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 Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:44 pm
Eion pressed the heel of his hand to his dull, bleary eye. In the coffee shop light, sodium sallow and dreary as summer rain, his skin looked liver-sick. The pages before him, crisp and pristine but for the information that marred them, wore that same ugly shade. The whole shop looked picturesque for an airport bar where forgotten people gathered sullenly. Formica peeled up from the tabletop corners, the walls featured bloated and sun-bleached photos, and the wait staff dressed in the same perpetually greasy mahogany apron over a white dress shirt. Eion rubbed at his eye, digging its bony heel into his dark circle.
Finally he dropped his attention back to the completed folder and its contents. Tucked away in the same nondescript blue, the report was completed with his usual Negaverse formality. Its cover letter displayed the lengths underwent to finish the task — governmental sites visited, names searched, fragments of the web brute forced for another kernel of information — and man hours spent. He listed other Zhaos tried and his justifications for disregarding them. Any close candidates received an honorable mention as a footnote to the cover letter.
Behind it sat other necessary papers — printouts of the father's present address, his identification, current workplace, located resume, credit report, and more. In a stack of white as thick as Eion's smallest nail, Kai Zhao's life was mapped from the moment he left Xi-Wang's mother to his latest Weixin and Renren updates. He looked at the lot of it, only so many words and ink blots and sentence fragments totaling the sum of a man's experiences. How strange it was to see a life so easily reduced — so neatly totaled into columns and categories and numbers and addresses and financial worth.
Eion paged to Kai Zhao's bank statement, pursed his lips, and let the folder fall shut. He closed his eyes for a long breath. Eion felt himself slip forward and caught himself against the speckled blankness of the formica table.
Wearily he checked his phone. It stared back at him with no new messages. I wonder if you're mad. Sad. Disappointed in yourself.
I wonder if you feel anything at all about our last meeting. If you know what you did.sleet tempest snape hope this works. it's a different cafe this time
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Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:54 pm
He was in a hurry and the cab driver didn't seem to understand that, or maybe he did, as he tried to talk to him about how tips were important and he didn't make a lot as a driver. Xi-Wang wasn't such if the man was trying to hustle him, he very likely was, but he wasn't thinking about that honestly. Instead he added a few dollars to what he owed for the drive and hurried for the cafe's entrance. He was supposed to be meeting Eion and he hoped the other wouldn't get tired of waiting and leave, he needed what the other had for him. What Eion had he wasn't even sure, not exactly anyway, he just knew it was information but what information he wasn't sure, he knew it was on his father and that was all that mattered to him.
As he hurried his way towards where they were to meet he pulled out his cell phone, glancing over the last two messages from the other. He'd done something...he could only assume he'd somehow angered, or at least upset, the other since he had just vanished as he had. He'd said something...been too accepting and soft..too giving. He was sure of it. They had such a difference in personalities, polar opposites, that he was figuring that was what he'd done. Though he also knew he'd spoken - a lot. He'd told the other a lot...shown his own weaknesses....There was alot he'd done but he was sure it had all, combined, upset the other. He would have to apologize...and hope it helped.
When he got to the cafe he pushed the door open and stepping inside it wasn't hard to spot the other, he sort of stood out. "Eion..." Calling out as he drew closer, not wanting to draw too much attention to them. "Do you want a drink? Something to eat?" He offered right away, without thought, it was only polite that he offer - right? He was the one who had asked the other to do this work for him, which was the cause for this meeting. The other also looked tired...perhaps. He wasn't honestly sure.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:03 pm
Bleary eyes looked up at the name. Vague awareness struck; that was his name, his greeting. Soon his gaze refocused on Kiuchi Xi-Wang and all their count of troubles came to the fore.
He rose out of his slouch, his nails riding the slope of throat to chin before meeting the air and hanging dully. Wake up. "I knew I missed something." His hand came down to press against an old coffee stain, ring-shaped, and felt the stickiness beneath his fingers.
"Pick something with espresso." If caffeine couldn't jolt him, he'd try an energy orb. Teething someone else's brilliance had its own attraction for now, as if some part of them might come under his own spell by ingestion. And a potent tool it would be if that happened — if he need only drain a single person to scalp all their best features. But that sounded so comic book against the backdrop of his magical life.
Xi-Wang had his order, so Eion resorted to his own warped politenesses. A foot reached out beneath the table and tapped smartly on the chair across from him. He pushed until it found its way out, nearly knocking into a passerby, for which he received a scathing glare. Eion responded wordlessly of his own and she rolled her eyes responsively. So ended that exchange, and he considered how her energy would taste.
But he couldn't dally long — when Xi-Wang returned, he'd be ready with the folder open and a heady portion of its information displayed. A couple stapled documents migrated their way to Xi's side for when he returned — namely the photocopied identification of his father and a travel log.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:08 am
"Were you sleeping?" He questioned softly, concern floating into his voice. Had the other been so tired they'd fallen asleep here? The other seemed tired, certainly, and like someone who had just woken up. Before he could say more, and likely worry further about inconveniencing the other, he had a drink order from Eion and off he went to place the order along with his own.
It was, while in line, that he took the time to glance about at the chosen meeting place. It wasn't the bad really, not somewhere he'd normally go, but what was more interesting were the people. Most were normal average people, a few teenagers, but most were your average working class people with a few who looked to be from the upper class, money wise, if their clothing and stuck up noses were anything to go by. All in all nothing too stand out.
The one who called his name, not sure how to pronounce the x in his name, he smiled gently as he went to get his drink and Eion's. She finally decided to ask him how the X was said, as she seemed to be done trying and failing to get it right. As she asked, and apologized for messing up, he waved it off and told her how it was pronounced. He understood it wasn't common to run into a name starting with an X like his did, Chinese names weren't something people often encountered...or asian names in general. Even when they did, such as Lee and Park they were said wrong, so he understood it.
When he did return, and slid into the seat that was out and waiting, he moved it back into place. "Thank you..." Offering the other his drink, with a small, unconscious, bow of his head. The information, at least some of it, was out in front of him so he took the time to glance over it as he sipped at his drink, almost absentmindedly as he was busy looking over the information. All of this amounted to a persons life...to so many years lived. it could all be brought down and condensed to this....
"I owe you...this means a lot - you have no idea." It wasn't a lot, it wasn't like Eion could pick the mans mind for memories and his likes and disliked, for all manner of personal things, but this...this helped to paint a picture of his father.
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:57 pm
He hadn't slept, and the question received no more than a shake of his head before Xi was off.
Upon return, Eion nodded his quiet thanks. He dismantled the plastic to-go cup to smell the contents; coffee, of course, but which kind escaped him. Whether blonde or arabic or any of the other dozen roasts out there, each smelled the same to his unattuned nose. It often tasted like a lie of its smell. Like a viceroy pretending to be attractive to all its onlookers. He took a sip nonetheless, puckered lips at its bitterness, and snatched a red stir stick to blend in the whip. He wondered, briefly, how many calories it cost someone to drink a beverage they didn't like.
Soon he tapped out the straw on a spare napkin. He tossed Xi-Wang a look, albeit wearily. "There's more than that. Kai Zhao lives in Shanghai with his parents, wife and daughter. My age." After a sip, he realized his error — Xi wouldn't know his age any more than the barista, despite their many interactions. "Fifteen.
"He works in finance — accounting for a middling firm localized to China. They're looking to expand into other southeast locations: Korea, Japan, Taiwan, maybe more. I think it's a Ponzi scheme." Whether it was or wasn't seldom impacted Kai, though it may affect his son's opinion of him. Up to question was whether Kai knew, or whether the company truly was a Ponzi scheme. Too-young and too-driven eyes made easy mistakes. "He earns enough to consistently make his bills, and has leftover to live well. Salaried employment does him well. If he knows about you, it doesn't show in any of his records.
"Here — it's everything I found." Eion turned the folder about and pushed it toward his companion. In its slotted pockets sat bank statements, identifications, prior places of residence, minor newspaper clippings mentioning Kai Zhao's name with someone else's translation attached, phone information and more, including posts to Chinese Facebook. Eion erred on the side of too much information.
"But there's been something on my mind." Eion closed his eyes a moment, resigned onto to the coffee shop bustle and smell of his drink.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 4:55 pm
"Fifteen....at least he moved on soon after my mother. That's good. I'm sure he deserves some happiness." As he was sure his mother had made his father rather unhappy, at least during the divorce and child custody case, so to know the man had found someone and had a child was good. Though the idea of a sister, a half sister, was unexpected in a way. He expected his father to have remarried by now, it had been nearly twenty years, and children were to be expected but to hear the confirmation was still a shock to the system of sorts; a good one though.
"Mmmm..." Sipping his drink he took the time to listen to the other, there was a lot to take in. The idea of a ponzi scheme didn't appeal to him, not one bit, but he hoped that his father didn't know about it. Perhaps he was too low level? For now, until he spoke to his father, he would assume the best...and hope for the best as well, as all schemes eventually fell apart. Knowing he was doing well though, well enough for his family, was good. It meant the grandparents he'd been denied ever knowing and the half sister he may have never had, if not for his mother leaving his father, were doing well also.
"My mother hid well...I'm not surprised there is no signs of him knowing me or where I am. I'm sure he's been clueless this whole time." Though he did wonder if his father had ever tried to find him...had ever wondered about him. "My mother never wanted him apart of my life." And now, now that he was free from her and he had mind enough of his own she wouldn't get her wish, he had found the man. His father had not shaped him, had held no sway over him, but his father and the unknown family had always been there in the background haunting him and plagued him and peeked his curiosity, stirred fantasies in his mind of many things which could have been. It was all his mothers own doing really. If she had been his mother...if she hadn't dismissed him and treated him so poorly...if she had not denied him so many things - if she had lied and told him they were dead. She could have avoided it all and he may have even remained at her side, had she raised him differently. But she had; she had failed.
Now the wish to keep him away from his father, from the rest of his family, would be brought down. The only thing he wished for was for her to know, to somehow find out, that he knew of the man and would be in contract with him. It was, like once before, a desire of his to snub her and shove something in her face...a want to try and hurt her in some way - to take a jab at her. He'd done it before...would he give and do it again?
He didn't know but his attention was being called upon by Eion and so his dark eyes focused on the other, leaving the folder and it's contents.
"Hmm? What's been on your mind?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 6:33 pm
Strange how so much of someone could be ensconced in family bonds. Stranger still how those bonds cannibalized one another, raked and clawed and bit at each other, creating a mess bloodier (and far less watery) than the seamless bindings of friendship. To Eion, Xi's life was tucked away neatly into the folds of friendship, even as his family life remained a meaty swath of sinew and vein. And to what end? If predictions held, more of the same until he was buried in a pile of useless tissue.
So few organs make it to donation, he reminded himself grimly. Would Xi's father make it to salvage? Or would he be tossed aside as neatly as Xi's mother? And what of the half-sister? He snorted to himself, half-caught in his own jealousy. How unlike me. So much of me is a mystery that you don't want to unravel.
But you don't have to matter to me, Xi-Wang. You're a boy met by chance. A Mirror Senshi who proves the rule.
Eion's thumbs caught the rim of his cup, his mind blearily chewing over his statement before speaking. His lids, dark-rimmed as his eyes, sagged with the weight of it. And that statement sprawled over his shoulders like a too-heavy shawl, dragging down his posture. Or perhaps that was the exhaustion tolling him. "That night you hugged me — you did it specifically from behind." His gaze raised to meet Xi-Wang's, should the boy pay enough respect to look him in the eye. "Who told you that I need those pipes to breathe? And who put you up to it? Because you wouldn't make that move on your own." His head tilted with askew accusation. Fingers drummed on the glass like a ceramic marching drum.
"What gall you have to come back to me afterward." Eion paused, smirked, shook his head as his attention lowered to the coffee abomination in his hands. "And what pride I have to finish this work." Mother would be disappointed. Would be? Is.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:43 pm
Startled by the others words he stared, unblinking, his dark eyes wide and rather deer caught in the headlights like. "Need them to breath...w-what? No one told me anything or put me up to anything. In truth I haven't told anyone on my side that I know you...and I've only met one of your sides senshi once. I met one other from your side and they tried to kill me, they seemed rather...mad...and not like a hatter but as in homicidal. The third person I've met from your side is a friend of mine and she's told me nothing. The white moon....most of them have tried to hurt or kill me also." The only ones who didn't try and kill him were those from his own court and they didn't know he was friends with the other.
"I hugged you from behind because I wanted to...I didn't think it was wrong. If it was....if you need those pipes and I was in their way - I'm sorry. I didn't know...you could have told me - I wouldn't have hugged you that way then." Not that he wouldn't have hugged the other, no he wasn't going to take that back at all, he just would have hugged him from another angle.
Did Eion really think him the sort to hurt him? To hurt another person knowingly...or try to kill them? Was that how little he thought of him? Biting down on his bottom lip he shook his head quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly. "I wouldn't have hurt you...and you seem to think I would have - why? What makes you think I'd be out to hurt you?" Why did the other not trust him and think better of him? What had whispered in his ear to cause this?
"You are ok though....right? I didn't hurt you or do anything permanent?" He asked then, as he thought about the fact he'd done something harmful...and maybe it was being brought up now, rather than sometime sooner, because something had come of it now?
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:47 am
That Xi-Wang first began with defending himself showed his insecurities and his age — the same age that made him out to cherubic, even endearing to some. But as Eion listened, that self-defense wound around to a story of his own trials. That he nearly died, that he met more of the Negaverse who found no use in him. Eion toyed with his own fingers in wait. But Xi-Wang's tales, while justifiably harrowing, lacked a personal nature. Whoever fought him did so on principle, not person, or perhaps even duty. But what was the point of saying so? To curve this confrontation to his own story? No — you're trying to commiserate, aren't you? Black eyes found him questioningly.
' I didn't know...you could have told me —'
"I don't make habit out of trading away my weaknesses." That was the peculiarity that began the investigation. Eion's fingers continued to drum his cup while Xi-Wang wound through his distress. You wouldn't have hugged me that way. What an uncanny accident. Eion's gaze followed Xi, curious, pensive.
I wouldn't have hurt you...and you seem to think I would have —'
"You're mistaken." He sat up in his chair, pulled his elbows back from the counter. "I don't think you're out to hurt me. Someone else is. That someone else knows about the pipes," one finger struck the table, "he's in your court," a second finger struck the table, "and he uses people." A third finger joined them. "He manipulates them, gouges them, squanders them. He's a murderer and a rapist — and he's fixated on me. And while he couldn't kill me, he would waste my time and obstruct me. Two things I won't abide."
He paused, sighed through his nose. "I know you're sweet. I know you look for warmth in others. You want the world to be the better place that it could've been. I thought he hostaged you to smothering me," he admitted at last.
"I'm fine. Just wary. Tired." Sick of this.
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:02 pm
"Your right....tha would have been a risk to tell me I suppose." Though the idea hurt, that someone would hide something from him because he might hurt them or use it against them. He wasn't that sort of person, he didn't think himself capable of hurting someone, at least knowingly...or even if he personally thought something may hurt another. It was why he disliked using his magic so much.
"It's ok though. I understand." He understood, of course he did, but it still hurt but he covered that up and smiled gently.
"Ohhh...that one." The other had mentioned this to him before,though he didn't think the other had been so candid about what had happened. "No one told me about the pipes - I promise. It really was an accident." He knew what it was like to have people try and harm him, try and kill him, why would he do it to someone else? It was scary thinking you were going to die, and he sort of thought that might be worse than dying really. The fear of it...waiting for it to come....death was simple, right? You just stopped breathing and died. It was the process and the lead up.
"I'll remember it next time. I'll avoid the pipes." Nodding his head, smiling a bit more, he would make sure he remembered, he didn't want to harm the other. Eion had helped him and was kind enough to him as well.
"Are you having issues sleeping?" Tilting his head now, before bringing his cup to his lips to sip from slowly. "I know it must be busy....helping me and other duties....I'm sorry if helping me kept you from sleeping as much as you should have." Finger tips gently moved over the papers, precious to him for so many reasons. Setting his cup down gently, as if trying to make as little noise as possible.
"I do wish the world were a better place - nicer. But I know it's not, sadly, but I'm willing to fight for it...and to try and not let it all poison and taint me." Why add to what already made up so much of the population? He could be different. "If I become like the majority of people...than I've lost the fight - haven't I? And I've lost myself then too." Smiling a bit more, even giving a soft bit of laughter.
"You know...if you ever need help...in a fight and I'm there...I'll help. Just shout for me." As much as he didn't like his magic he knew sometimes using it was unavoidable, and was perhaps for the best at times.
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Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:53 pm
"How brave of you to offer that." Eion shifted in his seat as he finally leaned flush against the back. Thin arms locked elbows, hyperextended, as he leaned on his wrists. "Especially if that fight is against one of yours."
He studied Xi-Wang for a time, letting the silence fall over them. It draped like morning dew — ever an accent that lingered more than it touched. He wondered if Xi felt that same dew collecting on his eyelids, catching between his lashes, tasting sweet on his tongue. Or was he the type so averse to it that he spat and sputtered and stirred it away? For all the times he stuttered, Eion wagered so. There was no taste for silence in this boy's heart. What a shame.
Brazen to assume there's a next time, too. Idiosyncratic.
So he drew more words from deep wells. So much laid between them, so much even in the simple admission that Xi-Wang fought for a better world — for the preservation of this world in an unknown, unquanitifiably improved state. A bitterness lingered in his half-empty attitude, a hurt uncured by others' gentler touches. And beyond that was his own concern, doled out in small morsels as if breadcrumbs to guide Eion into investing himself in Xi-Wang. With a breath, Eion spoke again. "I have a lot to do, but I stop my charities if I feel overtaxed." He licked his lips, then clarified. "It's because I care. If I spent so many sleeping hours on your project, I'd make mistakes. I'd miss the marginalia. That's why it took so long." That's why Xi-Wang looked down at an itemized list of his father's life down to his informalities.
How common it is that people fear losing themselves. Does Heliodor feel that way? Does Aelius consider himself lost, eluded, bereft for all the memories he doesn't have? For ownership of ourselves to be ephemeral — what a fate.
He yawned into the back of his wrist. "Call me if you need more information."
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Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:43 pm
Nodding his head, a bright smile, he understood what the other said. Eion cared enough to work diligently on the favor he'd asked...and had made sure to do a good job, so he had rested as needed. it hadn't kept him up - that was good. He would have felt guilty had he known the other had discarded needed sleep in order to fulfill his request, he'd feel like a terrible friend. That was something he wasn't sure on though...were they friends? He knew he liked the idea of it, and he did consider the other a friend, but were they?
"If a fight if between you and one of my own..." Huffing out a breath he stood slowly, offering a hand up to the other. "I'll keep out of it. I won't offer help, not to someone who hurt another person...I can't support someone who took away another persons choice...and consent. I'm just sorry it happened." But it wasn't something he had any hand in happening, and there was no way to undo it.
"I won't stop you from doing whatever you feel needs to be done." And there was still the offer to help if the other needed it. he didn't mention it verbally, the idea of being pitted against one of his own court wasn't something he wished to consider...but it may happen one day. He'd dealt with Sinope's magic once before and he didn't like it, he knew what it did.
"I think you did enough on this - I trust you found everything you possibly could. You don't seem the sort to skimp on something." More of a smile as he moved to perhaps hug the other, this time not from behind. "Get some rest - please."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 6:55 pm
The corner of his mouth twitched at a wrong angle. Like a knife that traveled off during a cut, the line of Eion's mouth followed a dim path. He stood, then, with fingers poised over the rim of his cup, and waited through the long silence following Xi-Wang's words. What strange morals they have. I gave him a starseed — so ended that life and every lifetime thereafter. But take away consent and, even if the victim survives, that offense disowns the perpetrator. Worse still than wholesale shutting down lives.
Worse still than taking away consent to live. Curious.
Eion's meager foray into his own mind halted then, and he returned to reality ever wearier than before. Encircled around him, wiping away the remaining webs of thought, were Xi-Wang's arms encircling him. The taller boy felt warm despite how often he ducked into his own body. For a moment, however small, Eion let himself relax against that heat, closed his eyes, listened to the sheepish pacing of Xi-Wang's heart. He felt a dozen lifetimes' weight on his shoulders, forcing him down, bending him into a stoop. Metallia truly demanded all that her officers could give. And Xi-Wang, being so docile and quiet, was his own lull.
"I will." The rest of his duties weren't imminent. With an identity and contact information finally delivered, Eion cleared another obligation from his list. What Xi did with that information and where that relationship went was out of his hands.
Reclaiming himself, Eion slipped from the hug and gave a last thanks to Xi for the coffee. Draining the glass, he cast it into the bus tray, then departed for the door. No longer did he need to wait on buses, thankfully.
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