ZACHARY QUIROA
Human
Posts: 66
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Jun 23, 2024 14:58:19 GMT
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Post by ZACHARY QUIROA on Dec 28, 2023 20:56:37 GMT
 Lightning flashed across the sky again as Zach hefted a pair of the big barrel shaped tubs out of the trunk of the car. He lifted one, glad that it was empty, to close the lid. There were already a half dozen just inside the back door of the store, along with ten boxes of cones and cups that’d been on his list to restock. At least he could go into a normal supply store and ask for this stuff, nobody was gonna throw you in a cell for buying ice cream making equipment.
A shudder ran down his spine, his gaze darting up and down the alley as he started back towards the store. These days Ricky probably had people watching him 24/7 to make sure he wasn’t driving around town with far less legal stuff in the trunk. It was a miracle he’d skipped out on that – or maybe that’d been Ricky’s plan all along. Threaten him, let him go, hope he was stupid enough to think he was untouchable now and do something that’d really fuck up all their plans here. It wasn’t like Ricky would give two shits about him ending up behind bars. Manny was the only one he was concerned with here and no matter how cracked his brother ended up, Ricky was never gonna find Manny doing that. He was too paranoid.
It was probably a good thing that Manny was no more hands on here than he had been at the club. Most things he could cover up for, but trying to convince a bunch of teenagers that their boss wasn’t paranoid enough to kill them in a fit of temper and then toss their bodies in the freezer til he could dispose of them wasn’t exactly easy.
The place was quiet as he headed inside, at this time of the afternoon they were probably caught in a low spot. After school the place always seemed to fill up, but give it an hour and folks started to head home. His ma would always have dinner on the table at 6, keeping to a schedule the whole way through his childhood. Sometimes Manny and Ricky’s dad had disturbed it with those calls to summon his dad, but usually it had been the three of them gathered around, eating his ma’s pozole or tamales, him jabbering on about school to fill the air. It wasn’t like his parents were gonna sit there and discuss what they’d been doing all day, not when most of it was the sort of thing you learned to be real hush-hush about when you were working for a cartel.
Zach guessed it wasn’t that different now. He didn’t walk into the parlour and start talking to the employees about what else he’d been doing all day. They asked him for what they were short on, he ferried it all backwards and forwards and when they were short, he pitched in.
He deposited the tubs next to the sink in the back room, waiting to be washed out and reused for fresh batches of ice cream and stacked the boxes on the shelves before he headed for the front room. Lightning still flashed across the sky, thunder following a few seconds later. Last year had been cold at this time – freezing compared to Cali – but this year it was all storms. His ma woulda said it was Zapata on his horse, Lightning, coming back to help his people. There weren’t enough Mexicans in Mystic Falls to even start considering that, but the memory still flickered in the back of his mind like that lightning.
”Hey,” he called to the girl behind the counter as he walked through. Eden. He’d picked up most of the names already, especially of the people who tended to be chatty with him. Dipping his head, he glanced down at the tubs of ice cream sat behind the glass in case anything needed topping up. ”I got the supplies, stacked them back in the kitchen. Thought I’d better get them here before the storm broke, guess I needn’t have worried, huh? Has it been this quiet all afternoon?” People had probably taken one look at the threatening sky and decided to scoot straight home from school and work. Nobody wanted to be caught out in that stuff, even if it didn’t seem to rain half the time he expected it these days.
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EDEN FOSTER
Human
Posts: 35
Played by:
Jodi
She wants to love and radiant light
Last seen Oct 13, 2024 11:40:44 GMT
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Post by EDEN FOSTER on Jan 7, 2024 22:41:45 GMT
The new owners of the store were a little bizarre. There was something weird as fuck going on with them, but Eden couldn’t figure out what. She’d been watching them come in and out of the store, intermittently. Sometimes she’d offer the scary looking one a smile, but it was never returned. Eden had chewed Daniel's ear off by now with theories as to what they were up to. He’d probably grown tired of telling her they were up to nothing. They were just normal businessmen who wanted to own an ice cream store in Mystic Falls. At least they hadn’t bulldozed through the front doors with a ton of new rules for the employees to follow. Eden liked how breezy shit was at the Ice Cream Parlour. It slotted in nicely around her podcast too. She pulled the hazelnut chocolate ice cream tub out, replacing it with pistachio before sliding the chocolate one further on down the row. She’d told the new staff countless times where the flavours go yet they insisted on putting everything in the wrong place. It didn’t help because customers were sometimes stupid enough to point at the chocolate ice cream and ask for vanilla. Once the months started to roll into winter the store quietened down a little. People just didn’t want to be licking an ice cream when it was zero degrees outside and Eden didn’t blame them. The store probably made enough money during the summer months to close throughout winter, but she was grateful they didn’t. Money was rolling in for her podcast but not enough for her to live off. If she wasn’t scooping ice cream into cones then she’d be collecting dishes at the Grill. She leaned into the space where the ice creams were, taking a scoop of rum and raisin before pressing it down into a waffle cone. It was impossible to resist the ice cream when she was standing in front of it. She bit down into the frozen treat as she unlocked her phone with her other hand. Sometimes it was a blessing when the store was quiet because the summer months were hell on earth. The queue would be stretching out the place and down the sidewalk. But sometimes when she was the only one in the place it was boring as fuck. Her screen time was up at least sixty percent. The front door swung open, exposing the elements outside. Eden glanced up from her phone. She was about to be questioning what psychopath had come for ice cream when there was literally a thunderstorm rolling through the town, which was rich coming from the girl who was holding one. It was one of the owners. Zach seemed the friendly one of the pair. Unlikely Manny Zach didn’t look like he was about to snap every five seconds. She gave him a small nod as he made his way into the back room with the tubs. Eden turned her attention back to her phone, taking small licks of the ice cream every few seconds. Once Zach walked back into the room she glanced up from her phone once more, ready to say goodbye to him but instead he was choosing to engage in conversation with her. Strange? Maybe. “Cheers mate.” She placed her phone down on the counter. “Yeah no one wants an ice cream in this weather.” She took a bite of her own, “Well, apart from me. Can’t say no to a rum and raisin… and don’t worry I’ll ring it through the till after.” Eden added, with a grin on her face. Just in case he thought she was stealing their goods then Zach would have to send scary Manny in to yell at her. “Doubt we’ll see anyone for the rest of the arvo.” Even the school kids weren’t going to be dragging their asses through the rain for a quick sweet treat before rushing home. She’d probably give them a few extra sprinkles for making the effort though. ZACHARY QUIROA |
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ZACHARY QUIROA
Human
Posts: 66
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Jun 23, 2024 14:58:19 GMT
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Post by ZACHARY QUIROA on Jan 23, 2024 19:50:50 GMT
It had been a relief to discover that the store’s employees were all pretty much good kids. Young, having lived in this town long enough to overlook any vaguely weird shit. They were the sort that wouldn’t realise that the new owners were sketchy and if they did look twice a few extra dollars in their pay – a little bonus for all their hard work – tended to stop them from wondering just how much business was being entered on the books. It was sure as shit far more than what they actually did at this sort of year.
Zach huffed out a breath as he trailed back into the store proper and called out to Eden. They had people to handle the financial side of things, he always did a sweep over the public version of the books before he paid the employees though. Nobody in this town was gonna suspect that there were dealers of the non-antique sort in their pretty little patch, but there were probably plenty of white collar guys here who were cheating on their taxes. Maybe the IRS would do a general sweep on the town looking for them at some point, more likely they’d keep skating through until Ricky finally made his move.
His gaze ticked to the door, skittering back to the girl as another flash of lightning lit up the sky. Had Ricky already tried scouting the place out? Tasting every damn flavour in the place while he tried to figure out how they were using the place as a cover. Some crochety old grandpa with a white beard and that puckered expression on his face that he wouldn’t have to fake. Maybe he should’ve told Eden and the others to look for weirdos, but they wouldn’t have made him rare in Mystic Falls.
Mate? Zach chuckled lightly at the word that rolled out in that accent of hers. ”Only the masochists, huh?” Lifting a hand, he brushed off her offer to pay for it. ”Consider it a bonus,” he murmured. He snagged a cone of his own from the stack of them and squinted down at the tubs again until he spotted the dulce de leche. It wasn’t as good as the cajeta ice cream from back home, but it’d hit the spot. As he took his first bite of it he winked at her like it was their secret. Manny probably wouldn’t have cared if the staff were eating entire tubs of the ice cream, just as long as they weren’t helping themselves to the rest of the merchandise.
It wasn’t the ice cream hit that had a shudder running down his spine as he leaned back against the counter again. The storm was to blame for 90 percent of it, Ricky’s looming the other ten. Both had the ability to fuck up his life if he wasn’t careful. ”Maybe they’re the smart ones,” he muttered. ”Storm like this, most people hole up behind closed doors.”
Risking a glance over his shoulder, he frowned up at the slice of dark sky he could see hanging above the square. ”My ma used to tell me stories when we got storms like this back home. She’d say that the thunder was the sound of Zapata’s horse’s hoofbeats. If you heard them it meant he was back from the dead to save everybody. Guessin’ ‘they don’t tell stories like that around here?” It was probably a little less creepy for kids to think they were being saved, rather than it was the Aztec Gods back, vengeful for all the blood they hadn’t had sacrificed to them in a few centuries. Their country had been a blood thirsty one thousands of years before Manny had started splashing it around.
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EDEN FOSTER
Human
Posts: 35
Played by:
Jodi
She wants to love and radiant light
Last seen Oct 13, 2024 11:40:44 GMT
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Post by EDEN FOSTER on Feb 3, 2024 17:46:56 GMT
Eden was already a little suss of the new owners. Like, who the fuck wanted to buy an ice cream store as they were about to head into winter? Maybe they had big plans for the place for summer. Regardless, the place would be packed out once the sunny months started to roll in, since it was the only place in town that served decent ice cream. Eden was already dreading it. Maybe by some stroke of luck her podcast will have taken off by then and she’d be swimming in companies willing to sponsor her. It was an absurd idea either, considering the show had been climbing through the charts on Spotify. But she was already starting to worry about how she was going to split her time between the ice cream store and her podcast. She winced a little as thunder rang through the air. It sounded like the thunderstorm was directly above the store, ready to bring the building to rumble. Lightning struck seconds later, meaning it was super fucking close. Retreating behind the counter and eating ice cream was the safest place. If only she was still in Australia. She’d be lying on a beach somewhere, soaking up the rays before heading out to surf. There was no sign of a beach anywhere near Mystic Falls. Zach had let her off for the price of the ice cream. Even better. She couldn’t wait to tell Daniel, piss him off by telling him she was employee of the month and therefore was rewarded with ice cream. She watched as he helped himself to a scoop of ice cream too. She always silently passed judgement on those who went for vanilla. They had all the fun flavours looking up at them and they chose the most basic ones. Sometimes she and Daniel would try and guess a person's order before they reached the counter. Standing in the Ice Cream Parlour was the last place she wanted to be during a storm. She longed to be curled up in bed. “It’s a pretty wild storm.” She commented as she took another bite from her ice cream, “I’ve never heard thunder so loud.” With each rumble it felt like it was vibrating through her chest. Eden laughed lightly at Zach’s story. “Not gonna lie mate. Never heard of Zapata, but my nanna would say shit like God’s bowling upstairs or having a party.” Usually lighthearted stories so Eden and Eric weren’t scared, but they rarely had storms like this one back in Australia, “What do you think?” ZACHARY QUIROA |
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ZACHARY QUIROA
Human
Posts: 66
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Jun 23, 2024 14:58:19 GMT
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Post by ZACHARY QUIROA on Mar 4, 2024 17:52:51 GMT
Manny was paranoid about people, but probably wouldn’t have even glanced at the sky as the thunderstorm raged overhead. It was a different sort of superstitious. Over the years it had bled into him until sometimes he felt like he was as twitchy in the head as Manny was. The way his skin crawled at the sound now was all about the old sorta superstition though, the stories his ma had told him before he’d realised exactly what there was out there in the world. By now Zach knew he should’ve always been more worried about the things that walked and talked than the creepy little omens the world tried to throw out every now and then.
On a day like this he’d happily lurk behind the counter and eat ice cream until Manny called to fire more orders at him. It felt kinda reassuring, like the dulce de leche was gonna make everything a little better. That was a kid’s thinking, but Zach still leaned back against the counter with his ice cream, shoulders hunched against whatever was raging out there. You ignored things long enough sometimes and they sorted themselves out. Burying his head in the sand with the de la Peñas wasn’t gonna work out long term, but for the minute he could do it.
”Seems like they’re all wild these days. Back home it’s like a once in a century thing, most of the year its blue skies and sun.” Not that they ever saw much of it, working for Manny didn’t mean he got to spend all day sitting on a beach. ”Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll pass before we close for the night.” And maybe they’d close early if it kept up. A couple of people disappointed was better than either one of them having to drive through the worst of it. Wrapping the car around a tree was a sure fire way for Ricky to be able to tear it apart. They were careful, but who knew what traces of stuff lurked in the trunk to be turned up by some lab tech or Ricky’s bloodhound nose.
As Eden admitted she had no idea who Zapata was, Zach clutched at his chest and groaned. This town didn’t exactly have a Meixcan neighbourhood and who knew what they taught in those Australian schools. Back home his ma had told him those bed time stories, making sure he didn’t forget where they came from, even if they were hundreds of miles away from it. Zach uncurled his fingers, pressing his palm over his heart like it was some symbol of loyalty instead of feigned shock. ”He was a revolutionary, practically the second coming of God for us.” Him being assassinated just gave more credence to the idea that he was some mythical figure who would rise again for the Mexican people.
Dark eyes rolled up towards the ceiling as the thunder boomed again and rain rattled against the windows. ”Don’t sound like any party I’d want to go to. I don’t think it’s Zapata either. Too ominous for that.” There were a thousand other things that could probably make that kinda noise though. One of the old Aztec Gods, or any of the creatures that lurked outside the cities. ”I think if we were gonna get anything here it’d be the chupacabras. You get animals dying around here, right? Live stock turning up all...” Zach gestured with his ice cream like it’d finish his thought for him. Maybe the chupacabra legends had started from rumours of people spotting werewolves or shifters, but they’d taken over from that now and every conspiracy nut North of the border was sure that they lurked somewhere, just waiting for someone to finally catch a photo that would prove it.
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EDEN FOSTER
Human
Posts: 35
Played by:
Jodi
She wants to love and radiant light
Last seen Oct 13, 2024 11:40:44 GMT
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Post by EDEN FOSTER on Mar 20, 2024 16:03:37 GMT
Eden nearly let out a long sigh when Zach spoke about his home being all blue skies and sun. Naturally her and Eric missed Australia. They were uprooted as children, when they were conscious so they’d already built many memories over there along with friends. The move was difficult enough though without two children complaining they didn’t want to go. They wanted to stay with all their friends. They wanted to stay where they were comfortable. Within a year though they’d made new friends and their new life was starting to take shape. “Where’s home?” It wasn’t like Mystic Falls was always gloomy and wet, but it was easy to dream of a better place when thunder was rolling through the sky. Religion didn’t have any part of Eden’s life. It didn’t mean she was some non-believer though. If she was to believe in ghosts and witches, who's to say there wasn’t a big man sitting upstairs judging everyone? It wasn’t that far-fetched. Zapata did sound like some ancient God though. Someone who lived in ancient Greece or some shit. Europe was full of history like that, putting Australia to shame. They were a baby compared to some places. “I’ll have to Google him when I get home.” It wasn’t something she said lightly either. Eden would go home and punch this guy’s name into Google, probably fall down some kind of rabbit hole. Eden loved falling down rabbit holes. God was busy tap dancing upstairs while the rest of them were covering their eyes down on Earth. A cynic would be quick to shut down their conversation, explaining how thunder worked. Eden tended to roll her eyes at those sorts of people. Where was the fun if you were to believe in nothing? Her attention spiked when he mentioned chupacabras though. “The things that drink animal blood?” There had been a lot of reports of animals dying in Mystic Falls, but it was the dead humans that was more interesting. So many murders in a tiny tiny town. It made you think was Mystic Falls really that safe? “But have you seen the number of people missing from Mystic Falls? Or the amount of animal attacks.” She air quoted the word animal attacks. “They really out here thinking people believe that shit.” The only people who believed it were idiots and those involved, “Tell ya what I think mate. I think it’s vampires or werewolves. Gotta be.” The next explanation would be a serial killer. A very good serial killer. “My rents think I’m crazy for believing in that shit but whatever.” She said with a shrug as she went back to licking her ice cream. ZACHARY QUIROA - wanna wrap with yours? |
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ZACHARY QUIROA
Human
Posts: 66
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Jun 23, 2024 14:58:19 GMT
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Post by ZACHARY QUIROA on Apr 6, 2024 20:46:45 GMT
Years of working for Manny, years of living alongside the de la Peñas had left Zach paranoid. The feeling eased when he was home, slipping into his parents’ place, somewhere he could finally talk openly, but out here in the real world, any question left him hesitating for a moment. Tiny details could be used to hang you later – especially if it was the cop brother of your criminal boss you were talking to. Zach squinted at Eden for a moment before he smiled at her. If Ricky had stooped to shifting into teenagers, then he was a better actor than he’d always given him credit for. ”San Diego. My family’s originally from Mexico though.” Close enough to his parents’ generation that they still spoke about Mexico like they’d spent their lives there instead of in America. His ma had filled his night time stories with talk of Zapata and Pancho Villa. Maybe that’d been to try and take the edge off of what he saw and learned during the day around Ricky and Manny’s father.
Like him Eden probably carried plenty of stories about home – the accent gave away the fact that it was nowhere near Mystic Falls. Australian was meant to have crazy shit like crocodiles walking the streets didn’t they? Spiders the size of a dinner plate, snakes that’d kill you just by hissing in your direction. Hell, maybe he’d just watched too much of that Irwin guy on the Discovery channel. All the way out there she’d probably never even heard of Tijuana, let alone the Mexican revolution. ”Be prepared for a lot of reading,” he told her with a grin. ”Us Mexicans like to talk, ‘specially when it comes to our own people.” Except for Manny and Ricky, of course. In their own way they were quiet men when it came to most things. If they got talkative with you, that was when you had to start worrying.
A glance at the door as his gaze tripped back from the outside to the girl beside him proved that Manny hadn’t decided to brave the weather. He wouldn’t be too happy that one of his guys was standing around, eating ice cream and talking shit about the supernatural. It wasn’t just some bullshit horror movie stuff for them, it was real life. He worked for a guy who could turn into anybody at any moment. That was scary shit. In comparison chupacabras practically seemed like pussy cats. ”Uh huh,” Zach muttered, taking a bite of his ice cream to punctuate his words. ”They’re meant to have spread from South America. I guess there’s not that many farms around here to worry about that stuff.” There’d been reports of animal deaths in the newspapers, but it should’ve been the human ones the people around here were worrying about.
Seconds later Eden was bringing it up herself and suddenly Zach realised he’d maybe gone a step too far. It was one thing kidding about resurrected revolutionaries riding through town on ghostly horses, but putting it in her head that things were killing humans here? Mierda. Straightening up, Zach gestured towards her with his ice cream. ”Half of that’s gotta be exaggerations right? A few farm animals die, some people get lost hiking in the woods? It’s never gonna be some real horror movie thing running around.” Hey, in theory he agreed with her, people had to be crazy to not realise something was going on, but he wasn’t about to confirm enough of it that she went trying to look for that stuff here.
Chuckling, he shook his head and took a step towards the back of the store. ”If Count Dracula’s runnin’ around out there we’re all in more trouble than I thought,” he joked. She wasn’t crazy, but he couldn’t tell her that as he shook his head. ”Parents always think their kids are a little nuts. When stuff like that’s goin’ on, everybody’s gonna start thinkin’ weird shit’s happenin’.” He tipped his head towards the door of the store where rain started to spatter harder against the glass. ”I better get goin’. If you need any help closin’ up later, just call, ‘k?” If she did, he’d send someone else, because he’d already come too close to putting his foot in it. Lifting his ice cream in a cheers gesture, Zach scurried out. Next time he was gonna have to keep his damn mouth shut.
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hope to see you in the discord! 
