something good
POSTED ON Jan 30, 2023 22:09:49 GMT -5
Post by Ashley Wolfe on Jan 30, 2023 22:09:49 GMT -5
OOC: So, I was gonna make Ashley a Capricorn just so I could post a birthday-post for him but then I decided he had to be a Cancer, so let's just pretend this thread took place approximately 6 months ago on his birthday in July!
---
APPROXIMATELY 6 MONTHS AGO...
Twenty-nine.
When Ashley blinked open his eyes that morning and got himself showered and dressed for work, he couldn't help but remember how delighted and overexcited his mother would always get on his birthdays — screeching her "good mornings" in a voice pitched high with glee as she clasped her hands together happily. Breaking into his apartment and bounding, without a single skip of hesitance, into his room with plate upon heaping plate of breakfast food that she'd picked up on the way. They'd eat together under the window in his tiny, cramped kitchen before she'd drag him into Riverside for the entire morning, stopping in every store and shop just to look around. There was always a cake waiting back at his parents' house for the end of the evening; that was Mona's favorite part. Every year, she'd made Antonio take a picture of them in front of the cake. Her in the middle, smiling the widest out of all of them with her arms thrown around both her children — Dane on one side, looking like he wanted to be elsewhere, and Dino on the other, smiling as he leaned into her. Somewhere well hidden, Ashley knew he had one of the pictures tucked away.
But it was his fifth birthday out of the Guild and his mother would forever keep him in her mind as he had been at twenty-four. The first few years after his dying, Ashley had spent his birthdays cautiously to himself, lying low as he tested the shallows of his new life... but the last two had been a bit more lively, as he gradually expanded his social circles and grew bolder in his non-existence. For his twenty-eighth, before moving back to California, he'd gotten completely tanked with some co-workers. That'd been one wild, unwise Monday night that'd resulted in some grouchy, sleepless office assistants gathered around the breakroom coffee pot the next morning, half-asleep on their feet and feeling like death.
This year had been quiet in comparison, but no less pleasant. His elderly neighbor had baked him some delicious blueberry muffins, which he'd brought to work to share. He'd had a dinner date planned with a coworker, but she'd ended up canceling when her kid came down with some sort of flu. A patient had drawn him a birthday card on a piece of folded printer paper and even fashioned him some sort of trinket using glue and a handful of rocks from the courtroom's gardens, which Ashley had tied to the bracelet on his wrist with a grateful grin. He'd planned to take the lonely woman on an outing by the supermarket after work so she could pick out some treats and a few other things that she needed. But he hadn't wrapped up his work until late and by the time he'd scrubbed down and cleaned up, the lovely lady was already curled up and snoring in her armchair. So Ashley had simply left a light on for her, as she liked, then slipped out into the night.
The summer night was warm and calm. Even as Ashley blinked sleep from his eyes, he knew the dryness that clung to them was more from staring at the same sheet of text for the past hour than a desire for sleep. He wasn't really tired and, as appealing as crawling into bed sounded... perhaps starting that season finale he'd recorded and been avoiding with equal parts excitement and dread... he wasn't quite ready to head home. And so, when he passed a small, local movie theatre along the street, he tucked his hand into a pocket and ducked inside on a whim.
The movie theatre wasn't popular, overshadowed as it was by the much larger and more impressive LEC movie theatre, so Ashley wasn't surprised to find not many people inside. A young couple giggled to themselves as they perused candy, the tell-tale pink of intoxication high on their cheeks while they tripped over one another's feet. A man with his young daughter's hand clasped in his own was checking his phone while she tried tugging him unsuccessfully in the direction of the arcade. Otherwise, the place was quiet and vacant. Ashley lifted his gaze to the overhead marquee to check showtimes. The theatre only offered three screens and on deck was a kid's film, a gritty action-thriller, and a period romance — all of them approaching their last showing for the night. He shifted his weight and considered his options.
Eventually, he got in line and purchased a ticket for the period romance, deciding with great certainty that he didn't want to share the tiny theatre with the drunk couple (he imagined they were there for the action movie) and wasn't terribly interested in the kid's film either. If that showing was mostly empty then the little girl could badger her father with questions and exclamations without the man feeling obliged to hush her. Plus, wouldn't a lone, adult man seem a bit misplaced watching a cartoon by himself? The period romance was only marginally better, he suspected.
Unfortunately, his selected movie started a whole half-hour later than the other two so after he bought his ticket Ashley pocketed his wallet and stepped off toward the arcade, prepared to waste some time.
---
APPROXIMATELY 6 MONTHS AGO...
Twenty-nine.
When Ashley blinked open his eyes that morning and got himself showered and dressed for work, he couldn't help but remember how delighted and overexcited his mother would always get on his birthdays — screeching her "good mornings" in a voice pitched high with glee as she clasped her hands together happily. Breaking into his apartment and bounding, without a single skip of hesitance, into his room with plate upon heaping plate of breakfast food that she'd picked up on the way. They'd eat together under the window in his tiny, cramped kitchen before she'd drag him into Riverside for the entire morning, stopping in every store and shop just to look around. There was always a cake waiting back at his parents' house for the end of the evening; that was Mona's favorite part. Every year, she'd made Antonio take a picture of them in front of the cake. Her in the middle, smiling the widest out of all of them with her arms thrown around both her children — Dane on one side, looking like he wanted to be elsewhere, and Dino on the other, smiling as he leaned into her. Somewhere well hidden, Ashley knew he had one of the pictures tucked away.
But it was his fifth birthday out of the Guild and his mother would forever keep him in her mind as he had been at twenty-four. The first few years after his dying, Ashley had spent his birthdays cautiously to himself, lying low as he tested the shallows of his new life... but the last two had been a bit more lively, as he gradually expanded his social circles and grew bolder in his non-existence. For his twenty-eighth, before moving back to California, he'd gotten completely tanked with some co-workers. That'd been one wild, unwise Monday night that'd resulted in some grouchy, sleepless office assistants gathered around the breakroom coffee pot the next morning, half-asleep on their feet and feeling like death.
This year had been quiet in comparison, but no less pleasant. His elderly neighbor had baked him some delicious blueberry muffins, which he'd brought to work to share. He'd had a dinner date planned with a coworker, but she'd ended up canceling when her kid came down with some sort of flu. A patient had drawn him a birthday card on a piece of folded printer paper and even fashioned him some sort of trinket using glue and a handful of rocks from the courtroom's gardens, which Ashley had tied to the bracelet on his wrist with a grateful grin. He'd planned to take the lonely woman on an outing by the supermarket after work so she could pick out some treats and a few other things that she needed. But he hadn't wrapped up his work until late and by the time he'd scrubbed down and cleaned up, the lovely lady was already curled up and snoring in her armchair. So Ashley had simply left a light on for her, as she liked, then slipped out into the night.
The summer night was warm and calm. Even as Ashley blinked sleep from his eyes, he knew the dryness that clung to them was more from staring at the same sheet of text for the past hour than a desire for sleep. He wasn't really tired and, as appealing as crawling into bed sounded... perhaps starting that season finale he'd recorded and been avoiding with equal parts excitement and dread... he wasn't quite ready to head home. And so, when he passed a small, local movie theatre along the street, he tucked his hand into a pocket and ducked inside on a whim.
The movie theatre wasn't popular, overshadowed as it was by the much larger and more impressive LEC movie theatre, so Ashley wasn't surprised to find not many people inside. A young couple giggled to themselves as they perused candy, the tell-tale pink of intoxication high on their cheeks while they tripped over one another's feet. A man with his young daughter's hand clasped in his own was checking his phone while she tried tugging him unsuccessfully in the direction of the arcade. Otherwise, the place was quiet and vacant. Ashley lifted his gaze to the overhead marquee to check showtimes. The theatre only offered three screens and on deck was a kid's film, a gritty action-thriller, and a period romance — all of them approaching their last showing for the night. He shifted his weight and considered his options.
Eventually, he got in line and purchased a ticket for the period romance, deciding with great certainty that he didn't want to share the tiny theatre with the drunk couple (he imagined they were there for the action movie) and wasn't terribly interested in the kid's film either. If that showing was mostly empty then the little girl could badger her father with questions and exclamations without the man feeling obliged to hush her. Plus, wouldn't a lone, adult man seem a bit misplaced watching a cartoon by himself? The period romance was only marginally better, he suspected.
Unfortunately, his selected movie started a whole half-hour later than the other two so after he bought his ticket Ashley pocketed his wallet and stepped off toward the arcade, prepared to waste some time.