ilyas fazal.

“I am always late on principle,” the mer began as he approached the table, removing his gloves finger by finger. “The principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.” Ilyas slid in the booth, brown eyes daring Emilia to question him. “Have you ordered yet?”

Ilyas’ expression could only be interpreted as boredom as he halfheartedly glared at Zed. Though easy to get riled up, it was just easy to lose his interest. T’was the thing about being a thousand years old and having a semi-fragile ego. “It is only the intellectually lost that argue,” he said, leaning back in his chair and pushing away from table, “thus I am done with this conversation.”

“Your point?” Allie asked with a raise brow. “You were here first? That’s supposed to mean something to me? It’s a public space. You can chill on your entitled ass for a few minutes while I wait in line to grab whatever I want and then I’ll be out of your way. It’s simple. You’ll be okay.” Sometimes she wondered how on earth some people in this world ended up being so fucking rude. “Oh look, a smart-ass, too. Maybe I should’ve said entitled smart-ass, then.” 

           “And yet another murder.” With a displeased expression, Diana dropped the newspaper back onto the coffee. Although she had been the doctor responsible for determining the cause of death and doing the required analysis of the body, her name had not featured in the newspaper, at her request, nearing the spotlight had her ill at ease. “This is getting depressing.” Her hand raised in the air, to signal the bartender over to refill her glass.

   Adorned in the selkie’s favorite pair of gloves and her rather bright apron, Lucretia had a plan to start the day in a wide alternative to the latest updates happening about town. Certainly, she was horrified – but maybe being rid of some supernaturals would do some good when it came to her daughter’s future. After all, she’d rarely come across a kindly vampire or thoughtful banshee. Despite all this, there was no doubt that her name on the list struck fear in her heart – and the chance still stood that her only child could be ripped from her. All of this in a day’s doubts. At least they could live comfortably for now with the money from her husband’s death.    Work was as lethargy inducing as usual, however. Sweat dipped across her forehead as she stood on her toes to trim the edge of a hedge. At least she could keep the town pretty – and make money doing it. Huffing out a deep breath, she dropped her shears to the side to take a good long look at the first hedge of many she had to finish by the end of the day. It’s shape was nothing special, just an oval – something that Lu still had to be proud of.    "Just the rest of the street to go, huh?“ The kindly woman directed towards a passerby, a soft smile tipping on the edge of her lips at the hard work she’d put into the brush. She was far more excited for the flowers she’d plant the next day though. "I like to think a manicured Main Street will k-keep the town hopeful and happy – if not a little prettier.”

Ilyas’ day started on the wrong side of the bed -- it always did. Pleasant was not a word that could describe the mer, humble the antonym of what he was. Arrogant, haughty, disdaining... The amount of people that had called him an ‘asshole’ or similar couldn’t be counted on two hands, and not just because he’d been alive a thousand years and on land more than most of his kind.

But after the grumpy beginning -- and the cup of coffee, bitterly disgusting, the powered him through the morning -- he set off from his condo. The mer felt know fear in walking the streets of Anchorage. He wasn’t oblivious to what was going on. He’d read the bold headlines, the gorily detailed articles, but none of them scared him. It wasn’t as if hunters were a new phenomenon. So what if they were being paid? They still relied on the same old tricks. He could outsmart them, he was sure of it.

“Wow what crawled up your ass and died?” Elisa huffed, rubbing the small dolphin tattoo on her arm. “Do you really think everyone owes you anything?”

Laurel let out a breath through her nose, and well the girl was never one for holding back comments and this one sort of slipping. “You’re kind of a dick,” she said. 

Hannah was reading the newspaper over the male’s shoulder, she didn’t even think he could see her until he began to speak. The coffee shop was already full of people, so she thought that she was the least of his concerns. “Oh right,” She replied. “Sorry about that. Not much of a people person, are you?”

          SHE WONDERED IF SHE’D EVER BE ABLE TO GET A CUP OF COFFEE without someone annoying her in some shape, way, or form. ilyas’ voice was like hearing nails on a chalkboard – he annoyed her to no end, but the only way to get back at him was to annoy him. an airy smile brushed her lips, her blonde hair swaying as her head turned behind her to see him sitting at the table closest to her. she was so close she could sit on it, but she wouldn’t bother getting that close to him. “ don’t take this the wrong way, “ she repeated. “ but i don’t think i’m gonna be moving anytime soon. “ she paused. “ sorry. “

All she wanted was coffee. Mornings (or afternoons, really. She usually slept until 3pm.. on a good day) were the bane of her existence until she had a good cup in her hand. However, it seemed that every single person in Anchorage decided out of all days, they wanted to get some coffee. Letting out a loud sigh, she took a glance at her watch and shifted in line a bit before hearing a snide remark beside her. Her eyes narrowed a bit, “Or maybe you should move,” Allie spoke, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but this place is packed.”

Laurel pursed her lips for a moment, suppressing the growl that threatening to escape. She narrowed her eyes at the boy in annoyance. “No, I just figured you wouldn’t want to lose five bucks. Well, I guess, sorry for helping.”

People were terrible, the only good use for them was food and her opinion didn’t lessen in the crowded coffee shop. All she wanted was a tea, she didn’t need the smell of sweaty men and cheap perfumes. And then she saw a familiar face and promptly decided, not to join him, but to disturb him for the fun of it. “I’m offended, I’m everyone’s favourite person,” she snorted before a grin grew on her lips, “but you’re right. I should take a step back, your breath reeks.”

“Oh, I’m uh, I’m sorry,” Laurel stuttered out, her eyes barely even leaving the paper. She was pretty disheveled from a stressful shift. “I wanted to say, there’s five dollars under your chair, I was wondering if you had dropped it.”

Elisa gave him a flat stare as she tucked her phone back into her pocket. “You know I would,” she began, her own voice dripping with sarcasm. “But there’s not quite enough room.” Geez she hated people like that.

She’d had an awful morning already and the news about the murder hadn’t helped it. She’d tried to keep it together but wasn’t sure she’d succeeded.

Yuki looked up from his tablet and blinked a couple of times, giving him an apologetic look as he took two steps to the left. “S-sorry,” he said, glancing up to see if the line was moving yet.