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@swordcalledevander
://FORTITUDE_HALL/HERO_RECORDS/REQUEST_ACCESS …
HERO INFORMATION:
name : evander ashford
hero alias : armament
age : 34
gender : cis male
sexual orientation : homosexual
role in fortitude hall : mentor
affiliation : the children of sorrows
faceclaim : glen powell
positive attribute : responsible / tactical / generous
negative attribute : rigid / judgmental / pessimistic
GLEN POWELL Photographed by GUY AROCH
Aether startles at the familiar voice, his concentration shattering as Evan's hand settles on top of his head. The blood he'd been carefully suspending in the air above his open palm loses all cohesion, shooting downward into the grass with a force that makes him wince. He watches the small patch wither and die almost instantly, the life draining from the blades as if they'd been there for years instead of seconds. A soft groan escapes him, though there's no real frustration in it, just reflexive disappointment. He'd been doing so well just moments before, managing to hold the blood steady for nearly a full minute, but Evan's sudden appearance (and the nickname) had completely demolished his focus.
The warmth of that pat on his head does something to ease any lingering tension, and he finds himself melting under the touch, leaning into it slightly. A small, genuine smile tugs at the corner of his mouth despite the failed exercise. His eyes linger on the dying grass for only a moment before he glances up at Evan, affection clear in his expression. His free hand dives into his bag almost automatically, fingers searching for the familiar tin of salve that Bindwood had prepared for him. He spreads the cool substance across the wound in his palm, feeling the bleeding slow and stop, no longer a danger to those around him.
Shifting on the bench, he makes room for Evan if he wants to sit, curling slightly to one side in a way that's more comfortable than defensive. "I'm doing alright." Aether responds, studying his hand warily before looking to Evan. "Was actually making some progress before you snuck up on me." There's no accusation in his tone, just light teasing, the kind that comes from genuine fondness. "Were you planning something, or did you just miss me?"
"Can't I just miss ya?" Evan smiled down at Aether with that same warm and unfettered affection he always did, gently giving the other a little pat on the head. "I was planning a little something. Something a bit more low stakes for you. I set up like an area you and really let loose and get a feel for how far you can push yourself." Evan had created a barrier with his divinity that basically severed the space from reality for a short time. So anything inside wouldn't be harmed permanently by whatever Aether did to it.
Evan pulled Aether into his lap and gave him a hug. "What do you say Squirt you have to face the scary aspects of power before you can tame harness them. I got a real scary face too I had to make peace with before I could use my powers all the way."
@heavenbit
"How is my little squirt doing today hmm?" Evan put his hand on top of Aether's head giving him a little pat. He was planning on taking his mentee to do some training. Get some more control under his belt and maybe find a balance in his powers. God only knows how hard Evan had to work to not be overwhelmed by his own divinity at times.
Of all the people that could have caught him in this moment, he wasn't sure whether to consider Evan one of the best or the worst. He didn't put up a struggle as he found himself being tugged in to the other's frame, partially because he knew it was a wasted effort, partially because he absolutely wanting to lean on him instead of addressing the fact he wasn't exactly setting a great example of recognizing limitations.
"In my defence... That was the excuse I had in the back of my head before I even started?" Something a little more sheepish as the other rather effortlessly called him out, ignoring the stinging edge as he effortlessly met the other's celestial with his own. A slow breath, before opening his mouth to show his tongue. Always line with marks, it genuinely wasn't too bad. Still not a great view, but nothing to be too heavily concerned with. Once he assumed Evan was content, he swallowed again, before dropping his head to the other's shoulder.
"I wasn't pushing that hard. I swear. Not this close to the holiday season, I'd like to actually be able to talk for it. Just got a little... Carried away."
Evan cradled the other in his arms like he was holding something fragile. In reality he knew that Nick was as much a hero as him, as able to protect himself. Take care of others. Get on with business. But he still didn't like seeing him hurt, even if it was just backlash from his own powers. "You know I worry about you enough as it is right? I'm glad you're not too hurt." he whispered as he cupped Nick's jaw with his hands, the soft glow of divine light from Evan's fingers caressing his skin. It wasn't like he could heal anything major but he could ease pain and discomfort. A minor spell he always had readied.
His angelic patron was one of war not one of healing. But there were somethings the holy could always do. Soothe was one Evan found came easily to him. "You too hurt for me to kiss you or would that be slight hmmm?"
LOCATION : THE SIMULATION ROOM , SECOND FLOOR OF THE COLOSSEUM.
eurus was deep in training when he finally felt the executioner sword twitch mid-swing. as a sword fueled by the souls it had slain, over time he had learned to read the ways it would react to the things around it. if it felt cold to the touch, there was a being of evil nearby. if it was too hot to be held, there was a divine being in their midst. and when it simply twitched to life, it had picked up on a soul that was neither of those two: something human ... one the sword was still deciding whether to kill or spare.
time to investigate. shifting his position on the ground, the simulation followed him through its created terrain until finally the tip of his sword found its intended target—its jagged tip just a few inches from evan's face. silence followed … before eurus finally spoke. " you really shouldn't come on the floor when the room's in use, " he said, before lowering the executioner sword. " says so on the sign outside. are you looking to get hurt? "
closed starter for @swordcalledevander.
"Sorry bout that. You know I like watching you swing that thing around. Besides. I could never give up a chance to work with you even if it is just a simulation." Evan stared back down the length of the sword, hands held up in surrender but a smirk on his face none the less. His own swords were nothing in comparison, not alive, and made to only last so long on the material plane altogether.
"You looking to hurt me? Here I thought we were friends. Though- I guess your sword gets to pick if we are friends or not huh? I'm on your side big guy I swear." he said with a little laugh talking to the blade.
"You're looking jacked."
It at least felt like Fortitude Day had been a success, and with things largely winding down, Nicholas couldn't bring himself to stress too much about anything else going on to not take a bit of time to shake some rust off. It's what had him heading to the training rooms after business hours had concluded. Forgetting to set the room to private wasn't exactly rare for him, given that he couldn't really fuck with anything too dangerous even on his better days.
Instead, he ran scenarios over and over again. An observer's point of view, figuring out the places where mistakes were made, where encouragement in a different direction could've led to a better outcome. Of course, that still involved him being in there, and after several hours of trying again and again, he was just about to call it when he became aware of a presence that absolutely was not part of his personal hell strategy test.
"Cancel protocol CG001." He ignored his own wince as the simulation buzzed out of life, and he was trying to flash something close to an apologetic smile. Ignoring the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, and the pain in his jaw. "I lost track of time, was this room reserved?"
@fortivoice
Evan had been looking for Nicholas for a few hours now, he had figured the other was over working himself and wanted to steal him away for something more akin to entertainment than work, only to find Nick in the simulation chamber. Not just working but pushing himself far too hard if you asked Evan.
Easily slipping into his native tongue of Celestial he moved to Nick and pulled the other into him, reaching up to cup his face and gently wipe the corner of his mouth. "You know very well I did not reserve this room. And you know you shouldn't be putting yourself through the paces like this." he said the words were murmured soft and sweet into Nick's ear as he held him closer.
"Open your pretty mouth and show me the damage you did."
Before he'd taken Evan's hand, he'd watched the man try to clean himself with that pathetically small handkerchief, the white fabric rapidly soaking through with dark, viscous demon blood that seemed to spread rather than wipe away. Like watching someone mop up an oil slick with tissue paper. Futile. Almost comically inadequate. The blood clung to Evan's skin with unnatural persistence, as if even in death the demon was trying to maintain some hold on the living. Aether had felt the instinctive urge to help, his hands already moving toward his jacket zipper before logic caught up. His jacket, his shirt, they'd barely make it past Evan's forearms, would stretch obscenely across his broader shoulders like a child's clothing forced onto an adult. Useless. Worse than useless. Embarrassing.
Then another thought had surfaced, unbidden and deeply uncomfortable. He could shift. Change into his other form, something with a tongue designed for grooming. It would be efficient, practical even. The image flickered through his mind with disturbing clarity. Him standing over Evan, his broad tongue lapping patient strokes? But even as the possibilities arranged themselves, another part of him recoiled violently. That was wrong. That would make Evan look at him differently, would confirm whatever suspicions lurked beneath that protective exterior. Humans didn't do that. Humans didn't offer to lick blood off each other, even demon blood, even with the excuse of a different form. That was a line he instinctively knew existed, some boundary of acceptable behavior he'd already catalogued through observation.
So he'd done nothing. Just stood there, useless and cold, watching Evan deal with the aftermath alone while his mind spun with impulses he couldn't categorize as helpful or horrifying. His eyes had remained fixed on the spot where the demon had been even as Evan extended his hand. Only when Evan spoke directly to him, offered that clean hand with such casual gentleness, did Aether finally move, finally reach out with corpse-cold fingers to accept the gesture. His fingers lay in Evan's palm like they'd been carved from marble. Stiff, unyielding. He could feel it himself, the way his own hand felt more like a borrowed tool than part of his body.
His pointed ears swiveled backward like a nervous animal's, twitching at every ambient sound as he tried to process what Evan had said. Desire demon. Fear given form. Bargains struck in desperation. Each concept landed in his mind like a stone dropped into deep water, sending ripples through everything he thought he understood. The outside world wasn't just bigger than the confines he'd known. It was fundamentally more confusing than he'd ever imagined. His free hand burrowed deeper into his jacket pocket, fingers clutching at the fabric like it was the only solid thing in a suddenly liquid world.
"Why? Why would they do that?" He finally tore his gaze away from the empty space to look at Evan, really look at him. His eyes, too large, too reflective, catching the light and throwing it back with an almost crystalline quality, searched Evan's face for answers he wasn't sure he wanted. The messy locks of hair fell across his vision but he didn't bother pushing them away, half-hiding behind them like a child peering around a doorframe at something terrifying. "They're made from fear? From what humans are afraid of?" His voice cracked slightly, vulnerability bleeding through. "Does that mean there are… how many? If every fear, every nightmare, every terrible thought can become something that walks around and makes bargains and takes…" He couldn't finish the thought. The enormity of it pressed down on him, the suffocating realization that the world was so much more crowded with horrors than he'd imagined.
The apology written across his features had deepened into something more profound. Shame, maybe, or the particular flavor of self-loathing that came from being utterly out of one's depth. His cold hand twitched slightly in Evan's grip, a small unconscious movement that might have been an attempt to pull away before he stopped himself. Did his very existence mark him as just another wrong thing in a world apparently full of them? He couldn't even help with something as simple as cleaning demon blood without his instincts suggesting something that would horrify any normal person. "You move like it's choreographed," Aether said quietly, watching Evan with an intensity that bordered on reverence. "Like you've done this so many times the violence is just... muscle memory." There was no judgment in his voice, just hollow recognition. "How long have you been fighting them? How long have you been standing between people and things like that?" And underneath the question was the real one, the one that made his throat tight: How long until I become just another thing you have to protect people from? He blinked. Brows knitting before looking up at Evan, as trying to solve a riddle. "And what's a... squirt?"
"Now that's just one kind. There are so many different kinds of beings. Like me. I'm a fallen. Well. Basically I am now. There are things older than the universe. Hell is vast and deep and some think it is endless." he said looking down at himself, a little flare of that divine light seared the rest of the blood off of him, it sizzled and dissipated, flaking to the ground. When he felt Aether take his hand he pulled the other into him. Aether's small frame against his broad powerful chest. One hand reached up to gently stroke his hair, smoothing back the soft dark locks from Aether's pretty face. Trying to comfort the other and prove to him that he would protect him from any of those things in any realm. Or die trying.
"I have been fighting like this since I was about...12? That's when I was really thrust out into it all. But I've had this power since I can remember." He did move like it was choreographed, battle was a dance, something to approach with almost a surgical like precision. Each movement mattered. "I've only been protecting people the last 8 years or so. Before that I was owned. This fallen angel's who's tarnished grace I wield. It was my master and I fought who it told me to." he said with a soft reluctant sigh, for awhile he was the monster he tired to fight now.
Evan laughed and kissed the top of Aether's head affectionately. "You are a Squirt. A little guy. You're my little Squirt. I'll protect you no matter what."
Thane had seen battle before—too much of it, in too many forms—but nothing prepared him for the way Evan’s light cut through the twilight haze of Blessed Park.
Not the radiance of it. Not the fury. Not the grief he recognized, sharp and familiar.
He arrived just in time to see the demon’s head severed cleanly from its shoulders, the blade of searing light dissolving into nothing as the infernal body withered and collapsed into smoke. The scent of ozone, scorched stone, and spilled hell-ichor hung thick in the air.
Thane’s boots touched down softly on the pavement, Aegis still glowing faintly around his forearms from the flight.
His first instinct was to shield—that old reflex, the automatic urge to protect Evan from anything that moved. But the threat was already dead, and Evan stood over it like judgment incarnate, chest rising and falling, jaw tense, dark ichor streaking across cheek and collar.
Thane exhaled slowly. Steady. Present.
“Evan…” His voice was low, more grounding than scolding, the kind of tone he used when pulling young heroes back from the brink. He stepped closer, Aegis flickering once before settling.
“You handled it.”
Not praise. Not disapproval. Just truth.
Still, his eyes swept the area—checking for lingering threats, checking Evan for injuries, checking himself for the impulse to drag the man into his arms and anchor him.
The demon’s last screams still echoed faintly through the trees.
Thane’s gaze softened, the hard line of his jaw easing as he took in Evan’s expression—the apology beneath the steel.
“Our day out isn’t ruined,” he murmured as he stepped beside him, voice quiet enough to be meant only for Evan. “You protected children. That takes priority over everything.”
A small pause.
Then, gently—almost carefully—he reached out, brushing a thumb across Evan’s cheek, wiping away a streak of ichor the way someone else might brush away ash.
“And next time,” he added with a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, “give me a chance to get here before you decapitate someone.”
He let the smirk fade, sincerity returning.
“You okay?”
The thrill of the fight, the rush of the power of it all, it filled every fiber of his being, a normal human would have seared under the heavy pressure of his light, but Evander had long since stopped being a normal human, every cell of his body steeped in the tarnished grace of his former master. Fundamentally no longer just a human much closer to the demons and otherworldly beings who would prey upon human. He had a particular hatred of those who would use children. Or tried to use the other Children of Sorrow.
Perhaps he had been more wrapped up in the fight than he had thought, so single minded and focused on that demon. One who's magic was all too familiar to him. Too close to the cultists.
As Thane touched down he was snapped out of that hunting fervor, his body almost jolted back from the brink of that divine destruction he had doled out to the other.
He leaned into Thane, the soft touch to his cheek. "I am fine. Sorry I lost it when I found him. I just- things like that. I hate them." he wanted to scoff at the idea of beheading the thing and calling it a 'someone' but morals differed between cultures. Things that preyed on children were not worthy of being called a someone if you asked Evan.
Evan slid his arms around Thane's shoulders and leaned against him. familiar. Solid. It wasn't many people Evan could say made him feel safe. Thane could claim that title though. "Sorry you had to see me like that. Though I could have been much worse. I'll try to hold myself back next time. Now. W were enjoying a walk yes?"
"Demons and the supernatural are antithetical to my nature. I struggle to calculate it, most times." Which is saying something, considering how much computational power Adam had.
"The fact is that most demons can be dealt with; it is simply a matter of treating them like any meta threat. The struggle is in tracking their arrivals. Once I succeed in managing that I will create a directive to seek and destroy any new arrival."
"Yeah the nature of magic is constantly shifting, we all get power from different places. It's not all one uniform thing and doesn't really follow science rules all the time, even the rules for magic have loopholes." Evan scratched the back of his head thinking about it, for the most part nothing was free but even those rules could be circumvented with enough preparation.
"If you can get around the healing, the massive power levels, deal with the hellfire. Most demons aren't shit. You gotta worry about the higher ones. The ones you don't ever get to meet because they have too many minions. The one I just killed is like a servant of a servant."
Evan reached out his hand to take Adam's in his own so they could leave the scene together. Not wanting to linger too much longer, he hated the scent of charred demon flesh. Plus he needed to clean up the blood on him.
