A new day came upon the world, facility E-027, the Flying Nautilus, was still grounded within the Southern Continent. While the outside was warm, the air conditioning of the facility made it relatively chilly.
Daemon stepped out of the bathroom after taking a hot morning shower, looking at Ava who wrapped a small blanket around herself, solemnly humming to herself whilst brushing her hair. She put down the brush, and picked up a cup of lukewarm instant coffee, taking a couple of sips, finishing the last of what remained.
Ava looked at Daemon. "He hasn't come back up here yet."
"Well then he's really trying to improve himself, that'll be good for him, and us, once he becomes competent." Daemon shot a warm smile to his sister, sitting down right next to Ava, leaning forward clasping his hands. He shot Ava a glance, her brows were slightly furrowed.
"I don't like him." Ava blurted out.
Daemon kept to himself for a few seconds before replying. "Why don't you like him?"
Ava looked at him, her brows were still furrowed, there was a change in the tone of her voice, and her pupils had dilated a little. "Solstice is not tough enough, mentally and physically. He can't really fight right now, he doesn't seem to be well educated, he's inexperienced, impulsively decided to trust us with his life without even knowing us, and he's actually from the Outskirts, meaning he once committed a real crime."
Daemon nodded slightly in acknowledgment. "Mhmm. It's not like he had any guidance, at least to the extent that we were given. Everyone grows with experience, he wasn't developed like we were from a young age. Ava, you can't ignore that our fates are tied with his either, the Wyrd made it quite clear. We're just not certain what's in store for the three of us yet."
He put his left hand on Ava's shoulder in an attempt to reassure her, Ava's brows unfurrowed, the look in her eyes softened.
"Ok." Ava said tenderly. Daemon removed his hand from Ava's shoulder.
Daemon rubbed his hands together before clasping them again. "About him being a criminal, I don't see that in him."
"Tsk. You sure?" Ava rolled her eyes.
"Solstice, who was previously living in the outskirts, that reason is unknown to us. If he wishes to tell us why, then he will. My intuition has never been wrong for my entire life, you know that too. Perhaps, he has an intuition like mine, which is why he put his faith in us. So-"
"Or he's just an idiot." Ava interrupted with a smirk on her face.
Daemon looked at Ava silently for a few seconds. "Like you said, he just may….only be an idiot. Regardless, he put his faith in us, so I'll put my faith in him. It just might take a big initial investment on our end. Let's not forget that we're only a year older than him. We can learn things too." Ava's smirk faded away, and she nodded softly in acknowledgment to Daemon's viewpoint. Daemon watched as she stood up, blanket still wrapped around herself, she walked over to the kettle filled with water which was currently whistling.
Daemon felt satisfied with the conclusion of their conversation, but his attention was caught elsewhere. He looked down and noticed he had some goosebumps along his arms and legs due to the air conditioning, he was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts afterall.
"Was the air conditioning set this cold yesterday?" Daemon asked his sister Ava. She was fixing herself another cup of hot instant coffee.
"Definitely not." Ava sat back down on her bed, a new cup of coffee held in her hands.
Daemon took the fingers on his right hand to rub the goosebumps littered on his left forearm. It was an unusual change in temperature within the facility, compared to yesterday, but it most likely wasn't problematic. However, if it was a sign of something insidious, he knew Jest would handle it accordingly.
'Jest is reliable.' Daemon exited the sleeping quarters without saying much of a goodbye to Ava. Walking down the hallway towards the stairs that led to the first floor, none of the staff paid him any mind.
At the bottom of the stairs, on the first floor, Daemon made his way to the BCT room to retrieve Solstice. Opening the door, he expected to see Solstice passed out on the ground from overworking himself, but instead he found him passed out sitting in a chair, tucked away in the right corner of the room with a VR combat simulator strapped to his head.
Daemon walked up to Solstice, and swiftly tapped him twice on his left shoulder to wake him up. "Be careful with being too immersed in those, they can mess with your sense of reality. How long have you been using it for?"
Solstice slowly took off the headset, pinching his eyes and taking a deep breath, he was still waking up. "About 3 hours….I think. Besides, I'm pretty sure it's impossible for me to lose my sense of reality." There was a grogginess in his voice, he clearly had eye bags, his hair dirty and drenched in sweat as well, making the headset gross.
"Mhm. Is that due to your gift?" Daemon was quite curious, Solstice never explained his gift to him and his sister, while they had shown Solstice aspects of their own gifts.
Solstice blinked a couple times tiredly, and cleared the mucus out of his throat before answering. "Yes."
'Some type of sensory ability?' Daemon wanted to pursue this topic. "A man of many words I suppose? Are you ever going to fully elaborate on the capabilities of your gift?"
"Are you and your sister going to reciprocate?" Solstice smiled in response.
Daemon craned his neck down and stared at Solstice, and Solstice craned his neck up to stare back. "I don't mind doing that. As far as my sister goes….to be honest with you, I'm not sure." There was an awkward unbroken silence for a few seconds, which finally broke with Solstice looking down at his clothes with a disgusted face.
Daemon sighed inwardly.
"I should go clean up." Solstice said as he felt his sweat drenched hair and clothes with his hands, his facial expression twisting after smelling his body odor.
Daemon didn't pay this any mind. "After you're done, I need to talk with you about the next steps for all three of us." Daemon walked back to the metal door, holding it open for Solstice to exit the BCT room.
"Alright." Solstice walked through the open doorway out onto the first floor, which Daemon shortly followed, closing the door behind them. A cool draft hit them both, making them shiver a little bit.
Solstice shook himself awake before tiredly asking, "Have you noticed that it's particularly colder this morning compared to yesterday?"
As they began walking up the stairs to go to the second floor, Daemon replied, "Yes. I trust Jest enough to handle anything strange that might be going on." Solstice and Daemon entered the sleeping quarters that they had been staying in, with Solstice immediately heading for the shower, and Daemon collecting blank pieces of paper as well as a pen that he found from rummaging the drawers around the room.
Daemon began writing an outline of his thoughts regarding their current situation, so that everyone could clearly see and understand his ideas for them as a group moving forward. There were many factors that currently affected their choices, making it quite limited for them, primarily Solstice.
He finished his write up, spreading out the papers and categorizing them into certain groups that explained current situations going on outside of their control, ones that would affect their decisions.
One group of papers outlined a recent disastrous string of events that destroyed the Blythe family, which was still being dealt with to this day by both the Lazarus and Ambrose families. Of course, this wasn't made public just yet, but it was getting harder to keep it under wraps.
Daemon looked over to his sister Ava, who had furrowed brows reading the papers, "Are you sure about telling him this information?" Ava placed the papers down and looked at her brother Daemon, with a stern look on her face.
"Yes." Daemon didn't say anything more.
Both Ava and Daemon looked over to Solstice who had opened the bathroom door, warm steam escaping, combating against the cold temperature of the room. Solstice was currently still wearing his dirty brown shirt, as well as his black pants, which were the only clothes he had, at least, they weren't drenched in sweat.
Daemon pointed to the papers on top of the small bedside table, "Read them."
Solstice nodded and tiredly walked over, sitting on the bottom bunk, grabbing each of the papers, reading through them carefully. After about five minutes, he finished reading them all.
"I'm assuming this means that staying at your family's estate is not an option for me. That entity that you Hearth Goddess paragons are dealing with…'The Rotten One', he's a newer entity that just recently started rising in power, I'm sure you have countermeasures right?"
"Yes and no. The Lazarus family has a direct counter in regards to corruption, that is through our specific bloodline trait, called 'The Sacred Fire'. This bloodline trait exclusive to our Lazarus family, allows us to use our bodies as either a place to nurture spirits and safeguard them, or burn and contain them. This means that if a spirit or entity tries to invade or corrupt our body, we can directly burn them in retaliation. However, The Rotten One utilizes a different medium of corruption than other entities, which can pretty much bypass our bloodline trait that normally would be the perfect deterrent."
Solstice nodded for Daemon to continue.
"Basically, The Rotten One doesn't actually directly corrupt someone. It goes after people who have already started taking actions that go against their own personal integrity and dignity. This allows for a gap for The Rotten One to start making very subtle suggestions such as continuing to do actions that go against the victim's personal integrity and dignity further. These suggestions seem to be mistaken as the victim's intrusive thoughts. Normally, people don't act on their intrusive thoughts, but The Rotten One specifically targets people that have already started betraying their own integrity, so it is easy for that person to continue to betray their own integrity."
Solstice came to his own conclusion. "So…because The Rotten One's suggestions are disguised as one's own intrusive thoughts, it can be tricky to detect, especially considering the type of person the entity likes to target. And once the corruption gets to a certain level, it becomes extremely difficult to combat it because The Rotten One didn't exactly directly corrupt them, but only assisted in their own self destruction of their integrity, meaning the victim technically corrupted themselves…for the most part. This is why it can also practically bypass your Lazars family bloodline trait, 'The Sacred Fire', and I also assume the entity doesn't fully possess the victim until sufficient corruption has taken root."
Daemon nodded with a slight smile in approvement. "Yes, this is pretty much the conclusion we've come to ourselves."
"Understood…maybe you might know why but…I have a weird feeling in my gut that taking Jest's offer, even though it sounds amazing, is not a good choice. I know logically speaking, it might make the most sense to take him up on that offer, even if I get some extra weird shit implanted in me by the World Government so that I can be under their control. But I don't know why I can't shake the feeling in my gut that it would be harmful to me in some sort of way."
Ava, who was leaning against the end of the bunk bed across from him suddenly asked, "How strong of a feeling is it?"
Solstice glanced at her before clothing his eyes for a few seconds. "Feels like if I accept it, I would die."
Daemon, who was sitting down on the bunk across from Solstice, leaned back with his arms crossed, lost in thought. After a few seconds of silence, Daemon spoke. "There is this strange phenomenon, especially with people with powerful fates, that when they get a feeling such as what you're describing, it's a telltale sign that you're simply trying to resist going against your predetermined fate that the Wyrd assigned to you."
Daemon uncrossed his arms before leaning forward to explain further. "What that means is that the Wyrd has determined that you will follow a certain path, and accepting Jest's offer is on that path. As Traversers, people unwillingly chosen by the Wyrd, it's our innate nature, to defy the fate that the Wyrd assigns us, which is why you're feeling that way."
Solstice took a breath, his left fingers rubbing against each other because of his nervous habit.
"If I go against all the odds, and decide to go on my own instead of temporarily joining the government, that would mean I'm directly defying the Wyrd. Based on my limited knowledge, that means that either it will try to manipulate events to get me back on 'route', or simply manipulate probability to lie in favor of bad outcomes coming to fruition. But, if I persevere, the Wyrd will relent, and I will be rewarded greatly."
Ava and Daemon looked at Solstice with their eyebrows furrowed. "Correct."
Solstice didn't respond for about a minute, his nervous habit of his left hand's fingers rubbing against each other stopped. "Then I'll do just that."
Solstice looked back and forth between them both with determination in his eyes.
Ava opened her mouth to say something, but Daemon spoke louder and cut her off, "And we'll be there with you."