Prompt 14
Radio Waves (14) : In the ever-expanding metropolis of Destiny City, there’s always a need for more cell towers. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem, except since the last batch went live, some people have been reporting an increase in weird messages to their phones. Strange, nonsensical texts, or voicemails, or even a few shadowy video calls have been reported, but the evidence never lasts. Almost immediately after receiving the message, it disappears. Prank calls–sure. But the weird thing is that some people have been reporting getting weird messages without their phone, like they’re being transmitted directly into their brain. The messages are always in another language and it always feels like someone is yelling at you. If it’s a practical joke, it’s a good one.
Ellian was a huge proponent of ‘do what you want.’
Typically, even at the expense of ‘do what you should.’ The mindset had never really hampered him. It made him happy, and for the most part seemed to only mildly inconvenience others, rather than actually harm them. Which felt like a fair price to pay. He could handle being snapped at for not doing what he said he’d do or not being where he ought to be. That had been working out over the past year or so, when he should be staying in his dorm room… But he hadn’t been, and there’d been relatively minimal trouble because of it. He was pretty sure no one even noticed that he wasn’t in most nights- probably because there must be hundreds of students to look after. No one would miss one.
However… his absence was significantly more notable when he was staying with his parents over the summer. Ellian was an adult with his own means of transportation and his own life and friends and things he wanted to do- and as far as parents went, his were more on the lenient side. They trusted him, like they’d trusted his big brother, and expected that giving him freedom meant that he’d feel comfortable turning to them when he got in over his head.
It was still a little of a sore point that he might be out all night with no communication home, but Ellian wasn’t arsed about it. He was usually just with Gideon, at the older guy’s apartment. Completely safe. He was only sometimes out doing Negaverse work.
Which was slightly less safe- but nothing he hadn’t been able to handle, yet!
And he tried to be in and out before anyone noticed. He’d wait until ten or eleven or so, when both his parents were fully winding down, if not already asleep, and Ellian would slip out his window. He wouldn’t take his car, just in case someone happened to look outside and see it missing. Diesel could get around without much hassle, anyway, even if it was just going to Gid’s place. He’d spend most of the night with his boyfriend or just a couple hours draining, and pop back home by four or five in the morning, before most people got up.
Quote:
text me when you get home
Came the most recent ping to his phone from Gideon. Sweet guy. Just wanted to make sure he was alright. It was the weird amalgamation of symbols and letters that appeared immediately following Gid’s message that made Ellian send back a-
Quote:
????????
Like- things of that nature were always a little disconcerting, weren’t they? It could definitely be someone who’d hijacked Gideon’s phone just then and was using it to do the same to Ellie’s. Or a part of him wondered if Gideon had just had a seizure (seemed possible with his spinal injury?) and this was the only thing he was able to communicate, and maybe Ellian should head back real quick just to make sure… Or he could wait just a minute and see if Gid texted again. That was probably more reasonable, so he stuck to his original plan of getting back home.
He definitely thought he was being stealthy by using the window and that it would pose absolutely no points of contention in his story-
“Shiiiiiiit-” The word slipped out of him on a hiss of breath as Ellian righted himself in his bedroom, dark eyes adjusting to the dimness of inside, rather than the almost-bright-by-comparison moonlit sky of a few seconds prior. He’d caught movement from the corner of his eye and expected Gremlin-
“Thought I was someone else?”
His father was sitting at his desk, just lounging in the dark like a ******** weirdo, obviously waiting for Ellian to show up. And that stupid message had given him just a dose of adrenaline for no ******** reason. But it was just his dad, and that was barely a reason to be concerned. Not like if his mom was up waiting for him, or anything. “Well, I thought you were the cat for a moment, and it just surprised me that you weren’t.”
Ambrose flicked on the desk lamp behind him. No reason to be sitting in the dark now. And his tone was conversational when he spoke. “Real weird to be going in and out through the window. That’s, like- shady s**t.”
And yeah, okay, Ellian guessed it kind of was. “Didn’t wanna wake anyone up with the door opening and closing?” He offered uncertainly. “And I just wanted to grab a cheeseburger from McDonald’s before they only started serving breakfast. Wasn’t worth waking anyone up over.”
“No wonder it took six hours. You left the car.”
“Just…” He was flicking through his options now. It wasn’t like he’d expected to be confronted or anything, and he frankly wasn’t sure where this was even going. If his dad was mad (he rarely was), he was doing a good job of concealing it. “Figured I’d make a jog out of it? Haven’t had as much sports training since high school, so I don’t do it as often, anymore. Nat always goes super early. Thought I’d try it out?”
Ambrose snorted and folded his arms. “Honestly doesn’t look- or smell- like you put too much into it today. Must’ve been the most leisurely summer jog ever.” And then it was time to cut the crap. “Where were you. Why’s it worth lying about?”
He… didn’t know why it felt worth lying about, besides the fact that he was being ambushed over it, and that did, admittedly, make Ellian a little defensive. But he wasn’t actually doing anything wrong, besides just not being at the house when his parents thought he was there, so… “I was at Gideon’s place.”
“Buddy, you sure you wanna be spending so much time with that guy? And hiding it? He must be some kind of lowlife, if he’s hanging out with a teenager, instead of people his own age…” Because it was strange to be secretive of it, right? If nothing unscrupulous was going on? Ambrose wasn’t an idiot who couldn’t see that they were obviously boning, and he didn’t inherently have a problem with that, besides the suspicious sneaking around.
A lowlife? Ellian snorted like he thought his dad was joking. Gideon had been in this house when he was a kid. Supposed to be one of Nat’s good friends, and Ellie and Gid were only like five years apart, anyway; it wasn’t even, like, a noticeable amount. …But Ambrose and Mikali knew Gideon, to some extent, knew the sorts of things he’d gone through however many years ago, and Ellian was getting the sense his father (or his mother, more accurately, and Ambrose just happened to be the messenger boy) wasn’t that impressed with the redhead as a person…
“Well, I wouldn’t be hanging around him, if I didn’t like what he was doin.’”
And yeah, the old man’s expression seemed to say in no uncertain terms that that’s exactly what he’d been afraid of. Ellian was young and kind of stupid, though his parents wouldn’t say as much to him. It could be easy to manipulate and deceive him so long as he was getting enough attention out of the deal, and Ambrose did have concerns that this guy could very well be lavishing his idiot son in praise and compliments and jealously hoarding his affections to keep him from people his own age- and his classes, probably. It just seemed like it would take very little convincing for Ellian to skip out on a school day or two or a week… And since Ellian was an adult in college, no one would bother to say anything about it…
“We just want you to-”
“Oh, yeah. We,” Ellian snorted, as he struggled to imagine this had been his father’s plan.
“We, your mom and me,” Ambrose iterated.
“Mostly, mom, probably…”
“Can you just try and make sure you’re doing what’s best for you in a more long-term sense, rather than a short-term one? This guy sounds like the type who’s not going to be around forever, y’know?” Because Ellian was pretty fickle, and he’d find someone more engaging, and then probably someone else after that, and he had his whole life to figure out who was worth settling down for. “Prolly after whatever cute teen a** is just popping off to college, and there’ll be a new model available next year because men are truly disgusting like that.”
“Dad.”
“And if you were my daughter, I’d probably wanna ring his neck.”
“It sounds like you wanna ring his neck now.”
“Well, yeah, but if I rung some cripple’s neck for you, I’d just look like a bully. You’re big enough and strong enough that you can fight your own battles. …I’d just prefer it if it didn’t come to that. Like, in general, we should prolly try and refrain from assaulting anyone, just in case it turns into an issue bigger than it’s worth.”
Ellian shifted his weight a little as he huffed. He was still standing, having not found much else to do with himself since entering his room. Too wired and defensive to sit, but not so on edge he needed to be ready for a more visceral physical response. …And now, he didn’t really know what he was even expected to do or say here. So, he just shrugged nonchalantly. “I like Gideon,” he admitted. “Maybe it is only short term, iunno, I can’t see the future, or whatever. But he’s not doing anything that feels wrong. He’s not making me do anything that feels wrong. Look, I dunno, the vibes are just fine, is all I mean. If I’m sneakin’ around, it’s just ‘cause I don’t want all… thiiiis,” Ellian admitted, gesturing to where his father was lounging in his computer chair. “And I don’t want you judging this boy I like…”
Ambrose opened his mouth. Probably to say something about Ellian’s vibe-reader still being in development, and the more sophisticated functions of his parents’ vibe reader was trending toward the negative- But Ellian’s phone chimed from his pocket, and he didn’t even spare a second in grabbing it and checking the message.
Quote:
yo, make it home okay?
The stupid little smile that curved Ellian’s lips must have been tell enough, because his old man rolled his eyes. “What, the guy can’t go twenty minutes without bothering you, or what?” Ambrose grumbled. “Seems clingy…”
“It’s 4AM and I walked home in the dark. He’s just making sure I made it back,” Ellian retorted. It was sweet, he thought. And Gideon probably had some viable concerns about Diesel catching flack from some Order assailants while he was powered up and teleporting around. He really should be more careful about that… It was just weird that Gideon didn’t acknowledge that last message. Was he okay? Must be?
The desk chair creaked and rattled as Ambrose stood and flapped an arm in Ellian’s direction. “Alright, alright, whatever. I can tell by that dumb-boy grin nothing I say’s gonna make any impact here. And I’ve been up most of the night for you, so I’m heading to bed. Get some sleep, Ellie.”
“Mhm,” Ellian hummed dismissively, flapping his old man from the room and hurrying to shut the door as Ambrose headed out.
Quote:
Yeah, I’m home, I’m fine. Nothing happened. I don’t think my parents like you, though.
Quote:
heh? for real? I always thought i was pretty likable. I dont have idiot controlling jock vibes or anything
Quote:
Lol, you definitely do not.
Ellian settled, flopping backward on his bed and watching his phone screen. He didn’t know if Gideon was planning on dozing off for a bit longer, or if he should be expecting more conversation. It was a Monday, and Gideon would have to be up for work soon while Ellian could laze around for the rest of the morning unimpeded… That message was probably just a butt-dial text, even though none of those symbols had looked like anything he’d seen a phone produce before…
And in the absence of any immediately forthcoming response, Ellian’s eyes started to drift closed, and his mind started to wander- that someone was shrieking at him, urgently and foreignly. It sounded panicked, and his heart pattered as his eyes popped open and he sat up to look around and see… See that obviously no one was there and he didn’t have any more phone messages.
It was just 4AM, and he was just tired. And he didn’t think he was going to have much luck sleeping.
[WC:2087]
(Gideon's texts not applied to word count and were supplied by Echos!)