centrum permanebit

Sydney Sage | 19 | Alchemist ✮ Currently stationed in Washington DC ✮

[sydneysagex]

irresistiibles‌:

The fact that the woman allowed her to pick was nice, but not particularly surprising. “It doesn’t seem like people care too much for flowers here.” It was nice that they were planted of course,but only in select locations. Ophelia wondered if she could pick someone off the street who would know a single flower meaning. She ultimately wound up holding at two for the girl. “Your choice. Aster for wisdom and devotion or Freesia for passion and joy.” Neither felt quite right in her hands, so they would be good ones to part with, now it was just up to the blonde to choose one she found fitting for herself.

Everything about Sydney’s life up until that point screamed aster. Wisdom and devotion were the things she should be aspiring to have as a slightly disgraced Alchemist. She was here to do her job, not experience things like passion and joy like normal people got to. The logical part of her mind told her to take the aster. Well, the most logical part of her mind told her that it really didn’t matter either way since it was just a flower. But even so, she reached out with every intention of taking the aster and somehow ended up carefully taking the freesia instead. “Thank you for parting with it. It’s beautiful.”

[sydneysagex]

ofsvnlightt‌:

alex had been finishing up some work for another class when she heard the question. looking up, she smiled at the other, “nope, go ahead.” she could tell the other was nervous so she decided to make some smalltalk, “i’m alexandra. are you new to dc?”

Sydney smiled gratefully and took her seat, fiddling with her notebook and pens until they were sitting exactly where and how she wanted them on the desk in front of her. “Nice to meet you, Alexandra. I’m Sydney,” she replied, offering out a hand to shake before she could think the better of it. “I’ve been here a few weeks but most of that was settling in and organising everything so I certainly feel new. How about you, have you been here long?”

[sydneysagex]

tragcdysewn‌:

( . sydneysagex‌ )

rose hadn’t been sleeping well, she was too worried about things back home. lissa had other guardians, she knew, but not being able to protect her friend herself was putting her on edge. so coffee was the solution. she had been sitting in the little shop she’d been frequenting when a blonde entered. at the sight of the girl making a direct shot for the counter, rose stiffened. “sydney…” she breathed out. finally, someone from her world, someone she knew she could trust. “sydney! when did you get here?”

Sydney whipped around at the sound of her name. She hadn’t become close enough to anyone during her time in DC so far that she expected to run into someone she knew in a coffee shop. Definitely not in one she didn’t regularly visit. If it was the place closest to her apartment she could have understood being recognised, if only by the baristas. When she spotted the beautiful dark-haired girl sitting at a small table, she almost did an actual double-take. “Rose?” She squeaked in surprise, momentarily forgetting that she hadn’t ordered anything yet and closing the distance between herself and the table with a handful of faltering steps. “A few weeks ago but what are you doing here?”

[sydneysagex]

lcxstsouls‌:

Winn tried not to drink too much, but he always found that the bar was the place to see who was in the city and learn some information. People tended to talk at bars and so, he nursed usually one beer a night and gather whatever intel he could manage to. It was always crowded in the evenings, most people wanting to unload and possibly forget that they were all stuck there together. When someone came over to him, he looked up and offered her a small smile, nodding. “Go right ahead,” he said. “Do you come here often?” he asked. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean that as a.. how most people use it,” he shook his head. “I’m genuinely curious. This place is all still so… strange to me.” 

Sydney took a seat across from him with a small smile. The smile disappeared quickly though, her brow furrowing in confusion at his words. Asking her if she visited the bar often seemed like a reasonable enough question to her and she wasn’t sure what he meant when he said how most people use it. Unsure how to respond, she decided to take a sip of her soda instead. “No, I haven’t been here before,” she said eventually. “This place as in DC in general? What do you mean by strange exactly?”

[sydneysagex]

lcxstsouls‌:

Oliver was trying to settle into Washington, but it was taking some adjustment, still unsure how they got there and who he could fully trust now that they were there. The coffee shop seemed short staffed for the amount of people who wanted to get coffee, trying to keep track of where his cup was in the line of drinks being made. There had to be a better way for them to fill orders, but this was what they were seemingly stuck with. “Oh.. thank you,” he smiled. “I’d lost it in the sea of cups,” he chuckled. “I.. don’t think I’ve seen it this bad before. A little busy, but not to the point no one knows which order is theirs anymore,” he shook his head. 

Sydney nodded in acknowledgement, taking a sip from her own drink to make sure they had actually used 1% milk like she had ordered. They were so busy that she was concerned they might have gotten it wrong but she was pleasantly surprised to find that it was perfect. “No problem. I almost lost mine too, and that’s really saying something. I take my caffeine very seriously,” she only half-joked. “I guess it’s just one of those rush times for them here. Or they do something to the coffee here that makes everyone need to come back for more. It’s good enough that I’d almost believe that. What do you think?”

“Oh I’m Sydney, by the way. With a y not an i,” she said, pointing to her cup where her name was scrawled incorrectly. 

[sydneysagex]

redef1ned‌:.

Heather was surprised that the girl she’d run into wasn’t terribly mad, although she felt horrid about ruining the girl’s white shirt. “I’m glad it wasn’t too hot, but I feel so bad I ruined your shirt. That’s going to be hell to try and get out.” She lowered the book from her line of sight fully, assessing the damage done. “Cold water and rinsing it inside out should get the stain out mostly but if it doesn’t let me buy you a new one.” At the question of what she was reading, she snapped the book closed and offered the girl a look at the cover. “It’s a young adult novel called Radio Silence. It’s super intriguing, even if it’s a little cheesy for my taste sometimes.”

Sydney nodded seriously along with the other girl’s instructions, wincing a little at the thought of trying to get the stain out the regular human way. Training as an Alchemist had given her plenty of little chemical tricks to get out pesky stains like blood but she couldn’t exactly explain that without sounding like a serial killer. She was impressed by the cover art, even though she wasn’t exactly an expert on the subject. “It looks interesting and I like the title. What is it about though? What makes it so intriguing?” She realised she probably sounded like a bit of a nerd but she couldn’t help herself from asking about it.

[sydneysagex]

pcriwinklxs‌:

sydney‌ // nao

        ❝  YES , YOU MUST BE right ,  ❞ nao agrees after a moment of silent deliberation. certainly her parents are just giving her some time to adjust. she is in an entirely new country after all , one with vastly different people & customs. with that in addition to the new stress of university , her family probably just thinks that they are giving her the space she needs in order to get settled in properly. she laughs softly at her own silliness , now realizing just how much she had been overthinking it all. she’d just take the other’s suggestion & try to get in touch with them later this week. ❝  i will have to call them this week & let them know that i’m doing well now. thank you for helping me feel better , even though i’m just a stranger that you could have ignored.  ❞

“Oh, it’s no problem. I couldn’t just ignore you! I mean, you didn’t ignore me and my issue when you could have. I definitely would have felt like that weird guy no one wants to sit next to on the bus if you hadn’t. Talking to myself in a coffee shop and everything.” Sydney wasn’t sure what it was about the other girl that made her want to open up and hear about her life at the same time. Maybe it was because she hadn’t become close to many people since arriving in town but she appreciated the company immensely. “I’m Sydney, by the way. I feel like I might have forgotten to introduce myself, how rude of me.”

[sydneysagex]

starter for Alice (@heartcndsoul)

Sydney knew that she was in a public place and that there were other people around but she couldn’t bring herself to care like she usually would have. She had come to the library to study after class but she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. She had only intended to rest her head on the desk for a moment but before she knew it she was waking up from having been asleep. As she opened her eyes, she met the gaze of a girl that looked only a little older than her baby sister Zoe. 

“Oh no,” she said with a groan. “Do you know how long I was asleep for?”

[sydneysagex]

starter for Winn (@lcxstsouls)

It was a Saturday night and the bar was packed full of all sorts of people. It wasn’t quite as busy as the nightclub she had visited the night before but it was still difficult enough to catch a bartender’s attention and order a drink. Once she finally ordered and received the diet soda she had been trying to procure since she had walked in, she glanced around the room looking for a good place to observe most of the other people in the bar. She wanted to make sure that if any strigoi or even out of control moroi showed up, she would see them and be able to protect the other humans from falling victim to them. She spotted the perfect vantage point over in one corner but there was already a man there drinking beer. 

“Hi, mind if I join you?” She asked him, hoping that he wasn’t planing of making a night of it and that she would have the table to herself before too long. 

[sydneysagex]

starter for Alex @ofsvnlightt

Sydney was nervous. Her social skills didn’t extend to a classroom setting, having been homeschooled by her father with only her sisters to interact with. Even then, the interactions hadn’t exactly been positive ones, what with the way her father pitted them against each other and pushed them to compete in even the most menial things. She had attended a few lectures earlier in the week but today was her first actual class. She was always on time if not early to things but the mix of excitement and nerves swirling around in the put of her stomach had made her arrive even earlier than usual. She had waited outside the building until she was only just on the earlier side of on time and then followed a group of other students into the classroom. She spotted a free seat close to the front but not so close that she would have to turn her head awkwardly to pay attention to their teacher or the other students. She approached the seat, noticing that the one beside it was already filled by a blonde girl. 

“Excuse me, is there anyone sitting here?” She asked politely, hoping that was the right approach to take socially-speaking.

[sydneysagex]

starter for Oliver @lcxstsouls

Sydney didn’t know what had gone wrong. When she had been in this coffee shop the day before, the barista had been friendly and she had been served right away. Today, the line had been almost out the door and as cups were being put in the collection part of the counter, no corresponding names or orders were being called out. She watched carefully as her cup moved along the production line and once it was ready she snatched it up quickly, hoping she had picked the right one. After a moment’s thought, she grabbed the cup next to hers as well and offered it to the man who had been behind her in line. “I think this one is yours,” she said, offering it to him. “I’ve never been in here when it was this busy before, is it like this often?”

[sydneysagex]

starter for Esme @cntdestroy

Sydney had had an incredibly long day. It was only early evening but the fact that she had been up since 5 and barely stopped or even slowed down all day had her feeling like it was much later than it was. She had been looking forward to showering and scrubbing all of the car grease off her hands that had built up significantly over her morning-long search for the source of the car’s leaking brake fluid. After that she thought she might watch the travel documentary she had taped on her TV the night before and go to bed as early as the multiple cups of coffee she had consumed earlier would allow.

Instead, she found herself knocking on the door of someone she presumed was a complete stranger. She knew logically that she could have just thrown the mail with Esme Song’s name on it away or left it in the mail room but the perfectionist in her hadn’t allowed her to. She would have preferred to have just stuffed it in the correct mail slot and been done with it but the one in question had already been completely filled, likely with advertisements, menus and catalogues if her own mail box was anything to go by. And there was the small matter of the word urgent stamped across it in bright red ink. She made an attempt to wipe any trace of how tired she was from her face and knocked, deciding that if no one answered she would just try and slot the piece of mail under the door.

[redef1ned]

The coffee shop always made Heather feel more comfortable than being at home. There was just something about the smell of fresh brewed coffee and baked goods that felt so comforting. When she went home it was just her and her half unpacked apartment. She knew that her breaks should really consist of her going home and unpacking some more, but she couldn’t pry herself away from her cup of coffee and the book in her hand. She meandered around the shop, trying to find a quiet space to read for fifteen minutes. She didn’t look where she was going however, and bumped into someone, spilling coffee on them. “I am so, so sorry. I should’ve been looking ahead of me. Not reading. It wasn’t too hot was it?” 

[sydneysagex]

Sydney let out a surprised squeak as she felt the hot, but not scoldingly so, liquid soak into her white button up shirt. She honestly hadn’t been paying as much attention to her surroundings as she probably should have been since she had woken several times throughout the night from strange nightmares and she had yet to have her first cup of coffee for the day. “No, no. It wasn’t too hot. I should have been looking, too. What were you reading that was so fascinating?” She asked with a good-natured laugh.

[sydneysagex]

@postremusvirgo​

“Just first give me your basic information. Like name  , address , phone number. I’ll need it in case we find your car later , so we can contact you. “ Jaya scribbled some things down , giving her a skeleton of points to go over and write down the woman’s responses too. “ Have you gotten into any arguments with people lately? Or has anyone harassed you recently? They could be suspects . Even if it feels like it was insignificant , I need to know for my report. “ 

“My name is Sydney Katherine Sage,” she answered, going on to list off her contact details in a daze-like state. She couldn’t believe how terrible her luck was for her car to be stolen so soon after moving to a new city. It wasn’t like she hadn’t lived in cities before and she’d visited and parked in much scarier neighbourhoods than this one in Siberia. “I can’t think of anything, honestly. I’ve only been in town a few weeks I don’t really know anyone here. There is this one guy, Keith Darnell. He’s definitely not my biggest fan and he would know I was living here since we work for the same company but I’m really not sure he’d be able to make it all the way out here. Last I heard, he was living in California.” She let out a deep sigh, tired just from the thought of Keith and what she had done to him. He’d deserved it and worse, of course, but she would be in serious trouble if anyone found out about it. Especially if the Alchemists found out about it. “What do you think my chances are of getting it back?”

[sydneysagex]

watchthecrxwn‌:

Noctis chuckled quietly, remembering very briefly the memories he was told of his mother. “It’s okay. At least you have the comfort of two parents. My father had to be the gentle soul and the protector. It didn’t help that he was mostly committed to his work.” He knew that she certainly wouldn’t believe his father to be a king but speaking of his father as a normal parent; his heart began to ache.

“That must have been hard,” she sympathised, feeling guilty for bringing up what she assumed were extremely unpleasant memories. “My dad is very committed to his work too but you’re right, I had my mom to compensate for it. I’m sorry that you didn’t. You must miss her.”

[sydneysagex]

Hey guys! Give this a like if you’d like a starter from Sydney! I’ll probably come and ask you some questions prior to writing them if I’m not super familiar with where your character would be/what they’d be doing so maybe don’t like if that’s an issue for some reason. 

[sydneysagex]

Rose (@tragcdysewn) && Sydney

In the month that Sydney had been in DC, she had sampled almost all of the cafes and coffee shops in the general vicinity of her apartment. She had also tested the ones near the best garage she had been able to find which offered both on-site mechanics and rented tools for those wishing to do their own restoration work. At first, she had bought a pretty crappy car and hadn’t intended of doing any of her own mechanic work. But then that car had been stolen and the insurance payout had been more than the thing had been worth in her opinion so she had sprung for something a little nicer. It was a 1966 Triumph Spitfire in cherry red and it was a thing of beauty. It still needed some fixing up but it ran okay for the moment and she loved it. 

She had taken it out a little further than her regular radius that morning, making the drive to one of the smaller arts colleges on the opposite side of the city to her apartment. She had been emailing one of the ladies in admissions there about the possibility of auditing a few art history classes so she had decided to make the drive over there and see what the campus was like before she committed to anything. Sydney was usually such a logical person but she knew that in order to really learn and excel in her classes, the college would have to feel right to her in an indescribable way.

Naturally, her first port of call before actually investigating the campus itself was to assess the nearby coffee options. The first two places hadn’t even looked appealing from the outside so she hadn’t ventured inside but the third, a few more blocks away from the campus, looked promising. It had the added bonus of off-street customer parking behind the building which assuaged a little of her anxiety about leaving her car unattended in light of the theft of her previous car only two weeks ago. 

She walked inside, making a beeline for the counter and not even bothering to look around the place. The real test would be the coffee, after all, so she set about ordering herself a skinny vanilla latte. There would be plenty of time for scrutinising the place’s decor and primary clientele after she had had her caffeine fix.