PLOT DROP 07: EVEN SPRING. EVEN DEATH. trigger warnings for mentions of blood, medical equipment, murder, disappearances
Set like a blazing jewel in a pale blue March sky, the sun looks on as the river runs in wild drifts through the valley below. Winter has lost its bite; the sting of cold no longer quite so sharp. The first robins of the new year perch in the trees, weaving their song through the canopy. The snow is melting. Spring is here. The last few stragglers find themselves back in their human skin, the fur that got them through winter nowhere to be seen.
But as the wolves of Blackrock settle back into their human lives, it’s hard to look past the wreckage left by winter.
On March 14th, in the evening, HOLLY corners SYCAMORE in a dark corner of the Last Drop. HOLLY has noticed SYCAMORE’S penchant for trouble, and if CHESTNUT won’t turn up results, they’ll do the damn job themself. The conversation is tense – but SYCAMORE has an alibi for Addison’s disappearance: they were out in the woods, and they shot a wolf.
Unbeknownst to either of them, MAPLE overhears the conversation, and they put together the pieces immediately: whether knowingly or unknowingly, SYCAMORE killed Addison.
Across town, REED witnesses a last straggler making their way into the cover of the darkened forest. The two lock eyes for a brief moment, before the wolf makes its snarling escape; snout wet with blood. Someone else has been bitten… but who? And by whom?
When HICKORY arrives at work on March 15th, they find the veterinary clinic in a state of upheaval – trays of equipment scattered on the floor, papers strewn across the reception desk, and most upsetting of all, a trail of blood leading out of WALNUT’S office and into the alleyway out back. WALNUT cannot have gone far… but they are nowhere to be seen. Calling around reveals that the last person to have seen them is HAWTHORN a day earlier – but nothing was amiss.
At the same time, PINE and REDCEDAR arrive at Topping & Co. Bookstore to find the lights on in the backroom office before their shift has so much as started. Inside, they find a tall, strange stranger; a lost child of Blackrock come home to haunt it: ROWAN has inherited the store.
By noon March 16th, all of town has heard the dual news: WALNUT is missing, and ROWAN has returned. In the packhouse, a meeting is called: what do they do about SYCAMORE? And what about the stray wolves lingering in town still?
TIMESTAMP: March 14th – March 31st ADDITIONAL INFO: As of March 15th in-game, all werewolves have turned back to their human form. You can of course keep up your old threads set during winter – but you are now also welcome to write past it!
