#aeri.ephraim1

[avdaciter]

It was actually funny to think that some of her closest friends would have been a ghost,    a vampire and now an angel. In more ways possible, she couldn't help but feeling blessed by the companies she was keeping in Portum. Each, very distinct from the other, but all all equal in how much she cherished them. "A flight risk?" Aeri couldn't help but chuckling as she approached the curly-haired man, gently taking the rag from his hands to brush softly over his right brow, which had been the victim of his absentminded wipe. "I never said that." The brunette scrunched her nose a bit. Old habits clung to her heart and made her hesitate in staying. No... she had never said that Haneul was a flight risk, but maybe this was his way of saying he didn't want her company as often as she did. It was okay. She understood.

I just enjoy coming here. She thought of saying, but who in their right mind would actually enjoy coming to an auto shop to chat with one of the mechanics? Lonely people, of course... which, Aeri couldn't deny she was.

For the most part.

Still, she brushed those ugly feelings that threatened taking over her chest like that with a chuckle. A nervous one, but a chuckle nonetheless. "Make sure to bundle up, Sky. It's freezing outside." Haneul... her sky. "I have exciting news. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this psychometry... My nose didn't bleed the last time I tried. What about you? What will be talking about during coffee?"

a  nickname  had  allowed  ephraim   to  adjust  to  this  whole  earth  thing,  the  unfamiliarity  of  the  ground  beneath  his  feet  and  the  absence  of  wind  through  his  wings.  sometimes  he  still  felt  for  them,  a  hand  between  his  shoulder  blades,  feeling  the  hard  piece  of  bone  that  had  once  been  the  beginning  of  two  white,  spanning  arcs  of  feathers.  ephraim  barely  recognised  himself.  it  would  have  been  a  longer  adjustment  without  her  —  aeri,  the  friend  that  had  picked  him  up  off  the  ground,  brushed  him  down,  given  him  a  name.   the  mechanic  grabbed  a  nearby  rag  and  rolled  the  cloth  over  his  dirty  hands  as  he  stood  from  the  tarmac.  “a  coffee?”  his  face  was  split  by  a  smile,  “i’d  love  to.  i  could  probably  leave  this  thing  for  an  hour.  it’s  not  like  it’s  going  to  spark  back  to  life  and  drive  itself  away!”  an  overly  loud  laugh,  perhaps  to  compensate  for  all  those  moments  where  he  hadn’t  quite  understood  earth  humor.  “i’m  not  a  flight  risk,  you  know,  aeri.  you  don’t  have  to  check  in  so  much.”

[avdaciter]

Ever since meeting Ephraim,   her Haneul as she liked calling the angel by, Aeri found herself wandering to him from time to time. Today was one of those days where she didn't have much to work on, and that made her want to pay him a visit at the auto shop. Demons, she had met some... many, actually. Ghosts, too. Ghosts had been a constant in her life even before Portum had been part of her reality, but angels? Angels were something new to her, and Haneul-ya, adorably lost as he was, brought such peace to her chest, that she couldn't help but wanting to know more of him.

"I was wondering if you wanted to grab a cup of coffee with me?" She smiled, hoping Ephraim would be able to go on a break. "Or... I can buy us some. I just wanted to check in on how you were doing."

open starter      /       THE GOLDEN PISTON   ,     with     utp !

if  it  wasn’t  for  the  slight,   rosy  glow  that  outlined  ephraim  cain,  the  marks  on  his  back  from  where  his  wings  had  once  been,  he  would  have  assumed  he  was  some  sort  of  alien.  crash-landed,  lost,  abandoned  by  his  home  planet  —  he  might  as  well  have  been,  with  the  amount  of  questions  that  rolled  about  his  head  on  any  given  day.  angels  were  cast  down  to  earth  for  a  reason,  he  had  been  taught  that  before  he  fully  comprehended  speech,  and  usually  they  had  somebody  —  or  something  —  to  protect.  instead,  ephraim  was  like  a  lost  puppy  without  a  collar,  burdened  to  walk  the  earth  clueless  and  lost,  his  compass  permanently  pointing  in  the  opposite  direction. one  place  he  knew  he  belonged  was  the  auto  shop.  ephraim  swept  his  hair  from  his  face,  running  the  back  of  his  hand  across  his  forehead,  wiping  a  dark  smear  of  grease  over  the  expanse  of  skin.  the  shadow  of  another  cast  over  his  working  form  before  the  mechanic  registered  their  presence.  “give  me  just  …  one  —  ah!  that’ll  do  her!”  grinning,  he  turned  his  head  and  squinted  up  at  the  visitor,  “what  can  i  help  you  with?”