* 𝐊 𝐈 𝐋 𝐋 𝐄 𝐃 𝐋 𝐈 𝐆 𝐇 𝐓 ― ADORED and TORTURED version of 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐄 "𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐄" 𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐆, penned by sam, (she/her). dependent for @westray-hq. inspired by dc titan's dawn granger.
WHEN THE ROARING NOISE OF THE SIXTH SENSE ENGULFS ME, I feel COMPLETE. lost in our shared midnights, my life no longer feels like it's in shambles. after blood running through my fingers like water, the absence of it finally brings comfort -- VIOLENCE, might be my peace, but what is my war? is WAR a word that may be DEFINED? define my war, tear me to the ground, and win.
Restoring a plate, that was tossed against a wall with full force, is almost impossible. Miniature shards will be left on the ground like sprinkles, hard to remove, and even harder to glue back into their perfect place. What is even further out of question, is accepting the fact that something that was meant to be perfect, cannot even be attempted to be glued back together, if it has broken just once. Like her family.
What's picture perfect, becomes a nightmare. Sofie graduates nursing school, gets ready for her life in a great city, and comes to the realization that perfect, is not always truly perfect. Sure, there are hurdles, smaller ones like failed classes, or rent that has to be paid monthly, but then there are also walls. Walls that she cannot overcome. Like the sudden disappearance of her brother. Going out at night for a party, during full moon, and never returning, did not sound like him. And after years of working in the medical field, she had her suspicions. So she searched, and fought, and found. A city, retreated far in a forest in Washington, that an old man in a bar showed her the way to on an old, and dirty map. Westray.
And there he was - all well, but less human. Turned during his night out, the werewolf had ran from his family, out of fear they might be in danger, out of fear they might find out. But all Sofie does, is show support. They reconnect with their family, who had been worried sick, and make up a string of lies for their sanity, and their own safety.
Sofie finds a new job in a great hospital and unit, but makes a decision a few months later: There needs to be a way to understand her brother better, his struggles, his pain, his new life. She finds the Sixth Sense - an underground fight club, that reeks of danger -- but her nose is no good. Not as good as a werewolf's, at least.
They accept her application, and Sofie becomes the first human nurse they have ever employed -- unsure what they have in store for her, but finally feeling like she has found it: home.
If she has ever felt truly out of place, the Hawthorne manor absolutely distinguishes ever experience that came before. Luxuries over luxuries decorate the whole buildings, from the walls to the furniture and even the flowers. Everything looks expensive, and suddenly she feels very, very cheap. Valentine's room does feel a little different. Less on the nose, and more like a true home. "It's very beautiful here.", Sofie tries to reassure herself, while laying on her friend's bed, "Very... subtle." Definitely the wrong word. Definitely. The best solution should be changing the subject.
"I met this cute guy at the masquerade ball. Before everything went wrong, you know? Dark, curly hair, tall, handsome." Sofie hums into her glass of wine. "But somehow, I don't even know his last name. I just know his first name, which would be Theo. Do you know a Theo?" Carefully, she places the glass of wine on Valentine's bedside table. "Maybe I should stop thinking about him. When we met... something weird happened. God, maybe I was just drunk."
Nathan had been his neighbors for as long as he could remember, but they didn't become actual friends until very recently. They've always been on good terms, they sometimes borrowed a cooking item from each other, but it never developed into an actual friendship due to Benjamin's wife being so controlling. She never said it, but he wasn't allowed to have friends. It was in the way she always complained whenever he wanted to spend time with someone else, making him feel bad for it. Or in the way she always started fights while he was getting a bite with the guys from work. He decided it simply was easier to come up with excuses whenever they wanted to see him outside of work. He never realized she might've been doing it purposefully.
They only bonded the day Nathan heard Benjamin's wife yelling at him on the sidewalk. He asked if the new werewolf was fine once she was gone and the rest was history.
They hung out a few times only the two of them, then sometimes they were joined by Sofie. They always spent an easy time together, the three of them, but never once it had been without Nathan.
This time was no exception as they sat on the couch, watching a scary movie. Benji practically threw his popcorn across the room as the pager beeped loudly. ''Yeah, okay,'' he said sarcastically.
He blushed a little bit when he was called a very dangerous werewolf, but shook his head, knowing she was only joking. Or he hoped so. He knew he wasn't scaring anyone.
''Thank you,'' he wasn't believing her in the slightest, until he heard Nathan's story. Maybe he wasn't so bad. He did reconnect with his father when he heard the news, and made an effort with his siblings. He didn't know if it counted since they were werewolves as well. Or, most of them were at least.
''Really? I thought you guys told each other everything,'' that was something he envied. How close they were. His siblings were close, or used to be at least, but it was more out of survival instinct than anything else. His siblings never were telling him anything. He wasn't telling them much either, way too scared to be a burden on them.
For a moment, Sofie keeps watching the movie in silence. Their relationship is far from being perfect, which she has always been very aware of. "We do tell each other everything. But before that, he chickened out. Real bad, as you can tell." Sofie waves her hand at the lovingly styled apartment, "Where we are from, there are barely any supernatural beings. I know Westray is a hotspot and here live a lot of them, but we grew up around humans only. Learning that there are supernatural beings only by being turned has been quite a shock for him. But he grew into it, pretty much. He's happy now, as far as I can tell. But before we grew this close, I had to find him. Did a road trip through the whole United States before I found traces."
Sofie places her socked feet on the glass table Nathan keeps in front of his couch, "He was always nice to me. We never really argued, just like siblings do." Her words are followed by a shrug. Their family is far from being perfect, but Nathan is a rock she can hold onto in the wavering tide.
"We were both pretty young. But at least we learned from it." Curiosity starts bubbling in her chest, "Do you have siblings? I barely know anything about you. Which my be faulted by Nathan talking about himself so much."
No matter how much she tried to, Sofie couldn't twist it. The masquerade ball at the Moonstone museum had been a true nightmare. Most injured victims had made it out alive, thanks to a few medical professionals and Sofie, but some others hadn't. When she sees Marlowe behind the counter, relief washes over her, but at the same time, worry. She's heard about her coworker passing away only yesterday, which brings her to the store today immediately after work, with a package of self-baked savory quiche and self-made chocolate pudding. The Lakeview has been overrun with patients ever since the incident, some traumatized, some struggling with the aftermath of their injuries, which leads to Sofie not looking as glamorous as always. Instead, she kind of appears to be a mess.
"Marlowe.", Sofie says softly to greet her, "I'm so sorry, dear. I only heard about it yesterday. I would have come around much earlier had I known." Sofie gently places the two bundles on the counter, the brown paper making soft crinkling noises in the process. "How are you feeling? Is there anything I could do for you?"
Theo just hadn't felt at all himself since the Gala. The entire night felt like a total blur, and he hadn't even drank all that much. All he could think about was his run in with the nurse. He tried to put it all down to a simple crush, but being the (secret) hopeless romantic that he was, Theo had had plenty of 'crushes' in his life, fleeting and otherwise, and this wasn't anything like those.
He had been doing all he could to distract himself from these funny feelings. Working more, gyming more, and even fighting more. But after winning almost every single fight at his usual haunt, Theo had been looking elsewhere to get his kicks(literally).
This had lead the man to some more illegal arrangements, even less legal than the shit that happened at Sixth Sense. Truly underground. Unfortunately a little too underground to have any real regulations, or rules. So when Theo almost had the guy pinned, it should have been no surprise when the guys buddy came up behind the man and knocked him out cold with a blunt object.
The next thing Theo knew he was in a hospital bed. Getting some strange looks from the doctors and nurses as they passed by his bed, until he clocked a familiar face just through the gap in his curtain. It was her.
He immediately broke the brief eye contact they shared. Not wanting to experience what he experienced at the ball. Not that it was a bad feeling, it just wasn't, normal. As he tried to turn his body to get up and out of that bed though, he felt a sharp, shooting pain go down his side. Unable to stop himself from letting out a pained groan.
Even as he tried to push through and get as far away from that bed (and that nurse) as he could, in the process he seemed to find himself looking up at her, as she stood by his bed.
"I'm fine. You can go. I promise. You probably have more important patients to attend to...." He said, wincing a little. Clearly this was the reason Sixth Sense had a strict no weapons policy. That shit hurts.
"And who exactly are you trying to get away from, Theodore Woods?" Sofie's fingers are clasped around his file, which she has spent the last ten minutes scanning. It felt wrong, kind of, and maybe she should have handed the case to someone else, but Sofie had been too tempted -- professional much. "Last time I checked, working doors included some rowdy guys and sometimes a bloody nose or some bruised knuckles." Her raised eyebrows and scrunched up nose play into the accusatory tone of her voice, "Not two MRT scans and three X-Rays." Sofie leans forward, analyzing his bled-through bandage, "Based on the amount of painkillers you have received that leave you with pain still, and based on the fact that this bandage should have bled through a good hour ago, I am going to make a very bold assumption."
Her pale fingers place the record on his bedside table and then reach for pale pink gloves she pulls over her hands. "You're a werewolf.", Sofie whispers, "And your injuries give away the fact that this was not a fight fought at the Sixth Sense, correct?" As gentle as possible, Sofie removes the bandage and dabs disinfectant onto the wound -- not without taking a gentle peak at his abs, of course. "You're trying to get away from me, and I'm not sure why." Of course she remembered what had happened at the night during the masquerade. She hadn't dared to ask her brother or any other werewolf about it, afraid it would mean something bad, something dangerous or something she did not want to hear.
Google had not given her proper answers either, of course not, given most humans were not even aware of the supernatural world, and she was not sure if informations from TwilightWiki were very reliable. "...but it also means that you're missing out, because I'm the hottest nurse working here tonight."
Originally, she had been going for a calm walk in the forest, not leaving the main pathway, only a small round. But a thunderstorm had broke loose and a few trees had crashed, leading her off the road and into the deep, dark forest. Music started echoing through the woods gently, leaving her suspicious, but with the thunderstorms running she needed shelter. People appeared, dancing in the rain, not worried about the weather at all. Her brother had told her about them -- the fae. Bound to nature, close to the earth. Protected by it, and protecting it in return. Wicked, whimsy, but nothing to worry about, if you are nice, and meet the right ones. Sofie truly hoped these were the right ones.
"Sorry?", Sofie asked a guy standing nearby, Finn, "Is this... is this a club? Do you think I can seek shelter her for a moment? I got lost in the woods during the thunderstorm and my phone does not have any reception." Sofie brushed a few strands of dark, wet hair out of her face, "I don't have any money on me."
A novelist wanting to speak to her should ring some alarm bells, especially if invited to a restaurant such as the Bite. Sofie is not sure if she is being lured into a trap, or if someone has finally discovered the secret of her past, including her brother's escape and her trip through the United States to find him, only to find out he had been not that far the whole time. Sofie fixes her hair when she notices she can see her own reflection in the cleanly polished plate. Earagon appears in the entrance of the restaurant and the woman raises herself out of her seat, adjusting the straps of her dress before holding a hand out for the man to shake.
"Hey.", Sofie greets him, unsure what else to say, "Mister Clarion, is that correct? Sofie Lichtenberg. You asked to meet." A nervous smile flashes across her face, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm still not sure how I deserve the honor, but I am sure I will figure out sooner or later." She laughs, softly, "We can go by first names?"
"Are you busy?" Myles asked as he walked into the room. With everything strange going on, and on top of working and leading his pack, it wasn't taking much to get him worried, until now. The hospital was quiet, which felt a little unusual but since it was still early, he figured he would be meeting more back and forth bustle soon. "I just needed a bit of advice, ah," he said. "It probably would have been better to call first," he scratched his head.
Pink gloves are wrapped around Sofie's fingers. When Myles enters the room she is wiping down the bench her last patient laid on, the chart and some utensils are spread out on a desk nearby, some cabinets are open. Her hair is curled and in a ponytail, but slightly messier than usual, her scrubs are in a deep, plum color. Surprise mirrors in her features when she recognizes him and at first, her heart skips a few beats.
"Everything okay with Nathan?", Sofie asks softly, seemingly worried about her brother. The nurse takes off the gloves and throws them away with the wipe, before she hurries to clean up the rest of the space, "What's going on, Myles? Must be something important if it's keeping you on your toes enough to visit me at my day to day." A soft twinkle appears in her eyes while she analyzes his appearance. "Everything okay?"
"...god, you should see my brother's friends, too. They're all so incredibly hot." Sofie's glass of wine is filled to the max, and so is Maia's. An accident, because there have been too many glasses prior to this one, and Sofie is more than just tipsy. "So theoretically speaking... I think my brother is awfully ugly. But." She leans back on the couch and lifts her socked feet onto the glass table in front of it, "Maybe you think he's hot. I could set you two up, that would be incredibly cute. Incredibly lovely. Then you would be my... sister in law. He hates vampires, to be fair, but that could work for an enemies to lovers type of situation?"
Sofie sighs deeply, rubbing her fingers over her temples. "Okay, I've had too much to drink. You know, it's really not fair that alcohol does not work this well on supernatural creatures." She turns herself around, placing her feet in Maia's lap instead of on the couch table. "Did I tell you about this strange security guard I met?"
The horror movie reaches it's climax and finally, the lights go out. Darkness clouds them until a blaring noise accompanied by blinking red lights startles Sofie so bad that she lets out a yelp. "Goodness, Nathaniel. You do know these things have a button that allows you to turn the volume down?" Sofie's brother snorts while he reaches for the pager. His sister raises herself from the couch to turn on a few lights, while he analyzes what the message says. "Bad news. You'll have to watch the 80s slasher without me. I am a very important, very needed worker at the Lakeview and will therefore have to leave." Nathan winks at Sofie, who rolls her eyes. "Sure, don't let it get to your head, idiot. This just means you work while we eat your fridge empty."
Standing next to each other, they look insanely alike -- the same dark, slightly curly hair, the same glaring, bright eyes. "Our mother would kill you if she knew you left me alone with a very dangerous werewolf." Now it's Sofie's turn to wink, but at Benjamin, as she drops herself back down on the couch, a new glass of wine in her hands. "Yup, she would. Make sure the very dangerous werewolf cheers up while I'm gone, yeah?" Nathan waves his hand in Benjamin's direction, and then he's gone through the front door.
Sofie brushes a few strands of hair out of her face as the next movie starts playing, something blurry and barely scary. "I think you handle being a werewolf pretty well.", she said, leaning back on the couch, "Nathan just pretended he died, actually. Did he ever tell you that? He just ran away from home and acted like he was dead. He didn't even tell me."
For years, Roman had been a regular fighter at Sixth Sense. Lately though, he had been only engaging in one fight every other week, unable to keep up with newer fighters. Despite his lack of fights, he still came about the premises to check in on some friends and of course place some bets. Not the best way to spend his money, but he needed an outlet outside of the bar.
Tonight though, he came to let out some aggression the wolf had been harboring. As he stepped into the ring, it was a younger lad and the kid had the audacity to call him, old man. All he could see was red once the bell rang. Usually, he could handle the younger bucks but tonight he got his bell rung.
With a few minor cuts and bruises, he headed to see Sofie. So in a way, it was a win after all.
“Hey stitches, you think you could patch me up?” He questioned as he stepped inside the room.
When Sofie turned her head to look at him, her long, dark hair rippled over her shoulder. An amused, though worried smile curled around the corners of her lips while she gestured for him to sit on the bench the patients usually laid down on. "Course I can." Sofie pulled a few gloves out of a small box and analyzed the cuts and bruises before taking a few bandages and ointments out of one of her drawers.
"You really go havoc on some of the guys. That looks more like a hospital visit and less like a few minutes spent with me." Sofie sat down on her rolling chair, the gloves now pulled over her hands. The woman poured a bit of disinfectant onto a cotton pad and gently started dabbing his skin. She looked more than just tired, in a way. Terribly exhausted. "Any body parts that hurt specifically bad? Any troubles with movement, or some swollen joints?" Her eyebrows furrowed as she assessed his face, "Any particularly bad bruises?"
Playing dangerous games seems to be Sofie's speciality, and Shiloh is invited right into one tonight. Originally, Sofie was bored and just wanted to hang. Then, she got curious. Played around with what if's. With memories of a flirt that was there -- maybe, or had she imagined it? Her thoughts were running around Theo, but she was not even sure if he had really noticed her at all. So what was a little fun on a Friday night?
When the doorbell rings, Sofie rushes to open, dressed in a pretty dress she hasn't worn in a minute, her hair curled, slight make-up done. Just don't overthink it running as a loop in her head. "Evening, Shiloh.", Sofie greets them, stepping aside in her socked feet, "How's it going? I'm glad that you came!"
Sofie is tired. So incredibly tired. The shift has been long and the next patient is a small child -- something that can go horrific, or cute. Sofie worries that with how this day has been going, it will be horrific. Her scrubs are pink today, her badge is decorated with stickers and has her name written in a colorful font. For pediatric patients, the children usually aren't the problem. It's the parent that worries her. But when she opens the door to the small room, all worries are blown away. The cutest little girl looks right up at her and Sofie's heart is melting immediately -- and the dad's cute, too. Bingo.
"Evening, you two. My name is Sofie and I'll be your nurse for tonight." Sofie places the chart on a table and pulls lilac gloves over her hands -- she personally advocated for ordering them and now gets her fair share of giggles out of herself whenever one of the doctor's looks at them with a questioning gaze. "Can you tell me what happened, Dahlia? What hurts? How bad is it on a scale from 1 to 10, if one is a small stingy paper scratch and ten is... falling off your bike when you're going really fast?"
The soft, flowy satin of her dress wraps around her body like it was tailored for her, and it makes Sofie's heart swell with giddiness. She's earned quite a few compliments tonight, so many that she's starting to feel lightheaded. Someone offers her a glass of champagne, but Sofie slips away to reach one of the workers in an attempt to ask for the bathroom, hoping of refreshing her makeup. But when her fingers briefly brush the strangers hand, a wave of dizziness rushes through her.
"Goodness.", Sofie whispers, feeling as she had just been struck by a lightning. Her fingers grasp the strangers shoulder so that she does not fall, her eyebrows are furrowed beneath her mask, and her empty hand scrunches up the fabric of her dress, leaving it wrinkled as she lets go. A wave of fresh air reaches her from the open door they're standing next to, and Sofie shakes herself out of this weird feeling of belonging and desire. "My apologies.", Sofie says, clearly confused, "I think I had too much of the champagne." Her hand graze his again as she turns around to rush away in embarrassment, and there it is again, just stronger this time. Sofie steadies herself on the wall, blinking once, twice, then she quickly draws her hand away. "I think I'm going to faint."
SOFIE LICHTENBERG AT THE LUNAR ECLIPSE MASKED BALL
dressed in perfectly pristine pastel pink, sofie anonymously stuns in a beautiful ball gown inherited from her mother. her invite of the night is issued by her brother, who has been friends with the moonstone museum owner's son for a long time.
As much as he looked like the typical twenty eight year old guy who liked nothing more than to be in a big dark room, music blasting and sweaty strangers dancing all around, Theodore had never been much of a club guy. He could tolerate the vibe when he needed to but would always choose a nice little dive bar over strobe lights and glow sticks any day, but tonight he didn't seem to have much choice.
It had been a pretty tough shift and he was still a little cranky from spending all night moving into his apartment, so Theo desperately needed a drink after all of that. Unfortunately for him the only place that was serving at this time of night, was Cloud 7. So he grabbed a glass of the strongest spirit the place had to serve and nestled himself nicely at the end of the bar. Too tired to really socialise, finding himself just people watching, until after a couple more drinks later, he laid eyes on a rather unpleasant looking sight.
The thing about being in the line of work Theodore was in, was that it was hard to switch off that security/door staff mind set right away. Constantly looking out for trouble, or for the tell tale signs of a situation brewing and slowly reaching boiling point, which was exactly what he was seeing now.
He took a long swig of his drink and watched as some asshole who had clearly had a little too much judging by his lack of balance, stumble up to a girl at the bar. He could sense that she wasn't comfortable, and when he picked up on words that came slurring out of the guy's mouth. He just had to step in.
Theo quickly finished off his glass and slid down the bar. Moving to stand between the girl and the drunk. "I think it's best if you fuck off, bro." He huffed. Hoping it would do the trick and scare the man off, more than ready to throw hands with the asshole if it didn't, fortunately for him though Theo's towering stature and intimidating stare was just the push the guy needed to take the hint. Turning around and staggering away.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he turned to check on the girl. Man she was pretty, but Theo wasn't that insensitive, and she clearly was in no mood to be chatted up right now.
The violent bump that sent Sofie stumble into the bar with her ribcage first, instantly ruined her generally very bad mood. The shift at the hospital had been long enough to tire her out, and Valentine being too busy to chat with her like they had planned had left her with a strong drink, and boring evening. But she did not want to leave yet -- rummaging around alone in her apartment was nothing she desired to do today.
Within seconds, the situation did a full 180. Someone drew the man away after he had almost spit in her face slurring drunk words, pushed his body in between his and hers, and got rid of him. Sofie was still glued to the bar in a weird position, her hair slightly tousled, her ribs aching. "Wow. That was a lot." Slowly, Sofie drew herself away from the bar, her eyes glued to Theo's face. "Thank you for... getting rid of him." Her hand was now covered in the red, sugary liquid that had splashed out of her glass and it took her a second to think a napkin to wipe it clean.
"Yeah, I'm okay, thanks to my knight in shining armor." Amused, Sofie held out her clean, right hand for a shake, "And what's the name to the saving grace?" He was smoking hot, but quite obviously also part of the security team, so Sofie was not sure if hitting on him would be.... unlawful.
"Just because you're a wolf, it does not mean that you're immune to infections, and bacteria. And I'm not a doctor, I'm a nurse. The nurse that says sit still, and let me patch you up." Sofie's gaze is surprisingly intense, and she pours some disinfectant into a bowl nonetheless, dabbing it up with a piece of a bandage she cut off. Her fingers lift Shiloh's chin, and a tingling sensation travels across her whole body as she avoids Shiloh's gaze.
"You're very angry.", Sofie comments, her voice much softer than it was before, "No need to be a wolf to sense that." Curious about the reason, Sofie analyzes their face, "What's it about? Some trouble within the pack?" Worried she might have overstepped a boundary, Sofie starts explaining, "My brother's part of your pack. That's how I know you're the... what is it called? Uh... right hand man?" Unsure if the term is right, Sofie quickly focuses on dabbing the cuts again, "Don't mind my rambling."
their first instinct is to fight back, shove the nurse off them and head for the door. the other's touch is gentle, caring, and it makes them feel small and protected. when was the last time they let someone protect them and not the other way around? so shiloh bites their tongue and lets the woman work, doing their absolute best to sit still and not flinch at the feeling of the stinging disinfectant.
"i am," they almost growl in response but manage to make it a little more civil. the softer tone makes shiloh pause before relaxing, realizing that their actions were only going to make this more painful, either physically or emotionally. they're the betting type and figures the one with the medical degree could make things a whole lot more painful if she wanted.
"no," they're quick to refute the idea of pack troubles. "no, nothing like that." eyes lift to actually look at the other's face and study the woman. trying to search for something familiar, seeing as she just admitted to her brother being one of shiloh's own. "when was he turned?" seeing as sofie isn't a werewolf, shiloh only assumes the logical step: he was turned by another.
"and you can say beta, if you want to be really formal about it. second in command, right hand man, whatever works. basically myles is our leader, i'm next in line, then the rest of the pack." hierarchy things weren't secrets, shiloh didn't feel bad about explaining any of it to sofie. "or you can just call me shiloh, seeing as that's my name."
As much as Sofie hates to admit, the growl does make her flinch. When her brother does it, she always reacts in a similar way, but that is usually because he does not really have himself under control -- at least not perfectly. Not always. "Around five years ago. Six, now.", Sofie answers, "Wait, I've got a picture." She draws out her phone with her non-gloved hand, unlocks it and turns it around, revealing her lock screen: They look alike, kind of, but might as well be strangers.
"How is a... beta chosen?", she asks, quite curious, "Is it like, draw a number? Strongest first?" The nurse goes back to work, and cannot stop herself from gently rolling her eyes at Shiloh's stubbornness, "Shiloh. Okay. Will you sit still then, Shiloh?" When it comes to werewolves, Sofie will always be curious. It's hard to understand when one does not really live it, and every new information she gets, she slurps up like a madman.
"You were born as one, right? You seem really in... control of yourself." Maybe a weird thing to say. Sofie lifts her hand, and rubs her forehead with the back of it, "Sorry. Long day, and night."
