element_wizard | (no subject)

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While Alec's exit from Abe's office is quick and clean on the outside, on the inside Alec has decided to go through a scream of panic. He flicks off into the in between spaces of reality to give himself some time to think. Or not time to think. Time is over-rated.

In that not space he paces. Obviously he needs someone to talk to about this. It's been a while since he's gone off and adopted someone... or well... it was something more his older self tended to do. Or...well... time was a chowder soup. In any case, the adopting part wasn't so hard. He knew had to take care of kids and teenagers. Which is what Zack is sort of. The demon... really screwed up in the head part on the other hand is a bit beyond him. Alec is aware enough of some of his weaknesses. Dealing with emotional things is a one.

He needed to talk to someone.

Two people popped into mind.

One he immediately dismissed. Rhys wouldn't be useful here. He wasn't apart of these realities and he wanted to keep his friend out of it as much as possible. The realities. Cross contamination could be bad sometimes.

Which did leave the other. Vahl was from Zack's set of realities and would be familiar with what he was. Also, he was good at dealing with head problems. Besides it would be nice to see him again. It'd be ages.

Flicking through realities like one flipping through the pages of the book, Alec searched around for "his" Vahl. So many different variations. But he could find him. He could find anyone and anything. Perfect sense of direction made it possible.

And there it was, the little flickering bit of him and the bigger flickering of Phoenix.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Being on the edges of Dreamtime amused Alec as he'd been poking at an alternate of himself who existed near the edges of dream and awakening as a Changeling. That one is far away from here in a different part of the Dreaming. They were all connected eventually somewhere. It was one of those ways some people traveled between realities.

Lots of things could travel through them.

In a rather messy ripple of reality, Alec appeared in front of Vahl, ignoring the scenery. "I accidentally adopted a not-demon and he's really screwed up in the head which I'm really bad at dealing with so I was hoping you could help?" Then. "Hi. Long time no see. How are you?"

Maybe a bit backwards there...

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Alec reappears on the sun-lounger, legs crossed to watch Phoenix with the ducks. There is something just permanently adorable about Phoenix, especially with critters. Bread might be bad for birds, but Alec can dig up some tiny sardines from nowhere that he can toss at them. The little ducklings do get all excited at the random fish.

Zack will be stressful, but Phoenix is relaxing and he's missed the angel terribly. This will be fun. Maybe they'll do something different this time around. Right now, he's waiting for Phoenix to turn and see him, because it's funnier that way.

Admittedly, he will toss a fish at his head.

Because that's also funny.

Love is like a butterfly; if you pace about waiting for it, it won't ever leave Vahl's fucking study. But if you turn your attention to other things, like ducklings, it will come and ... throw a fish at your head.

Phoenix starts as it plops softly against his head, and already the babies are excitedly pecking at it. The angel turns. For about a nanosecond, he tries to look unimpressed, but ... Nah. Sod that.

"Really?" he asks, failing to not smirk. Phoenix stands, being careful not to tread on a duckling and approaches Alec. "You're always so romantic, lover mine. Now give me a fucking hug."

It's not his fault that Phoenix is in the way of fish being thrown. Sure. Well, Alec did aim it at him directly but...

It was funny.

"I am as romantic as a toad," he says but does bop up to his feet to give Phoenix a good hug. The best hug. A snuggling hug. A slightly fishy smelling hug. For a moment, all is right with the multiverse.

It was funny for the thrower, not necessarily the throwee.

Alec will get an enormous hug and a kiss to the temple. And one on the nose. He pulls Alec in so he can snuggle as much as he likes.

"Naw, there was that one time on vacation, when you left a magnolia on my pillow." There must be more times. Phoenix can't quite think of one right now.

In the meantime, the ducklings have finished the sardine, and are clamouring around their ankles hoping for more. Much to the consternation of mom.

Well, it's the thrower that counts, right?

"Maybe." There have been. Scattered and few. He may not do romantic gestures, but he sends his love in other ways like interesting things he's discovered along the way. Some perhaps permanently borrowed, but still sent with love.

"Hi. How are you? We should go talk and stuff." He grins at him. "It's been a busy few days. I want to get out of everything."

Not wanting to have his ankles pecked to death by ducklings he creates a bowl of very yummy duck food closer to the water.

Love is unique to the people involved. Over time, Alec has been loving and lovable in his own very special way, and Phoenix adores him. Even when he gets turned female.

"I'm really good," he grins. "I guess you're not, seeing as, uh, Vahl's study and no detours."

En masse, the ducklings waddle quickly to the tempting bowl of temptation. Mom is a lot happier with this outcome. "Softy," Phoenix mutters, ruffling Alec's hair before releasing him.

Pots and kettles much?

"Okay. Let's get out of everything, then. What you wanna do?"

It really is. And for them it works. Which is all that matters.

"Oh... I'll explain in a bit. And yeah. It was unfortunately a business before pleasure moment."

It's probably a lot healthier than ankles. "I wanted to keep my ankles intact."

Pots, kettles, and frying pans.

"You trust me, right?" he asked. Yes, he knows this answer, but it feels important right now to ask. Sometimes, you need to ask.

Alec can explain whenever he wishes, or not at all. Phoenix will get the basics from Vahl if needs be. Not that Vahl discusses patients. Confidentiality and all that, but he can give Phoenix the gist of things.

"Most of the time." He can't help that one because of getting his hair turned pink, or Moshti getting turned tartan. "When it counts though, yeah. And it counts today."

There are some things he needs to explain. Other things not. But still, not here.

A snort and amused smile. "Good." Then he grabs Phoenix's hand tightly and well, it's a pivot. Sort of.

One blink there are ducklings and a lovely pond outside the villa and the next an office building hallway. It's a long stretch of hallway. The lights flicker on with a faint buzzing hummm that electric lights do. It has the feeling of waiting. Of being left behind. Of faintly remembered thoughts. Good times past.

A sense of purpose lost.

And puddle of glitter goo under their feet. It seems to be oozing out from under one of the doors. Making a face, Alec mutters, "I told them that stuff would leak."

'Getting out of everything' is a major clue-stick for the angel. So when Alec takes his hand, he knows it's not going to be a bog-standard teleport.

Despite that, Phoenix feels a tad dizzy for a spell, and blinks a bit before realising they're in an office hallway. Okay. Yeah. He thinks he knows where they are and what they are, and he's good with it.

"Why.. whenever we do stuff, do I end up getting glittered?" He looks down at his boots ruefully. "What is it? Sparklpire ooze?"

"I get glittered too," he pointed out. His shoes are also goo covered. It'll take a while to get rid of it. Glitter sticks no matter what you do to it.

"It was supposed to be a glitter decontamination goo... like a glitter removing soap. Glitter doesn't work like that. But they were hopeful." Which he doesn't blame them for. He too would want something that easily got rid of glitter.

But glitter is glitter.

"Huh. Guess there is that." Glitter gets everywhere. It gets where glitter should never be. Phoenix would elaborate, but it's probably best left to the imagination.

"What about a dismissing spell?" Although even dismissing powers never get rid of every last speck of the damned stuff. "Can we go shoot the fuckwit who invented it in the first place?"

Or is that not on today's agenda?

"It's glitter. Much like cats can go wherever they want and can't be moved if they don't wish to be, you can never get rid of glitter properly except over time. If you're lucky."

Walking down the hallway, away from the glitter go, Alec shakes his head. "They're not around any more. I want to pick up some stuff. Also this is the safest place I know. Unless you know it exists you can't get here. And technically speaking it doesn't even exist," he said. "So we can talk about stuff. As one might expect I managed to cause a problem or three."

If this was the crabby Phoenix of old, he'd start muttering and cussing about some kind of magical vacuum cleaner or something. He's a lot more chill these days though, so he shrugs it off.

"Okay." He puts a hand on Alec's shoulder, rubbing a little. "Can't say I'm surprised, but there's never any judgement here, you know that. So shoot."

As if they'd not tried that one anyway. Of course they'd tried it.

He leans into the touch, closing his eyes briefly. "Someone might come after you. He's related to the Fool. His parent. He's called Death's Shadow. He's the fear of betrayal. He doesn't like angels... well, angel like creatures." The words come out chipped and clipped as he stared ahead. Still walking.

Of course they have and Phoenix should just let them get on with things.

"Betrayal, huh?" Oh gods, yeah. They all know what a tangled mess that has caused among the Kaori over the centuries. Alec included. "Simon mentioned this guy some time back. Shining Ones they call us? Me. Angels." Creatures like him or whatever.

The Fool had got Simon a little worked up by this Shining Ones thing.

"Not to be blasé , but there's always some kind of defence against everything isn't there?" Well, except Alec, Simon's Cenn, and the Arc. Oh, and most of the archangels and some of the Higher Powers... "I mean, most things."

"The Fear of Betrayal," Alec absently corrected. "Which is worse than just betrayal. Though the Fool is the fear of being made a fool. I'm sure Simon had absolutely nothing lovely to say about him, either. The Forgotten aren't the nicest of creatures. And no, they don't like angels. Angels represent hope. They don't like hope."

He paused at a door labeled, "2b". The where abouts of rooms 2a and 2c are unknown. The next room is "2246Y1" and the one before is unlabeled. Wryly he asks, "Do you know of any defense against those little voices in your head that say 'what if such and such happens'?"

"That thing," he stands corrected. And Alec is right, it is worse. Phoenix and his pack are rock solid. Having been torn apart before, he and Vahl have safeguards in place and they also have Simon. Whom Alec might not really trust, but would give everything he has to keep his pack safe. But still. A Forgotten on a mission could be incredibly dangerous. "He didn't mind the Fool too much, except for the apparent attitude change when angels were mentioned."

He's absently checking out the room numbers and figuring the weirdness is normal for here, and for Alec. "Uh, yeah. Vahl's a pretty good defence. He's grown in power since we last met, and he knows which voices are normal, and which are out of place somehow. Unless of course this Death's Shadow can get to him... but he's pretty strong. Wouldn't be easy."

Faith in his Alphas. He has it. And it's kind of difficult to break the faith of an angel. "I'm not being blinkered though. Or stubborn. You can't afford to underestimate a being like that."

"Yeah, especially since even if he can't mess with your head, he can still stab you with his knife. It's made out of the first murder weapon. And his parent was the first person murdered." And firsts are powerful. "It can even hurt me. I mean not permanently. Nothing hurts me permanently, but it leaves a mark that hangs around for a bit. He doesn't need a reason to do so, either."

Well, he has his reasons, but they're known only to him and he's not interested in explaining.

As for voices being out of place... everyone has it, even if it is annoyance at having the labeled sandwich in the fridge eaten.

The door is opened and it creaks into an office that hasn't been used in a while. There are two desks, one neat with no stacks of papers on it and an empty in and out box. Not even a photo or weird little nick-knacks. The other desk makes up for all of that. It is a place where paperwork has gone to die. There is a couple of photos - but they're facing away from the doorway and a bunch of little shiny knicknacks: a One Ring on a paper stabbing thing, a miniature dried pumpkin, a glittering rock being used as a paperweight and other things.

"He's stabby too, huh?" Sounds like the type whose arse Phoenix would dearly love to kick. If he could. Which he probably can't. "Any gems of wisdom on how to keep him the fuck away from Keldra?"

The contrast between the desks is startling and a little bit funny. Phoenix smirks, but he also glances fondly at Alec. "Or is that why we're here?" he asks, wondering if he can safely poke the pumpkin. However as he's lived with Alec and Older Alec, he knows better than to risk it.

"Yes, he is," Alec said. "From what I can tell, you can keep his host out. Not the actual voices in your head part." You can never never keep the voices in your head out. That is the problem with them.

"And sadly not. He wasn't created when I was working here so there's nothing here. Besides, most of this stuff only works in the fan fics."

It is probably best not to poke the pumpkin.

Skittering around to his side of the desk, he gives a quick frown at one of the photographs. He picked it up. "You ever see a picture of Sari's mom?"

"That works for me," he shrugs. "I usually leave all the warding shit to the Chieftains. They know what they're doing."

"Hey, always wondered, if you're an OC, does everything written about you count as canon? So fanfic doesn't really exist for guys like me?" Phoenix kind of likes being Outside of Everything. It's eye-opening, and he hasn't been tortured for a good few centuries now.

Now there's a euphemism if ever Phoenix heard one.

"Don't think I have?" he says, curiously. "I'm sure I'd have remembered."

"If you're elsewhere and meet a man who is very trustworthy and has a moving shadow, I suggest being elsewhere." Because that's the best description he can give. "Oh, he's got black eyes with red rims." Because that something Phoenix could probably notice.

Now there is an interesting question. "Well... yes...I suppose. I think AUs are the closest we get to fan fic. There's the main us and then the fan fic bits. Though it all depends on what the Powers that Be decide." He nods to the photograph. "Technically speaking they're no longer apart of my canon."

The photo is of an Alec when Phoenix first met him, a shorter woman with caramel colored hair and hazel eyes as well as a boy around ten with her coloring. It's a family portrait. It looks like a happy family. Though for someone who knows Alec well enough, Phoenix can see a bit of tension around the eyes and mouth. Like he's happy but... not really. It's not quite in the eyes. The woman has a similar not exactly stressed expression.

Vahl is already onto the moving shadow thing, and Alec's description, but Phoenix is also taking it all in. "Thank fuck for teleport," he mutters wryly. He'll be elsewhere all right.

"Never thought that way before... when I'm able to, that is." He glances at Alec before taking in the photo. "That's kinda weird, 'cause Sari's part of mine. Even if my timeline's been fucked up the arse by rabid hellhounds."

Phoenix then examines the picture and does notice everything. He knows Alec's face so well, every little tic and tell. He isn't sure whether to ask though. It could be just bad day, but seeing as both Alec and the woman - his mate - appear the same... it bears a little questioning. "Match made in Heaven? Or not?"

That's what Zack thought... heh.

"Sari was born during this time," he said gesturing to the office around. "So she was sort of harder to erase."

Laughing softly, Alec said with a small hint of sadness. "It was before it was realized that hey, gay people 'exist'. She and I were together before we even knew what fan fic was. Like we knew about queer people but we didn't realize it really applied to us as much as it did until here. It was here we got that realization, actually," he said. "The realization just sort of changed a lot of how I saw myself. How we saw me and so my canon got re-wrote so she never existed."