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 Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 1:47 pm
The whole room narrowed in for the young man. He’d kept his distance from his family for multiple reasons. First and foremost was to avoid bringing any sort of harm to them, secondly, because it was expected he would move on and forget the life he’d once had, but most of all…most of all was to avoid that look. The look Try had just given him. It stung harder than Aelius had ever thought possible and he flinched from it.
The sputtering of their General, the quiet, horsed curse may have been ignored if it hadn’t been for Waru stepping in. “You knew?” His words were laced with ice as his eyes narrowed. It wasn’t unnoticed how Waru stood at Faustite’s side like some protector as the General recovered from his alchohol inhalation. “Both of you knew and neither of you thought to say a damn word to either of us?”
Anger and hurt mixed in those golden eyes as Aelius practically seethed with an inner rage. Hands clenched at his side. “And you ******** proposed to me while hiding a secret like this?” Aelius forced out through his hardened jaw and clenched teeth. How long had they known? Faustite had to have known for at least as long as Trey had been part of the team. Did it go further than that? How far? How long? And Waru?! Did Waru figure it out himself or worseFaustite told him but neglected to ever tell the two people it would matter the most.
“Trey. I am so sorry. I had no idea.” He said as he swung his full attention back to his brother. “If I had known…” His voice cracked with emotion.
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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 4:53 pm
The sudden sputtering to his side pulled Trey’s attention away, a frown appearing and confusion twisting his brows. He couldn’t imagine what had prompted the reaction, so he was entirely unprepared to have Waru join him and inelegantly, ham-fistedly drop a name that was like being doused in cold water.
Eyes wide, Trey’s gaze snapped back to the young man across the room and he paled, losing all warmth in his hands and face. The features that had only been vaguely familiar suddenly snapped into place and he could only marvel, for a bare second, how he could have not recognized him. Hastily, he shoved the glass down on the coffee table before he dropped it and pushed to his feet, feeling a sudden panicked rush of emotions that were so tangled up he didn’t know what to do with them.
“Rowan?”
Normally so graceful in his movements, he stumbled as he circled the low table and crossed the room in long strides. He grabbed the shorter man’s shoulders in a trembling grip, taking in how solid and real he was. He really was there… it really was him.
“… Where the ******** have you been?” Trey said in a low, weak voice. His grip tightened and he gave those shoulders a harsh little shake, his voice rising. “Its been four ******** years, Rowan! I thought… I thought you were ******** dead!”
And, somehow… Waru had known. Faustite had known. Proposed? Faustite had proposed to him? While they were also… and knowing the whole time that Trey thought he was dead, and all of the pain and circus he’d been dealing with because of it… He felt like a ******** idiot. He’d spent so much time searching for Rowan, dealing with his mother’s hysterics, knowing deep down that some how the Negaverse had gotten him… the hours he’d spent scouring the roster list for Rowan’s name, bowed under the weight of responsibility that had no purpose any more... He could feel the tears tracking down his face and he released Rowan’s shoulders to scrub at them, still reeling with the feelings of betrayal and confusion.
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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:40 pm
Strix, primarily, looked uncomfortable.
This was not remotely atypical: their default facial expression often came off - as they'd had explained to them several times - as annoyed at best, and as vaguely nauseous and lightheaded at worst, depending on the time of day. But they actually were uncomfortable, here; blind as they might have been to some things unless it was plainly stated, this was obviously something that had been brewing for a long time. Proposals? Four years? Yikes.
They shouldn't be here. It was as if they might not have been there in the first place, honestly, but they weren't going to complain about nobody noticing them right now. They weren't going to leave, because Eion was still their boss and so was Emmy, and nobody had been given permission to leave.
But what Strix could do was edge into a corner close to the kitchen (and as far away from the Rowan?-Trey scenario as was physically possible without actively alerting anyone they were moving) and try and stare out the window.
At least they had their headphones. With those on, the noise of whatever this was was muffled down to soft shapes. Still, they kept one hand on one ear, ready to move it aside in case anyone actually wanted to talk to them or they were supposed to listen.
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Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2022 8:25 pm
stop thinking about telling either of you. Only told Waru because I didn't know what to do — didn't know how to approach this from a human perspective.
"Only knew the risks. Knew you were awakened White Moon — no way to verify if it'd be safe to tell Trey. Knew how changing lives affected you, didn't want to put him through it, too. Even if you two were careful about it, one slip of calling you Rowan — what damage could that do to him? Or your mom?
"It'd been years, too — would it be fair to you to tell him, or fair to Trey to tell you? Know you've changed, imagine he changed. If I were him, I wouldn't know how —" Eion paused, breathed a constricted sigh through a tightened throat.
He could see it — coming home, one day, to find his would-be sister-in-law. Sitting there, looking frazzled, cigarette in hand while she held a coffee cup. Speaking in that clipped manner of hers that he once found sharp and interesting. Telling him that, actually, his brother's alive, he'd been alive for years, and the limp bag of bones that Eion remembered was just a body double. A cover story to protect him while he slipped into witness protection. Erol had to throw him away to stay alive, and that arrogant b***h let that slip out of the blue. Let him walk in, left behind the expectation that they just make up and carry on like he hadn't spent years internalizing that trauma.
Eion shook his head as he lowered his glowering gaze. "Should've been less careful."
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2022 11:23 am
“M’sorry about the wine Em’s…”
Wait? Eion propo-ow!!
Waru deserved two for flinching from the hit; carefully setting the drained wineglass down before it ended up shattered — against a wall — upside his head; he would never dare to limit his own imagination for such things. The scathing glance he got from Eion was met with the gentlest of raised brows and a half-shrug. He hadn’t been informed of any impending propositions either. Not that he minded. If anything? He’d been encouraging the pair every step of the way, from the moment he realized Aelius was someone *important*.
Not that it mattered just then, because the idea that there was a good way to go about doing any of it? To undo it after so long? Waru couldn’t begin to wrap his head around that, and he wasn’t about to put the blame on what had been a pair of — *teenagers* — frantically grasping at burning straws worth of choices and picking the least on fire to go with. The way the situation’d been explained to him? There was no easy out, only survival, and last he’d checked? It took a Sovereigns hand to turn a Senshi, took a Generals command to choose exactly how a Basic was brought in. Faustite wouldn’t’ve had the power…
To protect, to save. Not back then, not really.
If he had to pin anything on anyone? The ******** — Dark Mirrors and—and the way it struck him like all sorts of heavy, ironic hindsight, exactly how at the *crux* of their problems the members of that faction continued to be. Especially for Faustite; then, now, probably in the future too. Knowing that didn’t leave him feeling free of blame though, whether he’d found out twenty minutes ago or twenty weeks ago? If Fafnir hadn’t even joined their team yet—-
The reality was that he'd known just long enough to have said something sooner. Though of all the worries Waru had about the well deserved fallout of his pissing facts out his own mouth. The most important of them flared bright with every fresh mention of Aelius’s true name: *Rowan* had to remain like that science guys cat in a box, both alive and dead.
The name would live, die, and be forgotten with them.
That needed to be an Order, the kind even *he* had to follow. The thought of that twisted his guts even more than his fear of the pair leaving without anything being reconciled. It mattered though. Rowans protection…Treys….in case Hell came back with a fuku’d vengeance to bite them from the other side of a mirror. Faustite had never told him what happened to the specific threat that’d killed his boys family and kicked all his dominos over…
N alluv Warus intent to stay silent died where Eion’s speaking found an end, became some incredulous, uncontainable thing.
“Been less careful…..n then what?” a rhetorical whine, because Waru knew what; the rock fell, everybody died. Less careful tended to cost lives, he’d seen it first hand, ad nauseum, and when it was just him it was fine! He never minded facing his own damn consequences, but when it was other people? When it was the people closest to him?
*He couldn’t bear it.*
N wasn’t Faustite the same way? Always shouldering the failures of others as his own?
“You’ve always protected your people, and *Aelius* — best as you could — you weren’t being intentionally malicious in hiding this, Firebrand. Not like that...” and his gaze darted from the reuniting pair to where Faustite curled; all his own hurt on their behalf edged by his exhaustion with the world. The little voice in the back of his head telling him to *shut up* didn’t stand a chance, “m'saying something now cause doing it sooner, with everything else going on, like---how even?" he'd asked Faustite to bide his time for all their sakes and Faustite had done that for him, but now that the two people who needed to know the most were finally in the same room together, seeing one another? That changed things. Along with the fact that his husband wasn’t currently chewing through chest-stars and into an early grave courtesy of the ‘world's most fatal crush’ and ‘darkest moon courtesan in a corset’ Muri!
N that there were no more Rocktankaskites to murder, n he wasn't scraping Faustite up off a hill, or out of Almadels arms and into a hospital bed; n all the worlds voids, blights and traitors of the moment were mostly managed!
A miracle, if ever anyone asked him.
Whatever -- it all still changed things, “I didn't quit thinking bout it either, though, n the thought I finally settled on -- was that you need to have your brother, Trey. Even if you n Aelius can only have each other like this....”
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:33 am
“Don’t look at me like that we you’ve dug your own grave.”Tama returned Faustite’s murderous look for one of his own. Could you believe he was just about to feel sorry for this kid? Even as Eion he was starting fires he couldn’t put out. Had he really lied to these two about about who they were? Had he really thought they’d never find out? Well, Eion was in the thick of it now and the cat had no intention of helping him in anyway. To think he’d felt bad that the general had a family he lost when he was hiding the fact that these two kids were family from them. What else had he hid, Tama wondered. Did Faustite know anything about Tama before he was corrupted and just not telling him either? “That’s all well and good, Waru, — the kids need each other and all — but don’t you think you could have picked a better time?”Tama didn’t even hid the fact that his paw was in his face practically saying for him: Waru, really?☆
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 1:14 pm
Aelius grasped at Trey’s forearms as the elder sibling held tight. Shoulders shaking and emotions high it wasn’t until those Tears began to fall and Aelius was finally released that he swooped in to embrace his brother with a tightened hug. “I was here the entire time.” He said, here meaning the Negaverse and not poor Emmy’s apartment. Bless the woman for not having thrown them out at the mere hint of wine blemishing the white interior. “God, I wish I could have come to you. I had no idea and I had orders to stay away.” His own tears began to fall, but he didn’t care. Instead he pulled back from the near bone-crushing hug he gave Trey to look at him directly. “I swear if I had had any inkling you were involved in this I would have found you.”
And now Eion was attempting to explain himself. Each word said, each syllable was a way for the boy to undermine what he had done. To make it sound as if there was true concern for the brothers laced in his decisions. Aelius didn’t ******** care. Not one Iota. Not now. This was a betrayal that wasn't going to be forgiven with pretty words. “Just stop.” He hissed turning his attention back to Eion. “Stop! Look whatever else you have to say doesn’t matter at this point. You ******** knew that Trey was my brother, you brought him onto this team and stil, still you said nothing to me? To him.”
He never left Trey’s side. The room was small enough that he’d be able to cross to Eions side in a few quick stride if needed, but right now he loathed the idea of separating from Trey again.His own brother who could have been in his life months prior if Faustite had only opened his ******** mouth instead of worrying about nonsense. Assuming it wasn’t years because, at this point, how much could Aelius trust coming from that mouth?
“It goes to show how much trust you have in us. How little you expect that you couldn’t even give us this. Give me considering you of all people here know hard it was for me to loose my family. And here you were just sitting…” He bit his lip hard, as he grasped tightly to Trey’s shoulders.
“If it wasn’t for Emmy right now I’d ******** drown you.” His hand practically twitched for his henshin pen.
He glowered at Waru next. A clear accomplice in the whole thing. Eion’s clear favorite. That realization hit hard. Of course Waru flew to his husbands defense. Like Aelius should have expected any less. Let them both ******** rot. “The both of you.” He shared the threat to the two. Til’ death do them part, right?
Bless Tama and his reasonable thinking. Having someone on their side of the ring was heartening. After all, Eion complained about not understanding human emotions yet their team Mauvian seemed to grasp it all perfectly. Golden eyes flashed towards the feline, soft and full of thanks for stepping in on the brother’s behalf.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:08 pm
Now Waru was apologizing for the wine. Waru. For the wine. As if that was the thing he should be taking any responsibility for. No. It was Eion's fault that the imported red that she'd invested in for an occasion like this was currently splattered across her curated furniture. He should have been the one apologizing for that, but no. It was only the boys that he cared about. Everyone knew that, and now that the two of them were getting upset, Eion was staring at them like a deer in headlights and muttering excuses without taking a single moment to think about what he'd done to Emmy's home, which she'd agreed to let him come to, or about her drinks, which were meant to be special and nice. Then Waru was trying to cover for his husband like that was just something he could casually do, and like he didn't owe her his own apologies for the massive amount of disrespect that he'd shown her earlier. Emmy just sighed pointedly and stormed off into the kitchen. The living room was quickly turning into a filler episode of a soap opera anyway. Something about mistaken identities, which some people had known about and others hadn't. It was all getting rather heated, which wasn't making Emmy any happier. All this mess in her house, and they weren't even going to be able to talk about anything important because this had come up, and she had a feeling it was going to have everyone in a mood for the rest of the night. "If you get blood on my furniture, I will ask you to leave," she said to the group, her voice cool despite everything. "If anyone feels the need to fight, there's a trash area to the back of the building. Go there." Strix had also retreated to the kitchen, and Emmy turned to them, because they seemed to be the sanest of anyone here at the moment. "Can I get you a drink while we wait for whatever that is to happen?" she asked, with a roll of her eyes in the direction of the living room. "I have more than just the wine. There's tea. There should still be a few sodas in the fridge."
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2022 7:40 pm
"Tea sounds - sounds -- " Strix shook their head, tried to get their words in working order, for once in their life -- "tea's good. Anything strong." And if she was some kind of weirdo who exclusively drank green tea, or something, that would work too. A drink was a drink. That was fine.
They looked at Emmy, for a second, and frowned; when they spoke again, it was quieter, very careful not to be overheard by the Punnett square of relationship entanglement going on in the living room. "...They do this a lot?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:11 pm
Well. If Rowan had been White Moon, and now was not, that explained some things. At least Eion had an explanation for all of this, shitty situation that it was, but there was a part of him that still burned with resentment… and a greater part of him that was growing acutely embarrassed to stand here in the center of this designer magazine of an apartment having a very dramatic break down in front of a team of people he should have been cultivating a far different appearance for. The embarrassment fed the anger, and it’s targets were equal parts his brother, Eion and Waru, with a scrap for the rest of them for just sitting there… gawking.
This whole thing was such a s**t show. Four ******** years. Four years of feeling trapped and desperate, with nothing to make it worth while. Four years of struggle and clawing his way up the ladder so he’d have some measure of control over his life.
Rowan wrapped him in a hug that nearly undid the fragile facade he’d been struggling to pull back over himself. The feel of it was so familiar and so long missed… even as angry as he was, he was loathed to be released. Rowan was alive, and not missing any more. Different, but not so different he didn’t recognize his younger brother. When he was finally released, he straightened up and smoothed his coat down, briefly shooting Waru a look that burned. He couldn’t look at Eion, not yet, and definitely not at any of the others. He felt his skin creep from their eyes, watching him.
“I’m sorry for interrupting the meeting.” He said generally to the room, his voice tight. “I have some business to take care of, I’m afraid… Rowan… Can you meet me at my office later? We need to talk.”
It was about all he could manage. It was all just too much right now, the room pressing in claustrophobically. He needed some air to think… to process. Trey didn’t bother with farewells for anyone. As smoothly as he could, he turned and fled, headed out into the hallway and down it, heading for his car parked out front.
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:41 pm
Of course the cat had nothing good to say — he could expect it now. Any misstep and the furbag would be there, chiding him all the way. Deriding him for what a disgusting ******** failure of a General and a human being he was, how his planning was garbage, how he could do nothing right. That Emmy grew short with them was expected, even if it added to the mounting dissent in the room. That Eion had ******** up and dragged Waru into it was clear, that they could rebound from this and continue to be a functional team was not. Though, perhaps that was more easily remedied than he was thinking it could be.
The thought that came after Aelius's outburst was an automatic one. He set his jaw. Curled wine-stained fingers into the wine-stained towel on his wine-stained lap. The tension he carried burrowed into every turn of his body, down to his calves, down to his toes. That Trey only had so much to say before leaving was what motivated Eion to move.
His expression grew severe, then shifted to something that Eion couldn't fully codify into words. An accord had been struck, a decision minted. He unknotted a hand from the towel just long enough to beckon Waru down, into earshot of a low voice: "You're in charge. Dismiss everyone."
They were in danger, after all.
Then the boy stood and pressed the wine-stained towel to Waru's chest. He managed a few steps toward the brothers as his glamour shredded and burnt, then vanished with a thought — without looking at them, without looking at anyone.
There was much to do yet.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2022 12:44 pm
Trey left. Said his pardons like a well trained soldier and left, leaving Aelius standing there in his wake staring at the door as it clicked shut.
Fists balled at his side as he stared a moment too long at that closed door before he spun back to look at the room. So many eyes met his but he didn’t back down. Ire and pure obstinance the only things fueling him at that point. Honestly, given the circumstances, if he let himself be true, all he wanted to do was collapse and break down right there. He was exhausted and hurt. He hurt emotionally, mentally and physically. Every part of him ached with a pain he couldn’t fully decipher.
Eyes locked on Waru before shifting to the smaller form of Eion.
It was like watching a slow motion video. So much happened in the span of a breath of two. As Eion rose, a look that Aelius hadn’t seen before spread across the boys face. Immediate regret and fear rushed through Aelius as Eion approached. He stepped back as the boys glamour flaked away to reveal the black and red eyes that seemed to stare him down. Instinctually, Aelius stepped back and flinched away as memories of old came back. Of days where he did just as he had done tonight, obstently fighting and arguing. A blow expected but never came. Instead all he felt was the quickly fading residual heat as the General dissappeared.
It took a moment for him to recover. Eyes met each of the members present hesitating on Tama’s, their only vocal sympathizer, but shifting to Waru. Anger boiled up again to join the embarrassment that now redenned his cheeks.
“Apologies.”
Tsking, he turned abruptly for the door. He didn’t pause as he left the apartment and the complex. Two blocks away, the same alley he and Albite had appeared from, Helio drudged up the last of his own remaining energy he had and left.
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2022 1:19 pm
Emmy's tea wasn't quite as posh as her imported wine. If Eion had stayed, he might have turned his nose up. It was from the grocery store, but it was at least the nicer brand. She poured out a cup of hot water from her electric kettle and set a bag of English Breakfast in it. "The sugar is there," she said to Strix as she passed the mug over, nodding to a small canister on the counter next to the kettle. She glanced out towards the others, where she saw a few people starting to walk out the door, and one person in particular bursting into flames in the middle of her home before vanishing. She couldn't help a huff at that, although she cut herself off quickly before she could stop herself. Then she turned back to Strix, taking note of the headphones, and also the fact that they were the one here who likely had the least idea what was happening. "This is the first time I've seen internal conflict, but they do have a tendency to get hotheaded." A moment passed. She tapped manicured fingers on the countertop. "Go home, if you want. Everyone else is gathering themselves. You can, too. Nothing else interesting is going to happen, and you can bring the mug back when you get a chance."
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2022 3:47 pm
Tama got a look, a long, slow, plaintive look; Waru wanted to smooth the fur between the cats eyes flat again, till the dark star in the middle looked less bruised by a firm paw than it did black with chaos. He wanted to apologize for his shitty timing too, but Aelius was begging silence dovetailed with threats, n Trey? Oh, of all the looks Waru had ever wanted for - that - had never been one of them. He would've rather froze slow n still under Em's piercing gale than burned beneath the fires of brothers paired disappointment, their rage.
Or drowned...apparently drowning was also an option!
If it wasn't Emmy's house he'd have let them try; one or the other. Because blood would've been easier to get out of the couch than wine. Course the spilling of it woulda broken Em's staunch: 'No murder hobos committing crimes in my house' rule, but Waru was wondering how close they'd already toed crossing that. Plus peroxide was cheap, a little bit of it did wonders on white upholstery n only needed to be followed up with cold water n some gentle blotting.
They might've found some catharsis in it -- Hell, Waru thought he might've found some catharsis in it at that point! Taking it all out back and along the side to air things bodily -- except nothing for those two who'd been torn apart for so long would come easily. Not for the ones who'd made the mess. Not for those it'd already effected.
Things could've gone worse.
He'd keep telling himself that, over n over again, above the hush of Faustites whispered order, n the finality of doors clicking shut. Everyone was still alive. Treys brother was still alive, and he finally got to have him. That was what was most important. Everything else could be mended with time n distance, n a hefty dollop of luck; maybe they'd all even speak to each other again? Someday.
"Hey, just --- before any of you go....before I go? I've got something else to say, n it's actual ******** Orders this time, like, for real --" and gods he hated giving orders, really just, heaved a sigh that sounded like he would've rather had his teeth pulled out one by one than done *this*, "Rowan, as we know him? Doesn't exist. You forget the name, the face, the everything that goes along with alluv this. It's Aelius or Heliodore, and nothin else. For everyone's safety--" and the least he could do was fidget with the stained towel, daintily laying it over the spill as if that'd make the starkness of it's presence there less apparent (it absolutely didn't, but he was trying!) "-- because -- because I dunno if the mirror s**t that started this dilemma any pick-a-number of years ago, is anything like done," he scanned the room hastily, fingers laced at the nape of his neck while he stepped sideways enough to look towards the kitchen with all apology, "but m'actin as if it isn't."
N it felt so strange to speak with caution, to offer up an order instead of 'thanks', to Emmy for hosting their chaos in her home, for the team as a whole for attending as supportively as they could -- he'd find a way to do better by them, later on.
"M'also asking that everything that went on today -- <********> -- the whole reason behind the all call in the first place? Be kept quiet, not only from people outside our team, but also from anyone who wasn't present for it. If any of our people ask? You send 'em to me or Faustite. The s**t with Muri -- with the brothers -- it doesn't leave this room. S'that clear?"
However little he liked giving orders, his tone brooked no argument this time, however exhausted - he aimed to be unwavering about it. So far as everyone else knew, it could be more blight s**t, it could be anything at all. If the rest of the team was going to hear about it though, Waru was going to make sure it was at Faustites discretion, he wasn't about to stand for rumors or gossip, not about this, not while he feared he might hear it parroted back at him from some outside source.
"So long as it is--" and there, that counted as a dismissal right? He was at least dismissing himself, couldn't so much as say the words because even he wasn't brassy enough to tell Emmy she was dismissed in her own home! He wanted to survive his own exit afterall.
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