in absentia lucis --

Mike turned the pager over in his hands, fascinated. It wasn’t unlike the one he’d had back in high school and it didn’t look any worse for the wear, either. It wasn’t really a surprise that this wasn’t a LARP, but the real answer for why this woman seemed so out of touch with present day very nearly made him drop the pager. “Whoa, you’re a time traveler? That’s a sick power,” he informed her, visibly impressed. “What brings you here to 2021? Doing a little research on your future?” He guessed, not sure why else someone would come to present day when they could hang out at any point in time. “Also, dinosaurs - feathers or no? I heard someone say they’re basically big chickens and probably had feathers, but I’m not sure if I’m sold.”

“That’s true, but I didn’t say a spirit, did I? I said imaginary.” Sam replied with a tap on her nose, the smile never falling from her lips. She paused for a moment to think about who was on the island when Lysander mentioned Odessa, and then shook her head. “No, I don’t think I know her, but I’m sure I will do if she comes to town. I’ll keep an eye out for any shifty looking red-heads who give off bad vibes.” Perhaps this woman would appear, and perhaps not - it would all depend if she wanted to go through what the others were with Fink, Sam supposed. “Remi’s here, yeah. In jail, but she’s here.” A short snort left her lips. “Perhaps she deserves a few days behind bars for that, how dare she hurt precious little you.” The brunette rolled her eyes, teasing her brother; it was going to be fun having him here on the island. “Sadly not, although that would be quite an aesthetic. No, it’s just cute little restaurant with Greek food, none of your soul food around here unfortunately. Get used to Moussaka and halloumi, dear brother.”

Siblings were a confusing, nebulous concept to Lark, so she just nodded. “Makes sense. Is it annoying now, though? You still basically live in the same place.” Searching Lina’s expression for sarcasm, Lark frowned. She felt seen and understood, but she also didn’t feel the same as she had being together. “You’re… right. Like one hundred percent right. I don’t know why it takes someone they know dying for people care about something that I’ve been telling them all along. But this is one of the most important things. I’m at least glad people showed up for when it counts.” Lark was not very good at choosing her words carefully when she was so emotionally compromised. But she was making an effort. Apparently words mattered to people. “Not really. I’m sure she wants me to apologize first, and I can’t take her smugness right now. Before I got… awful- You don’t have to answer this, I’d understand if you walked away, but I’ve just never had the chance- Did you ever think that we’d last?” She localized the sound more than usual so that it was intensely private and wouldn’t carry- just in case. She’d been wanting to ask for ages, but it had been the argument topic, after all.

“They weren’t lost without me though.” Finn shrugged, knowing that even though his siblings had missed him, it would have been much different if it was the other way around. He would have gone just as mental if one of them had been taken as he had been with Briar, they were much more rational and could keep their emotions at bay. “They were fine. I just needed to make sure you were.” He murmured softly, his lips touching her forehead before he pressed a kiss to it softly. His lips had moved whilst they were talking to capture hers in a short kiss, and the broad smile that had taken over his entire face wouldn’t be one that would be dropping any time soon. “Mhm, no..” He replied softly, peppering a short line of kisses from her lip along her jaw, and gently down her neck. “Would it help if I admitted to you that I’m madly in love with you too?” 

“I’m proud of you Warren! I mean, perhaps having a baby at your age wasn’t the best idea but I bet both of you are fantastic parents, and you’ve stuck around to help as well. You’ve always been a good egg.” Jules’ eyes flickered down to the baby in his arms once again as Warren asked if she wanted to hold him, and she nodded quickly. “Yes, please! I’d love to hold my little nephew.” She moved slightly closer, so that he could be moved into her arms slowly and gently. “You know what dad’s like - he obviously wanted me to be shocked by the fact I’d missed out on your having a baby, and not tell me before I saw you. He was surprised to see me honestly, but he’s happy I’m out.”

Theo was the kind of person who loved animals, but in small doses… and small sizes. He had never owned a dog, especially one with as much energy as his cousin’s. “Bernadette took her. I figured Anya would prefer her dog to be alive and her house not to be trashed when she got back.” He was barely able to take care of himself sometimes. So, a dog being entirely dependent on him didn’t bode well. “Now that’s an idea. We would never run out of material. Do you think their mom is still cranking out the kids?” Theo posed, although he was afraid to know the answer. “Oh yeah. Millie is Thompson adjacent, then Mira is full-blooded Thompson. I’m outnumbered, Dex.”

You work in the Africa section, so don’t you try that one on me. Allie reprimanded him through her text message, before then they started to move in the direction of the zoo, the blonde in front of him with a skip in her step - she loved baby animals. You have to let me come and see the elephants whenever I want for the next two weeks, which means you’ll be seeing a lot of me! Deal?

closed starter for @absentialucis​

The last time Ezra saw Dexter, he left the man’s house with a lot of questions. What was Dexter going to say the next time he saw him? Maybe things have changed so much that he wants to take everything he said back. And Ezra would understand. He knew he was being stupid, but his brain was saying stupid things to him and had been all week, and so he transported himself to Dexter’s doorstep and knocked before he could talk himself out of it. When the door opened, his heart fluttered in a way that was new to him. Ezra could assume what that feeling was, but he didn’t want to put the term to it if he was wrong. “Hey,” he greeted, smiling softly. “I was wondering if you would want to take a walk with me.”

Raye shook her head, “You know you’re the best sister-in-law ever right?” she asked as she grabbed her fork and her items before returning to her seat. “It’s close enough to get the general idea” she shrugged, “Enough so that people who haven’t seen the actual musical will have a general idea of what sort of characters they’re auditioning for.” she stuck her fork into her food and took a bite. “But yeah, I think I will go with Hairspray, it’s fun, energetic and there’s a decent amount of characters we can use.” she popped the food in her mouth trying not to giggle as she watched Gianna laugh. “Hey, I’ll take anyone I can get, for any part of it.” she chuckled after she swallowed. “Levi! I would love to rope him into this. I can bribe him with food if it will help get him interested in doing it.” She had at least 14 named character roles and anyone else would be background dancers or part of Dynamites or student body.

Jasmine just rubbed her temples letting out a long sigh before running a hand through her hair and looking up towards the ceiling. She couldn’t help but grumble under her breath at the idea of it being okay to be angry. She knew it was but she didn’t feel like she had the right to be so upset. “I  – yeah I guess so.” she muttered chewing on her bottom lip. “I guess, I feel like I did, or should have processed my anger ages ago? Yet for some reason I’m mad about it all again.” Jasmine’s brain felt like mush when it came to Luna and her situation – but the exact opposite at the thought of Gianna’s. She could not be happier for her friend finally getting with Levi and being happy. Or she assumed happy. “Puppy play dates will come. That I’m sure of.” she nodded, “I’m just really happy for you Gigi. That ya’ll figured that out. I’m glad – he’s not viewing it that way anymore?”  she asked, though she assumed that he must not if they were back together, it didn’t hurt to make sure. “I always liked you two.” 

As soon as Gianna’s excited tone reached his ears, Levi knew to place his cup of tea on the side table beside him. He’d learned early on that carrying anything while his girlfriend was as happy as she sounded would only lead to messes on the floor. He was proven right when he quickly made sure to wrap his arms around Gianna to catch her and make sure she didn’t wind up on the floor. The carpenter should really thank her for helping him improve his reflexes. A kiss from the woman still managed to make him smile, but instead of initiating more, he turned his attention to listening to whatever news Gianna was obviously dying to share. “Right now,” he asked teasingly as he pretended to think about the whole thing. They both knew he would give in and give her anything she wanted, but toying with Gianna was just too much fun. “Then I guess we’re going to have to go to the pet store and grab toys, a bed, blanket, food, treats, and a whole bunch else I’m forgetting for the little pup, huh?”

Nikhil had essentially been meditating by the seaside. He didn’t call it that, but there was something extraordinarily peaceful about looking out to the water and seeing nothing that could really hurt him. Okay, yes, sometimes he was shaken out of his happy place by unusual intrusive thoughts- Sea monsters might be lurking beneath the depths. The mermaids seemed to be on the right side of harmless, but Nikhil had not been there to see what came through when the mythical creatures had landed on the isle.  Or maybe something worse had been there all along. But no, happy place… water… good. He had been trying to get back into a good frame of mind when he heard someone’s voice. Having not noticed someone approaching, Nikhil masked his shock. “oh. Hullo. No, I don’t mind at all.” Not wanting to be too much of a waste of space, he scooted over on the bench so that there would doubtlessly be enough space for two. The last thing he wanted would be to take up someone else’s space. It was only after moving that Nikhil noticed the cane. Well, that was probably not a weapon, was all that came to mind. “Long day? That’s why I’m here.” Every day felt a little too long.

“Well,” she thought about it. “Yes, it’s a good escape. And I do use it as an escape a lot. But reading has many uses. I like self-help sometimes because I feel better about reality afterwards. Usually fiction books make me kind of hate reality, you know? So you like reading, too?” This was interesting to Bernie; maybe she’d be able to talk book recommendations with him. “That’s honestly awful,” she frowned. “How long ago did you get injured? Do you still have to do physical therapy?” Since she didn’t know a lot about her older brother, she didn’t understand the extent of the loss Benji had. “Why is that weird?” Bernie asked. “Oh. Cool.” She handed him his ice cream as her mind whirled, catching up to this news. “Wait a minute. Really?” Maybe it was like Noel with his family all being sourced in Minnesota. But wait a minute, if it was like Noel… “I’m from Hooker,” she said slowly. “Are…you?” The town had less than two thousand people. Most people in the larger cities never even knew of it, except for the weird name. If he was, then that was certainly weird…

Odessa shrugged her shoulder and then tilted her head at him. “I’m too important for that non sense.” She flipped her hair. There was no way she’d waste her time kidnapping…well except that one time. That wasn’t her fault it was obviously that hecate child who decided to tease her. “Caelan.” She said raising her eyebrows. Dessa looked him over some more and smiled. This was a surprising turn of events. Dessa was going to have a farmer boy. He would do nicely for her plans. “So you’re a farm boy huh?” She walked up and touched his arm. “Probably means you’re super strong?” She gave his arm a squeeze and then leaned down to pet the puppy again. “He really is adorable.” She smiled up at the man she was now determined to make her farm boy.

Yes, calling Caelan over had definitely been a good idea. It was oddly comforting not to feelthe urge to argue (yet). “Thanks.” Lark took all of this at face value, even though Caelan sounded a bit like an overgrown thirteen year old trying to get more responsibility. She didn’t mind, honestly. Plus, Percy the dog seemed adorable. Given, she was a little worried about Percy’s feeding schedule. “That sounded like Caroline- on top of everything.” She fidgeted with her hands, trying her best to maintain her smile. Even thought Caelan was helping did not mean it was easy to get out of her own miserable head. “I would definitely be interested in seeing Beenard’s new dance! And I’d love to hear more about your mead-making, Caelan. I don’t know anything about that. Not that I’m a big drinker or anything, but I assume that you’d know your honey better than just about anyone else. Also I’m going to just look up the process for making the stuff after you leave anyway, and Wikipedia only tells me so much.”

Hearing Phoebe be so sweet and tender with her once again threw the dancer for a loop. A part of her craved it and wanted to fall back into it. Since the ball, she hadn’t had much time to really sit with her thoughts. Between her brother being killed, the mayor losing his shit, and so many people being upset with her, the dancer’s mind was occupied. Since being released from jail though, she’d had nothing to do but get lost in her head. Everything hit her at once, and she just felt so lost. Still, she stopped herself from hoping that things could be okay. Hoping lead to heartbreak, and she didn’t think she’d successfully be able to handle anymore. Instead of answering, Remi just sadly nodded and moved to sit down.

The dancer ran her hand through her hair as her knee subconsciously bounced while she waited for Phoebe to be done. The question was so much more loaded than she thought the bakery owner even realized. “It’s not your responsibility to worry about me,” she started as she pulled her legs up to her chest and squished herself onto the chair. Squeezing herself into small spaces helped with the trembling. “And I don’t mean that in a mean way because I do want you. I haven’t stopped wanting to be with you, but I know I don’t deserve to be. Hell, I might not even have a place which I knew and should have protected myself better for.” Honestly, she’d known about Ava and how everything could explode when things were exposed. She should have walked away, but she couldn’t.

“Still I promised you an explanation, and you deserve that.” Remi could feel her emotions getting a little out of control. A part of her knew she should have taken Deacon up on his offer to get out of Icaria, but she couldn’t. The reason she couldn’t was literally standing in her apartment. The dancer couldn’t take Phoebe thinking she wasn’t worth staying for, or that she didn’t want to figure things out. “Nyx saved my life. I didn’t kidnap people because I’m that loyal to my mother or support her cause. I did it because I literally owed her, and I hate owing anyone. I pay my debts.” That mentality was the biggest part of her that still remained from the streets. Owing people anything never settled well with her. “My dad was — he was a mess. Drug addict who couldn’t support his family. By eight I was on the streets in a local crew. We stole, sold cocaine, and did anything we could to bring home cash. I was addicted to the merchandise before my tenth birthday,” she said solemnly. It definitely wasn’t something she was proud of. People tended to look at her differently

If Remi closed her eyes, she could still remember how it felt back then. The skimpy clothing she’d wear, the clubs she’d hit, and the fights she’d scarcely dodge. She remembered being so high and strung out that she wouldn’t sleep for days. It was then that her mother walked in acting like the saving grace she always appeared to be to her children. “Nyx found me right before I was fifteen. I was a step away from beginning to work corners because I was maturing nicely for my age, so I guess I should thank her timing. Still, the day I left with her was the day I walked into my apartment to see my dad dead next to lines of cocaine. I was so fucked up, I did a line before calling the cops. What kid does that?” Talking about it was making her squeeze her legs tighter, but she needed to get it out. The faster she did, the quicker she could try shoving the memories back down. “She took me to the Bennett’s. Deacon  and Weston saw me through my withdrawals. I’m not stupid. I wasn’t dying, but people where I came from rarely saw their twenty first birthday. I was living on borrowed time back there. When she got me out I got an education, I was put in dance, and I was able to actually remake myself.” Remi couldn’t help but scoff at the end of her words. Some redemption project she turned out to me. “Into a kidnapper who hurts everyone she cares about, but still, I’m alive, so I guess that’s an accomplishment. So, to answer your question, no, I’m not doing too great, but I don’t — I can’t have you feeling like you have to worry about me relapsing because I haven’t earned being someone worth you caring about again yet. Deacon is trying to get me to leave Icaria, but I — I turned him down because of you. I just — I needed to make sure you didn’t still see me the way you did that night. It’s all I see when I think about you.”

Stuck on the words ‘I do want you’, though she would never admit it aloud, Phoebe took her time cleaning up the mess and making sure to take care of putting the leftovers away before she joined Remi. Something told her that this conversation was not going to be over quickly and she didn’t think it was a bad thing. There were a lot of things that they needed to discuss, including the reasons Phoebe had been angry with the woman to begin with. It had never been about kidnapping people, it’s not as if Phoebe had been completely innocent in her life, but the mistrust she now felt with the woman. Still, she owed it to Remi to hear her out.

Sitting down next to her, Phoebe turned her attention towards Remi and allowed the woman to begin her tale. It was exactly what Phoebe feared in the back of her mind: that Remi felt zero control over the way her life had been led until now. That was something she could understand probably better than most on the island. Living on the streets, being a child with no guidance from adults, rarely made fully formed people. The idea of being addicted to drugs, to seeing her father after he overdosed, all the things that Remi had been through until now broke her heart for the woman. No one should have to live a life like that and considering the hell Phoebe had gone through herself as a child of the system that was the last thing she ever wanted for someone else.

“If I hated you or didn’t want to fix this, I wouldn’t be here,” Phoebe spoke quietly for the first time since sitting down. As much as she wanted to hate Remi, part of her cared about the child of Nyx more than she’d ever let on to anyone. Now she felt more connected to her than she ever thought possible. “I understand that you felt that you had no choice in the matter, that Nyx took advantage of her children to do her dirty work. Let’s be real here, do any of parents truly care for us? You went through hell and she showed up not out of love but out of control for your life because any mother who loves her children would never ask them to do what she did of you.” Now, Phoebe was angry for Remi. At least Phoebe knew her parents never loved or cared for her. That was not something she could say for the other woman.

Atticus understood, because that was exactly how he felt. He thought he’d be allowed to be mad, but to everyone, even the people he was with, it was like he was just on a vacation. In a way, it made him feel worthless, like maybe there was something wrong with him for not wanting the treatment he got? And no one cared? Everyone expected him to forgive and forget. He’d decided to forgive Remi for his own sanity, but it would be a long time, if ever, before he forgot about it. “I get the grudge, I really do,” he answered. “I’ve pretty much got one, too. I’m not going to be the one to talk you out of it.” He didn’t even know if she could be talked out of things. “Well,” he considered this question, which was a fair one. “I am thinking I’ll stick around the island for a while. I don’t have shit going for me anywhere else. My family’s here, my job’s here. And why not buy a house with my best friend?” Atticus didn’t see the issue here. “I know her better than I know anyone else, she’s not going to take off and stick me with the mortgage.” He was surprised he was now a person who knew what a mortgage was. “Briar knows how I live, I know how she lives.” Although there was a piece nagging at him, and there was no point in being defensive with Phoebe. “She does have a boyfriend, though. And he might convince her to leave at some point. I don’t know how far in the future that will be.”