you're a force of nature

With the clave trials, everyone in town was on edge and Isabelle knew now more than ever that the protection spells on the town needed to be reinforced if they were going to ensure their safety. It wasn’t something she could do alone, witches were always stronger together. Issy had spent all night brewing the potions that they’d need to lay the boundry spell, it took a lot of potion to cover the whole town but she’d gotten it done and now they needed to take the potions along the border and reinforce the boundry spells with a few incantations. She showed up at Chloe’s place and as she saw Chloe coming out she held up a giant box of potion. “Look at it all! I’mma make these clave bitches my bitches.... okay that admittedly made no sense but I’m working on my shit talk and as you can see I’m doing terrible.” Isabelle said with a huge grin as she put it back in the car. 

@chloeprescottx

“Fine, but it’s enough that it’ll anger them and cause them to hit back again.  Or try and bust them out before they can go night night,” he said with a shrug.  Ivan wouldn’t be surprised if any of the members showed their faces again.  “Valid point, maybe they should stop pissing so many people off.  Gotta hand it to the Clave though, they have some interesting methods of trying to take over the world.” 

“Oh for sure, it's like the war terrorism or drugs. Cut the head off the snake and three more appear. I guess I don’t know how you deal with it, its revenge or complacency. Let them do whatever the hell they want, everyone else be damned.” Issy knew it wasn’t a leaderly thing to say but frankly, she had no idea how to deal with the whole thing. It didn’t seem to matter what they did, the world craved chaos and would do anything to obtain it. “You’d think with so many years of experience they’d have figured out a more successful route or ya know at least figured out from the likes Nepolean and Alexander the grate that true world domination is just a bit too grand scale. They should have set sights lower. Like the presidency.” 

“Sorry,” she scrunched her nose, an attempt to look apologetic. Truth was it was weird to have said it, but she couldn’t think of how else to describe it, or anything that had to do with them, really. “The Clave.” This was actually something she knew, though she’d wanted to hear it from the source herself. Growing up, the Clave had been nothing but fairytale for her, or well, scary stories. “Your parents had to do with your sister’s–” what was it? Turning? It was something altogether different. Suddenly her heart ached for sweet Cassie who had been so nice to her when Ever had been nihilistic. “Why would they do that?”

“Eh, it's more ironic now. I grew up having my parents make me feel like shit because I wasn’t some blessed twin like the precious duo. Jokes on me I guess.” Isabelle thought it was so odd to see everything come full circle like this. It felt like a dream. “The Cresswell line is descendant from the witches who made the original werewolves. Twins were thought to be a sign of great power, several supremes in the line blah blah blah. Aurora and Rose, well you would have thought the sun shined out of their asses if you asked our parents. Cassie and I were just spares.” Issy explained and it was difficult to say out loud but it was the truth. “I think it had to do with power for them. They didn’t know at this point that I had become the supreme. Plus it required a Cresswell witch to complete the spell but the plan had been for them to sacrifice me and Rose to become the hybrid but magic protected me so these cronies took Cassie and Rose and killed the wrong Cresswell. It’s very days of our lives, I’d count yourself lucky to be spared from all the drama. They did you favor.” 

“I wouldn’t take the couple costumes thing away from Nick. Did you ever see the ill-fated puzzle piece costumes from last year?” the woman replied with an amused grin. She’d spent half the night hiding with Jonathan whilst Nick got into all kinds of trouble and ended up breaking his own rule about removing the costume, having lost it by the end of the night. “I was thinking Lola bunny, she’s cute as shit. Or go on-track to continue previous years traditions and use last year’s monster bash for this year’s zombie? Zombie Catwoman would be pretty awesome.”

“Yeah don’t remind me, I’m trying to erase that image from my mind, I much prefer picturing Nick as the dirty priest he is,” Isabelle remember Halloween pasts with a great deal of fondness despite the constant state of tragedy that seemed to plague this time of year. “Oh my gosh I love that idea so much, god I miss space jam. That movie was trash on a cinematic brilliant scale of amazing.” Isabelle rambled as she gushed about Emma’s idea. Hey you need two outfits so why not. Zombie Catwoman would be amazing. You’re making me want to bust out my black canary costume from a few years ago and zombie it up.” She teased.

“Brought you this,” Nate said, handing Isabelle a frozen coffee before taking a seat next to her at the table. He’d been rather restless since they’d made the news of the trials public, and with the former mayor up on the chopping block, as it were, he had no idea what was going through her mind. If it were him, he’d be elated for the most part. But he knew family matters always made things complicated. “How are you feeling?” @isabellecresswell

Isabelle was staring blankly in front of her. There was just a lot going on right now and it was hard for her mind to process it all. Hearing a voice she looked up in surprise at Nate and then down at the coffee. “Oh wow, uh thank you.” Issy looked at the coffee for a moment. “Honestly, I’m not sure. This whole thing is just a lot. I think at the end of the day I just want him to pay for what he did. To Rose, to Cassie, to everyone else. Even if he’s an evil bastard though, he’s still my dad I think I’m supposed to feel some sort of way about the whole thing but I don’t. I worry what that says about me, ya know?”

Pippa listened carefully, amazed at how much the other woman knew about building a profile. “Oh god, hearing all this makes me realise how dangerous you can be. You make this sound so easy, you are a force to be reckoned with Issy Cresswell, remind me to never get on your bad side.” she replied with a grin, “But, … yeah I think I’m finally in a position to take the courses. The promotion at the Apothecary made such a big difference, the whole having a full time job, and then still working at L’Atelier… I can actually do it now, there’s nothing stopping me.”

“And don’t you forget it,” Isabelle said with a grin on her lips as she shrugged her shoulders. “I can even take some pictures of your work for you, do a little bit of editing and get your profile up and running in no time. It’s an easy feat I promise you that.” Issy said with a wide grin. “Look at you go! You have to do this now, I won’t have it any other way.”

“Aren’t you part of the council?” he questioned, recognising the supreme as she piped up from a table nearby.  If even she thought that it wouldn’t change anything then clearly it had been a majority vote rather than unanimous decision and at least their kind had an ounce of intelligence about them.  “I guess, but they could get that anyway without announcing every move to the Clave.  And people wonder why they keep hitting here.”

“Yeah, that’s what they tell me.” Isabelle joked with a shrug of the shoulders. She wasn’t a seasoned supreme by any means but she’d taken a good position on this one. Sit back and observe how the originals played this one out. If it all went to shit all Issy cared about was looking out for the witches, lord knew the originals would look out for their own. “How do you know we’re announcing every move? “ Issy challenged with a shrug. “I think we both know people keep hitting here because the heavy hitters are here. You can’t tell me after a thousand years on this earth that they haven’t wracked up more than a few enemies?”

“I think we might be more alike than we realize.” She told her with a sad smile. “Maybe it’s a twin thing.” Another joke, but she had to admit she’d been surprised to hear the similarities between the two of them. “Cassie is very sweet,” she’d heard the story about her, it had made her heart ache learning of how she’d had her magic ripped from her. “Where are your parents?” It was a question she’d been wanting to ask, though she was sure she’d been told the answer by way of Dash Hastings, she wanted to hear it from the source it self. “From what I hear they’re not uh–” How did she word this? Would Isabelle defend her family? She didn’t know. “I know you lost your other sisters but what about them?”

“It’s got to be. No one can tell me differently.” Isabelle shook her head. “God I used to hate that saying though. Twin thing,” Issy groaned shaking her head recalling all the times Aurora and Rose had used the term and she just wanted to punch them both. Hearing her question about her parents.... well their parents really Issy chuckled dryly. “Locked up with the rest of the clave,” Isabelle said humorlessly. “I’ve lost two sisters, they were twins. Aurora died in a car accident about four years ago now, Cassie and I came home. Then Rose and then she was made into a sacrifice by some psychopaths who wanted to create hybrids. Then there was just me and Cassie. Oh, and ya know our parents had something to do with that so there’s that.” Issy said dropping the bomb with no subtlety at all. 

“Really really. Look at what you made me do, I had to bust out Shrek.” He sighed and shook his head, even as his grin still threatened to split his face and he jokingly put some weight on the arm around her shoulders. “Wait, so this has been happening every year and you never invited me?” Tears filled his eyes and he staggered back, hand over his heart. “I.. I.. I’m hurt.” And he collapsed with an exaggerated groan.

“Hey so be it!” Issy exclaimed with a wide grin and no shame what’s ever. Watching Mako’s theatrics she couldn’t help but laugh, he absolutely always put a smile on her face. “I mean in my defense I only moved back permanently like three years ago, but really I have no defense, I just failed you as a friend. Please tell me you still love me.”

The note was clutched tight in his fist, temper bright in his eyes and just restrained enough that the metal he passed only vibrated. Geog was furious, long passed frightened, and looking for something. No, not something. Someone. Isabelle Cresswell.

When he spotted a familiar head of sunny hair, he remembered the other items he held and sucked in a slow, steady breath. He didn’t know how to ask for favors, dammit, so persuasion by gifts was the only route he had. “Isabelle,” he greeted, tightness visible around his features, in his voice. “Do you have a moment?” @isabellecresswell

Isabelle was ready to crack a joke the very second that she saw him. After all, she was long overdue to give him a hard time about his drunkenness at Monster Jam. He’d been fun and Issy wasn’t complaining. His seriousness was far more serious than normal though and it was clear to her something was... off. “Geog...” Issy said slowly. “You’re being weirdly formal for a guy who was trying to pay me to get into a bounce house the last time I saw him. What’s up?”

With another quick effort, the earring was fastening and she glanced down, sensing the mischievous squirrel inching closer and locked eyes with it. “Would you kindly calm down, little one?” she asked, a little aggrieved and pulled a handful of peanuts from her pocket, let them drop. “Aren’t you- oh.” She had been speaking with Isabelle, not with the squirrel. Well, initially she had been. “Oh, thank you very much. I, ah, I am sorry for running into you, though.” Her hands folded together, the signet ring turned out of habitual nervousness. “Sometimes, but not often. Perhaps it is a good thing, I don’t know.” A distant smile appeared. “I’m sure you can do far better transformation spells, yes? I could teach you if not.”

Isabelle silently stood there watching the interaction between Everleigh and the squirrel completely bewitched by the whole thing. She’d witnessed a great deal in her time but this certainly took the cake didn’t it. “It's kind of a thing around here so no harm no foul.” She reasoned. “My magic is a little bit more elemental at its base,” Issy explained with a shrug of her shoulders. “I’ve never actually been able to do that, it's pretty cool. It's a pretty rare power, I haven’t met a lot of people with it and I’ve met a lot of witches.” 

Emma was trying to distract herself from the news that the Clave members that had been caught would be going to trial, the new having stuck in her mind over and over as she processed the news. Seeing justice served was everything, but there were still people out there, it was still something that they knew would hardly be over. Instead of dwelling on it, she found herself scrolling through Pinterest. “Is September too early to decide on Halloween costumes?”

“It’s actually literally never too early to start thinking about a Halloween costume.  I mean I feel like we’ve come so far with pinterest in are arsenal that one really must start at it that much sooner to bring your A-game. So I look at it as properly preparing. Plus I love Monster Bash so no reason not to plan ahead. “ Issy reasoned with a grin. “So spill, what are you thinking this year? Cute couple costume maybe?”

Ivan had heard the news, of course he had, he was pretty certain at this stage everyone in Hollow Grove had.  He also knew there’d be a hell of a lot of residents who would be shaken by the announced trial for the Clave members.  The newspaper was still sitting on the table in front of him outside the cafe and he used it to extinguish his cigarette - right on the picture - before immediately pulling out another one.  “And so justice will be served,” he spoke idly.  “Won’t change a fucking thing.” 

The news was spreading through town like wildfire, as a member of the council Issy had been a part of the decision but it still felt surreal given the fact that her father would be one of those prosecuted. Issy just chalked it up to another part of her life that was beyond her comprehension. Hearing someone she turned, seeing the newspaper before them. “You aren’t fucking wrong there,” Isabelle muttered. “Maybe they’ll get what they deserve in the end, at least. I can’t imagine there will be much mercy in any of there sentencings.”