[center][h3][i]"Gooooood morrrrrning Wikacrik family!"[/i][/h3][/center]
[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/bJSN8N3c/clock.png[/img][/center]
[center][url=https://youtu.be/tD3D6XYW8_A?si=Putq4U5nr7-ijBG7]{ ♪ ♫ ♪ }[/url][/center]
[indent]The shrill voice of the overly peppy radio host jolted Lilian awake, as the tinny speakers of his ancient alarm clock blasted the morning broadcast across his barren studio apartment. "Oh, and, uh, Happy Earth Day to all in respect of dear ol' Mother Nature!" the announcer chirped with boundless enthusiasm, though Lilian felt anything but cheerful at this early hour. Bleary-eyed, he glared up at the water-stained ceiling and let out an exasperated groan. [i]Who gave this guy the fucking right to be so hellishly happy so gods-damned early in the morning?[/i] he thought sourly. Though, he really only had himself to blame for having to listen to the daily spiel of Mr. Noel Leon--[i]as if[/i] that were his real name. Lilian knew he could be like the other ninety-seven percent of the population and just use his phone for an alarm, or at least set his clock radio to another station, but, he also knew he would likely just turn off his phone alarm and go back to sleep, and Noel Leon, specific was something he couldn't just roll over and ignore when the radio sounded. Lilian had never been a morning person, and in that moment, all he wanted was five more minutes of sleep.[/indent]
[indent]Alas, the unrelenting DJ rattled on about the weather, traffic, and local events, willing Lilian to force himself upright with great reluctance. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, stretched each arm in turn over his head, pulling until his spine gave a good pop, and finally swung his legs out of bed and stumbled to the rundown refrigerator standing as a sentinel in the corner of the kitchen across the open room. Throwing it open rather carelessly, Lilian was hoping for a bite of breakfast, but to his dismay, the fridge was all but bare, containing only some ageless condiments, a carton of spoiled milk, and some take-out that seemed to have evolved its own level of sentient life. The cultures may as well have been planning to go where no mold had gone before! With a resigned sigh, Lilian pulled overdue items out of the fridge, dumped the curdled mess down the drain, and tossed the plastic container in the trash.[/indent]
[indent]With that taken care of, he quickly looked in the pantry, only to find empty boxes of cereal, oatmeal, and macaroni and cheese. He really did need to keep up on his groceries. Clearing out the clutter, he finally made way back across the room to turn off the radio as Leon's morning broadcast came to an end. [i]I'll have to grab something on the way...[/i] he thought absently, silence filling the air in the absence of the staticky noise. Catching the time, he gave a silent curse, realizing his bout of cleaning had taken longer than he would have intended. [i]No time for a shower now,[/i] he thought, before hurriedly throwing on the first clean clothes he could find from the piles strewn about the room. Still in his rush, Lilian haphazardly packed up his laptop and camera into a ratty old backpack and tossed the thing over his shoulder as he bolted for the door, stepping into a pair of beat-up slip-ons and clumsily grabbing at his keys on a table by the door.[/indent]
[indent]Locking the door behind him, Lilian raced for the stairs, cursing out the idiot who had broken the elevator [i]yet again[/i] as he took the dilapidated steps two at a time, jumping near the end of each flight to throw himself over the railing and drop down to the next flight as though it were nothing. Soon enough, he was bursting out the door and hurried to the side lot where he kept his bike chained. Within the hour, he was stopping at the corner store, buying a cheese danish and a can of some hybrid coffee energy drink and paying for it with a handful of coins that barely made the cut. Another half hour on the train and Lilian was biking his way down Central, the towering building that housed the Word of the Willow main office in sight.[/indent]
[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/dtYtPFCp/office.png[/img][/center]
[indent]Pulling up to the building with a plastic bag holding his breakfast hanging from his bike handle, Lilian took a moment to check the time on his watch, [i]Fifteen minutes to spare![/i] he thought with a slight smirk, only to jump and nearly drop his bike as thunderous crash sounded from down the street. Putting the stand down to prop his bike up, he stepped away for a moment, moving to the edge of the sidewalk, then out into the bike lane to try and get a look at what the commotion was.[/indent]
[indent]Traffic had come to the stop, cars careening to a standstill, and in moments, people were running past Lilian, shoving him out of the way in their desperate flee from the area. Another crash, along with more screams and the sounds of sirens in the distance. Lilian blinked as he looked ahead, then shifted a bit as he watched as an unidentified large metal object suddenly flew down the sidewalk, shooting past where he had been and taking out his bike, and breakfast, in its hurled flight.[/indent]
[indent]"Son of a bitch!" he snapped, then frowned in the direction of the commotion, "This'd better be a good story," he huffed, then took off running in the direction of the chaos. People continued to push past him, only some looking at him and telling him he was going the wrong way. A few grabbed him, shook him, tried to smack sense into him, but he just twisted out of their hold and pressed on to the heat of the battle. He swung his backpack in front of him, wearing it backward, across his front, so he could dig in and pull out his camera. Like hell was he wasting a scene like this on his dinky little phone camera. He didn't care what his boss told him about the high-tech thing. There was no way a three-by-five-inch brick of tech could capture a crisp enough image to properly depict the scene playing out, no matter how 'advanced' it was.[/indent]
[indent]Once the camera was in hand, Lilian threw his backpack back over his shoulders and rushed to the nearest building, throwing the strap of the bulky object over his head before throwing himself at the raised ladder of a fire escape. Wriggling for a moment, he quickly pulled himself up to grab at the rungs, eventually getting to where he had a foothold and continuing from there. Within minutes, Lilian was atop the building, looking over the street below with the perfect aerial view of the battle taking place below.[/indent]
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