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 Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:40 pm
It was a late summer evening. Nataniel had worked his standard nine to five shift and returned home to an empty house. Basyl was working a double that included graveyard shift. He wouldn’t be back all night, and he was likely to sleep most of the day, afterwards. It shouldn’t be bothersome or unexpected. Nat knew the type of unpredictable schedules freshly graduated medical interns kept.
And he was generally accustomed to spending most of his downtime in his room on his computer, with only the rustling of his chinchilla to keep him company. This wasn’t especially outside the realm of “normal.”
When Basyl offered to meet him for a coffee during one of his breaks, Nataniel thought the rational thing to do would be to refuse. He was perfectly fine at home, and it was inconvenient to leave. Especially when the drive there and back would probably be longer than the break, anyway. Basyl would be home in a matter of hours (many of which Nat would sleep through). They would see each other then. The reasonable thing to do was to just be patient and tend to any necessary chores in the meantime.
Yet Nataniel had agreed, anyway. He couldn’t say why beyond that he inexplicably wanted to.
He pulled up on the side of the street, perpendicular to a little sidewalk and courtyard-type area outside the coffee shop nearest to the hospital. Basyl was already outside, seated at a grated tabletop with two cement benches, and two cups atop it.
The whole “break” would be fifteen minutes max, and it hadn’t been conducive to time management to come out here, and he would be happier and more comfortable at home, and there was no reason for him to be here. Nataniel’s thoughts flit viciously across his mind as he watched the other man, watched him fidget with the straw in his drink, and his unkempt lavender hair flutter in the evening breeze. Pretty magenta eyes turned toward him as Nat clicked off the engine to his bike.
A soft sort of something, bizarrely like relief made his shoulders ease as Nataniel slid onto the bench across from Basyl. It was hard to be too offended. He could have refused. The evening was warm enough to be comfortable, and the sun had dipped beneath the crest of the buildings, giving everything a dim sort of glow.
He slid a hand out to wrap around one of the clear plastic cups, an iced chai tea, because Basyl knew what to get him, and dragged it back toward himself.
“How is work going?”
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:45 pm
He folded one hand beneath his chin, crossed his legs at the ankles, jabbed his straw into his iced coffee, agitating the ice cubes inside as he gave the drink a rattle to stir up the cream. Hoo, it was going to be a long night. Basyl was adequately prepared for staying up late; even on his best nights, he still capped out at five or six hours of sleep. The being awake wasn’t the problem. It was just that Destiny City nights were never peaceful.
Rampant youma and Negaverse agents were always creating problems in the cover of darkness. Sometimes the worst of it didn’t get found until the morning, but Basyl knew better than to expect that nothing was happening in the city.
...He still liked to hope, though, liked to pray that some nights were just as normal as he’d imagined they were when he was younger.
But optimism was no excuse to be unprepared. And so to keep exhaustion at bay, there was caffeine. He needed the coffee one way or the other, so there was no way Basyl wasn’t going to the coffee shop on his break, regardless of whether Nataniel agreed to meet him, or not. He was still pleased at the acceptance, and pretty satisfied to hear the dull rumble of Nat’s bike as it pulled in close.
Basyl greeted him with a smile, as his fingers itched out to nudge one of the cups in Nataniel’s direction. The other man took a seat, and Basyl shifted to try and be less hunched over his own cup.
“I’m glad you could make it. I-it’s nice to see you…” Nice to see someone important to him in the middle of a draining shift, particularly when their schedules had kept them apart for most of the day already.
He gave a roll of his shoulders at the posed question. “By Destiny City standards, it’s pretty quiet,” he admitted with a shrug. “Almost looks like we could have a ‘Perfect Game…’ -Provided I didn’t just jinx it by saying anything, and there’s still so much night left, so anything could happen. ...Something probably will happen.” And then, in a softer mutter, “S-something always happens.”
But nothing yet. No reason to be upset. Keep it together.
“So, uh, you? How was work?”
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:48 pm
He sipped his drink, chilly and sweetly spiced.
“You ask for a lot.” His tone, while still low, may have had just the barest hint of an amused inflection. A Perfect Game in a typical city hospital was expecting too much, but in Destiny City, it seemed outright impossible. How many of the Negaverse’s starseedless victims were lying comatose in the hospital right now, just waiting for their timers to expire?
More than a handful, Nataniel was sure, though he knew better than to bring that to Basyl’s attention. He did prefer not to actively upset his friend, and though unlikely, maybe it was possible to have a night where no one died under his watch.
Dark eyes turned down to his drink, giving the cup a little swirl. “Nothing of interest to report,” Nataniel admitted softly. They may work in the same building, but Nataniel’s direct dealings with medical emergencies were practically nonexistent. He did sometimes hear interesting tidbits from anything that had brought in exceptionally unique cases (and it was easy to speculate where youma and magic may be involved), but he was perfectly content to have little involvement in the medical side of things.
His gaze flicked up, trying to catch Basyl’s. “It has been a quiet night for me, as well.” Maybe it was expected, but he didn’t doubt the other would appreciate the inconspicuous affirmation: he had not been out that evening, and didn’t presently plan on being out for any more than this. If there was trouble, it wasn’t coming from him.
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:50 pm
A short yip of uncomfortable amusement tumbled out of his throat, and Basyl coiled a strand of hair tightly around his finger, giving it a terse little tug as he did. A lot. He was asking for a lot by just hoping that it would be a peaceful night.
...He knew that. He didn’t want it to be true, but regardless of his personal beliefs, there was nothing ‘peaceful’ about Destiny City.
And he wondered how offended he should be at himself for just… accepting that, for accepting that the wrongness was ‘normal’ and finding that he could sympathize with people who encouraged and brought on the hurt and pain and turmoil. It could be a quiet, peaceful night if there weren’t so many people out there trying to make it otherwise.
But that was just how it was. They were in a silent, secret war, where people got hurt with alarming frequency. He accepted that. For the most part.
“Well, I’m not going to complain about a lazy day,” Basyl said with a shrug, twisting his straw in its lid and eliciting a low, whistling sound from it. “I th-think I’d almost rather have a ‘boring’ time than an ‘exciting’ one, really. You’ve, uh, you’ve got to be tired from everything, anyway… There’s been a lot to keep up with…” Nat was more involved with that side of things than Basyl was, to a degree he didn’t understand the passion for.
He unfurled his fingers from where they were clasped around his cup and stretched his hand across the table, laying his palm lightly over Nataniel’s wrist. They’d talked about it a lot. They were living together, already. Their ideals were different, and they both knew it. Nat “going out” would always be in the back of his mind as a concern. And not just because he feared for the well-being of the rest of the city’s denizens.
Basyl didn’t need to repeat how important he thought it was to just have a happy normal life. To make sure that the persona didn’t overtake everything else. Having a quiet night to sit, and be at ease wasn’t lazy or worthless. It was just part of taking care of yourself. They’d had a rough few months.
And self-care was so important among the rest of the turmoil.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he whispered. “Seems like a good time to just play a game and get a good night’s rest. You’re not working tomorrow, are you? It’s Saturday-”
Something clattered down the alleyway to the side of the building: the toppling of a trash can, the clamor of garbage spilling, a startled human yip-
A hissing murmur.
A scream.
More clamor.
Basyl stood abruptly, making the metal table legs screech against concrete as he accidentally knocked it. His focus riveted toward the alley. It was late evening. There weren’t many people out. It could have been just him and Nataniel that heard that. There could be any number of things that caused it. Should he check? Just to see if he could see anything? It could have been someone from the shop taking out the garbage and startling a cat.
It could be something worse.
“I-I just- Am going to peek, j-just for a second,” he said in a hushed tone as he tore himself from the table.
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:52 pm
“I hope it stays quiet for you,” Nataniel hummed as he took a sip of his drink. He definitely didn’t envy anyone who had to be at a stressful job for sixteen hours at a time. For someone as soft and jittery as Basyl, it was hard to imagine how he’d even make it, no matter how impassioned toward his goals he was. But plenty of others had managed well enough before him, so Nataniel was sure Basyl would too.
“I do not work tomorrow,” he relented, studying the other’s man’s hand where it had settled over his own. Nat twisted his hand to face upward, letting Basyl’s palm lay in his.
He thought he may have actually been pleased to have made the blatantly ridiculous trip out to the coffee shop. Time consuming and unnecessary, maybe. But it was nice to sit outside with someone close to him and find time to spend a few minutes together when they would otherwise be unable...
A clamor from the nearby alleyway drew Basyl’s attention. Nataniel would’ve been all too happy to ignore it. Whatever it was, screaming and hissing or otherwise, absolutely did not concern him. And it shouldn’t concern Basyl, either. It would be better for them to leave, rather than get involved in any regard- These bodies were more susceptible to breakage, and this public area was hardly the place to try anything. He twisted his hand to try and catch the other man’s as Basyl pulled away, but his fingers grasped nothing but air.
“Basyl, wait, stop,” Nataniel hissed as he pushed away from the table, trying in vain to make a grab for the lavender-haired man before he got too far away.
It could be nothing, and probably was. It seemed too early yet for anything especially brazen to occur. ...Though he supposed he could recall a scattering of recent daylight operations that didn’t lend themselves to support that theory.
Nataniel kept at Basyl’s heel as the other man dodged his attempts to pull him back. In a matter of yards, they were standing next to each other, staring down the shadowed alleyway. Something fluttered around the dumpsters, a handful of paces ahead of them. Nataniel would’ve thought it was just a plastic shopping bag caught in the breeze, where it not for the tendrils of other animated bits of fabric and plastic whirling around.
“A wraith?” It was not quite like anything he recognized, but a moment later he thought he might be able to make out a pair of twitching legs tucked behind some garbage bags. And the fluttery thing was tangled about them, somehow, and creeping farther up than he could see. It had managed to silence a person, somehow. He didn’t think wraiths could do that.
“It… is a youma,” Nataniel said, tipping his head in confusion.
And it was finishing its hunt right in front of them.
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:54 pm
He just wanted to look, just to make sure everything was fine. He probably didn’t need to be sticking his nose where it wasn’t invited, especially since he had literal minutes to get back to work, but Basyl couldn’t not do something if it was more than just a stubbed toe or a startled cat.
“Wraiths don’t look like that…” He whispered back. At least, none he had ever seen. They may be a similar sort of wispy, but they were also mostly intangible.
This thing was… fluttery and real and looked like about thirty plastic baggies tangled together and ever-writhing. If he squinted hard, tried desperately to peer through all the debris, he might have thought he saw something like long fingers, similar to a bat’s wing. But everything was whipping around, and much of it was tucked into the shadows.
With its victim.
Basyl’s heart leapt into his throat as he noticed it, and for an instant, he didn’t know what to do. He only stood rooted to the spot, staring-
But he had to do something, he had to do something! That thing was going to- if it was a youma, it was surely trying to take a starseed, but from here, it mostly just looked like it was trying to smother a man. Basyl could run down there and try to yank it off, maybe. It didn’t look very sturdy.
But it might swoosh around him and steal his voice and smother him too, so?
So Narcissus would go, obviously.
The span of a second and he’d grabbed his pen from his coat pocket, and whispered his power-up phrase, and went charging down the alley. His magic was nothing against a youma, but he was at least a little bit stronger and a little bit faster. Narcissus moved in.
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:57 pm
Unease prickled under Nataniel’s skin. Basyl was a grown man who knew how to take care of himself. He’d been a part of this war long enough that he should understand the consequences of a certain degree of brazenness, particularly when they were standing in public. It wasn’t Nat’s job to intervene, and he shouldn’t-
So as Basyl powered into Narcissus and charged forward to save some civilian stranger, Nataniel stood back. He did not feel any pressing obligation to get involved. No youma had attacked him, and they had to hunt for their prey like any other predator. What he felt was a little jab of annoyance, enough to make his brows purse, that this was something Narcissus had deemed necessary.
The agitation softened in the very next instant, because of course Narcissus would put himself between a monster and its victim. Stupidly forward, maybe. But at least consistent with his commitment.
He shifted his weight, moving to not be standing at an entrance to an alley, staring down into the darkness like some rubbernecking onlooker. Nataniel had meant to move to the side, far enough to not seem affiliated with whatever might be happening out of his sight, but close enough that if he heard Narcissus struggling, he could do something about it. That had been the plan.
He’d hardly even turned away before he spotted a man, standing fairly close to where they’d been drinking their coffee moments before, phone out, held up, toward Nat and past him to where Narcissus and the youma were engaging-
A phone. He was filming.
Could have been filming as Basyl transformed.
It seemed like a civilian, but it might not be.
And whether it was or wasn’t didn’t change the fact that it was unacceptable for anyone to have a record of Basyl transforming that they could share around and post- or do whatever people did with videos when they found something interesting. It was unacceptable for there to be a strange person who’d seen him.
So Nataniel didn’t pause as he turned away, didn’t pause as he kept walking, down the street, twisting around a corridor to be out of sight. No one would be catching him changing. A whisper of power, and a pulse of energy, and he’d flicked back to the front of the coffee shop in a teleport, sparing absolutely no time in grabbing the man with the phone by the front of the shirt and hurtling him down the alley with Narcissus and the youma.
A sharp skreel of terror erupted from the man, and his phone clattered to the ground as it slid out of his hand.
Rakovanite lunged for him, reaching into his chest and pulling out his starseed before any more of a scream could even begin to form. He whistled, a short, high note of sound, unnecessary, since as soon as the starseed was removed from the confines of a body, it had the youma’s attention.
It fluttered in a roil of fabric away from it’s victim, and away from Narcissus.
Rakovanite tossed it the starseed, and the glittering gem was swallowed among the youma’s veil-like trails. It made no sounds, just a rustle, peculiarly like ruffled wings. “Take that,” Rakovanite commanded softly, notching his head toward the body. “And leave.”
There was nothing that signaled acknowledgement. It fluttered in front of him for a moment longer, it’s wispy bits twisting and writing like tentacles, and then it whooshed to the discarded body, coiled around it in a little spiral, and dragged it with it as the creature returned to the Rift.
Rakovanite stepped to the side, reaching for the phone, and then turned, warily, back to Narcissus.
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