#colettescoven

[hastalikhunts]

Of Herbs and Such || Has&Colette

           Hastalik pushed open the door to Coven’s Cottage curiously, the energy to the space so vastly different to that of where his family had stored their magical items and ingredients. Here the air felt light, and warm, and looked it to. There didn’t seem to be frogs in jars, skeletons on shelves, and definitely not vials of blood stored like wine. No, there were positive things here, sage and pure crystals.

            Shoes heavy on the wooden floor he moved through them, hands reaching out to touch anything that his own magic felt drawn to, stopping for a moment when he eyed some small pouches that seemed to be contained blessings one could gift to people. His family had never been one for blessings, only one a year did they bless one another and it was for physical strength and survival. The one his hand reached for said ‘peace of mind.’ Has immediately picked it up.

             “Excuse me,” he said, looking from the pouch to a woman who walked in, probably doing something out back while things were slow. “Do you make these?” he asked, curious if it was magic, or just a mixture of flowers and herbs that would affect that naturally in the world and she’d just packaged them up.

@colettescoven​

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

Dinner Time || Colette&Bella

         When she had organised this dinner with Colette Bellamy had never imagined that she would have a bat crawling all over her shoulder, trying to get into her hair and whispering that she needed to get the remaining mold off the fountain in the city center but she didn’t want to cancel. It meant a lot to Bellamy to work with other businesses in town, especially female run businesses and so she had decided to keep things as they were and hope that Colette was doing okay with her own fae.

          The restaurant was understandably slower than most nights because of what was going on but the black and white Victorian styled restaurant was still relatively busy, a few tables open and no line waiting like their usually was. The hostess at the front was a harsh looking woman, as Bella had found it prudent that anyone who had to tell people no consistently needed to be, but overall she was a polite sort and knew someone would be coming in asking to sit with Bella who was placed to the left of the stage where a violinist was performing with a large pig fae spirit pretending to sleep at her feet.

           All Bella had in front of her was a glass, half drank, that was a mixture of blood and vodka, a very simple drink, deciding to wait for Colette to order anything exciting, but the bat was there. Currently was tugging on the hair by her ear as it whispered she leave and go clean, any efforts to brush it away thwarted by the fact it was not corporeal.

@colettescoven​

[wolfontheloose]

On Your Knees and Give Me Twenty || Colette & Ryden

There are some perks to being a big man-wolf. One of many downsides, at least if you asked Ryden, was that strange shit was happening to his body. Some things he got used to, but super strength, however cool that sounded was not one of them. It came with what he called a body made of bloody meat donuts. Before his turning, Ryden had been fit but slim. Now? One morning jog made him pop muscles he didn’t even know he had. 

Keeping a werewolf’s body in shape was never a problem. Keeping it under control was so much work. Ryden did that, three times a week, hitting the gym where he invested all his time and effort into a very carefully planned workout routine specially designed for a male werewolf’s fast metabolism and ability to gain muscle mass quickly. This also went with a very strict diet regime and specially concocted protein intake, which was a routine Ryden followed from A to Z with discipline. 

He was almost done with the last set of push-ups before stretching when he noticed that the gym wasn’t that empty anymore. He chose to come in early in the morning, to have all the space just for himself and would rarely expect anyone to drop by at the time. Usually, people came in when he was long finished. 

Standing up from a relaxing downward-facing dog, he grinned at the person, nodding in greeting. “’Sup?”

@colettescoven​

[findopulenceedits]

friendship compatibility between...river & colette...gemini & capricorn

While the Gemini is always young at heart and highly energetic, the Capricorn is an old soul who believes in tradition. When together, these two need to let their guard down because only this way, they can be great friends. The Gemini can teach the Capricorn how to be trendy, while the Goat can show the Twin how important tradition can be. The friendship between these two needs a lot of hard work in order for their energies to be focused on the same things and for their individualistic approaches to end up matching one another because they can be very different.

@missrivermoore, @colettescoven { source }

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

Taking Care of Business || Bella&Colette

        With the restaurant open now and Bella periodically checking in on her businesses out of the town that had been established for a few years now, Bella felt she could relax and begin reaching out to the local businesses that had come across her radar. With a name like ‘The Coven’s Cottage’ how could Bellamy not be interested? Not only that but she had heard, through the town and the grapevine of supernaturals outside of town that not only was the business well established but that the family was well regarded and that said something to Bellamy, it spoke of integrity and determination.

        So with an intent to form a good connection Bella had dressed herself in what the vampire had determined was appropriate business attire, though not many others would consider garish colours like pink and red to actually be, and collected some marketing statistics that she had her team do about what could work for their businesses in the market they were in. All resources that, if not for the passing of her sire, Bellamy never could have acquired, and knew as much.

       When she finally reached the business, pushing the door open she revealed the beautiful, full, and thoroughly witchy store, and took in the scent of dried flowers and herbs, alone with various incense and oils. It was certainly a lot for a vampire, but this place wasn’t exactly meant for it, it was meant for other witches which the town was in good supply of. “Good morning?” Bellamy called as her slender pink heels clicked on the wooden flooring.

@colettescoven

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

Girl Drinks || Colette&Bella

       Bella brought out the drink cart into her lounge room, various spirits and glasses covering the golden cart. Colette had offered to host Bellamy but there were some concerns since Colette was meeting more witches that potentially she might not be able to walk into Colette’s home. Besides, Bella liked having guests, she’d already laid out lemon loaf and apple pie for Colette to have with her drinks, the carbs hopefully able to soak up most of the alcohol they’d be having.

        “I’m so excited, I haven’t had anything magical inside me in forever. I once accidentally ate a magical object you were meant to just touch and ended up lost in my own head for like three days,” she giggled, as though it were an amusing anecdote and nothing she should have been more terrified of. “What should we try first?” she asked, sitting on the velvet lounge next to Colette.

@colettescoven​

[hastalikhunts]

Sisters in Craft || Has&Colette

       As she had River, Leyla came to Colette, but not through her dreams. Colette had not reached out through magics the way that River had, but a mother knew when her son had been touched by another witch, when his energies had shifted from their usual alignment. Leyla was by no means envious, the energy surrounding her son had always been purely masculine apart from his reach to her, his misguided belief that he was reaching for goddesses in the sky when in reality he was reaching for his mother and his sister.

         So, though she could not push herself into Colette’s mind she could put her own energy out into Colette’s environment for the witch to feel and sense. If observant enough, as Leyla presumed the witch could be, she would be able to see the note Leyla held in her hand from her own place in the world. Though the entire script was in Turkish, Colette would have no trouble seeing it through her own eyes with the intent of Leyla. A spell to enchant a home, and a request for her son to be taken care of. The only potential for a misunderstanding of translation was the word ‘son’ that Leyla wrote not in Turkish, but a mix of it and Greek that implied perhaps Hastalik was her son, or her worshipper, or more spiritually connected to her rather than biologically. But the spell would be clear as day, and it would require a witch of Hastalik’s practicing.

        Not that Hastalik knew that when he pushed open the door to Coven’s Cottage, his dog on a leash, but quite immediately finding somewhere in the store to nap and Has letting go of it. “Colette? River?” he called, though he had a feeling River was currently with Maya since she tended to respond more slowly to his messages when she was with her friend than when she was at home above the store. 

          “I have the worst headache, I was hoping you had something for it,” the male witch mused as his heavy combat boots walked through the well supplied store.

@colettescoven​

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

After Evening || Bella&Colette

[ TEXT ]: Here is the sneaky shot I took. [ IMG ] [ TEXT ]: What did you guys talk about after I bailed?

@colettescoven

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

🥤

“Oh, you know Colette is the most expensive, smooth, fucking gin. Not the trash gin, that like tastes goddamn awful, but that good fucking gin, the gin you drink like Blake Lively does in A Simple Favour, where the glass is stored in the fridge, a spray of citrus skin you slip in, gin in the freezer too. Like the best fucking shit, drank in the best, most goddamn classy way. I’d get drunk on her classy gorgeous blood.”

@colettescoven

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

The fae spirits want our townsfolk to do something silly...and so they do!

Feat: @thebellamybarnes, @lyn-nichols, @wolfontheloose​, @mayarparker, @colettescoven

Bella knelt by the edge of the fountain, looking forlorn at her nails as a few acrylics had chipped off, her normal nail beneath rather plain looking. “This really isn’t fair,” she told the bat spirit that giggled in a way she knew could not possibly come from any real bat. “Stupid thing,” she muttered as she once more began to scrub at the fountain, told by her fae that it was apparently her job to clean the thing. Her Gucci jeans were ruined and she had scuffed her Alaia heels to death moving around the thing. It really didn’t look any cleaner.

"Bells!" Lyn shouted the name, feeling like though they still barely knew each other, she could recognize that blonde head anywhere. She sprinted forward, boots thunking heavily against the sidewalk, the snake wrapped, scarf-like, around her throat giving a displeased hiss at being so jostled about. "Hey!" She almost skidded to a stop next to the blonde, fit to burst with things to say. "Bells! Hey, what's up!?"

Looking up as her name was called she breathed a sigh of relief at the momentary escape from cleaning. Honestly she liked the nickname, she loved any kind of nickname that was offered to her but her friends when she was human had called her Belle so anything akin felt very familiar. “Lyn,” she smiled, brushing her wet hands off on her jeans, half her nails missing by now. “Cleaning, apparently I have to get this fountain clean, but it’s basically left me exposed to whatever everyone else’s fae have wanted them to do. One guy was running around pulling everyone’s hair, it hurt,” Bella pouted, taking the chance to rub her head. “I’m glad you and your fae seem to be getting on,” she noted, gesturing to the rainbow snake as the bat she had tried to tug her hands back to cleaning with the claws at the end of it’s wings.

"Cleaning?" Lyn's contorted facial expression showed her obvious distaste for the idea. "Oh... Your bat is an asshole, I'm so sorry, it's so cute." Lyn pouted at the pink-winged animal, confused as to how something so cool looking could be trying to get Bellamy to do something so awful. "I just have to speak truth!" Lyn said, giving her snake a little pat on it's triangle-shaped head with her fingertips. "Doesn't even have to be my truth!!" And then, as if on cue, a voice in her ear, sibilant and gentle, and her face fell. "Oh, Bells." Lyn launched herself downward, arms wrapping around the blonde, squeezing tight, once, twice, three times, and then, after a pause, a fourth. "Four hugs. Just for now! You'll get more later!"

“It is an arsehole, I really liked bats before now,” Bella acknowledged before looking to the snake enviously. “The truth? You don’t seem like a liar...,” she rolled off, not completely understanding at first. When Lyn continued she was slightly confused, though before she could ask what she meant she suddenly felt slender arms wrapped around her petite form. “Four hugs?” She questioned, feeling each gentle squeeze. Even in confusion she was comforted, she was kind of an affectionate person and until people got to know her she didn’t usually like to overwhelm them. “I do? Do we have plans? I mean, I’m down for anything that isn’t cleaning this thing but what why hugs?”

Lyn bit her lips shut, brows knit together. It had been a couple hours since she'd woken to find the fae-spirit in her fruit bowl, and she'd gotten a few answers from the snake, but little in the way of actual explanation. "Okay," She said, hands held up in a defensive position, "I know how this sounds, trust me, but the snake... It tells me things." Yeah, she sounded... well... It wasn't good, but considering Bella had chipped her nails off scrubbing a fountain, Lyn could at least assume she'd get a little more sympathy than if she was the only one suffering. "It's uhm... Things I don't think people normally talk about... Like uhm... Your mom."

Bellamy rose her brows, looking to the snake as she said it told her things. Very shady, immediately reminding the ex-Catholic of the story of Eve and the snake but deciding that likely whatever the snake was whispering was not quite the same, after all the bat was telling Bellamy things. Mostly one thing but it was quite communicative though no one else seemed to hear it. "My mother?" she asked, the title alone showing their emotional distance. "I suppose I don't really talk about my Mother, she's not really worth -" But then the hug thing clicked and Bella looked down at Lyn's hands rather than her face. "Oh," she let out, scrunching up her face. "Well I appreciate the hugs, you definitely don't have to count them though, we'll hug more than are countable, I promise," Bella smiled softly in the hopes Lyn wouldn't feel so badly for her. "I'm much more inclined to hug than she is. Plus you're entirely huggable," she grinned more firmly, lips tight but smile wide.

"My dad sucks." Lyn said quickly, "So like. I get it, kinda." There was a flash of something in her features then, delicate and wounded, "And uhm... If I'm being honest I miss him. I don't... I don't tell people that. I don't tell anyone that actually. But... I can tell you." She said with a nod. Still frowning Lyn got down to her knees near Bella, picking up one of the brushes her vampire friend (could she say friend yet? she hoped so...) was using to clean. "Think I can help?" She asked, curiously glancing at the bat as though she needed it's permission to help.

Bella was going to ask for some kind of secret in return, nothing large since she presumed the snake only told her that her mother had not hugged her much, and likely not why but Lyn offered herself up and Bella allowed the grin to soften. "I should probably miss my Mother but I don't, I mean, maybe I do, but I just don't miss her how most people probably do. It's hard to miss someone you never really got to be affectionate with," she offered, reaching up and attempting to hold Lyn's hand however awkwardly from where she was. "So, if your Dad sucks but you miss him, then maybe he did some things worth missing," Bellamy smiled as Lyn knelt down with her. "You can...?" she rolled off, looking to the bat whose eyes were on the snake. "I think you can, you should tell me some other secrets the snake has told you though, fun ones. Is anyone doing anything shady in town? Because I definitely think the witch that owns the florist is getting around this town," she asked, offering Lyn one of the brushes as she began to gently clean the stone.

Lyn blinked rapidly at Bella's words about her father, another secret of hears threatening to make itself known without the words even getting a voice. Damn, she could be a big fucking crybaby sometimes. She refused to let it show, though, squeezing Bella's fingers as the other woman reached for her hand before joining her to clean the fountain. She took the offered brush, and followed her friend's lead, scrubbing gently. "Oh, please," Lyn said, relieved by the offer, "I've been trying to keep them in but... I wanted to trust you so...I'll tell you." She glanced up from the spot she'd been gently buffing clean, a twinkle in her eye, "You're totally right. This town, and the next one."

"I've been trying not to clean, the bat just starts screeching in my ears," she offered up as her own reason for being there and being in such a mess. It made sense Lyn was doing her best to keep them in but wasn't quite able to. "So hopefully your snake isn't quite so annoying when you resist," Bellamy said. "You can definitely trust me, I won't tell a soul. Admittedly I'm a huge gossip but not about family or like big emotional stuff, only about cute romance-y stuff or like when people do adorable things. I'm really bad at not saying when people have done something cute, even if they're embarrassed by it. Like I will tell everyone you head banged pixies out of your hair, it's too adorable not to tell people," she explained as she cleaned, before her eyes went wide. "The next one too? Damn. First I was suspicious and now I'm just plain impressed."

"Preeeeetty sure it's been threatening to strangle me by wrapping around my shoulders like this, but I'm trying not to dwell on it." Lyn said with a shrug. Bella bringing up Lyn's desperate fight for survival made her laugh, and she reached up with a free hand to stifle the sudden noise, "Please do, because it was kind of badass." She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, face scrunched up, and then shook her head, thinking better of admitting her own secret in favor of listening to the snake at her ear for another one. "There's a barista at the coffee shop who's dating... Ke-" She paused, frowning at the name, asking the snake for clarification, "Wait, who? Oh, Keiran. Nooo idea who that is. Oooh, Keiran is the owner of the coffee shop. Scandal."

"Wow, subtle but obviously effective," Bella chuckled, rubbing the fountain with one of the brushes. It was nice to see Lyn in a situation that, though partially threatening was not actively scary. "Oh definitely, worthy of mentioning, total bad arse move. You'll be walking into the Den terrifying all the werewolves there in no time," she grinned, knowing that even if Lyn didn't know any werewolves the Den was an old enough spot and known enough location she'd definitely know of it and the reputation it had. "Wow, people really are getting around. At least Kieran and the barista are exclusive, presumably, poor barista if not, but the whole boss/employee thing is probably fun. I've only ever flirted with one employee, but there wasn't really a boss/employee thing to it. How about you? Will the snake compel you to tell me you've been into your boss before?"April 25, 2020

The mention of werewolves had Lyn biting her tongue again, and she focused instead on scrubbing away a stubborn spot of what could have been leftover graffiti. "Hhmm, maybe, if that were a thing that happened." Lyn said, shrugging a shoulder, "Had a mild crush on one of my professors, but never my boss." She gave the snake a little glance, reached up to skim her hand over the smooth, dry scales, and felt it shift a little tighter. "I met one of my neighbors, he's a hot werewolf." Lyn said, wondering if she could keep up with small admittances to appease her spirit.

"Oh, professor, what did you go to college for?" Bellamy asked, she'd never even finished high school, rather she got her GED once she became a vampire. It hadn't affected things work wise, she had people with degrees to advise her. "Oh yeah? They're all hot to me, literally and physically," she grinned, nudging Lyn, not quite noticing the way that the snake was toying with her. "You should like strategically plan going outside in robes, like 'oh no, my food came faster than the delivery said and I didn't have time to dress'," Bella feigned a dramatic innocent tone. "What's he look like?"

"IT," Lyn said, "Not nearly as impressive as my doctor brother, but I like it." Lyn grinned at Bella's playful nudge, though she did try to make a mental note to maybe see if Ryden had any werewolf friends she might like. The vampire's suggestion made her snicker, and Lyn shook her head wildly, "Not a chance in hell." She pressed, still trying not to laugh at the idea of her throwing herself at Ryden like that. "He's not.. I don't want to..." She couldn't quite get her words in the right order, and settled for shaking her head before going on to explain, "He's like... stupidly, unfairly hot. Nice accent, fuck ton of tattoos?"

"Any chance your doctor brother is a werewolf?" Bellamy snorted a laugh, presuming Lyn's brother was not in town and most certainly not a werewolf. "Come on! I could lend you so many lace robes," Bella pouted, and with a form like Lyn's she had no doubt it would work because while both petite Lyn had a lot more going on upstairs, Bella rarely wore a bra because it was so unnecessary. Still stupid, unfairly hot sounded like a lot of wolves in Bella's opinion, but once a little more came she immediately let out a giggle, biting her bottom lip to keep from grinning too widely as excitement came over her. "Oh my god, Ryden," she said, which meant she'd let go of her bottom lip and the beaming amused grin came. "Your neighbour is British, yeah? Has a motorbike he calls Princess? Please say yes so I can definitely get you a robe to totally fuck up his whole life with, the poor puppy."

"No, why wo-" Lyn caught up half a second too late, and curled her nose up, "Nope. Not allowed. You're way too cool for my brother." She spoke matter of factly, leaving no room for argument. Also she was pretty sure that he'd get so nervous in Bella's presence that he'd walk directly into a wall. Smooth was not really something either of them had managed to master, Lyn was just better at hiding it behind a wall of ridiculousness. At the mention of her neighbor's name, Lyn's jaw dropped, and she stared over at the vampire, disbelieving, "Oh my god, yes!! Holy shit, you know him? Oh my god, okay, of course you know him." She rolled her eyes, somehow it seemed only fitting that the two were at least friends, if not more, "Oh my god, no robes, why are you like this?" Lyn was laughing too hard to focus on the cleaning now. "What about you? Surely there are about fifty hapless suitors trailing after you everywhere you go, yeah?"

"I mean, I promise I'm less cool than I seem, but I'll keep away from your brother," Bella assured her, watching as Lyn quickly agreed that Ryden was her neighbour. "Yeah, I've actually known him a while, he's the employee I flirted with, I still flirt with him, I mean, you've met him, he's a flirty guy," she reasoned of her connection to Ryden. They were definitely more than that though, more than people who had flirted. "He's my puppy, though not much of a puppy anymore, he's like my best friend," she explained, smiling more gently. She did get a bit concerned, she knew Ryden, knew his past about his ex, and while Ryden was totally available to be friends with and sleep with and even share emotional sides of yourself with he was by no means ready to date, but maybe Lyn wasn't either. She was young and gorgeous, why would she want to settle down? "I actually moved here a while ago because my last boyfriend and I were really close, he actually asked me to turn him but...he had kids and it became pretty obvious he'd lose a lot of time with them if he stayed with me so...it's been hard to get over him. Ryden actually really helped, he wants to break his kneecaps in but he's a good friend," Bella explained, running her hands over her thighs. "I did, uh...kind of fool around with this guy I met at a bar, but not sure it's an onslaught of suitors quite yet."

Lyn nodded at Bella's description, no doubt in her mind that Ryden was the sort who could chat up anyone he wanted and get them blushing under all that attention. "Exactly," Lyn said, as though that exact description was proving a point she hadn't made out loud. Lyn's brows knit together, and she reached out, setting her hand on Bellamy's. Lyn, as much as she was trying to immerse herself in this town, in this life, was still a human, and there were times that she could forget that the usual relationship bullshit took on a thousand different layers in a place like this. She parted her lips, ready to apologize, to try and offer any words of condolence she might have built up, but then came that voice again, the quiet hiss in her ear that somehow formed words she could understand. "Kemper... He's afraid of snakes," She said with a grin, reaching up to give her scaly friend a little rub along the chin. "Like, super scared."

Lyn didn't quite say much about Ryden and she hoped she hadn't made the girl feel awkward about her connection to him. They'd slept together, presumably what she'd said implied that, but Bella loved Ryden in a way that she couldn't quite describe, perhaps because her family had never been one for the feeling, but also because there were so many layers to it. "You should definitely flirt with him the next time you're both...on your lawns or whatever, he's really fun. Plus you're both huge bad arses." However when she suddenly said Kemper Bella leaned in, "snakes? That's...amusing, especially since you kind of have one," she chuckled. "You know Kemper though? I didn't even say his name..."

"Trust me, I already flirted with him over our shared stray cat, I've done my civic duty," She teased, sticking her tongue out at Bella in the hopes of appeasing her friend. And as much as she'd been focused on their earlier conversation, their mutual friend the hot werewolf, Lyn couldn't help but feel like she noticed something renewed in Bella's interest as she moved in closer. "I think my uh, companion, is a little offended by his dislike, honestly." Lyn shook her head, side-eying the snake as she explained, "No. Never met the guy, never heard his name before. I just... y'know... It's telling me things... Things I shouldn't know... Probably don't have any right to know..."

"It is a citizens duty to flirt with Ryden, I could see that," she smiled, glad it seemed Lyn was fine, even if it didn't quite sound like she was sure she'd flirt with the cute werewolf boy next door. That was an amazing cliche movie waiting to happen and Bella needed to watch it. "I'd feel more sympathetic for our fae friends if they were actually friendly themselves," Bellamy shrugged, likely not to use snakes against Kemper. "Oh, wow, so it really is just trying to create drama. I'm sure you can keep some of it in, yeah?" She'd abandoned the cleaning by this point, the bat climbing on her back to attempt to pull her back to it but Bellamy was distracted, mostly resisting the urge to ask the snake if he had a girlfriend and if he did whether or not Bella was prettier. "You can tell people my Mum didn't hug me much, I won't get upset. I'm not afraid of much though, at least not like out of nowhere. I'd be scared of a snake if it was trying to kill me but not just...generally."

"True," Lyn agreed, giving her snake another little chin rub, "Pretty sure the only reason I'm not getting strangled now is because I'm running my mouth." She appreciated Bella giving up secrets to share, but she didn't quite know if she could use the same one twice. Maybe to different people? "I don't know what the point is... I mean, why are you doing this?" She said, holding up the scrub brush she'd been using to clean the fountain. "I thought at first like..." Lyn sat back on her feet, pensive, "I wondered if it was something deeper? I came here look for answers, really, trying to find some sort of truth, I guess? So maybe this was a reminder that I don't need to know everything, that knowledge can be dangerous, and needs to be treated respectfully..." She shrugged, glancing up to Bella and then at the snake still looped around her shoulders, "Or this is random bullshit because faeries are tricky fuckers. Who knows."

"Feel free to run your mouth, I won't tell anyone Kemper is afraid of snakes, or about your Dad," not that she'd got a full picture there anyway. Bella wanted to ask but didn't want to pry, at least not while Lyn was in a position where she was forced to share. "I will however tell Ryden you said he's hot...," Bellamy teased, unable to help herself. "I'm not sure, I guess I didn't think about it. I've gone through enough supernatural stuff to know sometimes there is no meaning to it, especially with fae, they're tricky bastards, I mean, why did they try and drag you into that house, you know? If it does have meaning, me being forced to clean seems rude, I clean my house, and I keep my businesses much cleaner than the health and safety people ask." She paused, so self invested she almost missed what Lyn had said, clicking once she'd truly heard it. "What kind of truth did you come here for though?"

"Pretty sure I told Ryden to his face that he was hot, and it's not like he can't know," Lyn said, rolling her eyes, and then, briefly pressing her fingertips to her forehead, as though exasperated by the very fact she went on for a moment longer, "I mean seriously, stupidly, unfairly hot, like.. why?" She focused when Bella went on about her own task, and the mention of the sprites made her wince, rubbing at her head as though she could feel phantom pain in her scalp from their scratchy little hands. "I don't know," Lyn said, and tried to ignore the snake shifting around her neck, like a creepy version of Pinocchio, tightening everytime she avoided telling something she'd rather keep down. "About... The world? About myself, about how... Nowhere else really felt right until I got here."

"Part genetics, part hard knock life, part werewolf, it just came together and became abs with tattoos and an accent," Bella practically cried, but laughed instead. "Plus it's like, people are just hotter when they know how to talk to you." Ryden was strangely good at getting people to open up, even though his ego was quite large. Lyn went on though, about what her truth was, it didn't quite make sense that would be why this would happen but she did get the feeling. "I never felt myself until I was a vampire, maybe we're just people who were attuned to the lies, and need truth to feel ourselves. I think that's a good thing."

"Yeah, Professor X really fucked that one up." Lyn said with another roll of her eyes. Any hint of Bella's origin story would have interested her, but this part in particular had her curious, wondering if the answer could really be that simple after all. She wasn't sure if she was ready to be something other than human, yet, for now just knowing that this all was real was slaking her thirst for truth. "How long have you been a vampire? Can I ask that?"

"Oh yeah, for sure. I'm only four years old as a vampire," she admitted, knowing it perhaps seemed like she was older, not much older since she was looking sadly at missing fake nails and discussing boys but she wasn't as rabid as she had been when she was first turned and took a lot of responsibility for herself. "I was turned on my twenty-first birthday and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by dead bodies with a man telling me I was a vampire, that was basically the first few months of my life. I didn't know anything, I was completely stupid but I was kind of a stupid human too so," Bella shrugged.

Lyn couldn't hide her surprise at the answer. Although it made sense, the idea of 'young' vampires seemed out of place to her. She'd expected some wild number, for Bella to admit she'd been around during the Civil War or something ridiculous, but really she could have just had a baby-face, and not a member of the undead and it would have been just as likely. "Shit..." She muttered, "That's a hell of a way to wake up." Bella's mention of being a 'stupid human' seemed to rouse Lyn's living necklace, and as it spoke to her, Lyn's face fell. "Oh... No..." Lyn muttered, shaking her head with a frown, and she wondered if lifting her hands to her ears would stop the snake from telling her secrets that she wanted her friend to share of her own accord.

"Yeah...," was all Bella really said, sometimes she missed it. When she was first turned she was reckless and violent and unfeeling, she refused to attach to anyone who wasn't her sire. Now Bella was so attached. Sure, she could probably kill anyone in that park and not feel too badly for it, but Lyn? No, she'd never be able to take it. When Bella cared even a little about someone it was the same as caring a lot. "I know it sounds mean to call myself dumb but I was, maybe not like smarts wise, though kind of too, I basically never went to class, but I made some bad decisions," she continued, not aware that it was the snake whispering things that were upsetting Lyn. "How about you? How old are you?"

Maya had given up trying to outpace the rabbit still following her. Or maybe it was a bunny. There was probably a difference, but she didn't know what it was. She had gotten pretty good at ignoring it though. However, since her successful job interview that afternoon, the creature had only gotten more insistent. After all, she had a kitchen now. As she walked into the park, it hopped along slightly behind her. She'd taken to calling it Bugs, since it's accent reminded her of the cartoon character. It started to talk again. Not interested in listening, Maya paused, turned to it and said, "Literally kiss my ass, Bugs. Please and thank you." She didn't want for the rabbit to respond before turning back to her original direction.

This was a disaster and Ryden was pretty sure he'd never been this irked in his entire life before. But then again, he felt the same way each time something pissed him off. And the wet bird sitting on his shoulder, refusing to just GO AWAY, was pissing him off something bad. It wasn't much of a problem that it dripped all over his shirt and constantly tried to shake the water off its feathers even though they never dried off, or the fact that it obviously had Tourette's, spitting out curses randomly like some angry little parrot with a very rude owner. It was the fact that it became more and more obnoxious around any amount of water or liquid, which in turn gave Ryden strange ideas he knew were definitely not his own. And, it was impossible to get away from it. First, it had the ability to fly. Second, it would magically appear on his shoulder even if he closed himself off someplace. He tried. He tried everything he could think of. Last resort - visit a witch. He went out with that plan in mind except... it didn't seem like he was the only one with an affliction. People were walking around with all sorts of critters attached to them, doing strange things like muttering to themselves or performing unusual tasks that just made them look like they were complete nutcases. A random guy for example, came up to him, screaming in his face that the end was near. When asked what was he talking about, he seemed confused. It only got worse in the city center. Where people would usually go about their business, they lingered, satisfying this or that newly acquired quirk with an obsessive compulsiveness. "Fuck me..." That was when Ryden passed by the fountain and he probably would not have noticed Bellamy if the stupid bird hadn't started squaking like mad in his ear. "SHUT THE HELL UP!!!" He growled, spooking some who'd passed by. Swiping at the bird angrily, he walked up to Bellamy. "What the fuck are you doing?!" It came out too angrily, but that wasn't Bella's fault.

Just like every other time Maya had tried to tell the creature to fuck off, it didn't work. But she had gotten pretty good at tuning chatter out in the last year. She kept walking towards the fountain. A few other people were out and about. Most seemed to be dealing with their own rude little creatures. Some seemed to be doing better with it than others. Someone shouting caused her to whip around to face them, immediately ready for a fight. But even with her heartbeat thundering in her ears, Maya recognized Ryden. She didn't recognize the blonde woman apparently cleaning the fountain. Neither of them poised an actual threat though. Slipping out of fight or flight, she unclenched her fists and relaxed her shoulders. Not knowing if he had noticed her reaction, Maya didn't say anything about it. The rabbit piped up with a "See, like that guy. Clearly, he needs to chill the fuck out." "Still a crime, my dude," she replied, not even bothering to look down at the creature. "So y'all got some little bastards too," she commented, noting the damp raven on Ryden's shoulder and the pink  bat hovering around the woman.  "Guess I should be glad its not just me."

"We're cleaning," Bellamy said of her and Lyn's activity, from the aggressive way Ryden had approached she anticipated his creature was being as kind to him as Lyn's was. "I broke nails, puppy," she pouted, holding up her hands that had lost about half of her acrylics. Thank god she healed fast otherwise the nails would have looked really gross. Behind him a woman with a rabbit spoke, unsure if she was telling Ryden he was committing some crime or the creature that it was. The pause in her cleaning though caused the bat to pull sharply on Bella's hair. "Ow," she winced, picking up the brush once more. "Everyone in town," she told the girl.(edited)

Ryden couldn't cope. This was a complete 'nope' situation. This was....* magic*. And magic was an unpredictable pile of bullshit you couldn't punch teeth out of to make it calm down. "Okay, okay..." He breathed in and out, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "We need a witch to figure this shit out. I can't deal with this shit. What the bloody hell are those?!" He pointed at Sarah's rabbit and Bella's bat. The raven on Ryden's shoulder provided a useless input. "FUCKERS!"

His reaction was strong, Bellamy often forgetting that some people couldn't quite go with the flow of all of this stuff. Lyn was human but clearly quite resilient like Bellamy was, while Ryden and the bunny girl weren't quite having the same time with it. "People are working on it, I've found it's just easiest to give in, granted...from the sounds of things what my fae wants me to do is pretty minimal in comparison to other people. I have to clean this fountain until it looks new, it's all the bloody bat will go on about it. He's calmer when I do...maybe do what it wants? Unless it's murder, don't murder."

Maya ran her fingers through her hair. She didn't like any of this either. Having been in plenty of shitty situations before though, this didn't even rank among them. Annoying, yes. Infuriating, yes. But not even close to the worst problem of her life. It was the trade-off she supposed of living in a town that was safe for supernaturals. Shit like this, whatever it was, happened. "People?" she asked, "Who are people?" There might very well be some agency that dealt with things like this, but she didn't like the vagueness of /people/. "And yeah, mine wants me to do a crime, so I'm going to stick with no," she added more as an afterthought than anything else.

"This is bullshit!" Ryden protested, this close to throwing a tantrum fit. He sat on the edge of the fountain, the part Bella wasn't cleaning, and thought really hard on what type of fae he knew about. Problem was, there were so many he didn't know where to start with. Hi was highly unqualified to deal with the situation. Eyeing Maya, he raised an eyebrow, curious. "What does it want you to do?"

The appearance of new people seemed to rile the python around Lyn's shoulders, and as much as she wanted to talk, to greet the others with her typical excitement, the snake held her in sway. It told her... Well, it told her a lot. It was as though it had been waiting for this, the entrance of new people, new things to tell, to urge her to tell. Lyn chewed on her lower lip anxiously, hearing just enough of Bella's explanation to manage to nod along. "Little allowances," She finally piped up, "Is there like... a halfway mark you can meet?" And then, in an example that no one but Bellamy would understand, since she already had an idea of what the scaled being around her neck could do. "Bella used to steal from the church collection plate. Just pennies. Sorry, Bells, but you were a kid, that's not that bad."

"I would assume some kind of city council?" Bellamy answered the woman, she was attempting to be helpful but it seemed to only be riling the two of them up further and further. She looked to see the girls answer to Ryden's question though, wondering what could be so terrible she'd be requested to do, but Lyn suddenly made an announcement, "Lyn!" Immediately she laughed however, not actually that concerned. "Let's be real, God didn't need pennies, I did, so I could get gum and warheads."

Maya was about to answer Ryden's question when someone else piped up. She didn't recognize them either. And wondered a little how she hadn't noticed them. She noted the blonde woman's name, Bella before returning to the question at hand. "Well, if anyone wants to let me borrow their kitchen and point me towards the nearest dispensary, I might be able to shut him up for an hour," Maya replied with a shrug. The pot and brownies part weren't an issue for her. But she drew a hard line at giving them out to unsuspecting people and not only because she was about 90% sure that was definitely a crime. Even if it wasn't a crime, it probably should be.

"I don't get it." Ryden said to Maya's explanation of what her fea wanted her to do. "There's a Ministry of Magic department at the City Hall but it's prolly packed full and everyone's puttin' in complaints. I went right by, the line is terrible." Ryden's leg started bouncing, the big man cracking his knuckles nervously. The raven on his shoulder was now pretty much screaming all sorts of colorful profanities, but the werewolf was growing desperately numb to the noise by the second. "How... is this relevant to the shit we're in??" He asked Lyn, who had shared a completely random piece of info all of a sudden about Bellamy's past.

"God totally doesn't need pennies, and neither did that church, I'm sure." Lyn agreed. The unknown woman drew her attention next, giving just enough hints about her own animal companion that Lyn could only drop her jaw in outright jealousy. "I'm sorry, can we trade? You have to make pot brownies, and I'm stuck with Snitchy, the Secret-Spilling-Snake?" The snake was obviously less than pleased with the nickname, giving a loud hiss that would have been audible for everyone around, and in an attempt to please it, Lyn looked at the only one in the group unfamiliar to her and asked, "What was it about the Wizard of Oz that made you cry? Was it scary? You know that rumour about the dead body is totally an urban legend, it's a bird. Also, hi, I'm Lyn, it's nice to meet you." The last bit was an afterthought, Lyn realizing belatedly that though the world had shifted some things needed to remain constant habits. Ryden's annoyance made her bristle slightly, something her snake reacted too pleasantly, and Lyn levelled a steady gaze at her neighbor, "The snake is telling me people's secrets, and it wants me to share them, you big fuckin' nerd." She said accusingly, the snake having given her a heads-up to some of Ryden's Netflix choices.

"You could always offer the brownies to people who like you know like pot, so like you're not giving them to people about to pick up their kid but instead gifting them to people who would already pay for them?” Bella mused, shrugging her shoulders. She did have a nice kitchen that she could offer but wasn't quite sure why the woman couldn't do it in her own and wasn't sure it would be polite to ask. "Personally I'm enjoying most of the secrets. I'm hoping to find out something juicy," she teased Lyn as she continued to clean. "How about you, puppy? What's that crow getting you worked up to do?"

"Shut up!" Ryden seconded Lyn's envy, now that he had figured out what Maya's fae spirit-induced compulsive behavior was. Lyn's accusation confused him momentarily, and Ryden made a face. "Gotta say, no one's called me a nerd b'fore but... okay I guess yer not in yer right mind right now." "Uuuh, I am not sure yet. It gits crazy near... water???" The raven was in a frenzy at the moment and everyone would probably struggle to talk over it's rude cawing.

Lyn stuck a hand up in the air at Bella's suggestion, volunteering herself, "Listen, you could make regular brownies and I'd take one, but if you're gonna start giving away special brownies... I will help you, I will do my best." She pressed a hand against her chest, although honour-bound to help the other woman with her plight at great sacrifice to herself. She waved off Ryden's confusion, although the questions were piled up in her mind, it was a personal quest at this point. Was he into Ghibli movies? Because who wasn't? Or was he secretly ninja-running down the apartment hallway when she wasn't looking? "Like... it wants you to swim? Or is water... bad?" She called out, trying to make her voice heard over the raven's noise. The one benefit to it's yelling was that it temporarily drowned out the soft voice of her snake.

"You're a nerd?" Bella asked teasingly, poking Ryden with one of her remaining false nails, having assumed most of that was directed at the other woman. "It's not telling you? Mine's got like a squeaky little whisper, I can't understand anyone else's though because if I could I'd just hang around Lyn until all of this went away getting to know everyone's secrets." The hand that had poked his calf gently rubbed it, knowing that a reminder they didn't know when the creatures would be going away could potentially stress him out further.

"Bugs here wants me to give out pot brownies without telling the people their pot brownies," Maya explained to Ryden. As for other avenues of placating it, she merely shrugged. Her lack of access to a kitchen remained a problem. But she didn't want to get in to that, especially not with a secret spilling snake around. Considering it was right that she had cried the first and only time she'd seen The Wizard of Oz, she didn't want to find out what else it knew about her. She didn't comment on it either though, hoping that the trend of the conversation would mean no one thought much of it.

"I mean, sure? I don't know, nerdy is a bit of a broad term, innit?" He shrugged, not really shook by the 'secret' Lyn had partially revealed about him. Ryden was shouting too, and louder than everyone else, because the stupid bird was right at his ear. "No, this is all it does, it projectile vomits crap like that." He pointed at it, the bird now cracking up some pretty nasty insults, usually limited to one noun only accompanied by maybe a couple of colorful adjectives. He had to think about it for a second. The raven shut up as he considered. "Sorry, Bella, I know you'll forgive me one day." He stood up and picked the petite woman up then plopped her carefully into the fountain. "Wet t-shirt contest. That's what it wants me t'do." At least he got it figured out now. The raven had jumped off his shoulder now, flying happy circles around his head, cackling. "Well, it is kinna funny. Like that 'go for a swim' challenge." He had to admit.

Lyn was watching the bird, wondering if she could ask her snake about it. She hadn't ever sought any information from it, it had been more than happy to just share, some secrets simple, easy, like the ones the assembled group had so recently brushed off. Some, though, were devestating, and these were the ones that were burrowing into Lyn, things she told herself she'd have to keep inside, things she couldn't even reveal she knew. She scrambled to the edge of the fountain when Ryden dumped Bella in, one hand clapped over her mouth as though in horror, but her laughter could be heard from behind as she peered over the edge at her friend. "Oh man... At least the fountain's clean-ish now..." Though she didn't think that would appease Bella any.

Bellamy frowned temporarily as he said that she would forgive him one day, feeling him grab her, the bat at her shoulder calming for a strange reason. "Puppy, wha-?" and she was cut off as her scuffed heels landed in the water, as did her jeans and half of her waist, the fountain surprisingly deep, Bellamy not suspecting it. She was ready to say she wasn't mad when he announced it was a wet t-shirt contest and Bellamy splashed him with a large amount of water. "Give us our wet t-shirt contest," she responded, unaware she had caught Lyn sitting by the fountain in the process, the other woman's legs as well. A smile on her face before suddenly her eyes went wide, "Something swam by my ankles!" she objected, wiggling in the water in the hopes of it swimming away.

Maya stifled a laugh as Ryden dropped Bella into the fountain. "Seems on par," she commented as far as the raven wanting him to throw people into water. The rabbit by her feet pointed out that maybe if he had some pot brownies, he might've been nicer about it. Maya ignored it. She did take a step back from the fountain though. Her jeans would take forever to dry and her other pair were dirty from a scuffle a few days back. "Yeah, I think your raven would definitely want you to participate in this contest," Maya teased Ryden. She looked towards Bella's ankles when the woman shouted about something swimming by them. But she didn't move any closer. The fountain wasn't big enough that it could be much more than a confused fish. At least, she didn't think it could be.

It was odd but just a moment ago, Ryden was practically fuming. Now, the bird's happiness over a thing as stupid as throwing someone into a fountain seemed to have made Ryden all giddy and amused. It was obviously influencing his mood. A chuckle coming up, he shrugged, taking off his already wet shirt without any protests. "I win. Who's next." He turned to Lyn, the second in line since Maya stepped away. "Who's nerdy again." He made grabby hands at her.

"Oh, like a big koi fish?" Lyn asked curiously, leaning even closer to the fountain as though expecting to see it full of large, beautiful fish. She hadn't realized that by moving closer to the fountain she'd put herself in danger of being Ryden's next victim. "No." She said, although the words were hardly commanding as she started scooting away from him, though not nearly fast enough, if he were serious about making her the next target. "Uh, still you," She shot back, although further antagonizing him was probably not the smartest move, Lyn couldn't help herself. If he grabbed her, she just knew she'd try to take him in as well, even if that meant clinging to his arm like an over-sized koala.

Ryden removing his shirt was enough to temporarily distract her, Bella letting out a teasing wolf whistle as she continued to fidget in the water. For a vampire she should have handled some kind of fish moving around her ankles better but a lot of the times Bellamy still had terribly human reactions. "Smaller, maybe there are like fish in here, or frogs," she said as she moved. When Ryden made Lyn his next victim though she readied herself to help Lyn pull him in if he tried. If his crow wanted them to be in the water then he deserved to be in it too.

As annoyed as she was, Maya couldn't help but wolf whistle when Ryden took off his shirt. It did worry her a little though that doing as the raven asked had affected his mood so much and positively. If it did that to everyone, they were all in trouble. More trouble anyway. The rabbit piped up again. "I really don't give a fuck," she told it, almost offhandedly. She still didn't move any closer to Ryden or Lyn. She had no desire to end up in the fountain. Especially not if there were frogs in there. "So, we have basically no idea where these creatures came from or when they're going to fuck off back where they came from. Do I have that right?" she asked.

"Oooh, yes." Now Ryden couldn't stop himself anymore. It was like an addiction - as soon as he did it once, he had to do it again and it was all he could think of. He went for Lyn, attempting to pick her up by her waist.

"I can't whistle," Lyn said with a frown and a shrug as Ryden stalked towards her. She certainly echoed the sentiments of the other two women, but lacked the ability to show it in the same way. She saw the look in his eyes, and knew it was over for her. She could only pout as he lunged for her, for all their previous jokes about fighting dirty she wasn't going to actually fight Ryden. She could, however, wrap her arms around his shoulders, forcing him to have to pry her off if she was going in the water. She was too distracted by a shirtless Ryden coming after her to focus too much on the stranger's words. For Lyn this was almost a regular day in Opulence, she was just telling herself to roll with the punches.

"I think so, I know it's kind of troublesome," Bellamy said to the girl whose name she had yet to catch, making sure she was still watching Ryden's movements against Lyn. "But it's kind of the punishment for getting to be here and be ourselves," she grinned, her focus shifting because Ryden began to put Lyn into the water, Lyn's slender arms around his broad shoulders. It was then Bella took the chance to grab Lyn's own shoulders, attempting to drag Ryden in with her, perhaps from the shock of her own strength he wouldn't have expected from Lyn. A splash came as at least one of them entered the water, hoping both had.

Maya nodded. She'd forgotten in the commotion that she hadn't mentioned her own name. But it didn't seem overly important anyway. It still didn't quite feel real that she could stay here safely. Her eyes tracked Ryden & Lyn though, still trying to stay out of that.

He had a very good chance of winning this one against Lyn. But when Bella came to her aid, her vampiric strength just enough to spoil Ryden's plans, he rolled into the fountain too, laughing his heart out. He raven seemed bery happy with the situation as well, bouncing merrily along the edge of the fountain. Sitting up in the water, Ryden rubbed a wet hand over his face. "This is bad... I can't stop laughing now. I gotta..." He tried to stand up while struggling with a fit of giggles, his mood doing a 180 now that he was actually doing what his fae wanted him to do. "I gotta... git that one as well." He announced, pointing at Maya,who was the only one left standing.

Lyn let out a small, gleeful shriek through gritted teeth as she felt Bella's hands on her shoulders, "Go, Bells, go!" She tried to cheer her friend on, sucking in a deep breath and holding it seconds before the vampire pulled them down into the water. She bobbed up beside Ryden, scrambling to her feet, plucking at the now super clingy fabric of her top, a very pissed-off python now more like a turtleneck collar around her neck, though Lyn tried to be unbothered by it. "This is why I always wear black," She muttered, stepping over towards Bella, her words making it sound like werewolves chucking her bodily into fountains was a daily threat.

Bellamy wrapped her arms around Lyn's middle as she got up, putting a chin on her shoulder, though Lyn could feel it at her neck Bella merely felt shadows there, nothing to interrupt her movement. "Well thank god you do wear black, though this could be the perfect time for robes," she teased Lyn, poking her stomach softly. "If you can even get out of this fountain," she taunted Ryden as she held her friend to protect her from the frogs and fish in the water. It was probably four feet deep based on Bella's own height, so leverage was the real issue of getting out rather than strength.

Immediately, Maya tensed again. Logically, she knew it wasn't that big a deal. After all, her clothes would dry and no one meant her any real harm. But the thought of being physically picked up and tossed, no matter how playfully, set off her already frayed nerves. "Go for it, if you want to get kneed in the balls," she replied, playing it off with a joke. She just hoped that Ryden couldn't see through her as easily as he had that first night at the bar.

Lyn settled her hands on Bella's arms as the girl wrapped around her, turning just enough so that the vampire could see her stick her tongue out in response to her teasing. "Quiet, you." She moved her hands only to clap as Maya seemed to square off with Ryden, "My money's on the girl!" She called.

Ryden couldn't seen anything right now - he was laughing so hard that tears started welling up. And lucky for Maya, this made it very hard for him to stand up and actually get out of the fountain. "Hahaha hahahaha pfffff, okay, okay, gimmie a minute..." The raven, all content now, bounced back onto Ryden's shoulder, ruffling its wet feathers before it nestled there. "Aww, man... Lookit that. He's so happy. I think he's sad he's the only one all wet all the time. That's actually kinna cute." Ryden reached out to give the rave a scratch on its head but it called him a bitch so he changed his mind. "Yeah, nevermind, he's an asshole." Now that he's calmed down a little, he gave getting out of the fountain another try. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Ya take that ball kneedin' elsewhere, I ain't interested. Ya'll guys need help?" He asked Bella and Lyn - he got them in there, he can take them out.

Bella resisted the urge to make a joke at Lyn's expense, knowing it would have probably been gentle teasing if it was the two of them but potentially embarrassing with Ryden within ear shot. "Clearly you just need to stay in the water forever, you'll get very pruney," she said instead of Ryden's wet crow. "Help Lyn out first, that way she can stand on my hands." Bella had a bit more strength and with Ryden's help it would be easy, not so much for Lyn.

"That water is really dirty." Colette said staring over the soaking wet group. She thought about passing without a word but couldn't help herself. Seeing Bella and Lyn she couldn't help but laugh.

As Ryden struggled to get out of the fountain, Maya relaxed. Not all the way, but enough that she could pass it off for just being annoyed with the rabbit. "Gladly," she replied with an almost real smile when he, at least seemed to, change his mind about putting her in the fountain. Still a little cautious, she moved forward. "Here, I can help," she said, offering Lyn a hand. "C'mon Doc, just do it," the rabbit argued, "See how happy it made that big lug. You can be happy too." "Will it make you less of a dick?" she asked, still not looking down at it.

Lyn waded through the water to the edge of the fountain, throwing her hand up in a wave to Colette, "Trying not to think about that, thanks!!" She gave Ryden the finger, and reached instead for the hand of the girl she didn't know yet, using it to try and pull herself up onto the stone edge of the fountain, relying, too, on Bella's offered help. "My middle name is Eleanor," She offered, though no one had asked, at least by now no one was questioning it. At least she wasn't throwing people into fountains. "I lie and tell people I don't have one because I hate it!"

"Fine, struggle. Eleanor." Ryden shrugged at the finger Lyn flipped at him, then just bounced out of the fountain, no problem. "Ugh... where my shirt at?" He tried to shake some of the water off but his pants were completely soaked so it was no use. At least he found his shirt quickly enough. He used it to wipe himself down. Once Bella and Maya were done helping Lyn, he reached out to help Bella.

Bella frowned as Ryden went to find his shirt, taking a moment for her to realise he was coming back. "It's cleaner than usual," Bella told Colette, "I've been cleaning the fountain all day but yeah...the inside is still pretty moldy." When Ryden offered his hand she grabbed it, leveraging herself out, letting him go once she had a knee on the edge and was able to pull herself from the water that dripped off her clothes, clinging to her skin as it did Lyn's. "Can we request secrets?" she asked, coming to her feet and squeezing out her shirt.  "Because I think after that we deserve Ryden's middle name."

"Oh shit," Maya said, realizing when Lyn offered her middle name that she'd neglected to introduce herself. "Maya by the way. I'm Maya." She half laughed as she said it, knowing it was odd she hadn't mentioned it earlier. She blamed the whole situation. "Awww boo," she teased Ryden when he pulled his shirt back on. When Bella asked about requesting secrets, Maya fell silent. She didn't think anyone really cared, but she'd rather keep her secrets to herself.

"You've been cleaning the fountain all day?" Said with a raise of her eyebrow. That was a strange thing for a vampire bar owner to spend the day doing. "It does look nice." Colette admitted.

Lyn let out a groan at Ryden's words, regretting giving that one away immediately. All the same, it was easier to bare her own embarassing secrets than others. She'd keep doing this to herself as long as she could if it meant saving others the potential pain. "Please don't call me Eleanor," She asked Maya, "Lyn, my name is Lyn. Nice to meet you, even though this is really fuckin' weird." Outside of the fountain she knelt down to pull off one of her boots, planning to empty them of water. Bella's question made her grin, and Lyn turned to the snake, who reared it's head up to face her, and Lyn reached out with a finger, stroking the underside of the snake's head curiously, "What do you think? Do we get to know?" The snake said nothing, but as if she'd heard a great revelation, Lyn gave a dramatic gasp, turning her gaze to Ryden, bright blue eyes wide in faux-shock. "Eunice!? Ryden Eunice. Oh, it's got a lovely ring. Is that a family name?"

Still rubbing his face with his shirt, Ryden peeked out at Lyn, giving her a raised eyebrow look. "I don't know, if we're talkin' 'bout middle names, mine's Douglas and I ain't nearly as embarrassed over it as you are." At Maya's booing, he offered her a charming wink. Glancing at Colette, he looked disappointed. "Why are you normal?"

"That is what the bat wants me to do," she said, gesturing to the creature that peaked out from beneath her hair to Colette. "Thank you," Bella gushed at the compliment, giggling quickly as Lyn insisted that Ryden's middle name was Eunice, part of her would have believed it, his first name and last were relatively cool, something had to offset them. "Ryden Douglas Bolt, Ryden Eunice Bolt..., I mean...both sound like real names," she mused, releasing the fabric of her shirt. Honestly Bella wanted to press for secrets about Kemper, but she knew it would put Lyn in an awkward position, and if it got out that she wanted to ask then it could potentially get back to him that she wanted to. "Shit," Bella whispered to herself, realising she'd incidentally created a secret by thinking too much. "Is she normal tho?" Bellamy refocused on Colette. "I know she has a bee that's apparently a bit of a bee-itch." With that she giggled, sitting down on the fountain and continuing to clean.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure its Eunice now," Maya teased Ryden. She didn't add her own middle name since it was neither important nor funny. Her middle name was just a form of her mother's name, the mother she'd lost when she was 8. "What does it want you to do?" she asked Colette, curious if there was any kind of trend across the creatures.

Lyn looked over at Bella, shrugging a shoulder, "Snake doesn't tell me shit that I actually wanna know." Then, though, the snake did speak, and Lyn rolled her eyes at the hissing, shaking her head as she kept her gaze on Bella, "You want me to tell you all the dirt on your new boyfriend. Nope. You have to ask him yourself." She told the vampire, and followed her gaze to the witch, glad to see Colette rather unscathed with everything that was going on. "You have a bee? Cool!" She'd dumped out one boot, and moved on to the next, a small puddle at her feet from all the water dripping off her.

"I don't think you mentioned that to me," Bella said, looking to Colette with Maya's question lingering in the air of what her bee was asking of her. "Maya potentially needs a kitchen to complete hers, maybe the community college? Probably some potheads there you could give brownies to successfully," she mused, not because they were in community college but because there was a large segment of people in their twenties likely to be chill with it. However her cheeks grew in size, not going red due to her species but growing in size to show she was blushing. "That's childish, not boyfriend, guy I slept with," Bellamy said, shaking her head, even though she'd been the childish one discussing robes all day. "I don't want to know secrets, I just like...want to know if he's single." Lie, she didn't care, she was quite certain she was better looking and capable of pulling him away from any girlfriend he had. "Or like if I need to get checked." Lie, mostly because she couldn't catch anything. "Or, you know, just -," she cut herself off and shut up. She was terrible at lying when she knew there was no way Lyn was buying any of it. "I will ask him myself, yes."

[findopulenceedits]

no two are the same...i wanna be like, i wanna be like most girls...

@colettescoven, @theodosia-miller, @leovalance, @tabithahewitt, @lyn-nichols, @mayarparker

[thebellamybarnesarchive]

last nine images on your camera roll...

one. selfie as she waited at a fashion house to try on a new dress. two. a totally inappropriate robe suggestion for lyn. three. lyn in her top because they got messy making snacks to binge watch daybreak during a sleepover. four. ryden waiting for bella’s favourite cafe to open with her because she was craving cheesecake. five. bellamy videoing herself biting kemper’s face. six. an outfit selfie she sent to ryden before coming to the den, he responded with ‘not nudes?’ seven. bella secretly taking a picture of kempers back with healing scratch marks on it that she definitely sent to lyn. eight. selfie as she waited for take away. nine. a business brunch meal she had with colette who was too sleepy for the camera.

@lyn-nichols, @wolfontheloose, @k-harding, @colettescoven

[findopulenceedits]

friendship compatibility between...bella & colette...leo & capricorn

The Leo will always admire how the Capricorn is authoritative, even if he or she knows who’s the king of the jungle. Leos are pushy and want all the attention to be on them, which means they’re also persuasive. When friends with the Capricorn, some power struggles between these two become something usual. The Leo wants to dominate, whereas the Capricorn desires to reveal his or her leadership aptitudes. If the Leo allows the Capricorn to just rule from the shadows, the latter won’t mind allowing the former to shine. It’s very possible the Goat is too pessimistic for the Lion, which can be very selfish.

@colettescoven​ { source }

[findopulenceedits]

opulence gang au greek mythology…colette page as athena        “it’s my town and my ground and my hit-list.”

colette bolt; position: gang leader. skills: wisdom, warfare, planning. powers: innate prediction. status: living, currently under investigation.

"the pen is mightier than the sword, elise,” colette posed as she looked over the scattered paper’s her brother had left upon his own floor. there would be no need to pick them up, she had anticipated he would not sign them, and thus nothing of importance was in them. “but a sword is still a sword, and a gun is still a gun and my brother will suffer for his ignorance,” she continued to her companion whose own hand held a gun at her side. “as he always has.”

@colettescoven

[findopulenceedits]

manip...tabitha, jamie, and colette

@tabithahewitt, @jamesoncollins, @colettescoven

[hastalikhunts]

Who's the first person you'd contact if you got in trouble?

“I don’t have anyone I’d contact. I mean, I’m here alone. Think that sort of says as much. Since I’ve come here...I don’t know...maybe that witch woman who gave me her energy. Maybe River, but she seems to have this indifference to herself being harmed and I wouldn’t want to be the reason she got hurt.”

@colettescoven, @missrivermoore