Maple Ridge Roleplay

[VarielArts]

"You think so?" Paisley questioned as Luka walked out of the room, he turned towards Eleesa and Satsuki, watching as Satsuki flipped open the pages of the book. "The book smells nice," Satsuki smelled the edges of the pages, "Do you ever smell books?" She looked towards Eleesa. Paisley nudged Satsuki, visually asking if he could look at the book. In his mind, one of the pages looked to be raised up compared to the others. Flipping to that page, a note and photo lay upon the page. He passed the photo and note over to Eleesa, "Should we wait for Luka before checking out the note? Do you recognize the photo or the person? Maybe Luka might."

Dax smiled genuinely at the cheetah and then at Onyx before nodding his head, leaving the small herb shop.

[StarlightEnigma]

“ I suppose I have smelled book in the past. These ones seem to just smell like dust though. Well dust and mustiness in general.” Eleesa flipped through the pages of one of the bigger book before Paisley caught her attention by passing the photo and note to her. “can’t say I recognize the person in the photo, but its probably the owner of the book, or perhaps someone close to them. Maybe it’s a love letter. How romantic!” Eleesa pressed the back of her hand against her forehead in a dramatic mock fainting spell.
“I highly doubt it’s a love letter Eleesa.” Luka snatched the paper and photo from Eleesa’s hand while rolling his eyes. Setting the lamp he carried in his other hand on a box of book he turned it on, light filling the room, illuminating the dust particles that drifted around. Flipping the note over in his hand Luka scanned it reading it out under his breath. “looks to be a diary entry perhaps, the writer was writing about the flowers in the garden and how she had helped the grounds keeper look after them.”

"Thanks for coming by, do drop in again." Onyx waved at Dax as he walked out the door. Turning back to Tempest he nodded in answer to Jade's request. "yes, I’ll have something to take the edge off it." going from drawer to drawer Onyx mixed a variety of herbs and dried berries which he then crushed into a powder and put in a corked bottle. "there, that should do it. $5.00 please."

Tempest nodded and handed over a five dollar bill. "Thanks Onyx, this would have been much more if i had gone else where."

Onyx smiled. "I can't charge my own brother-in-law full price. Jade would never let me hear the end of it. She'd look at me with the 'but we're family' eyes." he mimicked his little sister's signature look of displeasure

Tempest let out a laugh. "you know her too well Onyx, you got her glare right on the dot." patting Onyx on the shoulder the two talked for a little long before Tempest bide Onyx good evening and returned home

Onyx sat back on the wooden chair behind the counter and scanned the room, it was quite, everyone had left. Looking out the store windows he could see the sun was beginning to set, the store should be getting busier soon he thought. The vampire community in Maple Ridge and surrounding areas usually wasn't lively until 8:30om at least. moving in the dark was easier, rouge vampire hunters couldn't find you as easy. Usually vampire hunters would leave licensed vampires alone, as long as you behaved yourself and didn't allow the general public know that vampires did exist.

[VarielArts]

Satsuki followed along with Eleesa's idea of a love letter, "well maybe she was in love with the groundskeeper?" Paisley let out a small laugh, "That-" he paused, "would be the most scandalous thing, well depending on what time era this diary entry was written in." Satsuki grabbed onto Paisley's shoulders, "that would be even better!" Paisley shrugged Satsuki's hands off his shoulders, "You never think love is amazing, what's with your new perspective?" Satsuki looked at Paisley, "well I'm fine with it when it's not happening to me, or rather when I don't see it." She tried her best to express her excitement, there were days when she was able to express her happiness without even trying, and days where it was physically impossible for her to be happy. Of course, that's the whole reason she took medication for depression. That's also why she had Paisley as her friend, not the only reason, but he always was there to comfort her through the hard times and hard days of depression.

Dax began his walk back to his parent’s farm that lay on the outskirts of MapleRidge, but not in Norwich. His parents operated a blacksmith shop in a day and age of guns and well not swords. However, anybody who needed a blacksmith shop, mainly vampires or those from Altaria and places would be perfectly capable of placing orders as they did a weekly trip back to their original world leaving Dax home alone every weekend, making it perfectly capable for any of his friends to come over and hang out without the worry of parents or guardians. Rain continued pouring down on his person as he began running as he was nearing the outskirts of MapleRidge. Normally he would take the bus, but since he had to pick up the herbs for his parents he had to miss the bus, and of course, he had to miss it on a day of stormy weather.

[StarlightEnigma]

Luka sighed "sorry, but she lived here during the 20's so it wouldn't be such a crisis." he held up the diary which was dated July 14 1924. "If i remember correctly the Greenbriar family lived here during that time. I forget their daughters name but if you're curious we could ask my dad, he's a history professor after all.
Eleesa looked rather unimpressed by Luka's matter of fact answer. "ugh, you're no fun sometimes Luka. It was much more exciting thinking about a forbidden romance." she peered over her friend's shoulder. "oh, it says she helped bury a time capsule!" Eleesa scooted in closer interested once again.

Luka shuffled over. "ever heard of personal space?" he slid the book over between the two of them. "Well we could try and look for it sometime when its not pouring rain."

A soft knock on the door frame behind them caused the group to turn and see who was there. "sorry to bother you all but its time for dinner." Lex stood at the door his hair less tousled than earlier, and no longer wearing his glasses.

Luka looked up "ah, thanks dad. We'll be right up."

Lex nodded and returned to the main floor.

"We can take the book upstairs if you like, it'll be easier to look at in better lighting anyway." Luka tucked the photo into the pages as a bookmark and shut the book taking it upstairs with him and setting it on the kitchen counter during supper. The group ate a hearty meal of stew and dumplings before putting together their sleeping arrangement in the large ballroom that made up a good portion of the main floor. "We usually have a big christmas party here in December, i'll invite you this year if you like, its lots of fun." Luka sat on his sleeping bag with the diary in front of him. "i do have to go practice violin for a bit so Eleesa can keep you entertained, i'll be back soon. Luka parted ways and went up to his room to practice for an hour.

Eleesa slid the book over to the middle of the sleeping bags. "he's always been dedicated to violin, he wants to be a pro one day. Some kids at school try to rub shoulders with him because it'll look good, but Luka just ignores them." She ran her fingers over the cover of the diary. "We should do proper introductions, i really don't know much about both of you. I'll start." Eleesa cleared her throat. "I'm Eleesa, by birthday is February 9th, i have a little brother named Avery and i've lived in Maple Ridge my entire life."

[VarielArts]

Satsuki sighed in distaste, she had been hoping for a romance, a forbidden romance. "I - um, I wouldn't mind knowing the daughter's name?" Satsuki spoke quietly, hoping they would hear her. Paisley, just barely hearing Satsuki assumed the others wouldn't hear her, and thus spoke for her. "I think it would be cool to know the daughter's name. I mean, if we find out the daughter's name, she might still be alive, meaning we could ask her about the things that happened. After all, Satsuki and my history class requires us to speak to someone from the 1900s and write about their history." He paused, "wait, aren't you guys in our history class? If so then you'd have the same project." When Eleesa spoke about the time capsule, Satsuki brightened up, "A time capsule?? That sounds dreadfully interesting, I wouldn't mind being there for when you guys check it out."

Satsuki chuckled at Luka's reaction to personal space, it was somewhat similar to her own reaction towards personal space.

When Lex had entered the room, Satsuki and Paisley drew their attention towards him, and tried to act grown up, or rather more mature than they really were.

Following them up the stairs, Satsuki and Paisley enjoyed the supper that was made for them. "oooh a Christmas party? That sounds fun!" Paisley became over excited, only to be less excited when Luka declared he was leaving him alone with two girls, or rather leaving him as the only male. "I like your dedication Luka." Satsuki smiled at him, explaining to him that she became that way when her parents died in a car crash.

"Well that's the way to do it! I'm proud of that guy - not letting others try and "act" their best just to be able to get known." Satsuki and Paisley nodded at Eleesa when she spoke about introductions. "Awe that's really cool! I mean, that you have a little brother, and that you've lived in Maple Ridge your whole life. I'm the youngest in my family, so I suppose that's why I think it would be cool to be the older one." Satsuki looked from Eleesa to Paisley.
"Anyways, I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Satsuki, my birthday is September 3, I have an older sister named Mayumi, and I've lived in Norwich my whole life - as Paisley's neighbour."

Paisley agreed before speaking "I'm Paisley, my birthday is September 7th, I have lived in Norwich all my life, on a Berry farm, where I one day plan to run a bakery/cafe."

[StarlightEnigma]

Eleesa leafed through the pages of the book as Satsuki and Paisley reintroduced themselves. "sounds like we've all had a pretty normal-ish life. I did like your idea of trying to find out the name of the daughter, i'll remind Luka to ask his dad later." skim reading the pages she found that the authoress loved dresses and parties, but also liked to help in the garden from time to time.

Luka once his practice was complete returned to his guests to find them sharing stories of past events. Eleesa grinned when he walked in and he knew exactly what story she had told. "are you telling stories about me or about you?" he plopped himself between Eleesa and Satsuki.

Eleesa elbowed her friend in the rib a sly grin still on her face. "both of us i suppose, how you fell down the dumbwaiter."

"I'm pretty sure it was you who put me in there in the first place." he pushed he arm away and rolled his eyes. "just be glad it wasn't a worse outcome."

[VarielArts]

When Luka had returned Paisley and Satsuki were enjoying the company of Eleesa and had begun to feel like they understood the two of them better based on some of the stories she had told.

It hadn't felt like much time had gone by but within a few hours it was 10pm and the "gang" was getting ready for bed, they had put up makeshift beds on the floor and were now lying in their beds. Satsuki asked for a nightlight as she was never fond of the dark, or rather she knew that Paisley would never ask for a night light and knew that he was afraid of the dark. It wasn't much longer and she and Paisley had fallen asleep to the pattering of the rain.

[StarlightEnigma]

Luka stared at the ceiling, he envied those who could fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Perhaps it was the vampire heritage or perhaps it was just poor luck, either way Luka struggled to find the company of sleep. Closing his eyes for another attempt at sleep he could her the soft rhythmic breathing of his friends. Eleesa stirred in her sleep lightly and rolled over, she had never been a still sleeper, there were many times as kids that she had just about rolled of the bed during a sleepover. Sleep eventually came to Luka and he slept until the the familiar melody of Motzarts Violin Sonata in B flat played through the speakers of his phone rousing him from his dreams.

Eleesa also woken up by Luka's alarm slowly sat up and stretched letting out a satisfied sigh, and taking in a deep breath. "morning everyone" she yawned rubbing sleep from her vibrant chartreuse eyes, her bangs stuck out at all angles and the rest of her hair was a sign of her restless sleeping habits.

Luka was less of a morning person, and though he preferred to sleep in he did function fairly well in the earlier hours. "Good morning Eleesa, you look like you slept well." he reached over and flipped over a renegade section of hair. "you could probably scare a troll right now though." he dodged a lazy punch directed to his arm.

"that's not a very nice thing to say to a lady" Eleesa scoffed in a teasing voice.

"what? you a lady? i never thought i'd live to see those words coming out of your mouth." Luka grinned his mismatch green eyes harboring a playful glint. "there's two and a half bathrooms in the house." he directed the comment towards Paisley and Satsuki who had been roused by the music as well. "we can take turns getting readying for school, we have lots of cereal in the kitchen as well as bread, and a toaster. Probably anything else you might want." Luka stood up adjusting his plaid pajama pants and light grey shirt that said 'maple ridge music festival' on the back. He told the guests where the bathroom were located then went up to his room to get dressed for the day.

[VarielArts]

Satsuki enjoyed waking to the sound of a familiar song, one that she enjoyed hearing but acknowledged that it didn't sound the same on a flute as a violin. "Do you perhaps have fruit?" Satsuki left the comment in the air as everyone was leaving to get ready for the day. She grabbed onto Paisley but not before greeting Eleesa. She dragged Paisley to one of the washrooms where they began to brush their teeth with water, their finger, and some toothpaste that was left on the bathroom counter because they didn't happen to have their toothbrushes with them when they came to Luka's house.

After they had finished brushing their teeth they happened to pass by Eleesa, "hey Eleesa, did you want to head down for breakfast together and meet up with Luka down there?" Paisley asked.

On the other side of town, Katherine Wynter and her husband were out in the Quonset working on forging weapons with the herbs that they had got their son Dax to purchase from Onyx's shop. The teenage wolf boy wearing his black beanie on his head with bread in his mouth and a can of ice tea shouted out to his parents as he stood in front of the Quonset, "I'm heading to school!" Katherine looked up and smiled before wishing him a good day and making sure he had packed his lunch and taken the money off the table that they gave him to go and wander around the vampire alley after school or to go somewhere with friends if he happened to make any. He began his walk to the bus station and was just on time as the bus arrived to pick him up. The bus always picked him up early as he was one of the first students to be picked up on the bus driver's route. He pushed his headphones over his ears and started his music to avoid social interaction, and to block out the sound of little kids.

[StarlightEnigma]

Eleesa stopped at the sound of her name. "yeah. lets go eat, i'm starving!" she went down the the kitchen with Satsuki, and Paisley, where they were soon joined by Luka. The group ate their respective breakfasts and then were off and running towards the school. "Lets meet up at lunch, we can look at the book we found again,see if theres something we missed."

Classes passed quickly and without much of a problem. Eleesa ignored the snobby girls in her class as usual and continued to challenge the guys to competitions in gym class. once the lunch bell had rung she grabbed her food from her locker and headed up to the roof lounge.

Onyx stared out the window of the small cafe where he worked. the morning had been busy as usual and his lunch break had been long sought after. he thought about the vampire women who had been in the day before, hopefully she would go get her license before the hunters got to her. He rubbed his face with his hands, it wasn't healthy to worry about the hunters. It wasn't like he was high up on their list anyway, he caused minimal problems for them anyway.

[VarielArts]

On the roof lounge, one student had already made it up there as they were let out early of their one class. They sat on the edge of the wall and held out a piece of bread for a crow who was slowly pecking at the bread and screeching once in a while. He sipped from his apple juice box and listened to his music that was blaring in his ears. His lunch box was open and filled with many items, mainly food items that didn't look as if they would come from the markets and stores in this world. And that was probably because he ignored his parents warning about bringing food from the other world to school, and that it was only to eat at their house when company was not over. (they're part vampire part werewolf)

Satsuki grabbed her food and met up with Paisley and they began to make their way up to the roof lounge as well, assuming that they would meet Eleesa and Luka up there in a little bit.

Katherine Wynter remembered the words of the man that was at the cafe, the fact that she and her husband should get their licenses, well they had had them at one point, and they still had them but they weren't updated. The last time they went to the world was 3 months ago when they got their recent food supply and sold a few more weapons. She grabbed the keys to the car and told her husband where she was going. (the previous replies stated that their relationship was not good, but I have changed that and it is very good and he just isn't coming because he's a werewolf. Also, her clothes are much different than I described, they are quite respectable clothing.)

She got to the vampire square in a short time and headed in, showing them her pure red pendant. Which when they saw directed her towards the place where she could get it renewed. It wasn't long before she had finished that and she left the vampire square, in a rush to get to the small cafe she had visited earlier that week.

It was a short drive to the cafe and she parked her car outside the cafe and went in. "Hello" She calmly spoke towards Onyx. "I was hoping I could talk to you sometime today, if now's not a good time then maybe we could talk later tonight?" She paused, "I wish to tell you about my history and" She walked closer to him where no other customers were, "and the truth about my husband."

[StarlightEnigma]

Luka was last up to the roof where he found his friends sat against a fence that wrapped around the air conditioning unit. "sorry i'm late, had to ask the teacher some questions." he sat down and pulled out his lunch and the book. noticing a kid way back in the corner feeding a crow he watched for half a second before look back towards his friends.

"noticed the angsty guy huh? He looks lonely, maybe we should invite him over." Eleesa took the book from Luka as he sat, setting it in the middle of the circle.

"i'll go talk to him." Luka got back up to his feet and walked over to the kid in the corner. "hey, do you want to eat with us?" he asked

Onyx startled as someone spoke from beside him. "ah, sorry i was lost in though." he recognized the women from the other day. "ah,right now is fine. i'm on my break for a bit still." he motioned for her to sit down across from where he sat. "i can probably guess a bit of your history but please enlighten me, i'm all ear."

[VarielArts]

"That's a good idea! You should go talk to him!" Satsuki was inclined to the idea. Paisley merely sat, eating his lunch of berries and the sort while waiting for their hopeful discussion about the book to begin.

Dax looked up towards Luka as the crow flew away from the sudden disturbance. "tch." Was his first response, he was slightly pertrurbed by the new company but decided to remember his manners. "Sorry, my name's Dax." He looked around at the group that was sitting down, "I assume those are your friends?" Dax looked down into his lunch box and pulled out a blood fruit, a fruit from both Dax's and Luka's family's homelands. A fruit that was merely named a blood fruit for it's location. He held out the fruit to Luka, "you and your friends could share this if you want, It's called a blood fruit, I'm sure you're all too familiar with the word blood in your family." He lowered his voice at the last part. He had already noticed the presence of Luka when he first walked in but he hadn't allowed it to cause him to move.

"Ah, no worries. I'm glad we can have the chance to talk." She paused, looking around the shop. "I was seperated from my family when I was younger, quite young to be honest." She began telling the story of how she was captured and the life she lived while with the werewolfs. It was when she got to mentioning a certain person that her tone changed. "I met a boy who was of a similar age to me, a little bit older than me, but not by much. He was a werewolf, but very kind, he didn't very much like living in his area either. It was his family in fact that began "taking care" of me. But this person I am telling you about, he is my husband." She paused, lowering her voice. "Yes, my husband is a werewolf, I am a vampire, and my son is half vampire half werewolf."

[StarlightEnigma]

Luka nodded as Dax motioned to his friends. "They are my friends, do you have a problem with that?" His voice still friendly had a slightly edge to it as he asked his question. "Blood fruit huh?" He took the fruit and smiled "you're got keen senses, though I'd prefer if that fact stayed between us. Though people would probably think you were crazy if you told them anyway. You may want to stay out of the rain though, not everyone around this town is a fan of the smell of wet dog." He turned the fruit in hand. "If you do want to eat with us feel free." With a slightly wave he returned to his friends. "He seems less than inclined to join us, but I did invite him."

Eleesa nodded and gave a thumbs up, her mouth full of food.

"Seems that our stories are more similar than one would think. I'm from Misty Valley you see, we always had problems with werewolves coming from the highlands, my parents were both killed defending our village so my siblings and I were raised by a family friend." He went on to explained that his sisters and him got taken by werewolf raiders, that he escaped that night but his sisters were taken."its a unfortunate fate, but at least we all survived to tell the tale... though that can't be said in every case." Onyx's expressed darkened for a moment before reverting to his usually calm and friendly look. "Though a werewolf huh? That's unusual, I assume you know, but not everyone in this town tolerates werewolves."

[VarielArts]

"Perfectly fine" Dax expressed with bold drawn out words of sarcasm in the hopes of expressing how he viewed mortals based on their ideas of what he was, even if they didn't believe in them in reality. "It's no wonder you think I have keen senses, you mustn't have that great of senses with you being half mortal. No bother though, I'm half werewolf, half vampire" he whispered the last part coldly, thinking that Luka wouldn't appreciate his upbringing, afterall, werewolf's and vampires don't mix. After Luka had left he was less keen on the idea of joining his friend group based on his last words. Either way, he got up and sat with the group of Luka's friends.

He sighed after sitting down. "Hi." His voice sounded less welcoming than earlier.

Satsuki completely ignored Dax's tone of voice and went full on in to introducing herself. "Hi! I normally don't talk to people right away, but you seem very friendly. Anyways, my name's Satsuki, how about you?"

He looked to Luka and gave him a glare of 'do you know what your friends are like??' "I'm Dax, and okay nice to know, I must be special then. Cause I bet there's friendlier people out there than me."

Paisley decided to chip in as well, "hi there! It's nice to meet you Dax! Also, if you ever lay a finger on my girl here, you'll be wishing you hadn't." He paused. "Okay wait a moment, that made it sound like we are dating, but we aren't. I've just known her for ages. We're new here too." He scrambled for the right words, "Not that I mean you're new or anything, or that you're old, it's just-" Satsuki butted in to save Paisley.
"Don't worry, he knows you didn't mean anything by it, right Dax?" She clenched her teeth at the end of the last sentence to urge Dax into speaking the right words, to let him know that she also has Paisley's back, that they take care of each other, and that nobody messes with them. Even if they do seem like really kind people, they are, but they are also very quick to protect.

Dax didn't even realize that Satsuki had caused him to feel pressured or startled, or even nervous, but he was. Especially when he went and replied with his short sentence. "Yeah, I know what you meant Paisley. No worries."


"I'm sorry to hear that." Katherine replied to Onyx not knowing what to say exactly. "Assume I know? Actually, I had no idea. Who exactly does not agree? I'd assume that the mortal townsfolk have no idea we even exist, otherwise they'd be hunting every last one of us down. But why? Is there something I should be worried about?"