#monleon.open

[sadiewolfsohn]

location: main street ( event )

status: open ( @monleonstarters )

Strolling down Monleon’s Main Street, newly bought handicrafts in hand, Sadie could almost forget how much she had despised the town growing up. Seventeen years later, with the sheen of success and money, it was easy enough to recognize that it was her circumstances she had loathed, more so than the location. Still, a faint bitterness remained at the back of her mind.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the small object she spotted on the ground just in time to avoid stepping on it. “Excuse me,” she addressed the person several paces in front of her. “Did you drop this?”

[mia-alvarez]

 { @monleonstarters​ }

“You’re probably wondering,” the brunette in a sparkling mermaid costume with glitter in her hair spoke up, puffing out a cloud of smoke– her only vice, if you asked her. “How I ended up in this situation. Supposedly I wasn’t smiling enough, so the event planner sent me home, what the hell? I don’t get it, aren’t sirens supposed to be these… lethal, dark, soul-devouring creatures?” However, before she went on with her rant, she lifted her gaze and flashed a charming smile at the person nearby. “Come, join me,“ and she patted the empty spot on the staircase beside her. “Hope your day’s been better. If not, I have a whole pack of cigarettes and an inside man at a 24/7 diner, instructed to save me some pie.”

[rosalindevangeline]

setting: oxford exchange; mid-february with: open

rosalind perused the bookstore shelves as she waited for the restaurant at oxford exchange to finish the takeout order she’d just placed. she supposed she ought to have called it in, but work had been busier than usual and it was only on her way back to the town that she realized she’d promised to bring dinner over to percival’s; she’d left nala with him for the day and rosalind was thankful that she wasn’t ( once more ) apologizing to the dog daycare for arriving after they’d closed.

her hand reached for a book of photographs from the area the same time as another and rosalind withdrew her own, offering a smile as she turned her head. “oh, i’m so sorry. go ahead,” she gestured toward the shelf.

[steviecalhoun]

WHERE: bayfront marina park ( last friday event ) WHO: open to all  ( @monleonstarters​ )

Tradition, Stevie thinks, is a get-out-of-jail-free card for people scared shitless to change. Repetition doesn’t make a thing sacred—fuck, it doesn’t even guarantee you’ll be good at it. Monleon’s Last Friday is tradition. It has been for as long as she can remember, and sure, she enjoys the festivities more than baby showers or God forbid, Thanksgiving. It’s as much culture as you’ll get in Florida’s Gulf Coast and therefore, it’s a necessary evil. As it transpires, Monleon’s population aren’t big on vinyl. And as the acting owner of the city’s sole record shop, that’s now Stevie’s problem. 

So far, she’s spent the past hour and a half like this: Fender Jazzmaster in hand, a box of records at her feet, strumming a little part of her soul away. It’s not that busking’s beneath her, although she refuses to be a gimmick and so far, her choices have consisted of mostly deep cuts. Rather, it’s easy to get lost in the music, unavoidable to bleed along. It always has been. 

Her fingers fall away from the frets and it’s only then that Stevie notices that someone’s stopped to listen. Think customer-service related thoughts. She summons a smile. “They’re all fifteen dollars. You can have a look through, if you want.” 

[cliodhnamcgrath]

@monleonstarters​

“i didn’t really know what to put out? i don’t have guests round that often.. oh and uh, excuse the mess, i’m halfway through re-organising this room, so there’s kind of books everywhere..” light smile touches your features as you exhale, fluster beginning to die out and cheeks returning to their usual rosiness. you hadn’t been lying, guests over was a rarity, so this was nice. different. a feat you could perhaps get used to. “so we have a bowl of peanuts and some crisps-” you point and cock your head, “chips. peanuts and chips. i have wine in the fridge too.” you kick your shoes off, getting two glasses and the bottle, returning to comfortably settle on the couch before pouring. “can you tell it’s been a while since i’ve had someone new here?” gentle smirk catches at the corners of your lips and you lift a brow, sliding one of the glasses across the table, “i can assure you i usually come across a little cooler than this.”

[aidanwright]

setting: the marina; mid-morning with: open!

his head was still pounding from the partying he’d done after the super bowl. while aidan wasn’t a fan of football by any stretch of the imagination, he would admit that the previous night had been pretty fun. aidan had only returned from the city to monleon in the early morning and though he’d had two cups of coffee already, he thought it might end up being a day where he did very little at all.

he heard footsteps behind him, however, and he turned, barely seeing who it was. a groan escaped his lips at the thought of interacting with anyone right now. “if you need me, please come back tomorrow,” he pleaded, his tone good-natured. “i’m hungover as hell.”

[ofbecketts]

Perhaps it was a dream, or maybe it was a nightmare, but whatever it was that had roused Beck from a deep slumber was not letting him fall back asleep no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't even remember it now, what had caused the anxiety to grip at his chest and pulled him from his REM cycle, but that didn't matter now. What mattered now was that Beck was stuck wandering the same streets he had once known and had to continue reckoning with the fact that everything had changed. He hadn't wanted things to change. Selfishly, he had wanted everything to stay the same, for these streets to be the same ones he had wandered as a boy, for the roller rink to be exactly preserved from all the times he and his friends had smoked behind it, for the all the little rivers and creeks to have never risen or fallen, just stayed put, like a memory frozen in time.

But life didn't work that way, and more often than not Beck found himself traveling down the same routes he had once taken on his bike as a teenager, now on foot with a cigarette between his fingers. Though then, he supposed, he'd also usually had a cigarette between his fingers. Quitting had never been possible for Beck, not when he already had so many other vices he found it impossible to let go of. He figured that keeping one was better than keeping all of them. He stopped in a particularly clear part of the street, the treeline separating just enough to encircle the moon in a wreath of branches as he gazed up through them, taking another drag from his cigarette. Life here, he supposed, could be beautiful every once in a while.

[casoncohen]

Like a poet born too late who wore his heart on his sleeve, a saviour born as he attempted to pen the next great american novel. He hums in dissatisfaction at the scribbles on the ivory coloured paper. How hard could it be? He’d thought this as he stared at the four walls of his bedroom only to quickly realise his impending doom. The publicist was breathing down his neck, the world awaiting for the great words of a once great writer. But he was falling short each time, as he sighs heavily reaching up to rub at his tired eyes.

Reaching over for his cup of coffee that was fuelling the energy he so awfully lacked, it came up empty as he stared at the bottom of the cup a pout following. How long had that been empty? He grumbles as he pushes up from his chair, a stumble straight after as he chuckles to himself — damn, he was tired.

Cason had forgotten over time how much working on a novel could eat at him; it was slowly becoming soul consuming and his mind did not deter from the goal. But he wondered if the goal was worth his sanity at this rate?

‘‘Could I get another black coffee please?’‘ He calls out as he begins to fish for his wallet.

[wyattmontgomery]

open starter @monleonstarters​ location: moleon memorial hospital charity gala

Wyatt was completely out of his element that night, knowing that it probably showed. He supported local fundraising initiatives, but his teaching salary did not leave a lot of disposable income for attending charity galas - the only reason he was in attendance that night was because a colleague had given him her ticket after she fell sick. After texting the babysitter for the fifth time that night to check in on Noelle, Wyatt plucked another champagne flute from a passing server. “Have you tried any of the cocktails yet? If so, what would you recommend?” he casually asked the person next to him near the bar. He was usually a beer drinker, at least when he did go out for a pint or two. But there was a long list of cocktails, keeping with the 1920′s theme -  Sidecar, The Southside, French 75 to name a few. There was the usual Old Fashioned on the menu, but this was his opportunity to explore different options rather than getting the safe one.

[lexichenderson]

location: C’est La Vie

open starter for: @monleonstarters​

The one thing Alexandra loved about every other Thursday was that they were her Fridays and this week, was that week. As a little pick me up, she was going to treat herself to a few macarons and sitting out on the patio to enjoy some sunshine while reading the newspaper and that was exactly what she did. Now here she was, a few pages in when she noticed a disturbance in front of her causing her eyes to slowly move from the page to two quarreling idiots in the street. “God, it truly wouldn’t be Monleon if there weren’t idiots fighting in the middle of the street,” She mused to no one in particular. 

[evierhodcs]

open starter @monleonstarters​ location: monleon memorial hospital charity gala

Evie’s facial expression was rather blank as she danced with her partner, a colleague of her father’s that had always taken somewhat of a liking to the middle Rhodes child. “Mhm, Travis,” she responded nonchalantly as he complimented her on her ravishing beauty - ironically, the same beauty that he made fun of her for using when she was into pageantry. She had to resist every urge to slap him in the middle of the dance floor in the middle of all the gala’s attendees, but thankfully the song ended. Before Travis could ask for other dance, Evie quickly spotted someone out of the corner of her eye. “Sorry, gotta catch up with my friends,” she told him apologetically, faking a contrite smile as she sauntered off and joined the person she had seen. “How’s it going?” she asked, her lips pursed as she saw Travis still observing her movements. “Just came over to say hi - and to avoid a persistent dance partner,” she stated nonchalantly, looking at her chosen company. You better play along, the brunette thought.

[andynolton]

If there was anything Andy was good at, it was this. Writing stories, finding out what made people tick, that was exactly why he had gone into journalism in the first place, and it was nice to know that he could still find stories worth telling while he was here. He had thought it would get boring, that he would no longer enjoy his job once he moved to this tiny market. Maybe the biggest lesson to learn here was that there were people everywhere with something worth reporting on, a story that needed to be told. Andy had always centered his work around the people who rarely got a voice, whose voices were often drowned out by those louder or stronger or more influential than them. He rooted for the underdogs, maybe because he was an underdog himself, once upon a time, and it was cathartic to tell the stories of people he saw pieces of himself in.

When he was writing scripts, he often lost track of time, and before he knew it, the coffee in front of him in the diner booth he had claimed as his own had grown cold and the script now far too long for a three-minute segment on the evening news. Still, it was better to have too much than too little, so he took a sip of his coffee, grimaced, put it back down and continued typing furiously.

[mariahkenmoreblog]

open

Where: Mainstreet, Downtown Monleon

Mariah sighed as she walked the streets of Main Street. There were so many people and her anxiety was thrumming in her chest. She had brought her earbuds with her to help her cope. She found if she listened to an interesting podcast as she moved along large groups of people that she would feel less anxious. It was the times when she had to go into stores and take the earbuds out that were still difficult. She usually shopped online, but she couldn’t. Her mom was coming to visit during the weekend and she knew she had to get her house looking much better than it was. There were tons of star maps and engineering books on her shelves, but decorative pillows and paintings there were not. She told her mom that she won some specially commissioned art pieces at the gala and her mom insisted she come to her house so they could find the perfect places to put them around her house. While it was always great to spend time with her mom, Mariah knew that she would not appreciate the shabby furniture that was placed around her home. Mariah preferred comfort over looks and matching, but her mom was the exact opposite and would be horrified if she didn’t have different things to pull everything together. So here she was, shopping for her home. She pushed open the door of the next store and bumped into someone. Her mouth opened as things spilled out of their hands. “Oh...oh no. I’m...I’m so sorry. I...I will help you.” she said nervously as she took her earbuds out carefully before bending down to help gather what was spilled.

[candicejriley]

Open

Place: Monleon Memorial

Night shift

Candice slipped her backpack around her before going to the back and unbuckling a sleeping Ayden. She had night shift tonight and one of her coworkers had already asked her about covering her shift so she was probably going to be at the hospital probably into the next night if she was lucky. She was so thankful for the hospital’s daycare that she could always bring Ayden with her no matter when or how long her shifts were. She had managed to give him a few hours in his bed before changing his clothes and carefully driving him to her job. She picked up his sleeping form slowly so he wouldn’t wake up and carried him and their things into the hospital’s employee entrance. She made her way to the daycare carefully handing her son over to the daycare worker giving him a kiss on his head before leaving and promising she would be back to eat some breakfast with him when he woke up. She made her way to the staff room where she could put her things and get started on her night. Her briefing was at the nurse’s station letting them know all the critical patients and emergencies that had come in that night. She was told her patients and began her rounds. She opened the door to a room smiling. She found that smiling and a positive attitude put patients at ease along with their families. “Hi, I’m Candice and I’ll be your nurse tonight. How are you feeling?” she smiled as she picked up the chart to look over the patient’s notes before starting to take vitals.

[inigopls]

Inigo spun the comfy chair for his latest client, and gestured for them to sit down. “I promise you, won’t be too short. Your hair is too beautiful to lose so much!” He whipped out a gown to protect their neck. “But have you considered a colour? Summer is approaching, it might just liven things up!” As a talkative hairstylist, Inigo didn’t even let them answer before continuing. “Of course, you can think about this. Maybe over some wine? We have a lovely lovely red somewhere. We can try it together! Or tea, do you prefer some tea maybe?” 

[cliodhnamcgrath]

location; charity gala

you manage to swirl the glass of wine in your hands, lingering only for a moment before you pull it to your lips. eyes searching over the rim and staring into the small groups of people who cluster themselves amongst one another. this wasn’t your thing, by any means. and these people? extraordinarily out of your league. what did you, a girl raised in annagry have in common with the elite of menleon? little. very very little. and so you watch them, curiosity spiking as they mingled amongst one another. flamboyant laughs linger throughout the crowded room and vanishing amongst the shrill of others. until you turn your head that is, noticing you now had company, “hello,” you start, pulling the glass from your mouth as you look them over, “some party, hm?”