Rise in Revolution (Chapter Fifty-Three)
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saladloveChapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldri
Chapter Fifty-Three
Wings and Hearts
Kyir’s temporary workshop, Sector TZI. April 9, 2272. Time instance 842N.
“Remind me again how you ended up with a black market in your basement.” Dare crossed her arms as she sat on the table, leaning back on the wall. Kyir took a moment to answer, mumbling and doing some calculations in his head while he looked over the hands of the cyborg in front of him. He had requested that Matt come and allow him to look over his hands to make some for Tac. It was easier when he had a base to work off of, and while he couldn’t copy them exactly, they’d at least give him a starting point.
“Tanadin found me in IAL and when she learned that the Mainframe didn’t know about the basement, she asked if she could set up a criminal organization in there. I asked why and she told me that’s just what you do when you have a basement that the overlording force doesn’t know about, and something about needing some small way to rebel. I didn’t really care and I like messing with the Mainframe, so I let her. The end.”
“That wasn’t very interesting,” Dare complained.
“I seem to recall more arguing with Tanadin when you told that story to me,” Jase put in. She was sitting in a chair, reading a book and looking at Kyir by glancing above her shades, yellow-green eyes intense in the light.
“I don’t remember how much she and I argued, Jase, it was years ago!”
“I can remember our arguments word-for-word.”
“So can I,” Cataclysm mumbled from his own seat. “I could never sleep sometimes.”
Kyir looked up and grinned at him. “Was our arguing the only sounds keeping you awake?”
Cataclysm groaned. “Unfortunately not.”
Matt blinked. “Um. TMI?”
“Right, you’re here.” Jase went back to reading.
Dare rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Cataclysm. “Sooo, Cata.”
“Oh no.”
“What?”
“You have that look. Your eyes flash and you grin a certain way and you call me Cata in a certain tone of voice. What evil, obnoxious thing are you going to ask me now?”
“It’s not horrible or obnoxious!” Dare protested. “I just wanted to know where you found your girlfriend!”
Cataclysm raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Emma. The one who seemed so worried about you when you were in the medical wing. You know, brown hair, brown eyes, s-”
“I know who Emma is! We’re not starting the she’s your girlfriend, no she’s not, yes she is argument again. I got so sick of that hearing it between Jase and Corvus and then you with me and anyone I talked to outside of you guys.”
“You insisted that Cataclysm was dating Dise for awhile,” Kyir reminded her.
“Gross,” Jase remarked.
“That was a joke! You guys didn’t really think that I thought they were dating, did you? That would be weird.”
“I am the only one not romantically tied to this group,” Cataclysm noted. “So I’m weird already.”
Dare jumped up and raced over to poke him in the nose. “So you admit it!”
“No.”
“You at least thought about it!”
“No.”
“Damn.” Dare sat down again. “What about Emma, though?”
“What about Emma?”
“What do you think of her?”
Cataclysm shrugged. “She’s nice. She seems to understand when I talk about stuff.”
“Do you think she’s pretty?”
“Dare!”
“Well, she is! If you don’t think she’s pretty, you’re blind!”
“Gaaaay!” Jase called. “Date her yourself!”
“I won’t steal Cataclysm’s girlfriend from him.”
“Fight me.”
“You want to tell Dare the other thing? The mirror thing?”
“Mirror thing?” Dare asked. “What mirror thing?”
“Yeah, hold up, what?” Jase put down her book.
“Well…” Cataclysm hesitated, glancing at Matt. “I’d rather not say with...present company.”
“You can just say Matt. It’s okay. I don’t really care.”
“I’ve got most of what I need anyway. I can probably make up the rest.” Kyir sat back in his chair. “You can go.”
“Awesome.” Matt hopped off the table and left the room, waving without turning around. He shut the door behind him and Cataclysm waited until his footsteps faded to speak.
“I saw Emma in the Mirror of Ripples.”
Jase’s eyes widened behind her shades and Dare almost fell off of the table. “What?! Seriously?”
“That’s what I said!” Kyir scribbled some notes on a piece of paper, outlining the rough shape of a hand.
“We-ell, this could mean a few things,” Jase said slowly, sitting up. “This could mean you two are soulmates. It could mean that she has to die to trigger some horrible thing to make your destiny unravel.”
“Charming,” Cataclysm muttered. “And optimistic.”
“I’m not done. You could be destined to be together for a short amount of time and then split apart, resulting in a hybrid child that nobody but the human parent wants and then aliens invade and everything goes terribly but the human parent and the non-human parent's brother are best friends.”
“Very funny,” Kyir mumbled. “Really hilarious. I’m dying over here. Ha. Ha ha.”
“I don’t think Emma and Zi would get along well. Any other ideas, Jase, other than repeats of the past?”
“I don’t know, dude. Destiny is stupid.”
“Agreed,” Dare muttered. “Just roll with it. And date her.”
“Don’t tell me to date her!”
“Do you want to?”
“Do I want to date her?”
“Yes!”
“Well.” Cataclysm shuffled his wings. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s not a yes.”
“You like her.”
“I...I...Shut up.” Cataclysm hid behind his wings. Dare laughed at him while Kyir and Jase rolled their eyes. “I don’t know her well enough!”
“Get to know her, then! You saw her in the Mirror, didn’t you? She’s important.” Kyir got up and pushed Cataclysm out of his seat. “Go. Shoo. Bond with your soulmate.”
“She’s not my-”
“Get out of my workshop, Cataclysm.” Kyir helped his friend up and cheerfully pushed him out of the room, Dare laughing the entire time.
It was good to have the group back together.
~~~
Cataclysm crossed his arms moodily as he walked. My friends are jerks, he reflected, but he wasn’t sure how much he meant it. No matter how obnoxious they were, they were still his friends, and certainly more family than the idiots related to him.
Well. Adria had been okay. His niece had always been wonderful, even if her father...s?... had been less than perfect- Kyir wasn’t exactly a shining example of human perfection. Srvliux had had his issues, but they weren’t so bad in the grand scheme of things. Zi, however, had been the biggest trashbag in the history of terrible people.
Cataclysm shook it off. That was in the past, and he had to learn to let it go.
He ducked inside a random building and raised an eyebrow at Jimmy and Gali, who were snuggled on a couch, whispering, and giggling, apparently not noticing him. He smiled at them and slipped back outside, content to leave them be. They were practically inseparable, and Cataclysm wasn’t sure if they ever could be separated.
He almost ran right into Cap, who seemed equally distracted. He sidestepped to avoid a collision and she blinked, looking up. “Oh! Sorry. I’m not really paying attention.”
“I’m not either, it’s fine.” Cataclysm shrugged. “What’s going on?”
“I made a mistake and it’s...not going well.”
“I’m sorry. Anything to do with Fan?”
“Yeah.” Cap crossed her arms, shuddering. “I upset Fan.”
“Not hard but I can see why it would bother you. What happened?”
“I didn’t tell her...something important, and she’s mad at me because of it. I didn’t want to tell her for her own good, but she doesn't understand that and I’m wondering if I’m wrong.”
“Talk to her about it,” Cataclysm suggested. “If it’s been more than a day she’s probably cooled off enough to at least listen to what you have to say. I know it takes me a day or two to calm down and from what I can tell she’s the same way.”
“She is,” Cap agreed. “I’ve just been...putting it off, I guess. I don’t want her even more angry with me than she already is.”
“Is that possible?”
“Probably not. I really screwed up.”
Cataclysm patted her shoulder. “Talk to her. If worst comes to worst, you have better range than she does.” He motioned to the rifle on her back.
Cap laughed. “I guess you’re right. Thanks, Cataclysm.”
“Don’t be too impressed. I only know what to say because people say it to me about Kyir. He’s not exactly calm.”
“No, I’d imagine not.” Cap looked around the street to orient herself. “I’d better go talk to Fan. See you around.”
“Cya.” Cataclysm watched her go before continuing down the street, wondering what exactly had just happened. Since when do I offer advice to people I barely know? I’m a huge trainwreck, and yet...I feel like I can relate to these people. We need to stick together, now, or we’ll be destroyed.
He snorted. If the angelic host had taught him anything useful, it was that teamwork was invaluable.
He went into another building in the hopes of getting out of the sun. He felt safer in the darkness, and he used to hate himself for it, but now he accepted it. It was in his nature, now, so why expose himself to the bright and burning sun when he didn’t have to?
It seemed to be empty, something that relieved him. He sat down on the floor and slowly stretched his wings, feeling the bandages on the injured one holding him back from extending it fully. Scara had given it another look and now it was just sore, but she had insisted upon him keeping the bandage on. He was honestly grateful for the excuse to hide that patch of his wing, as the feathers were still growing in and looked ridiculous without the bandage.
He snorted in laughter. Since when did he, of all people, worry about his appearance? He’d always dismissed it as unimportant since early on in his life, when he learned that he wasn’t was desirable as his brothers, however one wanted to define that. He looked at his wings and ran his hand through the feathers of his uninjured one, noting that they needed some attention but pushing the matter from his mind for a moment. He missed his white feathers, sometimes, but the black suited him better now. Who ever heard of a demon with white wings, unless they were albi-
He shut that thought down right there. Albino wings were not a thing he wanted to think about.
No, black feathers were fine, even if back up in Heaven they’d hate him and ostracize him for their color. He had known an angel with gray feathers, once. He’d been an awfully sad sight. Cataclysm wondered what had happened to him before shrugging it off. It didn’t matter. It had been...what, close to thirty years? The thought shook him to the core. The Mainframe had been here for twenty years. That was a long time to him- how long had it felt for the mortals? The humans, who lived only eighty or ninety years before they were gone?
He decided to work on his wings, at at least the unbandaged portions. That, at least, would distract him from his troubling thoughts.
A couple of minutes later, a voice spoke, making him yelp in surprise and jump, flapping his wings and messing up his feathers. “Are you blind or am I more hidden than I think?”
He glanced around to identify the source of the sound before a mound of blankets and pillows on the nearest chair shifted and Emma’s face became visible. He crossed his arms and folded his wings moodily. “Don’t do that.”
“You walked in and sat down! I thought you knew I was there at first and then I couldn’t think of a way of letting you know I was here without scaring you! I didn’t want you to find out in, like, an hour or so that I was here because who knows what I would have accidentally seen.”
“I’m just thinking and fixing my wings!”
“You told me your wings are like your butt!”
“Only when it comes to other people reaching out and touching them! It’s not like I’m cleaning my butt in front of you!”
“That wasn’t explained to me!”
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“Because it was interesting and I like looking and your wings and oh shit I shouldn’t have said that.”
Cataclysm blinked. “Um.”
“Err. Woops?”
Cataclysm shuffled his wings. “It’s...okay. I don’t mind. Kyir’s my best friend, I’m used to people saying inappropriate things to me, especially unintentionally.”
“Oh.” Emma smiled slightly, barely daring to do so. “I’m glad.”
That evening, when Cataclysm returned ‘home,’ Kyir raised an eyebrow at the expression on his face.
“What’s got you so happy?”
“Emma likes my wings,” Cataclysm said, grinning like a fool, and then left to go to bed.
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Date: 2016-09-14 11:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-14 04:43 pm (UTC)This is the edgiest sentence I've ever read
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Date: 2016-09-15 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-15 09:47 pm (UTC)They have both been told by an instrument of prophecy, whether that be a person or a mirror, that their future depends on or revolves around a certain person. And everyone who's read the monterous trilogy knows how that ends.
-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-16 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-16 08:37 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-20 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-20 05:26 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-16 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-16 08:42 pm (UTC)*huddled in a ball in a corner rocking back and forth* poor blame poor blamepoor blamepoor blamepoorblamepoorblame...
-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-16 09:32 pm (UTC)Fun fact: Since June I have been making step clank noises whenever I move due to the cast and now support boot I have on my left leg.
Note: I dislocated and fracture my talus bone in my ankle by falling off of an unstable stool, fracture is now healed (or at least it should be) and I hopefully get my support boot off on the 19th of this month, followed by physiotherapy.
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Date: 2016-09-17 12:08 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-18 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-21 10:05 pm (UTC)I can wean myself off of the boot and start walking normally again with crutches for help with balance and will be starting some physio soon.
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Date: 2016-09-20 02:51 am (UTC)Step. Clank.
Step.
Clank.
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Date: 2016-09-20 05:34 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-20 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-20 09:55 pm (UTC)In short, I should probably get more than 6 hours of sleep for the first time in 3 weeks and do my bimonthly world reevaluation.
-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-09-20 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-14 05:18 pm (UTC)“I can remember our arguments word-for-word.”
“So can I,” Cataclysm mumbled from his own seat. “I could never sleep sometimes.”
Kyir looked up and grinned at him. “Was our arguing the only sounds keeping you awake?”
Cataclysm groaned. “Unfortunately not.”
Matt blinked. “Um. TMI?”
*giggle-snorts* XD
“We-ell, this could mean a few things,” Jase said slowly, sitting up. “This could mean you two are soulmates. It could mean that she has to die to trigger some horrible thing to make your destiny unravel.”
“Charming,” Cataclysm muttered. “And optimistic.”
“I’m not done. You could be destined to be together for a short amount of time and then split apart, resulting in a hybrid child that nobody but the human parent wants and then aliens invade and everything goes terribly but the human parent and the non-human parent's brother are best friends.”
I love Jase's theories. The last one sounds like the set up for an anime. ^_^
He ducked inside a random building and raised an eyebrow at Jimmy and Gali, who were snuggled on a couch, whispering, and giggling, apparently not noticing him. He smiled at them and slipped back outside, content to leave them be. They were practically inseparable, and Cataclysm wasn’t sure if they ever could be separated.
They have become Jimli now, nothing and no one can separate them.
It seemed to be empty, something that relieved him. He sat down on the floor and slowly stretched his wings, feeling the bandages on the injured one holding him back from extending it fully. Scara had given it another look and now it was just sore, but she had insisted upon him keeping the bandage on. He was honestly grateful for the excuse to hide that patch of his wing, as the feathers were still growing in and looked ridiculous without the bandage.
Dust in exposed follicles will only make the new feathers growing in itch more or be even sorer than it already is, so healers orders to keep the bandage makes is practical and saves embarrassment. XD
A couple of minutes later, a voice spoke, making him yelp in surprise and jump, flapping his wings and messing up his feathers. “Are you blind or am I more hidden than I think?”
He glanced around to identify the source of the sound before a mound of blankets and pillows on the nearest chair shifted and Emma’s face became visible. He crossed his arms and folded his wings moodily. “Don’t do that.”
So Cataclysm conveniently wandered into the same building as Emma was in without knowing? They're drawn together.
“I’m just thinking and fixing my wings!”
“You told me your wings are like your butt!”
“Only when it comes to other people reaching out and touching them! It’s not like I’m cleaning my butt in front of you!”
“That wasn’t explained to me!”
Emma would likely have still looked even if Cataclysm was cleaning his butt in front of her XP
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Date: 2016-09-15 01:16 am (UTC)EMMA'S NOT A PERVERT SHE JUST HAS A CRUSH
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Date: 2016-09-15 08:58 pm (UTC)*raises eyebrow* Really Tana? I think a small part of having a crush on someone involves the occasional perverted thought about someone. Have you never had a perverted thought about someone who you had a crush on?
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Date: 2016-09-16 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-16 01:49 am (UTC)Must just be me then lol XP