Tis the Season

[wolfs_daughter]

With only two days until Christmas, Echo was celebrating the holidays in her own way. She'd made some popcorn, then strung it up with cranberries she'd bought at the grocery store. A small artificial tree resided in her living room. There weren't any presents underneath, but she'd put tinsel and one string of lights on it. The season made her miss Seattle.

When Cian took her home from the meteor site, he'd mentioned that he worked at the marina in Cottonwood Cove. She suspected that the other were was guarded about his life, and in any case her shyness prevented her from pressing for details, But she got some pamphlets about the place at the community center and did some reading up. She'd finally bought a television, a used black-and-white model, but because Searchlight only got a few channels there wasn't much to watch during the day.

The hybrid parked the van in the marina's lot, locked the vehicle up behind her. She wondered if they offered cruises on Christmas day. Maybe she should have called ahead and asked if Cian was working today. If he wasn't here, she wouldn't know where else to look.

Street Savvy

[maddy_ricks]

It was the holidays, which naturally meant that money was tight. Even though she had no family in the city, Madeleine Ricks had a handful of friends she considered as good as blood and they would get decent Christmas gifts if she had to wear holes in her bargain basement tap shoes.

Over the decades, Maddy had picked up a few talents that could be milked for extra cash. She could slaughter in a karaoke contest, she could pantomime crawling into invisible boxes, and she could tap dance. What she hadn’t learned by legitimate means, she made up for in waggling fingers and wind milling arms. It was her experience that if you faked talent like a champ, people either didn’t notice you were full of shit or were too impressed by your gumption to care. So she struck out for a busy corner next to a bank and danced to a dubbed cassette recording of Billy Joel’s 1977 album The Stranger. As ‘Only the Good Die Young’ swung into the third chorus, a scuzzy looking guy lurched past and stuffed a colorful item in with her cash.

Maddy stopped dancing and watched him disappear into the crowd. With suspicious eyes, she unscrewed the cap on her re-purposed mayonnaise jar and inspected its contents to discover eight dollar bills, five quarters, a poker chip, a Hershey’s kiss foil, and an empty condom wrapper. She sighed.

“It’s like I always say. Tis the motherfucking season,” she mumbled. She plucked it out with two fingers and dropped it on the sidewalk.

Embarrassing Phone Messages, Volume 1

[daniel_stacy]

“Hey, Hols, it’s Daniel. I haven’t heard from you in a while so I thought I’d check in and uh… make sure you haven’t skipped town. So, no beautiful English girls have turned up in the hospital with amnesia. I checked. Annnnd you’re still getting mail at your place, so I know you haven’t moved and had it forwarded. Yeah, I checked that, too. Creepy, I know. Sorry about the broken latch, I thought I could pick a mailbox lock without destroying it. I was wrong. Breaking into your mailbox was the coward’s way out. I was worried about sounding too desperate on your machine but I seem to have arrived there anyway, which means it was all for nothing. Gimme a call and let me know you’ve still got a pulse, alright? Iiii… I miss you. Doesn't have to be anything serious, just... Yeah. Bye.”

A Vampire's Conundrum

[tiny_dancer81]

Theresa was grouchy.

While Halloween was a favorite time of year for her, the same could not be said of Christmas, which just reminded her of when she was still human and living with her parents. There was a reason she had started to run away. And the holiday music just made it worse.

Things at the Dive had been going all right. The New Year's Eve show was being put together, and she'd discreetly made sure that The Frayed Nerves would be playing later in the set this year. There had been some griping, but she'd smoothed it over before Mike could get wind of it.

Not that she had returned Maddy's phone call. She'd listened to the message repeatedly, but never called the other brunette back. Now that it had been so long, trying to make contact again would probably make her look weird. But when she was weird, maybe that wasn't so bad.

She knew the reasons she was blocked about it, which was why she was knocking on Daniel's door tonight. She'd deliberately been walking a wide circle around his neighborhood on the off chance that she might run into Holly, but she'd done some recon earlier and found the mortal not around. Maybe they were on the outs too?

You've Got Mail

[valerie_vause]

Dirt clung to pale skin, it stuck under fingernails and aggravated several small cuts but you wouldn’t know it to look at the blonde. She walked through the campus whistling, a bounce in her step as she moved with purpose to collect her mail, casually waving to those who acknowledged her presence. It wasn’t particularly late, the sun was just starting to set and she’d probably grab food before heading out after her shower. For now though, her time was her own, and she’d spent it well. Assiduous through and through Valerie had taken on board the advice the Watcher had given and after classes had made a point to visit the park Elfleda had made herself known.

More precisely, she’d paid a visit to the tree that still stood after the caustic display of power that truly revealed Elfleda in all her otherworldly glory. Lakes and dumpsters were all very well if she wanted to just toss the gift away but in her mind it was far better to know exactly where it was. And what a fitting place for it, buried beneath the very tree that had splintered and cracked where the portal had opened. Deep enough for no one to stumble across it but easy enough for her to reach if she ever needed it again.

Belatedly she made a mental note to call Julianna to let her know she no longer possessed it, and to fill her in on the name of the vampire that evidently wanted to grab her attention. Perhaps she would crop up in a journal or two, which, seemed likely considering she actively sought out… Chosen ones.

“Hey Vause, am I gonna find a shallow grave on campus or what?”

The teasing remark was rewarded with an eyeroll and a slight smirk as she opened her locker to grab her mail.

“Only if you want one of your own.” The blonde sassed back, and the guy from her class held up his hands in mock surrender. She chuckled and lightly bumped his ribs with her elbow. “Just planting a gift I was given.”

Valerie turned then with a wave goodbye and fished her key out of her back pocket. Once inside her room she sifted through the junk mail with amused sarcasm and tore it up after reading.

Free credit card? Gee thanks, might as well arrest me now for not making payments! Various travel brochures for exotic holidays? Sure I’ll just fly their in my sleep, or sacrifice the nearest virgin to get accommodation! No wait, the nearest virgin is m-. Have you found Jesus Christ and accepted him into your heart? You mean you guys have lost him again? Guess it makes sense if he’s small enough to fit in my heart. Would you like to subscribe to any of our magazines? I’d rather lick a live wire while trying to tap dance.

The last one was thicker than the rest. The paper akin to card, luxurious almost. She skimmed the words, paused when she realised it was from a museum, then located the ‘enclosed cheque’ provided for the ‘fossils’ she’d so willingly offered them to purchase. Rare indeed. Valerie watched an obscene amount of zeros dance before her eyes. Blur slightly.Then the room tilted.

Green eyes were closed seconds before she hit the floor with a thud.