Atrophy
Evil Ghost Note
Neziul
DrDistasteful
Simply Not Real
Ohm
VenusSundew
Act 2.4Sunday December 10th.
Desolate Farmhouse, North of St. Portwell.CW: Corporal Punishment & Abuse
Pain and frustration melted into anxious anticipation, sparks of conflict flaring up in any random direction as the days grew closer and closer to an inevitable conclusion. An operation of calculated overwhelming force headed by a man who, in the last stages of his career, had been a literal Nazi-Adept Hunter. There were levels of preparedness and conceptualization that all skilled Adepts could strive for; and Casey was taught not to ignore the basic ingenuity found within the human psyche. So, anything that was done in the service of bringing this threat to heel once and for all, was done with such hammering force that one would think he still carried the weight of the Government behind him.
It wasn’t so, of course: But the events at Beppo Park had galvanized a truce in the ranks in order to press the entire weight of several generations of loyal followers into a single effort. The cleansing of the land, and the clean purge of the unfortunate circumstances born a decade prior. Thus, the edifice surrounding Dollhouse was broken pillar by pillar, each crack made by the blood of more and more martyrs whom Casey managed to goad onto greater feats still. And behind it, cold calculations for a war further in the distance, knowing names and faces that could sway things unfavorably for the ultimate winning side.
Those whom he didn’t want to deal with later, died dealing with Dollhouse now. In this instance, Casey wasn’t so picky about which literal side they represented either. Simple radicals, anyone who he felt wouldn’t understand compromise in a losing situation later on. He knew he could sit on the fence as long as he wanted, so long as he and Leon worked in tandem. All part of consideration as he stood in the windy field outside this little grey farmhouse. It was a quiet place, cornstalks growing wild in the roughshod land surrounding the city proper.
The house was on a hill… A suspiciously round, dome-like hill. One wouldn’t notice unprompted, but once it was revealed in ernest, it became an unmistakably awkward feature in an otherwise rocky, craggy coastal landscape. The too-smooth slopes, the unseen vent hoods hidden under the untended crops left to waste away year after year. Down below, dozens of their own lay in wait for the signal to begin laying waste to all forces inside the base. Meanwhile, Casey had gathered a battalion more, and surrounded the farmhouse while leveling the nearby foliage in order to create clear sightlines.
While most scurried about, passing out equipment and getting into defensive positions with magical barriers and countermeasures set up around the complex, Casey telepathically doled out instructions while providing what basic orange benefits he could to his fellow Adepts, all from the line just past the front of the actual property. He was comically armored in what one could only describe as a battlesuit in some kind of Ferroman reboot. He could’ve gone on and on about the delicate specifications and the sheer amount of magic it took to make a set of battle armor like his, but he knew Trisha had plenty on her mind being this close to a potential fight. Never mind not knowing exactly what was happening below them…
They were all in anticipation over that. But Casey was confident enough to let her cling to him without telling her to get back into the truck. In truth, he wanted her there too, so long as she knew the true scope of what he was orchestrating. His attention wasn’t even entirely pulled away, which was impressive. He had plenty of processing power to spare, willing the armor to warm to a toasty level in order to keep her comfortable where she held him. He didn’t speak with his voice, as the helmet had no speakers for him to shout through.
”I haven’t heard anything yet. Everything’s still jammed up about a hundred feet down, like I hit a big anti-Lux wall.” he explained to Trisha through their connection, hoping to ease her anxiety even just a little.
Trisha nodded slowly. In truth, her own attention was divided too- though not to the impressive degree Casey’s was. The most difficult thing was stopping her bees from attacking the strange tin man she was leaning against, that they could vaguely smell and tell was a person but not enough to ascertain the threat. They just assumed close and unfamiliar meant threat while on high alert.
There were thousands on her, though not to the point she was completely covered. They gathered in various ‘strategic’ spots- her shoulders, her braided hair, gathered under her thick, puffy jacket ready to swarm out. A tiny Princess floated beside her, ready to be expanded when Trisha needed to call even more bees through. She’d brought a decent amount with her- enough for an initial defence if needed, but not so much that it was a pain while waiting.
And they were all strangely quiet and still, aside from the small groups that kept trying to make incursions over her arms onto Casey. Different from their normal loud energy, they were like bee soldiers patiently awaiting commands from above.
“So it hasn’t failed yet, at least.” Trisha responded, ever positive. It was difficult when she was facing her first real, planned, combat situation in almost ten years. The fight with Lila didn’t exactly count- there’d never been a true risk there- and the assassin was entirely different. She knew if- when- it happened, that same mood would strike her when she got in the zone and more intune with her bees. But the anticipation and leadup was more difficult.
It reminded her of all those evenings watching the sun set, waiting for the Stygian Snake’s minions to appear. At least it was light…
“You’re going to need to equip this with some kind of… scent generator.” She continued, trying to distract herself from her nerves. She pulled one arm away from him to scoop up a group of bees crawling across the other, depositing them inside her jacket.
“Some of them are convinced that you’re a threat.”
There was a gentle vibration, followed by gentle wisps of condensation like someone was breathing out. In truth, Casey turned on the machine’s ventilation system, and allowed his scent to fill the air around him.
”Does the cold negatively affect their scent tracking? I can turn the fans up.” he asked rather casually as he let one eye fade into an observation patch on the left-rear team lead.
They were bumbling around with some pre-fab walls locked up in spell caps. They needed to be broken and cooked before tossing, but the fools kept cracking and tossing, causing the walls to be more than half-buried in the dense layer of topsoil covering the bunker.
“No, they can sense fine through the cold. It’s other weather that’s a problem, like rain or when it’s really windy.” Trisha explained, letting out a soft sigh of relief as the bees started to pick up Casey’s smell- and her own pheromones that saturated him. It was one less thing to worry about in her own little army, allowing her to order more onto her shoulders and arms without worrying they’d keep trying to attack him.
“Wind’s bad for all of us. It blows my pheromones back in my face too. I’ve made myself panic with that before. At least it’s a clear day today… Just cold.”
Though the cold wasn’t particularly conducive for bee activities either, hers had at least built up a resistance over the years. This temperature wouldn’t affect them. They were well fed, too, which kept their energy levels high.
“But they can smell you just fine now, thanks. They don’t think I’m being statically kidnapped by a tin man anymore.”
”You and I both wish it was tin. But it’s a lot heavier than that. Don’t forget, if something manages to turn me into a can of corned beef hash, the button to release the entire thing is under the crook in the right knee.” Casey chided rather morbidly, his inability to refrain from gallows humor shining through on this cold field.
He didn’t expect much. It was runic armor plating he’d requisitioned from an uncovered cache outside Berlin. Easily one of the most magically conductive metals on the planet made by top-notch Forge Adepts. The metal was meant to be for the magical tank line that the enemy had hoped to roll out. Casey could only imagine that if they hadn’t been squirreling the materials away, and had maybe tried making one of the massive land-barges, maybe things would’ve turned out differently.
For all their technical prowess, foresight really went down the drain in the last two years of that war…
Casey let half of his brain drift off into ordering the team leader to get things done properly before something dumb happened… It prompted some serious movement on the other end, which gave him a headache from the otherwise static position he shared with Trisha.
”That was supposed to be a joke. But, also, y’know, seriously just in case. You won’t be able to carry me if I end up too exhausted to walk. I love you… Something tells me it’ll all work out, y’know?”
“I won’t be able to carry you in or out of the armour.” Trisha’s lips pressed into a thin line. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
“I’m calling Cass if that happens… But I hope it works out like you think it will. I love you too.”
She wasn’t viewing things through a particularly negative lens, but she wasn’t exactly feeling positive either. Not because of anything that happened in the leadup to destroy her confidence. Just the only proper fight she’d been in that counted as a ‘victory’ was when they sealed the Stygian Snake- and with how many people had died that night it was difficult to look back on it as a good one. Every other battle had been a stalemate at best, paused by the rising sun.
“How… long do you think it’ll be? Not until they’re done, but the actual fighting. Hours? The whole day?” She tried to distract herself from the simmering panic with practical questions. If Casey thought he might end up too exhausted to walk, it might end up on the longer end of things, right?
Casey shook his head actively, the metal suit jiggling ever so slightly.
”I have no idea, Love. That’s the thing about stuff like this: There’s no direct precedent. I can tell you about times we’ve spent weeks outside bunker complexes just trying to figure out ways to crack them. In the same story, I’ll tell you about the forty-five minutes it took to actually clear the complex out once we had a solid plan. And don’t even get me started on those damn things.” he replied.
In truth, there was simply no way of judging for sure what the response would be. They had to know that people were gathering up here, right? That the main entrance and exit to the facility below was totally blocked off, and that their Lux access was being systematically jammed section by section? Or, was this all another red herring to begin with, just a distraction to keep the Temple forces busy?
He wanted to give her the comfort of a more specific answer, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
”If you wanna go off just fighting? Could be five minutes. Could be an hour. Could be eight. Failure means, well… Cherish this moment as the last bit of peace we may get. You never know what the ultimate end could be. I know you and I will walk away from this place, but in what world we leave toward, who knows?”
It was pretty difficult to cherish a moment that Trisha didn’t find particularly peaceful. Trisha had always found the leadup worse. It was the moment where she could go further and further down the rabbit hole of panic and think of all the awful scenarios that might play out. In a way it prepared her for actually going in- it could only get as bad as she’d imagined, after all. With enough preparation, she was good at shutting off- or using- the panic while actually having to fight. But the before and after weren’t so easy.
She couldn’t put all that on Casey, though, just because he hadn’t given her an answer that in any way changed how she felt. Made her more anxious, if anything, pushing her to mentally play out all those scenarios where they did fail again.
Some of them didn’t seem better to walk away from. Like the return of the Stygian Snake, or similar…
“Oh, I see. I guess… that makes sense. It was always very clear cut when we fought the snake. Sundown to sunrise. Eight to ten hours… Thank God it was summer. It makes sense most fights wouldn’t be like that. My experience if very night Apparition specific.” She responded casually, like she wasn’t stuck on the possibility of going back to that- in Winter, when the dark hours were longer. Was it even the worst scenario? Surely it could be worse…
Some of the bees started buzzing in response to her thoughts, leaking out as gentle pheromones only they could sense. A group gathered on her neck like that would somehow help.
“It just doesn’t feel very peaceful right now. Maybe it is for you… But you’re organising everything, aren’t you? So how can it be?”
”Experience, mostly. Sitting on the precipice of violence never gets easier. You just get numb. Some psychos like me even enjoy it. Few and far between, but the trait makes for good soldiers. Compliant, easily moved around like chess pieces.”
He tried to shuttle some experience her way. Not directly, rather in the form of what amounted to a pamphlet of emotions which he felt best assisted his overall feelings at the moment. Anticipation, yes, but also that same fear that Trisha knew well. The difference was anticipation over anxiety. The anticipation of free live fire target practice. The thrill of hitting, and being hit. The adrenaline as everything melts away until he was so locked in that it took external stimulation to bring him out of the fervor.
That bloodthirst was cut by the fear that pain and loss may come. But the bridled warhorse craved action more than it cared about future freedoms. Realizing how easy it was for himself put Casey slightly at odds with the familiar feeling, not exactly wishing it to be something Trisha experienced, but definitely not wanting her to suffer the alternative.
”I’m sorry it’s hard. I’d love to have some gold nugget advice to help you get through it, but that kind of thing isn’t easy to muster. I just don’t have it in my pocket right now.” he punctuated the thought by letting his arm wrap around her just a little tighter.
Trisha's brow furrowed as Casey shared his own emotions, something that didn't really change her own. She wasn't sure if anything could ever beat out her anxiety until she was in a moment where that same anxiety helped her survive. 'Peaceful' moments before those situations just let the panicked thoughts multiply. And she really wasn't like Casey. She didn't enjoy fighting like that. The adrenaline during it kept her going, but it didn't thrill her or anything. Maybe because it was never just her safety on the line, but the bees too? Their deaths and the hurt with it always came before any actual physical harm to her.
Or she just wasn't made for things like this.
She appreciated him trying, at least.
"It's alright, I didn't expect you to have something to just fix it." She replied simply, leaning into him. It wasn't as comforting as it normally would be, with the magical armour Casey was wearing and her own thick clothes putting a lot of layers between them, nevermind the bees that had to reposition themselves when she changed how she was hugging him.
"I'd rather be this anxious now than have a panic attack during it, anyway. Even if neither are pleasant this is… better. I'll be fine. I just don't think I'll ever not feel anxious before something like this. I'm not… Strong like you are."
”The goal is to avoid this kind of thing in the future. Just a little longer, right?” he asked, attention drifting slightly toward a wave of perception opening up from below. Something had to be happening…
But Trisha didn’t tense up, and she didn’t seem to have any kind of visceral response to the incoming shock. So, whatever it was, Greyson was at least still alive. Hell, maybe there was a world where Greyson-
The sensation of living in a big carbonated soda bubble full of corn syrup erupted upward through the channel in the center of the bunker, blowing the windows of the farm house out and scattering doors and glass across the front line very slowly. Lazily, the ground shook as if there was something playing sad jazz in the sewers under a quiet street. Brass instruments relaying a dirge let giant pink bubbles full of flower petals crawl out of the house’s confines like fizz escaping a cup.
One particularly intent bubble meandered its rolling body toward Casey and Trisha with seeming intelligence and recognition. Then, before either could put the implication together, the bubble was upon them. And then, like so many times before, Trisha was alone. Casey, once again, magically severed from her.
She was in a large field, thick grass soft beneath her fingers. It spread far from her until it hit the trees encircling this expansive clearing. It was warm, sun gently bathing her skin through the leafy canopy overhead. Early evening, she could vaguely tell. A few hours till sundown.
It was nice. She wasn’t alone, either. The clearing was full of life, laughter and indistinct chatting filling the wide, open space. Her gaze moved away from the trees in the distance towards the sounds.
Different groups of people were scattered around. Sycamore members. The loudest drew her attention first- Ella brandishing her channeler and shouting some lame magical girl phrase, goofing around with Saskia and Lisa while Kari laughed and watched. Adora and her trinity were nearby too, though not without eyerolls towards the antics. Trisha didn’t even find herself annoyed by the loudness for once. It was almost endearing… nostalgic.
Further away, but still in the same area, was Luca, grass turned brown in a circle around him, along with Olivia, Lila and Lynn. A quieter group enjoying each other's company while watching the more rambunctious magical girls.
Just as loud but on the other side of the clearing was the jock squad and the large group surrounding them for the unlimited beer Sully was pouring out. Him and Drake were the worst, clearly already drunk. But it extended beyond them- on the outskirts of the group Linqian and Aryin were both egging each other on to chug a full cup of something.
All of the smart kids were there too, even Sloane and Anya- though they’d brought along a fold out table and chairs to look at plans. Because it was impossible for them to have fun. But they were there.
Everyone was for the Summer Solstice. The longest day, and the shortest night they’d have to spend fighting the Stygian Snake and its minions. Enough time that they could actually relax for once… They could make the most of the nice weather in the place where it all started.
Trisha wasn’t alone either. The Rich clique sat near here, with Gabe and Sylvia bickering about something. She was closer to the more chill members- Sage and Lin talking quietly, though that was indistinct too.
Another hand covered her own, her gaze moving from it up to the smiling face of the boy she’d almost loved and then lost. His dark eyes creased slightly as they looked at her, soft lines of his face showing an immaturity he’d never grow out of. It was the Martin she wished she remembered- the happy, bright boy rather than the desperately fighting teenager who died in front of her.
But right now he looked at her with a gaze full of warmth and hope. It made her feel a little sad, but almost peaceful too. As she was pulled out of the Recollection the feeling and thought lingered.
He would have wanted her to be happy too.
Casey’s face was the first thing to appear as the haze of the massive bubble’s inherent spell passing over her entirely. It was terribly good at remaking that sort of Recollection whatever it was…
”-ey! There you are! You’re alright! Right!? That’s you in there, Trisha!?” Casey asked almost frantically, presuming that she got the exact same kind of treatment he’d gotten.
A happy memory long lost, of a moment where they were all actually together without pain. As much as he cherished it, he was eager to know whether or not the secret of the Tree’s location had been broken as they expected, or if Greyson had somehow managed to protect the power of the spell indefinitely past his demise.
“Who else would it be? Greyson’s ghost? He’d choose someone else to possess.” Trisha managed to half joke, wiping away the single tear that slipped down her cheek before smiling at him. She was still coming out of the memory, everything else a bit fuzzy outside of his face right in front of her.
“It’s me, I’m alright. I’m guessing… It worked? Greyson’s obviously dead and- Well, nothing horrible’s happened yet?”
Casey didn’t waste any time pulling her close and hugging her as the echoing of a mystical trombone blared up through the house like a loudspeaker. All of the sound being funneled out, now punctuated by the echoing rapport of gunfire touching off from that same cavernous source. The fighting had begun in earnest…
”I’m so glad you’re alright… I didn’t honestly know what the fuck was gonna happen! What about the Tree, Babe!? Do you remember where the Tree is!?” he blurted out, freeing one arm to reach down toward his helmet as half his brain started receiving combat reports from below.
“I remember. It’s…” Her brow furrowed, head shaking slightly.
“I’d have to take you there. Big clearing in the middle of a forest outside of St Portwell doesn’t help and I… really only know directionally from my house, or the rundown manor we stayed in. Maybe Leon will have actual directions. He’ll remember too.”
Casey nodded in return, his face turning from excited to serious in a brief moment. It was all he needed to know: That the information existed once again. A signal rocked out across St. Portwell, a simple trigger spell to a communication band that utilized one of Junior’s fancy wireless connections. It was magically encrypted, unable to be picked up by just about any form of bug from an external network, and left Casey free to speak.
”Attention all stationary, prep scenario two, ready the mini-fort. Will update as able, over.”
It was a relief that one of the contingencies that they leaned into seemed to be the correct opening gambit. They needed to get to the tree and lock it down as quickly as possible, and that meant making sure there was as little leakage from the organization at hand as possible. Casey’s biggest concern, after Dollhouse, was the freakish remnants of Sycamore’s worst who still prowled the streets. He’d need to be quick about retrieving Leon, and hope that whatever Greyson did, he kept it out of the hands of Eighth Street.
Casey let his mind drift down to Leon, trying to bother him only to get a brain full of Lelou for his troubles. Recoiling from the bite, Casey shook his head in frustration before refocusing on Trisha.
”That’s totally fine! Here, just… Don’t resist.”
He leaned his forehead in toward her, intent on the casual passing of the Recollection without considering the gravity of the information he was asking to be handed.
“Huh?” Trisha was only confused for a moment before his forehead touched hers, and she felt the tug of him trying to pull the Recollection out of her. She did resist for a moment. She’d never liked Recollection sharing.
But it was Casey. She trusted him… And he needed to know. So she lowered her guard to open her mind, handing over the entire memory to him and the implicit understanding of the Tree’s location with it.
Casey was slammed with the entire memory all at once, but catching it bit by bit, he found enough landmarks to realize why nobody had found it… The fucking tree was so big, it looked like its own grove system from the air. Otherwise, it was in the most random, openly noticeable spot, that the only thing really protecting it was a crotchety old farmer with an over-under slung under his arm. One of the grandfathers of a Sycamite long dead. The kids got the old man to treat the tree like a memorial for that tragic summer, when all those kids went missing…
He really didn’t want to disturb the old man’s vigil… But others wouldn’t mind so badly, so he had to get there first.
”Perfect! Trisha, perfect!-” he praised her, seeing the end and seeing that boy Martin’s face staring back at him… It was almost bittersweet. But he knew better than to let her emotions inadvertently pass into him without reproach. They had to learn in his outfit, and this was no different.
He then tucked back into his radio.
”-Gold team! Off the Morrowville Parkway, on the empty side of the city. Property belongs to a Roger T. Benson, the fucking tree should be eight hundred feet back along the edge of the property line where it meets the forest! Copy?”
The voice on the other side quickly confirmed, and Casey was left with a calm, enthusiastic look on his face.
”Babe! It’s-”
He wrapped his hands around her shoulders, lifting her up fully into an embrace.
”-over! It’s fuckin’ over!”
Maybe he was counting his chickens before they hatched, but in the moment, Casey couldn’t stop the excitement from welling up and out of his body.
Trisha let out a surprised squeak as her feet were pulled up off the ground, not expecting that kind of a response right now. Her arms wrapped around him as best as they could with the armour he was wearing, bees scurrying around to her back to avoid being squished in the embrace.
“I- I guess it is? Nobody’s hunting me anymore. No more Dollhouse and… No more Sycamore.” She let out a sigh of relief, smiling at him before vaguely gesturing towards the building.
“I thought you were excited to shoot people?”
Casey let her down, shrugging with a smile.
”Not a zero percent chance it’s coming. Leon hasn’t responded yet. Should I check on Cass?” he asked her calmly, not wanting her to think he was insinuating that things were going wrong.
Trisha frowned thoughtfully, before nodding. She’d rather know if the fighting was going to spill out up here… If Cass even knew that.
“There’s no harm in checking? Or maybe there is, maybe it’ll distract her?”
”No sense not trying.” he said very simply, patting her shoulder before zoning out, his right eye veering off into another realm.
Deep below, Cass would be able to feel the practiced tug on her Emotional Field. If not familiar at this point, it was at least distinct enough that it’d easily be readable as Casey.
[color=577d06][i]”Cass? How’s things down there Boo?”[/color] he tried to ask casually, in case things were tense.
”Great, awesome, this is way more fun than killing those other gangsters!” Cass’ mentally shouted back, with absolutely no volume control. She wasn’t exactly practiced with the whole Emotional Field magical communication shit, so it just ended up painfully loud.
”Don’t think they expected the massive wolf! Clearly their spies ain’t all that good!”
”Well, try to remind whoever is in charge of the body that you guys are in a big bundt pan. At any time, it could fill with molten batter, or just start cooking altogether. We really don’t know what funky shit is down there. How far down are you?” he asked, letting his head roll to the side and speak aloud to Trisha.
”She’s loving it… Typical.”
“Of course she is.” Trisha rolled her eyes in response- at Cass rather than Casey, obviously.
”Uh, like… Far enough down? I ain’t been paying attention! Can’t you magically figure that out?” Cass responded around the same time.
”Neither me nor Lelou know the fuck you mean with that metaphor… This place gonna fill with lava?!”
”It fuckin’ could! Don’t play with your meals, and link up with the descent team as soon as possible! Keep your beacon bands running, and don’t lose them! You kept it around your waist, right?” he sounded like a concerned parent, letting the other half of his brain lean into the descent group and gauging the gap between them overall.
”There’s quite a bit of space between your groups. Don’t rush! We made location on the Sycamore Tree, so just… Make sure nobody gets out alive, Cass! That’s a grim order, but it’s necessary!”
”Oh, that’d explain what Linqian meant by a shitty hiding place- And don’t worry, I ain’t planning to let anyone live. You don’t gotta worry ‘bout the others either… Y’know what Lelou’s like, and Linqian’s almost more murderous- Andrade’s pretty scary himself!” With the way she was chatting away, it was like she wasn’t in the middle of combat herself- which she was. But it wasn’t exactly difficult at that moment.
”Also I got the fucking band thing on. Y’know how much Leon lectured me ‘bout keeping it on on the way down? He wouldn’t shut up about it! I ain’t ‘bout to live through another lecture afterwards if I lose it!”
”When there’s suddenly a hundred gun barrels pointed downrange and you’re on the other side by accident, you’re gonna be thankful you wore that fucking thing! Keep it on, make sure everyone gets out safe! We’re waiting up here for you!”
Casey’s eye twisted back into place, no longer rolling into oblivion.
”She sounds like she can handle it. Why don’t you let the bees settle down now, and we’ll get you back in the truck where its warm. Eh?” he offered as the sound of slow jazz bathed itself across the countryside.
“You’re not just trying to get rid of me, are you?” Trisha asked, even though she knew it wasn’t the case at all. But it was in her anxious nature, especially when something was happening. What if he was planning to do something crazy? No, no, she should trust him. And he said Cass sounded like she could handle it! Which she probably could, since it was Cass.
And it would be nicer for the bees to not be constantly waiting for a fight.
Head tilting towards the ground, she nodded.
“So long as you think everything’s alright. I don’t want to be back there away from everyone if something actually happens.”
[color=577d06]”Well, honestly, I’d prefer it if you were anyway. Just, y’know, ‘cuz it's dangerous otherwise. Like the bubbles: It was already scary enough that I practically couldn’t move fast enough to block you. It was going to hit you no matter what, and that’s honestly the scarier part. Magic’s… Pretty fucked up, honestly.”[/i] he mused, turning them both away from the farmhouse to walk back toward the truck that had taken them here.
Casey’s gun swung around on its sling at his front, helmet in his off hand and Trisha pulled tight to him in his main.
”You know, I was thinking… Maybe if I’d had the courage to approach you guys that summer, and offer to help… Maybe I would’ve Kindled then. Kind of weird, ain’t it?” he pondered the irony in the situation with quiet consideration.
Trisha bit down her immediate response ‘or you might’ve died.’ It wasn’t exactly a good one, even if it seemed just as likely. Half of Sycamore had died, from freshly Kindled to experienced magic users…
“It is weird, yeah. Things would’ve been a lot different between us, I think… I don’t think we would’ve been in the same group either. You probably would’ve gotten on with Luca and Jasper and that lot.” She responded more evenly, glancing up at him with a half smile.
“Did you not have to deal with any of the Snake’s Apparitions? Or the people it controlled? I know that’s what caused a lot of people to Kindle, before they joined Sycamore.”
”We weren’t allowed to leave Temple grounds without an adult. Only Leon had that privilege. Well… Elise did too, but she wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get in. She was doing just about everything in her power to get out.” he smiled, fondly remembering Elise’s vehement disgust every time their mom hinted at “girls from school”.
His sister had always been incredibly snobby… It was only after her time in the Witch’s College in New York that she found softness beyond the basic kind.
”Once there was an alert on grounds, and I saw some of them. But I wasn’t really troubled one way or another if I remember right. Snakes with legs was comic book shit, I must’ve just laughed off the absurdity.” he admitted, not having examined this very early reaction to horrors beyond man’s typical comprehension.
“That almost sounds like good parenting.” Trisha commented drily, lips pulling up into a more of a smile.
“If, y’know, I didn’t know what Lynette was generally like as a Mother… Not letting you out alone during a multiversal threat was sensible…”
Maybe Casey saw it a different way, and wished he’d been included and participating. Probably. Trisha would have gladly swapped places and been protected by someone- anyone- from having to participate. Or maybe she could only think that now looking back on it… She’d had enough money to leave the city for the summer. But where could she go as a fourteen year old? Her Mother certainly didn’t want her over that summer.
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d seen one of them eat someone.” She continued with a straight face, before letting out a slight laugh.
“The legged snakes were ridiculous enough that they were easier to mentally deal with than the shadow creatures or other nightmares the Snake created and dragged us into. It’s why I’m not really scared of normal snakes like I am the dark.”
”I definitely saw one bite this guy and swallow him whole, so-” Casey half giggled in return, knowing that he’d probably seen worse.
The Nazis weren’t afraid of experimentation, and still unleashing the failures. Failure to them didn’t always mean that the end result wasn’t a nightmarish killing machine, he’d realized. Sometimes failure was simple as “We can’t control this thing when it's out, so it isn’t a viable weapon platform.” But, the freaks and fiends of Thule still lurked in the forests after the war, and that was the most horrifying thing he’d ever been a part of. The Hunts of the Black Forest.
Of course, he didn’t really know the extent of the Stygian’s abilities, leaving him unwilling to push the envelope any further. Popping the door to the back of the SUV, he held Trisha’s hand for her to step up, then unclipped his chest plate to slip out of it and follow her inside. As it came off, his whole kit shrunk into a convenient hand-held size, rather than something big and bulky enough to encase his chest.
The smooth jazz was still audible through the car… Which meant it was clearly magical music. Only, in here, it was quieter. More intimate. The perfect kind of place to really hear the music. There were no words to the song, but a trombone seemed to carry the lyrical aspect of the dirge occasionally singing out in brassy mourning, other times quenching into a low rumble as it waited for the next moment to soar again.
”This music, huh? What the fuck monster has this as a power?” he openly speculated, not exactly associating the massive pillar of pink light… Though, more hints could probably be ascertained from other sources… Like the millions of pink lotus petals falling and melting away like snow.
Trisha raised her eyebrows up at Casey, before pointedly looking outside at the cascading petals. She'd already guessed based on the timing, and the way the music had echoed in the background of her Recollection. But it was impressive that it lasted so long.
“I think it's Greyson's dying… Spell?" She replied, leaning her body into Casey with a slight smile.
“Or, his ghost musically haunting Linqian. I'm sure she won't be happy about it… but the lotus flowers were always his thing, and it started when the pink bubbles hit."
It made it bittersweet, really. Like the Recollection, showing her a rare moment of Sycamore peace. A time when they were happily co-existing and just goofing off like teenagers should be. Even Greyson himself had been on his ‘best’ behaviour- still a dick, but a tolerable one. It was a bit annoying to be reminded of the rare good memories as everything was ending.
“I’m surprised it's lasting this long. What if… you don't think we'll be stuck hearing this for the rest of our lives, so you?" She looked up at him with a somewhat goofy shocked expression, hoping it was clear enough that she was joking. Trying to push herself away from sentimentality about something she shouldn't really be all that sentimental about.
Casey’s lips pursed together in consideration. If this was a spell, it would feel different. Every sensory perception he had of the anomaly gave him the impression of Apparitional magic, with little to no actual associative Lux. In other words, this was a ghost imitating an Adept, but on an Apparitional scale. Their potential, those outer entities, ranged vastly in opposition to the usual Shimmer Adept, whose upper limits were almost entirely determined by the amount of Lux the human body was able to circulate.
”That… May actually be it, honestly. This is an extraneous birth, it seems like. I’ve seen it once before: We had a situation in Italy; the guy wasn’t in my unit, but boy howdy he was fighting like a demon. Then, all of a sudden, crunch, y’know? He got flattened by this fucking- Well, point is, the corpse fuckin’ erupted into this crazy magic. Intense, way more intense than anything I’d seen. His soul coalesced there and then, into this massive red light that shot a pillar just like that into the sky. Only, when stuff started to rain down from the sky, well… They were bullets. And they weren’t raining. They were traveling. Like, y’know, a bullet. It was actually fucking devestating.” he recalled the amount of friendly fire before the unseen entity vanished into nothingness, taking its lights along with it.
”I took one in the shoulder, nearly bled me out.” he giggled.
Trisha stared at him for a moment, head shaking slightly. He said it like it wasn’t a big deal… Maybe it wasn’t. There’d probably been so many times that he’d almost died during the war. It wasn’t exactly her place to tell him he shouldn’t talk about it so lightly… But it did worry her! For the future, and all the times he might just put himself in danger without much thought. It was a worry she already had, just increased as they moved towards the Temple’s collapse.
“So… We should be grateful that his dying eruption is sad jazz and lotus petals? It’s less dangerous than bullets.” She said, trying not to look too sad about the whole Casey almost bleeding out thing. She did shuffle even closer to him so that she could properly cuddle into him, as much as was possible in the SUV.
“I didn’t know that was a thing that could happen. It never happened against the Snake… I guess no one had strong enough emotions or whatever for it to. For such an asshole, Greyson had a lot of love.” She bit her lip, before letting out a slight sigh.
“The Recollection too, it could’ve been awful. Like, the final battle when we sealed it. But it wasn’t. None of the end has been… Makes it feel like Sycamore was all friendliness rather than friendly fire.”
”People grow, and change. Sometimes for the better, other times not. But nostalgia and tinted goggles aren’t always rosey. Sometimes they’re dark, obscuring, and just get in the way of you seeing anything to do with it. Granted: The interactions you’ve had with other Sycamites is a pretty good indication that there were reasons to feel how you do. I’d never try and dissuade you from your grief. But, clearly, not everyone feels how they felt back then. Even if they’re little changes, they made a big impact.”
For a moment, he smiled, then reached for her hand with great love and sincerity.
”Even you, Trisha. Please, try to accept that you’ve helped, and you’ve changed too. Maybe, we can start to hug them, instead of hitting them. After all, it’s all over now. No more tension. No more struggling for them.”
Trisha’s lips pressed together, looking down at their joined hands rather than into his eyes. He was right that people had changed, and she’d changed too. It had been ten years. Ten years of holding onto all of that resentment she felt towards them… But it wasn’t easy to let go of that. Especially after what happened with Martin. But it wasn’t like she’d given anyone a chance to even talk to her, nevermind make any amends- both ways. Except for Leon and that was only because he was Casey’s brother, and now Cass’ boyfriend.
It was hard to see how she’d directly helped. Cass was around helping thanks to her, sure… Casey was involved because of her. Was that enough? It didn’t really matter much anymore, anyway.
“I don’t know how to start getting over all these preconceived notions I have about everyone. And that they have about me.” She admitted, quietly and honestly.
“I didn’t go back because I thought I was just as likely to die whether I returned to Sycamore or not. They wouldn’t protect me. I didn’t give them a chance, because I assumed they wouldn’t give me one. Even though I know I’ve changed, and they probably had too. But I didn’t think I’d changed positively… I don’t know. I want to try, even if it’s all over and we’re going to leave. Not because of the stuff Leon was talking about, trying to be a coven that helps each other. But… I think there’s some people I could really be… friends with if I didn’t just react like I always do.”
”Like who?” Casey asked very simply.
Of course, she maybe meant Lila, and whoever the Hell she hung around with. Tangentially, 8th Street? No way; he’d already been in talks with a mole about finding ways to get Emily G. Reed to take some kind of bait for the authorities.
He was hoping that it was going to be something having to do with this scenario. Wrapping them up in a magical R.I.C.O. case would be their best chance of seeing Emily in prison forever.
“Probably…” Trisha trailed off, frowning a little bit. How many people were even left alive? So many of the more tolerable ones weren’t. Plenty of them died ten years back.
“Lila, I guess. It was fine until she brought up Evelynn… And Luca and Jasper, maybe. And then, well… Leon. Which maybe sounds a bit silly, but I didn’t really see myself being friends with him eventually until recently. Even when he started dating Cass. But then there’s everything with Martin so it’s still… hard to picture.”
Casey frowned remembering the whole problem with Martin and Leon’s culpability in it. Though, it wasn’t like Leon hadn’t been remorseful. He was hesitant to spill the beans on what they’d talked about between brothers…
”Well… I understand still being hesitant with Leon, but… Well, I hope that one day, sooner rather than later, you guys can level with one another for the sake of your own pasts. Not to say he feels worse than you, because obviously that’s not possible, but he’s absolutely broken up about it.”
And he understood why his brother hadn’t expressed remorse until then, even being in such close proximity with Trisha. Simply put, it was far easier to avoid these things if nobody was intent on calling you out. But, now that the dam was broken, a far more matured Leon could see the track of consequences, and then he had to deal with the emotional ramifications of that. Not that it was great, but any improvement was better than abject avoidance.
Trisha nodded slowly.
“I think… I want to move past it and try, at least. Even if it isn't easy for me, and I'll struggle to not just be defensive for a while. It's difficult because I don't normally… forgive. But I know I should eventually. It was pretty obvious how bad he felt about it. And he is dating my best friend- if Cass and you want to be around him then- then, there's something there for me to build on, right? And I love you and Cass enough to try."
It was a difficult process of convincing herself really, trying to really move past the resentful unforgiving person she'd been. Nobody ever gave her second chances so why should she. But now people did… and she had people that loved her, even if she found it difficult to entirely accept. She wanted her tiny bubble to expand. And either way, Leon was going to be in her life. If Cass really liked both of them like she claimed, then there must be some way the two could become friendly too. Even if it was something she'd never pictured before and still struggled with.
“I’ll need time before we actually… talk about it. Otherwise I'll just snap, and- Well, you know how much I hate talking about things." She gripped his hand a bit tighter.
In turn, he gave her the reassuring hand squeeze.
”As long as you think it’ll come, Trisha. I don’t want you to force yourself: Ultimately, if I have to separate those two parts of my life, I will. I don’t mind. Part of being an adult is doing stuff like that, and making sure that the people affected have enough information that they can also move on somehow.”
It was a difficult circumstance all around. Of course, ultimately, he didn’t love that he was in the middle of it… Thus, try and try again to make sure it’s all settled before they get settled. Before too many things had to be busted and broken in order to fit all the pieces into his life.
But at the same time, his connection to Leon came back to life, like his Brother knew he was being talked about.
”Casey!? The main lift is locked down! Say a prayer, they’re trying something stupid to get it running!”
Casey furrowed his brow inadvertently, clearing his throat.
”Speak of the Devil…” he said aloud, closing his eyes to try and get a better picture from the people he was connected to.
And then Trisha would be able to see the hairs on his arm stand at attention. Every bit of his body tensed, like he was about to vomit.
”That… That’s not gonna work! Stop, don’t fucking do that!”
”Oddly enough, I trust Keera. Besides, what’s the worst that happens if it doesn’t work?”
Then the entire house, and the entire top of the hill, turned into a massive flash of light as the facility split open and ruptured like a giant cyst. And the ejecta was, among the debris of raining corpses and plenty of stuff that had been kept down there, the soaring disk that was the encased lift they’d been stuck inside. The guard team at the top of the lift was almost certainly dead if they hadn’t gotten communication to move, and since he hadn’t seen anyone else leave the house, it was almost a guarantee that they were paste.
And then the matter of fact was that God knows how many people were now soaring through the air like a frisbee hucked out of a clay pigeon trap.
”Oh my fucking GOD!?” Casey exclaimed loudly, almost immediately opening the door again to try and get a bead on where this thing was going to land.
“What the fuck?!" Trisha's reactive panic had all of her bees gathering onto her again with quiet buzzes. She shuffled after Casey, leaning out as best she could around him to also watch the budget spaceship landing. She resisted the urge to grab onto him, not sure if he was going to have to run out or take any other quick action. She didn't want to hinder him just because she was freaking out a bit.
“What- What- Everyone's in there right?!" She was doing her best not to go into full blown panic mode over it. It wasn’t like she could do anything, and it would just make things worse for Casey. She could already imagine how Cass was going to be calling it the best rollercoaster she'd ever been on. If she survived. She had to. If she didn't… Fuck. It would be fine. It had to be. Even if the house and part of the hill had completely exploded.
“Shit… that… Do we need to try and get to… whenever that's going to land? We should, shouldn't we?!"
Casey ran through a big list of the people who were involved that could potentially help this situation. This madness... As far as direct influences, he could think of a couple without getting terribly creative. It was really a matter of how they’d managed to pop the stack and get launched out of an elevator shaft like that.
”And… Catch it? They had some kind of plan. Let’s just-”
His ears caught the sound of loud grinding. There was no way… Spinning his whole body back to the farmhouse, now grabbing Trisha in both his arms, he couldn’t believe that there was a chance that they were coming out of the hole now… That they weren’t in the elevator.
”INCOMING IN FIVE, FOUR, THREE-”
Battered by the incoming psychic communication, Casey was simply stunned as the literal floor of the elevator shaft ground up to the top of the shaft before violently tipping up and over to launch its occupants haphazardly across the field.
There was still fighting happening, causing a great deal of the overwatch crews to try and slide into the conflict in order to overwhelm the enemies with numbers. But, before Casey and Trisha could even make their way up the hill to get there, things were breaking up.
Except for, strangely, Andrade... He wasn’t even using his knife: He had someone underneath him, knees pinning his arms as he drove his fist up and down again and again. He was sobbing. Weeping. Screaming downward as he mashed and mashed. Leon was quick to pull him off once he was coherent, his body producing massive plumes of steam as fresh, open wounds opened and closed with his flesh. His hair was pure white, and his body was massive compared to usual, standing two heads taller than usual with massive boney growths covering his fists like clawed gauntlets.
Casey, still slightly holding onto Trisha for fear of something else happening, quickly guided them up toward the madness. Cautionarily, he looked back at the flying disk just about as it hit the ground and exploded into a cloud of smoke and dust. His brow furrowed into anger, and for the first time, Trisha would be able to see a truly different Casey. Knowing what was coming, his hands came up to clasp over Trisha’s ears so she didn’t immediately get scared.
”What the fuck was that, and who gave anyone permission to do that in the first place!?”
His voice was like a loudspeaker, booming and full of fury. Though, Trisha would be able to feel that he wasn’t shaking. Rather, his hands around her ears were relaxed! Relaxed to the point that he was able to rub the back of her head comfortingly with his thumb. Leon was a little shocked, and some of the other lesser Adepts stood starkly at attention.
”Casey, don’t-”
Maybe it was bad to be this fearless… Maybe it was detrimental to his health. But Casey did his best to gently move Trisha to the side before rushing his giant brother in a meager attempt to tackle the ton of titanic muscle. He met a wall, but that didn’t stop him from using Leon’s arm like a step to climb him and drive his fist into Leon’s face.
Amazingly, it was enough to send the monster tumbling on his ass… Granted, Lelou had purposefully withdrawn her protection in that instant, but it looked impressively intimidating. But, before he could go to town-
”Hey, what the fuck?!” Obviously Cass wasn’t going to just sit around and let the two brothers beat each other to death- or just Casey beat Leon’s face over and over, like how it looked like it was going to go. No fucking way! He could be pissed all he wanted for how things went, but that didn’t give him a free pass to wail on a guy.
She wasn’t that far from Leon anyway, so it was pretty easy for her to dive in, using her Green Lux enhanced strength to try and pull Casey off Leon without hurting him.
”Fucking- Stop that shit!”
Trisha silently watched from where Casey had moved her to, one hand covering her mouth and eyes wide.
Still in a rage, but ultimately not strong enough on his own to break her hold, Casey baby-kicked until he was back on the ground.
”You didn’t ask! You didn’t fucking ask, you didn’t say anything, you fucking killed my guys!”
Leon was trying to sort out what his brother meant while getting up, though his body had to turn to see the ruined house behind them. A ruined house… His guys? Leon’s heart sunk as he realized the repercussions of their quick escape. Blowing the lid off with the lift, the explosion behind it, must’ve absolutely shattered the house that people were guarding. Actively guarding, in positions inside the place…
When he turned back to face his brother again, there was abject horror in his expression.
”Why… Why did you have people stationed in the house!? You didn’t say anything about that!”
Released, Casey was already moving again, this time rushing past Leon and up toward the ruins of the house proper, where he desperately began shuffling debris out as his telepathic powers hunted for any magical connections underneath.
”Medic!? Fucking… MEDIC!?”
This wasn’t a great place to be for him. Lots of memories of dragging bodies out of bombed out buildings. Now his hands were shaking. Now he was having the reaction that, until then, he could disassociate from. He wasn’t grunting as he moved things, he was practically screaming in desperation. Every ounce of muscle was being used to try and shift things around just so he could get to one faint signal.
”Let me- Let me move the shit!” Cass shoved her way past Casey again, trying to sniff out whoever he was trying to get to. But there was too much dust in the air for her nose to be of much use… But she had magical strength that he hadn’t, having an easier time tearing away a large piece of debris Casey was trying to get through.
”Just direct me! I’m also a fucking medic!”
Others followed after Cass, realizing what’d happened and very quickly jumping into the effort to help. Leon’s nose was sensitive enough in this form, despite all the dust, and he was easily able to begin crashing through the rubble to find everyone. Corpse or not, he could smell them. Hear their breathing. It was far more useful than what Casey was trying to do, considering he could technically do something similar but was far too captured by his emotions to do anything but be… Useless.
He barely even recognized Cass when she stepped in, wildly moving toward whatever rubble he could before his older brother ultimately embraced him and dragged him kicking and screaming back to Trisha with a grim look on his face. He didn’t bother apologizing… It was just another mistake. Another unforgivable mistake. Placing Casey down, he sprinted back up, starting to take control of the situation.
On his knees, Casey weakly leaned back and stared at the situation as the hundred or so people started to clear the rubble out more and more.
“Don’t- Don’t look at that.” Trisha practically whispered, snapping out of her own shock over the whole situation to move around in front of Casey and hug him. She curled around him slightly, trying to cradle his head against her so he couldn’t look.
She held him as tightly as she could, burying her own face into his hair and kissing his scalp. She didn’t really know what to do. The last time he’d said just her being there helped… But the last time was over a watermelon! Not a blown up building filled with possible dead bodies. His men. People he’d ordered in there. Fuck…
“It’s not your fault, Casey…”
There was enough to know that he was blaming himself. Probably the constant low volume ”Can’t save them…” that he was whispering over and over again. Still, he locked around Trisha even harder and began to sob heavily.
”Couldn’t fucking save them again!” he whimpered, hands gripping into her almost too tightly.
But, he was also fighting it internally. He knew she was there, and she was right. It hadn’t been his fault… Directly, maybe… But he had sent them in there. Even if the other group managed to get down and link up, which they clearly had, they hadn’t relayed that there was another group at the top! And he should’ve made sure they knew beforehand, that Cass knew, or Leon knew beforehand…
There were a thousand scenarios in his head where this hadn’t happened… Where people had been more patient, and waited, and hadn’t just done whatever the fuck they wanted… He couldn’t help but feel disrespected again, and totally looked over. How could he accept responsibility for this?
He simply couldn’t. There was no way he could live with this on his hands knowing what had happened recently, and what would happen in the near future. The reality was, it was time, once more, to lead men and make mistakes doing so. No commanding officer had a spotless track record, and if they did, they were lying. He’d come to this conclusion with his Therapist, that there were no perfect soldiers. That everyone was human…
With Trisha holding him, reassuring him, he at least managed to stop whimpering. There was no telling what the others would think after seeing him like this… About breaking down in the middle of command, assaulting a “subordinate” in as much as the two of them agreed Casey was logistically in charge… He didn’t consider that the others would actually have empathy, or respect for him, after this. But, eventually he was at least no longer trying to crush Trisha every time his chest heaved.
He was quiet. Quiet enough to speak weakly…
”Why… Why don’t people wait? Why don’t they listen to me?” he frustratedly spoke from within Trisha’s embrace.
Trisha had managed to hold Casey as solidly as she could, barely making a sound even as he squeezed her tight enough it hurt a few times. But a little physical pain was nothing on the emotional anguish he was going through… Even through the silent sobbing, she could guess some of what was going through his head. The guilt and trauma that came with something like this.
“I don't know." Trisha admitted softly, tilting her head slightly so her voice was completely muffled by his hair. She wasn't sure if it was a question he even wanted an answer for… Not that she had any amazing ones.
“Maybe they panicked. Not… everyone thinks clearly under duress… Not that it excuses anything… I don't know, Casey, I really don't. They should-" She bit her lip for a moment. Maybe it'd be hypocritical to say they really should listen to him, because she didn't always. But she was trying, and in situations like this… She really would. Because he was the one with experience. It wasn't hypocritical to say people should listen to him here, because it wasn't the same as the times she didn't in their relationship.
“People like to think they know best, even if they don't. They don't… like having someone above them. I guess it's cause… we're not all trained like in the military?"
”How the fuck am I supposed to talk to him about this? This… shit… I’ve ruined it. You’re free. You’re both free. Safe, finally. I go and make a big deal out of a few people getting hurt and dying… They signed up for this. They knew there was a chance for danger. For death. But, they didn’t sign up to get mashed by friendly fire. Nobody signs up for that except the Soviets.” he grumbled, not willing to put his emotions into more crying.
He’d done enough work. Enough work to talk himself down, and he hadn’t quite seen anyone’s parts strewn about like a Blonde Betty factory, so that part wasn’t fresh in his mind… But it was still difficult. He didn’t have to see it to know that he’d seen it before. Wrenching rubble out of the way just to find a severed arm that he had to cast aside in a desperate attempt to find the owner.
There were footsteps getting close. Close enough for Trisha to feel the person behind her.
”C-casey? Trisha?”
Casey sighed, head tilting downward slightly in frustration.
”What…”
”Leon asked me to, uh… Well… Three. Three in the accident. Eight down below. He wants to know if you want us to start recovering them from the bowels.”
Casey gritted his teeth, shifting with Trisha so he could look up and behind her.
”If it’s safe enough to mount a recovery, why did anyone think such a drastic escape plan was necessary?” Casey asked in a very firm voice.
Andrade’s first response was a look of sadness. The frown told Casey everything he needed to know.
”Say it. Just say it.”
”It was supposed to be triumphant, I guess… I don’t know, Casey.” he shrugged his shoulders like a beaten dog.
The look of disgust that met him was nothing less than soul crushing.
”And you’re some veteran Adept… Get the fuck away from me.” Casey replied venomously.
”I need to know… Are we going back-”
”Get. Our. People. Back.” he growled lowly.
”And tell Leon, if he’s so fucking smart and so fucking triumphant, he can have his victory lap by dealing with the rest of this shit. I’m taking my Fiance and going home. Tell him he can find his own ride back.”
”I’m… I’m sorry, Casey.” Andrade replied with great sadness in his voice.
”Me too. Sorry I ever thought I could control what you fuckers do.”
Trisha would be able to feel Casey’s bodily strength as he stood up, urging her to stand with him.
”How about it, Uncle Dre? So worried about dying before… Innocent people died for you instead. Good fucking work.”
And without giving him a chance to retort, Casey turned back toward the SUV and begin walking quietly.
”Can you drive, Trisha?” he asked, doing his best to calm his voice down.
“I can." Trisha answered simply. She didn't have anything else to say in the immediate moment… What could she say? It was fucked up. People were always going to die today… But those three had been preventable. She glanced over towards the former house for a moment, briefly glancing at Cass as she darted about helping with healing. Had she supported the whole dramatic escape? Probably.
It was difficult to process. What mattered right now was Casey, anyway.
She had to adjust the seat as she got into the driver's side, taking a moment to get comfortable with the vehicle that wasn't her own. She wasn't someone who enjoyed being the driver, so she rarely did when it wasn't her own car… but she was competent enough to, obviously.
“So… Home? Can you, uh, direct me? Or, I guess, pull up a map… I didn't pay attention on the way here." She bit her lip, at least switching on the ignition.
She glanced over at him.
“I’m… Sorry Sycamore shit affected you like this. I- I know it isn't my fault! But I'm still sorry."
”I wish it was Sycamore shit. It wasn’t, Babe… This being something involving that is just cursory. If it wasn’t this moment, it’d be another in a couple weeks. Some stupid, worthless break in the chain of command allowing people to make bad choices without thinking of consequence.”
Casey cleared his throat, taking a deep breath after and looking behind them.
”Get to the road, take a right. It’s a straight shot to the on-ramp.”
He’d dropped all of his connections in the prior moments, and now had to reestablish connection to the other sectors of the operation. At least there was good news from other directions, including the Sycamore Tree. They’d pacified the old man, and were already in the midst of building a defendable position on top of the tree. He managed to get another crew moving toward the wreckage of the elevator, and it was getting handled by a rather competent and rapidly moving team. The same group, actually, who initially secured the tree once they had coordinates.
Trisha followed his instructions, getting them to the road as she thought about what he said. Her initial thought that something like this was so like Sycamore, assuming the one other member there would be all for it… Because normally that was the kind of person Linqian was. But the more she thought about it, the less likely that seemed in this situation. That triumphant victory had come at the sacrifice of her boyfriend, after all.
“I thought that Temple members were good at following orders. Or is that only when they fear some kind of punishment?" Trisha asked, nibbling on her lip.
“I guess… When you have people higher up who don't have to worry so much, they're not going to follow orders if they think they know better. Especially when they're… Older. Like with Leon, cause he's your older brother. Older siblings always think they're right… Well, not that I think Leon's entirely like mine. But there's definitely a bit of that, isn't there?"
”He’s become considerate when cooled down. But as soon as you get him riled up, all that bridled excitement comes out as bursts of stupidity. Mom knew just as well… Hence the control. Hence the collar and leash. She had five years of relative peace with him, and those years are almost certainly responsible for his fucking introspective reniessance.”
He gritted his teeth, eyes closed and brain being pulled as a fellow White Lux Adept attempted to pull his attention from the farmhouse. An update; two more dead from unhealable injuries. Apparently, a curse user had marked several of them with a true-death mark, blocking any sort of external Lux being pumped into their bodies. And the apparitional nature of the green goo, apparently, accelerated the process. It wasn’t great news. But he didn’t bother oversharing with Trisha.
His attitude got markedly worse, however.
”It was just him. Most of the Adepts in the security corps were trained by Furio. He wasn’t a soldier per se, but Dad knew that he wanted his own militia. So, my uncle trained Furio when he was younger, as a cadet would be trained in the FFL. Military enough to give a fuck about the organization of a chain of command, and the necessity for some form of discipline should that chain fail.”
And there were some legendary stories about Furio’s “discipline.” It was purely corporal punishment. Humiliating, line crossing, corporal punishment. The offender was reduced to nothing more than a misbehaving child, and worse… Because there was nobody to turn to, it went on for more than a decade. He’d never done anything particularly untoward to wind up in that scenario, but he remembered Furio taking a much younger Leon down during an actual sermon.
He remembered how his Mother and Father, and hundreds of other people in the chapel, watched. Impassive, horrified, as Leon was humiliated and practically whipped in front of them. But it never seemed to break his spirit. As if it was all part of it, Leon would do the wrong thing, be punished, and be right back to his usual impulsive and bullheaded nature.
”Leon hasn’t ever given a fuck about a chain of command. He’s got a big ego, I guess. Big enough to take the lumps. Though, I guess lately he’s been cracking up. Maybe it’ll do something. Maybe today will stick.” he finally spoke up again.
”Also, exit eighteen. We’ve got four left, so just stay here in the right. I don't mind going slow.”
Which was, maybe, a necessary thing to distinguish given how frustrated he always seemed to be driving on the highway. He always drove like he was in a rush, and loudly complained at anyone who slowed him down.
Trisha nodded, doing as he said and sticking to the right and the speed limit.
“I’m not that nervous of a driver, you know. Just more cautious… But I've dealt with Cass backseat driving before." She said it more because she didn't want to think she was anxious about being the one having to drive… Or at least, any more anxious than she normally was. There was the worry he'd get upset at her for being slower than he would be, which his words helped with, but it was something she could ignore in favour of concentrating on driving until he started actually complaining at her.
“Doesn’t surprise me with Leon… There wasn’t really anyone to tell him what to do in the coven, since he was Daisy’s cousin, but anyone that tried got ignored or shouted down.” She continued.
“Cass won’t let the ego stick. At least not… With ignoring what others say. She’s not exactly better when it comes to getting riled up and doing stupid things, though. They’re probably gonna make each other worse as much as they’ll make each other better. But she’ll probably be pretty upset over what happened this time so… Maybe that’ll help it stick.”
She bit her lip, not sure if she wanted to continue to say the other thought she had. Because she knew it was wrong. But they’d promised to be honest to each other… And she was trying. He probably wouldn’t hate her, right?
“It’s… Bad, isn’t it, that I think that the leash wasn’t all bad? It’s hypocritical… Because I’d hate that and it’s fucked up. So I know it’s wrong, but he was such… an asshole ten years ago. And if he was still entirely like that- I don’t know. I certainly wouldn’t see a future where I could stand to be around him, nevermind try to be friends.” She gnawed on her lip, half thankful she couldn’t look at Casey to see his reaction.
”Yeah… If it gave him the time to gain some level of introspection, I can’t entirely knock it either.”
His comment would probably be surprising to Trisha, given her thoughts, but he’d spent enough time considering that idea recently in the same light. The fact that Leon would probably be better mind controlled, if just a little. He was dangerous; more dangerous than he had been as an Adept, surely. He was always good, and loved magic enough to practice like his life depended on it. He’d been an amazing Adept.
But Lelou was a Hound-Touched apparition whose history stretched back millions of physical years. What was an Adept to something like that? That was the ultimate crux of the treatment toward Adjoined, after all… The distinct imbalance that came from channeling a vague magical force, versus channeling a being with intrinsic connections to reality bending abilities… In truth, one would always be harder to pin down. Harder to regulate. He wasn’t entirely against Aberrations being monitored, at least until he started dating one.
It was a lot harder to feel that way now. He’d always known there were relationships like Trisha and the Queen. But, it always seemed like the outlier. Like most Aberrations would jump at the chance to do something crazy… It was the influence of their patrons, after all: Most weren’t benevolent creatures. Most were rather amoral, or worse, and didn’t have qualms about bending humanity to their will…
So yeah, the Leash was a good thing. But a bad good thing. A good bad time, for a bad good reason.
”But, you’re obviously right. It isn’t the most moral thing to think. Doesn’t mean we can’t accept that we both feel something like that and just move on hoping for the best from here.” he asserted, almost as if he was trying to convince himself rather than her.
“I guess… Time will tell whether the feeling gets stronger or goes away.” Trisha replied, not entirely convinced that it would be easy to move on from. But it wasn’t like she was morally perfect, especially when it came to how she thought about other people. It was a part of herself she didn’t like, how easily she could think bad of others and be happy something made it easier for her to be around them no matter how negative. But she cared even more here because if Cass got even a whiff of those thoughts… She wouldn’t be too happy about it.
And Trisha really didn’t want to risk losing that friendship.
“At- At least we both feel the same! So we can move on together and do our best. Even though our relationship with him… Is pretty different… I’m just glad Cass is there too. She can actually handle when he acts like… An obstinate asshole.”
Casey nodded.
”Even if we didn’t, Trisha… It’s incredibly important to me for you to be able to express yourself. All I’ve heard about from people are nightmares about how they feel stifled or controlled. I don’t want to be like that. If you hated my brother forever, you hate him forever… The only thing I could ask at that point is that you do your best to separate your feelings from your actions so that peace could be maintained. And, in return, I’d do my best to minimize the interactions completely. To try not to isolate myself from my brother, while still maintaining your level of comfort.”
Maybe for some people, that kind of an agreement would be stifling in itself. In truth, he imagined it would be incredibly difficult, which probably explained why he was running so much damage control all the time. A lot of the talk around the campfire, or what it amounted to in the African Front, had been idealistic soldiers talking about what they hoped life would be like when they got back. Casey’s hope had always been peace. It’s all he ever wanted. Peace, and ultimately, love from those around him. Maybe recognition. Hopefully respect. But, he could deal with peace and love…
And he had love. Peace? Who knew when that would really come?
”It’d be hard. But, I’d do that for you. You’re my wife… Well, just about.” he managed to crack a grin as he looked over at her.
“Almost. We just need to sign the papers.” Trisha managed a soft giggle, blushing as she briefly glanced over at him before turning her eyes back to the road. It was nice to know that he’d do that for her. There’d never been anyone else who would… Being his priority made her incredibly happy.
“I don’t think I hate Leon. I don’t like him, and I don’t know how I’ll forgive him… But I don’t hate him. And I… love you more than I dislike him. Cass too. I want to be the kind of person who can forgive people and build some kind of relationship after I’ve been hurt, without ignoring my own feelings. Nobody’s ever given me that chance- and I don’t think I’d have taken it before. It’s not like I’m perfect or anything… So I do want to try. But I’m glad that even if it doesn’t work out-” Like things often didn’t when it came to her relationships, friendships or otherwise-
“That you’d be willing to do that and still be there with me.”
”I can only hope that things will get better. I’d never ask you to love him, or call him Big Brother or anything… Even I don’t usually give him that kind of deference anymore… But, in hoping that things get better, I like to imagine a world where you, at least, become numb to him. It’d be better than nothing at all.” he shrugged in return.
”Pissed as I am, I still love him. Just because I love you a little more, doesn’t really diminish all of that. So, just promise me you’ll keep trying to deal with him? Or, don’t promise… Just say you’ll do your best. That’s all I can hope for.”
Trisha hesitated for a moment, before nodding. One hand came off the wheel for a moment to reach out for Casey’s.
“I’ll do my best. Because I love you… I promise, I’ll really try.”
