CAMERON EASTON
Phoenix
Posts: 27
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 10, 2024 19:36:13 GMT
|
Post by CAMERON EASTON on Apr 30, 2023 21:07:10 GMT
The ‘office’ – as much as you could call a repurposed broom closet an office – had been his retreat on the boat. Why deal with your own issues when you could offer up advice to other people on how to fix theirs? It’d barely been big enough for two of them to sit, one folding chair jammed up at the far side, one in front of the bulk head door that had to be folded up for him to squeeze in and out afterwards. Not exactly luxurious, but even if that was all he had now, he’d have doing the same. Hiding behind that door, burying himself in issues that weren’t his so he didn’t have to think about how he’d almost got Cat killed and had likely killed any chance of them having a future together.
Cameron set aside the notebook he’d been tidying up his last client’s notes in on the small side table beside the chair he sat in for his sessions and covered his face with his hands. His fingertips dug into his eyes, blurred memories of the hotel lobby, Ray’s hands on Cat, her boss stepping in … Lucky standing there inside his garage, spitting accusations at him until he’d shut her up. Nausea rolled hard though him, almost bringing back up the coffee he’d choked down three times already this morning, after another night’s broken sleep.
He dropped his hands away, blinking away the mild ache of their pressure. He couldn’t even blame Lucky for what had happened that night. Those situations weren’t all one sided. It had taken both of them, but since what had happened at the hotel to start it all had been his fault – not realising that Ray would eventually come looking had been on him – then the blame was all on his shoulders. Maybe Maddox would be guarding the door, keeping him out again, but after work he was going back to the hotel. If he had to fight his way past Cat’s pitbull bodyguards, he’d do it.
There were still four appointments to get through before then though. People who deserved his full intention instead of this distracted mess. Cam drew in a deep breath through his nose, levered himself up and grabbed his coffee cup. It wasn’t like the stuff was doing much good, but he headed back to the bureau behind his desk and set the machine to pouring another cup anyway. The flow had dropped to just drips when the light above his office door started to flash. His three o’clock had arrived. On time. He should’ve been a little more ready than having to rush back to his seat to put the coffee down before he headed to his office door.
Opening it, Cam smiled warmly to the girl on the other side. He could wallow in the repercussions of his actions all he wanted, but they were still just a drop in the ocean compared to what Summer had gone through with the people who had adopted her. ”Hi Summer. Come on through and grab a seat.” Cam closed the door after her, flipping the switch on the wall that would warn his next client or anybody else who arrived that he was in session. He settled down in his seat, reaching for his coffee cup as he studied her across the space between the two chairs. ”How have things been this week?” He liked to get a feel for the territory that they were dealing with that week before he started to negotiate any of the new or existing minefields, mapping each with the patience that seemed to vanish whenever his former-future-sister-in-law was within a hundred yards of him.
|
|
SUMMER ROSWELL
Werewolf
Posts: 40
Age:
18
Occupation:
Salvatore College Freshman
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Apr 30, 2024 16:16:42 GMT
|
Post by SUMMER ROSWELL on Jun 11, 2023 13:41:58 GMT
It had been a while since Summer’s whole life had imploded, she and her siblings had been doing their best to make it work ever since they found out that their parents were vampires and they had almost killed Eddie but it still wasn’t easy. Now Eddie was a werewolf, Jed had had no choice but to bite him otherwise he would have died from his injuries, and Summer was as well. For her at least it had been a choice, she had wanted a way to protect her family in case their parents came back and that meant she needed to be stronger and faster than a human. So far their parents hadn’t returned but Summer knew that didn’t mean that they weren’t going to and Ada at least didn’t seem to think that what their parents had done was wrong. She had seemed to relish in the hunt while they were deciding who to kill and it was Ada who had handed Eddie over to their parents in the first place. She and Ada were twins but they couldn’t be more different and Summer really didn’t know what was going on with her sister half the time. They were complete opposites and Summer knew that was never going to change. Her family had always been dysfunctional but now she had no idea what was going to happen with them so she was just trying to take it one day at a time. Being at the Salvatore School helped, she’d had friends at Mystic Falls High but Summer knew that she wasn’t the same person that she used to be before everything fell apart. Starting over wasn’t easy but she knew that it was for the best and she couldn’t deny that it helped being surrounded by people that she didn’t have to lie to. Her old friends would never understand what had happened with her parents, as far as they were concerned she had gained a scholarship to the Salvatore School and that was how it had to be. She had the pack that she could lean on now and she still had Jed as well even if the rest of the pack didn’t seem happy with him after he stopped being their Alpha. Summer was still getting her head around pack politics but she knew that she wasn’t going to turn against the guy who had saved Eddie from her parents and had given her a way to protect her family a swell. The school was different but the truth was that Summer really didn’t mind it. Jed’s parents had suggested that she might benefit from counselling and for a while now it had been helping so it was something that she knew she needed to keep up with. That was exactly what she was doing that day and it wasn’t long before the door opened. “Hi, thanks,” she said, offering Dr Easton a smile as she headed inside. Sitting down, she met his gaze and thought for a moment as he asked how things had been that week. “School has been fine, everyone is getting stressed in the lead up to exams as usual and things seem to be getting a bit better with the pack,” she shrugged. “At home things have been tense as usual, Ada is unbearable at the moment and it feels like the rest of the family is falling apart.” She knew that she didn’t have to hide anything from him, she had been sent to him because he was supernatural himself and Summer was glad that she didn’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing. CAMERON EASTON
|
|
CAMERON EASTON
Phoenix
Posts: 27
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 10, 2024 19:36:13 GMT
|
Post by CAMERON EASTON on Jul 5, 2023 19:35:23 GMT
Thankfully there hadn’t been any children on the boat – not that he had a problem with them, he’d always hoped to have kids of his own with Catia one day. It had been a hard life for those forced to live there and it would’ve been like torture for anyone younger. They wouldn’t have understood the need to stay put, and revealing to them what was holding the rest of them there was a cruelty he knew he couldn’t have stomached. Kids had enough difficulty growing up without adding to it. Of course, that had meant that his first juvenile client here had come as a bit of a surprise. Cameron had found himself holding his breath through the session, tiptoeing through a minefield of emotions that he hadn’t felt since he’d been that age himself. On the surface it looked no different to any other, but he was unfamiliar with it. Not wanting to abandon anybody who had come to him looking for help, Cam had plunged on, adjusting his methods, the way he communicated with them. It seemed to work – although there were some in his life who would’ve cackled at the idea that he could counsel anybody, let alone teenagers (perhaps if he’d had a little more practice at it when he was convincing Catia that her teenaged sister was more than capable of raising her daughter alone).
His last client had been a detective with the sheriff’s bureau, his circumstances as different to Summer’s as it was possible to get. A big enough switch between the two of them even without the weight of his own current situation hanging in the air like fog. Cam drew in a deep breath as he ushered Summer into the office, managing to offer her a smile as he settled down, returning the one she had given him. That was a decent sign at least. ”It’s always the toughest time of the year,” he agreed. ”Layers of extra stress on top of what you’re already dealing with.” The first time he’d heard about the structure of a wolf pack it had been hard to get his head around it, but the more he’d talked with those who were a part of one – or who had been – the more he’d realised it was little different to a family in many ways. If there was an alpha in his own family situation, it was definitely Lucky.
Cam sipped coffee with one hand, writing a few lines in his notes with the other, eyes on Summer the whole time. Luckily for him he wasn’t one of those doctors with horrific handwriting. This would be decipherable later. ”That’s good to hear. It’s not always easy settling into a new situation.” It could unsettle you, leave you feeling like you were standing on ground that could shift at any moment – trying to regain his life here had been much the same. His brows drew together faintly, his cup set aside for the moment. ”Has anything new happened at home this week, or is the same stressors? Have you spoken to Ada about what might be making things more difficult between the two of you at the moment?” In a family that had been shattered and reformed the way theirs had – with a danger threatening to swallow them up from within – it was no wonder that they were still floundering. The tension must have been choking at times. He picked his cup up again, swallowing hard as he felt his own throat squeeze at the thought.
|
|
SUMMER ROSWELL
Werewolf
Posts: 40
Age:
18
Occupation:
Salvatore College Freshman
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Apr 30, 2024 16:16:42 GMT
|
Post by SUMMER ROSWELL on Aug 28, 2023 21:39:05 GMT
Summer hadn’t thought that counselling was for her, for so many years she’d had to keep what was going on at home to herself that now it felt strange to be able to talk to people about it. It was still a relief to have it all out in the open but she didn’t know what was going to happen next with her family and she hated that. She had no idea where her parents had gone or what they were going to do but she knew that she wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to try something. For years they’d had her adoptive siblings at home serving as their own private bloodbags while she and her biological siblings were compelled into keeping the strangeness going on at home to themselves and it had taken more of a toll on Summer than she had realised. Now she had become a werewolf so she could protect her siblings from her parents and she didn’t regret it but it was another thing that she was having to learn to deal with on top of everything else. “Tell me about it. I’ve always liked school but getting used to a new one and dealing with finals on top of everything else that is going on is a lot,” Summer admitted. She had thought she’d known what she was letting herself in for when she’d asked Jed to bite her but the truth was that she hadn’t had a clue. She didn’t regret it, though. She’d had friends at Mystic Falls High but being at the Salvatore School meant that she was surrounded by people who knew what had happened with her parents and were able to be there for her. She never could have confided in her old friends about it so even though she still stayed in touch with them, she didn’t have the same relationship with them that she did with her new friends. Her old friends knew that person that she used to be and they were getting to know the person that she had become whereas the new people in her life knew the real her – good and bad. It didn’t help that soon enough she would be moving from high school to college and that in itself was a scary thing but she could at least stay at the Salvatore School when that happened so for that she was grateful. “It isn’t. Everything seems to be happening all at once, it’s a little scary,” she admitted. She was doing her best to stay strong and put on a brave face while she was around her siblings but she wasn’t sure just how long she could keep that up for. “Talking to Ada doesn’t work, she’s my twin but she doesn’t listen to what anyone else says,” she explained. “She knew our parents were going to kill Eddie when she handed him over to them but she went and did it anyway and she took pleasure in it. She’s unhinged and I’m worried she’s still in touch with them now.” If she was then she knew that there was a very real chance that her sister could end up inviting their parents into the house and then all hell would break loose again but she had no idea how to stop it. CAMERON EASTON
|
|
CAMERON EASTON
Phoenix
Posts: 27
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 10, 2024 19:36:13 GMT
|
Post by CAMERON EASTON on Sept 27, 2023 19:33:33 GMT
If his parents – well, his mother – had come clean to him about what had happened while she pregnant with him, then school would’ve stopped seeming like the absolute worst of his problems. Things then had been painfully normal though. Two parents, a happy little life behind a white picket fence. It could’ve been just about any cheesy Hollywood movie to come out of the 80s, but the entire thing had been a lie. As an adult it had been easier to adjust to, but had still sucked badly enough that it had taken him years to get around it. Cam could only take Summer’s word for it - and all the other kids he was treating.
At sixteen or eighteen you were barely struggling your way through algebra and the miasma of hormones that hit with puberty and didn’t let you free of their grip until you were graduating college. That should’ve been all they had to deal with, but the unluckiest of them had something else to juggle – something that came with a razor sharp edge and could quite easily slice you and your life to ribbons if you weren’t careful. The therapy they got with him was supposed to be about giving them a place to talk about it and the skills to handle whatever had come their way. For most, unfortunately, that didn’t involve the usual medicinal crutch that helped humans. They were shifters, vampires (that one still left a shudder running down his spine), phoenixes like him or even destined for a Harry Potter like existence. That meant both they and him and had to adjust their expectations on how all of this was supposed to go.
Talk was still important, probably the most important thing. Cameron always took his clients through what had happened between their last session and this one first, giving them the opportunity to tell him if things had been working out for them, how it hadn’t if they ended up going backwards instead of managing to claw their way ahead one inch at a time. ”I can sympathise with that,” Cam admitted, one corner of his mouth hitching a little higher. "I had to switch schools just before my senior year. Trying to handle SATs and everything else on top of the move felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done. You will get through it though, and you’ll settle in at the school.” He couldn’t guarantee that the last bit was gonna be easier than those finals. Newcomers didn’t always slip as seamlessly into a pool of students who’d likely known each other for years, some kids floundered to the point where they were emotionally drowning.
His pen tapped lightly against his notebook, his gaze dropping down to it. Summer had given him an overview of what had happened to her family in their first session and as he’d typed up his notes afterwards he’d tried to list all the stressors that Summer seemed to be dealing with – including her twin sister. ”That’s understandable. You’ve had a lot happen, nobody’s going to expect you to be able to just breeze through all of that. All we can do is deal with one thing at a time, right?” It was a method of trying to slow things down that he’d spoken to Summer about before. Trying to separate what she had to deal with, figuring out how to handle each of those things in turn, coming back to him – at any time of day – if she found that she was in over her head with it all.
Ada’s sister had been one of the problems that he suspected she was having a harder time separating from the rest. It was almost impossible when it was your own blood involved. He'd seen how it had torn at Catia to make that break away from Lucky and her niece, even when she was being crushed under the weight of taking care of her sisters. ”Have any of you tried to confront her about what happened?” Cam asked tightly, his brows drawing together again. ”Or perhaps about coming here with you for a joint session?” If she was as involved with the situation as Summer suspected she might be then the answer to both was likely to be a negative one. Even if Ada was willing to talk it didn’t mean that anything that was going to come out of her mouth would be the truth.
|
|
SUMMER ROSWELL
Werewolf
Posts: 40
Age:
18
Occupation:
Salvatore College Freshman
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Apr 30, 2024 16:16:42 GMT
|
Post by SUMMER ROSWELL on Jan 28, 2024 1:52:37 GMT
Summer had never thought that this would become her life. She really had thought about turning therapy down when Doctor Saltzman had suggested it but he had convinced her that talking about everything that had happened with her family might help. Eddie was doing the same, they had both needed someone to talk to after their parents had taken off and it helped but there were still times when Summer was tired of feeling like her family was broken. She had asked Jed to bite her and turn her into a werewolf so that she could protect her family alongside Eddie if their parents returned and she didn’t regret that choice one bit but f she was honest she perhaps hadn’t dealt with the rest of it as well as she should have done. She had spent years sneaking her adoptive siblings food so they could actually have enough to eat rather than the small amounts that their parents had been giving them and she had tried to look out for them but she was one of the youngest in the family and it had been easier with some of her siblings than it was with others. She wanted to be close to Ada, the girl was her twin after all, but they were so different and Ada had seemed to eager to join in with the hunt that it had honestly scared Summer. She didn’t understand how her twin could so willingly hand Eddie over to their parents so they could hunt and kill him for no other reason than enjoying the thrill of it. She knew now that they had killed some of her siblings before but they had always compelled those memories away. Those memories had all come flooding back after she became a werewolf and she knew that it was the same for Eddie. Now they remembered everything and neither of them wanted to let their parents get anywhere near their family again. “How did you deal with it?” Summer asked, unable to deny that she was curious. “The people at my new school are great and I’ve stayed in touch with my friends from my old school but the most difficult thing is trying to keep that line between those I can let know the real me and those I can only tell part of the story to,” she admitted. At the Salvatore School she could tell those around her as much as she wanted to about her family and what had happened but with her old friends all she could do was tell them that her parents had left and that she had changed schools. She couldn’t confide in them about what had happened or what she had become and she wasn’t even sure whether they really liked the new her. “To be honest I feel more at comfortable there than I did at Mystic Falls High after everything that happened but the classes are so different to what I’m used to and that’s taking some getting used to,” she added. There were the normal classes that she was used to, of course, but there were supernatural classes as well and it wasn’t always easy getting her head around those. “I know you’re right but that doesn’t make it any easier,” Summer sighed. “There has always been a divide between my biological siblings and my adoptive ones. My biological siblings and I were allowed to live normal lives for the most part while my adoptive siblings weren’t allowed to leave the house or go to school. They didn’t have enough food and they weren’t allowed to really live any kind of life. That divide is still there now even though our parents are gone. There are some of us who are trying to keep everyone together but my adoptive sister June is so angry about everything that happened all the time while some of my biological siblings don’t seem to care that our parents nearly killed Eddie.” It was screwed up to say the least but now that their parents were gone they were all each other had. Daniel and Robbie were doing their best to hold the family together but it always felt like one wrong move and everything would fall apart. As Cameron asked whether she had tried confronting Ada about what had happened, a humourless laugh escaped Summer’s lips. “It wouldn’t do any good. Ada has always enjoyed causing others pain and she couldn’t wait to find our adoptive siblings so our parents could begin their hunt,” she explained. “She doesn’t listen, she only cares about herself.” Summer didn’t understand how she and Ada could be so different but they were and it was more than a little scary at times. “She would never come here, she wouldn’t see that there was anything in it for her.”CAMERON EASTON
|
|
CAMERON EASTON
Phoenix
Posts: 27
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 10, 2024 19:36:13 GMT
|
Post by CAMERON EASTON on Mar 5, 2024 19:21:36 GMT
No matter how many questions he’d thrown at his parents , they’d never really explained the move out of Franklin. He’d ask, they’d fuss about Herb healing and a fresh start and then with time even that had faded. The old house had been sold, leaving behind thoughts of what had happened to Herb on the living room rug that hadn’t made the move with them. It wasn’t like they’d moved thousands of miles, but it’d been enough to entirely cut him off from his previous life. No more baseball, the tight knit friendships he’d had practically since birth were all gone. Cam had seen college as his only escape from it and in the end it had been worth it. His choice of college had given him Catia and she was all that mattered to him – even if he had almost destroyed all of that when his past had tried to reach out and tear his future apart.
As though he already had a wedding ring on his finger, Cam skimmed his thumb over the spot it would’ve taken up. He and Catie had overcome so much already, they would get through this too, even if Lucky did her best to make sure that didn’t happen. ”Studying,” Cam said honestly. ”I told myself it would all be different when I got to college, so I put everything I had into studying.” Thanks to that decision he’d made it to IUPUI and had met Catia. Neither one of them had really known what they were then, or what the future held for them. Cam always skirted a narrow line with how much he told his patients of his personal life, but whem he’d found out that he was different was on the right side of how much he could say. ”I wasn’t aware of the supernatural world then,” he murmured, knowing what it was she’d been alluding to. Summer wasn’t only having to hide that she was now a werewolf, but what had happened with her parents before that had happened.
”It takes time to decide,” Cam assured her. ”I don’t think it’s anything you can rush. In time you’ll know who you cann share that part of your life with.” On top of realising just what her parents had been doing to the children they were supposed to be caring for Summer had gone through the shfit from what appeared to be a wholly human school to one where the supernatural was constantly in the open. ”It’s a big change.” Cam’s brows furrowed faintly, but he offered her a small smile. ”If I’d have had the option at your age to be around people who could support me through all of the changes and tell me what was happening, I would’ve grabbed at it.” Instead he’d come to on the boat with a mysterious man sitting at the end of the bed and the memory of the bullet hitting him in the chest sharp in his memory.
The boat hadn’t felt like a blessing. Until he’d taken control of his situation it had been a prison, one he would’ve chewed his own arm off to escape. Maybe that was party how Summer felt about her situation. She was still trapped in a way and until she could find a path through that wouldn’t change. Her parents had entrapped children that weren’t their own and hearing about that again now put a sour taste in Cam’s mouth. If it had been a perfectly human situation child services might’ve been called in, but this had gone unnoticed for years. ”It’s difficult, especially if you think you’re caught between both sides.” Cam frowned as he studied her face. ”How do your adopted siblings feel about your biological ones now?” Her parents probably would’ve celebrated the fact that there was still a divide. Trapped between both halves, Summer must have felt some loyalty to both. ”You can’t force someone to get help until they see it’s a problem,” Cam muttered low, agreement in his voice. ”Do you think she would try and continue what your parents were doing?” There would be a risk to her in that, but it didn’t seem as though Ada would care about the risk.
|
|
SUMMER ROSWELL
Werewolf
Posts: 40
Age:
18
Occupation:
Salvatore College Freshman
Status:
Single
Played by:
Emma
Last seen Apr 30, 2024 16:16:42 GMT
|
Post by SUMMER ROSWELL on Apr 30, 2024 16:15:37 GMT
Summer knew that her life had never been perfect, she couldn’t remember much about the time before her parents started adopting kids and forcing them to stay inside all the time but it had always seemed strange to her that they would let their biological children leave the house, go to school and live normal lives but they wouldn’t let their adopted children do the same. Summer knew now that she had been compelled into doing whatever it was that they had wanted her to do and believe but now she was a werewolf she remembered everything. She understood that her parents must have been heartbroken just like the rest of them were when her older brother died but the way they treated all of their kids was something she knew that she couldn’t forgive. They had almost taken Eddie’s life and she had seen the joy on their faces as they sent her and her biological siblings out to hunt down one of their adopted siblings, they had loved the thrill of the hunt and she wouldn’t be surprised if they had also loved dragging their biological children down to their level at the same time. They had called it a bonding experience but it was an incredibly sick one at that. Now she had started over at a new school and she and her siblings were living in a new place but she still couldn’t relax. Doctor Saltzman had suggested that talking to a counsellor might help and it did to an extent but there were things that she was still trying to figure out even now and she knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. “That makes sense,” she nodded as Cameron said that he threw himself into studying when he changed schools. “I’m doing the same thing to an extent but I’m trying to find my place in the pack as well,” she admitted. It had been a while since she had become a werewolf but she was still doing her best to figure things out. Jed knew the truth about what had happened with her family and some of the pack had been there that day and had helped out but none of them had talked about it since and the truth was that Summer wasn’t sure how to bring it up. It was different for Eddie, Jed had bitten him because he would have died otherwise but Summer had chosen to become a werewolf so that she could protect her family. She didn’t regret it one bit but she knew that other members of the pack hadn’t had the luxury of a choice and she wasn’t sure how they felt about the one that she had made. In a way it was easier talking to someone who was further removed from it all especially since she didn’t want to worry Eddie and Jed had handed his Alpha status and power over to Hope when he became a hybrid. It was all such a mess but Summer knew that all she could do was try and work her way through it as best she could. “That must have made it easier,” Summer said as Cameron confirmed that he wasn’t aware of the supernatural world back then. Right now she was having to toe the line between her old life and her new one and it was a challenge to say the least. “I don’t want to cut my old friends out of my life completely because they’ve been a part of my life for such a long time but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to drag them into my new world,” Summer admitted. As far as she was aware none of them knew about the supernatural world and she knew that it was probably much safer for them if it stayed that way. As Cameron said that going to a new school was a big change before saying that he would have grabbed the chance to go to a school that could support him and tell him what was going on, Summer nodded. “I’ve already learnt so much more there than I ever thought I would, it’s just a little overwhelming at times,” she said gently. “I know I made the right choice though, I couldn’t have stayed at Mystic Falls High and pretended that everything was the same as it used to be when nothing is anymore.” Only seeing her old friends from time to time made it easier to keep the truth from them, seeing them every day would have made it impossible. As Cameron asked how her adopted siblings felt about her biological ones now, Summer didn’t hesitate before answering. “It’s pretty mixed right now. They don’t trust the ones who were eager to take part in the hunt but they’ll talk to me and the others who tried to help,” she explained. Robbie had tried to hide Eddie from their parents and she knew that Avery never would have taken part willingly either. Art and Ada, however, were a different matter entirely. It was still so tense at home and she had no idea what way it was going to go right now. As Cameron asked whether she thought Ada would try and continue what their parents were doing, Summer’s expression turned thoughtful for a moment. “I’m not sure,” she said at last. “The truth is out there now and we all know what they were doing so I don’t think she’d get the chance but I’m worried our parents might get in touch with her. If she invites them into the new house then we’ll all be at risk again.” She and Eddie were werewolves now but the rest of her siblings were human and if her parents got to them then Summer knew that she and her brother probably wouldn’t stand a chance against them. CAMERON EASTON
|
|