Youngest of the Old One

Matthew photographed for USA Today, October 2013

Matthew McConaughey by Mark Seliger | ICON. 2015

❝ Is that a threat ? ❞  ❝ These lips are sealed . ❞ ❝ It is better to be feared than loved .❞  ❝ I’ve seen the way you look at ___ , okay ? You’re not foolin’ me .❞ ❝ You’re not as bad as everyone says you are . ❞ ❝ Anyone ever tell you you got a big fuckin’ mouth ? ❞ ❝ Whatever . I’m too out of it to get into it . ❞ ❝ We all have our parts to play . ❞ ❝ You can’t change the past . ❞ ❝ ____ , I’m gonna break your fucking face . ❞ ❝ I’ve heard stories about you . ❞ ❝ In some tiny little bottled up way , deep inside … you kind of enjoy it when things go wrong . ( Because it gives you an excuse to just … stop pretending ) . ❞ ❝ Life is easier with friends . ❞ ❝ Well I’d appreciate it if you’d fuck off . ❞ ❝ But no , hate’s the wrong word . They fear you more than anything . ❞ ❝ I know you like this whole ’ lone wolf ’ thing you got going for yourself . ❞ ❝ I wish I could have seen it. ❞ ❝ I’ll see you around . ❞ ❝ You almost looked peaceful . Except you’re lying in a dirty alley . ❞ ❝ Just … try not to be like ( yourself ) … ❞ ❝ Pardon the intrusion . I wasn’t aware this was a munchkin’s house .❞ ❝ I didn’t realize you were the bitch of the bitch . ❞ ❝ Hey , what are your plans now ? ❞ ❝ I’m not yours to lose ! ❞ ❝ Blah blah … blah blah blah . ❞ ❝ Are you saying you need a friend right now ? You can trust me . ❞ ❝ People are scared of you . I mean , look at your hands . ❞ ❝ You looked like when you take an action figure and bend it’s limbs the wrong way . ❞ ❝ But at the end of the day I’m still the bad guy . ❞ ❝ Everything used to be so simple … we had a beginning , a middle , & an end . ❞ ❝ When we suffer , we do it in silence . ❞ ❝ You should worry about your own fucking situation . ❞ ❝ I’ve made mistakes . ❞ ❝ You do what you want … you always do what you want . ❞ ❝ I’m glad you’re not dead . ❞ ❝ We need to do things the right way ! ❞ ❝ You’ll pray to any god who’ll listen that your mother never shit you into this fucking world .❞ ❝ Wait a minute … someone’s watching . ❞ ❝ I know it’s dangerous , but I’m not helpless . I can take care of myself . ❞ ❝ Not now , not now , shhhh , the grown ups are talking. . ❞ ❝ Out of my way ! I’ll show you how it’s done ! ❞ ❝ Do you want the Big Bad Wolf to take you away ? ❞ ❝ That was about 8 on the asshole scale … ❞ ❝ Cut the bullshit & quit wasting my time . ❞ ❝ This was really the wrong day to try & pull this shit ! ❞ ❝ You’re a monster ! A fucking monster ! ❞ ❝ You understand wanting to protect what you care about , don’t you ? You’d do anything . ❞

“Seventeen seventy-four.” A bad year for this side of the globe, but Haytham was willing to wait it out. He had lived his life in a linear fashion thus far, for it suited him, and he hadn’t the desire to step out of line, so to speak.  After all, here was a man who believed in order, organization; he may have been  able to dip into the flow of time, shape it and participate in it as he saw fit, but  he very rarely did.  No,  that was a job  best  left  to  people  like  Will.  ”Are  you concentrating?”

"Ah, yes. An interesting year, indeed." Memories flooded his mind, of school history lessons and knowledge of those before. Shared experiences of the Old Ones mingled willfully in his mind as he smiled faintly at the question. "No, merely remembering. But tell me, where are we headed now?" Snow crunched under his feet as he walked, the path as of yet undisturbed by anyone's tracks but their own.

"Indeed. The sentiment is mutual, Will. One rarely does such a thing happen in so large a city. Perhaps it is our shared preference for less crowded places.”

"I imagine it is. Shared interests incline people to meeting over and over again," he said agreeably. "My good friend was an Arthurian legend historian and often complained that he only saw the same faces wherever he went."

Will Stanton. The name didn’t sound familiar at all. Frowning slightly and drumming his fingers briefly against the frame of the door, he let out a little sigh and looked down at his feet. “Is this… something important?” Harry wasn’t trying to be rude, but he was incredibly reluctant to invite anything with that kind of power into his apartment. Though frankly, no matter how strong his wards were, they wouldn’t be able to keep something like that from getting in if it wanted to… and he doubted the Old World traditions with regards to thresholds would make much different, either. “Sorry, I’m just… being a little paranoid.”

"It is quite alright. It is in your own right to refuse my entry should you wish, and I would respect such a denial. I honor the old traditions and would not seek to break you wards.

"Hm. Do you need any particular equipment or space to do it? And might it be a good idea to have lunch first? It’s nearly noon." In Madeleine’s experience, working magic under stress could generate quite an appetite. Besides, just remembering to eat lunch, instead of being caught up in working and experimenting, was an accomplishment, to be celebrated by eating lunch.

A grim smile danced on his mouth, a rather vacant, old expression, and one that quickly danced away as the woman continued to speak. He laughed. "A lunch would be lovely, though I don't mean to impose."

But it would be rude to ask when he hardly knew the lad. And it wouldn’t be fair, considering he didn’t know what Rhys was either.

He kept his mouth firmly closed, however, lips pressed carefully together. It was not in his nature to reveal too much about himself, though he would not deny anything if asked. Even so, an appealing, open looked rested on his face, silently prompting the man to continue questioning, should he wish. It would be refreshing to talk to another who had seen the hills come to be again.

             ”Uh, well—no where near here to be exact.              Wouldn’t be looking for a landmark if              this was close to home!”

"That is true enough. I admire you persistence then, it must have been a strenuous walk.

Haytham moved to continue up the path, fully expecting his new companion to follow along. He  was  adapting  to  American  winters  slowly but steadily, and he had found, over the  past  decade  or so, that he quite  liked  walking alone through the  woods  when the snow had fallen the night before. It was always so quiet, so pleasant —  not that he minded having this  man  along. No, that was also a pleasure. “In what way do you mean?”

"I mean, what year is it?" Will clarified, long strides evenly matching the other man's. He found his mind still a bit muffled from the walk through Time, and walks in the woods always tended to look the same regardless of the year they came from. Times wove between each other, past and future mingling through his senses of an Old One, disconnecting if just for a moment from his more mortal senses.