Event 8: Answer the Call

Name: August Fletcher
Gender/Pronouns: She/her
Species: Human
Age: 23
Relationship to August Fletcher: Is August Fletcher

Appearance: August Fletcher has brown hair tied back into a ponytail, brown eyes, and rosy cheeks. She's wearing a tailored suit and carrying a deerskin briefcase. She's wearing a pair of loafers that look one size too big in certain lighting. She also wears sunglasses tinted orange with a star shape.
Personality: August is tight-lipped. She struggles talking about herself, but often seems to get into sticky situations where she requires help. It's most likely due to her distrustful nature and her tendency to think she's lost before she's even started.
Strengths: Has millions of contacts, independent. Fast walker, has a briefcase with almost anything in it. Trained in competitive ice sculpting.
Weaknesses: Hates using contacts, slow talker, easily bribed by caffeine, has youngest sibling trauma.

Backstory: August Fletcher was born to her rather well off parents July Fletcher and September Fletcher as the youngest in her family. Her elder sisters, both twins March and May Fletcher were already in their teens while her brother Doug was only 2.

She had a difficult childhood, growing up in the shadow of her bright elder sisters March and May. And Doug. Her sisters were prominent singers in the local community, already set to be successful even before they'd hit their twenties. Doug was of course... Doug.

She get through school through dedication and sheer will and even then only barely passed, her reluctance to ask questions keeping her from clarifying doubts with her teachers or her peers.

She would eventually find her calling in competitive ice sculpting. Her parents supported her dreams but don't really show belief in her, instead backing the at this point quite famous March and May. Her only solace was Doug.

She is now trying to further her career in ice sculpting with the help of her loving brother Doug.
Magic User (Yes/No): Maybe
Other:They have a chef named January Farmer.

Name: March Fletcher (also goes by "Mar" and "Marchy")
Gender/Pronouns: she / her
Species: human
Age: 36
Relationship to August Fletcher: older sister

Appearance: March tends to wear pastel blue, purples, and greys to contrast with her twin's favored warm-color-palette. She has sleek brown hair, cut in a bob, a thin face. She tends towards heavy evening make-up and looks identical to her sister apart from her signature shamrock earrings which she always wears.

Personality: March exudes extroverted energy from a life in the spotlight, but honestly people exhaust her and she's much happier curled up with a book in a coffee shop. She would have given up the music career by now, but her sister May is so invested in it, there's no way to stop now. She is a people-pleaser, for her parents most of all.

Strengths: March is a social chameleon and easily adapts to the setting around her. She is warm and makes people feel comfortable. She is perceptive and and thoughtful.

Weaknesses: Her sister. March is always self-conscious that people may consider her the "less-talented" or "less-pretty" or "less-likeable" twin - she is always comparing herself to May, to the extent that her self-esteem revolves around their relationship. Though she is perceptive towards others, she is not very perceptive of people's views towards her. She is also deathly allergic to maraschino cherries.

Backstory: March and May got their start on their town's talent show, and since then they've been performing local and state gigs and have made a career out of their singing ability. While March is getting into her later 30's and hoping to settle down and travel less, May is still pretty relentless with their tour schedule and March doesn't have the heart to let her down. She also doesn't want to think about who she is without music. Family is deeply important to March, but she often feels like her parents and siblings just lump her and May together. She longs to be her own person.

Magic User (Yes/No): No, but she sings a mean karaoke solo.

Other: Super allergic to maraschino cherries. For a while in middle school she went by "Marsha" to try to distance herself from her sister. It didn't work, and now her sister calls her "Marsha" when she wants to torment her.

March sat down with a soft sigh at the café table with her cup of tea when she felt someone push against her seat. Suddenly her left shoulder was scorching hot.

“Oh, oww, what?!” she got up and whipped her head around, only to see August standing there with a half-full cup of tea. At first she thought it was her sister, May, because August seemed to be wearing May’s pink Louis Vuitton coat. She’d never noticed how much they, well … I guess, all three of them looked alike.

“Oh my gosh! Oh shoot, Mar – I didn’t know you and May came here.” August apologized back, looking a little like an anxious lost puppy. March wasn’t used to seeing her so out of sorts, it gave her pause. Was something up… she hadn’t been by the house in a bit, but August always seemed to be plugging along with her typical ice business stuff.

March patted her shoulder dry with a stack of napkins her sister shoved in her hand. “Hey, sit down a second – just me here today, you look like you could use a seat for a moment. Is everything okay?”

“Isn’t May here too?” August looked accusingly at the second seat.

“Nope, she’s out with Jack, our manager, this morning. Sit down Auggie, you look like you ran straight from home.”

March took a little bit longer to study August, noticing apart from May’s coat, she looked quite out of sorts, panicked, worried, anxious, and in her hand opposite the one holding the half-spilled-tea, she was carrying a snow sopped enveloped.
“What are you up to this morning Auggie?” March asked, half accusing, half concerned.

August looked trapped, like she might very well run if March looked away too long. She looked between the door and the table then the envelope, then back to the table again. She sighed and slid into the chair, not unclenching her hand from the envelope but taking a long gulp of the tea.


“Can I trust you to keep something quiet?”
March wasn’t used to people trusting her with secrets, outside of May, and least of all her baby sister August. She leaned in and nodded.

“So my ice-business, it’s been doing well you know. But recently a few clients of a … different caliber have been my customer if you know what I mean…”

March scrunched her eyebrows and shook her head intrigued.

“You know our parents’ political friends? The McBins and Popptons? Well they gave me a special ice-sculpting assignment about a week ago, where I was promised about 10 times what I am usually paid. Same ice-concept as usual – big swan, lots of feathers and glaciers… but this ice sculpture was supposed to have a package in its center. An item of high value the Popptons were exchanging to the McBins by secret means. The package would be safe and hidden until the ice melted. But…” March was hanging on every word, unconsciously leaning closer and closer.

“But… what!” she asked, exasperated.

“Somehow the high value package, that was to go in the ice sculpture disappeared from my studio last night.” August stared unblinking at March, until March stood up in a panic.

“You need to call the police, you need to call mom and dad, you need to..”

August grabbed her hand and pulled her back down to her seat, “No one can know this is gone. I’m going to handle this. I have to handle this. I have to go.” August stood up quick and ran through the door leaving not only her tea-cup but also the envelope she had been clutching so tightly in her hand. Now looking more closely at it she wondered if her sister had meant it for her all along, or if she'd left it on accident. She opened the envelope, read the contents, and immediately determined she was going to make her way to Huckings and Barkes. She didn't know what was going on, but if her sister needed her, she was going to help get to the bottom of it. Her phone buzzed three times indicating May was calling her. And for the first time in her life, March clicked "decline call".

She hurried out the door into the billowing winter storm, ready for whatever was ahead.

Name: Autumn Fletcher
Gender/Pronouns: Female; she/her
Species: Human
Age: 8
Relationship to August Fletcher: Neice

Appearance: Autumn rocks the classic Dora the Explorer haircut, with short brown hair cut into a bob, accompanied by dramatic bangs. She has gray eyes that seem to judge your every movement, and they probably do. She’s an average height for an eight-year-old, standing at exactly four feet tall. She refused to leave the house without her bright pink leggings, but obliged to sport a long black coat along with a red scarf. She likes to finish every look with the perfect shoe, and the perfect shoe just happened to be light-up sneakers, of course.

Personality: Autumn is very blunt and honest with her words. If she has something to say, she’ll say it with no remorse. She loves the color pink and anything sparkly. She’s very smart and is always ready to prove you wrong.

Strengths: being brutally honest, major RBF, probably smarter than most adults, immaculate fashion taste.

Weaknesses: being brutally honest, thinks she’s better than everyone else, tells everyone she’s better than everyone else.

Backstory: Autumn Fletcher is the daughter of May Fletcher. When she was born, she caused quite the outrage, since May never revealed who her father was. Once she finished her first detective novel at the age of seven, she decided that she wanted to become a detective, too.

Magic User (Yes/No): No, but some people like to speculate.

Other: Autumn wanted me to tell you that she’s much smarter than you are.

Autumn reached a hand up and rang the doorbell. There were many moments of silence before the door opened just a crack, revealing August Fletcher’s suspicious glare. When August’s eyes landed on Autumn, she opened the door all the way, turning her head this way and that.

“Hello, Autumn. Um… Where is your mom?” August asked warily.

Autumn brushed past August and walked into her home. “At home.”

August closed the door behind her to shut out the biting cold, turning to face Autumn with her arms crossed. “Does she know that you’re here?”

“That’s irrelevant, Aunt August.” Autumn dismissed the question with a flick of her wrist.

“Autumn!” August scolded, “You can’t just leave your home without telling your mom! How did you even get here, anyway?”

“The bus,” Autumn simply shrugged. “But you are again asking irrelevant questions. You should ask me why I’m here instead.”

August narrowed her eyes at Autumn. “We really should talk about—”

“Ask me why I’m here!” Autumn interrupted.

“I will only ask if you let me text your mom and tell her you’re okay. Then, you’re going home!”

Autumn blinked. “Deal. But I have important matters to attend to while I am here.”

“Alright,” August sighed, “Tell me about these important matters.”

Autumn’s eyes lit up. “I am here to help you with your ‘very stubborn, particular problem.’ I’ve even brought all my tools.” She grabbed a cheap magnifying glass out of her pocket, along with a small notepad and an even smaller pencil.

August’s eyes went wide and her posture straightened into a line. “Autumn, where did you hear about this?”

“I read the letter you put in our mailbox, of course. I saw you put it in there earlier today. I didn’t know where ‘The Huckings and Barkes’ is, so I thought coming here would be the best option.”

August sighed, placing her head in her hands. “Autumn, that letter was meant for your mother.”

“I have better qualifications, though. I’m a detective.” Autumn stated matter-of-factly.

“I understand that, but you need to go home, Autumn. Your mom is probably worried sick about you!”

“I’m sure my mother is perfectly fine.” Autumn argued.

August placed a hand on Autumn’s back, guiding her to the door. “How about this? We go out and buy cookies from the bakery on our way to your house, yeah? And maybe there’ll be a mystery for you to solve over there!”

Autumn smiled. “The cookies with the pink frosting, you mean?”

“Of course!” August agreed.

They walked out the door, and August made a rush to call Autumn’s mother, explaining an apologizing profusely. Autumn seemed totally unbothered, her mind occupied with pink-frosted cookies.

Sophie Sharpe stood looking at her watch. 2:56. She stood outside of Huckings and Barkes and wondered again if the note had been misdelivered.

No, no. The note said three pm sharp. She was sure the word choice had been no accident. Yes, the letter had been meant for her.

And as for the reason August Fletcher had wanted to meet with Sophie so desperately, it seemed? That was what she was still struggling to piece together. As the semi-finals were days away in their ice sculpting tournament, she found it strange one of her competitors would reach out in such a manor. It didn't make sense. Had August planned some sort of scheme to take Sophie down? it would at least make her motives clear.

She had considered this idea before and had ignored this fact, but she was beginning to have second thoughts. There's no other logical reason as to why she would ask me to come here, beside some kind of attempt at sabotage.

The only reason Sophie Sharpe was still standing in front of Huckings and Barkes was because she was curious. An unadvisable move? Perhaps. Even if curiosity killed the cat, that didn't stop her from wanting to know what August could possibly want. Besides, she had a few "tools" in her bag that could help defend herself, if the need came.

2:59. She watched as the seconds on her watch neared the 12. 3:00. She looked around for the familiar figure she had come to know.

And there was that all too familiar suit and deerskin briefcase that came walking up to her.

August Fletcher looked at Sophie for a minute, thoughts turning in her head.

"Maybe this was a mistake," said August.

"Asking your competitor for help? Yeah. Not the brightest move."

"This has nothing to do with that! Well... Okay, look, all I need is some help with some tools that, frankly, I don't know how to use. I've heard around that you know how to do a thing or two with machines."

"Why should I help you?"

"Because I can help you."

Sophie raises an eyebrow. "And how are you proposing you do that?"

"I have information on your opponent this round - and what he's planning on making."

Competitive ice sculpting is a game of how good and how quick you can make something, but it's also a game of knowing your opponents, and making something better than them. Sophie had never been good at knowing the other player, and it has cost her greatly in the past. Knowing what the person was going to do would be more than helpful.

"And you know for certain? Where did you get this information?"

"A reliable source."

"We might have different definitions of reliable sources."

"It wouldn't be complicated, what I'm asking. It just needs knowledge of mechanics. Can you do it or not? I can go somewhere else."

"What is it?"

"We agree, then I tell you."

"I can't promise I can work on something mechanical that I know nothing about."

August sighs, and starts to walk away.

"Wait!" shouted Sophie. "I agree."

August Fletcher had a problem to solve.

And Sophie Sharpe knew how to solve it.