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 Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2025 2:47 pm
Oort had been a little leery of returning to the park that he and Kirra used to frequent, given that he'd stumbled on a cluster of bizarre egg-like objects under their old secret meeting tree the last time he was there–
And an unhinged mass of feathers that reeked of sulphur and screeched like a banshee.
Screeches that still echoed in his nightmares.
Even now he could barely even look at an egg - much less stomach the thought of eating one.
Still the park was familiar and so had seemed like as good a place as any to suggest to Oberon for a catch up–
Even if his message had been barely more than:
Finished last exam so finally back. Will be near the tree where Euporie and I used to hang out. Oort
Then again he'd been pretty rubbish at keeping in contact whilst he'd been away in Dublin studying too, so there wasn't much change there.
But he'd missed Oberon and the others whilst he'd been away.
Not that he'd planned to say so out loud or anything–
Fortunately the old meeting tree was egg-free when he finally got there, and whilst Oort didn't have a clue where the shattered remains of the empty shells had gone, he wasn't about to start looking for them.
One feathered banshee encounter had been more than enough and Oort preferred to avoid tempting fate into risking another.Guine Hope this works as a start Guine. Lmk if not though and I can tweak cat_smile
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 6:34 pm
Oberon was already leaning against the side of the old tree when Oort showed up, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket and one ankle crossed over the other like he’d been there a while. He’d actually only just arrived, but he wasn’t about to admit that.
“Well, look who survived higher education,” he called as Oort got close enough to hear. His grin was easy, but there was something genuine in it as well. There was definitely an undertone of I’m glad you’re here that he didn’t need to say out loud. “I was starting to think Dublin had completely consumed you, body and soul.”
He glanced towards the ground where the eggs used to be. He hadn’t encountered the monster chicken himself, but he’d heard through the grapevine to stay away from the area. He didn’t want to break his own heart by having to take out what others might consider a monster.
After a moment, he pushed himself off of the tree and gave Oort a look over, as though making sure he was okay, even if he was sure he was. “So… you’re back. And you’ve been terrible at texting. Which means you owe me coffee. And probably a dramatic retelling of all of your adventures abroad.”
Oberon thought it was only fair, seeing as Adventure was his sphere. Of course he’d be interested.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 2:20 pm
Oort raised his hand in a lazy wave as he caught sight of Oberon leaning against the tree, although he had held off on responding until he was closer.
"Barely," because the amount of assignments that his lecturers had piled onto him (or rather Briar) had felt ridiculous - although, in fairness he had somewhat asked for it.
Somewhat.
He'd dithered between the civil and environmental engineering pathways and then had made the 'brilliant' decision to do both, thus doubling his workload and assignment misery.
“And I have to go back in early September for my conferring ceremony,” he added as he wrinkled his nose slightly. “Because Mum is insisting that I have to graduate.”
He’d pointed out that the ceremony wasn’t mandatory and he’d get the degree either way as long as his results held up–
But she hadn’t found that particularly amusing and had made it abundantly clear that she expected to see him publicly at the September ceremony. In a graduation gown and a mortarboard hat.
"But yeah I'm back" he said with a wry smirk "And I've already had a run in with a bird-like thing with a screech that could probably rival a banshee."
Or in other words, classic Destiny City.
When Oberon mentioned his texting habits, Oort gave him a look that likely that translated roughly to 'what did you expect'? Because he'd never been particular stellar at sending text messages and was unlikely to ever be nominated for any 'Most Responsive Communicator' awards–
Then his smirk softened into one of his rare smiles, although Oort would very much deny it if called on it "S'nice to be back though - and I guess it prob'ly is my turn coffee-wise" especially given that he'd been conveniently absent what with studying and all. "Although I doubt that Ireland could ever compete with DC on the drama front."
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Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2025 10:53 am
“I dunno, I wouldn’t sell Ireland short,” Oberon said, the corner of his mouth twitching into a grin. “They’ve got banshees too, I’ve heard. Probably wouldn’t be added to any tourism brochures, though.”
He fell into step beside Oort, hands still buried in his pockets, glancing cautiously towards the treeline as they walked. He was still as casual as when Oort first showed up, but there was a slight shift in his voice. A weight that lingered.
“So, speaking of drama…” he started, glancing over at Oort. “You heard anything about what happened recently? The world devouring kind of trouble?” He kept his tone light and conversational, like he was just measuring how much to say. “Figured I’d check before I start giving you the world’s least relaxing welcome-home info dump.”
The implication was there, though…. This wasn’t just your typical Destiny City weirdness.
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Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2025 12:29 am
Oort smirked again "Prob'ly not" he admitted, "And if there were any out and about while I was there then they were keeping quiet."
Really quiet.
His amusement dimmed as Oberon's tone shifted, Oort's reddish eyes turning serious as he shook his head "No..." he said slowly "But the news has never been great at reporting what's actually going on."
At least not when it came to powered-related stuff.
"And I didn't get much US news in Ireland."
He sighed "My parents haven't mentioned anything about any reporting from the non-powered side either." Although that last wasn't particularly surprising and he hadn't really expected them to.
Not when even normal Destiny City weird was too much for them, to the point where they'd spent most of high school years talking about moving away to somewhere without a strange 'animal' attack problem–
And they'd finally done it too, although Oort was glad that they had given up on trying to sell the house as it had meant that he (or rather Briar) hadn't been stuck with trying to find a hotel room or something.
"Going to assume that it's worse than that time when we all got trapped in that mirror though."
Because the 'world devouring' was kind of a clue - and Oberon wasn't the type to toss around phrases such as world devouring lightly.
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2025 6:36 pm
“Oh, yeah. Way worse than the mirror,” Oberon said, and for a moment his usual grin was gone entirely. “This thing… was from another realm entirely, it seems. The Calamitous Hollow is what it’s apparently called. A giant serpent, big enough to eat a planet… it decided Earth looked like a snack.”
He shoved his hands deeper into his jacket pockets, like that might keep the memory from creeping too close to the surface. “Somehow, we ended up working… uh… sort of… together. We all worked on shields with a blueprint from Almadel. That helped some. The Vanguard made their own shield to protect everyone during the fight… which took place in space. Negaverse and the Dark Mirror Court threw around magic I didn’t even know they had. It was… similar to the magic we ended up getting manifested with the Moon’s help. Except terrifying.” Especially whatever the Negaverse did.
For a moment, his gaze lifted to the path ahead. There was a shadow of something sharper in his tone. “Funny thing, though. Senshi and Knights didn’t seem to mind draining themselves to save our world. But when the Vanguard asked for energy to save their world? Everyone was real protective of their stamina that they could get back with a good night’s rest.”
He paused and sighed, shaking his head after a moment. “Point is… we stopped it. For now. It’s still trapped up in space in a prison. I’ve never seen anything like it before but… There’s something else out there. I saw something when I lost consciousness, I guess. I don’t know what it was, but it was like all despair and sorrow manifested into a singular point. And apparently there’s more than one of these creatures.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2025 12:08 am
Oberon had warned him that the coming info dump was of the world’s least relaxing 'welcome home' variety.
He had also warned him that it was worse than the time that they’d gotten trapped in the mirror.
And his friend had been right–
On both counts.
Oort wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting - but some sort of giant world-swallowing serpent hadn’t exactly featured on the longlist, much less the shortlist, or on any list to be honest.
It was somewhat surprising that everyone had managed to stop fighting each other to form a temporary alliance for long enough to somehow work together–
Although Oort wasn’t about to kid himself that the alliance had been anything but temporary, because he might have been out of the loop and apparently catastrophically so, but he wasn’t naive enough to think that all of the various factions had suddenly discovered the magic of teamwork.
He could accept however, that the Calamitous Hollow thing had been enough to temporarily concentrate the mind.
Especially with the eyeing up the Earth as a potential snack part.
"When did all of this happen?" he asked, as guilt flickered for a moment behind his reddish eyes. Because whilst it was clear that they’d manage to stop the thing - on account of the fact that the earth was still turning - Oort couldn’t shake the feeling that he should’ve been there.
Should’ve helped.
Somehow.
Should’ve done something other than stress about classes and exams and stuff in Ireland, whilst a giant world-devouring snake was eyeing up Earth as a snack.
Then his brain caught up to the rest of what Oberon had said, namely that fact that whilst the aforementioned giant snake was trapped in some sort of prison up in space, there was potentially more of those things out there.
That and potentially something else that was apparently steeped in despair and sorrow.
"I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help," Oort said finally, the guilt he refused to name or acknowledge out loud slipping into his voice. "But if more of those things show up then I'll try my hardest to be there next time."
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 6:35 pm
“When?” Oberon huffed out a breath that sounded something between a laugh and a sigh as he thought back to when everything happened. “April. Twelfth. Feels like forever ago and yesterday at the same time.” His expression softened a bit as he side-eyed Oort.
“Hey, don’t be sorry. It’s probably better you didn’t know about it while it was happening. You would have been stressed out if you couldn’t get back. We were given a really short timeframe to prepare, anyway. I don’t know if I would have been able to live with myself knowing you keeled over from a heart attack in Dublin because you found out a giant snake decided Earth was on the menu.”
His mouth twitched, although it didn’t quite become a smile. “But we weren’t gonna let anything happen. Not with everything working together. You know things are serious when the Negaverse doesn’t murder us all on sight. Best case scenario worked out. People down here didn’t feel a thing. Or worse. So don’t beat yourself up about not being there. You’ve got nothing to prove. If another Hollow shows up… and I really, really hope one doesn’t… you’ll get your shot. But this last time? You were exactly where you needed to be.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2025 11:25 pm
April.
He’d still been buried under a mountain of assignments back then.
And, well, Oberon had a point because he probably would have stressed.
Especially since he would have been left with a choice of either:
a. Skipping out on classes and trying to get his hands on a plane ticket home.
b. Staying put and stressing out over the giant snake that had been sizing up Earth as its next snack.
Oort’s lips twitched faintly at Oberon’s comment of not living with himself if he’d ended up keeling over from a heart-attack in Dublin.
"Somehow, I get the feeling Mum would still expect to see me at my conferring ceremony," he murmured drily. "Even if it was my ghost wearing the gown and the mortarboard hat."
The not-quite smile faded.
Because, yes, Oort knew that things would have had to have been beyond terrible for the Negaverse to temporarily abandon their usual ‘kill Order on sight’ policy.
Or whatever they did that passed for one.
"I’d rather that another giant planet-snacking snake doesn’t decide to show up," he agreed.
And while he didn’t say the words ‘thank you’, Oberon probably knew him well enough to hear them anyway.
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Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2025 6:16 pm
Oberon snorted, clearly amused. “See? Told you. Ireland and their ghosts. Would’ve fit right in.”
His grin lingered for a moment before softening into something smaller and quieter.
“Still glad it didn’t come to that, though,” he exhaled slowly, shoulders rolling as if trying to shake off the weight of memory. “Once was enough. Hopefully the universe doesn’t try to prove us wrong anytime soon.”
There was already too much at stake. Too much that needed to be done in their own little corner of the universe.
“So,” he added with a gentle nudge of his elbow against Oort’s arm. “You survived exams and not being snake food. I say you’re due for something a hell of a lot better than banshees and homework. Come on, I’ll take you to my new favorite cafe,” he grinned, making sure Oort was following him as he led the way.
They had a lot more to catch up about, but this was a good start.
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