AEDOLIS > The Rest of Aedolis

The Lovely, the Dark, and the Deep [Cheesi]

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Lion:
“If your father knew you were coming here, he’d kill you, y’know. Nothing else gets him fuming these days other than the knowledge that you’re out doing your own thing, living your life. Did I ever tell you that when you were taken into candidacy, he went completely off the wall? No? Pffft, well, he marched into his office, upturned the desk, ripped out the drapes and threatened anyone with that spring loaded knife of his if they tried to come in and ‘calm him down.’ He said you were betraying the family…  Said you were dead to him.”

Mom was unusually chipper on that call, and the rail to Travica was taking a little bit longer than normally scheduled, and Theo busied his hands with a leather band he’d been braiding along the way and the music playing on his earbuds. Travis Nothing, classic retrowave, and he tapped the phone off once the call was over. What else was new regarding what the Colonel thought of him.

Cry him a motherfucking river, why not. Theodoryk Kray snorted to himself as the railcar passed over the city’s lower levels, pretty soon passing through to the sector junction that would take him to his mother’s. Amitra was a stunning woman, well into her 300’s although you’d never immediately tell by looking at her, eyes a fiery red that burned at the edges like molten lava. There wasn’t any doubt as to why the Colonel married her, made her his, begat children by her.

Amitra, however, was no woman to be trifled with. When you spent the last few centuries of your life with someone, that tended to be all you knew, and it was no wonder that the things that once drew you to them would ultimately become abhorrent to you. Make you cringe at the very sight and sound of them. The Colonel was not a good man - if he could even be called a man at all, but for the simplest of terms it was suitable in this instance - and there were things that were said between them that couldn’t be forgiven.

Theo had been gone by then, he’d gone off and graduated and moved to Samariel where the water drew him and where there were no worries beyond the duties dictated by his Dragon. Asphodei Ramsey Kray was what the Colonel called himself at some point. It was never a name Theo used, and he tried never to refer to that seedbearer as if he’d ever been anything resembling a father.

Besides, the last thing Theo wanted to think about was him, and he wasn’t about to ruin his visit to Amitra. The 15 hour ride to cross that putrid toxic ocean was a chore, and the junction through Ryun to head north was even more time for him to get lost in his head. Even more time to muse on the past and what little meaning it really held. Visits to Travica were rare enough as it was with work being what it was, and him being who he was.

No reason to ruin it. None at all.

-----
“And then after I told him I didn’t have any interest. He got angry and said, ‘Yeah? Well maybe I’ve got interest enough for both of us.’ He got handsy then I had to rip his balls off and hand them to him,” she went on and on as Theo took her into the Manolins on a wester upper level sector. It wasn’t as busy at this time of day as he assumed it would be. No snapbacked, half-dressed would be screenwriter hacks pounding away on tablets and keyboards. Except that one guy in the corner, his peach fuzz stache covered in dried latte foam. Theo rolled his eyes.

He sniffed, pinching his nose, and grinned at his mother. “You smell that right?”

“You mean the incandescent festering of a prolific hipster’s magnum opus?” she snickered.

“Exactly. That right there is probably the next Yuletide action blockbuster. I bet you seven pearls.”

“Fucking yes. You’re so on! I expect those pearls in necklace form. Either that or seven butterfly kisses.”

Theo snorted and took a seat across from her, once their orders were made and drinks being prepared.  “So what’s the big news you had to tell me? And….Mom, stop picking at the fucking cookie.  Here, lemme show you how it’s done.”  Theo took his own chocolate chip cookie and promptly shoved the whole thing into his mouth. It was too much to try and keep a straight face when Amitra looked at him dead in the eye and did the exact same thing, staring him down with the glare only a mother was capable of.

It took everything to keep from spitting it out immediately from laughter, and for a full 3 minutes straight, red orange eyes met to red orange eyes. Theo’s narrowed, holding cookie firmly in mouth until the corners of his mouth started to drool over, and when a small bit of slobber rolled out, he swallowed down what he could and spit the rest out into a napkin and cackled madly. “You win, mom. You win.”

His grin softened as he watched her eat and grin wildly. He brought over their coffee and settled hers down gently.

“I guess there’s no use beating around the bush. I really shouldn’t be surprised that you didn’t know though. Your father would do everything in his power to keep anything from you.”

He sighed and frowned. “Don’t call him that. He’s not my father. He’s the Colonel. That’s all he ever will be. His own words not mine.”

Her eyes narrowed and she frowned, mouth drawn into a tight-lipped line. The corners of her mouth only showed the faintest signs of wrinkling, and the coloration of her lipstick stayed right where it belonged rather than coating the lid of her cup after she took a thoughtful sip.  “Leander is engaged. Your father arranged it several months ago, but I’ve only just now found out about it. She’s going to be married.”

Theo’s hand stopped playing with the lid of his cup and he froze, staring at the lid and he could have sworn his stomach grew cold, the cookie sitting on a geyser of bile, and he scowled, frown deepening at the cold twist his gut continued to pretzel itself into. His eyes faltered, unable to look at Amitra anymore and tilted down at the cookie pieces he couldn’t eat. “Any thought as to when? Probably soon I imagine.”

“So far that’s all I know…  But...I’m sorry.”

“No...it’s…. Thanks for telling me mom. Hey, so how about them Titans huh?”

 ---
There were few places in Travica where one could achieve a decent swim. The pools of Samariel could only largely be rivaled by those of Ryun, and even that was kind of pushing it. Ryun had its charms. But Samariel had its spirit. But since beggars didn’t want to spend the next 24 hours on a rail right back home after only speaking with Amitra for less then a day, his choice remained the Strega Training Complex for Pilots less than esteemed enough to get their kicks out at the Titans facility.

Theo stripped down to orange and blue compression shorts, the orange stripe running down the side and ending just before his thigh began. The small spiked fins along the sides of his arms and legs frilled out from the lack of clothing to snag on them. And with the presence of water so close, even chlorinated as it was, he could feel every nerve of his standing on end.

He undid his hair from the bun on his head and with a small leap, dove right in, staying underwater for a number of minutes, the dim lights in the pool area just barely enough to light the nonslip edges, and there at the bottom he lingered for a bit. Wishing just for a moment that he could drown...

Cheesigator:
Cry her a motherfucking river.

The slam of metal echoing throughout the womens' locker room in the less-esteemed Pilot-only pool of Travica was louder than necessary. It rang against the other metal doors, making them shake in their cubbies as she stood there in her high-cut one piece bathing suit, teeth grit and fists clenched as she stared at the rather unassuming metal door. Her civilian clothes lay just behind it, wadded up into a random net totebag out of sheer spite and frustration, shoved as far to the back as possible, as if in doing so she could ignore what was really bothering her any easier.

She couldn't.

Her seafoam green gaze affixed itself on the slight three inch hairline scratch in the dark navy blue paint, revealing the locker's true brassy color beneath right on the center of the door. It marred an otherwise perfect and untampered locker door, and under any other circumstances she probably wouldn't have even noticed it--but tonight she stared at it, glaring with daggers in her eyes of hate and pure loathing. Those feelings weren't meant for the door, they were meant for another person, but staring in a mirror didn't quite produce the intended effect.

Always getting her hopes up. Always letting herself down, letting everyone down.

She snatched her towel angrily from the bench behind her and set off for the pool. She'd come here to work off some of this excess steam, since talking about her problems had never been a skillset she'd learned. Sure, she knew of it in theory.

Knew other people did it.

But she wasn't other people. She was Andromeda Messiere. She was... Different. In a not-so great way.

She tossed her towel carelessly to a bench along the wall as she stepped out to the pool and the scent of the chlorine hit her like a wall. The serene and unnatural aqua waters were perfectly untouched, like she was looking at a pure sheet of blue glass with lines some 12 feet beneath. It was fairly standard, and later in evenings like this, usually abandoned. Most Pilots, particularly here in Travica, often occupied their time with other hobbies. Swimming was a bit unusual; and yet she loved it so.

As far as she knew she was no water demon; her mom was just some crazy kinda succubus she'd seen once in a photo, and that was really all she needed to know. All Andy knew right now was that Andy liked the water, Andy needed to work off some steam, and Andy wanted to go to the pool. Roll it all up into one and you got Andy doing a perfect dive off the board to the waters below, the immediate silence of the pressure of the water against her ear drums oddly satisfying as for a moment she felt suspended in "air." Bubbles danced around her in swarms, and when she opened her eyes the pool itself was rather blurry. Underwater vision was not something her genes had granted her, dangit.

She eventually came up, breaking the surface and shaking her hair out of her eyes as she started to do some laps. Work off the energy, focus on left, right, breathe, left, right, breathe, and nothing else.

Let all problems melt away to be tucked under the rug later. Ignored, forgotten, until eventually the sore wore away and she was left back at square one again. And again. And again.

"Fuck," She spat as she stopped in the middle of a lap, taking a breath to dunk her head violently under the water and come back up again, spitting the nasty taste out of her mouth with a snarl on her face.

This was stupid, she was so, so fucking stupid. Always had been. Always would be.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

With another deep breath she plunged back under the water again, playing. Fucking around. Trying anything and everything she could think of to stop thinking about the issues here, because fretting and stewing over things out of her control was pointless. Simply, utterly, completely pointless.

It was at one point when she was under the water that she didn't realize she'd been joined in the pool by other company--and even when she came up, throwing her hair back in an arch that sprayed water in 180 degrees above her head she heard the noises of other splashes, glanced and saw someone else, and promptly ignored whoever it was. The entire reason she came to this pool in particular when she was in these kinds of moods--which had happened twice now in the past six months, a rare occurrence, but whatever--was because any other Pilots who came here couldn't use the Titan's pool, most likely. It meant they didn't know Andy much, and didn't care, and would leave her alone. Any regular patrons had long learned by now that when Andy visited this pool, particularly at this hour, the absolute last thing she wanted was to engage in friendly conversation.

They knew better, so she assumed this person knew better, and kept her back to them as she tossed her memorable purple mess of hair around over her shoulders, brushing it back from her face as she stood in the shallower end, water running down her form as she stared blankly at nothing. Thought nothing. Tried to feel nothing.

Keyword being: "tried".

Because no matter what she did her heart kept throbbing, and her heart kept hurting, and it was showing no signs of letting up this time.

Lion:
Frankly he hadn't even been aware of another body already in the water before he joined in. The water was his home and he'd been too lost in his head to think of anything else that would have made any remote difference in whether or not he went for a swim. Water was home. All was right when he was in it, and the rest of Aedolis melted away. There was no engagement, no Colonel, no Amitra, no Samariel or Ryun, no politics or policies to worry about.

It was a dark deep sanctum.

He breathed quietly down at the bottom of the pool, feeling the gills on either side of his neck open and flare out, filtrate the oxygen in the water and he laid down at the very bottom, eyes opening to see another shape in the pool, upside down as he was, his back against the bottom of the pool. Through the glare of the water, he could see a great set of legs standing in the shallower end, muscle shifting as they stood, water waist deep.

Theo grinned, wondering who was attached to such a pair of legs. It'd briefly passed over his mind, the thought of swimming over to them, grabbing those legs and pulling them under, holding them a second and passing air to them before letting them go. That was always a classic, but tended to have disaster written on it since most people were terrified of drowning and likely anyone else attached to legs like that was probably not intent on sinking like a stone so fast.

He did swim over, twirling over from his back and kicking forward, staying at the bottom and swimming along it until he was around those legs. And the closer he got, he felt a small jolt in his chest. He knew they were familiar. But why of all people would their owner be in a place like this. Didn't she have a facility where she could go swimming, not that he minded necessarily.  Theo grinned  and breathed out from his nostrils as he burst up from the surface, standing eye level with none other than Andromeda Messiere.

He said nothing for a long set of seconds, just meeting her gaze and watching the water fall down her face and body, dripping down the crevices of each muscle in small rivulets.

"Hey hey, Andy, what's up?" he asked, reaching back and brushing his own burgundy red hair out of his face, his fins flaring and twitching. Water dribbled down his face, beading along his skin, and eyes flared, keeping level with hers. "Fancy seeing you here."

Was she just going to scoff and ignore him? Yeah probably. Sounded like she wanted to be by herself from the mere look on her face. She was in a place known to lesser Pilots, had access to exclusive workspace, yet wasn't there.  Had a one piece swimsuit on which clearly was doing her a disservice when a two-piece suited her so much better - but he wasn't one to judge since he swam better naked anyway.

Theo shook his hair out like a dog and floated around onto his back around her, gliding along the surface, water sweeping off his chiseled chest and highlighting the brightly colored neons of his nautical tattoos, that seemed reflective in the dim lighting even then.

"What? Piranha got your tongue?" he snickered.

Cheesigator:
The longer she stood there and spaced out, the less she saw the water before her and instead remembered breath on her skin and arms around her, sending chills up her spine that meant the warm droplets of water rolling down her cheeks weren't full of chlorine like the rest.

She sucked in a breath, right as her heart jumped and nearly stopped as the water suddenly erupted before her. For a moment, instinctively, she snapped ready into a defensive position, hands raised to fists in front of her as fight or flight kicked in, and she'd always been the fighting type. She was so abruptly jarred from the memory, the shock making her gaze harden as she glared hard at whatever had decided to try and test its fate against Andromeda motherfucking Messiere and........

She blinked, staring right back at the guy before her shoulders relaxed and she stood straight again, hands dropping to rest on her hips as she arched a brow and realized she was face to face with...... Whats-his-face. From like last week or whatever. They'd tied in their wrestling match. Couldn't be bothered to remember his name, though.

"Oh look, I wasn't expecting to run into the missing member from the Backroad Boys tonight."

She sneered, glancing at his hair now let down from its bun to show its wavy glory that reminded her of similar styles that had been popular about twenty years ago. Ahh, it just needed the tips dyed blonde and it'd be perfect.

She rolled her eyes however, giving her hair a flippant toss over her shoulders as she started to turn away, cold fury bubbling up in her chest that she'd been disturbed when all she wanted was some fucking alone time, gods dammit-- before she stopped and realized that hey, actually...

Maybe a distraction was what she needed.

She tilted her head, back facing him as she favored one of her sharp canines, raising her brows in mischief as she glanced over her shoulder at him and suddenly whipped around, throwing her arms through the water with all the strength in her core and splashing a great wave on him, loud and hard and uncalled for.

"So dead set on losing you've decided to pester me for more, have you?" She crowed, though perhaps it wasn't quite as boisterous as it had been the first time they'd wrestled.

Something was missing, or maybe it was the slightest waver there at the tail end in her voice, or that shine in her eyes, that universally easy-to-understand look that wasn't caused by the wetness of a pool.

Lion:
If anyone had told Theodoryk Kray that he was going to end up in a pool one day with none other than Andromeda Messiere, he would have scoffed and threw a drink at them, laughing all the way to the fish tank. Theo didn't believe in luck, that kind of thing didn't exist for people like him. Furthermore, such an incorporeal concept didn't and couldn't determine one's fate. If that was true, then he'd still be under his father's thumb, engaged, married to someone he didn't love and would never get to swim with fish.

Funny that, the blood that burned so hotly in his veins, both his gift and his curse. The his wings and his albatross. or so an old poem went that he'd read some time ago. He could believe in what he saw and felt and the feelings that inspired in him, he could embrace his freedom and for him that was real.

Theo flipped around, righting himself in the water until he was standing and kept his visage uniquely on her, scoping out her form, her stance, her weaknesses, where she would be most vulnerable if he pulled her under. Would she drown? No, not Andromeda Messiere. She was the best, she was invincible, she was untoppable. Andromeda the Indominable - that was the headline for Apex Magazine, back when he was fresh out of Candidacy. She was the best and gave 0 fucks.

And now she was standing in a pool in front of him and he felt his gut lurch. A small jolt rush south, a natural reaction to the chill he assumed and just grinned at her.

"Backroads Boys, that's a good one," he snorted, raising a brow at her and he couldn't help the small crease of disappointment his brow made at the let down of a comeback that was.

That being said, he braced himself for the shift in her stance, the way her tongue prodded at her canine, and when the shwoop of water came, he feigned a gasp and was grinning ear to ear. A snort escaped him, his red eyes lingering on the red and seemingly tired traces underneath her eyes, that familiar look of sorrow and weariness all balled into crow's feet and mischief.

"Oh you wanna play like that huh? Pretty sure I could make waves bigger than you. I'm slippery when wet," he snorted and reared his arms back to slap a huge wave right back at her face, knocking her majestic purple hair sideways. And turned his gaze devilish, the grin turning wicked as his eyes flicked to the other end of the pool. "How about we make this interesting. First one to complete 5 laps from one end to the pool to the other wins. One trip back and forth is one lap. Later loser."

He grinned and swirled his arms again to throw another wave of water before immediately diving underneath the surface and undulating his whole body to wriggle through the water, darting through it like a blade's edge.

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