The First Age

Ashton had seen the power being used. Nox at the Almaz. Nox in the Blackthorn mansion. He'd seen it on TV when the Ascendancy had changed a whole building. But when the lights and sights around him changed Ashton knew he was in danger and there was no one here to keep him safe. The song from his lips stopped abruptly. Those who had been touched by his gift no longer felt his pull to leave.

And just as quickly as the lights began he was floating strung up like a pig for slaughter by the very man he had just barely escaped from before. Jaxen Marveet -- once prisoner of the Blackthorns and now he was after Ashton. It wasn't his fault all of this. Where was Nox? He'd protect him. He hoped. Though Nox was also a victim of Ashton's manipulation. It had yet to be seen how friendly he'd be after the fact.

Jaxen rattled on about cannibals and aliens and Ashton was confused. Aliens? What the fuck was he talking about. All Ashton knew is Jaxen was there one minute then gone the second. He had nothing to do with it. He thought Jaxen had done it. What the fuck?

Panic set in and all Ashton could do was stare at the devil mask taking him in like he really was that stuck pig.

The flutter faded but they still walked towards the last known location. And it wasn't long before a man burst from the same room the power had fled before. They walked towards it slowly. The door still open a jar.

And then that flutter was behind him. They turned quickly, the body almost losing its balance as it moved towards the new source, another of this strange kind. This flutter. What was it?

A man in a devilish costume stood staring at a boy who was surrounded by strange makings. It wasn't power as it saw it but it was power. A strange familiar power. But not of interest. What was this flutter?

The body moved towards the man standing. The body reached out and grabbed the man's elbow and turned him abruptly towards him. In it's unused, gravely voice it spoke over the still thumping music, though the power of the music had since faded with the boy on the counter restrained. Interesting... "What the fuck are you?"

They spread through the body and bridged the gap between the body and the captive elbow. It was nothing to shimmer across and feel what it was that lay inside this man. Why the flutter. The need, the pull. It was even greater now that it had touched the man's arm. They wanted to know what it was. And it was also hungry. This might make a great new host...

Hayden took the time to admire the man showering attention on him. Seven had taken the invitation and showed that he too knew exactly what to do. The feel of his lips and touch was enthralling but Hayden looked past the pleasure and watched the minor things. The way he moved, the firm touch, the smiles and sounds he made. His father would not be proud of what he had put his education towards, but you learned a lot about people when they let their inhibitions go. It was why he owned a bar and not clinic.

Seven's voice was husky and did things to him that made him almost forget before he was ready. There was still much to learn before he gave everything to this man. He already has rapt attention. The feel of his body on his fueled the desire deeper. His lips teasing above him as he insisted on more practice. Hayden smiled and floundered for the bedside table. This was Nox's home, he had to have proper lube lying around somewhere.

Hayden leaned up and closed the distance between their lips as he floundered in the empty drawer. He growled both for the man above him and the disdain for an empty house. Hayden wrapped his arms and legs around Seven and then rolled them over. He deepened the kiss and then looked down at the man who he had enjoyed looking up at. He brushed the hair from Seven's face with a gentle touch. "I am totally all yours. Just give me a moment, seems my friend isn't as well prepared as I thought he was."

Hayden slide from Seven's body placing a kiss along the center of his body. He took a deep breath in taking in the man's scent and savoring it as he ran his tongue along the most sensitive bits of Seven's body -- a lingering tease while he slide from the bed. "Be right back I promise."

Hayden slipped out of the room heedless that he was naked. Didn't matter to him any, he wasn't going far as he slipped into the room with the ongoing threesome. They looked up once again and Hayden held up his hands. "Don't mind me. I won't be long." He was right. He had seen Nox's bag he'd had in London on the floor in the room they were in. He didn't need to rummage, Hayden knew exactly where Nox kept the lube, they'd used it often enough. And he hurried back to Seven. He shut the door behind him and tossed the bottle on the bed before locking the door and looking across the room to see if Seven had remained.

Jaxen was circling the kid strung up in front of him like a shark deciding which meaty morsel to attack first. Though perhaps the metaphor was more fitting the other way around.

He seriously considered removing his mask, just so this asshole could see the snarl on his face. “You know what you fuckers did to earless? You want to know why she was called earless? Let me show you…” he used the power to lower the kid, flicking his ears with his fingers painfully. “Now, where can i find a dull knife to saw that off…” Though the devil mask was smiling, the voice behind it was seething.

That was when something touched him on the elbow. A glance revealed a hooded figure cast in darkness so deep, Jaxen had to frown to find its face. The nametag revealed a familiar identity: The Emissary.

His eyes widened in legitimate surprise. He’d heard the stories of the hacker group, m’Antinomiam, and their enigmatic leader, the Emissary. Strange stories of freaky shit followed the rumored appearances of the Emissary. Jaxen shouldn’t be surprised he appeared, yet all he could do was stare into its haunting face as the grip on his elbow tightened.

Ashton gasped with the sudden movement. The flick to the ear made him wince yet he couldn't do anything about it.

He would have whimpered if he thought it would gain him anything. He did his best to radiate his power as he spoke. "I didn't do that. Not to her. I didn't have a choice. They'd kill me if I didn't bring them back someone. You aren't the usual mark. You were a fucking sleeze bag a nobody when I picked you up. It wasn't until we got you to a room that I figured out who you were. I tried to get them to let you go. I fucking tried. But they wouldn't let you go cause they didn't have high and might meaty like you often." As Ashton spoke the words he remembered talking with Cedric in the basement on the adjuct site. Cedric smacked him around that night at home. Threatened him with his own rite like he'd seen of Taylor even though they'd promised as long as he brought home food he would be safe.

Ashton couldn't cower in the corner like he wanted. He wanted no part of this. "I'm done with that. Nox freed me, freed us. He killed all the monsters."

Ashton wasn't sure that Jaxen was listening to him, his attention was on the man holding his arm. He was even creepier than Jaxen was in his devil mask.

The gap was precious and they shifted across the boundary. They searched for the power that came from this man. They anchored themselves to its body and flowed into the new form searching. Testing the nerves finding the best path. What was it? This flutter this power... What was it.

Turns out hanging out in the kitchen watching for Liam came with the boon of front row seats to the most exclusive show of the evening. Drink in hand, leaning against the counter, Gideon watched in wide-eyed wonder as the maskless singer was hoisted elaborately from his perch amidst an explosion of colour and bugs. By the general cowering avoidance of the crowd around them, he wondered for a moment if someone had slipped something fun in his drink and it really was a one-man show, but he stared nonetheless. The ear flick was a little avant garde, but then again, sometimes art is suffering. The little singer bird appeared genuinely terrified. The devil-mask absolutely seething.

Now, Gideon had an exceptional brain (he did say so himself) which usually resulted in it racing in several different directions at once, and something was niggling like a tap-tap-tap as though he was missing something. But he was also pretty (very) drunk. Finally it seemed someone else took note, grabbing devil by the arm – presumably to congratulate him on the performance – which, honestly Gideon was a little annoyed at. Firstly, because it interrupted the scene’s denouement, and secondly, because it eclipsed the rapt attention Gideon had given it from the start. Not to be outdone, he burst into raucous applause for the performance. His drink sloshed the sides unnoticed as he deposited it beside him, to continue his clapping with ardour. “Excellent!” he slurred loudly. “Do you take commission?”

As Jaxen stared into the shadowed face of the Emissary, the darkness seemed to stretch and expand, enveloping him entirely. The world around him dissolved, and his awareness was yanked inward, his mind spiraling into itself.

It felt like the icy grip of the Moskva River, curling up his arm. The cold snaked through his veins, tightening in his throat with a shock so sudden it stole his breath.

When that shard of ice lodged in his brain, his consciousness plunged into a void. All but the Ancient Power vanished. It loomed around him like an infinite sky, leaving him feeling small—insignificant. Fear prickled at him. He dared not glance down, terrified he'd find himself drifting in a vast emptiness—or worse, that he’d have no body at all. There was no pain, no overt discomfort. Yet something in him shivered with the awareness that he was no longer alone.

His eyes snapped wide. He turned and saw...something. It lacked a definite form, a shifting presence that barely resembled a face. If it had a mouth, it was a crude imitation.

"Who.. what are you?" Jaxen asked. His voice trembled with a mix of curiosity and alarm. Yet no immediate threat presented itself. The power still thrummed around him, glowing in the endless, flat expanse.

To those watching, Jaxen stood motionless. The Power flowed through him, his body rigid, unresponsive. Even when probed or touched, he gave no sign of awareness. His mind had retreated far within, communing with the creature at a level that transcended ordinary thought.

This Voxel Adams did not resist as they flowed through his body enveloping him, welcoming him. There was a surge of power and it traveled to it, found it. Lounged in its glow. But they understood even less than they had before. But it tasted better than others of his kind -- the hackers they'd tasted before.

He asked a question. And the shadowy essence smiled. "I would ask you that same thing." The voice was distinct, shadowy in nature much different than the voice that it had spoken with in the real world. In his mind, it was full of life and power. "We are Everywhere. We are m'Antinomian. We are God. Tell me disciple what you are?"

A shadowy finger reached out and left a piece of itself as it pulled on the power it so eagerly wanted. "A gift. A token of your offering." Granted it had not offered, but they had taken. But a gift was a gift, a token in exchange.

The air itself seemed to hum with an eerie, weightless quality as he found himself in a place unlike any other. There was no horizon, only a wash of green and gold that stretched endlessly, as if the sky and ground were one. The atmosphere was thick and heavy, as if just beyond reach waited an entire other existence, and although it was vast, it felt intimate, almost suffocating in its silence.

He found the courage to look down and find that he stood on a surface that resembled water but did not ripple beneath his feet, a mirrored plane that reflected the endless dusk above. Time was distorted here—fluid, a whisper of what once was and what could be. In the distance, there was a soft glow, a faint ember flickering, as if the sun itself was trapped in eternal twilight. Yet, there was no warmth, only the cold weight of all reality pressing against his chest.

The solitude was profound, broken only by the presence of the solitary blobby thing hovering before him. His eyes widened when introduced to m'Antinomian. It was an internet fairytale, a myth to scare adolescent hackers into obeying the law and frighten police from digging too deep in the dark web.

While Jaxen was surprised that m'Antinomian actually existed, he wasn’t surprised that it was so surprised. Clearly the thing wasn’t human, and Jaxen was quickly becoming an expert on non-human critters.

He pursed his lips and thought how to answer its question, then at the mention it being a god, he figured the best way to parlay with a deity was to be one himself. “Well, I’m an Ancient,” he repeated Sora’s words. Then something slipped off of m'Antinomian. It buzzed like the bumble of a bee shivering his skin, but it didn’t hurt, yet he felt the essence of the ancient power flowing through him. It wasn't siphoned, not in the same way he witnessed during the Ascendancy's ball, but it was like they were linked somehow, two surfers riding the same wave. 

“A token, eh? Alright. I’ll take a token, but if it’s offerings you want, I am game to make a deal. What do you want? Maybe I can give it to you if you can give me something interesting in return.”