House of Cards RP

No one should be able to giggle this much this quietly!

There's still a lot to learn.

But that's okay. He's starting to feel properly that it's okay. It's okay that he's still getting used to walking with a knife in his boot. It's okay that he's adjusting to which Fives to call by their name and which will all but slap him if he doesn't say 'sir.' It's okay that his greatest visible skill is an incredibly efficient knack for getting paperwork filed and delivered, and that the skill he's been progressing best at is classical piano.

Yes, the man he came here to find is an overwhelming force of nature. Yes, watching his father Challenge to Ten had absolutely sent him, briefly, through half a crisis. But that's okay too.

Because he's here. He's here, and here is the right place to be.

It's the right place to be while he works at filing cabinets. It's the right place to be while he steals mouthfuls in the kitchen and whispers in more comfortable languages than English with other former Outsiders. It's the right place to be while he gets his ass handed to him in the training fields and forces himself back up onto his feet.

And it's the right place to be while he steals out on an afternoon off to just skip rocks over the newly thawed lake. Because it's really nice to know that skipping rocks and throwing knives are both starting to feel equally normal.

Jinx figured out a new hot chocolate recipe. It was delicious and warm and just a hint of spicy. Something to combat the day. With a secret ingredient. The secret ingredient was the chili powder, just don't tell anyone.

She only wants you to try it. It's delicious, she promises! She even made sure to provide cookies to go along with it. Who doesn't want that when there's snow on the ground and steams of breath in the air?

Please try it? Her puppy-dog eyes are her last hurtling attempt to break you down.

There are very few people, particularly in the Deck, who wouldn't describe Evan McCartney as 'an annoyingly happy camper.'

And he is happy. He's happy to be getting his degree sorted out. He's happy to be looking at jobs which will allow him to be productive--to actually use what bit of a brain he has properly, the way it's meant to be used. He's happy to be in love and waking up every morning next to the woman he's in love with. He's happy to run with the dogs and spend afternoons with his parents and run errands for his sister. He's even happy to get into fights with cousins who look down their noses and young idiots who need to get their heads out of a generation far too outdated to still be crafting culture.

He's happy. He's Evan McCartney.

But he's quiet these days. He's not entirely certain why. He's been singing less. Shouting less. Simply moderating his voice far better than he ever has, as if the concept of 'an indoor voice' has sunk in more than twenty years after being introduced. It sits funny in his shoulders.

So he does what he can. He gets up early to study; makes Riley breakfast and takes the dogs on a run. He goes to throw punches at bags until it's time to ice his shoulder and suck on his lip so the bleeding will stop. And he goes, ultimately, to lie on his back in the snowed-upon Green, because he's not entirely certain where to go when a body feels pensive.

Someone should teach him how to do 'pensive.'

"So I hear there's a beach now. Shame I missed swimsuit season."

Yes, that's Eden, smiling impishly and looking like she didn't just vanish for eight months. Scold her, hug her, be surprised or irritated. She still has presents for you.

[Jinx slid the tray onto a table as delicately as she could, causing the cups to rattle only the tiniest bit.

Pleased with her fairly unobtrusive accomplishment she grins, expression as bright as a lamp.]

[[ooc: Jinx is in your castle, serving your cards! Anywhere. Because sometimes she gets lent out to other castles of Reasons.]]