ONCE BURNED was made by MEL. Copying, altering, or stealing any of the site's content is prohibited. All of ONCE BURNED's characters are the original work of their owners and may not be replicated or stolen. All images and graphics belong to their rightful owners and ONCE BURNED does not claim to own any of them.
The chaos of the beginning of the semester, a job, and generally just existing came at expense of her school work. The only time she managed to work on anything productive came in the odd hours of the night. The hydrokinetic went to several different places to work on her projects. She had to compile a portfolio by the end of the semester utilizing a number of techniques and she couldn't find inspiration in her apartment alone. She found value in the places with history, with torn up booths and flickering road signs. The diner she happened upon a few weeks ago offered a perfect starting point.
Rya looked at her phone and it read 2:21 am. She had class at 9 that morning, so she resigned the idea of getting any sleep. She reached for the coffee sitting in the corner of the booth, and found that it was nearly empty. There was a single young woman on the floor, and she picked up her hand, "Hey," The hydrokinetic called to gain her attention, "Sorry, but can I have a refill on the coffee? It's going to be a long night." The brunette couldn't imagine working the night shift at a diner, but she figured people did what they had to in order to survive.
Rya needed just a moment to cool off, grab a water, and get back to enjoying herself. After all, the two boys could get to catching up, and she could get back to dancing. However, the hydrokinetic needed something to ease her shaking hands while they did. The bartender placed the water in front of her, and she mumbled a thank you.
Except the two decided that they weren't done with her, despite the evidence that she finished with them. She pressed a finger to the rim of the glass and the water followed wherever she willed.
It was easier to ignore the situation at hand. Yes, she could get confrontational. Yes, she had half a mind to do so. Instead, she wished for a moment of peace, but she didn't feel she had to leave. Rya struggled with her pride and her comfort in this situation, and clearly, her pride won for now.
Rya put herself in the very real position to be rejected. She felt it coming almost immediately after she put herself, but she supposed she shouldn’t be mad.
She shouldn’t be, but oh, she was.
Not at Carter, per se, because he did the one thing that a decent human being would do when some random woman came in. The rationale didn’t exactly hit the hydrokinetic to keep her from feeling the humiliation. She barely flinched when he spoke the sarcastic term of endearment, and when he returned to Isaac, her face went blank. Rya waved Isaac off in a single motion and turned to the terrakinetic in another.
“Welcome home, Chevalier.” She said simply, shrugged, and turned away from both of them and back to the bar. “Hey, get me a fucking water.”
Coming into the night, the hydrokinetic had no plans aside from to look good and have a fun-filled evening. For the initial portion of the night, all of that occurred. Men and women came up and tried their hand at her zipper, and all failed. However, the moment she found an individual that she wanted to take home and really get going, it became unnecessarily complicated. With each back and forth, her frustration grew. Out of every moment Carter Chevalier could have reared his ridiculously attractive head, he chose then.
It frustrated her even more that she still wasn't really mad about it, either.
If she had a glass of water nearby, she'd be fiddling with that too, because holy fuck. Isaac made his choice the minute he turned away and went back to the drink, though he probably realized. The Brit did not beg no matter the situation, especially for sex. Rya brushed past the one blonde to the familiar face of the other instead, where she left little more than a few centimeters between them. "So, Blondie," The name that hadn't been used since he left, "I'd love to do a little catching up."
Who knew if it'd even work, but even if it didn't, there were always other prospects.
She heard the groan from the frustrated individual beside her, but honestly, if they had an issue with her arm against them, they very well could fuck off. Rya's eyes were only on the beer that was being handed to her, that is, until she noted from the corner of her eye that the woman beside her spoke to her. She almost missed the question, but context clues made it pretty obvious that the blonde asked if she watched the game? Something along those lines, Rya figured.
The hydrokinetic shook her head slowly, pressing the tip of the bottle to curled lips. "Honestly, I have no fucking clue what's going on." In this case, she found no applicable reason to lie. If she did, then she'd be caught shortly after regardless. "Just here to play some pool and have a few beers is all."
Had it been anyone else, she could have easily walked away. Hell, if Isaac did to her what he currently had with anyone else, she would have walked away. It normally irritated her beyond belief to be ignored, and that fact remained since she last saw the Terrakinetic at 18. Rya hadn't played this game in so long, and to be quite honest, she enjoyed it. The brunette left the dress untouched and sat back, legs crossed.
"You've never been so shy before," She offered, though the typical smirk that she wore in these situations turned to a legitimate grin, "Don’t you want to see the new tattoos I’ve gotten since you last saw me?”
Regardless of whether either of these boys took her home or she found another suitor, she would enjoy the time she had. The hydrokinetic felt good for the first time in weeks, so she wasn’t in the mindset to let anyone ruin it.
I'm making this so I can put Rya's character playlist, but if you'd like to make one, I'm going to leave the link to the original post where I found this template and just post below with yours The template does scroll, so you can add more music as you see fit.
Another night, another bar that reeked of smoke and desperation, men and women in jerseys sitting as close to the televisions as possible. To this day, despite being in the United States for nearly three and a half years, the concept of American sports never impressed her. Then again, she never had been interested in football, which is not to be confused with American Football, in the first place.
Rya inhaled slowly, eyes closing. She already knew that there would be numerous people hovering at the bar, where televisions were strategically placed, which gave her incentive to pick up and play some pool. No tables were free, it seemed, but there was one that looked in need of a second player. The Brit made her way over, rolling her eyes at the combination cry of frustration and joy from whatever just happened on the television. The announcers said something about a goal.
Twenty or so minutes later when the game was over, Rya figured she'd brave the bar to get a beer. People packed by the counter, but she was small enough to slip through, standing shoulder to arm with an individual as she attempted to get the attention of one of the bartenders.
How interesting was it that a single person could steal her attention almost instantaneously. Two years had gone and the name Carter Chevalier rarely popped into mind, or that's what she told herself. Rya laughed, watching the way the two comfortably attached to one another. Isaac originally had a near predatory look to him, one that didn't frighten her but predatory nonetheless. Now it shifted to something she couldn't quite read. His gaze completely diverted from herself to Carter, and she opted to gain it back.
"This sounds a lot better to me," The Brit stood up, not worrying about the way her dress pulled up slightly on one side. Here she had two nearly identical looking men, one she knew and one she did not. She trusted Carter's taste, though, and the way he so readily held onto Isaac suggested he might be fun. After all, Carter Chevalier never wasted his time.
"Assuming Isaac here still wants in my pants, I wonder if I can have both?" Why waste an opportunity when it presented itself. Rya pressed the glass to her lips once more, waiting for a reply.
Rya didn't see the familiar face that appeared behind the nameless blonde until she heard his voice. She hadn't heard the distinctive accent and tone for nearly two years, so when she did, she thought it may have been a trick of her mind. She noted the shift in Carter's demeanor, a moment of surprise crossing his features. After her own initial shock, her lips turned upward into a smile, "You can if you want, Chevalier." Rya wondered how long he'd been back.
Isaac, what Carter called him, seemed to pick up rather quickly that they knew one another, but his reaction left a bad taste in her mouth. "Nobody gets dibs on me, honey," She moved the hair that covered her front to rest behind her shoulders, "But you'll learn that soon enough."
As Rya sat, she had to be especially careful not to crush the delicate cookies and candy bars that took up nearly as much space as the two of them combined. Initially, to avoid sealing the fate for an unsuspecting sweet, she crossed her legs at the ankles and kept her knees pressed up against her chest. Still, she felt the crunch of bag of opened chips or something that she hoped looked nothing like chocolate. "Hey, fake it till you make it, right?"
Certainly, it amused her to see Deb as wild and scattered as her hair suggested. They didn't know each other too terribly well, but the brunette did know enough to find the irony in her personality to her physical appearance. Rya shook her head, " Not really too into chocolate right now." She wasn't particularly hungry, and the fear of getting chocolate on her pants still lingered in her mind. Deb would have to, and ultimately would, Rya assumed, eat the snacks on her own.
With the moment cleared up, and the space around her equally so, the Brit reached around to grasp at the bag. She pulled out the pad and pencils, letting the latter fall to her bag to take from when she needed. The silence, though sudden, didn't come with any discomfort. Nature filled in the blanks and, if she were honest, the sound of snack wrappers, crunching, and the slide of Deb's hand to the canvas. She couldn't help but watch when she really got started again, watching the colors appear as clear as if she had pastels in her hand. Rya chuckled, putting the suspended pencil back down, "Just here to fuck around."
"Or, you know, we were supposed to start working together for this project today." It must've completely slipped the mind of her counterpart, but could she blame her? Had she been here for much longer, Rya would've done the exact same.
The world looked at Ms. Rya Darcy as bad news; good, reasonable fathers kept their sons and daughters away from her in fear of corruption. They saw her as the girl who stood up on tables, graffitied walls, danced like no one looked, and slept with whatever moved. She certainly needed another drink to give any further weight to that persona, but for now she stood with fingers toying with the hem of her dress, idly moving to the beat of the mix. Her entire focus remained on the bar until the simple drink landed in her hands. She took a nice large hit the minute she had it in her hands.
After all, Rya was far too sober.
A long exhale escaped lips that pulled into a grin after she pulled away from the drink, not in reference to the words that eluded her, but the way her body buzzed. The people, the atmosphere overwhelmed her senses and she welcomed the rapid heart beat that came with it. Spending two weeks in isolation from the cold that hit her left her craving everything. She craved human touch, the burn of her lungs from dancing, water slipping through her fingers from the ocean... everything.
It wasn't until that moment that she turned back to the blonde whose attention slipped back and forth between her and the idle space in front of him. "And that's how you get what you want." Rya raised the glass to him, and without waiting to see a reaction, she took back another hit.
The bar remained crowded, and women batted their eyelashes at the bartender to get what they wanted. She snickered at the notion, but Rya admitted to herself that at one time, she did the same exact thing. Hell, she'd still do it if it'd benefit her. Now, however, the cacophony of voices and drink orders at the bar left her in the sidelines, something the brunette did not enjoy a single bit.
Through the commonplace chaos, a distinctive, pointed voice came through and caught her attention. Her head turned, and blue eyes landed on a blonde with an undeniable smirk on his face. Her brow raised, his look so distinctly calm with the spark of interest in his eye. "Mmm, I bet any man would," Her sharp tone dismissed him momentarily, and she picked herself up onto the bar stool.
"Ey! Rum and Coke." This caught the man's attention, and she could hear the laugh from where she stood, returning a smile as she stepped back down onto the floor. Fingers ran through her hair, brushing it to her front, waiting for the drink that she ordered with an impatient tap of her foot.
The bass reverberated throughout the club, sending a constant pulse throughout the floorboards. For Rya's aching feet, it came as a blessing. Normally the Brit prized comfort over fashion, opting for a casual combat boot or sneaker, but tonight she felt frisky, flirty, and damn into herself. The men, and a few women, seemed to have a similar idea since she had enough alcohol offered to her to keep her drunk for a month. She rejected it all, surprisingly, and bought her own mixes to stay safe. Too many girls and guys were roofied as of late, so much so that even Bellefonte warned students of the dangers.
The club mix finally switched to a song that she knew and wanted to dance to, so she downed the rest of the drink, placed the empty glass on the table, and moved to the center of the floor. Sweat trickled down her forehead almost immediately with the lights flashing all around and the bodies surrounding her. Slightly inebriated and certainly enjoying herself, Rya allowed the song to overtake her. Eventually, her shoes came off.
It had been a while since she managed to do this - simply let go and enjoy the music - despite the fact that winter break just ended. She managed to acquire a nasty cold, and she finally felt decent enough to do something more exciting with her time. After dancing for a tad longer, and with numerous people, she returned to the bar. Slightly short of breath, she began the mission of grabbing the bartender's attention. "Ey!" She called, arm raised, "For fucks sake."
The caress of crisp air along her face, sharp when the breeze picked up, sent her body into overdrive. Her fingers itched for stimulation, the water in the air screamed to be used. Days like these were some of her favorites, with the threat of rain looming in the distance and thunder so close to crashing. Though the sun finally emerged for the first time in days, she could tell a storm would come. It always did.
She held nothing of immediate value in her hands, but a bag scarcely packed hid her sketchbook and pencils from the elements. Headphones completed the ensemble and her lips moved to the song that played on a low volume. She rarely left on these walks with a solidified purpose, but instead spent her time watching the trees sway, the animals move through the forest, and the air to offer a moment of inspiration. Today, however, proved to be slightly different as she searched for a wild haired artist.
The vague instructions led her to Deb who, Rya noted with a small tilt of her lips, had a canvas and snacks scattered around. With her headphones in, she couldn't hear just how loud her footsteps were, and stopped when the girl spotted her. "Looks like I've been outed. Damn," Rya shrugged, and made the last few steps to settle down in the grass. "You've been busy," Her brow raised, nodding her chin towards the abstract piece on canvas, though she saw no paint in sight. It wasn't like she never made a similar piece, but with the lack of a medium, her curiosity piqued.
The template does scroll, so you can add more music as you see fit.