#m0il

✦✦✦ ─────── IT CURLED ON HOWARD’S PALM like a dark new moon, with a heft he had forgotten centipedes could weigh, at the size it could grow into. He swallowed thickly, bringing the creature closer to his face to observe. Something tugged in his heartstrings: warm, kind, protective. These are the creatures who dwell within earth, tilling its soil, the same fruit of nature as he was and will ever be. Dead or alive. To Earth, to earth, Howard is a part of the cycle, no matter how delayed.

“It’s… cute.” The transfixed gaze remained steady even as the creature unfurled, wandering on the surface of his palm in what seemed like a brief confusion. When it found purchase on the side of his cheek, seeking warmth and shelter in his decay, Howard made no attempt to flick it away. The crawl of its many legs pricked his skin pleasantly. He wanted it to stay.

❝ Ah... it's unlikely. ❞ What else was he meant to answer with? The question, sudden as it was, and its wording had given the businessman blatant pause. He'd been sent off-kilter and was having to quickly readjust again on the fly. It wasn't an impossible task, but it was at least noticeable that it was a task in itself that required effort.

❝ I'm not a murderer, nor am I a magician. So it's doubtful you'll play audience to such a spectacle. ❞

( @m0il )

" --- gods, you and me both." [ everything gets on his nerves before noon. he's already running his hands down his face with a huff, generally irritated and growing more so with each bright laugh, each passing conversation, every minutiae of the crowd around them. it certainly doesn't help that the line is moving infuriatingly slow, and there's only three people in it- him and this other guy included. he just wants his coffee, and a quiet environment to enjoy it in. ]

Name him.

✦✦✦ ─────── THAT'S NEW, HE THOUGHT. Howard was the farthest fucking thing from a hamster he could possibly ever imagine, though perhaps if he was entertaining the idea of a bumbling fucking idiot, then perhaps it was a close enough metaphor for him.

"No, I will not," Howard yanked at the handcuffs slapped around his fist, playing with the idea that the small piece of metal would be able to restrain or make him comply with the authorities -- and this grand illusion extends unto others who might be perceiving him in that position of weakness, even when it was so unlikely for any of this play-pretence to lead into anything but the worst of outcomes. "Someone needs to call out just how fucking insane the things you did were, so we gain some fucking perspective of--"

Howard ducked into the shadows as two pillars of searchlight began to flood the alleyway before them. He yanked the man over to his side, hiding in a doorway, waiting for the passing helicopter to finish its sweep of the area.

"--what we're facing. I was minding my own business, being arrested for petty larceny," he risked his head to peer from the darkness, to see if there were any signs that the police had sniffed their tracks. "Until you used me as a meatshield. Which I can't blame you for, one of me's enough to tank two of you," Howard glanced over at him once again.

Clark felt the presence of another before any of his other senses could take part. And it wasn't due to any preternatural sense he carried with him. No, this was a very human awareness of someone standing nearby. The preternatural sense came afterward like a messenger who was wretchedly late to warn the blond that this presence was by no means a welcomed one.

The man's eyes had yet to open, still caught up in whatever moment of privacy he'd been enjoying up until that point. In his heart of hearts, he had hoped the presence would take care of itself and move on. Surely, SURELY the businessman was not the target of whatever misfortune the universe decided to spit out onto the waking world. But alas...

" --- roommates? what?"

[ is this some kind of joke? if one were to listen hard enough, the gears grinding in his head would be audible. he simply stares, all the forced gusto gone from him at that threat of this stranger crawling up on his ceiling and sitting there all night. ]

" --- you're not... you're not s'posed to smoke in here." [ he shifts where he stands, tempted to run- he doesn't. instead, he shuts the door behind him, drops his backpack to the floor by his desk. if there's trouble, Jack will know, and he'll come. would it be in time, though? is there even anything to be afraid of? he can feel the familiar tingle of magick stirring in his belly, at his fingertips, heightening as his anxiety mounts. he needs to calm down. ]

" --- uh, sorry. it's just... you don't look like a student. what happened to Daniel?" [ his previous roommate, here at Haventown Community College. he can't say he isn't relieved, if indeed Daniel has been transferred or something. they never really got along- and that's putting it mildly. ]

[ he reaches for the desk chair near the door, sits heavily. it seems dark, even for early evening, and the air in the room seems extra heavy, almost dank, ripe with a smell he can't quite place. he scrunches his nose. then he notices the familiar footwear his new roommate is sporting. he raises a brow. was that a bug crawling up the guy's leg? he dismisses it as a shadow, his eyes playing tricks. ]

" --- merde, that was too close."

[ outnumbered, outgunned. but no human alive can run as fast a werewolf- present company excluded. but Jace knows better. nothing about Shay is explicitly human except the way he looks on the outside. that's part of what Jace likes about him. ]

" --- they almost got you, huh?" [ grinning breathlessly, he jerks his chin at the cut prettily spilling crimson down Shay's face. but clearly Shay's mind has already moved on- he's hungry. Jace nods, expression a silent me too. adrenaline only ever brings one of three things- fighting, fucking or food. he could go for something meaty just now. ]

" --- oui. food sounds good. fucking cheeseburger-" [ the word twists around his heavy accent and he's laughing now, still catching his breath as he stands. he looks around, brushing leaves and dirt from his clothes. ]

" --- i know where we are, i think. closest restaurant is a honky-tonk piece of shit bar a few miles up the road. good enough for you?"