ARES PATERA
Warlock
Posts: 225
Age:
36
Occupation:
Sheriff's Deputy
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Aug 31, 2024 18:03:29 GMT
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Post by ARES PATERA on Apr 30, 2023 18:04:22 GMT
Dust rose from the sheets taped to the floor as Ares dropped back to his knees to line up the baseboard. It danced in the air, backlit by the bare bulbs overhead. He squinted, pressing on the end of the board until it clicked into place like a puzzle piece. After years of this it all should’ve been a perfect fit as those last few pieces of the jigsaw of the cabin slotted into place. Only every time he looked around it was like pieces of that puzzle had been removed while he was out there, trying to keep a town with its heart set of going to hell in a handbasket from actually getting there. Leaks sprung from plumbing he’d tried to cobble together until he had enough money to rip it entirely out the way he had the electrics, the fire guttered out when there was a crosswind, leaving him cursing up on the roof every weekend for a month before he got the chimney stack sealed like it should’ve been. Jobs like finishing off the loft space and the basement slid down to the bottom of the list until he got the rest of those problems sorted.
The trim was going in up here at least, the celadon green of the walls contrasting with the crisp white of the wood. Clio’s choice of colours, but since she was probably gonna be the one spending the most time up here – when she was in town – he’d gone with it. If he had his way it would’ve like the rest of the house, white, greys and blues, undeniably masculine in a way he’d only faintly wince over if someone pressed about getting a woman’s touch with the place. His sister and Claire had helped enough and the other feminine touch he’d had here, well, that wasn’t getting a repeat performance. Next time Brooke decided to go looking for trouble in a storm, she could stay put out there.
Ares sank his teeth into the tip of his tongue as he hefted the nail gun. Sitting on his hands was like being at the mercy of a choke chain. They both knew eventually he’s get tired of the constant tugs on it and he’d go and see about cutting himself loose, dragging her ass out of the fire while he did it. Nails sank into the painted wood, another trio stamped midway, again at the other end of the board. He needed to get out more, to scrub the entire situation from his brain like he’d do the paint from his hands while he was done with the last wall.
Speckled fingers ran over the board, checking that it was flush to the wall and secure before he set the nail gun aside and rose. It’d mean Claire riding alone for a few days, but maybe he’d talk Eros into taking a trip down to see their parents. He hadn’t set foot in Miami since last summer, Christmas spent here, letting Clio handle the turkey because she refused to see genius in the idea of cooking it up on a grill out on the porch. A few days in the sun, catching up with the family, listening to his dad’s same old raft of stories spouted as he was chased away from another grill (let your father handle it, kamari mou). It’d have Eros spluttering around them being identical, but mama would pat his cheek, cooing endearments to her first born too.
He huffed a breath out through his nose. The fact that he was feeling nostalgic for that meant it was definitely time. Crossing one of the dormer windows that he’d put in himself, Ares lifted the last painted board away from the wall, where it’d been leaning to dry. Smooth as a baby’s butt, the brushstrokes on it undetectable. Perfect.
The perfect contrast to the darkness outside too, which made the flicker of light along the edge of the board, like the moon sliding faster across the sky than was possible, all the more obvious. Ares let the board settle back against the wall and pressed into the bay of the window. Light spilled from the house onto the grass he kept clipped short around the house but less than twenty yards away from the house it was swallowed up by the woods on this side. There was rarely anyone out here after dark, most had read too much about what haunted the woods out here to risk it. Light speared through the trees now though. Maybe a flashlight, maybe the weaker light from a phone. Either way, it was too far off of any of the trails for it to be anything innocent in his mind.
Taking the stairs two or three at a time, he raced downstairs. The weapons safe in the hallway closet opened with a quick punch of his code. With his service weapon in one hand, and a flashlight in the other, he slipped out onto the porch, heading for the side of the house where he’d seen the light among the trees. Holding the flashlight up and to the left of him, moving the target two feet west of his head, Ares aimed his weapon at the treeline with his right. ”This is private land. Come on out where I can see you.” He gestured towards the stretch of lawn with the flashlight, not shifting his aim. ”What are you doing out here?” The answer was likely ‘nothing good’ but hey, he had to give the benefit of the doubt for at least two seconds before he started down the root towards suggesting it was something criminal.
Tagged: Open thread * Word Count: 945
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MONIQUE DEVERAUX
Witch
Posts: 13
Played by:
Mandy
Last seen Aug 22, 2024 20:42:23 GMT
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Post by MONIQUE DEVERAUX on May 7, 2023 15:17:23 GMT
NO REST FOR THE WICKED
WITH ARES
Her head was so full (far too full). She tried her best to sort through it all and find the one part of it that was truly hers but lately she had been struggling. No, drowning. The expectations placed on her (and her alone) were dragging her down, pulling her towards the bottom. She needed a chance to come up for air.
The earth had been her chosen element. She had stood at the foot of the altar in its name and since then she was bound to it. It was surrounded by earth that she felt most at peace as of late. So she decided, in an effort, to get back some part of her that she would slip into the woods. She would let it soak into her skin and draw power from it.
And maybe, just maybe they would be quiet for a little while.
Monique recognized that she held an important position right now. The ancestors had picked her to help bring about their wishes. They had powered her through her resurrection and all they asked in return is for her to be a willing devotee. It was not that she took any issue with that, most of what they whispered in her ear made perfect sense to her. It was just that she felt like she was losing more and more of herself. She was nothing more than a shell for the ancestors, a tool for them to use in their mission to rid the earth of anything unnatural.
She wanted to be her too.
At first, she had been filled to the brim with purpose and it drove her actions. But now she found herself longing for the things that had been taken away from her in the harvest. She wanted friends, she wanted to do things people her age did --- she wanted connections to people that weren't just based on what was whispered in her ear.
All these thoughts were tumbling around her head as she walked blindly through the woods. At one point she realized it was dark. A few whispered words and she had a faint ball of light glowing in her hand. She took a deep breath, trying to ground herself in nature. This was where she should feel at home. At peace.
(but still they whispered)
She almost hit her temple with her free hand as if that would shut them up. Instead she found her attention pulled away by the sound of a voice. She whirled, curling her hand around the ball of light to extinguish it before she was caught with something deemed unnatural by most. She then decided it was best not to argue. She stepped free of the woods, her eyes moving to the gun and then its owner.
(he can't be trusted, they told her automatically)
"Be quiet," she practically pleaded and then realized how that would sound to the man with the weapon. "Not you. The gun is not necessary. I am just...lost." In so many ways that statement was true. |
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ARES PATERA
Warlock
Posts: 225
Age:
36
Occupation:
Sheriff's Deputy
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Aug 31, 2024 18:03:29 GMT
|
Post by ARES PATERA on May 17, 2023 20:05:09 GMT
As she turned in the beam of his flashlight Ares realised it was just a girl, and one that looked like a strong wind would blow her away at that. The puff of relief that slipped from him had the muzzle of the gun dipping just a bit. By now he knew better than to trust that things were just as they seemed, but the part of him that was likely to get bit for his naivety (he’d deny he possessed any until the dying breath that might come sooner because of it), was still settling as he took her in fully.
An even dumber part of him had suspected, just for a minute, that it had been Brooke, finally turning back up here to push at him, until one of them snapped again. It was like cooping two dogs up in a car and expecting them to sit and play nice until their owners came back. The snarling was always going to start, followed rapidly by the snapping of teeth that’d leave them both sporting wounds by the time they were done. Ares cursed silently. By now it should’ve been obvious that she wasn’t gonna let it happen. Brooke had taken off that night and had avoided him since, she wasn’t about to come all the way out here, no matter how hard his brain tried to summon her.
Ares’ mouth settled into a thin line, hazel eyes narrowing as he flicked the beam of his flashlight over her. She looked about the same age as the kids he’d been dealing with at the high school over the last couple of years, but she was unfamiliar. He took a slow step down, creeping down from the porch onto the grass that stretched a good dozen yards between the two of them. The girl’s voice rolled towards him, finally drawing a huff of amusement out of her. ”You’ve got someone out here with you then? Since you’re not telling me to stop yapping…” he clarified. His gaze drifted past her, his gun not dropping, despite her assurances that it wasn’t necessary. The chances of someone trying to do him harm out here weren’t exactly zero, after all. This was Mystic Falls and the sheriff’s department had been called to plenty of unfortunate incidents that had happened out here in the woods.
Dark brows hitched as his gaze returned to her. Lost. As Brooke had been that night out here, although then there’d been the complication of the storm raging overhead and the two of them being in the worst possible spot for avoiding getting their asses fried by the lightning that had been lighting up the sky. ”Let me guess, you went out for a walk in the woods, got a little turned around and ended up all the way out here?” She definitely hadn’t just strolled away from town, he was too many miles out for that, unless she’d been walking all day.
His gaze dropped to her hands, the frown settling back in and deepening as he realised she didn’t seem to be carrying anything. No cell phone clutched in her hand like she’d been trying to call for help – not easy when cell service was spotty out in the middle of nowhere – no flashlight either. Just her handed curled in on itself in a way that had him twitchy. Ares lifted his chin, the gun twitching too. ”What are you carrying? You wanna open up your hands and show me, maybe then the gun gets put away.” Claire, and practically everybody else who’d ever met him, would likely have said he was too paranoid for his own good, but paranoia was how you stayed alive in situations where practically everybody around you was trying to make sure they were the ones that walked away and you weren’t.
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MONIQUE DEVERAUX
Witch
Posts: 13
Played by:
Mandy
Last seen Aug 22, 2024 20:42:23 GMT
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Post by MONIQUE DEVERAUX on Jul 5, 2023 17:33:33 GMT
NO REST FOR THE WICKED
WITH ARES
Take the gun from him, a voice whispered, harsh in her ear. It curled around her thoughts and nearly tugged her in that direction. She could do it. She could use her magic to pull the gun to her. She could twist the metal, turn the gun inside out. She felt that kind of magic in her. A gift from the ancestors --- who in turn expected her to use it. But in the end, she ignored the pull, literally shook her head free from it. She didn't want to cause any trouble. She had simple wanted to reconnect with nature.
And apparently she had wandered a little too far.
She eyed him again. He certainly was the suspicious type. She wondered if he gave all his guests the same warm reception or if she was just lucky because she happened to stumble out from the woods. It wasn't her fault that she had taken the wrong turn but he seemed ready to convict of her the crime anyway.
"It's complicated," she told him when he asked if she had someone with her. "You wouldn't understand." How to explain to someone that she had her literal witch ancestors whispering in her ears? He would think she was crazy and then she would be forced to defend herself. She didn't have time for that. She was already behind in her duties, given that she struggled to even understand what the hell had happened to her after her miraculous resurrection (another thing he wouldn't understand). "What? You don't talk to yourself? It was a lonely walk in the woods. I guess I sort of just...got stuck in my head. Look, this whole thing is just some big misunderstanding. I am not here to cause trouble or anything. When I say I wandered here, I mean it." She wondered if she was just wasting her breath. If the man was as paranoid as he was coming off as, she doubted that any story would make him happy.
She looked down at her clenched hand where the light that she had created still flickered. He wanted her to open her fist? "What do you really think I am smuggling here? Do you often wave guns around at young women or am I just one of the lucky ones?" she asked. She tried to call the magic back, to reabsorb the light but it wasn't working. She highly suspected that the ancestors were working against her, pushing her to reveal her true nature. Fit up with both them and the man in front of her, she heaved a sigh. "Fine!" And with that she opened her palm, the ball of light bouncing back up to hover over her open hand. It began to brighten. "If you shoot, I am going to have to defend myself." She let her magic stir to life, the trees around them beginning to shift in the wind. |
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ARES PATERA
Warlock
Posts: 225
Age:
36
Occupation:
Sheriff's Deputy
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Aug 31, 2024 18:03:29 GMT
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Post by ARES PATERA on Aug 8, 2023 19:09:52 GMT
It might have been late spring, but there was still a bite to the air once the sun dipped below the horizon. Enough of a bite that Ares felt a shiver race over his skin as he studied the girl. He shrugged his shoulders, as though that brief brush of skin against fabric would chase the shiver back. It clung like spiderwebs though, sensation rippling through him in a way that had his frown deepening. The girl didn’t feel like just some lost hiker, didn’t look like one either – just as Brooke had done, she’d come out here unprepared for what she might stumble across. As a cop Brooke should’ve known better, as a teenager… well, you were at least partly incapable of logical thought. He’d been the poster boy for poor decisions at her age.
Hazel eyes narrowed right back at her as she met his eye. That feeling struck again like he should’ve been seeing something more here than the kid standing there just at the far range of his flashlight. There was plenty in this town to see if you looked at it the right way. Plenty you didn’t want to see, even as a cop, too.
Her drawing the smallest bit of amusement out of him didn’t mean that this was guaranteed to be friendly. Being one of those things you didn’t wanna see didn’t mean you were charm free. Ares lifted his head, the corners of his mouth twitching faintly. ”I just might. I happen to like complicated. Try me, kid.” Not that the line had worked too well on many in the past. People heard cop, saw the uniform or the weapon, and clamped up immediately. It was a bone deep instinct to paint him as the bad guy.
Ares gaze dipped faintly to the muzzle of the weapon he still held up. They didn’t allow you to run around with a gun and a badge if there was any sort of questions about your sanity. Just like there were with the military, the police academy tested you endlessly to make sure you were the right kind of person for the job. ”Usually not when I’m within ear shot of somebody else,” he told her honestly. His brows furrowed further, the lines cutting deep enough between them to be stamped permanently in place. ”You got pretty far from town while you were stuck in your head.” The misunderstanding definitely felt like it was on his part. ”How about we just figure out what kind of misunderstanding and then I find some way to get you back to town, huh?” He wasn’t crazy enough to just throw open his car door without entirely understanding just who he was going to be riding around with. A few carefully spoken words could take you out as quickly as claws or fangs could.
That shiver was back, the hair rising on the back of his neck as he tried to study the girl’s clenched hand. Tiny grains of understanding were abrading his uncertain like it was being sandblasted. Ares licked his lips, his throat remaining dry despite the girl’s snarky retorts. ”It’s called being a cop. Being suspicious keeps you alive in my experience.” The two weren’t necessarily connected, but his suspicious streak had kept him alive, he was sure of it. ”There are plenty of dangerous things that can be hidden in a hand. If you haven’t got anything there for me to worry about, then you won’t have any trouble showing me.”
Of course, he hadn’t been expecting that. Working on autopilot, Ares was already drawing his aim away from her, the muzzle going wide of where it had been trained on the girl’s centre mass. He puffed out a breath, shaking his head as he looked around them. ”Same goes,” he warned tightly. ”Try turning that on me and you’ll see you’re not the only one who can conjure up some pretty lights and a little breeze here. Θεά, ηρέμησε τον αέρα, φέρε το αεράκι στο τακούνι. You wanna dial it back?” The switch between the Greek and English was rapid, the final question tossed at the girl as something else rose around them to push that wind back in her direction.
Tagged: MONIQUE DEVERAUX * Word Count: 707 Translate: Goddess, calm the air, bring the breeze to heel |
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MONIQUE DEVERAUX
Witch
Posts: 13
Played by:
Mandy
Last seen Aug 22, 2024 20:42:23 GMT
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Post by MONIQUE DEVERAUX on Nov 12, 2023 20:53:49 GMT
NO REST FOR THE WICKED
WITH ARES
The whispers grew louder, frenzied, as each voice tried to talk over one another. She had the urge to reach up and press her hands to her ears as if that would block them out. But she had a feeling that would only trap her with the source of it all. The voices were not around her, they were inside of her and she just wanted them to stop. She needed the quiet more than she realized. She had spent months trying to find a balance and now she had propelled herself through the woods as if she could out run something that was only going to stay with her.
(she wanted a way out, not that she could think on that too hard for free of reprisal)
"I am not a kid," she mumbled feebly. But she just might be in so many ways. She had lost out on time being groomed for a ritual that took the rest of her childhood away. When the Other Side finally spit her back out, she might not be the kid she once was physically but maybe part of mind was still stuck there, wanting the same things that she had before all of this started. "I don't need your help either. I found my way here, I can find my way back..." Because the last thing she needed was to get any closer to him and have the ancestors practically shout that she remove the so called obstacle. She didn't quite see him that way. They had just met at the wrong time and the wrong place.
(his place, which he wanted to defend)
Maybe she had taunted him to go further with his current stance because part of her was hoping that she would get some quiet if she was resting properly. Would the ancestors really let that happen? Or would they spit her back out again? Or worse, torment her for her failures?
Her magic had stirred the wind, pushing it towards him in an almost taunting fashion. Imagine her surprise when his gun no longer became the problem and he simply pushed it back. The breeze lifted her hair and tickled her skin. She frowned, her magic seeking release. The ancestors surrounded her now, pushing at her to let him be the target. Finally she did what she had wanted to do from the beginning of the night and pressed her hands to her ears. "I won't fight another witch. That is not the way..." she yelled, her frustration mingling with her magic. Instead of sending it at him she let it go as she sunk to her knees, the ground beneath both of them shaking momentarily with the impact. |
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ARES PATERA
Warlock
Posts: 225
Age:
36
Occupation:
Sheriff's Deputy
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Aug 31, 2024 18:03:29 GMT
|
Post by ARES PATERA on Nov 28, 2023 21:02:21 GMT
He had been too old for his own good long before the years in the marines had ground the lines into his face and the bitterness into his heart. Always racing ahead for whatever he thought he could reach for instead of being satisfied with what there was right now, impatience driving him nuts. Ares grunted at the girl’s friends, maybe she wasn’t that much younger than him, but she reminded him too much of Clio to see her as anything except for what he’d called her. ”Teenager, young adult, whatever you want to call yourself, the point still stands,” he muttered. Secrets didn’t sit any better than him than having to stay put and not rush straight into a situation.
The light might’ve carried on through the trees, heading well away from his place. The girl could’ve found her way back to town, but none of it would’ve sat well with him. Along with his inability to slow down, he’d been cursed with the need to cause himself a hell of a lot of trouble by trying to save people. If there was one thing he’d found out in this town it was that most didn’t wanna be saved from their own stupidity, especially not by a cop.
”Uh huh,” Ares muttered. He lifted the muzzle of his gun a couple of inches, making sure she wasn’t in its path, as he gestured around to the woods with it. ”If you’re so sure, which way’s town? You found your way here, you must know where the way back is.” With the trees growing so thick around the edges of his land it wasn’t like she’d have all that many landmarks to try and find her way back to the path. Even if she’d known it in the daylight, there was a chance she wouldn’t in the dark. As Brooke had found to her delight, everything got far more confusing and dangerous out here once the sun went down.
This land, the house that had drained almost every penny from savings, they’d been his sanctuary – even after Brooke had invaded it, stamping memories of her on the floor in front of the fire, in his bed. His magic had whispered through the trees here on occasion, the woods around him grounding him, adding to his power when he’d used it here. His ancestors would’ve understood that tie to nature. The girl was turning it on him now, using what he had seen as his against him. Not this time honey.
Calling on the Goddess he’d tossed the girl’s power back at her, and watched as it’s brush across her skin had her frowning. Someone didn’t like a taste of their own medicine. He’d half expected it to be thrown back stronger, instead she was clamping her hands over her ears, talking in a way he wasn’t sure was exactly aimed at him. ”Nobody’s fighting here,” Ares told her tightly, not being stupid enough to move towards her until he felt the power release in the air and then she was on her knees. Shit.
This might come back and bite him on the ass, but he tucked his weapon into the waistband of his pants and moved towards her. His hands were spread, although that didn’t mean he was entirely powerless here. ”What are you talking about? Who’s telling you to fight?” he asked, knowing he could quite easily be wrong. Ares stopped six feet away, crouching just enough to try and bring the girl’s gaze back to him. There was an itch between his shoulder blades, a temptation to look around them, but he knew there was nobody else here. Nobody living at least.
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hope to see you in the discord! 
