Rogue Sloth

Cirque du Sombre [Siaya Dragalorn & Summer]

“Well, this is a circus troupe,” Rayth shrugged. “We’re not really known for being a well-connected bunch.”
He wanted to pat himself on the back for that excuse. It was even more believable than the lie he’d tossed out about the lights not working. He had to wonder, though, exactly how long Frieda expected him or anyone else to keep up this charade. So far, he’d gotten lucky that she hadn’t come across anything he couldn’t easily explain away, but he had a hard time believing that they could keep her in the dark forever.
Sooner or later, she was going to see a werewolf transform or a shade melt into a shadow or an undine control water in a cup. The creatures in the troupe couldn’t suppress their nature for very long, and when they eventually gave away the reality that none of them were human, Lune was going to be in for a rude awakening.
And after the way she had reacted to finding out he was even half vampire, he had a feeling she wasn’t going to do well when she learned that she was the only mortal in Cirque du Sombre.
He even felt her tense when he touched her arm, and his eyes flicked to the hand that she curled into a fist. She was still jumpy. He pressed his tongue to his cheek, tempted to point out that if he wanted to hurt her, he’d had plenty of opportunities to sink his fangs into her neck since they’d left the circus grounds. They were alone, far away from anyone else—especially any coherent humans—and he had every advantage against her in a pitch black train car. This was his turf, and she was prey to his kind. The only reason he hadn’t turned on her was because he didn’t want to.
He’d never learned a lesson that someone else had tried to beat into him though, so he kept this mouth shut. It was better for her to figure out on her own that she was safe with him.
“You say that like I wouldn’t enjoy it,” he quipped back, waiting for the feeling of her hand on his shoulder before he led her deeper into the car. “As far as I know, I’ve never had my own ghost before. Just imagine the shenanigans I could get up to if I had an ‘imaginary friend’ to take the blame.”
Despite the joke, he was careful to walk her around any of the random junk the other troupe members had left strewn about the train. He didn’t want to have to be the one to tell Frieda that the newest member of the circus had twisted an ankle before she’d even picked out a cot.
As they entered the next car in the line, he examined the beds around them for available spots. Each one appeared to have an occupant. The sheets were disheveled and personal belongings were laid out on each one of the thin mattresses, but he stopped by one particular cot midway through the room.
It paid off to have a sharp nose, because he could tell that the top and bottom bunk in the section smelled like the same individual. Someone had spread out her things luxuriously, but one of the beds was empty.
“This one is open,” he told Lune with a gesture at the lower cot that he wasn’t sure she could see. “If you take it, you’ll be bunkmates with Genesis though, and I don’t know if I would wish that on my own worst enemy.”
The witch was one of the most particular, high-maintenance people he’d ever met—which explained why she’d taken two beds just to set up her personal belongings. “We can keep looking if you want to,” he added, turning back to Lune. “Maybe lay out all your options before you pick a place to sleep? It’ll be harder to switch later on if you decide you hate it.”

~Bonsoir~

Happy holidays! No worries ^^ Take all the time you need

New World Contention [AnnaWinters & Summer]

Happy New Year! And no worries! I'm in no rush :)

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Finally got a post in for this one xD It's gonna be a busy day for all the important characters, haha

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

That night was a difficult one for Caspian. Feeling stuck between his desire to make Iris happy and his need to be a good leader to the people of Aspiria, he tossed and turned for most of the hours before morning came, unable to calm down enough to get much sleep. What little rest he did get was plagued with stress-induced nightmares in which he was tormented by worst-case-scenarios of his imminent reign as king. Sometimes he was faced with situations he couldn’t handle, sometimes he was asked questions by dignitaries that he couldn’t answer and sometimes the Aspirian people turned against him and demanded that he step down from the throne. Once, he even dreamed briefly that the rebellion stormed the palace to kill him.

By the time a knock sounded on his door, followed by a masculine voice begging entrance, he was groggy and a little disoriented. He opened his eyes and mumbled a half-swallowed ‘come in’ to the visitor at his door before he dragged his duvet over his head to try to get more rest. Unfortunately, the visitor wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

“Your Highness,” one of the male servants bowed in the doorway before tentatively making his way further into the prince’s room. Along with his soft footfalls, Caspian could hear the shuffling of a few more pairs of feet. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but you should get up soon… Your coronation is in three hours, and we were sent here to help you prepare for it.”

“How early do I need to start?” Cas grumbled into his pillow. Three hours seemed like a long time, and he preferred to spend it catching up on the sleep he was sorely lacking. He wondered idly to himself why his bed was always the most warm and comfortable when someone wanted him to climb out of it.

The servant hesitated for half a second before he answered, “Right away if possible, my lord.”

‘My lord.’ That was a new one. Cas reluctantly pulled his covers down from his hairline to the bridge of his nose, so he could see the servants bustling around his room. The palace staff had always called his father by titles like that, but they’d never referred to him as anything other than ‘my prince’ or ‘your highness.’ It felt strange to be called by something that he’d only heard used in reference to Atlas, but he supposed he was going to have to start getting used to the change. After all, he was going to be king in three hours.

“Alright, I’ll get up, but only if one of you brings me a big mug of coffee,” he compromised, peeling himself off his mattress to sit upright and rub his eyes. Even that amount of effort was borderline exhausting, and he marveled that anyone thought he was going to make it to the end of the day without passing out. He felt like he was being weighed down by bags of sand. “Make it an espresso, please,” he added as an afterthought. “I didn’t get much sleep, so if you want me to be ready in time, I’m gonna need an energy boost.”

“Right away, your highness,” the same servant bowed and flagged down one of the maids to retrieve the coffee their future king requested. “Whenever you’re ready, we can begin.”

Cas nodded, bringing one hand up to his mouth to smother a yawn. It was going to be a long and stressful day, and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen on the other side of it. He just hoped he would be ready when the time came for him to step up and accept the crown that had once adorned his father’s head because at that moment, he still felt like an unprepared kid. I guess I’ll find out soon enough, he though with an uneasy exhale, tossing aside his sheets and swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Very exciting ^^ Can't wait to see what you've got planned for Ethan!

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“You’re more obvious than you think you are,” Cas chuckled when Iris tried one last attempt to tell him that he was wrong. He knew she hadn’t eaten. If she had, it honestly would have been a shock. In all the time he’d known her, he’d had to be the one to make sure that she was taking care of herself, since she often neglected her own needs. Now that he wasn’t in the same place as her, he had a feeling he was going to be checking in with her about her eating habits every time they talked on the phone. The last thing he wanted was to come back to the resort and find out that she’d dropped a lot of unnecessary weight just because she was too focused on what was happening in his life to feed herself.

Pulling his phone away from his ear again, he finished filling out the order form for the restaurant in the Sunset Veil, selecting a simple pasta and side salad for Iris, since he knew she wasn’t fond of overly complicated dishes. At this point, he didn’t care about encouraging her to try new foods anyway. He just wanted to make sure she got something into her stomach, whether it was gourmet or not. The restaurant didn’t have very many options for the latter, but now that he knew she wasn’t going to fix herself any meals, he could order her lunches and dinners from other restaurants near the resort and have them delivered to her suite. Knowing generally what kinds of foods she fancied, he felt like he could come up with dishes that she would eat at least most of the time.

Once he’d sent the order to the restaurant, he brought his phone back to his ear to answer her. “You won’t be there forever,” he promised. “I’m going to figure something out… I really do want to be with you again, Iris. It’s just taking longer than I wanted to smooth everything over at home, and I have to get this done before I can start working on clearing the road for you to be here with me.” His coronation party aside, he still had to go through all the paperwork for his inheritance with a lawyer, establish himself with Aspiria’s allies and waive the warrant for her arrest in the capital. As much as he would have liked to wave his hand and magically finish all of it right away, the rational side of him knew it was going to take time to get everything done. He had to be smart about it too, otherwise the Aspirian people could just see him as immature and impulsive, putting a personal relationship before the whole of the kingdom. Even though he didn’t want the job in the first place, it was his now and he had to take responsibility for it.

“Don’t be sorry. You have every right to want to know when things will change, and I wish I had an answer for you,” he sighed, shaking his head to himself. “Just… please trust me for now and know that as soon as I can get you out of that hotel, I’m going to do it. This is only temporary until I can bring you here to be with me.” And once they were together again, everything would be sailing smoothly, he hoped. At the current moment, the other high borns thought she was a criminal, but they always moved on to whatever shiny new thing caught their attention next. Once they forgot about his father’s wanted posters, he was optimistic that he could finally come forward and announce that they were together publicly without causing a scandal. He just hoped that happened sooner rather than later, so he didn’t have to hide her from the rest of the country for much longer.

“I love you too,” he told her, trying not to let his own discouragement seep into his voice. When he’d been waiting for her call, he’d thought that talking to her would improve his mood, but it had only reminded him of all the obstacles that still stood in the way of them being together. Of course, he didn’t regret hearing her voice again in the slightest. The hard part was knowing that this was the best they were going to get until he could get around to bringing her to the palace, and he had no idea how long it would be before that could happen.

“I know you will,” he managed something of a smile when she told him she would be waiting for him. “Call me again tomorrow. I should be available after ten again… Have a good night, Iris, and be sure to eat the food I sent up for you. It should be there in about twenty minutes.”

~Bonsoir~

We have the same kind of door, but they make dog doors here that are designed to be installed in glass, so it's not a problem. They're actually cheaper than the kind they put through drywall too, so it would save us money if we do it that way. I just want to wait until Sadie knows how to ask to go outside because we travel a lot and most of the places we visit don't have dog doors, so she needs to know how to get outside without one.

~Bonsoir~

Aw I love it. They're so cute! And yeah, my oldest dog does the same thing, but I wanted to give them an audible way of communicating that they need to go outside without training them to bark, so even if I'm in the bathroom or something, I'll be able to hear them and let them out as soon as I can. After Sadie is potty trained, I'm gonna teach Kai to use the bell method too ^^ And then hopefully down the road, I can get a doggie door, so they can let themselves out on their own.

~Bonsoir~

Aw, do you have photos of them? And Sadie has been getting better! She's finally ringing the bell I hung on the backyard door to let me know when she needs to go outside. We haven't had any accidents in a few days now ^^