#opp: open

[neverfalling]

location: ozdemir block party tag: open!

Sometime in the past several years since their death and rebirth, Grand Manan’s population exploded by their reckoning. The island was a relatively new experiment when they arrived, but it had been under way long enough for a few precocious witches and hunters to chase them there and find the right sort of support to cast them dying into the sea. At the current minute, they paid for her curiosity with buzzing nerves and a serrated knife of a temper, keen to flash and draw blood at the blink of an eye. Music played loudly and people gathered wearing all manner of costumes, most of which they didn’t understand beyond that this was not normal behavior for modern society. They themselves dressed in all black with a wide brimmed felt hat atop their head, fitting in to the crowd without meaning to. As they wove their way through the merrymaking, someone crashed into their side and bounced their small frame several feet to the side, which earned them a scowl and the scantest flash of eyes white like the moon above. “Pay attention--” they snapped as they righted themselves and turned towards whomever made the mistake of jostling them.

[neverfalling]

LOCATION: dark harbor lookout TAG: open

Stubbornly, Hayal refused shelter until it was nearly too late. Unlike many of the island’s vampires, she kept her home near the northwestern portion of the neutral area, far from her kin and closer to what many of them might deem too much danger for comfort even with the relative peace brokered between all the island’s supernatural residents. When the power in her apartment cut and a fire nearby crept too close for comfort, she finally relented and headed to the nearest shelter. Upon arrival, she made the quick, unfortunate realization that most of the island’s werewolves gathered there as well. No werewolf had ever given her trouble before, but she felt the unsettling weight of countless eyes on her as she attempted to tuck herself into a corner. When someone approached, her eyes darkened and she curled in on herself, a cornered animal surrounded by a tiny army of those capable of doing her great harm.

“Leave me alone--” she snapped as she pressed her back into the wall. “Just leave me alone.”

[neverfalling]

LOCATION: Joey’s Diner - post-48 hours. late at night. TAG: open

He did say it was open season once things were back to normal, didn’t he? Or that’s what he meant, she reasoned. The two days spent as a mortal were a miserable reminder of how small she felt, and memories once thought purged from existence bubbled to the surface and settled there uncomfortably, ending only when a death of pain and delirium dragged her under again. She awoke ravenous and angry--nothing unmanageable, but certainly annoying given the heightened sense of vigilance on the island following Zelimir’s threats. Joey’s was therefore not a destination but rather a convenience. The lateness of the hour meant the diner was sparsely occupied, and it took the vampire no time to carve her way through the skeleton crew that manned the restaurant and the pair of drunk diners in the lobby. She was idling behind the counter when the bell on the door sounded, drawing her attention. With an impish curl of a grin, she dragged her fingertips across her collarbone, tracing tracks in the blood that slicked from her mouth down to her chest.

“I think they’re closed, darling,” she trilled lightly. “Though perhaps I can help you.”

[neverfalling]

LOCATION: Marzan mansion in the middle of some goofy ass hedge maze TAG: open!

This entire outing had been a mistake, something Evangeline knew from the moment she decided to attend. The masks were unexpectedly disorienting, and midway through intentionally losing a silly amount of money in a game of Texas Hold ‘Em, she excused herself, ordered a double shot of whiskey, and headed outside into the cool evening air in hopes that the chill and the drink would ease her buzzing nerves. Much to her dismay, the maze did not so much cure her anxiety as it did compound it, and so with her jaw set and the empty glass held at her side, she took turn after turn in hopes of finding an exist. It was embarrassing, to be so lost so easily when it was nothing more than dimming sunlight and high, manicured foliage. With a wave of her hand she could part the leaves and create herself an exit, and still she remained, angry and confused and a little drunk. Murmuring curses under her breath, she rounded a corner and stepped directly into someone else.

“Fucking asinine topiary-- gard--” she blurted in surprise as she fumbled the glass, catching it quickly before she dropped it.

[neverfalling]

TAG: open! LOCATION: Marzan Mansion - s mentioned a library so eyes emoji

Isra spent the entirety of her childhood trying to make herself small and silent--she’d have moved all the way to invisible if she could have, but a little witch’s capabilities did not allow her such good fortune. She spent much of her time alone even while in the company of other people in her formative years, which had the effect of making her a painfully introverted adult, one that didn’t know what to do with the stilted smiles and forced thank-yous from strangers on the island and the council alike stemming from her involvement in the ritual that ended Marzanna’s curse. 

That practiced quiet allowed her to slip out of the main party, the silence of the hallways and finally the library hitting her like a welcome wave until the glitter and noise of the masquerade casino forgotten in favor of the myriad books the original vampires kept in their vast library. She quickly perched on the edge of the table with a book in her lap, her mask laid at her side as she idly leafed through a well-worn book that documented some vampire line from the 1500s. At a sound nearby, her gaze snapped up and she straightened, closing the book slightly. “This isn’t off limits, is it?”