#「🗑️」 𝘞𝘌𝘈𝘙 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘞𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘎 𝘊𝘓𝘖𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘚 » MAYHEMHQ

[lankirby]

@darkgeminix

🔥 — He wasn't sure she would come. It wasn't as if he had given her much to go on, beyond a simple 'hey' followed immediately by a text asking if she wanted her copy of Lord of the Flies back — and that he'd be in the square later that night if so. It had only been 16 months since he had borrowed the thing, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd picked it up.

[lankirby]

🔥 — "Oh." It was one of his versions of a sorry, a soft recognition as he is present with more context. He shrugged, nodding, feeling like he could relate with that. "Yeah, thanks but, I think I've got it handled." A lie, but he also didn't care to handle anything. Otherwise he'd have pulled an evac and fled this town months ago. If had an ounce more of sense, years ago. "You bring enough of the fun here... and I'm not that young." Which is what every young person said.

"Oh I'm aware. Not really my first time around here. Just the first time I think I'll be staying a while," she explained, content to let Landon wipe down the bar while she filed her nails. She'd already been serving drinks for a few hours, so she deserved the little break. "I'll find something to do. If not, I'm also great at making my own fun. Speaking of, we need to loosen you up a bit. You're too young to be so serious."

[lankirby]

 ⚰. →  aria shahghasemi  :  trans man : he/him :  on the outside by oingo boingo — looks like landon kirby has been driven to mystic falls. the 24-year-old human is  known for being reliable on a good day and dogmatic on a bad day. now that you mention it, when i think of them i think of WORDS ARE EASIER TO PUT TO RHYME, THE DUALITY OF THE AVERAGE OUTCAST, FOLLOWING THE HEART OVER THE HEAD, and NO PLACE FEELS LIKE HOME. lets hope they enjoy small town mystic falls, whilst they still can. ( michael ● 28 ● ctz ● he/him )

TL;DR: He is aware of the supernatural, hasn't spoken to Rafael (or anyone he might of met through him) for over a year, and works at the Mystic Grill.

Rewrite/Currently: Landon never stepped foot in the Salvatore School, but his foster brother Rafael did begin attending it. That being said, their bond was unbreakable at the time, and he was never kept in the dark about what Raf was because his brother would tell him. This carried on for a while, with Landon staying in Mystic Falls to be near him, and they maintained their relationship... for a time. He set up roots, as was the plan, but as the months passed... and he felt his brother stray further down a path he could not follow, and began to freeze Rafael out.

Now they hardly speak, and Lan is still under the assumption it was the best course of action — for the both of them. He keeps his head down, checks the paper for 'animal attacks' and tries to not draw attention to himself. Yeah, he stayed near a school for supernatural kids and in a town full of people who'd rather belittle, bully, and bait him... but where else was he going to go? And, after all was said in done, he'd be there if Raf ever needed him. If and whenever that day comes.

He's currently the shift manager at the Mystic Grill, seeing as everyone else tends to age out, and makes enough to suit his little life. He rents a room with one of the locals, so beyond that and the customers that like to film and put him up on TikTok.. he lives a pretty normal life. It wasn't exactly what he always wanted. He still felt like he didn't belong anywhere. But here was where he could rest his head, and he was (for the most part) in control of his own life. That would just have to be enough.

Wanted Dynamics / Connections: The last 6-8 years a pretty much up for grabs, as anyone could have developed a connection with Landon through either the town or Rafael. Anyone from the school would have suffered the ban hammer too and been cut off around a year ago unless he didn't know they were supernatural/went to school with Raf, or promised to stay out of the brodrama.

Wanted Canons: Rafael!!

[lankirby]

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「🗑️」 𝘞𝘌𝘈𝘙 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘞𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘎 𝘊𝘓𝘖𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘚 » MAYHEMHQ

[lankirby]

🔥 — He wore an unconvinced expression. "Sounds like, maybe they do." But he smiled, finding himself — and the topic — pretty funny as well as harmless. Maybe it was the way she said it, or maybe the words themselves were cause for thought, but Landon felt himself stuck on what she said. It was something he thought about often.. yet never for too long. "Yeah. That's one way to put it..."

"Please, they don't need to know anything about little ole me." Wendy quipped, tossing some hair over her shoulder. "This town has a way of doing that, huh? No matter how hard you try to leave something just keeps on calling you back." As much as she wanted to escape all the bad memories, Mystic Falls was home. It was what she knew. That wasn't an easy thing to shake.

[lankirby]

🔥 — "It probably goes against company policy to admit that to a customer." It wasn't that Landon tried to be funny, and also (in his opinion) diffuse the interaction as a whole. He had slipped beside her to clear off the mess the last patron left, tucking things into the tray he was holding. "Honestly, I'm just filling in for my usual guy. Family emergency." He said it less than convinced, but being flat-out lied to by your employees was was part of the job.

Sutton had spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out to inform the people of Mystic Falls without telling them too much. It was a fine line --- and one that she had walked for years. Thankfully most of that time had been quiet but things were shifting now. There were more animal attacks (and she knew what that meant). She might not be the Fell that sat on the council and was in the know but she knew enough.

With the beginnings of a headache, she pushed open the door to the Grill and moved to sit herself at the bar. After ordering a drink, she turned her head to look at the person who slipped onto the seat next to her.

"You need a drink as bad as me, hmm?"

[lankirby]

🔥 — "Yeah, uh, we're kind of a small town," he explained, wiping down the bar of the Grill as he did. "And I mean really small. Bands usually don't pick us as a stop." Which worked out for them, as they were less likely to happen upon something.. dangerous. "I'd try Richmond. There's bound to be something happening there."

"Okay it has been a minute since I've been to a concert. I want my first one in a while to be really really epic. Like the most awesome experience ever. I'm taking suggestions, but they have to have music you can dance to." Music was a huge part of her life and Lexi had endless memories involving it. In a weird way, it was one of the biggest things she had missed when she had died. Now she had to get caught up on all the amazing music that had come out over the years.

[lankirby]

🔥 — "And how much does the IRS know about?" Clearly joking, matching the energy of this rather fiery stranger. "Makes sense. I've uh, yeah, gone back and forth too. Something about it keeps pulling me back in I guess." It being Mystic Falls. But her reply did explain why he hadn't remembered seeing her around. They must've just missed one another.

"Wendy." She offered her own name. "Born and raised, just been traveling here and there for a while." Mostly to find a way to hold up her end of the bargain to Kai Parker. "Oh I have plenty of things that keep me busy."

[lankirby]

🔥 — "Technically... no one.. is?" he said slowly, sounding confused but ultimately just, not falling for it. This time. "Landon. And you're either not from around here, or that Etsy shop of yours keeps you pretty busy." There were a few reasons why he framed his response the way he did. He hoped it wouldn't backfire on him, like everything else he's said thus far.

"How convenient that I'm not required to prove anything to you then isn't it?" Wendy answered with a tilt of her head. She looked him up and down like she was trying to figure him out. "What's your name anyways Judgey boy, hmm?"

[lankirby]

🔥 — That got him, he'd admit that. "Okay. But that doesn't actually prove anything.. except maybe that I'm being exceptionally prejudiced today. I'll check that for next time." It wasn't an unlikely story, but Landon knew better than to accept the easy to explain story. He'd heard too many of those. "Sorry."

"What makes you assume it was a back alley deal?" Wendy raised an eyebrow, purposefully trying to make him have to stay on his toes. "Maybe I have an Etsy shop and that was an annoying customer who's made me do a third repair on their purchase. A girl has to make a living out here."

[lankirby]

🔥 — "No, not really," he finally said. "Not much of a jewelry guy." He was purposefully coming off as nonchalant. He'd witnessed weirder things in this town, and like usual, he tried not to get involved. Staying out of trouble meant staying out of danger. That being said, he'd been caught staring, and knew better than to start sprinting. As much as he would have liked to. He gave a show of hands, implying he wasn't going to be calling for anyone about what he saw. "Nothing wrong with a back alley deal of.. whatever that was."

Who: anyone/open starter Where: Town Square

Wendy had just finished a deal with a vampire, handing over the daylight ring she had created for them. "If you lose this one, I'm not making you another." She commented as she took the money to continue on her way, at least until she felt eyes on her. "You need something?" She asked, turning towards the person the eyes belonged to.

[lankirby]

🔥 — He wanted to tell her he knew, yes, it was his fault. The book was just an excuse, and all of this was just a bad idea wrapped in an even poorer execution... but Josie is getting emotional and scolding him and all he can do is lock up. He is frozen by a myriad of emotions, but mainly by shame, leaving him like a deer in headlights. It was his turn to say something, sort of, and he stumbled over all the things he did and didn't want to say. "I wanted it to be easy, I just. I don't know how to do this the right way." Lan had tried so hard to do the right thing, to do right by them, but this was the only amount of control he'd ever known to have over his life.. and all he'd done so far was hurt people.

“Yeah? And whose fault is that?” Josie finally looked up at him and held his gaze. “God, Landon, I don’t care about the stupid book.” Her voice cracked and she hates that tears threatened to fall. “Part of me wanted to tell you to fuck off, screw the damn book… you could have left the book out of the equation and I’d still be standing here.” She knew if they were ever going to be anything close to friends again they’d have to have an actual conversation about everything, but right now she was just throwing all of her emotions at him. “I thought about not coming, pretending like I hadn’t gotten your message would have been so easy, and less painful.” She angrily wiped the tear from her face, hoping somehow he hadn’t noticed it.



[lankirby]

🔥 — His jaw dropped, wanting to protest but—there were no words. It hurt hearing it, but it wasn't unexpected. He had prepared for this type of reaction since the day he decided it was over. "Um, yeah," he stumbled, both over his words and almost his own feet as he moved to retrieve said copy. He approached her, the closest they'd been in what felt like forever. She really did look different. Better? Or maybe he really had started to block them out. "Here, sorry." Leave it at that, Lan, "I would've sent it off with someone else but.. it, it's just me." Talking to anyone else from the school, Rafael included, was even more terrifying a thought than what was happening here. The why and how was unclear, but he was proving his hypothesis regardless.

Josie nodded, looking down at the ground. “I look about the same as I did when you disappeared from my life.” Maybe she was being cruel, part of her did want to give him a chance to explain. A bigger part of her was hurting and she wanted to let him know how she felt. Her eyes glanced up for just a second to see his reaction before she returned to staring at the sidewalk. “Do you have my book?”

[lankirby]

🔥 — The book in question had been forgotten, for the moment, on the bench behind him. "Hey," he said back, surprising himself at how solid it sounded coming out. What had he been scared of, he wanted to ask himself. That she would be angry with him? No, that she wouldn't come at all, and look. She did. "You look good."

Of course he stood when she got closer, somehow she thought it would be easier to remain angry if he stayed seated. She came to a stop a few steps away from him. “Hi…” her voice was soft, unsure. She crossed her arms, a form of putting up her defenses.

[lankirby]

🔥 — Everything between sending the text and actually arriving at the square was a blur. One minute he's staring at his phone screen... the next second, he's still staring at the phone screen, and the unanswered texts in the thread. He'd given her a time, of course, as any sane or not sane man would — and had arrived early. Just in case. It made the waiting all the more unnecessarily torturous. Why am I doing this, was all he could think. But then he heard her approach, rising quickly to his feet. The worry in his face, melting away as he laid eyes on her.

Josie had left the messages on read. Did she want her damn book back? No, it hadn't been a top priority. Did she want to see Landon, yes. Despite the hurt she felt seeing his name on her phone after months, despite that was more than angry at him, she wanted to see him. However, she wasn't going to let him know that. The last twenty minutes was spent arguing with herself on whether to go meet him or not. With a sigh she threw on a sweater and locked her door behind her. Her apartment was only a few streets away from the square, when it came into view she wished it were further.