#rhstart

[seer-cressida]

She dug her toes into the sand, though it was cold and damp, caking and cracking where she wished it would crumble. Cressida stared down at the grey, lips pressed together tightly. The man had been found here, with that terrible symbol carved into his back. She crouched down, hand lingering over the sand, as though afraid to touch. What if it stirred something? Something ancient and hungry? Something that was not her goddess and not her friend?

But Cressida took her pointer finger and drew the shape, carving slowly through the sand. When she finished, she paused, holding her breath. A moment passed. Then another. Nothing. Cressida exhaled, shoulders sinking in relief as she stood. "Ridiculous," she murmured, peering down at it -- that horrid, cursed sigil in the sand.

[bonniewhit]

time: ??? location: lobby

you needed a community to survive. bonnie had learned that before she was even weaned, before she began to speak. if your livestock die one year, if your harvest is plagued by insects and vermin, you don’t make it if your neighbors don’t step up to help. it was maybe the hardest thing about the hotel, being wrenched from her family, not knowing who here was telling the truth, what other people might have done to deserve this. bonnie had lived her life on stable soil and now far too often she felt as if she was tumbling through the air.

still clutching the items she’d been holding when the lights went off she finally made it safely down the stairway. maybe there would be more people down here, maybe even someone who knew what had happened with the lights. the candles glowing provided some relief and she hurried over to sit in their light. the room was silent for a while and she began to regret being in the light. so close to them, she couldn’t see out into the shadows, and it was as if she were all alone in the world. at last she heard footsteps and her heart leapt. ‘hello?’ she called out into the black. ‘are they- has anyone found out what’s going on?’

[nicolas-lane]

“Wait don't move!” Nicholas all but shouted as he frantically grabbed his camera from where it hung around his neck, quickly snapping the picture before the lighting changed. He grinned at the result, before turning the camera to show the photo’s subject how it turned out. “Take a look.”

[the-one-with-wings-blog]

She sat propped up in her hospital bed, watching TV, some home decorating show, it skirted just along the edge of being to her liking. The night prior it was explained to her that she would be having visitors that day, that Olette Marie Voss was well loved, so despite her ambivalence she was ready. She turned her attention to the door when someone walked in. “Do you know me?” she asked, wondering if this was a visitor or just someone who’d gotten lost.

[widow-marlee]

Though typically a labor and delivery nurse, Marlee had been taking some random shifts in the emergency room at the hospital. Paying for two children to go to college on one salary was becoming increasingly more difficult, and the extra money from working overtime was helping. The distraction from her feelings was a nice plus too. She looked at the chart she was given, walking over to the patient’s bed. “Oh boy, it looks like you’ve got a little ouchie there.”

[wynhq]

Snapchat to ....

Wyn: so...be on a look out for me on fail videos Wyn: pretty sure i’m gonna be trending Wyn: i may or may not have fallen down an escalator today Wyn: in a skirt i may add.. hope they got a good view

[seer-cressida]

The midnight hour drew nearer, and so the veil between worlds grew thinner in turn. Cressida had returned from the northern shore, from divining power from the moon's light, and her own had dimmed from exertion. In place of prayer, which required so much spirit, she tended idly to the church. She tidied the pews, then replenished the altar -- replacing the wilted flowers, pouring mulled wine into a goblet, nicking her thumb and spreading the blood along the metal rim. Stepping back, Cressida took her thumb in her mouth, laving over the wound until the metallic taste faded, and she turned toward the low creak of the wooden door.

"Blessed nightfall," she greeted, tucking the weariness away. It made her too mortal. "You're early. No one else will be here until at least a quarter to."

[seer-cressida]

"Her energy is growing," Brigid murmured, knelt on the sands of the shore, bent forward so her hands sank beneath the wet, pale grains. Her fingers splayed and sank deeper, and she wished for the the Veiled One to swallow her whole. "Hungry. Restless." Her own body felt it: the ache, the hollow emptiness, desperate to be sated.

Brigid closed her eyes, bending forward, down, whispering to the earth. "If I knew what to give you -- what you wanted -- I would..."