The Fireflies (6) : In the warm summer nights, little glowing lights begin to bob and dart through the city. Fireflies are mating, so this isn't uncommon in itself; in the past few days you've probably seen hundreds of fireflies. What makes these lights so unique is that they seem to change color; you might see a blue one, a green one, a red one. They flicker randomly, and something just seems off with them. If you come into contact with one, you will find yourself with a strange electric jolt. They cannot be caught, and will flicker away if you pursue too aggressively. This isn't the first time they've appeared in Destiny City, but no one's been able to tell where they came from or where they're going. No matter how quickly you chase them, they always seem to disappear before you can find any answers.
What an eve of travesty. What an utter calamity. Woe is Eles, who had, yet again, fallen into bed with a boy.
Having at last caught his breath, Eles rolled onto his side and peered at the waning light coming through the windows. Night approached quickly enough, a testament to how well they whiled away the day. But as Eles shifted and sat up, he paused. Something tickled his face. Caught in his mouth.
Reaching up, he brushed his mouth until he caught hold of that something and pulled it out. Held it within easy view. It was a hair, certainly, but it wasn't the long, rich auburn that Eles had pulled judiciously a few minutes prior. Nor was it the whimsical coal-black that oft dashed into his face or came up in awkward wefts in the morning. No, this hair was almost kinked, as if so finely curly that it would break if not treated and woven with its brethren.
Well, look at that. Our beautiful gym bunny likes to play. Good for him.
Reaching out, Eles let the hair drop off the bed. Then he slipped off of it, tracked down his underwear, and took up a seat in the comfortable-looking computer chair that sat in a setup quite unusual. Its row of exotic decor did not go unnoticed, nor did the privacy screen. What, precisely, did Jayce get up to in his off hours?
Maybe he recorded live red rooms and Eles just found the hair of Jayce's last victim. Oh, wouldn't that be interesting?
a-disgruntled-dragon
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 2:50 pm
Jayce gave a languid yawn and stretch as the bed shifted. He rubbed his eyes, sitting up. His hair fell around his ears and chin, having been pulled from it's pony tail by some very good fingers. Mmm the pull had been deliciously toe curling. The giant of a man swung his legs off the bed, pulling on his sweats from earlier in the day and smirking at Eles over in his computer chair.
"Gotta ask, whacha think I do in my off hours?" he said with a soft, if deep chuckle. His voice was still that sexy gravel it developed over their activities prior. He sat on the edge of his bed, legs wide in an easy and inviting stance.
Eles was something else. An enigma, really, who'd just waltzed into his view with a smirk and incredibly talented fingers. And mouth. And tongue. Hot damn, he thought, staring at the young man with an appreciative gaze. He looked like he'd walked out of a Victorian era vampire novel and Jayce was so very here for it.
He rubbed his neck, fingers running over bruises and several lingering indentations. The feeling of them, the slight pain that blossomed under his finger types, sent a rush of heat through his blood. Oh he would certainly want to touch this boy again, should he be up for it. If it was simply a one and done, he would understand but he couldn't deny that Eles had his claws in now. (There was a whole bite mark in his left tit that throbbed a little with each heartbeat too.)
"Do ya need anythin' by th'way? Got some drink in the mini fridge to yer left if yer thirsty, and some protein bars on the shelf to yer right," he asked, pointing to the aforementioned locations. After care was important, especially with someone new, and Jayce was nothing if not very attentive to his partners' needs.
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 5:57 pm
Eles glanced over when he heard the yawn and saw the lovely specimen of boy rise up and stretch. All that languid muscle bunching up, lengthening, bending like canvas over a perfect frame. Were they at Malory's, Eles might have drawn him. Some nascent adonis in the aftermath of Eles's worship and denigration.
But as Jayce took up his seat on the side of the bed and left himself in quite an inviting stance, Eles's gaze flickered downward but for a moment. When his attention returned to the boy's face, he gave him a meaningful, if fey, smile. He could appreciate the view. He could appreciate the wisdom, too; the sooner they ate and drank their fill, the sooner they could return to indulging so many whims.
The question was a cute one. Begged a touch of interest. Eles looked back at the lineup of effigies on the shelf. Then his gaze flickered away, smoldering on Jayce again.
I think, Eles began, his fingers shaping words out of the air through gesture. You definitely run a red room. Like an untouchable pro. You bag your own victims, stream with a new computer each time, and mirror to a hundred different sites on the darkweb. You take suggestions — and donations — through your chat room. And once you've put your victim away in a messy climax, you cut the stream and get rid of them. By… He paused, thinking about it. Feeding them to your friend's pig farm.
And no one's ever caught you. Eles eyed him smugly.
a-disgruntled-dragon
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2025 5:22 pm
There was a beat of silence before Jayce started to chuckle and full on laugh. He'd gotten a lot of very interesting responses to what people thought of his hobbies, but that one absolutely beat all of them out of the ball park. Feeding his victims to a pig farm? Odin's missing eye that was incredibly inventive.
"Hah! That's quite possibly the wildest answer I've ever gotten for that question," he said with a grin. He shifted slightly on the bed and chuckled again. He wondered just what parts of the web Eles frequented, and if he was one of those people who'd watch a red room.
"Nothing so dark, I assure ya," he replied, still grinning. "I got a cam channel I do live streams on three times a week. Makes good money, an' well... get a lotta pleasure outta makin' people pleased so..." Jayce waggled his eyebrows at Eles and gestured at his 'effigies'. "That red one is a fan favorite."
He stood, adjusting his sweats ever so slightly, and grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge. He handed one to Eles.
"'Course, yer one to talk. Ya must have a giant contact list of paramours with skills like that."
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Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2025 6:01 pm
"Oh," Eles remarked, surprised. A loft of brows for that admission. He'd never done or seen a cam show before, but he knew of them. Knew that they required a plethora of tech and technological knowhow, so that already ruled them out for him. He expected that Jayce must be pretty good at triaging that setup on his own, unless he had signed up with a bigger business.
With another quick glance, he determined he didn't see anything that looked like business decals. Maybe he was just that good at managing himself independently. And good for him if he was; Eles imagined he'd be a damn right mess if he had to do any of that.
A little disappointed about the complete lack of murder, but I guess that's an acceptable alternative, Eles signed in return, well aware that his gestures lacked the tone to convey whether he was being serious or sarcastic. A quick glance back and Eles tsked. Well, of course they like the red one. Just look at it.
A marvel, that thing was. A marvel that shouldn't reasonably be able to fit inside of someone. But that's what made it fun, wasn't it?
He accepted the bottle of chocolate milk with a smile, then cracked it open and took a few liberal gulps. He hadn't realized the extent of his thirst until he started to quench it. But the question that came afterward interrupted his self-impressed whimsy and brought him down to a careful seriousness.
I don't know. Maybe. But I can't remember anything and I haven't for weeks.
a-disgruntled-dragon
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2025 6:49 pm
Jayce raised a brow and chuckled again. He too had holes in his memories? Huh. He wondered he'd gotten corrupted recently, or simply had a bad head injury and amnesia. Something in common, though it did strike Jayce as a little sad. Such a delectable person as Eles was, he would have had a very interesting life up until this point.
(The red one absolutely shouldn't have been able to fit but, Jayce had his ways.)
"You too, eh? It's been a little longer for me - be a year in... October maybe?, but there's a good chunk of time I can't remember either. Probably milder than what yer implin' though," he said and stood in front of Eles in his desk chair. The whole tech set up behind him was expensive, but thoroughly tested. He was not super tech savy, but enough to know how to check the connections and get things rolling when he needed it. He couldn't remember how he knew it, but he did and he wasn't exactly about to not use the mysterious knowledge after all.
He wondered if the higher ups would get mad if he told Eles his memory loss was because someone shoved his hand in his chest and burned him from the inside out to remake him. Jayce wondered if Eles would find that attractive or crazy.
He gently lifted Eles' face up to look at him with a single calloused finger under his chin. "Is it somethin' ya wanna find out, or do ya like the you ya are now?" Jayce asked him, letting his thumb glide along his jaw. "Cuz, I think yer pretty great as ya are now, but I've only known ya for a day so.
The person I used to be seemed t'be stuck, ya know? Bound by the powers that be, by the way he acted. The me now, standin' here with ya? Can do so much more than who he apparently used to be."
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 3:13 pm
What happened? He cocked his head as he regarded Jayce, studying him as if his face might reveal the cause and nature of his amnesia. Blarney once mentioned a kind of magical memory loss that one couldn't recover from; had that happened to Jayce? If so, why? What drives out a person's recollection of themselves so thoroughly and deprives them of it forever?
And how much time did you lose? A year, two years, ten years? Everything? The time around the incident? And how did one measure what one didn't have? Eles supposed that, for himself, it was easy — everything up until waking up in that alley was gone.
Well, save for the foreboding and oppressive memory of that broken star. But the simple mention of that star set Hybris off on such a wild tangent that he was hesitant to make mention of it to anyone else.
And Jayce's question was a fair one, which had him swiveling back and forth in the computer chair for a few moments. He wanted to lend the answer some carefully considered weight, even though he had long since made up his mind. I guess… If I find out, I find out. If it's gone, it's gone. I can't spend the rest of my life chasing after the past. But, for a while, I wanted to learn if there was someone looking for me. Trying to find me.
Far as I know, no one's noticed I'm gone. But Eles was loath to end on such a note.
What do you mean? How's the memory loss freed you?
