#afmstart

[starchild-writes]

        Dinah sat in a cafe, her legs crossed and feet on the booth she was sitting at, Her laptop laid closed in front of her, a small, mostly-gone, vanilla latte and a donut beside it. She drummed her fingers against the table and attempted to ignore the fact that she came here to work on an essay due Monday morning. Stilling her hand, she forced herself to open up the laptop and turn it on. A small frown adorned her face.

        Her aunt’s apartment left her feeling suffocated as of late and her parent’s house felt all too cold. She rarely felt welcome at her sister’s apartment, even if she was invited or babysitting Maya. So, even the quiet humming of talking and music distracted her, the cafe seemed like her best option to get any work done in.

        Wth her cup to her lips, she took a few sips, finishing the drink. She stood and walked towards the trash can. Along the way, she collided with someone. “ Sorry. ” She frowned. “ Sorry. I should have been paying more attention. ”

[casey-j-williams-blog]

“No, I promise, we will go see Moana, but this weekend, okay, baby? We don’t have time today.” Casey told his eight year old daughter as they walked into the mall. He held tightly to Abby’s hand as looked around the huge building. It had never seemed quite so overwhelming before, with so many people ... but then again, he had never had that memory of the overwhelming terror of losing Abby in his mind either. Was it really a memory if it hadn’t happened yet? He wasn’t sure exactly what to call it, only that he was going to do everything possible to make sure it never did happen. 

He held Abby’s hand a little tighter and looked back down the the little girl, “Right, okay. So we need to see if we can find a store that sells microwaves, since somebody decided to make themselves a snack and didn’t put water in the noodles.” he said, giving her a significant look. Honestly, he hadn’t realized an Easy Mac cup could do that much damage either, but he wanted to make sure she knew not to do anything like that again. He couldn’t afford to keep replacing appliances. 

“Sorry, daddy!” the little girl said, looking appropriately guilty for her destruction of the microwave. “I think that store has stuff like that though!” she offered, tugging on her father’s hand while looking back at him and pulling him forward until she bumped into the person in front of her. “Oh!” she exclaimed.

“I am so sorry!” Casey said quickly, pulling Abby back away from the person and crossing his arms protectively over her as he held her in front of him, “She wasn’t paying attention, she didn’t mean anything by it.”

[lkesterlingfuck-blog]

     Lennox had lived in Seattle his entire life aside from annual summer trips to Greece, so it was a bit ridiculous for him to forget a coat or umbrella and yet here he was soaking wet and pissed off inside a Starbucks. It wasn’t entirely a new thing, he’d never really gotten in the habit of remembering a jacket, but normally he’d be inside or close enough to his car that it wasn’t a big deal. This time, however, he was too far away to make a break for it so he’d went inside the first public space he could find. ( It seemed God had forsaken that particular Starbucks. )

     There was no one at the counter so he ordered without waiting, trying half-heartedly to persuade the cashier to put a mountain of whip on his already overly sugared drink. Sterlings don’t pout, but Lennox was pretty close as he handed over his ten dollar after a no and went to wait at the pickup counter. “If I see one more drop of rain I’ll probably scream. Why does rain even exist? It’s a pointless creation that does nothing but annoy people. We should get rid of it and get me dry clothes.”

[itsjustowenl-blog]

It was the first day back to classes for Owen, but for once he didn’t have to be at work afterwards. It was a fairly nice day outside, at least as nice as it got for Seattle in the winter, and he had decided to head to Washington Park, figuring that it wouldn’t be crowded due to the cold, but would still give him something to do outside of his dorm. He hadn’t been out very long when a dog came running up to him, leash trailing behind it. “Crap.” he muttered, quickly grabbing the leash of the escaping dog and looking around for anyone else, “Hey!” he called as he spotted someone, “Is this your dog? Or ... do you know who’s it is?”

[samantha-holloway-blog]

It had been ages since Sam had gotten in a good run. Yeah, maybe it was late at night and technically dangerous, but she needed a break. This new blackout had her on edge, and she needed to run it out. More Clairs? This was getting more and more bizarre, and the unknown was not something Sam enjoyed. She checked her watch: three miles. I should turn around before it gets too late. Sam came to a quick stop at the water fountain and sipped at the lukewarm water. The only thing in her mind was the news broadcast: there were even more people like her. What was the city going to do? Was this going to become some sort of national emergency? As she turned around, deep in her thoughts, she flinched at the person who had seemingly appeared near her. 

“Jesus, sorry,” she stammered, “I didn’t see you there.”

[alaricsummerfield]

Alaric placed a bouquet of flowers down by the Westlake Apartments building, taking a seat on the ground in front of it. The whole fire tragedy happened awhile back, those dead have had their proper funerals. Though he wasn't really that close to any of them, he did know one of them who always came by the zoo just to see the red pandas. And to think, a familiar face just gone like that; and also a Clair. He wasn't close enough to have gone for the funeral so he opted to wait out a week or two and while he was walking his dogs, pass by the site of accident. "At least they're probably in a better place, huh?" He smiled down to his furry companions who laid by his sides, stroking them as he took a while to just sit and think. He kept a low profile on the whole Clairs thing, taking neither sides nor acknowledging his was one of them but it was really getting out of hand. He never joined the CCS or any of the gatherings and somehow the recent events makes it a little bit scarier to do so. It never really occurred to him how much of a nuisance he might’ve been sitting on the sidewalk until someone came up to him. “Sorry, am I in your way?”

[itsjustowenl-blog]

Generally, Owen’s opinion on shopping around Christmas was that it was to be avoided at all costs, but unfortunately, it was now just three days before Christmas and he had run out of drawing paper. He had gambled on the arts and crafts store not being that busy and he had lost, badly. Not only was the store packed, so was absolutely everything around it. It had taken ten minutes just to find a parking spot. He vowed to actually keep track of how much paper he had in the future so he could just order it online and avoid this whole mess, at least around the holidays. 

He had finally fought his way through the crowd enough to find the paper he needed and then waited in an absolutely ridiculous line to pay before fighting his way out of the store. He paused to take in a deep breath once he was outside and try to relax. He hated crowds. There was no way to keep an eye on everyone nearby and at least seven different people had bumped into him. It was not exactly his idea of a good time. He shook his head for a moment and went to head back to his car when he spotted something on ground, and looking back up, spotted someone familiar walking away.

He bit his lip for a moment, actually saying something meant social interaction, and it also meant staying in this crowded place longer. But he was also pretty sure that returning this item might mean the person owing him a favor, and he could always use that. A chance to have someone actually thinking something positive about him for relatively little effort probably shouldn’t be passed up. It definitely wasn’t that he was just being nice.

“Hey, ah, I think you dropped this?” he called out to the other person.

[pembrcke-blog]

it’s just so hard to see tomorrow past tonight *  forest + rai

@jayrais

It was very convenient that Rai was already a block away from the gala, ready to go.

It was very convenient, to the point where any reasonable person would question it — like, “Hey, why are you already in a suit? Why are you so close to the event? Did you know I’d agree to go with you? What’s the deal?”. Forest knows Rai well enough not to bother asking. He’d much rather accept it as coincidence, because Rai is a little strange sometimes, and just rolling with it works much better than any other method. Forest has long-accepted that you have to take some people as they come, and he’ll take Rai happily.

He was only a few blocks from where Rai was, so it didn’t take long for Forest to find his friend, lone figure under a streetlight. Walking towards the gala was a little odd for Forest — despite his height, he was used to shrinking away, disappearing into crowds. His face, his clothing, his gait all lent itself to keeping Forest in the background, making him insignificant. In the suit, though, he felt he stuck out like a sore thumb. He never felt at home in clothes like this — even when he was waiting tables, he felt like a fraud, like someone would call him out, say he wasn’t supposed to be there at all. A few heads turned as he walked down the street, and Forest didn’t know what to make of it — which was why he was glad to see Rai. People didn’t look at Rai unless he wanted to be looked at, and when he wanted to be looked at, all eyes were on him, never Forest, and it was better that way.

As soon as he caught sight of Rai, his pace sped up, a determined walk turning into a jog until he caught Rai, arm slinging around his friend’s shoulders, slotting himself into place. “Rai! Hey, I’m here, I got here as fast as I could.” He had, too. A call from Rai was like a call to action for Forest, and he wrangled himself into his monkey suit in five minutes flat, speedwalking to their meeting point. He turns towards Rai, dazzling smile, like a dandelion turns towards a streetlamp, looking for the light. “I’m paying tonight. No ifs, ands or buts. It’s only ten dollars, I can afford it. You can buy me a drink, alright? Good. Deal.”