“You do got some crazy jesus look going..sometimes.” Chris commented with a small, amused grin on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest. “A lot of people lost their believe in..god or shit like that long time ago.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You are, which is almost unreal. Next time I’m on a mission I’ll leave my dog with you.”
“I was told Jesus had his looks from me, not the other way around.” Carlos said, returning the grin Chris had on his face with another soft and short laughter. “Hmm, perhaps our dogs will get along as well as we do.” His features turned slightly serious. “How’s the chest doing?”
“Sometimes I ask myself why I hang out with you.” Chris muttered as he chuckled quietly. Carlos was…something else, sometimes. “I didn’t know you were such a close follower of the bible all of sudden? Do you think you’re Jesus’ reincarnation now?”
“Follower of the bible.” Carlos repeated with a small laugh. “I was raised strictly catholic, but I left that behind me many years ago.” he said, with a light shrug, not caring to brush up his past again. “I just fell over the fact and thought it was fun. You know how much of an animal lover I am.”
“I have a cat, she’s pretty sociable.” Carl mumbled in slight disagreement. “And my dog doesn’t seem to have any problem with her either. I’ll take your words for it though, and try not to get too close to any big cats.”
As Carlos moved around her it became very clear he was just as uncomfortable with this as her. They liked what they had and messing with it was clearly something neither of them wanted to do. Being quiet and managing the tension that lay between them for the moment was a way better choice then talking about it. “Water is fine.” Scout mumbled as she went and took a seat at the table. Shrugging off her bag and taking out a used notebook and a spare pen, Scout whispered under her breath “When’s it a good night to be a Sequence?”
When she realized what Carlos was saying about the night, Scout dropped her eyes down. “I’m sorry. We can change the subject.” That was what she wanted too. She wanted to have everything get back to normal, go back to routine. Slowly and deliberately taking off her gloves and placing them to the side, she said “We we’re going over physics formulas last time.” Her voice stayed steady as she spoke and picked up a pen. Even though he was cautious around her and Scout was on guard, she still worried about her bare hands. But, it was apart of their routine. The gloves made it hard to write.
What was originally something that came so easy to them was suddenly a lot more tense than he’d like it to be. If there’s anything he’d want her to be, It was comfortable. There was just this inexplainable gravity in the air that made it feel heavy after what had happened. He had gotten out with minor scrapes and Chris was alright as well. The same for the girl in front of him. “You’re right about that. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. No offence of course.” He knew the burden she lived with. He knew he couldn’t touch her and he knew how paranoid that had made her about being close to anyone. He had spent his entire life studying writing and people, he easily saw the same traits in her. It only made him care for her more though.
“Physics, of course.” The memories returned to him and the reason he had pulled up science books in the first place. He opened his small book of notes to see which page to turn to and then opened one of the bigger books and placed it in front of her. “There we are. This chapter is actually pretty interesting.” he said while taking a quick read through of his own notes. “Especially with a power like yours, I’d imagine. The basic construction of an atom. Protons, neutrons and electrons. I’m sure you remember that from last time.” he still wasn’t sure what her power was actually capable of. How she absorbed life force out atoms and cells. What was life force? He doubted she knew either, or had the intention of finding out. “I’m not going to force you to memorize the periodic table, don’t worry.”
“Okay, but did you know that the only domestic animal never mentioned in the bible is a cat?” Carlos said, closing his phone after having looked at it for a while. “How crazy is that? We literally had a chapter about all animals in the world and cats weren’t mentioned.”
She shouldn’t have been so surprised when he messaged her after the attack. It made sense, they were friends. They just never were very traditional and the message certainly felt out of place. Visiting his apartment was a far more comfortable situation. As she moved past him, into the familiar room Scout was bombarded with memories of their first meeting. The blood everywhere, trying so hard not to touch any of his bare skin, trying to move a man double her size into a bed. This room always brings her back to then. Scout clasped her hands in front of her a she swayed, awkwardly in the middle of the space unsure of what she should do. This wasn’t apart of their routine.
“You too.” Scout tagged on before he could get another word in. As he gestured to sit, the red-head happily skittered to her chair. “Sequences, yea. It was rough. It felt never-ending. No time to rest but, I’m okay now.” She could not help but keep her gaze down, trying not to reveal how bad it really got. Looking up at Carlos, the genuineness of her voice shone through as she asked “Were you okay? You didn’t have to do anything too major?” She said referring to using his abilities. He hated using his as much as she hated using hers. Even if it was just on monsters.
After the attacks he wasn’t sure if there was a routine anymore. He had been pulled out of his daily rhythm completely, and falling back into it wasn’t easy with all the destruction the monsters had created. Their meeting didn’t seem as fluent as it usually was. Perhaps it was the time in between or the fact that neither of them liked using their powers, but had been forced to doing the attacks. He watched her take a seat and hurried to the entrance to the kitchen where he turned around to look at her. “Do you want something to drink? I can’t say I can offer you anything other than water, I hope it’ll suffice.”
Soon he’d return and take a seat on the chair a little away from hers. “Good. It’s good that you’re okay.” he said, a slightly awkward smile playing on his lips as he thought of what else to say. “I ran into another Sequence.. at least I think he was. It was a tough night to be one.” he reflected while being taken back to the attack for just a moment. It wasn’t pleasant. “I did.” he muttered at her question, looking down at his hands that still had minor cuts from the fight. “My friend was shot. It wasn’t a pleasant view, but he’s fine now. I have my theories on what those things are, but I’d rather focus on something else.” he said while forcing a smile onto his lips again. “Do you remember where we left off last time?”
FACTION: PRIME | Mavericks | Neutral | Other
GENDER: male | female | trans* | cis | agender | gender-fluid | other
SEXUALITY: heterosexual | homosexual | bisexual | pansexual | asexual | demisexual | other
ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: homoromantic | heteroromantic | biromantic | panromantic | aromantic | greyromantic | demiromantic
DESIGNATION: human | conduit | forced conduit | successive | Sequence
EDUCATION: high school | college | university | GED | other
LIVING SITUATION: lives alone | lives with parent(s) / guardian | lives with significant other | lives with a friend | drifter | homeless | depends on verse
APPEARANCE
EYES: blue | green | brown | hazel | grey | other
HAIR: blonde | brown | black | red | ginger | grey / white | multi-color | other
BODY TYPE: skinny | slender | slim | built | curvy | athletic | muscular
SKIN: pale | light | fair | freckled | tan | olive | medium | dark | discolored
“Please. Come in.” he said and moved a step to the side in order for the petite figure to walk past him. It wasn’t the first time she’d been at his home, and he definitely remembered the first time like it was yesterday. He’d gotten pretty good at getting rid of bloodstains, but if he looked closely enough, he could probably still find a few drops from when she helped him that night. He wasn’t even sure if she would show up this time. They hadn’t talked since before the attacks and he’d just sent her a message, not expecting any response, since that wasn’t what their friendship was like. It was something else.
Scout. He’d never cared to ask her if that was her actual name or just a nickname. It was certainly different. “It’s good to see you’re safe.” he said while closing the door behind her. “I heard those things were drawn to conduits like you.” he said, gesturing towards one of the chairs at the dinner table. He hadn’t cooked food yet, but found out some books for them to go through. “How are you?”
Chris dropped the gun he had been trying to pick up with slippery fingers as he heard the voice. Maybe one of the only faces he could actually bear to see right now. Carlos was one of the only people he didn’t blindly hate. Their friendship wasn’t based on a lot of words or intimacy, rather than them just talking about the fucked up world they were living in. The PRIME member slowly blinked, opened his eyes to look at the other man as the tip of his tongue ran over his dry lip. Something close to a small grin appeared on his face as he inhaled sharply at the sudden touch. “Fucked up, mate.” Came from him, voice raspy and unstable. His brows creased at the unpleasant sensation of Carlos using his powers. He didn’t make a sound or try to stop him, he knew fully well that the bleeding was what would kill him if it didn’t stop. Though he was also aware of the power shortness. Who did this. The name wouldn’t roll off his tongue even as he opened his mouth. “Don’t know. Someone came up from behind. There are ‘nough people that would love to shoot me.”
His hand shot up to lower Carlos’, shaking his head ever so lightly. “Save your powers. I’ll be fine from here.” The younger sat up a little, eyes raking over the man he considered one of the closest people in his life. They never talked about PRIME, the Mavericks or any of this crap. It just didn’t matter. It was bullshit. “Are you okay? You look like shit yourself, man.”
Carlos had known Christopher for some time now, and to see him like this was definitely something new. The man was usually more than capable of protecting himself and seeing him like this was explainably terrifying. “I can see that.” he replied with a groan, still kneeling beside his friend, trying to assess the damage. If he were to lose the PRIME agent, he wasn’t what he would do. He’d definitely lose one of the only people he genuinely cared about and it would surely make a sour impact on his life. Which is why he couldn’t let it happen. “Well, whoever it was, clearly want you dead.” he said with a little grunt. He wasn’t going to try and find whoever it was, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to rip them open, should it ever be revealed.
Carlos felt a dizzy spell, right before Chris lifted up his hand to stop him from using his powers. Perhaps the best possible timing. The bleeding had settled down, and while some of the bullets were still in there, it was enough for the man to get by for now. At least it was if he knew Chris right. “Most of this isn’t my blood. I ran into some trouble on my way home from work.. These creatures are attracted to conduits.. Strong ones in particular.” he mouthed under his breath. “We need to get you out of here. Aren’t the CPD around or something?”
Part of him couldn’t quite believe she’d have the guts to actually shoot him. She had gone back earlier because she didn’t want him to die for her — now he was laying in an alley, shot four times in the chest and dying because of her. Almost ironic. How he had survived for so long, gone through everything because he forced himself not to care, not to want anything for himself, not to love. Now all of this had lowered his walls far enough to actually kill him. That the person pulling the trigger was the woman he loved. He’d laugh. But bullets rigged deep into his chest made that task rather impossible. Chris had slumped down a wall, leaving a streak of blood behind as his breathing ragged, energy slowly draining from his body. This wasn’t exactly how he had always wanted to die. But hell, there wasn’t a lot he regretted not doing in his life. He had dedicated his life to one man. Couldn’t even call anything before that life. Yet the thought of dying wasn’t as pleasant as it used to be. The man rolled his head back, beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he used what little was left of his powers to pull the bullets out of his chest. It took more energy and time, but he eventually held four little pieces of metal in his bloody hand. His tongue ran over his dry bottom lip, a pained expression on his face as he shifted his body to pull out his gun. If anything came down this alley, he wouldn’t die without a fight at least. He had never been someone to give up without trying. All his life, he’d been on his own. This only seemed like a fitting end for him. Yet he wasn’t as concerned for himself as he should — a quiet voice inside his head anxious for her well being. He wasn’t hoping for himself. He was hoping for her.
Don’t trust anyone. You taught me that. Her words ringed through his mind, a reminder that he would never let that happen again. Which he probably couldn’t. But nothing good came out of him placing his trust in others anyway. He didn’t notice how the cool metal of the gun slipped his wet fingers and how his eyes closed for a moment too long and how he didn’t hear the footsteps approaching anymore. Blood stained his uniform, scarlet splatters covering his pale face as he forced his eyes open and reached out for the gun he had just dropped. “Get the fuck lost.”
How an ordinary week had turned so unimaginably horrible in the matter of a few seconds. He’d gone home from work one evening, only to have been ambushed and hunted by strange monster-like beings ever since. Majorly inconvenient, should you ask the college professor, but at least he could protect himself, some people weren’t that fortunate, and Carlos did the best he could to help whoever he came across. If this turned out to have anything to do with the war raging between the two factions, PRIME and Mavericks, he’d definitely be more annoyed than he already was. The little feud between them had expanded and was now harming innocent conduits and bystanders and that was one thing he couldn’t allow.
One of the people he definitely hadn’t thought he’d come across in the dark alley was Christopher Lachlan. One of the few people Carlos could genuinely call his friend and definitely not one to let himself be harmed easily, so this meant it was severe. His eyes widened at the sight and he rushed to Chris’ side, quickly bending down so that Chris could see who he was, and hopefully not pick up the gun and shoot him. “Hey pal.” He said in a voice as calm as possible. This didn’t look like one of the many monsters he had encountered earlier, but rather a person inflicted wound. Two wounds.. four wounds.. Gun shots. He gasped silently, putting both of his hands on Chris’ chest, his fingers already soaking from the running blood. “What the fuck happened Chris?!” He exclaimed while taking a deep breath to try and stop the bleeding with his powers. Not something he had been good at before, but Chris was his friend, and he couldn’t let him die there. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” he said, trying to believe his own word as he did his best to stop anymore blood from running out of his body. He definitely couldn’t afford to lose any more blood, or the younger man would die right there. “Who did this?!”
Carlos followed the younger man with little thought of where they were going. He trusted Gabriel knew where he was going and soon he found himself in a room that seemingly only had a single entrance, which made it much easier for them to protect themselves. He doubted there was going to be hordes of them, but they seemed drawn to Gabriel, which just complicated things further. “Call me Carl.” he replied, offering the same small hint of a smile as before. He took a deep breath and then leaned his back against the wall while closing his eyes, trying to focus for a second.
He should have enough strength and blood to protect the two of them, though it admittedly had been a long time since he had used his powers in this way. “How many of them do you think there are?” he asked while opening his eyes again. “I’ve only seen two so far, but the screams out there suggested they weren’t alone.”
Carlos exhaled. A relative feeling of safety embraced him as the got away from the scene they had been at before. He ran a hand through his hair to prevent it from going into his eyes as he was running, but otherwise just kept his eyes on the guy he was following. A curious individual indeed. Perhaps the most interesting factor about him was that he hadn’t even flinched when Carlos mentioned his powers to control blood. It was hard to conceal a small, almost unnoticeable smile on his lips.
The bloody dagger in Carlos’ hand soon turned back into a liquid form, out of lack or concentration and the fact that his powers were significantly weakened. “I hope this doesn’t come out too wrong, but I’m very glad I’m not you right now. Being a beacon to these monsters while having weakened powers isn’t the most desirable trait right now.” he said in joke as a small attempt to lighten the dark mood.
Hexed, cursed, alchemy and exorcism? what was this guy on about? Perhaps the reason he hadn’t flinched was that his powers too, were out of the ordinary. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s not like I had anything else to use my evening on.”
4. Carlos had a fortunate childhood, where he was transported to the states and lived in a privileged society compared to many of his old friends from Guatamala.
5. Carlos’s powers manifested at age 11 in middle school.
6. Very few know that he fought in the war between humans and conduits and ended up killing many.
7. Carlos keeps it hidden that he has a ton of scars on his lower arms.
8. Out of all their powers Carlos wishes he had a less occult powers
9. At the same time Carlos wished they didn’t have powers at all.
10. Carlos has a pet cat and a pet dog.
11. They are not conduits
12. Out of everything, Carlos really likes writing and has taken up a liking for martial arts.
13. Carlos once hurt his teacher by spilling his blood on him, having added an acidic effect that burned his teachers skin.
14. Carlos has one sister
15. If Carlos were an animal they would be a sparrow, so that he could fly away when he didn’t want to be somewhere and just observe people without having to be a part of the mass.
16. Carlos has a bad habit of biting his fingernails.
17. His uncle has always been someone that Carlos respects because he’s one of the only one in his family who didn’t look down on him for being a conduit and is the only one he still talks to occasionally.
18. Carlos has always been interested in people who are open and accepting.
19. Carlos works as a professor in literature. Both English and Spanish.
20. Carlos has considered the possibility of children and he would only ever have one if he ever had one.
Carlos simply watched in awe at what the younger guy was doing. He hadn’t seen anything like it before. It seemed like some sort of telekinetic ability, but more than that. His eyes shifted from the creature to the man, keeping the blood dagger in his hand in case he needed to protect himself any further. The procedure Gabriel was doing seemed to strain him, which is why he knew he had to be the second line of defense, in case his powers gave in. They didn’t though, and after a short moment, the sound of flesh ripping and bones snapping had him take a few steps back. It was definitely more violent than he had anticipated, but it seemed to keep the monster from continuing its hunt. The agonizing screams was enough to know that he was in pain and wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Carlos nodded shortly at Gabriel’s words, taking even more steps backwards, but before he turned around and ran, he had to find out if he could manipulate the blood gashing out of the wounded creature. He clenched his fingers into a fist, and to his surprise, the dark liquid moved to his will. He quickly waved his other hand and with another move of his fist, the blood inside the creature solidified, effectively killing the beast. He gasped at his own action. This was something especially gory to do, and he couldn’t say he liked it, but at least the beast wouldn’t follow them anymore.
He moved his legs again and started to run the opposite direction from where the monster had been. The bite mark on his hand had stopped bleeding and the knife in his hand was already starting to drip again, which just showed the weakened position they were both in. He didn’t want to talk about what he had just done, but staying silent wasn’t helping anything. “Any idea why they’re targeting you?” he then called out in a question, making sure to look backwards every now and then to see if anyone was following them.
