Slightly Different • •

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Blaise might have been new in the city and the bright lights and loud noises of the constant traffic might have made him nervous, but he could safely say that he felt perfectly at home amidst the books of Borders. No matter where he was, a bookstore of any kind always managed to settle his nerves and relieve any of the stress he might have been feeling. Arriving in New York had been terrifying and even if he was only a few hours away from home, he still felt like he was alone and had to prove himself. Finding out that Borders were hiring was almost like the sign he needed to know that he had made the right choice and silence the voice of doubt that threatened him daily with anxiety attacks and other things that would leave him nothing more than a bumbling mess in public.

At least here he was in his comfort zone. Blaise might not have been the smartest kid and he had to work hard and put the hours in to get a good grade, but he knew books. He preferred books over TV and movies and his apartment didn’t have enough shelving or storage space for what he owned, so there were piles of books almost everywhere you turned and Blaise kept adding to that collection. The spines showed signs of age and countless re-reads, but Blaise couldn’t bear to part with any of them, even if they threatened to bury him by the time he was thirty. Each book held memories of a time or a place when he needed those stories most to help him get by and he felt that if he threw even one of them away that he’d be throwing part of himself away too.

It might have sounded stupid to other people, but then Blaise didn’t really talk to that many people, let alone explain his way of life to them. He still really had to have a proper conversation with any of his co-workers, but starting up an interaction like that was not something he was good at. So, for now, he came in, got his jobs and got on with them, rearranging and neatening the shelves and displays as he went. It was a job he loved and one that would certainly help him get the extra cash he needed to survive at least the next four years in New York.

Today, he was towards the back of the store where most of the hobbies books and art supplies were kept. He was stocking some of the books on certain styles of art and drawing as well as keeping his eye on a bunch of pre-teens who seemed to be dumping things everywhere but in their rightful place. He wasn’t going to say anything, but the quicker they left the quicker he could fix it all again. Usually, customers didn’t bother him too much, but they did take advantage of his height when they couldn’t reach the top shelf. Blaise had shot up seemingly overnight during his senior year of high school and it had surprised quite a few people, including himself, but he had to admit that it did come in handy more times than he cared to count. He straightened up the shelf and then sighed in relief when the kids moved towards the exit, giving Blaise his cue to go and clean up the chaos they had left behind.

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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 543
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

Being born and raised in the city gave Rhiannon the time to find all the best little stores to find what she was looking for. These shops were where she bought her clothes along with most everything, including most of her art supplies. Despite having the title and the funds to shop at major department stores for all of those things, Rhiannon liked the little boutiques, even if it meant spending a little more for some things. Her journals were on the small list of things she did buy from a major chain store. Borders had a better variety of styles and the small shops she frequented only carried a small collection of them.

If she hadn’t needed new pens and sketchbooks, she wouldn’t have even gotten dressed that day. But she was running low on paper and her last inking marker died the night before. So she’d gotten up early to get everything done and be back home to get some work done. She hit up the other store she needed to go to before going a little ways out of her way for Borders. She bought enough markers for a month’s supply the way she went through them. If the employees of the small shop she went to didn’t know her, they surely would have given her odd looks! But that was all said and done and she was browsing through the comic section at Borders, checking out the competition she had and picking up a few that interested her, or were the next in her collections at home.

She also made a note of which comics were available through Marvel that she hadn’t known about. One of the perks of being an artist for the company was getting the merchandise either discounted for free whenever she stopped by the office to submit her work. With her hands full of her latest additions, the newly brunette again artist made her way over to the journals and stationary. It was still a little weird passing the mirror in the hall or in the bathroom and not seeing the bright red hair she’d had since she was sixteen. She was turning the corner just as some kids ran off laughing about something she couldn’t catch.

Rolling her eyes at their antics, the brunette continued on her way to her destination. Once there, she took her time looking over the selection. She always bought two or three and had to come back in another month or two for more with the way she jotted down every little idea or thought she had. If she decided her main character was going to wear purple instead of red while she was out to lunch with a friend, then she’d pull out the ever present notebook and pen and make a quick scribbled note of it. She would have used her phone but she usually hated the thing and finding it in the bottom of whatever bag she was carrying was too much trouble half the time. Rhi picked up one from the shelf in front of her, a bright blue one with picture of an owl and the second one she had her eye on was on the very top shelf. Leave it to her to want the one thing she couldn’t reach, though she tried. Sighing, Rhiannon narrowed her eyes at the journal, willing it to fall from its place and handily into her arms. When that didn’t work, she went in search of someone to help her. It took her a couple aisles before she found an employee, cleaning up a shelf. “Excuse me?” she said first to get his attention. “Can you help me with something, please?” she asked, once she had his attention.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 624
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

New York had a totally different dynamic to Philadelphia and Blaise found it so much easier to slip into the crowds here and get lost. He hated when he would be out and about back home and someone would call his name from across the street and catch him off guard. Blaise had his quirks and being ready to see someone or meet up with them was definitely one of them. At least in New York he barely knew anyone and with the fast pace momentum of the city it was a lot harder to stop someone in the street for a good catch up. He still missed home sometimes, but he only needed to pick up the phone when that happened and his mom, aunt or Alec would be more than happy to have a chat with him, even if there was no news to pass on.

It was his first time away from home and his mom worried enough about how he would cope alone and in a strange place, so it was helpful for both mother and son to talk on a regular basis. He had to keep emphasising that he had his anxiety under control, a therapist on speed dial and the prescription bottle topped up. So far, things hadn’t been too bad, but school hadn’t started yet and he knew things would change then when he had new professors and classmates to get used to and vice versa. He was a rather odd person during first meetings, but he couldn’t help that and it was only when people gave him a chance that he would emerge out of his shell, ever so slightly. Blaise had never felt comfortable enough with anyone to open up completely and not even those who he considered to be his closest friends caught a glimpse of him playing the guitar that he carried around almost everywhere. If they knew about the open mic night performances he gave, they’d probably have a heart attack, too.

Most of the time while he was at work people seemed to leave Blaise alone. He got asked to hop on the registers if a busy shift hit, but he was still pretty new, so most of the time he was left on the floor of the store to keep an eye on displays and make sure that anything on promotion remained stocked for as long as there were copies in the back. Occasionally a customer might ask him for something, but he seemed to notice that a lot of them were like him and much more interested in browsing certain genre sections for something new and slightly different. He could happily spend hours picking and choosing books from the shelves and he hated it when an employee came over to check on him, so he happily avoided those customers and just stuck to the other aspects of his job. If they needed his help then he was clearly visible amongst the aisles with his staff lanyard around his neck.

His head snapped up at the sound of a girl’s voice and he looked across in the direction it had come from. His dark eyes fell on the young woman and he nodded his head and slipped the book in his hands back into place on the shelf before turning to look at her again. “What can I do for you?”

[/color] Blaise asked with a small, but awkward smile. He still wasn’t quite used to strangers speaking to him, even if he was working, but he could handle this a hell of a lot easier than other social interactions.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 633
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

Even as a child, Rhiannon had wanted things just out of reach. And despite trying to get these things herself, she always had to rely on other people to give that little bit of help. She wouldn’t have submitted her drawings and work to that Marvel contest if it hadn’t been for Reese. She probably wouldn’t have been bold enough to lie to her parents and move out if it hadn’t been for her brother and uncle. Reese was there for everything, pushing his little sister into doing what she was meant to do. He practically pushed her out the door whenever any of the friends she did have showed up. If he didn’t, she would probably stay in that studio of hers, working the days and nights away in a blur.

It wasn’t that she was incapable of making friends, she wasn’t. She just didn’t have many since she hardly left her house unless she was with someone or was in desperate need of supplies; like today. Rhiannon was out, roaming the busy streets of New York alone, because she was in serious need for supplies refill. And since she was out and about already, she would add in some shopping and maybe even a manicure once everything was all said and done. And in this case, the thing just out of reach was a journal. Rhiannon smiled at the tall man. He seemed really nervous that she’d interrupted his work, and although she felt bad for that, she really wanted that journal and he was the only employee on the floor close enough. “I hope you can reach a book that I can’t. I’m a little vertically challenged,” she said, chuckling at her own bad joke.

Turning back the way she’d come, Rhiannon made her way back to the stationary and pointed up to the top shelf and the book just out of her reach. “I tried myself but,” she shrugged, “I couldn’t get it aside from playing monkey and climbing.” And since she knew she would undoubtedly make a mess going up and then back down the shelving, which was not meant for monkeys, she instead went in search of someone tall. Really, Rhi didn’t know why they made the shelves so large in the first place. She wasn’t the shortest person in the world, but she wasn’t exactly an Amazon either. Of course, not everything could be like her apartment where if it wasn’t in reach, she could climb the counters to get what she really wanted.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 421
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || -.- <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Blaise had lost his only role model when he was twelve. He loved his mom and aunt dearly, but it had always been his dad who had coaxed him out of his comfort zone and talked him into doing the things he never thought he would otherwise do. After his death things had become harder and much more difficult for the young boy who really just wanted to spend his time alone and with his books. He felt awful now for worrying his family so much, but at the time and even now, he didn’t see things going any other way. He sort of needed that period of therapy and silence to grow. Without that he might’ve gone to college two years ago, chosen to live in a different city and been a completely different person by now. Blaise liked who he was though, despite the problems he had to deal with on a regular basis. Sure, there were things in his life that he wished he could change, but everyone had those wishes.

He may have not been the guy who hit the bars after work and he definitely wasn’t the best one to be handing out social advice, but Blaise enjoyed the quiet life he did have. He kept in touch with a few people back home and one or two of his neighbours seemed nice and had invited him out on a night out just the week before. That was what Blaise needed; he could make friends so long as someone else made the initial approach. He had never been the guy to strike up a conversation on the subway or make a comment on something seen on the street; most of the time it was head down and music up for the college freshman. He managed a nervous chuckle and shrugged. “My height is why they employ me.”

[/color] He joked badly before following her back up the aisle.

His dark eyes fell on the journal in question after she pointed at it and he silently nodded, again with the awkward smile, before reaching up and plucking it down from the shelving with ease. The growth spurt in his senior year really had done wonders for tasks such as this one and Blaise had lost count of how many times people asked him to reach things in stores, even when he didn’t work in them. “There you go. Anything else you can’t reach?”[/color] He asked, not knowing what to say to everything else that she said. Blaise wasn’t skilled in the art of conversation and it didn’t exactly take people long to figure that one out about the dark haired wallflower.
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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 475
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

Rhiannon wasn’t as outgoing as she led people to believe. And after they found out what she did for a living, people figured it out quickly enough on their own. There was only so much time in the day for an artist of her skills to spend away from her studio. And anyway, as long as there wasn’t a storm brewing outside, that room was exactly where Rhiannon stayed. If she was in her own little world and nothing, no one brought her out of it; she could sit there in the room full of windows in the middle of a raging storm and not notice it at all. But the second she gets pulled from her own little world and sees the lightning, hears the thunder, she’s a shaking, shivering mess hiding away from the storm like a little kid again. It was an irrational fear, like the rest of hers but it was still there and still something she had to overcome.

She had her brother, uncle and friends to do that though, so all in all, Rhiannon really couldn’t say much about her life. She got to live the way she wanted, do what she wanted and just be herself without the scrutinizing eye of her mother. She went out when she wanted to and not because it was expected of her like before she’d moved out. She didn’t have to attend every gala, fundraiser or luncheon planned for the socialites of New York. For the next few months though, she couldn’t use her usual excuse of school work getting in the way so she knew there were a few trips to the Hamptons and luncheons she wouldn’t be able to fake her way out of. “That is an excellent reason! I’m sure if I worked here, I would be stuck behind the cash, standing on a stepping stool!” She wasn’t that short, coming in over five feet, but since her brother, uncle and practically all the guys she knew had at least a foot on her, she was short. At least she could joke about it. She often saw the shocked expressions on fan’s faces when she walked into a comic convention and met with them and most of them towered over her. There had been a few times she had needed to borrow a couple security guards just so she could make it through the ocean of people to her signing table.

“Plenty,” Rhi said, laughing at her little joke as she accepted the journal. “But I haven’t finished looking around the store so, I don’t know yet.” She was short and had a slim figure that half the world thought was thanks to an eating disorder. That was far from the case as any of her friends could attest to. She ate like a horse and still barely gained any weight. Those comments went in one ear and out the other because she knew the girls saying it, and she was well aware of how catty the women could be at the functions. But Rhiannon took pride in knowing she was doing something with her life and she wasn’t going to end up being some rich man’s daughter and then some rich man’s trophy wife. And the petite newly brunette again artist didn’t care about the same things those other girls did. She didn’t care about class or standing. She could count on one hand the amount of friend’s she had in her “class” circle. And those people were some of the last people she’d call; ever.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 593
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || -.- <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Blaise was more than happy to spend a night at home with a new book and Walter. He liked to keep to himself and his mom’s worries always made very little sense to him; he couldn’t see the harm in spending nights alone. It wasn’t like he drank alone; in fact, he very rarely reached for a bottle of anything and the only drugs he touched were those prescribed to him when he needed to take them. He was sensible and he wasn’t about to let New York strip him of that.

There was another side to him though; one he never let friends see. It was something he saved for strangers and as clichéd as it might be, it was the only time that the raven haired young man felt himself overwhelmed with confidence. With his dad’s old guitar in hand, Blaise sometimes felt like he could take on the world, which was very odd since most mornings he would be content to stay locked in his apartment. To him though, his dad was his hero and the man who had no fears. It might have sounded like something out of a cheesy and cringe worthy Hollywood blockbuster, but it was true. Blaise would never have a career out of singing; his nerves would always get the better of him once the music stopped, but for a short amount of time it was like he didn’t have GAD and the world wasn’t such a dark and scary place to be. Once his set was finished though, Blaise usually packed up and left out the back door before anyone could speak to him. He didn’t want to do so well on stage and them be a stammering wreck mere seconds later.

Blaise gave her a small smile. He was about the same height as one of his supervisors; an Englishman who had an accent that was near impossible to understand at times. He might’ve been asked more than the other floor staff to reach things, but in reality they all did pretty much the same about of work with each shift they clocked on for. “Or they’d put you on the low cash desk, perhaps?”

[/color] It was mainly for anyone who might be in a wheelchair or scooter, but they kept it open and operating most days since it was just the closest one whenever opening up time came around. The girl next to him wasn’t so small, but he could easily see how the top shelf was a difficult reach for her.

“Alright, well, I’m Blaise. I’ll be right where you found me if there’s anything else.”[/color] He said, ready to walk back to the aisle he was working on. He didn’t think he’d ever see her again; she’d just pay for her things and be on her way with whatever else her life had to offer for her. Blaise was just about ready to turn back around to return to the job that paid the bills when his dark eyes caught a glimpse of that rowdy group of teenagers again, this time hurtling towards them as a fight seemed to break out. Instinctively, he reached out for the petite customer he had just helped and pulled her out of harm’s way. His supervisor was already dealing with the trouble and Blaise, knowing himself to be useless in a confrontation, turned back to the young girl. “A-are you okay?”[/color]
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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 602!
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

Most days Rhiannon would be happy to only leave he studio to eat and use the bathroom. But her friends and her brother would not have her be a shut in. if it were up to her, she would only leave for supply runs and luncheons with her mother so the older woman wouldn’t try to find her newly brunette again daughter on the campus of a school she didn’t actually attend. Reese was usually good at deterring the woman from seeking out her daughter on campus and sending his little sister a text in warning so she could meet her somewhere close enough to campus that it would appear that she’d been there. She had a few more years of this game to play but after that, her parents would leave her alone and then there would only be remarks about getting a real job, because the title ‘former student’ didn’t pay bills. Gavin and Katarina Webb didn’t want to know their daughter was already a well-known artist for Marvel comics. They weren’t allowed to know that’s what she was doing with her life or she would have to quit and she didn’t want that. It was hard enough knowing her contract with the company was almost finished and she would be either in negotiations with Marvel’s lawyers or being wooed by competitors. She was already getting calls from a few of them, wanting to speak with her.

She might not have known where her career was going to take her in another year or even a couple months, but she knew that if she didn’t go out of her own free will and meet with Allela or even Nix they would be knocking her door down and dragging her away by her toes. Nix, probably not so much since he was spending more and more time with his pretty girlfriend, but she wouldn’t put it past Allela not to do it. She’d done exactly that before, literally pulling her away from her desk and the work still drying on it! Rhiannon didn’t often find herself thinking about where she would be if she were someone else. She knew her parents would have let her stock shelves, even if that was what she wanted. If she hadn’t already been doing what she was, her mother would have had her on all sorts of committees. But now with this boy, this employee of Borders, she was imagining herself in the role cashier for Borders Book store. She wouldn’t be any help at all on the floor if someone needed her help reaching for something. If a customer wanted a book near the floor, she would be their girl, but anything higher than the middle shelf and she would be useless! “That is a good point; I would probably end up there. Probably safer for me anyway, I’d be trampled out here with the civvies,” she said joking about the customers.

“Rhiannon,” she said, introducing herself. “Thank you, Blaise,” she added, lifting the book up a little. She was turning around to look back at the shelf to see if any other journal’s caught her eye when she was pulled against thing, or rather someone that had her breath leaving her in one quick gush of air. She saw the trouble just as they were passing and instinctively, she turned towards the protection, burying her face in case one of them threw a book her way. A throbbing pain the back of her head she could deal with, a black eye would have too many questions accompanying it with Reese when she got home and he saw her. She was only out of control for a second, maybe a little longer and then she was stepping a single step away from Blaise and looking up at him when his question hit her ears. It took her a minute to register the actual words he’d said but once she connected them, she smiled, letting out another held breath. “I’m fine. Thank you for saving me. Are you okay? When is your shift over?” she asked, barrelling through all the thoughts in her head until she actually calmed down and wasn’t faking it anymore. The least she could do though was buy this man a cup of java or tea, whichever he preferred.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 720
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || -.- <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Blaise knew that his mom still worried about him, especially now that he lived alone in New York. Almost every phone call started by asking him if he had been out, met anyone or settled in at work. He kept reassuring her that he was okay, but the older woman kept encouraging her son to go out and meet people. He had never had the biggest group of friends and quite a few had been bored by his “antics” when he was younger and trapped by his own anxieties and fears. Blaise would be lying if he said that he felt sad to lose them, but at the same time if they were real friends then they would’ve been there throughout it or there with an apology when he was back to his normal, but still quiet, self. These days, his mom just wanted Blaise to be happy and would probably approve of anything that did just that; she was tired of her “little boy” struggling through life.

He had no idea where he would be after he finished the four years of college. There was no grand plan in his future and Blaise didn’t feel comfortable with most of the options his mom had already suggested to him when they had had the conversation over take out one night. They had sat reading through all the different college prospectuses, eyeing up courses and trying to work out which ones were the best for the reserved young man. She had suggested some decent ideas, but Blaise just couldn’t picture himself in the role of teacher or lecturer. Whenever he was in front of a room full of people now it took everything he had in him not to throw up, hyperventilate or even pass out. Blaise just wanted his future to be simple with no drama, no horror stories and no need to make him feel like he had to crawl back into the shell he was still emerging from. Blaise’s chuckle was quiet, but slightly awkward; he still wasn’t used to talking to complete strangers. “I’m sure it wouldn’t be so bad.”

[/color] He said with a small, but nervous smile.

It was rare for any trouble to break out in the store, even on the busy weekends when the teenagers came in to laugh at something they had seen through the window or read about on one of the displays when they were grabbing their comic books. Never before had Blaise seen a fight break out on one of his shifts, but he had seen plenty back in Philadelphia to recognise the trouble brewing. Hell, he had been the victim in a few thanks to high school bullies thinking it would be fun to give him a black eye for no particular reason other than they could. He kept Rhiannon safely out the way of harm until his supervisor and another assistant had taken care of the delinquents, dragging them from the store. A red hue filled his cheeks and he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, feeling a bit more nervous than usual now. “I didn’t…it’s nothing. And, I’m fine. I’m good.”[/color] His dark eyes flicked to the clock on the wall and he realised just how quickly the time had raced by today. “I’m done in ten minutes, actually.”[/color] It had hardly felt like he had been there more than a few hours, but the six hour shift was drawing to a close and the work left to finished would be delegated to one of the closing assistants.
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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 624
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

It wasn’t that Rhiannon didn’t want to leave her cozy apartment. It was more that she fell further and further into the world she created that it took her a long time to surface again. During those trips as she called them, she got a lot of work done but she also lost days on end with nothing really bringing her out aside from food and sleep. There were other reasons for dragging Reese along to live with her other than using the extra money their parents forked over for residency for things he wanted to do. It was probably the worst thing she’d ever done, but Rhiannon had taken her tuition money and bought the three bedroom apartment she shared with her brother now and continued to let her parents think she was attending NYU.

Without her friends Rhiannon probably wouldn’t for anything normal. She would leave to talk to her editors, her bosses and to travel the circuits and conventions a couple times a year when a release lined up with one. She didn’t know how many times she said it, but she was thankful for the lot of friends she did have. They were small in numbers, but mighty in actions. Rhiannon smiled, shaking her head. “I’m sure it would be. But I’m completely useless when it comes to helping people with just about anything. Ask me to draw, and I’m your girl. Ask me for directions and I direct you to whoever I happen to be with at the time,” she said easily enough, knowing it to be true. She was useless when it came to just about everything. It didn’t matter that she was born and raised in this city; that she ventured out in it. She could get from point A to point B just fine, but don’t ask her how she got there because the newly brunette again artist wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Nothing remotely interesting ever happened to Rhiannon. She would have to leave her house more often than she did for that to happen. So she couldn’t have gauged her reaction to anything before it happened because she just didn’t know. If she spent more time are little kids, or even those in the early stages of their teenage years, maybe she wouldn’t have been caught so off-guard by them. But that hadn’t been the case, even when she was one of those teenagers; she’d never been a teenager. She’d been working since she was sixteen, and now two years later nothing more than her hair colour had changed. “Good. Excellent. Coffee then or tea, rather. Tea’s soothing right? Good for rattled nerves? Tea for not having to figure out my contacts list to find Reese and tell him I met my demise amongst the stacks of books I love so much thanks to a bunch of villains in training,” Rhiannon said pulling her phone from her bag and checking the time herself. “There’s a coffee shop around here, right? I’ll let you finish up your shift and I’ll go pay for these. If you meet me there, drinks are on me. If not, I’m sure I’ll see you around sometime. I’m in here more than I probably should be,” she said, her giggles starting to border hysteria.

They were a group of rascals. They were nothing to be scared of or nervous about, but here she was chattering away in a nervous habit she hadn’t been aware of possessing. A small part of her brain simply shrugged it off and said it was interesting, while the rest of her head stayed screeching that this was the exact reason she never left her house. And only one of which was true; it was interesting knowing how she had reacted. Without waiting for a response, she turned toward the counters at the front of the store. The line wasn’t long and she was at the cash in no time, pulling out enough notes for her purchases. She had been thinking about calling Allela and trying to talk her into hitting some shops but now that would have to wait.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 689
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || -.- <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Blaise wasn’t a big risk taker and he never had been. He stuck with what he knew was good and what he identified as safe. He was never going to be like his dad; sweeping in to save the day and then take a bullet to save his partner. Blaise felt safest in his own company with a good book and a fictional world where the only thing that could hurt him was the death of a character who wasn’t real, or a poor literary mistake. Those kinds of tragedies were the ones he could handle and the rest just overwhelmed the nineteen year old. He had spent so much of his life being ridiculed and laughed at that he didn’t like opening up to people or talking about himself and it seemed that most people found that to be rather weird. At least New York was so busy and constantly moving that Blaise could vanish in a crowd and no one would feel the need to disturb him or ask him uncomfortable questions.

At least if there was a bad day he could retreat to the safety of his small apartment. Walter would never betray him like people could and he could forget his worries with the assistance of his guitar and the vast amount of books that filled the shelves and the floor space in his little student abode. Running his fingers through the straight raven hair, Blaise swallowed hard. Normally customers didn’t have conversations with him at all, but he didn’t want to be rude or freak out right now when she was being so nice. “To be honest, I could only direct you around this store. I hardly know New York yet.”

[/color] He’d only been in the city since the end of May, getting himself a job and sorting his apartment out before school would start up at the end of the summer. He’d probably end up back in Philadelphia at some point for a little bit and there would definitely be a visit from his mom before that all came about. Blaise wanted to discover the city, learn his way around and get everything memorised before he had to combat with the stresses of university on top of all of that. He wanted to keep his anxiety under control and the best way to do that was to take his time and attempt to cope with things one at a time.

Blaise could only blink as she rambled on, his brain taking a little longer to convert her words into things he could understand. He wasn’t used to complete strangers talking to him and he didn’t know how to respond when someone got the case of the giggles and couldn’t seem to stop their mouth. Whenever he got nervous he did the opposite and usually stammered around his sentences before losing the ability to speak altogether. When that happened he usually struggled to remember to breathe steady, so conversational skills seemed to vanish entirely. He could barely manage to nod his head, his eyes wide as she rattled on.

He watched her walk away and then went about finishing up the remainder of his shift. Finally handing over to his replacement, Blaise grabbed his things from the locker room and then checked his phone, but his mom hadn’t decided to call in one of her “just checking on you” calls. He had every intention of going home, not feeling ready to meet some stranger of a girl for coffee, even if she was different from the rest of the characters he had seen so far in New York City. However, he had to pass that coffee shop on his walk back to his apartment and he made the mistake of looking up, spying Rhiannon sitting at a table there. He froze in place and blinked a few more times, feeling the anxiety building, but he knew that he had to get out, make friends and learn how to be independent without becoming a recluse. His hands were shaking something terrible as he pushed the door open and he quickly shoved them into the pockets of his jeans as he walked over to the table, swallowing his fears and taking a deep breath. “H-hey.”[/color] He managed, with an awkward little smile.
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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 746!
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

If it were up to the nearly brunette again girl, she would spent as much of her time as she possibly could in her studio, wrapped up in the fictional world she created. She had a good excuse for it, since it was her job, but no one in her life would allow that. There were bands to see, food to eat and parts of the city to explore. Her friends and especially her brother wouldn’t allow her to sit around her house all day and night just to wither away at a drawing desk because she forgot to eat yet again. Allela was usually at her door, knocking and making a commotion if Rhiannon didn’t reply to her texts. When she was out though, she loved it. The city was her playground, her inspiration. She got all her ideas from everything she saw when she did venture outside her own little world. She had her favourite places to go, who didn’t when they grew up in the city? And she had her secret spots that only those born and raised would know.

When Rhiannon left the bookstore and headed down the block, she wasn’t sure if Blaise would take her up on her offer. Really, why would he? She was a complete stranger with nothing more than a name for information. She didn’t know what to expect, she didn’t know him, but she still went down to the little café on the corner and ordered herself a ridiculously overpriced caramel cappuccino when the waitress stopped at her table. She took one by the front window, just in case. But by the time she took her seat and her coffee was set in front of her on a matching saucer, Rhiannon had made herself believe that Blaise wouldn’t be joining her. And she could understand that. She’d basically bombarded him with questions and silly words until he agreed with her. Really, she hadn’t even allowed him the time to turn her down! She just said what she had to say, turned on the heel of her pink flats and walked off without another word.

And from the few short minutes Rhiannon was with him, she could see he wouldn’t be the type to yell out across the space of the store. He was obviously shy, which actually surprised her that he was working in a store with so many people but she hadn’t thought about that at the time. She’d been too busy with her journal and then those stupid children to worry about anything else. And then of course, she was talking a mile a minute, making plans and rushing off. She was an idiot. And that was her train of thought when she pulled her phone from her bag at the sound of the personal ringtone for her brother. Rhi read it over quickly, sending him back a reply. It was just her for dinner, since he was out with a friend from school. He didn’t say but she wondered if it was the same “friend” he’d been hanging out with a lot lately. She couldn’t say much, just because she didn’t have a life didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed one. Hell, he basically had to have a life to make up for his little sister.

Rhiannon’s head snapped up at the hesitant greeting and a smile spread across her glossed lips. “Hi, please, sit,” she said, gesturing to the chair across from her own. She had convinced herself that she’d been sitting alone at the table only long enough to finish her own drink, pay and leave to go home again. “I didn’t know what you would drink or if you would even show up so I never ordered you anything,” she said, spying her own forgotten coffee as she signaled for the waitress to make her way back to their table. “I’m glad you did though,” she added, dropping her hand after catching the waitress’s eye.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 660
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || -.- <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Coming to New York had already taken a lot of convincing from Blaise to his mom. He knew he wasn’t the most confident kid out there and he would probably be much less anxious in his own company, but he knew that it was no way to live his life like that. He might not know anyone in the city, but he had been lucky to snag himself a job which kept him out of his apartment for six hours here and there, nine on the weekend, and Blaise did have to brave the stores for the common amenities such as food and other necessities, like shower gel. Once school started up he’d be away from his tiny apartment even more, but that didn’t mean he’d majestically transform into a social butterfly; somehow, he never saw that happening.

The only thing that saved him in his job was the fact that he was surrounded by books. The tomes of bound pages seemed to have a soothing effect on his nerves and they always had done since he was a little kid. Back then it had been hours hidden in a library, looking at pictures of adventurous tales and happy endings. His taste in literature might have changed over the years since then, but Blaise still had a strong first love for books and they were the things that kept his mind off a bad day, or stopped him from worrying about a presentation he had to give in the morning. Where Popeye had his spinach, Blaise had the written word. He still preferred it when customers didn’t try to start full blown conversations with him about life and their bad days, but he could handle it a little better in Borders than he could on the sidewalk. Although, after his encounter with Rhiannon he was starting to see that his mom had a valid point; maybe he would take a call to his doctor on Monday morning and arrange something to ease him through this transition.

His head was screaming at him to turn around and walk back out of the coffee shop before she looked up and noticed him. There was still time to do it and no one had to know that he had panicked at the last second, but then he had managed to find his soft voice and it was too late to do anything without making a scene and probably sending himself into more of a spiralled panic. Another awkward smile crossed his lips as he fumbled with the chair, practically falling into the seat with a bundle of nerves he couldn’t even begin to explain if he tried. He took a deep breath to steel those inner demons of his and then flicked his eyes up long enough to notice the waitress before looking back down at his fidgety hands again. “Oh, um, just a cin-cinnamon latte, please.”

[/color] He ordered quietly, his leg bouncing beneath the table’s surface as he tried to combat the anxiety washing over him. He hated being this way sometimes; he had no reason to be anxious or worried and yet he was. “Who could turn down coffee?”[/color] He joked, badly. He still couldn’t bring his eyes to settle on her for more than a second or two and had to keep playing it off by “admiring” the rest of the shop. He’d never been in here before, despite passing by often enough. Usually he just went to the Starbucks on the corner by his apartment building when he got there so that he had a fresh coffee to enjoy while he settled with whatever book was holding his attention lately. Blaise wasn’t the kid who would normally spend an afternoon inside a coffee shop by himself, and he never usually had company to enjoy an afternoon with, so this seemed like all new territory for him and dealing with it was proving not to be his finest quality. He didn’t even know what to say to Rhiannon!
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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 699
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3

[Rhiannon Kaelyn Webb]

Rhiannon loved her city. New York was everything everyone ever thought it was and more than that. She had never felt the need to actually get up and move away from it, when there was so much to see and do in the city. She knew she took a tourists view of her hometown, but sometimes it was better than the jaded outlook of being born and raised. Her friends in high school used to tease her because she liked going to the tourist places, seeing the city she loved so much from the Empire State building. She knew that no matter where she travelled for fun or for work, she could always come back to New York and have it be just as she’d left; busy, filled with people in a hurry to absolutely nowhere. She had deadlines just like anyone else, the difference was that she loved what she did and usually ended up so engrossed in her work that she was finished well before schedule.

What would be the trouble for her, wasn’t telling her parents she was leaving home to explore the world, or even find a good job elsewhere in the country. It would be telling them that she’d never accepted any of the offers to colleges or universities. Telling them she’d had a full time job since she was sixteen would be harder than telling them anything at all really. She was far from the perfect little girl they thought she was. Rhiannon got dolled up and rubbed elbows with the rich and occasionally famous when her parents expected it of her but she almost never got out of her apartment unless one of her friend’s, usually Allela or Phoenix, came by and practically dragged her from her studio; literally a couple times in Allela’s case. And if she needed something but claimed to be on a roll with her work, she texted her brother or uncle and got one of them to drop what she needed off. It was only too easy to stay hidden away in her line of work. But eventually, she did go out on her own. As much as she wanted to take credit that the world’s she created were her own, she took much of her inspiration from New York. Without her trips around the city, to the Empire State building among other tourist attractions and the places only locals knew of, she wouldn’t have nearly anything at all to write about.

Not everything she did ended up in one of her publications, but there were a few things that had Nix or even Allela looking over it and saying they remembered when this or that happened, and then sat laughing at the memory for a while. Rhiannon kept a careful eye on her new companion. Despite not getting out often enough for her friends and brother’s liking, Rhiannon was fairly adept at reading people. Blaise wasn’t comfortable sitting across from her. She wasn’t sure why exactly, though she could take a guess. She was a random stranger after all. But so far, she’d had good experiences running into random strangers and inviting them for coffee. It was how she met Allela, Nix, most of her friends actually. She had the select few from the charities, which was how she’d met Dawson and then his pretty girlfriend KC but she hadn’t considered them strangers when they met though she probably could have. “Are you alright? You seem,” Rhiannon paused to pick out the right word, “nervous. I promise I don’t bite. I’m just a tiny ginger who kind of talks a lot,” she finished, picking up her coffee cup and taking a sip just to shut herself up. She hadn’t even realised she’d referred to her hair colour as the wrong one, again, until she’d taken a sip of her coffee and couldn’t speak. It was done now though, so if he caught it and said something, she would easily laugh it off. She had only been a brunette again, after nearly three years of it, for a couple of days.

Tag || Blaise!
Words || 683
Clothes || Pastel Princess
Music || Had Me @ Hello --Olivia Holt & Luke Benward
Notes || -.- <3 <3 <3

[Blaise MacKinley Stanton]

Blaise hadn’t even completed most of the tourist things in the city yet. Over the first week when he had moved to New York and his mom had been around she had dragged him to the likes of the Rockefeller and the Empire State building, but once she had left Blaise hadn’t exactly been the kid to rush out and cross the rest from a stereotypical New York bucket list. He didn’t even own the typical “I LOVE NYC” shirt that seemed to be sold across the city like it was as necessary as groceries. Most of the tourist attractions were swamped with people, most of them excited and wanting to talk and make friends with everyone…basically, they were the complete opposite to what Blaise felt comfortable with. The thought of dealing with that alone was enough to make his breathing rapid and he didn’t dare actually try it when the panic attacks could catch him in the safety of his own apartment. New York had been a massive step for the young literature student, but there were still some things just a little out of reach for him.

Whenever the worrying mother called though, he had done something. He didn’t outright lie and tell her all these wonderful and completely false tales, but he might stretch the truth just enough to stop her from panicking that her only child was going to become the recluse who was the subject of children’s tales and stories until the youth of the neighbourhood feared the myth that he had become; much like Boo Radley. No, he just changed a conversation in the stockroom with a work colleague to a conversation in the lunch room. An old lady in the grocery store asked him to reach something on the top shelf and it was a tale of helping a neighbour in his building. His shopping trips were more casual in conversation than the quick dart of reality that they truly were, but she didn’t need to have strange assumptions that her son feared the market. Blaise could easily look after himself, but his mom did fret about her not-so-little boy being less social and outgoing than most kids his age. It seemed like she still feared him retreating into the shell he had huddled away in after the death of his father and while Blaise could understand that rational fear, he didn’t know how to calm it in her when he wasn’t going to find a magic cure for his anxiety. He had come so far from the kid he had been seven years ago and just because he didn’t rush to bars or parties or boast some popular group of friends, it seemed to suggest that he wasn’t better to others. He might have attacks, an official diagnosis and medication for when he needed it, but Blaise didn’t let it define him and after the way his mom, aunt Lily and Alec tip-toed around so as not to upset or break him, he was often left wondering if everyone would treat him that way if he did find someone who he could open up to.

He was trying. Baby steps. If he didn’t face his fears and clamber over his anxiety then he would forever be this nervous wreck who had spent most of his teenage years wishing that he could be normal and just like everybody else in his class at school. He wasn’t about to have a full scale panic attack like he had been the victim of countless times over the years, but he couldn’t settle either and his stomach was tight with knots of nerves. His dark eyes flicked to the small tattoo on his wrist as he clutched his hands together in his lap. Keeping his eyes fixed on the numbers for a second, running his thumb over what he believed to be the definition of bravery, Blaise took a deep breath and willed his nerves away. They didn’t leave him, but it took the edge off and gave him something else to focus on until his companion spoke again, bringing him crashing back to the coffee shop he had almost forgotten he was in; damn imagination. “I’m…fine.”

[/color] He tried, though not so convincingly. He’d calm down once he had something to keep his hands busy, like his coffee. He looked across at her again and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “You’re not. Not ginger.”[/color] He managed, just before the waitress brought his coffee to the table.
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• • •

TAGGED! Rhi!
WORDS! 781
OUTFIT! Casual Mess
LYRICS! Beauty - - - Starkid
NOTES! <3