sweet child o mine

[thememening]

the meme for
O R I G I N A L   C H A R A C T E R S

• Top levels in this meme are for original characters only! Canon characters may tag around as they please.
  
• Anyone top-leveling is strongly encouraged to tag at least one other person! Give what you hope to receive.
  
• Include some info about your character, or a link to their bio/stats page (especially if they are from an original universe as well).
  
• YMMV. Don't be a jerk, and don't get discouraged.
  
• Respect your fellow creators and have fun!

PROMPTS
1. meet cute
You're bumping into each other for the first time! Are you being introduced by friends, or is it just happenstance? Are you in a coffee shop? On a college campus? At a bar? In the middle of an assassination attempt? The world is a wide and wonderful place.
2. romance
The sparks are flying. Don't let good chemistry go to waste.
3. conflict
Sometimes characters are gonna butt heads. That's some good drama right there. Mortal enemies? Or just can't agree on whether sandwiches should be cut horizontally or diagonally?
4. just texting
More of a format than a prompt in this case. Low pressure, low impact, perfect for voicetesting.
5. hurt/comfort
One of you is suffering and the other is here to help. Are your wounds mental, physical, or emotional?
6. assumed cr
Maybe you built your character with someone else in mind, maybe the worlds are compatible, or maybe they just vibe straight off the bat. Take that head start and run with it.
7. the dirty one
Look. Sometimes you just wanna bone. No one's judging you. We're all filth here.
8. wildcard, obviously
(You grew a person from your own imagination, you don't need our help. Enjoy!)

the moodboard above is from tessisamess
- a great resource for displaying character details.

Comments

[nyc_merlin]

[ Anyone is welcome at Oddfellows as long as they respect the neutral ground rules. No working out supernatural grudges and no magic fights. It's a place to party and socialize, not be assholes. ]

[gentle_puck]

[I took a stab at it. If it doesn't work, or if you're not interested, that's perfectly fine.]

A bitterly cold rain is falling from the sky, heavy clouds hiding the moon, as Robin dodges a couple of cars to cross the intersection against the light. He pauses on the curb to pick out the right door. While he's never set foot inside Oddfellows before, he knows how to find it--and how to enter it once he does.

Relief washes over him once he's inside. The feeling has less to do with being out of the chill and more to do with the sense of magic heavy in the air, electric against the skin, honeyed against the tongue. It's a rare enough sensation in a city so full of iron.

Robin takes a glance around, inwardly hesitating over unfamiliar ground, but redirects himself toward the bar without missing a step.

He perches on the edge of a stool and runs his fingers through the length of his hair. A little shake of his head dries the strands from drenched to simply damp, so that he's no longer dripping onto the floor. Autumn will never be his favorite season. He feels brittle, frostbitten at the edges, like the leaves still lingering on the trees.

[nyc_merlin]

The rain is a double edged sword for business. Sometimes, people don't want to come out. Sometimes, they're driven to find somewhere inside to go. It's an average night judging by the amount of people hanging around.

It was rare that Dean popped behind the bar but that's where most of the crowd was so he wove between his three bartenders chatting with people and occasionally getting drinks. He could open a beer but he let the professionals handle the mixed cocktails.

"Hey, welcome," Dean said as he approached the guy who just sat at the bar. "What can I get for you? We've got a special on Hot Totties tonight because it's cold and gross outside."

Nothing warmed the soul quite like hot tea and alcohol.

[gentle_puck]

"It's both of those in spades," Robin said with a shudder. Water was beaded on the leather of his coat and had started soaking through the fabric of his pants in uncomfortably frigid patches. With a whisper of magic, he flicked his fingers and waved away the worst of it. "This is the season of misery. That liminal space between damp and cold and frozen and cold."

Then again, pure winter offered just as little charm. Robin would hibernate through it if he could.

He gave the man behind the counter a wry but apologetic smile. "Sorry. I don't usually waste time complaining about the weather." Whining would do nothing to change it, after all, and he was more capable of insulating himself from the cold than plenty of other beings. "I'll try the special, that sounds phenomenal."

He's not much for tea in general, but one can't go wrong with hot whiskey in reasonable amounts.

[nyc_merlin]

"You don't need to tell me twice. I hate it. It's dark and cold." Dean gave an overly dramatic little shudder. Even after living in New York for years and years he still hated the cold with a passion.

He chuckled as he grabbed a big ceramic mug from under the bar. This one he could make himself. It was basically tea and whiskey with lemon so he didn't need his bartenders to help him out.

"You don't have to apologize for complaining," he said as he worked on the drink. "If you can't complain a bar where else can you complain? I'm Dean, feel free to tell my your troubles."

He put the finished drink on a coaster in front of the man.

[gentle_puck]

"And it only gets darker and colder from here. Eliot said that April is the cruelest month, but he clearly wasn't paying close enough attention to February." Late winter was the point at which all growing things succumbed to despair; spring seemed like a distant delusion until mid-March. Or later, in several unfortunate parts of the world.

In years past, Robin had spent a fair amount of time in what geographers now called the Hebrides, where the sun declined to rise at all for months on end. The summer months, during which the sun failed to fully set, never quite made up for the darkness.

"Pleased to meet you. They call me Robin," he said, and gave Dean a bright flash of a grin over the mug's rim before taking a sip. He closed his eyes, appreciating the heat of the liquid as much as the burn of the whiskey. "That truly is phenomenal, thank you." He wrapped both hands around the mug and let the warmth seep into his fingertips. "My troubles are simple ones," he confessed. "I'm wet, I'm cold, and I'm stuck up here until I get an answer to the message I just delivered. Which means I'm likely to be wet and cold again soon enough." Opening his eyes, he offered Dean a more honest smile. "But this helps."

He took another sip and glanced up and down the length of the bar. Turning a slow revolution on the bar stool, he took in the fullness of the space--the decor, the crowd, the atmosphere. His eyes lingered on the dance floor before he faced Dean again. "I haven't been here before, but I've heard good things," he said. "Have you worked here long?"

[nyc_merlin]

"Eliot?" Dean clearly didn't get the reference. If it was a reference. Eliot might be a friend of Robin's. Maybe a little prompting would get an explanation so he could understand.

"The tea is made locally. It's a great blend. Way better than stuff you can get off the shelf in a store." Because why not make an already cost heavy business cost even more by going local? Dean wanted the best for his club though and that meant sometimes he had to buy more expensive things.

The whiskey wasn't one of the more expensive brands though. Just a nice middle of the road one. Otherwise, the drink would be real fucking expensive and not worth people buying.

The question made him laugh and Dean decided to play along. "Yeah, since day one. I really like the place."

Because it was his and he loved it. He had brought it up from basically nothing into what it was now. Dean was very proud.

"You're welcome to hang out until you do have to face the weather again. Or maybe just a few minutes longer, enjoy the warmth and music." He winked, always encouraging people to hang out longer. It's how they made money.

[gentle_puck]

"T.S. Eliot," Robin clarified. "Wrote all those poems about cats." Otherwise mostly impenetrable. At least Dean was polite enough to ask, rather than just nodding along as if he understood. Robin preferred the chance to explain himself when he could get it.

He took another swallow and finally settled onto the stool. His shoulders relaxed a little bit with every breath, until he rested his elbows on the bar with a silent sigh. Dean's laugh and the choice of words made him arch his eyebrows, then narrow his eyes just a bit in curiosity as he pondered the possible meanings behind that.

In a couple of seconds, he had narrowed the possibilities down to one. "Ah." He grinned, and his fingers tapped a complicated rhythm against the sides of the mug. "You own the place." That aura of proprietary pride clinched it, not that Robin blamed him for indulging in a bit of self-congratulation. The club was clearly a success, with a crowd even on a weeknight--even at a very late hour--even with miserable weather. "Did you start it yourself from the ground up?"

As for staying longer, Robin had every intention on taking him up on the offer, freezing rain or not.

[nyc_merlin]

Dean made a sound of understanding though he didn't really read poetry. His higher education was lacking to say the least.

He shot finger guns at Robin and winked. "Nailed it. Yeah, this is my place." He made a sweeping gesture at the club, from the bar to the dance floor to the VIP section. His, all his. Well, he would give his employees credit as well. They were the face of Oddfellows as much as he was.

That quick glance also let him take a second to make sure there wasn't anything that needed his attention. The place was good.

"Yeah, kind of. It was a failed nightclub before I took over. Cleaned up the place, put in some new stuff, and... well, shifted it to the magical." Dean's eyes flash neon red for a moment, a sign of his own power. "Once word got out this place catered to that side of things well, the community helped it grow."

[gentle_puck]

Robin's grin widened a bit at the finger guns. He clapped a hand to his chest, as if stricken through the heart, before returning his fingers to the warmth of the mug.

"Word of mouth is the most powerful asset of this community," he said, tone edging toward wry. Maybe he should have said gossip, since that in particular seemed to keep the Seelie Court eternally revolving. "Although it can make for a lethal weapon, too." He raised the mug to Dean in a little salute and sipped from it again. "But like I said, I've heard good things."

He gave a tilt of his head, birdlike, at the flash of glowing red in Dean's eyes. With deliberate effort, he slipped off one of the outermost layers of his own glamour and revealed the rings of green over gold in his own irises. Here in the low light of the club, his pupils reflected like those of a cat. He made to settle the illusion back into place, hesitated, and finally decided to leave it off. Maintaining an illusion of humanity was unnecessary here; revealing oneself was probably part of the charm.

[nyc_merlin]

After all these years, Dean felt that Oddfellows reputation was solid. Even if someone got mad and tried to spread a few rumors that the place was shit Dean knew it would hold up. He was well established now.

"Hey, there you go, let your hair down." There were plenty of other magical creatures and magic users who weren't holding onto their illusions. This neutral territory allowed everyone to be themselves.

"I'm glad you finally decided to stop in. It's always nice to welcome a new friend." And hopefully continue to spread that word of mouth. "You need anything let me know. I'm hanging out behind the bar tonight."

Because why not? Have some fun chatting with people and doing a little work. Usually he prowled the club floor and the VIP area, mixing it up with the crowd. This was a little change.

[gentle_puck]

With a chuckle at the turn of phrase, Robin gave a little shake of his head, letting that layer of glamour slip as well. The highlights of his hair gleam with blue-green iridescence, like the feathers of a grackle.

"I promise to spread the word."

Right now, he could recommend Oddfellows purely on the friendliness of the staff alone--or of the owner, at least, since he hadn't spoken to anyone else. Of course, neither had Dean, since Robin came in. That realization caused him a little pang. It was the guilt of monopolizing the attention of someone whose livelihood depended on pretending interest.

Robin possessed a healthy amount of self-confidence, but even he didn't consider himself quite that fascinating. He was stuck in limbo, waiting for an answer whenever and however it came, while Dean had ongoing demands on his time.

"I definitely appreciate the warm welcome," Robin said, his grin softening into a milder smile. "Especially on such a cold night. But I don't want to keep you from anything you need to do."