Les étoiles au-dessus de l'Asphalte

En plus du tonnerre et du vent hurlant, Jefferson Park était toujours là. L'été avait pris fin il y a seulement huit jours et commençait à céder la vie, qu'il donnait chaque année à la flore et à la faune du Puget Sound, à sa mort naturelle en automne, brisant la saison avec la chute régulière et jetant des feuilles dans le vent. Il n'y avait qu'une chose qui manquait sur Beacon Hill à l'heure des sorcières.
Une figure solitaire s'approcha d'une masse de gens, vêtus de vêtements sombres et masqués par la couverture de la nuit. La seule lumière de sa silhouette dans les ténèbres était celle de sa montre. "01:41."
"Vous êtes en retard", une voix faisant autorité cria de la foule qui s'est séparée en deux foules au son de son réprimande.
L'accusé a été jugé et a tremblé, a trébuché sur son erreur. "Désolé, monsieur, je..."
-- Cela n'a pas d'importance, interrompit le chef. Un anneau sur son doigt a glissé dans l'ombre. "T'es prêt?"
Le sous-marin lui a lâché la gorge et, s'inclinant la tête, a dit, "Oui."
"Nous allons commencer." Par le commandement du chef, le groupe a formé un cercle d'environ vingt-cinq personnes en nombre, et le défunt a rejoint leurs rangs. Ils attendirent sous les nuages le signal, et le chef prit sa position à l'extérieur du cercle, tourné vers le nord au centre de celui-ci. Il tenait ses mains en l'air comme un prêtre avant que ses brebis ne le feraient, mais l'humeur était plus sinistre, plus inquiétante.
À son signal, le groupe commença un chant comparable aux hymnes des vieilles églises. Une langue ancienne créa une polyphonie de sons qui se mêlèrent à un chant puissant et terrible de l'appel. À leurs appels, une petite lumière se forma au centre du cercle et jeta sa poutre dans le ciel nocturne.
La foudre a craqué comme un fouet à travers les nuages, et tout s'est évanoui en noir.

La main longue était à peine sur le 2, et la main courte a posé sa marque juste au-delà de la main longue. Albrecht a compté les heures comme elles l'ont fait. Il est... environ... 2h10, il a calculé, donnant à l'horloge un coup d'œil latéral. La conférence sur le fédéralisme a été pour la plupart complète, et son professeur du gouvernement de l'AP a rempli le temps supplémentaire en faisant de petits discours avec les étudiants sur la politique et la météo. Les yeux d'Albrecht sur l'autre main traçaient les motifs dans le tapis et la couture à laquelle il avait déchiré tandis que son esprit traçait tout ce que la pensée errante avait rempli dans le moment.
Albrecht Hart se sentait vide. Bien qu'il ne puisse pas être plus satisfait de sa vie et de la direction dans laquelle elle allait, quelque chose manquait, suppliant d'être retrouvé, juste pour qu'il puisse continuer sa vie et s'en remettre. Mais c'était le problème. Il ne savait pas exactement quoi. Il n'a pas regardé l'écran de son téléphone. Il a aussi dit le temps, mais avec plus de précision: "14:10. 29 septembre 2015." Soupirant, l'enfant de 17 ans regardait par la fenêtre sur le monde en dehors de l'école, attendant juste que la cloche sonne, pour que la classe soit congédiée.
Les minutes passèrent, et la cloche souffla son bip à l'inondation des lycéens se précipitant à travers les portes. Probablement la partie la plus soulageante de la journée était quand la journée était finie. Passant l'église épiscopale au sud-ouest, Albrecht a parcouru les trottoirs ombragés et pavés de California Ave jusqu'à l'endroit normal, un petit boucher qui a fait de jolis sandwichs au porc, niché entre un cabinet d'avocats et un petit immeuble d'appartements. Il avait déjà commandé deux des boissons habituelles, deux pour aller avec, et s'était assis près de la fenêtre en face du restaurant face à la rue. Il a regardé, et il a attendu que le trafic de la zone scolaire s'écoule lentement. Elle est encore en retard. Et c'est elle qui m'a dit de venir à l'heure.
Name. Albrecht Hart
Sex/Gender. Male
Age. 17
Appearance.
Albrecht is a boy of average proportions; he is neither lanky nor squat, just 5 feet and 4 inches tall and weighing roughly 145 pounds. Though his name is typical of someone of European descent, his appearance is less so. His skin is soft, oily, and slightly tanned, and it brings such an organic warmth to those touched by his deft fingers. Although there are physical features of his that are traditionally considered desirable to women, he is nonetheless characteristically masculine, marked by broad shoulders, a defined chest, and at least a bit of muscle layered on his full build. His face is square-jawed with scruff forming the beginnings of a full beard and mustache, but it is Albrecht's wide, amber brown eyes that bring balance and soften his face into a mysterious mix. His nose is flat, but like a Roman's, it is somewhat convex. So his cheeks are, supple and childlike, but high-boned. Dark brown hair comes down just a hint below his ears to cover his forehead. His hair, like his skin, is soft, and it is typically parted this way or that to offer a sense of care for his physical appearance, layered in an undercut but never pulled back, done up, or gelled.
The color blue used to feature prominently in his clothing, but in the past year or so other colors have begun to appear in his closet, among them warm colors and pastels. He likes casual button-ups with rolled-up sleeves, simple patterns and textures, or colorblock, T-shirts and baseball tees, tank tops, cargo shorts, khakis, the occasional pair of colored pants or shorts, and flat shoes. Every now and then he'll don formal wear, normally just a plain black American-cut suit with a flat-colored tie and dress shoes. Aside from Albrecht's more bold fashion choices, the rest of his wardrobe is fairly standard for his age, if not a little on the trendy side. On the daily, Albrecht wears a necklace with Odin's knot, a plain silver ring on his index finger, and half-rimmed glasses.
Personality.
Albrecht from youth has always possessed a talent in intellectual pursuits, but instability in his family ultimately carried heavily into his personality. Like his father, Albrecht Hart has a fiery passion that was constant across his emotions except under the effects of depression. At the peak of that passion, Albrecht's joy and compassion radiates from him and inspires ambitions and genius revelations, but at the junction of his temper, Albrecht could lash out and become a storm unto himself. Perhaps the more crippling of his flaws is his sadness, arising from nothing but his own introspection or paranoia and withholding him from really enjoying in his successes or in his identity.
The nearest Myers-Briggs type to his personality is the ENFP personality type, serving as a fair marker for who he is as a person. Albrecht is sociable and amiable, preferring the company of others to the isolation of himself, but it is not as though alone-time can be a good break from the romping, distracting swings of happiness he experiences in the presence of friends. As for his love of humanity, he seeks to help others but also wants their attention and admiration for the sake of his own validation, and hence he relies on them for his redemption to feel true edification. Often however can he become occupied with his big dream of changing the world, in his strong, dissenting opinions.
But this dream does not separate itself from Albrecht's overall compassion and sympathy. He is an incredible device, sensitive to even the slightest of social cues and ticks that allow him to more quickly understand and become aware of another person's emotions or his role in a situation. In such a way, his intuition does not betray him. His unabashed idealism and spontaneity mark his wish for the freedom to act as he pleases so long as what he is doing is harmless and good. This aspect of his personality can be, though, a dual-edged sword of independence and rebellious antiestablishmentarianism.
Skills.
Plays piano and violin
Writes and draws well
Speaks German
Has decent math skills and a good memory
Can drive

Biography.
Albrecht Hart was born on July 15th in Seattle into an average middle class family, raised by an immigrant mother and a normal American father. His two parents were more conservative than was the norm for the area, and for a while Albrecht bought into the classic tales told of all things Republican and religious. His boyhood felt miserable and dragged on for what seemed like years in which the cruelty of young kids punctured his spirit and left him dejected.
As he entered adolescence and came to terms with his homosexuality at the age of 12, he isolated himself emotionally from others, went through the phases of middle school, became an atheist, and behaved fairly sophomoric. That isolation only hurt him worse and worse until the breaking point, when in his freshman year of high school, a spiritual realization hit him. In that year he syncretically embraced Catholic and interfaith spirituality with a particularly resistant attitude to the more conservative doctrines of the religion, an experience that ultimately shaped his spiritual growth in high school and changed most of his attitudes in a radical evolution of the mind and soul.
His emotional vices and the like still led to deep internal conflicts with desire and virtue, and they continued to govern a more strained relationship with his father and a warming relationship with his mother as he began to escape the self-containing introvertive and cynical thinking, that kept him confined in the earlier stages of his development, and establish himself as his own master. He began to hold his head higher and smile and laugh more, becoming himself a beacon of his own happiness after that life-changing experience, turning him into a figure of interest and of friendliness at his school.