c r u c i f y

   A vibration is felt deep in her chest, an odd sensation for anyone who wasn’t aware of Ava’s condition. She hastily removes the cape that hides her drawer, opening it and grabbing her phone in fear someone she knew might need her aid. No such message was received, but one that gives Ava a sense of dread all the same.

TO: Old Nerd FROM: Ava

No. I don’t know. Is anything ever okay here? 

Why? Are you okay?

SHE HAD A POINT, this place was off the rails pretty much every day. He should be used to it.

[ TO ] Firefly [ FROM ] Odin Arrow

[ 1 / 2 ] Yeah. Just wanted to check, I guess. [ 2 / 2 ] Listen, I love you, ok.

THIS SHOULD BE EASY BY NOW, so why did his fingers pause over the keypad at the start of each new word? Why did he keep deleting it all and starting over? What the hell was wrong with him?

[ TO ] Firefly [ FROM ] Odin Arrow

THE NERVE OF HIM, seriously! He could chase the thing through ‘til dawn and it still wouldn’t tire. And of course, when he took a step after a moment slouched and catching his breath, the animal turned to whip off and prolong this chase– but instead, his interest was snapped up by a member of the thinning public, and they were promptly met with a face full of friendly licks. Just some guy he didn’t know from a hole in the ground.

                                                                          Shit.

          “FF-Freki! D-Down!” he stopped a couple of metres short, urging the dog back to his side, and funnily enough, there was compliance.

Kneeling to secure the dog with a hand at the collar, the other paying it a rub to the neck, Odin cast a reluctant glance toward the stranger.

HE’D RETREATED TO HIS USUAL HAUNT; a quiet spot at the edge of a fountain and with Freki all too eager to accompany him. He’d been drawing again-- quick scrawls of passing faces, and among them sprinkled foxes and wolves. The place was largely unbothered by foot traffic, so he could do so without much care for an audience---

onewayvector:

His expression looked unimpressed– no, more accurately, he looked quite bored as Ava dug through her wall of books, having been invited(coerced) into her home, saying she had something for him. A book, evidently enough, although not one he’s already read, supposedly. Not that he needed any reading anymore, considering how his brain is already full of knowledge academic-wise. 

    “…Take your time,” he sighed, his head dipping slightly as he let a bit of sarcasm seep onto his words. He resisted the urge to click his tongue, not really a fan of waiting around someone else’s home but he also didn’t want to be rude– well, not as rude as he could be, at least. “Why the fucking book anyway?”

The sound of a door opening pulled his attention away from the auburn-headed girl and instead, onto a taller, scruffy-looking male with a tiny dog accompanying him. Her housemate perhaps? Boyfriend? Well, whatever he was to her, he didn’t care. He was only here for the book. The older male was only spared a gaze, and nothing more. In fact, he gave the dog a softer expression compared to the one he shot Odin with.

There was tension in the air now.

    “Don’t fret,” he spoke out as the taller male walked past him. “I’ll be gone as soon as she’s done looking for that book.”

@thewrathwithin· - mortist - onewayvector

   Odin greets her with his usual lazy grin that only appears when he believes no one but her can see it. Ava doesn’t notice it, however, till it is gone. The moment Odin glances at Accelerator, there is a noticeable disdain that fills the air around them. As though Ava had brought some stranger into their house, and they were completely unwanted. That was not true concerning Ava. “No, not that one. Are you sure you haven’t seen it anywhere else?” 

   For a brief moment, Ava is scared. Terrified because both Odin and Accelerator could say the wrong thing and send each other into a shouting match. Having not explained the existence of the other to either of them, Ava was already fidgeting and trying to calculate just what to say.

   “Y-You don’t have to go!” Though she knows she could not stop him, Ava doesn’t like the feeling of either of them thinking she wants Accelerator gone. 

   “I mean… if you want to you can go. Or whatever. I’ll keep looking.”

   “But, yeah, um… this is Odin, my boyfriend. And this is Accelerator. We met when you were gone.”

@mortist

          “S-Sure.” he waved off the introductions, and the backhanded remark, “I’m gonna go feed Freki.”

A half-assed excuse to take himself away from an unwanted situation-- and Freki didn’t even follow him, instead hanging back to investigate this kid. He cast a withering look over his shoulder, his dog none the wiser, muttering sullenly.

          “T-Traitor.”

Too bad he didn’t have a knife to cut the tension with, but he wasn’t interested in kicking up a fuss, hence his quick departure. It was no big deal, he’d just busy himself with whatever lie tipped his tongue the fastest until the guy left. His efforts were reserved for so few-- why waste the words, when he had so few to share with strangers he didn’t care for. He just removed himself from the equation now. He was Ava’s guest, and none of his concern.

He withdrew to the bedroom, where he dragged on his pipe in peace for a few minutes, a mist of violet gathering about him. He settled back against the wall, relishing in the quiet, when his eyes dared roam earthward and caught the spine of a book peering out from beneath the bed. Brows rising, he pushed off the wall and stooped to retrieve it. Well what do you know, this was probably the book Ava’s looking for, and he had to find it.

... Great, he thought wryly.

With pretending he didn’t see a thing out of the question, he rose to return to the pair in the neighbouring room, trailing a thread of smoke in his wake-- but not before first leaning past the doorway to peer in. Still there, he noted. Well, whatever.

          “... Uhh, h-hey--” he traipsed over to her, one hand pocketed, offering the book, “This the one? It w-was under the b-b-bed.”

ODIN ARROW       from Ava’s Demon

➞ @thewrathwithin

YEAH, OKAY, so he was slightly out of sync with the radio, and yeah, he was just a little off-pitch-- but for once, Odin didn’t actually give a damn. He’d let himself get so lost in the song, trapped in a hushed humming of the tune. He didn’t know why, he wasn’t even sure he liked the song, it was just catchy, and it had a hold of him. In the isolation, he needn’t worry about some stranger hearing him or gunning for a conversation, as they so often did. It was just him, bundled under blankets on the couch with a lit pipe between his lips, and Freki, curled up and content beside him.

He couldn’t hear a thing but the music, and his bettered attempt to keep up-- not a voice otherwise.