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 Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2022 5:39 pm
Devyn had messaged Brielle as soon as things had settled down enough for him to schedule a meeting. It was still bright outside, and he’d picked an easy to find, albeit private table by a little lake he’d found while on one of his runs. There were trees around the lake, and a row of them between the picnic table and the sidewalk.
It wouldn’t be easy for someone to eavesdrop, but it was still open enough that there was nothing suspicious about a meeting here. Especially because he’d come with food again.
Nothing fanciful, just a bag of fast food. He was already eating some of the fries, and he’d brought enough to share.
It wasn’t just a cover, he was actually hungry. But then, he’d been busy lately. He needed his energy.
When he saw Brielle approaching, he raised his hand in greeting and gestured for her to take a seat. “Thank you for meeting me out here. I hope it wasn’t any trouble.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 6:20 pm
Brielle wasn't sure if word had gotten all the way to Devyn about what had happened to her, but in case it hadn't, she was going to plenty of effort in order to appear normal. She wore a nice blouse to their meeting. She wore makeup to cover any shadows on her face. She wore closed-toed shoes. The location she was walking to was pretty enough, though, and when she took a breath of the late summer air on the way over, and looked at the trees, it did soothe some of her nerves. "This is gorgeous," she told him as she approached the table. "It wasn't any trouble at all to find, and I was glad to hear that you wanted to talk." It was proof that she hadn't managed to scare him off in any of their previous conversations, despite how those conversations had gone.
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Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2022 4:10 pm
He flashed a quick smile and glanced out across the lake. “It’s nice to see some still water. Usually it’s a bit more dangerous to be so close to it. Well, back home.” He shrugged, because he had a lifetime of stories he could tell about his world.
At least this time the conversation was supposed to be about Alastor.
“I brought some extra food, if you were hungry. Please feel free to help yourself,” he said, gesturing to the bag. He didn’t jump right into it; he stood up and offered a hand, as if to help her make her way to the bench to sit down. He respected her; he knew she was a powerful Senshi. It just seemed like an old habit more than anything else. He’d have offered his hand for Atticus or Michael, all the same. “How have you been?”
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 4:22 pm
Brielle took the offered hand without thinking much of it. It had become her normal over the last few months to rely on others for support and balance. She was at the point now where she didn't really need it, but it was still helpful. When she got overconfident, that was when she started stumbling over her feet again. "Water here isn't always safe," she said with a small shrug as she settled into the seat. "There's a youma in the reservoir that keeps coming back. It's got tentacles, from what I've heard. Very nasty. This spot seems nice enough, though." Even if it was full of monsters, the two of them could handle it. Brielle's smile said as much. She didn't touch the fries, yet. She'd shared his food before to be polite and because she was hungry, but fast food wasn't really her favorite. She wasn't sure if she wanted to make a habit of it. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:00 am
“Oh. Youma. That’s a fun thing to keep in mind. I suppose I’m fortunate I never had to deal with anything like that back home.”
He didn’t seem to take any offense of her lack of interest in the food; he had incredibly low standards. It had taken months to get his health back up, and he was still burning so much energy that he needed a steady flow of sustenance to keep him going.
“Which is what I wanted to talk about, actually. I’ve been going back and visiting it, getting things set up. Fortifying what I can. Installing lights. I’ve had a Mauvian, Soleiyu, helping me. And Michael. I wanted to make sure my world was safe–at least, as safe as possible, before I asked for help. I want to get rid of the Chaos. I think I need help. I might only have one chance, I don’t want to mess it up. I’d rather overdo than underestimate it.”
Again.
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2022 4:53 pm
"It sounds like you had enough to deal with back home," said Cybele with a sympathetic bit of a shrug. "I wouldn't wish youma on anyone." Although, they might be easier to deal with than Chaos calling out from the shadows. At least a youma you could dust and be done with it. She'd been invested in the problems he was facing on his world since the last time they'd talked. Of course, given the rest of what she'd been dealing with, she'd hardly had time to wonder about how much progress he might be making with getting things a bit better lit, or safer, but now that he was in front of her explaining the situation, s he listened intently. "What kind of help do you need?" she asked. "Investigation? Combat? Work? I know last time we talked you said you didn't know much of what to do other than setting up lights. I'll do whatever I can." A beat passed before her confidence cracked somewhat, and she said, "Well." She swallowed. "I don't know if you'd have heard what happened, but, I'm not sure how well I could handle the dark right now." It only seemed fair to tell him now. "I think I'm at the point where I could fight again, though, or help with setting up lights."
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2022 1:18 pm
Devyn paused and turned to look at her with a well-hidden concern. He looked thoughtful, but it was more than that. He wasn’t assessing her, he wasn’t judging her. Maybe, he was worried for her.
“I haven’t heard, no. But I don’t want to put you in any situation you might not feel comfortable handling. Soleiyu has been making the lights and I’ve been installing them on my visits. For now, I’m the only one that’s gone up. I want to make sure it’s safe, I don’t want to lose anyone else. I don’t know what help I’ll need,” he admitted. “Right now I’m trying to find out how others have overcome Chaos. How they’ve fought and destroyed it. Within themselves, or any other forms. I don’t think the Chaos on my world is like the Negaverse, so I’m just trying to piece together what our best bet might be. But.”
He sucked in a breath and then nodded. “I anticipate some sort of battle. I have a plan, but it’s just an idea right now. I need to do some more research before I can start seriously working on things. I’d like to have people who aren’t afraid of fighting,” he admitted. “I don’t know how bad it’s going to get. But if I couldn’t defeat it alone before, I don’t think I’ll be able to now. I don’t think I have much of a choice, I have to find the source of the Chaos. But if I’m going into the shadows, I’ll need something to protect me from that. Soleiyu’s working on it. But I’ll need people to protect the Core of my world–the source of my power, and the heart of the world. I think the shadows will attack it while it’s the most vulnerable. I can’t risk the shadows reaching my Core, so.”
He tapped his fingers on the table thoughtfully before he shrugged. “I’ll get all of the information to you as soon as I’ve got some more of this sorted out. Right now, I’m hoping to connect with people who have experience with Chaos. Anyone who might have any information, or any advantage, so I can plan the best course of action. I don’t want to pressure you–especially if something’s happened. I didn’t know, I’m sorry. Are you all right?”
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2022 1:20 pm
"I was taken hostage by the Negaverse," she said, because there was no getting around it at this point. With the situation she'd be going into, it would be reckless to hide something like this, as much as she just wanted to be treated like a normal person again. "Held in the dark. Tortured. I almost lost my feet. They were looking for information, I believe on the escape of Ganymede." Her voice stayed matter of fact, and though her gaze dropped to the table when she talked about it, she quickly brought it back up to meet his eyes. "You ask if I'm all right, and I don't know if I can say that I am, but I don't want what happened to take me out of the fight." Since her purification, she'd been working hard not to let the the war define her, but that didn't mean that it wasn't a big part of her life. She'd been given a lot of chances at this point, and she was going to use every one of them to defy Chaos and protect other people from the awful things that had happened to her. "I know Chaos, it's true. I know how to defeat it in a lot of cases. I can fight." She'd adjusted her balance enough for that. "I want to fight if it means we can protect something like the core of your world." She swallowed and thought about reaching for a fry just for something to do with her hands, but didn't. "I'll help. I want to help, but there. That's all my cards on the table."
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2022 11:41 pm
Devyn watched Brielle with a quiet attentiveness. He did not judge her. He did not pity her.
He understood her.
“Well, you’re strong,” he noted, with no falseness in his voice. There were probably plenty of occasions for him to give lip service, but even if he was asking for her help, he wasn’t saying anything he wouldn’t stand behind.
“Thank you for telling me. There’s a lot of darkness on my world. If you’re going to help me, I’ll do my best to see that you aren’t subjected to any of it.”
For a moment, he was quiet. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence; he just looked across the water and seemed to appreciate how much life there was.
In the briefness of it all, there was a subtle reminder that Devyn was old. He didn’t look it. Didn’t act it, most of the time. But, he was the remnant of a lost world, and for as much as he could pretend to be human, to be normal, he wasn’t.
Not by Earth standards.
So many things were still strange to him here, and it felt like he was playing a part to get by.
He missed home. He missed his world. He missed the way things used to be.
He didn’t ask people to understand him. He loved stories, loved talking about all of the beautiful things in his life.
He had a thousand years of life; they weren’t all golden. There were plenty of memories still swimming in a sea of forgottenness, waiting to be plucked out. He ignored them, for the most part.
There were some memories he couldn’t shake.
When he looked back at Brielle, it was with something that looked like admiration. “It takes a lot of strength to push through that sort of thing, I think. Just be careful you don’t wear yourself too thin. Sometimes it creeps up on you. No matter how strong you are, or how good you are at fighting. Do you have people you can rely on when you need a little extra support?”
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Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2022 12:48 pm
"I don't know about strong," said Cybele, following his gaze out towards the water. It was easier to rest her eyes there, where the sunlight shone silver on the ripples. When she'd lost everything and been trying to piece together who she was just by listening to the stories people had about her, they'd described her like she was some kind of hero. She'd held on to that when she'd made the decision to purify, and even now it was a goal to get back to that point. She just wasn't sure that she ever would. Even in the short time she could remember, she'd made so many mistakes. She'd fallen so many times. "I always get back up. That's all," she said out loud. "I haven't died any of the times I should have, but I suppose you know something about that." He was old. She knew that. It was part of what had made him feel so foreign at first, when Cybele felt so awkwardly young. Now, as they watched the water together, shielding each other from the demons in their eyes, she realized that maybe they had more in common than she'd thought. "I have a lot of people who care about me," she said. "Friends, family, partners. That's something I have been lucky in. It helps to keep the war from consuming me." Her lips twisted, and she still didn't look back at him. "At least, sometimes. I know I need therapy, but I also know that's a pipe dream given the circumstances."
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 10:51 pm
There was a twitch in Devyn’s lip that he felt and was glad she couldn’t see.
He was good at hiding his emotions. He had been, from a young age. You didn’t get to be a representative of Alastor and wear your heart on your sleeve. Someone would have stabbed it at the first chance they got.
He knew about saying what people wanted to hear, about showing them what they wanted to see. He knew how to play politics. To a point.
He’d learned plenty of skills throughout his life, but he was imperfect. He’d been whole once, but the cracks started spreading the day Percy died, and it was willpower and duty that held him together.
He’d done much of it alone. He didn’t have a lot of people who cared about him, but he had some. Enough.
Not all of them were here anymore, but he carried them in his heart.
He carried them in his memories.
It had gotten him through all those years alone.
“I know a thing or two about outliving death.” He wasn’t bragging, it was just a fact. “One day we’ll have to compare scars. On Alastor, they’re badges of strength. It means you met a worthy opponent and still came out on top. I think that’s strong. Every time you get up again takes more strength than the last. And yet, you’re here. You always get back up.”
He shrugged and put a bit more weight into his elbow as he looked across the lake. The scattering lights brought a peace he couldn’t quite explain. Percy would have liked the scene. He probably would have painted it if he were here.
“I’m sure there’s someone out there you can talk to. There’s all sorts of therapy, isn’t there? Senshi come from all walks of life. I’m sure someone must have figured it out by now. Maybe it’s just a matter of finding them.”
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2022 6:11 pm
"Do you want to see?" Brielle's tone was very casual for someone who had spent the better part of an hour fussing over her appearance before she came out here so that she could pass as normal. Her movements were causal, too, as she slipped two fingers into the back of her flat and peeled it free, lifting her foot up, off to the side of the table, so that Devyn could see. Burn scars were some of the nastiest, and hers were no exception. The skin on her soles was raised and knotted despite Lysithea's best efforts. She was missing the smallest two toes. When Brielle looked back over to Devyn, it was with a small smile. She didn't seem embarrassed. Around him, she didn't have to pass as normal. She could be normal, no matter what her feet were like, or what her heart was like. "I have more but I don't remember the stories to most of those," she said with a hint of a shrug, rubbing at her shoulder where the claw marks peeked out of her blouse. "So that's not as interesting."
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 11:28 pm
Alastor immediately leaned over to see when the offer was presented, like he couldn’t help himself. He couldn't just go around and ask to hear about someone’s scars, they were different for everyone. He hadn’t asked Michael about his. Peter had told him enough, and Claire could be badgered for information, but Devyn had never wanted to push Michael into any uncomfortable conversation.
He didn’t seem the least bit disgusted, only impressed. “I can’t imagine having to sit still and let that heal.” He sat back up but his eyes found their way to the scars on her shoulder. “You could always make up your own stories. Truth be told,” he paused and rolled up his sleeves.
Pale scars appeared and disappeared against his skin. Most of them looked like wounds he might have gotten from something sharp, but some of them were less obvious. “I don’t remember where I got most of these. Oh, but I remember this one.” He ran his thumb over a small scar on his right arm. “A true badge of bravery. One of the first scars I ever got as a Senshi.”
His attention lingered on it briefly before his gaze darted up to her eyes.
“I fell out of a tree.”
The corner of his lip twitched into a smile, like this alone might have been amusing, but as he rested his elbow on the table, his eyes wandered back to the tangle of old wounds. A pale scar stretched from the palm of his hand, over his wrist and up his arm a bit.
He didn’t say it, but he remembered this one, too. With fondness enough that he couldn’t see it and not brush his thumb over the length of it. His expression had softened. He let himself be distracted for a few seconds before he said, “The impressive ones require a bit of stripping. I think that’s less acceptable on Earth than it might have been on Alastor. I’ve got a good one on my chest.”
He sat up again and tugged at the collar of his shirt a bit to reveal the start of an old, but much more pronounced scar that seemed to start at a shoulder and slope downwards and across his chest. “This one could have killed me, but Perce patched me up. I think I packed it with mud while I was on the move. He wasn’t really impressed with my first aid skills, but I never made it easy for him to fix me up. I’d have had more scars if he didn’t take such good care of me.”
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Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:37 pm
"Ah, I always knew there was a reason I didn't climb trees," said Brielle with a relaxed, half-joking smile, as she surveyed the small scar with interest. "Dangerous things." She wasn't completely sure what the reason was that she couldn't climb anything more than a few feet before her breath started to catch. Some of the scars she couldn't remember went a bit deeper than the skin. Her gaze followed his to his hand, and forearm. She had some suspicions about it, given the matching Transcendence marks that both Ganymede and Valhalla had on their own palms, but she wasn't going to ask. Things had finally stopped being awkward. She didn't want to ruin all that with too much prying. His chest, on the other hand, she was happy to stare at. Her eyes went wide. She knew they were comparing scars, but she hadn't been expecting that. "How did you survive?" she asked, clear awe in her voice. "You say patched up as if he handed you a band-aid, but- was he a healer or something? Mud?" It didn't matter what had happened to her feet. She'd never be able to top that. "Oh, that does remind me, though," she said, and brushed her hair aside as she turned, revealing a deeper line on her shoulderblade, "I remember this one. I got stabbed in the back, for the treason." She gave a small laugh at that fault. "Not that I think it should even count as treason when I didn't want to be in the Negaverse in the first place, but. No. They still stabbed me."
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:15 am
“Understandably frustrated to lose you, no doubt,” Devyn said, observing the marks with visible admiration. It was a good scar, and he imagined it must have been difficult to manage. It was certainly something to be proud of. “I never liked showing my back to anyone, that’s what it’ll get you on Alastor. Well,” he shrugged, a little dismissive, “Maybe not so much these days. But for as much pride as we take in our matches, there are those that can’t help but play dirty. Backstabbing, poison. When you can’t win fairly, sometimes they get desperate.”
Distasteful, obviously. Devyn seemed unimpressed by the tactics.
He rubbed the scar across his chest once more before fixing his shirt again. “I’ve got a few of my own, but that was my fault. I got sloppy. I survived this one, and those, the same way I survived everything else. I just never learned how to die.”
He flashed a rueful smile, but it shifted into something pleasant and fond before too long. “I’m a little stubborn. And Perce always knew how to fix me up. He was a healer, yeah. I don’t really have a good record of being kind to myself, I just keep pushing on. I’m a fast healer, most of the time, but I sort of had to be. Perce made sure I didn’t spend all my energy on putting myself back together, though. He could work miracles. I learned enough first aid to keep myself alive, I mean. You pack something with enough mud and the blood can’t get out.” He shrugged. “I’m good at sewing fabric, not skin. And it never really hurt when Percy did it. Or, maybe I was just too distracted by how wonderful he was to think about the pain. It was pretty easy to get lost in his eyes,” he hummed.
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