Who Wants to Live Forever

[Frederick Volos]

Prompt List

• Friends
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS
• WORDS

[Frederick Volos]

F R I E N D S

Frederick was old, and fortunate for that, because his bloodline was not an easy one to survive. There weren't really outside influences that presented a threat to he and Rainer - they were far too realized in their magic at this point, but when they were younger, it had been other Volos that were the biggest problem. Until one was fully realized, which usually came with the help of Apects aspects of life and death, it was literal magical cannibalism around every corner. Fred and Rainer had hit full realization without the help of an aspect (or god, or goddess, or whatever one called it), but they were the exception and not the rule. Without them guarding eachother's backs, they would have been killed long before they could have come into their potential.

So naturally, the idea that after all this time, there still did exist some Volos, however latent, he was intensely curious to see any relative. It gave him a feeling deep within him that he didn't often know, and he wasn't a total prick, regardless of how he came across, so he wanted to just... see her. And so he went to the bar that she worked at, a sort of 'neutral zone' for the supernaturals in the city, and decided to have a drink and just exist in her presence for a while. He hadn't decided what to say to her yet, or if he would say anything at all. He didn't know much about Chloe - just her name, and a tip off that she had a particular flavor to someone who recognized it.

He sat with his glass, trying to think of what to say, or how to say it. He had told Rainer where he was going, of course, but his brother hadn't really said much about it. He was the more 'feeling' of the two, while Rainer was the more 'thinking - probably the only ways in which they seemed to personify their aspects of power. Rainer was probably waiting for more information before he could give any feedback, so all he'd said was, 'Be careful', and he didn't mean for Frederick to not get into any sort of trouble - he meant for his brother to guard his heart a little. Reserving some time before he made a decision about his feelings was not in Frederick's playbook, even though it often caused him far more trouble than it was worth.

He stiffened as one of those points of trouble emerged with absolutely no warning. Approaching his table was a woman with hazel eyes and light brown hair with honeyed streaks. She smiled, but it didn't meet her eyes. "You don't need to be here right now," she said, speaking through the smile, as though she were trying not to draw attention to the distress she felt - and Tally definitely felt distress.

"Why are you here?" he demanded, holding no amount of contempt back.

"Why are you here?" she spat back. She locked eyes with him while the girl in question worked the bar behind her; Tally knew where she was, and she wanted to see if Frederick would break her eye contact to look beyond. He didn't. "Her life is just starting to stabilize. Not that you've been around to see all the bullshit that she's gone through, but if you come in here and do exactly what I think you're going to do, you are going to ruin it." She tapped the wood of the high top as she said the last part, emphasizing each word.

Frederick smiled a wry smile. "Are you pretending now suddenly that you're invested in our kind now that you don't have to worry about so many failed projects? Maybe I just wanted to see what hundreds of years of life without magic would do for one of us. You know, everything isn't always about you," he added sharply. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he stopped himself by raising his glass to his mouth and finishing what was in it.

"Fred - "

"No," he hissed. He sat forward, dropping the glass onto the table with a sharp noise. "You always come around when we don't need you and abandon us when we do. Why would this time be any different? I'd have respect for you if you just admitted that it was fun for you, coming into and out of the ether just to revel in our misery. Listen," he said, his tone friendly, like he was explaining something to someone who was slower on the uptake, "here's the thing. You and your little friends, you forgotten gods, could never."

"That's not - god damnit, Fred," she sighed, flexing her hands, because it was obvious that she was frustrated but she couldn't rightly start a fight with him over this. "I'm not here to keep you apart from your family!" she exclaimed. "You haven't been here, you don't know her, though. I do. I'm not here for her to realize her power, we're just - just friends," she said. She slumped forward, scrubbing her hands over her pretty face. "I'm not trying to keep you apart or steal her magic, and I'm NOT trying to hurt her, OR you. I'm just telling you that you don't always know what is best and I want to stop you before you fuck it up by dumping all of this shit on her about her bloodline and how fucked up it is." She reached for his hand. "I wanted to - "

"Get your fucking hands off me," he said. The warning was low and quiet, but she heard him clearly. He watched her withdraw them slowly, looking like a scolded animal. "I didn't fuck anything up before to fuck something up again. If I recall correctly, that was you."

"You can't hate me forever," she said, her tone matter-of-fact.

"Yes, I can," he countered. He stared her dead in her eyes for a second, and then pushed his chair back and stood up. She jumped out of her chair, too, though in this form it was almost comical how the height difference hit them.

"Stop," Tally hissed. "Don't make a scene." She glanced around, and then back at him, expression going from stern to soft. Her demeanor shifted with her voice so rapidly it felt like he was going to get a case of whiplash. "Why... do you make me so fucking crazy..." she groaned, clenching her hands into fists. "I'm not here to fight you. I'm here because I want to let at least two people from your fucking bloodline live normal lives," she said wearily. "And you trying to grow the power out of them is just going to result in them killing themself, someone else, or you and Rainer having to kill them. AGAIN." She dragged the end of the word out, widening her eyes as she did so for emphasis.

"We do what we need to do when the things that are supposed to be on our side leave us to our own devices," he responded, his tone betraying the fact that he was exiting the 'irritated' phase and entering the 'angry' phase of this interaction. "It's almost like when we get abandoned by our friends, we have to figure it the fuck out on our own."

"I said I was SORRY!" she yelled finally, throwing her hands up. Unfortunately, that time she knew that an audience was unavoidable. She saw that Frederick was looking past her, and she looked over her shoulder to see that Chloe was acutely aware of the exchange taking place. Tally held her hand up, signaling that it was okay, but Chloe had already slipped over the bar and was walking their way, head cocked to one side as she tried to read the situation.

Tally didn't say anything, but she turned back to Fred and her facial expression said it all. He wanted to fucking throttle her, but he had to reign himself in. "The only person fucking things up is you," he told her firmly. "It has always been, and will forever be you."

"No, Fred - wait - "

"Nope, not like this," he said firmly. "I will not perpetuate this cycle of bullshit because of you." He gave one last look at Chloe, and left without another word. He could hear her asking Tally what was going on as he left, but he dare not glance back. He was so full of rage that he knew it would be the absolute worst first impression possible - as if this one hadn't already gone badly. He sucked in as the cold air of the outside hit him, willing it to purge the gross feeling in him by just fucking freezing his lungs.

He pulled his phone out to call Rainer and tell him that they had two problems, but he found that it was already lit up with a number he didn't recognize calling in. He considered sending it to voicemail, but he was still swimming with emotion from everything that had just transpired, and so he figured maybe at the very least he could take it out on a telemarketer.

"Hi, um. I was given this number by someone who - oh man, I really didn't think this through," the voice at the other end of the phone said. The woman sighed and went quiet.

Fred waited for a second, then when he realized that she wasn't going to speak without being prompted, he stopped walking and ducked into the lobby of a quiet building to get off the noisy street. "Take your time," he said. He used the moment for himself, honestly, and he needed a bit of grounding at the moment. He put aside the events that had occurred, and tried to focus on the voice on the other end of the phone. There was a quality to it that bothered him - no doubt it had prompted the call.

"I, uh.. I think I came back wrong," she said.

Bingo. Frederick continued the conversation, setting up a meeting for later that night. If he couldn't see Chloe, the least he could do was take on what he sensed was going to be a complete shitshow for the woman, Autumn, if she didn't get it under control. He would prove, endlessly, that he was capable of operating on his own, with absolutely no help from Tal or anyone else.