Leightonhaywood - Blog Posts

leightonhaywood‌:

“Silas?” He’d thought that was the shopkeep who’d passed him earlier, he’d been too busy reading to pay it much thought. The park wasn’t really a park, just a nice spot in public and every so often it was better than taking up space in the coffee shops. He’d tried to avoid them as of late anyways, after the whole ghost incident. Not ghosts, Eidolons, that’s what people were calling them. They were gone now, thanks to the Delphi coven, thanks to the Argos pack. 

If the other had heard him, he hadn’t mustered any form of response, still was making his way to the bench and Leighton followed after him, book tucked back into the bag haphazardly slung over his shoulder. Upon closer inspection, it was no wonder Silas hadn’t paid him much mind. There was an almost vacant look to him, bags beneath his eyes. There was no sign of his usual cheery self, no sign of that almost playful friendly nature. “Si, I don’t mean to be rude, but you look like shit.” Brow furrowed, he stopped in front of the other and crossed his arms over his chest. It felt like he was scolding him, and maybe in a way, he was. But he was far more concerned than anything. 

If his name was being called, Silas wasn’t fully aware of it. Completely consumed by thoughts that all linked themselves to the item he carried close to him and kept walking. He knew better than to assume that the scale would just stop holding onto his curse without some kind of intervention, but the cubi allowing someone to examine it was the furthest thing from his mind. No one else was going to touch it, that was the whole point of him continuing to take the burden on. The whole reason for it still being heavy inside his pocket, the chill of the bench sending shivers up his spine as he took a seat. It wasn’t until then that Silas noticed the creased expression on his friends face and that the incubus was anything but alone. A daze had taken him, charcoal hues showing no signs of cylinders firing and Silas blinked a few times while Leighton’s words sunk in. ‘You look like shit,’ echoed in his brain and all the cubi could do was nod in agreement. He knew he did. “Not rude in the slightest. I do look like shit, don’t I,” words came out slow, as if each one was difficult to pronounce and for a moment he had to make sure they weren’t in Korean, “Haven’t been sleeping very well.” As if that wasn’t apparent, but going into it much further than that didn’t seem right when he hadn’t been asked. Last thing he wanted was to distress the vampire anymore than he already looked.

Life with the jade and emerald tinted object had been torturous, yet Silas couldn’t manage to let it go. A week had gone by with him knowing there was something wrong with it, some curse that had been placed, and the cubi still couldn’t manage to keep his fingers from glazing over its sheen. Studying its ridges as it played with the dim lights inside the back of his shop. Even started carrying it around, terrified that someone else might take it. He continually told himself that if it wasn’t him taking the burden on, that it would be someone else but Silas knew it was just an act to keep it close to himself. Anyone that caught eye of the scale immediately induced panic within his being, so his pant pocket was the only logical place for it to stay until he understood more. It wasn’t as if he knew its origins completely, just some various lore from the library and anything Kasandra could explain given her similar condition. Sleep had been replaced with nightmares and late-night walks, muse for anything artistic all but lost when the hour was so late that he felt his shop walls closing in on him. That’s precisely where the cubi was now, feet patting up and down the sidewalks of town with eye bags that could be seen from at least a block away. ‘This cannot last,’ bubbled in his thoughts as the silhouette of a public bench came near and he instinctively headed towards it, ‘Go-saeng kkeut-e nag-i on-da*.’

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leightonhaywood‌:

“Interesting line of work.” Useful, probably lucrative considering how full of supernaturals the bay was. Leighton took another sip of his tea as he thought back to his London flat. He really didn’t have anything “magical” aside from maybe a few books about healing magic. Which were kind of pointless, but he liked them anyways. It’s not like he had anything against magic, he was sure if he found something that interested him enough, he’d get it. He’d just never bothered searching for anything. 

“What do you find around here usually?” There were a lot of historical sites, local artisans and such, but he was curious. Corinth was a hub for the supernatural for a reason, surely it was brimming with magical things all over the place. Maybe that was something he should be looking into. “Solely speaking as someone with not much interest in such things.”

“A lot of jewelry,” the cubi started, placing his mind on several gold and copper pieces that had been enchanted for different purposes. As he had learned more about the supernatural world after his transition, Silas realized how much power was in the objects that dangled around everyone’s necks. Charm spells, anointed in magical oils, various stones that could even make a mere human more fortunate and those were the hot ticket items. The only thing that was truly different was the details or the style, which varied from different regions and forged with a contrast of items. “Masks, coins— bronze trinkets. Some of them just seem like completely ordinary things sitting on your grandmother’s hearth, but actually help find magical ingredients. Kind of like a metal detector,” a smile holding, clearly speaking from experience and still enjoyed talking with the client that took it in. An older gentleman whose eyes were not as good as his younger years and paid Silas a little extra just for being polite. “Though the objects I find are just as interesting as the people that seek them, in my experience,” his usual tone, but with a sour punch at the end that the cubi couldn’t quite control. He saw many different types, not just the good side where people cherished the object and it sat on a shelf. No, some lusted for darkness in a way that Silas had never seen— even at war.

leightonhaywood‌:

It must have been interesting. Showing up at old estates, going through storage bins, just collecting old relics. You could learn a lot about a person by their belongings, interior decorating, that kind of thing. Despite his often nomadic nature, Leighton often wanted a house just to fill it with things. An old Victorian kind of place full of furniture and knick knacks from his travels. Make it like a museum of his life, of his travels. Collecting such artifacts kind of made Silas a tourist in these people’s lives. Someone who shows up and buys great grandmother’s ottoman. “If only these things could talk, right?” Leighton turned his head to offer Silas a small smile before picking up what looked like a wooden jewelry box off a shelf. Simple, but the craftsmanship was beautiful. Something for Lia maybe, but he didn’t know if she’d appreciate it. “Ever run into anything…” He wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it out in the open. “Suspicious?” Cursed, enchanted, that kind of thing. Items that should probably be passed off to the witches, maybe even a genasi.

Hadn’t that been the whole reason for Silas’ current existence? Suspicious artifacts, cursed objects, enchanted things that gave the allure of normalcy and tricked the unsuspecting. Not in the sense that the cubi did this for a living wage, that his whole life was altered by what Leighton called suspicious. Silas would be lying if he said that wasn’t a major part of why he went heavier into that side of the business. The more he was in contact with supernatural objects, the more he could learn from them and how they all functioned. He couldn’t afford to be ignorant to their existence and instead had to embrace it, find out more. “Absolutely,” was the cubi gut response given his close ties and personal feelings. Many of his clients were part of the community and wanted to remain confidential, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t speak on his other lines of work. Even his own connection continued to be a mystery for most, which he didn’t mind keeping that way, “It’s rather interesting that over the years I’ve become well-known for that— able to dig out what others are seeking so eagerly. And enchanted artifacts are a hot ticket item depending on the need or purpose.”

leightonhaywood‌:

“The roommate would be the one to ask. She still won’t answer my texts after I last asked her about displaying everything. The moment she breaks, I’ll call you.” He was still being playful, but he was honest about it. He’d seen Silas’ craft, knew the man had an eye for detail. In a strange way, it was something he was almost jealous of. Studying, memorization, that kind of thing came easier to him than any kind of art. With all the time in the world, he’d tried putting his hands to good use to create something, but it was never anything particularly special. Mimicking a tutorial wasn’t really the same as designing and crafting something completely. Tilting his head slightly and leaning forward just enough to squint at some small figure on a shelf, he looked back to Silas. “Where do you find all of this anyways?” Every so often there was something that looked vaguely familiar, like something he’d seen in passing in a far off place that he couldn’t quite…Place for himself.

Silas allowed the topic to die, knowing the complications that came with being plunged into the supernatural world. Instead he focused on the following question— picking and choosing all the items featured in his shop. “Here and there,” the cubi started, looking around the shop a little just to re-familiarize himself with their found locations. Since the transition, Silas had little fear of what he might find behind closed doors and hidden crannies. This often meant rummaging in locations that were breaking down or sheds that hadn’t been cleaned in over a decade. His travels over the years had also helped. Each piece within the shop was not just from the Mediterranean area, but from areas in Germany, France, and some from back home in Korea. Though it did get a bit ridiculous at times when he would have to suddenly move, having to find storage for many of his pieces. “Estates, attics, large shops that are filled to the brim with antiques,” he continued with an air of wonder in his voice, “Some on the side of roads that I re-purposed for a better life. All have probably lived a really unique life that began long before I set eyes on it.”

leightonhaywood‌:

Every so often he found himself in the small shop surrounded by things he definitely should not fill his London flat with at the expense of looking like a tourist. Shelves were already lined with trinkets from here or there. Sometimes it a souvenir wasn’t something that he could buy, a rock off the ground from a particularly beautiful mountain, a flower from the edge of a lush forest. Hell, Leighton had leaves pressed between pages with their name, location, and the date he’d found them, meticulously scrawled beside them. Everything was an attempt to capture the feeling of a moment in a place as he desperately sought to document the abundance of time on his hands. 

Silas had made this more than just a place for tourists though. Local art pieces hung among the knick knacks, pieces of furniture finely crafted, a couple of oddities from the beaches here and there. “I’m trying to decide if I do indeed need another teapot or if I should just surrender and buy a proper cabinet to display them all in.” He took a sip of the tea in the thermos in his hand and nodded to the shelf. “The kittens might be too whimsical to pass up.” 

Leighton had become something of a regular at Knick Knack and the pattern seemed to form in the blink of an eye. Sometimes the vampire would mosey in with general conviction, knowing exactly what he wanted as if the moment depended on it. Other times his shoulders looked slunk and caused Silas to wonder if the shop was just another way to pass the time. Not as if that was a horrible thing in the young cubi’s mind, the gods knew that was why he continued to do it. Trinkets, the little things, and all those varying purchases could be used as a way to connect and remember when time was the enemy. His own studio could be found with different objects littered about that helped keep his mind sharp and attached to the memories most important to Silas.

“You could finally accept my offer to build you one,” the cubi joked, but half hoped Leighton would actually say the word. He had several different concepts that he kept on the side, unable to control himself after the vampire had first mentioned it. Cabinets was almost a specialty at this point, having designed many during his time in Korea and felt a bit eager to craft another. Especially for someone like Leighton and the unique way he decorated his loft back home, “And take the whimsical kittens.”