Xander's Cross, Oregon: a small town ringed with forbidding mountains and misty forest. The sky may be gray, but the townspeople are welcoming to people of all kinds...and things that are not quite human as well. Here the native shifters, aliens, werewolves, and witches live in peace. They have yet to find out the new business owners encroaching on the land are also vampires.
The peace has been broken by murder, however, and things in Xander's Cross are about to become quite a bit darker.
Welcome to your new home.
is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?
August 20, 2020
The mayor, Rowan Starkwood, was found dead less than a mile from his home. Rumors say his body was mutilated, but the state of the body has not yet been released to the public.
Post by Corinne Foster on Nov 1, 2020 11:04:07 GMT -5
It all started with a simple glass jar. Being a witch, she had a whole variety of shapes and sizes she'd collected over time--many of them came from foods, now with the labels removed and the lids painted plain black. She picked a decent size one and got to work.
Ground Egg Shells - Protection Hot Pepper - Burning Broken Glass - Cutting Pins and Needles - Stabbing Salt - Purification and Banishment Vinegar - Acid
All together, even with the neat layer of white shell, then red pepper before the wide variety of sharp objects, the thing looked positively awful. She felt a little bad for it, so she tied an extra black ribbon around the neck.
Black String or Ribbon - Banishment and Repelling
She held the bottle in both hands once she'd sealed the lid, closed her eyes, and recited the spell from the card.
Solo il bene può entrare qui. Chiunque cerchi di danneggiare questo luogo e la sua gente avrà il proprio intento rivolto verso di loro tre volte tre.
La dea è con noi. Ho il potere. Come voglio, così potrebbe essere.
She felt the rush of magic under her skin, and the mixture fizzed violently, actually heating the glass of the jar from the inside out. She was a little concerned it would break, but the heat soon faded to the comforting warmth of a hot drink on a winter day. She smiled and kissed the top of the jar to seal it once more, then carried it across the street.
Thankfully the bakery closed up before the mechanic shop did, so she'd had time to put this together. She crossed the street with the jar still held tightly in both hands to make sure she couldn't drop it and break it. That would be some serious bad energy. She soon spotted Ryan Hildago in the workshop area, and the garage-style door was still up enough for her to duck underneath. He was leaned over an engine, so he might not have seen her right away, but she didn't want to startle him, so she opted to say something instead of just lurking.
Post by Ryan Hildago on Nov 6, 2020 2:58:24 GMT -5
A deal was a deal. Ryan had a busy day in the shop, but he did have time during his lunch break to run upstairs to the loft to throw something into the crock pot. He had high hopes it would be done by the time he'd finished for the day. With it being summer, he'd shedded his t-shirt at noon. He had multiple fans going at once, but even then they didn't help with the heat as the metal of the shop just absorbed that sunshine, and turned it into a boiling oven. He was bent over a engine currently, using his socket wrench to screw in the last bolts to the cover of a transmission when he heard Corinne arrive. Was it that time already? He looked at his watch seeing the time. Apparently so... He tightened the last bolt and then turned to set the wrenched down before he grabbed the rag he used to wipe the grease from his hands.
He stood up straighter, coming around the front of the hood and wiped the sweat from his brow. His hair had fallen forward on his forehead a bit throughout the day. He grinned upon seeing her and the jar she'd brought. He couldn't help but laugh at the black bow wrapped around it. "Yeah I still want it. Shovel right?" He asked her, moving towards one of the tool cabinets he had. He snagged a towed he kept for sweaty purposes, and wiped his face with it as he walked. Before tossing it over a shoulder. His dog tags jingled a bit a with each step he took.
He turned the handle and pulled it open, revealing surprisingly some garden supplies. You never knew when you wanted to garden, and for what few plants he did have planted, he did like to do some maintenance. He grabbed out the shovel and heaved it up so he was grabbing the long handle in the middle and rested the flat metal part against his shoulder. "Alright Cinnamon, lead the way, where you want your hole?" He asked her.
Post by Corinne Foster on Nov 7, 2020 16:28:31 GMT -5
Corinne swallowed hard as Ryan came around the car, shirtless and legitimately shining in the sun that filtered in from the front of the shop. Sweet baby jesus, I'm going to have a heart attack, she thought helplessly as her heart did some kind of samba in her chest and she felt a bit light-headed. Her expression was somewhere between blank and shocked, but her head turned to follow him as he went to one of the tool cabinets. She took one step towards him, then decided she'd better stay right where she was if she was going to keep herself from doing something stupid.
Thankfully, (or maybe not so thankfully? If he had any idea how utterly hopeless she was, maybe he'd reel it in a little?) he didn't seem to notice that she was having a meltdown. She'd die of embarrassment if he did, so this was probably for the best.
"Shovel, right?"
"Mhm," she managed, nodding slowly. She was more than a little distracted, first by the fact that this guy was probably the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, and he was smiling because of her. Then, a moment later, by the scar on his shoulder. Her eyebrows flickered downward. She'd seen his dog tags before and knew he was in the military, but it hadn't occurred to her that he'd been injured. It should have, probably, but she'd always just thought of him as a regular person as if he'd materialized out of thin air across the street. The realization that there was so much about him she didn't know made her abruptly sad. She wanted to know him. Her frown deepened, and her head tilted slightly to the side as she almost glared at the scar. How could anyone hurt someone like Ryan?
She straightened up, pulling herself abruptly back to the task at hand when he turned back to her.
"Alright Cinnamon, lead the way, where you want your hole?" Wow, Paige would have a field day with that one.
"O-Oh, um, by the front door! It doesn't have to be perfect, though, just close." She answered and smiled. She felt a bit better with a job to do--it made it easier not to get too wrapped up in how fluttery Ryan could make her feel if she let herself get carried away. "It's more important that it be buried right on the perimeter, I think… At least that's how Great Nana Maybelle's sp--um, her directions made it sound to me. My Italian isn't as good as Nana's, so I could be wrong...."
last edited Nov 7, 2020 16:30:02 GMT -5 by Corinne Foster
Post by Ryan Hildago on Nov 10, 2020 0:36:13 GMT -5
If Ryan had any idea what he did to the woman, he might have been more self aware. But as it was, if he did know then he probably wouldn't stop. It was hard to stop being yourself. He liked to see other people smiling and if he put it there? Why would he stop? He was a bit of a jokester, laid back and easy to talk too as they came. Him and Dr. Carson sometimes went and got bears at the bar and would just talk for hours. The two were very similar. Both laid back, friendly guys. Though, Ryan liked to think he was more funny, and Blake was a really good dude who seemed to genuinely want to help people despite his past. the two often talked about their various homes together, but unlike Ryan, Blake hadn't been adopted. The other thing? Blake didn't have the PTSD or survivors guild that Ryan had. (At least from what he knew from Blake telling him.)
So yeah, if he could make someone happy while he was a bit gloomy, he'd do it. He watched Cinnamon as she gave her instructions and his grin widened at her. "As you wish." He told her moving towards the front of the shop. He hooked one his fingers into the belt loop of his jeans to pull them up a big before he held the smaller door open. Once she was through, he went want right to the front where he had one lonely flower bed. "Italian huh? How's her cannoli recipe?" He asked her as he brought the shovel down and placed the tip of the spade into the ground. He took a booted foot then, and jammed it into the ground before he bent and lifted the shovel full of dirt up. He didn't know how big of a hole she wanted, so he turned his head and eye'd the jar, figuring it needed to be deep enough some critter didn't dig it up but not too deep.
"How was the rest of your day? Everything go okay?" He asked her, making conversation. Once the hole met his standards he kept a hand on the shovel and the other on his hip while he put his weight on his good leg. "Your hole mi'lady!" He said spreading his hand out towards it in a grand gesture.
Post by Corinne Foster on Nov 10, 2020 19:34:40 GMT -5
Oh gods, now he was quoting Princess Bride. Did he even hear himself? He must not, not at all.
She felt almost guilty for being so flustered, and not being able to stop herself from thinking he was gorgeous. At least she wasn't doing anything about it, so she wasn't bothering him with it, but it still felt invasive. The movement of him tugging up his jeans pulled her gaze along with it, though, making her face burn even hotter. She was going to have a fever, at this rate. Maybe she could convince him it was just from the summer heat…? Yeah, no, if she was talking to anyone less oblivious than Ryan she'd be absolutely screwed. She took a deep breath as she made it past him out of the shop, but she didn't have any time to recover before he was over at the flowerbed, already digging.
Ugh, she never thought she'd be grateful for small talk.
"Um, actually, her recipe is pretty good. I like a bit more chocolate in mine, though, but don't tell Nana. She'd go absolutely nuts if she found out I tweaked that one." She made a face. "I'll have to make some this week, so you can try. Not exactly breakfast food, but I won't tell if you don't." She grinned.
"How was the rest of your day? Everything go okay?"
"Oh, yeah, not too busy or anything, and no more ladies making up stories about finding bugs in my cupcakes." She laughed a little, but she was still a bit mad about that one. What an awful lady. "I've got a big order of rolls to make for the McMahons--they're having a family get together this weekend, apparently."
She giggled at his grand gesture and knelt next to the flowerbed to gently lower the jar into the hole. She could still feel the fizz of magic under her fingers where she held it. Next, she took a handful of the soil he'd pulled up, closed her eyes, and slowly sprinkled it over the jar. She envisioned the soil as the final ingredient--the thing to tie it to this place, this home. She could feel that protective warmth spreading already, and it made her smile. She got to her feet and dusted off her hands, then turned to Ryan with a smile. She had to shade her eyes with her hand and squint, with the setting sun behind him like a halo.
"All set to fill it in! Any intruders trying to get in here will get a run for their money with that thing in here. Great Nana didn't play around."