Colin's posts

Ilias froze when he heard the conversation.

'Oh, no...' he thought, trying to be as quiet as he could now.

Hazel was here. And she was talking with someone. Someone who clearly meant them harm. And he'd only ever heard Hazel refer to ONE person as Mistress, or in relation to that one person.

And he didn't like it.

He was starting to panic now, he needed to get out of sight, he needed to make himself scarce.

As such, he started to slowly back away from where he was.

Ilias nodded.

"Yes." he said. "Some tea would really help." he told her. "The last thing anyone needs to be doing is panicking right now, and I'll do whatever it takes to help calm my nerves." he reasoned.

And so they did. They gathered what they wanted from within the area, made sure they would be set up nicely in Mira's private training/testing room, and things were pretty much good to go.

A little bit of time had passed since they made arrangements for food, and Ilias looked at his watch.

"Looks like it's about time." he said to Kiah. "I'm going to quickly go wait for it." he told her.

"Go on then." Kiah responded.

Ilias left the room and hastily made his way to the 'main room' of the area, but as he continued to move, he swore he heard a pair of voices talking to each other, which confused and concerned him.

'...who else would be here to have a conversation with each other...?' he wondered.

Ilias nodded in response.

"We'll work something out." he said.

"Because this needs to be done. We need to figure out a system, and stick to it." he went on, looking in the general direction of the rest of the Unit, a hit of fear in his eyes now.

"...this frightens me, Kiah." he admitted.

"To think we're trapped in this building, where anyone and everyone could be our enemies." he said further.

"And the thought of my soul being fragmented is... terrifying." he finished.

Azazel nodded in response.

"All right." he said.

"Good luck." he told her.

"I'm going to try and stealth my way through the building." he then said to them further, before quickly leaving the area.

"..." Ilias was silent, before looking at Kiah.

"I'll do food runs." he told her. "If YOU were to get hit by that camera... it'd be bad. REAL bad." he reasoned.

"Or maybe we can find an arrangement to have food brought TO us, but we can separate ourselves from them. Like contactless delivery or whatever." he then suggested further.

"Then I suggest you take refuge there ASAP." Azazel told them.

"And do NOT come out for ANYONE. Except for maybe me." he warned. "We have NO idea who's affected by this, and who isn't." he said. "We need to treat it as though everyone else in this building is an enemy." he continued.

"...not to mention those that Jordan may have photographed OUTSIDE this building." he then stated.

"I... didn't even think of that..." Ilias admitted.

"There are many people out there that, with fragmented souls, would bring this world to utter chaos." Azazel said grimly.

Ilias was silent, thinking about it.

"Hmmm." he mumbled.

"Dorms is not a good idea." he agreed. "Your office is the first place people would look... the labs here aren't secure enough..." he listed off. "There are several bunker-like shelters deeper down, but I don't know if it's worth leaving this area to try and get to them..." he continued.

He then snapped his fingers suddenly.

"Ah! What about Mira's personal testing/training room?" he suggested. "It's secure entry, only her, Peyton, you, and me know the codes to get in and out, and it's reinforced all the heck. Plus, it's through her office in that small door off to the side, so it's easily missed." he continued.

"What about Mira, herself?" Azazel asked. "Or Peyton, for that matter?" he asked further.

"Vacation." Ilias replied. "They left a week and a half ago, and aren't due back for another week and a half." he stated.

"That's what I hope to accomplish." Azazel responded.

"At the moment, I think I'm the only one that can do it." he told her.

"...unfortunately, it might be me against the entire Unit at this point." he then muttered, before his eyes widened a little. "...US versus the entirety of the Unit." he restated.

"You and Ilias should probably hide." he suggested.

"Who knows what could happen at this point."

Azazel paused for a moment.

"Ah... well... depends on how... serious it is." he said.

"I'm not sure I should be talking about this in great detail, but high elves have the ability to essentially grant a demon a soul, but... well, it's like taking 'soul-mates' to a new level, let's say." he said further.

"Net end is that Virgil may very well be succumbing to this." he told her.

"So... Roxie aside as a maybe, I'M the only one immune to this." he cursed.

"Damn it." Azazel cursed.

"You all here should really just ignore the front of the area. Maybe hide away in one of the lab rooms in the back." he suggested.

"I don't know what that camera IS, or why it's doing what it's doing, or HOW, but... this is bad news, to massively understate it." he commented.

"And as it stands, I think... hmmm..." he mumbled, thinking further and pausing again. "Well, I'M immune to the camera's effect... not sure on Roxie..." he admitted. "Virgil-" he started to say, before pausing.

"Wait." he said.

"Is he actually, legit involved with that Arryn girl?" he asked Kiah.

Azazel paused for a moment, scratching his chin.

"Yeah..." he said.

"Wait." he then muttered. "Don't you guys have shutters that you can pull down near the entrance?" he asked. "To show the place is effectively quarantined?" he asked further.

"That might block her and that camera out." he reasoned.

"Or were they dismantled and taken down?" he asked.

"I know I heard rumours of that happening, to be replaced with the ability to tint or black out the glass here... but I don't know if that's happened, or is in the process of happening, and the current status of either." he added.

Azazel nodded.

"That would explain any weirdness." he said.

"When people don't have their complete souls, they lose parts of who they are." he told her. "Especially when it's so sudden." he continued.

"In Aedan's case, her soul is literally her everything, so without parts of it, she's devolved into something borderline mindless. She's losing herself, or rather, teetering on the verge of it." he went on.

"But given what I've experienced, and what little Aedan managed to tell me, I can only assumed that Jordan's camera has something sinister about it."

Azazel just sighed.

"Well, Jordan. You know her, yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah, Jaden and Desiree's daughter, Sebastien's partner." Kiah responded. "Why?" she asked.

"She has a camera. And she's been snapping photos of everyone." Azazel responded. "She surprised me with a candid and spontaneous photoshoot while I was absently looking out the window." he told her. "And when she did so, I felt these twinges of pain that went away as soon as they came, so I didn't think too much of it." he explained further.

"...but I think the only reason I'm still fine... is because I'm a demon." he revealed. "I have NO soul." he said.

"I think that camera is damaging the souls of the ones she takes pictures of."

"I was able to speak to her." Azazel responded.

"We didn't say much, but she told me EVERYTHING I needed to know." he then told her.

"What's happened to her? Her soul being as it is? It's Jordan's fault." he stated. "More specifically, that damn camera." he went on, before pausing.

"Ah, wait." he then said.

"Do you even know what I'm referring to?" he asked. For all he knew, Ilias and Kiah could have managed to avoid being photo-shot by the vampire.

Azazel's eyes widened when he heard that, as he remembered the twinges of pain he had felt before... when Jordan had snapped photos of him at the window. And his mind started to race, as he pieced things together.

"Oh... oh no..." he stammered.

"It's okay, Aedan. I understand. You don't have to force yourself to talk any more if you don't want to." he told her. "I perfectly understand what you just said." he assured her further.

"And I will do everything I can to make you whole again. I promise." he vowed to her.

"Just trust me, ok?" he continued.

"...Suntem veșnici." he then said. It was something that they'd taken to saying to each other instead of 'I love you'. Neither were sure they had the capabilities for proper and actual love, but they knew what they felt for each other. And they'd decided to use that phrase, spoken in Romanian, which when translated, said 'We are eternal'. He was a demon, she was an undying zombie... and they would stay together forever.