New Management

[Swami M]

Alex winces at Morgan's mention of pranks. He can only imagine... For the Redding Autumns, "good clean fun" started with stuffing a nest full of yellowjackets into the deposit drawer at a drive-thru banking window and escalated rapidly from there...

He finds another slice of the "meat lover's" pizza. He holds it up before taking a bite. "I assume the pizza here isn't quite up to those standards. But there are definitely other benefits..." He looks around at the the room and the people in it. "From everything I've seen myself and heard from others, this kind of thing doesn't happen so much in most other Freeholds."

[Morgan Bellanar]

And Evelynn hit upon what most would consider a black mark on the past: not noticing your own Mantle. Fortunately for Morgan, she had a rather low opinion of herself and didn't care much. Instead, the raccoon chuckled, tilting her head to make it easier to scratch the side of it as she turned to Evelynn, "Uh t-tis a little s-short in summation. Ah-and in-in mine d-d-defense, tis ye ken:" she pointed down to her feet. She tapped her left foot several times, leaves only appeared from her Mantle with every other tap, "L-looking at thine feet in motion tis nay a thing Imma aught to do often, heh-heh. Usually c-concerned with where Imma g-gonna land instead heh-heh," she sucked in a breath, whistling it through her teeth before sighing, "G-g-glad Ava pointed it out to me, heh-heh." She straightened her head and shrugged, "A-and Mantle tis l-like membership. So~o I nay ken when I got the Mantle m-m-means," Morgan grinned widely and spread her arms in the viola fashion: "I d-don't ken when I joined Autumn, heh. Twas p-probably entertaining for Ava w-w-when I freaked about it...meh-beh nay on par with dub-step-cannon but probably twas funny."

And the conversation with Alex was a little less awkward, "Yay b-b-but pizza twasn't g-g-good enough to deal with the Chicago Autumn antics." Morgan grimaced as she slowly nodded in agreement, "Yeeeeah, I hath heh-heard only b-b-bad things of the other heh-holds from folks..." after taking a sip of beer Morgan decided to add: "Oro-or it c-could be that the nicer heh-holds nay hath folks leaving them. C-c-could heh-happen."

[Terri Nutkins]

The spin was unexpected but it made Terri giggle loudly, her arms wrapping around Rick’s neck and at his question, looked around the interior of the boarding house, taking in the atmosphere before gazing back into his stormy eyes, still grinning. Even if the world out there was out to get them, Terri was determined to make Edna’s a sanctuary for everyone she could.

“Surrounded by good people, good food and a great atmosphere? What’s not to enjoy?”

About a week to go before the month mark, feel free to post one or two more times before it closes. Thanks for attending everyone

[unlimited sink]

Helen laughs at Daniel's joke. It's a fine sound, strong and musical. "I should hope you don't," she answers, touching him lightly on his arm as if to steady herself in her fit of mirth.

"Well, it's complicated. Why I left. I was born there. A couple of times, really. But it started to seem too small. Even a 'Big City' can become too small, you know." Helen gets a thoughtful look, her smile becoming a touch abstract. --and mind goes forth to the end of the world.

She comes back to herself, focusing on Daniel again: "It felt right to move on. But I'm getting too old to go too far. And Sacramento stills feels like a different world. So." She opens her ink-stained hands before her as if to say and there you have it. "And what about you, young man? How long have you been here? What's your story?"

[Daniel Leto]

There was a touch of gloom to Daniel’s smile when Helen talked about age and referred to him as a young man. He couldn’t help but wonder if he might actually be older than the Wizened, even if the years spent during his Durance hadn’t touched him otherwise.

“Well, I’ve been here about two and a half years. Though I went home for a couple months last years.” Which may or may not have been a mistake. Only time would tell. “And my story is…” How did you answer a question like that without killing the mood of the party? How did you explain the biting guilt and regret, while acknowledging that there were things you wouldn’t change for the world? As Winter espoused, you couldn’t. You hid it behind a melancholy smile.

“About the same. I needed a change of scenery. Minnesota just got to be a little bit to Minnesotan for me, you know. I figured California was the farthest I could get without actually leaving the country. So here I am, offering fake IDs and contacting the dead to anyone whose interested.”

[Lesingnon]

There's a smile on his lips as Rick returns Terri's embrace, hands resting lightly against the small of her back. "Mmm...indeed, I couldn't ask for better company." And then he leaned forward that last little bit, letting his lips press to hers. Briefly, though, he hadn't exactly forgotten where they were.

Then the music rings out again, and one hand presses lightly against her hip to turn her back towards the stage. Ava was singing a song that he'd not heard for a very long time indeed. Certainly a fitting one for an Autumn, though. No one who'd ever seen the movie could hear it without thinking about the season. And it was certainly sung well, too. Spectacularly so. "Hmm...sounds like you might have some competition at karaoke nights from now on."

[Mhairi Ankaa]

After returning from her room, Mhairi was content to grab another slice, and finished off the bottle she'd left behind. A crooked smile grow upon her lips, as she listened to the others talk. Picking some cheese off her slice, as she stared at Morgan. Listening as she told Evelynn about finding her place within Autumn, of what she knew of the steepscrambler, and their kith in general, they always looked up, It made sense she thought, that Morgan wouldn't notice her new mantle because she hadn't looked down at her feet.

The newly created Team Terri and Rick fan squealed internally as they embraced.

Cheering at Ava's second knock out performance. She waited a moment before nervously she got up on the 'stage', with her own ipod in tow. She didn't know if Terri would have this song on hers, and, her fell-flames looked at those present, she didn't know how they'd take this song. "Since this is-ah Edna's on-uh Autumn soil, and I'm-ah an Autumn too, I-ah thought that this-would-ah be appropriate." Hopefully.

Taking a deep breath, Mhairi hit play and sang.

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-25 12:16:15		Mhairi Ankaa rolls 3 to Singing! (Press 2 + Expression 1)		9, 8, 6		2 successes

As the last notes of the song fell to silence, Mhairi thought she'd done way the heck better then she thought she would. Her crooked smile grew, then faltered, as she looked around the room, half dreading what their opinion of her song choice, and how she'd song was.

[Terri Nutkins]

When Ava sang, Terri turned to watch and listen, grinning as she ensured Rick's arms were still around her, and at his question, the Beast nodded slowly. Seemed like the Autumn Queen was better than Terri at several things; karaoke being one of them. Applauding when the song ended, Terri watched as Mhairi then performed and was struck at the Elemental's...alternative taste in music. She'd never heard the song before and when she had finished, Terri clapped and beamed towards Mhairi, giving the girl as much confidence as she could.

[Swami M]

Alex is so impressed by Ava's performance that he starts furtively checking the kitchen drawers until he finds the junk drawer. As expected, there's a disposable cigarette lighter hiding in there with all the mismatched tools, worn out dish towels and old grocery receipts. He ignites it and holds it aloft as Ava's number reaches its climax. And then Mhairi's song doesn't exactly suck either...

"Karaoke isn't really something you think of as serious. More like the opposite of serious. But you folks have some serious skills. There's been talk of organizing some kind of talent show, but anything that happens will have a tough time topping tonight."

The praise is sincere. And as long as the others are the topic of conversation, no one will think to demand another song from him. Hopefully.