Round and Round We Go

[Nox]

By the time they landed Nox had one too many drinks which was just the singular tiny bottle of vodka. Not so much that he couldn't walk, but enough he sat in the terminal for thirty minutes while Sage dealt with the car and the luggage. He was spent. Totally and truly spent. He needed a moment. The anxiety was just too much. 

Sage drove them to a nice hotel. They had a suite though it only had two rooms. Nox pointed at one. "Sage and I'll take this one, the other is yours. We can talk plans after a nap, dinner and a shower, but probably not in that order."

Though Nox probably had a run and some yoga in that mix specially since there wouldn't be any trolling for sex for a bit. And he wasn't about to ask the two he was with to help with that.  Specially not Sage, Sage would agree, but Nox wouldn't do that to Aiden.  They already pushed the boundaries of friends sometimes, that was one line Nox wasn't going to cross.

But right now. He needed food.  "I'm ordering anyone else want anything?"

After he ordered his phone rang. A strange call to get but he went into the other room to take it. Not that he cared if Ryder listened, but he wasn't sure if Connor wanted anyone else to know -- though sage had already been on it.

When he was done the food had arrived and he was starving.

[Sage]

Nox was a mess, the only thing keeping his sanity was the tiny baby he was totally absorbed in. He'd doubted the reasons the baby had come, but maybe it was a good idea for someone to keep his carnal and visceral desires at bay. He was pretty sure that Ryker/Ryder or whoever he wanted to be called wouldn't be that person. He'd probably send Nox down some killing spree. And then he might have to do something about Nox and his murderous rages.

Not something Sage wanted to really think about.

But Nox got a call from a dead man. The moment he heard the voice he knew and Sage's mind went straight to tracking an old friend. It was good knowing he was alive, but he shouldn't have contacted Nox if he was worried about the Atharim. Nox worked for them again -- may not be part of them, but he was working for them.

Now Nox sat on the couch eating a rare steak and not much else. He had a garden salad on the side, but it was rarely touched. The horde had changed his appetite drastically. Sage poked at whatever he'd ordered, he'd forgotten and it didn't matter anyway it was nourishment to his body and to his body he was just a vessel of surfing the web for data.

He had a lot on his plate, contacts to make which he did while he did everything else.

"You'll watch Lily for me?" Nox tapped Sage's shoulder.

Sage nodded. "Yeah, as best I can." Which was saying that she might not like him too much but he'd make sure she was clean and fed and looked after. He could manage that. He might not play with her or entertain her like Nox, but he would tend to her -- a lot like he might a puppy. Sage wasn't exactly sure why Nox wanted a kid, but he seemed happy -- much happier than he had been in the past even with the horde still raging inside.

[Ryker]

Raised on tit and vodka, Ryker could throw back the drinks as hard as anyone. But he kept a close side eye on Nox throughout the flight, once it became apparent he was throwing back his body weight in bottles. Ryker completely abstained, meanwhile. Despite knowing how to party, and party hard, Ryker was quite professional when on assignment. He wanted his wits about him, more so because the destined country was one that already locked him up and threw away the key. It wouldn't happen a second time. 

The plane ride was uneventful. He was amazed that the child was so quiet. A thought did occur to him though. Could he use his “influence” to make the thing stop crying? Suppose if it ever came to that, it was worth a shot. Worse that could happen was overdoing it and accidentally commanding it to die. 

The hotel was fine. Ryker preferred the lap of luxury, but he could slum it when needed in a fleabag suite; he was playing the middle class asshole, after all. This place would suit Ryder’s identity.

He spoke briefly with Nox and Sage regarding plans. While the two blowholes were going to nap and eat, Ryker had check-ins to complete for team leader. He departed to the privacy of his own room to do just that. Afterward, they met up when the meal arrived.

Trained to operate on days without sleep, Ryker left the two behind to fuck each other or whatever while he went on a short scouting tour of the city.

[Nox]

[[ ooc: gotta bit before Connor and Ayden get to a point where the plot can progress so we can do some channeling stuff ]]

Nox feverishly ate his food. He wasn't starving but there were things in motion that fueled the horde and right now, this was the only outlet he had. He almost ordered a second steak but instead opted to go the more traditional route and opened the cleared some space in their shared space. Lily slept in the middle of the bed while Nox preformed what he could in the space he had.

It wasn't a dance, it was neither coerographed or intentional, totally improvised movements as he imagined fighting someone in slow motion. It was a kata of sorts, but totally random as he moved each muscle slowly and carefully as he warmed up. His body was scarred and the scar tissue made even the simplest movements stiff and broken. He hated it. But it was also why he was doing it slowly, back to the basics, total control of his body, every muscle, every breath controlled.

And once he was moving he reached into the grime of the source and pulled out the power. It raged inside and the horde coward back behind it. He smirked at their eternal reaction to his power, his control. They wanted it, yet they feared it. But there their song was diminished so far from home, but he felt their caged presence still, their numbers were growing again. He'd have to stop it once he got home.

Sage sat on the couch and watched, or he looked like he was watching, Nox was certain he was hacking something or following some infomation. But it didn't matter.

Nox started a normal weave, wove the aurora borealis around him, with each move it flowed and twisted with him, it was a magical sight if you watched, but Nox saw it as practice, and not showing off. Nothing he did was showing off. It was all intentional.

While holding the weave of lights, he began to work a weave that no one, not even himself could see. He'd practiced the shielding weave thousands of times, forwards and backwards until he could do it by memory, because once it was inverted you couldn't see it, he could feel it, but the threads were invisible to even his eye. It was complicated. And to do it while he moved in with percision made it all that more difficult. It was how it grew stronger, how he got faster. Practice had been his life since the moment he could walk. He was nothing more than a weapon -- first for his father, and now for whoever held the reigns. Nox didn't chaffe too much under his current so-called masters. The Atharim let him choose his targets, and the Ascendancy only seemed to send him on things he knew he'd take. The CCD seemed to use him more and more lately and Nox wondered if that was a good show on his part, or if he might be on the losing end of the battle. Only time would tell.

Sweat dripped from Nox's brow as he moved methodically through the shadowed fight in his mind. It wasn't physical exertion, it was the power draining him. His heart pounded in his chest, his breathe caught in his lungs, it may not be physical, but it still tired the body.