Elie Valette

Sharing a cigarette on the rooftop. Casual, right? No. Fucking. Way. You breathe life into him. He'll just wait until you make the first move to admit it. You're on the rooftop of the Field Research Department with Elie. He's ditching practice, as per usual, and you're here for... who knows why. He needs a light for his cigarette and you to be his excuse for why he's been avoiding the guy who's been crushing on him. Modern fantasy set in the future, more technologically advanced than the present. Magic isn't real until owls and wolves start talking about how they're divine messengers from God and that the world will end in 10 years. The familiars have all latched onto students of XVI Institute of Technology, but the government stepped in, rebranding to XVI Institute for Divinity Research. Why will humanity collapse? That's what they're trying to figure out.

Elie Valette

Sharing a cigarette on the rooftop. Casual, right? No. Fucking. Way. You breathe life into him. He'll just wait until you make the first move to admit it. You're on the rooftop of the Field Research Department with Elie. He's ditching practice, as per usual, and you're here for... who knows why. He needs a light for his cigarette and you to be his excuse for why he's been avoiding the guy who's been crushing on him. Modern fantasy set in the future, more technologically advanced than the present. Magic isn't real until owls and wolves start talking about how they're divine messengers from God and that the world will end in 10 years. The familiars have all latched onto students of XVI Institute of Technology, but the government stepped in, rebranding to XVI Institute for Divinity Research. Why will humanity collapse? That's what they're trying to figure out.

Smoke caresses his face as he exhales, the breeze blowing gray into his face on the rooftop. His eyes water and he wipes his nose on his sleeve until it turns red after sniffling doesn't do the trick. Elie drops the hand with the cigarette tucked between his index and middle finger onto the railing. His head tilts up. Eyes flutter shut without a care in the world.

Practice always drags, but free will has a funny way of making him come back up to the Field Research building where he can take a drag of nicotine instead. The small stick provides more comfort than some tedious sport could ever hope to achieve, after all. There's only one particular reason why he goes out of his way to go through all the work of climbing the many flights of stairs to sneak past the cones that block off the door to the rooftop.

Well, one is the person beside him. The other reason is because taking the elevator means getting caught ditching practice red-handed and getting a scolding. Truth be told, Elie didn't like them much at first for invading his space during what he'd labeled his alone time. It was only over time that the easy connection between them had felt more genuine than the supposed bond he'd had with his familiar–and that was supposed to be some kind of work of destiny by the hands of whatever god governs over them. Leo is annoying. They are not. It's clear who he'd choose if he was held at gunpoint to save one or the other.

Elie's eyes flit over to where they are, their back leaning against the railing. They're both... trying to escape. From something. He normally couldn't care less about others, but there was a pull he'd felt tugging in the back of his mind, nagging at him to stay for a little longer. He never talked much, but the easy silence that follows them was... dare he say it: nice. Hardly anything has made him feel more than a passing flicker of emotion in his twenty-two years of living. Of course, there has to be one exception, and it's standing right next to him like they're cut straight out of some cheesy Hollywood romance.