#tc:location

“Lys,” Gilgamesh said, raising her hand towards Atlas, a worried expression on his face, her dark brows furrowing together. “You have to--” “I know Gilly,” He said, a snarl climbing on his lips, his bare and bandaged torso tingling with the cold air of the airconditioning filling the room. The night would make the air freezing, maybe even form mist on the grounds, but it kept Malia’s flaming throat cool for the night. Her fire dancing was exceptionally beautiful but absolutely deadly. “If I didn’t have the capacity to walk I wouldn’t be sitting in a wheelchair. Also, everyone wouldn’t have heard me screaming my head off last night. I have dealt with much worse.”  “How could anyone fall asleep?” She chuckled as he rubbed her eyes, dark bags printed on her skin from last night. “You made Tilia cry last night.” He motioned her hand to the girl with the sapphire blue hair and pale skin doing vocal warm-ups with Persephone, An actual Siren, sitting in her own wicker-made wheelchair, her fishtail covered by a quilt and a container of water melded onto the back of her seat. She laughed and Atlas lifted his head from his hunched over posture, a sequenced dress in his hands, made for Gilgamesh for her finale scene, laced with gold. Atlas ran his hand down the seams and knicked at fibers.

He huffed at her before, gently placing the delicate dress down with the other costumes taking the loose shirt he left unchecked over a chair and placed it over his head. “Are the lights checked?”

“Yes.” “The performers?” “Nervous...and excited.” “And you?” He asked, tone flat. He shifted his shoulders slowly, rolling them forward and back, the tingling sensation running up and down his spine like 

She lowered her hand to her stomach, then lifted her chin to Atlas. “I am severely hungry.”

Atlas chuckled and took her hand, his fingertips shaking as he felt the coolness of her olive skin against his own pale white flesh. He felt like a Desdemona, no foresight other than the world a few centimeters from his person, his vision was clear like something had scrubbed his eyes clean with turpentine. It was a weird feeling. He felt the weight of Gilgamesh on his arm but to his perception she, and nobody else was there. It was like a fog, he was walking on glass and his footsteps echoed into the world further. He wanted to touch his back, rub the butt of his palm across his shoulder blades, he felt something to folding beneath his muscles, bulking them up. It made him feel more unnatural than he already was. The bandage wrapped around his chest didn’t help him. It lifted weight in weird places and made him feel, breathless. As a human would say it, he didn’t need too much air. He carried himself weighted in confidence, like stones. “Boss,” Cerberus ducked under the door arch and his three heads gave him a dog smile. Ludden, Orcos, and Henry nodded and shoved their hands into their pockets, their black slacks covering his human legs like a glove. “You’re up,” Henry said, his ears twitching as sounds clicked their attention. “You shouldn’t be up, Boss, you should be asleep.. .or something low maintenance,” Ludden said, his head bowing low. 

“Why haven’t you three split up yet?” Atlas let Gilgamesh’s hand slip from his elbow. “You’ll scare the humans away. I don’t want to have sales back down.”  Ludden perked his head immediately, his brown irises turning into a mesh of gold and amber, Orcos growled, barring his pearly white fangs. His breath smelled like mint and Henry just barked. He jerked back and held their right hand over his mouth, surprised by himself. They looked at each other, golden eyes meeting black and sterling ones. The Cerberus triplets removed their overcoat and unbuttoned their cuffs.

Then, the floor beneath them erupted into blue pentagram, designed with symbols. It was beautiful, yet it beckoned more than anything, power from hell.

Skin gave away to muscle as a flurry of blue, maroon and green smoke trailed across their body. The skin between their heads ripped, cleaving away as if cut by a blade. They snarled, snapping their jaws and foaming at the mouth as their dog features melted away. Then they split, missing appendages forming in place of missing ones. It was ugly, to say the least. Their inner workings were bare. A heart once shared cut itself in, it’s parts still beating. “Does it hurt?” Gilgamesh asked. 

“Not exactly,” Ludden said, a half-formed smile stretching across his muscle wrapped skull. 

“It’s like split hair,” Henry explained, shaking his head and folding his hands behind him.

“Makes us cranky.” Orcos winced as his ear reformed, brown skin already starting to layer across his bare chest. 

As the brother’s reformed, smoke erupted from their feet, circling them like a column. They all tilted their heads up.

Atlas closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He heaved a sigh as the light, the smoke, and the colorful loss themselves to the air. Fully clad in a fashionable style, the Cerberus brothers smiled at Atlas, fangs tipping at their cheeks. 

“How do we look?” Henry asked, fixing his striped shirt and suit coat. “I think we perfectly look human.”

“I think we look chipper,” Ludden said as he twirled a lock of his braided hair. 

“Hmph,” Orcos said and walked away. “I don’t prefer this. I don’t prefer this at all.”

Atlas straightened, looking back to Gilgamesh. He pursed his lip. “Keep preparations for tonight. I want everything to be better than fine.” 

“Yes, sir.” The remaining triplets saluted then went in separate directions. 

“I understand.” 

As he watched Gilgamesh leave, he couldn’t help but think about the tiny heartbeats that pattered against his ears. Turning around, he felt like he was walking in circles around the place, checking every little thing that perked his sense of spatial reasoning. He sighed again, flaring his nostrils as motivation dripped from his orifesces like water.