the fabric of moonbeams

𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓏𝓀𝒶 "𝒷𝑒𝓈𝓈" 𝓈𝑜𝓁𝓉𝓎𝓈 ˙⋆✮ owner / the slumber inn

[starlit-delirivm]

Elizka Bess Soltys / lunar cove task 004

And there's nothing like a mad woman What a shame she went mad No one likes a mad woman You made her like that ... mad woman, t. swift

listen to it on spotify !!

[gildedgossamer]

Location: Just in Bloom Starring: Simone & (Open) @lunarcovestarters

Lips pursed, Simone's gaze shifted between two potted plants she held in her hands. One was a purple orchid, pretty, with a single flower perched on the delicate stem. The other had a trail of leaves flowing over the edge of the pot, no flowers to be seen. The real question, however was, "Which one would be harder to kill?" She asked aloud, mostly to herself. She turned to look for an employee but found the counter empty. Luckily for her, there was another customer there. "Uh, hey, you look like you know about plants, which one of these won't die like, immediately, if I'm bad at this? And don't say to get a cactus because I've tried that before and those suckers do freaking die."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

Bess looked to Simone her eyes wide. She was holding a bag of weed and feed, the third one she's had to grab this week. The witch severely underestimated how much property the motel sat on. Bess looked down at what the woman had in her hands and then back to her. "The other one will be much easier to keep alive," Bess pointed with her whole body towards the green guy with a pretty leafy trail.

"Orchids are pretty, but their blooms will fall next week and you'll be left with a stem until it comes back. He'll also need to be repotted too..." she started to ramble about plants and caught herself. "Sorry, the green guy. He'll get long and looks great from tall shelves."

[yasinlunar]

"Bess," Yasin confirmed, shaking her hand. "Not a problem. Is that for work or play?"

He nodded, having given the matter some idle thought while he waited to meet with her. "Well, the ideal place to start is promoting the bits and pieces of the Slumber you're proud of. A customer tends to trust you more when they recognize you're being truthful, which in turn allows the less savory things to fall away and out of sight. If you play your cards right," Yasin added. "Why don't we start there? Can you provide a few examples of things you'd be willing to focus on around the motel that feel worthy of the spotlight?"

How all good things begin, he thought, one piece at a time.

[starlit-delirivm]

&

"My grandpa didn't have much of a green thumb, so the grounds have become overrun with crabgrass and knotty bits of weeds. Just don't go walking barefoot through the back meadow," she laughed, and she gestured for them to move to the motel lobby.

It was slow this morning, only 3 guests: a couple and a wanderer. Bess listened to was Yasin was saying with thoughts already racing across her mind. "Well, I guess it's a quiet place. The Slumber Inn is literally a place where you can sleep in," she began.

"Almost too quite, sometimes I have to run a fan and the TV just to feel like I'm back in Chicago," she laughed warmly. "No, but it's serenity when you need it... If that makes any sense."

[dhruvxmehta]

"Whoa... hey..." Dhruv's voice softened as he dropped into a crouch, offering the dog his hand to sniff. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, something that did not come easily these days. "Sorry, mate. I don't have any snacks."

He heard her before he looked up. "Oh." His shoulders stiffened. Instinct won before reason had a chance to catch up, and he found himself taking a step back, his pulse stumbling into an uneven rhythm. It wasn't her that unsettled him, but the motel standing behind her was enough to drag unwanted memories to the surface.

"I... uh..." Dhruv forced his gaze back onto her, "I don't live far from here, so..." he answered with a small shrug. He hadn't meant to come this way, not consciously at least, but one turn had become another until the familiar path opened beneath his feet, and by the time he noticed where he was headed it felt too late to turn back. Attention dropped back to the dog, grateful for the distraction. "I think he was hoping I had food."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

She looked up to Dhruv, and her smile fell. She glanced around as the morning doves cooing their late morning song. Her familiar was flying among the wild birds between the bare autumn branches and the whistling pines.

"Oh, please, don't mind him..." Bess smiled, looking down at Misiu wagging his tail so hard it wiggled his whole body. "He's a bottomless pit. I've seen him eat bugs before," she added with a warm and breathy laugh.

"I didn't know we were neighbors. Shadow Lake is such a wild place--being here at the edge of town. It's nice to know that folk live close by the motel. It's so..." She rambled for a spell and then took a breath in as she looked back at the Slumber Inn Motel silhouette as the words trailed from her lips leaving her at a lost.

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Miss Soltys," Meena flashed a smile the Motel Owner's way, however tight her lips might have been pressed together despite herself regarding her newfound company. The vampire hardly held any ill content towards the woman in the bar stool beside her. Quite the contrary, she hardly knew her. But, she would've been lying if she said the sight of the young woman didn't bring on a wave of thoughts she had sought out the bar in the hopes of forgetting.

Her fingers coiled tightly around the wine glass in her hand as she lifted it up towards the witch and genuinely offered her up a "Cheers." She might've still been reeling from what had happened to her, having sworn off sleep for the time being and scrubbed so hard at her skin she had needed to down back an entire blood bag to heal herself from the imprints her nails had left. But her own pstd was hardly something she was about to place upon the other woman.

"Do I look like the type to eat a plate of buffalo wings in one sitting to you?" She arched a brow as she motioned down towards her attire, a crisp, white matching set styled with a pair of red bottom heels and a designer back. Her lips curved upward ever so slightly as she took a sip of her glass and added under her breath, "I'm obviously here for the Happy Hour."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

"No--" Bess laughed, her face dropped slightly when she remembered the mayor's tastes. "No, definitely not."

The early November night clung around them with static electricity. Bess took a deep breath and inhaled the autumn air lingering with bar's stale beer aroma spilling across the wooden floors. The witch took another gulp from her martini and pushed it away. "H-how've you been? I mean--"

More of the evening Covian denizens trickled in and around the bar under dim pale amber lights and the red humming glow of the neon Narragansett beer sign that hung as if it was over an alter. "You're looking well. Or at least your closet has a lot less flannel than mine." Bess's smiled curled softly over her cheeks.

[yasinlunar]

Location ➠ The Slumber Motel Status ➠ Closed to Bess (@starlit-delirivm)

Sometimes, even Yasin needed a break from Lunar Link.

The tried and true solutions? Fresh air. A change of scenery. Diving into a new challenge. Opting for the last option when he decided to answer an ad seeking help with the publicity of one of Lunar Cove's locales, Yasin made his way to Shadow Lake.

After a few minutes of people watching outside the motel, where he tallied up at least three affair meetings, Yasin continued on into the lobby and knocked on the counter.

"Elizka Soltys?" He called, seemingly alone now. "I'm Yasin. We spoke about your ad?"

[starlit-delirivm]

&

"Bess, please!" She stood up with a wide grin and stuck out her hand "Oh right--shit." She froze. The sweaty brunette offered her gardening glove caked in mud and stinging nettles. "I got to weeding--and--well, time got away," she dryly laughed and shook off both gloves to offer her hand again.

"Yes, um--I was wondering if you could help me get the word out about the Slumber Inn: Your home under the Lunar Cove... Or something cooler..."

[gazingatmestarry-eyed]

Easily, Sun-Hee moved through the crowd to take a seat. To avoid having to listen to the loud hum of the crowd, the telepath focused in on the witch with whom she spoke. Her anxious thoughts causing the supreme's face to soften in empathy. "You're safe here." She assured before she continued on not to address Bess' question but her thoughts. "I know what happened with the Bridgeport Coven. I know it was an accident." Her smile gleamed, genuine, with her promise. "You're welcome here."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

The honesty hit her like a brick. And she knew that her Midwest reputation would creep in behind her. Bess looked to Sun-Hee and genuinely believed her. She was safe, welcome.

Once, she'd wanted nothing more than to belong to the coven--to have her talents recognized, to have a place among them. She ended being used-up and discarded. "Thank you," Bess nodded. "But even accidents have a cause," she sighed.

"Bridgeport is my past and Lunar Cove has been like Eden." Bess tucked her hair behind her ear. "I was wondering if I could come to the next coven gathering? I make a wicked batch of sun-tea to share..." she added wryly.

[starlit-delirivm]

@cantfightmoonlight / early november 2024, about 8:47pm, downtown at the starnight bar

The motel was still a mess after the police and fire left. The walls of the main office reeked of plaster dust and dirt. The sound plastic tarp that forensics put up in the hallway of the basement snapped against the early November wind in the throughout the drafty motel office.

The smell lingered--sharp and stale--Bess felt it suffocating that she had to leave. Not like she'd had any business anyway. Finding the mayor and a werewolf pack omega in the basement of her grandpa's motel...

Bess needed a drink: a martini, extra dirty.

She did a quick search and found a good place near by, The Starlight Bar. A quick drive in her '81 Volkswagen Rabbit into town and she'd be way from its mess that she can't fix.

She scooting on the empty bar stool around the think wooden bar top. The dinner crowd was fading, leaving behind the early-night regulars and the quite hum of friends who don't want to go home yet.

Her martini came quickly and Bess took a large gulp. She turned to her left and right with the glass at her lips. She almost choked as her eyes fell onto Meena. "Madam Mayor..." Bess said dryly as she tried to swallow her drink without making a scene. "Let me guess, you're here for the buffalo wing special too..." She added with a wry smile.

[starlit-delirivm]

@dhruvxmehta / early november 2024, shadow lake woods just past the motel

"Misiu!" Bess yelled after her mangy pup. "It's too early for this..."

She put down her tea mug to chase after him through the dewy November wild-grown field that borders the Shadow Lake woods. The motel's shadow caught her at the tree line. It gnawed at her that it all happened just beneath her nose. If she only knew sooner -- if she only spoke up...

The third-quarter moon still hung in the jeweled morning sky. The sun filtered through the autumn leaves casting flickering shadows beneath Bess and her fearless duck menace. "Miii-siu!" Bess called out turning the corner of the path, the motel looming between the young pine trees. "Oh," she blinked.

Dhruv stood a few feet away on the path, Misiu wiggling at his feet. "I--um," Bess smiled and walked over to the pair of them. "He was helping with the laundry before he bolted." She let out a breathy laugh in and looked up at him. "Didn't think I'd see you hear..."

[kamranxahmadix]

Kamran shrugged his shoulders. "Well...I think the faeries are the ones who make weird food actually. Like, no offense to them or nothing, but...Russian Roulette cupcakes aren't my thing, I don't think. Like, you know those jelly beans? Where sometimes it's a gross flavor? And that's part of the thing? It feels like that but instead of chewing on a gym sock, your head explodes." All the same, he was exactly the sort of person to take on a dare and would likely not require too much convincing to do something stupid and reckless. "It's fine. I mean...except for, like...the devil dog. Or whatever. I'm staying with friends. We have a band. We're good as hell. You should come listen to us sometime. We're pretty...hardcore."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

"Oh, I love live music!" Bess said after she swallowed her last bite. "Hardcore sometimes is the best type of core." She laughed heartily trying to remember the last concert she actually went to. When was the the last time Bess went out? Was it that long ago... Was she boring now...?

The witch shook her head, and finished her plate. "Come by the Motel and let me know when-and-where you play next. I could use a hardcore dose of noise," Bess got up and looked to see if there were anymore of the potato salad left. "I'll see you?"

[gazingatmestarry-eyed]

"Heyyyy." Sun-Hee tried not to snicker at Bess' mouth filled response. "You too." It was her prerogative to know the witches of Lunar Cove. Whether they were or were not in the coven. Although, she knew a bit more about Bess than most newcomers. The witch's old Chicago coven had been in communication. "I haven't picked a spot yet. You choose and I'll follow?"

[starlit-delirivm]

&

Bess pointed to a pair of chairs a few yards away and moved with Sun-Hee. Bess's heart raced as she walked next to the Supreme. It was not intimidation that fluttered her heart, but the unfamiliarity of the closeness to magic. She's felt so cut off since leaving the Bridgeport Coven, and the anxious gnawing of past trauma creeping back in. "H-how goes it for--y'all," Bess winced at her own cringe.

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Give it a minute. I'm sure pretty soon the knights are just going to wind up taking to the streets," He admitted, motioning back behind them to Banner N' Blade. If he knew anything about his roommate, Todd, who'd taken up being the Blue Knight, it was that he'd be damned if the show didn't go on. So, he had a feeling whatever silence washed over them now would be disturbed the moment the knights inside learned how to trot the horses out. Moving to fish a cigarette out of his own pocket and a lighter, he flipped the box open and motioned it her way as if to ask, "Want one?"

[starlit-delirivm]

&

Bess reached out and pulled a cigarette from the pack offered. She loved stuff like this: medievalism. She read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight so much that the pages were falling out of her copy. The power of nature v. the power of man. Horses and man working together; it was heaven.

The blackout was just part of the spectacle now.

"Thanks," she asked for a light. "I've seen you around town. Do you work at Shipfaced?"

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Good luck," Lennon smirked as she accepted the ten-dollar bill from the other. She recognized Bess from the times she'd been sent over to the Motel to clean. While a shady motel was hardly the place to hire an outside cleaning company, some of the workers there had begged her to turn down a guest's bed from time to time in secret on their behalf, and for the right price, she had been glad to help the punk ass kids out. But she supposed, with the cute brunette in charge, those calls were going to be less and less frequent these days. "May your chosen fighter be victorious or some shit."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

Bess nodded and looked towards the makeshift fight arena.

She looked back to Lennon with a soft smile. She was feeling quite out of her element. She's been in town for almost two years and hadn't connected with any of the witches. After the sting from her Bridgeport coven, she's felt that distant from other witches was best. But something inside of her wanted to reach out: magic to magic... "Thanks a lot, I'll see you if Ignacio wins," she laughed and turned towards the ring.

[starlit-delirivm]

hot & proud / paired event

@cantfightmoonlight / Vivek & Bess the blackout, outside the banner n' blade

"It's funny how loud silence can be..." Bess spoke aloud to Vivek. She looked around at the confused Covians. Some were starting at their phones, most were scrambling to get a cold drink. Bess sipped on her Miller High Life near the smokers that gathered around out front of the event. "I can hear the ocean like it's right next to me..."

[1liv]

BELLA MACLEAN as AGATHA ‘TAGGIE’ O'HARA in RIVALS 1.03

[gazingatmestarry-eyed]

Potlucks weren't the Supreme's thing. She wasn't that picky about food, but who prepared it mattered. All the dishes had little cards, which she eyed carefully before filling her plate. "The potato salad?" Sun-Hee picked up the description card only to discover the writing had been smudged by condensation from the bowl. "Guess it's a mystery?"

[starlit-delirivm]

&

"Oh, hi--" Bess said with stuffed mouth of taters and blinked as her gaze met Sun-Hee's. The town activities had had her bumping into everyone about town. It was only a matter of time when Bess ran into a coven member. But Sun-Hee wasn't any witch, she is the stunning Supreme. Bess quickly swallowed and looked down at the blob left on the card. "Good to see you, Sun-Hee," she wiped the corners of her mouth and smiled. "Where are ya sitting?"

[kamranxahmadix]

"Huh? Oh, I don't actually know. I just came to load up on free food," Kamran explained, speaking through a mouthful of something and balancing a plate in one hand. "Is it good, though? I don't really like most potato salad. My mom used to make this kind with...like, it had pickles and green peas? I liked that. But then...well, we didn't really have it anymore." Explaining his frayed family dynamics over a feast felt impolite. "Maybe it's, like, magic potato salad. Maybe someone conjured it? I haven't been in-town that long, and I'm already learning all kinds of new spells."

[starlit-delirivm]

&

Bess smiled as Kamran reminisced about a good potato salad. She remembered when he stayed at the motel a few months back. It was nice to see a fellow witch and a familiar face. He didn't stay long before moving into town, and she was glad that he stayed under the Slumber Inn. "Magic potato salad? I most defiantly need that spell," she laughed and shoveled another forkful into her mouth. "How have you been finding Lunar Cove? Did you find a place to rent?" Bess said after she swallowed the most delicious taters ever.