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 Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:27 pm
Mirrorwalking was such a peculiar thing — like swimming, but through reflections, even though there should not have been that much dimension hidden behind the surface like that. It was strange to him, too, how he could never peer past the surface, nor could he see where a mirror led. Perhaps Hybris had an ability to see past those hazy smears of light and shadow and find some meaning in them, but Eles — Cadmium — could not. For all that they wandered the ever-changing realm of Mirrorspace, he had only to be extremely grateful that Hybris had all these locations memorized. If he asked Eles to remember, they would be lost in an instant.
But they didn't linger much in Mirrorspace this time. Hybris was purposeful, sometimes. He was purposeful enough that they actually entered a warehouse much larger than Eles was expecting; he wondered if they were here to commit a touch of theft.
Not that he would complain. Free was a good price, even if he was used to spending Malory's money. "Who are we stealing from?" Must've made quite a business out of it, from what he could tell. Racks upon racks of furs, some of which he recognized easily, and others that weren't so obvious to him. He wondered just how many of the exotic and possibly illegal ones were shut away in a place like this, waiting for their day to rot inside of a climate-controlled facility. Never used, never looked upon but for the times that Hybris dropped by to try them on.
Or maybe they were simply waiting for their turn to transit to a sales floor somewhere. Priceless pieces of flesh to be priced and sized and snipped and sewn into someone's astonishingly expensive jacket. He wondered, too, if Trey Cameron ever bought furs in bulk from here. That'd be such a small-world experience.
Oh, and if the Medraut name carried enough weight? Maybe he could shamelessly flirt the pants off that boy.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:27 pm
This section of the warehouse held the rich, musky scents of nearby leathers, which Hybris vastly preferred to the dinnerware section, or worse, the tapestry area. With little thought, he started taking several furs down, tossing them on the floor for Cadmium to roll around on to test out. A few others he set aside on a table, smaller, thinner pieces meant for lining and trim. Deciding he didn’t like the regular warehouse lighting, he hit several switches until everything dimmed and softened into an almost firelight glow.
“We’re stealing, as usual, from my parents,” Hybris explained with calm satisfaction. “This one houses a lot of my mother’s collections, which means she’s always saving them for special projects that she never actually has time for.” So she probably wouldn’t notice anything missing until she retired. “We’re honestly doing her a favor, since I’m fairly sure she would be considered a hoarder if there was less real estate involved.”
Toeing off his boots, he settled down on the furs, using his thick capelet as a bolster. “Are you going to send him anything, yourself?” A bottle of wine appeared, along with two glass tumblers.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:28 pm
"Is it really stealing from them? Won't all this s**t become yours if they die in some horrible plane crash?" Cadmium looked around while Hybris fussed with the lighting, and he wondered how the ******** two people amassed so much s**t, expensive s**t, s**t that could probably buy some starving family a month's worth of food or more. But people liked those inequities. It's why they built so many into their global societies that they were ubiquitous. There was no us without a them. Hybris just happened to be born into the luckier group of us.
And Cadmium had no idea if he'd been born into such luxury himself, but he practically walked into it by choosing the right graveyard at the right time. The result? All this luxury was so commonplace in his life that it felt, essentially, meaningless. He couldn't recall a life of without, even if he lived it before.
"My point is," he began, then nearly lost his train of thought as he tried to figure out how to remove his mismatched boots, then gave up on it altogether and released whatever power gave him that uniform, "It's not stealing. More like, advancing your inheritance." As far as Eles was concerned, that meant Malory was quite within his rights to make use of this s**t now before it became moth-eaten and worthless, just like his parents.
But whatever. Her loss, and all that.
Shirking his pair of sandals, Eles seated his narrow body cross-legged on a swath of fur. He spread his fingers in it, shifting his palms over the silky pelt as he decided whether it was soft enough to sleep on or if it was better used for a rough night. Until the wine came out, anyway. Then Eles was reaching for his perpetually unquenchable thirst.
Swirling the wine, Eles tried to determine what he would even say. "I doubt it. I'd say sorry, but I'm not. 'Serves you right' is just redundant. 'Stay away from him' is implied. And anything I decide on has to go through one of those knights, right? Not worth considering unless I stole one of their rings."
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:28 pm
“Maybe not, though” Hybris offered the answer along with a glass of wine to Eles. “My parents could plan to leave this particular warehouse to a friend, or some organization with a shared interest in historical restorations.” And then, a little doubtful, added, “Or charity?”
Taking a sip of his own drink, he wriggled his toes against the fur, “Which is to say, I intend to use things I like before anyone else can think they have some kind of claim.” He didn’t really mind it if his parents left some of their estate to others, but he did take some satisfaction in lessening the potential gains of others.
“Maybe you can just pick him up a greeting card or something? With that dog…Snoopy on it.” Having never sent a store bought greeting card in his entire life, Hybris seemed to find the idea a little novel and exciting. But then he had to inform Eles of a new disappointment, “Those sorts of things can’t be kept. That knight's lovely furs either.” As fun as it would be to watch Cadmium successfully steal some trophy, only for it to disappear.
“The things that come with the magic return back to the owner. They can’t be taken away for long. Except,” he pulled his henshin pen from his space. “A senshi’s pen. It’s how we’re able to transform. Take it and they’re ********. Break it an they’re amazingly ********.”
Without a single thought, he handed his over to Eles.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:28 pm
"'Ownership' is such a ******** up concept." Taking a long sip of wine, he let the burn of it pool in his mouth before swallowing. In its aftermath, sweet fruit turned more tangy, but his mouth didn't feel that dry afterward. So he took another sip.
"Everything gets 'taken' from something, right? This fur from… Whatever the ******** animal grew it in the first place. Is this alpaca? Feels like alpaca. So, someone kills this animal. Skins it. Then sells that skin to some rich snob. Since that's some consensual transaction, it's now property of the snob. She owns it," he explained, thinking quite strongly of that blonde fat girl who ran away without sharing her name. Or her furs. "But why should I have to respect that? Just because she didn't have the gall to take it from the tradesman? That's ******** stupid."
He set his glass down, having opted to ditch the leggings for a better evaluation of the pelt. "If you're clever enough to sneak in and grab the s**t before anyone else does, it should be yours."
It didn't matter to him that magic disagreed. Magic was ******** stupid if it disagreed. Hell, magic didn't seem to disagree much when it came to starseeds and anyone who could pull them; magic didn't throw up a barrier saying that the person who had that starseed didn't consent to that. Albite nearly walked away with Hybris's starseed for that very reason.
But he didn't, because Eles was clever enough to step in. That made it his starseed. Which was to say, it was no one's starseed. It only lived in Hybris's chest as its default setting.
But when Hybris pulled a goth tampon from nowhere, Eles furrowed his brows at it. How that was a 'pen' escaped him, and knowing Hybris, it probably had six different pulsating settings built in or something. Nevertheless, he reached out and took it when offered.
It was heavier than Eles expected. It didn't feel particularly special, though he thought it might have been good in a pinch for blunt-force trauma. "So you're saying, if I break this, then you'll never be able to turn into Hybris again? Like you'd suddenly be Malory, or you're Hybris until you — I don't know — run out of energy or whatever, and then you'll never be Hybris again?" As he asked, he tapped the weight of the pen against his palm.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:29 pm
“A little survival of the fittest alongside a dash of anarchy,” Hybris hummed in thought, always enjoying the philosophical paths Eles forged for himself with only his limited experience, feelings, and personal logic to guide him. It was always a little more raw and in the moment, with nothing to prove at all.
“I think one of the talking cats could possibly make me a new one? They’re the ones who upgrade them to give us more power. But it would likely take a long time, even if I was able to find one as a civilian.” He considered the opposite though, never powering down in order to not lose this form. “I think I could stay powered up for the rest of my life, though. There’s senshi from space, who stayed powered up for a thousand years. I would just be extremely limited, trapped on my little island when I’m not wandering the night.”
There was a certain fairytale existence to that, one further toward other than his current life as a magical human.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:29 pm
"They're pretty ******** inefficient, then. And why are they tampon-shaped? Do you have to put it up your a** whenever you transform?" Belatedly, he sniffed it, but it didn't smell like a**. Nor was it covered in lube, so… That was something.
Eles considered what Hybris was saying for a moment. "That sounds boring," he decided for him. "Getting in fights, draining energy at parties — that's only fun for a while. Seems more enriching to have access to both things. Make enemies as Malory then torture them as Hybris. Vice versa. Better variability that way." Mirrorspace didn't seem like much fun to him, either. Always changing, for no good reason. Always unfinished. Unable to produce anything meaningful. Hybris was right — all he had was that one little island and everything he put on it. What a terribly small existence.
He studied the pen for a long minute, lost in thought. Lost in the vague familiarity of its shape, while simultaneously wondering why or where he'd know it. And why it reminded him of some slumbering tower in the most isolated part of hell.
And why that reminded him of Hybris. No — of Malory, specifically.
"… Why do you need one of these but I don't?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:29 pm
At tampon, Hybris had to roll over on the fur, careful not to spill his drink, and quietly die laughing. It took awhile, only able to pay half attention to what his boy was saying, to stop shaking at the images of various senshi powering up in such a unique and intimate manner. “I’ve never tried to use it that way, actually,” a little breathless, he rolled back to wipe a tear and take another drink.
What else had Eles been saying? Something cutely nefarious probably, and a question.
“Oh. Hmmm…maybe it’s because agents like you don’t need any sort of medium or focus to touch power? It’s just yours, once you can grab it, you can take it all barehanded and raw.” He supposed that might also be the difference between stealing and inheritance. “How does it feel? The difference between being a normal human and powering up into a captain? Is it heady? Does it hurt?”
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:30 pm
"Turn around. We can see if it works," Eles volunteered helpfully.
For the time being, he used it as a drink stirrer, even if nothing about the wine needed stirring. He still tapped it on the edge of his glass for that delightful clarion ring, then cast it upon his discarded leggings as he took another drink.
His next question prompted an introspection that Eles hadn't taken the time to do on his own. More specifically, he'd been avoiding it, and by proxy, avoiding the questions that such a power necessarily raised. There was, of course, that constant suspicion Hybris had that Eles was Faustite. And parcel to that, there was the obvious refuting factor that he was not on fire. Nor did he look like Faustite. Entrusting himself to that power dogged him with other questions, however: who was he before? How did he lose his memories? What sort of a history might he encounter if he spent more time like that?
And he would have to confront those moments from when he first engaged that power. Seemed Hybris wanted to dig his claws in deep.
"It hurt the first time," he explained after a moment. Then he tapped his sternum. "Right here. But I didn't notice it until after.
"And I guess it's…" He sighed, brows furrowed as he searched for the right word but none seemed appropriate. "Interruptive? It's like an opportunity to change fate. It's more control than I would have on my own. Like the world's suddenly less complicated. Less noisy. And easier to influence.
"Is that how it is for you?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:30 pm
Sitting back up, he reached over to touch Eles’s chest. “Probably your starseed…and maybe I’m right, then. Nothing to gentle the power of chaos entering it.” Which, truly, suited his boy. Raising his hand, he briefly carded his fingers through bottle blonde locks, tucking them behind Eles’s ear.
“You know how aware I am of my body. The difference in it was very satisfying the first time and every time since, that sense of well…being more perfect. And I suppose, I feel more myself. I don’t seek out or play with new roles as Hybris. When I’m Hybris, I’m Hybris. In a way that I wasn’t often Malory until…” Well. Until Eles.
“But no, it never hurts.” Reaching over he picked up the pen and let it disappear back into his subspace. “It did hurt when he squeezed my starseed, though. Maybe your flavor of chaos just doesn’t have as gentle a touch as my Mirror.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:30 pm
The fussing was always welcome. He closed his eyes for it, in case Hybris's impeccably manicured nails wanted to do him like he did Albite.
It didn't take much consideration to agree with Hybris. "You're right." He touched the boy's forehead, calmly marked by silver instead of a shattered hole. That, he supposed, reminded him of that faultline across the Dark Star. "It's meaner. Breaks people's foreheads and hearts. Gives them butcher's tools."
Then he opened his eyes again, suddenly curious. In his silence, he started to pare away some of Hybris's infinite layers to get a better look at his chest, at the possibility that something else lurked there. He hadn't paid attention before, hadn't considered it contextualized with that Goth Cheerleader or Albite. What if Hybris had a hole in him? Or a mirror where the hole would be? How disfiguring, exactly, was magic?
And what if there were holes in him now, too? He never looked. Never thought about it. Any consequences to that power weren't important in the moment that he entrusted himself to it.
And Eles didn't like the idea for owing anyone a debt, if that power came with strings. But, he supposed, if the marionette learned to tug back on his own strings, then would his puppeteer be the one manipulated?
"Let me ask you something. Is there a difference between the truth and delusion if they both feel just as believable?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:30 pm
“Very mean,” Hybris murmured, leaning back onto his elbows and letting Eles strip away at those layers, sifting through gossamer, brocade, fur, and linen for whatever lay beneath. Only one of the city’s factions was truly an organization, and a military one at that. There were, of course, advantages to that. But undoubtedly a bit more cruelty was part of the cost.
Those hands would find no holes, just a boy underneath, familiar and a little unfamiliar in the strength and reflexes that magic had imbued it with. Head tipping back, he looked at the ceiling and thought about the question. And he wanted to say no, there was no difference at all, if you willed the delusion into becoming your reality but…
“Only if you’re willing to be alone for it. If you’re alone, anything can be true.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:31 pm
Eles stopped when he finally found the boy underneath all those wrappings and trappings. He reached out and touched, flattened his palm against sternum, felt the skin that was always cooler than his, but it felt sufficiently warm now, for the moment. But that chest did not give or shimmer or dispel like a mirage. No holes, no mirrors. Just Hybris. Malory-as-Hybris.
The answer was a good try, he supposed. "It's a trick question." His attention remained on that flawless, unmarked chest. No hint of Albite's trespass remained. "The answer's always yes and no. Alone or not. They're both meaningless if the result's the same, don't you think?"
Eles sat back on his haunches for a moment, with the soft comforts of the fur cushioning his knees. "If I say Albite never touched your starseed, and you say Albite never touched your starseed, and Albite says he never touched your starseed, then there's no difference between that and the reality. The result's the same: there's no evidence of it. You might say you remember it, how it felt when he squeezed it, but that's just a memory locked in your own head. Memory's fallible. Maybe it was just a nightmare. Or a delusion that someone else inflicted on you.
"Maybe that's a story you made up in your own head. But the conflicting stories are meaningless. All that matters is what we do with those stories.
"Right?" He paused, attention on the Mirror Boy's perfect face.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:31 pm
“That takes a lot of trust,” Hybris murmured, taking that hand as Eles shifted and keeping it on his chest. “To hand the keys of reality over so wholly. To share them like that.” He gazed up at Eles, expression thoughtful.
He breathed quietly, heart steadily thrumming under that palm. “What reality do you want, Eles?” Because his own reality was both too large, a thing built of a lifetime, and small, made of brief moments and little impact. But Eles’s relationship with memory and reality was so much more fraught, yet all the more tightly within his boy’s ability to grasp and turn it at will.
“And what should we do with it?”
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 6:31 pm
Eles snorted, halfway to a laugh. "Besides the obvious?"
It was so much easier to build a stupid little sculpture for a boy who would see meaning in all that trash. All of it could have easily been sourced from one of the dumpsters Albite set aflame, but all of it had meaning because Malory decided it was so. It didn't matter if Eles thought it came out looking like it belonged in one of those burning dumpsters because Malory made real that dream, that belief, that the sculpture was priceless. Maybe it wasn't any different from when Malory was playing a role, but what he did with that role always produced an impact. He was inflicting his dream of that role on others. Asserting his reality.
"I haven't figured that out yet," he admitted. He breathed a sigh, his hand still resting on the boy.
Deciding instead to sprawl out atop Hybris, Eles crawled forward on hands and knees and flopped bonelessly against the boy's chest. Heard its beat as solemn and firm and steady as his boy's eternal curiosity. And mischief. And mercurial impulses.
"Maybe I want my reality to be a paradox so I don't have to commit to a decision. Like… I don't give a s**t about my past. I don't remember it, and between us, it never existed. And no one's shown up to tell me all about it.
"But you also say I'm Faustite. Then people — things, youma — show up and try to inflict that reality on me. I get pieces of things I don't remember experiencing. There's no proof they happened. But then, suddenly, they're true, because people force that truth on me.
"Magic is real, and so is the paradox. And for once, I don't know where to go from here."
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