[attr="class","mouths1"]Each and every person upon the earth maintained their own, respective locations that he or she preferred to turn to within various types of moments and scenarios alike; regardless of whether or not the given situation had been one of casual happiness, or perhaps sorrowful pensiveness, among several other factors to take note of and into account all the same. Within the beginning, one Ryan Arcken himself had found himself somewhere in between; an idle soul lost within the bounds that entranced and sealed him within the very idea that he called his career. A cruel mistress, truth be told, yet one that he held the highest of affinities towards all the same; one of the sole passions that he had taken care to uphold all throughout the near entirety of his life as he knew it. Often times, he would visit the high school at which he taught at for sake of pursuing his job and educating - and sometimes disciplining, in the case of the rowdier and seemingly, self deemed ‘entitled’ - those of generations younger to his own by several gaps in time. He found that the lot of them only proved to grow worse and worse within demeanor as the times progressed onwards- though that in itself had always been one of the sole reasons that he had chosen to become a master of his own art; a teacher of both English and creative writing alike. Nowadays, the children acted within a drastically differing manner than they had acted within the distant past; regardless of whether or not the subjects in question had been the children of his own generation, or perhaps even those of the generation belonging to his own brother.

Time progresses on. Things change constantly.
That - much to his chagrin - included the amount of arrogance found within the common child.

Yet again; that in itself had been one of the primary motivations driving him to pursue a career as both an English teacher, as well as a creative writing teacher- though all while holding the necessary credentials to be capable of teaching history, as well, if need be. As much as he despised teenagers, he also found an affinity and rage towards them all the same; the former within those dimes within the dozens that truly attempted their genuine best within their assignments and endeavors, and the latter within those who merely chose not to, and to sometimes even refrain from doing so under any and all circumstances. His passion branched out towards those beneath him; not within status or credibility, but rather, in age and knowledge. Although many cared not to legitimately learn for themselves anymore - and only sought to memorize processes and details for a short amount of time for sake of departing from point A to point B, and then from point B to point C, and so on - he chose his own path for sake of bestowing his own wisdom upon those that still maintained that spark of decency and wish to learn for themselves; to guide those who truly cared along their own ways within the latter portions of their lives leading into their near adult lives. They were the reasons why he lived the way that he did. The reasons why he worked as late and intensely as he did. The reasons why he spent nights upon nights grading and tutoring, if need be.

...And in a way, the reasons why he was still alive.

As of those particular moments in time, however, that last detail would have been the least of his worries, concerns, and general thoughts alike; for within that time, they had been the reason as to why he found himself within the bounds of a favorited and familiar cafe of his some time after school. From Eirenhyre to New Veherna, he took it upon himself to depart from the high school campus not too long after the final bell of the day ended; gathering his belongings and mounting his motorcycle before navigating the streets and to the aforementioned cafe itself. Ordering his meal and beverages had been rather quick and simple following his entry by sole virtue of his status as a regular - and perhaps even a patron - giving the employees an immediate idea of what he wanted to purchase. Thus, he paid for his purchases as swiftly as he arrived at the counter; taking the number and heading to a vacant table before unveiling his belongings and delving straight within his work. Before long, numerous stacks of paper had been arranged rather neatly across the sides and corners of one half of the table, while the remaining half provided a clear space for writing, as well as his food, drink, and laptop. Grading in itself was rather easy, and enabled him to skim through the papers effortlessly before moving on to the next. Every so often, he would have glanced over towards his laptop; tapping a key or two for sake of shifting between songs in his playlist - as he had plugged his earbuds within the jack, and had been listening to his music directly from the device itself to save the batteries of both his phone and mp3 player alike - before returning to his work. A longer while had passed as he found himself within a quick and efficient work cycle between papers, though as he set one paper aside to make room for another one, he found himself pausing rather abruptly at the sound of a specific song that both caught his attention and gave him a brief jolt within his chest all the same upon hearing its very first lyrics in themselves.

He narrowed his eyes, glaring down at the paper that he held absentmindedly at first. ...Of course. Of course this song came up… he thought to himself; finally, yet slowly tilting his head to peer upon the screen of his laptop for sake of gaining sight of the very playlist that the song played from. ...Damn me if it isn’t a good song, but… It just had to be this one of the thousands that I have saved there…