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 Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2024 8:50 pm
It was a chilly night. Clouds hung heavy in the sky blocking out any hope of seeing the stars or the waning moon. Thankfully, being in a city meant the loss of moonlight didn’t impede the evenings endeavor. Clouds or no, the stars were difficult to see even on the clearest of nights with the blaring lights that illuminated the city proper. Those exact lights were one of the reasons rooftops and alleyways were the more sought after locations of those living a dual life and fighting an untold war. It was easier to stay hidden. Easier to avoid the eyes of people who could make their lives a bit harder, because they were certainly hard enough the way it was.
Heliodor, thankfully, wasn’t a person to try and gaze at the stars. The only thing he was interested in was whether the clouds were threatening to open up and pour on him and companion. The last thing either of them needed was to be cold and wet. Helio wasn’t going to have that. He’d teleport his a** to the usual alleyway blocks away from his apartment, and hoof it home. Energy and starseeds be damned. But, so far, not a drop fell.
Taking the time to stretch, Aelus’s hands rose up over his head as he arched himself backwards. A small pop was his reward and he sighed for it, dropping his arms to the side. Turning his attention to Albite, Helio waited to see what the man had in mind. They’d, honestly, not gone on patrol often…actually, ever? Together. It was a bit odd considering Albite was technically Helio’s commanding officer after Faustite offloaded the super. Still a sore-point for the lesser corrupt, but not the gaping wound it had originally been.
“Do you have any specific plans for tonight?” Helio questioned. “Or are we just out and about to gather whatever we find?” Energy was the easiest resource to get. With two of them together it would be incredibly easy to find a hole-in the wall bar, or a club to use as a way to pick off the intoxicated or otherwise distracted souls. A starseed or two was quite possible too, but they’d need to be a bit more careful with the where of the attack. Someone or ones passing out in an alleyway or less occupied street wasn’t a big deal. Finding a body or two would be hitting the news in some way or another.
Destiny City must have had quite the extensive ‘missing person’ reports.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2024 10:05 am
All the stars his partner seemed uninterested in finding, Albite openly yearned for. Searching the heavens solemnly, uncaring if it poured down hellfire, while hoping for a glimpse of the great beyond. All those little twinkling lights, the rays of the moon, some passing satellite blinking on and off while going a million miles per hour---
But Helio was asking about plans, almost asking *for* orders, it sounded like? And that broke his revere, left him snorting some nasal bit of a quickly suffused laugh. The goddamned irony of it all. That Helio believed in Rank and file at all. That he adhered to it, even in a half assed measure. Because he knew Helio had been at this longer, had been born into it on one side, dragged kicking n screaming onto the other-- had suffered -- Waru had tasted the truth of it like bitter wine, had swallowed so much vine-ripe sourness, and now? Now this ******** wanted to do the basic-senshi-two-step like they were 'training'. As if he had anything to teach him that those who'd come before hadn't already taught!!
He wanted to do the opposite, to unteach, to have Helio empty his head of every single old lesson and insert them anew all over again!! The way that ******** desire conflicted so heavily with his urge to see Helio *work*, to watch the man move on the streets instead of on the dance floor, see all his years of service put into practical motion. To make things worse he actually did have a plan, a half-hatched inkling of a ********. Because he needed to see Helio *try*--- and know if Helio was doing it for himself, or for Faustite, or for the team? 'The Mission' -- if it ever should've even been called such a thing, was long since done, buried, dead.
"C'n I be brutally honest for a sec?" a tilt to his half smile, an in-joke at his own expense, knowing how he was oh so rarely ever anything other than honest even at the worst times. That any lie he'd ever tried for always came back around to bite him firmly in his own ripe a**. "This is soooo ********' weird to be doing with you--does it feel weird to you? Because it feels weird to me!!" all stillness fleeing him as he finally broke from stargazing to gazing at Helio to shifting side to side, as if he could work it all out through restrictive movements and burning through every last thought all on his own.
"Why does it feel weird though? That's the godamned question of the hour.." scrubbing his palms over his face in frustration, raking his fingers back up through lengthy locs, until he was stuck enough in the bulk of them that he simply had to shake them free or forever deal with the mess of untangling them. Waru thought he might put a mental pin in it for now? Like laying out a weighted line with a bell on the end of it, something he could circle back to later and reel in. Hopefully with a nice hefty answer neatly caught on the other end of it! He didn't need the answer now -- wasn't even damn sure if Aelius had one in him to give.
"I do have a ******** plan though..or...like..Firebrand's got a Stanley Cup prize going, champions only need apply. At the small cost of a few dozen starseeds a nice little promotion could be all yours! I can pull up the rules for the damn thing if you want..." the offer given easily, genuinely, palms open and ready to pluck the tablet from subspace once he'd gotten his hair to fan out nicely enough behind him that he wasn't going to strangle himself with it.
"Though if you really wanna do the right thing with this? You bring 'em to him' asking for naught ********' all...like a gift, yeah? Like a cat! He likes cats. Plus, he's just feeling spicy cause Lils' bounced the ******** out on us, can't even imagine how Alkmene's been dealing with it..." and he finally did turn his gaze to everything that existed below, contemplating, for once, the task they were here for. Mulling over whetehr or not he chose, and led, and---
Or if he set Helio off leash entirely? He knew how the ******** *he* would do it, if Helio ended up being down for the idea. But how would the other man manage such a feat? A rare sticking point that brought up images of starseeds hefted over in burlap during one group mission or another...
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2024 5:21 pm
. “Sure. It’s weird. But I wasn’t given a damn choice in the matter now was I?” He clipped out. “If I remember correctly, you were the one who kept reminding me of our current arrangement when it first was put into place.” Irritation radiated from Helio, eyes sharp upon Albite. “And I don’t know why it feels weird to you. Maybe because I should be underneath you in the first place.” Helio kept his voice steady, but it was clear that this specific topic was like a red cape to a raging bull; The trigger that could send the conversation downhill very quickly. But, despite the bite to his voice, Heliodor worked at reigning himself in. To avoid that downhill slope that loomed all so close. He practically ripped his attention away from the man who looked like he should be freezing in the little amount of clothing that covered him, and instead gazed down at the city below the building they were perched upon.
Waru continued on though with a loose plan for the evening. A competition of sorts that Heliodor wouldn’t have bothered with in the first place, because what did he have to prove? That he was continually a royal ********? That was probably set in stone at this point. Besides, Heliodor was fairly certain at this point that Faustite would have little interest in promoting him. Probably pass the buck off to someone else again.
“I’ve already gifted him starseeds Waru, and didn’t ask for ******** all in return. The fact you had to even mention handing them to him with no expectations…” Did Waru think that Helio only wanted things from Faustite. That he did was a calculated move on some chessboard to gain something in return? Helio wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or disgusted by that.
The scale was tipping to disgusted. “Are you insinuating that everything I did for Faustite was for something else beyond the fact that I love him? Cause that’s what it sounds like youre saying.” That did not sit well. Perhaps once upon a time when he was first corrupted he had done things just to please his uppers so he’d not be hurt anymore, but that had been years ago now. Things had drastically changed since then and Albite hadn’t been around to see it to pass judgement.
“But if it’s starseed hunting you want to do tonight then fine.” He shrugged, trying to shirk off the anger that sat heavy in him. Though, the heat of the feeling would make the night that much more enjoyable. A way to expunge the desire to destroy something and feel marginally better for the damage done.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2024 8:05 pm
Albite stared on, open faced pizza of ever morphing surprise splashed with a headlight glares worth of 'the ******** wrong wire did I cut this time!?'. There sat a litany of comebacks, innuendos, and the absolutely primal urge to snap back at Helio. Because if he didn't want to be underneath him so badly? Then he should just damn well get the ******** over him already!
It would be so easy--- to just push him off the damn roof --- To summon him back and do it *again*, until he doesn't have enough ******** energy to avoid hitting the pavement!
It was such a brief impulse. A flash-fire of a thought; hot, white, and as he eyed Helio's irate form from toe to head, he truly ******** considered how it would be fine if he just did it the one time! It could've even been funny if he played it off right!! Couldn't it?
A c o s m i c j o k e --
And then he scruffed the image and shoved it headfirst into the thick, viscous, empty, empty, e m p t y void in his mind. Felt the bubbles stop as he unclenched the fists he hadn't realized he'd made, and focused on the core of alll the words Aelius spilled bloody across the expanse of space between them.
The words he thought mattered most, cream of the s**t sandwhich, beacause holy hell, was there ever a diamond in there somewhere!!
"So you do still love him then? Hummnh, know you kept the ring, but? S'always nice to hear you say it out loud," cheddar cheese tease of a smile trailing the out of left field comment. Waru left it there, like an unexploded bit of ordinance, a fresh grenade on the field for Helio to pull the pin on and lob once more in his direction. He twisted on his heels, crooked his finger all come hither style--"But we're hunting, right? M'workin with a whole ********' pro! A silver-spoon sucking leader in the making, yeah? So c'mon then golden boy! Lets hunt--and if you think m'dropping us off at some easy grazing grounds?"
As if he'd waste his energy teleporting either of them anywhere now! Nah, besides! Running was best for working off steam! And if anything? He wanted to encourage whatever fire he'd lit under Aelius's a**, to let him overtake him, to watch him take the lead and pick the spot and drop some godamned bodies---
Whatever avoidantly squickish sort of mood he'd not been in before? Oh,ho,ho, he was definitely in one now!
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:38 pm
Eyes went a bit wide as he stared. Full on stared at Albite. Was he being serious here? Vocalizing affections for their fiery General was something he felt needed to be said?! What absolute ridiculousness. Helio had been on such a rollercoaster of emotions since he and Faustite had blown up on each other that, he thought anyway, the underlying emotion was still obvious. Perhaps Albite was just more dense than Helio had given him credit for. Was that someone would want credit for? Probably anyone but Albite.
Instead of responding to the comment and that smile that made Helio’s fist clench with a need, he turned his back to the man.
His attempt at controlling himself was lost when he flung himself back at Albite with the continued heckling. “The ******** do you mean by all of that? Silver spoon? You damn well know better than most other people that my training was anything but. Or perhaps you would have liked to gone through it. Forced to earn every ******** thing in your apartment? Each piece of comfort requiring you to loose a bit of yourself to earn it? Perhaps you’d like to be kept in sleep deprivation as a form of ‘training’. A tired soldier is one that can’t fight back after all. Just nod a head and do as your told because you aren’t allowed to be an individual. Just a calculating killer wondering if they are going to survive themselves? How dare you even think to say something like that.” Now he practically shook with anger. Fists curling as he forcibly made himself walk away for fear of what he might do. Cause right now, all he wanted was to slam the man with his magic. Relish watching Albite drown for as long as his magic would last.
The worst part was he had hoped that perhaps Waru was starting to understand. Had started to want to open up to him. Give him more. But, again, Helio was shown how anything good was continuously denied him. Was he an a*****e? Sure. Aelius was aware of his temper and trying to reel it in, but when things like that were said….it was impossible. It hurt. Terribly.
He needed an outlet. One that wasn’t going to end up with him likely held down by an Eternal’s bondage magic.
So he left. Stepped right off of the side of the building to fall to an emergency escape below then another leap deposited him into one of the numerous alleys in the area. He didn’t need a prime location. Not now. To be honest, he was likely to be brash with his choices and in fact, he wouldn’t have been as he eyed a man just beyond the darkness of the alley. Instead, his attention was pulled away at the flare of an aura nearby and immediately his thoughts switched from the easy prey to something with bite. Someone who could maybe help burn out the anger roiling like a stormy sea within him.
Turning, he moved down the alleyway, using the darkness to his benefit to search for the owner of the aura. He didn’t once. Not a single time bothered to look if Albite was following. The dark aura said enough.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2024 1:01 pm
Albite halted abruptly, chain yanked short by Aelius's words, as all his movements in the opposite direction ground into sudden stillness. But he didn't turn-let the man his back, and his attentive, listening ear while letting the wave of rage snarled in his direction wash over him like a storm. It felt like every last straw snapping over every last camels back--- like they were speaking two completely different languages-- and he could practically smell bridge built oh so carefully between them catch fire and burn.
Waru had always liked to believe he thrived on chaos, in it, around it, but sometimes? Sometimes he wondered if he simply relied on it heavily, if he created it himself out of thin air, purely for the sake of feeling comfortable in the familiarity of it all. He heard Aelius twist away more than he saw it. Let it happen. Until the aura of the man slid almost out of range, fizzled at the edges of his periphery, disappeared--
And only then did he twist around to tear after the other man. Giving himself potently silent seconds to breathe himself down, out, into something calmer even if doing so felt like trying to swallow a ball of barbed twine--
Hanging back and listening, relying on the feel of being within still within the sphere of gloam that screamed of Heliodors presence; rich golds, acid rain, metallic, but not. He would've even claimed it as having sulfuric qualities. Save when being suffused in it reminded him of being dunked in some utterly wild, foreign, kind of deluge.
Just as he thought he caught sight of Aelius again, of those long indigo locks, the flash of primary yellow, blue, reds snapping silently in the stagnant alleyway--something flitted into his radar. An order aura venn diagraming the whole of the lot.
'Whelp, with all of that attitude it's damned well assured that *someone* is getting a promotion tonight! One way or another--into a casket if not into a higher position of rank!'
The roofs he'd left were suddenly the more promising vantage point, something he took to at speed, with a powerful leap that left simple concrete balustrades crumbling, rusted gutters bent, peering over sides of mazelike in-betweens, hoping for a glimpse of his partner closing in, or better yet? A glimpse of the prey that'd showed itself tonight.
Poor ******** soul....
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2024 3:04 pm
Going onto the rooftops would make his job a bit easier. Assuming Albite was following, the man certainly had the better perspective in this hunt. Helio was loathe to join him on the rooftops, but the alleyways weren't a connecting network. Instead, roads and more brightly lit walkways separated the darkness that Helio preferred to stick to. Begrudgingly, the senshi was force back upward. A powerful leap to a window and another one or two more had him scaling to the top of an apartment complex.
Turned out Albite had been keeping up. Tch.
Heliodor only gave the man a passing glance. His focus was squarely on aura.
It took a bit of time to find the source of the aura and as they grew closer another one became noticeable. The two auras were overlapping, and it became apparent why as a page and knight came into view. They were tucked up high on an eve of an ostentatious bank. Likely built a few decades ago when such architecture likely signaled how affluent a company was. Now it just looked gaudy with its stone and mortar facade, towers and spires. Those architectural designs on this specific building were all front facing, leaving a large expanse of fairly flat roof behind them.
Helio didn't stop his approach though. Didn't hesitate as he leapt up onto the eves. The sound of wooden shoes smacking the roofline was more than loud enough to announce his presence. The Knight responded by shoving the page behind him, brandishing a trident to deter Helio.
The super unleashed his second stage magic. Capturing the Knight in a cascade of rushing hot water and not pausing in his advancement.
The page scrambled back from the Knight as the magic hit, practically falling backward down the eve they had settled on. Helio helped him along with a solid kick that sent the teenager the rest of the way down, hitting the flatter roof below. The page was obviously new. Fresh and green to the world he'd been inducted into. A small toy blue bird, matching the deep blues and golds of the pages uniform, had gone skittering out of his hands and out of easy reach. Heliodor couldn't help but think how useless the item was to begin with. Why even bother summoning something like that? A complete waste of time and energy. Like the page was.
The super leapt down.
The magic dropped from around the Knight just as Heliodor shoved his hand into the page's chest. A moment passed. Two. It had all been so easy. Too easy. Very unsatisfying. The Knight was closing in.
Helio leapt forward as the trident swung into the area he had just occupied over the page. The glittering of a starseed was evident within his palm with the page laying unresponsive at the Knight's feet. Heliodor didn't bat an eye at what he'd done. Face neutral and uncaring as he contemplated the Knight in front of him. While the page had been easy, Helio hoped the Knight would help burn off the rage that simmered even stronger as his gaze found Albite yet again. b*****d couldn't just let htings be right now.
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2024 8:21 pm
So ******** vicious, isn't he?
Waru remembered the magic, not used against himself, but against Faustite? That at base level it had looked different, that when Faustite had been *dying* they'd somehow been able to be friends, to tolerate each other--- At least sometimes? He clearly remembered brief moments where he didn't feel Aeliu's jealousy eeking out his every damned pore and filling the world around them like a miasma. Remebered all too easily all the other moments when he could. All those golden hued, dagger filled glances, aimed at the softest spaces between each and every vertebrae in his spine.
Waru had wondered, for a time, if Aelius secretly wanted him dead? Divorced? Something other--- Even after they'd exchanged olive branches ten times over, over dinners, over drinks, over Faustites drunken body---none of the treatises ever felt like they'd stuck, the peaceful agreements were easily changed burned, thrown to the floor and pissed on. The powers always imbalanced---
But as he loomed above the fight, passing through the shadows of crossed buildings, till he was in the space above the flat roof they'd once been. Albite thought he finally understood fundamental. That he grasped a so old it was new to him concept, for maybe the first time in forever; the slow, slow, realization that the only thing holding the Aelius back -- was Aelius himself. Oh, Faustite had screamed that from the rooftops, burned it into cellar walls, detonated entire city blocks announcing those same sentiments that pierced his brain only recently.
Heliodore could've been promoted when-the-hell-ever...
He was everything an agent should be, the most ruthless sort of killing machine, the type that didn't play with his food, or banter, or joke, or look for a stronger opponent and spare the weak in doing so. The kind that took on challenges methodically, reckless but not, careful but not. Here? He looked nothing like Faustite to Waru's own eyes---
Their styles were so very different---
'Save how he probably goes hunting deadlier game when he's angry, huh, Firebrand? How much of him is you, how much of him is Schorl---How much of you is her, too? The ******** do I thank for my boys having survived long enough for me to have, huh? And how do I do it without hating myself for thinking the thought at all...'
For the first time in forever, watching Aelius end the Knight with a lowercase P, some fresh corpse of a toy wielding kid who'd never stood a chance. Albite wondered if they were the bad guys in all of this, if that was even possible?!
It wasn't---it couldn't be---
"Cerbs---" whispered words that summoned an essence; that essence taking the form of a blanket of wings, tripled gaze of eyes, a weighted comfort that settled over his shoulders and forced him to crouch where he was. He wasn't about to intervene, was far too busy watching Helio stare through the Knight before him like he was an obstacle instead of a human being. A piece of trash blocking his view of the city streets even further below---
Helio wasn't having fun, wasn't hungry, wasn't hotly pissed; this kind of rage? Distant and unfamiliar to Albite in all new ways--It was a cold, cold, cold, frozen thing. Thick layers that ran too deep for him to even consider envisioning new ways to pierce.
So he watched, his eternal other of a bonded companion at the ready. He told himself he'd called Cerbs here just in case Helio's magic failed, or the Knight got lucky, or---
Knew the ******** truth of it, was that the bird was there for his own damn sake, maybe even his protection? Depending on how ******** far south he'd screwed up this time...
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Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2024 10:03 pm
It seemed he was being left on his own to fight. Nothing new.
“You’re going to ******** give that back!” The Knight yelled, trident brandished in front of him as he knelt down to check on the baby page.
Without his soul, that page was dead. While the opportunity still existed for the Knight to save him, Heliodor was determined to make sure he was going to be discarding a corpse. Two of them in fact. He made that point as he held open his hand. An invitation of sorts for the Knight, not that Helio thought the Neptune knight would need it. No. The older man, certainly a little older than Aelius himself, was ready to stick his neck out for the teenager at his feet. So be it.
The fight was quick to start. Heliodor clutched his prize as he dodged the golden spines of the trident. His movements were fluid and clean as he bypassed the long weapon with continued ease. A practice dance with how light on his feet Helio was. A skill easily attributed to his continued practice of dance. Nimble and strong. Strong enough to cause the Knight to stumble backward at a hit to the shoulder. Helio paid for the attack though with a hit to his arm with the side of the trident. A fair trade off. Helio only had a slice across his bicep. The Knight was catching his breath.
Even though Heliodor was able to keep himself from taking any severe hits, the melee of the fight was not in his favor. While he’d been trained in hand-to-hand, it wasn’t something he got to practice near as often as he should. Hell, he was lucky he practice much of anything anymore. Still, he did his best to hold his own against someone who seemed to be on par with him.
Suddenly, the Knight threw his trident. Eyes wide, Helio dodged to the side, avoiding the weapon as it landed behind him into a more slanted part of the rooftop. It vibrated as the tines stuck into the rubber surface and the Knight began channeling.
Like a dome connected the Knight and his weapon, the area began to vibrate with intensity. Helio, stuck between the two was forced to withstand the heavy vibrations that felt as if they stole the very air from his lungs. They rang deep and heavy. His muscles almost seizing from the onslaught.
It stopped suddenly. As Helio gained himself, the Knight took advantage and sucker-punched the corrupt. Helio reeled back, but didn’t let go of the precious starseed still clutched within his hand. He spat, as he rolled to the side, avoiding another attack.
Again, the fight fell to melee. The two going back and forth. Heliodor, while frustrated with how the fight was panning out, could feel the anger slowly ebbing away from his muscles. Left behind so he could focus solely on his opponent. At some point the knight had regained his trident. The weapon again utilized to poke and prod at Helio. A few swings making their mark upon tender flesh.
There was no heckling. Both were too focused in their end goal.
The knight was barely a foot away, Helio threw a kick in his direction just as the trident was hurled once again. In reaction to what he knew was coming, Helio threw his magic out again. The channel of water rising up and around the Knight not a foot away, crashing down.
Heliodor hadn’t expected it. In fact, he thought he had at least a moment or two to catch his breath, but a pair of arms forced their way out of that channel of water and pulled Helio into the onslaught of his own magic and against the Knight’s chest.
The vibrations were horrific. The water acted as an amplifier and Heliodor went from hearing the rush of the water around him to muffled ringing in one of his ears and he cut his own magic. He hurt. Everywhere. But it didn’t stop him from turning in those strong arms and reaching his hand into the knights chest.
He saw the moment of realization pass over the Knight’s face. Saw the anger, fear, regret for. his choice. But Heliodor didn’t care. He didn’t bat an eye or think twice as he pulled, felt that slight resistance and then nothing. The sound of a body hitting the wet ground was barely noticed over the ringing in his left ear and over the whisp of a light flitting around his head.
A hand rose to wipe at his face. The water had been hot, his skin felt raw for it, his body bruised, but nothing hurt quite as badly as his left ear. Carefully he raised a hand to it and felt the trickle of warmth. Blood reddened his finger tips. While he took gauge of himself the little whisp of light continued to float around. Close. Far away. No matter where it went it eventually floated back to Heliodor who triumphantly clutched two starseed.
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:23 am
Albite had stayed sat, arms curled over one raised knee, the other bent; leg dangling over the precipice of the roofs ledge. He watched it all unfold with rapt attention, in utter silence--
There was so much silence - - -
And then the sounds filtered back in as he blinked; noises of the city's life existing on the periphery, the rustle of wings behind his head. How he swore he could hear Helios breathing from all the way over here, even above his own shaky inhale, and the thud of adrenaline screaming through his veins. The tension of the moment finally cutting free as the final body dropped.
And Helio stood alone, two souls richer, victorious....
'But at what ******** cost?'
All the sirens in his head blared warning, flares red, went utterly ignored as Albite sighed heavy as a stone, then dropped to stand level with the group of combatants and corpses alike. Landing on his booted feet with that same graceless weight, like a brick fallen from a ledge. Something in him ached terribly at the sight laid out before him—
For the picture Helio made there. A dark silhouette against a grim backdrop. A hollow thing that dragged its nails up his spine. Whispered to him all the ways he’d ******** up from the word ‘go’, and continued to do so, even now. That his best intentions were, at the end of the day, just that. Self serving and useless in the face of a man with more needs than he could ever hope to envelope, even in his own broad arms.
"Cerbs, hun? Go-attum..."
Cerberus didn’t seem to mind the order, took to it silently, descending on the page, circling the young body on stalky legs keenly as any vulture. Because Waru didn't feel like asking for help hiding bodies, or doing Rift disposal on his lonesome, let alone needing an agent to help him tow that line! He could've ordered someone else to do it, but? Cerbs had seemed peckish already—-
Let the coroner be ever confused, let the missing persons reports pile high. If bodies were something they were going to inevitably leave tonight? Then let them be as unidentifiable as a pizza hitting the pavement from seven stories high---
"Well ********, would you lookit that? You’ve attracted a friend!! Wisps'r good luck!" the joviality rang false, the cheer held no charm, the words were empty husks of what they could’ve been. Of what warm wellsprings normal flowed from his mouth
A literal bright spot amid all the suffering —
“We could always put ‘em back yanno? If you wanna call this whole thing off—-s’still time…”
And if he meant the souls, the entire night, that the wretched genie he’d inadvertently loosed could still be stuffed back into its caustic bottle.
“S’nothing done here that can’t be undone—yeh? Save the new companion—wisps’r more eternally bonded to you n even your girl back home is…” he wondered if maybe he could convince Helio that Beans needed them right now? Could leverage the mans love of the feline into convincing him to go the hell home rather than fling themselves into the rest of the night like this —
“Helio…?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 12:51 pm
Heliodor hadn’t heard Albite’s arrival. His ears still rang from the abuse of the Knight’s magic. It was the movement out of the corner of his eye, that all-too familiar shape and dark complexion, made even darker in the night with the swirl of tattoo that caught the corrupts attention. Gold eyes stared at Albite. Seeing and not. While andrenaline still coursed through his veins, he felt weary. The post fight rush would hit hard if he didn’t press on.
Helio couldn’t help but feel an odd sort of accomplishment. Not for the starsseeds that poked into the raw skin on his hands. That was nothing to celebrate. Another day on the job. No. It was the utter silence Albite gave him. For once, Helio had managed to fully stun the man into silence. Not a comment. Not a sly remark. Nothing.
Was all of this what it took?
It didn’t last long. The silence. The moment was enough though. Telling. Albite breaking it with a command to his monsterous bird. The creature not hesitating to follow its master’s command. Helio himself waved a hand weakly at his own wisp that dared hoover too close to his own face. He didn’t remark on the appearance of the wisp or Albite’s overtly jovial comment about it. Right now, Helio just found the little floating light to be yet another growing list of things that he’d have to deal with. A list that was slowly burning for his lack of ability to even care about it.
Gods he was tired.
Carefully he wiped at his left ear. It ached terribly. The rining the worst there blocking out almost any other sound. From his ear, he wiped his face, smearing some of his own blood on it as he wiped away some errant water that continued to drip from soaked locks.
He had zoned out. Missed some of what Albite had said. What had he last heard? Something about the wisp? The andrenaline was dropping off fast.
Raising his prizes, he grabbed Albite’s hand and shoved the two crystals into his hand. He was almost too forceful in his pass off, but thankfully the delicate items didn’t break. “I don’t care what you do with them.” He remarked. Albite was his commanding officer. It was only right he collect the loot of the night. Let him make whatever decision he wanted about the souls. The only thing Helio knew was that he was not going to be the one to pass them off to Faustite.
He turned his attention away from Albite and Cerbs to look over the city. The glow of the street lights below shadowed the rooftops even more. There were no signatures around. The Knight hadn’t been able to send out a distress signal, or had chosen not to. It didn’t matter. They would either have to go hunting again, or call it a night.
Honestly, Helio was done with it. He’d pay his dues for the evening.
His wisp circled him again, keeping a wider birth to avoid an annoyed hand. It flitted from Helio to Albite and back again, settling itself near his right shoulder. Happy to hoover there.
“I am going home.”
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Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2024 8:43 pm
The ******** was he even supposed to do with that, to say to that? The silence that'd stolen his tongue before reared itself again, ugly and bitter tasting. A tough mouthful to swallow, but swallow it he did. Helio's brisk remark and following statement, the sharply cornered clutch of souls the other man had pressed into his hand. His gaze lingered, the wisp, Helio's back, the way the glow from below cast the darkness across the man and left only all consuming shadows.
He let a tersely held breath out in a sigh for the choice being thrown at his feet, yet another gauntlet with Aelius name emblazoned on it. Though he felt it was ******** apt he take it up without his usual mouthiness, since he'd been more than happy enough to conduct this 'train-ing' right off the nearest ledge, and with about as much care as a fire in a papermill. The two starseeds in his palm, fragile little things. He could feel them give at the edges as he squeezed; the satisfying creak of their forms, the way they dug into his skin, the imagined pulse of warm, frantic fluttering from their depths.
He knew exactly what he'd have done with them before, had everything gone differently, but now?
"Sure--" said flatly, and the motion with which he waved Cerb's off with was absent, dismissive. He wasn't one to deny his spirited familiar a chance to sharpen their collective beaks, no more than he was keen on watching them pry, magpie smart and playful, at every shiny button, buckle, and shoestring that caught their many eyes. So many distracting bits that would only keep them busy for so long....
Whatever----
Since Aelius was giving him the reins? Then he'd take them. What was done was done, he wasn't about to take it back and burden Aelius with two more targets on his back. To wake the ******** up a pair of what would still likely be pissed enough to kill Knights.
They weren't here to make friends, that'd never been the point of this night......
Though?
He wondered, belatedly, if Erytheia was feeling in an accepting mood? If he could track the cosmos-colored star-shepherd down quickly enough to hand over a prize that felt ill enough won at this point that he didn't even think his husband deserved it...
"I'll see you later."
And he didn't tell him to get home safe, or take care of the wisp. None of his usual boisterous goodbyes. Nothing that did more than briefly stir the air between him, before he turned and was gone with the motion of it.
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