{ THE DARK COVE } UPDATED SEE PAGE 1

[prolixity]

"Wasn't a dream," Jordan confirmed, hoarse and choked up, feeling his shoulder get damp and aware that his eyes were leaking too. There had been dreaming involved, but this was not the time to explain the convoluted semantics of what exactly had happened with the presence that called itself Alice. What mattered was that Andy was awake and he remembered and he was here and okay.

"Not surprised," he answered shakily. "Almost -- almost four years." The knowledge that candidates were rarely kept that long had been a tiny spark of hope and a ticking timer, and he'd made a request for a golem project to seek weaponization candidates in Halloween, even though he was deeply ambivalent about recruitment, because if Andy hadn't bonded, it might be that his weapon hadn't yet arrived. He might still have to go through with that project, now that he'd applied, but now it wasn't as personal. He'd deal with that later.  

[Syrie]

Almost four years!?!? If he'd been shaky before, he was doubly so now. From the way his brother said it, tripping over the reveal like that, Andy gathered this was not normal. "Mary Mother'a Joseph." Four long years he'd been stuck inside that tiny pod, resting and doll like...like death. "Not normal, is it?" Slowly his unused vocal cords were warming, but he still sounded more like a bullfrog than Andrew Miller.

The only thing softening the blow was knowing that his brother hadn't been sitting there the whole time, waiting for him to come out. Jordy hadn't known until the not-dream. "You cut your hair." He said stupidly. Of all the changes, of all the things he might have said with their hands clinging and eyes wet with tears, it was Jordan's lack of a ponytail that got commentary.

A Hunter. His big brother really looked the part now...and Andy would get to join him.  

[prolixity]

"Not normal," Jordan agreed, and then, almost automatically, "fits you just fine, dude." Ferros reminded him gently that Andy was awake now and had begun his bond, but wasn't fully bonded yet, and Jordan should probably let him breathe. Jordan loosened his hold a little, sheepishly, but kept a hold on his younger brother's shoulders, pulling back to look him in the eyes, still stunned, his sense of relief so huge and overwhelming that it wasn't joy yet, too massive and uncomfortable to contain.

"It got burned," he answered, after a moment of stupid surprise; he'd been growing it, but of course Andy remembered him with the long ponytail he'd had in college, the one that had been burned halfway off by a creature's fire not long after he'd first arrived on the island. "Cut off the rest, looked shitty and uneven, y'know."  

[Syrie]

That made him snort a bit; of course he wouldn't do things the right way - the normal way. Headfirst, barreling along at top speed while Jordan tried to keep him away from cliffs...that was how Andy approached things. Go figure he'd take forever and a day to stop being a pod person! "Gotta do something to stand out, right?" Beyond his weird eyes, often dyed hair and height, of course.

God but he was happy. Jordan was there and holding his shoulders, Andy's hands resting on his brother's arms with fingers digging slightly - he was not going to let go and lose him again.

"Yeah, you look enough like a wreck with it even. What did you do, fight a possessed lawnmower?" Scars and shortened hair and a sort of poise that came from hardships fought; Jordan wasn't the same brother he'd left, or even not-dreamed about.  

[prolixity]

"Yeah, that's you all over." Jordan's laugh was still shaky, but he was grinning wide and helpless. "Gotta be unique." He'd been the aggressively "normal" one, and maybe Andy had gone a little farther the other way in response, but that was how it was.

"Nah, I'd guess possessed lawnmowers would be a different holiday," he said dryly, forgetting for the moment that Andy hadn't had the orientation yet, that Halloween would be explained later. "The face was an Insanity ghost, the arm was an a*****e kitsune, one of these days I'll kick his a** properly for it." He'd gained a little more sympathy for the creature in question since the long-standing grudge had started, but that didn't mean he wouldn't still go for him if the chance was there.  

[Syrie]

"One of us has to be." Having Jordan at his side all those years had given Andy more space to be weird and unique and had also assured his undying devotion to his big brother (even after he wasn't so 'big' anymore).

Andy cocked his head and gave Jordan a searching look. "You're not pulling my leg, are you. Insanity ghosts and kitsunes, huh? Those're like the shadows?" He was curious, his brain waking up more and more and there was even this strange sort of tugging at the back of his mind. "Man, this is so...." Overwhelming.

But also cool. For the moment, give him time.  

[prolixity]

"I got weirder, you're gonna have to try a bit harder." Jordan pulled Andy in for a gentle noogie, mostly to mess his hair up.

"One hundred percent serious. The shadows are a lot of things." There was a whole hell of a lot of explaining that was due. But there was something else that had to happen first. "I'll tell you later. You need your weapon first, they're probably getting antsy. Think you can stand? You got way too big to carry," and he grinned again, a familiar, lopsided, warmly teasing expression.  

[Syrie]

"Dammit Jordy, you're supposed to be the normal one." He flailed ineffectually when noogied, partially because he always did so and partially because he was still kind of wobbly in the head. "Least I'm up to the task."

Aw hell, totally serious and the shadows weren't just shadows. Great. Andy set himself to smoothing his already beyond help hair down as Jordan spoke about a weapon...like it was a person. "I can stand...but what'd'you mean they?" Weapons were not people were not weapons--wait no, he remembered...sort of remembered a little bit of something...and the tugging sensation grew like it had just been waiting for a reminder.

"Ugh, I didn't miss your face at all." Bullshit. He was grinning like a dope too, all while using his now-empty pod and the sealed one next to it to haul himself up. Standing, he swayed but stabilized and winked at Peyton, who had gone very quiet and seemed to be mostly poking at whatever was on her clipboard.  

[prolixity]

"I've discovered that being normal is kinda overrated," Jordan said, and let his not-so-little brother loose, stood up, and helped him up.

"I'll give you the full explanation after. For now, trust me, and trust your instincts. We're going to take you to a cave, and once you're down there, you'll know what to do." His teasing grin had faded to a quiet seriousness, the face that said that this was Important and that no bullshitting was occurring.

"Yeah, you lie like a rug," and the big, warm smile was back.  

[Syrie]

"About time." Andy had been waiting for Jordan to join the 'dark side' for years...except for the four years he'd been interred in that tiny...ugly...pod.

He trusted Jordan's judgement and word, so when his brother said he'd explain and that he'd know what to do...he went with it - though his mind was racing all over the place, wondering at what would happen in the cave. A weapon. From a cave. "Sure thing Jordy. Let's do this." Doing the Thing!

Jordan would get a brotherly jostling and a pained groan for his terrible pun. "Your jokes are still terrible."  

[prolixity]

Jordan put his hand briefly on Pey's arm, giving her a smile that was full of a flood of emotions. "Thanks for getting me in here," he said.

Syrie

Beejoux

 

[Syrie]

Andy looked from the tiny woman to his brother and back, then nodded. Meet his new partner. A weapon. That was it's own being. Okay. He could handle this. Jordan was with him...and Peyton seemed confident too.

"I've been cookin' for four years, I'm as ready as I'll ever be." He'd let them lead though, because honestly this whole thing was strange and he was still half-staggering under the weight of memory flashes from Wonderland.

Prolixity

Beejoux