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[R] John the Baptist (Ransomite/Cybele/Nectaris/Husbands) Goto Page: 1 2 [>] [»|]

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Amasis

Everyday Blob

PostPosted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 8:18 am


IC chronological reading order:



‘Sticks & Stones’ was emblazoned in what Elliot knew was a luridly purple colour. Argon, if he remembered right. Zebulon had been keen to tell them that, at some point. Elliot didn’t know argon from Aragorn but it made the sign quite eye-catching at night.

It was hard to believe that it had been little-enough time that the club was still open, still populated. A frown curled Elliot’s mouth, unease slithering down his spine. What if something went wrong? What if someone attacked them here? There could be any number of agents hiding in the population–

That line of thought wasn’t helpful, and so Elliot quashed it with extreme prejudice. He would have to ignore the fluttering of unease in his stomach. He wasn’t important enough to warrant an ambush. And there wasn’t any way for anyone to know he was doing this. He had been very, oh so very, careful.

His mind went briefly to Prehnite, to Faustite, and he suppressed a shudder. The Negaverse couldn’t literally read minds. He would be fine. There was no way he was leading people into danger.

“When do we go in?” It was odd, somehow, to see the three of them and know Tobias, but not quite want to recognize Zebulon and Diryas. They had come powered, and something whispered in the back of his mind, something angry, that he could just crush them–

No, enough of that.
PostPosted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 8:19 am


Promethei had no choice but to come powered.

It was a multifaceted thing, really. For one, he didn’t want to risk being recognized by any of the people that attended their club; it would be strange to have to explain what he was up to and also explain why he didn’t have time to chat. For another, he wanted Cybele to be able to recognize him. The Mercurian symbols made both him and Imhotep standing beside him fairly obvious.

And for three, Diryas had insisted they come powered. He hadn’t even wanted to let Elliot out until the Princess was there to take them to space. They had to find a secondary location so everyone felt safer, which meant they hadn’t a choice but to move the bookcase. Which meant they hadn’t any choice but to be on guard.

Elliot stayed powered down as an acquiescence to both Promethei and Imhotep. He’d power up once they made it to space and not before.

Promethei broke out into a yawn despite himself. “Not sure if we’re going in or just using the argon sign as something like a bat signal.” By g-d he was exhausted– “If we do go in, though, I’m keeping both you and Tobias under wraps. We ain’t gonna be recognized, but y’all will be.”

It was strange to think, too, that after tonight, no matter what happened, Elliot no longer would be known by the regulars. Now, whether that be because the purification failed somehow–he was growing more confident as he learned more, but–or because he returned as a different man with a seemingly different face, Sticks & Stones would no longer know who Elliot was.

But perhaps that was okay.

This place had always been open and accepting, and of all people, they knew.

“Remember the night we met here?” Promethei snorted. “******** wild.”

Amasis
stari_maga

Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist


staripop

PostPosted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 5:16 pm


Nectaris went first, of course. She’d gotten a little bit awkward when she’d run into Cybele on the way there and they were actually staring at each other face to face for the first time in a while, but Cybele had been polite about it, and not punched her in the face again, and so it hadn’t taken her very long to perk back up. Now she was even bouncier than normal, literally skipping around. It had been five minutes since she’d found Cybele and she hadn’t stopped talking once.

There was a lot to go over, she figured, since it turned out Cybele didn’t actually know anything about what was happening other than that some dude needed purified. Nikki was trying to fill her in, babbling about Ransomite and how cool he was, and about God a little bit, and about the hot mess of a letter that she’d gotten from Promethei that had led to all of this.

The urge for Cybele to snap at her was strong.

Nectaris didn’t remember, she had to remind herself. Nectaris didn’t remember, but there was no way that Cybele could forget.

Sylvite had been a Captain back then, and Cybele an eternal, but she had been the one at heel. She had been the acquisition, the hunting dog. Sylvite had been as bright and energetic as she was now, the one with the friends, the one with the big and bold ideas. Cybele had been strong, but that was all. She was the muscle, was someone who could probably be described as a henchman.

Now she was an Order Princess, of course in her Eternal form, but still, and she was still following a few feet behind. She was still just here to be the raw power behind this girl’s plan.

Tonight was supposed to be about leaving the Negaverse, but Cybele found herself sucked back into something that she thought she’d left behind.

She walked anyway, because their history wasn’t Ransomite’s fault, but she let Nectaris fill the silence while she sank deeper into her own thoughts than she often did.

“He said husband, right?” Said Nectaris as the they approached the glowing purple sign. “You think this is some gay thing? Like, as in, for dudes?” She paused for breath, looking nervous for the first time since she’d approached Cybele. “Do you think it’ll be weird if I show up as this girl, who, like, I think I’m bi, but I’ve never actually kissed any girls before or anything?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Cybele, who had kissed a girl before but who didn’t see the appeal of any kind of nightclub. She could hear music pulsing faintly in the distance. If she had to listen for too long, she was going to get a headache. “Someone will think it’s weird that there’s so many auras around if we stay too long. We’re going to Cybele.”

She could already feel the others, and she thought she could see them now, and the presence of so many of them made the nerves spike in her chest, just for a moment.

Of course it was Nikki, running up first. Of course it was Cybele, after.

“Hey Promethei!” She was yelling out, in a flutter of pink and butterfly cape. “Hey Mercury dudes over there! I got your Princess!”

Cybele pinched the bridge of her nose.
PostPosted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 8:41 pm


Imhotep looked to the source of the yelling immediately, hiding the fact that he was somewhat taken aback by the volume and vigor by glancing at Promethei. She’d called him out by name, after all, even if she’d followed it with ‘Mercury dudes’. Imhotep’s eyes then went to Elliot, expression flat even for him. He knew better than to let his guard down. This could be a trap.

This could all be a trap. It would be too easy for Elliot to be sent in as an agent with a sob story to lure out a princess. Sure, they would be going to Cybele’s homeworld, but Imhotep wasn’t going to relax until they were there. There would be some minutes where they would be clustered together and vulnerable.

The fact that Elliot had made it to captain had not left Imhotep’s mind. They were taking him on his word that he had never stolen anyone’s starseed or killed anyone, but he’d been lying to them the whole time about being busy at church and being unable to see them beyond sparing moments every couple months. Tobias had, indeed, been afraid that Elliot was just trying to put off breaking it off with them all, but that sort of thing hadn’t seemed Elliot’s style.

Elliot hadn’t seemed the type for subterfuge.

That assessment, it seemed, had been wrong. And it was that that Imhotep was keeping in mind as he glanced back at Elliot and then back at the people approaching them. He supposed that the woman in pink was the Nectaris that had been a Negaverse general.

Then again, she had made it to general and left. And now she was, ostensibly, helping Elliot–Ransomite–leave the Negaverse. Even Imhotep’s skepticism had to admit that the chance of Nectaris helping Ransomite lure in a princess was… unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely. Not if she’d gone through all the trouble of purification, herself.

“Hello.” Imhotep inclined his head once in greeting intended for the both of them. “Imhotep,” with a gesture toward himself. He didn’t introduce Tobias but did vaguely wave in Tobias’ direction. Tobias was a civilian, with no glamour to help disguise him. So he had a hooded sweatshirt on, hood up, with just enough makeup from his drag supplies to make his contours seem unfamiliar in the streetlights to anyone walking by who might otherwise recognize him.

It had been Tobias’ idea, and a pretty good one, Imhotep had to admit.

Tobias, for his part, gave a warmer wave to Cybele and Nectaris and just as warm a smile. Releasing Elliot’s hand, he took a step toward them, but came up short when he felt Elliot re-grab his hand and tug him back. Puzzled, he looked over his shoulder to see Elliot shake his head.

“Wh–”

“This is my problem,” was the only explanation Tobias got before Elliot moved past him. Tobias frowned, this time, but left it alone. He was just glad the situation was moving toward resolution. It was almost over. Things were almost okay again.

Well.

Okay enough. He knew it would take more before Zebulon was settled, and even more before Diryas was. But this was the first step, and Tobias was glad it was happening with all of them still alive and whole.

Elliot took another couple steps forward, then stopped a cautious distance away. Cautious more for Cybele than himself. He was the Negaverse agent, after all. She was a princess, and he was a captain–powered down though he might be–but he was acutely aware of the multiple angles betrayal could come from. What if he was just bait for a trap?

“I’m Elliot. Lieu– Captain Ransomite.” A small smile Nectaris’ way, but all serious when his eyes moved to Cybele. “At least, for now.” A pause, then he rifled in his pocked to pull out a piece of paper to offer to her at arm's length. "I was going to have Promethei send this with his fancy ring ability, but I guess I can just give it to you in person."

User Image

Amasis

Everyday Blob


Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:56 am


The vim and vigor this petite moon knight possessed took Promethei by surprise, and when Imhotep looked at him he found himself glancing back. This was Nectaris? This was the woman who was his former superior? This was the one who presumably helped lead him into purification–and he gathered from their small talk once the letter had been sent off that she was, at least.

But this mobile sunshine that called him Promethei but called them both Mercury Dudes was the one who got Ransomite to inspect his life just a bit harder? In some ways, he wanted to stop and talk and get to know her better, learn about who was surrounding Elliot in these past four years when they couldn’t quite reach him, and drill into her mind a bit so if Elliot forgot who she was he could at least give some context, but … perhaps it would help that he was seeing her as a civilian now, if anything.

If Elliot forgot literally everything, it would take a lot more than remembering some people he knew for him, but Promethei barely knew anything about purification.

They’d figure it out as they went, right?

Provided Elliot meant it, provided this was successful, provided he let go of the chaos that infested his mind, they would have years to figure this one out.

He nodded his head with a, “Howdy,” when Imhotep intended to introduce them both. He was the only one of the three of the ones who called themselves Elliot’s husband who was to some degree not intenifiable by either party, so he figured there was no point in interfering with introductions. This moment was Elliot’s, anyway, as much as he wanted to ask questions. Of course, this moment was also theirs, the last one they would have together as the four of them as they knew it.

But that was already false, wasn’t it? Elliot was the same person as he always was, but he was a person with dimensions none of them even knew he was capable of. As calm as Tobias was, Zebulon was still on edge. There was a lot to be made up, and maybe to some degree he deserved that small infection that had cleared up, but that was just a small slice of the last …

Year, at minimum.

Four years. Over four thousand people. Who knew how many of those were also people who Elliot had–

Not a useful train of thought.

That paper at least explained why Elliot had asked for Promethei to finish getting the notebook that Diryas had suggested with some exasperation earlier. Looked like a notebook paper piece, and it looked like the type of paperclips Tobias used to append notes to his notes. What did he want to say to Cybele that he didn’t want to say to the trio of them?

Or a quartet of them, he supposed, with the enthusiastic Nectaris there.

“Thanks for coming out here, by the way. When I moved up here, this was the first place we all really met up at.” Promethei shrugged. “Lotsa memories here. So when you asked, I figured it was worth drilling in as the last place he’d drop by before not being Elliot anymore, ya know?”

He paused.

“That, and the argon sign is a damn beacon.”

He thought, briefly, that perhaps he should congratulate Cybele on her universe-granted coronation, but he supposed he would wait until they were comfortably on another world before he said anything.

Amasii
stari_magg
PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 4:39 am


Nectaris looked at the neon sign with a new an intense interest as Ransomite revealed himself and she recognized his face, just like that. “Well that’s cool,” she said, suddenly wanting even more to try and go inside. “You gotta tell me about it sometime.” She paused. “Or I guess, uh, maybe your husband can fill me in if you forget stuff?”

Cybele sighed internally and cut in over the babble, “Not to interrupt, but we can’t stay. There’s all ready to many of us here. We can talk more once we get somewhere safe.”

She’d talked to Promethei at least about this. She hopes the others weren’t somehow disappointed that she wasn’t going to pull out her crystal in the middle of a nostalgic dance floor.

“Here, quickly. We’re going to need to hold hands for this.”

She’d never taken this many people to her asteroid before, but supposed it would be a decent test of her power before they got to the rest.

“We’re going to have to hold hands for this,” she said, and Nikki grabbed hers far too enthusiastically, holding to other out for Elliot.

staripop


Amasis

Everyday Blob

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:04 am


Ah yes, the forgetting things. It was something that had been lurking in the back of Elliot’s mind the whole time. He knew he was going to forget something. Maybe everything. It was why he’d come to say goodbye in the first place. He thought the other three deserved that much if he was going to forget they even ever existed.

Ignoring the feeling of a fist clenched around his heart took a bit more focus than Elliot would have liked to admit to.

’Maybe they’d rather forget I existed anyway.’ He looked toward Imhotep and Promethei, his heart sinking when Imhotep returned it with a dispassionate stare. Nectaris reaching out for his hand derailed his train of thought, and he took her hand gladly. His other hand hovered at his waist-level, however, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

Tobias made that decision for him, reaching out and grabbing Elliot’s hand, intertwining their fingers together and offering him a reassuring smile. He could see out of the corner of his eye the way Imhotep’s mouth tugged into a slight frown, but he paid it no mind. The other two would come around once Elliot was purified. They would have to.

Was Tobias hurt? Yes, of course. Was he angry? Yes! But there was no point in dwelling on it now. He could be angry at Elliot later. He would be angry at Elliot later. But the key word was ‘later’. After Elliot was no longer part of the Negaverse.

Afterwards, he could sit all of them down. Elliot was not the only person he was angry with. But he didn’t have fancy powers like the others did, and he knew it. There wasn’t anything he could do beyond appeal to their emotion, no matter how much it frustrated him. So he would have to appeal to their emotion until Elliot was free, and then they could all sit down and have a ******** chat without any ******** knives or threats.

His look to Imhotep was pointed as he held out his hand.

Imhotep just sighed internally and took Tobias’ hand. He didn’t like Tobias that close to Elliot, didn’t like the potential of Tobias being used as a hostage should Elliot turn on them all after all. But there was a princess here, now, and a knight. Surely between the two of them and himself and Promethei, they could protect Tobias from Elliot.

He didn’t know how Tobias could be this sure that Elliot was trustworthy. After how much he had lied? After what he had done to so many people? Why did Tobias trust him? Why did Tobias even still want him around?

They could discuss it later. For now, they had to address the fact of Elliot’s status as the enemy. He held his own hand out toward Promethei. Time to get it over with. He agreed with Cybele that they needed to get a move on as soon as possible. Before someone came snooping.
PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:49 am


Where Imhotep looked dispassionate, Promethei looked to him and through him. He wasn’t boiling quite as severely as he was earlier when he had first learned that the man he swore he would kill when he saw him again was actually Abbán Elliot Isaac Donoghue of all ******** people. To say that the anger had vanished, though, would be a farce.

It was different now, punctured by what he had learned and what they had talked about, while at the same time gaining new dimensions and new faces and new multitudes–a multitude of a number he had trouble wrapping his mind exactly around, for one. But this wasn’t the place to discuss these things like Cybele had said.

There were too many of them in one place. It was part of why he had insisted that Elliot stay unpowered; an eternal, a knight, and two pages were probably bad enough, but if they added a captain, he was confident that all that would do would be attract Negaverse attention. And if they knew who was there surrounding Elliot, that would probably just mean that they would all suffer for it.

Ransomite wouldn’t die because he failed to purify, he would die because the Negaverse interfered before he even could.

Promethei glanced away from Elliot to Tobias, and saw the gaze he exchanged with Imhotep in specific. … Promethei was not looking forward to that inevitable argument brewing.

He glanced down to Imhotep, offering him a lop-sided smile as he took his hand and entwined their fingers, squeezing his hand supportively. For now, this would have to be enough. For now, they would need to trust everything, and trust that if everything went south, that they could handle it.

Presuming he’d need to complete the circle, he reached out to take Cybele’s hand.

“Let’s get to it, then.”

Amasii
stari_magg

Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist


staripop

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 1:59 pm


In the moments before Promethei completed their circle, Cybele called her phone to her hand. As soon as they were all in physical contact, two things happened at once.

First, Cybele’s aura became almost unbearably bright as she shifted into her new power. The wings unfurled, her hair looses from its bonds, her sleeves and skirt lengthened until it was undeniable that she was anything but a Princess.

As she shifted, so did the world around them. The pulsing music in the background silenced. The purple of the neon sign was replaced by a softer, twilit violet as they found themselves in the deep forests of the asteroid Cybele at dusk. Fireflies buzzed around them. The forest floor was a carpet of soft mosses and tiny purple flowers, and the trees were silver-barked.

Nectaris was distracted enough by staring at the pretty things that Cybele could get a word in edgewise, but she never let go of Elliot’s hand. The others were being weird to him. She could tell from the awkward sideways glances and stuff, but she wasn’t gonna be like that.

She was gonna be here, unapologetically, for her friend who was finally making the right choice.

“There. We’re safe,” said Cybele, feeling a strange, unfamiliar sense of warmth now that she was here in the presence of her world.

She finally looked down at the note in her hand, and it got a smile out of her. “And you’re welcome,” she said. “Although to be honest I could only read about two words of that letter.”

That was why she had turned to the phone call.

“Anyway, we have enough time here that you can talk, if you’d like. Take care of whatever you need to. Start with some introductions, perhaps?” Her tone was bright, and as long as she could push aside the thoughts about Sylvite, she seemed in a decent mood. She smiled.

“Or if you have questions. I don’t know how much you know,” and Nectaris looked very pointedly away, “but I’ve been through this myself. “It’s intense but it’s not something to be frightened of.”
PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 8:34 pm


Elliot stifled the urge to reply with a dry, if stressed, 'frightened? Why would I be frightened?' and looked around the area they found themselves in. It was beautiful! The trees around him were incredibly comforting, quieting the back of his mind for the first time in longer than he had realised. Comforting in the way the silence of the sanctuary had often been for him.

"I don't know that much about the process. I know it comes with memory loss." He didn't look at the other three, his tone deceptively light. "So I wrote down who people were, just in case I forgot them." Just in case I forgot you. He had no expectations about what memories he'd keep and which he'd lose. Well, that wasn't quite true...

--Sitting by lamplight in his room at the rectory, ballpoint pen scratching against the paper of an leatherbound journal. Names listed in smudged ink, short descriptions after in script shakier in some places than others. People he knew, people he cared about. People he expected to forget after this.

He would go see them. Go say goodbye. If there was a just God, he would forget them after this. And, in time, they would forget him, if they hadn't already. It had been a while since the last text to his phone. He assumed they had given up.

He couldn't blame them. He would have.

Maybe his disappearance would be final enough to give them closure if they needed it. He had a letter already prepared for Sister Gail. He didn't know what the other priests and the bishop would tell people. But he told her not to worry about him. He would be okay. She would assume he had run off to pursue true happiness, or something of the sort. He would slip the letter under her door before he left to the others' house.

His car was already packed with the belongings he cared to take with him. He wasn't sure how transferring the title would work after he purified out. Maybe it didn't, and he would just abandon the car somewhere for the police to try and track down the no-longer-existent owner
--

He wondered, briefly, what his parents would think. What they would tell his half-siblings. Maybe, if he remembered that he cared, he could track down his biological father, who knew? 'Stephen Michael Hollenbach' couldn't be that common of a name.

A name. That had taken him a while to figure out. He knew he'd need a new one, and he wasn't sure if he could pick it, but he wanted to be ready if he could. He had never met his biological father, but it would be better than the surname he already had, one that belonged to a man who regarded him with indifference at best and contempt at worst. But even 'Hollenbach' didn't feel quite right. So he'd thought more, thought about taking his mother's maiden name, but had rejected that nearly as soon as the thought occurred to him. He was an embarrassment to her. A reminder of her "ill-spent youth".

So on the front inside cover of the journal currently stashed in the car sitting in a driveway he might not ever pull into again was the name 'Teegan Isaac Hollenbeck'. Beck was Sister Gail's last name. Even when he forgot who she was, he didn't want to lose all tie to her and how much she had meant to him.

"But I'm glad to hear that I shouldn't be scared." And he meant that, even if his heart in his throat said otherwise. There was a movement out of the corner of his eye and he realised that Imhotep had powered down, leaving Diryas there instead.

"I gave my knight name, Imhotep of Mercury. Otherwise, I'm Diryas. He is Tobias." Tobias rolled his eyes.

"I can introduce myself." His tone was gentle, but exasperated all the same. "We're longtime ...companions of Elliot's." Diryas glanced up at him with one eyebrow faintly raised at the hesitation before 'companions', but Tobias refused to look at him. Diryas knew what Tobias was doing. Diryas knew that Tobias knew that Elliot's status with Zebulon and Diryas was shaky to say the least. But Tobias was establishing them as still being a cohesive unit.

There was more talking to be had later, apparently. Diryas needed Tobias to know that no amount of stubbornness on his part was going to make Diryas and Zebulon forgive Elliot before they were ready, and that there was a very real chance they never would. They were helping effectively save his life, and there was still a part of Diryas that thought it was more than Elliot deserved.

Maybe Elliot would forget them all and make Diryas' life easier--

Amasis

Everyday Blob


Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 9:23 pm


To hear the memory loss acknowledged was a strange thing to consider. They'd figure it out, right?

Could they figure it out? Elliot felt the need to write down their names. Did he even want to? Elliot had done more than just ghost them. He violated their trust. But did he want to consider what happened before as nothing?

It was a strange thing to consider. It left a gulf in front of him, and potentially an empty one behind him. He had built up a substantial history with all three of them, but there was something special about his connection to Elliot. There was something special about his connection with Diryas and with Tobias, too--Diryas he moved across the country for without a guarantee of what would come, only their platonic commonalities, and for Tobias, he went to bat for him over and over, starting with the moment he knew something was wrong with Jason.

"I knew I liked you."

"Ha, really? What'd I do, Abby?"

"Must you call me that?"

"Sure, Ellie--"

"Okay, anyway -- you don't like that guy either right? Laid right into him."

"I said what I said and I meant every word of it. Tobias looks more bruised than he should."

"Agreed."


But there was a reason why he had the thought that even now, they shared a brain cell. Even now, with all that happened between them, with the gulf between them where one had thought it acceptable to drain the other, with the gulf where Elliot had stopped replying to even his silly memes and his stupid little short-form videos, with the yawning divide where he didn't know who had gone under the sheets with Elliot...

Even now. Would he remember that at all, or would it be lost to chaos, too, just like his energy had been? Lost to chaos, like Ransomite had been for over four ******** found himself looking up at the trees as Tobias clarified what they were. It was easier to focus on the beauty of nature around him than the concept that he might have a whole bunch of memories with a man who not only had done all of those things to him, and to them, and to over four thousand others, skimming as it mostly was...

But memories of a man who had been his best friend, who might not know who he was at all.

Promethei, now Zebulon, bit down hard on the inside of his lip.

"Professor Castaneda if you go to DCU. Otherwise, just Zeb is fine." Zeb stood there, looking like he hadn't slept in weeks, his eyes glistening in a way he wouldn't admit to or confess to even if he was called out on it. It was a strange concept, an odd conceit. He hated Elliot.

He loved Elliot, too, and wasn't wanting to kill him as much as he wanted to kiss him just being in love? But where did that love lie? Where did that relationship lie? And where would it lie once this was done? Did a conversation and attempt to rebuild in the most pathetic way it could occur through a bathroom door not even matter?

Elliot's voice was oddly light.

He swallowed it down.

"What kind of things will he forget?" asked Zebulon, not quite looking at any of them. "Is it random, or is it formulaic? Can I write a scientific equation to come to an answer as to-- mm, anyway.

"Y'all get what I mean. He wrote down those he wished to remember, but what could we potentially remember for him, too? We've ... been tied with him for twelve years, about."

He glanced at Elliot for only a moment. It was directed to him more than he'd admit.

"Also, Princess, was there when you ... got your coronation? Don't get how senshi work, really, but congrats. Sincerely. Negaverse deserves to lose everything they ******** have and then some."

Hopefully, tonight, it'd be Elliot, too.

Elliot.

Not right.

"And Ellie," he shifted his weight. Did it even matter? Did it, with the anger still between them, with him not quite ready to forgive--he had come back and Zebulon had already been gone--but more confident that at least they would be saying goodbye to Ransomite that night, the one who he had truly wanted to murder, "what should I call you?"

And would it even ******** matter, in the end, if the cleanest end to it was what came?

Amasii
stari_magg
PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 9:06 pm


There was stuff that Nectaris could have said that might have scared Ransomite, stuff about how purification hurt, about all the stuff that your forgot, about how you couldn't go back to your old life, not at all. He might be okay on that last one, though.

It looked like people from his old life were with him, by his side, right now, Nectaris noticed. She also noticed that not all of them were happy, but between that and whatever he'd written down, he was in so much better shape right now than she'd been back when she'd ended up leaving the Negaverse in a single, reckless, night.

"Yeah, nothing to be worried about. It'll be good. You'll be free, and then we can- oh!" Her face like up all over again. "Make flower crowns."

He seemed like a good person to make flower crowns with. He was patient enough, and also it would look really cute in the end on his curly hair.

Cybele turned to Promethei, still trying to understand whatever wasn't being said about the relationships between these four.

It wasn't worth dwelling on.

"I don't think there's a scientific way to measure what you forget," she told Promethei while Nectaris stood near Ransomite. At least, there wasn't going to be one without corrupting people, or even purifying them, just to see what the effects on memory would be.

That would be awful.

"But if he's calm, and willing, it shouldn't be as bad. Anything he forgets and hasn't written down you might have to describe to him."

Still, he was so much better prepared for this than Cybele had been when she'd run off to the woods and gone straight from there to seek out purification with Ganymede.

staripop


Amasis

Everyday Blob

PostPosted: Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:40 pm


Elliot had had a lot of time to think about this, to plan for it. All the time Nectaris had spent trying to convince him to follow her out had not been for naught. He didn't know what he'd forget, but he knew it'd be something. A lot of somethings, and what he wanted and what he hoped for wouldn't ultimately matter. It was up to chance. God. The universe. Something. Something that wasn't him.

"Teegan. I think it's going to be Teegan," was his answer to Zebulon.

He wondered what it would feel like to have his life be up to something, someone that was him. The more he learned about things, the more he realized that no one awoke from the very beginning as an agent, that there was always something before. How else did agents purify into knights? How else did knights corrupt into agents? It was something that had kept him up a few nights, the wondering who he would have been if he hadn't met Zircon.

Well, he'd get to find out now, wouldn't he?

"I'm calm so far," he offered with a quiet chuckle. He felt someone's fingers intertwine with his and looked over--and up--to see Tobias there. Tobias gave his hand a gentle squeeze, the look in his eyes just as soft.

"It'll be okay. You've got three husbands right here." The way he said it brooked no argument, and Tobias was gratified that Diryas didn't immediately raise an objection. Instead, he caught Diryas look at him from the corner of his eye, noticed Diryas stare at Elliot for a long moment, and then sigh quietly and look to Zebulon.

Tobias also looked to Zebulon, his mouth a gentle smile, but the expression in his eyes less soft than before. It was only a moment before Diryas interrupted to ask, "so how do you want us to begin?"
PostPosted: Wed Jul 05, 2023 4:01 am


So there was no way to tell.

He'd just forget. He'd forget things that they might need to tell him or give him context for. While he nodded in acknowledgment, his mind was spinning. If he had forgotten them, would he even listen to their stories? Would they matter, or would they just be meaningless names in a book? Did he care? He wished he didn't care. He wished he cared more.

Was all of this a fluke? Could they even end up here again, or was it simply the circumstances they had met? Were the circumstances a lie? They didn't expect Elliot to return, considering he had ghosted, but the way he returned? As a member of the Negaverse?

He needed to calm down, but it was hard to among the sleep deprivation and the reality of everything.

She said it shouldn't be so bad if he was calm, and Zebulon wondered how Elliot could be calm with the pressure around them in the atmosphere, even as the trees encouraged him to breathe.

His gaze slid to Elliot.

Teegan.

He rolled over the name in his brain and tried it out on his tongue under his breath. Teegan. It would take a while to get used to the change, but... provided that everything else was something they could surmount, a name difference was nothing. A name difference was separate from a betrayal, from the way he had his energy drained, from the way he had no idea how many people Elliot had been with the interim, from the way he was literally aligned with the Negaverse, with the way he couldn't tell if their connection could even be restored.

He straightened his back and glanced to Elliot Teegan.

"Teegan? Suits you. I'm gonna go with Teeg." Nicknames were oft non-negotiable.

Elliot Teegan seemed surprisingly calm, confirming that. Perhaps it was Tobias. Tobias was holding his hand, squeezing it, and declaring them husbands loud and clear. Diryas didn't argue, but he could tell by the quiet sigh and the way he looked at him that he had thoughts on the matter. Zebulon did, too, and perhaps they made it into his eyes as he glanced back toward Tobias.

Probably a better support system than the standard.

But considering they had both tried to kill him less than twelve hours ago-- Considering he felt justified in that-- Considering only a few things about the situation made him waver, but even then--

Zebulon needed a nap and a drink. Maybe a trip back home.

"Should we power back up?"

Amasis
stari_maga

Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist


staripop

PostPosted: Wed Jul 05, 2023 9:02 am


A single word had both women snapping their heads around to look at Tobias, almost in unison.

Husbands.

That was kinda the dream, thought Nectaris. Only, she couldn't really start talking about it without making things all about her, without bringing up how things had gone sour with Albite, and how she'd wanted to have two or more boyfriends but she'd only ended up with like half of one.

A half-boyfriend who didn't hate her, and who was hopefully getting out of the Negaverse, but still.

"See, they love you!" was all she said to Elliot, but she was crossing her fingers and wishing and wishing that he'd remember enough that later he could tell her how to get three husbands of her own.

Cybele actually as the one who had a bit less restraint at that moment. "Husbands?" she murmured, and her face lit up, in a way that was more honest than the polite smile that she'd been wearing. She could tell that there was some tension there, and she knew that this was something of a serious situation, even beyond that, but she smiled all the same.

And, once that word was out of her mouth, she had to clarify, "I'm sorry, I just haven't met anyone else who has multiple partners the way I do. Anyway."

She blinked, adjusted her posture, and summoned her crystal to her hand, trying to look official again.

She glanced at Elliot. "Only you would have to power up. I can do it now, if you're ready."
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♥ In the Name of the Moon! ♥

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