the next to keep the rain out.

So, it looked like she would be stealing today. She hadn't done it before (Not on purpose, at least) but Tannur did it, and he was an idiot so she would do amazingly! She'd bring back lots of yummy food, and then she would have her hair petted and he'd tell her she had done well-

She just had to find a shop without getting distracted. And, of course, here came a distraction in the form of a -
"Puppy! Hi!" Silver crouched down, holding her hand out for the little dog to sniff. She was cold and wet and had been miserable - but her mood was already improving greatly as she petted him.

 

[MagicPenguin]

Arryn Bennett
Streets of London

Hogan led his would-be master on quite a merry chase: Arryn was led around blocks, down shady allies, through, despite the rain, still-crowded plazas, and everywhere in between. Somehow, through burning lungs that could barely keep him breathing and wobbly legs that threatened to give out beneath him, Arryn somehow managed to stay mostly just one step behind him the majority of the time. Whenever he did seem to be falling behind, Hogan was nice enough to wait for him to approach again, only to bolt at the last moment as he had that first time. Would this dog never get bored of this game? And how did he run so long and so far without ever getting tired? Most of all, just how has my life turned into this?!

From what Arryn had seen, the pup had no concern for fast-moving cars that might run him over or crowds of people that might step on him or...anything really. More than once, Arryn had thought him a goner, either run over or drowned or trampled or electrocuted or...

Stop. Can't think of all that. Just gotta focus and catch him before he gets himself killed. And then never let him out of the house again. Ever.

At one point, Hogan somehow managed to get ahead of him AGAIN. Taking a moment to stop and catch his breath, the blacksmith took a look around him and realized, for the first time, that he didn't even know where he was anymore. He'd been so focused on just following Hogan that he'd completely lost track of which way he had gone where he was being led. Even if he DID catch his canine ward, he wasn't even sure how he was going to get home from here. That was concerning, to say the least, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. He just had to focus on one problem at a time.

Arryn didn't even bother looking around for signs of the dog. They'd been doing this dance for well over an hour now. Whenever he completely lost the pup, it wasn't long before...

He heard a bark from around the corner behind him. How the heck had the mangy mutt gotten behind him?!

"Grrrr!" Arryn booked it as fast as he could around the corner. He desperately missed the stamina of his old body; many people assumed that having a bigger body meant moving slower, but Arryn knew the opposite. If he had his old size and muscle mass, his longer legs would provide him a bigger stride, which meant more speed than the little puppy could have possibly produced easily. More importantly than that, though, it would have meant having more stamina as well, which would mean a little sprint like this would not have winded him nearly so much. On top of that, his soaked clothes might not have felt as heavy as they did in his true body. Right now, his wet hoodie, t-shirt, jeans, socks and boots made him feel like he was wearing a full suit of plate armor at the same time he was trying to run at full speed. Every instinct he had told him he was going to pass out if he took two more steps, but he had to keep going or else he feared the worst for his careless, danger-prone little puppy.

He raced around the corner, ignoring all the warning signs that his body was getting ready to crumble on him. Ahead, he could barely make out Hogan licking the hand of a girl sitting out in the rain. Ordinarily, Arryn might have found her odd because she had unmistakably silver hair and she was wearing virtually nothing in the middle of possibly the worst thunderstorm he'd ever seen since arriving on Earth, but right now he didn't have the mental capacity to fully process either of those observations. All his cognitive resources went to Hogan, sitting next to her and enjoying her attentions while they lasted.

"STOP THAT DOG!"

At the sound of his voice, the puppy turned from the drenched, silver-haired woman, growled mockingly at him, nipped at the girl's hand playfully as if inviting her to join their game, then darted off past her.

"Damn it!" Arryn stopped again next to the girl, completely out of breath once more, leaning his weight on his hands atop his bent knees and leaning his head forward as he tried to rest and explain the situation to her at the same time.

"S-...sorry, th..that's...the p-p-puppy I've been...caring for..." he managed to choke out in between heaping gasps of breath. "G-gotta catch him. Might get hit by a car or...drown in a puddle or....ugh...sorry for the trouble. G-g-gotta...gotta go!"

With that, still gasping for air, he ran off again at full speed after his dog, which he could only barely still see about half a block away from him as he turned a corner and left his line of sight once more.

"HOOOOGAAAAAN! GET BACK HEEEEERE," Arryn screamed, shaking his still-stinging fist angrily over his water-logged head as he went.

WillfulWren

 

[Avari]

HANNAH MILLER
​

Hannah Miller wasn't the sort of person who stood out in the crowd. Nor was she the kind who really ever wanted to. Her hair was never too bright, her shoes had always been fairly sensible and she never bothered with lipstick or makeup or anything like that.
She pondered that for a brief moment, as she grabbed another bag of sand and propped it up against the far wall of the cafe to stop the water slipping through the cracks; she could almost her her father's voice commending her on her safe, uncontroversial choices. Science subjects for A Level: "Quite right Hannah, none of that arty nonsense, you'll want a career." A University in London rather than Edinburgh "So much more financially convenient to live at home Hannah." regular attendance at Church, trying to look inconspicuous as your became excruciatingly aware of your father's fluting voice echoing above the standard murmur of the congregation during the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name..."

Hannah grabbed another sand bag. Being so close to the Thames, all the shops on the high street had emergency provisions - should the river ever flood. She never thought for a moment she'd have to use them though. Father's mantra had always been get stuck in, and not stick out. And yet his own insistence on being most conventional, the most ordinary, the most outspokenly moderate man in London meant that he himself stuck out in the local community even more. "Don't embarrass us" he'd tell his family at the restaurant or the cinema. He'd rather die than be embarrassed in Public.

He'd have hated what she had done to the Family Cafe.

Two weeks after he had died, Hannah had promptly abandoned her Physics course and moved over to Fine Arts. Most of the art adorned on the cafe walls was her own - though she was a bit shy to admit it. she recalled when she had been in bed with Tony Matthews, and was discussing her Father's many idiosyncrasis that he had whispered "Creativity takes courage" as he moved his hands slowly over her body.

Her affair with Tony had been the most uncharacteristic thing she had ever done. It had sort of...opened a door to her more wild yearnings. And while whe was still content to be another face in the crowd, she had definitely earned a reputation as being "kooky" around the local area. God, her Dad would have died if he would have heard that.

But he was gone. So was Mum - she had upped and moved up north the moment he had died.

But she had left Millers to her. Wasn't a bad going honestly: A 20-something year old with her own business in the middle of London.

Though it was undeniably a rather wet business at present.

She sighed as she saw the water was still slowly creeping along the wooden floor. The sand bags had done little so far to block out the torrential rain that was assaulting the city. She as going to be ruined if this continued...Then she almost jumped out of her skin, as she heard loud banging against the Window.

A dark figure, wearing a battered black hoodie and worn looking leather jacket was waving at her - looking rather put-out herself.

"Oh my god, Lisa!" Hannah practically shrieked, as she started pushing the sand bags out the way before tearing open the door - allowing Lisa to quickly jet in. Along with what felt like half the Thames.

"Close it!" Lisa snarled, as the wind began to force the door open even wider.

The two women fought back against the storm, slowly but surely forcing the door shut again - sealing the worst of the weather outside.

Hannah glanced around at her colleague, completely out of breath. Lisa looked soaked to her very skin and was dripping quite impressively on the already wet floor. Regardless, she bounded over and wrapped up the rather miserable looking woman in a warm - if admittedly rather wet - hug. Lisa didn't quite return the hug, but gingerly gave Hannah a couple of gentle pats on the back.

"What are you doing here?" Hannah gushed, refusing to let the drenched girl go.

Lisa prised herself out of Hannah's vice like grip and gently - but insistently - pushed Hannah away to a slightly more comfortable distance. Then she glanced around at the cafe - almost half an inch of water covering the floor, the kitchen in a shambles, the cozy red sofas stained probably beyond repair.

"An illogical whim of sorts," She admitted, as she grabbed one of the sandbags. Hannah rushed forwards, as if to hug her again - only for Lisa to throw the sandbag at her.

"I hope I get Overtime for this."

 

[Shotgunpenguin]

Juniper Arc
Apartment 2347 - Juniper's apartment ----> Middle of a rainy street

Juniper awoke as she usually did, which is to say that she awoke very poorly. After her spirited renewal in her task to find Luzrezia and the others she spent the next four hours riding around the city searching high and low for any sign of them. Predictably it didn't yield any results, just like every other time she had tried, but at the very least it got rid of her enervated sense of importance. Unfortunately it did nothing for her enervated stamina, neither did the fact that she had only gotten barely three hours of sleep last night after she had returned home. "Damn, late for work" The metal alarm clock which would usually be ringing was silent, having never been set the night before it now laid in the barren corner of Juniper's apartment displaying the time as 8:30 in the morning. Quickly tugging on an outfit, a pair of jeans and a short sleeved black and white shirt with a black jacket to go over it she descended her way down the stairs of the apartment building. It was already raining outside when she got to her bike, a fact that made her grimace as it would mean her route would be a lot more difficult to finish on time. With a sigh she resigned resigned herself to her fate and set off.

The rain had only worsened since Juniper left her apartment making the journey to her job even worse than usual. To make matters even worse two of the other riders had called in sick meaning that Juniper had to deliver three times her usual packages. It took longer than usual for her to finish her deliveries due to the rain, and having to stop a few times to make sure that she wouldn't freeze to death in the rain. She made a mental note to purchase a jacket or something similar in the future in case she ever got caught out in the rain again. By the time she had made her final delivery the small wooden clock in the delivery building read 5:30 as she attempted to dry herself off with a towel her boss had provided her. "You can stay here until the storm passes if you want, I'm going to stay late to make sure nothing gets damaged." Her boss was an older man in his mid thirties with a large walrus like mustache and biceps that looked like he could wrestle a bull to the ground. He was currently wearing a pair of boots, grey pants and a large black rain jacket . "Thanks for the offer but I really need to get to the library. I need to research something that really can't wait." Her boss nodded but added "At least wait a little to see if the storm lessens. I still don't feel right sending you on your way out in this." Not seeing the harm in taking his advice Juniper waited an additional hour to both warm up and let her clothes dry. After it was clear that the storm was not letting up at all she sighed and bid her boss a goodbye before heading out in the direction of the library.

From her job it would usually take her around twenty minutes to reach the library, however due to the rain it was probably going to take double that amount. The rain was coming down in sheets now, obscuring her vision and making any kind of turning an absolute nightmare as too much of a turn would send her skidding down the street like a fleshy cannonball. "Damn it, I can't even see five feet in front of me" she growled out as she prepared to round a corner in an attempt to circumvent a ride across the open street. Just as she was about to round the corner a small yellow blob seemed to appear out of thin air right into her path causing her to loudly curse and swerve to try and avoid it. With the ground already soaked as it was, her sudden shift caused the bikes wheels to slide as the bike crashed into the ground taking her along with it. The thing that she had tried to avoid hopped to the side as she skidded past it, traveling a good distance before she rolled to a stop, her bike continuing without her as she laid on the ground in pain. Juniper could feel the skin that was scrapped off burn as she felt something wet and warm drip down the front of her face. Experimentally reaching up to touch it she winced as she pulled back and saw the blood covering her fingertips from the cut on her forehead. Before, something like this would hardly bother her, but her new body lacked the muscles and strength built up from years of combat leaving her with tears in her eyes as she slowly sat up in the pouring rain. "Damn this weak body." she weakly cursed as the thing that she had avoided came into her view.

It was a dog, more of a puppy given it's small stature, and it seemed to think that she was trying to play with it. It barked excitedly as it jumped around her while wagging its tail, nipping at her shoes as it tried to continue to play with it's new friend. Juniper weakly swatted at it, however it only made the puppy even more excited as it bit at her fingers while trying to swat it away with its little paws. Normally she might have found the action cute, but bleeding from her head, having the skin from her hands scrapped off and getting soaked to the absolute bone in the pouring rain it was safe to say that she was pissed. "Screw off you mutt!" She slammed her hand down to try and cuff the little guy on the head but only succeeded in splashing some water onto her already soaked pants. The annoying pup kept trying to play with her as she slowly got to her feet, it nipping at her drenched hair and fingers as it tried to get her into its apparent fun. The rain had begun to come down even harder now if it was even possible. What was a torrential downpour was now a monsoon with the rain almost pouring sideways, the force of which was starting to sting her unprotected skin. Juniper knew that attempting to access the library wouldn't be possible as long as the rain continued so she decided to try and find shelter. Right after she dealt with this stupid dog that was.

MagicPenguin

 

[IG42]

Tannur - At Home
Not hearing an answer to his question Tannur glanced around. "Silver?" Turning down the heat on the hob he looked around the flat quickly but didn't see her anywhere and there wasn't enough room for any decent hiding places. "Silver! Where are you?" Leaving the flat he checked on the boiler in the cellar of the building to see if she was sulking or napping in the warm space. "Dammit dammit!" He hissed after finding nothing, rushing back up to their flat he threw on a raincoat and grabbed a second pausing only to inhale his tepid food, this would be a long chase and doing it on an empty stomach in the current conditions would be dangerous.

Out in the streets he ran up and down aimlessly asking what few passers by and shop workers there were if they had seen anyone that resembled her. Eventually his search drew the attention of a passing police car which pulled up ahead of him and rolled down a window, naturally Tannur tensed at seeing the law taking an interest in what he was doing even though he lacked any of the notoriety or distinctive racial traits he'd had previously but he quickly decided it would be too suspicious to turn away and it wasn't like he was committing any crimes at the moment. "Need something gentlemen?" He said leaning down by the open window. "Just wondering what possessed you to take a stroll in this weather mate." The policeman inside replied with an obvious question, sighing Tannur decided that they might actually be helpful instead of chasing him for once. "I'm out looking for my friend, we had an argument and she went out without a coat or anything." He held up the other coat bundled under his arm as evidence which the officer frowned at. "Just a friend? Well if she has any sense she'll have found some shelter or gone home. She not picking up her phone I take it?" Tannur recoiled a little at the idea of someone thinking Silver was his 'girlfriend' as they called them on Earth and managed not to scoff at the cop. "Definitely just a friend, she's...a little odd and doesn't have much of a sense of direction, she doesn't have a phone either. Look is there any chance you can just keep an eye out for her? She's about my age and has silver hair, shouldn't be that many people out today looking like that right?" He regretted saying that a little thinking she'd probably bite any authority figures she met but he was getting very worried about her, she'd had a tendency to underestimate her physical limits as a human. "Alright I'll put out a call and check if anyone has seen her."

While the cop was on his radio Tannur fidgeted nervously feeling very awkward relying on law enforcement for help with anything, the ones back on Aether were usually more concerned with lining their own pockets or trying to take him down for the fame. "Sorry mate, nothing. Sure she won't have just gone home?" Gritting his teeth in frustration Tannur shook his head. "No we're sharing a place and yes we're definitely still just friends." Despite his assurances the cop still looked skeptical. "Alright I'll keep listening, maybe she'll turn up. Still you should get yourself home the met office has no idea what's going on with this storm." Barely managing to remain polite Tannur shook his head again. "Not until I find her." Without another word he left ignoring the police officer's call to 'stay safe'.

As he continued to wander feeling the rain increase to almost bruising force he thought about the strange yet convenient device he carried, he had quickly realised he was expected to have one but with Silver's tendency to overeat and spend at random she didn't have one yet, thinking about it again he thought about calling Rai and while he didn't think the ex-thunder god could help much he called him anyway. "Rai? Are you there? Silver's wandered off somewhere and I'm out looking for her. If you somehow see her tell me." He wasn't quite sure if the call had gone through or if he had gotten one of those things that noted down a message for later again.

WillfulWren QizPizza

 

[LoneSniper87]

Anastasia Kochenkov
Home, out and about

After slipping into the house, she had a brief chat with Elena before she left for work, feeling a bit sorry for her. It was only light raining at the moment, but it didn't show signs of stopping. Hopefully it stayed at roughly this pace while she went out. She changed into a thin black track jacket with white strips, a grey tank top with some sweatpants and sneakers. After she got ready she headed out, a small umbrella in her pocket as she ran, feeling the rain patter against her head as she jogged, on occasion hitting a puddle.

She didn't have a destination in mind, it was clear when a few hours past and she was stranded near the Waterloo in torrential downpour, trying to hide under her small umbrella that barely covered her. She was near completely soaked, cold, and most of the stores offered no solace to her. For now, she stood outside a cafe with a few people inside, not even bothering to bang on the window. They were occupied as is. Across the way were a few people with a small dog, she couldn't make out anybody in particular because of the rain, but it didn't matter to her. The rain was soothing, both to watch and listen to, getting drenched was a minor nuisance.

 

[WillfulWren]

Silver Ferae, Street near Covent Garden - MagicPenguin
Oh, she already liked this guy, just from the way he said 'the puppy I've been caring for' rather than simply 'my puppy'. Finally, a human who understood that animals were not owned by people - except legally, perhaps, if they had been bought. That was.rather important, as she had learned after trying to liberate a cute rabbit from pets at home.

Silver winced as she got but - so that's how it feels - then smiled at the stranger as the puppy ran off. "I'll help you catch him! I'm strong and fast, he won't have a chance!"

And so, she slips over, falls on her butt, but then gets determinedly back to her feet to follow the puppy as fast as she can without falling again.

 

[MagicPenguin]

Arryn Bennett
Streets of London

Arryn turned the next corner just in time to see Hogan cut in front of a red-headed woman on a bike. She managed to avoid him, but just barely, and at the cost of a nasty-looking spill into the water-filled streets. Another inch or two to the right, and Hogan would've had a few broken bones, he'd wager. That dog just had no sense of self-preservation. Were all Earth dogs like this? Arryn forced himself forward to help the girl to her feet, but the water gathering in the street was nearly to his ankles now, totally covering his boots, and it made running difficult. Even Hogan had to slow down; the water was just short of chest level on him and he had to nearly jump with every step forward so he could get his little legs above the water as he ran ahead. If Arryn didn't catch the dog quickly, Hogan would soon be swimming away from him instead of running. Not that he seemed to mind, Arryn thought wryly.

By the time he got to her, the red-head had already gotten herself up and she was staring ahead angrily at his wayward canine companion retreating into the distance. Her bike had flown a little ways ahead of her and was on its side now. Laying flat as it was, the entire frame was just about covered by the water except for the handlebar sticking straight out. He could not tell whether it had been damaged by the crash or not, obscured by the floodwater as it was. Even without Hogan's interference, Arryn thought it was a miracle she had even managed to ride this far under these horrid conditions. The woman herself looked pretty beat up from her crash. She had a bloody abrasion across her hairline and looking at her skinned, bloody arms reminded him once again of his own stinging palms, in a similar state from his fall an hour or so before.

"That...that doesn't look good at all," Arryn said worriedly. "I'm sorry. I'll take responsibility for this. Any damage to the bike or medical bills or...ugh...we should really get those cuts cleaned and bandaged and get you out of this weather, but..."

Arryn swung his gaze anxiously from the hurt woman over to the retreating form of his dog, still running further up ahead. He was still barking madly and happily, despite the trouble he was starting to have moving through the flooded streets. He couldn't just leave this woman; she'd been hurt because of his carelessness. But he couldn't leave Hogan alone out in this either. What should he do...?

Arryn's dilemma was solved by the silver-haired woman who'd followed closely behind him. She boldly proclaimed she wanted to help him catch Hogan when he talked to her earlier. Part of him had wanted to protest at the time that, dressed as she was, the only things she should be catching were shelter and some decent clothing that didn't make him want to stare at the floor and blush just looking at her. The larger part of him, though, was eager to accept her offer of help. Four hands were better than two, after all, and if she wanted to risk catching a cold, that was up to her. Besides that, something about his brief encounter with her earlier had tickled something in depths of his memory, and he was a little curious why she seemed so familiar to him; he welcomed more time to puzzle out who she was.

"Thanks for your help, miss," he said to her as she caught up. "This woman is injured, so I don't just want to leave her, but I can't just leave Hogan either. Do you think you can keep an eye on where he's going while I take her someplace she can get these wounds treated? I'll catch up with you as soon as...as soon as...ah!"

Arryn's eyes widened in shock and the rest of his sentence caught in his throat. Now that he was standing still and got a better look at her than just a passing glance in between gasps, he realized why she seemed so familiar. Just as Roland had told him she did the night before, the girl looked nearly identical to her Aether form: the Silver haired shifter who killed his ally in cold blood during the siege on Blackrock. If he left her alone with Hogan, would she kill him just for fun the same way she'd done him? For that matter, would she do that to the wounded woman if he left her in Silver's care and went ahead himself? He thought his dilemma'd been solved when she approached, but now it just seemed ten times worse. No matter who he left her with, he risked someone's life. Suddenly afraid, he changed plans hastily. He spoke as calmly as he was able under the circumstances, not willing to let on that he'd just realized who she was.

"Actually, you know what? You look drenched. You're going to get sick dressed like that. I really do appreciate your help--really!--but I'd hate it if you got a cold or a tree fell on you or something because of this silly nonsense. Why don't you find some dry shelter to wait out the storm? Maybe some more protective clothing?" He couldn't help but look away from her and blush again at the mention of her skimpy outfit. "I'll take this girl somewhere to get bandaged up and then resume the search for Hogan myself. I'm sure he won't go far, he always comes back to taunt me if I lose him. Maybe if I pretend I'm not interested in his game, he'll even get bored and come back on his own! Yeah! So, you see, you really don't have to go to any trouble!"

As he spoke, he subtly shifted his position so that his body was between the shifter and the injured woman. Just in case. If she tried anything, he'd rather she attack him than the wounded civilian behind him. He internally lamented his earlier decision not to bring his sledgehammer, though, through a conscious effort, his face showed no trace of his regret.

Shotgunpenguin WillfulWren LoneSniper87

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Roland Fairchild
Public Library

"Excuse me, everyone! The rain has gotten really quite bad! The streets are starting to flood. We realize it's early, but we've decided to shut down at 4:00 today for safety reasons! We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you make your way calmly out the front doors in an orderly fashion. Thank you so much."

Roland grimaced and logged off the computer. He donned his red hoodie and picked up his massive black umbrella from its leaning position next to his chair, then strapped it to his back with a rope across his chest so the handle stuck over his shoulder like a big longsword waiting to be drawn. The handle was even a little black plastic piece shaped like a sword hilt; Roland saw it on sale in a thrift shop one day and thought it too charming not to grab. He collected his disorganized notes on Schroedinger's Cat and double slit experiments and shoved them haphazardly into his backpack, then slung it over his shoulders as well so that it rested on his back over top of the sword-shaped umbrella.

Sighing, he mentally went over what he'd gotten done today. Nothing of any use, unfortunately. After his argument with Marcus last night, sleep had proven elusive; he hadn't been able to drift off until the early hours of the morning. At first he just laid there on his mattress, simmering over the perceived betrayal, but as the night went on and time cooled his anger, he eventually found himself sympathizing with the poor boy. He had an agonizing conflict of interest, one between his duty to his country and his duty to his family. Roland found himself wondering what he would do if he were in the same situation with his own sister, Ophelia. If she committed a heinous crime, his duty as prince would compel him to hold her accountable for it--to punish her as he would any other criminal--no matter how difficult it would be as a brother. He liked to think that he'd be able to make the right choice and do what was necessary, but if push came to shove and he found himself in that position, would he really betray his own blood, no matter how horrible her crime? It was a vexing dilemma. And all that was to say nothing of what Marcus had mentioned about "rehabilitation." Roland was all for it where it was appropriate, but for a high ranking shadowspawn officer with a list of brutal murders longer than an ancient wizard's uncut white beard? He was skeptical of that idea, to say the least. And even if he DID try it with her, he'd be obligated to try it with the other generals as well; he couldn't make an exception just for Silver because Marcus was his friend, after all.

And of course, there was the other thing Marcus had told him after all that. That he loved him. That kept him up as well. He had never seen that one coming. What to do about that?

When he woke late this morning, still feeling groggy and sleep-deprived, he still had not sorted out how to deal with any of this, but he resolved to at least start the fence-mending process with the lad. He cooked a quick breakfast; nothing fancy, just some leftover steak from the night before over some scrambled eggs with some fried potatoes. He tried knocking on Marcus's door to let him know there was food, but got no response. Was the shifter actually sleeping or just ignoring him? He thought about trying to speak through the door, but then decided against it. No need to let all the other tenants hear the details of their personal problems. In the end, he put the food in the fridge and left a note on Marcus's door to let him know it was there. They'd have to talk about last night later.

After eating, he hadn't wanted to wait around in his room to keep stewing in all these unanswered questions, so, despite the rain, he decided he'd try to get something useful done today. He showered and dressed and then was showered again as he trudged through the pouring rain to get to the library. The rain was sudden and nobody had predicted it. Even back then, it was so bad and so unexpected that he'd been tempted to believe dark magic was behind it somehow. He failed to see what benefit Lucrezia or her minions would gain from it, but he wouldn't put anything past shadowspawn. In any case, once he made it to the library, he decided he was going to do some more research on possible ways to get back to Aether. He'd come across something a few weeks back called quantum physics and the many-worlds interpretation that had seemed promising. Roughly four hours of mind-boggling mathematics and fanciful science fiction stories later, he was being ushered out early due to the rain and was forced to admit to himself that its relevance to his situation was probably only tangential at best. So he'd gotten nothing of any use done today, despite his best intentions. No potential ways home. No new ideas about how to handle Marcus or Silver and the other shadowspawn generals. At least Ana would be able to start finding Silver's associates tomorrow. Even having accomplished nothing else today, he was at least secure in the knowledge that he was one day closer to ending that genocidal witch.

Walking to the front doors, Roland couldn't help but notice how few people were there compared to when he first arrived. He could probably count the few of them that remained on one hand. A desperate-looking student fingering through thick textbooks muttering about an exam, an older woman grasping a cheesy romance novel in a vice-like grip, a sleepy-looking, spectacled blonde girl with a red indent across her cheek that told the story of the nap she'd just woken from...

Wait a minute. Roland blinked and smiled. He knew that blonde girl. This was a pleasant surprise. He welcomed a friendly face right now.

He approached her and tapped lightly on her shoulder. With his bright smile, he greeted her warmly.

"Well, fancy meeting you here, Rose. What brings you to the library on such a dismal day? Flooding in the streets, the man said. Doubt there's any buses or taxis to take us home anymore. Looks like we'll be hoofing it. Shall we suffer through it together? Misery loves company, as they say," he remarked cheerfully as he brandished the black sword-looking umbrella from his back.

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