No Destination

[Elias Donovan]

It wasn't the guys.

Asha beamed her pleasant sunshine. Elias was drawn elsewhere. Gray clouds that threatened to be unleashed hovered near her shoulder. The face of a man Elias did not recognize despite the gentility with which he addressed Asha. 

"Asha" he said back. Long legs carried him nearer, rolling a crescendo of waves gathering closer to shore.


"You're home safely?" He asked of her, dark eyes locked on the stranger all the while. "Were you in danger? I told you not to go." Anger flashed a rip tide of his expression before burrowing beneath the surface once more. She seemed in one piece, whole and undefiled. 


The stranger's stare did not go unnoticed, however. Friendly tales proceeded him, it seemed. Secrets swapped between fast friends, was it? His teeth locked snug. "What are you staring at?" The stranger would do best to draw his attention elsewhere.

[Ashavari]

She’d been prepared for the storm-tossed waves of his reaction, but it swept her back anyway, dizzying in its voracity until she acclimatised. At least she’d warned Tobias beforehand. Her lip caught between her teeth when the anger drilled down. “You were right. They didn’t even show. Something else happened.” He wasn’t even looking at her, but her fingers wrapped around his wrist anyway, his skin cool beneath the mesh of his shirt. She doubted it would calm him any, and it opened an unpleasant amount of animosity straight to her senses.

Her gaze blinked back at Tobias, apologetic. She wondered what he must be seeing of Elias’s aura, but the secret of his gift was not something she would share without permission, not even with El. “This is Elias. El, this is Tobias. He works at the docks. Please calm down.”

[Xander]

Xander smirked at the guys reaction. He was all tough and emo goth and Xander had dealt with kids like him in school. It was the same everywhere it seemed. But Asha didn't tell his secret and that was perfectly acceptable.

"It's okay Asha, he has all the rights in the world to be gruff and protective." Xander smiled at me, "As to what I was staring at, I'd tell you I was staring at a handsome man, might need to lighten the make up and pull his hair back, but that can be tolerated. But I don't think you'd appreciate it. So the truth, you are one of these.." Xander waved his hand around trying to find the right words. "let's go with special folks who can play with powers previously kept secret. The Ascendancy calls them channelers?" He looked to Asha for confirmation. But he turned back to Elias. "And just by being you there are images floating in your aura and they are always a curiosity."

Xander turned back to Asha ignoring the brooding man probably not a good thing to do, but Xander was pretty sure Asha wouldn't let Elias hurt him. "I'm going to go. You are home safely in the hands of your gruff friend. Maybe when you talk to your snake friend you can send him to check on Rowan too since she wanted to speak with him anyway. It will keep us both away from the cafe and the Vodoo Queen's snake friend." He gave Asha a quick smile. "Maybe well run into each other again." And he turned to Elias with the same friendly smile. "And a pleasure to meet you." Xander offered his hand to Elias .

[Elias Donovan]

Slithering around his chest, a tightness squeezed an already constricted heart. Breath was shallow as it was drawn through narrowed lungs. An old anger stirred and heat flashed the ashes of his eyes like a smoldering fire long believed doused was rising again. 

He did nothing to this man. He was cleaning like a fucking housewife and this asshole walks in the front door hurling insults like little kids hurled rocks. Talked around him like he wasn't there. Asha's companion insulted his appearance, choices that he made out of sole preference that did nothing to hurt anyone else. Who the fuck was he to declare Elias' would be more handsome if he arranged his appearance different. Maybe he didn't want to be a handsome trophy god. Talk to Damien if Xander coveted statuesque males. 

Why couldn't people just leave him alone? 

But he expected as much from people. Out there was awful. It was the reason he retreated in the first place, but Asha... he thought she was different. Accepting him just the way he was. The wound cut to the bone, but knowing she would sense the pain, he let the power envelop him. 

He should crush this man. Should crush his throat with his boot and sit down to watch him attempt to wriggle away. Who cared how handsome anyone was when you blacked out? 

His fists balled, and instead, he turned and walked back to the kitchen, silent as the grave.

[Xander]

[[ One not no one knows Xander's real name - Tobias is who Asha thinks he is No need to change anything just letting ya know. ]]

Xander watched the aura change. He was used to offending people. He saw it often. He sighed. "Look, man. I meant no offense. I don't read you like Asha does, but I know I just pissed you off and I'd like to think of Asha as a friend so pissing off her friends is not something I want to so. So I'm sorry for whatever I said that upset you. Be it the attempted flirting, the comment about your style. Calling you a channeler or associating you as anything close to the Ascendancy. A gruff friend, or even about Asha's snake friend. I don't know what pissed you off. But I'm sorry."

Xander turned to Asha and smiled pleasantly. "You are home safe. I hope. I'll go. Leave you two alone." Xander pushed his contacts o Asha's wallet. "Call me if you need anything." Xander would need to make a note that this was Tobais' contact. There were many such notes in his wallet locked under many layers of protection.

[Ashavari]

It all went south quickly. Asha blinked as the anger fissured like split wounds, her hand jerking back like she’d been burned. The voracity of it drowned out everything, then boiled down to a single moment of deep hurt before everything swept clean away. Only Tobias’s feelings remained after. She swayed, found her back pressed against the wall. Exhaustion filled in the crevices quickly when such heightened feeling was yanked free so suddenly. Elias was already walking away.

She sighed out a breath, pinching the skin between her eyes. The anger she understood, at least insofar as she simply accepted it was him. But the flash of hurt he’d hidden, smothered so quickly she knew it had been intentional. Tears brushed her fingers, a bodily reaction beyond her control. Once noticed she scrubbed them free, offering Tobias something of a conciliatory half smile. “I did warn you.” She shrugged away an explanation she didn’t have to offer; she had little light to shed on the force of Elias’s reaction.

“I’ll speak to my snake friend. Please stay away from Rowan. It’s not worth the risk. I’ll check in later. I said we were friends, didn’t I?” The smile then was her own, genuine. Though afterwards her gaze trailed the direction El had gone, crowding her eyes with equally genuine worry. She didn’t ask what Elias’s aura had shown Tobias, though the question did circle curiously, like it might glean secrets from those stormy depths. Truth was it didn’t matter much what Tobias saw, though. El was El.

She followed after him. Her hand locked into his like the sleek fit of a glove. The familiarity of it soothed her despite the fact he was hidden, though a brief worry pierced that he might pull free. He’d never rejected her like that before, and she had no reason to expect now to be any different. Apart from the silence of his feelings. “Are you okay?” Hesitation marked the question, her lip caught between her teeth.

[Elias Donovan]

[[i'm so sorry, X. I used the name in my post, didn't I? I'll be more careful!]]



The stranger's speech declared departure, but not before squeezing in one last chance to call him a name. Gruff? What does that even mean? More reason to avoid people. More reason to share the pain that crushed within. Share it with the world. Sea monsters loomed wide shadows. Worms delved into grey flesh. Anger drenched his world until he could see none of it.

Then a hand slipped fearlessly into his own. His palm closed around the bony fingers mindful of their delicacy. He looked at her, crystals sparkled her eyes wet. Shame flooded like a broken sea wall. Asha harbored no intent to harm; she simply lacked the capacity. He squeezed her hand gratefully a moment and looked over his shoulder to see if the stranger lingered.

"Hold on," he called.

Peering deep into Asha's slick eyes, lips drawn to a thin line, "he's really a friend of yours?" he asked with all the willingness of an eel hidden in darkness to probe at wavering sunbeams. A deep breath drew ragged, but a growl of frustration escaped anyway. "Apologies accepted. Can you stay? Asha would like that, I think." He glanced at her seeking confirmation, but held to her hand else the storms on the horizon washed him away again.

[Xander]

Asha was a friend. Maybe the only one. How strange that felt.

The simple call out made Xander pause before he left the weird situation. He turned to look at the man, he was odd, and his aura was nothing like the man before, though he saw strange images and Xander had to blink away the tears from the barrage of them in that moment. But he nodded. For Asha he'd stay, not that he needed anything here. But maybe things would pan out better. He wouldn't be going near Rowan's place again. It was a good thing he didn't have any inkling to revisit his former home country.

"I can stay for a little while. I do have sleep to get back to. Shift work at the docks is not fun on empty." Or so Xander would imagine. He had a few odd jobs there in reality. But nothing like shift work. His talents were widely used to get what people wanted, and if they paid well, then Xander was all for it. Tobias though was a drifter, keeping those jobs. Always amusing.

Curiousity was always Xander's downfall and likely would set the man off again with his words, but friendly was his game at the moment. "How long have you been..." Xander wasn't sure how to phrase the question. "I think the term is channeler? How long have you been one?" He was by far one of the stronger he'd seen, if the potency of the images were anything to go by. Short of Ascendancy himself, though Xander had never seen the man in person and he really didn't want to if this man was a mere fraction of the most powerful...

[Elias Donovan]

Happiness burst from Asha like sunshine breaking storm clouds. Elias waited for the warmth spilling from her. People – his own family including – called him cold and distant, but he wasn’t inhuman. Making her happy splashed color into a gray world. He released the power from his grasp, knowing the effect it would have on her. For that moment, he focused on the anchor of her eyes and net of her skin. Anger slipped away like the tide, slow at first, but noticeable.

The stranger’s rough voice broke the spell, but when he glanced, all he did was nod the affirmative. His questions might have been innocent, but they dredged painful memories, clouding tentatively clear waters with fresh silt. He first channeled in New Zealand. Empty beaches, cold waves, soaring footballs, flashes of gold hair. Then again in the Chancellor’s office, when he was told to abandon the search for his uncle. Elias nodded without fear. To acknowledge channeling was like acknowledging that he had hands. The rest was private.

As the silt settled, shapes formed on the horizon, and curiosity pulled him forward. “You work at the docks?”

[Xander]

Elias wasn't overly energetic about sharing, and that was alright with Xander. And he ddin't have a problem talking bout himself in any of his guises. Tobias worked as a grunt. He was a drifter, but there were things that told Xander that Elias wanted a little more. "Mostly just grunt work. Heavy lifting sorta stuff, but that's only a means to an end. I don't have to work there or anywhere."

Tobais smiled at Elias. "Why? You looking for a boat?" Tobias might not be able to help Elias out. But Alexis certainly could. And if Alexis couldn't one of his others personas could. Something told Xander in those visions that getting Elias out to see would full fill some sort of need, a goal. It wasn't like him to help someone else full fill their destiny but this was Asha's friend and she was entwined in with this water journey. And he could help - at least he thought he could.