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 Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:00 pm
Alertness comes on slowly, Casshern wakes groggy and overwarm from laying in the sun, pins and needles from where he slept on his arm too long. Lethargically rubbing away the fading dream and clinging sleep from his eyes.
It’s always the same dream - more akin to a memory. Though the edges have frayed and the scene has been warped by time and whatever other subconscious thoughts clamour for his attention. There was brightness, fresh perfect brightness, like seeing the sun for the first time. Followed by diffuse warmth; a parting of doors and the smiles and sounds of others. The faces have all but faded, but he can remember the timbre of their voices. The kindness there, a bright purple shock of hair. The hue of another child's eyes, so eerily similar to his own.
Then it fades or twists, becomes mired with sights from the day, or with nonsensical imaginings. Casshern sighs and stretches, tries to shake out the numbness from his arm before focusing on the next task at hand. The minutiae of the day - wheres and whens and hows - he squints into the sky and tries to hold onto the specifics of the dream. To narrow down a remembered feature of a place, growling to himself in frustration when the details slip away.
Sen Cross I'm just running with things for now. Super excited for whatever future plot lines are in store! Let me know if I need to fix anything so it slots in with the world. I was at a loss for how to get him back and just like..'whelp'..lets try this!! Not sure if it should have been at Ghost or Whom?
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 5:10 am
It wasn't a special day in particular, or so it seemed, for Aren, patrolling along the inside walls of the barrier, checking for any signs of ... unusual activity, not that there would be any.
The barrier was pristine as ever, connected to the operators life force there was no way it could be damaged as long as ghost was holding it up from inside, and nothing could get through but them.
But after seeing the dangers lurking beyond it ... he still felt the need to make sure from time to time.
And there was still the matter of how one of the kids - his kids - had just disappeared from within, because wandering off was impossible seeing as they couldn't pass the force field on their own.
He'd tried to find an explanation of course, anything in the database, the tracking of the boys movements inside the dome that just ... stopped at some point.
He sighed, deciding to head back to the ship for now, Stepping out of the treeline into the clearing, he had to shield his eyes for a moment, bright sunlight shining down promising what would be another beautiful day. It was so peaceful, just as it should be.
Aren was surprised to see Slven in the distance, his son usually tending to keep to himself and his studies inside, but something else was off. He looked ... smaller, and it wasn't just the distance. Sharp eyes narrowed, vision focusing as he moved closer - no, this wasn't Slven, this was a child.
Seconds ticked by as he froze in his step. No, it couldn't possibly be ... Casshern?!
The boy turned towards him, seemingly at a loss, as if he didn't know where he was or how he got there. And without a second thought, he moved.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:51 pm
The sound of grass moving, a subtle snap of twigs and Casshern can't help his curiosity - he never could - and so he stills and watches even as the moving figure get's closer. As it falls into his line of view, and then...
Casshern's breath catches at the sight of someone else, confusion writ across his features as he scrutinizes the person before him. Taking in everything with wide golden eyes, and small mouth agape. The man is tall, scarred, with long dark hair and skin. Another person! Another someone...someone like him?
'What should I do?'
Words clog in his throat and die as anything he would say becomes a simple shocked noise when the other person suddenly rushes towards him. The urge to fight or flee war within Casshern briefly, before losing the battle entirely. So he freezes - an instinctive flinch as he holds his arms up protectively in front of himself just in case the man means him harm.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 3:27 am
Aren had closed the distance between them in a minute, maybe two, but .. had he scared the boy?
Of course, rushing at him like that when the child was clearly confused and seemed to have no idea where he was or why, or who he was for that matter. They had never met before, after all, and Ghost had told him that Casshern had disappeared shortly after he'd been born. Who knows where he had been if he hadn't aged at all in the time he'd been gone.
"It's all right, don't be frightened." he said, crouching down in front of his boy so they were on eye level, features softening. "I didn't mean to scare you. Do you know where you are? Or how you got here?"
He had to make sure what the boy knew first, he didn't want to confuse him further, or scare him. Maybe they could find out what had happened. Maybe not. But the most important thing was that his other son was alive.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 1:42 pm
Casshern lowered his hands slowly, offering a shallow grin as his thoughts raced. He didn't know this person, but their eyes seemed so familiar - or maybe they were simply similar to something he'd seen before? Soft except where the lines and scars pulled, but it wasn't frightening. Not all when he was like this, close and crouched before him. His voice warm and low. Less imposing than when he'd been baring down on Casshern before.
"S'okay..." a tilt to his head as he took in the mans words. 'Where?' and oh wasn't that the most plaguing of questions? What was easier, but only marginally. Sleeping, dreaming, but where? That was something other entirely.
"I'm....here? We're...in a forest...a field?" shoulders hunched in a shrug as the thoughts fled his mind like small fish escaping through the fingers of his stream of consciousness. Maybe if he could focus enough he could catch one, the tail end of a concept...It always just seemed to slip through. Frustrating as always, just like the dreams.
"I was sleeping before, dreaming, and when I woke up..I was here? I think - I was always here wasn't I?" he couldn't remember being anywhere else, nowhere that seemed real at least. Just muddled flashes of images. A frown catching the corners of his mouth as he bit his lip softly. He nearly wanted to apologize for it. Such a simple question and he couldn't even answer it. He felt like he should have been able to know where he was. He had to be somewhere, there was no such thing as being nowhere!
"That...it's not the right answer is it?" clutching his hands together briefly and hoping that the man wouldn't be upset with him, or maybe he'd even give him a hint. Surely if he didn't know he could guess at it? He was clever enough for that.
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:20 am
"No ... no, there is no wrong answer." Aren answered, shaking his head slightly. So the boy didn't know either, that was strange, and worrying too. If there was something unknown out there that could just grab their children from the dome ...
"You disappeared for a while, noone knew where you went. I was just wondering if you had any idea what happened, but if you don't it's all right, we will figure it out." He said, smiling. There was no reason for the child to feel bad about not knowing what was going on, neither of them did.
"More importantly, Casshern ... are you feeling all right? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
His boy seemed fine enough, he couldn't see anything wrong with him despite the fact that he was clearly confused and shaken by ... something. But that was bad enough as it was. That someone had dared to do something , whatever it was, to his child ...
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:43 pm
The slight relieved sigh at that, Casshern's smile reaching his eyes now that he saw it reflected on the other mans face. The man sounded so worried, but relieved. So many emotions. Casshern's hands twitched at the thought, and he almost wanted to reach out and hug him for it. He shouldn't be making people worry.
"Disappeared?" tone disbelieving, and Casshern knew he'd have to get used to being confused. He couldn't imagine where he'd disappeared from, or to. "No...maybe I was just hiding really well?" Maybe he'd been playing hide n' seek - that was something he'd liked to do, he was sure. He'd always liked quiet places, and of course quiet places outside were even better.
The sun was so lovely...
Thinking about before, about where he'd been. It ached in a way that left him frustrated enough to poke at the thoughts less.
"It's just my head, but that's always when I think to much." Shaking his head, and stretching slightly where he was. It didn't hurt to check, wiggle his fingers and toes. Casshern looked himself over and found he was no more than sleep ruffled and slightly dirty from where he'd been laying. "I'm okay though. You too right? Are you okay?" Casshern asked in turn, quelling the urge to ask 'who are you'. The man clearly knew who he was. What if he was someone else Casshern had forgotten?
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:11 am
Aren couldn't help but laugh at that, the kind of warm, honest laugh that had been rare for him since ... a long time ago.
"Now that would have been one game, I'm sure."
Not that he would put it past either of his children, from what he had seen of Slven and his antics so far. Then again, Casshern was much younger, however that was possible, and yet lacked the cold, calculating sharpness of his twin. Something he might not develop at all, which remained to be seen. Maybe this boy was more like him, like he had been, just like Slven was so much like Zeal it sometimes hurt to watch him.
"But yes, I am fine. Very much so now that you are back safe." He gave the child another careful once-over to make sure he truly was unharmed, and real - not just a flicker of his imagination conjured by him so desperately missing his child - but he seemed real enough.
Aren had had six centuries to learn to read people, especially children so young wore their hearts on their sleeves most of the time, and the boys question was so clearly written on his face, wondering who he was, if he should know him ... oh, of course he should. His children, either of them, should never have been apart from him in the first place.
"We haven't met before. But I'm glad I get to meet you now." He said, smiling at Casshern where he was still crouched in front of him in the lush grass. "I'm Aren. Your father."
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:08 am
Casshern was tempted to boast, to seek more of that deep laugh. It made the mans face better, erased the rougher edges when he smiled. It could have been the longest sort of game, maybe he’d even won it. “You never know, I am very small still, so maybe…though I wouldn’t make people worry on purpose. I promise.” He assured solemnly.
Besides people didn’t simply disappear…hidden or lost…but gone? He couldn’t have been gone if he were right there. Casshern couldn’t even begin to wrap his head around the concept of it, vanishing on the others, whomever the rest were.
Whatever parts of Casshern were relieved that he hadn’t forgone all his senses and memories, were smothered by the shock of Arens revelation. Wide golden amber orbs searched Arens face. Looking for the lie, feeling for it almost. Something that would flag his words as misleading. Some tell.
But the mans smile was very real, as genuine as his concern had been. So Casshern held still and took his fill of looking. Like a small furtive creature sizing up a predator, drinking in the details. The marks and dress and things that told stories he had no words for. If Casshern’d had a few questions before, he had a thousand more now.
“Oh…” and all the questions paled in comparison to the stinging emotion of it all. A father was an important thing to have and he’d missed it? Where had he been? Where had they been! “I don’t…I don’t think I understand that.” But he believed him. An impossible thing to explain that he could feel the truth in it, that he knew Aren was glad he was safe, that he’d missed him.
So instead of asking and complicating it all with words, Casshern moved to reach out, small tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he offered Aren a hug instead. It felt fair, offering it was easier than thinking. Casshern needed one. And maybe - if this man- if Aren were truly his father? Maybe he needed a hug too.
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:55 am
"It's okay, don't worry about it. The only thing that matters is that you are safe now." he replied, all but melting into the touch as the child wrapped his small arms around him in a tight hug.
He responded in kind, of course he did. Slven had never allowed such closeness, but he was an adult already, he had missed that chance with him. Casshern however ... had disappeared closely after he had been born. He was still so young, he could do right by him at least.
"I will explain everything to you. Promise. But let's go back to the ship first, Ghost will be glad to see you're safe, too."
He would, yes. There was much to talk about, with both of his children, preferably. Over the past months since his arrival he had tried to make sense of the strange discrepancies in the childrens appearance on this world from what Ghost had told him. Aren had taken all necessary precautions at one point, in case anything ever happened to the blackbird on it's journey, but he had never actually gotten the chance to send them off in an escape capsule, even less so with the message he had written and put away. And it had not been during the meteroite storm that had destroyed the ship, but much earlier. So who had, then? And why? It was no less a mistery than Cassherns disappearance from the dome.
Chances were slim to ever find out with his crew dead. But did it truly matter, anyway? How- and whoever had done it had probably saved them. If their seeds had still been on the Blackbird during the explosion, they would have been destroyed with everyone elses.
Yet here he was, this sweet boy, clinging to him. He got up, taking Casshern with him, safely holding him close as he started walking towards the Utopia visible in the distance.
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:47 am
Casshern held close, nodding and muttering a soft muted noise of ascension into Arens shoulder. Burying his face there briefly and sighing out his relief at the returned feeling of his fathers embrace.
This.
He thought. Was infinitely better than sleeping in the sun. Warmer surely and far more secure.
This is safe.
His mind knew it, trusted Arens words implicitly. He’d ask questions later, and he’d have his answers after he made amends and met faces he should have known - faces he hoped he’d remember.
Until then, he’d enjoy the quiet moment of being held and carried like some precious thing.
He’d go home.
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