Parents Day (open rp)

[Cadabra]

Cassandra set her phone into her lap and pulled her book bag off the bench to make room for Chris and his mother, putting it at her feet and tucking the grimoire inside. She then flipped the phone open one more time, and saw behind it in the distance a familiar face coming up from the entrance.

"Dad!" She near sprang from the bench, and ran toward him.

He was an older man, with a weathered and hunched, pot bellied look, but still stood tall with a broad chest and thick features. His hair had started to grow gray a long time ago, but had not yet turned white; and for what little was left of it on his head, he made up for in his beard. Behind him where three other, younger men, from their late to mid twenties.

Chris stayed at the bench, watching her with something of a timid smile. They were, after all, all very tall, and half of them had beards like their father's. His mother placed a patient hand atop his while they sat, offering him a smile of her own.

Cassandra leapt toward the man, and he caught her in the air, taking her into a bear hug before turning her in a full circle.

"Hey, kid." His voice was like his smile. Tired, gentle, and genuine.

Her's was delighted and wide, absent of a trace of her common smirk. "Hey back, old man."

He set her down, and from behind him, her brothers came in and all gave her a hug of their own, almost at once, but for the youngest of them who watched on from the back ranks, laughing a quiet laugh and knocked her on the shoulder with a hand.

Chris watched on, his smile calmer for seeing her how she looked when she was around them; the fondness she had for them.

Then it became much more nervous for seeing the fondness they had for her. He looked to Mary, who gave him a soft, supportive laugh while standing up. He followed behind her, while taking his phone from his pocket.

Cassandra was ahead, laughing while talking with her father and brothers, all of them sharing a comment about this or that. Her phone went off, still loud from earlier; so loud that it made her shout out a little noise in surprise.

• From: Cute Boy With Book For A Face
  Don't forget about us back here.
  received: 9:37am

She turned around with a rolling eyed laugh to see Chris and Mary slowly making their way toward them. Quickly, Cassandra looked back to her gathered family.

"So, you see that skinny boy and the pretty bohemian woman with him? That is the one who keeps his mouth shut."

All four of them crossed their arms and leaned back with a thoughtful smile on one side of their mouths. They were their father's children.

"Well," one of her brothers started to commented. "Of all the people I've seen, he is certainly one of them."

"You want us to accept him as he is, or like him?"

"You're going to need someone who can take one as good as you can throw them, Cassie," the youngest one continued, set more to an insult than a quip. "He doesn't even look like he could take one from David's kid."

"Joseph," her father broke in, with a stern smirk while she kicked his foot with a bite on her lip. "How many times has she asked you?" He turned to her with a softer smile. "We'll be nice."

She looked behind her, to watch Chris as he came closer, giving a shrug. "What good is he to me if he spends a morning with you three and doesn't come back to me at least a little broken."

Chris walked up to the group and extended a hand to her father. "I'm Chris." Her dad looked at his hand with the same smirk from before, and took it to shake, his grip tightening just enough to get him to wince, but he didn't complain.

Mary stepped up behind Chris as he pulled his hand back, hiding it behind his back and flexing it as if to get the blood flowing to it again, "I'm Mary. Glad to meet all of you." She offered a smile to them.

“Robert,” he offered. “Nice to meet you too, ma'am.” He turned to look behind him, and each of Cassandra's brothers gave their name in turns, with a polite smile and a nod, to Mary, with only the youngest looking to Chris with a much less polite smile.

“Dan.” “Jason.” “Joseph.”

Cassandra looked back to the first to answer, with a curious laugh. “You're going by Dan, now, Daniel?”

The youngest turned away from Chris, snorting above her laugh. “He finally has a girlfriend who is old enough to drink at the bars with him.”

She laughed again, shoving on her brother's arm. “You'll even be taking the rubber sheets off your bed, soon!”

Her father looked to Mary, with an excusing sigh, giving her a shrug behind a settled grin. “Boys.”

Mary shared in their laughter, shaking her head. “They're absolutely charming.”

They all took part, even Chris, as they stood in the grove, sharing a sense of humor and getting to know each other, while he and Cassandra shared soft smiles behind them.

[Eternal-Equinox]

Sam sat at the edge of the pool, she wasn't what people would call a 'water baby' by any stretch. However since coming to Westbrook she had grown more and more fond of it. The kids of Westbrook that she found herself hanging out with the most all seemed to like the water and the beach. With each and every beach trip Sam was starting to like the water more and more. Today however it was the pool, she dangled her legs over the edge into the water and kicked them slowly back and forth. Standing a few feet away from her in the shallow end was Juan. The water came to just above his waist. He had told Sam that before he did any serious swimming he did some stretching. That's what he was doing now, though as Sam watched she found it hard not to smile as some of the 'stretches' looked more like poses. He was making sure to stretch out his shoulders, arms and back where she could see them best. It wasn't like she would complain about it though so she let him go about his routine.

He was a hell of a swimmer though, this was the first time Sam had actually watched him do any serious swimming. He was doing laps in the pool every few laps switching up his swimming style. On his final lap he came up for air in the shallow end close to her again. He swam up next to her and stood up resting an elbow on the edge of the pool as they talked.

“Damn Juan y'all are fast when ya get in the water. You weren't kiddin' when you said you were a hell of a swimmer.”

Juan nodded to her, "All-star all the way, muchachita. Natural habitat, like I said. You wanna come in wit' me an' lemme see what you got?"

Sam shook her head, “I don't think I'd ever be able to learn to swim that good. You can get a good doggie paddle outta me but that's it.”

Juan brought his free hand out of the water and let it rest gently on her knee, "You let me get ya some hands-on teachin' an' I'm bettin' we get a lot more out than you be expectin'."

Sam smiled, “Yeah, me in the bikini and you with the hands on sounds like a dangerous combo.”

Before Juan could plead his case Sam's father came walking into the pool area, “Samantha?” He looked around till he saw her and made his way over to her.

Looking from Juan's hand to her father Sam spoke in an even tone, you know, the don't spook the bear type of tone, “Dad? You weren't supposed to be here till later today I thought?”

Her father followed her look to Juan's hand, then he looked up at her, “I was plannin' on makin' a stop off to see your sister at her pageant thing but your ma and her were already gone so I came straight up. Your roommate Willow mentioned y'all were down at the pool. Nice girl, she walked me over.”

Sam smiled a bit, “Remind me to thank her....”

Her father looked her over, “And what are y'all wearin'? Where is the swimsuit you packed when we dropped ya off up here?”

She looked down at the far more revealing two piece bikini she had bought a few weeks prior for Michelle's pool party and blushed slightly but hid it from her father, “Everyone up here wears these dad it's no biggie.”

He pointed to the ladies change room, “Well you mind changin' outta it so you and I can talk some?”
“Yeah give me a minute dad.” She reached down and took Juan's hand in hers giving it the smallest squeeze before sliding it off her knee and getting out of the pool. She used her towel to dry off her legs and tied it around her waist as she made her way to the change rooms leaving Juan and her father alone, good idea? Probably not.

Once she was in the change room her father fixed his eyes on Juan. He was still old fashioned though and knelt down offering a strong hand towards Juan. “I'm Jim, Jim Yates, as ya guessed Sam's father. And you'd be who?”

Juan took his hand and gave it a firm shake, "Juan Alejandro Ortega, Mister Yates. Friend of Sam's. I'm, uh, on swim team. Was showin' her some of what I know."

Sam's dad wasn't as crazy as Sam sold him up to be but he was protective of Sam, his youngest daughter and apple of his eye. He loved all his kids but Sam was a total daddies girl and he liked it that way. Watching Juan he said., “You know Samantha's my youngest daughter and if there is one thin' I don't ever wanna get it is a phone call from her about some boy breakin' her sweet little heart. But I'm sure I don't gotta worry about that.”

It was formed more like a statement then a question. Juan gave Sam's dad a simple nod and said, "I don't...I ain't out to be breakin' anythin', Mr. Yates. We're friends. Anyway I ain't never been into that kinda thing, like, ever."

Jim watched Juan and and then stood up apparently satisfied.

Sam had changed as fast as she could and came out of the change room tugging her shirt down and slipping her phone in her jeans pocket. She walked up to the two and looked back and forth to see that everything was okay. She looped her arm in her dad's, “Hey dad how about I take ya down to Westys for a burger so we can talk huh?”

Her father nodded to Juan as he turned and walked with Sam out of the pool area, “That sounds like the best idea I've heard today Samantha.”

With their backs to Juan it was easy for Sam to give Juan a quick wave goodbye without her dad noticing, “Dad I told you call me Sam okay...”

The two walked and talked their way to Westys.

[Prysmatica]

[Liminal]

Blake munched on his burger. He was eating an early supper with his family at Westy’s Firehouse. It was now Saturday afternoon, which meant he’d survived most of their visit. They would be heading to the airport in a few hours to fly back home.

He had to admit (if only to himself) that it hadn’t been as bad as it could’ve been. His parents didn’t openly freak out at anything. They were reasonably polite to anyone they met, even if they did try to avoid spending more than a few minutes with anybody in particular.

His brother had mostly just sulked and clearly hadn’t wanted to come. Dakota was used to getting his way on things, but their parents weren’t about to leave their 12-year-old son home unattended overnight. Right now he was picking at his burger, not eating much. Blake used to look a lot like his brothers: they’d had the same blue eyes and brown hair, roughly the same complexion, and even their facial characters were fairly similar.

They got their hair from their mother, who had medium-length walnut brown hair. Watching her eat her chicken sandwich, Blake realized she looked a bit more careworn than he remembered. It wasn’t drastic, maybe he was imagining it? She’d seemed a bit more at ease with his situation while they were here, though she’d still visibly hesitated before hugging him.

His father didn’t really look careworn, just a bit tired. He was a sturdy man, used to doing hard work. The boys got their blue eyes from him, but hadn’t inherited his blonde hair. Blake had sometimes wished he’d had blonde hair like his father, but that was clearly a wish of the past; now he’d be happy to have any color hair back. His father hadn’t reacted nearly as badly at the changes in his son as Mom had, but Blake could tell he wasn’t comfortable with things. Dad just tended to have better control than Mom.

Blake finally broke the awkward quiet they’d settled into while eating. “Why did you guys even come, anyway? You were just here a month ago.”

Dakota didn’t say anything, but his facial expression made it clear he wondered the same thing.

“Well, we wanted to make sure you were settling in okay, Blake. You’ve never been away from home this long before. And I wasn’t entirely sure that...” Mom paused, glanced around to make sure nobody was listening, then lowered her voice to continue. “I wasn’t entirely sure it was safe.”

“April.” Dad said his wife’s name gently. Mom looked faintly abashed and went back to her sandwich. Everybody was quiet for another moment or two after that.

“I told you I was settling in fine.”

His father nodded. “And so you did. But sometimes a parent needs to see that with his own eyes, son.”

Blake didn’t really know what to say to that. He took another bite of his burger.

[Cadabra]

Her father was thumbing through the books along her shelf, looking for a familiar title in the line of occult which had a few school books sorted into it. Or more accurately, not sorted into it. Two of her brothers had sat and shared the space on the vacant bed in her dorm room, half asleep from the flight, while she laid out across her, with her elbows up to rest her head in her hand, her legs moving up and down opposite each other, idly. The third, youngest brother, was down in the commons foraging the vending machines.

The older man pulled out a few books, sorting through them in his hand with a curious turn on his brow, reading the titles out loud. “Compendium of Herbal Magick. Grimoire Sympathia. The Poetry of Dr. Oliver I. Spence. The Witching Hour.” With each title he looked up to Cassandra, with a wider smirk, almost covered by the mustache that hung over his upper lip. Holding the books up to her, he asked, “Where do you find these things?”

She gave a shrug, with a little laugh to his expression. “You can find anything in this city. Well, here and eBid.”

Setting the books down in a pile on her study desk, he continued, making his way to the side of her bed. “That where all that money I gave you is going?”

“Not all of it,” she shook her head. Rolling over onto her side, she pointed at her stomach. “Some of it goes here.” They shared a laugh.

He settled into a lean against the side of her bed post, reaching out a large hand to cup around the back of her head, messing her hair some, while his other hand reached around to his back pocket. “How you doing here, kid? You like it here?”

She wrinkled her nose some, with a little snicker, ducking her head down and out from his hand. Putting her hair back in place, she gave him another shrug. “I like it well enough. The food is funny colors, but the classes as better, and most of the kids are nice. Which I mean is one of them is nice.”

He pulled up his wallet to his other hand, taking out a $20 bill, and set it in front of her with a tapping finger, then points with it again toward her stomach, while finishing her thought for her. “Chris.”

She nodded, with a smile breaking at the corner or her mouth, looking a little down and away. “Yeah. Him. I don't think the other kids like me much.” She turned to look at the books he had left stacked, titles facing her. “I have no idea why,” she mocked to herself.

He followed her glance, reading down the titles on the spines to himself once more. After a pause, he looked to her with a gentle, father's smile. “Maybe you should get out of your social circle.”

She laughed, “What, you mean join math club, or the cheer squad?”

She gave to her laugh with his own, tired but well felt, with a shrug. “Why not? You like to wear little skirts like theirs. But its usually to make me worry, I've convinced myself.”

One of her brother on the bed woke long enough on hearing that to add in to the conversation, with his own laugh. “Yeah, I always did think Cass' hands lacked a certain pom-pom-ness.” She balled up an old shirt left on her bed, throwing it at him with a snicker. He swatted away at it, then sat up while slapping the other brother on the knee to wake him. “Come on, lets see if any of these kids have sisters my age.”

They left the room, with the first brother still laughing, the other giving a confused half awoken agreeing nod, and following him out. “Yeah, yeah I'm not going to fall asleep in a high school. I remember what happens to that guy.”

Cassandra and her father watched them leave, each giving them a wave in turn, and a laugh.

He turned to her, while stepping back to sit where they had been sat. “Think about it, Cass. It would be good for you to get out of your comfort zone.”

“Is it going to make you worry if I do?”

“That's where the good bet is.”

“I'll think about it, than.” She smirked.

He gave a sighed laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “You'll be the death of me, kid.”

She looked out the door, after her brothers. “And the death of Jason, if he actually tries to date one of my classman's sisters.”

He gave a better laugh. “He's harmless. The only thing he catches with that snaggle-tooth smile he has is bugs when he's running.” He looked back to her, while finishing in a chuckle. “What about you and this Chris, you two serious?”

She gave an apprehensive answer, trying to hide something of a bashful grin coming across her lips. “I guess. He's taking me to Prom.”

Her father leaned back against the wall, with a long heavy sigh through a smirk, taking his time to answer back. “He seems like a nice boy.”

She looks up, returning with a smirk of her own. “I hear Prom dresses are expensive.”

He laughed again, reluctant. With another sigh, he pulled back into his wallet, sitting up to put a $50 bill atop the first $20 on her bed. “The death of me.”

She had a soft smile, watching him. “I love you, old man.”

“I love you back, kid.”

[Chris Sloan]

Chris sat on the edge of his bed, his mother sitting next to him in his dorm room. The closet was opened, and he had his tux hanging on the closet door. Chris let Lorne use most of the closet, and kept his clothes in a dresser. The only thing he really kept hung up was the tux.

Mary smiled over to Chris, “That really does look good on you, Chris.” She laughed a bit, “I still remember when I got that picture in the mail from the Valentine's Day dance. I nearly had a heart attack.”

Chris laughed a bit too, “Yeah, I know. You called me as soon as you got it and asked what happened.”

Mary smiled, “Couple weeks later, you let me know you found a girlfriend.” She put a hand to her mouth as soon as she realized what she said. “Sorry, honey. I know it's not been very long since..”

Chris nodded, “Yeah, it's okay. I kinda knew it was bound to happen at some point. I was just hoping to make it last.”

She nodded back to him, “Do you want to talk to me about it?” He shook his head and she added, “Well, you know you can tell me when you're ready. So, tell me about this new girl, Cass. What's she like?”

Chris smiled a bit, “She's... different. Don't get me wrong, she's great. Nice, caring, just a tad bit crazy.”

Mary laughed, “What is it I always told you?”

Both of them smiled and repeated at the same time, “All women are crazy.” As if they had rehearsed it, they laughed to each other.

His mom looked at the tux, “Ask her to prom yet?”

He nodded, “Yeah, just a few days ago.”

She smirked, and nudged him with her elbow, “She's cute. I hope you treat her well.”

He smiled, “I will, mom. And yeah... she is...” He turned just a bit red and looked away.

Mary looked at the expression, “I'm glad to see you're really having fun here. I was worried for a bit.”

Chris nodded back to her, “Yeah, I'm doing good. Just have to adjust a bit. This place has it's bullies too, though. Especially against us mages.”

Mary nodded, “Yeah, I was afraid of that. But, at least it's better here. You have other people around here who can do what you do.” She smiled softly and ruffled his hair a bit, “You would have made your father proud.”

He quickly smiled more to her, “Thanks, mom.” He put his hand on the book in his pocket.

She looked to his hand, “You still don't go anywhere without that do you?”

He shook his head, “Not if I can help it. It's like I can keep him around as long as I have it with me, you know?”

She smiled and nodded, “Yeah, I never let it out of my sight either before giving it to you. But, he left me something better than a book.”

Chris looked back to her, “What?”

She pulled him back into a hug, holding her smile. “He gave me you, honey.”

Chris smiled, and hugged her back. “Love you, mom.”

“Love you too, Chris.”

[Wade Braddock]

It was Sunday mid-morning and Wade had found himself feeling a bit sad. At first, he hadn’t been sure about the whole idea of seeing his parents and little sister, and even less sure about having them come to Westbrook to see all the other meta-human kids. After all, wasn’t it because of his meta-human abilities that he’d found his life so drastically changed? Would a blatant reminder that he was a meta-human really be the best thing to facilitate a regular family visit?

But somehow, it had been. The first few hours had been a bit awkward as no one really knew what to talk about. But the tour of the grounds had helped with that. It kept any weird or really long uncomfortable pauses from being too common. It seemed to give them all time to get used to one another again. But this time, it wasn’t under the pressure of their town’s perceived statuses and social circles.

By the time Friday evening rolled around he was chatting with his family like he remembered from back in the days when he was still considered normal. His dad even talked baseball with him and the two quickly got into a heated debate over who was going to take the pennants this year, just like the old times. Saturday saw them all tour around Paragon together and genuinely enjoy each others company as they hit up all the biggest tourist spots the city had to offer.

A nice breakfast in the morning was about all the family had time for on Sunday, then it was time for his parents and sister to pack and head to the Amtrak station for their trip back to Kansas. He’d gone with them to their hotel to help out and spend his last few hours with them.

While they waited for the Train to be readied, Wade and his dad stood leaning against a railing outside the station. His mom and Lanni were off browsing the gift shop, but Wade took the chance to spend a few more minutes with his dad. After a bit of casual chat, his dad cleared his throat and turned to face Wade directly.

“Wade… There is something you need to know. It’s the reason I came out on this trip.”

“Yeah. Figured there was something. Kinda last minute and all.” Wade responded. Maybe this was it, he began to wonder. Maybe this would be where things fell apart and went back to the way it had been over the last year.

“It’s Rick. He’s been wounded.”

‘What!? What happened!? Why didn’t you tell me earlier!?” Wade asked in a much louder tone than he’d anticipated. If anything had happened to his brother, he’d expected to be told about it right away.

“Wait… its ok. He’s ok.” His dad said in a tone that somehow seemed to both calm and reassure Wade. “He couldn’t tell us much when we spoke to him… something about being classified still. But apparently it was a small fight while they were patrolling someplace. He was caught in the outskirts of an explosion of some kind. He’ll live but…”

“What? Tell me.” Wade asked after waiting for a few seconds after his dad trailed off.

“Well, he’s coming home. Once he heals up. But… his days in the military are over.”

“Oh.” Wade said and the two sat in silence for a few moments as Wade considered this new information. His dad seemed content to sit in silence until something occurred to Wade. “So, you came out here this weekend just to tell me that?”

“Yes… and no. That was a part of it, but there’s something else you need to know. When Rick enlisted in the military it made me worry, your mother too. You and Lanni didn’t know just how opposed to it we were, but once he’d made up his mind we did the only thing we could. We supported him.”

“And then he was gone, and you were starting to show such promise athletically. I hoped that if you got good enough, you’d earn a scholarship or something and make sports your career choice. I knew how much you looked up to Rick and I was afraid if things didn’t look like they were panning out, you’d enlist too. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to have another son blatantly put himself in danger like that. I’m sorry things got so messed up, I never expected things to get so… crazy.”

Wade nodded as he listened. He hadn’t really considered the military, but he’d been just a young teen when things took off for him. Who knew, maybe he would have started thinking about it as he got older. As far as things getting crazy, he supposed it had. The sudden thrust to small town fame had been a whirlwind for him too.

“I’m just glad that he was only wounded, that he’ll come back to us alive.” His dad continued. “I’ve never really told either of you how important you guys are to me. I wanted to do that this weekend, that’s why I came. To show you that I’m still your dad, and you’re still my son. No matter what happens.”

Wade didn’t know how to really respond to the things his father said so he nodded a few times. His father went on for a while longer and Wade felt a bit of guilt in his stomach. His father seemed relieved that Wade was safe at Westbrook and getting a good education as well. He even told Wade about how a few of his teachers were impressed with some of the assignments he’d turned in and thought he showed some real promise.

After a while Wade couldn’t keep silent any more. He stopped his father and told him about the night he’d worked in Steel Canyon and the subsequent fight with the thugs on the street. He didn’t spare any detail of the fight, any he could remember at least. At first his dad had seemed concerned but as the story went on a soft smile came to his face. Wade made sure that his dad knew that he only did it to save the girl. He even told him a bit about Lexi and his dad just chuckled and made a comment about watching out for older women.

Shortly after that, Wade’s mom and Lanni returned and it was time for his family to leave. As Wade watched the train pull out from the Amtrack station he thought back to one of the last things his father had told him before their conversation ended. It was right after Wade told him about his battle with the thugs on the streets of Steel Canyon.

‘Wade, the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. You may have already found out why. You did the right thing. I’m proud of you, son.’

The memory of those words made Wade’s throat tighten a bit and as he blinked he felt a tear roll down his cheek. Suddenly, he had something to live up to again. But he wasn’t ready yet; so all he could do was start working towards it. As he walked away from the station the echo of those words would stay with him for a long time.

‘I’m proud of you, son.’