[open] bright as the day fresh as the moon and stale as the hay

[iustitiae]

i - @ the supermarket
at your favorite tesco (but probably in city of london or enfield), at any time during the month

[look, everyone's gotta shop for groceries. connor's lists have gotten undeniably weirder in the last few months, offering to pick up things for his witch friends ("friends" - friend, in the singular, that's soeki) while here's there. most of this stuff honestly feels like a joke (candles and sage and he's honestly wondering if they're going for eye of newt and toe of frog next), but connor's a good friend and if he's going to be at tesco anyway he can pick up stuff for his buddy.

along with, you know, the usual - good looking produce, the atlantic, condoms, new lightbulb for the broken fixture, cold cereal, pasta, eggs. if you need help reaching something on a shelf, just want random commentary on your life choices, or happen to recognize connor from somewhere (his tinder account? maybe you already know him? the possibilities are endless) this prompt is for you.]

ii - @ the courthouse
city of london, towards the end of the business day.

Shit --

[this is connor, running through a crowd like an asshole, trying not to bump into anyone (but offering "sorry!" if he does, i mean he's not devoid of manners). he's carrying a briefcase with a brief from his boss/professor in it, one that the deadline is approaching, in about thirty minutes, says a quick look at his watch. according to her it was their fault the brief was running so late and despite the wonderful world of the internet, this particular magistrate believed in hard copies, thank you so they'd drawn straws and connor had lost. "good luck with rush hour foot traffic!" yeah, thanks.

he manages to compose himself enough that when he hands the papers off to the clerk (with five minutes to spare!) he doesn't look like a total wreck. mission thusly accomplished has a minute to take a break, relived that he managed to not screw this up and get in her bad graces.

another day, another crisis, right?]

iii - wildcard
[you probably know how this one works! if you want a specific prompt by me let me know that, too.]

Comments

ii

[occultdisciple]

You must not know the clerk.

[Coward knows he shouldn't bother the young man. Especially when he looks so relieved to have managed. But he also can't help but want to pass on a bit of wisdom. Especially since it will only really help in specific situations.]

A phone call to her is usually all it takes to get her to print the documents out to give to the judge.

[Of course, he'd established the privilege to do so. Lots of free coffees.]

[iustitiae]

[connor's surprised that he's being spoken to at all, really, but after the initial shock wears off his eyes narrow into a glare. he shouldn't be rude. he should be happy that this stranger is giving him any usual information at all, but mostly he's annoyed that said useful information came twenty-five minutes of running here too late.]

Yeah, next time I'll be sure to call ahead.

[who knows maybe the clerk is just not down for annalise and her legal shenanigans and doesn't put up with them anymore.]

[occultdisciple]

[Coward knows he shouldn't, but it happens all the same. He chuckles just a bit. Because, well, free coffees aside, there's no doubt a great deal of social difference between himself and this young man. Which also helps explain the clerk's willingness to help him out.

But that doesn't mean he can't be amused.]

Live and learn, I suppose.

i

[thelittlemerman]

[Finnick's groceries primarily consist of pretentious, organic ingredients for home cooked meals along with Annie's favourite snack foods, but every once in a while he finds himself craving something that just screams poor diet, and this is one of those days. One of his guilty pleasure is a name brand cereal which can only boast 300% of your daily intake of processed sugars, and so it's in the cereal aisle that Finnick comes across Connor. He's a human, like just about everyone else in the store, so there's nothing particularly notable about him other than he's standing in front of the cereal that Finnick has been craving all day, which presents him with that awkward opportunity to engage in human contact or just to wait it out.]

[No, he's not waiting it out. He's almost 450 years old goddammit he's waited long enough.]

Excuse me.

[Finnick's voice is smooth as he reaches around Connor to grab a box of the offending breakfast food, leaning into his personal space for just a moment before he withdraws with his prize. See? He can be polite.]

[iustitiae]

[is it lucky charms, finnick? it's okay to admit it.

this is normally the part that he'd be super offended that anyone is cutting into his clearly important breakfast deciding time. there are at least three different kinds of granola with raisins and how do you know which one is acceptable? one is on sale so that's clearly the logical option but the one that's only one pound more is in a very nice looking box, but that one is clearly designed to entice buyers so maybe he should feel bad for giving into judging the box by it's cover and --

right, so this is normally the part where he'd be super offended but as it is finnick's voice is as smooth as that fine gentleman that accompanies it, and he finds himself not being entirely put-out by having his personal space invaded by said cereal aficionado.

if finnick thinks he's not going to be judged for his choice, though, that's another story entirely.]

Cute.

[#nailedit]

[thelittlemerman]

Hm?

[IT MAY OR MAY NOT BE LUCKY CHARMS.]

[Anyway Finnick's doesn't really anticipate that this young human is going to make a comment on his cereal choices, but it's also not like he's totally unaware of the effect he has on people. In any case, he looks down at the box in his hand and then back up at Connor with a slightly mischievous smile and a raised eyebrow.]

Who says they're for me?

iii

[crowedthedead]

[He'd sent a text earlier. There soon, bringing dinner. Connor Walsh was Soeki's first real friend he'd made in London since he moved here, even if it had been under less than ideal circumstances, considering his little ghost issue. That bond had, miraculously, stuck, through Soeki introducing him to Circle Midnight and through whatever else the universe threw at either of them. These nights in with their respective books to eat dinner and study in each other's presence aren't uncommon.

He shows up outside Connor's flat about when he said he would, bags of takeaway in one hand and a couple of thick, musty-smelling books under his other arm. Soeki is dressed casually in jeans and a hoodie, damp from the light drizzle.]

C'mon, open up, it's wet and miserable out here.

[iustitiae]

[the truth is, having soeki around makes home feel that much safer, and he's grateful for it. as much as he'd rather just run away to soeki's place and have their dates there, it was nice to inject a sense of normalcy to where he actually lived.

and it helps that soeki brings dinner, too.

he rings him up and then waits for him at his door (up a couple flights, but whatever, they're fit young men right) for soeki, happily taking the takeway from him to go get plates and things. the coffee table is already strewn full of books of his own, readings on criminal law and procedures, highlighters of many different colors strewn about plus pen and paper for note taking. his laptop is kind of forgotten on the floor next to the mess but there seems to be a small corner of the table left untouched, like he intended to give soeki half the table but it was slowly getting overrunn by law, and that was the last ditch attempt to pretend that he still meant it.]

It's always wet and miserable. That's why you moved to London.

[crowedthedead]

[It helps that Connor's place is generally just more practical. Soeki's current flat is... small, and a little run down, and cluttered with books and papers and dirty clothes. Besides, he's thinking about putting together some protective wards for Connor's place, and he has to be here to do it, so it makes sense to have their little reading date here.

When he heads in, he lets Connor take the food, and he plops down his books in the empty space on the table, helping himself to a few sheets of paper and a pen.]

Said as if Manchester is much better. [It had been raining there too, when he'd skyped with his dad earlier.] How've things been?

iii

[outstandingbalance]

[Most nights, Natasha wouldn't have noticed Connor. Or, she wouldn't have noticed him any more than she would have noticed any other young, attractive warm body. He might have been anyone out at night—coming home from the grocery store?—something like that anyway.

Tonight, it's not so much him she notices at first either. It's his tail.

The vampire looks about twenty, and even if he plays dress up like he's straight out of the 70s London punk scene, she doesn't think he's much older than he looks. There's no sense of age about him. The appearance is a conscious affectation, not habit. An older vampire would know better. So at best he's young, and at worst, he's young and stupid.

And a young, stupid vampire openly following a young, attractive warm body down the street in the dark? That does get her attention. At this point, Natasha's not looking to pick fights with the local nests. As far as vampires go, her goal was to keep as low of a profile as she could for as long as she could. But now it's her job to protect humans from supernatural depredation—which is as good of a reason as any to explain why she doesn't hesitate to follow along, keeping an eye on both of them.]

[iustitiae]

["paranoid" is a bad word for it, but as anxious/concerned/worried as connor is right now, he'd be hard pressed to miss the vampire following him. he doesn't know for sure it's a vampire - not being supernatural himself, he can't tell these things, but he's learned enough about the supernatural world to know there are beings he doesn't want to mess with.

but he's not actually sure what he wants to do about it. if it is a supernatural thing and not just a weird stalker, he has no hope of overpowering it. then natasha joins up.

they're like a row of ducks, the three of them, all following one another trying to pretend like theyre not following one another. he's not sure if their new addition is just a bigger fish thats going to swallow both of them, or someone come to see if he's going to make it home safe.

hope for the best, expect the worst, maybe. he definitely can't do anything if they're both after him.

still, he knows the area pretty well and he ducks along a couple of side streets in attempt to lose them both.]

[outstandingbalance]

[She can see what he's trying to do, but it's the kind of thing prey does. And it might have worked, if the predator was human. To Natasha, leaving the main street looks a little like a gazelle letting itself be cut from the herd, though, and she can't hide a little bit of a grimace.

Their baby vampire won't have to worry as much about witnesses if they move into side streets and narrow, empty allies.

The advantage of empty side streets is that she doesn't have to worry about witnesses, either.

The baby turns after Connor, and Natasha follows. If they're lucky, he'll assume she's after his prey and he'll bow out for an older, hungrier vampire. It's not her territory, though... and as established previously, he's young and probably stupid.

She's not entirely surprised when he doesn't take the hint, using the relative seclusion to put on some speed in an attempt to catch his prey.]

ii

[itsconceptual]

[Five minutes to spare, is it?

There's a young woman standing outside the courthouse, leaning against a wall near a pack of smokers, and as Connor rushes by, bolting into the building, a few loose papers slip through the briefcase, scattering at her feet. She looks at them for a moment, takes a drag off her cigarette, and then leans down to collect them. Some kind of legal mumbo jumbo, she can tell immediately, but she's got little to no clue beyond that.

Another inhale of smoke, another few lines of meaningless text. But he was in such a damn rush, they must be important.

Okay. Fuck. She puts out the cigarette, with the slightest roll of her eyes, and goes inside to seek him out.]

Hey. [Once she finds him, holding up the papers.] Lose something?

[If they happen to be important, he now has three minutes and thirty seconds to get them where they need to go.]

[iustitiae]

[Honestly, he almost ignores her entirely but he recognizes those papers and] Oh, god, what -- [but he doesn't have time for questions, especially considering those are pages 4 and 45 and he just mouths thanks as he grabs them from her, running back into the clerks room to deposit these papers and get them back in the right order.

he comes back. the second crisis has been averted. he's seriously just waiting for another.]

You have no idea how glad I am you found me with those and didn't just throw them away. [seriously, anyone else and it wouldn't have mattered.] I'm not sure who stapled these but they obviously don't know how to use a stapler correctly.

[itsconceptual]

[They do say that crises come in threes -- we'll have to see how true that is.

Effy watches his expression change to recognition and slight horror, but her own amusement at it doesn't show on her face until he's dashing down the hall like a madman. It's weird, though. As far as she can tell, he's just-- ...normal, isn't he? And yet a slight chill runs through her as she watches him.

Well, it doesn't really matter, anyway.]

Throw them away? And let the derelicts of London have their way with them? I'd never forgive myself. [Such levity, many sarcasm, wow.] Sounds like they need lessons, whoever it was. It's not exactly an ivy league skill.

iii

[catphishing]

[It's hardly the first time Connor's asked him for help with his work and really Oliver is more than happy to do it. It doesn't take much more than a mention of the possibility from Connor for him to agree. He's already set up by the time he's due to come over. He just has to wait for him to arrive.]

[iustitiae]

[connor's mostly on time - he gets a little caught up on the way over but he's not egregiously bad or anything. he's also brought some food? that's good, right?]

Hey, Oliver. It's me.

ii

[protagonized]

[Simon isn't 100% certain what day it is. Probably Wednesday, but who knows? Juggling his classes and an increasingly full-time position as a Guardian means sleep isn't something he gets a lot of. He's coming off an all-night investigation in the City, and with £6.28 to his name (because of course he'd leave his wallet and credit cards in his other jacket), lunch is going to have to believe a sandwich and as much caffeine as he can afford before heading straight to a 2 pm lab. Assuming it's Wednesday.

Therefore: Tesco.

He makes a beeline for the prepared foods case, too sleep-deprived to pay too much attention to the other shoppers around him. He doesn't notice that he's about to collide with another man until it's too late.]

"Watch where--sorry. My fault."

[iustitiae]

[getting run into, and then having it almost pinned on him puts him in a pretty bad mood, so his reaction isn't great. the judgment is pretty much written all over his face, well before simon manages the apology.]

Yeah, don't let people get in the way of your obviously important quest for [he looks over at where he seems to be heading, for the sake of sarcasm] what, yesterday's sandwiches?

i

[falsify]

[Well if it isn't the budding criminal defence attorney. Eames is here picking up a few things for dinner, (and a couple of bottles of wine, gotta keep stocked up,) and it's pure coincidence that sees him in the cold section next to Connor while he debates on which cheese to buy.]

[Eames-- well, "Stephen" his name card had said, currently has two different brands of feta in his hands when he turns his head to address him.]

Connor, was it? [Well certainly not the Tesco own brand cheese. That's going back on the shelf.] Small world.

[iustitiae]

[oh look 19th century lit guy. whose name is...fuck, he's totally drawing a blank and this guy remembered his name.]

Hey, yeah. [smooth, maybe it'll come back to him while he watches him evaluate feta.] Of all the Tescos in the world -- it's good to see you.

dos

[devilsavocado]

[ Like an asshole is right, thanks, Connor. Matt's powers alert him to the young man running his way but being that he's in public, he can't exactly dodge in time to make it seamless. He avoids knocking him over with his cane (a tempting thought,) and only just brushing shoulders before Connor continues on his way. Wow, he must've been in a hell of a hurry to not notice the dude he bumped into was blind, way to go.

I mean, Matt doesn't think much of it. He's already spoken to one of the clerks, though in his case it's to request some braille copies of a few legal documents, which he knows that's going to take a while. So he came early. Unlike some people.

But he won't hold it against him or anything. It's not like Matt could tell who bumped into him, nope. He's blind. Got the glasses and cane and everything. ]

Long day?

[iustitiae]

[connor feels bad later, after he's dropped off the papers and has a moment for his mind to catch up with him. he doesn't really realize who he bumped into as it happens, but after matt speaks to him he realizes it was literally this guy (unless there were two blind guys in suits hanging around) which was probably really bad]

Yeah I -- sorry, I think I ran into you earlier. I wasn't really...paying attention. [obviously, wow, way 2 go]

wildcard yo

[stauncherhearted]

[Bars were nothing unusual. Nancy had been working in them for far too long. It's the lawyer crowd that's new. Honestly, she tended to stick to dive-bars, though a few of her clients were of a much higher class. Still, she wanted something new, so here she was, leaning up against the bar as most courts and offices closed for the day.

She wasn't looking for Connor's type- her thought was the older, angsty lawyer facing a nasty divorce and craving some company, but she was always willing to be surprised. She just happened to slide into the bar next to him, before ordering a gin martini. After a moment, though, she had to go forward and speak to the handsome man to her left.

Turning her head, she pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled before addressing him.] D'you know how the martinis are here? They're expensive enough they've got to be.

[iustitiae]

[connor can see what she thinks she's doing long before she starts speaking to him. he'd been trying to more or less act like he didn't like that might deter her from wanting to talk to him, but no luck. the whole classic hair behind the ear - it's cute, but that's pretty much all it is to him.

now he's just gotta let her down slowly. being this beautiful can be hard sometimes!!]

Are they worth the money? Probably not. But they're pretty good.