The First Age

He pushed her backwards. Ori didn’t accede easily, but she did accede. Challenge and provocation heated the lust in her stare, but she wanted to see what he’d do. Honestly, she didn’t care where they fucked, and she wasn’t in the mood for subtly or negotiating the revellers in his home. His body moved against hers, a stiffer rhythm than she knew him capable from watching him on stage. The metal hand tangled her hair, and vicious teeth scored at the flesh of her neck. The promise of pain made her gasp. Her nails raked in turn, teasing fresh scars with a ruthless possession. He was only alive because of her. Tonight, it was better he didn’t forget it.

Light fled. But the suddenly deafening, hypnotic bass of the music didn’t drown the sudden spike of whispers swarming her head. Confusion and curiosity reared. She refused to acknowledge the words the ijiraq spoke to themselves, unsure what stirred them, and desperate to tune them out. Her hands pulled at Nox’s shirt more insistently, skin catching on the remnants of glass still embedded. The dancing around them shifted as the party welcomed the dark. Ori didn’t care. 

Except: “Anyone else touches me, they’ll lose the hand,” she promised. The words purred like they were sweet nothings, but she meant every word with acidic certainty. There was nothing exclusive in their arrangement, but Ori was too selfish to share. For all her displayed apathy, she could be a jealous lover when she chose. But this wasn’t exactly that. Nox like this was animalistic – more monster than man. She pressed those buttons entirely on purpose. “And if anyone else touches you, I’ll cause a fucking bloodbath.”

Oriena's warning moved him to reach through the slick of the power while he scarped his teeth agaisnt her neck. He could clamp down and draw blood. it was an effort not to bite hard enough to draw blood. The horde could go deep, bleed her out. He'd watched the horde do it to one of their own before and it was one of the bad memories he pushed away as he growled against Oriena's neck and wrapped his arms underneath her. lifting her off her feet and around his waist.

He broke from her neck and wove a glow of the aurora borealius to light the way and tied it off before he wove a second weave of air and pushed everyone around them away from him. It was for their protection more than his and in his current state he wasn't gentle with the air he pushed people out of his way.

Nox knew he could find a bed upstairs, but at present he wasn't thinking stairs, there was a perfectly good room down the hall. The power coarsed through him and he tried to push the door open but it wouldn't budge, the door knob wouldn't open the door, so he pushed the power into the locking mechanism and opened it that way. Sage would be pissed but that was for later.

The room was sparse, mostly just empty space. A stood stood in the center of the room and he threw pulled down the murphy bed agaisnt the wall and slammed the door shot behind him. The thump of the music outside the room was audible but there was nothing but their breaths now. Nox set Oriena on the bed not so gently as he scrambled out of his clothes. And then moved to peel Oriena out of hers. He let the power go after blockading the door with air. The horde stared back at Oriena "Mine."

Sage was about to show Thyme out the door. The kid shouldn't be here. When Nox showed up with Oriena there was a different priority at the forefront of Sage's mind. He warned the kid then turned and made his way through the house.

The place lit up with Nox's classic lights and Sage looked up with the rest of the crowd. An area around Nox cleared. The people around him were pushed by an invisible force. Several people stumbled and shouted and Sage felt people pressing against him. The look on Nox's face was carnal and savage. Sage hadn't seen him like that before. It was frightening but at least he still had his head about him.

The whole place was midst orgie. Sage looked towards the stairs at the singing boy that lured Nox away. He moved through the still dazed crowd pushing people out of his way. "You. You think you can make sure this doesn't get out of hand? Nox is a bit busy and I'd like to keep the house intact."

It was dark, but not so pitch black that Jaxen couldn’t appreciate the silhouettes of his two friends. Even for him, this was going to be kinky in a way that wasn’t exactly common. Freaky sex was always a thrill, but this was different. He kept a sharp eye on Narcissus, aware that behind her foxy smile was the potential to eat him alive.

Then the rope tightened around his throat. It didn't hurt, but it was enough to make him yield to Camelia’s pull on the other end. With a murmur of willing consent, he shrugged off his coat and tossed it aside. The buttons of his shirt twisted apart, but before he could undo the last one, Camelia’s demeanor sharpened.

“Ow!” he yelped playfully, responding with a static shock of his own. It sparked against her arm, nothing more than a jolt of electricity.

He imagined those twitches dancing across her bare skin, but then turned his attention to Narcissus, wanting to share the fun. Yet behind her makeup, her expression had stilled. Her body language shifted, though she hadn’t left entirely. Jaxen had heard rumors of threesomes where one member backed out at the last minute; he’d never witnessed it until now.

He glanced over his shoulder, tracking Camelia’s direction, and stumbled slightly at an unexpected tug on the rope. The devil beneath the mask smirked and followed.

He rounded on her, the rope sliding around his neck like a loose tie. His hands trailed lightly up and down her arms, gliding to her hips and grazing her ribs. At one point, he leaned into the crook of her neck and sniffed. The mask revealed no scent of perfume, but it was about the experience. Camelia was alone in the dark with a beast—perhaps a smiling devil, or just as easily, a grotesque tormentor. He wanted her to feel the full experience of the unknown.

Once satisfied, he unfolded himself onto a couch. With his arms stretched across the top, the open neck of his shirt was prominent but clearly unfinished.

“I would like a kiss,” he said. As it was evident his mask remained in place, he added an explantion, “I want to see you kiss her. You two are close. More than friends. Show me.”

With the request came a small twist of Ancient Fire. To fit the theme of the night, a pair of dancing flames illuminated him as he crossed his legs and waited.

They were in no rush, after all.

The sudden zap of electricity changed the game. There might have been a tinge of fear on top of the excitement of it. She'd not met very men whom she could interact that weilded the power so easily. She'd met many. But few were entitled enough to use it with her, and most were family.

The tables turned and he was the one thinking to give orders, but Roza looked back to find Esper's gaze not the same as expected. Where she expected her to play along, it wasn't the case. Something was wrong and Roza sashayed towards Esper with a taunting walk. It wasn't for Esper, there was no need to fake anything for Esper. But a show -- the game was still afoot but there was still something wrong.

Roza reached her friend and ran a finger down the side of one of the prosthetics applied to her face so that she was touching skin. "What's wrong my love?" She leaned in and whispered. "He wants a kiss, but something's wrong. Tell me."

Liam rushed through the crowd. As he ascended the stairs, he turned to see Nox with the woman who'd saved them. He looked less scarey in the light, but Liam turned and rushed back up to his sisters. He'd bought what Ava wanted, and he had a warning for them.

As he reached the third floor the music stopped thumping as loudly and he could hear screams of pain coming from their room upstairs. Liam raced up. He thought about getting Ashton, but there wasn't much any of them other than Liv could do. The room they were staying in was a chaotic mess. Emma was bring towels from the nearby bathroom. Sophia had a bucket of warm water. Isabel sat next to Ava and held her hand as she Ava screamed in pain.

Ava's hands scrambled for Liams once she saw him. "Where is it?"

Liam gave her the pill bag he'd obtained and watched as she clutched it to her stomach as another contraction over took her body. Isabel took the baggie from here and split the pills handing five to Ava and took the remainer herself in one dry gulp. Ava followed suit.

Liv shouted. "Ava you gotta push." She tried to push the pills from Ava's mouth, but the laboring girl didn't budge and swallowed her share just as quickly as Isabel had. Neither wanted to give birth again to monsters. Neither wanted the pain of their memories. But the baby was already coming.

Liv closed her eyes and reached for the source. Liam watched as he'd done many times before as their sister and friend reached to her gift and then she began to cut the child out of Ava's now relaxed body. Isabel's body lay beside her as the drugs they took overwhelmed their senses. It wasn't instantaneous death, but they felt good. Felt the high but it wasn't enough as Ava screamed with new found horror as Liv aved the child with in. It's what she would have been ordered to do whether it was a girl or a boy. The Blackthorns would want the child even if they lost the mother.

And Ava was already determined to leave this mortal coil. It was sad. And if Liam were in the same place as the girls and Ethan he'd have choosen the same fate. That was no way to live. He at least still had life to live. And he intended to do it. The others all stood with him curled under his arms protectively as they watched live pull the baby from the womb. Isabel and Ava were beyond reach lying in a pool of blood and soon they wouldn't even care about that.

The baby cried and Liv wrapped it in a clean towel handing it to Emma. "I don't think our savior is going to ba happy about this he wanted to save them."

Liam chuckled. "He can have the baby then. Make up for his failure."

Liv looked at Liam as she made her way to the bathroom to clean the child. "You think he'd take her. You really think he cares what happens to any of us?"

Liam shook his head. "I don't know. He could have killed us all. He had every reason to kill Ashton yet, he let him live. It's not like we choose this life. Our foster parents made us do it or we'd be food too."

Noah whispered. "But you saw what he did to Ambrose and Octavius."

Jackson laughed. "They killed themselves. They ran in with Uncle Max. They knew they deserved to die just the same as Eddie and Master Cedric. They ate people. Killed Taylor too."

Noah whined. "But he killed Ethan. Ashton said to save him too."

"Ethan didn't want to live anymore than Iz and Ava." Liv said from the bathroom. "Just don't expect to stay here. He'll throw us out. We cut on him. We feed him to the Blackthorns."

No desire ever kindled in Esper from flesh, and she didn’t watch Roza’s teasing command of Voxel’s clothes. She didn’t need it for arousal to shiver her skin. Instead her gaze moved upwards, attention drawn by changes in the mood of the party above them as it seeped down into her being. There was no way out of here but back up the stairs and through it. Emotions were harder to douse the more widespread they raged, and its strength made her feel a little delirious at the edges – lulling her to succumb and not to fight; to soak it all in like a drug. She had no preferences in bodies, but no interest in any arrangement that did not also include Roza.

The kernel of her own ire did not abate, but it became less urgent. She gave no jealous regard to the touches and attention stolen only feet away, for she felt what Roza felt; thrill and fear and everything in between, as though they shared the same skin. Yet had Voxel made the mistake of reaching out to her then, Esper would have shared the sting of her own gift without hesitation. 

Though she considered now that all she actually needed was for Voxel to be spent.

Everything magnified with two sets of power in the room, and she felt the twinge of Roza’s surprise, but it was a drop in an ocean. If Esper seemed high it was because she was. The next thing she knew Roza was close, and she blinked and listened to the words, a little dazed. Her expression did little, though an unsmiling Esper did not mean much of anything. The skin to skin touch was not just intimacy but connection between them, and it was an act of reassurance on Roza’s part, but not one Esper needed; or at least not for the reasons Roza might think. Her hands slipped over the other woman’s hips, caressed the curves of her waist with familiarity.

“Anything you like,” she said, and meant it, as her body pressed close. Her lips hovered like a promise, pooling an ache inside, but she knew from Roza’s sashay they were still playing. Fire burned an ethereal torchlight, like centre stage, and Esper did not look to their audience in the shadows to see what he made of the show. Her hands wandered; from hip across stomach as she circled behind instead. Her breath tickled soft across Roza’s cheek, across the glinting scales. “But not that. Will you promise? As yourself?” Those words were quiet, meant only for the ear into which she whispered them. She did not wait for Roza’s answer now; it was a real question, and a real plea, but this was a performance.

Her attention turned to Voxel then, as she caressed the hair back from Roza’s slender neck and rested her chin on her shoulder to look at him. It was not in possession so much as something intrinsically entwined and paired. With her heavy-lidded gaze she noted the shirt still on his shoulders. His expectant pose. She had no problem with a voyeur. But he asked for a boon when he could not even follow a simple instruction, and she felt the faint echo of Roza’s pique for the control he robbed from her. Esper had a performer’s inclination, but also an immovable regard for what she perceived as fairness. It was very straightforward, actually, but she hated when people were loose with words. A promise was a promise. And an offer should be honoured.

She smirked lazily, and if she whispered still, this was one was clearly meant for the stage. “He strides so confidently into the devil's lair but does he actually know what bargains he makes?” Her laughter was throaty. When she peeled away, it was to make an elaborate bow, the roll of her hand preceding the deep and elegant curve of spine. Her hair tumbled a fiery mass in the light, entirely purposeful; she angled for a spotlight. “Voxel Adams, at your service” she reminded. Esper spoke it with his brusque Russian accent, as theatrical as the flourish of her gesture. It was an exaggerated mimicry, as close as she might parody of his mannerisms in the brief moments they’d spent in his company. The speech was for him. The eerie white globes of her eyes did not blink as she added. “He fails at the first instruction. By proxy I'll make a better example. Perhaps he will learn something.”

She straightened with the feral glint of a smile, and shifted back, the glow of the flames readjusting over her skin as she recaptured into Roza’s orbit. Her fingers coiled a lock of dark hair. The other hand drew Roza in at the waist. He wants a kiss, she had said only moments ago. But with sultry devotion Esper leaned to ask the question back, lips indeed only a hair’s breadth away. “But what do you want?”

Stranger’s hands groped tantalising invitation in the shadows, and thick in its midst Nesrin didn’t reject the touch, but if her own glided a languorous reply against skin it was only to guide it on elsewhere. The power was slippery enough without the distraction. She worked it through the walls, attempting to discover if it might be used to engineer the lights back on. Should the opportunity seem worth it anyway. There were other ways of creating light, but she didn’t want to risk blame, just reap the reward of whatever leverage it might incidentally reveal.

Then there was light, but not of her doing. A glow of flowing colour blossomed, and it might have seemed romantic but for the carnal face it briefly illuminated beneath. She’d seen Nox fighting in the ring, and felt a sting of wariness at the twist of his expression, knowing how much destructive potential dwelt within one man’s skin. Even as she thought it, blunt force knocked her back, stealing the air from her lungs. Flailing limbs around her sparked pain in ribs and stomach; she wasn’t the only one caught in the riptide, and the power unravelled from her grasp as she fell. Her teeth bit hard, and she’d have sworn if she could.

It was as she landed she noticed the edges of a neon glow in her peripheral – a figure fleeing away from the mass of people. Nesrin caught her breath, and as she did so her eyes tracked its path in surprise of recognition, pain forgotten. In certain circles that mask was infamous, the rumours around it strange enough to compel her curiosity, and after a moment of indecision she turned to rise back to her feet and follow – pushing her way over those who'd also lost their balance in the assault, until she was free of the tangle entirely. Nesrin's presence on the darkweb was subtle, but her knowledge of it went deeply. The m’Antinomian were possessed of an almost unearthly skill, and one she had employed on more than one occasion. Bode was nothing if not thorough, in her own protections especially. But while she had the keys to reach them when she needed, she had never encountered one in the flesh. Let alone the one they called the first.

She wasn't entirely sure what she intended, just that it was a thread worth following. Yet bizarrely, for all his haste, when she found him the Emissary was standing beside a wall like a puppet with cut strings. Her approach was cautious, uncertain at first, and yet he showed no reaction at all to her presence – even when she came close enough for those glowing X’s to cast light against the perfect black of her own mask. She glanced briefly over her own shoulder before touching him gently at the elbow. Still nothing. Her heart began a faster beat. A god was what they said, as deluded a belief as that of the Brotherhood, and in the cover of deepest dark, who wouldn’t take the opportunity to unmask a god? He was practically catatonic; it was perfectly and easily excusable under a guise of concern. So her fingers caressed for the seam, searching for a way to tip it from his face.

The Emissary fled the body in prusuit of whatever power it had felt and left him standing there with a singular command "stay". He didn't have any reason to do anything else, and he sure didn't feel like moving much less dancing or even in intercourse. Right now his body hurt, he always hurt after the Emissary left his body. His mind was dull, his senses drawn tight. It was worse than waking up with a hangover tenfold.

He barely registered the party raging outside his body. The dark figure who crept up to him was not completely unnoticed but their ambiguous attention didn't matter. At least it didn't matter until they tried to remove the mask. Faster than he thought he could move given his state his hand was wrapped tightly around their wrist squeezing and pulling it from the edge of the mask.

The glowing eyes turned in their direction but it made no sound to deter them further. Had they managed to gaze upon his face, he was certain they would see nothing but a vacant void. That's how it felt looking in the mirror. The Emissary would be angry if their face were revealed to anyone other than his parents. No one knew who he as, and it was supposed to remain that way. Fleeing from the body would be the only other course of action and he didn't want that. To live like this on a regular basis would be cause for death. He could not live without the light of the Emissary.

---

The Emissary followed the circuits through the house. To the source of where the power fled after it had arrived again. It felt different -- strange, but familiar all the same. It wanted to know more. But once inside the room the Emissary could not follow. The circuits were not part of the system. The internet for which it could travel did not penetrate that room. The air gaps between devices too large to jump in this form. How?

In it's fury and frustration the music on the speakers flickered in and out as it raged inside the power system. The lights that had been turned off flickered with its rage before a few bulbs popped in a nearby room. But they remained off when the jolt of power surged through the system.

The enemy was keeping him from something. It wanted to know. It fled back to the body. The body could enter...

For everything Esper teased and taunted, Roza felt like there was something off with the way Esper reacted to this Voxel Adams. Esper was playing the game for the most part, but something was off.

There was a serious moment shared between them. A hand glossed over her belly and a whisper for her ears only. Esper was intuitive in ways Roza would never truly understand, as much as she tried, just like Esper would never truly understand her gift. But they both understood more than most and she never wanted to hurt Esper. She could make that promise now and then it might break. And then she'd be up shit's creek with out a paddle and that was not what she wanted to do -- losing Esper would be heart breaking.

They needed to talk. There would be no promise made now -- only the game and she would do her best not to break any concern of Esper's now or ever, but they needed to talk about it.

Her bestest of friends mocked Voxel Adams and Roza couldn't help but smirk with her back turned to the man still. And Esper returned to her she asked a silly question. It wasn't silly in the funny haha sorta way but in the silly she knew the answer sorta way. Roza whispered "Only you." and she pulled Esper in for a kiss. It was part of the game. But it was also the total truth of the matter. Given a choice, Roza would always choose Esper. The kiss was charged with her feelings for Esper, and the thrill of the game. It wasn't tingned with concern for the loss she might feel if Esper were to leave her, but it played at the back of her mind even so.

Roza would be most happy if it was just the two of them in this dark room below the party that raged on. But their kiss ended abruptly as Esper gasped. It might look normal to others but to Roza she knew something else had happened. She didn't ask, they could talk about it all later. She winked at Esper and whispered into her ear, licking and playing with the soft skin and curls with her tongue afterwards.

She turned to Voxel and pouted as she sashayed back over to him and knelt down in front of him to help him out of his pants. "I said off."

[[Whisper sent]]