ic Hot Time, Summer in the City (IC)

[olopi]

Bonfire took a slight bow, even moving his arm in front of his stomach for the full theatre-like experience. He only slightly adjusted his head downwards, before lifting it back up. The smoke became thicker, until Cass’ face appeared again, his red hair looking a bit messier than before. He ran his hand across his head, moving the hair back into a more comfortable position, speaking at the same time.

 

“Oh, it wasn’t that big of an adjustment actually. As I mentioned to Gretch before, I’ve been unemployed for a while. So really, I had nothing to do. Turns out there’s not that many open photographer positions here in FC, and I didn’t really want to move back home.” He continued running his hand through his hair, not quite getting it to fall behind his shoulders. “So, yeah. The only thing I ever did was sit around anyways, so it was nice to finally be able to go out for a proper reason. Even managed to secure an income through it, people like my blog, and I like writing it. Went pretty well for a while. “

 

He took a big breath, looking and sounding strangely amused but also somewhat frustrated. “And then, I ended up on national media. Being labelled a threat to national security was quite the experience, gotta say. Got lucky in that all those plagues happened right afterwards, so people kinda forgot. It’s been going rather slow ever since, but I’m managing to hold on money wise.” He laughed loud once more, looking pretty happy still. “Even have spare cash to spend on coffee occasionally.”

 

He calmed down a bit again, and continued,  his tone at an average level of volume. “Managed to get some networking in too. So, I’d say I’ve been doing pretty well for myself. I’ll gladly accept any help though. “

Edited October 11, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

"Normally this is when she offers you a job," blurted Gretchen as she headed back behind the bar so she could get back to her laptop. "Without looking at your resume or doing a background check."

 

"I don't say that to everyone," groaned Lynn as she rolled her eyes, though in truth, her girlfriend knew her well; it physically pained the Jewish mother in her to see someone struggling to make ends meet. But it seemed that Cass liked the freedom of the freelance lifestyle, so just slapping a Silberman's apron on him probably wouldn't appeal to the young photographer. 

 

Meahwhile, Gretchen had managed to find both his heroic blog and his professional website, and was scrutinizing both of them intently. "Your web design sucks," she declared without looking up from the screen. "A better layout will get you more customers, make you look more professional. I can do that for you. Your photography..." She paused as she clicked around the website some more. "Some of it's good. You definitely show promise, but you only get better through regular work. Professional work, for a paying client." She powered down her laptop and closed it with a firm click before looking up at Lynn.

 

"Hire him for a job." She shrugged. "The store's website could use an overhaul. He could use the money."

 

Lynn nodded thoughtfully; once again, Gretch impressed her with her ability to help people while simultaneously not seeming to give a s###, a delicate balancing act that not many could pull off. Turning back to Cass, she shrugged. "Whaddya say? She's right, we could use some new pics on the site, and I like to support local artists."

Edited November 18, 2016 by Heritage

[olopi]

Cass listened, letting the conversation happen. Gretch’s criticism of his website was appropriate and justified, he’d never liked it himself, but he’d also never gotten around to changing it. A portfolio was all he really needed at the time, and with heroics taking over most of his spare time, the website had become a low priority.

 

And then, Lynn made her offer. Cass simply stood there, stunned. He blinked a few times, looking completely out of it. And then, he spoke, sounding quite confused. “Wait, really? This isn’t a joke or anything? You’re offering me a job?” Cass looked around the room for just a second, first at Gretch, then at various corners in the room, and then back at Lynn. “Whoa.”

 

A second of silence followed, as Cass went through a few things in his brain. The corners of his lips moved upwards, his expression went back towards the joyful one it had been just before Lynn’s offer. His eyebrows accompanied his lips, also raising. “Yeah. Would be a good way to get some more experience.” He paused for a second, probably for the dramatic effect, before continuing. “I’m honoured, and I gladly accept that offer! I’m in. “He followed his words with some actual laughter once more, the joyful and excited kind.

Edited October 14, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

Lynn clapped her hands together and smiled. "Awesome! This is going to be great!" She looked around the empty store thoughtfully. "Um...could we do it right now? We gotta whole lotta store with nothing going on."

 

Gretchen shook her head dubiously. "No one wants to see pictures of an empty bookstore. It's depressing as hell, and implies no one shops here."

 

"Mmm, you're right," muttered the changeling as she gnawed on her thumbnail. Then her face brightened. "Oooh, I can play the customers! I mean, we can at least a few different ones in some of the shots, right?"

 

Her partner tipped her head to one side as she looked thoughtful; finally a half smile touched her lips. "Well, then. You have to give me a cute guy to flirt with in some of the shots."

 

Lynn snorted and waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, please. I'll give you cute guys, cute girls, whatever you want! You've never even seen me bring out the big guns!" Then she looked at Cass and shrugged. "Whaddya think? I mean, we probably won't get every shot we need in one session, but maybe just to give us a few ideas? Y'know, get the ball rolling, see if it's a good fit?"

[olopi]

Cass looked at the two, calming down slightly and exhaling. “Whooo, sorry about that. I get a bit excited sometimes. “He took a few steps backwards, analysing the room, clearly going through something he’d learned a while ago in his mind, and muttering a few words. “Okay … from there …. A close-up … ye-no no …. maybeeee …”. He suddenly realized the others were still standing there, and still talking, and turned his attention back towards them.

 

“Sounds great. We can use a few tricks, make it look like there’s more people than there actually are. And I’m not just talking about photography ones here. “He laughed, then continued afterwards. “I’m eager too, but it’ll have to wait just a bit. I don’t really travel with my equipment out, so I’ll have to go back home to grab all of it. And because of how much it is, I fear I’ll have to do it the mudane way, so it could take some time. “

 

He walked towards the side of the room, close to the window, and pulled out his phone. “Tell you what, I’ll take some pictures.” With that said, he swung his camera upwards, followed by a click noise, a classical camera trigger. He then focused on the entrance, taking another picture. “I’ll analyse these while I’m on the bus. I’ve got some ideas we can pull off even with just us three. But I’d prefer to get some shots of the full store in. With real customers. Looks nice if you suddenly appear on your favourite store’s website, after all. “

Edited October 16, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

Lynn sighed and hung her head in mock sorrow. "Ah, you're probably right. It'll look better when the store is full; avoid that whole super-Photoshopped look that people pick up on, even if they don't consciously know it." Then she looked up and offered Cass a hopeful grin. "Hey, maybe by the time you get back, we'll have the AC back up and running; actually have a few customers in here."

 

For her part, Gretchen looked a little bummed about her missed flirting opportunity, even though it technically would have just been her girlfriend in a different form...apparently dating a shapeshifter does things to your head, she mused. She returned to her perch behind the counter and resumed her reading. "Why don't you show him some more cool stuff," she said without looking up. "You never miss a chance to be a star."

 

That made the changeling grin; to the average listener, that might sound like a putdown, but she knew Gretch well enough to know it was also half-compliment. Well, almost half; at least two-fifths. "Okay then, one more trick!" 

 

Lynn took a deep breath, and then collapsed in on herself, crumpling down to a puff of vapor until even that was gone; a few seconds later, she stepped back out of her office, smiling like an idiot and made jazz hands. "Ta-daaaa!"

 

"Wow. So cool. Amazing."

 

"Aww, you weren't even watching!"

 

"Nope."

Edited November 18, 2016 by Heritage

[olopi]

When Lynn disappeared, Cass watched. He didn’t look very surprised or shocked, he’d probably seen similar things before. As she stepped out of her office once more, he also smiled, in mock surprise. “Ah, I did totally not expect that! “Afterwards, his smile became more genuine. “No really though, it’s a cool trick. And quite a useful one, so, lemme give you an applause for that!”

 

He did as he said, bringing his hands together in front of his chest and then clapping slightly, with short motions. Then, only a second or so later, the clapping continued, but stopped to make any noise. Cass looked a bit taken out of it, staring into the distance without any emotion. Then, a few seconds later again, Lynn felt a finger poke her on the shoulder, as she heard Cass’ voice behind her. “Boo.” He laughed, still fully made of smoke, as he began to walk towards the front again, phasing halfway through the store owner’s body. “So, whadd’ya think? Pretty cool too, right? I’m not sure how you do yours, but chances are this works a bit different.”

Edited October 22, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

"Oh, okay!" Lynn laughed and applauded, clearly caught off-guard by the young man's display. Then she wrinkled up her nose in thought as she tried to figure out the trick. "You...created an illusion of yourself while turning invisble? Is that what you did? I'm not sure."

 

Gretchen actually did watch Cass work his mojo (her girlfriend's tricks, however, were hardly novel),  and she nodded in appreciation. "Nice."

 

"In my case, I'm using my glamour for a form of teleportation." She held out her hand, and a small statue of Cass appeared; it was wonderfully detailed and slightly stylized, like something you'd find in a glass case at a comic book store. "Anything I create is still linked to me; I can see and hear through it for surveillance purposes, or I can send myself through it to the other side." She set Little Cass on a nearby table, then sighed. "The only problem is, that means I can only go places I've been to before, though there are workarounds." 

 

She pointed at the little statue. "Like, if I sent that to you as a gift, you'd probably think it was cool and put it on your desk or a bookshelf, right?" She gestured towards it, and the figure changed; now it was slightly hunched forward, holding a dish microphone, and wearing a pair of headphones and a rather sinister expression. "And now I can spy on you whenever I want, as long as I'm within a two hundred mile radius." She winked and grinned. "Pretty sneaky, huh?"

Edited November 18, 2016 by Heritage

[olopi]

Cass was slightly surprised by Lynn’s perfect guess, but chalked it up to experience and met her with a smile. Mimicking a gameshow host of the olden days of TV, he spoke “Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!” And then, he returned to something more natural. “Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what I did, actually. Recently started training it, haven’t gotten much use out of it yet, but I feel like it’ll become really useful once I get the chance to actually use it more. “

 

And then, he listened to Lynn explain her glamour, smiling at the sight of Mini-Cass, and smiling even more at the sight of Mini-Sinister-Cass. He looked impressed, quite so in fact. “Okay, that's amazing. So much versatility! Like, there is so much you can do with that, my stuff looks One-Trick-Pony compared to it. “Once the presentation was finished, he started walking around the room again, occasionally taking a picture of the architecture or the angle. “Oh, I can work with this. So, any other fancy powers? I’m not sure how you’d top that but who knows?”

Edited October 25, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

Gretchen put her book down on the counter and stared at Cass in disbelief. "Why would you do that? She has an ego the size of a small moon. The last thing you should do is encourage her showboating."

 

Lynn frowned, shook her head and shrugged as she took several paces away from the freelance photographer. "Uh, the young man asked for a demonstration of my powers, Gretch; it's not showing off, it's, like, for science!" Then she turned back to Cass and grinned like the Devil himself as she rolled her shoulders and dropped into a crouch. "You think that was cool? You ain't seen nothin' yet!"

 

Gretch buried her face in her hands. "Oh god..."

 

Suddenly she started charging towards the fire manipulator at a full tilt, but after a few steps she dropped down on all fours and turned into a frickin' black panther! The great beast's glossy hide shone as it flowed like liquid death towards Cass, leaping to close the distance in one lethal bound- !

 

Only to shrink with a thump of vapor into an adorable little pixie, barely a foot tall, that stopped herself just short of the young man's face with a flutter of wings. Floating before his wide eyes, she giggled and gave him a tiny wet kiss on the cheek, and when she spoke, her voice was a chipmunk squeak. "Made you look!"

 

"That was...so not cool!" Gretchen came out from behind the counter, hands on her hips and shaking her head a dismay. "What if you didn't stop in time? What if his heart exploded?"

 

"Oh, he's fine," said Pixie Grim with a dismissive wave of her hand. "If he had a heart condition, hero work would've killed him a long time ago!" But then a look of doubt crossed her face, and she returned to her original size and clothing. "I'm sorry, kid; that probably was a bit much. Sorry if I scared ya there; sometimes the power makes you a little...y'know, a little crazy, am I right?" 

Edited October 28, 2016 by Heritage

[olopi]

Cass grinned at Gretch’s remark, adding in a few short words before Lynn continued to show off her rather interesting skills. “Showboating’s good!” When Lynn then took a few steps backwards, instinctively Cass looked slightly more tense, his brows just slightly lower than before. He handled the charging panther surprisingly well, not flinching much. Instead, he simply turned to smoke, the Pixie’s fluttering wind distorting his face, right as it returned back to flesh once it was clear there was no threat.

 

He took a step backwards either way, and then turned his attention towards the Pixie. “I’ve had worse things fly towards me… probably. “ He exhaled, then addressed the later remark. “Oh, I get you with that one. My powers are a bit more than just this-“ He waved his hand across his face, creating a bit of smoke in the process. “- but I don’t really use the rest often. Makes me feel too powerful, and that does things. It’s a cool feeling and all, but you probably get what I’m saying if I say that it just does things to you. “

 

He looked around the room once more, then took a step forwards again, returning to his previous position. “I assume that’s the “let’s show off our powers”-phase of meeting somebody new mostly concluded. So, what now? I don’t really see any crime to be fought right now.” The last part was, once again, followed by a laugh.

Edited November 2, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

"She went off the deep end a long time ago," stated Gretchen matter-of-factly as she stood with her arms crossed, glaring at her bizarre girlfriend. "Sometimes I forget she's not human, but she always finds a way to remind me."

 

"I wish you wouldn't say that," replied the changeling, looking genuinely hurt. "Just because I'm sometimes weird or random doesn't mean my feelings aren't real; I was born human, after all."

 

The young barista tilted her head to one side as she studied her partner for some time, saying nothing for several seconds; Lynn merely swallowed as she awaited her response. Finally Gretchen sighed and nodded.

 

"Well, then. It seems I owe you an apology." Then she stepped forward and gave Lynn a slightly awkward hug, which though a little stiff made up for it in strength. "I'm sorry. I forget things sometimes."

 

"Me, too." She gave Gretch a last little squeeze and then let her go, wiping small tears from her eyes as she laughed self-consciously. "Sorry 'bout that; every couple has its little moments." She reached over and took her lover's hand. "Um, not sure what to do, either, I guess; I mean, we have to stay here until the HVAC guy gets here, but maybe we can do something later? Do kids still do patrols and stuff like that?"

[olopi]

Cass looked on to the partners’ conversation with some distance, clearly not wanting to get involved himself. This was up to them to figure out. Instead, he turned his attention to the room again, not turning away from the two, but observing the wall behind them, and the counter. As they reconciled, he returned his attention fully towards them, and listened to Lynn’s question.

“Hey, it’s not been that long since the last reports of you being active. “He chuckled slightly, but continued, responding more seriously now. “But yeah, that’s still a thing. Truth be told, unless it’s the Fens, more often than not, I don’t find any trouble. It finds me instead.”

 

“Like, sure, occasionally you find something, but most of the big things I’ve been involved with so far came to me instead. It’s interesting, now that I think about it, actually. Either somebody contacts me directly, I end up being in the vicinity of the attack or I’m relaxing somewhere. But I’ve only really stumbled across things bigger than a small-time robbery a few times while patrolling. “

 

His hand wandered into one of his pockets. “That reminds me, I should probably give you a way of contacting me directly.” He pulled out a wallet, and from there a business card of some sorts. Grabbing a pen from a different pocket, he walked over to the counter, writing something down on the card, before retuning and handing it to the couple. “There you go. Ways to contact me and –“ his head became smoke for just a second, “me.” then returned to its natural form.

 

The business card itself was a very basic one. Cassidy Bauer – Photography of all sorts. An e-mail address, a website, and a mobile phone number. On the back, the thing Cass had written, also a phone number.

Edited November 5, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

Lynn took the business card, studied it for several seconds, and then tucked it into her back pocket with a nod. "Sweet, I got digits! Guess I should give you one of mine now." With a flick of her fingers, a Silberman's Bookstore card was in her hand. "This is a real one, not one I conjured out of glamour, so I can't be all creepy and spy on you or anything. Also there is an official Grimalkin website, which Gretchen maintains, though I do put up some content every one in a while. We get lots of tips via PM that way." She took out a pen and wrote her cell number on the back of the card. "There you go, all good to go."

 

"Send us an email when you're ready to do the photoshoot," said Gretchen with a nod. "I'll handle all the details."

Edited November 10, 2016 by Heritage

[olopi]

Cass nodded as he looked at the card and twirled it around his fingers. At the same time, his other hand reached back down into his pocket and brought up his wallet, where he quickly stored the card.

 

“Sounds good. There’s not a whole lot to prep, so I’m sure we’ll find something sooner rather than later. “ Then, he looked at his phone, and over to the door. “I think it’s time for me to head out, I’ve still got a few things that need to be done today. And I should probably also catch up on sleep, coffee only does so much.  “ He chuckled, then quickly looked into his bag to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. He bid goodbye to the two, then walked to the door, looking back. “I’ll be in touch. “

 

With that, he opened the door and stepped out, the slightly colder air flowing into the room. From there, he continued down the street, walking towards downtown.

Edited November 15, 2016 by olopi

[Heritage]

Lynn waited until Cass was outside the store to turn to her girlfriend and sigh. "Alright, tell me what I did wrong; you always have a list after we meet new supers."

 

Gretchen stepped over to her lover and rested her head on her shoulder, which led to a hug. "Nothing too serious. The main issue was your terrifying panther trick, but he survived that, so...progress." They stood holding each other quietly for several seconds before the younger woman spoke again. "I'm not trying to tear you down. I want you to be the best version of you that you can be. I'm sorry if that sometimes feels like I'm harping or unhappy. I...forgot what happiness felt like, so I didn't recognize it at first. But now I do."

 

"Mmm...I love you, too." The changeling took a step back and cocked an eyebrow mischievously. "So, do we want to work on our flirting skills? I mean, this photoshoot needs to look good."

 

"Yes. Yes, we do."

 

Fin

Edited August 4, 2017 by Heritage