Samsara

[StrangeVsWeird]

William loathed the campus. It was always too crowded. Even at night, there were far too many students and staff alike skittering about like beetles. Now, he wasn't one to regard the humans as merely insects, but it was difficult to see their behavior as anything but a swarm of irritation. All he wanted was to get to his assigned class without having twenty people bump into him on his way.

Not that they did.

Humans tended to give him a wide berth whether they intended to or not. If he was to give them credit, he'd say they were smart about at least one thing. Perhaps it was a sixth sense that gave them warning to avoid him if possible, much like how the birds would stop chirping when he walked beneath their trees or how dogs would grow quiet, sometimes even whine, at his passing. Whatever it was that made them move out of his way, he was grateful for.

It wasn't the only thing he was grateful for. Contradictory to what his cousin believed of him, William could still find some semblance of gratitude for even small things, like how the morning sun was blocked by clouds thickening with the threat of rain. It meant he didn't necessarily need to wear his hood up, but old habits die hard and he didn't bother to drop it even when he stepped into the sciences building.

His stride was long, purposeful, as he navigated the halls in search of his first class of the day. Biology was a prerequisite, one he didn't need, but signed up for anyway because…

He gritted his teeth.

Because she had the ridiculous class and William apparently didn't have the willpower to resist being part of her life, even if just a random face that sat in the same class as she did.

It was torturous. He knew this, had even been told by his cousin much to his annoyance, but…

This time was different. This life, the life she was living now, was strange, somehow. He could feel it in his veins.

And he'd be damned if he didn't get close enough to, at least, see what made this lifetime so special.

 

[Wooseog Ryu]

Some things never changed, they followed her no matter what vessel her spirit chose for another finite life. Her eyes, while they changed in color time and again, always had the same openness. Jillian's buggish, blue eyes acted as a veritable tail; the woman was incapable of hiding an emotion. Her voice echoed her past lives as well, sing-songy and saccharine with a cocksure nasally lilt.

But more than those rather trivial features, she always went about the world in a way that seemed like she owned it. But even that shifted gradually, too. Every time the cycle began anew she took something with her. It was indefinable, least of all to her. Jillian knew nothing of the lives past. Her story was simple, her story was nice.

"I love this campus." Jillian decidedly announced out of nowhere. She was talking to her friend, Jamie, who was utterly bewildered by the comment after being bumped into about three times during their short walk in the hall. Jamie was one of the few friends that came to college with her from high school. She had had a pretty big crush on him, but that hope died when he came out of the closet.

"Really? You 'love' it?" He doubted as they rounded the hall to get to class. "Why did you take biology anyways? Don't you want to be an actor... Or a history teacher? I always forget with you."

"Or a civil defense lawyer if the other two don't work out." Jillian corrected, flashing a toothy grin. "And I need a couple science's for my degree and I can not do the number stuff required in chemistry and physics. Hence, biology! Besides, you're already rocking the class, so I feel like if I fall behind you will let me cheat off you." She said. Jamie's eyes rose to the sky in an expression of endless suffering caused by putting up with Jill.

"Maybe if you keep your voice down a bit." They walked into the classroom where the professor was writing out the days curriculum on the board. The first thing on the agenda was written in big capital letters.

GROUP PROJECT

Jillian smirked, her and Jamie would knock the project out of the park. But oh, how little she knew.

Professor Janzen was an older man, who had become set in his teaching method a long time ago. He couldn't simply let the students pick their own groupings, such anarchy had no place in his class. The class began when he pointed his finger at a student in the front row. "One...."

He moved on to the next. "Two, three..." He was assigning numbers, numbers that could only be for the project groupings, right?

"Three." Janzen said when he pointed to Jillian. She froze in fruitless anticipation.

"Four." He pointed at Jamie. Jamie chuckled to himself, and Jillian gave him a challenging look.

"Group three is gonna serve you, boy-o! Three is the place to be." The two bickered in hushed voices while the Professor rounded out the groups. He came to William last.

"And group three." William rounded off the class. Jill heard from the front, she turned to give him a glancing smile. She didn't recognize him, but the same could be said for anybody in her class basically, she had stuck pretty close to Jamie. But she was glad they were getting a group project, it was about time she widened her circle. The professor gave them a moment to get together with their new groups.

Jillian bid a solemn farewell to Jamie, but her energy picked up again when she picked up her stuff to go sit with this other group three guy, taking the chair next to him. She studied him for a moment, but not long enough to make it weird. For a moment she thought she recognized him, but thought nothing of it.

"Hey! I'm Jill, nice to meetcha." She put out her hand for a shake and tilted her head. It took a moment for her to notice that many of the other students were wandering around looking for their groups, Jill sighed, and then barked in a surprisingly loud way. "GROUP THREE! Over here!"

 

[StrangeVsWeird]

He could hear the drumming of his fingers over the soft orchestral music sitting in his ear, the single wireless piece a constant companion for him these days. There were moments in time William was impressed by what the humans have created and the wireless earbuds had quickly become a favorite.

It helped him think and when he didn't want to think, it helped him relax.

Usually.

William relaxing was possible, but the irritants he found in everyday life made it rather difficult. He was in a constant battle and if he had been human, he would have perished long ago from the high blood pressure.

It didn't help that he seemed to enjoy the torture of being a spectator of his own mate's life. Lives, if he had to be technical. They were painful to watch, but he's come to realize that even pain was a feeling and if he could still feel, then perhaps he wasn't the monster Fate has tried to turn him into.

His drumming slowed to a stop, his gaze resting on the desk before him, though unseeing as she breezed into the room and settled a few rows before him with a friend. He listened to her laughter, listened to the notes that made up her words, hushed and soft. It was bittersweet to be so close and yet, still so very far.

Though, not for long, it would seem. Of all the things that would likely cause them to have brief contact with each other, William would have never guessed it would have been a group project.

He stilled, unnaturally so, and if any were particularly observant, they'd suspect he had stopped breathing.

...and could hold his breath for a very long time, not knowing he didn't necessarily have to breathe. The curse gave him life. The act of breathing just made it bearable. In that moment, however, all things ceased.

He caught the smile she gave and if he had a beating heart, that too, would have stopped. He watched her out of the corner of his eye and when she approached, he drew himself up from his hunkered lean on the desk and sat back in his chair. With his hood still drawn, he drew his hand from off the desk when she sat beside him and curled his fingers into a tight fist beneath it, from out of sight, when he could feel her gaze upon him.

His gaze only shifted when she held out a hand, his jaw tight at her introduction. He wouldn't allow himself to touch her. He wouldn't allow himself to even say her name. It was something of a relief when she suddenly barked for the others' attention and it was then he threw his hood back and shifted in his seat once more, angling himself so her scent wouldn't be so prominent inside his nose.

A silent rage simmered his blood and it must have been apparent in the glint of his eyes because the other two who began to approach hesitated when their eyes met his. They continued, however, dumb little animals not knowing that what they approached was a monster they should be running from.

A girl with a dark complexion took a seat first, her wary gaze flickering from William to Jillian, whom she gave a full lipped smile to. "Rochelle," she announced, tucking frizzled hair in behind an ear, her attention sweeping up to the guy who hesitated once more before lowering himself into a seat.

"And I, uh...my name is Mercury." The young man was pale, though not as pale as William. Actual blood gave his skin some natural tone, but William's looked as if it was made of marble. It might as well have been.

"What? No way. Your name's Mercury? That's perfect for science!" Rochelle beamed and the man chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Heh, yeah. I get that a lot. You can...you can call me Merc…"

"Oh, heck no!" Rochelle laughed, her jubilance sweeping to the other two. "And you two are?"

William grit his teeth, his knee now bouncing in irritation. "Let's get one thing straight." He eyed the two, but refused to look at Jillian. "I don't work well with imbeciles." The way he said it, the tone of voice used, made it difficult to differentiate whether it was a warning or an accusation.