jadcwickham

[jadcwickham]

She eyes it for a second before she takes it. For all the time she's spent as a hunter, it still felt suffocating and terrifying to be in a place filled with so many creatures, so many monsters that could kill her in the blink of an eye. She thanked her wife for her steady presence and sharp senses. Jade's got to trained them just the same, but even still, a break like this felt heavenly.

She shrugs, bringing the cigarette to her lips, reaching for the lighter Althea just used. One click and it's enough after the first use, inhaling slowly to feel the warm smoke burning her throat. "Sofía was born here... and her father has a tattoo shop she wanted to take over, now that he can't... so, you know... it was kind of an inevitable move, and if we can help now that we're here..."

@jadcwickham

"You know." Althea starts, rummaging through every single pocket she has for her crumbled box of smokes. Outside, things feel a little better. Not as oppressive. Not as.. terrifying. She finds the package, shakes one out and flips it up to her lips - the offers the last one to Jade, if she wants it.

Then more rummaging for her Zippo. Old fuckin' thing. Flips it open. Click. Click. Light. Deep as hell inhale, eyes closing as the warm smoke filters down the back of her throat. She speaks again, exhaling smoke as she does. "Figured you might have stayed home. Not like we can do much."

[jadcwickham]

She hadn't expected it to feel like this, like the air was leaving her lungs in a rush and there was no way to bring it back the moment she heard her voice again. She's not surprised by the way she moves, straightening herself and looking the ever perfect ballerina, stoic, unbreakable. And there's something in her body that still aches to move, to touch, to hold. A muscle memory she should had been rid of already after so many years apart.

She shakes her head, amused, exasperated -angry, frustrated- because Selene's still the same she knew, the same she loved. Full of assumptions through her visions, like she had all the answers because she knew every second of your life before you did.

And yet so blind.

"Finished what I couldn't?." She asks mockingly. Incredulous, because of everything she's seen, of all the images her magic has to offer her, couldn't she had seen that killing her had never been a choice?.

"I'm not looking for anything you can give me, Selene... and I'm certainly not looking to start something in a place like this, I'm not stupid, if it ever comes down to anything between us, then it will be between us."

Did Selene know Jade was here? In some twisted way, yes. Her magic always rebounded off Jade like a struck tuning fork, a frequency her body would forever recognize. Jade had once left her breathless; now Selene’s chest feels bruised, every inhale tight and aching to become a snarl. She sees it—the slow-motion bloom of fury across the timelines—ache calcifying into anger, possibility collapsing into inevitability.

“You’re here.”

The words leave her mouth as flat fact, no name attached, no invitation offered. And oh, how easily Jade says her name - with such casual ease - as if that intimacy cost her nothing. It still rankles. Jade walked away once without looking back, and somehow that hurts as much as the accusations she dragged with her: witch blood for hunter’s grief, blame sharpened into a weapon. Selene can nearly taste the metallic echo of it on her tongue.

Across the polished floor Jade stands tall, green-flame eyes still precise enough to map Selene’s soul—or carve it out. Distrust buried so deep it’s practically fossilized sparks again to restless life. Selene forces her spine straighter, dancer-poised, even as rage prowls behind her ribs. Emotions blur every future path she reads, but she swims through them anyway: one branch ends in bitter silence, another in blood-bright ruin, and a third—most dangerous—in the old, aching tenderness that terrifies her more than any blade.

“What are you looking for?” Selene snaps with a sort of wintry bite. “Back to finish what you couldn’t the first time around?”

[jadcwickham]

For: @ofaugury Where: The Gala

She knew she was here, had heard about the pretty dancer, so precise and beautiful it made your heart ache and your eyes water. Fill you with so much emotion you didn't know what to do with it until it bursts out. An innate talent, a ballerina so good it seemed to know every move before it was taught, before it was shown. She had seen her name around, plastered in posters that spoke of a grandiose performance, a beautiful show. Had felt the strange prickling at her chest, of a pain she had long thought forgotten. Like a wound being reopened, stitches pulled apart mercilessly.

Jade wasn't ready to see her again, not after such a long time. Not after how things ended with them. How she ended them, with the blood of her parents in her hands and the chance to stop it forgotten. But she couldn't had stopped it if she tried, for a city so large, it seemed so small in a place like this. And there she was, dressed in flowers and looking so beautiful it felt like a another stab on the open wound. Eyes so blue they felt they were looking right into her soul. It had always felt like that with her, Jade used to love it... now, she could feel the old, familiar anger growing inside once more. "Selene..."

[jadcwickham]

For: @lovelykills Where: The Gala

She felt at edge, surrounded by so many creatures, so few hunters. Not knowing the city and the people living in it made it even more difficult and she wondered if it had been a good idea to attend at all. But there was no better chance to know who they were up against than being surrounded by them, and Jade knew that Sofía loved a good challenge. There was a smile on her lips that was soft, not sharpness in her features as she circled an arm around her wife's waist, moving herself closer to the other. "You know, we could had been home... settling in, comfortably, and not in the middle of... this." The Conclave. It made her nervous, in truth, to know there were even more factions around that the ones plaguing this city. So many witches, making her skin itch, her spine straighten. "What do you have so far?."

[jadcwickham]

For: @drownholywater-kennedy Where: The gala

She hasn't been in the city, or around the older hunter enough to get a good reading of her, or all the people surrounding them. But she knew enough to tell some of the creatures apart, moving around like they were better than anyone. Jade wasn't stupid though, and as much as Sofía liked the thrill of a good challenge, there were enough supernaturals here to kill them all if they wanted to. She only hoped her wife kept that in mind as well. She took a sip of her drink, letting the gin burn down her throat before rolling her eyes and looking at the hunter, feeling the woman's eyes on her. She moved closer enough to murmur to her. "You know, I know you don't know me, but I promise you I've no intention of starting anything tonight, you can stop keeping watch on me." Though it felt at least comforting to think it was like watching her back someway.

[jadcwickham]

Jade Wickham at The Conclave Gala

Jade's new to Port Leiry, unlike her wife @lovelykills, with whom she sneaks into the gala. Knives hidden in her clothes, she knows her wife hides twice as her. Prepared for everything that might happen, she's here to get a feel of the people in the city. The creatures living in it, and whatever plan the hunters are working on now. She just wasn't expecting to find her ex in the middle of it as well.