[PLOT] My Brother's Keeper

[Teigra]

Wind whipping over his wings, feathers rustling, Himeros sailed high in the sky, his quarry somewhere on the ground. His eyes were locked on the earth, scanning for any sign of who he was searching for.

It was that time of year again, or at least it would be soon, and his mother had sent out both invitations and summons to her children. At least one hadn't responded yet, and in fact, hadn't been seen in a while now. It was assumed that Pothos needed some time to himself after the strange events last year regarding his wild behavior, and inability to remember a thing that happened afterwards. Maybe he needed some quiet time, some time away to relax. He'd always been the lonely sort. Perhaps it was just too much excitement for him.

But the summons had been sent and there had been no response yet. Though, there was still time yet before his mother's celebration, she wanted someone to go look for him anyway. Whether he wanted it or not, that job fell to Himeros. As his twin, even if they didn't always see eye to eye, they were probably the closest among the Erotes, if Pothos ever really was close to anyone, given his nature.

But the search for Pothos had turned up no results. So, Himeros was trying a different tactic. It was a long shot, but he didn't have anything else to work with at the moment, so it was worth a shot.

Down on the shoreline below, two figures caught his attention. The colors seemed right...two women, feathered wings...worth checking out. Tucking his wings close, Himeros fell into a dive, his targets, two women on the beach below.  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

Abby was busily talking to her mother. They'd been taking a walk together, enjoying the weather now that they'd found a place to settle down. Abby liked the shores, it was easy to fish there, and to wander off.

The teen was laughing when the flapping of Himeros' wings finally became audible. Brilliant blue eyes blinked, turning to face the landing erote. Woooow. He looked good.. And familiar.

"W-who are you?" Abby blurted, not giving him enough time to land much less talk.

 

[Teigra]

His wings flared, flapping powerfully to brake his fall. Himeros swooped low along the ground, dropping the last couple feet to land in front of the two women in a low crouch.

So he liked to make an entrance...so what?

He barely had time to complete his show, however, before the teenager spoke up. He looked the youth up and down, knowledge tempering his thoughts. He couldn't help but observe, 'Huh...Pothos makes some cute spawn. Who'd have thought?'

Keeping his thoughts to himself, he looked to the other female, obviously her mother. Okay, yeah, crazy though he might be, Himeros had to give him point on his selection. Standing only to drop into a gallant, sweeping bow, the Erote flashed both women a winning smile. "Himeros, my lovely ladies. I was wondering if you might have seen someone lately. I'm looking for my brother you see, my twin. His name is Pothos, looks sorta' like me, only blue...and with short, black, curly hair. Has he be around recently?" He kept his face masked, however, he couldn't help but notice the similarities in the younger female.  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

Abby blinked, listening to the description Himeros gave. That sounded a lot like her.. Without the girly bits. She turned her blue eyes to her mother, questioning.

"Sort of like me, but a man?" Her question had been directed at Himeros, even while her mother held her gaze. There had to have been something going on here. It wasn't like she hadn't noticed the other pae acting funny whenever she'd come around. Her mother had never said anything about it, but Abby knew. She just knew.

"Wait a second.. Why are you asking us? What makes you think that we might know this Pothos?" The teen's head tilted to the side.

Talil frowned, looking over at Himeros. Her daughter's uncle. This couldn't have been good. But why was he asking about Pothos? Had the erote gone missing? Her frown only grew as she thought of these questions. Something had to be wrong.

"I haven't seen Pothos since... Almost a year ago." Talil admitted, shaking her head. "Abby has no idea who her father is, or her uncle." The frown seemed fixed on her face at this point. "Perhaps you'd like to really introduce yourself to your niece?" The shetani offered, a little rudely.

 

[Teigra]

Okay, so not exactly how he'd planned or envisioned this in his head. Though, planning for awkward familial situations wasn't exactly Himeros' strong suit. "Err..." He glanced back and forth between the teen and her mother, rubbing his neck sheepishly. Yeah, he really should have thought about this more beforehand. "Um...sorry; wasn't exactly sure of the situation," he finally blurted frankly. Hence tiptoe-ing around asking the older woman if she'd seen her one-time lover lately...but he hadn't exactly come up with a good reason why they'd have seen Pothos aside from that.

Taking a deep breath and a sigh, he settled his thoughts. "Could we start again? I'm not exactly the best one to be handling this, really. Err...obviously." He glanced at the teen, reflecting on her mother's words. "Guess the cat's out of the bag, so to speak. So uh...hi? I'm your Uncle Himeros, I suppose," he chuckled, offering his hand.

By Dolandor, this was painfully awkward.

Towards the mother, he added, "Look, I'm really sorry about this, and if I had a choice, I wouldn't have done this so abruptly...or honestly, probably not at all, as it's not my business, but...Pothos is missing. I've been searching the Isle, but there's no sign of him. Mother's sent out a summons, calling us all home, but he still hasn't answered. We thought he just wanted some time to himself, but...it's a bit worrying. I figured it was a long shot, but it was all I had: I thought maybe he might have been with you."  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

Himeros... The teenager frowned a bit. She'd heard that name before, she just couldn't remember where though.. Wait a second... "Himeros.. Like the god of lust?" Abby asked, eyes wide. If that was her uncle, who was her dad?

Her thoughts were racing, thinking her own daddy was someone super famous and serious. Maybe that was why he was never around. Abby was practically bouncing with excitement as she kept thinking about it. "Do I get to meet him when you find him?"

"It's alright. You didn't have much to do with what happened to me that night." All the tension seemed to flood out of her. She wasn't truly upset at Himeros. It was Pothos she had something against. He should have been there for his daughter, all four seasons she'd been growing.

"He was acting rather strange from what I gathered. Perhaps he flew away from the isle?" Talil offered, tilting her head. "Abby calm down, your dad is a very nice man, but he's clearly missing. This is a lot bigger than you right now." She patted her daughter on the head, receiving a frown in response.

 

[Teigra]

Himeros couldn't resist grinning at the kid's response, winking, "Yep, that's me. I see my reputation precedes me." To her question, he shrugged, admitting, "Uh, I guess that's up to your mom, kid. Her call, but we'll see, okay?" There was still the business of actually finding him first.

Pleased to see that the woman seemed less likely to try to kill him with a glare now, Himeros relaxed as well. "Rather strange is a serious understatement. He's normally a pretty quiet guy, a little backward. Some might say mopey, but I say he just needs to learn to let go and have fun a little. Um...though what happened, that was not exactly what I had in mind," he finished quickly, before she could assume that he'd encouraged that in any way.

"Besides, Mom's pretty sure he's still on the Isle, he's just not answering for some reason," he continued, shrugging. Sensing the disappointment from the kid, he followed an odd urge, frowning and reaching out to ruffle her hair lightly for a second. Then, feeling awkward, he pulled away, hoping that wouldn't be taken the wrong way. "Sorry, kid. Not the best time for introductions, I suppose. Maybe later. I'm sure nothing's wrong," he added. "He probably just needed to get away for a while. Mom can be a bit...overwhelming with too much time around her, especially this time of year. He probably just needed a little quiet before all the partying and such. He's not real big on the whole social thing."  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

"I haven't seen anyone like that... But that's not really saying much. I don't see much of the island." Abby blinked, freezing at the hand on her head. Her grin grew wider, starting the bouncing again. She was finally finding out about herself. Why she was so different, and her dad! This was awesome, even if a little upsetting.

"It would make sense that he would come here to spend some time away from all that, since he's got a family here and stuff... Okay, a daughter and her mother. But still." She frowned a bit, trying to be logical. It was just so exciting. She was related to Venus of all people!

Talil shook her head, crossing her arms. "I've only seen him at the parties your mother throws. He doesn't even know Abby exists if he's been missing this long." It was a bit of a sad thought. True, but sad. "Maybe Abby can help you look for him?"

 

[Teigra]

"It was worth a shot, I figured," Himeros admitted with a shrug. He hadn't really expected to find Pothos with the women here, it didn't really fit his profile. Then again, the actions resulting in the kid there didn't fit either. So hey, he'd had as much a chance as not for success.

Where did he go from here though?

"We saw him shortly after the party," Himeros admitted, leaving out the part about how Pothos hadn't remembered anything that had happened at the party until he woke up in the closet afterwards. Somehow, he didn't figure that would go over well. "He seemed more like himself then, but he left not long after, saying something about needing 'time'. That's the last I saw of him....though I don't always stay home myself either." He was usually happily prowling the island, personally, but he still made trips home now and again. Guess it was back to the sear--

Wait, had she just offered for her daughter to help him search? "Oh, no, you don't have to do that! I mean, I don't even know where to look next. I'd just be flying around aimlessly for the most part. Maybe ask a few Pae if they've seen him around, but...there may not be much else to do except wait for him to come home." It was...an odd situation. Her daughter at least seemed to have heard of him, so obviously her mother had, right? What sane woman sent her teenager off with the God of Lust?

Not that he'd do anything, of course. Eww. She was family...and even if she wasn't, she was only a kid besides. It was just...he was so used to being treated like a terrible person for being who he was that...he assumed that everyone always assumed the worst...and even this small amount of trust...

It was almost more than he knew how to respond to. So, he deflected.

"I'm sure he'll turn up soon," he offered reassuringly with a smile.  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

Abby seemed as if her world had been shattered. Here her mother was willing to let her go searching for her lost dad and the only one who might even know where he was... Why wouldn't he let her go? The teen frowned. Looking up to her uncle, Abby tried to smile.

"Maybe... But it would be faster to search for him wouldn't it?" Her head tilted.

Talil shook her head. She saw through his game. Read it many times in the books her sister loved so much. "Really, take her with you, she wants to help." The shetani urged. For some reason she trusted this man. Probably because he seemed like a lost soul that just needed some love and trust.

"Abby will be fine with you. You are her uncle after all."  

[Teigra]

Himeros shielded any visual signs of the wince he felt at her words. Perhaps he gave these mortals too little credit. Was he really so obvious? He'd like to think not, but the seeds of doubt had been planted.

With a resigned sigh, he shrugged. "Alright, I suppose it couldn't hurt to keep looking then." He didn't have much hope for finding his twin after all this time of searching, but there had to be something to come of this. Heck, the kid said she didn't get out much (even if she had heard of him before). At least he could show her a little of the Isle if nothing else.

She already seemed more willing to be social than her father. That was a good sign for her, he thought.

Himeros had enough rest while they were talking, and took only a moment to stretch his shoulders and spread his wings to their full extent. "Best to search by air; cover more ground that way. How are your flying skills, kid? Err...Abby, was it?"  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

Abby stretched her wings out, giggling like crazy. She was going to see the island! Even better, she might get to meet her dad! The teen was literally bouncing this time. There was no way to mask her excitement.

It wasn't until she'd almost gotten smacked in the face with her uncles wings that she noticed he was planning on flying off. She cowered a bit, wings hunkering down against her back. "Uh... Not the greatest.. I fell off the roof a few times when I was younger trying to fly..." Abby blushed, looking down.

She hated to admit it, but she was no good at flight. But then, she hadn't really tried it again since she'd taken that fall. At least nothing had been broken when she fell, though she had a scar or two to remind her of what flying could do to you. The teen turned to her mother, only to blink in shock. Mother was already gone? That was really unusual! She didn't even do that when Aunt Andromeda wanted to take Abby for the weekend.  

[Teigra]

Oh, wonderful. This was going to make searching more difficult and slow...

Then he reminded himself; he didn't really expect much more to come of this search anyway. That didn't even feel like the point anymore, for some reason. He turned as well to say something to the older woman...who had apparently vanished into thin air! Woah...that was some trick...

Raising an eyebrow, he scanned the area, then gave up with a shrug. Okay, guess he was stuck with the kid now for sure. Best make the most of it.

"Well, that sucks and all, but hey, gotta' learn somehow. And now's as good a time as any to give it a try again. Trust me, it beats plodding around here on the ground," he rolled his eyes for emphasis. "I assume you were pretty young then. You're bigger now and so are your wings, so come on and let's do this."  

[Dementia Requiem Asumi]

She fidgeted a bit, looking up at him. Was he really going to teach her how to fly? Abby frowned, glancing at her wings. "S-so... How do we do this?" The teen asked, more than a bit embarrassed.

She could only hope being up high wouldn't scare the bejeebus out of her. With her luck, it would. Everything may have been going wonderfully so far, something was going to happen to screw it up. Like being afraid of heights.

 

[Teigra]

He was going to have to teach her everything? Oh, cripes. This could quickly turn into a disaster.

Himeros didn't really remember the actual learning part of flying. He just figured he'd done so somewhere along the line, right? Must have been easy, right?

Scratching his head, Himeros shrugged. "Not entirely sure," he admitted candidly. "Ah well, we'll figure it out. Alright, let's see 'em." He waved a hand, implying she should spread her wings instead of tucking them against her back. "They're a bit different than mine, but I'm sure they basically work the same way. Still got feathers and whatnot."

He'd seen some interesting wings on other Pae before, and they all still flew. It had to be like...instinct for Pae to fly, right?

Yeah, this could end badly.