open starter !! (4/6) @jasperstarters
location: the 21st amendment
"I don't care if you asked nicely...I'm still not dancing on the bar. This isn't Coyote Ugly." Romeo chuckles, shaking their head at the drunken patron sitting at the bar. "Here's a water on the house. Drink it." They state before turning to the person waiting for their attention, flashing a smile in their direction. "Ignore Frank, he's mostly harmless. What can I get started for you?"
ainsley raised a brow at frank, smirking as she heard him mumble something about main character energy. "frank, i feel you. i too wish i could escape each evening into a movie plot that has both excitement, entertainment and intrigue. perhaps we just need to set our sights on something bigger." she turned her head back, with an 100 watt smile. was it real or fake? the jury was out on that one--no pun intended. "what would you suggest--you seem to have a pretty good sense about these things." for whatever reason, bars seemed to be the last place hope might exist--which was an odd statement to make, until you realize how many different stories come together each night. "and i'll have crown apple and margarita mix, please--or a bud light. surprise me."
"alright, you have exactly one chance to impress me." ainsley grinned, bringing the amber bottle to her lips. sure, she might have been a bit tipsy--it was a saturday evening, and she'd been doing trial prep all week. but the blonde could handle her alcohol fine, and besides its alll in good fun anyway.
" uno, un. a singular chance." she held one finger up, before extending it toward the jukebox in the corner of the room. "pick a song any song, and if your music taste delights me, i will by you a round. if not, well, then i'll still by you a round before i'm not evil, but we will have a lengthy discussion on what good music taste is and why you might need more lessons in that department." she teased, nodding once. "so, whatcha got for me?"
location: the 21st amendment
who: open @jasperstarters
Kaleb huffed dramatically, as his date was going on about something he didn't care about. Kaleb had been trying very hard to pay attention to the new story they were now sharing, but just couldn't. Every so often he'd let out a small laugh, or a nod to show that he was paying attention. Even though everything was going in one ear and out the other.
He grabbed the attention of the bartender and ordered another round of drinks for them. It was the least they could do, right? Kaleb didn't know. He hardly dated.
Eventually, he did have to excuse himself to the restroom. Not like he needed to go or anything. He just needed to get away from his date. Kaleb needed to think of an escape plan, which he feared he simply could not do on his own. In other words, his brain was so foggy from drinking to much.
Kaleb exited the restroom, and made sure he stood in a location his date wouldn't be able to see him. Kaleb then approached someone, "Can you help me." His voice was filled with desperation. "I'm on the worst date of my life and I need help with a distraction. Something, anything, get me the fuck out of here."
let's be alone together, we could stay young forever.... ainsley hummed along, the familiar melody rattling around in her brain and she peeled the label from her third bud light. ugh, she'd have preferred something a bit fruiter honestly, but she felt stupid ordering a mai tai in a place like this, and a bud light felt safe. safe. safe was such an odd word. she used to be a storm, a wild stallion ready to be set lose. caution was no friend of hers, she threw that shit to the wind and couldn't wait to see where she landed.
and now she was drinking a bud light in a dive bar in a small town after her 9-5. caution had found her and locked her up.
and she couldn't even be mad at herself--it was a fair reaction to how her life had turned out. a dive bar felt safer than most places nowadays--she wasn't completely alone, like she would have been in her house. people surrounded her--and yet no one really knew her here. alone, together.
ainsley blinked, looking up from her bottle to see the look of desperation. she raised her eyebrow. "worst date of your life? wait, did they propose before the second beer. y'know, it's bad luck to propose before the second beer. brings some real weird mojo to the part." her eyes traveled to the seat where she thought he'd come from and then back to him. perhaps the bud light was making her soft--or she was really in the mood for some company and she just couldn't admit it to herself. "y'know what, sure--i'll help you get out. but you gotta promise you'll tell me all the details of this worst date. s'only fair, don't you think?" she smirked, before nodding toward the back door. "we've got two options: either we do the ol' irish goodbye and escape like you were never here or you stumble back to the table, tell them that you've been supoened and you've gotta leave right now. with your laywer" she shrugged. "unless you got a better idea?"
the smooth bass line of Under Pressure drifted over the radio of the candy store and pulled a playful smile to charlie's lips as she gently pried open a plastic bag. nothing made her feel like she was in the right place at the right time as much as her favorite band coming on the radio while she was out. granted, it wasn't exactly like Queen wasn't still popular, but sometimes it felt like they appeared in the most unlikely places. she'd come to associate the tones that came over most candy store radios as pop – j-pop, to be specific. two years in and jasper was still keeping her on her toes.
she had just filled a good quarter of her bag with banana runtz, an already ripped open pack of red licorice in her other hand. she munched on a twist as she turned towards the jelly beans, colliding with the solid form of the person beside her. she hadn't realized she'd been humming along with the music until it cut off abruptly in her throat around a soft oof and she nearly choked on her licorice.
" oh, i'm sorry, " she murmured, somehow managing to keep her items tightly in her palms. " i guess i was just off in my own little world. "
god, was ainsley a bitch when her blood sugar was low. she couldn't help it--it was like a flip of a switch. the paralegal she had been working with knew her tells well though, and by the seventh "fuck!", gina tactfully pushed ainsley out the door and toward candyland. "call it your smoke break!" gina called out, closing beacon law's door behind her.
"good lord, you let a para get to you know you an inch, they take a mile." ainsley huffed, but she didn't demand the door be reopened. instead, she grumbled her way down the road to the local sweet shop. like a regular ol' scrooge.
the smell of sugar was a welcome wake up call, she couldn't deny that. the nostalgia of the small shop made her smile, which was becoming a bit harder for her to do without it having some sort of ulterior motive nowadays. smile for the client, for the judge, for the grandma down the street so she doesn't think you are the dead inside bitch you knew you were becoming even though you really wished you--
oof!
ainsley looked up, surprised to see a half opened candy bag full of--"are those red vines?" she blinked rapidly, looking at the woman in disbelief.
did I just see FLORENCE PUGH walking down the street? no, that was AINSLEY WAGNER! SHE is a 32 year old who identifies as a WOMAN. I hear that they spend their days as a LAYWER at BEACON LAW. last I heard, they’ve been in town for 2 YEARS and were living in JASPER HEIGHTS. some people would say that they’re CHARASMATIC & SNARKY, but I wouldn’t judge a book by its cover!
tw: cheating, state approved kidnapping, broken families
The Hollow and the Hearth
Ainsley was forged in the rugged, unyielding heart of Appalachia, the daughter of a pipeline technician and a schoolteacher who traded her soft hands for the grit of the mountains. From her father, she inherited a steady pulse and the lethal grace of a hunter; from her mother, a mind that could dissect a book or a person with equal precision. She was a creature of the hills—blessed with the ethereal beauty of a mountain angel—but she was anchored by a quiet determination that the small town could never truly contain.
The Theft of the Doll
The peace of the mountains was shattered when Ainsley was thirteen, a victim of a decades-old vendetta. Her maternal grandmother had never forgiven Ainsley’s mother for choosing love over status. In an act of cold-blooded revenge, she used a corrupt DHS agent to "rescue" Ainsley from her humble life, yanking her out of the hollows and into a cage made of silk and silver.
In Charleston, Ainsley was systematically dismantled and rebuilt. She was molded into a "social prize," a doll designed to be the crowning jewel of the Charleston Social Club. Her grandmother’s cruelty was subtle but absolute: any attempt to reach her parents was met with threats of disaster for the people she loved. But Ainsley was her grandmother’s blood, after all—she possessed a vindictive cunning that she hid behind a perfect debutante smile. She navigated the high-stakes world of law and "social polishing" until she became a master of the mask, even as she secretly plotted her escape.
The Flight of the Proscribed
The mask finally cracked when she met James Barnes. He was the antithesis of the Charleston elite, blue-collar, unpretentious, and smelling of the earth, a mirror of the world she had lost. He was her "home," and for him, she burned her gilded cage to the ground.
They fled together, racing back to the Appalachian hills to find her parents, only to discover the house empty and the trail cold. With her grandmother’s reach stretching like a shadow across the South, they turned their eyes toward the fog-drenched streets of San Francisco. Ainsley arrived in the West not as a victim, but as a woman who had already died once and refused to do it again.
But, as so many whirlwind love stories go, Ainsley would learn that she was not as special as she’d hope. Within a year of running to the Bay Area, James had picked a new, more interesting socialite to spend his time with—and she was left alone, like a broken mirrorball shattered on the ground.
Nevertheless, Ainsley persisted. A man would not be the end of her, at least not outwardly. She’d make a new life, as she so clearly had a knack for doing. Ainsley Wagner was a phoenix it seemed, and Jasper seemed a good a place as any to be reborn.
