Haze & Chaos - Reunion B Part 4
Previous | First | Next
Master Post - Patreon
“The mansion is as grand as ever, Milan!” Akaya complimented as he walked around the library, trying to disregard Faustus stewing like a smoldering volcano over at the table he sat at. “Why I’d dare say it’s a perfect place for you and Aelia to start a family.”
“Oh stop it, you,” Aelia playfully chided, slightly embarrassed.
Milan gave a light laugh. “Akaya, you were here just the other day…”
Akaya was hoping the couple would have carried the conversation, as he was not sure how to address Faustus–who was starting to physically warm up. He quietly sighed, figuring he might as well address the elephant in the room… “Good to see you again, Faustus…”
“GOOD TO SEE ME AGAIN?” he repeated in exclamation as he shot up from his chair–like he was expecting something else… He had not startled everyone there would have been some laughter. “YOU–YOU…” he snarled in frustration. “DAMN IT–if it hadn’t been for you, Sport wouldn’t have been set so far back with his magic! He would have been prepared for The Red River Incident!”
“And we wouldn’t be here today, Sparky,” Liss-Zael pointed out in a mildly annoyed tone, clearly offending Faustus (even though he claimed he was not bothered by that name). “Do I need to remind you of where Vlastimir ended up?”
Faustus was growling, but Vlastimir nodded. “Not to burst your bubble, Faustus, but I wouldn’t trade Ekaterina here for the world.” That warranted a kiss on the cheek from her.
“Faustus Jeremy Ashman–enough!” Mira interrupted. Faustus wanted to object, but he was powerless when his wife did that as his tension began to fade. “Liss is a little rough around the edges–and I understand your feelings towards Akaya, but Yale explained a great deal on the way back.”
The fire devil slowly gave up as his body cooled down, but he was not going to let Akaya off the hook that easily. “So you just turned over a new leaf despite all the shit you put us through back at the academy?”
Will stepped over, looking like he was trying to recall something. “I mean, he’s won me over, despite how hazy my memory is…”
“Hazy?” Milan questioned with a concerned look on his face. “Oh my, that’s not good…”
Victor shook his head as he scribbled something down on a piece of paper, the graphite of his pencil scraping against the sheet. “Amnesia Recovery Decay–I told you you should have used more sea salt for the chocolate bar…”
“Duly noted, Victor…”
Faustus, sensing he could speak again, turned to Will with a mildly incredulous look on his face. “Sport…” he groaned.
Will nodded, but it was in a manner that indicated he wanted to convince Faustus rather than agree with him. “Faustus, we can’t be picky about our friends with this stuff–Yale and the others vouch for him… It still feels weird though…”
Akaya took his hat off and set it on one of the smaller tables. “I certainly was a bit of a hooligan back in the day… Faustus, I know I mocked and belittled you–enraptured by my dreams of world domination–but looking back on it you and Will were quite the team. And that goes for the whole class–all of them were something special. My mania was insufferable, but it made us who we are today.”
Faustus crossed his arms and shook his head with a chuckle. “Well when you put it like that… I mean me and Champ here did save an entire school with a technique I intended to thump your ass with in the rematch…”
“I heard about the volcano beam,” Liss-Zael put in. “Absolute mad lads I’d argue.”
“Can’t fault results like that,” Akaya agreed.
Feeling his anger melt away, Faustus held out his hand. “Oh alright–I’ll give you a chance.”
Akaya accepted the handshake, feeling great about how Faustus was willing to bury the hatchet. “Thank you, Faustus. I still have my own goals and motivations, but my MO is to attain knowledge while maintaining utmost reverence…”
Liss-Zael went over and patted him on the shoulder. “Alright, Akaya–enough of the reminiscing, we got bigger fish to fry at the moment.” He then went to his seat, relaxing with a light sigh.
Something odd then occurred to Faustus, and he turned to face Akaya–getting a good look at him and realizing the obvious. “Hold up–since when were you British?”
Will thought about it for a second, despite the state of his memories, and nodded. “Yeah, I thought you were Japanese…”
Akaya went and took his seat at the big table and chuckled. “Well I had a bit of a rebirth you could say, being enraptured by British culture as I got to explore the isles while out on missions…”
Will scoffed a little as he took a seat at one of the smaller tables with his friends. “Pardon my skepticism given all the nonsense OFCOM was planning to pull–would anyone care to verify their identities so we can protect the children?”
Akaya went quiet for a second and exhaled. “Well that nonsense can stick itself where the sun don’t shine…”
Will chuckled as he shook his head, feeling he knew a little more than Akaya did. “A little update all that surveillance nonsense, Sam–It looks like the plan behind all those age verification laws was to keep pushing it back with politicians demanding that the laws have horseshit like ‘duty of care’ in them–which was an excuse to make them even more draconian to the point where they could send the cops to your door for merely inconveniencing a politician. Remember that moronic ‘We Are The Americans Act?’ And how they wanted to label anything as dissent and ‘AI generated’ fakes? And of course let’s not forget HOW THAT BRAINDEAD VP KEPT SCREAMING THAT EVERYTHING WAS ‘WOKE’ WHEN IT SUITED HIM,” he exclaimed as he banged the table.
Sam inhaled and growled. “You know, Boyo? I distinctly remember Karnage gloating about how he was going to do stuff like that when me and Blood confronted him in The City of Eons…” It was plain as day that her anger from all those years ago was not leaving any time soon as she grumbled with an aura of bygone rage about her.
“Ha, sounds like you guys got hit with the brunt of the bullshit…” Liss-Zael remarked as he rested his head in his hands with a sympathetic smile.
“You’re telling me?” Will replied. “Good lord, you should have seen all of the big-government shills screaming at us about how we were the problem–despite the fact that those people scream bloody murder only when ‘big-government’ is working against them…”
Vlastimir nodded as he leaned back in his chair. “And let’s not forget how that imbecilic VP would only throw a fit when the law was used against him. I was never one for politics growing up, but I’m pretty sure Romanian politics were never this crazy…”
“You know, Sport?” Faustus interjected. “Jackson was right–you need to stay off the internet.”
Will groaned as the afternoon sun hit him in the eyes. “Okay, but how can I not get heated because of this nonsense? Remember how Hector Fang’s administration wanted to strip me of my citizenship? One of the reasons Antares started sending me on missions!?”
“Oh yeah–that utter nightmare…” he recalled, with Sam nodding along.
“How dreadful…” Aelia commented, her heart quietly going out to Sam and Will.
“Will, I need to be real with you for a second…” Ekaterina put in, surprising the others a little. “Back in the early 1900s, past me would have told you to ‘suck it up, buttercup…’ but after bumming it around with The Lich and all of the stuff me and Vlastimir dealt with after getting back from The Iron City–how are you still sane?! Suffice it to say you have my sympathy and then some.”
Unsure how to feel about that statement given the mix of emotions, Will nodded with an awkward smile. “Thanks, Eka…”
Akaya sighed and shook his head. “Honestly I think we were all going to lose it had Lundberg not intervened… And to address some other hitches real quickly; The subversion of British culture is infuriating–especially given that I’ve been around for way longer than any of the self-righteous boomers in power right now, and I have no idea how Kenneth Stainthorpe and Laurence Duckenfield even got into power in the first place–especially with what we know about Mr. Stainthorpe…”
“Cronyism,” Will stated bluntly.
Liss-Zael stretched his back and yawned–he did not want to step in everyone's cornflakes given that he was getting behind their non-conformist attitudes, but there were still more pressing matters… “Um, guys? As fun as this conversation is, we’ve got a pyramid fragment to deal with.” This caught everyone’s attention, except for one…
“Hold up, depths demon,” said Faustus. “Just because I gave Akaya a pass doesn’t mean it extends to you… Is he on the level, Yale?”
He stepped across the table to Faustus with his hands on his hips and nodded. “I’d trust him with my life… even if he’s a little hard to manage at times…”
“Hey, it’s not my fault life’s annoying as shit most of the time,” Liss-Zael complained with a sentiment that everyone could get behind.
Faustus sucked on his lip for a second and nodded. “Alright then, if they trust you…”
Liss-Zael chuckled as he leaned in on the big table. “I’ve heard it all before, and I’ll hear it all again… Alright–Milan, Victor? We’ve got a confirmed pyramid fragment in The Lost Fire Temple. We’re not sure who placed it there, but it is there–thankfully Akaya’s little shindig provided a nice distraction for Perkele.”
“And The Mad Flame wants us to get rid of it,” Akaya added.
Milan stroked his chin, which felt a little coarse given that his beard was starting to grow back. “Fascinating–implying something slipped past Threrth’s watch… How do you want to handle this? Should we go in with troops or a squad?”
“I say squad,” Liss-Zael answered. “That temple appears to be a bit treacherous and troops would just get in the way. Ripsaw and his goons are annoying, and Perkele is Perkele–but I think with Will and company we can handle it no problem.” That made the group feel good, seen in their subtle smiles.
“Well now–that’s quite the surprise,” Victor commented. “Coming from you, Liss? You won’t be disappointed either way, as Will and Vlastimir are quite capable when the chips are down–wish they would’ve put that energy into their homework, but it’s in the past now.” There were some nervous chuckles from the two…
“Well hey, they’ve got some grit in them.”
Akaya cleared his throat, ready to state his plans. “We’ll rest up tonight and head out tomorrow morning–Yale’s spell is quite excellent and should keep our adversaries at bay until we get there.”
Yale crossed his arms and groaned, albeit it made him sound like a hornet. “Again, you just had to use my spell…”
“Oh don’t worry–I doubt Perkele or Ripsaw will come after you here…”
“Well of course they won’t–not here…” he muttered to himself.
There was a quick pause, with Akaya standing up to stretch. “Well, I’m looking forward to dinner and a good rest tonight, so how about we get working on some food–Milan, Aelia?”
“Of course,” Aelia answered as she followed the two out of the library. “I think some roast beef would be lovely after last night’s menu of pizza, onion rings, and soft drinks.”
“Definitely,” Milan agreed. “You kids don’t mind, do you?” he asked the group.
“Fine with me,” Will answered with the others agreeing. The idea of a proper dinner made his stomach growl.
And the dinner was a fine meal that helped everyone wind down after the excitement that day. The savory, delectable meat soothed the nerves and showed that Akaya was quite the cook. Liss-Zael was feeling chatty that night and talked about some of his past, mainly relating to The Sturluson House and the incident that really pulled him into the conflict. Knowing that Sebastian had been trying to seek back up from foul demons and nephilim was a bit harrowing, but what really caught the group’s interest was Liss-Zael’s time trapped in a cyberspace prison. Evidently The Extinction Order was experimenting with digital prisons as a part of a trans-humanist agenda to avoid death and being condemned to the Prisons of Inferno–and they also wanted to deprive souls of the ability of going to Heaven. Liss-Zael laughed at that, given that it showed a distinct lack of understanding for how souls work–and he was a depths demon, so he would know.
Liss-Zael could not divulge all of the details to his imprisonment, but it was clear that Will and the group were privy to some details thanks to one of his fellow operatives, K-Virus. Things would have been fine for the demon (relatively speaking) had he not gotten into a relationship with one of his fellow prisoners. The relationship went south on account of Liss-Zael’s awkwardness and things went downhill from there, given that he was ostracized from that group. It was the catalyst for what led to him going after their warden and devouring his soul–as he was quite the corrupt man who deserved no mercy given his close ties with The Extinction Order and the foul elites that infested it. It was an unfortunate story, but seeing the others comfort him was reassuring (even though he was still lovably abrasive). Will felt some solidarity with him given a community server on the internet he was banned from prior to Red River City on account of his own awkwardness. And Ludwig and Rostislav had shared with Will their own woes, so he regaled the table with those too.
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
“The mansion is as grand as ever, Milan!” Akaya complimented as he walked around the library, trying to disregard Faustus stewing like a smoldering volcano over at the table he sat at. “Why I’d dare say it’s a perfect place for you and Aelia to start a family.”
“Oh stop it, you,” Aelia playfully chided, slightly embarrassed.
Milan gave a light laugh. “Akaya, you were here just the other day…”
Akaya was hoping the couple would have carried the conversation, as he was not sure how to address Faustus–who was starting to physically warm up. He quietly sighed, figuring he might as well address the elephant in the room… “Good to see you again, Faustus…”
“GOOD TO SEE ME AGAIN?” he repeated in exclamation as he shot up from his chair–like he was expecting something else… He had not startled everyone there would have been some laughter. “YOU–YOU…” he snarled in frustration. “DAMN IT–if it hadn’t been for you, Sport wouldn’t have been set so far back with his magic! He would have been prepared for The Red River Incident!”
“And we wouldn’t be here today, Sparky,” Liss-Zael pointed out in a mildly annoyed tone, clearly offending Faustus (even though he claimed he was not bothered by that name). “Do I need to remind you of where Vlastimir ended up?”
Faustus was growling, but Vlastimir nodded. “Not to burst your bubble, Faustus, but I wouldn’t trade Ekaterina here for the world.” That warranted a kiss on the cheek from her.
“Faustus Jeremy Ashman–enough!” Mira interrupted. Faustus wanted to object, but he was powerless when his wife did that as his tension began to fade. “Liss is a little rough around the edges–and I understand your feelings towards Akaya, but Yale explained a great deal on the way back.”
The fire devil slowly gave up as his body cooled down, but he was not going to let Akaya off the hook that easily. “So you just turned over a new leaf despite all the shit you put us through back at the academy?”
Will stepped over, looking like he was trying to recall something. “I mean, he’s won me over, despite how hazy my memory is…”
“Hazy?” Milan questioned with a concerned look on his face. “Oh my, that’s not good…”
Victor shook his head as he scribbled something down on a piece of paper, the graphite of his pencil scraping against the sheet. “Amnesia Recovery Decay–I told you you should have used more sea salt for the chocolate bar…”
“Duly noted, Victor…”
Faustus, sensing he could speak again, turned to Will with a mildly incredulous look on his face. “Sport…” he groaned.
Will nodded, but it was in a manner that indicated he wanted to convince Faustus rather than agree with him. “Faustus, we can’t be picky about our friends with this stuff–Yale and the others vouch for him… It still feels weird though…”
Akaya took his hat off and set it on one of the smaller tables. “I certainly was a bit of a hooligan back in the day… Faustus, I know I mocked and belittled you–enraptured by my dreams of world domination–but looking back on it you and Will were quite the team. And that goes for the whole class–all of them were something special. My mania was insufferable, but it made us who we are today.”
Faustus crossed his arms and shook his head with a chuckle. “Well when you put it like that… I mean me and Champ here did save an entire school with a technique I intended to thump your ass with in the rematch…”
“I heard about the volcano beam,” Liss-Zael put in. “Absolute mad lads I’d argue.”
“Can’t fault results like that,” Akaya agreed.
Feeling his anger melt away, Faustus held out his hand. “Oh alright–I’ll give you a chance.”
Akaya accepted the handshake, feeling great about how Faustus was willing to bury the hatchet. “Thank you, Faustus. I still have my own goals and motivations, but my MO is to attain knowledge while maintaining utmost reverence…”
Liss-Zael went over and patted him on the shoulder. “Alright, Akaya–enough of the reminiscing, we got bigger fish to fry at the moment.” He then went to his seat, relaxing with a light sigh.
Something odd then occurred to Faustus, and he turned to face Akaya–getting a good look at him and realizing the obvious. “Hold up–since when were you British?”
Will thought about it for a second, despite the state of his memories, and nodded. “Yeah, I thought you were Japanese…”
Akaya went and took his seat at the big table and chuckled. “Well I had a bit of a rebirth you could say, being enraptured by British culture as I got to explore the isles while out on missions…”
Will scoffed a little as he took a seat at one of the smaller tables with his friends. “Pardon my skepticism given all the nonsense OFCOM was planning to pull–would anyone care to verify their identities so we can protect the children?”
Akaya went quiet for a second and exhaled. “Well that nonsense can stick itself where the sun don’t shine…”
Will chuckled as he shook his head, feeling he knew a little more than Akaya did. “A little update all that surveillance nonsense, Sam–It looks like the plan behind all those age verification laws was to keep pushing it back with politicians demanding that the laws have horseshit like ‘duty of care’ in them–which was an excuse to make them even more draconian to the point where they could send the cops to your door for merely inconveniencing a politician. Remember that moronic ‘We Are The Americans Act?’ And how they wanted to label anything as dissent and ‘AI generated’ fakes? And of course let’s not forget HOW THAT BRAINDEAD VP KEPT SCREAMING THAT EVERYTHING WAS ‘WOKE’ WHEN IT SUITED HIM,” he exclaimed as he banged the table.
Sam inhaled and growled. “You know, Boyo? I distinctly remember Karnage gloating about how he was going to do stuff like that when me and Blood confronted him in The City of Eons…” It was plain as day that her anger from all those years ago was not leaving any time soon as she grumbled with an aura of bygone rage about her.
“Ha, sounds like you guys got hit with the brunt of the bullshit…” Liss-Zael remarked as he rested his head in his hands with a sympathetic smile.
“You’re telling me?” Will replied. “Good lord, you should have seen all of the big-government shills screaming at us about how we were the problem–despite the fact that those people scream bloody murder only when ‘big-government’ is working against them…”
Vlastimir nodded as he leaned back in his chair. “And let’s not forget how that imbecilic VP would only throw a fit when the law was used against him. I was never one for politics growing up, but I’m pretty sure Romanian politics were never this crazy…”
“You know, Sport?” Faustus interjected. “Jackson was right–you need to stay off the internet.”
Will groaned as the afternoon sun hit him in the eyes. “Okay, but how can I not get heated because of this nonsense? Remember how Hector Fang’s administration wanted to strip me of my citizenship? One of the reasons Antares started sending me on missions!?”
“Oh yeah–that utter nightmare…” he recalled, with Sam nodding along.
“How dreadful…” Aelia commented, her heart quietly going out to Sam and Will.
“Will, I need to be real with you for a second…” Ekaterina put in, surprising the others a little. “Back in the early 1900s, past me would have told you to ‘suck it up, buttercup…’ but after bumming it around with The Lich and all of the stuff me and Vlastimir dealt with after getting back from The Iron City–how are you still sane?! Suffice it to say you have my sympathy and then some.”
Unsure how to feel about that statement given the mix of emotions, Will nodded with an awkward smile. “Thanks, Eka…”
Akaya sighed and shook his head. “Honestly I think we were all going to lose it had Lundberg not intervened… And to address some other hitches real quickly; The subversion of British culture is infuriating–especially given that I’ve been around for way longer than any of the self-righteous boomers in power right now, and I have no idea how Kenneth Stainthorpe and Laurence Duckenfield even got into power in the first place–especially with what we know about Mr. Stainthorpe…”
“Cronyism,” Will stated bluntly.
Liss-Zael stretched his back and yawned–he did not want to step in everyone's cornflakes given that he was getting behind their non-conformist attitudes, but there were still more pressing matters… “Um, guys? As fun as this conversation is, we’ve got a pyramid fragment to deal with.” This caught everyone’s attention, except for one…
“Hold up, depths demon,” said Faustus. “Just because I gave Akaya a pass doesn’t mean it extends to you… Is he on the level, Yale?”
He stepped across the table to Faustus with his hands on his hips and nodded. “I’d trust him with my life… even if he’s a little hard to manage at times…”
“Hey, it’s not my fault life’s annoying as shit most of the time,” Liss-Zael complained with a sentiment that everyone could get behind.
Faustus sucked on his lip for a second and nodded. “Alright then, if they trust you…”
Liss-Zael chuckled as he leaned in on the big table. “I’ve heard it all before, and I’ll hear it all again… Alright–Milan, Victor? We’ve got a confirmed pyramid fragment in The Lost Fire Temple. We’re not sure who placed it there, but it is there–thankfully Akaya’s little shindig provided a nice distraction for Perkele.”
“And The Mad Flame wants us to get rid of it,” Akaya added.
Milan stroked his chin, which felt a little coarse given that his beard was starting to grow back. “Fascinating–implying something slipped past Threrth’s watch… How do you want to handle this? Should we go in with troops or a squad?”
“I say squad,” Liss-Zael answered. “That temple appears to be a bit treacherous and troops would just get in the way. Ripsaw and his goons are annoying, and Perkele is Perkele–but I think with Will and company we can handle it no problem.” That made the group feel good, seen in their subtle smiles.
“Well now–that’s quite the surprise,” Victor commented. “Coming from you, Liss? You won’t be disappointed either way, as Will and Vlastimir are quite capable when the chips are down–wish they would’ve put that energy into their homework, but it’s in the past now.” There were some nervous chuckles from the two…
“Well hey, they’ve got some grit in them.”
Akaya cleared his throat, ready to state his plans. “We’ll rest up tonight and head out tomorrow morning–Yale’s spell is quite excellent and should keep our adversaries at bay until we get there.”
Yale crossed his arms and groaned, albeit it made him sound like a hornet. “Again, you just had to use my spell…”
“Oh don’t worry–I doubt Perkele or Ripsaw will come after you here…”
“Well of course they won’t–not here…” he muttered to himself.
There was a quick pause, with Akaya standing up to stretch. “Well, I’m looking forward to dinner and a good rest tonight, so how about we get working on some food–Milan, Aelia?”
“Of course,” Aelia answered as she followed the two out of the library. “I think some roast beef would be lovely after last night’s menu of pizza, onion rings, and soft drinks.”
“Definitely,” Milan agreed. “You kids don’t mind, do you?” he asked the group.
“Fine with me,” Will answered with the others agreeing. The idea of a proper dinner made his stomach growl.
And the dinner was a fine meal that helped everyone wind down after the excitement that day. The savory, delectable meat soothed the nerves and showed that Akaya was quite the cook. Liss-Zael was feeling chatty that night and talked about some of his past, mainly relating to The Sturluson House and the incident that really pulled him into the conflict. Knowing that Sebastian had been trying to seek back up from foul demons and nephilim was a bit harrowing, but what really caught the group’s interest was Liss-Zael’s time trapped in a cyberspace prison. Evidently The Extinction Order was experimenting with digital prisons as a part of a trans-humanist agenda to avoid death and being condemned to the Prisons of Inferno–and they also wanted to deprive souls of the ability of going to Heaven. Liss-Zael laughed at that, given that it showed a distinct lack of understanding for how souls work–and he was a depths demon, so he would know.
Liss-Zael could not divulge all of the details to his imprisonment, but it was clear that Will and the group were privy to some details thanks to one of his fellow operatives, K-Virus. Things would have been fine for the demon (relatively speaking) had he not gotten into a relationship with one of his fellow prisoners. The relationship went south on account of Liss-Zael’s awkwardness and things went downhill from there, given that he was ostracized from that group. It was the catalyst for what led to him going after their warden and devouring his soul–as he was quite the corrupt man who deserved no mercy given his close ties with The Extinction Order and the foul elites that infested it. It was an unfortunate story, but seeing the others comfort him was reassuring (even though he was still lovably abrasive). Will felt some solidarity with him given a community server on the internet he was banned from prior to Red River City on account of his own awkwardness. And Ludwig and Rostislav had shared with Will their own woes, so he regaled the table with those too.
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Comments
Post a Comment