[OPEN] January Catch-All

[ghostbullet]

Who: Melanie King (ghostbullet), Daisy Tonner (hadnoright), Alice Dyer (closureisformovies), CT (liesdontfindyou) & you!
What: Catch-All for Blue's character
When: January, and some backdated December stuff
Where: All over! See character prompt headers.
Warnings: In specific headers where relevant.



Melanie, Daisy, Alice and CT all have open prompts in the comments. More may be added, depending on if anything gives me reason to/I think of anything else worth putting up. Closed starters are also available upon request if these prompts don't work but you want to do something!

Ruby Rose and Gwen Stacy have their own open top-levels at the links that I'm also still very open to tags on.

Comments

Melanie King | OTA

[ghostbullet]

Prompts below, or tag the top-level to wildcard.

It depends on the day [o&i, martin's tea shop]

[ghostbullet]

Recently, Melanie can sometimes be found sitting around practicing braille. She's usually either in the communal areas of the O&I, or occasionally when the weather's kind enough she heads out to sit in Martin's shop with some tea (since she already knows the guy and the braille club meets up there anyway).

This often involves muttered frustrations—learning to read and write all over again isn't actually the most frustrating part of newfound blindness, if by a small margin, but she's always been a little impatient and easy to frustrate. And yet she's also stubborn and commits hard, so she'll get there one way or another.

The extent of all my worthless rage [o&i, around]

[ghostbullet]

Winter brings new challenges for Melanie in the form of ice and snow, two things that completely disrupt her usual methods of figuring out where she's going around town. This means she ends up spending a lot more time in the O&I than usual, not wanting to chance it outside unless she's relatively sure she can make it where she wants to go and back without issue.

Friends may occasionally find themselves called up and asked if they'll accompany her somewhere—whether that's just on a walk for fresh air or to a store or something—or, sometimes, to accompany her back from somewhere she risked the trip for but now isn't sure about the return journey.

Others might find her out around town in need of a hand, or be accosted at the O&I and asked the state of the weather outside.

I'm not angry anymore [around]

[ghostbullet]

People hanging around with or near Melanie may occasionally find themselves subject to the mischievous whims of a certain little ghost Pokemon. Her Shuppet comes and goes rather as it pleases, which Melanie doesn't mind, it's free to do what it wants, but this does sometimes come in the form of it deliberately jumpscaring people.

One minute, you're talking, the next, a little grey figure manifests right in front of your face with a, "Shup!"

All Melanie can do is groan. "Seriously, bud, do you never get tired of that?"

It does not.

Agent Connecticut / CT | OTA

[liesdontfindyou]

Prompts below, or tag the top-level to wildcard.

If I could face them [enforcer's office, library]

[liesdontfindyou]

CT's remit at work has changed, slightly, with her transfer to Valdis's new Department of Supernatural Affairs, but her workaholic behaviour hasn't. If anything, the transfer period has her working harder than ever to get up to speed on what she needs to know and helping getting everything in order.

Mostly, this means spending a lot of time in the station. Whilst the new department has their own area, she's still regularly accessible to any enforcer as she flits about looking at files, taking notes, and generally getting things sorted.

But sometimes it means taking a trip out to the library to read through more materials on the island's supernatural history, from old newspaper records to actual books. She might be in your way as you come to find something of your own, or ask you politely to move so she can access something.

I know we're still working on the other thread but I want to get the ball rolling here :)

[ss_buttcrack]

It's around lunch time, but when Crichton approached her desk with the customary apple and a half a sandwich to share (because god knows when she'd eat otherwise?) he finds she's stepped out to the library. So, guess it's a field trip lunch kind of day. Might be a good time to ask her how she's doing outside of work, now that he thinks of it.

"Hey there, CT," he says, plopping into a chair beside her in the library so abruptly he might as well have materialized from thin air. "How's it going? Brought you something." He shows her the paper sack, shakes it a little like a bag of cat treats, too.

"Take a break with me?"

\o/

[liesdontfindyou]

CT doesn't put her pen down, but she does stop writing and lean back in her seat to look at him with a crooked smile, one brow raised. "Isn't this a bit out of your delivery range?"

Still, she shakes her head and sets her pen down before turning toward him more properly.

If I could make amends with all my shadows [Northwest Hollow]

[liesdontfindyou]

CT spent more money at the casino than she'd prefer to admit to, even if she does consider it worth every bit of brass that left her pockets. Gauntlets and a chestplate, lightweight but sturdy and chosen so as not to stand out should she wear them in uniform or with certain outfits. Chips that let her acquire a couple of advantageous items with enough luck on the games.

And, most importantly: a small magic charm, in the form of a simple silver cuff, that replicates the effect of her old armour unit. What's that, exactly?

Illusory copies of herself. Perfect mimicries that look solid and move the way she imagines them moving—only for a few seconds, and always having to start from where she's standing, but useful as a distraction, a feint.

She'd be rusty even if the magical version didn't work slightly differently to what she used to have, so she's practicing. Friends or friendly acquaintances may find themselves invited to help her, if they have even a little combat ability—easier to test when she has someone to lightly spar against, to hit out at the copies.

But people walking through Northwest Hollow's residental areas may occasionally catch sight of an illusory copy, escaping the bounds of her small garden as she overshoots her visualisation. At first, it just looks like CT in winter garb running out of her gate into the street, but then the figure freezes, hangs there for a second, and vanishes. Maybe that makes you curious.

I'd bow my head and welcome them [O&I]

[liesdontfindyou]

Whilst she struggles to find it in herself to go to any of the holiday-centric gatherings, CT still swings by the O&I on most of the nights that she actually lets herself off work in time to bother. It's a little easier to relax in the casual atmosphere, with a drink in her hand and socialisation in reach but not necessitated.

She favours sitting at the bar and those who sit by her will find her open to conversation, and less closed off than she might usually be.

[ ooc: I am explicitly very open to casual flirtation that may lead to no-strings physical intimacy with CT, if the chemistry clicks. CT is at this point keeping an eye half-open for opportunities, for it has Been A While™ ]

Like when the winter wind stops my breathing [Around]

[liesdontfindyou]

For all that having spent so many years on a spaceship has made CT appreciate real weather more, that's not why she finds herself oddly fascinated by the snowfall in these winter months.

Her home colony never got much snow and San Tierra, her home city, got none. The climate was simply too warm. And so, for all that CT pretend she's lost her sense of wonder by now, there is a real feeling of awe visible in her whenever she stares at the flakes or really focuses on the crunch beneath her feet. Occasionally she even stops to pack snowballs or otherwise interact with it.

It's a sort of wide-eyed openness that she hasn't really shown around here, before. Maybe that draws your attention.

Or maybe you see her slip and eat shit on a patch of unexpected ice. That happens too.

[not_the_last]

"It's lovely, isn't it?"

Cassandra's stopped by a fence at the side of the road, looking out at snowflakes drifting down onto a white field ringed about by dark hedges and tall bare trees, all dusted with glimmering white and silver. She seems to be enjoying the view as much as CT.

[liesdontfindyou]

CT snaps back to reality, her gaze flicking over to Cassandra for a moment before it drifts, instead, down to her gloved hand where snowflakes gather as she talks.

"Yeah. It is. I've never actually seen snow before, or, well, not like this."

Alice Dyer | OTA

[closureisformovies]

Prompts below, or tag the top-level to wildcard.

Everybody's falling in love [town hall]

[closureisformovies]

Ever since their return from the Black Stag Casino, the other employees at town hall have once again been treated/subjected to the ongoing drama between one Alice Dyer and Samama Khalid. There's been a fresh coat of awkwardness between them that has Alice visibly dying inside, not to mention more manic than usual when interacting with everyone else around the office. Sometimes she just spends her break face-planted on the breakroom table.

If it seems like she's barely hanging on by a thread, that's because she is. Her jokes are, somehow, getting worse by the day.

She also has next to no patience for even slightly annoying members of the public. Taking her turn at the front whilst Zivia's on break is becoming an increasingly risky folly.

While I'm stumbling home, still drunk [O&I, downtown]

[closureisformovies]

Alice has still kept up her routine of going to the O&I for breakfast every morning and a drink every evening, but it has to be said that the latter is becoming more... excessive? Excessive. Alice drinks more and leaves later than she used to, though she's aware enough of what she's doing that she always stumbles out the door not long after five-drinks-Alice where she becomes morbid and depressing.

It's a new year. She misses her brother. She keeps screwing up with Sam. And she's trying not to be a Debbie Downer but boy oh boy sometimes it's hard.

At the O&I itself, she's jovial and chatty and full of energy that may get friendly faces an arm thrown around their shoulders or lounged on as she talks and/or jokes. On her way out and towards home, she's a little wobbly on her feet and often mumbling about needing six pints of ice cream.

(Has most of her grocery budget lately been piles of comfort food? Maybe. Shut up.)

Re: While I'm stumbling home, still drunk [O&I, downtown]

[2onostromo]

Nights like these are quiet and uneventful. The train carries Ellen from Crane's Ridge back into the twinkling mirth of town, where she drags her work-haggard body back home. No drinks, no frivolity-- save for maybe a bite to eat at the Oak & Iron, when she can afford it. Tonight, smelling faintly of ore and dust, Ellen takes her seat inside and nurses a warm bowl of beef stew. One hand rests on the side of the bowl, chasing away a cold that'd turned her joints stiff. Or maybe her day's labor is at fault for that. She can still feel her hands vibrating, the residual clang of steel against rock like a not-so-distant memory.

She drowns out the clamor of several dozen voices, eyes scanning the crowd with reserved curiosity. People laugh. People sing. People get very, very drunk.

One woman in particular catches her eye, the way you might spot an old dog wandering toward a cliff's edge. She staggers, one hand on a massive oaken door frame, to shove herself out onto the street toward what Ellen presumes must be home.

Is she an idiot? Going out there all by herself--

A huff through winter-chilled nostrils. A pause. Alright, fine.

Ripley abandons her bowl, leaves the amount of change necessary, then squeezes through the jovial crowd and into the night. The woman hasn't gotten far. She hears her mumbling something about ice cream...

She strides to meet her.

"Are you trying to end up in a ditch somewhere?"

20 something down on my luck [empty pockets]

[closureisformovies]

Patrons of one open mic night at the Empty Pockets will find Alice has chosen this month to take another shot at the stand-up act.

The routine is a little more coherent than last time, despite, well, everything, though enough jokes about terrible romantic lives slip in that they probably stand out. It is, as ever, very 2010s and onwards internet humour that she relies on most, tumblr-flavoured and absurd.

It does help her mood. And she's available after the show to talk.

[staybizzy]

There's a guy in the crowd who is most certainly new. He's short, covered in blue-green fur, with a swishing tail longer than the rest of his body. He is on his fourth cigarette and at the bottom of his third bottle and he is laughing just a tiny bit too hard at the unfortunate romantic jokes.

A kindred spirit.

By the time she steps off the stage, he has added two more cigarettes and another beer to his roster, but is only a little wobbly as he raises his bottle in cheers to her. "Hey, great set," he says in a cartoonish accent. "You do this often?"

And I'm so over it, over it [northwest hollow]

[closureisformovies]

Guess who forgot about the snowball war and managed to walk through hostile territory on her way elsewhere? This woman, right here, who has now frozen in place where multiple snowballs have visibly been smushed against her body by the force of being thrown.

Someone help her.

Daisy Tonner | OTA

[hadnoright]

Prompts below, or tag the top-level to wildcard.

Feel it nipping at the backs of your heels [forests]

[hadnoright]

Hunting in winter is yet another new aspect of this kind of hunting for Daisy, but she takes to the new conditions quickly enough—especially in her wolf shape. Whilst her humanoid shape needs thicker clothes and sturdy boots suited for the snow, as a wolf she has a winter coat and a body built for the terrain.

So those who stray into the forests may stumble upon a large, blonde-furred wolf with game already between her bloodied teeth or chasing after her latest prey. You probably wouldn't know it's a person until she snaps out of the Hunt and looks at you, the slit-pupil eyes unnatural even in this form.

Sometimes, she huffs air from her snout and then turns back into her human shape to address whoever she's crossed paths with. Other times, she simply stays as a wolf and communicates what she's up to by jerking her head towards the prey.

Feel it calling like a northern wind, whispering [downtown]

[hadnoright]

After every heavy snowfall, Daisy gets to clearing the snow from the paths immediately outside her and Basira's house downtown. Bundled in a new hunting jacket (that those who see her regularly will realise she's been wearing constantly since she received it around Givingstide) and other winter clothes, she's plenty strong and has more than enough stamina to shovel the stuff away.

It does take a while, but she has more trouble with the little yellow Poochyena and the Mawhile that keep bothering her or each other when she's close enough to the house than she has with the snow. You might hear her only recently acquired pet-parent voice saying, "Hilda, Magnolia, I swear to god—"

[acceptandadapt]

"You know, it's starting to look like they're just getting on your nerves for the fun of it."

Calling over from where she'd leaned against the doorway, Basira offers a smile, small yet unmistakably playful. Having originally intended to just take a peek out and see how things were going, she couldn't help but linger for a few minutes, watching the Pokemon take turns in their mission of ceaseless trouble-making: dashing through snow piles, batting at the shovel at work, or getting caught in one-another's mischief and start bickering. (She'd tried to call them in on one of her prior check-ins; it worked for Hilda, only for maybe twenty minutes, before she was desperate to get back outside again.)

After a moment of consideration, she gestures over to where Hilda wallows in one of those piles, she calls back over once more, already going for her own coat. "They might give it a rest if we take at least one on a walk, wear them out a little. Think the rest can wait long enough for you to join us?"

[incomingchoppers]

"You need some help with them, ma'am?"

Yeah, Radar still defaults to ma'am around Daisy most days; she reminds him enough of the tougher MASH nurses that he can't help it. But he's smiling cheerful as ever, well-bundled against the snow, as he gives her a quick wave hello from the end of the walkway.