Office Retreat [Open]

[CRISPIN THOMAS MERCIA]

We’re coming up like k i l l i n g machines
Our big guns gonna s h a t t e r your scene

Office retreats. When did those become popular? If Crispin had to ut a date on it, he would say around the late eighties and especially so during the nineties. For some reason it had become the thing to do along with other ridiculous seminars on things like sensitivity and sexual harassment etc. Crispin usually sat through those things because he didn't care for any extra attention. Besides, what would refusing to spend one afternoon sitting through a boring slide show and even more ridiculously pointless activities say about him?

Crispin was just glad that this time, they had a better view. Lampfire lake was one of the nicest places around these parts and to have a weekend away with the office staff didn't sound like such a bad idea. He just kept to himself the first day, quietly watching some of the other staff members as they commenced operation ass kissing in order to get further up the ladder. While they did that, Crispin stayed away from the partners and kept to himself, reading his book by the lake.

He enjoyed a nice day as much as the next person, perhaps even more than some. Sitting with his back against a tree, Crispin stayed in the shade with his copy of Sir Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian. He a very specific taste in fiction. He liked the classics, but then he had been there when they were still new and even provocative like Lady Chatterly's Lover had been. He had even worked on the trial when Penguin Books were prosecuted under the Obsene Publications Act. Of course, no one here could know that. What was he going to say? Yes, it's all true. Vampires and Lycans are real and I was there in 1960 working on a trial and no I haven't aged a day, even the mere thought of it was ridiculous. His choices were to carry on with this charade or to risk the lives of his pack. Sure, even an army of humans might not be much of a threat but there were consequences and Crispin knew better than almost anyone about just how bad it could get. His many years on this earth had taught him at least that.

Putting the book down on the ground beside him, he ran a hand through his hair as he stared out at the body of water in front of him. It was calming and soothing but the noise from behind him of he fellow coworkers was starting to get to him. He didn't mind being around these people during office hours but when there was nothing to do, he found himself getting a bit restless and yerning the company of his own kind or at least of someone who would do more than complain about the kettle in the break room not working.

s t a t u s : complete
TAGS: Open
n o t e s : none
MUSE: TMNT 2, live action movie
c r e d i t : here!

[CECILIA RENEE TABERNATHY]

She appeared almost as if out of the blue, Cecilia sat stride across Crispin’s legs and tossed her long hair out of her face. The shewolf had been strolling around the woods as she often did during the day when she didn’t have to work. There was a benefit or two to working for a vampire. Even if the entire idea caused some discontent with her family, she still didn’t seem to be too bothered by it. Since she was currently supposed to be exiled she still managed to do all she’d done before. And ignore anything their current alpha shewolf decreed. Tilting her head to the side she watched him quietly before she spoke, crossing her arms and setting them across her knees.

“I remember you reading to me a lot when I was young,” she said with obvious affection. Her blue eyes traveled to the book he’d sat aside and she reached for it. Tossing her hair over her shoulder with the same movement, Lia flipped over the back and read to herself before she looked back at Crispin. Making a sound of approval she set it back and met his eyes before she looked over his shoulder and around the tree to see if any of the humans were watching them. Satisfied they were not being bothered she leaned over and brushed her nose against his.

The shewolf had always been an affectionate sort, even as a cub she had always been the one climbing into people’s laps and demanding their hugs and affection. But she gave it back in kind, which was probably what upset so many of them when she took up with Cale. “Why are you over here— when all those other people are over there, Mr. Lawyer Wolf?” Her brow quirked quizzically at him, that was how she was too. Always asking questions, always showing up when she was pretty sure it didn’t matter if she was there or not. She was like the wind, impossible to predict, impossible to control—best to just enjoy the breeze.

[CRISPIN THOMAS MERCIA]

We’re coming up like k i l l i n g machines
Our big guns gonna s h a t t e r your scene

Crispin paused for a second and appeared take a breath in, this was always much subtler than sniffing the air for get a better idea or what that stray scent was that he caught. He smirked a little but stayed where he was. He knew that scent and she was relatively harmless so there was no cause to worry.

Crispin didn't even flinch when a girl fell right into his lap. Crispin continued to stare out at the lake until she spoke. A hand moved to her back, rubbing it soothingly as he leaned his head back against the tree, musing on the events of the past.

"Mmm, yes. The classics.. Course, they were all exciting and new at the time," he explained with a smile, brown eyes glancing back into her bright blue ones before she picked up his book. Crispin tilted his head to get a better look at her as she read it.

"I remember when you were learning to count, let alone read," he said with a smirk letting his hands drop to her waist, though not in any untoward way; it was just that his options were her waist of the ground and she was much more comfortable.

He was one of the oldest in the pack but he liked it that way. It was always a nice refreshing change when a new lycan was born and Crispin was always more than happy to lend a hand in raising it, especially when he had so much to share from all his several lifetimes worth of experiences.

"I'm here because all those people are over there," he explained calmly. "I get to hear Mrs Shue complain enough during the week so having it on the weekends isn't my idea of fun," he explained. Of course, it wasn't as though he were avoiding one person. The whole group tended to get to him after a while.

"And do you know how annoying it is to talk to someone who's about 1/10th your age and act like they're older and wiser than you?" he asked, refering to some of the bosses. At this point it was more like 1/9th his age but it was close enough.

s t a t u s : complete
TAGS: Open
n o t e s : none
MUSE: TMNT 2, live action movie
c r e d i t : here!

[CECILIA RENEE TABERNATHY]

If she could have purred she would have, when he stroked her back it was like he would have if she’d been the great white wolf she really was. And she smiled at him, resisting the urge to shift into her wolf form and snuggle into him. Oh the classics, god she missed that too. A smile crossed her features and she looked back at the group of gathering humans before she did lay against Crispin, getting comfortable where she was. He was like another brother, “One two, seven..” she murmured at his remark about her learning to count. They were all so old things were so different.

She liked being touched and stroked, she was an animal at heart and she didn’t bother to hide it very often. That was one of the downsides of living in Mercy with all the humans running around, she couldn’t just be herself all the time. Then again none of them could. Her brow lifted as she listened and she snorted a bit as she snuggled closer, closing her eyes. “She doesn’t know what old is, she just thinks she does. I’m older than she is and she’d just call me a little slut and ask me if my mother taught me to behave that way. Humans are so judgmental, always thinking they knew better when they don’t even know that things really do go bump in the night..”

Lia jerked upright when her sensitive hearing picked up something, following by intense screaming coming from not far off. She looked down at Crispin as she moved off of him, sniffing at the air. “You smell that? It smells like blood… something died..” what kind of thing was something else all-together. She could smell the death and it was dancing on the wind. “Should we go see?”

[CRISPIN THOMAS MERCIA]

We’re coming up like k i l l i n g machines
Our big guns gonna s h a t t e r your scene

Cecilia had always been the affectionate type and although Crispin was a little more reserved around most people, his pack mates were different, especially some of the younger ones but that was only before he had seen them grow up and to him they would always be the same kids he remembers, even after over a hundred years.

"Well done Cecilia, you'll be moving on to fractions in no time," Crispin said, playing into her joke with counting. Putting his arms around her when she leaned in, Crispin just held her for a while, almost a little protectively.

"You behave just fine Ceci. You'd think they'd be more open minded these days but then again, I suppose I can't complain after seeing what things used to be like. It's definitely a big improvement," Crispin admitted quietly. People weren't always that quick to accept but by now Crispin had decided that it was most likely human nature because although more people were becoming more accepting of the differences of others, they were still fairly judgmental at heart.

Crispin turned suddenly when he heard a sound and when Cecilia stood up and spoke, he was already two steps ahead of her. "This way," he said, walking toward the source.

[[OOC: So what exactly's going on? o.O]]

s t a t u s : complete
TAGS: Open
n o t e s : none
MUSE: House M.D.
c r e d i t : here!

[AN EVENT !]

The entire woods were quiet as the two wolves trekked through the forest. It was their forest, but there was something else there now. And it was watching them with curious eyes. After all, it had just caused one of the bloodiest scenes in Mercy history as of late. And that was saying something.

A girl was sobbing in the arms of a teenager that was looking sincerly disturbed by the scene when the wolves finally reached the source of the smell-- and the source of the screams. Laying in the water was the torso of a teenage girl. Just the naked torso, the head was on the beach near a tree gazing with sincere shock at the last thing she ever saw before her life ended. No one had gone over to see to the head, they were to busy sharing the shock of the eyes of the dead.

Parts of limbs sat in peculiar positions, broken and torn from the body as if they were flower pedals and someone had plucked them as if trying to discover does he love me not.

There was no telling what kind of creatures stood in the crowd, though someone was getting violently sick in a bush near where one of the legs had been tossed carelessly aside.

There was still a smell on the air, the creature-- whatever it was, wasn't long gone but it was an awkward smell. As if perhaps something had been taken and changed. But, that was masked with something else making it hard to determine.

The eyes of the dead girl looked on the procession with shock and something else. Whatever she had scene she had not expected. And it was the last thing-- she had seen.