(open) and these thoughts are in my head

[abhorrently]

Who: Fever & open
What: Settling into the town in varied ways.
When: Second half of March/early part of April.
Where: Varied locations - see prompts.
Warning(s): Likely intrusive murder thoughts, others to be added should they arise.


work - town hall.
The newest clerk at Town Hall is a woman with a scar on her face and an eagerness to learn the system. Soon enough, she's figured things out, as if she'd been working there for months instead of the short time it really has been. Things flow easily, aided by both the strange item she'd retrieved from that one shop and what seems to be an innate understanding. But then again, if one can negotiate tactics midbattle, a job with paperwork and filing is practically nothing. So, if you need something, she's likely the one to dispense the forms or take them, working through the level of administration that all the new arrivals warranted.

Of course, it's not always business, and at the right time, someone might catch her at break, a novel from the library at hand and a dictionary close by as she needs to look up words. Some concepts and items are as of yet unknown to her, but she believes firmly with a bit of study, it can all be sorted.

training - "fight club."

When she joins the ranks of those sparring, talking her way into a day when the militia and the Enforcers are doing their training, it's really to satisfy her own desires for combat no matter what she tells them. Sure, she can go out in search of monsters, but that requires a companion and planning. This is more freeform, and fighting against someone else here lets her look at their capabilities. No magic to start with - best to be fair to all involved - and instead, Fever relies on a sturdier branch. Peter's not done with the staff yet, so this is the closest she can get. She fights with a clear joy in her movements, happy to test herself against anyone until either her opponent yields or someone outside calls the match.

That said, there are moments of downtime, where one has to catch their breath and drink water, where she's just leaning against the side observing or lightly applauding at the end of one spar. Catching a fighter's eye, they're offered an amused but restrained smile, and win, lose, or neither, it's clear something impressed her.

They're still never getting her to sign up with the Enforcers, though.

festival green - picnic.

Though she shies from the doll making, Fever can't deny the appeal of being able to picnic on the green, and waits until the event is over and dealt with before she takes her inspiration and heads outdoors. It's not perhaps the most ideal weather for it - clouds, the wind - but it's not so bad as to keep her from it. So here she is, with a simple lunch that's been ferried over and a blanket to sit on, trying to think about if she's ever done this before. Had reason to, really. But a passerby will interrupt her thoughts, and she'll raise her hand to get their attention.

"Does it seem like rain to you?"

Of course, there's enough room on the blanket for two, if you're feeling particularly sociable or are eyeing a free snack. Or, it can start to do as much as lightly rain, and she's not budging from where she is, considering it still fine weather.

wildcard.

Different idea? Throw it at me, I'm wide open for other scenarios. Will match the format of any tag-ins. Opt out post.

Comments

[maximumcake]

"The only houses I know how to make are ones made with gingerbread." Max chuckles at his own joke. "So, we'll probably just fix up the one we were given already. It might not all be perfect, but it will be ours."

He flops on his back and rests his hands on his stomach, eyes closed as if in gentle repose. "I'll always miss my dad and sister, but they are safer this way too. At least, here, I still have most of what I've always wanted. This is a lot better than living to be eighty years old alone in a vampire's basement. Even if it was a really nice basement."

[abhorrently]

"...What do you mean, a vampire's basement?"

She asks it softly, to not unduly alarm him, but the concept is...concerning. Especially with certain stories not far from her mind.

"Why would you be growing old there?"

[maximumcake]

"So..." Max starts off, hesitantly. "That house on the lake I mentioned? It belonged to my master, Lord Osborne."

He rolls over on his side so he can look at her while he speaks. "When I was in school, I was...attacked by a vampire woman. I...killed her. To save myself. The thing is, she was Lord Osborne's sister. Her other vampire allies were so mad they wanted to kill me. But Erik... he saved me. He claimed me as his human Pet. As long as he kept me in his house, they couldn't hurt me. He promised to take care of me forever so... I pretty much expected to live in his house for the rest of my life."

[abhorrently]

Her face takes on a strange cast when she hears Lord Osborne, and does not lose it the entire time he's speaking. She's listening, she's biting her tongue to not interrupt, but when he finishes, words burst from her, each carefully formed to not let the growing disgust within her color them too well. There's a streak of burning loyalty in her

"And he couldn't have sent you away somewhere? If he was a lord, there were surely resources. Ways you could have lived outside of their territory and thus their reach, while being your own man still. I realize time may have been a factor, but..."

Clearly, there was no love lost in that family, anyway.

[maximumcake]

He's seen that kind of reaction enough times by now he feels like he should be prepared for it, but it still crushes some small part of him all the same. He doesn't want anyone to hate his old master. He doesn't like the thought that telling what happened might turn people against Erik. But. He can't keep quiet either.

Max shakes his head sadly. "No matter where I went, they would have found me. Erin even tried to hide me in Japan. We were there for a whole year and they still... they found me anyway. They wouldn't have stopped until they did. I had to go away. My sister and dad had to think I was dead, or they would be targets, too."

[abhorrently]

"I still feel like there had to be a better way. Even things changing over time, perhaps. Your own death faked, but...something." She takes a breath, feeling the sorrow in his eyes pierce what might have been a greater outpouring than it ends up being. "Just, don't like people being kept with no choice."

The alternative is outright asking Max if his captivity meant service, and she pushes that away. The questions that will be dipped in poison will be stabbed into the body of one Erik Osborne, when she's calmed down enough to see him.

(It still feels like hearing Astarion talk about Cazador, about the hunters sent after him. Even though Max doesn't have that same hatred in his voice, it's that resignation that there wasn't anything that grips and tears at her.)

"I'm glad, though, that you're free now. Free to live where you want. And when this barrier is down, free to go wherever you want as well."

[maximumcake]

"I know." He heaves a dramatic sigh. "I know it was wrong, what he did, on an intellectual level. But. I still believe he did it to save me. I believe he thought it was the best thing he could do for me and, I don't know...Maybe I still think it was, too."

Would he really have been happier living out there on his own, afraid of every shadow, waiting for the day he meets his gruesome end? Would he ever have let himself get close to anyone? Could he ask someone he loved to enter such a dangerous life with him? No. He would have been alone. He knows that, in his heart. He would have insisted on being alone, so no one would get hurt because of him.

"Fever, I'm glad I am too. I'm happy to be free and I don't want to go back to how things were. But Erik doesn't want that either. Now that I'm here where those people can't find me, he doesn't have to protect me. So. I kind of... hope... maybe he and I can try to be something else to each other. Maybe friends. Maybe..." Max makes a frustrated sound as he tries to express this thing that's been eating at him since he got Erik's letter.

"He feels like family to me, okay? I know how that sounds but it's true. I don't hate him. I can't. And I don't want anyone else to, either."

[abhorrently]

He takes the wind out of her sails when he speaks the word family, cutting through her wanting to express frustration that there should have been something else, something that didn't make it so that he knew what the inside of a cage felt like. But family makes something small startle in her expression, the mental equivalent of getting one's fingers caught in a drawer, and she looks away. Out at the green, the sky.

"...family must be a pretty complicated thing."

It is. But to state that outright? That feels too big. Too large to fit into this conversation, when instead Max is admitting something so close to him.

"If I talk to him - only talk to him, no breaking into his house or anything - are you fine with that?"

He can say no, and she'll heed the words. But this is going to hang over her knowledge of Erik as a sword does, and inevitably, it will fall.

[maximumcake]

"Yeah. A lot of people have really... complicated feelings about their family."

He's put so much thought into this, has debated with himself for so long, but this is the truth he's come to. Erik was far from perfect, but he's family. Families are never perfect, but they can grow and change. Erik was in his life more than his biological mother ever was. If she gets to be called family, why shouldn't Erik?

"He, um. He's never asked me to hide any of this. He said he trusts me to be honest. So, I think on some level he expected it might come up and people might want to, you know, talk to him about it. I don't want to tell people what they can or can't do. I won't tell you not to. I just... don't want people to be hurt for my sake, including him."

[abhorrently]

"I promise you, Max, on my name. I'll talk, but I won't hurt him. I merely want to hear from him in his own words what was going through his head. Get the situation explained to me from both sides."

If she turns up the pressure, tightens the screws, that's not hurting him. That's just stressing him into a place of honesty. She likes the man, but she wants to see him writhe a bit for now.

"...What's the best change about living here now, though?"

It's an opening to switch to happier subjects, better times. Things that aren't a dour shadow across their picnic.

[maximumcake]

"Thank you, Fever. I'm actually really glad you want to hear both sides of it." That's only fair. Max trusts that Erik will be honest, too. So he isn't worried.

"The best? Probably the fact that I might actually be able to make a living working in a bakery like I always wanted to." The brightness of hope returns to Max's expression like the sun returning from behind a cloud. "There's this really sweet old couple who run the current one in town, and they offered to let me come in and start learning their trade from them. They needed someone with strong arms to lift those trays around and I"--he holds up one curled bicep, flexing for her to see the large ball of muscle contract--"happened to be the perfect man for the job."

[abhorrently]

"Youth, strength, a winning smile - I can see why they wouldn't hesitate to offer you the job." She grins, pleased to hear that he's already making strides towards his dream. Good. This place might still be an even bigger cage, but it's a cage they'll all shatter - and in the meantime, they can breathe. "When they finally decide to hang up their hats, I know it'll be in good hands. And I'm not just saying that because I'm fond of their offerings, promise."

There's enough loyal customers that the mainstays won't be going anywhere in a hurry.

wrap?

[maximumcake]

"I know," Max says, wiggling happily in place as he imagines that day. It will be everything he ever dreamed of. That couple has become something like having a grandmother and grandfather. He never got to experience that because his own died before he was born, but he's sure this must be close to how it feels.

"But who wouldn't be fond of their offerings, right? Speaking of..." Max uses that as an opportunity to get back into the snacks.

He's happy to put the troubling story of his past with Erik out of his mind again and simply enjoy his time in Fever's company. Picnics are fun. They should do this often.