exothermic

IT’S AN ODD FROZEN STATE, her staring at him, caught between one step and another, pulse between one beat and the next. tamora watches him with thinly veiled surprise, not having expected anyone to be out on the street so late. she’s dragging the giant M from mcdonalds behind her. ( could she orb? yes. but where’s the fun in that? ) “ so… “ she says awkwardly. “ i don’t think i’ve seen you around here before. “ of course - because it was only normal to greet a stranger in the middle of a crime. “ new in town? “ @lcstfool​

HE HAD A DOUBLE TAKE AT THE SIGHT BEFORE HIM. a giant M, the mcdonalds variety. mcdonalds, the first place he’d eaten out when he’d been given that second chance at life ( sort of ). his first taste of junk food. now mutilated, and M-less. “kind of?” he’d been around the city a long time now, but he hadn’t properly made a home of it until recently. “so.... what did ronald do to you?” ronald mcdonald. “don’t tell me he forgot a chicken nugget.”

                            “ because it shouldn’t be important, ”  that  was  the  pure  and  unadulterated   T R U T H   of  the  matter  because  yes  he  was  young  but  he’d  at  least  learned  one  thing  prior  to  dashing  off  into  the  sunset  of  the  afterlife  to  Alphaville’s  forever  young,  and  that  was  that  life  really  could  be  snapped  away  in  an  instant;  even  now,  people  die  so  quickly  and  they  seem  to  forget  that  nothing  is  TRULY  permanent  (  like him they’re all markers on a whiteboard waiting to be rubbed off  ).  “ music is a medicine; some of us need therapy and some of us survive by listening to seven hours of soul healing music just to wake up the next day and do it again —- or maybe I’m just a psychopath. ”  he  forgets  himself  sometimes,  the  way  the  tone  of  his  voice  echos  his  southern  roots  (  makes him think of his mom even if she hardly deserves to be thought of at all  ).  “ Fleetwood Mac for me, can’t beat their stuff. ”

@apxstarters​

It was raining, a flock of umbrellas all around her, but Britt couldn’t help but enjoy the slight break from the heat as the water hit her skin. She’d left her umbrella at home, though really didn’t care enough to grab it in the first place. She was soaked to the bone, though was enjoying the smell of fresh rain outside to rush to her destination. She didn’t have a class to teach for another hour, and she had half a mind to wander until it was nearly time to just leave herself enough time to change into something dry. Head tilted back slightly, she exhaled a sigh and closed her eyes momentarily, though that proved to be a mistake. Britt found herself slipping on wet asphalt, a slight change in the incline of the sidewalk evidently enough to send her sliding backwards. The contents of her bag came spilling out before her, and Britt heaved a sigh as she slowly sat herself up to collect the strewn items before her.

coming down from heaven has been.... an experience, to say the least. kind of ironic, if lane were honest. he spent his whole life buried down under only to be sprung upward and then FINALLY reach the middle ground that was the world itself. actual people. he quite liked that middle ground. though it took him time to become accustomed to it. even now, there were always small little things that took him by surprise. when he’d been brought into the fold, CHOSEN, as they’d call it--- there were rules and standards and kindnesses. questions they allowed him about his former life so he would give his duties their due, though lane had only thought of a single question, only cared singularly for it. did britt survive? and that she did. of course he followed it up with a question of her happiness. to which the answer... varied. there was only so much an angel who LACKED humanity could tell you about a human’s happiness after all. they hadn’t been able to give him a concrete answer about her happiness, but she was alive and happy. he figured that was enough. 

it should have been enough. but he had a computer and enough of an idea of how to use technology that he did the whole GOOGLE thing. his parent’s hadn’t allowed access to google during that time, and when he first heard the word lane feared it meant something ELSE. but nowadays he had a broader grasp on the world in which he lived. enough of one to be able to google britt moseley. then he tried britney, because maybe britt was a nickname and he’d been too young to know? but no. despite what the angel’s said, there was nothing on britt moseley. so he lived in the unknown, and held onto the hope of her out there somewhere. 

then there was the rain. and lane kind of loved the rain ?? in all fairness, he loved each time of weather condition that provided any type of feeling to him. after days of living in darkness and knowing nothing but moldy walls, well. even storm clouds couldn’t dim beat out how bad THAT had been. he welcomed even the foggiest of days, on the basis they would always be better than the four walls he had known. so yes, he was walking through the rain without a bother of an umbrella. sure his clothes would wet, sure he could have ORBED, but what would be the fun in that ?? he was always telling his charge’s to smell the flowers, that the grass was always greener, he should have mentioned the fresh smell of rain. 

eyes set on the woman’s fallen item’s getting shrouded in water as the rain poured down in it’s blissful song lane offered a helping hand. he lowered to his knees, grasping what he could pile into her bag. “that should be the last of em--- anything you’re missing?” he asked, preparing to help her stand on her feet afterward ( make sure she was unharmed too, but if there was the chance of any type of permanent injury he would have already seen so, lane was sure ). there was something FAMILIAR about her. maybe she was an actress of some sort? it wasn’t like he had childhood friends. just two dead parents and an older sister out there living her life ( and she wasn’t britt, not in this city where the dead never get rest and the living always BECAME the dead ). so yes, lane opted for an actress he’d seen on tv as a child. maybe she had been a child actress herself and that was why she was so familiar but he couldn’t place her? 

                              “ I used to have this…stupid theory, ”  he  finds  it  amusing  because  he’s  not   E N T I R E L Y   sure  that  it  doesn’t  still  apply:  or  at  least,  that  it  doesn’t  still  hold  some  truth;  he  had  enough  belief  in  his  own  ideas  for  that  (  granted not in a narcissistic way…he wasn’t up his own ass  ).  “ that you could tell everything about a person, by listening to a playlist they play on repeat; it applies to me. ”  he’s  happy  to  be  honest  about  that  much.  there  wasn’t  a  narrative  where  his  music  options  were  anything  other  than  EMBARRASSING  but  he  liked  the  popular  happy  stuff  and  maybe  he  had  his  reasons  for  that  (  when life is miserable, play a happy song and pretend it isn’t  ).  “ so, top of your list —- what song is there? ”

𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘𝗗 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥: — [ @lcstfool ]

Although he had sat through a whole 𝟐 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑 lecture on bioluminescence Adrian was not listening to a single word his professor was saying. He usually sat a few rows close to the front in order to get a good view of the projector so follow along to the lesson, but his eyes were more focused on the piece of paper he was meant to take notes with. There were just a few scribbles and sketches he made absentmindedly. Completely uncharacteristic of the nerdy man that would already have notes prepared 𝙋𝙍𝙄𝙊𝙍 to class and would jot down anything important he didn’t already read up on with the intention of combining both to study from when there was an upcoming test. But not today. His focus was beyond that right now. Just being in class today was a feat in its own that deserves recognition, though of course he wasn’t the type to really want that kind of spotlight. Instead, when his professor dismissed the class Adrian immediately packed up his belongings into his bag and left the lecture hall with the crowd of people trying to escape as well. 

He felt a vibration from the depths of his pockets, thinking it was an important message he reached for it to see it was a notification from 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 reminding him what he already knew. Today was Robert Sinclair’s birthday and to let him know he was thinking of him. Of course he was. Had he not come with him on a trip around the world he surely would have been alive today and he could have celebrated another year around the sun with him. But instead he is plagued with the haunting thoughts of his last moments of life once more, as if the memory will ever part from him. Preoccupied with the 𝙃𝘼𝙐𝙉𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 thoughts of what he could have done differently to save his lost love he did not see the man that he accidentally bumped into. “Oh shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean,” he paused for a second as he looked up at him, “—didn’t mean to do that.” There was something oddly familiar about the guy in front of him that he couldn’t quite place.

he never knew their names. in all fairness, lane had been very confused at the time of it happening. so much had been going on, he hadn’t gotten a single chance to learn a name in the passing. so fast, so fast---- he’d never seen anything like it until it was happening right before his eyes. being too late was a failure he never hoped to repeat. never again did he want to see a dead body before his eyes, someone he failed as a whiteligher. back then ( as if it wasn’t a short time ago. one year, two, three--- time was a construct and he felt like he hadn’t grown. and technically, he’d never grow again. you had to be alive for that much. ). the point being, lane hadn’t known what he was doing. one moment he was there, helping some strangers and then the NEXT, his charge was screaming for him and the boy was dead- but he couldn’t stay--- his charge needed him. and then, once he did come back, they were gone. 

the salvatore boarding school for the young and gifted. a prominent place in his life given the fact he had a large number of charges stationed here. young kids of supernatural lifestyles who needed guidance and help.  not that lane thought himself an expert, but he TRIED. he would always try. “ah, it’s okay.” he assured the other, hands up to ease the situation. “not a scratch, promise.” 

it’s pretty long so there’s a tldr at the end for all who don’t have the patience for my babbles