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Otium had made a definite decision months ago that he was going to strike out on his own and be independent. He'd confided and spoken to his shades and they urged him, almost pushed him, to pursue this idea. When his borther Alex had returned looking older, seeming wiser, and with new power.. Otium was jealous and it only solidified his need to leave.

"You are taking me somewhere, Alejandro." His demand was no-nonsense and Alex didn't have the gumption to tell the demanding child no.

They'd left a note, of course, and Otium didn't intend on tonight being the night he ran away. It simply said that the boys would return within 3 days of departure.. and that was that.

Alex had wanted to keep an eye on Otium but found himself walking alone down the street before he realized Otium's unique ability to be forgotten had been used against him.

The monochrome child and his daemon solemnly people watched on the streets of Las Vegas. The desert town seemed to call to him and he could practically feel the money flow going through the place. In addition, shades were everywhere. It was the city of Sin and he saw ghosts of all sorts, prostitutes, failed comedians.. murders.. suicides.. Most were mindless and wandering but Otium felt like there was something in this city to be found.

Most shades passed him, not communicating with him by of his own will. Almost none of the living pedestrians even knew he was there. He enjoyed the silence (besides his daemon's nagging about the dangers of being a child on his own) but it was soon broken as someone approached.

"I know you, right?"

Otium's head snapped to look at the teenager approaching him. His top hat jostled on his head and he tucked his hands into the pockets of his impeccable (and fancy) suit. The teen approaching him was familiar but he remembered him being much smaller before.

"You know me." He did not smile or appear welcoming in any way. He didn't seem mean either. He just was. "My name is Otium. This is Immaculate." The bear-cat shook her head and rose up a bit on her hind legs, pawing the air in greeting. "You are Walter, correct?"

Otium removed his hat and gave a slight bow, as a gentleman would.

"You still have the coin I gave you." Otium said it as a fact, not a question, and his solemn expression lightened if only for a minute. He turned his head back to the people weaving around them going about their business. Some were sober, more than that weaved about drunkenly and all of them now seemed to not even realize that Walter was there since he was engaged in conversation with Otium. No one managed to bump into them either. It was like they stood in an impenetrable bubble of nothing.

"They are mostly all oblivious anyway. Watch." Otium grabbed a businessman by the arm and he jolted. "Where are you rushing to, Sir?"

"Very important meeting little boy. Why are you stopping me .. where are your parents?!" He bristled with growing anger.

"Oh I'm sorry sir." Otium put on an innocent face and let the man's arm go.

The business man huffed and brushed off his suit and as suddenly as it had happened his anger was gone and instead he looked around in confusion, his eyes passing right over Otium, "Huh.. why'd I stop? Did I drop something?" The man looked at his shoes a moment before crying out, "My meeting!" and taking off again.

"They don't need to see me." Otium's pale blue eyes looked up at Walter and abruptly changed the subject. "Your daemon is enormous."

..and speaking of daemons, Immaculate was sniffing cautiously around Oblivion as if she were a foreign object. The bear-cat wasn't as playful and energetic as the last time they met.

Immaculate's tail swished, pleased with the interaction. 'Hello! How are you?' A lot of the daemons didn't like how friendly or energetic Immaculate was so she had taken to the side of caution. Oblivion's greeting seemed to energize her a bit and she waved her paws in the air excitedly. 'I don't meet many daemons anymore.'

"That's part of it.." Referring to his powers. Otium just shrugged. "She's very neat. I bet Immaculate would let me ride her if I could. She does whatever I want." Otium had a little bit of a regal air to him, something that he felt he deserved. It seemed to develop as he aged and withdrew from socializing.

"What do you do?" It was a very simple statement but there seemed to be an underlying challenge. Otium wasn't being deliberately rude to Walter, it was just his way.

"I see a whole bunch of nightmares, right now..." Otium sort of smirked. He didn't really. He saw ghosts, but he was trying to sound cool and mysterious to the older boy. "But that's neat, I guess. Handy. Are dreams fun to walk through? See anything interesting?"

Otium's eyes drifted towards the people that Walter was with. "Don't like them? Wanna harass them a little?" He couldn't be sure which was going to be a victim of Walter's power but he was still testing his own abilities and thought it might be fun to have a little display of power at another's expense.

Immaculate kept sniffing around Oblivion, her fuzzy ears twitching in interest. 'You are huge! I hope I get that big. I'll be even better at protecting Otium. I could eat people!' The bear-cat seemed really driven about defending her boy, as if threats loomed on every corner, and when she spoke of devouring enemies... the impression was left that she really meant it. 'I bet you are great at protecting your boy. Big.. metal.. no one could hurt you!' Immaculate was a great ego booster!

"Oh..." His wind was blown out of his sails once his ghost idea seemed to be knocked down. "My idea was ghosts.." His high and mighty attitude gave way to a child's sheepishness for just a split second. "I can be pretty suggestive though, and he wouldn't even remember that I was there.." Alex got a reserved smile, his pale eyes brightening for just a moment. "Want to send them anywhere bizarre?" Otium had more than ghosts up his sleeve.

'Well.. I haven't eaten anyone yet. But I totally would!' Immaculate sort of hopped, imitating an aggressive stance as if she were battling an unseen enemy. 'If anyone messes with Otium.. RAWR! I'll bite their head off!' She leaped at nothing, gnashing her teeth in excitement. She sat down flat when Oblivion mentioned metal, and wagged her tail, 'Well that doesn't sound very tasty.. but you are metal.. so I guess it's ok?' It actually sounded to her more like cannibalism! But she had just been talking about eating people so the daemon didn't bring it up. 'So you could just go eat that whole bike rack? Or that mailbox?!' Suddenly Immaculate wanted to see this.

'Yeah! That bike rack!' Immaculate looked over at Otium, just double checking he was fine, before she trotted over to the bike rack full of bikes that was another several yards in the opposite direction. 'You should eat these.' It was only curiosity. 'ALL of them! I bet they look good.. huh?'

"I'm .. home schooled." He got lessons from his parents, uncles and various household residents. It wasn't formal schooling but it worked out okay for him. "Where else have you guys been? I am trying to get out more. My brother and I sort of snuck out.. He's flying around here somewhere." Otium waved his hand, a golden bangle jingling on his wrist. It was the only part of his wardrobe not in black and white. "One of these days I'm going to go on a great journey." His head raised higher, determination flaring in his eyes. "Away from my parents. I have great things in my future, you know. I just have to find them. I bet you do too. You don't need college. We have power.. and we should use it." Otium clearly had big dreams and wanted everyone to grasp their futures like he was positive he would do soon.

"Oh no.. Dreams are everything." Otium gave Walter a very grave look. "Dreams are what drive people. Dreams are what make me know I'm going to be great." And something inside of him that just TOLD him so. "No one would do anything if they didn't have dreams. Rich people were just regular people who dreamed for more. Inventors were just people who dreamed for better and easier ways to life." Otium wasn't one for touching but he took a page from his brother Mael's book and clapped Walter lightly on the arm. "You have a great power. You might not think so.. but you could become great with it!" In Otium's mind that meant money, status and something to command.. but it was a different dream than Walter, he was sure.

'Whoah!!' Immaculate hopped about excitedly. She'd never seen anything like this. In an effort to help, she started to bite the rubber off of the tires, pulling off the inner tube and everything. Several people started to take notice, pedestrians were pointing, unsure if it was some new Vegas stunt or magic show. A puzzled police officer paused, picking up his radio to inquire if this was a show or just blatant destruction of property.