jasminefairbank

[jasminefairbank]

@asterfairbank

Aster shrugged. He didn’t care much for Fidchell. It was one of those things that was just tradition, it was just something they did, but he didn’t find it pleasant to watch, or think about. He avoided thinking about it as much as he could - Which also tended to avoid interactions with any players. He had no qualms getting attached to most humans, but it was harder knowing how likely it was for the players to die.

“Yeah.” He laughed a little, taking a roll, and passing the bread on. “I’d love to get statistics or whatever, on how much of those actually last.” He’d seen marriages like this end fairly quickly and dramatically, but for the most part, he didn’t actually know how many of the ones he’d seen were still intact. “Oh, it’s… Well. I suppose I shouldn’t get too used to it, only one day.”

“So you enjoy it while it lasts, I think.” Jasmine shrugged and smiled. She tore off a piece of her roll and dipped it in the soup. “Or do you miss getting to compete in the games?” she asked, popping the bit of bread into her mouth. Being Queen could be kind of alienating, in that sense. You were set apart from the rest of the crowd. And there was the chance that someone could resent your ruling over a close competition. Many fey, even the prideful ones, took the results of the games in good spirits, but there was always somebody. 

[jasminefairbank]

@andmarigolds

If anything could stop Marigold from following the strongest urge she could recall ever feeling, it was the knowledge of her sister’s pain. The empathy she felt towards Jasmine tugged her out of the soft white magnetic influence of the rocks. Even though she felt like, if she just reached out and touched them, everything would go away, everything would be fine, Marigold couldn’t do it if it meant causing Jasmine distress.

“Okay.” It was hard to say it, to agree with her sister. How could Jasmine say the rocks were wrong? A part of her, something dulled by the desire to touch them, recognized that Jasmine had already done so, and they had done something to her. Hurt her. Torn her. “Are you okay? Let me…call a car. If something is going on…” she shook her head, as if clearing it from a fog, frowning vaguely. “We need to get home fast.”

“Yes,” Jasmine emphasized, “Please. Call a car.” She had her own phone in hand, but didn’t want to take her eyes off of Marigold. She could still feel the terrible, inexplicable hunger at their backs. 

If Marigold could just focus on her voice, they could get out of there.

But first, they had to get to the street, and that meant back toward the crowds. Jasmine felt her breath catch once again. “Get out” seemed herculean and panic-inducing. The task had to be broken down into steps, for her sake and for Mari’s. 

Clutching her sister’s hand, Jasmine started to trudge through the sand, in the direction of the boardwalk. One foot in front of the other. 

[jasminefairbank]

@nickclas

She was a coworker of Hazel’s, then. Nickel listened carefully to how she spoke. Oakenfold. I. Read. Movies. Interviewed. Why.

“Yeah? Is all that on the record?” Nick said, grinning. The other people in line watched as the rollercoaster cars tugged away down the tracks. “I go to a lot of shows. Live music and raves and stuff, but plays, galleries, exhibits. I know a lot of people from school who produce work, I go and support ‘em. My buddy Rag does these big set piece installation things–once as big as a warehouse, it was like you could go inside and explore his weird-ass brain. I go to the movies, too, but it depends on who I go with. I like Marvel, and I like the indie stuff my brother always wants to watch. What kind of dance?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll have to tell you about the really weird stuff later,” Jasmine replied dryly. The interview bit was familiar to him, she reflected. Senator Dalton’s face was a constant on the local TV stations and in the papers. Jasmine’s image of a politician’s family was a cluster of tight-lipped people with perfect hair, being herded into long black cars while the press yelled questions. Nickel would be used to being in the spotlight, or at least spotlight-adjacent.

They made it to the front of the line, Jasmine’s feet moving automatically as she listened to Nickel spin out the broad strokes of his life. If he frequented the art scene, he might know Quinn, or at least their work. She stopped short of asking him; better not to give the Unseelie any information about the Players, no matter how innocuous. 

“Sounds exciting.” But who calls themself Rag? “I love to go to the theatre too, when I can.” As for the raves, there was little Jasmine could say that wouldn’t make their age difference readily apparent. She remembered when the DJs at the wildest all-night parties were spinning Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor. It was almost sordid to think about.

“Most of my dance experience is with ballet, but--sorry!” The seat they’d been led into was too small for comfort, and Jasmine’s elbow had jabbed into Nickel’s ribs. She tried to make more space for him, but their shoulders were still wedged together when the car started to clatter forwards. 

[jasminefairbank]

@nickclas

“Yeah, I’m up for it,” Nick said. If Jasmine was offering to foot the cost, he wasn’t about to gainsay her.

He ambled in the direction of the line. “So, what is it that you do? Job or hobby, doesn’t matter to me. I’m just making conversation.”

He let Jasmine treat him, which she noted but didn’t mind, and the pair of them took their places in line. “Well, I cook at Oakenfold, for starters.” Refreshingly, there was no need to hide anything; he knew who she was, and she had at least a sense of him. “Which I enjoy. I also dance, I read a lot, go to the movies...” She broke off. “Wow. I feel like I’m being interviewed for something.” 

Jasmine smiled, squinting a little in the sun as they shuffled forward in the queue. “Why, what do you do when you’re not at the Rookery?”

[jasminefairbank]

@asterfairbank

Twins. Aster couldn’t count the number of times he’d wished he had a sibling, any sibling, let alone one who was his exact same age. He’d never gotten one, and his mother still liked to remind him that he had been plenty for her to deal with on his own (“Still are,” she’d say, but she was always laughing when she did). He nodded. “He’s the overseer, right?” He desperately wanted to ask more about her being a demifey too, but he held back. He wasn’t ashamed to be one himself, but he had no idea how she felt about it, and he wasn’t trying to find out. He had to laugh, a bit. “I never had any siblings, so I can’t really put myself in that position.” He took a sip of his mead. He didn’t want to go on about that subject more, even if it was a joke about killing someone, it put Aster on edge, just a touch. He didn’t  want to think about death, now. “I’m sure it’ll all go fine. As fine as these things usually do, y'know.”

“He trains the Seelie Players, yes.” It was a brutal, ugly word, overseer, one that both Courts bandied about with little care. It evoked human horrors, terror and death distinct from the Fidchell board. Yet another thing the fey would never understand, or did not care to. 

“Maybe you remember him; he won Fidchell two years ago.” Jasmine realized too late that to an Unseelie that statement might sound like bragging. The last thing she wanted to do was extol the proficiency of the Seelie Court at training humans to murder one another. When Aster presented an opportunity to change the subject, she leapt at it. 

“You’re probably right. By the law of averages, half the Courts must have been married like this at one point or another.” Jasmine picked up a bread basket that had been passed their way and took a roll, then offered it to Aster. “So what’s it like being Queen for the day?” 

[jasminefairbank]

@willcwfairbank

Of course. You know that. Willow had to admit, their question had been a leading one, she confident in the answer Jasmine would give. And why not? Because who in this court, themselves included, had more reason to want change than she? She had had been made an outcast by virtue of her blood status? She who had been attacked for it - and now forced to hide her perceived ugliness? It was enough to bring even the gentlest of souls to rage.

“I wish. Because learning something would mean I could fool myself for a little while longer.” Delusions were for children. Adults knew how to take the hard truth. Sighing, Willow stepped a little closer, bringing Jasmine into their confidence. “There are others. People who think the court can be changed. People who want it to change. People who are willing to do something about it. You could join us.”

The conversation had taken an strange turn. Jasmine had been anticipating some kind of revelation, a secret that would make all the Court’s problems snap into place so a solution could present itself. Maybe that was what Willow meant by fooling oneself. They had clearly searched high and low for that sort of answer, only to find that there was none. 

Willow was talking about the fertility crisis, but they’d also made a point of referencing the unborn Seelie prince, and how Jasmine wouldn’t be part of her brother’s life. The parallel they’d set up, lurking beneath the surface like a crocodile, was disturbing: Ossian would be raised as a stranger to his half-sisters, and Fianait was gone, the Court damned for it. The same person was responsible.

There were no easy answers, just people. People whose whims and prejudices defined Seelie life. People whose choices caused the Court to wither. And now people who, apparently, had enough. But even with a group who agreed with them, Willow still didn’t have any kind of a solution. “What, exactly...do you think you’re going to do?” Jasmine asked, at a loss. 

[jasminefairbank]

Jasmine didn’t often waste time on the Internet, or at least she tried not to. This evening, however, she’d been looking up aquarium fish and gotten sucked into a forum discussion on the care and keeping of cichlids. She hadn’t kept fish in several years, and had been toying with the idea of starting up again. Oscar fish were beautiful, but the requisite tank size would be a challenge in her apartment. People also swore they were intelligent, which had always intrigued Jasmine. What does it mean for a fish to be smart? 

These and, and other questions of dubious importance, could wait. Jasmine nearly flew out of her seat at Mari’s knock, not having seen much of her sister since the surprise handfasting. Right after Lughnasad, she’d been told, Ember had spirited Marigold away to who-knows-where for an impromptu bachelorette party. Jasmine had grown up assuming she’d be the one to make these arrangements when Mari got married, and had felt a twinge of jealousy. But nobody could have planned for any of this, least of all Marigold herself--which was why Jasmine was so anxious to sit down and talk with her. 

She poked her head out of her bedroom door, smiling. “Hey!” Jasmine pulled Marigold into a hug, then scanned her face for signs of trouble or good news. “How’s everything? How’s...how’s Forest?” 

Where: The Easton, Apartment 5B When: August 3rd Who: closed to @jasminefairbank

How long could she pretend everything was still normal? With glamours gone, her thoughts strayed often to Jasmine, a twinge of concern and guilt in the back of her head near-constant. Marigold tried her best to ignore the recent change in her circumstance. It had only been a couple days, and she hadn’t had the time to talk to Forest since Lugnasad, so it was not worth fretting about–right? If he was bothered by their symbolic wedding, he would have told her by now.

Marigold knocked on Jasmine’s door out of courtesy more than anything, because she entered without waiting for a response. “Jas?” she called experimentally, glancing around for her sister.

[jasminefairbank]

@asterfairbank

Aster didn’t know seelie particularly well enough to know more than faces and a few names, but the person he’d been sitting at had pointed out the ones who’d been voted to marry to him. Forest, the seelie overseer, and one of the Adare’s daughters. Demifey daughter, they’d said, which had surprised him. But whatever’d happened, with her, it must have been a special circumstance, because he knew well enough that they didn’t keep demifey around. Usually, he considered, thinking of Lark. He didn’t say anything, just nodded, and drank more wine.

He didn’t think much about it all, until he noticed someone laughing - Jasmine. He remembered her because she had been.. Different, there’d been something different about her than other seelie he’d met.

Her sister.

It all clicked. He’d gone from thinking she was human, before, and then just another full fey seelie, looking down on him - But of course. This made more sense. “Your sister?” He said, and it came out undeniably surprised. “You think it’ll last?”

Jasmine stabilized her cup on the table, and several other people’s cups that were rocking dangerously, threatening to stain the table with mead. Preventing spills was something of a reflex from years of kitchen prep work, steadying herself as well as the drinks. She honestly hadn’t expected Aster to be on speaking terms with her, not after the evening in the Rookery which she’d considered a bit of a disaster. Maybe his duties as Queen of Lughnasad had warmed him to the Seelie, at least for the day. Regardless, Jasmine was glad to hear his voice. 

“Yeah, that’s--that was my sister Marigold up there. We’re twins, actually.” She gestured across the green where the newlyweds were sitting, then back to herself. Aster hadn’t recognized her on sight; there was no reason he would know Marigold, or their relationship to the rest of the Court. She’d let the gossips fill him in on the rest of the details, if they hadn’t already. 

Aster had been easy to talk to last month at the bar, but Jasmine remained tight-lipped about Marigold’s feelings for her new husband. Anything she said was fuel for a rumor mill that could make things difficult for Mari. “Forest, I don’t know if you know him, but he’s a nice guy. Which is good, because I’ll have to kill him if he ever hurts her.” She made it into a joke, but more and more she was glad that it was Forest who was by Mari’s side on the dais. Whatever was between them might be awkward, but he wasn’t among the Seelie who’d be crude about being bonded to a demifey, a baseborn. He’d be kind, however long the marriage lasted.

[jasminefairbank]

@thewinteress

Swimming was admittedly what kept Frost sane. When the world seemed foreign to her, she retreated to deep within the water. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always an option. In the past, there were stints where she had gone years without stepping foot in the ocean. The worst of these years had been the Great Depression, the stress and wear of surviving even as a fey had left her searching and clinging for something to keep her together.

That’s where Hyacinth had entered in with dancing, teaching the younger, impetuous Frost steps. The repetition of the steps forever imprinted in her brain. The waltz, foxtrot, the charleston, Frost consumed whatever he learned from his position as knight and taught to her. Of course, there were other dances Frost learned through history from different sources. There was always a thrill of learning how to tango in a little bar in Argentina.

Truth be told, Frost was mainly competing for the fun of it. With all the moodiness and tension lately, Lugnasad was a bright spot. Twisting and stretching the muscles in her back, Frost found herself glancing toward one of the king’s infamous daughters. Jasmine. She tilted her head at the other water fey before starting toward her, raising her arms above her head to roll her shoulders back.

“Jasmine, right? Marigold’s sister?” Keeping her voice friendly, Frost dropped her arms and smiled at her.

Jasmine hadn’t expected to be approached by her competitor, but at least she remembered where she’d last seen her. It was at the Rookery, the night she’d met Aster. She waited tables, and knowing the venue she probably had other, more covert responsibilities as well. 

“That’s me.” Jasmine wondered if this woman had ever met her sister, but that seemed highly unlikely. Marigold didn’t have much interest in the Unseelie. She probably knew the twins as a unit, as marigoldandjasmine, by reputation only. But she was polite enough--for now--to call Jasmine by her name instead of addressing that reputation directly.

“You work down at the Rookery, right? I never caught your name.” Her voice dropped as the lead musician started sawing on his fiddle. The rest of the band, mixed Seelie and Unseelie in the spirit of the holiday, joined in with concertina and pipes. The bandleader invited the crowd to clap along, gesturing for someone to be the first to demonstrate their skills. 

A Seelie man stepped up and began an old-style routine. Jasmine craned her neck to get a better view, occasionally glancing over at the woman by her side to see what a more experienced dancer thought of the performance. 

rings on her fingers, bells on her toes

[jasminefairbank]

@goldmalice

Adare could think of a few things that Lacha would want to ask for in return, but he had that advantage of having one of his own murdered first, as garish as that sounded. Lacha hadn’t offered any help to him beyond confirmation that her own people hadn’t been responsible for Eurya’s murder back in February. She was coming to him now because of that. She wanted his help and Adare would gladly help… for the right price.

“I’m sure she would.” He nodded, arms folding over his chest. “Don’t concern yourself with it. If this is what you need     what you want, then I’ll sort it out. Negotiation is something I’m well   versed in at this point, Jasmine.” Negotiation was something he did every day, even if it was largely just a time stall or a distraction until he could force someone’s hand to give Adare what he wanted out of any given situation. It was all second nature now to him.

“If she agrees, we’ll have to find out what Malachite’s stock looks like. After all, this   ” He tapped the elixir’s top with his index finger. “   lasts for only three days and I don’t know how long it’ll take for us to get the glamour issue sorted as well. I’m sure that’ll be one of the things she wants to discuss when I meet with her this evening.”

So this was it. There would be no quick solution to the disappearance of the glamours. As far as she knew, it could be as permanent as the fertility crisis, another instance of a decaying community. Jasmine was looking at her only chance. 

And what’s more...Adare had said her name without sounding like he was spitting out a broken tooth. Jasmine couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Her father was uncomfortable in her apartment, just as she was uncomfortable having him here, but he didn’t seem disappointed at her existence. 

“Yes...absolutely. I do, I want this. I know there’s probably not much, but...” Three more days, days that would include Lughnasad if she stayed in this weekend and took the elixir on Monday. A reprieve. “Just this, it helps.” She reached out and touched the bottle for the first time. “Thank you.”

[jasminefairbank]

@andmarigolds

To everyone? She thought back–Jasmine’s scars, the strange sounds she’d heard periodically on the boardwalk. The markings on Forest’s arms and neck that she hadn’t noticed until she’d leaned in close. Glamours were…gone? Malfunctioning? For how long? Her stomach dropped at the thought that Jasmine might not be able to cover up her scars…permanently.

“We need to go?” Normally, this would have sounded like a logical reaction to the events of tonight. Go home, find somewhere safe. Debrief. Handle things privately, order in, put on an old movie and find a way to keep Jasmine calm and safe. Had anyone else seen her scars? Any other Seelie around who would find reason to berate her?

But somehow, the words slipped from her mouth in the form of a question, Marigold leaning toward the rocks even as Jasmine pulled her away. Why would they leave? She hadn’t taken a rock yet. They were magic, she could feel it. Could they help? “What do you mean? What do they do?”

Something was wrong.

Everything was already wrong, except for Mari. Mari had grounded her. But now Jasmine could feel her sister drifting away, as if she were being hypnotized. The pull of the glowing stones was more powerful than she had realized.

Jasmine managed to turn them both around, to get between Marigold and the rocks. She still felt aching and empty, but she forced the words out, trying to maintain eye contact. “They want to be touched. Malachite...he told me that. But it’s a trick. They give you a high and then...it feels like I’m leaking out of myself. Like something was torn out of me and there’s a big ragged hole. Please. Please, Mari, let’s just go.” 

[jasminefairbank]

 @fuisecg

“Not exceptionally big on the whole eating seafood front,” she mumbled out softly with an idle hand rolling around the brim of her glass. She’d needed a night out, away from all her regular haunts and avoiding those who would recognize her immediately. It didn’t always work. The human world knew her by her face and her voice, the rest – it was the same but different in the same breath. All she wanted was a moment’s peace to be ordinary, perhaps there she could find a way to sort through her problems and eliminate the pain. “Too many friends with the fishfolk.” Her tease was languid in nature as she was practically folding into herself with a breathless sigh before she glanced down at the dog by her feet.

“You look hungry.” Her statement could have been true, knowing that she hadn’t so much as given Lemon a second thought that evening other than not to shut them back in the apartment as she gazed back up and over at the other fey. “Do you think they’d serve him?” There were papers on him, somewhere, but she hadn’t placed them in the right spot for as long as she could remember when Lark pressed her lips into an exhausted smile. “Cauliflower and chili sounds like a dangerous combination.”

Jasmine didn’t know Larkspur, other than by reputation, but her feelings on seafood were all too familiar. She couldn’t help but smile. Is she a water fey, too? No. Even though Jasmine’s childhood efforts to talk to fish while in guppy form were in vain, she never felt entirely comfortable with eating them. Mussels, however, did not have faces, and thus by Jasmine’s personal logic they were acceptable. But clearly, Lark felt differently. “I know what you mean. There’s plenty of other good things on the menu.” 

“I’m not sure they’d serve a dog.” I’m not sure that’s a dog. “But you could probably feed him off your plate. Maybe not the milanese, though. I doubt spicy cauliflower would be good for him.” 

[jasminefairbank]

When: August 1st, during the feast

Where: Tara

Who: @asterfairbank​

In retrospect, Jasmine should have seen this coming. 

If the intent of the voting was to pair up fey with unresolved sexual tension to watch the fallout--and in Jasmine’s experience, it often was--then Marigold and Forest were an obvious choice. She just hasn’t realized that the rest of the Court was so aware of the nature of their odd friendship. Jasmine had never told a soul that her sister had a crush on Kevin Ives when he was a Player, and she doubted Mari had shared her feelings with many other fey. 

But based on how much time they spend together...somebody guessed. Several somebodies, she thought, swirling her spoon through her pea soup. Jasmine had managed to talk to Mari for about a minute after the handfastings, to reassure her that she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to do and that they could divorce tomorrow if she wanted. Then Marigold was swallowed by the crowd, caught up with Forest in a group of fey shouting congratulations and lewd remarks, and led to a separate table. 

Jasmine had always thought that a Lughnasad marriage to a friend would be fun, although it had never happened to her. Revel in the gifts and congratulations, then divorce in a week, or whenever you got tired of playing newlyweds and jokingly picking out names for your fake children. But could you do that with someone you had actual feelings for? Before today, Jasmine had a hunch that Forest would reciprocate her sister’s feelings, if either of them ever managed to say anything about it. But the pressure of a marriage could make things seem weird, awkward, forced...she could only hope Mari wasn’t freaking out, and that they could talk things over soon. 

But maybe they’re rolling with it. You might think of a Lughnasad marriage as thrilling, if you were a romantic sort of person. And Marigold, admittedly, was a romantic sort of person. If there was a book or movie about an arranged marriage to a handsome prince that ended happily ever after, she’d probably read it. That brought to mind images of Forest as the male model on the cover of a romance novel, shirtless and wearing a kilt, and despite all the evening’s uncertainty that was too funny for Jasmine to bear. 

She nearly knocked over her mead laughing, and people around her were starting to stare. Jasmine wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry, my sister just got married. It’s been a weird night.” 

[jasminefairbank]

@nickclas

He wondered briefly what it would be like to have a twin–a real twin, and not someone whose description you matched and whose existence you had taken for yourself.

“Nope, not today,” Nickel said, an invisible exclamation point lighting up over his head. “Haven’t gotten anyone to go with me. Going on a roller coaster solo isn’t as fun after a couple times–have you … ?”

“No, I just got here. I’d be up for it if you are,” Jasmine said, fishing the requisite tickets out of her purse. Why not? The line wasn’t too long yet, and he seemed like a fun guy. She wondered (and felt a bit bad for wondering) if his slicked-up hair would move at all in the wind.

[jasminefairbank]

@forcstfire

Just wasn’t feeling it. He could relate to that sentiment, that was for sure. After Fidchell and the fire, losing his powers, making some progress with Nadia only to have her walk away from him yet again, not seeing or hearing anything from Davey (which was good, but didn’t make him feel all that much better)…among everything else, the 4th of July just hadn’t come at a very cheery time. He wasn’t much up for the big flashy celebrations or watching fireworks. Holidays just didn’t mean quite the same thing to him anymore.

“I didn’t do anything,” Forest smirked, rolling his eyes, “the honor of being a manager, I guess.” Management wasn’t really on Forest’s radar even of desired jobs, especially not one of a casino, but much of his life wasn’t what he expected these days. At least the morning shift tended to be slower and somewhat less obnoxious for the casino, though usually it just meant longer training sessions in the evening. “Do you not like the morning shift? At least it’s usually a little more relaxed.”

The waitress returned for their drink orders, and Jasmine ordered a smoothie. Very cold drinks woke her up as effectively as caffeine did for others. “No, I don’t mind it at all. I actually like my job.” Despite the Court’s best efforts to keep me out of sight and out of mind. She didn’t say it, but she wondered if Forest would pick up on the sentiment nonetheless. He was in a parallel but opposite situation, being forced into the spotlight, being given responsibilities he didn’t want as a reward for an achievement he probably wasn’t proud of. 

“How’s managing going for you?” The Seelie-aligned humans, at least the ones Jasmine was most familiar with, didn’t seem like they would be difficult to manage as interns. (Well, maybe Quinn.) Training them as Players, on the other hand...that was something Jasmine didn’t intend to bring up unless Forest did. Fidchell still loomed large in the background, a blood-soaked elephant in the room. 

[jasminefairbank]

harvest reaping + tailteann games

Harvest Reaping: For some headcanons about our muses. 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Jasmine has recurring nightmares about the night of her attack, including a variant where Adare is the one trying to kill her. 

The first time baby Jasmine saw a pool after she learned to walk, she immediately jumped in, sank straight to the bottom and sat there. Adare had to jump in with all his clothes on to fish her out. 

Jasmine really likes gold makeup accents (as seen in my sidebar pic) and she 100% gets this from Adare

Tailteann Games: For me to come up with something unique for our muses.

(get ready for this sheer nonsense)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY AU (click the dates for song selections)

Adare might be a god from outer space, laid low by the love of a mortal woman. He might just be an extremely powerful alien traveling the galaxy in search of cheap thrills. Either way, in 1959 Adare the Starchild meets the human Marian Harris, and nothing is ever the same again. Their twins are born in 1962, and Adare takes his children to the roof of their apartment building at night, pointing out planets and constellations he’s visited. But Marian dies in 1965, and Adare, grieving, returns to the only thing he knew before meeting her--conquering galaxies and crushing those who stand in his way. 

Jasmine and Marigold grow up on a distant planet, with only their father’s collection of records from the 50s and 60s to remind them of Earth. Marigold trains hard to become the fiercest warrior in the galaxy, hoping one day to gain her estranged father’s approval. Jasmine, however, loses much of her human body in an attack by space pirates and is now a famed half-cyborg mercenary. Can they ever be a family again?

Cue the lights. Cue the music. 

[jasminefairbank]

@asterfairbank

Oakenfold. Aster sucked in his breath, all the confidence he had had draining out of this conversation. Oakenfold meant she was seelie, seelie meant.. She was here for a reason, and it probably wasn’t good. He forced a smile, though. “Oakenfold.” He said. She hadn’t done anything yet, had been quite friendly, actually. But he knew well enough that even if  Fey couldn’t lie, they could very well decieve.

But there was something different about her. I’ve heard it’s not easy, she had said. So she had probably thought about leaving in the past. “I’ve been there once or twice. I’d agree, not particularly the nicest folks.”

And there it was, something of the expected reaction. At least he didn’t seem hostile. Just disappointed. “I get it. If you want me to close my tab and move along, you don’t need to call the bouncer. I can head out.” Jasmine spent most of her days in a place she wasn’t wanted; she had no desire to waste her free time in a similar fashion. 

“But if not...” Jasmine downed the last of the Dark and Stormy. “After a day at Oakenfold, I need another drink. Whatever’s the specialty of the house. I'm expecting it to have a really good name.”