g l a d i a t or

lysander - kobalos - 2,000+

[lysanderxreis]

penelcpes​:

“And humble,” she laughed, pleased that he had not changed in that regard as well. Time was a file that sloughed off the brighter parts of a personality, it made those who revelled in light turn to darkness and those who so readily laughed, instead have hatred in their hearts. Lysander was still cheeky, as he had been as a boy, and she gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You’re not my blood, but you have my heart.” She had known him with a golden circlet of curls, with those same laughing blue eyes and his knees always skinned: he would always be important to her. Penelope tucked her arm into his, keeping up with his long stride after a moment of adjustment. “Athena is a friend of mine, and a kind one.” She lifted a shoulder, “We have perhaps grown apart in later years, I hear less and less from her, but I am nonetheless still fond.” He wanted to know more about her past as it had spanned between the time she had known him to now and she bit at her cheek. “I travelled, and the world took its pieces out of me.” Her smile returned, “Nevermind that, we’re together now. Other things will mend.”

-

Lysander gave a wry smile, looking at Penelope once more, “And a lion’s heart it is.” He kept his arm looped with hers, though his expression was still filled with amusement. “I think you’re one of the first to say that Athena was known as kind. She picks favorites, you know. And if she doesn’t like you, she just fucks you over.” The kobalos hummed, but he didn’t like the sound of that. But who could ever say they came out whole? No one, really. Pieces had been chipped from Lysander for decades, every death took a little more from him. Truthfully, he had stopped bothering to check how many years it took for him to reincarnate at times. “Anything I can help with?” He said finally, looking at her once more.

[lysanderxreis]

luciankayames​:

ikarosxtheoinos​:

While Lucian so far hadn’t demonstrated much of an interest in voyeurism, Ikaros was open to just about anything the vampire suggested. A bottle of wine between them, a comfortable spread of blankets and pillows beneath them, the vineyard around them - it was nice. The sort of romantic scene that bordered on nostalgia for the trickster. Lysander’s approach came as a surprise, though what surprised Ikaros further was the familiar greeting that fell from Lucian’s lips at Lysander’s approach. This was all the vampire’s doing, clever bastard was cheeky. And horny, apparently. “No- don’t tell him anything!” Ikaros joked as he smiled fondly in Lysander’s direction and gestured to him with a half empty glass of wine. “He’ll use every bit of it against you, I promise.” The trickster mused further before he looked knowingly from Lucian to Lysander. “Join us.”  @luciankayames​

-

“I will do no such thing.” Lucian scoffs but he can’t help but smirk as he looks from Ikaros to Lysander and back again. He sort of thinks the other man gets how he operates. Kobalos seem to be deceptive by nature, if the two before him are anything to go by. Granted, Lysander had at least chastised him a little, told him that he’d shown him too much. Versus Ikaros showing him something incredibly extreme the first time they’d been alone together.

He sort of liked that though, the difference between them.

“So we’re talking technical immortality.” It’s a measured statement as he tries to piece every bit of information he has on what they are together as he sits up on his elbows and nods for Lysander to come sit. “Except you can die. So immortality, but there’s some wacky reincarnation bullshit, am I getting that right?” @lysanderxreis​

-

This suddenly felt like a set up, and Lysander nearly turned tail and ran. Against his better judgement, he instead made his way over, settling down across from the two of them. Ikaros had more on him at this point in his life, but he didn’t want to point that out just yet. “I feel like I’m in trouble for something I haven’t even done yet,” he said finally, looking between Ikaros and Lucian. Their small talk was just that, but Lucian of course had more straightforward questions. “Was I here for a history lesson on kobaloi that Ikaros could’ve answered for you?” He huffed out a laugh, fixing Lucian with his blue gaze now, “Something like that. Basically, we’re like cockroaches – can’t get rid of us. Bit of a bitch when you are in the middle of a war and come back when it’s over.” 

@ikarosxtheoinos​

[lysanderxreis]

ikarosxtheoinos​:

Ikaros rolled onto the other and straddled Lysander’s waist as he held the ring up and close to his eyes to inspect it under the dim candlelight as if he was appraising its worth. “Bit gaudy, isn’t it?” Ikaros mused before he immediately slipped it onto his finger, adding to the collection of rings that already dawned his slender hands. “I love it.” The trickster said shortly after as a wry grin crossed his lips and he sealed his words with a kiss pressed firmly against Lysander’s lips. “I will have to find the ring I assume when I come into my memories though I’m not above grave robbing hopefully I die somewhere where my corpse won’t be looted.” Perhaps he should store it somewhere instead of wearing it around, though there was no harm in letting it rest on his person for the time being. They were together now, he’d find somewhere safe to store it soon. Somewhere no one but him would ever think to search for it. “Dionysus did not choose us because we’re dull, our village has always been hated. But we are free, we always have been.” 

-

Lysander’s hands moved to slide up onto Ikaros’ thighs as the other straddled him, looking at the ring as well. “I actually don’t think it’s gaudy enough,” he pointed out, grinning as the other’s mouth met his own. His hands slipped onto Ikaros’ inner thighs, but he huffed out a laugh, now distracted by the idea that they’d have to find it. “My idea was to bury them, in a spot only we know about. We’ll be together this life, there’s no real need to keep wearing them, is there?” Trying not to be distracted, he moved his hands to the other’s waist instead, fingers finding their way to fading bruises, “And I won’t see that freedom taken from us.”

[lysanderxreis]

lilayildirim​:

Lila nods her head lightly. She’s always felt the most at ease when near the water, the beach offers a comfort that seldom else does. “Lysander…” The name feels funny against her tongue. “What are you? I’ve never experienced a magic such as that before.” The boy she had known before had been human. She still remembers taking him to the docks, calling the water forth into her fingers to put on display, a special secret shared just between the two of them. There was a time when Lila would’ve thought she knew everything about Ahmet, but that was long ago, when they were both children. Time has molded them differently now, only a shell of what remains from before. Perhaps she never had at all.

-

Lysander watched his old friend think about what he’d shown her, and he let out a sigh as he finally stopped midway down the beach. Turning to Lila, he changed the scenery once more, to a familiar place in Greece, a long, long time before. “I’m a kobalos. Truthfully, I didn’t know I was one until I turned eighteen. When we separated,” he murmured, the vision fading perhaps a little too soon for his liking. “When I die, I come back, a few months or a few years later. Start again, to a human family, and I get my memories back when I turn eighteen. And my abilities return as well.”

[lysanderxreis]

lilayildirim​:

Lysander. So she is not the only one who has attempted to shed the weight of their past. She can hardly question him on it, when Lila herself has carried more names in the last dozen years than would fit on a a passport. She’s never considered any to be her true name, though. Not in the way that he speaks of. “There was no place in this world for Gulizar. She would have been swallowed whole,” she slips into Turkish, as her eyes meet Lysander’s. Demir nearly succeeded at it once, the scar that sits on her back a permanent reminder of the fact. Lila is stronger than that. “Home was the shape of a shark’s mouth, and you were already gone. There was nothing left for me in Istanbul.” 

-

Lysander watched as the different emotions flashed across his friend’s face. He reached out, placing his hand against her cheek, “Then you have a place with me, if you need it.” He knew how this was – his family had all but forgotten about him when he’d left, though he’d nearly made sure of it, as well. Perhaps the woman who’d become his mother had not deserved it, but Ahmet, too, was gone. “I think we have a lot to talk about,” he said finally, dropping his hand as he motioned towards sand on the beach, away from the crowded marketplace.

[lysanderxreis]

lilayildirim​:

She’s prepared to stand there and deny it all until she’s blue in the face, clinging to this new identity she’s crafted with both hands. But the words die on her tongue as the scene around them shifts, and Lila finds the lounge around them falling away to something achingly familiar. Her breath catches as brown eyes blink around the visage in wonder, before landing on two small children sprinting through the streets with stolen treats in hand. There’s no mistaking them for anything other than her and Ahmet, as if the memory has been plucked straight from her head and put on display, and Lila’s mouth falls open as her gaze turns to the man beside her. “Ahmet— how?” Her denials are long gone, too enraptured with the magic that paints this scene to keep to the charade. For just a moment, she is Gulizar again. “You’re doing this?”

-

Lysander allowed the vision to fade, his hold on Lila’s arm now releasing. He gave a wry smile, “You’re not the only one with a new name, Lila,” he teased, though his gaze was soft when he viewed her. Once more he found himself tethered to Corinth Bay, though his worry for his friend’s presence made him sigh. “I’ll explain that later. For now, though, you can call me Lysander. That is my true name. But tell me why you’re here – what made you...change your name?”

[lysanderxreis]

luciankayames​:

It’s not the best scheme he’s ever come up with, but considering he still thought he came up with his best ideas while inebriated and that was no longer a thing he could do, it would have to do. It was simple really, invite Lysander to the vineyard, be lounging around with Ikaros in the gazebo, watch them interact, and make it up as he went from there. Any anxiety that came with it, he’d just simply take it as it came or, worst case scenario, make a dramatic exit. “So, kobaloi, huh?” Lucian looks between the two of them from where he’s lounging on the gazebo’s bench, glass of sour wine in hand and he sits up as something occurs to him. “So how the hell old are you two anyways?” @lysanderxreis​ @ikarosxtheoinos​

-

Lysander had been avoiding Ikaros, simply because he knew that in order for him to actually make good on his ability to leave he and Lucian alone. What he didn’t expect, though, was an invite from Lucian, and ending up in Ikaros’ winery. Perhaps now, he realized he could get a good gauge on their relationship. Crossing his arms over his chest, he fixed the vampire with an amused look. “You don’t give up, do you? It’s been too long to remember an age, but well before the beginning of the past two millennium.”

@ikarosxtheoinos​

[lysanderxreis]

ikarosxtheoinos​:

A gift? If Lysander did not have Ikaros’ attention before then he certainly did now. Ikaros quirked his brow at Lysander as the other kobalos drew him in that much further. “I would say that I am interested.” Ikaros was not fool enough to think that their patron would always provide for them, the power they were given was a rare gift and it was their duty now to carry it out into the world and do with as they saw fit. But there was no guarantee that when they were gone they would ever find one another again, and yet, Lysander whispered of such power. A power that excited Ikaros greatly. “How?” Ikaros questioned, already weary that Lysander was out consorting with witches or worse.

-

Lysander huffed out a breath, sitting up to pull out the banded ring. Placing it into Ikaros’ palm, he rose an eyebrow, “I have the other. They’re twinned, made by a witch of Hecate. If we are able to know – well, by the time we regain our memories, perhaps there will be a way for you to find me, and I, you.” He waited a few more seconds, “I am not a gentle soul, and neither of us are meant to avoid trouble.” He already knew that his deaths would be violent, and he didn’t want his own curse of violence to draw them too far away from one another.

[lysanderxreis]

ikarosxtheoinos​:

Dionysus’ promise stood between them. It sounded grand and romantic - eternity unfettered by the mortal foil of death. Some things were too good to be true but they’d earned this boon from their patron and who were they to question the word of a God? This was Dionysus. “Do you spend much time thinking about my death?” Ikaros questioned, the heat of his chest rose and fell as his breathing slowly returned to normal, he curled against Lysander’s frame and rested his head against the crook of the man’s neck. “Maybe I should be concerned.” The trickster pointed out playfully before he turned azure eyes towards hues that mirrored his own. It felt foreign still that the world could ever change, that there would ever be a time when it was not just this. 

-

Lysander smiled, though he pressed a kiss to Ikaros’ temple instead, “Not your death, more my own. But I do know that our souls are one,” he said quietly, fingers trailing down the other’s back. There was nothing that would stop Lysander from defending their lives, but finding out how to ensure that they were not separated by lifetimes was another thing. “What would you say if I said I had a gift for you?” He murmured, fingers dipping lower on Ikaros’ back, “There is little else I have to give you, for I’ve already given you all of me, but I think I’ve found a way for you to find me, if you ever need to. In this life, or the next.”

[lysanderxreis]

lilayildirim​:

Gulizar. The name nearly stops her in her tracks, an echo of an old life Lila thought had long been left to dust. There’s a twitch to her lips, almost imperceivably, as dark eyes zero in on the man that’s called attention to her. Ahmet. The shock of recognition comes to her after a moment, but she’s quick to school her face into a faux smile, feigning confusion. “I’m afraid you must have me mistaken,” she says, deliberately in Greek rather than their mother tongue. Her eyes cut back and forth between the man she had once called a friend, and the one on her arm who she’s currently trying to swindle out of the expensive watch that sits on his wrist. “My name is Lila, I don’t believe we’ve met before, sir.” ( @lysanderxreis​ )

-

“Oh no, I’d know your face.” If it had been any previous lifetime, then Lysander would not have bothered. But he and this one – they had been as one. And on top of that, she’d shown him her abilities, even as a human. Their connection ran much deeper than a mere friendship, but he wasn’t going to switch from their original language. Around them, the scene changed. Two children, running through the streets in Istanbul as a visitor chased them, shouting in English. Their laughter, as they split the stolen Turkish delight between them. “You’ve never had anything to hide from me before.”

[lysanderxreis]

ikarosxtheoinos​:

“Euripides?” Ikaros said as he stopped to appreciate Lysander’s handiwork, a hand moved to caress the side of the trickster’s handsome mask. “You remembered.” He remembered himself and the reason why they were here and produced the blade he’d kept buried in the tied waist of his peplos. The eyes of their mark flashed with fear as the masked assailants appeared through the steam of the bathhouse, laughing with a jovial glee as daggers danced through the dark. Crimson blood splattered the walls, the waters of the warm bath ran red. Everyone screamed but the kobaloi’s manic laughed reverberated throughout the chamber until there was nothing left but the two of them stood over the barely recognizable corpse of the hack who’d attempted to take Ikaros’ part. The trickster’s eyes were wide with amused delight, his mask clattered to the ground. “We should probably get out of here, hm?” 

-

As the scene around them unfolded, Lysander’s laughter rang throughout the bathhouse. The madness and fury that they unleashed had their captive audience shouted and reacted to the show they put on. Life was a stage, and he and Ikaros were the stars. With his mask splattered with blood, he dropped it down beside Ikaros’. He pulled the other kobalos into his arms, placing a hard kiss onto his mouth as a promise for what was to come. “After you,” he crooned, smirking as they left the bathhouse, red water splashing up onto the tiles. When they were free of the others and back in the safety of their shared space, Lysander pressed Ikaros back against the door, not bothering to wait for their bedroom. Once they’d had their way with each other, Lysander finally began to speak once more. His arm was curled around Ikaros, the other behind his bed as he looked up at the ceiling, “I was thinking about death. And how my soul will find yours once our lives end and begin again.”

[lysanderxreis]

luciankayames​:

“Always figured it was just a figure of speech.” And it made sense now, he wondered if it was more of an inside joke. Lucian thinks Lysander is trying to withdraw a bit, which just makes him all the more suspicious. He’s more curious than anything though, this is something new and while it has nothing to do with vampires, he’s still intrigued. It’s magic of sorts, he figures, and even if he doesn’t have it anymore, he’s always going to be seeking knowledge about it. Whatever the hell Ikaros and Lysander can do, he wants to know more, and perhaps against his better judgement, wouldn’t mind seeing more. Resting an elbow on the bar and his chin in his hand, he completely bypasses the fact that the other man seems to want to change the subject. “You can’t just sit here and show me all this shit and then withdraw, feels a bit like sad foreplay.” 

-

“Absolutely not,” Lysander made a face, though he wasn’t going to go into any detail about that. For now, though, he was looking back at Lucian with a hint of amusement. “You say that like I will share our memories with you – I’m only one half of them, Lucian. Isn’t what I say enough? I think it’s a talk you should have with Ikaros.” Despite that, Ikaros had mentioned monogamy and he idly felt like he should respect that with the vampire present. Had he disliked Lucian, he’d have intruded anyway. But he didn’t – the vampire held a mirth and sincerity about him that made Lysander put on the brakes. “What do you want to see? More orgies? You have pornhub for that.”

[lysanderxreis]

ikarosxtheoinos​:

“Good.” Ikaros’ remarked, his tone near scathing despite the smirk that lined the trickster’s lips. “I’d kill them if there was.” Though the words were light as a feather, Ikaros meant every single one of them just as sure as he was that Lysander would do the same. “Careful ‘sander, I’ll hold you to that.” Ikaros taunted, fingers brushing the against the skin of the trickster’s considerable bicep. This was how the world made sense to him: sex, violence, debauchery, and hedonism. So long as they two were together there was no storm that could not be weathered, a thousand blades couldn’t touch them, and a thousand lives their shades would intertwine. “Come-” he tugged after Lysander when their lips at last parted, “the baths aren’t much further. And put your mask back on.” Ikaros fixed his own back on his features before he led Lysander in through the back, melding the mind of every person they passed. Some saw a pair of crones heaving buckets of water for the entitled men of the city, others glimpsed children with mischief in their eyes, some saw nothing at all. The masks were more for theater, Ikaros loved a bit a lot of drama. 

-

Lysander laughed, winking at Ikaros before he pulled his mask down once more. He followed after the other kobalos, humming. The bath house itself held nice memories, especially the one where Ikaros had rode him until the break of dawn and he swore the baths were actually going to be cold. The taller of the two slipped into the baths first, holding the door open for Ikaros. At once, he began to glamour those surrounding the one they were after, giving them a hint of privacy as they made their way through. Though what they were seeing was a play in their minds, they’d witness an actual murder instead. “I think we’ve found our audience.”

[lysanderxreis]

penelcpes​:

“Your story was never meant to be a quiet one,” she said with a laugh, pleased that in Lysander his eyes had remained the same— steadfast and blue. Even as a child she had seen that there were countless lives sitting in those pale irises, a thousand deaths behind him and more so ahead: a kobaloi was one who knew death intimately, and grew to see it not as an ending but as another door to life. World without end, Dionysus’ touch was genius— both curse and gift, to give his patrons just enough time on earth to feel, but not enough to last in it. Penelope reached up, touching at his cheek before she drew her hand away. “When did you get so tall?” Warmth seeped in her words, “I would have done it all for nothing, you needed me, I’m glad to have been there.” She looked at him curiously, because of all things that had remained unchanged throughout the years: she was always intrigued by tales of love and kismet, and her gaze urged him to elaborate. “This is where our world fell apart, where magic died. I was drawn to it,” the rift admitted. “There are many in this city who have come for the same reasons, all of whom are important to me. For the first time in a long time, being on this earth doesn’t feel so lonely.” Penelope considered. “I won’t be leaving while they stay.”

-

It was true; Penelope had inherited one of the more wild of the kobaloi – in a sense that he was perhaps the one that ran towards violence, without a care about his own soul or safety. He laughed, wrinkling his nose, “Luckily I’ve kept my height throughout the lifetimes. You think I’d get tired of seeing the same face over and over again, but I’m just as handsome over and over again.” Lysander smiled, though he could see that he wasn’t going to get away with being as vague as he hoped. “I hope I’m one of them, yeah? Add me to your list, I’ll add you to mine,” he joked, shaking his head now as he offered her his arm so they could walk somewhere else. “I want to hear more about you, though. I know the whole world kind of fell to shit around here, but you – you’re blessed by a goddess.”

[lysanderxreis]

penelcpes​:

He looked older than she did in this life, but she had never seen him as anything more than a young man— a smile touched at Penelope’s lips, she was pleased to see him wear years well: too often was the fate of a kobaloi that their own deeds had then torn from the earth too early in their incarnations. “You were just a child then,” she said quietly, wondering what time had shown him, what lives he had lived. “There was so much potential in you,” the rift studied dark eyes, “There still is.” She loved them, Dionysus’ children, and claimed them as her own. “I’m glad you are in Corinth, but—“ her brows pulled in. “You’re not the first of your kind that I’ve come across. What has brought you here?”

-

“Gruesome and violent deaths are kind of my thing,” he said quietly, a wry smile on his lips as he looked at her once more. So much potential. That was him, wasn’t it? The potential to live up to everything, yet falling short at all turns. Lysander had lost Ikaros early on, separated by their curse of reincarnation. Rebellion after rebellion. Crucified in Ancient Rome, and King Arthur’s blade in his stomach – all violent, and all cut short. He could hardly remember the last time he’d made it anywhere past forty five. “I hate to say it again – but I think you’ve got too high of expectations for me,” he grinned a little, “Yes, a child that was dependent on you. And you know I’m grateful.” Lysander shrugged his shoulders, seeing no reason to knit together pretty words for her sake, “Dionysus is hard to say no to. But I’m here because I wanted to know what was going on. And now that I am here, I find it hard to leave. I’ve found someone I’ve been looking for since – well, a long time. But what of you?”

[lysanderxreis]

penelcpes​:

Her breath left her when she caught sight of familiar eyes, and the same feeling that she had been struck with when she had come across Mara shackled Penelope– the kobaloi were recognizable to the rift by their spirit, and his was so familiar, she reached out to touch at his wrist to make sure that he was real. “Lysander.”  His real name, not the one that he had worn when she had known him, when she had watched him grow into a man in a life that he had been stolen into. “I am goddess-blessed, and immortal.”

-

The touch was somewhat magnetic, like the kobalos’ soul recognized one that was so similar to himself. “Your magic – I didn’t think much about it before, but now I recognize it. You’re a powerful woman, mater,” he murmured, though he tried to maintain a sense of calmness – this life was truly turning out to be one that gave him a run for his money. His fingers curled around her wrist as well, gripping it tightly like he could transfer his thoughts to hers, since words escaped him. “There were too few I missed, and you were one. To see you here – I just – fuck, I’m not good with words.”

[lysanderxreis]

@penelcpes​ 

“I know your face,” Lysander wasn’t sure why it was that life that was particularly haunting him this time around. So many centuries ago, he was switched at birth. Taken from his crib, raised among royals and kings. Markus had seemingly survived, but this woman – he wasn’t sure what he expected. “How are you still living?”