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 Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 4:45 am
It would never not be a little jarring to his own senses, yanking power on and off like shucking a husk of corn; always he used more strength than finesse for these sorts of things. Especially when he was trying to be a blip of an after-image rather than a blaring siren of *Free Eternal Meat Sitting On Its a** Right Here!* So, blazing fast was the endgame, and ******** the vertigo that punched him the back of his head as he lost four inches of heel and the dark room buzzed with the sort of static a person got when they suddenly shut the lights off after staring at the sun for a leeetle too long. Though it was the swift, body deep, realization that Aelius’s apartment had been *warm* and Trey’s garage was *cold* that really ground his gears to a shivering halt. It wasn’t like he’d waited around in a damn coat, hat, shoes back at Aelius’s place!! Like he’d thought to put them on before panic-bamphing out – <********> — “ Holyshitballs–” Was this how Eion felt all the damn time? Ripped outta the fire and into sub-zero temperatures that made him want to clutch his pearls and pull on several more coats; though he knew that he was being absolutely dramatic over this! Realistically? He was in a well kept, if not perfectly climate controlled, rich man's garage. One with good weather stripping, doors that sealed tightly, that was largely made to keep the elements out so that the vehicles within could stay nice n pristine! But he’d been born to the warm, preferred it over all else, evidently. Even now. Especially here; hissing through grit teeth and an unpleasant shiver as he finally fishing his phone back out and just – Wondering what exactly was wrong with himself? “I’m being a freak about this for no damn reason, aren’t I? Seriously! I mean, the ********–” And he did bite his lip as he re-read the (and why the hell had he made them sound like ultimatums!?) the texts he’d sent Trey! It was late – he was overthinking everything – this was stupid…. “Like – uffhh – I’m sure he’s just busy somewhere, or that I pissed him off somehow. Least Trey’ll get a laugh out of this—” Trey and Aelius, TreyandAelius, TreyandAeliusandTreyandAelius— “And Aelius…” He reaffirmed sternly to himself. The brothers. Together. Like his brain insisted they must be, because they should’ve been and he hoped they were as he sucked in a breath and sent a few shame faced emojis Trey’s way, along with a few more broken hearts and — It hadn’t even been the five minutes he’d promised and he was already calling Trey, clearing his throat, his brain scrambling for how to remedy this kinda midnight ******** while leaning his hip against the visible silhouette of one the cars he knew by touch – something about being deep in the guts of a thing and getting it’s motor oil all over yourself and — he really would’ve been lying to say he wasn’t envious of this one vehicle for any number of reasons. Whatever, either Trey would pick up and chew him out? Or not pick up and come find him, or-– I know my way to the mans room— He kept telling himself this while ignoring the real, terrifyingly obvious fact that Trey might not have even been home at godsdamned all! Only to effectively argue himself back off that dead end ledge by acknowledging how he’d happily burn himself out into a real neat unconsciousness by spending his energy hunting either of the dragons down, if only to selfishly assuage his own restless mind. Because he didn’t care that Aelius stood him up, did he? So long as it was for a reason – any reason at all – didn’t even have to be a good one! Wasn’t like he hadn’t pulled any number of stunts deserving this kinda silent treatment on Aelius’s end… Even though I thought things’d been going so well lately…
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Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 9:54 am
The side door clicked with the rattle of keys and swung open, letting a tall, slim figure through. The lights flicked on, achingly bright out here in the garage, and Trey frowned at the disheveled man waiting for him there. He hadn’t even waited for his response… and his phone was buzzing in his pocket, which he suspected was the same deal. What the ******** had him in such a tizzy.
“Waru. Did you and Aelius have a fight? Because he’s not here…” He said, something tired and grumpy in the back of his tone. The garage wasn’t that much colder than the house (who wanted to get into a cold car?), but he still felt the dip in temperature against his legs through the linen lounge pants he wore. Today had been a long one and he’d finally been able to put it all away. Change into something comfortable and take his hair down, rubbing out the soreness of hair pins and hair ties. He’d been looking forward to take out and a warm chair while he read over reports he hadn’t been able to finish at the office. If this was some sort of childish squabble….
But the worried look on Waru’s face made the hair creep on the back of Trey’s neck and drew his brows together.
“What’s going on?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 3:27 pm
*Bright, bright, bright!*He gave himself a second to rub the meat of his palms over his eyes before offering Trey a wince of a smile; his harried, unnecessary follow-up call ended in a guilty motion. He thought it wasn’t fair that the other man looked so good like this; handsome, even while tired, unamused, and regrettably alone. Likely dragged out of some….Waru couldn’t actually imagine what other kinda cozy place Trey might’ve holed himself up in at this hour? A book nook, or a long couch in a study, a movie room? Course his smile didn’t stay up long as Treys words filtered past his eyes and into his ears and he truly registered a reality where Aelius wasn’t here like he’d hoped. “Damn, I’d really hoped — and no – and I’m sorry! I, uhm –” he was just being crazy, he knew it, all the way in his bones he knew it. This was some level of overreacting interruption he’d be owing Trey an apology over for weeks to come! “ ‘We’ haven't’ had a big fight in awhile,” Sighing as he slid his weight forwards, his hands carrying the conversation as much as his mouth. Double checking the last text he’d received just to make sure he hadn’t received any others. All of his own still sat without that little check mark that made it look as though they’d been seen, there were no new replies, no missed calls. Just walls of him flooding Aelius and a list of short messages sent from his end. “But that doesn’t mean much, right? N’normally I wouldn’t, ah – this? I wouldn’t! But it’s been – holy s**t – it’s been hours since he texted me, Trey. I got the invite to come over t’his place. I made him dinner, I cleaned — found and read his whole – ******** – but whatever! I figured, yanno, maybe he got caught up somewhere? Maybe he’s finally reconnecting with his newly minted, CEO, badass of a big-bro? Or that he lost track of time at the studio…r’ah…” Biting his lip as he shot Trey a briefly apologetic pleading look, winding a complimentary congrats to the man in as he went along. Thinking of how to make it all up to the guy at some point. Christmas, most likely. Cause he knew Trey would like his gift! “ Idunno– but this isn’t like him, is it? I mean, it’s not like the ‘him’ I’ve gotten to know recently! We’ve had whole talks about this ‘not running away’ kinda s**t. Not always easy ones, but…” and now he was trying to think of when exactly they’d last argued, about what, and if that might cause this cold-call-drift. Maybe Aelius wanted to spook his a** n’see if he cared enough to come looking? He didn’t want to assume Aelius could ever be so jealous as that though. Not over him. If it’d been Faustite, maybe? But no —
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Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 5:24 pm
So, Waru was looking for Aelius, couldn’t find him, and had come here? Was… antsy enough to teleport in, while also calling. It was all giving Trey a very bad feeling… like something large and dark was looming over him, dropping his stomach into his toes.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial for his little brother, studying Waru with slitted eyes as he listened to the phone ring… and ring… and go to voicemail. It would have made sense if Aelius had been in the middle of something… dance class or a photoshoot, or a meeting with someone important. But if he’d asked Waru over, he’d intended to be there. He wouldn’t ignore calls and texts. Maybe his phone died? But that also didn’t make a lot of sense. In that case, why not just power up and teleport home? Or use his communicator to send Waru a message?
That looming feeling was getting heavier, like a fist in his guts griping and twisting... Trey dropped his phone back into his pocket and pulled out his pen instead, letting the roiling smoke of his magic take and transform him. His communication crystal was in his hand as soon as the lengths of fabric and hair had settled around him, uncaring that his power signature radiated out from his garage, announcing to all he was there. They’d have to be nearly on the property to feel him… but this was more important than any of that.
“Heliodor.” He snapped into the device as he popped it open, putting out the call. Fafnir waited… and waited… and still nothing answered his calls. Maybe they were being ridiculous. Maybe it was nothing. But what if it wasn’t? Helio could be mad at him all he wanted for being an overbearing big brother, but Helio had not had his brother suddenly just… vanish one day. Just like this…
“We’re going to Faustite.” Fafnir said as he closed the distance between them in fast, ground eating steps. He seized Waru’s arm and was already teleporting them to Faustite’s office, ignoring how handsy and demanding he was being. Faustite could still summon Helio. Maybe Faustite even knew where he was. He was their best, maybe only, chance of finding out where Helio was, and why the ******** he wasn’t answer his phones.
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Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:04 am
Oh.
Oh, s**t.
Ohshitshitshitshit– all the words he would’ve ever spoken lay still and dead on his tongue, the breath he would’ve used to say ‘yeah’ sat tightly in his chest. He didn’t so much as try to slow Trey up as he watched the scene unfold with wide eyes; wet at the edges, filled with a frustrated mix of fear. Because it would’ve been one thing if Aelius was ignoring just *him*, if he’d managed some personal if unknown affront against the indigo haired younger-sibling! But to ignore Trey too? Waru didn’t think he could imagine a world in which that was a possibility, swallowed roughly the iron-rich taste of mounting nausea and the way left his insides roiling; the way it stole his every future thought like a rapid flare of high beams. He let Trey drive like he always swore he would, because the man was good at it. Taking the wheel, leading with swift assuredness. Getting them where the ******** they needed to be like the rules were meant to bend to the dragons whims and his alone…. The seconds it took him to register the familiar warmth of Faustites office, the power that’d cloaked around him like a secondary instinct as he released a shaky sigh and glanced from Fafnir’s consternated features over to — “ Ei–”
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2025 6:16 am
Faustite was not expecting visitors. His office door was shut, locked, and on his desk sat a bespoke metal and glass terrarium large enough to be a roomy aquarium. In it was a thin layer of Rift dirt as well as a smattering of violet crystals. Strange creatures that looked somewhere between starseed and centipede meandered within, some retracing their own slight tracks in the sad, others strewn atop crystals in boredom. One sat in Faustite's left hand while he wrote with his right.
The blare of aura caught him first, and Faustite began to turn, the idea of banishing the brazen ******** back to Destiny City waiting on a handwave, but Waru's voice gave him pause.
That wasn't a pair that he expected to see barging into his office. To his recollection, Fafnir had never invited himself in like that. Albite did, but Waru was still in plainclothes. Faustite regarded the pair silently while the youma wound its way around Faustite's hand restlessly.
He quirked a brow at the pair, as if to ask what had happened. Because, he surmised, something had to have happened.
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2025 8:49 am
There was a wash of relief to see Faustite in residence. They wouldn’t have to go find him, wasting precious time. The sooner this whole thing could be proven as silly, over protective nonsense, the better.
“I’m sorry for intruding, but I have some slight concern about my brother.” Fafnir said as he released Waru’s arm and paced towards the desk. He was careful to pull his calm down over him like a shield, wrapping those emotions up tight and sitting on them, hard. “Waru says he and Aelius were supposed to meet tonight, but he hasn’t heard from him in hours. No answers to calls or texts, so he came to me. Aelius, however, is also not answering my calls, and did not respond to the communicator crystal.”
He let some of his worry seep out into his eyes as he studied Faustite’s face, hoping that some of his sincere concern would move Faustite, if he was inclined to discount them.
“Would you mind very much summoning my brother for us? Unless you know where he is and why he’s not responding. He’s probably fine, but I would prefer to be certain nothing has happened.”
He was not ready to accept that something might have truly happened to Aelius, even as his pulse jumped in his chest. Fafnir would happily deal with a very grumpy little brother right at the moment.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 3:41 am
Waru held onto his uncustomary silence like it might aid in breaking some terrible spell that’d been cast, not trying in the slightest to hide what played across his face as Trey neatly spoke the gist of it all into being. It felt like they were making things real. Like it must’ve been a mistake, or a hilarious joke the universe was playing on them; one that’d long since stopped being funny for how over-explained it was by now. He didn’t bother to sit, couldn’t. No more than he could summon up the energy to play at being the biggest Eternal in the room. To power up at all when all he felt was small inside at having somehow misplaced Treys brother and Faustites soul like some errant keeper of precious men— So he stood, just behind and to the right of Fafnir, a statuesque guard with worry-filled eyes that every now and then skirted across at the creature carefully winding its way about his husband's left wrist. He didn’t want to allow for distraction while he told himself it’d be okay – that it had to be – he was just being stupid and Faustite would fix this the way he always did!!
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 6:52 am
Faustite doubted that any concern that had Fafnir popping into his office unannounced was a slight one. Something must've rattled him, and indeed, as Fafnir explained how they reached this point, Faustite understood why Fafnir would ask for this.
Aelius never blew someone off like that, even if they were in a spat. Waru tripped his way into minefields before, certainly, and it was believable enough that he said or did something that pissed off Aelius. But even so, Aelius would have told him — the boy was ever keen on reminding people how and why they ******** up when they ******** up.
But there were no replies. Not even to Trey.
Faustite didn't waste time responding. He reached out into the air and beckoned, as he always did, with the familiar boy easily coming to the fore of his mind. He did so with the same assurance that he had done so long ago, when Albite first became an Eternal and had foolishly kept that secret to himself. When Heliodor appeared, he'd undoubtedly make a fuss about the interrupt, and everyone present could go home slightly disgruntled but otherwise relieved.
But Heliodor never appeared. If he'd had a promotion, Faustite would have known about it.
He swallowed down his brewing dread and uncertainty. Dead or captured, he signed to the pair, leaving the third option off wholesale. There would be no way.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 12:34 pm
“He’s not dead.” Fafnir said, his voice flat and automatic. Aelius couldn’t be dead. It was impossible. He wouldn’t just… disappear, again. Everything in him rejected the concept, refused to even entertain it. Impossible.
So, that meant captured, and his mind seized on that, refocusing all of his attention on it. Captured meant they had to be holding him somewhere. They had to be hiding his power signature. They could only do that for so long in secrecy. Someone would slip up at some point. They just had to be ready for it.
“With your permission. We need to call the team together and start searching. Waru and I can start where he was last and start asking questions. One of the cats can try to track his phone, or his communicator.” The need to do something had a stranglehold on him, demanding he go. Do. They had to find Aelius, because there was nothing about him being gone that Fafnir could accept. The fear and worry he took and stuffed down deep, smothering it with plans and lists and things he could control.
They would find them. They had to.
“If need be, we can make our own captures and plumb them for information. Someone has to know something. Was there any Order-side that had a grudge on him?”
He hated that he didn’t know... why hadn’t he taken better note of his brother’s activities? His friends, and enemies? Stupid oversight. Maybe lethal… but he refused to think about that.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 1:01 pm
It was a blunt cleaver to the heart, the words that fell sharp and clipped from his boys fingers. Necessary to hear in spite of the pain that came from hearing it. Fafnir's immediate rejection of the worst outcome on the table bred in him a feverish sort of hope, it burbled like a frenzy of ants under his skin. ‘Captured, only captured — we can handle captured — it’ll be fine!!’He clung to it recklessly, that hope, made himself a believer, a man in Fafnir's corner pocket. “Captured, then.” Spoken as if he were just now coming up for air, consciousness bobbing along the surface, growing by degrees as he picked up Fafnirs threads. “It’s only been a few hours—“ Had it been more than five now? Six? How far along had time already crawled. He shook the thought off. Trying for reassuring as he reached for not only his henshin pen, but also the phone that held what he felt must have been some of Aelius’s last messages to him. The cats would need it, surely. He’d give it to them, let them use it to try and call and try and call and ********, maybe someone would eventually pick the phone up? “If he’s still in the city? We’ll find him. If he’s not...We’ll still ******** find him—“ He breathed determinedly while finally — finally — powering up. His gaze roving over blues to settle on sharp orange flames. “We have connections on that side and numbers on ours.“ At Fafnir's mention of ‘grudges’ he winced. He didn’t want to think about that, how long and scrolling a list that probably was. How inevitable it was given all Aelius’s years of service — Faustites — Fafnirs — he could only imagine… We have so many ******** enemies—“I’m sorry…I should‘ve come sooner.”
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 7:19 pm
Faustite did not correct Fafnir's rebuttal. True, they all wanted him alive. Despite the myriad ways that Aelius ******** up with him in the past, Faustite didn't want the boy dead. He had to remind himself that, at least here in Destiny City, agents had a better chance of being alive than turning up dead. Perhaps he wouldn't have to consider it wishful thinking and prepare for an inevitable body.
But it felt too soon to write that off entirely. Faustite shifted uneasily, leaned against the edge of his desk near the pseudo-terrarium. The youma adorning his hand wended its way up his arm slowly, then crowned his sleeve, then started up the slim expanse of his bicep.
You'll have the team, he signed to Fafnir, though he expected Albite may have to translate. You'll have every authority to order a search. Want all of his usual haunts searched, too. Any signs of break-in could be a clue. Check any usual spots when he's patrolling, too. If he's captured, surely someone would leave us a note.
That assumed the interest in negotiation, however. Not all hostages were worth a prize. And not every prospective kidnapper knew the worth of the boy they bagged.
Here, again, Faustite knew he was useless. Don't know of anyone after him specifically. He's taken many starseeds; might've been noticed by the righteous types like Encke. Worth checking the database for anyone he's reported on. Which, again, was a keening knife in the side for not knowing that information right offhand — for being too technologically challenged to bring up that access, as a General-Sovereign of the Information branch, without the help of his malicious ******** youma.
Albite, if you've got contacts, tap them. Don't waste your breath on apologies when we've work to do. I'll check personnel files.
And Fafnir, he looked meaningfully at the beautiful, steely boy. Whatever you need, whatever you want, you'll have it.
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Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 7:53 pm
Fafnir nodded sharply in return, gratitude waring with worry inside of him. He pulled his communicator and snapped it open, already starting on a mass message to the rest of the team to gather.
‘Heliodor is missing...’
The full picture would be given in person, and then they’d be sent out in pairs to cover as much ground as possible. He didn’t know what contacts Albite had, but he was going to be working the man hard to gather as much information as he could. If Aelius was held by Order, then surely one of his contacts will have heard about it.
They just had to work quickly… There was no possible world for Fafnir that did not have his brother in it.
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