#ch:lucky

[fruityfinch]

Grraaahh >:D

[nelllraiser]

served shaken and stirred | lucky, connor, & nell

LOCATION: The Common, by the center fountain. PARTIES: @lvcky-charms​, @connorspiracy​, and @nelllraiser​. SUMMARY: lucky, connor, and nell gate crash a group of highschoolers’ fun, putting a real big damper on an otherwise thrilling Summoning attempt. CONTENTS: self-harm (sacrificial), death, homophobia (highschoolers being dumb).

 “Come onnn, how long is this gonna take?” Gary stuffed his hands in his hoodie pockets and stood back as Drew and Megan lit the candles. “It’s getting late, and my parents don’t want me out past 10. What’s the point of this shit, anyways? You really think that dumb note you found is gonna do something?” Of course they did. Mom and dad always cautioned him not to read any weird writing he found, especially out loud, but his friends really had their hearts set on this. He really should’ve known better than to listen to Drew. Drew always got them into trouble. And ever since he and Megan started dating, Gary found himself consistently outvoted.

Megan sat on the edge of the fountain, kicking her legs in the air. “Your parents don’t want you to have a life, Gary. And aren’t you curious? He paid $50 for this sheet of paper. It has to do something.” She shrugged, her mop of curly hair bouncing. “Besides, I wouldn’t waste my Yankee Candles if I didn’t think this wasn’t going to work.”

“Okay,” Drew announced, stepping back from the last candle, “I think we’re ready.” He checked the paper, like it was a sheet of instructions for assembling an IKEA dresser instead of a dangerous incantation. “Oh, it says we need to put blood onto the surface. Megan? You’ve been PMSing all week.” 

She scowled at Drew. “Very funny. You know, I could’ve dated Shane instead. Maybe I made a mistake.” Megan hopped off the fountain’s edge and rummaged through her backpack, pulling out a dissection kit. “You’re just lucky I’m in AP Bio.” Drew still looked confused. She clicked open the small box and pulled out the scalpel as her answer, carefully handing it over to Drew. 

Gary’s nose wrinkled. “Did you use that on a frog or something? Is that sanitary?” Megan just rolled her eyes and tossed her hair back. Drew didn’t seem to care one way or the other, and held out his hand. But something made him freeze. Gary quickly understood why. “Do you guys hear something?”

It was a shitty habit, he knew, but Connor’s vape had ran out of battery, so he was left with the emergency cigarettes he kept in his inside jacket pocket. “Where the fuck did I put that lighter?” He patted himself down like it was magically going to appear, groaning to himself. “Fuck sake.” He glanced around, looking for someone else who might be able to lend him one, and across the common he caught sight of--was that candles? He scrunched up his nose, curious, heading towards what looked to be a bunch of high schoolers. “Didn’t the fire brigade ever come to your school and warn you about flames in a wooded area?” he teased, then held up the cigarette. “Which of you has a light?” He glanced around at their faces, looking like a bunch of deer in the headlights, then his eyes fell on the paper. “Oh, bloody hell, not a summoning circle. Hand it over.” 

Ever since Constance had decided to give Nell a deadly bath in the ocean, the ache of whatever the hell was wrong with her ribs had made it rather uncomfortable to breathe...or move- or do most of anything. But she’d run out of Takis at home, and desperate times called for desperate measures. If it hadn’t been for the faintest crackle of magic in the air, she would have walked on by whatever the hell was happening in the Commons, but the prickling of her skin turned Nell’s head towards the commotion, and a frown was quick to come over her as she slowly made her way over to the source of it, injury permitting. “What the hell are you all doing?” she asked unforgivingly the moment she saw the spread of the spell, obviously drawn with an inexperienced hand. Then she saw the scalpel, and realized they were only inches away from making a very big mistake. “Give me that,” she demanded in her next breath, holding her palm open for the tiny blade. “Or you’re probably about to get yourself and all your friends killed.” Summonings gone wrong were rarely forgiving.

“I had nothing to do with this,” Connor said, holding up his hands. “I just wanted a fag.” 

“Sorry, Mary Poppins,” one of the boys answered. “Try Flaming Mo’s.” 

Connor raised an eyebrow, looking over at Nell. He had to admit, it was nice to see her, even though they were clearly interrupting something stupid. Luckily, it wasn’t exactly unheard of for Connor to be involved in stupid shit. “That’s not what I meant.” 

Nell was reaching for the scalpel, and the girl was staring at her, holding onto it protectively. “No, it’s mine. Get your own, you old bat.” 

The other boy, the one who seemed to be her boyfriend, stepped forward protectively, grabbing the scalpel from her. Whether it was deliberate or whether it was an accident in the struggle, Connor couldn’t say, but in the scuffle, the scalpel went right through the palm of Nell’s hand, falling onto the scandals and fountain. “Jesus,” Connor exclaimed. “Bugger, that must’ve hurt. You alright?” 

The stiffness that had settled into Lucky’s joints kept him from getting any semblance of normal sleep. He figured maybe, just maybe, a walk would help loosen him up and tire him out to the point where he couldn’t not sleep. He maybe overestimated how familiar he was with White Crest, as now he was ambling around and definitely lost. The walk hadn’t even done anything to ease his aching joints as, now, they throbbed with every step. He was just about to find a place to sit and rest for a moment when something caught his eye. Was that people? And candles? That seemed like a disaster waiting to happen in a town like this, but still, he begrudgingly walked towards them, coming upon some kids, a stranger, and...Nell? Good, this definitely meant he should turn around and leave; she never seemed to not be getting into trouble from what Lucky could tell by their interactions thus far. Against his better judgement, he called out softly as he approached. “Uh, hey folks.”

The moment the blood fell from her hand into the fountain, Nell knew what it meant. A sacrifice had been given, and the spell would be complete. But it wasn’t enough. Already she could feel the spell demanding more blood, and now that the floodgates had been opened it would take all the energy it needed until it was satisfied. Drew, the boyfriend, fell to his knees almost instantly, his face shriveling in like a dried apple before their very eyes as the magic took the energy it needed. It had taken all of five seconds for the night to turn into mystery occult fun to deadly. His girlfriend was screaming somewhere, but Nell couldn’t focus on that now. “I’m fine!” she replied reflexively to Connor, ignoring the pulsing pain of her hand. “But it needs more blood or it’s gonna keep taking what it wants!” she yelled with a nod towards the husk of a teenage boy that lay unmoving on the grass. Hastily, she grabbed the scalpel from his hand to draw it along the length of her forearm before shoving the entirety of her arm into the fountain, trying to complete the sacrifice for the summoning. “Lucky, get out of here!” she yelled, not even sure where the selkie had come from.

Lucky’s mouth hung open as he stared at what was unfolding before him. “Are you okay?” he asked, rushing forward towards Nell and trying to look at her arm. “Why would you do that!?” He glanced away at the teenager on the ground and physically recoiled at the appearance of him. Tentatively, Lucky bent down and prodded at him, stomach lurching as he did. “Nell? What the fuck is going on right now?” he asked, standing back up and looking at her and then around at the faces of everyone gathered. “What is wrong with this town?”

"Holy fucking hell," Connor cursed, stumbling back a couple of steps as the entity appeared in the fountain. "Sh, sh, stop screaming!" He told the girl, which was probably difficult when her boyfriend was lying on the ground like a shrivelled prune. Cigarette long abandoned, he grabbed the paper the ritual was written on. His first thought was to destroy it. Maybe that would work, right? But then, they might need the words to find out how to reverse them. "Nell, shit! Stop that!" But in the short time he'd known her, Connor figured this girl knew plenty about summonings. She knew what she was doing. "Who the hell is Lucky?" Connor asked, turning towards the stranger who had decided to amble into this conversation at precisely the wrong time. "Mate, no offense, but she's right, you need to bugger off." 

“We were only trying to have a little fun!” Gary interjected, the look of immense shock and horror engrained on his features. “We didn’t mean to-- Oh, fuck… Drew…” 

Of course, in a situation like this Nell couldn’t have been fortunate enough to be blessed with two boys that knew their way around a summoning such as this one. Instead she had Connor and Lucky. Gone was any patience she had outside of non-life threatening situations as she tried her best to explain. “These dumbasses-” she began with a pointed finger towards the two remaining highschoolers. “Just summoned who fucking knows what! And now that it’s been started- it won’t stop until it has the sacrifice it needs! Which means it’s gonna come through whether we like it or not! I have to give it more of a sacrifice or it’s gonna start turning all of us into corn husk dolls like him!” What the hell had they summoned anyway? As her blood continued to spill into the fountain, staining the water red, all she knew was that the entity felt hungry. “What’s the paper say?!” she asked Connor, noticing he’d found some sort of instructions. 

Lucky was having a hard time reading lips by candlelight, but he made out enough to understand that whatever was currently in the fountain was certainly bad fucking news. “How do we make it go away? How do we stop it?” he asked, running his hands through his hair as the panic tightened in his chest. Why was he always at the wrong place at the wrong time? This was the second ghostly encounter he’d seen thus far and he was not prepared for how this one was going. He looked to Connor, opening and closing his mouth as he searched for words, before walking towards him and trying to get a glimpse of the paper and what it might say or be for that matter.

“Tryna figure that out, mate,” Connor answered. Didn’t seem like this Lucky guy was going to be very much help. Connor might still be figuring this exorcist shit out, but at least he had some experience, which he figured was more than could be said for Lucky. “It’s not good…” The fountain was bubbling as if it was made up of boiling blood, and the figure that had once appeared on the surface seemed as if it was trying like hell to manifest. It stared at Connor, pale face and tangled dark hair, as if it was staring into his very soul. Then it looked to Lucky, and then to Nell. He held up the paper for her and Lucky to see, guiding them back. The paper read; Bloody Mary Summoning Ritual.

As Nell made eye contact with the ghoulish face in the fountain, her eyes went wide, instantly getting the sense that this was no backyard bumpkin of a ghost or otherwise that had been summoned. Megan, apparently desiring revenge in the face of her boyfriend’s perceived killer rushed the fountain, yelling all the while. Her attempted attack didn’t get far before an arm darted out of the depths of the water, grabbing the highschooler by the throat- only to drag her face first into the bloodied fountain. It happened within the blink of an eye, faster than anyone could hope to react. In an instant the girl was gone, her body disappearing entirely into a fountain that couldn’t have been more than a couple of feet deep. 

“Fuck!” Nell cursed, the deaths of the highschoolers not yet fully sinking in when danger was still front and center. Then she turned to read the paper Connor was showing, and her blood ran cold. Bloody Mary. Even Nell who wasn’t all that versed in ghosts and the like had heard the whispers, though she’d never known whether or not to believe them. “You gotta go,” she urged once again, speaking both to Connor and Lucky this time. In the corner of her eye she saw the face, and only the face of Megan float to the surface of the water, the rest of her gone. “We can’t stop the summoning, and the circle isn’t good enough to hold her.” Nell could tell that simply by looking at the sad excuse for a spell. “She’s gonna be-” But before her sentence could finish, the boiling blood-water of the fountain exploded forth in a forceful wave, throwing her and anyone else in the radius back from the epicenter. A yelp of pain later, Nell was trying to right herself, ignoring the blood that was covering her in favor of trying to figure out a way to get this bitch bound in time.

Oh, shit. Sure, Lucky didn’t really think ghosts were real real, but this was definitely something real real. He’d heard of Bloody Mary before, but he thought that that was a story kids dared each other to try in a dark bathroom. This was definitely not what he would’ve expected by any means. Honestly, he didn’t need to be told again to leave, but would Nell and the others be safe if Lucky did leave? He opened his mouth to argue this with her, but before he could say anything or get a word in, he was being tossed onto his back by a wave from the fountain. The hard landing certainly didn’t make Lucky’s aching body feel any better and he groaned in pain, coughing as he rolled to his side. The water was warm, bordering on hot, and...viscous? Wiping it from his eyes so he could see, Lucky looked down to see that it wasn’t water but was, in fact, blood. His stomach did a flip again as he pushed himself into a sitting position and tried to wipe off his face. Looking around, he tried to see if Connor still had the paper and if it was intact or also blood soaked.

Connor frantically folded the paper, stuffing it into his pocket. He all but pulled Lucky and Nell back by their arms. “Don’t let her touch you! She can’t reach you.” She was confined to reflective surfaces, right? He’d remembered that correctly? That was the problem about stories like hers; it was tough to distinguish fact from fable. “The kids… she’s supposed to go after murderers. Why the hell is she going after kids?” Because they summoned her and she didn’t deem them worth her time? Or just for the sake of it? A killer with a code was one thing, but killing at random was something more terrifying entirely. His eyes widened as her bloody yet pale form emerged from the fountain, standing like Carrie at the Prom in the center of it, dripping blood.

Another gasp of pain left Nell as Connor dragged her and Lucky along, her ribs instantly protesting at the unexpected movement. “But I have to try and bind her!” she said as she struggled, trying to get back to the fountain. “She can’t just go free! Who knows what might happen?!” But it was too late. As she looked back to the fountain, Nell saw the outline of Bloody Mary standing in it, her shoulders shaking with what looked to be a joyful cackle. Then the ghost raised a single, skeletally thin arm to send a wave in their direction, as if bidding them a mocking thank you for their part in this. As quickly as it had begun, the ghost was gone, having sunk back into the fountain, the blood in the water receding along with her- leaving two highschoolers dead and one sufficiently traumatized. “We gotta find her,” Nell spoke with a steely determination in her voice, realizing the dire nature of the situation. “We gotta find her before she finds anyone else.” Otherwise, who knew what terrors awaited White Crest?

[fruityfinch]

Lucky! 🍀

[nelllraiser]

seal you later | lucky & nell

LOCATION: al’s diner. PARTIES: @lvcky-charms and @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: lucky is on the lookout for a tracker that can find his selkie skin, and is led to nell. she knows we all get by with a little help from our (black market) friends. 

Al’s Diner had always been a staple for Nell. Growing up this had been the place she’d always come whenever she had a burger or milkshake craving, and that happened more often than not with the appetite and sweet tooth that she had. Tonight was no exception as she settled into a booth, having no need for a menu. She waited impatiently for the waitress to arrive to take her order, foot jiggling in place as her stomach let out a low grumble. Was it possible to die of starvation in the span of a half hour? Of course not. But that didn’t keep the witch from pondering the dramatization of how she was wasting away in this booth, wishing for nothing more than for food to magically appear in front of her. Finally, it seemed that a man was approaching her table, and she waved eagerly before realizing she didn’t recognize this face. Had Al’s gotten a new hire? “Are you new here?” she asked with her head tilted to the side, harmlessly intrigued. Maybe this was Celeste’s replacement. After all, hadn’t Ariana said that she used to work here? It was grim to think about how easily a person could be replenished when it came to things like this. The Hunter might be gone and dead, but the world still moved on, and Al’s kept hiring new people. 

Tracking someone or something down in this town was no easy feat. Lucky had been snooping around for the greater part of a week when someone had offered up a name that might provide more leads. Penelope Vural. Thankfully, after popping into most food establishments around meal times, he spotted someone that fit her admittedly vague description inside a diner. The anxiety of walking up to a total stranger had his palms clammy with...whatever selkies secreted (honestly, that one was a mystery to him still). Wiping his hands on his pants, he froze at the table when the woman there looked at him. Shit that’s right, pay attention. “You Penelope?” he mumbled, brow creasing as he concentrated on her lips for a reply. This would be painfully awkward if this wasn’t her.

Nell’s innocent curiosity morphed into a slight frown when the man asked for her by name. Had the workers at Al already been gossiping? Maybe they’d inducted him by running the names of regular customers past him. No...that wasn’t right. Everyone here just called her Nell. Instinctively her shoulders squared, and then tensed as paranoia set in. Ever since Montgomery had hunted her down, those that looked for her and she didn’t know posed possible threats, people that might also want to hunt her. “Who’s asking?” she replied defensively, giving the man a cursory once over to take in whatever information she could about him. He looked to be about her oldest sister, Bea’s age. Or maybe somewhere in between Bea and the middle sister, Luce. His lack of eye contact while she readied her reply was also baffling, though she wasn’t sure what to make of it quite yet. 

Lucky mentally noted the shift in posture. That was never a particularly good sign in his experience. Usually, someone was upset, but he hadn’t set anything in particular that would be upsetting. Pushing that aside, he slid into the booth across from her, propping his elbows on the table and offering a tight lipped smile. Humans liked smiles, and Lucky wasn’t exactly sure if she was human or not, so it was worth a try. “I’m Lucky,” he mumbled, nodding. “I lost my--...a thing. You track things? Yeah?” He sniffed the air with an attempt at subtlety. He could smell a lot of things, sure, but none of them were very alarming. It was mostly food and grease; diner smells. Maybe Penelope was human? Difficult to say. 

He just sat in the booth as if he belonged there, and Nell was slightly taken aback by the sheer audacity the movement required. Again she watched him carefully, wondering who the hell this guy was. By now she was positive he didn’t work here, which confirmed that he was looking for her, specifically. “You lost something?” she echoed, realization beginning to dawn. He was here for a job, wasn’t he? Or maybe someone else she’d helped had passed the word along, and he was hoping she might be able to help him, as well. “I’m Nell- but I guess you already knew that,” she said before extending her hand in an offer for a shake. “But yeah- I usually track people. Or....” She darted her head around to make sure there was no one within earshot of them. “Ah- other people-like things?” That was as delicate and vague a way to put supernatural creatures as she could manage. “What were you looking for?” 

Nell, Lucky mouthed, straining to try to get the mouth-feel right. “Nell?” he questioned, aloud this time. Nodding along, he watched her lips intently, then her hand was out and distracting him. His palms were still slimy at best, so he carefully regarded the extended hand and wiped his palms on his jeans again before accepting the handshake. “Nice to meet,” he mumbled and ducked his head a little in efforts to keep his sharp teeth concealed. That was all he needed, to look like a real threat in the middle of a diner during a dinner rush. His head was still down when Nell began speaking again, so he caught just part of it. People or people-like things. Yeah, he supposed he counted as a people-like thing. Lucky’s leg began to bounce under the table and he slouched a little further down in the booth as he considered how to best answer. If he came right out and said I’m a selkie and I need my skin back, it could end badly for him. Best to ease into it. “I...had a something stolen from me. A people-like something.” Gritting his teeth, he awaited a negative response or some kind of attack, mentally preparing his best escape route. The way his body felt, Lucky was in no condition to fight back. 

The more time Nell spent sat across from this man— the more puzzling he became. “Are you...alright?” she asked reflexively, not knowing how else to figure out what piece she was missing here. Nevertheless, she nodded as he said her name, providing another example. “Like Bell but with an ‘N’.” It wasn’t the most straightforward nickname, and she’d had to use the comparison more than once in her life. “Nice to meet you, too.” It was a quick handshake and then she was back to resting her arms across her chest, her confusion only growing by the minute the more Lucky spoke. For a moment he seemed to cave in on himself, growing smaller in his seat while he thought up an answer. It certainly wasn’t all that like her usual clientele. “A...people-like something that was stolen?” she echoed, trying to make sense of what he might mean. “Like...a special...pet?” If it was a supernatural creature that belonged to him, that would make sense, right? “You know we can go somewhere else to talk about this if that makes it easier,” she offered, knowing a place as public as this might not be the best venue. 

Lucky leaned back against the booth, drumming his fingers on the edge of the table when no attack came. “I’m fine, just deaf,” he mumbled dismissively with a vague gesture of his hand. “Nell. Bell. Okay.” Abruptly, he leaned in closer again. How else could he get her to understand without just outright saying it? If she was afraid of talking about this in public, she wouldn’t attack him; it was the thought of what could happen outside of the restaurant that gave him pause. “Public’s fine,” he said, feeling the anxiety swelling again. He folded his hands beneath the table, wringing them as best he could while they were slick. Here goes nothing. “Looking for...my skin. My seal skin,” he clarified and grimaced, letting his teeth show as he did so. 

“Oh,” Nell said without thinking, her gut reaction of embarrassment at having not noticed quickly replacing the confusion that had been dominating her expression. “Ah- I mean- sorry- I didn’t mean to-” Perhaps it was best to let that die on her lips for fear of accidentally putting her foot in her mouth. “Right. Alright. I’m glad you’re fine.” That counted as a recovery, right? His swift and unexpected movement forward, and her subsequent reflexive jerk backwards was a welcome distraction, and she found her hand gripping the outline of one her hidden knives out of instinct. Again her mind pestered her about whether or not he was actually here looking for something, the vigilant beating of her heart in her throat putting her on high alert. It wasn’t fear, but self-preservation that made her wonder. First it was the mention of his seal skin that sparked a flicker of recognition, another soft “oh” falling from her, though it hadn’t completely processed until he revealed his teeth. “Oh,” she repeated a little louder this time, understanding flooding Nell while her eyes widened ever so slightly. “Right, right your-” she cut the sentence off with another glance around them, figuring there was no need to repeat what Lucky truly was for anyone that might be able to overhear it. “It’s lost?” she asked with renewed concern as the cogs began to turn in her mind. “Someone took it?” Wasn’t there only so long that a selkie could go without their pelt before… “Shit,” she cursed aloud. “Yes. Yeah, I’ll look for that. Do you have any leads or anything? Where was it taken? How long ago?” Hunters that took from selkies were the worst sort. Of all the supernatural creatures in the world, the seal-people were arguably the least harmful. Quite literally nothing more than...seals. 

Lucky slowly backed up again as Nell recoiled and made a mental note to slow his movements. Thankfully he’d stopped biting things as a casual test of danger. That would’ve gone over much, much worse. He straightened up in his seat and cocked his head, considering Nell silently for a moment. He let his lips fall back down over his teeth. If Nell posed any danger, certainly his teeth were threat enough, though she didn’t seem to want to fight him at all. He felt a sense of relief wash over him at that realization. Nell seemed intimidated--no, maybe it was an overt sense of caution. That he could respect and relate to. Lucky nodded again as Nell connected the dots aloud. “Been tracking it. Five years. Led me here, so I’m looking for more local leads. Got your name looking for a tracker. My skin might be…” he paused, slowly leaning forward again, letting the stiffness in his shoulders ebb away. “Black market?” he mumbled, more of a question than a statement. Truthfully, he didn’t know how to get connected to that particular part of town. If there was really a skin trade operation, he had to find it as soon as possible. Lucky’s stream of income was running out slowly the less he found himself able to work, and the hotel he was staying at didn’t seem like the kind to accept credit and a promise. Then again...promises seemed to go pretty far around here. “You’ll help?” Lucky perked up, suppressing a pleased wiggle, and grinned at Nell, teeth showing again. This was the closest he’d felt to finding his skin in a long while and he couldn’t help the flutter of excitement that bubbled up in his chest. 

“Tracking it how?” Nell asked, wanting to know just how far Lucky had gotten. The more information she had, the easier this would be, and the higher chance of success they’d have. “What led you here? If I know where it was taken from- I could maybe go check it out even if it was five years ago.” She nodded at the mention of her being a tracker, but quickly amended the statement for him. “To be fair- I usually look for people. They’re easier to find than things.” Plus the usual spells she used didn’t find objects. Maybe she could somehow tweak it? But a skin wasn’t like any normal item. Surely it was bound closer to Lucky’s essence than a misplaced book or jacket might be. Right? She’d have to look into it. Probably experiment a little, and maybe get a little invasive with the man sitting before her. That could wait, though. For now she needed to learn the basics, the rest would come after. “But I can find your pelt,” she said fiercely, as if she could will the possibility into existence. They’d find it one way or another. Nell nodded at the mention of the black market, already knowing how to break into that. “For sure- that’d be a good place to look. I can ask a couple of people I know if they might be able to help with that part.” Felix would surely know his way around it. Maybe even Erin with all the organ trading she’d done. “Of course I’ll help!” she answered with a passion that matched the bright fire in her eyes. She wasn’t going to let the man before her just...waste away into nothingness if there was something she could do about it. “We can start right away.”

“Got a few tips on where it might be, if it was trading hands, that sort of thing. Followed it from California to here, trying to make black market connections on the way.” Lucky’s brow creased and he looked at the table for a moment, the excitement dwindling. He hadn’t been led here with much more than a comment that this was the biggest hub for supernatural activity on the eastern seaboard. White Crest, of all places, wasn’t a massive city by any means, but it was certainly an odd beacon for the strange and unusual. “Came here on a tip that the trade is good. Skins come through here often. You know about that?” Lucky looked back up at her, his eyes pained. The confidence in her voice, in her expression, was something Lucky didn’t know if he could trust. Sighing, he steeled himself again. He didn’t have any other option as he saw it, and Nell was willing to fight for him. That was something he was desperate for; someone who was in his corner. He gritted his teeth and nodded firmly, eyes matching the passion in hers. “Where do we start?”

Again Nell nodded along as Lucky spoke, mind running a mile a minute as she began to plan— trying to choose the best route that would lead to Lucky’s missing skin. It didn’t seem that Lucky’s information was all that specific, but it was still something. She’d find a way to work with it. The corners of her mouth tightened as he mentioned White Crest’s seemingly flourishing selkie skin trade, not exactly surprised to hear such a thing, but also not pleased. A memory flashed through her mind’s eye, going back to the pile of selkie pelts he and Luce had liberated from Montgomery’s disgusting trophy den. She’d known there were more out there that hunted selkies, but the undeniable proof of it sitting in front of her only made her stomach churn uncomfortably. “I’ve seen some pelts here before. They weren’t in the trade, though. And one of the friends I’m thinking might be able to help dealt a lot in selling body parts and stuff- so maybe that includes pelts.” The way he looked at her while he spoke tugged at something in her, a need to help this poor man gain back what had been wrongfully taken quickly finding a home in her. She’d seen it before in the people she’d helped while on her travels, and Nell was eager to get back on track with helping people. So much of what she’d done in the past few months had been harm, and though she didn’t regret any of it...it would be nice to bring about something good via a path that wasn’t blazed by destruction. “Why don’t you come over to my greenhouse later on? We can start ironing things out there. And I can get in contact with my friends, and then I’ll point them to you.”

Hearing that Nell had seen other pelts around town filled Lucky with conflicting emotions. On one hand, the possibility that his skin could be here had him bordering on happy; but on the other hand, the thought that other selkies could be missing such an essential part of themselves was heartbreaking to hear. It was a void not easily mended, and one that grew harder to ignore every day. What pulled him out of that train of thought was the casual mention of dealing in body parts without a moment’s pause. The learning curve of White Crest really was a sharp one. Mimes, invasive postal workers, organ trade… No time for that specific spiral. Nell mentioned a greenhouse and Lucky nodded along. “What time?” he asked, already digging around in his jacket pocket for a pen and paper. He produced both and started scrawling while looking at Nell’s lips expectantly. 

Nell checked the clock on her phone before answering, trying to figure out how long it would take her to be ready to see Lucky again. Finally she settled on a time. “7:30 PM.” That would give her a bit of a window to get ready. It was a little close to a standard dinner time, though. The realization came a bit belatedly, and she quickly made Lucky an offer. “I can make us something to eat too, if you’ll be hungry. I’m assuming most any meat is a good bet, right?” she asked with the beginnings of a grin. Most selkies thrived off a protein rich diet. “You can meet me at this address,” she said before rattling off the location of Bea’s house. “The greenhouse is around back, and it’s kinda in the middle of nowhere so just text me if you get lost.” Then she was giving him her phone number as well. “We’re gonna get it back,” she affirmed once more, iron determination in her voice. “You just wait and see. Soon enough you’ll be back in the ocean before you know it.”