White Rock Lake
A reservoir, White Rock Lake covers 1,254 acres and was once used for a portion of Dallas' drinking water supply. Now that it's use as a water source has been supplanted, the area has become one of the favored recreational locations in the city. The forested shoreline is dotted with numerous small cabins, fishing piers, and sailboat docks.
The lake is surrounded by White Rock Lake Park, which is home to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Running through the park is a 9 mile trail designed for hiking, running or cycling.
Though swimming was banned here back in the '50's, it is still a popular location for area teens who generally enjoy the more deserted areas, using the beautiful backdrop as a makeout spot.
Characters
Abbey can be found sitting down near the shore off in one of the quiter spots of the lake, her legs crossed under her and arms resting against her knees. A burning cigarette rests between her lips as she plays with the lighting with her right hand. She's let Sam take over the garage again today choosing to go out wandering around the lake. Lately the mood to just walk has struck her, and if it were night time she would most likely be on the prowl in her other form. The sun is out and a cool breeze blows across the lake making it rather comfortable to any that find themselves here. She still has on her grey work shirt that is open, the words Bunkers Garage found across the back of the shirt, under this one is a black tshirt, and then her jeans and of course her work boots, which at the moment are off and sitting next to her on the ground with her socks stuck in them.
~
Corey's footsteps are light along the pathway, but not silent. Taking a day off, himself, he's out exploring the countryside. Chances are, were it night, he'd be sporting a fur coat himself. For now, however, he sticks to jeans and a t-shirt.
His wandering takes him off the beaten path as he nears the shore, crosstrainers much quieter on the soft grass. He comes to a stop beside the water, stooping to pick up some pebbles and roll them in his fingers lightly.
After a moment of hard consideration, he lets them drop away. Perhaps this place isn't used for drinking any more… and not even for swimming… but he doesn't really need to watch the rounded pebbles (there are no really good skipping stones around, he notices) kerplunk gracelessly into the clear water.
It's as he's turning restlessly away from the water that he sees Abbey, then. He pauses a moment, trying to place her face. He's good with faces. Not always with names, though as he recalls where he met her, recalling her name may not be that difficult, either.
"Oh, hey…" he says in greeting. "Sorry. Didn't mean to intrude."
A beat.
His hand comes up, tracing a circle in the air as he tries to place her name. "You're that girl from the movie store, right? Brett's friend…"
After all, he knows she's not Ronnie.
~
Abbey hears the movement behind her,the scent is caught and she doesn't seem worried, or if she does she does show it. She figures its just some shifter wandering around like she after all. Her pale gaze drifts to the side as the pebble falls into the water before she glances to who had hold of them. The cigarette is taken hold of with her hand after pocking the cigarette. "Hey.. Naw your fine. Nothing to intrude on." She offers with a slight shrug and faint smile showing that its alright. The cigratte is flicked to get the ash from it while she gives her head a slight shake to get a few strands of hair from her face. "Right.. An your his brother. Corey isn't it?" She questions curiously before glancing back to him once more, a friendly smile seen. "The name is Abbey.." Seems she figured out he was trying to pluck her name from the sky there.
~
"Abbey. Right." Corey at least has the grace to look sheepish about his horrible memory. "I thought so. Thanks."
He glances around a bit, but refocuses on her quickly enough. "You out enjoying the scenery, too, then? 'S the problem I find with Wednesdays. They're neither one weekend or the other… Restless sort of day, doncha think?"
~
Abbey looks amused and chuckles before nodding a moment and glances back towards the water, her cigarette being forgotten for the moment. "Ya.. Though I would go for a walk. Lead me to here and I've just sorta hung out for a bit." A slight smile seen. "That it is.. Though I tend to work weekends anymore. Figure if I take a day off during the week it works out one way or another."
~
Corey nods amiably to that. "Oh, hey, I know that feeling. Half the time I'm being called in on a Saturday. So, y'know, I got over feeling guilty 'bout taking time mid-week pretty darn quick."
It's Brett that gets the guilt-complex about things. He took their catholic upbringing far more seriously than Corey ever did. Then, again, he takes a lot of things more seriously than Corey does.
And a lot of things less.
Two very separate men, they are. Good thing, really.
~
"So what is it that you do then?" Abbey questions, the cigarette getting snuffed out and stuck back into the pack before she looks back to Corey. "I know your brother is a teacher.. Don't take it the wrong way but you don't seem like the teaching type." This said with a playful tone, her irish accent being picked up the more she speak. "Nothing to feel guilty about.. Work is work, sometimes you don't have a choice after all."
~
"Me? A teacher?" Corey barks a laugh. "Heh. No. You're right on that score."
The Irish accent is definitely cool; he can hear it. Makes her fun to listen to…
"Coleman Contracting. It's my own little firm. I build things. One day, I got designs on being an architect, but we'll see. That requires a whole lot more schooling and takes me away from the tools I actually like to use. So, y'know. I'll just play it as it comes. Right now, I'm helping to head up some of the rejuvenation projects in the west end. Otherwise, I'd probably still be in Houston."
~
Abbey chuckles softly and nods with a smile while she watches him. "Well I bet that gets interesting. I think Brian mentioned talking to you about perhaps doing a piece in his paper about that project." A slight nod is seen. "Good for you doing that project though."
~
Brian… Brian… 'Nother name… Piece in the paper…
Right! Brian! The Scotsman. Dispatch editor. That name's important.
That and Officer Leigh Rossum. The cop.
Very important.
Corey grins. "Yeah. We met at the aquarium. Seemed like a good guy. Quiet, but things did get a little crazy. Don't blame him for beatin' feet."
~
Abbey ohs softly at this and nods. "I'll have to bug him to look you up for that piece. His a friend figure I can poke at him over it." This said with an amused tone. "I didn't hear what happened at the aquarium."
~
Corey gives a casual shrug, now, almost — but not quite — rolling his eyes. "Eh. Some headcase came along and started poking at us. There were three of us… him, this off-duty cop, and me. Girl was strung out on V and started trippin' off 'bout us all havin' stuff in common that was different than her…"
He trails off and shrugs. "Ah, I dunno. Brian left — I think he said something about work — and the cop wrote the junkie up for public intoxication. Kinda funny, I guess, in retrospect."
~
Abbey ponders this for a moment, a faint ah escapes her before she nods. "Well.. I suppose that's possible." She shrugs a moment while tapping a finger against the ground slightly. Ponders bring up the fact that he does have something in common with Brian. "So.. you an that little vampire are friends hum?"
~
Corey groans openly, now.
"I don't think friends is quite the right word." he says, clearly rolling his eyes, now. "I ran into her one night when I was out for a walk. She's kinda latched on to me and, well…" He shrugs a little awkwardly, now. "I just don't wanna risk pissing off a crazy vampire. I've only ever met two vampires in my life. They don't seem like bad people or anything, but let's be fair: They're not fluffy bunnies."
He actually does grin a little at his comparison, given Ronnie's obsession with rabbits.
~
Abbey hums softly at this, she has her own ideas when it coems to dealing with vampires. Her gaze turns back to the water a few moments. "She seems harmless to a degree I suppose." A slight shrug is seen. "I think your be alright.. They don't tend to bother certain people after all.."
~
Corey cants his head. His experience with vampires is actually… well… yeah, pretty nil. So, he doesn't actually know all the nuances.
"Certain people? Like what sorta certain people?"
Michael did say there seemed to be a concentration of both vampires and 'people like Corey' in the city. And Corey's not really stupid. The number of people he's encountered recently that make veiled references he could easily interpret as allusions to his unique abilities is growing daily.
"So… I take it you know a bit about vampires?" He pulls up a patch of grass, long legs folding beneath him as he sits. "I could use a primer, if you don't mind." His head cants and he offers a winning, hopeful smile.
~
Abbey lifts a brow at the question and ohs softly, her pale gaze drifting over the area before she looks to Corey once more. "Like wolves and shifters." A soft smile is offered. "Sorry.. sorta hard not to know what else you are other then human.." She offers softly, she's a wolf her senses are rather actue in either form. "I know some.. An what I know I don't like. I might not be the person you want to talk to on the matter.." Needless to say she doesn't like vampires.
~
Corey does get that impression. And he puts two and two together quickly enough to figure out which of 'wolves and shifters' she might be. "Ah…" he says softly. "That's actually good to know."
A beat.
"And it explains what they said about me being 'swampy'."
Suddenly, he likes the idea of being swampy.
"Maybe you're not the best person," he concedes, "but I'm learning to kinda take things on a one-by-one basis and make my own judgements as they come. Still, I'd kinda like to avoid complete surprises. So, you know, if there's anything I need to keep an eye out for, I wouldn't mind the heads-up."
~
Abbey smiles slightly and nods. "Though.. Vampires don't always keep to that.." She glances back to the water a moment, pondering before going on. "Vampires killed someone close to me.." There's a pause while she shifts and liets her arms rest back against her knees, a few rocks getting picked up. "So I don't tend to trust them. I suppose you could say my views are only one sided though in the matter."
~
"Good reason to bear a grudge," Corey replies. His voice doesn't contain any sort of dripping pity or sympathy. He's not the type to like that sort of response, himself, but he at least acknowledges the loss. "Sorry to hear it. If you don't wanna talk, then… I understand."
Because, really? He wouldn't be too chatty about it, either.
~
Abbey doesn't like pity or sympathy, a simple sorry is enough for her actually. "Its alright.. Its in the past." She shrugs a moment. "I'm not sure what happened other then she never came home. I found what the vampires left a few days later." She shakes her head slightly. "She was my adoptive mother so to speak. So I tend tohold a hard grudge on any of them anymore."
~
Corey nods to that. "Fair enough," he concedes. God knows, if anything like that happened to his family, he'd be all sorts of feral. He's a scrapper by nature. Sure, he knows how to control it, but even so…
Perhaps a change of subject is in order.
So, uh, you wouldn't happen to be able to recommend any decent hunting grounds around here, would you?" He flashes a smile at that.
~
Abbey did go nearly feral at the time, it wasn't a pretty sight to sy the least. Though she still has her moments now and then. "Ah.." She offers softly. "I tend to go out into the wilds myself." A glance is offered back to him a soft smile seen. "Easier that way.. An expecially with everything going on. Its not that safe in the city at the moment for anything that looks like a canine after all."
~
Corey frowns now. "Yeah, I heard rumours about that at work. I mean…" he gives a half-shrug, "there's the news reports, too, but…" Another half-shrug.
"I know everybody's kinda out looking for a rabid dog, but it's not, is it?" He figures she might know. "Some sorta crazy rogue?"
~
"So it seems." Abbey offers with a slight shake of her head. "Its not a dog.. That's for sure." A soft sigh escapes her. "Still, people are shooting at anything that moves and looks like a wolf." She makes a slight face. "Makes me dread the moon.."
~
Corey's brows crease and he nods. "Yeah…"
Brett turns 'yote. Corey doesn't. He's feline. Lucky him. But, he may just have to keep an eye on his brother, that night. Don't want some yahoo with a shotgun taking potshots at him. Maybe he can slip Brett a photo that day.
A photo he found of a drunken armadillo comes to mind.
He suppresses a smirk at the thought. Especially since he really is genuinely concerned.
"I suppose those of us with a little more freedom in our forms have an advantage, as far as that goes."
~
Abbey nods slightly at this. "I suppose so.." She smiles a moment. "Though.. I wouldn't have it any other way.. Being what I am that is." She's rather proud of her wolf side actually.
~
Corey grins at that, too. "Hey, I wouldn't expect otherwise. There are times I envy your sort. I mean…" He stretches out his hands, flipping them one way then the other. "When I'm like this, what you see is what you get. But, you?" His smile turns lopsided. "You get to keep some of those nifty wolf traits even on two-legs. There are days I wish I could do that. Lift a few more pounds, tell at a sniff who's what… Yeah. That, I'd like."
These guessing games are beginning to wear thin for him.
~
Abbey glancs to him curiously, a soft chuckle escapes her. "Yes.. those are the good things.. Though its like a coin and has two sides." She points out softly. "I have to keep my emotions more in check and work hard not to slip up. I don't think anyone would want to deal with an enraged wolf after all." There's the stuff dealing with the pack but she doesn't bring that up.
~
Nor does Corey. He really doesn't quite get the pack. Part of it's having more experience with the feline mindset. But his father always told him to be careful around packs. Their tendency to airs of superiority and the assumption they've the right to dictate to everyone else how to run their dual lives, too, never sat well with the elder Coleman.
'Never disrespect them outright, boys,' Simon would tell his sons, 'but don't go bending over backwards for them, either. They won't for you.'
"There's that," Corey concedes mildly. "But, everything in life's a trade-off of some kind or another, right? Still, there's no reason not to be proud of who we are." Apparently, he's not one of those oh-woe-is-me sort of shifters, either. Embrace the fur, fur can be fun.
~
Abbey doesn't like the idea of the pack much anymore herself, one of the reasons why this wolf is on her own. "An there's the pack.. Which I suppose depends on who you talk to how they feel on that one." She hums osftly and chuckles. "Aye.. that's true.." Her accent slipping in thickly for a moment.
~
"Packs are what they are," Corey says diplomatically. "Everyone's got an opinion." He just doesn't voice his.
He flashes a grin, however, glancing out over the lake. "Well…" he says with a bit of a stretch and a sigh. "I suppose I've interrupted you long enough. And I promised Brett I'd meet him so he could show me his new house." A dry chuckle escapes him. "I foresee lots and lots of weekends at the place, trying to teach him which end of the hammer to use."
He rolls to his feet. "Anyway, I guess I should go. Thanks for chatting with me, Miss Abbey. I hope I'll see you around."
~
Abbey smiles a moment and nods. "I suppose so.." She offers softly after a moment before glancing to him. "You didn't interrupt me.. Not like I'm doing anything but relaxing here." A soft chuckle escapes her. "Good luck with that. An it was nice speaking with you as well." She keeps her smile. "I'm sure we're bump into each other again. Take care and tell your brother I said hi."
~
"Will do," Corey promises. With that, he lifts a hand in farewell and heads off back down the path once more.