halfgclden

[halfgclden]

“Okay, so I’ll basically give a little intro, then you introduce yourself, feel free to list all your socials, whatever you need. Doesn’t have to be a clean cut, I’ll be editing it all later anyway, so if you forget anything, we can add it in later, alright?” Jade held up a thumbs up in question, and almost immediately changed it to the symbol for OK and leaned into their mic, voice changing from the one reserved for friends to the one that sounded like it was resonating deep within them, beckoning one to “come, join us, as we delve into the mystery…”

They were sitting with their knees curled up to their chest in the closet-pantry-storage room they’d converted to a soundproof recording studio, and beckoned with their hand to tell their guest that it was their turn to speak. “Joining us now is an eyewitness who’d like to add their own experience to the record books. Why don’t you introduce yourself, special friend?”

[halfgclden]

Zoey’s knee-jerk reaction was to tell Augustin to shut the fuck up, since she had to balance out the nice thing she was doing with an equal and opposite amount of snark. However, Auggie was one person who she was able to be civilized to— hence why she was currently inflating an air mattress. “Yeah, whatever. I’m here because you’re making us some crazy breakfast in the morning, right?” She actually smiled at him as she tossed down a pillow and unplugged the pump for the mattress. “Shouldn’t it be like, illegal? Ungodly? For you to have a nightmare? Since your heritage and all?”

"Thanks for agreeing to stay over tonight. I've been having a lot of crazy nightmares lately and it's been taking a toll on me. I think the company is going to help me feel better — safer and more at ease, you know? It should make a big difference."

[halfgclden]

Parker had only arrived at the hot tubs when he spotted his sister, apparently too preoccupied to notice his wave. He loped over and raised an eyebrow at the people he only vaguely recognized, but easily ignored them in favour of Malia’s words. “Ah, shit. Which one was it?” He interjected, hoping that instead of a brand she knew enough to tell him the stone— diamond or pearl or… one that wasn’t either of those. “You already checked your whole bag?”

"Ugh, I'm such an idiot." Malia dropped her bag on the lounge chair and crouched over to scan the ground. It was pretty busy at the hot tubs, but what was the likelihood someone had already come by and taken a sparkly trinket? Malia groaned again when she thought about those odds, how long ago she'd left it behind. That outburst drew the attention of the closest occupied pool, which was enough for her to walk over and loop them into her problem. "Did you see a bracelet around this area? Looks, um, expensive? I was here like, forty-five minutes ago and this is the only place I could have left it."

[halfgclden]

Though Abel had been the one to skulk through the halls of their (old) cabin, they still looked slightly perturbed to be called to. Really, they were bashful at having been caught in a place they felt they didn’t belong, but they still walked in after a moment’s hesitation, fingers clasped together as if holding their own hand. “Yes?”

Lilith danced around her room, the lively beat of the music playing from her Bluetooth speakers. Her blonde hair swayed with each move as she carefully smoothed the edges of a poster of Milla Jovovich in the Fifth Element, sticking it to the wall. She took a step back to admire her handiwork, then suddenly turned, sensing a presence through her open bedroom doorway. "Hey, come here," She called out. "I have a question for you."

[halfgclden]

Jade bounced up and down on her toes, peeking into the cupboard over Michio’s shoulder, taking stock of what exactly was in the pantry (so exciting). They pointed at each of the packages, then grinned. “If it’s a matter of feeling adventurous, I want that one! Sounds… lovely!” They tilted their head from side to side. “Which is your favourite?”

Michio stood in the pantry at the Heliade house, surrounded by nearly stacked shelves of snacks and ingredients. He peeked his head out, a playful smile on his face. "Okay, so which flavor of instant ramen did you want to try?" He offered, holding up two of the packages for his friend to see. "Original, Cheese, or I actually have one called 'Lovely Hot', if you're feeling adventurous." He prompted.

[halfgclden]

Jade grunted in understanding and nodded. "Deep water gets freaky, that makes sense. Do you think you're more afraid of deep ocean or deep space? I used to want to go down in a submarine and live at the bottom of the ocean, but I feel like you can see a lot more scary things down there than in space... or you should." He tapped his chin in thought. "I don't think I've ever wanted to go to space at all."

Ellie rubbed the side of her neck awkwardly at her sibling’s question. “Uh, not really,” she replied. “I’m not a big fan of water either. Anything too deep freaks me out, especially like lakes and the ocean with riptides and stuff.”

[halfgclden]

"I have. I'm glad you think so. Don't they always say to ask the locals?" Milos took a seat beside Faust and raised his eyebrows as he rested an arm against the back of the bench, angling his body towards her. "Not approved by who? I'm not really clear who's in charge here. And... I'm not really sure why we need to raise it to their attention, I must admit." Speaking and smiling came fairly easily to Milos, but that ease only increased around beautiful people. Doubly so when they were as blatant as Faust. "I'm visiting, but attempting to live as a local. It's why I'm taking suggestions."

Faust flicked her gaze up over the thick white plastic frames of her sunglasses, narrowing her eyes at the sight of a tall drink of water heading her way. "Hello handsome," she said under her breath, then louder, greeted Milos. "Hi! That's so cute, have you been going around asking people?" She scooted sideways, making the barest amount of space available on the bench beside her in case he'd like to sit. "My favorite activity is not New Athens approved, but shopping is always an excellent second option." She gave the stranger a onceover, not bothering to hide it. Liking what she saw, she fixed him with a flirty smile. "Are you new in town?"

[halfgclden]

Milos followed the phone's trajectory with his eyes and raised an eyebrow at Wes, but didn't actually ask about it beyond that. "Well, it's good to know I can trust someone around here." He probably should have delivered the words with a small laugh to take the edge away from them, but instead it remained. Oh well. He reached over to take one of the sharks and squished it between his fingers before taking a bite. He'd seen the packs before, but they'd never really appealed to him, and he decided after trying one that they were good if offered, but not something he'd sink money into. "When? I have a free schedule, my friend," Milos said with an easy lift to his shoulders. "And it is for you. I'll let you decide. Unless you are a person that hates deciding, in which case, why not right now? You don't seem busy."

He was moments away from throwing his new (used, new to him) phone clear across the room when he was joined at the table by Milos. Wes settled instead for setting the offending piece of technology face-down and sliding it as far down the table as he could reach. Crossing his arms across his chest, he leaned back in his chair, grinning at Milos' presence. "For me? They're my favorite," he admitted. "Your sources are good." It must have been Phoebe, or maybe another one of his housemates. They'd all seen him devour a pack while sitting on the couch, scribbling through pages upon pages in his journal. Wes was touched that Milos had gone through the trouble of finding out what he liked. He leaned forward, unable to wait, and tore the package open, offering Milos first snack before taking one for himself. "Yeah? I won't say no to food and company," Wes agreed. "When were you thinking?"

[halfgclden]

Chase offered Teddy a crooked smile. "Oh, do pictures of me show up in the texts?" It'd be no surprise, but if his hair hadn't already been pink, it might have changed to match his cheeks. "I've been great. But yeah, tons of new places crop up... I swear like, every day. It's kinda just turning into a city of our own. Soon we're gonna snap off of Long Island and drift into the sea, become our own Atlantis."

Teddy let out a laugh at Chase changing his hair. "I recognize you Chase, I do still text Pheebs from time to time," he replied. "Though the pink definitely suits you. How have you been? This place is freaking huge since I last saw it. I knew y'all built a town, but I really wasn't expecting this. Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting."

[halfgclden]

"Either that, or up in the tree..." Chase meant the words as a joke, but now he wasn't entirely sure. "Oh yeah, everything Cas touches is nice, really. Nice touch should be the name of his painting... company or studio or whatever the fuck they call it." He dragged his feet along the ground in big sweeping motions, hoping to unearth the case from any brambles it might be stuck in. At the sound of hollow metal, he dropped, pressed his hands to the earth, and grinned as he picked it up and showed Ariana so they could see the painting for themself. "Aha! Like this." It was a simple enough paintings, the sky, dotted with stars, a few clouds creeping in. "That's my favourite constellation... Or it was when Cas painted it. I wish I could... I dunno, use my power on a thing and have different paintings appears, like, oscillate between one painting and another," he explained. "That would be cool." He opened up the case and held out a neatly rolled joint to Ari. "Your reward for helping."

Ariana joined in the search, scanning the area around them. "So, you're pretty sure it's around here?" she asked, her tone tinged with curiosity. "And a little painting, huh? That's a nice touch." She couldn't help but smile at the thought of Chase's brother taking the time to personalize his joint case. Chase's playful response about hitting his head and forgetting made her want to chuckle but she offered a smile instead. "Let's hope it didn't come to that," she replied. As he crouched and then frowned while examining a leaf, Ariana continued to scan the ground, eager to help him in the quest for the elusive joint case amidst the foliage. Ariana knelt down, her fingers delicately brushing through the fallen leaves and grass, her eyes scanning the ground beneath them. "What's the painting of?" She inquired.

[halfgclden]

"Wow wow wow." Jade enunciated each wow like they were trying to eat the word just as the birds had tried to eat Reid. "That sounds beautiful." Then, when it was clear Reid was not impressed by these words, they added, "Minus the scary parts," even though they didn't really mean it. Scary things could be beautiful. Like cryptids, like the night, like Reid and Jade. "If you remember what they're called, let me know. I'd like to catalogue them. We could learn their weakness that way." That wasn't what Jade would be cataloguing them for, but they figured Reid would be most interested in this. "Well, I haven't touched the sigil itself," they pointed out. "So maybe I'll brush it because I think holding this whole thing is fine, but then I'll be sucked in and forced to spend eternity as a genie." They scrunched up their face in thought. "Do you know anything about sigils? Or runes? This could totally be a rune, right?"

“Eat me.” Reid said solemnly, driving the point home. He flapped his hands, trying to shape the word with his gestures. “Insane metal ones. I forget the word. They could fire feathers off their backs. It was crazy. In Italy. And then the clocktower went off and they all swarmed away like— have you ever seen starlings fly? Like that,” he described. When Jade proclaimed the thing empty, Reid peered over at it. His mouth hung open when the pair realized the item had a sigil on it. “Eh, if it was gonna self-destruct, wouldn’t that have happened when you touched it in the first place?”

[halfgclden]

"A holiday is a great way to celebrate. I think it's necessary, actually. Why they put it right before summer," Chase speculated. "Hey, I'll bring it up to Trick and Ko. And then I'll let you argue about which shade of pale perfectly matches my skin and what colour you should do my eyes," he said with a laugh. At the question, he shook his head, another laugh at his lips, smoke curling from his lips as he exhaled. "Always doing, never planning. That's kinda where I am." He wondered if he should be dissatisfied with this, but in truth, he was perfectly content with having not a single plan. "Is that sad? I dunno, I feel like I don't really have any more milestones to hit. I've already lived longer than I thought I would, and I think I've had enough crazy excitement that I'm fine just being a board game barista."

He chuckled at Chase's comment about his impending graduation. "Yeah, it's been a wild ride, mate," Caspar admitted, feeling a swell of pride. "I've put in a lot of hours, that's for sure. As for where it's taking me, well, I think I need a holiday, or, at the very least a break. I just want time to relax for a bit." Caspar's eyes then crinkled with amusement at Chase's idea of a life-sized medieval portrait. "That could be a masterpiece in the making. We'll have to get on that project someday." He mused. "But speaking of the future, what about you? Anything planned? You're always doing something exciting." Caspar expressed.

[halfgclden]

It was settled. Soon Diego would have a new apron and soon Cleo would demand he wear it and cook for her so that she could fulfill its demand. "Of course I do. I said we'd make cookies, didn't I?" And how could she not have everything covered if she'd proposed this? (Did she propose it? She definitely enjoyed the outcome enough to assume she'd at least come up with it at the same time as Diego.) She blushed as he whispered in his ear, then watched as he began to look through the ingredients, and followed suit, pulling up the recipe on her phone so she could direct him. "It'd be hard not to have fun if it's the two of us doing it." She smiled, glancing from her phone to her boyfriend and back again, playing coy as she answered his question. "I've never really tried. I hear it's all in the tongue though, right? Can you show me how?"

Diego couldn’t help but smirk at Cleo’s teasing. He leaned in closer, his voice low and seductive. “Oh, you already know I want one,” he explained. He watched as Cleo organized the baking supplies, impressed by her attention to detail. “You’ve got everything covered,” he remarked, a playful glint in his eyes. When Cleo kissed him, he reciprocated with a lingering passion. “Perfect,” he murmured against her lips, savoring the moment. His fingers traced a gentle path along her arm. Then, switching to Spanish, he whispered in her ear, “Claro que sí, corazón. I’d love to teach you. We can have some fun with it. How good are you at rolling your R’s?” He chuckled as he casually asked as he started looking at the items she had out.

[halfgclden]

Milos couldn't help the smile at the way Pierce spoke. "That sounds... incredible. How do they make them work that way?" He puffed out his cheeks as he thought. "Hmm... About two or three years now? I was travelling on a merchant ship and we stopped here for... let's say specialty goods. I didn't know about any place like this before then. Can I ask, do you work... in tourism here?"

Pierce replied with a casual yet dignified air, a subtle smile playing at the corners of his lips. "Ah, 'kitschy' it may be, but it holds a certain aspect that captivates many," he said. "There can be a certain charm in embracing the whimsical side of things. And those fireworks? They're not your usual display. During events and on the Fourth of July, not only do they light up the sky, but they also magically create moving images of Greek battles and scenes. It can be cool." He said then nodded. "Welcome back then, how long has it been since you've been away?" Pierce asked.

[halfgclden]

"Personalities, I like that," Eli replied with a nod. "You're so right. Gouache and me are besties." He cringed slightly. "Shit, I guess you do have to be patient with clay. I was just thinking about how fast the wheel goes and those videos of the guys just like, going at it and whipping out a pot, you know?" He shrugged, and opened his mouth to say more when their instructor finally appeared to begin the class. He nudged Cas's knee with his own and nodded at him. "Totally part of the fun. Let's keep talking after class?"

Caspar grinned, enjoying Eli's passionate enthusiasm for art. "Haha, I get that, mate," he replied, understanding the obsession that came with painting. "Acrylics and oils do have their own, um, personalities, don't they? It's like having different friends with different quirks."He chuckled at Eli's remark about working on multiple paintings. "Yeah, it can be tough to, um, split your focus when you're deep into a piece. But maybe pottery will teach us some patience," Caspar suggested with a playful wink.Eli's nod of agreement regarding Caspar's opinions made him feel even more at ease. "Sounds like we're on the same page, mate. And hey, I'm all in for getting a bit messy with clay. It's part of the fun, right?"

[halfgclden]

[halfgclden]

"Hey, I used to say only god could judge me. And then I was brainwashed into believing that gods are real, so now I'm saying that nobody can, since they're into child soldiers or whatever." It was really dusty up here, now that Davina pointed it out. Lock was much more focused on how packed to the brim and supposedly empty of security it was. "It's not the only big, impressive thing I have," he told Davina as he leaned against a set of drawers that immediately started rattling violently, as if disturbed by his touch. They looked shocked but excited at that, and raised their eyebrows at Davina as they backed off, causing it to still once more. "Uhhh, voted, yeah. Kind of hereditary, I guess. Could call me a nepo baby." He shrugged, casually, but when he saw Davina glancing between him and the box, he kept it shut so that her focus would stay on him. "Well, I get my own room, but if you're unclaimed and undeserving they shove you into the bunk beds, which I think is unfair, so I'm always willing to share."

Davina arched an eyebrow, her lips curling into a sassy smile as she observed Lock's somewhat theatrical response. "Oh, I'm not creeping, just exploring," she replied, her tone playful. "But hey, if you're into cobwebs and dark corners, who am I to judge?" She tilted her head, a mischievous glint in her eyes. As Lock explained his supposed status as a counselor, Davina couldn't help but be amused. "The biggest cabin, huh? Impressive." She poked fun at him. "So, being a counselor, what all do you have to do? Is that, like, a voted-in position?" She asked as she turned her attention to the box he had picked up. Her curiosity far from satisfied. "Any other perks come with having the biggest cabin?" She asked, glancing at him as she waited to see if he was going to open it to see what was inside.