willowpapen

[willowpapen]

Willow took her cat back, holding him tight against her chest. He purred loudly, Willow could feel the soft vibrations against her chest. It brought her comfort whenever she could feel her cats soft fur or their little purrs.

"He was in the kitchen? I'm so sorry he is such a glutton. I can't eat any meals in peace." Dale had a habit of running to Willow whenever she crinkled a bag. He loved carbs. Pretzels were a favorite of his.

Willow used her free hand to shake Tae's hand. "I'm Willow. I manage The Book Nook. It was my mom's, but some stuff happened, so it's basically mine now." Willow didn't feel like getting into all the details of what happened. She didn't want to burden him with that.

Tae let out a sigh of relief. He didn't know how to look after a cat, but he would certainly have taken the animal home and made sure he had food and water and a safe place to sleep until he could find his owner. He dreaded to think the damage those tiny claws might have done to his furniture, though. "Oh, thank goodness. Here you go, little man. I got you home safe, just like I promised." Tae handed the creature over, and he released a meow as he was transferred into the woman's arms.

"Dale," Tae said with a small laugh. "What a cute name. I found him in my kitchen. I think he must have crawled in through the window and smelled food or something, but luckily, no harm done. I had already demolished my breakfast sandwich." He didn't relish the prospect of sharing with a cat.

"Where are my manners? I've been living here for six months and I've barely even met anyone. I promise I'm not a hermit. I just work at a law firm, which keeps my head buried in my laptop far too many hours of the day." He extended a hand, though it wasn't entirely clear if the young woman would be able to shake it while holding her newly returned orange cat. "I'm Tae. I live just next door."

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"It's a very cute book, I think you'll both enjoy it." Willow led the other woman to the children's section of the store and after a few minutes of searching she pulled out the book and handed it to her. "There you go. Can I help you find anything else while you're here?"

"Stellaluna? No, I've never heard of that one." Caroline confessed, when Willow named the title. Her childhood favorite growing up was Where the Wild Things Are. Unfortunately, she read that book to Jonathan one too many times, and it was the first book he grew bored of. "It's about bats? Jonathan likes Batman, maybe I can use that as a selling point."

[willowpapen]

Willow found it unusual that when she opened her eyes there was only one black cat pawing at her chest. Maybe Dale, her orange tabby, was hiding? She didn't think too much of it and continued with her morning routine. Surely Dale would come out of hiding. She brewed some coffee, and put some bread in the toaster sitting at the dining room table while she waiting for everything to be done.

Once she was done with her meal it was time for her to feed the cats. When the sound of kibble hitting the ceramic bowl didn't beckon Dale to food, she grew more concerned. Dale would never skip out on breakfast. Willow ran around her home calling out Dale's name frantically.

Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest hearing her buzzer go off. She opened the door still in her sweatpants and bare feet. All the panic leaving her body seeing her orange tabby in the man's arms. "Yes, that one is mine. Sorry about Dale." Willow sighed. "He got out, and I'm not really sure how. He's a very sneaky boy."

Starter For: @willowpapen Location: Willow's Porch

Tae had almost dropped his coffee mug on the floor when he'd turned around in his kitchen and almost tripped over an orange cat that let out an instant demanding 'meow', as if Tae was the one depriving him of his breakfast. He glanced around, as if checking for some other intruder, or (the horror), some manner of dead bird or mouse the animal might have attempted to deliver to him. "Uh, hello," he greeted. "Good morning. How did you get in here?" Tae did not, and had never owned a cat, so the sudden presence of one was something of a concern, even if only a minor one. "They warn you about leaving windows open in the summer in case of burglars, but I don't know that I've ever seen a PSA about an invasive cat."

Tae set down his coffee mug, lest the animal move in some kind of sudden and mysterious way and knock it from his hand, delicately crouching down and extending a hand to see if the cat would allow him to pet it. "Please don't bite me," he asked, as if the creature could understand him, but it seemed blissfully friendly, nuzzling his hand and meowing for attention. He had a collar; one of those safety ones that could snap away if it got tangled on anything, so he definitely had a home. Tae scooped him up, being careful about claws. Opening the door with one arm, he headed out, glancing around and heading to the first neighbor's house that had any indication someone was home. He hit the buzzer, waiting for the answer, offering an awkward smile as the door opened.

"Hi, sorry to bother you. Do you know who this cat belongs to? I'd really like to make sure he gets home safe."

[willowpapen]

It had been on the slower side so Willow had herself situated behind the counter with her laptop open. The sound of her keyboard clacking away could be heard through the nearly empty shop. She jumped a little when she heard the bell on the front door chime.

She smiled when she saw Caroline's friendly face. "Oh hey, I'm good. I'm just keeping myself busy." She closed the screen of her laptop. "Mmm bedtime stories." She gave it a moment to think over the request. "Have you tried Stellaluna? The one about the bats? It's a personal favorite of mine"

CLOSED STARTER: @willowpapen. LOCATION: The Book Nook.

Jonathan was getting a little bored of his bedtime stories, so Caroline decided to pick up some new children's books. She opted to go to The Book Nook on her day off because it was closer to her house and she liked Willow. She met her a few times in business functions and thought she was really sweet - if not on the shy side.

When she entered the store, she offered Willow a smile before making her way to the counter. "Hey, Willow. How are you doing?" She asked, as she leaned on the counter. "Have you got any bedtime stories suitable for five year old, by any chance?"

[willowpapen]

WILLOW MARIE PAPEN

AGE + BIRTHDAY: 24 + August 13th, 2000

LENGTH OF TIME IN WINDSOR BAY: Whole Life

HOUSING: Mountainside 

OCCUPATION: Manager of The Book Nook

PERSONALITY: +Humble +Studious +Insightful  -Paranoid -Secretive -Elusive

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

GENDER: Cis Female

PRONOUNS: She/Her

Wanted Connections

Tw: Childhood Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Medical gaslighting, Illness of a parent

Being sick is never easy, being a sick kid is even harder. Willow Marie Papen had known pain for as long as she could remember. It started in her legs which was just chalked up to ‘growing pains’ but when the pain persisted for months, she was taken to a doctor. The doctors weren’t sure what was wrong with her either. The pain never went away and Willow had learned to live with it until she was around 12 years old. The pains had spread around her body. She felt like it was consuming her. She couldn’t do sports, she couldn’t hang out with her friends, and she barely made it to school everyday. Her parents thought she was going through a period of angst like most preteens, until Willow came to her mother, Jolene, crying in the middle of the night. She had enough of the pain. She couldn’t sleep. She begged and begged her mother for help. At that moment something clicked for Jolene. She realized that Willow wasn’t going through normal teenager things, and that there was something deeper happening. She stayed up with Willow doing the best she could to soothe the pain, but nothing helped.

Willow’s mother spent the next few months fighting with doctors to do something. Nobody took Willow’s pain seriously, nobody wanted to believe that a child could be in that much pain. Feeling defeated, Jolene went to her own mother for help. They sat at the kitchen table together drinking coffee while Willow was watching TV in the next room. Jolene’s mother had gotten diagnosed with arthritis about 20 years prior. Jolene noticed the swelling in her mother’s hands. She wondered if Willow had the same symptom. She never thought to look closely at her daughter’s hands before. She had Willow come into the dining room and show her hands. Her mother carefully inspected her fingers and noticed the minor swelling. ‘Could a 12 year old have arthritis?’ she thought. This thought stayed in the back of her head until she went home that evening. She spent the night researching until she came upon juvenile idiopathic arthritis. It was totally possible. The next morning Willow was in to see her primary care doctor just to get a referral to a pediatric rheumatologist, which they found out was incredibly niche. 

After waiting months to see the rheumatologist they were finally taken off the waitlist. All they had to do now was drive a few hours north. They ran blood tests and x-rays and confirmed Jolene’s suspicions. Willow did indeed have juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Jolene was relieved to finally have an answer, but was nervous for what the future held. What were their next steps? Would Willow ever be able to live a life without pain? All these questions swirled through Jolene’s mind. 

To get through all the appointments and flare ups Willow turned to literature. She found comfort in the escapism a good book brought her. Books let her ignore her reality of being a sick kid. They helped her pass time in waiting rooms, they let her try on new lives. For at least a few moments everyday she could forget that she was a sick kid. 

Willow made it through the rest of her school years quietly. Graduation snuck up on her, but she was still prepared to attend college and get herself a degree. She had planned to major in English. Many people asked her what she planned to do with her degree. The honest answer? She wasn’t sure. She was just happy to study something she loved. 

College was another four years of Willow doing nothing but studying. Of course she went out here and there, every college kid did, but she always preferred to spend time in the library or cozy in bed. For the most part, the four years of undergrad were uneventful, until the end. 

She had been a few weeks out from graduation when she got a call from her father. Her mother had just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Willow was devastated. Before her arthritis had mostly been under control, but between the stress of finals and her mother’s new diagnosis her illness flared up again. She did her best to drag herself to the finish line to graduate on time, and she succeeded, but she was in excruciating pain. At least she could finally rest. 

Once she was back home with a degree in hand, Willow did everything she could to help her mother, which meant working at the bookstore she owned, The Book Nook. It was the least she could do, it was the whole reason why she fell in love with books. On slow days at the shop Willow would write, mostly her own short stories. By the age of 23 she had secretly published a book of short stories under an alias. The book didn’t receive much attention, but Willow was just happy to have it out in the world. 

Since the new year it was clear that Willow’s mother was too sick to run the shop so she stepped up. Technically Willow didn’t own it, but she took over most of the ownership duties anyway. It was overwhelming at first, but she started to fall into the role naturally. 

Currently, Willow lives by herself in a home on the mountainside. Her family is about a five minute drive away. She wanted to be close by just in case anything happened to herself or her mother. When she first moved into her home she adopted an orange tabby cat named Dale, which she had named after the Twin Peaks character. It was one of her favorite shows. A few months after adopting Dale she couldn’t help but to take in another cat which she named Laura, continuing with the Twin Peaks theme. She tends to wander around town when she’s free but doesn’t talk to a lot of people.

[willowpapen]

Natalie Scatorccio Yellowjackets, 3.06 — Thanksgiving (Canada)