Realistic or Modern The Barren Mother

[Pine]

The Barren Mother

After a long series of miscarriages and stillbirths, the mayor of Fairtown turned from his betrothed in order to finally produce the child he always wanted. Born from such sin, the mayor attempted to rear his only son to follow in his footsteps in his own household. His wife, outraged, stole out into the night, taking the son with her. She walked through the streets of Fairtown, dragging the child so that his face was skidding along the pavement, tearing flesh nearly down to the bone. By the time they had reached the surrounding forest, where the spiteful woman intended to abandon him, the boy had already passed on to another life, the downpour already leaving the corpse chilled. Before the barren woman could leave the clearing, a spirit manifested before her and stole her life and damned her. Corrupted by her own jealousy, her spirit was never able to depart from the woods, cursing the forest in her wake. Now each year on that same day, the mayor's wife is said to return, stealing all the bastard children of Fairtown and slaughtering them in her forest. As the story goes, any person wandering the woods can find the corpses of a thousand infants littered across the forest floor.

Modern Day

With winter break having just started, the children of Fairtown, Massachusetts are energized and have plenty of time of their hands. Small and technology starved as the city generally is, they are out and about, often spending their time outdoors on their own individual adventures. One such group of friends finds themselves fascinated with the old legend of the Barren Mother after the particularly gruesome death of a classmate, and on a whim, decide to head out to the forest to scour for any evidence of truth to the tale.

Spots

To keep the number of major characters small, the role play will only accept people on a first-come-first-serve basis for those who qualify. I will be comfortable with starting the role play with four, five other people, but I will ultimately cap the amount who can join at eight. Post or message me to reserve a spot, and if you have any suggestions at all regarding the plot or character relationships, please throw them out there.






1.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/3827-pine/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/3827-pine/@Pine

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/3827-pine/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/3827-pine/


2.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/1315-ghost/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/1315-ghost/@Ghost

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/1315-ghost/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/1315-ghost/


3.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/5626-skyginge/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/5626-skyginge/@SkyGinge

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/5626-skyginge/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/5626-skyginge/


4.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6732-tenome/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6732-tenome/@Tenome

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6732-tenome/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6732-tenome/


5.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/4164-eheu/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/4164-eheu/@eheu

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/4164-eheu/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/4164-eheu/


6.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6779-white-masquerade/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6779-white-masquerade/@White Masquerade

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6779-white-masquerade/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/6779-white-masquerade/


7.

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/9351-lifenovel/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/9351-lifenovel/@LifeNovel

https://www.rpnation.com/profile/9351-lifenovel/https://www.rpnation.com/profile/9351-lifenovel/


8. Open








Out of Character Rules

1. Treat each other with respect. If you have a problem,

take it off the thread

to resolve maturely.


2. Keep all posts in their relevant sections.

There is a section for you to speak out of character

, so please use that rather than speaking in the role play or character sign-up tab. Anything posted in the wrong tab will either be edited or deleted and you will receive a warning.


3. If you intend to join the role play,

be active

. If you intend on joining this role play, at the very least, you should log onto RpN regularly enough to ensure that we may

stay in contact with you

. If a message is sent to you regarding your activity, a reply is expected, or you will be dropped within an indeterminate amount of days. This is to ensure that you are still interested with the role play and we don't needlessly have spots filled. If you plan on being absent for a while for whatever reason,

please drop a message either on the out of character section or message Pine

to let someone know how long you'll be absent.


4. Follow RpN's rules. This goes without saying, but foul language is more acceptable in character than out of character.

If you're not familiar with their rules, please read up on them

so that we don't get in trouble.



In Character Rules

1. While I do

not

want the entire role play to be reduced to nothing but one-liners, posts may have to get short from time to time. As a guideline, when there is

action and things to describe

, your post should be

at least two paragraphs

, but more is encouraged. When there is a

conversation

going on and

nothing else

, your post is allowed to be more along the lines of

two or three lines

. In short, go crazy with description when there are things to describe, but if there isn't, don't feel obligated to force out a long post and consequently hold back the role play. With that being said, please be

coherent

in the

English language

, both grammatically and spelling-wise, and when it comes to a pivotal point in the role play, don't be the one who makes a

climax anti-climatic

.


2. Do not

god mode, power play or anything like that

. Remember, there's a difference between being

creative and obnoxious

. When a character dies or is injured is up to the person who role plays them, please just use

common sense

in this regards. We will not break the character making process down to a science, but please keep it realistic. This role play has fantasy elements, sure, but that is more for the environment than your character. If you have an idea that may help spur the plot along,

please PM it to Pine before implementing it

.


3. Again, stay within RpN's rules.

Embellish in gore and profanity at your own discretion

, but know how much is too much. Romance is allowed, but be sure to

fade-to-black

before something becomes too intimate.


4. For consistency, stick to

third person limited past tense

. That's just a preference of mine turned pet peeve, but if anyone

really

wants to do things differently, then don't be afraid to ask.

 

[Pine]

Winter is such a terrible season. Nick started to get chilled when the weather hit around forty or fifty degrees, but as far North as they were, it was easily between ten and twenty degrees. The wind chill made it seem nearly below zero. There was only one good thing that came out of it, the sole reason he had agreed to sitting outside for lunch midway through the week: snow.


It was piled everywhere, compacted hard until the children of Fairtown had made it their personal mission to stomp it all to pieces. There wasn't a cloud in the sky to mute the sun, and with it's light reflecting off every dangling icicle and the white world beneath it's glare, it was hard not to squint at each other. The roads were slick with ice, but as everyone was within walking distance of the school anyway and the administrators knew this, they had to go anyway.


That wasn't really a problem, though. Winter break was right around the corner, and since the teachers wanted to finalize their grades early in the week, the past two days had been largely spent playing Trashketball, Heads Up Seven Up, Spoons, or sleeping. There was the occasional teacher who took 'making every day count' to heart, but Nick was quick to finish any busy work, so it still beat staying at home.


The day's hot lunch consisted of nachos, beans, tater tots, vegetable soup, and a banana (honestly, who comes up with these menus?), but by the time he had pushed open the heavy double doors to sit at the picnic tables outside, it had all gone cold. It wasn't like he had planned to eat much of it anyway. Granted, he was starving, but he was in one of those unfortunate moods where everything seemed nauseating. Now, if it had been some sort of Taco Bell quesadilla or a Big Mac, then that wouldn't last sitting on his tray for a minute, but alas, he was stuck with concession stand nachos and whatever other random food the cafeteria ladies had found in their stores.


White crystals blossomed before his lips with the initial exhale, the cloud streaming before his face in wisps before being carried out by the wind. His fascination with his own breath almost made the cold excusable, until a breeze passed by, leaving a trail of bumps pricking his skin in it's wake. Luckily, he had enough clothes to conceal most of him, though the wind cut right through his jeans and nearly made the hairs on his legs stand on end. His face was already numb, though his cheeks burned scarlet. He hated it, but then took some crunching steps forward through the snow, and was once again filled with enough childish glee to ignore it.


Nick was lucky to have his history class not far off from the cafeteria, so he was typically among the first to arrive. It wasn't really a matter of having to battle a line as much as it was getting the hot lunch actually hot, but considering it was Friday, that didn't matter at all. Instead, he would just be the first to start their table, which was somewhat of a routine for every other day. He carefully selected the table farthest from where the freshmen were known to sit, which ended up being just slightly off to the side from the first table. Not only were the freshmen loud and obnoxious, but it was pretty typical for the kids sitting across from them to end up with food in their hair at one point or another.


The styrofoam tray clattered onto the table and he slid to the center of the attached bench, not wanting to be crammed next to the leg of the table. In a vain effort to warm himself before attempting to pick at his food, Nick buried his face in a black and white striped scarf, stuffing his hands in his black wool coat to fold it over the tip of his nose and conceal his plain white heather shirt beneath. He kept himself huddled there, letting his warm breath progressively thaw his cheeks, before lifting his pale eyes to gaze beyond the tables and in through the cafeteria windows. Nick's expression remained impassive, but he felt his chest tighten at the sight of a large circle having formed inside. He would consider going to join them, but by the time he walked there, he may have already missed it. While the cafeteria was still operating, a large portion of the students had gathered in this way, holding hands and bowing their heads as one lead a prayer.


While this activity wasn't usually common place on such a large scale, he should have anticipated that they would do this, but it had been in the back of his mind. After all, it had now been a week since Helen Andre had gone missing, and just last night it had been all over the news that they had found the body. Nick hadn't seen the broadcast, himself, but it had been a hot topic the whole day. Either way, the local news station had refused to show a picture of the body, as apparently it had been far too graphic, but some kids had seen the body first hand. Supposedly, her body had been ravaged beyond recognition. Some accounts claimed that the skin had peeled from her scalp, leaving her blonde hair so matted in blood that it had been dyed red. Others said that her corpse had become an empty shell, her innards completely gone, leaving only her rib cage to support the structure of her body. The more disturbing rumors aside, some kids had counted coincidences and started telling ghost stories as theories, namely concerning the Barren Mother. Helen had been the eldest of three, though as a step sister, and the body had been found just outside the fabled forest. While the boy didn't doubt she was dead, he didn't believe for a second that there had been some ghost responsible for her death, let alone her body actually being butchered to such a degree.


The circle broke up and Nick flickered his gaze down to the tray below, removing himself from his coat and twirling a bean around with a spoon. He would just pay his respects on his own time. Helen had absolutely hated him, he knew that, but he wasn't so pretentious that he wanted her dead. If he wanted that for every person who had a negative opinion of him, half the town would be gone. Fairtown was already small enough.


After a few moments of toying with his food in such a way, he stuck a single bean in his mouth, crushing it with his tongue until the skin split, leaving his mouth coated in it's grainy texture. They were smothered in some sort of barbecue sauce which had become chilled, but it was something he could hold down. At that point, he recalled that he hadn't even bothered to sling off his backpack. Nick shrugged off the cheap bag, hardly making a sound as it hit the ground. A lot of the kids had not bothered to bring anything but their phones with them to school, but when inspiration had struck him early in the morning to bring along his pig mask to school, putting it on at opportune times to terrify or confuse people, he simply couldn't pass it by in the good spirit of Friday before a week's vacation. It was a rather gruesome thing, fitting over his whole head. The rubber was molded into rather fine details of wrinkles, and with a rather prominent snout, it had small tusks jutting up from below. Though the eye sockets were empty, they were red around, and particularly when he shut his eyes, the mask appeared much more like a dead pig than a live one. For this purpose, his English teacher had attempted to confiscate it from him after he had made one girl squeal far too loudly, but he was one good terms with the teacher, and when he claimed to have taken inspiration from Lord of the Flies, she could only smile and shake her head.


He should be fine to wear it for lunch, though. Nick already had plans of pressing his face against the window in that mask at the right turns. He could already imagine the reactions. If one of the freshman tried taking it from him, however, he would have no qualms with socking them in the gut. It was either that, or he start pelting people with snowballs, but he had all of the break for that. For the moment, however, he would have to behave and force down some more beans in silence and wait for his table to fill.

 

[kibou]

Being one of the people that hadn't bothered to bring their backpacks, Orion jumped out of his chair as the bell rang, ignoring- like a few of the other members of the class- the teacher's calls to "Stop! I haven't finished showing you the last example! Sit do- ugh."


His math teacher was one of the ones who believed dearly in making every day count, but the unit they were finishing was easy and Orion understood and didn't really care about how to use the law of cosines to find a missing angle.


Heading out the door and into the hallway he weaved through the crowds, accidentally bumping into some people as he went, hurrying to get to lunch. He was hungry, and as it was the only 'class' he could talk freely with his friends during school, he wanted to get to the lunch room quickly.


Bursting into the lunchroom, he was on time to see a bunch of the students in a prayer circle, holding hands. Orion didn't give them much more than a glance as he walked over to the lunch line, which was shorter than it usually was because of the large number of students participating in said circle.


Grabbing a styrofoam tray and, as the line moved down, noticing what was being served, he grimaced. Nachos, beans, tater tots, vegetable soup, and a banana? Well, hopefully the tater tots and banana would be edible. They couldn't mess them up that bad... or could they? Leaving the line now that he had the food, he started thinking up all the different ways you could ruin tater tots or a banana. It was pretty easy, actually. The bananas could be over ripe or under ripe or be filled with banana worms or any other bug or it could be bruised all over or the lunch ladies might accidentally squish them and the banana could be mushy. You could burn the tater tots, or they could be undercooked and practically still frozen, and if the lunch ladies decided to make them from scratch instead of buying a bag of frozen ones, that was a whole other realm of possibilities.


Somehow, Orion managed to walk outside with his head in the clouds and not bump into anything. It was a skill he had- gained only through the most arduous and painstaking training and practice. Which mostly involved bumping into things a lot when he was, like, seven.


Outside it was rather chilly out, and Orion didn't have anything warmer on than his usual jacket which he had zipped up while fast-walking through the halls to ward off the cold that he knew would be present. It was a warm jacket, but even distracted as he was he noticed how cold his hands, face, and legs were.


Making his way to the table where his friend was at, he set the tray down and plopped himself next to Nick. He absentmindedly stared off into space, poking at a tater tot.

 

[Tenome]

Unlike his classmates, Noah took his sweet ass time packing up his supplies when the bell rang. To be perfectly honest, he hadn't even noticed the hour had ended until he happened to catch his asshole peers falling over each other to exit the room out of the corner of his eye. It was something of a miracle, actually, that he noticed at all. Noah's attention had been excellently focused on the lesson. Or at least the yummy new student teacher.


He clumsily shoved his notebook into his bag before scrambling to his feet. With a flirty wave to Mr Hotty McSexface, he attempted a suave saunter on his way out. It was dorky, he knew, but the teacher just smiled and rolled his eyes. Noah was sure he was at least somewhat interested.


When he arrived in the cafeteria he couldn't help but to turn up his nose at the menu offered. The nachos were always a lie, and everyone knew it. It seemed that nachos, according to the lunch staff, were cheap ass tortilla chips with a melted single on top. He thanked his ever reliable foresight that he'd packed is own shitty lunch instead of tempting fate by eating in this godforsaken place. He'd mostly only stopped in to check for a friendly face anyway. It seemed that while he'd been ogling at Mr. Hottypants his friends had already been through the line. Before making his way outside, he eyed the remains of a parting prayer circle. With a roll of his eyes, he pushed past and exited the cafeteria.


Noah stood blinking in the light for a moment, using his hand as a visor as he glanced around. After what seemed like too long, he finally saw Orion and Nick. He padded over, phone in hand, and sat himself down in front of the two.

 

[catburglar]

The familiar sound of the bell ringing obnoxiously in his eardrums roused Matthias out of the light slumber he’d succumbed to, no thanks to Mrs. Knox’s obnoxiously dull voice. While he thoroughly enjoyed the class itself, Science, his teacher’s voice made it unbearable to focus, never mind actually sponge up any relevant lessons. Thankfully the textbook for this class provided a sufficient amount of material to enable him a decent passing grade for the end of the year exam. It also helped that Science could more or less be considered his most preferred subject as well, meaning that he had no problem catching up on lost knowledge in his room in the dead of the night.


But this bell … this damn bell was the reason why he was rubbing the accumulated sleep from his eyes and rising to his feet, perhaps a little too clumsily for his teacher not to have noticed. Dammit.


“Matthias, if I catch you sleeping one more time in my class, I’ll have no choice but to write you a detention slip.”


“Aye aye,” He muttered under his breath, collecting his things and dumping them haphazardly inside his backpack. Snatching the straps off the chair, he gave a two fingered salute in Mrs. Knox’s direction and trailed off into the clutter of herded sheep – the hallway. He managed to worm his way through and to his locker, the lock already hanging loose because Matt didn’t bring anything of value to school. Throwing his backpack inside in exchange for the warm thermos on the high shelf, Matthias was grimly reminded that today it was snowing and his gut warned him begrudgingly that at least one of them would have the oh-so extraordinary idea that they should eat out in the freezing cold.

Seriously, Nobel Prize to the friend who’d thought of it.

​

As he shut his locker, a soft sigh whistled through his teeth, the promise of warm soup heating the palm of his hand thanks to his dad who never failed to have a lunch prepared for him before he left for school. To some degree Matthias felt as if it was his dad’s on way of assuring him that while his mom might be ill and currently resting at the hospital, he was still around; still healthy. It was a nice thought, sure, but it didn’t do much for Matt expect make him more tolerable for the second half of the day.


Speaking of tolerable, this weather wasn’t as bad as he’d imagined it to be. The cold nipped at his cheeks teasingly the moment he stepped outside, however, it didn’t get much worse. He eyed the familiar scenery before him before he spotted his friends – as predicted – sitting outside. Sporting nothing but jeans and a thick sweatshirt, Matt began to sort of regret not having grabbed his gloves. Sort of. But instead of focusing on the chill settling in his bones, he made his way over to the table and slid in beside Noah, a broad grin featuring over his countenance. “What’s up, ladies?” His usual greeting was tied with a short huff as his body grew all too aware of just how cold it was sitting here. In a feeble attempt to keep himself warm he wrapped his fingers around his thermos, the sleeves of his sweatshirt hiding the better portion of his bare hands. “Who the hell’s the genius behind all of this?”

 

[LuckyMisfortune]

Thank God, De had managed to escape the last period before lunch with a small basketball meet up. At the moment, the athlete was heading down the hallway towards the cafeteria. He didn't want to go to class then or ever this week. Seriously, last week before break. All they did half the time was last minute work or play cheesy classroom games. They were the same games they've been playing since preschool. De loved basketball a lot, but his true loves were volleyball and lacrosse. De huffed in showing how impatient he was, Volleyball had ended a few months ago and lacrosse wasn't until the spring. Basketball was the only sport he played during the winter.


Pessimistic thoughts weren't good, he rid himself of feeling that way. De ran a hand through his curly, fluffy locks. He needed a haircut, his fringe was starting to get in his face and his hair was beginning to cover his ears. Why did his hair grow so fast? It was a couple weeks ago he had gone to get a trim, he like having his hair fluffy. "Maybe I should just shave it all off...." De mumbled to himself. Head shake. Nah, Ross liked to pet him and he'd do whatever to make him happy. De began to approach the cafeteria. "What was the special?" He thought to himself.


Upon walking in, De stood in line and reached over the heads of some shorter girls in front of him. They looked at him and giggled with intense girliness. "Freshmen? Probably, they don't realize I'm gay," he thought with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Grabbing a styrofoam tray, he kept walking looking at today's choices: nachos, beans, tater tots, vegetable soup, and a banana. "What the hell? Who comes up with these menus?" He whispered to no one in particular. De didn't expect an answer.


"Who knows?" A random guy behind him said.


De sighed, rhetorical question. Jegus. He just turned around and smiled at the random guy. Moving along the line, De picked up the tater tots (they were okay), vegetable soup (it was cold, why not?), and the banana (For the laughs and he was hungry). With that, De exited into the cold. He was well prepared, of course. His black Northface coat hid his Phillies shirt and a part of his jeans. It was warm and it had been his father's (Northface was expensive). De sported a furry hat that covered his ears, a plaid green scarf, and some gloves. Warm and toasty. You'd think him and idiot if he weren't to wear all this stuff.


It was freezing. Upon his exit, he first noted how his breath fogged like a cloud in the air. A soft smile graced his features and he noted his surroundings. Winter was beautiful, the trees looked like they were crystallized thanks to the ice. But, man if was bright, sun reflected off the snow like a mirror. De looked weird just standing there. "Hah, daydreams..." He mumbled happily as he searched the perimeter for his table of friends.


Bingo.


De padded over next to Matthias and plopped himself down. He wasn't that light and he hit the bench rather hard. "Sorry fellas. Ciao!" He exclaimed rather cheerily. Ah De a rather bright ray of sunshine. His cheeks were rosy and he himself had just realized just how cold it was. Despite his layers he shivered. He noticed Matthias and just how cold he was. Without a word, De took his hat off and dropped it onto his head. "You know, Mat, you should wear something warmer next time," He said, without looking over. De took a big spoonful of that vegetable soup which had become lukewarm and a tater tot.


Ping!


De got a text. The tall guy reached into his pocket, putting his spoon down, and then turned it on. He smiled.

Rossy

left

Hey!

right

Hi, bookworm

left

Just wanted to say, love you!

right

Aww, love you too

De's face clearly showed who he was texting too. He was obviously open for the others to tease him.

 

[kibou]

"What's up, ladies?"


Orion jumped slightly, his finger squashing into the so-called tater tot. He made a small grimace at it, then returned his attention to the source of the sudden voice. He hadn't noticed Matthias sitting down... or Noah, for that matter. Though this wasn't that surprising. Orion frequently failed to notice things like that when is his spacing-out mode.


He was about to reply to Matthias' inquiry about which one of them had chosen to sit outside on such a oh-so-cold day with something along the lines of how obviously no one was smart enough to be to the "genius" level even in sarcastic remarks (except for Orion himself, of course), when Dante arrived and plopped himself down, then -gasp!- transferred his hat onto Matthias.


It was clearly very suspicious. Sharing articles of head-clothing and food were one of the only two ways for them to infect another person. Could it be possible- No! Obviously not. Dante- he had been friends with them for years, he'd joined the resistance even before Orion had. There was absolutely no way he could be one of their agents. Unless- No, Orion didn't want to believe it. Sure, they'd all been taught to trust no one. Sure, basically anyone, even within the resistance, could slip up and make a mistake. And all it took was an instant where one wasn't perfectly one-hundred-percent careful. But this was Dante they were talking about!


No, no I have to be more careful than that. It would be a horrible truth, but it would be more horrible to put the entire operation at risk because your emotions got in the way.





Orion was about to discretely pull his bright orange phone out, and discretely make a call to base explaining the possible current situation in a very hushed voice, but then he noticed.





Noah and Dante had both sat down already!


"Oh shit Nick! The King and Queen have arrived and you're not even bowing?" Standing at the speed of light, Orion then bent over the table in a sign of utmost respect, putting his hand on the back of Nick's head and helping him bow too, lest he be labeled a traitor and beheaded!


"Your Majesties, I'm so sorry!" he quaked, face still parallel to the table, "Nick here, he means no harm or disrespect! You see, when he was young his horse threw him off, and he ended up landing on his head. Hasn't been the same ever since. So, I beg of you, have mercy!"

 

[Pine]

Nick scooped up a mouthful of the beans, as they were, surprisingly enough, the best thing on his plate, as the flavor of the sauce was evident even as it was chilled. He lifted his gaze every time the door creaked open in anticipation of a friendly face, and soon enough, a sort of cacophony of loudly clashing, bright colors stepped outside. Nick perked in his seat, already reaching over to paw at his backpack, but he soon recognized the distant look on the other boy's face. His face relaxed from it's previously bright expression, eyebrows dropping into a furrow as he released a somewhat disgruntled sigh, releasing the small strap at the top of his backpack to let it slump against the table he was seated at. Nick had been especially anticipating Orion's arrival, knowing that his best friend would be able to appreciate the mask, but he was clearly lost in his thoughts, so there was no point in trying.


Brewing in his disappointment, it was only made all the worse when Noah approached, phone in hand. What the hell could he be doing on that? Texting? I'm right here. Nick made a point to lean way too far across the picnic table, hands clutching the edge of it as he scooted forward to stare at the illuminated screen. He honestly had very little interest in what the other boy could be doing on it, but hopefully the action and 'invasion of his privacy' would be sufficient to irritate him. And if it's something you don't want me to see, then you should put your phone up.


However, before he could cover the screen with anything more than the flip of his hair, someone finally spoke. Nick pulled his face away to see Matthias's own as he seated himself. A grin tilted the corner of his lips, concealing the hint of irritation that he felt at the comments the other boy made. After all, Nick had been on the side of endorsing that they sat outside. "Don't be such a puss, Matty," he chided, his tone deceptively patient. Winter break was just around the bend, he couldn't be complaining about the weather now. Nick made a mental note of Matthias's discomfort in this weather. Granted, he wasn't exactly cozy in these conditions either, and his cheeks were flushed brightly to display this all the more, but in the end, he wasn't going to be the first one with snow shoved down his shirt. His smile eased into a more genuine expression, his early plotting bringing a familiar, mischievous gleam to his eye.


Nick was mentally sorting out precisely when and how to achieve this when Dante arrived, the way the boy plopped down and made the table bounce forcing his thoughts to break away from his scheming, instead quickly grabbing the sides of his tray to stabilize it just in case. Crisis averted, however, as nachos were practically frozen together. "S'fine," he responded automatically, as this wasn't the first time this had happened. Why is everyone here so clumsy? Nick cast a scrutinizing gaze over the company of teenagers then. Orion was spacey, De was ditzy, and... he himself had suffered a couple of graceless injuries, but that didn't count.


He scooped a final spoonful of beans, from then on scraping up the remainders of the sauce. When De spoke up again, reprimanding Matthias for his lack of foresight even before hearing the other boy's complaints, he forced a quick swallow. "That's what I'm saying," he commented, sounding exasperated. Nick experimentally prodded a tatter tot, the likes of which fell apart in clumps, drawing his smile into a grimace. He looked back over at De, smirking as the boy leaned over his phone. He was formulating his most witty and degrading comment to tease him when his attention was redirected by Orion's sudden shouting.


It took him a brief moment to make sense of the other boy's words, and the initial confusion in his expression illustrated this, but by the time he felt a hand clamp around the back of his head and press down, he figured it out. Dante and Noah, or... was it Noah and Dante? Regardless, he mimicked the other boy's groveling, resisting his bowing head just so that his nose was safe from the questionable contents of his lunch. Nick folded his arms in his lap just below the table. "Your majesties, he speaks the truth! I only seek to serve, it won't happen again." He scrambled out of his seat, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. "Please forgive me, I have children!" He cast a furtive glance in Orion's direction, as he did not dare to lift his head in the presence of such royalty, and pointed at the other boy. "And if the debt must be paid, take him instead! I caught him gazing inappropriately at your daughters! It is his dirtied eyes that deserve to be gauged!"

 

[Tenome]

Noah chuckled at his brother's text. Jonah was now in his second year of college and currently sharing a dorm with his boyfriend. Apparently Isaac had surprised him for their anniversary with breakfast in bed, only the breakfast had come out disgusting with burnt toast, shriveled bacon, runny eggs, and the like. At least he has good sausage, eh?


Noah snickered childishly at his own joke. When he tried to suppress the fit of laughter, the giggles only grew stronger until he was practically chewing through his lip to keep from shrieking. He definitely did not, however, find Nick's attempted peeking amusing. He narrowed his blue eyes at the boy before playfully telling him to shove off.


He left the texting application to read fanfiction on the dot net, though he agreed the fics there were normally terrible and completely not worth reading so long as they were rated T or younger. He set the filters to M and romance so that if he didn't get laid, at least he'd be able to experience it secondhand. Besides, he hoped Nick would happen to glimpse something he'd not bargained for. He'd deserve it, Noah argued, for being a nosy little shit. As he scrolled through the seemingly endless list of unappealing titles, he happened to hear Matthias approach. The boy was pissing about the temperature, to which Noah nearly scoffed. It was hardly even chilly, and at the very least the sky was a beautiful mess of varying shades of grey. Even so, it was later in the year, and such weather was to be expected. He should've just worn a sweater or something, Noah thought without even bothering to check if he'd brought one.


Glancing up at the two, he noticed the familiar glint in Nick's eyes:mischief. Rolling his, Noah went back to reading the terrible fiction. He occasionally blushed at the particularly raunchy scenes or suppressed his distress when a character did something especially stupid. At least it was entertaining, unlike his friend group when Orion was inactive. The silly kid was often off in space, but Noah didn't mind.


Noah felt the table shake when Dante joined them. The boy was amiable, and Noah liked him well enough except for that boyfriend of his. Always texting him and giggling... Their affection was over the top, and nearly made Noah sick to his stomach. He promised himself that if he ever got a boyfriend he'd only be so sappy in private, though he was sure he'd break that promise.


He resigned himself to reading. Fan fiction was especially fun when the characters were so out of character that only their names were correct, and by that point he argued it was just original fiction that stole a smattering of names from a certain canon. Right now "Kirk" was somehow pregnant with "Spock's" child, which was truthfully unwelcome and at the very least unexpected. The summary had not mentioned mpreg. With a disgusted huff he closed the tab and set the phone on the table.


After a few moments of silence, Orion's eyes seemed to shift from Dante to him and Noah nearly groaned. Knowing Orion, he was bound to be humiliated in the next few seconds. And of course he was. Noah was scarcely wrong in his predictions.


As Nick and Orion began to bow and worship, he simply stood over them. "Foolish subjects, failing to observe my grace... Were I not a forgiving king, I'd have both your heads mounted on spikes." He turned to Dante. "My lady, my queen, what shall we do with these transgressors?"

 

[eheu]

“Who the hell’s the genius behind all of this?”


“I am!”


The girl yelled as she trotted up to the nearby table, the leather messenger bag she carried as a bookbag flapping clumsily at the end of the strap somewhat too long that was swung over her left shoulder; her steps staggering as a result.


Those who didn’t know Emily Lynn Floyd would, at this time, perhaps expect the presence of a response to indicate that she was aware of the meaning and context of the question proposed, the question she was trying to answer. And they would be terribly mistaken.


“...wait, behind all what?”


Her hair was messy from the winds outside and broked the contours of her face, and her cheeks, nose, and exposed fingertips reddened from the cold; but the perpetual smile she put on was just as bright as always.


This was the last day of school before the long awaited vacation. One would think it likely mattered little to her as she was the kind of person that always seemed to be having fun no matter the circumstances. Her retort would be that during the semester boredom comes first and the fun later as methods of retaliation, the the vacations were the times that were truly to be enjoyed. And it was winter! Emily had always been more of a cold weather person. She liked the clouds that she could puff out while talking or breathing in the open air. She liked the feeling of flakes melting on her skin when the snow wasn’t too violent. She also got to wear all of her sweaters and coats and scarves in winter, and she genuinely enjoys the feeling of burying her face in the comfortable texture of a scarf.


Her parents would sometimes come back and visit, or take her out for trips away from Fairtown. Sometimes they brought other people along too. But for this week there seemed to be no such plan, which meant she had most of the time all to herself. Emily decided she desperately needed to find something to engage in before the vacations start - or at least before they so swiftly slip away. And she believed she might just have come to discovering what to invest her all so precious vacation time on a few days ago - that is, if she managed now to...


...oh, there.


It didn’t matter to whom belonged the voice she identified - that one group of folks almost invariably sat at the same table.


Emily bit her lip as she tossed her bag onto the ground near the table so that it leant against the supports, its bottom burying itself into the soft snow that coated the ground. She never understood the logic of having tables and benches connected and fixed to the ground. Especially not with hollow metal beams that obstructed the path of the legs of anyone that was trying to jump from the side of the bench and land on the seat on both feet in order to subsequently slip her legs into the space under the desk and assume a comfortable and proper sitting position.


Or was she the only person who would have thought of doing that? Oh well.


There weren't many seats left to choose from at that table. Not like she needed one, anyway. A few shards of snow were propelled into the air as she spun around and collapsed into the edge of the seat, with her legs remaining outside of the little area enclosed by the structure of the bench-table compound. She wanted to curl herself up entirely and pull both feet onto the bench, but that would induce a high possibility of toppling over onto her back; besides, it was anatomically impossible to do that and lean onto the table with her elbows on the surface and her palms supporting her chin, and she really wanted to do the latter. Lowering a foot into the white, slight puffiness of the fresh snow was the eventual conciliation.


“Last lunch of the school year out in the snow. How absolutely romantic!”


There wasn’t the tone of sarcasm in this statement. Whether it was so because she actually meant it, or that she failed to express that she didn’t, was left to be speculated.


”My lady, my queen, what shall we do with these transgressors?”


“Heads on spikes sounds pretty interesting, actually.” The response was barely decided on before it was uttered, as it also was with most of the other things she said. And almost immediately after she finished the sentence, she forgot entirely what she was responding to - or, to say, she never really knew.


Confused, she glanced at Nick and Orion in their peculiar positions, and then at Dante and Noah.


“...what again?”

 

[kibou]

Orion gasped, loud and offended, at Ser Nick's claims. How dare he! Orion had helped him possibly avoid a worse punishment, because failing to bow at all was a much more grievous crime than bowing late. And now, he was trying to save himself?


He glared at him out of the corner of his eyes. "You ungrateful little-" he hissed, before His Majesty the King spoke.


Realizing how merciful the King was being, he began to thank him profusely, eyes sliding towards the girl that had just sat down at the only spot left at the table next to him.


"Oh, Your Highness! Thank you, thank you, whatever shall I do to repay my debt to you? I'm absolutely honored to have my life spared by you, thank you!"


Now, he chose to pretend to notice Emily for the first time. He once again stood in mock surprise, gasping and bringing his hands to his face in excitement.


"Ah! Oh my, the Lady of Castle Shit is here to visit? How blessed am I that I would be in the presence of so many nobles all at once today! Augh, oh no, I'm forgetting my manners again! I'm so, so sorr- oh sHI-, "


Orion turned to Emily, but with the little and cramped space underneath the table he had to put his left foot on the bench in order to face her properly. He threw his arms outward in a dramatic gesture, endangering Dante, Noah, and Matthias with his moving hands, before bringing them back and bending over to bow. All this was done quickly in a very short time. As more pressure was put on his shoe, which was wet from the snow, he lost his footing on the slippery bench, his left foot shooting out behind him towards Nick, his face and upper body colliding with Emily's, and his right foot still trapped in the mess of bars under the table.

 

[Pine]

Ah, okay. So if De's the queen, then Noah's the king? That seems a little backwards. We may have to have an intervention about this later. Nick attempted to keep up the ploy, cringing in fear as he awaited Dante to pass judgment. However, before their queen had the opportunity supplement a response, a new, higher-pitched voice entered the scene and killed his muse. Seriously? Why is she here?


The better question was why he was even surprised. Emily was always the sort to barge in uninvited to conversations... and probably parties, too. He supposed it was because she didn't intrude on their lunch table all too often, and maybe even less so in recent history. It wasn't as though he was keeping track, as much as the incidents irked him. Nick straightened up from his sweeping bow, no longer bothering to keep up the grovelling facade now that she was here. She looks even more sloppy than usual, he noted, not bothering to hide the derisive look in his stare.


Disregarding Orion's continuation of the medieval vibe to their evening meal, he spoke so as to interrupt the other boy, "What are you doing? Go-" However, it was not him to interrupt Orion, but instead it was the other boy's own clumsiness, and shortly after interrupted Nick, himself. He had no time to react to the events that began to transpire in the next few moment, even if he hadn't been completely caught off guard by them. In the next moment, Orion's body disappeared from view and the boy's foot rammed straight into his gonads, hitting him where the sun don't shine, getting racked, endangering his children, et cetera.


Nick sucked in a pained breath, curling forward and covering himself, feeling the pain attacking his senses all the way to his throat. It took him a moment to recover, as it didn't hurt enough to be exceedingly melodramatic about it, thanks to him wearing jeans, but it was still enough to make his temper rise. His cheeks flushed in combination of their always rosy state, the biting chill of the afternoon air and his newfound frustration. The instant Nick could stand up straight again, he managed through clenched teeth, "You little twerp." He leaned forward, swinging his arm so as to hook it around Orion's neck in a choke hold, then reached out with his other hand to burrow his knuckles roughly into the other boy's scalp.

 

[SkyGinge]

"Oi, you! Hurry up! You're holding up the queue!" came the burly yell of a dinnerlady. The article of her frustration, a long-haired blonde boy, was completely transfixed by something on his smartphone, so much so that he was simply standing there, a small line of impatient youngsters stocked up behind him. He blinked up distantly from the device, and in spite of the glares and growls of his fellow students, shuffled over to the hatch at a pedestrian pace.


"I'm sorry, ma'am," the woman, who was really no more than a large lump in Rod's eyes, suggested in a partonising tone. With a graceless scooping motion, she hefted up heeping mounds of earthy slop from her cooking trays, as if digging up dirt in an uninterested attempt to recover a dull buried by an eager puppy. Her eyes, or more so her vicious, curling eyebrows, glared vincitively at him as if he were some kind of convict, but rod simply glanced back, oblivious, his eyes instead meeting the light reflected off of the fridge behind her.


"Yes," he grunted back, and, still sluggish as ever, extended a singular bony arm to attempt to scoop up the tray in one arm. Of course, it didn't occur to him that he could simple put his phone in his pocket and instead have a perfectly safe journey holding the tray in both hands, like any other man, nay, human being would do. After all, his phone, or rather the information it provided, was more important than nurishment and food. Especially when dinner looked like it had been sifted out of a toilet.


With a slight strain, he heaved the tray up on one hand and like a six year old wannabe waitress began to plod onwards into the dining hall, tray held high and wobbling, a pool of mud-like gravy slushing precariously about the plate. The moment he was away from the line, his attention returning to the phone. The dinnerladymancreature stretched out a log-like arm, complete with moss (or something equally disgusting anyway), and then sighed, and shrugged. He was a lost cause, and she would only stress herself out trying to avert the natural disaster in waiting that was Rod.


Stumbling, trembling, Rod marched on like the last surviving zombie. He was vaguely aware that, now that he had acquired food, the intention was to find someplace to perch and eat up. But as always, he was lost in the clouds of the internet, marching blindly like a wind-up toy. Table-legs, chairlegs, rucksacks, none of them exempt from his ambitionless crusade. Several times, he crashed compeltely into a table of other students, who in turn fired up obscene rebuke that fell deaf to his ears. With every crash and bump he took, a small fountain of gloopy gravy splashed over the side of the upheld plate, leaving a thin stream of brown liquid in his wake and on his ragged shirt.


Until eventually, his journey found its end. Some kind of manic scrap was going on ahead of him - or maybe people wre just talking normally? Rod didn't know, and Rod didn't care. His attentions lay firmly placed on his phone. So much so that he was completely oblivious that he was heading straight into the wake of this scrap. The blonde-haired boy walked straight into Nick and Orion's petty brawl, tripping up over their backs and launching himself onto the table. His foodtray hand flew first, slamming down and rocking the table with a serenade of gravy. Fortunately, his front managed to avoid landing straigh in anybody's elses plates, but his sudden appearence was certainly unexpected.


Rod simply lay there for a minute, his upper body slumped atop the table whilst his legs trailed lazily over the other two boys. After an awkward pause, it was as if he suddenly realised things weren't quite right, and he slowly coiled back up to his feet. Without even a word of acknowledgement or apology, he picked up his fallen meal and started off on his pointless journey once more.

 

[kibou]

As he had unexpectedly just had his chest slam into the bench, it had forced all the air out of his lungs and Orion was gasping for breath as he searched for the edge of the table with copious amounts of arm-flailing. He eventually managed to find it, and grabbed it to try to push himself up and get his face off of Emily's legs, still in a coughing fit.


"You little twerp."


Nick's pissed-off voice came from afar, and of course as soon Orion had managed to sit halfway up, straddling the bench and still facing in Emily's direction, he felt an arm wrap around his neck and pull him from behind. Orion made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, followed by a breathless 'holy shit'.


What the hell?


Orion's hands frantically grabbed at Nick's arm to attempt to pry it off of him as he was given a very fierce and painful noogie, and he noticed through his watering eyes that his hands had something red on them- his nose was bleeding from it's collision with the Lady of Castle Shit, and as he struggled with Nick his fingers seemed to have come near his nose.


Desperately trying to think of a way to make Nick stop since this certainly wasn't helping with the breathing issue and flailing his legs, wheezing, and pulling on Nick's arm was ineffective, a solution quickly came to mind at the sight of the blood.


Orion clutched Nick's arm on either side of his face and bent his neck and buried his face in Nick's sleeve, rubbing his nose and blood onto his nice clothes.


Not long after he felt something hit him, and something wet and warm splashed onto his head and trickled down his forehead.


What the fuck was that? he wondered, face still shoved into Nick's sleeve.

 

[eheu]

“I’m here because -”


Unlike the usual case, at the same time Nick blurted out the first word of his question, Emily was ready with her response. Nick was chaotic at times but when it came to scenarios like this he was terribly predictable - enough for her to come to automatically dismiss as some sort of speech-placeholder the “go away” that was always somewhere in the sentence.


Come to think of it she always ignored that kind of things, though.


”oh SH-”


“-eeeeeeeh?”


Before she could complete her explanation, however, both she and Nick were interrupted by Orion, who somehow lost his foothold and slipped, sending his head of fluffy pink hair ramming into Emily’s chest and later sliding downwards onto her legs. Orion’s fall also sent - as she caught at the edge of her sight while she was emitting that screech - a foot straight at NIck’s...oh well.


Within moments the scene ended up with Orion being caught by Nick with a hold around his neck, and thin, slow-flowing streams of red flowing down his face from his nose.


“Oh dear. Orion are you oka - no Nick don’t”


The speed of her reactions couldn’t quite keep up with the rate at which things were happening. She normally would not have resisted laughing at Nick’s face when he received that kick - but now that could wait for later. Orion’s life was in danger and that came first as a priority (Emily never took shame in her needless exaggeration of events). She would’ve thrusted her hands out and tried to peel Nick’s off Orion’s neck, yet due to the unstable nature of her sitting pose she found herself hastily having to adjust where she put her legs to prevent falling over while doing so. But before she could finish doing so, another collision interrupted again the already tangled line of events, and they all stared in confusion at the body of the boy that lay smack in the middle of their lunch table and amazingly also not onto any of their meals. The two legs that dangled atop the boys in the brawl only after moments were moved away and the boy with blond hair stood up and walked away without a word, leaving only the splattering of gravy all around the scene - Orion’s head, mostly - as evidence of his sudden arrival and departure.


Confusion was initially the only expression present on her face as Emily turned to look, puzzled, at Rod taking his wobbly steps away again from the table; but when she turned back to see Orion and Nick in their degenerated brawl (Orion seemed to now be smearing blood all over Nick’s sleeve on purpose and that convinced Emily that he was alright) - she burst into laughter, hands over her face and soon arched over the table because if was almost painful.

 

[Pine]

Nick ignored Orion's flailing legs and Emily's cries of protest, if anything bending farther into his hold of his friend and bringing down his knuckles harder. Through the miniscule arrangement of thoughts that was flowing through his mind at that moment, he was being very generous that the only thing he was doing to the boy was a noogie, even as vicious as it was compared to the typical ones. It seemed for a good while that Orion would be subjected to his torment for an uncomfortably long time, as it would take quite some time for him to reclaim control over the loose, somewhat haphazard nature of his temper, but his attention was drawn to the sudden pressure on his arm. What, is he biting me?


Before he had the chance to properly deduce the reason behind Orion rubbing his face into his coat sleeve, he caught something in the corner of his eye that made him flinch, and in the next moment without the time to react, there was the soft thump of a body colliding with the table with the table, the faint slap of liquid flinging onto the table, and a sudden warmth on the back of his hand. Nick ceased all motion, resting his fist on top of Orion's fluff of cotton candy-esque hair, though kept him in a firm head lock, and looked over at the new arrival. His eyes widened in rage and disbelief. It only took a moment for him to figure out who it could possibly be, and even as Roderick picked himself up and moved on without a word, he stood in stunned silence. It never ceased to amaze him how oblivious that kid could be; he made Orion look like the epitome of perception.


Nick was called back to reality at the shrill sound of Emily's laughter, snapping his head forward again, his vexation building as he finally saw the slop of gravy that was spilled over his hand. Orion was nuzzling into his arm again, and it was only then that he saw the crimson stain against his black, wool coat. He flung his arms open abruptly, dropping Orion right where he stood. "Gross." Nick flicked his hand, the spray of gravy sprinkling off of him with every jerk of the wrist.


He shook his head, somewhat at a loss of where to direct his fury. "How can someone be so stupid?" he continued in his aimless growling. He stepped around Orion, having half a mind to go and pummel that kid, and another that it wasn't even worth it. Nick arrived back at the end of the bench. Staring down at the girl occupying entirely too much space, he barked, "Move." Not bothering to wait for her to make any proper adjustments, he forced himself onto the bench, shoving however much he needed to. Once he was seated, he simply glared down at the table for a moment before recalling the state of his coat. Without hesitation, he stripped away the article of clothing and flung it onto the ground, not caring about the cold that instantly pricked at his exposed skin and made the hairs on his arms stand and left a trail of goosebumps in it's wake, as the heat of his wrath was enough to keep him warm for the moment. He clapped his hands on either arm and shrugged his scarf up against his face, hunching forward and brooding.