Welcome to Gaia! ::

In a mostly empty housing development, Hybris stood in front of a mirror and stripped down to the bare, magical, minimum. For him, thankfully, this meant a black long-sleeved shirt and tight black pants. While he'd been taking precautions to not visit the same place in the pat couple weeks, Destiny City had only so many clubs and parties to visit. Eventually he's have to go back to these places, and it'd be better to be slightly less memorable in the long term.

With a dramatic sigh he touched his face, bemoaning that this was much too memorable. But at least it made for effective bait. Glancing at his hands, Hybris thought they looked a little empty, so he pulled a couple heavy rings from his space and slipped them on. After rolling up his sleeves to the elbow, he decided on a few bracelets as well. Soon he was pulling out a couple different styles of hair tie.

A half hour later and Hybris was finally stepping through the mirror and into the cold, thick-as-water air of the between space. It didn't take long for him to hear the distant thumping of music, the muted, indecipherable voices. When he stepped out, it was into a large darkened coat closet, with another pair of occupants far too occupied to notice him until the door was opened and he slipped out into the club.

It'd been a few months since he'd visited and it was the first time as Hybris. As always, his eyes immediately went to pick out the more familiar faces among both guests and staff. The sense of I know you but you can't recognize me was still fun and heady. An unearned sort of power, full of secret mischief.

Working along the perimeter was a grocery store shopping strategy, once explained to Malory by an ex with a particularly endearing thing for domestic activities. Even when both of them were just seventeen and living in the dormitories of the bad school. And here Hybris was doing somewhat the same, skirting along the edge of the dancefloor, avoiding the temptation of that central press of bodies.

Wraiths were fragile, especially when he let them feed too quickly on too many people. He also got distracted so much easier, lost track of them until a body was sliding to the floor. It was better to take it slower for now. So it was along the periphery that he danced and entangled, that the shadowy wraths slipped once, sometimes twice through bodies that grew a little a sluggish but were nonetheless able to make their way to take a seat. To get their breath back, and lose track of the boy in black they'd just been with. Here and there the edges of the dancefloor would be peppered by a brief, bright flash as the wraith became full and visible in all its fragmented strangeness, before disappearing, only to be replaced by another wisp of shadow.

The mild bit of phenomena gradually made its way toward Alexis, because Hybris had noticed that particular face right off. The bouncer had always been a piece of curiosity to him, not looking at all like the bouncers Mal was familiar with, but absolutely looking like someone who was...effective, nonetheless. A little dangerous in a way that was intriguing, even if Mal's sense of self-preservation always said, Maybe not that one.

But now....well. He's Hybris. Stronger, faster, and basically anonymous. Wouldn't it be a waste not to have a little fun?

By the time he got close to Alexis, Hybris felt his little mirror friends had been properly walked and fed for the evening, and the last partner was staggering off to go wash their face in the bathroom. Just dizzy, that was fun. I'll find you later... Watching the other's back for a moment, he turned and moved closer to the bouncer, close enough to be heard over the music.

With a lost expression, he asked, "Hi, could you help me? It's my first time here..."

Leaning a little closer, Hybris gave a helpless little smile, "I'm a little dizzy, could you show me somewhere quieter to stay for little bit. Just to sit and catch my breath." His fingers pinched lightly at Alexis's shirt, the barest of needy tugs.

A thousand years ago, Hybris was a boy raised in a tower, with hardly any company other than books and the stone monsters that guarded his prison. Whenever he was outside, it was always with a certain wide-eyed innocence. Amongst wreckage, bloodshed, and utter debauchery - no matter the setting, he always seemed very new and just happy to be here.

And now, his reincarnation feigned similar innocence, with some skill but not nearly enough. Just another strange and tainted echo.

Led along with a firm but rather kind hand, Hybris walked with his own hands obediently at his sides. When they arrived he looked around with wide-eyed relief, as if it was his first time seeing it. The way he perched comfortably at the back of the couch, his own gaze now level with the bouncers, gave hint to the lie.

"You probably hear this a lot, but you seem," Hybris looked shyly down through his eyelashes, "...a little different from the other security people. Um...a little dangerous, maybe, or smarter. Like you've seen a lot, I suppose." A flush crept up his cheeks.

In the palm of one hand, turned down and out of sight, a mirror shard appeared.

Slipping down a little further to tilt his head up at Alexis, feet sliding out to splay between theirs, Hybris admitted, "It's attractive." Which wasn't a lie because in both lives, he's always been a person who, when handed a bloody knife, would lick it. And for no better reason than it was there, it was shiny, and it was only dangerous enough of an idea to leave him with a hidden cut or two.

For the second time that night, Hybris reached out to give the bouncer's shirt a playful little tug. And Alexis would finally see a little shadow, formless but there, slip out from his other hand.

Viciously quick with a firm hand, sharp mouth, and a slight bit of indulgence was, undeniably, what Malory had hoped and speculated months before as just another civilian wandering into the club. It was satisfying and a little painful, but the pain fed back into the satisfaction. If Hybris tensed up a little here, it wasn't at all due to fear.

A hitch in his breath followed the pressure at his wrist, and then a shuddery exhale. "What sort of games do you like, then?"

He had, very honestly, forgotten about the mirror wraith. Roka would be able to notice something though. A slip of shadowy motion that didn't belong just outside their periphery. A sudden little tide of dizziness, that did not belong.

Hybris's body sunk a little under the pain and pressure at his wrist, but his smile didn't falter. Until it froze at the bouncer's order. They...knew? For a moment, completely caught out, he looked directly into their eyes, strange and expressionless.

And then, obedient.

"Okay." The response was small and a little childish in its tones. He nearly summoned up the mirror shard right away, but then paused, mindful that perhaps it would be best not to summon a shard of glass right next to the other's chest. Slowly, his fingers withdrew from their playful little hold and moved outward, until he could summon up the shard clearly within their sight, nestled in the palm of Hybris's free hand. A thin wisp of shadow slunk and slithered out of the shadows and into the waiting piece of mirror.

It was only a moment, but it felt long, and stretched, pulled by a tight grip and soft voice.

When both mirror and shade were gone, a certain delight filled his tone as he asked, "How did you know? Have you seen wraiths wandering here before? Or are you...?" A dozen hushed questions clung at his lips, falling one by one.

Order? The Negaverse? Something else? He'd heard whisper of something else's running about. Or perhaps they were as they appeared, a unique and experienced bouncer, existing in a city like DC with eyes fully open, and hands entirely ready.

"Are you sure you won't tell me the games you like?" The question was wistful more than hopeful and followed by a pitiful, sulking, "Do I need to stay away from here now?" They hadn't sounded too accusatory or upset about it, had they?

"Or are you okay with the Dark Mirror coming by?"