It's raining somewhere

Michael, we need to talk. Don’t do anything stupid until I get there. Was all that Zell had said. Of course the damage had already been done, but that was neither here nor there. It wasn’t a moment later that a hand placed itself on Michael’s shoulder, and Zell jerked back upon seeing Michael’s movements.

“I mastered teleportation technology when I was 14. Calm yo’ tits.” Zell said, being a lot more akin to an actual 18 year old than the father figure he was notable for exuding. Zell looked around and saw bound children in the pews, he nodded. He had expected that Michael Maaaybe had the thought to contact him after the fact, but he was just glad to see Michael thinking to contact...someone.

“Silus is being plagued with nightmares. But the thing is that they aren’t Nightmares. It’s the culmination of his life wearing on his mind, trying to reconcile his failure. It’s manifested as a voice in his head, one that I’ve dubbed “Devoid”. Because when Silus starts acting on it he almost has a different...tone. Devoid’s not evil by any means, but it’s certainly the more selfish part of Silus. That part drives him to do things, wearing him out until he blacks out and only lets him come to as he’s about to do things.” Zell began to explain this as he started to rub the heads of the children, one by one they fell asleep, slouching down on the pew. He got through a few of them before he looked around, seeing the wards in the area around them, piercing through the glamour for a moment as he looked to the ground with a subtle gulp.

“I’ve tried to tell Silus that the best thing to do is ignore the voice. DOn’t indulge it. Don’t give it power over you. But it just keeps nagging at the worst parts of him. Failing to stop Kaisis, failing to save Abra, failing to save Yancey. When not even the Archon could...and he’s reality itself.” Zell explained as he looked to Mike, noticing that look on his face, the one back behind the face itself. The weary soul that smouldered with embers of light. He snapped his fingers and every child had fallen into a deep sleep, save one that had been in the very front row that was behind Zell’s field of view. “Mike. You can’t let anyone else define who you are. Perhaps that’s my fault. I kept trying to make you a better man, because I saw the best man you can be. I never once thought to ask what was the man you wanted to be. I’ll love you regardless of who you are, what you do or where you go. If you ever need help, I’m here. There’s nothing I wouldn’t consider for my boys.”

He sighed and realized that no matter what he did here, he was utterly screwed. If he continued to talk on how Silus and Michael were both plagued by self-isolation and failure then he would be encroaching on ground he shouldn't have touched as much as he already had. He tried to pretend he was a father, but the truth was that these two grew up far too fast for him to ever truly be a father to either of them. Not even considering the fact that for the first part of their lives he wasn’t even in control of himself. He wanted to say so much in such a short amount of time, but that’s when he realized exactly what the problem was. He was just proliferating it, here and now. He came here intending to help Mike with whatever, but if he kept talking then he would just be trying to fix HIS problems, and not Michael’s. He smiled and nodded, remembering that as Archon this was his story to tell, but as a father it wasn’t his story to mold.

“Whatever you do. I support you, and I’m not going anywhere. But if you’re thinking about helping Silus. Do you really think SILUS would want you kidnap children? Would he truly ask you to do that? ”

He waited in the dark church, tapping his foot against the carpeted floor until the phone vibrated. He wondered how long it would actually take, though the hand on the shoulder have that away. Leaving him jumping and one second away from going for the throat so to speak until his eyes fell on Zell. Narrowed into slits and all of his muscles tensed much like metal chords. He felt a heartbeat hammering within his ears, teeth ground together and all too tense. As if he were expecting Silus to pop up and do away with him because he betrayed their ambiguous plan to their father.

No, he couldn’t have been that paranoid.

Michael exhaled and allowed his body to relax against the pew and look over the children he brought with him. ”I...never react that great to people coming up behind me and touching me like that,” He had the feeling he was opening himself up for something, but this felt serious enough that puns were on hold. Hell, things already moved to what was wrong with his brother. Nightmares and the concept that he was dealing with some kin d of alternate personality called Devoid.  That only made things even worse. The concept of dealing with someone that wasn’t even his brother and likely would have been fine killing him for whatever reason.

Would he even be able to do anything about that? Did he even have the right to be worried about that? Perhaps he deserved to be torn apart like that rip within reality. He tried to listen to Zell, nodding along as if just to show that he was listening instead of ignoring like he felt. Archon came up, which made him wonder how much his father knew about the strange entity.  Then it devolved into one of those speeches like he were trying to make sure he knew he was cared about. His lips curled into a faint frown, watching the children be somehow put to sleep with just a touch.

He shook his head. ”No, but that’s what’s expected from me right? I kidnap children, I kill children and whatever else someone might accuse me of. All in a days work for Mike,” He shrugged with a scoff, knowing that wasn’t what was being asked of him. Didn’t everyone expect the worst from him? He was more relic of an older time, despite that being measurable in a couple of years at most. He knew he was stagnant and yet he was hard not to be that way when it seemed so much easier for everyone else. ”so what should we do? Aside from maybe somehow returning all these kids, that’s all I got. We are involving someone like Samhain afterall...apparently. ” He furrowed his brows, eyeing the alter.

”Think you could use that perfected teleportation tech to get these kids back home? I’d do it but...i’m pretty slow compared to that,” He stated and asked at the same time, considering his dad with the a rather neutral expression.

Michael had decided to unload everything right here and right now. It was no surprise that he acted the way he did, or even the fact he was taking breaks and going from home to find his sense of self. He felt like everyone expected him to be a villain. Zell was left to stand there and hear his son vent every problem. A problem he would willingly take on for his boy, if he could. But this was something Michael had to deal with, and there was no way to put that kindly. Zell sighed and nodded, one could see the empathy he had for his son’s plight, primarily because he knew what it was to have people EXPECT things of him. People always expected unreasonable, or the overly cold and calculated response over the one that was the best.

   His inability to share his origins left him at a loss with Michael. He needed to figure out a way to do this, all without sacrificing his children’s love and respect. He gave a sigh after Michael asked for Zell to teleport the children back. Though he instead took a moment to collect his thoughts and speak.

   “It’s almost as if nothing you do ever ends up going the way you mean it to. Every time you take a step in what you think is the right direction you fall flat, crawling on your hands and knees through the darkness. The promises of acceptance like pieces of a shattered mirror on the ground, cutting into the very things you use to navigate.. It feels like honestly and truly, no matter what you do…you fail.” He said with a slight sigh, the feeling of this journey he had still so very fresh in his mind. He knew exactly what Mike was feeling, and the general traversing grounds of Mike’s mentality. He did not know exactly what was going on with Mike, however. He couldn’t claim to be that omnipotent, even if he were the Archon. He stepped forward and he positioned himself in front of his son, looking at him with what was probably the first actual sont cold glare he had ever given. It was almost eerily intimidating coming from someone who tried to preach love and repentance normally.

   “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. Condensed version? Expectation? Fuck it.” Now the language was taking a bit of a turn as well, Zell scoffed a little as he shook his head, arms open wide as if he were displaying the church's sanctuary around him. “You talk about all these expectations. We EXPECT you to kidnap children, we EXPECT Michael to do something awful. Here’s a Newsflash Mike, nobody expects that of you. So don’t pull this bullshit of what other people expect. The only person expecting that is YOU. The only expectations I place on you is that you be true to who you are, who you can be. If that’s a tyrannical dictator that orders my execution, or if it’s as the newest version of Saint Michael!”

“Mike, these things, these moments. When there’s the little voice in the back of your head nagging and telling you you’re not enough. The moments of failure. You need to silence them. You need to remember that failure is the catalyst of progress. IF YOU LEARN from this then it was never a failure, it was a lesson you needed to move forward. If you’re content to lay down mope about your failure, then you’ll NEVER meet the only expectations that matter.” Zell gave a small sigh. He actually loved to give long winded speeches, but not to his children. He hated the fact that no matter what he said, he would ultimately miss the goal of what he tried to do. He wanted nothing more than to help Michael through this problem, to simply speak and force the issue to disappear. But that would be doing his son the most grave of disservices.

“You’ll never meet your own expectations...and If you continue to rely on others expectations for you to dictate your successes and failures, then you will never LEARN or grow. The only difference between a master, and an apprentice is that the Master has failed far more.” He was hoping that he could convey the message behind this little rant. He knew that he was at risk for Losing Mike’s attention, but he was hoping that his son would stick with him. “Whoever you are, whoever you become. Whatever expectations YOU make for yourself. That is all that matters. You boys... I know I was never the father you wanted. I’m not even the father you boys deserve, but I try and I know that no matter what, even if it brings the end of me. I will love you, and I will support you. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself, and stop giving a fuck what others EXPECT. The world’s full of disappointment, they’ll get over it. Let Michael be Michael and while he’s at it maybe he could find a moment to realize that his little brother is feeling the EXACT same way. Whatever you do, I will support you. Be true to you.” Zell’s rant came to an end as he whispered “Return” and in an instant all of the children had vanished from the church room. There was only the one in the front pew whose hands remained tied, his mouth gagged by a cloth and a rather annoyed but unaffected face as he seemed to lay back in the pew, kicking up his feet and resting.

Okay, another long speech. Maybe his dad felt like he didn’t get to speak a lot and wanted to use this moment to unload all those words that were stuck in his head. Guess that meant he had to listen again, despite how much easier it would have been to ignore. Lucky for the man he beat himself into enough mental submission, eyes trained on Zell and listening to the words that came from his mouth. Seemingly mostly in response to what he said about expectations and what people had. Maybe he misspoke when using those terms, because this kind of thing would come up but he knew people thought things of him.

Even still he could appreciate part of the whole thing being told to him. Telling people and their expectations to fuck off felt like something that anyone should do and he would have done that normally. Still, now when he decided to care he was told not to which was all the more amusing. As if this were some kind of universal joke being played on him and he wasn’t laughing. Was he supposed to care or not to care? Just being Mike tended not to go well for him, but he didn’t interrupt. He would wait until everything was let out, each last word until the man was done with what he had to say.

Not that he would call what he did moping but that was a fair statement.

Fathers that people deserved was something else though he had to admit it was partially his own fault for growing up so quickly. He wasn’t a child long, and didn’t see the need for being one. Silus however was different, though one could argue that was a detriment to him. Maybe the fact that he was going through something that Silus was going through as well should have hit him earlier, though that could be an argument towards ego-centrism.  Once the overall rant was done and the children returned through means he didn’t even see, Mike chuckled to himself.  The message was quite clear.

”Alright, you’re coming through. Even if that meant giving me an earful, ” It was something to think about but he didn’t know what even to do with all the words. It was good to know that the kids were all gone, so he didn’t even have to worry about Silus potentially doing something he might regret afterwards.  ”so, should I listen to this advice or ignore it because that’s what I expect from me?” This time his tone was more apparently sarcastic, a small amount of humor returning to him despite what he was taking part of.

”So, feeling like staying around to watch me somehow bungle this? Got a good record of that and while i’m hoping I break it, some habits are harder to break than others.” He shrugged, eyeing the altar rather than giving any attention to the fact that for some reason one of the kids didn’t teleport away.

Zell was certain absolutely nothing stuck with this. Because that was his curse. He overtalked and missed the whole goddamn point. He simply accepted that he had failed his sons, and with all the children removed, he whispered the word “forget.” causing absolutely everyone involved with the children’s vanishing to forget that they had gone missing. Silus was about to return soon. He would be a little longer still, but Zell fully intended to see this through. He had hidden from failure for too long, hidden from those he loved for too long.

“You won’t. No moreso than I will. If we fail, then we fail together. Share victory, Share defeat.” Zell said to reassure Michael. Not to reassure him that he would not fail alone in this situation. He swallowed hard, refusing to let things go to the wayside. He had a plan of his own. He would fix this, he would not let secrets, lies and failure ruin his family. He loved them far too much for that. He’d give the multiverse for these boys. That’s something that not even The Three would be willing to bet against.

“You got a plan? Or you going in all natural?” Zell asked as he seemed to take a deep breath in and puff out his chest slightly, a slight smirk on his face. He cracked his neck and Zell began to do a little deep breathing. He seemed like someone that was about to walk onto the battlefield, despite not having a weapon on hand.He felt the shift of energy in existence, Silus suddenly arriving, drenched from head to toe in salt water. The matted hair down over his eyes obscured his vision as he pursed his lips and let out a stream of water.

“Soooo...you okay? Thought we were gonna deal with Samahin to find Archon.” Silus asked as he reached up and parted the shaggy hair off to the side, seeing Zell as his one revealed eye seemed to faintly turn maroon before going back to its usual hue. Zell’s eyes seemed to flash back, despite him being “Human” almost as his eyes seemed to bear into the small child’s soul with a small, confident smirk. “Oh….this is obviously not the plan.” Silus said with a light chuckle as he shook his head, water flying everywhere.

”To shared failure I guess,” He said giving a mock toast, rubbing the flats of his finger along the palm pf his hand.  He didn’t need the reassurance, though it was welcome enough that he didn’t say anything against it. Instead just nodding and waiting for his younger brother to return. Well, maybe it would be Silus or this supposed Devoid that essentially wore his skin like split personalities of Hollywood fiction. Part of him hoped that things would go right, though he didn’t know what he even wanted with this scenario. A deep sigh worked from between his lips through clenched teeth, turning attention back to his father who had to ask a question.

”Definitely,” His words said yes but his eyes said ‘no, I don’t have any kind of plan at all” because that’s what  he was working with. He had no plan, nothing that he knew would do anything beyond maybe make Silus want to reduce him to the dimensions of a pancake across the wall.  ”can’t promise shining results but seems like we’re prepped for failure, so no harm there, ” He added, not noting the sensation of existential energy because that wasn’t his thing.  It manifested more as an uneasy pit in his stomach, followed by Silus appearing drenched like a dog.

He could tell he was looking at Zell first, knowing that likely he was not part of the plan which made sense. They weren’t exactly going to tell their father of a plan to kidnap and possibly sacrifice children for Samhain. It sounded like so many levels of fucked up that he wasn’t sure he wanted to to be attributed to.  Ironic that he found a stopping point for what cruelties he would inflict on someone else at some point, though maybe that was with everyone. Even if the threshold were pretty thin.

His eyes narrowed on the child before  lightly smirking and brewing some kind of verbal response. Hopefully a good one. He always had good responses.  ”Realized kidnapping kids might have been a little too against this whole thing i’m trying to do and the thing you do. If that’s what you wanted me to do you’re being kind of an asshole.  Not sure what you were expecting a literal eldritch horror to do with children, but wasn’t really wanting to find out.” Did that sound good? No, no it didn’t but maybe a little of this was what Silus needed to hear, and not the part where Samhain was basically somehow evil Yancey.

Silus listened to Michael and nodded when he said his piece. His jaw pushed out slightly as if somehow saying 'yeah, I see it.' Then he looked to Zell and then back to the circle of binding. The metaphysical implications were something that existentially kept everything beyond the physical realm intact. He smirked, rather confident as he paused.

  You know the words. the voice was his own, but he couldn't agree. However this was possible, how ever this could be... it wasn't what he wanted. It's not what he thought. So why was this in his head? Physically he lookednas if he was about to speak, but then froze as a confudent exterior softened into a slightly confused haze.

   With one, honest truth you could be rid of your greatest foe. You can be free. Silus' eyes looked to Michael and his eyes hardened as he smirked and began to rock back and forth from heels to toes. His hand buried into hid pockets.

  "Okay. First of all, language. Second of all I never told you to kidnap kids. I told you to get some here. As far as the concern for the Eldritch horror....Samhain has a weak spot for children. He won't let them be in danger. I was going to manipulate that. Make it look like I went off the deep end. I was going to bind him. Use my illusions to make it look like we were putting the children in harm's way. Being bound, unable to take them and leave, he'd be ready to make a deal. He won't act against me because I am a child and he....he thinks I'm....damaged. The kids were never in any danger. Just...i dunno. It made sense I guess. Seemed like it made sense." Silus said, explaining himself fully. His plan revealed and his ignorance exposed. He felt something inside him rear it's ugly head, rebelling and howling. He simply ignored it. He's my brother. Like him or not. He is my family, and for as much suffering he's caused he has suffered too. It's not for me to balance the scales and perpetuate a cycle. It's for me to break it. I don't keep track of wrongs...of all people I thought you'd know that's what LOVE is.

    Silus' hands came from his pockets and he had a nervous smile as he placed both hands behind his head and kept rocking back and forth. He gave an awkward chuckle as he continued to mess with the back of his hair.

   "I just assumed that you would have known i wasn't trying to do anything bad! I guess looking back i probably shouldn'thave assumed that since I just told you about my problems. Which was wrong too. I know that you're doing a pot better but uh....well. I guess I just figured that if we were helping your friend and taking down Samhain then I could bend the rules a little so it went smoothly. I uh...i didn't think that you'd kidnap people. Just bribe them or decive them. Hehe. Shouldda just said the plan to begin with. My baaaaad." Silus' explanation was just as long winded as Zell's but Silus was rushed, like he owed the explanation because he was feeling bad for what Mike had thought of his plan to corner Samhain.

  Zell watched with a rather shocked sense of confusion. He tried to reason through what Silud said, and while it checked out there was a detail to all of this he couldn't quite place. He was happy to see Silus trying to embrace the differences... but he had to wonder if it would help. If it would lead Silus to a middle ground, or if it would lead to anything beneficial for either of them.

Michael should have been expecting a long winded speech but he was somehow surprised when it came spilling out from the kids mouth. Explanations and likely the desire to be understood in what he was doing.  Honestly he  had expected him to want those kids sacrificed to an eldritch entity with an unknown desire and even existence. Something like those beings from works of Lovecraft aside from him being driven mad from just seeing him. He also had a soft spot for Samhain just because that was literally Yancey and that was a different story within itself. The fact he was being lectured about his language was amusing, because the stakes were higher than just a fuck thrown around.

Either way something told him that Silus needed this, so he didn’t say anything and allowed him to keep talking. He had to dig through the words spoken, but that didn’t give him as much insight as he would have liked. He felt weary about saying anything, wondering what Silus would do now that his peace was said.  Would they change the plan or did he need more children to trick Samhain into falling into answering whatever questions they wanted answered. If he even had the answers to these questions.

”Plan makes sense now. Just not when I was gathering the kids for said plan,” Mike shrugged, wondering if the worst was over or if he was just getting into it.  A large amount of anxiety which was just mounting as the seconds passed.  Dad had nothing to say on the matter, which might have been because he expected him to do all the verbal work. As if that were the best idea in the world. ”guess the little confession earlier and the fact the only way I could get any children was through kidnapping didn’t help any,” Not that his tone suggested he was blaming him by any degree,. Granted he was used to people confusing what he said and how he said it.

”Not that I could bribe anyone to come to a dark church with me without something seeming off,  ” He shrugged,. ”so what’s the plan now? Think he’ll just tell us what we want to know because he likes you so much?” Well duh, it’s Yancey but he didn’t know how much he had changed.

Silus had felt genuinely bad about the event, but he couldn’t help but also feel a bit conflicted. He sincerely hated how he had been feeling as of late, and he was doing everything in his power to be sure to follow the advice of those wiser than him. But now he was here, planning to corner Samhain and he was even willing to deceive his brother and father to do so. He let out a little sigh as Mike asked him if they were to just corner Samhain and see if he would willingly tell them what they wanted to know.

   “That’s one of the funny things about life. Not funny as in ha-ha but more as in...Irony. When you like someone...you seem to do everything BUT tell them things. To hide and protect them from it I guess. I mean, I get it. But that doesn’t make it right. Samhain won’t tell me what I want to know...which I guess is okay.” Silus said with a shrug. Truthfully he felt defeated but he took a deep breath in through his nose. He took a moment to feel the air enter his chest, the feeling of the oxygen in his lungs bringing forth a small burst of vitality to him. He let out a slow exhale, not quite a sigh, but rather just a savored breath.

   “Maybe he’ll have a change of heart. Besides, he needs to do something. I have a mended cadaver of a tween on my table. I would sincerely like for us to maybe remedy that BEFORE someone walks into my room and gets the wrong impression.” Zell said as he looked to Michael and shrugged a bit. Of course there was always that chance, but it wouldn’t be too likely…. Would it?

   “I’ll leave the negotiations to you then. You’re a lot more ...savvy than I am.” Silus said with a smile towards Mike. He then looked to Zell with a small wary glare before shaking his head. Silus finished the ritual with a drop of blood, and in a flash of light there was a man standing there, a look of worry on his face as he quickly became oriented to his situation. The man was oozing with a sense of hostility, but he remained within the circle, incapable of escape.
   “Oh for the love of...You people again?” Samhain asked as he seemed to growl. He then saw Silus and sighed, trying to tame himself, but a perpetual darkness seemed to radiate from him, quite unlike before. “Hello dearie, and yes. Hello Michael and Zell. Now if you’ll hurry it up I’ve got quite a busy schedule that you’re cutting into. These good looks take maintenance and someone has kidnapped my little angel.” He said, as if trying to prompt everyone to hurry up and get on with what they wanted. He could feel himself being lost with every passing minute, this needed to be quick, for his own sake.

----

   A faint squeak was heard as the door opened, a beam of light sliced through darkness as a hand reached in, flipping the switch on the wall and illuminating the room as a six foot tall person seemed to fumble into the room. Slightly spiked blonde hair with dark roots and piercing blue eyes stepped into the room as the tall young man meandered into his father’s room. He thought nothing of it as he walked over to his father’s closet, knocking on it for a moment and opening it. He hadn’t expected anyone to be there, but he recalled that his other dad once said he spent several years of his life in a closet. He didn’t want to run the risk of intruding on the smaller parent.

He couldn't find what he was looking for initially. He looked over to his father’s table, everything had been cleared off but he paid no heed to anything else. His eyes widened with revelation and his heart froze. He lost his breath for a moment as it registered in his mind what he had seen. With wide eyes he would quickly turn from the table and return to the closet, throwing the door open and reaching into one of Zell’s shirts. With fast fingers he removed the golden plated pen and slipped it into his pocket with a wry smirk. He turned back, closing the closet and turning back to the table. He placed a hand on the small body that lay there and began to pat at it. Looking to his hand after feeling a weird squishy substance on his hand, he looked, finding blood all over. Slightly grossed out, Jordan began to rub the thick blood on his shirt, trying to prevent any disease or pathogens from lingering. Panic began to sink in as he realized what he was now looking at. He hadn’t even registered the small corpse on the table.

Jordan brought a hand to his mouth in horror, noticing the bite marks, looking up and down over the small body. He had always joked that Sean may have been a vampire in another life, but this was justy wrong. Then again this was Zell’s table. It wasn’t past Zell to do crazy and morally questionable shit. But why the bite marks? He suddenly realized that there was still blood on his hand, so he immediately began to pull it away from his chin and mouth, spitting a little as he tried to rub the residual sanguine fluid on his jeans. A noise coming from the hallway caused Jordan to turn, looking to see his only older sibling standing there with eyes trained and a look of horror on his face.

Immediately Jordan had it figured out. This looked so incredibly wrong. There was a small child, roughly their youngest sibling’s age...dead on a table. Bite marks and now Jordan himself was wearing the blood of the victim, as well as had blood on his own mouth and chin. He couldn’t even defend himself verbally without breaking his vow of silence. He shook his head no, looking worried.

”SEAN!!!!! THE DRAGON LOST IT! NEED SOME BACK-UP!!!!” Shael yelled as he reached from his belt, removing a pair of knuckles that slipped over his fingers, Jordan backed away slowly hands up and shaking his head in conjunction with his hands, silently proclaiming his innocence. But Shael was having none of it, he began to pinch his younger brother in the head repeatedly, until the darkness of unconsciousness and potential brain-damage would claim him.

How he could leap from annoyance to mild guilt was astonishing but then again Mike was still trying to garner a grasp on how his stupid emotions were beginning to work now. Silus seemed to have finally grasped what his words suggested to someone else, though making someone feel bad was…perhaps the intention despite how he thought afterwards. His question towards what they should do was greeted with a rather correct statement. You tended to leave things out towards the people you cared about, even if that hurt them in the long run. The idea of Samhain even having a change of heart was nice, though he knew his father was just speaking that way for Silus’ benefit. Put on the kiddy gloves to maybe soothe the frayed nerves that came with being unhappy about ones self. Just speculation on his own part, so he didn’t let any of these become voiced.

He averted his gaze, almost nervous in the fact that he was expected to do the talking. Samhain was not the biggest fan of his, so he expected to be told to fuck off the moment the man appeared. Mike swallowed and nodded, trying to allow the more confident expression to form on his face and feeling it work to a degree. Already his mind was working over what could go wrong and what he should do if things did go wrong. Could he even do anything against them then? So many worries, but he was already deep into this with a dead tween, so might as well get things moving. Seemed like it was time to act though, because the blood droplet came down and suddenly the eldritch being was before them within his circle. Silently Mike prepared himself as the annoyed words came and then seemed to soften ever so slightly when noticing Silus was around.

He really did not like dealing with these kind of beings. He seemed to question without words the statement about losing his little angel, but then again that was a question he didn’t care to ask. Instead he took a small breath, stepped forward and interlaced his fingers behind his back. ”Well Samhain, how about we skip the formalities and get to what I want,” He could sense that he should be careful but that didn’t matter when more important questions were brewing within his mind. ”I wanted to find information out about this Archon person you mentioned and apparently Silus thinks you would know anything about him,” he got to the point, that was what everyone else thought he should be doing right? He didn’t know if he would get an answer but then again that was the hazard of asking now angry eldritches.

”I know how you work though. You have your prices and all that, so just name it,” He added considering Silus from the corner of his vision as if wondering if his presence would actually do anything.  Yancey might have been fond of Sinus but that didn’t mean he would actually give anything because his favorite person being here would change anything.

—

Zell disappeared to do Zell things and Sean busied himself trying to work through the knowledge implanted within his head. There had to be something within that maelstrom of information that would tell him about an Archon or how to undo the thing keeping the child dead. So much information but so little that actually meant anything. The secrets to immortality? Well, relative immortality were there but not anything about this Archon person. It left him annoyed as he hovered above the floor, seemingly sitting in mid air in one room he picked out for his meditation room. Well, something like that.Minutes passed without much sound, until he finally broke from deep thought and glared at the wall as if it were the source of all of his problems. ”You’ve got to be kidding me. Nothing at all?” He grumbled to himself, slowly lowering to the floor until his feet made contact with carpeting.

A shout rung out through the house, which seemed to put him on edge compared to the calm that existed before. Something about a dragon finally losing it? He huffed to himself, breaking off into a spring towards where the sound was coming from. Took him a few seconds to realize it was from where they had laid down the Childs corpse, and the sound of something hitting something solid quickly became apparent.

What the fuck was going on?

What he came in on was Shael hitting Jordan really hard. ”WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!” He shouted angrily, coming just in time to see Jordan hit the floor and groaning to himself.  ””can’t I unkill a child without you people trying to murder each other? No? Sounds about right, He stalked across the room, almost red in the face or as much red as could shown his face with its coloring. ”don’t know why you’re beating up on your brother Shael but please don’t. Bad enough Mike drags a dead child in here but now this. Can’t I have a damn break,” His left sleeve seemed to glow a brilliant gold color, forming an aura around his hand which became a solid energy. Something he allowed to wash over the dragon, seemingly healing any visible and not so visible injuries.

A stern and cold look on his face, eyes actually lighting for a moment with intense anger as his eyes seeme dot bear into Mike's soul. Then suddenly he seemed to make a scratching noise, a laugh contained in the back of his throat. His stone cold features broke into a small smile. Then he seemed to have a manic fit of giggling before the smile spread wide on his face, dounling over and putting weight upon his cane as he tried to stop his hideous laughter.

   "Heh...HA! Ahhahaaaaa." He finally let it out, an almost uncanny high pitched laugh that rivaled that of the movie Amedaeus. It died down as the Eldritch being had tears in his eyes. He wiped them away, his lips smacking together as he tried to tame his laughing fit. It ended with a sigh. "Ah, Mike. Yer always good fer a laugh. Askin' me about the Archon when you brought him here to me." Suddenly his eues widened and his face portrayed an overly cartoonish form of shock, though the corner of his mouth still visibly smiling as he placed his hand over his mouth, looking to Zell. Then he looked back to Mike and curled all but his index finger, plakcing it upward as if he were trying to shush him.

   "But shhhh… No one can know. Especially not your loved ones. Those are the ones we keep secrets from. Isn't that right, Zell?" He asked. Zell didn't seem to phase at all. He simply continued looking forward, his eyes glowing for a moment. Time was frozen, and things seemed to be gray-scaled.

  "Well, look who suddenly wants to talk about the truth." Zell said with a chuckle as he stepped forward. His walk seemed to bring him closer before he started circling Samhain, a small smile on his youthful face before he seemed to pass behind, transforming into a man with a dark cloak, tattered and frayed as jagged black armor protracted from his body. A single clasp holding the cloak on with an emblem of a sword, carved of emerald fixed within an obsidian medallion.  "Then let's speak truth, Yancey Zazel. " Samhain's glamour failed and revealed the teenager's tanned skin, thought he dark circles under his eyes were a poor compliment. Where a vigorous smile and pearly white teeth once painted his face there was now a scowl, a black liquid seeping from the lower parts of his eyes and the corners of his mouth. The bearer of the Last of the Holy Light had nearly succumb to the darkness.

    "Don't toy with me, Archon." The young man warned, but all Zell did was chuckle. The attempts to intimidate were more adorable than it was meant to be. Like a small, corrupted puppy trying to growl like a real wolf.

    "Or what? I've trusted that you were doing everything in your power to deal with this darkness, and all it's done is grow inside you. I've offered to help you and you refuse to be helped. So why, pray-tell, are you HERE!?" Archon's patience was wavering with the existence of this Eldritch creature. He had always adored Yancey and his loyalty to his child, his willingness to die to protect him. Even when he was corrupted, Archon almost saw him like another son. When Yancey was lost, Zell mourned. He searched almost everywhere for him, but due to the nature of his disappearance, he had no way to track him. But this? This interference. This was too much, and now risking his identity as well. He was willing to allow such an anomaly, such an affront to existence itself...because he felt he owed this child. But that was a child long passed. This was a shambling darkness inside a corpse.

  "The same reason YOU are. I'm getting ready for what's coming. " The young man talked a good game. Perhaps he even meant it. Maybe this darkness was just his way of playing Humanity, being a sin-eater like one of his friends. Maybe this was his doing, maybe he pushed too hard the "Big brother" and "Guardian" complex over Silus. He listened to Yancey speak, but it didn't matter what he said.

  "A futile effort. You cannot save anyone if you cannot even save yourself! Do not mistake our designations! I AM THE ARCHON. I am the defender, the peacekeeper and curator of all things existential. YOU. ARE. A CHILD!" He wanred Yancey, his voice raising, which was something that he was unused to. Reality itself shook, the level of irritation becoming apparent as he proclaimed his authority as the guardian of all things existential.

  "A child that has your secrets." The scorn of being equated to a child was a deep cut, especially for one of his power. He seemed to forget that just because one had power did not mean they were no longer a child. That was a whole different classification. Of course he leaned forward, stepping towards Archon, squaring himself up.

  "You have A secret. I have ALL of yours. So go on. Be done with it. Tell them what I am. Mike will be absolutely livid, and as much as I love him...he would have every reason to be. But you don't care about that, do you? No. You care about the only person you've ever cared about, other than yourself." He smiled and his eyes narrowed as he nodded. "Silus...What would he think? To see everything you've done? To see what you've been playing at this whole time. To see you turn his family against each other. Then to tell him you care about him, you're protecting him? From what? Happiness?" The words pierced through the air, stinging like welts form a whip once they hit Yancey's ears. He had a moment where his emotions betrayed him, he growled as he once had within the form of a wolf.

   "From the illusion of happiness your existence offers." His words were an attempt to bite back, but Archon seemed to be unphased, smiling even wider, as if he were enjoying the young man's attempts to verbally brawl with him.

   "Be that as it may. Little boy playing businessman. Time to make a business decision. Time to weigh your options. My children WILL forgive me, eventually. Michael much longer than Silus. But Silus? It will be near instantly. Can you say the same, angel of darkness?" With a wink of his glowing green eyes and a snap of his fingers everything was changed. He was...Samhain again his eyes were watering and he reached up to wipe them. His look of joy from when he almost revealed Zell's secret was changed. He looked to see Silus, then Mike and then Zell and a look of horror crossed his face for but a moment.

   "M-my price..." He said, looking around as he wiped his eyes. He gave a half-hearted and quite forced chuckle to pretend as if he had still found this sparklingly hilarious. The laughter was left as a nervous chuckle.

  "The Archon is the avatar of all Existence in the universe, and possibly beyond. He, with a single thought, molds and shapes reality as we know it. I've told you what the Archon is. Now leave me in peace. " He said as he looked to Silus, the child recognizing that the Eldritch horror was quite frightful at this moment.

  "What's got you spooked? You don't seem like the kind to start sweating." Silus said as he looked, trying to put a little pressure, allowing Mike to keep doing what he did best, and corner someone.

”Brought him with me?” He questioned, eyeing the chuckling madman before looking around. The only one standing with him was Silus and his father, which made the complication all the more interesting. Even more so was how quickly that confidence changed in less than a second, from gleeful to a paper façade of it. Something was going on, though he didn’t know what that was. Instead allowing his eyes to bore into the eldritch entity, feeling a minute amount of anger. Oh he was trying to cheat him out of an answer, anyone with half a brain could have seen it.

The sound of his teeth grinding together seemed to punctuate the air. ”You know that’s fine. Good to know what they were but we both know what I want. You ask…no tell me to tell this Archon person something and you don’t even have the forethought to tell me who the hell I should be telling,” His voice rose for a moment in anger, allowing what he could do to roll through his mind like a wave. As if he were mulling over what he could do and what the repercussions of that would be. So many things he could do, and at the same time there were things to consider.

”It is a little strange to see you so…shaken though. Shouldn’t be, it’s just me, Silus and my dad and you’re a  big bad eldritch being right? Just have to tell me who I’m looking for and you’ll be on your way. I’m here to make a deal and I’m not pleased with the results, especially when I have so much leverage here.” He seemed to be implying something without saying it, shrugging and slipping his hands into his pockets. ”So why don’t we try this again? Who is Archon? ”

The words were not altogether unsurprising. The request for knowledge lead the scholarly mind to yet another question in their pursuit of knowledge. As it always did with people. Despite his many differences with his family, he was truly an Atterrius in moments like this. Bearing leverage and worming his way into an enemy’s skin, embedding himself there. Taking the mind of his foe to an emotional area and then executing it with precision and logic. That was when Samhain’s eyes did something he had never experienced before. His Iris turned a smoldering glowing orange as rage and anger seethed from him. His pupils went from black to a faintly glowing blue.

“So THAT’S how it is? Well let me tell you something Mike. I’m not playing games here. I’m running miraculously short on time here and I’m still miles away from my goal with the metaphorical nightfall besetting my very soul! Yet I’m here to answer questions. For why? So you can undo what you’ve done? So you can atone for the death of a child that wasn’t even your fault? Well unfortunately Michael, you see Archon has my lips quite sealed. With the exact same threat as you.” He said, the more he talked the more prominent an ominous growl could be heard reverberating, echoing his voice a fraction of a second behind. His rage seemed to have Zell step forward, a metal contraption seeming to let out mechanical whirls and metallic clanks as the small device formed into a gauntlet over his hand, a glowing light in the palm as he held it up towards Samhain. The eldritch being seemed to recognize this and backed down, but his eyes still continued to glow, the voice still continued to persist as he suddenly cracked a smile. Not the same usual and confident one, but one you would find on a broken and defeated person. The smile of a man who realized the joke, the entire futility of their life. Tears began to well in their eyes before steaming into mist before they could fall to his skin.

“I find it so ironic that I’m the heartless one-The one whose very soul holds the last of the Holy Light. The one whose entire goal has been to become himself again. To find a way to be who he was once, to find a way to be a better person.  Yet YOU threatened to hurt HIM to loosen my lips. You both used the child against me. Yet I’m the heartless one? Yet I’m the coward? Go on then, gentlemen! Like father, like son! Tell him who I am. Tell him what’s become of me. Tell him how EVERYTHING I’VE DONE HAS BEEN TO GET BACK TO HIM!” His voice actually caused the entire church to shake, like a small Earthquake had taken to it, dust and a little residual stone falling from the roof as he seemed to become more aggressive. He got to the edge of the binding location and reached as if trying to reach out and grab one of them. But instead he only pointed to Mike. “The sad part of it is that I can see that you’re trying to do good Michael. But Archon? He’s a bloody monster. You need to stay away from him. He’s not going to help you. I will make sure the child is resurrected ...before I fa-.” He said as his eyes turned to the clock. He saw his eyes in the reflection of the mirror by the confessional, the glowing was more than enough for him to be caught by attention. A horrified look drew to his face as he reached up and touched his face, his breathing was unsteady as he began to palm at his eyes.

“There’s no saving you. You’ve sacrificed thousands of lives, feeding them to that dark monstrosity with your lantern. Now that glow in your eyes tells me it’s finally burning at your very soul. It won’t take any other substitute now, will it?” Zell asked, though the way he asked was almost a taunting sense, that air of superiority was more than enough to drive Samhain insane. Silus had remained quiet through the majority as he tried to watch and slowly pool information as he could. He seemed to be on the verge of making a breakthrough when his train of thought was interrupted by another child who sat up in the pew and yawned.

“Peek-a-boo.” He chuckled as he waved at Silus, exaggerated stretching motions would be a staple for this young man it would seem as it stretched out, as a cat would in it’s boredom. Silus cocked his hand to the side as the young man attempted to step towards the group. Zell gave a questioning look before turning the gauntlet on the child.

“This doesn’t concern you.” He warned as he held his hand up, ready to fire and cocking his head to the side. Silus’ eyes widened as he looked to Michael like a small deer in headlights, not sure what was going on.

“Woah, woah old man. Calm down, please! I just woke up. I’m not in the best state. Hey!” He said to Zell before turning to Mike and Silus, a smile on his face as he seemed to wave his hand rather enthusiastically. Zell fired a warning shot, causing the child to step back and turn to face Archon again. He would tug at his peacoat and brush it off as he cleared his throat. “Dude, I don’t even know you.”

The display took place while Samhain snapped a little, trying to get Mike’s attention. He held out a paper for Mike. Mike only had to take it. If Mike wouldn’t then someone else most certainly would, and then the countdown began. Zel’s attention was on the new child entirely, acting out in a fit as he began to accuse the child of meddling with things he shouldn’t and that he was lucky Samhain didn’t already kill him for just existing. Zell was fluctuating between wanting to save the child and wanting to kill them, his very emotional status very clearly out of order. "Now I can say honestly that I haven't told you. Please let me out...before Zell kills me."

“You know what? Enough! I’ve tried to help you. Now I just really want to get rid of you.” Zell said as he took aim at the child, the high pitched charging of the gauntlet was beginning.

“Oh that? That’s me targeting you with my metahuman power. You see if you’re not sure how to feel about me, then you’re not paying attention to the actual good people about to do the actual good things.” He said as he shrugged. This earned a confused expression as Zell turned his head off to the side, then suddenly feeling a chain wrapped over the gauntlet and pulled it in a direction. On the other end of the chain, Silus stood, the painted chain made real as he pulled the attack onto him. As the blast fired, he stepped into it head on and seemed to disappear. He was seen standing on the other side of mike, his eyes wide as he let out a long sigh, and a small uncontained smirk, as if somehow that level of closeness and adrenaline was something he rather enjoyed.

You good Si?” The stranger asked
“Y-yeah. Thanks.” A small reply as he seemed to try and lean on Mike for a moment, the internal chemical releases something that made him a little flighty and light headed.
“I mean, I think you got that backwards. I’m supposed to thank you?”
“I think we’re all...good?”
“Oooh. You’re guy got away. Tough break. Might wanna go after him. No telling what trouble he’ll get into.” The other boy said with a small smile as he shrugged. Zell turned and looked to Mike and Silus before sighing, shaking his head. After Samhain had handed off the paper he would have disappeared and left Mike with it.

Well this was getting awkward and felt like thinly veiled insults being thrown around. Archon was bad, now that was an interesting thing coming from Samhain who he imagined was likely not so good to many people. Yancey didn’t favor people in general, just Silus because…well he didn’t know how that worked. His dad seemed to be…upping the antagonistic language and he expected a fight to break out between the two when a strange child appeared. ”I have…no idea what’s going on now,’ Mike muttered to himself mildly annoyed, turning to the new child which he was sure he somehow kidnapped. Except they weren’t gone for some reason like the rest of them which sounded like something that his father didn’t do.

That was the time when Samhain handed him what looked to be a folded piece of paper, which he looked at curiously and accepted. Then breaking the circle which bound the eldritch being. There was a fight going on, but he expected that Silus could take care of himself…maybe. Seemed like he was stronger than when they were both younger than before.  Even when it came to their father shooting laser beams around especially into Silus, who took it without much pain he assumed. He massaged the bridge of his nose, feeling a slight amount of pressure on his leg as the shaggy headed younger male leaned against him. Well that was a new thing entirely.

”I’m pretty good I suppose,’ Mike stated, unfurling the piece of paper and furrowing his brows. ”huh, well that’s a thing.” He gently reached over to push Silus from his leg, taking a few deep breaths before wrenching a pew from the floor and violently flinging it against the high point of a wall. It shattered into wooden bits before showering the floor with smaller but still large chunks. A few more breaths and then he brushed off his shirt.

”Looks like I got my answer. Let’s go home Silus, maybe you can introduce me to your…friend,” He eyed the other kid and sighed.  ”first, I got some very important things to talk about with Archon.”

The words being phrased as Mike looked to him caused Zell to smirk. He shook his head and let his arms fall. The gauntlet powered down and he began to pull back the gauntlet, allowing it to reform to the small coin-like structure. He watched as the other boy walked up to Silus. Silus immediately opened his arm and slung it around the slightly older boy as they seemed to stand there and discuss small, minor little things. Though the gist of their conversation came down to them talking about Mike.

“Tell me doc, how bad is it? Hi Mike.” Said the child. He had never been seen by Mike before, but Silus only let out a small hiss of childish laughter when the boy spoke. Silus shrugged and gave out a hmmm and a haaa as if trying to determine a diagnosis.

“Got Atterrius syndrome. Chronic stress, lack of sleep.” Silus began listing some symptoms of what a doctor might talk about Though without missing a beat, the other kid took to the diagnosis game. “Inferiority complex despite being a badass? Prone to destructive behaviors and emotional breakdowns? Possible daddy issues?”

“Yup!” Silus said with a little chuckle. “Classic symptoms. We gotta cure that STAT.” He said, both of them smiling as serious things were about to go down with Mike and Zell.

"I am not a perfect father. I warned you of that. I'm not even a half decent human being. So whatever you have to say Mike, I'll let you say out of love. Out of respect. But there's not a goddamn thing you can tell me that I haven't told myself. I just hope, and I pray you never have to deal with these things." He sighed as he stepped forward. Silus and his friend looked awkwardly for a moment as they seemed to both be in perfect sync, stepping back with the same level of concern on their faces before stepping over towards the confessional. Silus began opening the door and closing it, examining it and wondering why there would be a closet where you could sit. Zell, on the other hand smiled and nodded. "I will tell you though. I didn't lie. I'm only the Archon when there's a threat to reality. At current point...there's no threat. One incoming but...not here yet. I know that my bullshit of technicalities doesn't help but..."

“We gotta cure a bad case of death first.” Silus said to the boy he was sitting with. One of them got on one side of the confessional, the other was on the other side. They both seemed to be having a basic discussion as to how they could fix the whole "Atterrius Complex that both of the Atterrius boys seemed to have. "Wait a minute. You're an angel, right? Can't you resurrect the dead?" The moment he said this, the other boy started coughing abrptly, choking on his own saliva as he tried to get air. After the coughing fit and the boy's face was no longer red from a lack of oxygen, he spoke on the matter.

"I'm a more literal fashion. But I uh..I might be able to resurrect them, yeah. I-I uh. Why is this like. Why did you think I was an Angel?" Their conversation continued on, though the chance to prove the powers of resurrection would be not as important as one might think. Considering the child in question was already walking around within the Atterrius house.

Pup sat on the couch as he had a blanket he had stolen from a random bed. He turned the television on and began to yawn as he flipped through channels. He found himself rather comfortable as the rest of the family resolved their differences. They had concuded that Jordan did not, in fact, go crazy and eat a child. They also resolved that Shael was a little too eager to beat the dragon's face with a stone piece of art from their father's desk. They also resolved that Sean was somehow able to contain a being that was a living energy vacuum, and that means you do not fuck with the Arcana.

"D-did you hear that? Do Zombies watch TV?" Shael asked as he went to the hallway, creeping around silently in order to try and find what they could only conclude was a Zombie. As Shael peered around the corner and into the living room he saw the boy caked in blood, but not a scratch on him. Jordan's head peered around the corner, just over his. The Sean's over Jordan's. Jordan blinked and turned his head up, looking at the shortest individual that seemed to be somehow above him. After blinking a few times his head turned and he looked to see how Arcana somehow turned into a human giraffe.

"I can taste you breathing and taste the hum of your magic. But it's not familiar at all so...uhm. Oh yeah. Where am I, and do you mind if I watch the History Channel?" The young boy asked out loud, though he smiled and froze when he saw Sean, a primal panic taking over him. Jordan pointed ot his heart and started thumping it against his chest, then pointing to the boy. Shael held his hands up as if to say he wasn't going to harm the child. The child cocked his head to the side a bit and then shook his mop of hair. "So...Sean. There's Jordan and you're...I uh. I'm sorry I don't know you." To this Jordan gave a curious wave before looking to Sean for validation, then he looked to Shael whom seemed almost disappointed that he was left out.

Mike had to think of what he would say on the way back. Sure, he could have gone off on the man considering all the lying that was going on. Well, that was totally not a new thing he imagined but he also guessed that he wasn’t the only one who knew nothing about the matter.  Yet when they got there all he could do was partially focus on the conversation the two seemed to be having with one another, mostly about...apparently inferiority complexes and the like. Were the duo composed of anyone else he might have said something but he let them go. For now anyway. ”Well yeah, we already established your lacking parenting,” Mike responded with narrowed eyes, looking as if he thought enough glaring would somehow cause Zell to combust.

”No, your technicalities don’t help. In fact something tells me they do the opposite more often than. Like that time…oh…when we found out dad was killing you but guess who had to tell us that. The fucking potato dragon! Not you, his husband who apparently loves him or whatever but the dragon I’m pretty sure hates like 90% of us. Don’t know what that’s about and honestly don’t know if I care. Hell, I had to talk to an eldritch asshole that we both know a lot about that I’m also sure wants to kill me, but that’s fine, right technically not Archon at the moment? I won’t waste my breath yelling at you but if anyone in our family gets hurt because you like your secrets and can’t open your damn mouth for whatever reason…I promise you won’t have to worry about hating yourself for it. I’ll make sure you answer for it myself.“

He took a breath, a deep one as if to calm himself. ”Now if you’ll excuse me I have other things I’d rather be doing” He offered one last glare before walking off.

Sean however was standing with his two sons who were also not related to him whatsoever. Watching the once dead child now wrapped up in a blanket and watching television, or so he assumed that was what he was doing. ”High quality zombies can watch tv. Just not sure how quality this thing we’re working with is,’ Sean noted, furrowing his brows.

That was when he spoke up, saying something about tasting his magic which left him wondering how that even worked. ”So I guess he know’s me…somehow. Hi kid I don’t know,” Sean seemed to step out from the corner he had been and sitting down on the end of the couch. ”go ahead, watch whatever you want. Oh, um that’s Shael.”

”So why are we staring at a blood stained child?” Mike questioned walking up behind Shael and Jordan, considering Sean who seemed to be truing to talk to the unknown kid. He didn’t waste much time standing in place, walking up to the kid and settling beside him on the couch. ”so kid, looks like whatever they did works.” He seemed to prod him as if to make sure he wasn’t seeing anything. ”so how ya feelin? Not every day I see a kid get ripped apart by a demon dachshund,’