Sweet dreams are made of this.


It hadn't taken Alex that long to figure out where the storm was settle once he'd heard it's music in the distance. He needed to acquire a few new items that he was sure a few of the people that carried that storm with them had in their possession. Bartering with them was always a massive pain in his ass though. Always trying to get his prized possessions in exchange for something he just needed to break down and meld into something else. Tonight they wanted his steed, Balka which he really felt was a laughable thing to request when he was sure they understood the importance of such a thing to a Larua. They weren't going to get his steed but that didn't stop him from getting them the, possibly, next best thing. The mirror image of Balka was exactly that being everything that his steed was not and more annoying that an itch he couldn't scratch. Minma had a horrible influence on Balka when they were together and honestly he'd been looking for a reason to get rid of her so his steed wouldn't lighten on him. A Larua needed their steed to remain as dark as their own alternate form lest they start to weaken. In the end, they got Minma and he got a few amulets and trinkets he'd been needing, not to mention the melting skull goblet he'd been paid to get months ago.

He needed to deliver the goblet before he could get the rest of his items back to his warehouse. A fortified castle of sorts he'd acquired to purposefully have a hidden place away from his home to store everything that made his market valuable. Which honestly wasn't actually a market and more like a book of items he may or may not have in his possession and prices for them all. Most of which were steep to keep certain items out of certain hands. The caste system worked too well for him to give some rebel something that could overthrow that...and he had plenty of things that very well could. The way he saw it, he was doing everyone a favor, more importantly doing himself plenty of favors.

Nothing seemed off when he rode Balka up to his warehouse, all the right candles were still lit and from what he could tell it didn't look like he had any reason to worry. But his steed, on the other hand, was doing a snorting dance after he climbed down and was removing his tackle. "Calm down.", he warned him and the steed snorted at him before it galloped off into the treeline that surrouneded 3/4ths of his property. The other fourth was the river. Alex watched the trees for a long moment before he turned on his heel and headed inside, bag and bridle in hand, to see about getting a fire started to dry himself from the rain he'd rode through. Nearly everything inside of the place was enchanted to look like the more valuable objects weren't even there. Leaving it looking a bit more sparse than it really was. But...it felt a bit warmer inside than he remembered when he'd left and he was sure he hadn't left any of the fireplaces going. Alex put the bag and bridle down on a small table near the door before he turned to push it closed. Pressing his hand over the handle and muttering something that would keep it locked, along with all of the other doors, until he opened them. His eyes scanned the foyer while he shrugged out of his hooded black cloak to reveal something a lot more posh than the ratty cloak.

Alex was never the type to carry a weapon, he honestly didn't need one, his ability to inflict pain with a single touch had always served him well enough. Not to mention, most people weren't stupid enough to try to stand up to a Larua. It was why he never feared anyone trying anything at either his home or his warehouse but...He tilted his head a little towards the area of the place that would hold the kitchen and narrowed his eyes. Then suddenly with a puff of black smoke he vanished only to reappear silently in another puff in the kitchen. Eyes hardening on the back of the head of a strangely dressed man who was tending to a small fire inside of his stove but he still remained perfectly silent. Even as his arms crossed over his chest and shifted in the moving shadows of the room so he was standing at the man's side. Not even three feet away but still undetectable thanks to his Larua abilities. In another life he would have made a perfect addition to the Death Caste but his inability to follow anyone's rules but his own threw wrenches into a lot of things...

Generally, finding someone in his warehouse was means to get ugly pretty fast but something...was off about this man and he was more curious than he was angry. Which was what drove him to shift further away and out of the shadows. "How did you get in here?", he asked suddenly in a demanding tone. Arms still crossed over his chest while he watched every single move the man made in turning to face him. Once he was on his feet, Alex moved to the latern on his table to spark the flame inside so that it's light would flood the room. Giving the both of them a better look of the other while he arched a single brow, "Did Madigan send you?", it was highly unlikely but he couldn't help but ask, if only to gauge his response to the name of one of the most well known men in the land.




Seth Taggart was a thrillseeker. Ever since he'd been a kid, he had wanted to go faster, higher, harder, better, and what was better than going off into the unknown on a giant spaceship? If he was being honest, he hadn't even cared where they were going when he'd boarded Starship 007 and got to his assigned quadrant. He'd just been happy to be involved. That feeling hadn't really changed, not even after the catastrophic crash. Seth had always been lucky in the 'you god damn dumb ass, you should've died' kind of way; he had walked away from the crash with superficial scratches and a few burns. The unlucky asshole strapped in next to him had been partially decapitated by a falling scrap of metal, part of the ship that'd been red hot and broken off during their uncontrolled entry through the planet's atmosphere. So, in a way, Seth was still happy to be involved when he started working to better the survivors' chances of continuing to survive. He didn't spend enough time at camp to realize there were two factions developing there, but they were all in the same boat as far as he could tell.

As a scout, he was one of the first people to be sent out to explore the land. It wasn't the first time he and his team, cobbled together from what scouts had survived the crash, had headed out at dawn; looking for an easy meal or any sign of aggression from the locals. Being on the front lines, Seth could say with conviction that there was definitely more than just wilderness on this planet. He'd come across more than one animal trap, plus the occasional evidence of a campfire... What Seth didn't know was what else was out there, or if it was going to be friend or foe.

But he and his team learned something important that night when the storm broke: sometimes a storm was more than just a storm. They had just regrouped so they could all head back to camp, but one of them had been missing... Couldn't go back without the Bloodhound, which was what they called the missing scout because he was so damn good at finding whatever he was looking for. Seth and the others indulged in some jokes about trying to find the finder, then agreed to do one last circuit of the area before leaving him to find his own way. All three of them went in different directions to increase the likelihood of finding their missing teammate. It was the last time Seth saw any of his quasi-family alive.

He hunkered closer to the fire burning in the primitive yet functional oven, fighting off a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature outside. Seth had found a blanket to wrap around his shoulders, and the look in his eyes was hollow: the things he'd seen couldn't be unseen. They couldn't be unseen! He'd gone back to dwelling on one horror in particular, before his courage had broken entirely and he had run for whatever was left of his life, when a voice and a man came from the shadows. Any other time, Seth probably would have jumped. The best he could do this time was a quick look up and then away.

No tattoos on the face. The ones who'd attacked his team, they'd all had tattoos on their faces... Seth's brow furrowed, and he gave the stranger a cuious look. Amazing that he could understand what he was saying at all, yet he could. "I... The storm..." He gestured vaguely, which was far from a satisfactory answer of how he'd gotten in there. To be honest, Seth didn't fully remember: a mad dash, scrambling at a door, then... There'd been a window. He remembered... "I broke your glass," he said, instead of answering the stranger's question. "Not here. In the... Other room. I had to get out of the storm." Seth steeled himself against a shiver. "I'm sorry." He reluctantly rose from his crouch in front of the stove, leaving the healthy fire to burn underneath the pot of water he'd set on top. Not boiling yet. Seth took half a step closer to the stranger, but something made him hesitate there: not retreating, but not pushing forward either. He was still wearing most of his gear, though he'd lost his guns to the storm and had left his pack on the ground near the stove.

"I'm Seth," he said. "My, uh - friends call me Tag." He ran an awkward hand over his head, fingers spreading through his hair. "I'll replace the window." Tag had no idea how he was going to do that, nor how expensive it might be on a new planet, but he made the offer anyway.


Alex, for the most part, kept his expression fairly blank even when the guy was talking. Hell, he didn't even take his eyes off of him when he mentioned having broken a window to get inside. He'd thank him for it later considering it was proof that the trinket he'd affixed to his walls wasn't doing it's job. That old wench had told him it would secure his windows to the point that you'd have better luck shattering metal. Last time he'd trust the wench and now he had a list of things he'd need to be checking to see just how many things she'd screwed him over with. She was already dead for the single trinket but he wanted to know just how merciful he was going to be with the other items. The man's movement towards him pulled his attention out of his head for him to narrow his eyes a little. He'd never, in his entire life, seen any clothing like what the man was wearing. It was enough for him to drag his brain over the fact that a group of drifters he'd come across had been talking about something falling from the sky. Crashing into the lands near Odemark in The Massif which was really a stretch of land as useless as the Wastelands. The land was to the east of his warehouse for that very reason but that wasn't that important. What was...was the fact that the drifters had mentioned seeing fires sprout up around the crater that had been made during the excitement.

His head slowly tilted to the side when the man offered his name, both of them. But he couldn't help the dry chuckle when the mention of him replacing the window came up. "Seth, Tag...", he sighed a little and looked over the man for a moment longer trying to spot any weapons. Seth was a much larger than Alex was but that didn't necessarily mean that he was a threat. He'd taken down larger if he was going to be honest. "...Alexander of the Wolfe house.", he finally said before moving around Seth to look into the pot of water that was on top of the stove. "Just call me Alex.", he said while looking back to him.

"I take it you came across the 'bingers then?", he was moving again but this time around Seth. Pausing occasionally to get a closer look at the fabric of his clothes, armor before he stopped in front of him. "They don't like most people...", he grinned for the first time, a shark-toothed look. "...neither do I." His right hand shifted to grab Seth by the chin suddenly before he lifted it up and used his other to rudely press his lips up. Getting a look at his teeth before he sighed and moved away. "Get out of the clothes.", he muttered. "Going to get you killed, wait here...", he glanced him over again. As far as attractive went, Seth was sitting at the top of the scale Alex used to gauge people. So maybe getting him out of those clothes wasn't just for the stranger's benefit. Alex moved quickly out of the room, purposefully going the long way, just so he could take a look at the broken window. "You sneaky bitch...", he grumbled at the broken glass before he crunched some under his boot. "Onyx.", he said softly before a light buzzing noise filled the room and a barely-four-inch dark fairy came to hover in front of him. "Get this fixed then I need to you to go the Massif."

"Of course, do I get to play with them?", a tiny squeaky voice answered while a grin curled onto the fairy's lips.

"Just watch them, see how many there are....", he trailed off and glanced back towards the kitchen.

"Ooooooh, is one of them here?", she asked while fluttering that way.

"Onyx, the window then Massif.", he said firmly which prompted the fairy to huff then get to work on the broken glass. Eventually she'd mend it all back together like it'd never been broken to begin with but that would take her at least an hour. In the meantime, he needed to get to the room where he kept an assortment of clothing. Traveling through a short hallway before pushing a rather heavy door open to a room that held nothing but trunks of various clothes. Alex grabbed one of them by the handle on it's side and heaved it upwards into the grasp of his other hand. With that settled he simply vanished in his puff of black smoke to reappear behind Seth again. Dropping the heavy trunk to the ground with a thundering noise before he leaned down to grab his shirt off the ground. Giving him a long look since he was still in his boots and pants while he tossed the shirt into the fire. "You're going to be making it up to me for that window, Tag.", he paused long enough to square up his shoulders and flash him a smile. "Where do you come from?"

"Better yet, where are we?", he was already certain that Seth wasn't from anywhere he'd know...but getting him to admit that was easier than assuming. It was hard for Alex to avoid looking at him. He'd never admit it but Seth was more than just alluring, just looking at him made him feel intoxicated. Just looking at him put an odd knot in his stomach and a tingle further south than that. He cleared his throat and shifted a little on his feet just to see if the feeling would stop, it didn't. Instead he shifted his eyes to the odd looking vest on the ground so he could kick at it with his foot...even then his eyes didn't waste much time in shifting back to Seth again.


There was something about the mysterious stranger that made Seth's back straighten and shoulders square. He was bone dead tired and still in shock, but that didn't matter at the moment. Not when he was being confrontoned by someone who could easily throw him back out there, with whatever had... Attacked his teammates. So Seth jerked his chin in a smart nod when Alex introduced himself, but didn't say anything beyond that; not even to protest him taking a look in the pot. He was making the hot water for coffee, but he hadn't waited for it before eating what was left of his rations. Seth had only packed for a full day's excursion, which meant there wasn't a lot of wiggle room in his supplies for disasters like this.

"Is that what they're called?" A sudden focus came into Seth's face and voice. His brows furrowed, his mouth hardened, and his trigger finger twitched at his side; longing for one of the guns he'd lost during the storm. Not to shoot Alex, though he earned a startled look when he was suddenly grabbing him by the chin. Seth managed a garbling protest before the man's finger was pushing up his lips to look at his teeth. "What the - " He pushed away from him, but not in time to prevent the indignity. Even worse than that was the feeling in his gut, low and kindling, that implied some part of him had liked the treatment. Seth did his best not to think about it after the stranger - Alex, he reminded himself - was gone, but the feeling lingered regardless.

He reluctantly started shrugging out of his outer vest and gear, though there was no way in hell he was going to take off his pants. Seth was motivated to do as he'd been told because Alex had mentioned the 'bingers. If they were the ones who had gone after his teammates... His temper was a pretty even thing, most of the time. Maybe a little less confident than he liked to pretend, but still -- he didn't get mad easy. But where the 'bingers were concerned, and what they'd done to the other scouts... Seth was willing to hold a grudge. He was hungry for revenge.

Seth was pouring two cups of instant coffee by the time Alex came back into the kitchen with the trunk. It was lucky he'd learned how to steel himself through his startled reactions, because he was holding both cups when the other man appeared suddenly behind him and dropped the trunk on the floor. "Christ," he yelped nevertheless. Seth turned as quickly as he dared with the two mugs, then yelped again - this time with protest - when Alex threw his shirt into the fire. No opportunity to ask how he'd sneaked back into the kitchen without his noticing. "What'd you do that for?!" He stared at the shirt as it was consumed by the flames, then reluctantly looked at Alex again. "I - yeah, I already said I would," he muttered. "I, uh, made some coffee. You ever have coffee?" Seth held up the cup he'd poured for Alex, then set it down on the counter. If he wanted it, he could take it.

It was easier talking about coffee than where he was from or where they were. Seth hadn't been trained for this sort of thing. The navigation pilots were supposed to handle all first contact scenarios, but he was the only one here... "I, uh. That is, we - " He took a bracing sip of coffee, then grimaced on its way down. Too hot. "Wait, wait, wait," he said while moving toward Alex and the vest he was looking at. "You can't burn that. It's - expensive," he said while reaching down to pick it up. "I won't wear it, but -- don't burn it, alright?" He tried for a charming smile. Seth went for another sip of coffee, then returned to what he'd been saying earlier: "I don't know where we are," he said honestly. What was the point in lying, especially when he was going to ask for Alex's help in tracking down the 'bingers? "My -- teammates and I, we're from the stars." Seth hesitated. "Do you know outerspace? Is that a word you understand? The -- stars, they're... Well, some of them are homes for other people, and that's where I come from."

Seth met Alex's eyes. "Far, far away." He broke the contact with a shift of his weight, then downed the rest of his coffee and went to put the cup in the sink. "Uh -- those... Bingers? Is that what you called them?" He ran a hand up the back of his head, trying to look and sound casual. "You know where they live?"


Alex had purposefully avoided the question about the Harbingers for several reasons. He'd gone through a lot of hell and work to secure a friendly trade agreement with them. Or as friendly of an agreement you could get with the people. They had a bad habit of screwing people over when they thought they weren't useful anymore or when they were running low on things they claimed they needed. Fact of the matter was he trusted the stranger in his house more than he trusted those bastards. Not even he was dark enough to do half of the things they did and Alex was a man capable of smothering out a lot of bright lights in the world. Still, Seth's teeth were perfect as far as he had seen which in his world would have meant that he was higher on the scale than most. It also implied good breeding. But he was less worried about who his parents were and more worried about where the fuck he came from because it certainly wasn't any land he'd traveled to.

He looked amused for a few seconds when Seth yelped though the word wasn't something he was familiar with and it showed in a flash of a frown. His look long, hard, and curious when the mention of the...coffee had come up though it smelled fairly familiar in a strange sense. "The strange clothes are only going to hurt you.", he reminded him before watching him put the cup of steaming dark liquid on the counter. It was a general rule for him not to drink anything he hadn't watched being made. Plenty of people thought a world without the final member of the Wolfe family was a perfect place. And maybe he'd screwed a few people over as well.

Even more curious was the way he rushed to get the vest off the ground after he'd started nudging at it. Felt heavy enough to be armor but he'd never seen armor made of cloth. His eyes flicking over that charming smile that forced the corners of his lips to tug up a little before he ran a hand over his face and nodded. Alex stayed silent though as Seth was explaining his situation and did well to keep his face as blank as a stone statue. It took effort to show most emotions and he didn't have time for any of them with the story he was being told. He shifted a little at the mention of the stars before he glanced towards a faint buzzing noise near the door. Clearing his throat and the noise quickly went away before his eyes shifted back to Seth in time for him to hold that gaze. It wasn't a simple case of him not understanding what was being said but a matter of him being willing to believe it. Even though he knew without a shred of a doubt that there was no way the man was from Sapience. He'd lived long enough to see more than a couple people from the stars make their way into the lands.

They never left.

Alex knew what Seth didn't, there was no way he was going to get off the ground beneath him and make it back home again. Maybe for more than a couple of reasons. He liked to collect things nobody else had and, well, Seth was certainly one of those things. Which was more of the reason behind his smile than the amusement at his attempt to ask a question about the Harbingers. "Harbingers. They live nowhere and everywhere...", he shrugged a little before moving to the cup on the counter finally. Picking it up and smelling it before he glanced towards Seth for along moment. Measuring if the guy had what a person would need to poison another person. "I know of the stars, I know nothing about what lies within it, or past it.", he admitted and hurt a bit of his pride in the process. "How many of you are there?", he asked while raising the cup to his mouth. It smelled bitter, strong...but not entirely like poison and his nose was generally pretty good about picking out that sort of thing. So, he took a small sip then put the cup back on the table with a frown. "I think you made the havi too strong, Tag."

Without much warning he slipped towards him with two long strides, almost as if he barely touched the ground to take them, and stretched out a hand. Placing his left palm on his chest while a dull ache would have filled his body. "We can find your...way back after the 'bingers leave the land.", he muttered the lie before his eyes shifted away from Seth's eyes to his hand where the pain was steadily growing. By the time he pulled his hand away his skin where his hand had been would feel a bit raw and with good reason. A shining black handprint had been left on him. Glimmering in the light as if it'd been dusted by gold but looking pitch black without any light on it. "Revenge isn't something easily got, especially when it comes to them, and...", he paused to look back to him with an oddly soft smile, "...you don't want to pay that price, Tag. Not when you know nothing of these lands and the people it holds...you're out of your depth.", he leaned forward so that his mouth hovered near his ear, "You can't face these monsters alone and I'm not going to let you be so wreckless in trying."

Fact of the matter was, whether Seth knew it or not, a claim had already been placed on his body, his life. And whether he knew it or not, because Alex wouldn't admit it, he'd just done something he'd done for no living thing before in giving him a mark that would ensure nothing could harm him. But himself.


"Harbingers," Seth repeated diligently. Living nowhere and everywhere sounded like native superstition, so he filed that away as nonsense. More likely, the Harbingers were the assholes with access to the remnants of an old world's technology... He'd seen something sort of like that on his last mission, when he'd taken a much smaller ship out to investigate an old moon base that had been abandoned by Jovian a few years earlier when it'd been drained of all its useful resources. Some of the settlers had refused to leave, and it'd turned into a wild west of sorts: only law that governed them was who was the fastest draw, best shot, and/or carried the best gun. They'd had gangs on that moon, too, who were responsible for the reports Jovian's government had been getting that the selage drug trade was getting a boost from that quadrant. Seth had helped take down the worst of those gangs, and he was confident he'd be able to do the same with the sunsofbitches that took down his unit.

He was drawn up in his own dark thoughts while Alex was measuring whether he had it in him to poison someone. He hadn't had that in him before he'd enlisted, but now... Now, Seth had found himself wishing he'd had some kind of sleep powder to slip into the stranger's drink. It would've made for a better escape route than simply rabbiting at the first real opportunity. "Havi?" Seth tilted his head to the side a little bit. "S'that what you call it?" He'd barely gotten the question out before Alex was moving toward him. Seth steeled himself against the impulse to take a step back, determined to show him that he was strong enough to stand his ground: but that turned out to be the wrong decision. Tag was still shirtless - at least it was warm in the kitchen, thanks to the fire - so there was nothing to get in Alex's way when he set his palm on his chest.

"What are you-- Get off me!" Seth wasn't a weak man, but he found himself unable to pull Alex's hand off his chest. No matter what he tried to do to break the grip, it stayed right where the stranger wanted it until he chose to pull his hand away. He gasped with a weird mixture of wanting and relief when the hand was gone, alleviating the worst of the pain, while looking down at himself. Seth stared with mixed emotions at the handprint now marking him. "Wh-wh... Why would you..." he muttered, close to incoherently, while Alex was speaking near his ear. It caused a pleasant feeling to flirt through him, but he ignored that in favor of his confusion. More importantly than why, how had he done it? How the hell had he left that mark in him with nothing more than his fucking hand?

He used a cautious thumb to brush over the still throbbing handprint. "Fuck," Seth breathed out loud. "Fuck." There was something different in his eyes when he looked at Alex, a hint of heat that pulsed in time with the aching mark on his chest. It wasn't the only thing starting to ache on him, either. He ran a hand over his face to try and get control of himself, then settled a more direct look on his increasingly strange host. "Those pieces of shit ate my teammates," he said angrily. Seth took an aggressive step towad Alex, putting himself in his face because anger was a better reaction than desire; or maybe because desire weakened the restraints he normally kept on his temper.

Or maybe he just wanted Alex to prove he could keep him in line. He'd done that with every unit leader he got assigned under: made 'em prove in some way or another they were worthy of the position. "I'm not going to sit here on my ass while they're still out there! How the hell do you live with that -- that barbarity?" Seth turned abruptly, storming out of Alex's face so he could pace the length of the kitchen: turning smartly at the end to go back the way he'd come, and never going very far from the stranger. He didn't consciously recognize it yet, but the handprint had changed something between them. A growing part of Seth yearned to be in his presence, and for as long as Alex left his mark on him he always would. "I saw one of them," he said in an iron voice. "They were roasting her over the fire like some damn -- suckling pig!" Too late to stop himself from doing something drastic, Seth picked up the coffee mug he'd put in the sink earlier and whirled it at the ground: breaking that, too, though it didn't help the stew of emotion inside of him at all.


Alex was fairly pleased with the way his handprint looked on Seth's chest and even more about the look of confusion on his face. People of Sapience knew the stories of what a Larau could do with a single touch of their hand and what that print's meaning held. It was just further solidification that the man standing before him knew nothing of the world he was trapped on. Or who he was trapped on it with. Sapience wasn't a friendly place for some but he guessed that could be said about any world that laid in the stars. Admittedly, he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that they'd fallen here to begin with but...What goodies could they have brought with them in doing so? He slanted a fast glance towards the vest again before his eyes shifted to the thumb Seth was brushing over the handprint. Letting a slow, dangerous smirk form on his lips while he watched.

A smirk that stayed even when confronted with that look behind Seth's eyes. But he fell silent again and simply watched him. Watched him trying to process everything, the confusion, the rage, the need for vengeance. But his angry words didn't even make him flinch, he knew what the Harbingers were capable of and he wasn't going to betray that with any emotion showing. Though, if he were perfectly honest, part of him wouldn't put it past the fuckers to actually eat somebody. He just knew better. A lot of people knew better. Harbingers were good with illusions. That wasn't a strange though, what was...was the pity he felt for Seth in the moment, even if he kept it hidden.

He held his ground and simply glanced over Seth when he stepped up to him before his head fell to the side in a cocky tilt. Almost as if he was taunting him in the moment to do something more than buck up to him. "I live with a lot of things.", he admitted in a fairly neutral tone. Frowning the instant Seth turned his back and started pacing the length of the room, "What's a pig?", he arched a brow suddenly before his eyes shifted to him grabbing the mug. "Don---", he ended up sighing at the mug shattering on the ground. Staring at the ground for a moment he rolled his lips together and shook his head slightly. "Must you break everything in my house before you feel better?", he growled.

He'd recognized that defiant look when it'd been given though for the most part he found it amusing from someone who had no idea what they were dealing with. He'd wanted to take a lighter approach to keep the man from experiencing too much at one single time. But it was obvious he needed the strong hand and attention, "Don't...touch...another thing.", he said with a faint echo to his tone. Alex moved quickly and even the outline of his body had a black smokey blur to it when he did. Sliding up behind Seth where he could settle a hand on his throat while the other held his right arm slightly behind his body. "You need to stop, Tag. Do you understand me?", the tips of his fingers felt warm as he pressed a wave of pain over Seth's body. More than a dull ache this time. But still not enough to make him fall to his kness by any means.

Alex nuzzled his face against his neck so that his lips brushed against him as he spoke, "Stop...and listen to me...", he coaxed at him before mouthing a bite at his neck. He shifted until his entire front was pressed against Seth which made it impossible to ignore the bulge that had already been building. How could he have been blamed? He hadn't been alone with another person in years...let alone someone as attractive as Seth was. And admittedly, the rage rolling off of him, the need for vengeance...it was intoxicating on many levels. He needed him as his own and he wasn't going to let the man destroy himself before that happened. (Or the rest of his china.) He curled his fingers into his throat to maintain a controlling hand of what Seth did or didn't do with his head. Each time he tried to move out of his grasp he simply flexed his fingers more harshly into his neck while sending another wave of pain through him.

"You can't hold onto it, it will destroy you.", he muttered. Shifting his mouth closer to Seth's ear where he huffed a warm breath over the side of his face. "I'll take it away...", he trailed off as he settled his lips right on his ear. A thin black wisp of smoke pouring from between he lips and into Seth that left a tingling sensation in it's wake. The job of the smoke, or illeira, was to seek out the troubled memory Seth held. Swirling around, searching for the root of his rage, his need for justice, until it finally found it. Smothering it in the darkness of the smoke sent to find it to begin with before finally it was simply pulled from it mind. Pulled as the smoke slipped back out of Seth and into Alex's mouth again with a sigh of a noise on his behalf. Seth wouldn't remember what happened to his friends, he'd have the memory of running from something but...there were no other's with him. It was important to keep much of his memory true to what it really was...But, Alex wasn't well versed in how to actually help a person through their troubling times. He could learn though. This seemed like the best gift he could give Seth without admitting his failures with normal emotions and empathy.


That growl did all of the wrong things to Seth Taggart. He tried not to show it, but there was intense significance behind the way he watched him as he moved across the kitchen. His teammates had been slaughtered, it wasn't right to be wanting -- But that echo in Alex's voice ensured that was what he was. Wanting. He didn't consciously let Alex get behind him, and he was moving quickly enough that he probably couldn't have stopped him, but part of Seth wasn't unhappy to be in his arms. Part of him wanted to feel Alex's fingers get tighter on his throat, or at least... His breath was softly relishing when the first waves of a dull aching pain went through him. He flexed through it, struggling ineffectually against the physically smaller man, but at his core he didn't want Alex to stop. He didn't want the hurting to stop; as long as he was hurting, he couldn't think about what had happened. As long as he was hurting, all he could think about the pain and the person who was inflicting it.

He wasn't proud of the softly needy noise that escaped him while Alex was biting at his neck. Seth still struggled, even after they were front-to-front and he could feel his bulge pressing into his thigh... God, he wanted it. He wanted him; this unpredictable and mysterious stranger who had already left a fucking mark on him. So he got his fair share of waves of pain rolling through him, and he was still recovering from one of them when Alex told him that he couldn't hold onto it. Seth breathed out a sound that could have been called a whine. "No," he said. Or tried to say. Part of him wanted to turn to putty in Alex's hands, to yield instantly to whatever he wanted to give him... And the rest wasn't given a choice. He breathed in the black wisp of smoke, too distracted by his need to hold onto the pain to realize until it was too late to stop it. A furrow formed between his brow and he opened his mouth, intending to say something, but -- Then Seth couldn't remember what he was intending to say.

He gazed into Alex's eyes as sense and reason slowly came back into him. "What..." Seth started to mutter. The body pressed against him was difficult to ignore, and it was even more difficult to deny. He found himself shifting his hips into Alex's while settling a hand at the back of his neck: not yet making any demands, but clearly having a mind to. "I've been wanting to do this since you found me," he admitted. It wasn't something Seth normally would have said - too close to being what he thought of as 'gay' - but... He flashed his eyes to Alex's and held his gaze while he leaned in for a kiss; defying the hand on his throat. His memories of the most recent past were sort of hazy, more like a dream, but he clearly remembered that bolt of pain going through him...

Tag broke their kiss so he could tongue a bite on his earlobe. "Do it again," he hissed. Without the memories weighing him down, forcing him to face the shock and pain of his loss, he didn't mind showing another vulnerability to Alex. "Make it hurt." He mouthed another kiss into Alex's upper lip, and meanwhile his hand stroked over the bulge he'd been nudging into him. "I need it," he breathed, but it was hard to say if he was talking about the cock he was fondling or the pain he was asking for.


Alex didn't like taking away his choice but in his own twisted mind, which was plenty twisted, he thought this was the best he could do in the moment. A bit more selfish than he'd like in admitting that he really just wanted past the intoxicating rage and vengefulness just so he could...None of it mattered once he saw that look in Seth's eyes. The look as if a world's worth of weight had been lifted off of his shoulders with a single breath. It made a part of him feel better about making the decision for him. A part of him still felt plenty guilty about that. Which was something he wasn't entirely used to feeling if he was going to be perfectly honest. He'd done a lot worse in his life and plenty of those things should make a normal person feel guilty. But yet, here stood a man from another world that was making him feel things he generally avoided feeling. It pushed more at the hunger that had been building inside of him. The fact that he regretted not instantly bending the man to his will the moment he caught him in his home, well, warehouse. Under the law, he would have been completely justified, or well, depending on how he reported it.

He huffed out a breath at his admission and he really couldn't help the cocky-as-fuck smirk that took over his lips. Not that he wanted to. But at least with all of that rage gone they were getting to what he could call a proper introduction to one another. He hadn't missed the way he responded to the pain either but wasn't intentionally putting more into him, not yet. Not while he was getting that kiss that was a perfect reason to defy the hand he'd settled on Seth's throat. With returning the kiss came that zinging feeling that was full of the thrill of something new, need, want...and much more complicated feelings than he'd ever experienced. It meant a lot when Alex felt like he needed somebody. He'd never needed anyone. Ever. But there he stood with at least the ability to admit to himself, in the moment, that he needed this stranger...Seth Taggart. More than he'd ever fully understand.

Alex grinned after the kiss was broken and Seth hissed those three beautiful words but still he waited. Letting his hand fall from his throat so he could angle his eyes to catch a look at the profile of his face. Then a quick inventory when they were face to face before he got busy with returning the next kiss. Groaning into his mouth courtesy of the hand now stroking over his pants and prompting him to nudge his hips forward more for the friction. Soon his hands were streaking over his bare chest, sending bolts of dull pain through him all the way, until he was slipping his fingers into the top of his pants above his ass. It was his turn to demand a kiss while he pushed down at the bothersome clothing. Groping his ass and upping the charge behind his pain-inducing touch but still careful of exactly how much. No need to leave him screaming. Especially when he hadn't asked for it yet.

He left his pants tugged down a bit before his hands found the back of his neck again. Seemingly so he could keep him still to continue his breath stealing kiss. But really it was for the stability of what he was going to do next. In a flash of a moment, he blurred the both of them until he had Seth slamming against a bare wall on the other side of the kitchen. Leaving a trail of that signature smoke trailing behind them and outlining where he'd previously been standing. Finally, he broke the kiss with a gasping breath for all the ones he'd forsaken for the taste of Seth. Alex wasn't gentle when he put his hands on his hips and turned him like he weighed as much as a sheet of paper. Shoving him face first against the wall so he could dig his teeth into his shoulder. Slicking his tongue over the mark he'd left before muttering, "Ask nicer...what else...do you need...Tag?", he asked while nipping again.

Before he got a chance to respond, Alex was slipping to a lower vantage point behind him. Trailing his hands over his sinewy back until he could mouth a bite at his lower back. Slipping his fingers back into the top of his pants before he tugged at them, not enough to take them down but..."I told you to strip.", he reminded him before he curled his fingers roughly into his hips. Sending more than just a dull ache through him this time and aiming for more of a sharp, stinging pain. Then, without warning he stood and took a solid step away from him. Panting heavily while he groped at his own cock through his pants, "Take them off. Now.", he growled.


His breathing hitched when Alex's fingers slipped into the top of his pants, and he breathed an approving noise into their kiss. The sound that came out of Tag when the pain got more intense was equal parts whimper and groan. It wiped away the last of his lingering sense of mental vertigo, until the only thing he could focus on was the man intent on kissing the breath right out of his throat. Tag shifted against him, giving as good as he got into the kiss, when suddenly they were moving. He had the time to inhale sharply, and then his back was slamming into the kitchen wall. "A-Alex," he grunted. "Fuck. Holy fuck." It'd been easy to pretend the magic wasn't real. Even after everything he'd shown him - the mark he'd left on his chest; the thuddingly beautiful pain - Tag had still been looking for the scam.

He caught himself with his hands on the wall, which barely stopped his cheek from thudding into it when Alex spun him around. "Ahh," he wasn't quite protesting to the teeth digging into his shoulder. "I need--" Tag tried. He'd even sort of had an answer, but the bite that Alex was mouthing at his lower back was all it took to distract him. Especially when it was paired with the sharp jolt of pain that had him grunting into the wall. He was so distracted by it, he didn't realize Alex was stepping away until he was already gone. It was the sudden loss of his body that made him realize, but that wasn't the only reason he -- didn't-really-but-totally-did whimpered. "Sorry," Tag breathed. He turned around, needing to see Alex if he couldn't feel him, and locked eyes with the -- was he a man? Did he fucking care at this point?

Tag's answer was in how quickly his fingers worked the fastenings on his pants - fumbling over the fucking belt - and he didn't look away from Alex. The zipper being undone sounded loud in the breathing silence of the kitchen. He wasted no time in kicking the pants down to his ankles, then stepping out of them from there. His boxer briefs met a similar fate, leaving him completely naked in front of him. The scars on Tag told a story to anyone who knew how to read it; some of them were honestly earned, from the rough and tumble life he loved to live. (He had one on his hand from a deep fucking cut thanks to a drunk game of 5 finger fillet.) Others had not been so accidental, like the burn mark low on his hip from a thrillingly painful experiment with very hot wax. He had a distinct type that had nothing to do with something as simple as hair or eye color.

But no one had ever shocked through him like Alex. He took a step forward, eyes on his face, then smoothly dropped to his knees in front of him. He set a familiar hand over Alex's foot, both for the contact and to discourage him from backing away when he nuzzled his mouth and nose over the front of his pants. "Your turn," Tag murmured. "Please?" He kissed the button on Alex's pants, but the look he was giving him implied he'd rather be kissing something else. "Let me help..." He didn't quite wait for permission when he started undoing Alex's pants, but his hands were warm on his outer thighs while he was sliding them down to his feet. "I need this." Wrapped up in the moment, Tag recklessly wanted to say what he would one day realize was the truth: that he needed him. Tag nuzzled his nose into Alex's stomach while his hands stroked higher and his head tilted to look up at him. He kept his eyes on his face when he mouthed a wet kiss teasingly low.


Alex had the tendency to make a lot of people very uncomfortable with the way he simply watched them. Like every move they made was alien to him, at times like each move was a threat he'd need to squash but the look in his eyes was different this time. Yeah, he was watching to see the reactions that ran over Seth's features. But he was staring at him with a dangerous looking hunger that obviously needed to be fed before it engulfed the both of them. Admittedly, he hadn't been very sexual for a while given what could happen with his touch when he lost control in the moment. He'd never killed anyone but he'd scared plenty away. Enough that this visitor's want, need for more of his touch was stirring something deep inside of him that'd never been touched. A lot of people could say they liked pain with pleasure but that was a fine line that he'd never perfected walking.

So, he watched as Seth worked at his pants and fumbled with his belt, it even earned him a lingering grin from Alex. By then his hand had slipped into the front of his pants, without unbuckling them, so he could rub at his already aching cock. Putting more heat behind each breath he took and exhaled as his eyes started to wander over Seth's body. Pausing on every little marking on him that he could see. Which was plenty considering his knack for being able to function abnormally well in the dark or dim lighting. It was as much a part of him as his magic was.

He didn't move a single muscle when he was approaching and instead kept that curious look on his face. The grin fading away for something more animalistic when Seth was dropping to his knees in front of him. Earning him another noise, a solid grunt. Hand or not, he certainly wasn't going to move and he hadn't any plans to take his hands from his pants until he realized he was leaning forward. Alex smoothly pulled his hand from the front of his pants though his cock was still straining against the fabric. Threatening to break free if only it were capable of such a feat. A brow perked at the murmuring but it was the long exhaled breath with that single word that gave him away. Generally, he would have obliged in letting the fantastic man before him remove his pants entirely...But his need was overriding what generally happened. The hunger was too strong to feel his mouth settling it's warmth around him. "Wait...", he warned him before putting his hand on his forehead. Pushing him back just enough for him to work at the complicated fastenings of his own pants and pull himself free. It was a quick, fluid motion that left his pants still sitting in their proper spot.

Maybe not ideal, but, he held himself for a moment before stroking his hand down his length and back to his base. Then he seemingly offered his cock to Seth with a careful look in his eye. Waiting patiently until he was about to settle his lips or tongue near his head before he pulled himself out of reach. Grinning, "Get my pants off, Seth Taggart...", he rumbled down at him in a wicked tone, "...then you can show me what else that pretty mouth of yours can do." Sliding his fingers over his scalp for more pain filled jolts to run through his body. Though not all localized to just where he was touching. Some ranging from the sensation of being burned with wax to the ache of a rough bite against his shoulder and even the sensation of nails scraping over flesh.


He made a softly protesting noise when Alex told him to wait, but he wasn't disappointed when he obeyed. When he wasn't caught up in the moment, Tag tried to downplay how much he craved certain things, but he wasn't trying to downplay anything now. He yearned toward Alex when he offered himself, then huffed out a thwarted breath when he pulled himself out of reach. "Tease," he wasn't exactly complaining, and he couldn't even pretend to complain once Alex's fingers were threading over his scalp. "A-ah," he whimpered, an aborted attempt to say the stranger's name while the jolts of pain were going through him. Tag was tense and teeth gritting, pressing the side of his lean body into Alex's near leg while he pushed his head demandingly into the fingers on his scalp: almost like a cat being petted, but for very different reasons. By the time the waves of pain had started to abate, Tag was throbbing in too many ways to wrap his head around. The only thing he knew for sure was that he wanted - needed - to have the strangely powerful man who was hurting him so carefully.

That was why Tag took Alex by the hand, slowly coaxing his hand out of his hair so he could nuzzle kisses and scrape soft bites over his palm and fingers: lavishing love on the very thing Alex had been using to hurt him with. His eyes flashed up to Alex's face while he mouthed a bite over the tip of his middle finger, and he scraped his teeth over the fingernail before letting it free of his mouth. Then he set his attention to doing as he'd been told, getting Alex out of his pants. Tag's hands stroked down the outsides of Alex's thighs, pushing his pants and whatever underwear he had on underneath down to his ankles. He kissed the inside of his knee while encouraging first one foot up and then the other: taking the time to get the pants off entirely before he sat back on his heels and slanted a cocky looking grin up at Alex. It wasn't exactly a skill that he broadcast around his friends, but he couldn't think of many things he liked more than sucking cock.

Tag took a moment to just look at the man in front of him, appreciating the chiseled hardness of his body and the quailing pressure of his eyes. He moved forward a step, still on his knees, until he was close enough to press a lingering kiss low on Alex's stomach. A flash of his eyes kept Alex in his sights as he nuzzled his nose and mouth down his inner thigh, avoiding touching his cock with anything but his hotly eager breath. Tag was mouthing a wet kiss into his inner thigh when he ran his fingers down Alex's cock, stroking firmly but not letting the touch linger any longer than it took to get from base to head. When he finally nuzzled his mouth from his inner thighs to what he had between his legs, it wasn't to wrap his mouth around his head. Tag found the heavy sac of Alex's balls with first his palm and then his mouth and nose: tonguing him thoroughly. His fingers still had spit on them when he shifted his grip from his balls to his cock: stroking Alex slowly as he lavished kisses, licks, and suckling on his balls.

There was something about the way Alex tasted that felt -- right. Tag had always liked the taste of dick, but... God, he'd never liked it this much. His mouth finally moved away from Alex's balls, his breath hot and heavy and more than eager, so he could take Alex's head into his mouth. He suckled on just the head, lavishing it with attention from his mouth and tongue, while he stroked his hand over the rest of his length; but the more he suckled, the deeper Tag took him. Fitting him into his mouth was a steady yet gradual process, until he was fucking his mouth over his cock and proving just how well controlled his gag reflex was.


It took precision to slowly fade away the pain he was sending through himself and into Seth. To pull the leash tighter at a slower rate so he wasn't just yanking it away. Thankfully, when he took his hand and started coaxing it out of his hair it made things a lot easier. Fading away that ability so that in the moment he seemed like nothing more than a mere human being like the man on his knees before him. A man that was easily pulling a huffed groan out of him while he showed affection to the palm of his hand. A real rarity. But Alex was starting to get the sinking suspicion that it wasn't so much his actions that were rarities and simply Seth himself. He earned a few more rough noises for his work with his mouth before he was finally getting to another kind of work with getting his pants off. Alex wasn't so rude that he wasn't going to help at least a little when it came to getting the pants off completely.

Finally bare and before a kneeling piece of art, it was hard to hide the eager look that floated around behind his eyes. Along with a darkness for all the things he certainly wanted to be doing with his new, well, plaything seemed to be a rough way to word it. Instead he settled on guest. Though that felt like a lie the moment it drifted into his head. "Mmmm.", he hummed approvingly at his wet kisses against his lower stomach and inner thigh. But it was a noticeable shudder that ran through him, against his will, when Seth's fingers ran along his length. Humming shifted to a demanding growling noise when his fingers vanished though only to be drawn out into something deeper. All because of that fantastic mouth found his balls and his hand returned to stroke him.

His hips stuttered forward, a clear indication that he was wanting more but was certainly approving of what he was currently doing. All while his eyes stayed slanted down to watch Seth on his knees suckling and stroking him. A beautiful sight to behold and obviously one that was enough to get his blood pumping faster and warming intensely. Which showed in the way his cock twitched in Seth's stroking hand.

Alex opened his mouth for some praising words when suddenly he was watching Seth wrap his lips around his cock. Sucking the words right out of him and reducing him to guttural noise as his hips stuttered more. "F-Fuck...Tag.", he growled down at him as his eyes closed and he hissed out a long breath. Both of his hands found the top of his head not long after to grip at whatever hair he could get in their grasps. Encouraging him every step of the way to take more of him inside of his mouth which ultimately left him huffing out his own heated breaths. But without warning he shifted his hips back until his cock fell out of Seth's mouth with a groan of his own at the lack of contact, "Take a breath...", he warned while letting a hand settle at the back of Seth's head. He used the other to guide his cock back into his mouth then wasted little time in starting shallow strokes so it was understood what he was about to do.

It was as generous as he'd ever been with anyone in his entire life. He wasn't a man that gave many warnings. "Gods, your mouth feels---fucking amazing...", he groaned down at him, eyes half lidded before determination suddenly filled them. Soon his other hand joined the first at the back of his head until his fingers were interlocked to hold him in place. Stroking himself deeper into Seth's mouth as his head lulled backwards and his eyes slid closed. His thumbs started stroking against his scalp in rhythm with his hips, each light stroke sending a shudder of dull pain through him. He did his best to keep a slow pace but every now and then he forgot about it and sped up enough to leave his balls slapping against his chin. "Why---aren't you stro-king yourself?", he growled when he finally looked back down at him. Purposefully burying himself deeper in his throat before he shifted his hips back so it was just his head filling his mouth.




Some of them want to use you, Some of them want to get used by you, Some of them want to abuse you.