[center][img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/b3RmLjEwNi43NjY3NjcuVTJ4dllXNWxJRVpoY21sei4w/bachelorette.regular.webp[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/r7scdkh.png[/img][/center]
 [right][b]Interactions:[/b]  The Church, the Steeple, and all of the People, Clancy [@Zombiedude101]
[code]Tranquil Haven Park[/code][/right][hr]

[i]I didn’t even do anything wrong.[/i] That was the lie Sloane kept telling herself to give herself the mental fortitude to deal with yet another Coven meeting breaking down. Layla trying to pick a fight with her for the crime of caring about her wellbeing, Adora pushing Sloane around because Adora had picked friends that didn’t appreciate gifts, Britney quietly judging her for falling victim to a burglary when Britney’s irresponsibilities with magic was the reason why Sloane had to hoard things in the first place. Yet none of them battered her fortress as hard as Jasper. Sloane’s rigid mask of indifference cracked as Jasper moved his accusatory finger away only to jerk it back to her, her eyes darting away as his green ones fell on her,  claiming falsely that she’d made everything about herself. 

Sloane wanted to scream at him. She wanted to tell that stupid idiot that Adora was the one who’d brought everything up in the first place. It wasn’t self-centered to defend yourself, let alone to own up to a mistake. And what gave him the right to tell them all to grow the fuck up? He was the one who hadn’t changed since high school. He was always being a jerk to her for absolutely no good reason, like he was obsessed with her or something, probably thought it made him look cool and everybody else was so stupid that it worked. Any time she wanted to bring up how unnecessarily cruel he was to her everyone would just act like she was the one being an unreasonable bitch, like she was the bad guy. Unbelievable. Again, she didn’t even do anything wrong.

Auri blew the lid of the  pressure cooker that was the gazebo clean off with a scream and a swarm, marching everyone like ducklings over to their lair. Sloane fell in line besides Anya without a complaint, her arms crossed, her eyes plunging knives into Jasper’s back. Of course Lynn would latch on to Jasper, the social parasite that she was, but Sloane had hoped that Lila would’ve changed her ways, yet she still seemed as content as ever to follow the loudest person next to her. Sloane crafted their conversations with Jasper in her mind as she fumed in silence, growing more and more annoyed at the shit talk about herself that she was making up in her mind. How dare they say those things about her in her own imagination. So petty.

Sloane followed the group into the church, too annoyed to admire the actually decent work Auri had put in to restore the building. It wasn’t something that butterflies alone could’ve done, which meant that Auri must’ve been pulling in some actual considerable revenue with her flower shop. However, all Sloane noticed was how Stormy pulled Auri alongside Britney into a side room almost immediately for a private meeting, leaving Sloane outside with the rest of the plebeians. It was just like the old days when Daisy, Ashley, and Auri would go off on their own. Sloane didn’t enjoy being out of the loop. The old, familiar feeling of jealousy crept in and mixed with her annoyance, brewing up a vitriolic cocktail inside of her that was so acidic it would’ve melted through Sully’s Chalice. She stared at the closed door, the world around her little more than a sharp, constant hum.

[color=CD5C5C]”At this rate it’ll probably kill us all before we get anywhere. Especially with some of us can’t even fucking keep a hold of a shit ton of stuff that could be used to kill us very easily,”[/color] said Linqian, bringing Sloane back.

Sloane turned her head towards Linqian and fixed her with a long, unblinking stare, dark and dead like a child’s doll. She knew what Linqian wanted, and she wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. Like a Sicilian monk who had made a vow while also moonlighting for the Cosa Nostra, Sloane chose to stick to silence. Words could be weaponized and showing opinions opened up weaknesses. She rolled her eyes at Linqian and crossed herself with her middle finger, leaving it up to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to tell Linqian to go fuck herself. Sloane settled into a pew, crossed one knee over the other,  folded her hands in her lap as if she were praying, lowered her head, and quietly allowed the Coven to continue to dissolve around her as the caustic brew inside of her continued to bubble. 

Anya attempted to get everyone on track, cleverly pointing out that their leader had once again abandoned them. Void attempted to convince the group to find a child, likely a case of buyer’s remorse in regards to his latest model.  Eve attempted to rally everyone in supporting the troops, but most of the troops had left, leaving her alone in a crowd of ice cream connoisseurs and latecomers. The boy, who had a name, attempted to get things back on track but not before he shamed them after clamoring down from the support beams like they were a piece of playground equipment. Clancy, Ashley’s alleged cousin, gave off an uneasy energy, but then again all children were unnerving. However, what he said about the Dollhouse was even more worrisome. Sloane was under the impression they never meddled this far out West. 

Yet, moments before Layla had attempted to start a vote and popularity contests had always been more important than survival in the eyes of the Coven. Sloane attempted to hold back a reaction as Anya acted too quickly and volunteered herself, her head slightly shaking as Anya made a rare mistake. Anya should’ve first seen if anybody even wants a new leader, then put herself in or, better yet, have someone else nominate her instead. She had gotten too eager and the votes of no, no, no, and fuck off rained down on Anya like a volley of arrows. Sloane looked up and gave her friend a slight tilt of the head, the strongest sympathetic gesture she could summon. 

Her eyes followed Lynn to the center of the aisle, rapidly blinking as their resident false prophet expanded her repertoire to include revisionist history. Sloane and Anya never held any true authority in the Coven. They had given their all and dedicated themselves to the group, but had been betrayed and voted out by the people they had tried their best to help —Anya for speaking her mind and sticking up for Britney while Sloane due to being wrongfully accused of theft of what was technically her own property. If anything, the Coven didn’t fall apart because of them; it fell apart because they weren’t there to hold it together. Sloane rolled her eyes. There was no point in trying to defend herself or Anya, just as there was no point in showing how unimpressive Lynn’s prophecy of Anya losing the impromptu election was after a majority had already voted no. 

Wordlessly, Sloane stood up from her pew, adjusted her watch, and walked up the main aisle to the front of the church, the heels of her boots echoing throughout the hall. She didn’t step up onto the stage, pausing instead in front of Clancy. She looked him up and down, arms folded, her unemotive face like that of a bored father trying to power through the Sunday  service so he could drink with his buddies, watch the game, and go back to ignoring his family. Perhaps she was searching for a resemblance to Ashley, perhaps she was trying to come up with a reasonable way to ask for him to hand over the ax, her eyes reflecting the blade as they lingered. She sighed and the intensity of her stare faded.

[color=silver]“I am sorry for your loss, as I am sorry for our behavior. This situation has left us at our worst. My name is Sloane Faris. I was one of Ashley’s…well, I don't want to lie. Friend might not be the right word for it. [i]Teammate, perhaps?[/i]”[/color] suggested Sloane, borrowing from Sully’s vernacular. She cleared her throat. [color=silver]“I’ll introduce you to Auri when she returns. She was close with Ashley. But it’s like you said: we want the same thing. I’ve been heavily monitoring the paranormal organizations filtering into this city, but the Dollhouse must’ve slipped by. I’d like to hear some more about what you heard, but first…”[/color] Sloane raised her voice ever so slightly, letting the acoustics of the room do the heavy lifting as she turned her head to the Coven and stepped to the side. [color=silver]“Perhaps the rest of the congregation would like to offer this young man their condolences?”[/color]