alicehalloway-blog

[alicehalloway-blog]

Once the horror and disgust passed through her Alice collected herself, returning to her true nature. Rationality and curiosity above all else. She would never get over the fact that the only descriptions that could be found for her predicament were references back to the witch trials. So she sought out the person in possession of the camera, distracting the police with just enough time to find her name. She watched over Tessa’s shoulder trying to scan the image as well for any disruptions or strange positions of shadows. Maybe everything would be easier if lessons on everything weren’t so readily available. Alice would never blame the information of course, she’d take a bullet if necessary to protect the freedom of information. “I can hardly say I’m surprised.”

She couldn’t figure out what had happened. Her camera had never let her down, never betrayed her, never malfunctioned at the exact moment that she needed it to work perfectly. She had to believe that it was magic at work - but why, and who? Pressing her fingers to her temples, she stared at the screen of her Macbook, the photo open in Photoshop as she hoped that there was some was to make things work. “I feel so betrayed.” She whispered to herself. 

[alicehalloway-blog]

winnycunningham:

It was safe to say that it was late into the night, and she was slightly drunk. Drunk enough to not drive, but not to the point that tomorrow morning would be Hell. As Winny walked down the sidewalk towards her home she saw Belle on the ground. Not the actual Belle, but someone dressed as her. Cautiously, she approached them. Upon further inspection, she saw that the woman was Alice and not one of the many haunted house actors she ran into along the way. A drunk Alice, but still Alice. She grinned as her friend lamented, and offered a hand. She wondered what the other woman was up to when she walked past the bookstore and found it closed. It seemed now Winny had an answer. “If you want to get out of the streets, I can take you back to my house and let your phone charge,” she said with a nodded to the phone in Alice’s lap. “Or I can call a cab once we get there.”

“Charge.” The brunette replied without hesitation, reaching upwards to take her hand. Friendship had always been difficult for Alice, the six was spurned mostly out of the result of hours on end remaining trapped in a space together. If they would even allow themselves to be called that anymore. People drifted, even more so when there was centuries and millennia of time to explore, not even taking into account the other time lines, the realities that she felt vibrating around her never out of reach. Yet Winny strolled into her bookstore one day, looking clearly shaken the sign of a new inhabitant. She’d expected a birage of questions on where she was and what was going on but instead the brunette was given an unexpected question. Where the childrens books laid, the small boy behind her suddenly drawing Alice’s attention. Truthfully she’d never taken the time to stock any, having never read them herself. She gave her a few books of mythology throughout the world, the best she could do at the time and something more than suitable in her mind. Alice struggled with children, yet within a week Alice had a new children’s nook set up in the corner a few small plush chairs provided, easily within the sight of the check out. She’d pestered a few parents around town asking for recommendations on novels and picture books that would be suitable in their minds, many being thrown aside of course after reading them. Alice still wasn’t about to put anything mindless in her shop, they should be interesting but still factual. “I always want to see Quincy.” He was intelligent and curious, everything she’d adore to spoil and answer the questions of. How could anyone not take a shine to someone so sweet.

[alicehalloway-blog]

solomonxkim:

The phones in the police station turned into an orchestra as calls spilled in that morning. He had to take a seat outside to dull the sound. Through the window, Solomon watched a reporter’s lips move soundlessly on the TV screen. Next to her permed hair was a picture of the crime scene. A white sheet stretched on the ground stared out at him and everyone else that stumbled on the body. All of them knew the jigsaw puzzle of a body that laid underneath. He was the only one that didn’t scream in fear. Instead, he feigned shock when in all actuality he was more confused than upset. Blood and gore was not something that bothered him anymore. Confusion, bothered him, though. As the police questioned all of them for the third time since they were brought in as witnesses, he wondered if they really thought the suspects were guilty. He knew better, and it seemed they knew better as one of them stormed out. The muffled sound of a door crashing against the wall made him turn, eyes squinting at the woman fuming with anger.

It was when she began rambling off statistics that he recognized her. She was sober now. Sober and angry. Never a great combination, but that did not stop him from going up to her once outside. “I don’t think they really believe it either,” he said with complete disregard for the cops in the building. He never managed to get past his bias with police and investigations. “All they have is the tape, and they’re scared,” he added, “Once they get forensics in there all of you will probably be off squeaky clean.”

She felt lingering tremors in her body, the anger that couldn’t be shaken off of her. Alice didn’t like the unravelled nature of it, the underlaying fear. But then he was there again, catching her slightly off guard, a perpetually controlled lady. She’d didn’t linger too long on her discomfort with such a thing before her attention was caught. ‘Let off squeaky clean’ he’d said. If only everything didn’t feel slightly too heavy for this. She could feel it, the vibration in the air, the suspense, someone had arrived. “I think you’re failing to take into consideration mob mentality. The world is too content to ignore working for something truthful in favour of accepting a miracle answer. The town is already clutching onto the story and leadership has been ripped away, people scramble in these situations. The security is gone.” Three pinned Travellers, not that anyone would be aware of it outside of the Immortals Witches. An easy blow to half their numbers. “Evidence can be planted and witnesses bribed.” She needed to get in contact with Astor, they needed to sit down with the pompous leaders and rip a truthful answer out. This was their home, their pocket made by Guillermo, the longest the six had been around each other since the 60′s. 

An Ironic Witch Hunt

[alicehalloway-blog]

An Ironic Witch Hunt

“This is absolutely ridiculous!” Alice cried out storming out of the office to the witness of all who lingered about. “You’d have to be a cretin to believe that we’d be capable of such a thing.” The brunette seethed hands clenching into fists. It was bad enough that Winny was poisoned, bad enough that so much disaster had broken out, with only the witches it seemed innocently wide eyed to the events. Whipping around she turned her glare upon the nearest inhabitant of the time pocket. “Outside of the complete lack of motive, neither of us are physically capable of such damage. Do you have any idea the level of man power that is required to tear someone limb from limb? Four horse power at the lowest, not even factoring body mass and which joints would be pulled! 26,000 kg of force if a rope is used, which would have to be the most efficient way for two people of our size to accomplish such a feat! An impossibility by the way, seeing as combined we lack that level of strength. It is quite literally humanly impossible!” She fumed stamping a foot to the ground, Alice hadn’t been subject to such a ridiculous accusation since she almost lost her degree back in the 60′s. “How do you suppose I know this? Because I am quite literally a genius and everyone in this town seems to have suddenly become deranged.” Her fury wasn’t purely because of her own indictment but Guillermo, and Ezekiel. They were family, and like hell would she allow such mindless beings attempt to pin these attacks on them. They had each other, all they had was each other.

[alicehalloway-blog]

solomonxkim:

When she squinted at him, he squinted back. His hand still held out in between them. Before he could withdraw to leave her to her own devices she took it. As wobbled to her feet, he waited. Her grip on his hand remained, and it was too late to take it back. He listened as she talked about Belle and nodded along. He forgot most of that movie, and was certain he only watched it at a friend’s house when he was small. Due to the fact that she was drunk but still lucid enough to talk coherently, he let her go on. As she talked about the roads, he offered something akin to a smile. “I can get you a glass of water. I don’t live far from here,” he said. Then, thinking of the rest of the picture – the key at the bar, the blocked roads, and the phone – he realized that this was not that simple. He considered his options. Someone once told him that he was terrible at taking care of drunk people. They specifically told him: ‘You’re stingy. You never return the favor.’ They was right, he thought as he tried to think of a plan that would end with this girl at her house, and him out and about. “It is a lot. So, I’ll get the water, and instead of worrying about the phone we can go to the bar and get the key. You can wait outside if it’s too crowded. About how far is your house from this bar?”

“No-- someone might need me.” She groaned quickly fumbling towards the ground to grab at her phone, barely working or not. Alice needed to have it on her, she needed to be near by and easily contacted in case something happened. They were all so far apart and everything here felt so dangerous sometimes with the Witches and their hunters. She couldn’t even as terribly un-put together as she was leave them... leave them abandoned in the contact sense. “You’re being wrong.” As her fingertips brushed the phone’s screen and pieces of gravel she grasped until it was finely in hand, using him once more to right herself. “My house is far--- my Astor brother, his is close. I need the key there--- I forgot my key for there.” She attempted to explain tapping a hand lightly against his chest with every other word. It helped, she assumed, to string together her thoughts. If only her thoughts didn’t feel as if she were wading through caramel in order to complete them. She’d been drunk before, many people had been but typically those times she felt more relaxed and her brain flew out ideas by the dozen. Often ending up as half written nonsense on napkins and once a very detailed plane design for a new engine. “I just--- I just don’t want to stay put.” Alice tried to explain growing more and more frustrated with her inability to dictate her meanings much less understand them herself, past sudden pushes of feeling.

[alicehalloway-blog]

solomonxkim:

He left the house in a weak attempt for an outfit. After returning here after a few days away, he forgot about Halloween. Quite frankly, even he remembered dressing up lost its flair years ago. The last time Solomon was excited for Halloween, minus the parties, was sometime in high school. The team wore a group costume, and there were pictures of it somewhere in his actual house. Not the cramped little place he shared with three other people. One of whom reminded him to dress up. In the end, he managed to find a baseball jersey, and a hat, but no pants. He settled for jeans. ‘I’m a baseball coach,’ he thought when a roommate paused to ask. They thought better of it as he pushed his way out onto the street. He narrowly avoided stepping on someone, and looked down in surprise at the woman sprawled out on the ground. He noticed the phone in her lap, she looked drunk but in one piece. At her question, he shrugged, “I think Belle got lost at midnight – anyway, do you need someone to call a cab for you?” he held out his hand to help her up. “Or a glass of water?”

Gazing at the man above her for a moment Alice squinted in an attempt to place them. It was getting so hard to place people, she didn’t want to stop being able to do so. After a moment however she pushed it to the side, he was familiar and was seeming kind enough that felt like enough. Pushing the phone to the side she reached up grabbing his hand with both of hers grateful for the help rising back up. Looking back on it, she wasn’t quite sure how she was going to go about becoming vertical again. Swaying on her feet she remained latched on trying to re-find her center of balance. “She ran into the woods--- I suppose that’s lost, but she was running away from a beast. It feels unsure.” Frowning down at her phone the brunette’s nose scrunched up as she ran through her last few moments of thought. “I can’t--- my house is blocked and my phone won’t work--- water doesn’t seem horrible.” She decided suddenly feeling strangely upset as she looked down at her phone laying there on the ground. “I need food--- but even if my phone works--- my key for the others--- it’s at the bar and it’s packed and I don’t way---.” Astor was running his bar and Wolf his, Eugene was likely picking people up and there was no way she would drag Guillermo down from wherever he was to pull her away from some street corner she couldn’t even place. “Everything just feels like a lot of much.”

[alicehalloway-blog]

It was fair to say that Alice had been fairly unoriginal with her costume idea. Halloween however had snuck up on her in a way, often too wrapped up in her work to pay mind to anything else. It was simply too easy to fall down the rabbit hole of take out and equations and coffee. So pressed for time with only a reminder from some passers by Alice had thrown together a fairly passible costume. Hair tied back, a simple white blouse, blue dress and apron all added up to a decent Belle costume. It wasn’t a yellow gown and tiara like she’d seen little girls running around with but she did enjoy handing out books with roses tied to them for a special Halloween treat at her shop. Yet everyone in town did require a break every now and then so Alice took a night off. A night that started with one drink, to two, to three and a fair amount more and eventually where she sat on the sidewalk. Her home was a fair walk off and she’d been attempting to call some sort of ride before remembering that the roads there were all blocked off due to the event. Her mind was far too hazy for any of this and though her fingers itched with ideas to be jotted down and solved by a far more hungover Alice, she still was challenged by making even a simple phone call. Biting down harshly on her lip to try and jolt her sense back around for a moment to find her contacts Alice only continued to falter. With a dramatic sigh, the brunette threw her phone down onto her lap and fell backwards. “I give up! I thought it was supposed to be Cinderella struggling around midnight.”

[alicehalloway-blog]

@lemniscvte

there’s something endlessly hilarious to me about the phrase “hotly debated” in an academic context. like i just picture a bunch of nerds at podiums & one’s like “of course there was a paleolithic bear cult in Northern Eurasia” and another one just looks him in the eye and says “i’ll kill you in real life, kevin”

[alicehalloway-blog]

me talking to myself: good point

[alicehalloway-blog]

                                         The Halloway Family

[alicehalloway-blog]

Long ago Alice had lost her concept of boundaries around Astor. Perhaps it came from many nights of assistance jumping out windows and scaling walls back into them. Rather it may just be a result of several decades of companion ship and a mutual understanding that they were the only two with a semblance of self control. Either way she flung open his door tossing her bag down onto his couch and shouted out. “Wherever you are come down now, it’s urgent!” It wasn’t, but it was an easy way to get him to appear.

@ofgatheringstorms

[alicehalloway-blog]

scarlett-babineaux:

From her place in the backroom, Scarlett had heard the little ringing bell at the front door to signify that the presence of a customer.  “I’ll be just a minute!” She called out to no reply, before deciding on bringing a few of the couture items to the storefront to put on display. To her surprise, she found a quite petite woman already chatting about, the question of color seemingly troubling her, “Yellow is lovely but –” The other woman’s voice cut her off suddenly, and Scarlett realized that the woman was likely talking to herself, or perhaps had one of those devices in her ear that made it possible to talk to someone else. Hanging up the clothes where she could, the taller brunette waited patiently for a more proper silence to speak again. “If I might make a suggestion,” Scarlett started gingerly, holding up two pieces she believed would suit the customer. “You’ve got such lovely doe eyes, you know. Red or green could really bring them out and are perfect colors for this fall weather.” Her arms extended to hand both hangers to the woman, if she was willing to accept them. “But, of course, put them together and you might end up looking like the holiday season has come far too early.”

Alice was far over due for some new things in her wardrobe. Most things she owned were her clothes from the 60′s kept in tact with great care. Modernized by being mixed with other pieces so as not to look out of place in her time period. It simply didn’t seem necessary to purchase too many things when you didn’t age and your body never changed. She was still blending in with normal people however so picking up new things was important. Her bow blouse tucked into some high-waisted jeans being a favorite at the moment. Alice politely took both hangers from the saleswoman’s hands inspecting the dresses. They did look lovely and in line with her style. “The green is a nice shade, I don’t think I’ve seen many people wearing that color this time of year...” Often people seemed to stray away from the color reminding them of fresh grass. However the dark emerald of the dress felt different to her, eyes often floating back to it. “True, I don’t think I’d enjoy looking like a christmas tress so early on.” She teased before handing the red dress back to the woman. “I think I like the green one. It looks nice, but I should probably pick out a couple more things as well. My clothes are getting a bit threadbare.”

[alicehalloway-blog]

pippamorgcn:

Pippa sat on the upturned crate outside the bar, back against the rough brick as she leant her head back against the building, beer in hand but that wasn’t what caught her attention. What had caught her attention was the brunette muttering to herself. She’d dealt with centuries of crazy people, talking to herself wasn’t what had caught Pippa’s attention about the woman. No, what had caught Pippa’s attention was that she was disagreeing with herself. A frown creased her brow as she tilted her head, “Yeah no you’re right, you’re a genius.” the brunette mumbled sarcastically. 

There was an unfortunate fact of Alice that she was terrible with sarcasm. It wasn’t a common thing around her growing up, not until she was thrust into the world and company of others at University. --And rather unfortunately at that point she was so determined to push her way into an education that every remark flew straight over her head. A complex equation, theories of divinity and existence, physics and biochemistry, all things she had mastered. Sarcasm, not in the slightest. She did have excellent hearing however. Alice’s eyes lit up as she turned to the woman, having just been on her way to a bar herself to pester one of her friends for help on the matter. A stranger however would be an excellent test subject. “Yes, I am. My IQ is rather high.” She replied with little modesty, it was hard to be modest when one was required to shove their feet in the ground and demand fair treatment. “Would you mind acting as a control for me? I’m looking to redo a sign for my store. What color would you say interests you the most?” She attention immediately broke of however to stare at the wall. “No, actually I suppose I would use color theory as the control and your opinion as part of the data.” Her eyes turned back to the woman, “Yes, I would like to know your thoughts on the color.”

[alicehalloway-blog]

solomonxkim:

It wasn’t like him to offer unsolicited commentary. He tended to keep to himself unless someone directly wanted his attention. It was just that she was talking to herself, and other people around them were looking at her. He turned to get a better look at her as she turned to no one in particular. “Yellow always makes me think of sick things. Like pus,” Solomon said as she mused over colors. It was true. Ever since his father passed away yellow went from being a happy color to one that made his stomach roll. “Red is warmer,” he agreed, mind lingering on something Grace told him when he was in high school, “It doesn’t wash people out as much. More flattering.”

Turning at the sound of another voice Alice’s eyebrow quickly arched. On occasion there would be one or two people who would come speak to her while she spoke to herself. Often due to confusion, believing she was asking something of them. However this seemed slightly different the stranger swooping in on one of her stranger conversations. Typically she tried to remain still when speaking to herself in public aware of the attention it garnered. Head tilting to the side she thought over his suggestion. “I’m just worried however if I paint the new sign red it’ll feel a tad predictable. Book store with a red sign and gold lettering. I’m lucky to not need to compete with Amazon but there’s still a public library that people are free to roam into.” She explained brows furrowing. “I want something to inspire people to read.”

[alicehalloway-blog]

lemniscvte:

Wolfie had plenty to drink about. If anything, his drinking kept him from a meltdown, kept him from truly feeling everything that he felt. She didn’t make him feel better, so he took another swallow. None of his fellow classmates made him feel better, if he was honest. “Excuses just harness you,” Wolfie said, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. He placed the glass down and leaned against the bar. “I didn’t think the post got here,” he started to laugh, he couldn’t help it. “Do you have a PO box on the other side?” He admired her, if he was honest. She was doing something with their little gift, while Wolfie was really only using it as an excuse to drink without consequence. “What degree this time?” He moved to the bar, and wiggled his fingers as he picked something expensive and tasty. 

Alice liked to pretend when she saw him, when she saw any of them really that they were happy to speak again. It seemed however that no matter how hard she pulled the six were destined to always be drifting this way or that with their own plans going. She missed the lab, the long nights of speaking over each other, frustrations building and the moment of joy that came with a slight bit of progress. Alice missed working together. She missed feeling like they were all friends rather than six semi-egotistical geniuses looking to create something horrible and magnificent. “No, I can’t imagine it could even if I wanted it to, people may accidentally wander into here but I think it would be difficult to get one on a daily schedule. On the other side, I close it up and update the name every now and then.” She grinned placing her chin into the palm of her hand. “Cell and Molecular Biology, Masters degree, with a minor in Ecology. I’m taking a bit off before I turn it into a Doctorate.” She’d moved on from Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry and Neuroscience a while ago. “I think I’m going to have to take that one to a different school however.”

[alicehalloway-blog]

[alicehalloway-blog]

The petite brunette jumped her pale trench coat fanning out slightly with the movement. A hand came to tap her lips, eyes widening “No--- what an absolutely idiotic--- but if you just changed it to yellow.” Eyes unfocused her mind whirled on with her unspoken problem. “Yellow is supposed to be inviting, if someone sees yellow they’d like it. Don’t you think?” She asked the air turning once more not noticing the person before her. “No that’s a horrible idea, you’re smarter than that think broadly.” Silence once more as she tapped a small oxford heel to the ground, “You’re right, you’re a genius of course you’re right. Red. Red is bold and attention getting and weather in the right fashion could look wonderful.”