TIMELESS

"Memory is a strange thing. It doesn't work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order. But now I'm not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings" Adam Elric Twenty-seven Witch (Time Manipulation) INTP ( mobile navigation)

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

Once the man was long gone, Willow took a few steps towards Adam, shrugging her shoulders at his apology, “I think it just makes us even now.” She pointed out, referring to the time that he had caught Willow in a moment of total anger, her rage very nearly tearing a man in half. That was something she was pretty sorry that he had to see - even if that fucker had it coming to him. 

“Either way, seems like I kept missing you when you were around.” Willow said. Exams had been in full swing and Willow had been taking extra shifts at work. Not to mention she had gone home to her parents for a little while during the holidays. “But whatever - it’s good to see you… I was just going to check in on June but I take it she’s not home, huh? I can’t see Billy’s car around.”

“I guess it does” he mentioned with a light laugh that lacked some humor to sound genuine, feeling as exposed now with his outburt of wrathful temperament as he did then with his power. His mind inevitably went back to that night, the memories so vivid he could have sworn he had lived it all just now. With the atypical way in which he perceived time, in a way, it all was just moments ago.

“I kept a low profile, I think not even June noticed when I was around” he added in a more light-hearted tone. “And I uh- I’m not good at keeping in touch...” the drifter concluded, figuring that perhaps he should have let Willow know he was in town the few days that he did spend in Norfolk before heading out again. He never had much reason to be in touch with others but now he had, and he wanted to, if he was being honest. Adam just didn’t want to bother her, even less so considering she studied and worked and surely had better things to occupy herself with.

As she spoke, he glanced towards the main entrance of the apartment and then back at her. He shook his head before he spoke “No, she’s not home yet”. A brief smile crossed his lips as an idea crossed his mind. “Do you want to maybe go grab something to eat? Catch up?”.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

The brawl between the two men had been successfully cut short by Willow’s antics and she actually was rather proud of herself. It had taken a while for her to try to channel her energy and release it in smaller doses but so far, she hadn’t been faced with many problems. At least - not for now.

With a sly grin on her face, she watched as the poor sucker rounded sheepishly to his car and got in. It didn’t take too long before the engine roared to life and they were speeding down the road, Willow waving him goodbye in the process, “You know the guys in this town are getting thicker by the second.” She mused, turning around now to face Adam again. A more genuine smile graced her lips now as she readjusted the bag that hung over her shoulder. It was good to see him, especially since it had been quite some time since he had up and left them for journeys beyond Norfolk.

“So…  Trading travelling for car mechanics, Adam?” Willow quipped, “Long time no see - I can’t help but thing you’ve downgraded your lifestyle by coming back here though.” She teased.

After the Corvette douchebag drove away Adam had to really focus on calming down, still feeling his blood nearly boiling inside him. His temper did get the best of him but he was still feeling some of that anger had been reined in. He let out an exasperated breath because of what just went down thanks to that moron but he was frankly grateful that he was gone now. “Yeah, well, apparently Norfolk’s rubbing on me” he mused in a low tone, meeting Willow’s gaze. It wasn’t really Norfolk’s influence on him, of course, it was just how he’d always been. As quiet and calm as Adam regularly was, if certain buttons were pushed, he could reach a point of explosion. “Sorry you had to see that” the drifter said sounding somewhat ashamed and then went ahead to pack back his tools into a metal box he’d left by the side of the road.

“I need to be able to pay my half of rent” he explained, wiping the dark stains from his hands with a piece of cloth that hanged from his belt. “And I really didn’t travel much. I’ve just been just going back and forth to some of the towns around Norfolk”. He’d been to Marysville, Arlington, Stanwood, Conway, Burlington and Wickersham in the past two months. They were all quick trips, just a couple of days spent in each place, no more than a week in each. But travelling to one town and coming back to Norfolk just to go away again for a few days ultimately made it feel like he wasn’t in Norfolk much. He found himself missing the place, oddly enough. He missed that feeling of connection to the town, of feeling like he actually had a home, and that there were people like Willow and June who apparently liked having him around. “Doesn’t feel much like a downgrade, you know? I keep finding myself thinking that I want to come back here. It’s the closest thing I have to a home”.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Willow said, pulling a sarcastic, sickeningly sweet smile at the man before her attention turned back to Adam, “Are you okay?” But she didn’t manage to gain a response from Adam just yet. Not while the fucker didn’t know how to shut his mouth for even a minute. Instead, he looked at her as if she was nothing, not a threat to him at all. How naïve. He had no idea that the petite young woman could break every bone in his body if he angered her enough. 

Her response died in her throat when the stranger called her a bitch the moment Adam pushed him back against the wall, no doubt, this was about to turn uglier by the second. But how could she intervene without drawing attention to her gift? Then another thought occurred to her - who the fuck cared. Her eyes turned towards the man’s car and the corners of her lips twitched into a smile. With her hand beside thigh, her fingers curled into a fist, tightening as if gathering that energy and then with one quick and swift twitch of her wrist - bang. The window screen of the man’s precious shattered into tiny pieces. 

Willow played along feigning surprise for a moment before she looked at the two men, “Holy shit - the craziest shit happens here in Little Fortune, huh? You’re probably gonna need more than my friend here to fix that so why don’t you run along now and sort that out bitch.”

Are you okay? Willow asked and he wanted to answer to her but the Corvette douchebag was still talking shit, to both of them this time. So all the young man could do was give a quick, curt nod in response. He was severely pissed off, but all in all he was okay and he appreciated her asking.

There was a pained sound from the guy when Adam slammed him to the wall. Air nearly escaped the guy in full and the drifter very much hoped that lack of air would keep him from talking. A strained curse began to escape that moron’s mouth and Adam ended up moving his hand to the guy’s throat, applying enough pressure to choke any sound. “I said that’s enough” the young man spoke with severity, charcoal eyes seeming more menacing by the second.

Both men turned to the car when the shattering sound exploded close by and the pieces of glass fell to the asphalt. For a second there Adam nearly smiled, fully aware of just what had broken the window screen in such a way. Or rather, who. He glanced at her briefly, silently grateful that she’d done that. His attention went back to Corvette owner and finally released that asshole from his grip. “You should leave” he stated in a rough tone that gave away his anger was still in there and it would explode again as the guy didn’t do as he told him For once, the moron didn’t snap back. He just looked at both of them with contained shock in his eyes and got into his Corvette to drive away. 

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

Willow had been on her way back from another day of work which seemed to be the hot time for something strange or bad to happen, apparently. But today was slightly different, mostly because the strange thing wasn’t happening directly to her. In fact, it was happening to an old face that she hadn’t seen for quite some time. She had decide to stop by at June’s place to catch up and maybe she should have known better when entering Little Fortune that the assholes were bound to show their faces around here. Poor Adam.

“Hey!” She called out to the two men after Adam the other to gain their attention. Her eyebrows rose at them, folding her arms over her chest, “Is there a problem here?” She asked, which earned a scoff from the man’s lips as he rolled his eyes at Willow and seemed like he was about to retaliate.

His attention shifted to Willow when she spoke. It had been a while since he last saw her, and if the situation had been different, he would have definitely shown he was glad to see her again. Her intervention was almost enough to rein in his anger. Almost. “And who the hell are you? Coming to protect your trailer trash buddy?” the guy snapped back at the young woman, wearing his bravado and sense of entitlement as the crowning jewels of his superiority. He looked at her up and down like she was nothing, much like he’d done with Adam earlier: ‘You’re the guy who’s supposed to fix my car?’ he’d asked with disbelief after walking out of his shiny, new Corvette. The drifter could understand the skepticism if it was due to the fact that he wasn’t a professional mechanic. He soon discovered that wasn’t the reason. As it turned out, it was all because he looked a certain way, with tape around his boots, worn out clothes and tattoos on his hands.

“You know what? This is none of your fucking business so back off, bitch”. Those words were an even more effective trigger than any shit the man could have spewed earlier. Without a word Adam’s hand was on the guy’s sternum and he pushed his back towards a wall. “That’s enough!” Adam’s voice came out in a low, gravelly tone, very much as a threat that was not to be taken lightly. All of it emphasized by the way his eyes seemed darkened with pure, unadulterated fury.

[adam-elric]

@willow-pine

“What the hell did you say?” his voice was low, almost a growl, and he quickly turned towards the guy that had just opened his mouth to make a comment about the drifter. It took a very specific type of asshole to push Adam’s buttons, but once someone succeeded there was little the young man could do to hold back the flare of anger within.

After fixing Nicholas’ car the weatherman had gotten word around Norfolk that Adam was a good mechanic. Eventually more people sought out his service and he had been earning some money in the past weeks by fixing their vehicles. The sidewalk in front of the apartment he shared with Juniper had been his improvised workspace since then.

Usually the clients were decent enough but today he’d been particularly unlucky, as some entitled douchebag brought him a Corvette and made sure to say every single condescending and derogatory comment he could make while Adam worked. Enough was enough, though. So the drifter ended up dropping the tool on his hand and stalked towards the guy, brusquely pushing him back with little regard to the fact that they were in the middle of the street.

[adam-elric]

The past doesn't just influence the future. The future also influences the past

Dark (2017)

[adam-elric]

Yesterday, today and tomorrow are not consecutive. They are connected in a never-ending circle

Dark (2017)

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

juniperpark

All she could do was shrug when Willow acted mildly offended on her own behalf. It’s not like she actually thought Willow might paralyze Billy but she had to double check. With her, it could go either way and she wasn’t quite sure when she was kidding and when she wasn’t. “What? I was just checking, jeez.” Juniper rolled her eyes, finishing off the slice of pizza she’d had moments ago. Now she was on to the second piece. “Oh, that might be fun. Just shave his head while he’s sleeping? He’s a heavy sleeper, we could get away with that.” They were both giggling at the idea now, an obvious plot against her clueless boyfriend. Poor Billy…he really didn’t know what he was getting into here. Then again, he was the one with the cool mysterious dreamwalking abilities. But she couldn’t shake off the strange feeling she got knowing Adam knew about Willow’s abilities too. Why did he know? Because he’d just walked in on her nearly killing a guy? And why had he been so calm about it? He didn’t even flinch when Willow spoke, in fact, he didn’t say anything. This was all just a little…suspicious. “No, no, no, hey don’t feel like you have to explain yourself to me. Some dick wouldn’t leave you alone. I wish I had your abilities to put them in their place.” 

She would’ve let it go. In fact, she’d intended to let it go, but Willow went ahead and demonstrated what she meant anyway. Juniper looked down at her hand, noting the way her fingers tightened around the edge of the kitchen counter and wouldn’t budge. It was like a fucking death grip, and if it were any harder it might cut into her skin. She breathed a sigh of relief when Willow stopped, taking her hand off the counter to examine it. Only a small mark was left in her skin, slightly red but nothing serious. Willow would never hurt her, Juniper trusted that she wouldn’t. “Like I said Willow, you don’t have to explain yourself to me.” She smiled softly at her friend before turning her attention back to Adam. Enough serious talk, now it was time for some fun. “That whole no boys allowed thing was never enforced at my parties, are you kidding me? Then again, I never really went to a party that didn’t involve drink and sex, so…anyway, I’m up for anything. Willow you pick, it’s your night.” 

@willow-pine· 

Willow was pretty much an open book in her heart. She didn’t particularly see the point in sugarcoating anything nor did she see much of a point in skimming over the details. When people did that to her, it was frustrating. She just wanted to know what was going on - she’d want to know everything. So that was why she went into the full details to answer Juniper’s question. So when she was done - there was no need for any further questioning, they could just move onto something else. Adam being there too made her feel a little more at ease about the memory. It was a scary night, not so much about what could have happened to her but what she could have done to that man. The pure anger in her body was something of a nightmare and she couldn’t believe the strength she had while doing it. It taught her how important control was, even in her most angriest of moments, she had to hold back the evil that her powers no doubt held. She had to be careful. “It was better for me to explain shit anyway - It wasn’t exactly my finest hour.” Willow admitted, folding her arms now and shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

Luckily for her, the conversation moved swiftly on. Adam was taking a drink and a smile pulled on her lips at his expectation. She shook her head, “Nah, boys are welcome. You’re staying.” She chuckled with a playful wink before her bottle clinked with his and she took a swig of her drink. “So what? This party isn’t going to include drink and sex, J?” Willow asked, playfully, “Well fuck, I’ve turned up at the wrong place.” She joked, “Uh… I dunno. I’m fine with truth or dare - I’m not exactly the best at picking games rather than just doing them… Plus Adam - how can you not have played this before? I think that calls for a introduction to the game.” 

@adam-elric·

He briefly glanced at Juniper when she spoke of the sort of parties she went to. Parties that involved drinking and sex... Not his type of party at all. Parties in general weren’t much of his thing, but at least this little gathering only involved the only two people that he’d begun to get close to since his arrival to this town. It shouldn’t make him feel uneasy as some social events sometimes did, as long as long as their joke of sex and drinking stayed a joke. He didn’t have much of a problem with the drinking part, though, even if he’d recently discovered he couldn’t take that much alcohol due to the fact that he only sporadically consumed it.

“We uh- we didn’t play that where I grew up” he responded with a shrug. He’d mention a thing or two to Willow about Ms. Reed’s orphanage already and she would know by that, that it certainly didn’t sound like the place where they could drink and play something like that. “So, what’s the introduction? Because the game sounds pretty self-explanatory” he spoke before raising the beer to his lips. Memories of moments began to appear in his mind and it inevitably caused him to smile a little, taking in more of that sensation of familiarity that Willow and Juniper could awake.

@juniper-park·

[adam-elric]

nicholasgaunt:

Nicholas let his glance rest on the young man that approached them without hesitation. Nathan had made him more aware of the effect he had on others, but now he couldn’t help wondering if everyone who volunteered to help or any service that was provided to him was simply offered because he was Nicholas Gaunt, the presenter of the local news. However, he recognized this young man from Founder’s day. Nicholas doubted he would already have a door opening reputation to someone who has only moved here a few weeks ago. “That would be very kind of you, thank you.” He let his tongue slide over his lips. “I am afraid I have forgotten your name, but I do remember we met, if I am correct?”

He received the man’s thanks even if he hadn’t in fact done anything yet, so all the drifter could do in response was nod. His eyes were already set on the car, ready to get straight away to the fixing bit without bothering to exchange more words. But the other man asked his name and so the drifter glanced up again. “Adam” he responded in his usual neutral tone. He did recall Nicholas, just as he recalled everyone he ever crossed paths with “Yeah, at Founder’s Day. You interviewed me”.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

adamelric

Adam was generally mindful of his personal space, not breaching into someone else’s and not allowing others to get very close to him. In spite of the surprising move, he found that Willow’s closeness didn’t bother him. It was that special familiarity he felt with her, the one that told him that in this present time and in the time to come this young woman was important.

Her eyes had been following that scar of his while his own stayed on her and then just as she brought that proximity between them, she was the one to bring a normal kind of distance again. “It’s definitely a good thing” he stated back with a light smile. Her next words managed to take that small gesture of his and turn it into a brighter, fuller smile that was even accompanied by a chuckle. “Too much attitude?” he repeated with some disbelief in his tone. People actually said that to her? “I think that definitely has to be a good thing as well”.

The drifter took his shot and failed to pocket any of his assigned balls. He then moved around to collect their two empty glasses to take them to bartender and have them refilled. Their pool game wasn’t over yet and neither were the questions the were asking each other so a third glass of whiskey was surely in order. His peculiar time awareness wasn’t necessary to let him know they would be here for quite a while.

She had the confidence and the drive to just do what she wanted and that was something that Willow had always done. Nothing held her back, simply because she didn’t think about the consequences of her actions. Maybe that was what caused such a reckless behaviour to flow from her veins but she couldn’t help it. Even something as simple as invading Adam’s personal space was an impulsive move that probably wouldn’t have been your typical move from someone else. At least Adam didn’t seem to mind though, if he had recoiled away from her, she would have taken that response and not done it again but he seemed… Comfortable and she was too.

Willow smiled at him, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, “Well, at least you don’t seem to mind.” She chuckled, “I’ll take it as a compliment then.” The night went along just like that. Laughs and drinks, balls that pocketed and near shots that made her or him groan. She was relaxed and lost track of the time, but Adam made the night easy, he made it young.

END.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

juniperpark

Pizza was a good way to soothe the soul, and in this case Juniper’s soul definitely needed the soothing. She bit into a slice of pizza and sighed deeply, eyes making sure to trail the booze taken from the bag in Willow’s arms. Shit pizza and booze? This was Christmas. Juniper hopped onto the counter as she watched the two exchanged a look. What the fuck was going on? Did they know something she didn’t? If Willow didn’t spill the details now, Juniper would definitely be asking later. She’d never seen Adam smile before, and he didn’t exactly seem like a smiley kind of guy…She nearly choked on a piece of pepperoni when Willow went into detail of how the two became acquainted. “Wow…that’s quite the origin story. I thought I was special Willow, what the fuck? Do you tell all the cool kids about your psychic abilities?” So Adam knew about the uh…floaty feather stuff. Interesting. She didn’t really know what to make of that, so instead of question it, Juniper shrugged and continued to eat her pizza. “Wait hold on, can we back up a sec because my brain just processed that you said ‘nearly paralyzed a man,’ and I’m just a little concerned since you threatened my boyfriend already if he wronged me…you wanna explain that?”

Hell no. Willow didn’t get to pick and choose what she told her, that wasn’t fair. Then again, Juniper hadn’t told Willow jack shit about her shitty home life…well this was more important. This was definitely the type of thing friends told each other. Juniper grabbed her own bottle of beer and popped the top on the side of the counter. One nice thing about this shitty apartment was it made good use as a bottle opener. “You’re not crashing our plans Adam, you’re joining them. What do you crazy cats wanna do? Oh, a game of truth or dare? A little dance off, there’s so many possibilities.” She wiggled her eyebrows a little as the top of the beer bottle pressed against her lips.

@willow-pine

Willow shrugged her shoulders, “Like I said, it wasn’t exactly planned.” She pointed out before letting out a laugh when Juniper backed up and inquired more on what she had said. Willow rolled her eyes playfully, shaking her head, “It’s not like I’m actually going to paralyse your boyfriend if he hurts you, Juniper, Jesus. I have some class you know.” The young woman joked, “For him it’s like I’ll hit him with a pillow or cut off his hair when he’s sleeping, things that he’d probably get over - besides, hair grows.” She clarified, her back leaning against the counter top now, feeling rather bad for what had happened that night. Even if the man deserved it, she shouldn’t have done it. “A guy wouldn’t leave me alone, he grabbed me and attacked me so I just - I fought back.” Willow said carefully, “When I said I can move anything, J, it also means I can stop things as well. So… Movement -” A demonstration - her she focused some of her energy on Juniper’s hand, not enough to hurt but enough to stop her from moving it, “Try and move your fingers.” She encouraged, knowing that it wasn’t possible and the moment it was tested, Willow released her. “I stopped him from moving, I was… Pretty much crushing him from the inside out.” Willow bit the inner corner of her cheek, shamefully, eyes glancing over at Adam again to seek some reassurance, “Anyway - he snapped me out of putting the guy in hospital. I’m not proud of it, I just, you know - wasn’t thinking at the time.” Truthfully, Willow didn’t know how Juniper was going to react to that. She probably should have just kept that story between herself and Adam but since it had come up, she had little choice but to elaborate.

When the drink was still in her hand, Willow furrowed her brows at Adam, though the corners of her lips were curled into a smile that read ‘Really?’ How could he even think that they’d exclude him when he was right here? Luckily, Juniper beat her to it, “What did you think we were gonna do? Drink and eat pizza and leave up a sign that said ‘no boys allowed’, Adam?” She teased, thrusting the beer bottle into his chest now and patting his arm for good measure. “I’d be up for a bit of truth or dare - takes me back to being fifteen… Or you know, we could watch Harry Potter and drink every time they do a spell or Malfoy says Potter.” She chuckled.

@adam-elric

He had hoped they could just skip the whole episode of the creep Willow paralyzed, in part because he didn’t want there to be any verbal slip-ups that could lead to the revelation of his own powers to Juniper, but mostly it was because of the look Willow sent him. They couldn’t skip that part because Juniper asked for details and the young psychic was made to talk about it. He could bet she was only opening up about it to her friend precisely because she was her friend, otherwise she probably would have kept that story to herself. The drifter could detect some shame in her glance and he knew his own eyes softened. He wasn’t all that good at offering reassurance or comfort, but at least in that moment he was capable of silently conveying through a light nod that it was okay. What she’d done had been necessary in order to keep that man from exerting his power to harrass her further and abuse her.

Adam blinked in silence for a second. When she put it like that, it did sound silly that he actually thought so. Maybe it was narrow-minded of his part but he did assume his roommate and her would be having a girls night to eat and talk, where boys had no part in it. “Uh- kind of” he admitted, smiling sheepishly at her and accepting the beer. “I’ve never played that” he mused out loud, glancing at both of them. The name was pretty telling, he could assume what ‘Truth or dare’ would entail. He took a sip of his beer and waited for their veredict on what to do. Frankly, he was up for whatever they chose.

@juniper-park

[adam-elric]

juniper-park:

Ah, at least someone had a good memory around here. Juniper’s was lacking and she tended to blame alcohol. “You know, I’m glad you’ve got a good memory actually. Mine’s horrible.” She said with a light shrug, hoping up onto the counter beside the coffee maker. What to do…well, she had to be at work in three hours, but there was plenty of time to sneak something fun in. Juniper feet dangled off the counter top’s edge, the tips of her toes nearly touched the ground but not quite. She’d been so focused on that when Adam’s snappy remark threw her back a little. “Whoa, handyman can bite back. I mean- yeah, you’re right fine.” It wasn’t fair to have him go around the apartment fixing shit. Wait…she had a boyfriend now. She could make him do it. A small smile spread wide across her thin lips, and she couldn’t help but chuckle lowly. It sounded mildly like an evil sort of throaty chuckle, one that might make someone take a step back.

“Sure, sure, no that’s totally fine. I’ve uh, I’ve got a boy for that now away and he’s right next door. Which reminds me, rule on people over. There is no rule unless it’s like more than one person, then just text me or something. Oh, and don’t have a lot of people over super late, because I work and I will kill you if there’s noise. Wait do you even have friends?” Ah, there it was. Classic Juniper ramble. She was a rather quiet girl unless prompted to be quite loud, then she would voice her opinion. “Anyway, why haven’t you unpacked yet? It’s been almost twenty-four hours. That’s a whole day Adam.” The coffee had gone forgotten until naturally the mug rose to her lips and she took a sip. Oh yeah, she made coffee. Awesome.

Adam wasn’t sure if the words ‘bite back’ were accurate for the way he replied to her. All he wanted was not to become Juniper’s doormat, he’d already been stepped on plenty of times in the past. It was quite relieving that she didn’t fight him about it, the girl just accepted his response and laughed a bit for some reason he couldn’t fully comprehend. It probably had something to do with the boy she had next door, who could probably be coerced to do fix stuff around the place.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Juniper, I won’t be bringing people here” he affirmed without any shadow of a doubt. He was very clearly not the sociable, friendly type, so she shouldn’t be concerned about that people rule. It went without saying that he was the quiet kind, so there would also be no noise to disturb her.

There were more questions thrown his way than he would have like. There she was doing the overstepping again and all the drifter did was raise his eyebrows a little so she would become aware of that fact. Adam just took a sip of his coffee, making it evident that he wouldn’t give her the answers she wanted. “It’s not a problem, is it?” he asked rather casually, if only to enhance how much it couldn’t be a problem that his few things were still inside his bag. “Unless you want to borrow a book, then I’ll gladly take it out” he finished, just so they could maintain a more light-hearted conversation. Of course, the drifter barely had any worldly possessions but he always carried around those six books.

[adam-elric]

justhannaharmstrong:

Hannah felt the tips of her fingers sweating a little. “Okay, I will add births too.” She quickly typed in the words and stared at her screen. She was sure that if she would press enter, she would still get too many results. “Is there anything else that could be helpful?” She looked up at the young man and her eyes met his.

What else could he add? He didn’t know anything else. “No, I don’t have more information” he stated back, waiting for the girl to hit the search button so he could see all the options displayed before him. Even if he didn’t get exactly what he was after he could gain more clues leading him a certain direction and that was good enough for him.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

juniperpark

It was rare Juniper had a night off from Two Crows, but after seeing a text from Willow about pizza and booze, it was hard to ignore the several sick days she had yet to use. Tonight would be one of them. She’d been in her room changing into jeans and talking on the phone with Billy when she heard a knock at the door. “Fuck. Hey babe, my friend’s at the door I gotta go. Don’t work too late, because you know, you have that dreamwalking thing, and if you fall asleep at your desk who knows what sorry son of a bitch will be stuck with your ass in a dream.” Juniper heard a clear sigh on the other end, which meant he was rolling his eyes. Even through the phone Juniper had Billy pegged. As he replied however, Juniper could already hear Adam answering the door. Fuck, she hadn’t actually introduced them yet, that might be awkward. “See you tomorrow, bye!” She finished, hanging up the phone and quickly stuffing it into her back pocket. Neither of them had said ‘I love you,’ yet, and hell, it took Juniper several weeks to have a talk about being exclusive and she still couldn’t probably introduce Billy as her boyfriend. The words ‘I love you’ would not be in the near future. More like they’d be in the very, very distant future.

Pepperoni and sausage pizza could be smelt through her fucking door, and it guided Juniper out of her. The door burst open, an obvious sound of her grand entrance as she approached Adam and Willow, two perfect strangers- or maybe not. The closer she approached, the more comfortable they looked together. Adam was even sort of smiling. The fuck? Juniper stopped, frozen in place as her eyes went from her friend to her roommate. “Did you guys really get acquainted that fast, or did I miss something?” Boxes of pizza distracted Juniper momentarily as her eyes fell directly on them in Willow’s hands. She took them from her, placing them on the counter so she could open them up. “Yes, you don’t even know how fucking excited I am for this!” Wait, they were talking about something…oh right. Willow and Adam, did they know each other, blah, blah, blah. “Do you two know each other?” Juniper asked in curiosity, eyeing the both of them as she took out a slice of pizza.

When his lips curled up into a smile, Willow smiled more at him, raising her brows as a sign of questioning. “The Moonlight Motel…” Willow repeated, nodding her head as Adam explained himself to her. Hadn’t she met him not to far away from that place but she hadn’t pieced that information together yet. “Oh yeah, that’s right - she mentioned getting a roommate, I just didn’t know it was you.” She admitted, sheepishly while allow him to take the things from her and hugged her arms. Willow pursed her lips together, feeling a little awkward only because her conversation with Juniper had consisted of Willow teasingly saying that she had a man next door and a man in her apartment, even asking if this roommate of hers was cute - only Willow knew the answer to that question before she had even known who her roommate was. “For now… Well, it’s nice to see that you’re still with us, Tick-Tock.” She teased.

Her attention was pulled from Adam as Juniper emerged from her bedroom, frozen in step, to which Willow cleared her throat, “Hey!” She greeted and walked over to the bag that she had brought, pushing it down to take out the booze that she had bought, “Oh yeah, we know each other, hung out in a bar…” She said, looking over at Adam again, “I give him a quick tour, we got some food one night and not to long ago he stopped me from nearly paralysing a man who was harassing me.” She explained looking over at June again, “Oh yeah, he knows about the psychic stuff, J. No biggie.” Seeing as she didn’t know if Juniper knew of Adam’s gift, she neglected to talk about that and would refrain from any more time related nicknames for now though she did wonder if Adam had seen this coming. Seen himself living with her friend in future, that is. Looking round to him again, she held out a chilled beer bottle in offering, “Bottom’s up?”

@adam-elric​

Yeah, The Moonlight Motel. Apparently that place had a particular sort of reputation around here because every time he mentioned the place people looked at him a certain way. “I needed a place to sleep” he told Willow as a justification of sorts about why he ended up in that dingy motel, but those very words also justified why he’d ended up living with Juniper now. He offered a light smile at her as he took the pizza boxes from her, raising his eyebrows a bit as he give her a silent look of ‘Surprise!’ since he was the roommate Juniper spoke about. The pizza boxes went from her hands to Adam’s, to June’s and finally to the counter where their gracious host could open them to begin eating.

Tick-Tock. There it was, the nickname again. The drifter responded with a smile to her teasing, then turning to Juniper as she began to question whether they just got acquainted impossibly fast or if they knew each other. Willow took care of it, giving her friend a summarized account of the times they’d run into each other. It was more detailed than he expected and he nearly an mild heart-attack when Willow carefreely mentioned the incident with the man at the alley. She didn’t talk at all about how exactly he stopped her from paralyzing the creep, talking only about her psychic powers. So Juniper knew too. How would the girl react to learning about what he could do? Unfortunately, he had no memories of that yet so he didn’t know.

Willow offered a beer bottle to him and he looked a little perplexed as he glanced from the bottle to her. He’d been assuming all this time that this pizza-and-drinks scenario only included the two of them. “I uh- I don’t want to crash on your plans of the night” he stated with prudence, not wanting to be rude to Willow but not wanting to rob Juniper of whatever plan she had for the night with her friend.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

@adam-elric

Willow hopped off the bus once reaching Little Fortune, two fresh pizzas in hand and a blue plastic bag filled with booze hanging over her wrist. She had just finished up from her shift at work and figured she could head down to visit Juniper. After shooting her a quick text to see if she was free and what kind of pizzas she wanted, Willow made her way over, telling two inappropriate strangers to fuck off when they shot a cat call her way. Honestly, she didn’t know how June could deal with this. Little Fortune had character, but of the wrong sort and travelling down there at night was enough to make anyone feel uneasy. 

Regardless, she used her shoulder to push the dodgy front door of the Wembley building and took the stairs to apartment fifty and knocked on the front door. From the other side, she heard footsteps approaching - ones that she assumed belonged to Juniper but was surprised to find that it was Adam who was on the other side of the door. It took her a moment to make sense of - did she get the right apartment? Of course she had. “Hey!” She said then, letting out a confused laugh in the process. It was always good to see him, she just didn’t expect to see him here so she was a little caught off guard. “Uh…. I brought pizzas -” She said, gesturing to the boxes in her hands, “I didn’t know you were a friend of June’s… Is she here?” 

Adam froze for a second after he opened the door since he expected to find a stranger that came here looking for Juniper, not someone he actually knew. He could read the confusion and surprise on Willow’s expression as well when she saw him and he knew they were probably mirror images of each other in that moment, looking equally clueless. As his brain continued to process this unexpected encounter, his lips had already gone ahead to curve into a small smile “Hi”.

His eyes darted down to the boxes and pizza and then that plastic bag hanging from her wrist. He reached out to help her carry some of that stuff as he glanced back up at her. This was the part where he explained why on earth he was in Juniper’s apartment, otherwise it would just be plain weird. “Yeah, she needed a roommate to split rent with and I needed a better place to live than The Moonlight Motel. So here I am, for now”. He didn’t even have to confirm that Juniper was at home because the footsteps he heard approaching them were telling enough.

[adam-elric]

willow-pine:

And that was where they were similar - the need to find out who they were according to their biological background. Only… Perhaps Willow felt a little more attached given the fact that her biological parents didn’t willingly get rid of her. It was a horrific circumstance that left them with the choice of either sacrificing themselves and letting their baby girl live or she were to perish in that fire along with them. Honestly, Willow couldn’t imagine having to make such a horrible decision but here she was today and even though she didn’t know who those people were, she was grateful. Grateful that she had been given the chance to breathe and see the world, it would be a disgrace to their memory if she were to waste such a precious gift.

She would live her life under a different name, one that Adam kindly pointed out was rather unique and she would agree - Willow did feel more like her name even though the only reason why she thought that was because she had lived with the name her entire life now. It was a mystery as to whether she would have been a different person if she had grown up with her biological parents but she was pretty certain that would have been the case. For one, she would have grown up here, in Norfolk. Not in Brooklyn, New York. She wondered if her parents would have been just as strict and careful with her as her adopted ones were, whether they would have homeschooled her or had left her out to see the world without Willow having to do that for herself? They were questions which would never be answered - questions better off unthought of and forgotten.

Her actions had been impulsive, something that Willow hadn’t even thought for a second might have been intrusive to Adam’s personal space. Perhaps she should have been more in tune with the fact that perhaps he didn’t want her so close to him but she felt comfortable - like she assumed he wouldn’t mind. She went on to talk of her own story and grinned at his conclusion that he drew from it, “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Willow teased, taking a step back in order to widen the gap between herself and the man, “Pretty sure people would agree that I’ve got a little too much attitude already - if this were avoided, might have knocked me down a few.” She chuckled. 

Adam was generally mindful of his personal space, not breaching into someone else’s and not allowing others to get very close to him. In spite of the surprising move, he found that Willow’s closeness didn’t bother him. It was that special familiarity he felt with her, the one that told him that in this present time and in the time to come this young woman was important.

Her eyes had been following that scar of his while his own stayed on her and then just as she brought that proximity between them, she was the one to bring a normal kind of distance again. “It’s definitely a good thing” he stated back with a light smile. Her next words managed to take that small gesture of his and turn it into a brighter, fuller smile that was even accompanied by a chuckle. “Too much attitude?” he repeated with some disbelief in his tone. People actually said that to her? “I think that definitely has to be a good thing as well”.

The drifter took his shot and failed to pocket any of his assigned balls. He then moved around to collect their two empty glasses to take them to bartender and have them refilled. Their pool game wasn’t over yet and neither were the questions the were asking each other so a third glass of whiskey was surely in order. His peculiar time awareness wasn’t necessary to let him know they would be here for quite a while.

[adam-elric]

juniper-park:

“Well that’s a relief.” It’d been a joke but hell, she didn’t know a lot about Adam maybe he did eat squirrel meat. Better to find out now rather than later. She watched Adam move through her- well now their kitchen with ease, narrowing her eyes when he found the cups so easily. “One day in this apartment and you know where the mugs are? Did you make yourself a diagram and memorize it while I was gone?” It was a little weird, but not weird enough to raise suspicion. So he knew where the damn mugs were, so what? Maybe he’d looked for them last night and found them while she was out. Juniper didn’t really care if he looked around the apartment to find his way about things. Though she of course minded if the place he looked was her room. “Oh shit, I guess that’s the hospitable thing to do? Wait a couple days before asking for favors? I thought we discussed that I’m not exactly a nice person already…” Had they not had the ‘I’m a bitch, get used to it,’ talk yet? How could that be in he’d already moved in? Oh well, he knew now. Juniper had the pot ready when he turned around with the mugs, pouring the black liquid carefully into the small, limited amount of space.

She turned so her back rested against the counter and her eyes reached the living room. The mug was lifted into her hands and pressed to her lips for sheer bliss…thank god she had coffee now. “I mean it’s just a couple hinges coming off, and the landlord sucks ass and won’t fix them. But you’re cool right? You’re cool weird guy who’d sleep in the woods and fix my hinges.” Maybe that sounded weird, but Juniper hardly noticed. She was drinking her cup of coffee and that’s all she cared about.

“Well, I have good memory” he responded in earnest. After all, it was his memory that allowed him to be so familiarized with this place already. He didn’t explain anything else because it wasn’t really necessary. She could just assume that he’d found the cupboard with cups earlier. Adam was hardly expecting Juniper to be hospitable but he decided not to say it. “Yeah, we discussed it. We also discussed I’m your roommate now, I’m not your handyman”. This deal with her had gotten him out of a situation in which he had to pay and work to afford a crappy motel room. Now he had to pay half the rent and also do work? No, he didn’t think so.

He blew a few times over his cup of coffee before he glanced up at her. “Look, I can fix those hinges. Just don’t assume I’ll be around to fix everything you want whenever you want, okay?”. He could very easily fix those hinges that were coming off, he just didn’t want Juniper to think she now had a live-in handyman that would fix whatever she wanted at her beck and call.