Marks and his oldest brother were returning from yet another trip to the wonder of Hierapolis. Ever since that night his brother first took him and Recks there, Marks had been happily working to help his brother set up his little museum room at the large underground wonder. It was honestly great bonding time that Marks hadn't realized he had wanted or needed with his oldest brother.

He was kind of jealous though. The more time he spent with his brother at Hierapolis, the more he wanted his own little slice of fantasy and magic, but he knew it wasn't something that could just be asked for. It was either in him and would awaken on its own in a time of need, or The Code itself would do...whatever it did to appoint new knights.

From what he recalled of his brother's own understanding of it was that there had been no knights of Cybele, or the Moon for that matter, in the past, so The Code got to take its pick of people it found to have potential.

Marks definitely wanted to believe that he had potential, but even then, he didn't have to be a knight of Cybele like his brother! maybe somewhere down the family line a thousand years ago one of their ancestors was a knight of some other distant world....

Didn't matter.

He could want all he wanted but that didn't manifest anything but a sense of longing and disappointment.


While Dom was headed back home, Marks was staying out for a bit longer. While not the bar-going kind of guy, Destiny City had lots of other more chill night-life and hangouts that could soothe his spirits! Late night coffee shops and book nooks, for instance.

Marks was heading to one of these such establishments, hands tucked in his jacket pockets and head on a swivel for danger - both magic and domestic. The dangers of Destiny City had been made clear. He often wondered what name Destiny City so special and such a hotbed for magic and monsters. He couldn't remember anything like this at home in Belgium. It kind of made him wonder why Dom wanted to bring the whole family here where it was so dangerous...

Maybe he felt like it was easier to protect them that way...

Marks wanted to help protect them too!

But...let's be real here, he was.... too meek for that. Too anxious. He'd rather not think about the dangers, choosing instead to focus on the wondrous and fantastical. And maybe that was why he wasn't.... Why The Code didn't.....

Still....there was that glimmer of potential, and an echo deep in the memory of his starseed. He had once been one the the three key members of the Iseirá. Although the Marks of today didn't know it, the imprint was deep like ocean trenches and sunken cities.

A glimmer...

Something shiny caught his eye.

Something just at the edges of light, just beyond a street lamp. Marks thought for a moment that maybe it was just a random piece of something - there always seemed to be a random piece of pipe or crowbar handy at any given section of the street, after all. Quite convenient, actually. So he kept walking. He would have had to cross the road to get to it, anyway, and on the off chance that it was just a random pipe or something, it didn't seem worth it.

The further he got, the more it nagged in his mind. Loud and incessant.

He stopped, crossed the empty street, and turned around. Where was it again? What if he couldn't even see it from this angle?

But no there - a glimmer!

Marks, with a hurry to his step, sauntered over and picked up the object. It looked like it could have been some strange kids toy - two shiny silver antlers fused together at the end - just enough hilt space to be held in his fist. Strange.

As he pondered over this strange object which he had been so compelled to come back for, he didn't hear the rustling in the bushes near by....

Something struck out from the bushes, and instinctually Marks lashed out with the object which he had just found, and in a brilliant flash, everything changed.

Marks stood there in the sylvan green and dusky purples that his brother wore so well, and a white ruff of fur around his shoulders and...boy was it quite drafty. The cold winter air on his legs was not as bad as it could have been - there must have been some magical explanation for why - but honestly it wasn't like he had time to really think about things.

Between the burst of light and swatting at whatever hand lunged itself at him, the critter had recoiled, but now it was ready to try again. Marks, now unknowingly dawning the mantle of Alpena-Amberley, stepped back a few steps which drew the creature into the light of the streetlamp. It looked like a dark blob, but with wispy tentacles. A kind of shadow-octopus. But it was small, and with one swift kick of his now-sandled foot, Alpena-Amberley sent it flying before he ran with a great swiftness in the opposite direction, weapon still held firmly in his hand.

He came to a stop finally when he came to a row of buildings, and that is when he finally got a look at himself in the dark windows of a closed store front. Breathing heavy from his run, Alpena-Amberley wasn't even sure his brain was capable of cognitive words, much less process his feelings.

This...was what he had wanted! But...why was he so scared now? Maybe....hopes and wishes were comforting things, but now holding responsibility and power in his hands..... There was only one thing he could do - he had to talk to his oldest brother.

Boy was this going to be a phone call and a half....

Wait, how did he get his phone? Wait. Waitwaitwait-

Oh yeah. Thank goodness for the nearby bench because he needed a sit-down for this little panic attack.

Next time he'd be more careful what he wished for.....

[1033 words = Solo x2]