#interaction*

[blackcatxmagic]

Winter didn’t quite know how to reply to Addie. Was he like her? Ori had definitely made it seem like he was, and again, what reason would they have for lying to him. And he’d just told Addie that he’d done a spell and felt like it worked. But what if that had all been in his head? What if Winter was just deeply, deeply ordinary and trying to find a reason for his addled mind? He supposed he had no way of knowing for sure, but Winter reminded himself that Ori had seemed like someone he could trust. So he supposed the answer was yes. “Yeah, I guess so,” Winter finally replied, though his voice wavered; he was still uncertain. “It feels that way at least.”

Addie clearly had a lot of experience about this, and Winter listened intently. “How long have you known about…well you know?” he asked, his voice low, looking around furtively. “For a long time? When does magic normally start to manifest?” While Winter still wasn’t quite sure he believed he was a witch, it would explain a lot, like what happened during the wind storm. Nodding, Winter said, “I’ll keep it to myself. You’re right, you can never know who to trust?” He looked around again, but no one seemed to be paying attention to them. “Definitely not fairy tale bullshit,” Winter agreed. “But how do I learn? Is there like…a class or something? How did you learn more about it?” He felt like he had a million questions.

Addie’s smirk softened into something more knowing as she leaned in, just enough for her voice to drop between them like a shared secret. “A spell?” She mused, tilting her head slightly. “So you are like me then.” There was no teasing in her tone now, no jesting lilt—just quiet understanding. She let the words settle before offering him a reassuring smile, one that reached her eyes this time. After a moment’s hesitation, she reached across the table and placed her hand lightly over his, the warmth of her touch meant to steady him, to tell him that whatever doubts he had, he wasn’t alone with them. “Magick has a way of making itself known when it’s ready.” She began. “Sometimes it’s subtle; and sometimes it hits like a damn freight train.” And sometimes, it left scars... Ones that never fully faded.

She gave his hand a small squeeze before pulling away, grey eyes flickering around the diner with a brief, practiced caution. Too many years spent keeping her head down, keeping her truths close... “You gotta be careful what you say out loud.” She murmured, voice lower now, edged with something almost protective. “Not everyone is… accepting… of our kind.” That much hadn’t changed. Not here, not anywhere. No matter how peaceful a place seemed on the surface, there were always people ready to tear down what they didn’t understand. “It sounds like you’ve already figured out that all this isn’t just some fairy tale bullshit.” She continued, her gaze settling back on him. “But if you’re serious about this, you gotta be sure you know what you’re doing.” Because magick wasn’t just wishing on stars or lighting candles in the dark. It was real. It was dangerous. And if Winter had already been burned once, he needed to tread carefully.

[blackcatxmagic]

Open starter for anyone ( @cardinalstart ) Location: Town Square Event: Halloween

Leo appreciated the fact that some of the stalls that had set up for the holiday, he was having a bit of trouble at the one he was currently at. They'd crafted an entire menu of Halloween-themed mixed drinks, which was fine, Leo appreciated the spirit of it. The problem was that he didn't have any idea of what they were, and the bartender (dressed like Frankenstein) was being annoyingly vague. There were drinks with names like "Very Bloody Mary," "Witch's Cauldron," "Macabre Brew," "Pumpkin Bomb," "Vampire's Kiss," and "Spider Cocktail," among others. All of these intrigued Leo, but he wasn't sure he wanted to risk the drink being something gross.

And he wouldn't have to risk if the bartender would just tell him what was in the drink. Leo asked again, but all the bartender said was that "all will be revealed for $5.99," and then he'd do some sort of weird, loud laugh that he obviously thought was spooky. "Dude, I'm going to need you to stop with the laugh," Leo said, almost pleaded, running his fingers through his hair. His head was pounding. To the bartender, he said, "Come on, it's my birthday. Just tell me what's in even one of them." When the bartender wouldn't budge, Leo turned to the person next to him, and he asked, "What about you? Do you know what's in any of these drinks? You can skip the Spider Cocktail though because I don't like the sound of that one." His fake spear that had been resting against the bar started to fall, Leo grabbing it quickly, and he explained, "I'm King Leonidas of Sparta. It seemed appropriate since that's my name, Leonidas." Leo had really gone all out, and he was looking good. That wasn't arrogance, it was just an objective observation. Obviously though he'd skipped the helmet, not wanting to hide his hair away.

[coldxxwinter]

Closed starter: @ritualove Location: Winter's house

Standing at one of his hives, Winter replaced the last frame, having just finished harvesting some of the honey and beeswax. His family had a sprawling backyard, so he had been able to plant different flowers and such all around so as to get different types of honey, and this particular one was near a patch of wildflowers. Some thought the differences in flavor were subtle and hard to detect, but Winter had gotten quite skilled at it. That made sense though because he had been eating honey for as long as he could remember, long before he had even started beekeeping, and his dad had taught him a lot. He was like whatever the honey version of a sommelier was, and Winter had learned so much from him. Thinking about his dad caused a twinge of sadness inside Winter. It wasn't like his dad - or his mom for that matter - were dead, but they hadn't been home in awhile, and he missed them. But Winter had his bees at least. He rarely even wore a beekeeper's suit anymore unless they seemed especially feisty, and today was the same, Winter just outside in a sweater and jeans as he went about with his beekeeping duties. Everything felt so peaceful out here, and nothing seemed as bad as when he was with his bees. Luckily the accident hadn't erased Winter's ability to care for them in the slighest.

Alas, there were ways the accident had had a strong effect on Winter, and chief among them were his memory. So when he heard a car pulling up his driveway, Winter groaned because he realized he'd forgotten something. Of course he had, he always did. At least he was done with his beekeeping for the day, so he whispered a goodbye to the bees, and then Winter rushed inside to greet Annette at the door. It had been his idea to hang out too, he remembered that now, and Winter was mad at himself for forgetting.

[deepbluexocean]

Closed starter: @theartdoctor Location: The Cardinal Hill Art Gallery

Ocean was mesmerized. Though he'd been living in Cardinal Hill for a little while now, he hadn't gotten out much. Most of the time he only went to places like work or the grocery store or occasionally to get coffee, choosing to spend the rest of his time at home (or at his brother's home he supposed it was). Every time he went out, Ocean felt like everyone was watching him, assessing him, silently judging his clothes or the way he walked or his body or something. There were so many things he would change about himself if he could, almost everything, and Ocean knew that if he was thinking these things, other would be too. So he'd been spending quite a bit of time closed up in his brother's basement, which he was using as his studio, not that Ocean was ever happy with any of the pieces he created.

But some days were better. He wasn't sure what was different about today, but Ocean had woken up feeling a little less self-conscious, and he wasn't going to waste that feeling. Since coming to Cardinal Hill, he had been wanting to go the art gallery, but he had been avoiding it. While part of Ocean thought he might get inspired there, another part of him thought he'd just get discouraged seeing all of the superior artists. However, buoyed by his good mood today, Ocean had decided to just do it. Unfortunately, it was having the effect he had thought it might: all of these artists were so talented, and Ocean would never be as good. Even so, it was still nice seeing what these artists had created. As he stood staring at a large painting hanging on the walls, someone came to stand beside him, looking at the same piece. "It's so good, isn't it?" Ocean said, surprised by the fact that he was talking a stranger. He was lost in the art though, making him just very slightly more outgoing than usual.

[conorxsurvives]

Closed starter: @zoaoliveira (Starting) Location: The Settlement

Even though Conor had been in Arcadia for a year now, and even though he was a guard and had been on the settlement many times before, there was still a lot he didn't know about it. Maybe if he talked to people more or asked more questions, he might have a better idea of things, but he kept to himself a lot. That had been true even before Garrett had died, but his reclusiveness had increased dramatically since his husband's death. And since coming to Arcadia, well...there were many day stretches where he barely spoke at all. It was a lonely existence, but it after so long living in such an isolated way, sometimes Conor felt like he had forgotten how to interact with people in a normal way. So he saved his words for when they counted, and he tried to keep to himself as much as he could without coming across as rude (he'd been raised to be polite, and it was ingrained in him now). But lately Conor had begun feeling more like he was part of the community, which was actually something new for him; before Arcadia, he'd lived alone in the forest, but now he lived in what could only be described as a town, albeit a twisted, shadowed version of one. So he found himself feeling just a little more comfortable around the residents of Arcadia. But while the Settlement still felt very mysterious to him, Conor still headed in that direction. He had a job to do today.

As a guard, Conor was given certain responsibilities, and after doing this for a year, he was beginning to be trusted with more important jobs. Today was one such day. As he reached the Settlement, Conor thought about Zoa, whom he would be accompanying today. Like most of the residents of Arcadia, Conor didn't know much about her. They were in town meetings together, and Conor's impression of her was that she was very passionate about her role as a scout. Zoa always seemed to have quite a lot to say; Conor thought she had probably spoken more in a single meeting than he had in every meeting combined. But he still respected her point of view - Zoa had been here a lot longer than him, after all. And Conor respected her bravery, knowing that a scout was a dangerous job.

People around the settlement knew who Conor was by this point, if not by name then by face at least, so no one questioned why he was there. He found the place he was meant to meet Zoa, waiting for her to join him, and as he did so, Conor adjusted the hatchet strapped to his thigh (he'd fashioned a sort of holster out of re-purposed strips of leather), making sure it was easy accessible. Similarly, Conor had his axe strapped to his bag. The job they were doing wasn't the most dangerous he'd experienced in Arcadia, but he'd learned to always be prepared in this town.

[leonidasxx]

Closed starter for Corey ( @innocentcurse ) Location: Hometown Groceries, hair care aisle

Leo had a secret, one he had kept from everyone, even Arjun. Okay, so Leo had a lot of secrets, like the fact that his maniacal father was trying to find him, prompting him and his mother to move around all over the world for the last 25 years of his life. That was one secret Leo never, ever planned to tell anyone, and then there was the secret that he drank too much, which was one Leo worried he'd someday reveal - someday soon. But right up there with his other biggest secrets was this: Leo spent a lot of time on his hair.

Over the years - once Leo had learned the power of his hair - he had spent quite a bit of time learning how to take care of it. He'd tried so many different products, tried different ways to style it, even tried to dye it once, though his dark hair hadn't taken to the color well (and the less said about the time he'd bleached it, the better). Leo had tried different lengths and styles as well before settling into his current hair situation, which had achieved a higher level of hair transcendence. But Leo didn't want people to know he spent a lot of time on his hair because part of that higher level of hair superiority was making it look like he didn't spend a lot of time on it. What Leo aimed for when it came to his hair was to make it look like he'd just rolled out of bed and just naturally looked that way, and truthfully that was how it worked sometimes. But then other times - especially after a bender - Leo would wake up with his hair a mess, looking like he'd just been through a tornado. Luckily, Leo had honed his hair care skills by this point and knew just what to do in those cases.

But now in addition to a hair-related secret, he had a hair-related problem: they had stopped making the line of hair products he liked the best. The company had gone under, which Leo couldn't fathom because as far as he was concerned, the quality of their products was amazing; Leo had even wondered if they were magically-infused, though he ended up deciding that would be extremely difficult given the scale of product distribution. Although he had a bit of his hair products left, Leo needed to find a suitable replacement, and as he looked at the various products in the aisles, he was at a loss. What shampoos and conditioners and pomades and serums and everything else would work best? It was an important decision.

Leo was so lost in thought as he examined each product that he didn't immediately realize someone had joined him in the aisle, but eventually he saw the figure out of the corner of his eye. Working to look disinterested in the products, like he didn't need all these fancy items to make his hair look as incredible as it looked (he totally did), Leo turned slightly to look at the man next to him. And immediately Leo froze because whoa, this guy had good hair. In fact, as he looked at the other man, Leo thought, Well shit...I've got competition for the best hair in Cardinal Hill. But this was an opportunity, and Leo wouldn't waste it. "Hey man," he said, still trying to act aloof, "which of these works best? I usually just let my hair do what it wants, but lately I've been trying a little harder to take care of it." Leo shrugged, acting like he didn't really care that much even though he was desperate for the man with the second-best hair in Cardinal Hill to give him his advice.

[fivetrench]

One time someone reblogged that “tumblr is the worst place for people with moral ocd” post because I called them an asshole for complaining about Palestinians in their inbox begging for help because apparently the asks sounded too “guilt-trippy”.

[forestxleo]

(closed for @malltms )

Ugh. That was what Leo was thinking as he looked at the flier pinned to the bulletin board at The Blue Sparrow. It was colorful to the point of garishness, and there were too many exclamation points for his liking; he could already tell that this 'Reina' person was going to bubbly and cheerful, and he was already feeling exhausted just thinking about it. But this was the only flier that advertised guitar lessons, and Leo needed them because teach himself wasn't going as well as he would have hoped. While he knew the basic chords, he felt sort of stuck now, and he knew he'd need more than a book, even with his musical aptitude (he generally picked up the basics of various instruments relatively easily). For a moment, Leo looked around the board to make sure there weren't any other fliers hidden underneath others, perhaps one advertising guitar that didn't look like a box of crayons had thrown up on it, but this was all there was. So Leo took a pen out of his pocket and jotted the number down on his hand with a sigh.

The next morning, Leo sprang awake suddenly, not sure for a moment where he was. Then he realized he'd fallen asleep at the table in his apartment, half of a beer nearby. As he reached for it to throw it out, Leo noticed the writing on his hand, and he groaned because he realized it was smudged. He could barely make it out now, but he thought he could just make out the number. So he walked over to his phone in the kitchen and dialed, holding the receiver with his shoulder while he tried to open a bottle of Tylenol at the same time. When someone answered, Leo asked, "Yeah, is this..." He paused, trailing off as he tried to read the smudged name he'd written on his hand. "Is this, um, Rina?" Leo wondered. "I think it's Rina at least?" And then suddenly he remembered, exclaiming, "Reina! That's it. Is this Reina?" He knew he was not coming off well in this conversation with the stranger, especially since he had yet to mention what he was calling about, so Leo quickly explained, "I saw your flier about the guitar lessons and was wondering, uh...if you were still accepting new students."

[copperxxgalileo]

(closed for @urdamage )

Copper used to be into comics when he was younger, but then things had happened, and suddenly he had other priorities and interests that took precedence. Some of that was Deacon of course - new love often felt more important than anything else after all. But Deacon was gone now, and Copper was looking for ways to fill his days. Sometimes he didn't feel like the living dead, felt like he could live his life and be happy again, but when he got too stuck in his head, he felt like he'd died along with his husband. Sometimes Copper couldn't comprehend the fact that he was a widower at 27. Such things were difficult to process for anyone he supposed, but Copper would spiral if he even tried. So he definitely needed something else beyond his psyche to get lost in, and that was what led him to Solstice Comics. He wasn't sure if he could rekindle his past interest, but Copper had fond memories of losing himself in the fantastical stories - everything else had always seemed so trivial while he was reading these epic stories. As he walked into the shop, Copper began looking around the shelves of comics, but then he glanced over at the man behind the counter, and that immediately took all of his attention. Whoa, Copper thought, looking at the man. He was incredibly hot, but a second later, Copper was distracted by him for a different reason: he looked familiar. It only took Copper a few seconds to put it all together, and he realized he knew the guy. Walking toward the counter, Copper asked, "Junior?" They hadn't exactly been friends in high school, but they had known each other a long time, and Copper was surprised by how pleased he was to see him. When Junior turned his head to look at him, Copper knew he was right about his identity. "Hey man," Copper said, smiling at Junior. "It's been a long time."

[deepxbluexocean]

(closed for @enshrikes )

Although Ocean liked the colder weather, liked the snow and the crisp air of fall, there was just something special about the weather getting warmer. Today was a day like that. Ocean was on the commune, which was pretty typical of the last couple of days since he'd been off work and hadn't yet started classes at the university, and he was out in one of the fields looking up at the sky, thinking about a lot of different things. It had been more difficult than he had expected to try and get back to his normal life. After he'd ended things with Grant, Ocean had expected to go back to the way he was before, but he'd been shocked to realize that this might just be him now. Even with Grant gone, Ocean still felt the same way, felt sad and worthless most of the time. Grant had always made Ocean feel like an idiot, like he was stupid and not good at anything; he'd been the most critical person Ocean had ever encountered. And after awhile, Grant's view of him had wormed its way inside his head, and now Ocean couldn't shake it. And to make it even worse, Ocean knew people could tell that he was different now, especially those on the commune who had known Ocean most - if not all - of his life. And sometimes it just got too hard to pretend like he was fine; sometimes it was too difficult for them to see him like this. So Ocean was spending the afternoon alone, lying in the field and staring up at the sky, just enjoying the sunshine. It was easier to spend time with the animals. Growing up on the commune had made Ocean an avowed animal lover, and he felt so at peace in this moment with his favorite cow lying on one side and one of the commune cats on the other. Sometimes it felt like they were the only ones he could talk to, though Ocean knew that was more because of himself - Ocean had no shortage of people he could talk to. The problem was that it was difficult to talk about everything he was feeling.

As he laid there on in the field, Ocean heard someone approach from behind, and he looked upside down at the person on the edge of the field to see a familiar face. "Hey!" Ocean exclaimed, climbing to his feet and turning toward the veterinarian. Despite the fact that he'd just wanted to be alone a few moments earlier, Ocean was happy to see the vet. They had a sort of working relationship given that Ocean was always bringing animals he found to be assessed by the vet, plus he saw the man all the time on the commune when he came to take care of the animals. As he approached, Ocean asked, "What do you have going on today?"

[kissmygoodluckcharm]

Any headcanons you've been looking for an excuse to share ? :0

OH YEAH

jack is taller then clef. i livw for tall & lanky and short and chubby things

gears, iceberg, kondraki, clef, bright and glass r all extremely queer

bright and 049 are best buds (jack comes back even if 049 accidentally touches him)

jack has weed hidden in his office.

jack prtty much lives at site 19. he is a workaholic and has to be dragged away from his works when he gets in the zone

[that-sweet-jester]

poor Sevika's been embarrassed ever since, yet still stuck around😔✊

[blackcatxmagic]

Closed starter: Astrid ( @hexstrom ) Location: Lilla Bakstugan

Copper felt a little like he was cheating on Reagan's bakery. Just Like Heaven was his usual bakery of choice, but ever since he'd seen Lilia Bakstugan opening, he had been intrigued. What kind of baked goods did they have, and how did this bakery differ from his usual spot? Those were questions Copper had been wondering, but he'd not found the time to go (plus there was that sense of guilt, which Copper knew was ridiculous - there was room for two bakeries in Cardinal Hill, and his heart too). So now he was finally here, and Copper entered the bakery excitedly, eager to see what kind of new baked goods he could try.

Upon entering the bakery, Copper noticed several key differences between this bakery and Just Like Heaven, which supported his assertion that there was room for two bakeries in Cardinal Hill; that was especially true given the differences between them. And it wasn't just the atmosphere that was different, it was the selection in the bakery cases too. Most of these were different from Reagan's, and as Copper knelt down and perused the different options, he said to the person behind the counter, "Between this place and Just Like Heaven, I'm going to need to spend even more time at the gym. Worth it though." He stood upright to face the person, saying, "My name is Copper. Are you new here in Cardinal Hill? I just recently noticed this place, though I haven't been here long myself."

[coldxxwinter]

Closed starter: @beaumontproctor Location: Beau's home

Even though he had lived in Cardinal Hill for his entire life, and even though he knew a lot of the people who lived here, Winter generally kept to himself these days. It wasn't that he was anti-social, it was just that he didn't quite know how to interact with people. Usually things would start off well enough (at least if he knew them somewhat already), but then there'd be the awkward smiles and uncomfortable expressions and the excused to end the conversation. It had been like that to some extent since Winter had begun school, but it had gotten much worse since his accident a year ago. It was like some hidden switch had been flipped inside him, and Winter thought that made sense because of the way his mind had been damaged by the accident. Hell, Winter didn't even remember what the accident was, he just knew that he'd done that very terrible thing he didn't like to think about, and sometime shortly thereafter there had been some incident that had irrevocably changed him. Now Winter couldn't remember big chunks of his past, and he was always forgetting things; there were notes all over his house reminding him of appointments and things he needed to do and other things of that nature.

So yeah, Winter didn't get out much, but one person he had gotten comfortable with was Beau. It helped that Winter had known him for awhile now, what with them being rival beekeepers. He used the term "rival" jokingly as at least in Winter's eyes, it had been something of a friendly competition. And Winter actually made money from it because he didn't use the beeswax from his bees and Beau did, so it just made sense to sell it to him. And overtime, Winter had grown comfortable with Beau. It helped that he felt no pressure to be anything other with the man. Yeah, he'd known Beau before the accident, so he'd maybe noticed a change in Winter, but it still didn't really affect things in Winter's eyes.

Today he was going to Beau's farm. In all the years he'd known Beau and sold beeswax to him, he'd never been to the man's farm, meeting him other places. That hadn't been intentional, it was just how it had worked out. But today he was meeting him where he lived, and he was interested to see where Beau did his work. He'd written down the directions because there was no way he was going to remember, and Winter looked at the farm in awe as he approached what he hoped was Beau's house (because otherwise it would mean he was lost). The farm impressed Winter, and it was much better than his setup, which was just a series of beehives behind his house along side flowers he had planted. Winter pulled into the driveway, parked his car, and then climbed out and approached the front door. Please be his house, Winter thought, knocking on the door.

[deepbluexocean]

Closed starter: @puddlexdeep Location: Forest's home

The dream stuck with Ocean long after he woke up. Even though he had tried to go back to sleep afterwards, it hadn't taken long for him to realize that wasn't going to happen, though he'd still tried. For another hour he had laid there just trying to shut off his mind, but after that hour, when he wasn't even remotely close to falling asleep, Ocean had given up. So he'd gotten out of bed and gone for a long walk, observing the eerie storm and the even eerier mood that settled over the town afterwards. Even as a human, he could tell that something was strange, and it made him uneasy, so it wasn't long before he returned to Forest's house. Even though he had lived here for months now, it still wasn't his house, it was his brother's. Though it was no fault of Forest's, Ocean didn't feel like he really belonged here or anywhere else; he felt like he belonged nowhere, especially after that dream. But it was still home, and Ocean hoped it would feel like that one day.

Once he had gotten back to Forest's house, Ocean knew immediately what to do. There were two things he could do to clear his head: go swimming and do something with his art, whether it be painting or pottery or sculpting or whatever medium felt right in the moment. And after his dream, Ocean didn't much feel like swimming. So he ventured down into Forest's basement, which he used as an art studio, and he went to work on a new painting. While he often experimented in different styles, this time Ocean decided to work on something abstract He wanted to express how he felt, but he couldn't really explain that in any sort of concrete way, which was why an abstract painting was the best style for his purposes currently.

The piece just flowed naturally, and it was like Ocean didn't even have to think about what he wanted to do. Soon he had a palate consisting mostly of cold colors, blues and greens and purples, and Ocean was so laser focused that he nearly didn't hear the footsteps on the stairs leading into the basement behind him. But then Ocean snapped out of his reverie, realizing someone was behind him, and he looked to see Forest standing there. "Oh, hey," Ocean greeted his brother with a smile. "I couldn't sleep. I had a really bad dream last night."