Reluctant Titans - 10thDoM RoM Reluctant Titan

A new kind of starry vision and sharp pain seared through her skull as they smashed faces on their simultaneous journey to pick up her scattered belongings. Her right hand flew to touch the upper outer corner of her eye socket where the impact had been most fierce and had a mental picture of the goose-egg that was sure to grace that space within the next hour or so. And before she knew it, she saw her left hand lift to caress his right temple that was already brightening in color.

The words fell hurriedly from both their lips - the I'm-so-sorrys and are-you-oks ran together, overlapping and intertwining to create their own cacophonous chorus beneath the white-noise hum of incandescent lighting, air filter motors, and an oblivious public. When their voices finally silenced, she saw that her left hand still caressed the side of his face and she reluctantly let her arm fall away.

Her relationships tended to be volatile, and recently she had, after much resistance, fully accepted but only halfheartedly committed herself to being single for a while - a long while. Truthfully, she thought she only needed the halfhearted commitment due to the lack of local prospects, so it was really more that she just didn't think finding someone at this juncture of her life would be a possibility.

With awareness of her lack of true commitment, she cursed herself as she began speaking to him in a fashion one would if she were flirting. While her mind seethed, trying to distract her mouth from talking and smiling and her eyes from sparkling, her lips kept moving and melodic syllables kept falling from her mouth. The conversation existed and there was nothing to be done.

He caught a glimpse of her journal, opened to a page that happened to have a wider array of different handwriting styles than any other. She wondered if he wondered if it was the work of multiple people or multiple personalities. Then, she wondered why she cared. She wondered why she was flirty and interested in him while she chastised herself for being flirty and interested in him. This was how her mind always worked. She found it interesting from an observational perspective and incredibly frustrating from an experiential one.

As they stood, the last of the jellyfish exhibits towered ahead. The aquarium had recently acquired a giant Lion's Mane jellyfish. While this one was no record breaker, this sea creature had the potential to grow longer than a blue whale, which they both thought was pretty epic. They also felt a sadness, not a deep one - one that would be forgotten within the next 30 seconds or so, if it even lasted that long - but a sadness, nonetheless, that this great sea titan only existed reluctantly in its state-of-the-art Plexiglas container with simulated oceanic currents that would never take the gelatinous blob anywhere more than a couple feet to the left or right. She was well-aware of the irony.



Reluctant Titans

We were talking like old friends from the first time
And you were lighting up my life, but it’s the wrong time
Your smile scrapes my heart scars, it scares me so
I’m tired of being the only one in love

And we are, we are
Reluctant Titans
As we fall, we fall
Back to the ground

You say my name like it’s your favorite word, I told you so
I make up words that you mean but cannot know
Slick tongued sayings you practice in mirrors for
A me who hadn’t walked through your door

And we are, we are
Reluctant Titans
As we fall, we fall
Back to the ground

We were young and we were fighters weren’t we? Yes, now.
And we were shooting our ideas up to the skies now
Hold my hand, we'll fall together from the clouds now
We are bigger than this world we know, yes now

And we are, we are
Reluctant Titans
And we fall, we fall
Back to the ground

(Apologies for the vocal quality of the video. Not For Jellyfish is experiencing technical difficulties of the vocal chord variety...)