Kidd Spring Park
The remnants of the dense forestry are located in here, as paths lead from the woods to the more entertaining features of the park. A jungle gym, complete with a small clubhouse and slides make up a play area designated for children, as do a few sandboxes. A community rec center can also be found in the park. Separating the trees from the busier points of the park is small lake. During the summer months, a life guard can be found on duty so swimming is allowed, and there is also a small dock from which paddle boats and kayaks are available for rent.
It's early evening and there's a nice breeze that wafts through the air. It's not as cold as it has been tonight and so there are quite a few people out and about. Carter just happens to be one of them. Considering the fact that he hasn't changed out of the crisp blue suit he wore to work earlier today, it's safe to assume that he's just been relieved of his duty as mayor's aide. There's a bottle of Coke in his right hand, the other stuffed down into his pocket. He glances at the watch on his right wrist for a brief moment as he meanders through the park. Everything is nice and unassuming for the most part. No signs of mischief or malice, just people enjoying the not-cold-as-Antarctica weather.
A bit of nicer weather, combined with being hopped up on sugar and caffeine, has led to Helen just having to get out and go do something. As usual, that something seems to involve wandering about the city exploring, and tonight her destination is the park. She's not alone, getting in a bit of quality time with her big sister. "So do you think maybe winter is actually finally coming to an end?" she converses lightly as she drifts down one of the paths at random, eyeing the trees for signs that spring might actually be on the way.
Scarlett rarely takes a night off, but as she needs to wait until the moon changes once more to begin the process on the ordered rings, she's not going to coop herself up inside. An insulated coffee mug is held in one hand, filled with cocoa not coffee. Someone prefers the more sugary drinks. "I hope so, Helen. I really hope so. Warmer here than back home, but it's still been an uncomfortable winter." When she catches what her sister is doing, she snickers. "You likely won't find anything for at least another two weeks."
Carter's cell phone starts to ring in his pocket. His attention is drawn away for a moment while he reaches into his pocket to pull the phone out, glancing to the displayed name. Whoever is calling him illicits a groan from him before he answers it — then promptly drops the phone on the ground as a result of butterfingers. Him stepping over the phone and trying to pick it up carefully propels him right in Scarlett and Helen's direction — a comedy of errors if ever there was one.
"I'm definitely ready for it to start getting nicer out," Helen agrees, still peering at the trees a moment more before making a disappointed noise. Two weeks is such a very long time. "That almost looked like a bud, but I think the branch just broke-" She stops mid-sentence, turning away from the tree to find someone rather unexpectedly in her path. She gives a quick sound of surprise, trying to stop and duck around him before the comedy of errors can turn into a crash course.
The comedy or errors does turn into a crash course at that. Helen dodges, but Scarlett who is coming up behind her sister is crashed right into, and goes sprawling back on the path. The mug of cocoa goes flying up into the air, the lid loosening as it starts to fall toward Helen's head. "Agh!" Instead of getting up immediately, she falls back onto the path and laughs. "Helen, are you alright?"
Carter somehow winds up on his back, with some of Scarlett's cocoa on his pant leg. He managed to preserve his cell phone though. He lifts the receiver to his mouth and looks towards the two girls who seemingly came out of nowhere (when it was really his fault) and mutters into the phone. "Jerry? Yeah, I gotta call you back. No, I know. I'll call back soon. Yes. I promise. Okay? Okay. Bye." The young blonde man snaps the phone shut and puts it in his pocket as he gets up, fighting back a wince. Hard falls and anemics doth not a good combination make. "Are you two alright? Is anyone hurt?" After asking that last question, his eyes widen in panic. He starts to check any exposed areas of skin on his persons, making sure he's not bleeding profusely. Carter even tries to look over his shoulder at his back to make sure he didn't land on a jagged rock.
"Just a little sticky," Helen replies, having had the good fortune not to end up sprawled out on the path, but the misfortune to end up covered in (thankfully not too hot) hot cocoa. She sticks out her tongue to taste a bit of it where it drips down by her mouth, and then uses her sleeve to wipe her eyes free. With an 'oh well' sort of grin, she steps forward to offer a hand up to the fallen ones, her good humour fading into concern as she notices Carter's panic. "Are you?" she answers his question with a question of her own. A sticky hand is offered out to Scarlett if she wants it, but Helen's concerned gaze remains on Carter.
Scarlett is content to lay there for a moment, laughing. Leave it to her to wind up on the path, throwing cocoa at her sister. Helen's hand is taken to give herself a boost to her feet. The mug forgotten, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a flowery scarf. Handing it to Helen, she says, "Wipe your hands on that, you're all sticky." The panic doesn't go unnoticed, and while Helen has a concerned gaze, Scarlett is right in the thick of things. "Are you injured? Do you need us to call for help? I didn't mean to be standing there."
Carter calms down once he realizes he's not faint with blood loss. And he's willing to bet that the two women in front of him will tell him if he IS bleeding profusely. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. Just thought I fell on something sharp for a minute, but I don't guess I did. So, everyone's alright then? That's a relief." There's a pause. "I'm sorry, I wasn't really watching where I was going.. I dropped my phone and everything… sorry." The poor 'kid' seems genuinely bashful about it all and remorseful. He reaches up to awkwardly rub at the back of his neck before saying 'oh!' "I should have helped you up. Sorry. I'm Carter."
Helen takes the flowery scarf as it's offered, using it first to wipe off her face, and then to give her hands a good wipe down as well. It's done absently, as Carter still holds most of her attention, at least until he confirms that he's doing all right. "Well, no harm done," she offers reassuringly, as he turns sheepish over the matter. "I think the cocoa was the only casualty." There's a slightly rueful smile with that, though she isn't going to mourn its loss too much. Done with the scarf now, she holds it limply, trying not to make any more a mess of herself.
A hand is offered down to Carter so that she can help him up. "Don't worry about it. I'd only be upset if you were standing there staring down at me," Scarlett adds teasingly. "If your phone, and my cocoa are the only casualties, I'd say we're doing pretty well." A glance over her shoulder is given to Helen. "Hang it on a branch or a bench? I can come get it tomorrow when it's less sticky. If someone hasn't taken it." Frown. Back to the poor man on the ground. "Scarlett Fontane, and the quieter one is my sister Helen."
Having to rely on a girl to help him up makes Carter frown very briefly, though he takes the offered hand and smiles. "Thank you." He nods to Helen too and smiles at her, then looks at the flowery scarf. "Ouch. I think your scarf was a casualty as well." When Scarlett relays her name and Helen's to Carter, he tilts his head and looks quizzical for a moment. "You wouldn't happen to be any relation to Ivan Fontane, would you?" He asks, in a practiced, neutral tone.
Helen glances down at the scarf, considering the merits of just hanging onto it. "Yeah, I was stickier than I thought," she admits with a little grin and a shrug. At least the poor scarf has performed valiantly, and she's no longer dripping wet with the chocolate-flavoured liquid. Holding it now by the tips of her fingers, she nods to Scarlett's words of advice, glancing around for a good spot to hang it. When Ivan's name comes up, her eyebrows lift just a bit. Goodness, but he's popular. Everyone around here seems to know him. "Yeah, that's our brother," she replies helpfully, and a little distracted, as she's found what she thinks is the perfect scarf-hanging branch, heading over towards that nearby tree, a few feet from the path.
"The scarf isn't a casualty. It will either be here to be cleaned tomorrow, or it will go to someone that needs it." Shrugging, Scarlett sticks her hands in her pockets, thumbs on the outside of them. "I think the question that is going unasked by my sister is how do you know our brother?" The way it's asked, it's more or less asking "just what trouble has Ivan gotten you into".
For a long moment, Carter seems shocked that these two are related to Ivan. After all, they don't look evil. Their eyes, he's fairly sure, do not glow a malevolent red when no one else is looking, like Ivan's seem to. Carter eventually starts to smile like the cat that ate the canary. "Ivan's sisters, huh? Funny, he doesn't mention you a lot at work, but then he's not the most talkative around the office. I'm an aide to the mayor." He nods a little bit before putting his hands in his pockets and looking around the park for a minute. "What an odd coincidence. I didn't think I'd be bumping into any Fontanes tonight."
Helen isn't away too long, though she makes sure to drape the scarf over the branch in what she feels is a rather pretty way. "Well, the trees may not be ready to bloom yet, but at least there's a bit of colour now," she muses as she joins them again on the path, moving to stand beside her sister. "Oh, you work with Ivan?" Her own tone is devoid of anything but friendly curiosity. "It does seem to be a small city for all that it's a big city," she adds, as to the coincidence.
"There is likely a reason for that," Scarlett mumbles under her breath. But then she puts forth her good side, because this man works with her twin. "Small chance that you wouldn't bump into Fontane's. There are quite a few of us in the city, and chances are likely that you would've run into us sooner or later." Winking, she looks back at the scarf decorating the tree. "Looks good, Helen. I think I'll give you a paintbrush and set you loose on the city to get rid of some of the drab winter." Sisterly teasing is all that it is.
"Well, work with… that's a subjective term. Mostly I just get Ivan's coffee and he refers to me as 'you there!' when he's feeling nice." Carter shrugs his shoulders easily enough, laughing after that. "Really? I didn't know that there were so many Fontanes here. It's just me all by myself in the city — the rest of my family is back home in Denver." There's the slightest hint of relief in his voice as he says that before he smiles in Helen's direction. "Yeah, it does seem like it." Eventually he quiets down and looks back at his before he adds, "I wish Ivan had told me that there are way better looking Fontanes around than him. I've seen the way he looks in mirrors," Carter says in jest.
"Don't tempt me," Helen replies with a grin, as Scarlett teases her about painting the town in the literal sense. "It could do with more colour." "Oh, but that must be so lonely," she notes sympathetically, to the idea of Carter being here all by himself. Though she sort of catches the hint of relief in his voice, making her statement go up slightly at the end, almost a question. She crosses her arms lightly over her chest, glad for the warmer weather especially now that her clothes are a touch damp. His joke is met with a little laugh, as she casts a brief sidelong glance at Scarlett.
Best face, right? It is extremely difficult to remain on her best behavior as Carter speaks however. "Now that sounds more like Ivan." Scarlett laughs, then smiles at the man. "Thanks for the compliment, on behalf of both my sister and myself. I'm sorry that you have to put up with him on a daily basis. I'm sure he's ornery at best."
Carter definitely has more choice words for Ivan than ornery, none of which he'll say in front of the man's sisters. He merely grins and nods. "Yeah, ornery is right. But we like to have him around. He's good at what he does." At least he can manage to balance out the trash talk with a bit of a compliment. When Helen quips about the city being lonely, he gives a faint shrug of his shoulders. "It's alright. My family and I aren't really that close, to be honest. So it's not a big loss for me. I'm kind of used to being on my own."
"Yeah, that sounds like him," Helen agrees with a rueful grin, though she's having a much easier time not trash talking her poor brother. Rather deliberately, she aims to remain oblivious that this is what's going on under the surface. She doesn't seem entirely convinced that a life all alone in the big city can not be lonely, but she nods. "Well, I guess that's different if you're used to it," she does her best to understand. "And yeah, thanks for the compliment," she adds with a quick grin.
Scarlett bites her lip so as not to reply hastily. "I don't know how anyone could like having him around, but if he's good at what he does I suppose that's reason enough for it." Her tone is light, teasing even. "Helen, not everyone can be lucky like you and just crash in on their families unannounced and have them be all okay with it." She reaches out to slug her sister's arm gently.
Didn't Carter have some Coke when he came in? It was knocked out of his hand in the 'scuffle', and now he has no clue where it is. Not that he's going to own up to it in front of the Fontane girls. "I'd be okay with it if my little sister crashed in on me, but she's about the only one. The others and I don't get along so well, but I suspect this is a different story for another night, eh?" Carter asks, amiably enough. He glances down to the faceplate of his phone and whistles at the time. "I'm sorry, girls. I have to get going, but it was really nice meeting you. You guys have a nice night, alright?"
"I am extremely lucky to have such a wonderful family," Helen replies, laying it on extra-thick on purpose and flashing Scarlett an impish grin. "But yeah, see? Little sisters, always okay." She nods sagely to that, before looking back over at Carter again. "Yeah, it was nice to meet you. And glad both you and your phone made it through it okay," she adds more lightly. "You have a nice night too." There's a friendly grin with that as she tosses off a little wave.
"How would you know, brat? You don't have a little sister." Scarlett shakes her head at Helen, then nods at Carter. "Hey, don't let us keep you. And listen, don't let Ivan get to you. He tends to come off wrong a lot of the time, but he generally means well." Generally. "Have a great night, Carter. Watch where you're going." Like her sister a little wave is tossed off to the man before she turns to Helen. "Home, I suppose? So you don't catch a cold being out here covered in cocoa?"
