strangetrip | Entries tagged with caroline forbes

Caroline had actually been enjoying April Fools for once. She was unchanged but watching the rest of the inn go a little crazy had been diverting for once. And then she saw Sunny's message and realized that just because she wasn't different, that didn't mean someone wasn't suffering because of what she was.

Caroline dipped back into her office, grabbed a couple bottles of bourbon out of her desk drawer and several more bags of expired-for-transfusions-but-still-good-for-vampires blood out of the mini fridge she'd liberated from storage ages ago. She wrote a quick message to Regina to cover her absence and walked at nothing more than normal human speed toward Sunny's room.

Thankfully, most people were more concerned with their own drama and she made it to the Safari Room without meeting anyone else. She knocked on the door. "Sunny, it's Caroline. I can help."

st_raighttovampire

...shit. I knew today was too good.

I'm going to help Sunny. If anyone needs to know where I am, lie.

st_raighttovampire

If a thing done more than once could be said to be a tradition, then tradition was observed. The restaurant was set for a party, overflowing with whatever the cooks and bakers of the inn had chosen to create. The bar was stocked from the wine cellar. The bartenders had created a couple of special New Year's cocktails for the occasion in addition to the usual champagne: Blue "Drunk Jack Frosties", frothy pink "Mistletoe Margaritas" and warm boozy hot cocoa.

Caroline had tried to convince each of the guests she knew had musical talent to perform, at least a song or two, but had a playlist ready in case they didn't. For those without their own instruments, the karaoke machine was set up in the lobby, conveniently near the bar so one could find courage as needed first.

Between Christmas and today, the decorations had been changed out - the tree was still there of course, and the mistletoe. But now golds and silvers dominated the colors of the streamers. Sparkling snowflakes dangled and sprays of gold stars. A banner hung over Darryl's head, wishing any who glanced his way a Happy New Year! There was even a disco ball, dug out from some storage closest, turning slowly and sending little shards of light dancing over the pink rose carpet.

Even from the outside, the inn radiated good cheer and hope for the future, as if by sheer will, they could all make it so.

st_ratagem

Thor and Loki got an early start, because there was a lot to do. Almost two weeks to the day since their first small-but-successful experiment with snow, Loki was confident that he'd improved enough for a bigger experiment. Still snow, because Thor wanted it and it did seem like a decent way to try something big-ish without causing Loki unnecessary grief with the other residents. (It was an arrival day, so there would perhaps be some grief with any new arrivals, but that was entirely acceptable.)

It was before dawn when they went out into the grounds. Thor called up clouds and loaded them with water so they hung low and heavy, covering the sky so that the sun, when it rose, wouldn't ruin the event. Loki took his frost giant shape and staff (now very familiar to his hand) and concentrated on dropping the temperature. Just around the Inn and grounds, but that was enough to be serious effort.

When the snow first started, the flakes were big and wet, and melted as soon as they hit the ground, which was still on the warm side. As they melted, they cooled the ground. After an hour or so, the flakes were smaller and more powdery - real snow, not glorified slush - and they were starting to stick to the ground.

By mid-morning, the Inn and grounds were covered with a thick layer of snow, and it continued to fall.

***

Meanwhile, indoors and inspired by the snow, Hurley and Xavin decided to try and make cookies. Cooking together was fun, since neither of them exactly knew what they were doing apart from 'follow the recipe', but since the point was 'try to make cookies' they ended up with a lot of cookies. Sugar cookies, gingerbread, all kinds.

There was no way they'd be able to eat all of them.

Instead, they loaded them onto trays and hauled them to the cafe, then brought out various frostings and candies for decorating. This had been completely intentional. Completely.

st_ranger

So, um... If someone wanted to do something nice for someone.

Like... Like a date? What's a nice date idea here?

What would you do? A friend of mine is looking for suggestions.

Current Mood: curious

st_huntermom

Mary was helping Caroline with providing the sweets for the party - cupcakes, cookies, Rice Krispies, and a bunch of other things. There was 'real food' provided by the restaurant. there were alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks all themed for the event of Halloween and there is even music to. Caroline's decorating skills where again proven as the entire space looked as if it had been turned into Halloweentown.

Mary's at the last tray of cupcakes that look like they had spiders on them down on the table and sighed. Her work for the party was done and now she can relax. She was already in costume with some blue and pink streaks in her hair and a t-shirt that hung up one shoulder that had a skull in the front. Her makeup was indicative of a punk rocker and she even had a fake nose ring on. Now all she had to hope was that Hathaway was going to keep up his end of the bargain or else she might look up at silly.

st_ratagem

It was arrival day, and therefore it was possible that there would be new inmates arriving at any time. Someone else might have delayed this until some other day, but for Loki the prospect of new people was simply a bonus. New arrivals tended to be confused and upset already, any consideration from him was unlikely to change that, so he didn't plan on displaying any. He'd already raided empty rooms and moved much of their furniture into the hallways, that was enough general consideration for one day.

Instead, he took a seat on the front desk (ignoring Darryl, who also ignored him) and wove a spell that would let him be heard by everyone in the Inn. "Good morning, fellow residents. It's been a quiet few weeks, hasn't it?" All the weeks, barring undead invasion, tended to be quiet here. It wasn't exactly maddening, but Loki had spent two months being quiet and exceptionally well-behaved, for him.

"To break the monotony, I give to all of you a rousing game of The Floor Is Lava. For those of you who may not know it, it's a descriptive name. When I call time, the floor will become lava. If you touch it, you will die. Metaphorically, at least, so take this seriously." Those who sincerely wished not to play would have no difficulty; the lava was an illusion, and any 'reality' to it depended on belief or buy-in. For those who sincerely didn't want to play, the floor would simply look odd. This was fun mischief, not viciousness. "Also, because I know some people need encouragement in order to engage with fun, the spell creating the lava has been broken and invested into several individual runes and hidden around the Inn, discoverable only by those playing the game. The lava ends when all of those runes are disrupted - you win - or when no one is left alive to disrupt them and I win." That was only sensible. There was no reason to continue playing a game when no one else was playing it.

"Furniture only, staircase railings are fine. No books, no bags, no cloth, the dead can't speak but if they wish to continue playing they may come back as a lava monster under my dominion." Even in games, there were fates worse than death. "Lava monsters may do as they please, including trying to pull the 'living' into the lava. Should there be a clear non-me winner somehow, I'll owe that person a favor of their choice, at some point in the future."

Did that cover everything? It seemed like it, but he could always make another announcement if he had to. "The floor becomes lava in ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two...." He spaced out the countdown enough to make sure that everyone who wanted to scramble for furniture high ground was easily able to do so.

"...One." Loki released the spell and the floors everywhere in the Inn (for those who believed it or at least bought in to the game) turned to churning hot lava.

st_ayedhidden

Does anyone have a helmet and a mouth guard I could have??

st_abby

The damp, cool, chilly morning clouded with fog seemed to fit the mood about the Madonna Inn. Nobody had been quite right since the undead invasion. Definitely not Vax'ildan. But for him, it was less about their sense of day-to-day calm and safety shattered, less about undead specifically. It was a lot more to do with losing Scanlan and Pike, and the new memorials installed in the Temple.

He wondered about it, not for the first time, even as he readied for the fresh arrivals that might be coming today - or not, because they didn't always. What decided who came and went? Was there any sense in how many and when or why? Not so far as he could tell, but he'd never been the brains.

Gathering up the great heap of cloth and rope in his arms, the lean figure summoned the wings of his armor, the black of his silhouette merging with the other dark and shifting shapes skulking about in the first light of dawn. With a crouch and a lunge from the roof, he spread his wings wide and circled through the air right up to the face of the main building, unfurling the massive banner he'd sewn of spare bedsheets and painted with dark dye to tie it up taut:

WELCOME NEWCOMERS
YES, THIS MEANS YOU
NO REALLY WE'RE SURE

Life kept going on around you, no matter how confused or scared or fucked-up you were. And the best thing, the kindest thing, the sanest thing he could think to do in all this was to start up the coffee machine, stack some decorated pumpkin-shaped cookies on a platter in the lobby, and prop open the doors for whoever would join them in being confused and scared and fucked-up today.

st_oneswidow

The woodwinds in her collection were for noodling mostly, and the violin was for memory of her family, but when Curnen really wanted to play she turned again and again to her guitar. This would probably always be her best instrument. It was the first of the month, she’d been here over a year, and it was probably a check-in day. So she sat on the lawn with her instrument in her lap, sending out a subtle magic to call anyone stranded in their little world this way.

At one point, though, she set aside the guitar and turned her face to the sky. For just a few minutes she required a different kind of magic.

It had been a week now since Scanlan had vanished in the battle. And Pike, too, though Curnen honestly couldn’t have cared less about her going away if she tried. Still. The two of them were family to people very dear to her, people who missed them. And Scanlan had been her friend. You marked something like that with a song.

Of all the money that e'er I had
I spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas, it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

It was a traditional Irish goodbye, a farewell to friends said with love, drinking, well wishes, and the hope of meeting again. She couldn’t think of a better one for the occasion. And as she sang she twined her magic into her voice in a new way, sending the song to any ears that needed it, ears of those who knew and missed the departed. Not all of them might understand it, not all of them knew what she was, but she didn’t particularly care about that right now. The song was more important than the hiding.

Once the last note had dissipated she picked up her guitar again and resumed her work. If there were anybody out there, they had to know where to go.

st_hotflashes

Caroline and Liz had worked hard over a few weeks to gather all the materials and organize everything for the art show gallery. People had donated pieces they wished to display - some more eager than others as the girls had gone around the ask.

There were sketches and paintings from various Otherworlds by Piotr. Mack provided sketches of people at the inn as well as a few scenes from his comic book while Lillith provided her own sketches of various characters from her graphic novel with some painting that ranged from some of the high color styles of the 20th century (Fauvism, Orphism, Abstract Expressionism). Thor, too, provided similar doodles of his own. There were photographs from Peter Parker and a few water colours of landscapes by him too. Liz's contribution had been mostly sketches of plants and scenes from the inn while Caroline had found some of Maya's art work in the Lost and Found. Her work, varying in mediums and styles, were put on displays beside drawings done by Jane. In the middle of the room were displays of stone workings by Kashaw and a few detailed weapons made by Zahra.

There was finger foods provided and punch, both alcoholic and not, and there were seats set up for viewing should people wish to sit and truly take in the art. A few stations were set up around the room for participation - one with some blank easels and paint, another wither water colours, one with charcoal and a fourth with clay. The signs encouraged people to try their hand at some art themselves.

st_ubby

It was hard to believe Vex had been at Madonna Inn almost a year. It felt both far longer and not nearly that long.

It also wasn't anything to celebrate. Unlike today, which demanded to be celebrated. Not with anything big or flashy. No surprise parties, thank you! But drinks certainly. Not like last year, though, when Vex hadn't been here at all, and Vax had attempted to drown himself and her absence in booze. It was their birthday and they were both here to raise a glass together.

So drinks. And cake, because birthdays had always meant cake, even when Vax had had to swipe it for them, or cut a purse to buy it. So when she slid into a booth in the bar, wearing a shirt Percy insisted she needed, she set a plate with two cupcakes, one almost black with chocolate and espresso, the other snowy white but flavored with mint, on the table between them and kissed her brother on the cheek, pleased to see he was wearing the shirt to match. They were twins, after all.

"Get us a drink," she said with a bright grin and a twinkle in her eye for the person passing by. "It's our birthday."

(tag either twinnie's TL, or get them both by request)

st_abby

The calendar of "Kahl-ee-Fornea" was very different to that of Tal'Dorei. But the spring dance had been a good reminder for the Exandrians (one of them, anyway) that the Renewal Festival would take place more or less this time of year, landing always on the thirteenth day of Dulahei. It seemed a fitting time to set the 'small family dinner' in celebration of the marriage of Vex and Percy.

...Yeah, but no. Because Vax'ildan didn't mind a bit of revenge for their having done the thing without so much as telling him for several weeks, and because his sister always deserved the best of everything anyway, the garden had a whopping lot more than that for the happy couple as they opened the doors onto what first looked like pitch blackness. Until the big, white-hot spotlight snapped abruptly on to glare down on top of the pair with blinding scrutiny.

A familiar voice sang out from beyond, his ever-charming booming and crooning amplified to fill the whole of the outdoors by something called a 'microphone,' Scanlan using all his singular panache to belt out a melodic tune:

"There she is, Mrs. De Rolo
There she is, your ideal
The dreams of a million boys and girls who want to find love in Emon City
For Vex may turn out to more than Baroness of the first house of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Hunt
There he is, Mr. De Rolo
There he is, your ideal
With so much brooding and tinkering he took the town by storm
With his all-Whitestone face and form
And there they are
Walking on air, he is
Fairest of the fair, she is
There they are - Mr. and Mrs. De Rolooooooooooo~"

A resounding wave of applause, murmuring, cheers, and laughter broke out all around the newlyweds - one such unbridled merry cackle absolutely coming from the bride's brother - and Scanlan's tone changed immediately to a much more vibrant, excited, sporting-event-enthusiasm style of announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen - it's the DE ROLO FAMILY!"

The strands of bulb lighting popped into yellow-soft brightness all at once, revealing the guests gathered around dozens of tables artfully set with dinner places enough for everyone at the Inn. Each table included flowers, linens, and garlands all matched in smart Whitestone-Blue, darker Owlbear-Blue, black and white with touches of gold accents, all thanks to Caroline's management. The outdoor area so far as one could see had been dressed in one of Lillith's illusions to mimic a beautiful forest clearing at purple-dusk with fireflies dancing, the shapes of buildings and foothills in the distance distinctly cast to look like the city and castle of Whitestone. Ignis and Emma stood by putting a few final touches on what they'd all started calling 'fancy barbecue,' an enormous buffet of haute cuisine smoked and grilled meats with artful sides, a table beside them holding up the massive layer cake Pike had tirelessly fussed into perfection. So many others had come together to help or to wish the de Rolos well - but there would be plenty of time over the evening for them to be thanked and recognized with food, drink, song - there was even an area marked out as a dance floor.

A freshly bathed Trinket in his very own bowtie lumbered up to Vex'ahlia to rumble and lick her face as the pair finally had a moment to react to the spectacle. At ground-level, a small disc-like device with a large serving spoon taped to it had been labeled with marker as Ensign Stubby, rolling its way between tables and chairs while balancing a large, many-times-stabbed basket of flower petals (with a handful left nestled in its giant spoon) on top of its flat surface like a drunken flower girl to finally bump into Vex and Percy's shoes. ...And possibly the best thing about their stunning surprise? That Peter boy had got the whole thing on VHS.

st_raighttovampire

Caroline had been planning this dance for two months and two weeks, no thanks to the Inn deciding to suddenly open up a door to a space station right when she had originally scheduled the event. It was going to be perfect. The last week had been about decorating the ballroom properly, building on a fifties theme, even though most of the guests wouldn't get the reference. She didn't really care if they did. It looked great no matter what.

Food was plentiful - provided by both guests working in the kitchens and the bakery to turn out fun, festival and cute finger foods and desserts. She'd set up the buffet tables herself, made sure the chafers had sternos to keep the hot dishes hot. Drinks were provided at three locations around the room as well, with shifts divided between those who generally did the bartending.

Music was a mix of live and recorded and Caroline made sure that no one would end up playing too long if they didn't want to. Plus she wanted to be sure there were plenty of dance tracks and slow dances for the lovebirds in the crowd. Just because she was single didn't mean she couldn't appreciate love.

As she flipped on the stereo system, she had a nagging feeling like she was forgetting something, but she wasn't sure what. Oh well, at least people were starting to arrive.

st_andingtall

Sam and Caroline have a conversation they've both been dreading. She's just been expecting it for longer.
When: Feb. 3
Where: Hotel grounds

( There is no you and me. That's what we agreed on. )

Going back to work doesn't turn out exactly how Caroline plans.

( I think I've convinced the staff chef to stick to buffalo wings for the party. )

st_andingtall

Date: October 2017-December 2017

Caroline has needs. Sam wants to oblige. Sex actually happens at the end. Collected logs.

[Here | nc-17 | completed | blood, feeding, irrationality, eventually sex]

st_oneswidow

It was almost December, but the day was still more than warm enough to spend outdoors. So two girls were out in the sunshine, one fair, one dark, aware and amused with each other’s efforts but not particularly paying attention to each other.

Curnen’s fingers were starting to remember what to do with a guitar, though they were still incapable of being fancy. Sitting on the lawn with Rob’s guitar in her lap, she played anything that came to mind. Her sixth fingers were a bit lost, but it did sound like music at least. It would be some time yet before she could really play again, though that didn’t bother her much. If it meant she was scraping herself back together, becoming a Tufa again, it didn’t matter. And besides, the singing was always the best part. She wasn’t sure why this song, since there was no wind and rain, but in many versions of this same song there were two girls colored rather like the two of them.

There were two sisters came walkin' down the stream
Oh the wind and rain
The one behind pushed the other one in
Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain

Johnny gave the youngest a gay gold ring
Oh the wind and rain
Didn't give the oldest one anything
Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain

Corbie meanwhile was busy setting things on fire again, but this was different fire. Or at least it was for her. She and Regina had been practicing creating fire and putting it out. She set a circle of protection around a small stone, using what she understood of Cabaline theory to keep the spell literally grounded. And then she proceeded to do her best to destroy the shit out of that rock by throwing fireballs at it. It gave her something to aim at, gave her more than one thing to practice at a time. She was getting better at aiming and her ward was holding.

She stopped only to take the ward down and set another one, larger this time, on her knees in the road with a piece of chalk.

st_ingofthehundred

Whether to spite "INR's" accusation of poor planning or because it was his nature, Kash arrived in the Garden Room on the 2nd floor an hour before the 3:00 meeting.

Caroline, who'd lit up like the sun when he asked for her help, had beaten him there, and was already setting up the room for his meeting. If Vax was around for the call back, he'd have stage-whispered "is she always like this?" but since there was no one to see, he just smiled his thanks at her. It was actually pretty cute.

Between the two of them, they quickly finished the set up - chairs around the outside of long tables arranged in as near an oval as the shape of the tables would allow. At the far end, away from the door, several whiteboards (which were one of the fucking coolest inventions Kash had ever seen) had been set up. At each seat there were Madonna Inn notepads, a pen and a mechanical pencil (also fucking cool) to suit individual preferences, and a plastic cup. Pitchers of ice water had been set at intervals around the tables so as to be in easy reach. At the side of the room, two tables bore coffee urns and hot water urns for tea; baskets of apples, oranges, and bananas; plates of brownies and cookies of various types.

When the others began to arrive, they found Kash with a chocolate chip cookie between his teeth, finishing a rough sketch of the buildings and grounds. It had notations of vulnerabilities, choke points, and sundry tactical notes around the margins that (minus the personal notes) looked something like:

[ooc: Please assume that Kash gave an intelligent presentation on defending the Inn against various threats and then asked others to weigh in. I'm not a battlefield strategist. If you want Kash, put "tag Kash" in your subject line. Otherwise, I'll tag OTAs as Kash sees fit.]

st_raighttovampire

Next week was Thanksgiving, and Caroline's preparations were well under way. She had a list of food, all of the bartenders were working on drinks. There would be entertainment - the new guy, Coby, had said something about performing and she'd heard that he'd played on his balcony over the weekend.

Since it was one of the usual days for check-ins, Caroline had decided to take the opportunity of waiting for arrivals to decorate the lobby. As with every other holiday, the inn had a huge storage room full of decorations, all labeled and packed away for the right season.

Gourds had arrived in the last delivery, so now the pink of the lobby was complimented by the orange and yellows of pumpkins and squash. A cornucopia spilled fake fruit onto the front desk, where the staff kept coming by and rotating one apple a few degrees, as though it would look more real that way. They had lapel pins on, she'd noticed. Well, who said non-real people didn't deserve a little holiday cheer too?

Caroline perched on a ladder and fastened a streamer into the high corner of the roof, and watched the door.

st_unaligned

It had been almost a week now since Bo had arrived. She had gotten familiar with the hotel and very familiar with some of the people, but the impending war between Light and Dark Fae back home kept dwelling on her mind. That and leaving Lauren the way that she had meant that at least once a day Bo practiced in her head how she was going to apologize Lauren about killing her girlfriend. So Bo needed a way out. She knew Dyson was here and he would have looked for a way out for a while, too, but Bo was convinced she could spot something even Detective Won't-Crack-A-Smile-Anymore couldn't find.

She found herself at the stables today. Her goal was to look for anything that was out of place - even for an separate dimension place. As she neared the stables themselves, the distinct smell of horses hit her nostrils. "At least it's obvious they have real horses."

Bo walked up and into the stables and started slowly walking, looking into each stall as she walked by.

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Strange Trip

December 2019

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Page Summary

st_raighttovampire - For Sunny
st_raighttovampire - Text to Regina
st_raighttovampire - NYE
st_ratagem - [GP] SNOW DAY
st_ranger - # text sent to everyone
st_huntermom - [GP] Halloween Party
st_ratagem - [GP/EP] THE FLOOR IS LAVA
st_ayedhidden - [Text] Written to Everyone
st_abby - [EP/GP] Check-In: I Assure You We Are Open
st_oneswidow - [GP/EP] Check-in Day
st_hotflashes - Art Show (Gathering Post)
st_ubby - [EP] NOT the Worst Birthday Ever
st_abby - [GP] The De Rolo Wedding Reception
st_raighttovampire - Welcome to Spring! (Dance)
st_andingtall - [Log] I gotta stop pretending who we are - Sam/Caroline, Caroline x Regina
st_andingtall - [Linkdrop] Blood deep (Sam x Caroline), October to December
st_oneswidow - [EP] Progress (OTA, Corbie or Curnen)
st_ingofthehundred - [GP/EP] More than 12% of a plan
st_raighttovampire - Check-In November 15
st_unaligned - Has to be a Damn Way Out (OTA)

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Strange Trip

You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

Entries tagged with caroline forbes

For Sunny

Text to Regina

NYE

[GP] SNOW DAY

# text sent to everyone

[GP] Halloween Party

[GP/EP] THE FLOOR IS LAVA

[Text] Written to Everyone

[EP/GP] Check-In: I Assure You We Are Open

[GP/EP] Check-in Day

Art Show (Gathering Post)

[EP] NOT the Worst Birthday Ever

[GP] The De Rolo Wedding Reception

Welcome to Spring! (Dance)

[Log] I gotta stop pretending who we are - Sam/Caroline, Caroline x Regina

[Linkdrop] Blood deep (Sam x Caroline), October to December

[EP] Progress (OTA, Corbie or Curnen)

[GP/EP] More than 12% of a plan

Check-In November 15

Has to be a Damn Way Out (OTA)

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December 2019

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