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Post by 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕪 on Aug 26, 2023 18:11:54 GMT
2 Years Ago....
“You’re being such a buzzkill,” Atticus commented, grinning at his sister as he pulled on her hand, dragging her after him as he ran towards their home. A large building, but not overly big. It was like a nice home for them and their misfit friends. In the yard, Atticus could see the younger girls playing silly games with each other, some kind of catch game it appeared. Penny laughed as Evalynn dripped over her own feet, red hair flying behind her as she landed in a puddle of dust, before her laughter joined in too.
“I’m not being a buzzkill,” Alice retorted, slapping her brother’s hand away as she pulled herself away with a look of disgust only siblings seemed to share with one another. “I can’t go play games right now, Atti, you shouldn’t either. Diana was really serious about wanting to talk to us.”
“Diana’s always serious, maybe she’s the real buzzkill” Atticus pouted, looking back at Penny and waving to her. The small girl waved back, and Evalynn had pulled herself up, throwing something back at Penny which quickly distracted the girl. Atticus laughed slightly, though Alice elbowed him again and he groaned, glaring at her.
“Stay focused,” Alice said, though a smile twisted at the edge of her lips. She pushed herself into the house, Atticus following after her. They passed Nikolai, Lyn, and Raffi, who were all sitting on the porch, Nikolai was ranting about something or another, his Irish accent heavy. Raffi was snorting at whatever tale the ginger was spinning, and Lyn’s head was placed on one of their palms, seeming slightly bored but still politely listening. They seemed to perk up upon seeing the other set of siblings, their head raising, curls bouncing along their forehead.
Atticus only waved at the twins and the Irish boy before entering the house as Alice was hurrying him along. Inside Aida, the eldest among them, was working on fixing dinner, it would appear. She peeked out when she saw them, smiling at them, “Hello Adelaide, Atticus,”
Alice smiled, nodding back, “hello Aidana, do you know where Diana is?”
“Meeting room,” the Kazakh replied, and the two siblings took off to find the Champion of Poseidon, passing Nathan as they were walking, and he waved at them before going to join Aida himself. Aida herself had returned to the task at hand, the Champion of Rhea was like her guide in many ways, especially with her motherly nature.
The two siblings went through the hall to reach the meeting room. When they got there, the room was pretty full. Gwen, the Champion of Nemesis, was sitting on a chair by Lewis, the Champion of Tyr, and beside Lewis was the strange straggler kid they ended up with who went to school with Lewis.
The straggler looked up at Atticus and Alice, his eyes brightening for a moment as he beamed and smiled. His skin was a warm dark color, and he had curly hair dark in color with pearly white teeth. He raised a hand in a wave, attention taken from the book before him.
Lewis lightly slapped the kid’s hand down, much to Atticus’ amusement. The new guy glared at Lewis for a moment, before he rolled his eyes and returned to writing in his journal.
“Julien looks like he’s fitting in well,” Alice pointed out, a soft smile on her face. She had a soft spot for everyone here. The kids (who were actual kids), the other chosen, and their little straggler. Julien was the same age as Lewis, around 19 years of age, but he wasn’t like the rest of them.
“He shouldn’t be here,” Diana commented from her spot, away from the group as she sipped at a cup of tea she had, her eyebrows raised at the siblings.
“Why not?” Atticus questioned, moving to sit by her and stealing one of the crackers she had on the plate before her, ignoring her annoyed glance, “he seems to fit in fine.”
“He’s not a Chosen,” Diana replied, looking up at the guy who was pretending not to listen into their conversation, instead his nose was buried in that journal of his.
“Doesn’t seem to bother him,” Atticus replied nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms, “he’s well behaved and doesn’t cause issues.”
“He’s not a dog,” Diana replied, flicking Atticus on the temple as Alice finally took a seat on Diana's other side.
“He’s also in the room right now,” Julien piped up, not looking up from his journal, “but carry on.”
Alice laughed a bit at the commentary, and Atticus smiled at their strange friend who was, as much as he loathed to admit it, a captive of theirs.
“We know he isn’t a dog, Diana,” Alice commented, laughing some more, a soft and gentle sound, “eh… maybe we should have this conversation elsewhere?”
Julien looked up at that, his voice dramatic as he threw his journal down and leveled the boy next to him with a theatrical frown, “look at that Lewis, they’re going to trash talk me behind my back.”
“Pretty sure it’s not behind your back if you know it’s happening,” Gwen replied, even though she wasn’t Lewis and was not the one being talked to. No matter, Julien fixed her with a playful look.
“But you agree that they’re totally going to trash talk me, don’t you, Gudrun?” Julien replied, the name slipping from him much easier than it did for Atticus. Then again, most people were much better at names than he was. Names weren’t really a focus when you lived the life he and Adelaide had.
“We won’t trash talk you, Julien,” Alice comforted, eyes sparkling with mirth, “much,”
Diana rolled her eyes fondly, and led the two siblings out of the room. The smell of dinner was starting to waft through the house, by the smell, it seemed like a chicken alfredo dish. Atticus felt his mouth watering at it, and as he left the room, he threw a wave back at Lewis, Julien, and Gwen. The youngest of the trio looked back at him, smiling and nodding her head to signal she’d keep the boys distracted. Atticus knew he could always count on her to do so.
Running to keep up with his sister and Diana, he slowed as he stepped into motion beside the two girls. Diana was older than him and Alice, and Alice was older than him, and so the youngest of the trio let the other two talk as their words filled the space around them.
“Diana, I know you don’t like it, and frankly, I don’t really like doing it either, but we can’t let Julien go, he knows too much about us,” Alice commented, looking back down the hall with worried eyes, “if it got out that there were people like us, imagine what people would do.”
“Keeping him locked here, forcing him to never leave, that’s no better,” Diana commented, looking back at Alice with those disappointed eyes she had oh-so perfected, “he’d never have known about us if we had been more careful.”
Alice released a breath of frustration, gesturing wildly, “well, not everyone here is great at careful, it’s hard to do when your every emotion is reflected by powerful magic,” even as she said this, the lights in the hall seemed to brighten in reply, like an electric current had zapped through them, “we can’t go back and undo him finding out,” she pointed out.
Diana pursed her lips, shaking her head, “we could make up some excuse, find a way to get him to keep the secret,” she tried to reason.
Atticus snorted at that, and Alice glared at him, though she looked back at Diana, “look, Dia, you and I both know that the straggler isn’t a good secret keeper. He’s a James Bond wannabe, he takes notes of everything.”
Atticus giggled at his sister’s comments, and Diana looked less than impressed, glaring at Alice and Atticus for a moment, “just keep in mind that Julien is a person, he’s not one of us, he’s not burdened like we are. He’s a person, not a prisoner.”
Atticus rolled his eyes at her commentary, but all three of them froze at the scream that broke out from outside the house. They all shared panicked looks, each one of them quickly taking off towards the sound. It wasn’t only them, the others who had been in the meeting room also ran out rather quickly, Gwen looked flabbergasted and slightly terrified, face open with stark worry, Lewis looked more composed but confused, and Julien look merely curious with a quirk of worry to his brow, his journal tucked into the crook of his underarm.
As a unit, they ran to the front of the house, where the commotion seemed heaviest. Raffi was sitting next to Niko, the stray from earlier now in Lyn’s arms, who was stroking the poor spooked creature. Lyn’s gaze met Atticus’, and they shook their head, the Chosen of Ra themself seemed spooked. Raffi was trying to coax a terrified looking Niko into talking with little success.
Aida had stopped dinner and was standing beside Nathan, the two trying to get a read on the situation.
The front door then opened, no force applied to do so, and in came little Evalynn followed by Penny. When the two entered, Evalynn gestured to the door and did a small hand signal, and the door replied in kind, closing as she had requested. The Chosen of Hestia then moved closer to the group, her bright red hair like a flame as she pondered over to the other redhead.
It seemed that was a bad move, while Niko and Evalynn often got along swimmingly, the 15-year-old seemed to terrify Niko even more, who looked at her with a great amount of terror in his eyes.
“Red hair, red flames,” he mumbled, shaking as he pulled at his own hair, even as Raffi tried in vain to get the other to stop hurting himself, “flames and home, down, down, down.”
“What’s he saying?” Penny ventured, voice unsure and worried.
Niko had, sadly, been like this more often than not recently, more unhinged, out of control. As the Chosen of Frigg, Niko was a bit of a clairvoyant. It seemed his visions had gotten more…dark as of late. Atticus didn’t really like the sound of it or what that meant for them.
“Water will drown, fire will burn,” Niko mumbled incoherently, tears striking down his cheeks, “the wolf will hunt,” he continued, eyes unseeing as he stared at something that wasn’t there.
Finally he looked up between Penny and Atticus, eyes moving so fast Atticus was worried they’d fall out of his head, “rocks will fall and leaves will wilt, but they won’t die. No, no, they’ll see it all with crystal clear eyes.”
Niko looked at Atticus then, his eyes piercing, and then his eyes looked at Gwen,his voice coming out rougher as he shook his head, “monster, monster, monster.”
“Niko, bro, what are you talking about?” Raffi questioned, shaking Niko a bit. Trying to get him to snap out of it.
“Gemini?” Niko questioned uncertainty, looking between Raffi and Lyn, Raffi seemed confused, but smiled and nodded, hoping that maybe Niko was returning to a more sane mind.
Instead, a broken cry escaped Niko, more tears escaping him, “Gemini, mother, gone, gone gone, gone, GONE!”
Atticus floundered a bit for words, and Raffi looked lost completely, but it wasn’t Atticus or Raffi who finally spoke. The room was stuck in silence, and finally it was broken.
“Niko?” Julien questioned softly, stepping forward to approach Niko like he was approaching a wounded wild animal. Perhaps Julien, someone who wasn’t chosen, would help? Niko always seemed calm around Julien, after all.
Niko seemed fine at first, but as Julien got closer, Niko seemed a little more tense and silent. His eyes were calculating.
“Niko, can you talk to us?” Julien questioned, making sure his voice was soft as he made himself appear as calm and nonthreatening as possible.
Niko’s eyes narrowed, a recognition passing through his eyes, and he pushed Julien away from him when Julien came to a stand before him, standing up in a hurry and throwing Raffi off balance too. Julien caught himself easily enough before his head could hit the ground, though he landed on his wrist a bit weirdly, and Raffi only got knocked back into the chair he was in.
“Don’t touch me!” Niko practically screamed at the other, it was so much different than the upset he carried earlier, this was anger, pure and boiling under his skin. He looked like he wanted to do more than push Julien at the moment, and that thought made no sense at all. Julien had done nothing to them.
“Niko!” Aida snapped, approaching Niko without fear and placing her hands on his shoulders, looking at him in the eyes and trying to calm him, “don’t attack Julien.”
“Trust me,” Niko breathed out, squeezing his eyes shut, “he deserves every bit of it.”
Julien flinched at that, but hugged his arms to himself, it seemed when catching himself, he might have sprained one of his wrists, but he was up easily enough, still Atticus cast him a questioning worried glance, one that Julien replied with a simple wary smile.
The room was filled with stunned silence, and finally Evalynn seemed to approach Niko again, looking at him warily, “Niko, you gotta come back to us and explain what’s going on.”
Niko seemed lost though, the small certainty he had fading away, lost in the fog of his breaking mind, and he shook his head as he stared at the redhead.
“Alice, he’s never acted like this before!” The Champion of Hestia exclaimed, her soft eyes wide and worried, looking to the Champion of Zeus, someone they all looked up to.
“We’ll figure it out,” Alice replied, leaving Diana and her brother’s side to go to Niko. He stood silent, tears streaming down his face, and eyes haunted. The clarity in his eyes wavering, but seeming to be somewhat there when Alice approached and offered her arms up in a hug. Alice's hugs were very nice, after all, Atticus could attest to that.
“Alice,” he cried in a broken voice, lunging forward to hug her, and freezing at the contact when he did. His eyes were wide open, like when he got visions, and they filled with tears anew, this time he didn’t comment on it at all, an overwhelming amount of grief on his face as he buried his head in her shoulder.
“Niko, shhh, it’s gonna be okay, it’s going to all be okay,” Alice soothed, voice a soft whisper, trying to coax him into calming down.
“It won’t,” Niko replied, and all the occupants of the room tried their best to hear. Atticus could hear the words though, like it was a doomed sentence.
It was Aida who questioned him about what he said, an unsure shake to her voice, her motherly tone seeming to coax the answer out as Niko repeated it, just loud enough for the others to hear, “it won’t.”
Niko’s head lifted just enough to stare at the occupants of the room, his eyes traveling between a select few, from Penny, to Gwen, to Atticus first, seeming lost and unsure and so very apologetic. But then it switched back to that grief-stricken one, skipping completely over Julien and instead directing towards Raffi, Lyn, Aida, Lewis, Diana, and finally settling on Evalynn.
Alice let him go, and his eyes then lingered on her, sorrow filled and very broken.
“Evalynn,” Niko commented, voice dry and broken, but his eyes becoming so blazing and dark and foreboding, he looked between the occupants of the room, finally settling on the 15-year-old again. It was a tone different than before, it was more…accepting.
“Yeah Niko?” Evalynn replied, stepping closer to her friend and looking up at him, her worried eyes flickering across his. There was a nervous energy to the younger redhead now, her hands wringing as she waited for whatever verdict Niko had to say.
“You’re first.”
—-
Now
The figure flipped his hood back, revealing his face to his deepest enemy as he stalked forward. "Hello again, Irene," Atticus commented, his eyes narrowed dangerously at the female.
He then angled a look at the other, cataloging through his brain to try and match a face with a name. This was...Jason, right? Atticus remembered that much from the research, what was the last name? Suddenly it came back to him, and he grinned as he looked at the boy, like a wolf looking at prey, "and you," he commented, "we finally meet, Jason Derulo."
With introductions out of the way, he took his knife and took a lunge at Irene with little else, he swung it at her mercilessly. This wasn't an intelligent fight at all, instead, it was a full attempt at murder (practically), the careless swing of the knife aimed directly for vital organs. The throat, the cut, before he reared back and simply tried to simply stab her, one hand positioned behind the handle for extra pressure as he swung it down at his enemy, practically ignoring the younger Ascendant near them.
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Post by 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕪 on Aug 27, 2023 6:02:04 GMT
When Jason replied that his name was not, in fact, Jason Derulo, Atticus was admittedly thrown for a bit of a loop. Then again, wasn't Jason Derulo a singer? Maybe.
What else could his name be. Jason. Jason. Jason. Ah, Atticus got it then, smiling as he nodded, "Voorhees, right? Jason Voorhees?" He questioned, though he quickly went to attack.
A lot happened that Atticus did not plan for, and it showed how badly the boy's involvement effected his moves. First, his defense against the attack was very poor. Pretty much every single one of Jason's attacks landed pretty solid. The ice especially, which caused Atticus to slip slightly, and when the ice hit his face, he fell right into Jason's trap. He felt some minor scratches from the ice, but it didn't deter him much. One could say he almost went along with the boys movements too easily. He didn't even reply to Irene, whose icicle was pointed at him like the thing was genuinely scary. Atticus even looked slightly amused at that, though an undercurrent of hatred was behind that look.
"Cool magic tricks," he grunted as the boy held his neck and wrist back from the Champion of Zeus, his arm purposely relaxing in the boy's grasp as his other one angled towards the ground, tension in his fingers as they lifted, "but it's my turn now."
With that, he elbowed the kid with his free arm fairly hard in the sternum, before the plants his fingers were working on rising rose from the side of the sidewalk and shot out at the kid as Atticus freed himself, following the command of his hand as it pushed towards Jason. The goal was for them to circle the boy, and when they did, Atticus roughly shoved his hand down, the plants following his orders and practically throwing the boy onto the ground like a rag doll.
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Post by 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕪 on Aug 28, 2023 20:25:48 GMT
Atticus stared down at the boy with angered eyes. It's not like he enjoyed tossing around teenagers, but he did have a goal. Irene thought she could come in and replace his sister, though she could treat that like a game and insult him all the time. She had to be handled, see how Zeus liked it when he lost his new Champion. He felt something hit him, it sent a small wave of pain up his side, but it didn't break anything, he could tell that quite easily. Breaks had a certain feel to them, he knew that from experience. Still, the stinging was sure going to leave a bruise after all of this.
He turned then, his eyes making contact with Irene's. The girl had furiously been texting someone, but he didn't mind that too much. He had 2 years of experience over all of these kids, and none of them stood a chance last time. None of them stood a chance last night either. Let them send whoever they wanted, it would make everything easier from here on out.
"You want my attention, Irene?" Atticus questioned, twirling his knife in his hand a bit as a new, colder anger filled his gaze, strangely calm but extremely threatening, "fine then."
While the foliage focused on the boy (burnt ones coming to replace the destroyed ones, though at a much slower pace), Atticus focused on Irene, taking the knife he had and slashing out with it towards her closest body part, one of her arms. A slash, Atticus once read, was more painful than a stab at times, mostly because it opened up more surface area, flayed more nerves. He had no idea if that was true, but he was playing on the side that it was. After all, as long as Irene was dead by the time this was over, it didn't matter how long it took to get there.
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Post by 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕪 on Aug 29, 2023 22:01:10 GMT
Atticus practically growled as Irene parried the blow with her icicle, but as it crumbled before their eyes, he practically beamed, "doesn't matter if I get your name wrong, fake, all that matters is that you won't have a need for a name when you're six feet under the ground."
The girl then tried to wrench his knife away and cut open her own palm on the blade, something that caused him to laugh cruelly at her misfortune. However, he heard the boy...Jason...Bateman(?) and soon felt a stinging pain right in his lower back, like something stabbed him there. A crash sounded, like someone knocking something over, and he scanned his eyes back, spotting the rock the boy apparently magicked at him. It seemed it hit hard enough to cut into his side, and he growled in annoyance at it.
"You know what, Bates," Atticus was sure he got it right than, glaring back at the pest, "I didn't come with the intent of killing some innocent 16-year-old, but you have a way of making me change my mind!"
Clenching a fist, he brought a set of plants anew upon the boy, though they were much less threatening than the last time. Atticus didn't particularly want to kill the kid, but he needed him out of the way.
Then he turned to Irene, waving his knife a bit tauntingly as he looked between it and her. Instead of lunging at her, he looked at her injured hand and gave the girl a smug look, "since you were eager to catch the knife earlier, why don't we try catching it again?"
Having said that, Atticus flaunted the knife around a bit more, twirling it in his fingers and clasping his thumb and forefinger on the blade, before he whirled his hand out and sent the knife careening towards the girl, blade twirling but essentially thrown so it would hit her...blade first.
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Post by 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕪 on Aug 31, 2023 17:58:11 GMT
Atticus was mostly treating this in a more chill demeanor, but then Irene replied to his commence about killing her by comparing it to his sister and the comment brewed within his brain as he lashed out at the boy then threw the knife at her.
When the boy intercepted and got her the knife, his eyes stared her down in ire, "you're right," he huffed out, pulling his hands behind his back. He had a sheath back there, and as he spoke, and lifted out his secondary knife, "you are going to turn out like my sister, dead and 6-feet under the ground."
As Irene began her words, he rose a plant along the back of his leg, mostly out of Irene's view, and took a note from Jason's earlier spell. Jason's spell utilized the vine with the knife by having it wrap around it. Taking a page from the boy's book, Atticus willed the vine to wrap around the handle of the blade, letting go of it and taking a slight bit of a step forward, closer to Irene's knife, he walked up, angling a glare at her and having the vine follow from behind him, hugging his leg. He pretty much put himself in line of a slash from the knife as the girl spoke, not taking her words seriously, "yeah right," he commented, snorting, "lying to me won't save you're life, but you're free to grovel all you want."
With that, he stepped to the side, swinging his hand out and sending the knife-wielding vine straight for Irene, slashing about in a haphazard manner. It aimed for her legs, set lower like it had been on Atticus. The swings had wild arcs, and seemed to be rather unpredictable.
![](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DemandingIncredibleAplomadofalcon-max-1mb.gif)
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