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 Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:01 am
‘Meet me at our spot at midnight.’
It was a short message. To the point and hopefully with enough time to give Cassidy a chance to decide if he wanted to see him after so long.
Well… he’d seen Riker that afternoon. He’d walked him home from school with Julian before heading home themselves. He knew Cassidy didn’t like getting in cars, and the storms were just too unpredictable.
Light flickered across the sky now. Purple and ominous. Maybe he should have asked Cassidy to meet him somewhere safer. Or closer to his home.
Reims sighed. It had been months since he’d seen Cassidy like this. He would probably be upset about being ghosted by him, too. Wow, he was really bad with friendships…
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 10:50 am
“You know, midnight is so late. And didn’t you tell me not to be out after dark because it was so dangerous?”
Cassidy was dressed in dark clothes, not just because he looked good in them–he looked good in everything–but because if he was going to get into trouble, he wanted to be able to hide. All these weird storms were bringing out the crazies so it was better safe than sorry.
At this time, he should have been in bed scrolling aimlessly online and sending his friends stupid memes, but instead he was out here, hair all done up, dressed to impress. It was too dark so he doubted Reims would even notice, but he’d put in the effort anyway.
“So what’s up with this? You disappear for months, I don’t even get a ‘hi, going out of town’? I thought something happened to you! I thought you died. You have no idea how much I worried. I keep getting ghosted by the people I care about, what’s up with that? I’m starting to get a complex, is there something wrong with me?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 6:50 pm
It was true that Reims told Cassidy to not go out after dark because it was dangerous but--
Being on Earth was dangerous now.
He wanted to approach him, just to get a little closer when he showed up, but held himself back. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t Riker right now. Cassidy had no idea.
And it was a good thing, too. Because he said the same thing Riker said when he saw Cassidy for the first time in so long.
He winced and shook his head.
“No, it’s not you. I’m sorry, I’ve been--... busy,” he mumbled, because how was he supposed to explain that he’d actually gotten a lot closer to Cassidy as his civilian self, so didn’t want to muddy things up by living two lives?
“I’m sorry, I should have stayed in touch better. But…” He took a moment to glance up at the sky with the purple clouds crackling with lightning.
“There’s something big coming towards Earth and it’s going to be pretty dangerous.”
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 7:42 pm
“What, I don’t even get a hug? Just bam, hi, have some bad news? After all these months without being in your arms? Cold. I brought you some chocolate,” he said, pulling out a bar of chocolate wrapped in elegant paper. “You don’t have to eat it now. It’s from Italy so it’s the good stuff. Save it for a bad day,” he said, pressing it into Reims’ hand.
“There, now you can tell me about something coming towards Earth. Is it the aliens again? The message boards have been insane. I told you I like conspiracy theories, right? I’ve spent a lot of time online in this past week. Spent a lot of time outside, you’d be so disappointed in me,” he hummed.
Cassidy didn’t seem like he was particularly anxious about whatever was ‘coming towards Earth’ but he squinted at Reims as he wagged the chocolate at him. The font on the front was Italian but the ingredients on the back were in both Italian and English.
“So what is it, whatever’s so dangerous?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:27 pm
Oh, he probably could have at least hugged Cassidy and not been weird about it. He didn’t want to accidentally forget that Cassidy didn’t know who he was and, like, kiss him or something. That would be super weird.
Reims shifted awkwardly, but took the bar of chocolate from Cassidy with mumbled thanks. He turned it a couple times in his hands, wondering if he could get away with looking at the ingredients while Cassidy was standing right there. He didn’t want to toss it into his subspace and forget about it, only to find out later that he was allergic to the ingredients.
“Sorry,” he grimaced, but figured it was too late to offer Cassidy a hug now.
“Uh… yeah, something like that. There’s a bunch of us trying to do something about it, but…”
He glanced up at the sky again and nodded. “There’s something causing the storms. Not just here but in other places as well. Uh, other planets. Not near Reims, but I can see it on the horizon I guess where Ganymede’s capital is. Some giant world eating monster is trying to come through. We don’t know what will happen but…”
He supposed world eating monster spoke for itself.
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 6:02 am
How hopeless! Cassidy waited for a hug that didn’t come so instead, he crossed his arms over his chest. The wind had picked up a bit but his hair was tied back so he wasn’t worried about it whipping him in the face.
This time, when Reims looked to the sky, he did too.
“...I mean, ‘world eating monster’ is kind of self explanatory, isn’t it? How do you know it’s not just sight-seeing?”
Cassidy didn’t really seem like he was taking it too seriously but given the circumstances, what was he supposed to do? A world eating monster? What was he supposed to do with that information?
“I guess that’s a dumb question. Why are you telling me? Trying to give me some time to make my peace with God?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 8:57 am
“I don’t want you here when everything starts to happen,” he said quietly, because he knew it was probably an impossible choice for Cassidy to make. It was easy for him because while he had family, they would all be fighting alongside him, or safe, off planet.
“When things start to get bad, I want to take you to Reims. To wait it out. Of course I’ll bring you back once everything is safe again. I’m not the only one who can get to Ganymede, so it’s not like you’d be stuck there if anything happened to me. Obviously I’m going to try and stop whatever monster there is, but…” he shrugged because it sounded pretty crazy.
“I know it’s a lot to think about, so… just take some time. If you decide not to, then I’ll respect that. But I don’t want you getting hurt. I care about you too much.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 9:14 am
Cassidy looked at him for a long moment. He almost looked like he had no intention of taking this seriously, but his nonchalant, bemused expression shifted just slightly. His brows raised and it took a few seconds more before he spoke.
“Well, on one hand, that’s really sweet. I really appreciate you thinking about me. On the other hand, I don’t know if I could survive for long on my own. Reims doesn’t have wifi. And I don’t do so well all by myself.”
He didn’t sound like he was arguing, maybe just talking out loud to fill the silence. It was hard to know what to say when it didn’t sound like Reims was joking.
“...Are you actually serious, though? Because if you’re flirting with me and just want to steal me for a weekend or something, I could do this. You don’t have to throw in the world-eating monster part. Is that real?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 10:06 am
Reims didn’t respond for a few moments. He just looked sadly at Cassidy, because he hated getting him involved when there was very little anyone could actually do besides hope for the best and that maybe their efforts wouldn’t be in vain.
He gestured to the nearby bench and made his way over to take a seat. From his ring, he pulled up the hologram screen of everything that had been saved in the database by others. He waited for Cassidy to sit beside him so he could show him, letting him look through the pictures and the reports others made.
“Originally, we were told it would be about three to six weeks until this thing arrives. We’re getting really close to six weeks. Maybe it might take longer, I don’t know. But, if it’s not real, there’s a lot of people working to protect Earth against nothing.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 12:20 pm
Cassidy frowned again, but he leaned against Reims while he looked at the screen. He took his time to read everything that was in front of him, because at some point it went from feeling like a very involved prank to feeling real.
He leaned against Reims while he read, and at one point had settled in so much that he drew up his knees so he could wrap his arms around him while he went through everything. The bench was just big enough that it wasn’t uncomfortable, and it gave him something to do with his hands while he tried to process it all.
Even when Reims had gotten to the end of it all he still hadn’t figured out what to say.
It was windy but now even that felt suspicious. Was it some great monster lurking just out of sight?
“...I think I liked it more when it was just silly conspiracy theories online,” he said finally. Reims was too trustworthy for this to be fake. He also probably didn’t have as good of a poker face as you’d need to carry out a trick like this.
Another brief pause, and then he asked, “What happens if you can’t stop it?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 12:26 pm
Reims held still as Cassidy leaned against him. He even adjusted himself a little so it was more comfortable for him. It was difficult to not put his arm around him, because wouldn’t that make it maybe too obvious that he was Riker? Or… what if Cassidy liked Reims more?
This double life thing really didn’t grant him any favors.
Obviously with just the intention of making it more comfortable to sit on the bench with him, Reims finally moved his arm to rest against the back of the bench, letting Cassidy sit closer if he wished.
“If we can’t stop it,” he frowned and sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know if it will actually destroy the Earth or if things will just be bad for a while. I don’t think anyone has actually faced something like this before. At least not for anyone alive. And, uh… there are some aliens from other places who have been alive for more than a thousand years. I’m assuming places like Sessrumnir, and Reims, of course, would try to take in as many as possible. If we’re given the chance to evacuate. But I don’t know how long anyone would be safe. If Earth is… well…”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 1:05 pm
As Reims moved to make Cassidy more comfortable, he instinctively relocated to be closer. There wasn’t much more to see on the display screen Reims was sharing but Cassidy couldn’t take his eyes off it.
“Wow.”
And then silence for a moment.
“Are you inviting anyone else up to Reims? Should I beef up on my survival skills or something? I’m just kidding, I wouldn’t even know where to start. It must suck for you to have to run around and tell everyone about this. Or am I the only one in your life who doesn’t have special magic powers and didn’t already know?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 1:11 pm
“You’re the only one that mattered enough to want to tell,” he admitted with a small frown. It should have said a lot that he wouldn’t have bothered telling his mother or brother about it. Maybe if they’d been on better terms, but Reims was slowly starting to accept the reality of everything.
“Most people don’t know. I think there would have been a big announcement or billboards or social media at least, talking about the storms and everything I showed you. Probably didn’t want to cause panic. It’s not like people can do anything if Earth does get eaten,” he sighed.
It wasn’t a great conversation to be having, but Cassidy was important to him, and he’d already left him in the dark on so many other things in his life.
“You don’t have to worry about survival skills. There’s plenty of stuff being brought to Reims and Ganymede in general. I’ve got a neighboring Knight who has access to everything as well. So it’s not like there won’t be people there.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 2:55 pm
Cassidy considered this, too.
It’s not like people can do anything if Earth does get eaten.
Well, that pretty much answered that.
Cassidy thought briefly about who he would tell, but in doing so he just put his head on Reims’ shoulder. “I’ve got a lot of questions,” he said after another moment. “But I guess the big one is ‘What am I supposed to tell people? My friends, and my family? If I go with you, do I have to leave them behind?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 4:44 pm
Selfishly, Reims wanted to tell Cassidy ‘yes.’ That he did have to leave his family and friends behind. He’d already been cruel in telling Cassidy about all of this to begin with. Maybe it would have been better if he lived in blissful ignorance and maybe nothing would have happened.
Would telling Cassidy that he couldn’t bring anyone with him mean that Reims loses Cassidy’s trust and friendship? Would telling Cassidy that he could open himself and others up to their identities being revealed? Would that end up being worse, because if they did save the world, what if they were killed anyway?
“Do you think people would believe you if you told them?” he frowned sadly, and then sighed as he turned just slightly to rest his forehead against Cassidy’s temple.
“I don’t know the right answer. I’m worried that if you tell anyone, you might put yourself in danger. There are people who try to hurt us. Kill us even. I have friends whose family members have been killed in this… weird, magical war. I want you to be safe. But I know it’s not fair to tell you and then ask you to leave people you care about behind. I’m sorry…”
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